A Joyful Jaunt

The swirling mists of Black Mist Mountain danced around the Aipom as he happily bounced along the hard stoney earth and hummed a terribly out of tune song from his homeland. Normally he would be terrified of returning to a place like this, especially given his experience last time with Akuroma when he was only a Ralts. This time though, Cracker was on a mission of his own. The last time he was here, his friend had tricked him, but he knew better now. This was to place to find a Joy Ribbon. At least, that was what he'd heard.

Whether or not Cracker managed to find one on this trip wasn't really important. He was in it more for the adventure than the prize. It didn't hurt to hope, though. This place hadn't given up items very readily last time, but who knew, this time he might get lucky. Either way, he wasn't going to let these spooky mists and lack of trees get to him this time, even though the worry was there somewhere in his mind. Actually, going at this alone was probably a terrible idea. There was no telling what crazy Pokemon might be out here.

"Cupcakes," the Aipom said abruptly, forcing his thoughts to focus on the sweet delectable treat he'd just spoken of. It was a new tactic he'd devised whenever his thoughts started to sway to negative things, like how this trip to Blackmist might very well kill him--"Flowers! Gummis!" Coming to a stop, Cracker shook his head, as if he could physically eject the thoughts through physical motion. "C'mon, Cracker, keep it together."

Grinning again, the Aipom bounced up onto his tail and proceeded to enter the mountainous landscape, singing a terribly mangled song at the top of his lungs. Not necessarily the wisest of decisions on his part, but it kept him distracted as he made his way along.

((Energy: 25 - 16(entry) = 9))

[Energy: 4]

Victoria huffed, she had been traveling for days, trying to get back to Black Spear. She had been happy to find the familiar Black Mist Mountain that was near Black Spear, but she could not see Black Spear anywhere with this dark sky and desolate land. The tyrunt kept moving, determined to make it back home and overthrow that wretched tyrunt that had kicked her out of her own land!

She stared at the ground as she walked, drifting off into thought as she made her way around the base of the mountain, unaware of a certain aipom she had met before being not too far off. She would have probably only vaguely recognized him anyways, having spent little time with the small monkey.

She herself, probably would not have been recognized at all, having changed her coloring completely so as to fit the nature of Black Spear and have her subjects easily recognize her and prevent confusion among other tyrunts in that area.

As he bounced along, Cracker ran through several traditional songs, eventually running out of worthwhile material to sing about. Without meaningful lyrics, he began making some up, describing his venture as he crossed a large plateau of stone, slid down a rocky gulch into a long dried up stream and ascended back into the foggy world of nothingness. This place was barren, and he portrayed it as such in his broken song.

Eventually even his fun made-up song wore thin, and the Aipom had taken to trudging along, dragging his feet a little as he made his way. So far he hadn't found a single item; he was beginning to think the mountain wasn't going to give up anything this time around either. It was rather disheartening to think about, so he quickly shifted his train of thought to what he'd brought along for the trip.

Digging into his backpack, he found the same old items he'd acquired from his previous adventures. Seeds, some berries... The bag was mostly filled with the ribbons and scarves he'd acquired. Mostly useless to him, but he held onto them anyway. He poked around inside it for a few moments longer, maintaining his trajectory blindly, unaware of the downward slope up ahead.

"I am kind of hungry," he said, eying one of the Cheri Berries in his pack. "Maybe just a nib--" Before he could finish, the Aipom's foot missed its intended mark, throwing him forward along with his bag and all the items inside. Falling into a tumble, he rolled end over end down the steep slope before coming to an abrupt stop, his face dragging across the ground in the process. Following behind him, his backpack landed on top of him, and his items scattered across the ground all around him. He wasn't aware at first that there was a Pokemon just a few feet away from him.

Victoria came to a halt as a small red berry rolled in front of her. She blinked and looked to see where it had originated, spotting a purple pokemon with its face planted into the ground comically with its large tail that may as well been a third hand in the air above it.

She could vaguely recognize the shape, knowing that she had seen it before, but not quite where. She then noticed the items sprawled around the palm-tree and made the connection that the cheri berry belonged to the pokemon that seemed to have fallen.

She picked up the berry in between the claws of her tiny arms and approached the purple monkey, "Hey, you dropped this...and a lot of other things by the looks of it..." she spoke.

A sweet, melodic voice reached his simian ears, causing them to twitch. The dulcet tones sounded oddly familiar but he couldn't quite place it with his face presently pressed into the stony earth. Extracting himself from the ground, he lifted his head to identify the source, and came face to face with a big maw filled to bursting with sharp teeth. Cracker's eyes widened in surprise and he leaped backwards, holding his arms protectively over his face.

"Oh Arceus! Please don't eat me, I--" he paused suddenly and blinked. This felt oddly reminiscent of a previous encounter. Lowering his arms, he focused again on the Pokemon, squinting a little. He recognized the build, but the colors were all wrong. It couldn't possibly be who he though it was. Last time he'd seen her was in Pricklemist a long time ago. But his ears didn't lie, and more importantly neither did his eyes. Though her appearance may have changed that look in her eyes hadn't.

"Victoria?" he asked slowly. "Is that... you?"

"Eh? You know my name?" Victoria asked, thinking that the aipom had somehow known about her kingdom. It took her a moment to realize that this was an aipom that she had met before, "Wait no...Crackers was it?" She replied.

The tyrunt nodded, "Yes, I'm Victoria, haven't seen you in a while," she did not seem to realize that the aipom might have trouble recognizing her due to her new coloring. She offered the Cheri berry to him, holding it out for the monkey to take. She didn't remember the previous meeting completely, but she did at the least remember the monkey's name and that he had helped her out quite a bit.

The Aipom's face lit up when the Tyrunt confirmed her identity. "Omigosh! It really is you! I can't believe it!" Jumping to his feet, Cracker ran over to Victoria, quickly wrapping her up in a big hug, using both his arms and his tail for the best snug possible. Then he let her go and gingerly accepted the berry in her outstretched arm. Next he rushed around picking up all the items that had fallen out of his backpack.

"I really can't believe it's you, Your Highness," he proceeded to ramble as he worked. "It's been so long since we last met! I remember it so clearly. Okay maybe not that clearly, but definitely clearly enough. I certainly could never forget those eyes. But you've really changed your appearance. Why's that, I wonder? Heh. You probably wanted to look even prettier, I suppose. Not that you needed to. Hahehoh, ooh... I remember why I had such a silly crush on you--I mean! Hah! W-where are my manners!" Dropping the items he'd collected near his backpack, the Aipom rushed over and bowed respectfully.

"You know I'm always at your service, Your Highness. If it's alright with you, I'd gladly resume my post as your bodyguard. Heehee! But I'm terribly curious. Where's your Kingdom?" the Aipom asked, looking around the deserted foot of Black Mist Mountain.

((Energy: 9))

Lumin carried out 3 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, ,

"My kingdom is in Black Spear Mountain Range, this is Black Mist Mountain," Victoria told the aipom, "I changed my color to match the area a bit more, and so that i'm more obvious to my subjects. Wouldn't want some random tyrunt walking in and giving orders pretending to be me that easily now would I?" She laughed heartily.
"I'm just looking around, I got a bit lost trying to get back to Blackspear again, I know i'm close, but I can't seem to pinpoint where it is exactly," she added on.
"Why are you here?" she questioned the Aipom, wondering why the happy little monkey was in such a dreary looking place.

Returning to his belongings, the Aipom began packing them away again in no particular order. "Who me? Oh..." he said slowly, stuffing a gold ribbon into the pack. "I was looking for something. Something that apparently can only be found here. I doubt I'll be lucky enough to find it, but I'm always hopeful. It's a... Joy Ribbon. I figured it could help me on the path to joining the Guild in Grassveil. A bit of a dream of mine. But even still, just the journey alone will help, so I won't be sad if I don't find it. I hear they're rare."

As he picked up items, a small orb came into his paws. He was about to stuff it into his pack when he noticed the cloudy blue shine. "Oh... Well that's not mine. Where'd it come from?" Looking around, he could find no viable source. "Must've just been lying here. Well, talk about luck! Maybe it's a sign, heehee. A sign of good things to come. No idea what sort of Orb it is, though." He promptly tossed it into his bag as two figures began to emerge from the fog surrounding Cracker and Victoria.

Standing to shoulder his backpack, a Cubone bone wacked Cracker on the head from behind, causing him to stumble away in surprise. He rubbed the spot on his head, taking up a position in front of the Tyrunt. "Hey, what the--!" he shouted, eying the Cubone and his companion, a very dangerous-looking Mightyena. "It's not nice to sneak up on people, y'know. Let alone... clobber them in the head!" The Aipom directed his words to the pair, standing like a shield in front of the Queen. "Please tell me you know these two," he whispered quietly to the Tyrunt.

"Nope," the tyrunt stated bluntly. The mightyena responded with a snarl while the cubone toyed with his bone in his paws, before attempting to throw it at Victoria, using bonemerang. Instead of striking her however, the tyrunt opened her jaws and caught the bone in them. The cubone, having not expected this move flailed its arms in concern before looking to the mightyena and pointing at them.

The dog gave a bark before howling into the air, obviously not happy with the tyrunt's actions. Victoria was unsure of whether to snap the bone in her jaws, or to drop it. It tasted rather nasty, so she simply dropped it, not wishing to hang onto the disgusting bone.

Kat carried out 4 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , ,

(Les go Joe~)

"I had a feeling you were gonna say that," Cracker groaned. Perhaps it was a bit too much to hope that they were friends and not foes. But the Aipom was ready to take his lumps, especially in the defense of his former Princess. Well, not his specifically. She was nice and pretty and all, but he hadn't seen her in ages. There was no telling who was working in her honor now. She was probably a Queen, ruling over her domain with a King by her side now. No room for Cracker the Clown in that scenario. But regardless, the Aipom was prepared to protect her.

Before Cracker could actually act though, the Cubone threw his bone at Her Highness. But with all the grace of a Deerling, she caught it easily in her massive jaws, then dropped it to the ground. The Aipom swooned for a moment over her calculated response before scooping up the bone in his tail. "That was excellent, Your Highness!" he congratulated. "But I think it's my serve, now!" Tightening his grip on the bone, the Aipom spun sharply and launched it back at the Cubone with excessive force.

Rather than catch it like Victoria had, the Cubone met the full force of the spinning bone with his head, the blow cracking his skull helmet and hurdling him backwards, unconscious. "Score!" the Aipom cried, striking a ridiculous pose just as another Cubone appeared and stared down at her comrade. Furthermore, a Poochyena approached on the opposite side of the Mightyena, growling as he took a defensive stance.

"Well that wasn't very nice," the Mightyena spoke, a lilting growl to her voice. "But then my associate here was asking for it. I told you, we don't harm her you buffoon." She turned her head to direct her words to the Cubone as his friend helped him up. "As for you purple monkey, hand her over and we might forgive you're decision to assault us."

"Hand her... over? What're you talking about?" Cracker inquired, tilting his head in confusion.

"The Tyrunt you seem to be defending," she replied. "She's ours now." As she spoke those words, there was a flapping sound, followed by a large figure landing nearby behind Cracker and Victoria. The Aerodactyl stood tall over the two, looming like a dark shadow. The Aipom suddenly felt trapped.

The tyrunt tilted her head, "Who the hell are you guys?" the tyrunt questions the pokemon. She huffed in anger as they seemed to threaten her friend along with her. The tyrunt watched as a large flying pokemon loomed over the group of pokemon, an aerodactyl. Her jaws began to coat themselves in ice as her breath was reduced to what must have been close if not sub zero temperatures. Her dark maw opened, the urge to sink her teeth into that large pokemon growing. The attack she prepared would do massive damage against the flying and rock type, she figured she could easily knock it out or even finish it off if it came to it. The tyrunt growled a warning, "Leave us be now by order of the Princess of The Black Spire, or face consequences."

In response to the Tyrunt's demand, the Mightyena threw her head back and cackled loudly. The bitter anger in it causing the others around her to shift uncomfortably. As her head lowered again, the Pokemon was grinning darkly, her eyes burning with malcontent. "You have no power in this realm, little Princess," she growled. "Outside your precious 'kingdom' you're just like any of us. Prey. Easy prey. In fact, I reckon your followers would pay handsomely for your safe return. So like I was saying. You're coming with us." As she finished, the two Cubones came up on either side, raising their bone clubs menacingly.

Cracker, still dumbfounded by the entire scenario, quickly stepped in front of the Princess, trying to look at menacing as a goofy, purple-furred Pokemon could. "You're not gonna harm a scale on Victoria's fair head, you big ugly brutes!" he hissed, waving his paws in a defensive manner. The Mightyena merely scoffed and jerked her head to the Aerodactyl behind the pair of surrounded Pokemon.

With a slow nod, the fossil Pokemon took flight. "Hey, what're you--" Latching onto Cracker's head with a big clawed foot, it hauled him up into the sky.

The Aipom cried out in surprise as the ground quickly left his feet. "Sorry to have to dismiss your boy--seriously, what is he, your Fool?--but he was getting in the way. Also you could say he's my bargaining chip. Do as I say if you'd rather not your pitiful purple friend learn to fly the hard way." The Mightyena grinned darkly as the Poochyena came up by her side. "Mama..?" he whined. "Hush, little one," she whispered harshly to the pup.

"Hah!" Victoria laughed, "If you think they're going to ransom for me then you're mistaken, my father would rather just have another egg than to pay for my health, it's better for the Kingdom!" she huffed, the icicles on her jaws becoming more apparent as the rock and flying type took off with the monkey.
She had noticed that the poochyena seemed to be having some doubts against this, well jumped to the conclusion that it was having doubts. She glared at the mother, "Besides, if you're going to try to kidnap someone, why bring pups? They could get hurt if I decide to fight back you know?" she was not more threatening than just disappointed in the mother's parenting skills.