Retry, Reroll, Resignation

Now this had been a disappointment. But William refused to give up. He wasn't going to let such a stupid slab of stone torment him any longer.
Yet once more he was floating through the woods of the Fallen Leaf Copse in the search for foilage.
It couldn't be too difficult to find a few leaves in a forest after all, now could it? Definitely not.
And that was why the Gengar's ghastly eyes kept scanning the area, floating along the ground and through the treetops.
What had given the leaves this unusual coloration anyway?
There didn't seem to be anything different about them other than the colour. And it couldn't have been anything in the ground, there were too few of them for that.
This was going to be a long day...

(E=65-11=54)

(22-11=11 E)
Ramira looked around as she entered the copse. The place didn't seem half bad, but if she was in here too long, the coloration of the leaves on the ground might make her eyes burn redder than they already were. Shaking her head, she walked deeper in. The trees were bare, obviously, the leaves felt infuriatingly annoying, and it seemed at the moment there were zero Pokemon, except for the one Gengar that the shiny Zorua saw in the sky. 'Now who the heck is that?' The dark type thought curiously. Deciding to try her best to go directly under him, Ramira called out to him. "Uhm.... Hello! What might you be doing here alone?"

The sudden call startled the Gengar so badly that he actually had trouble maintaining his flight and fell down onto the ground...and through the ground. Finally however he managed to catch himself again, levitating above ground once more.
And there it was. One small, black, Vulpix-like Pokémon the Ghost type couldn't recall ever having seen before. Who was this? And what were they doing here?
"Uh...hello. I am conducting what one might call an exploration.", he responded.
"And what brings you here?".

"Same as you." Ramira said. Even though it wouldn't give her a better view, she used her illusion abilities to make herself appear as a Haxorus. Honestly, she felt it would be better this way, and she wanted to be a Haxorus in appearance right now, so the Zorua saw it fit. "Do you mind me joining you?" She asked him. Exploring was always better when done in groups, or partners if company was scarce.

William staggered a few steps backwards as he suddenly found a Haxorus standing before him instead of the small fox he had seen earlier.
"Did I - against all odds - hit my head on something when I fell?", the Gengar mumbled out loud.
Slowly he walked towards the Dragon type, extending a hand in its direction.
As it should have touched the other Pokémon, William found his hand just disappearing in it, just as it would have would he have tried to move through a solid object.
"Yes, I have hit my head somehow it seems. But how? In any case I have the feeling that you would follow me even if I said no. So I guess we're exploring together now."

"Yup. By the way, you're witnessing my Illusion ability. All Zoruas and Zoroarks have it." Ramira said. "Watch." She briefly changed back to a shiny Zorua, then went back to a Haxorus illusion. "See?" The Zorua knew this might be confusing to the ghost type for a while, as it seemed he had never seen Zoruas or Zoroarks before. 'What a shame.... it would have been easier that way.' Ramira thought. Shaking off the thought, she smiled. "Well, let's get going." She said. Hopefully her illusion wouldn't be too confusing for the Gengar. "I'm Ramira, by the way."

"Name's William.", the Ghost type stated, now fully convinced that all of this was just a bad dream.
After all there was no way a Pokémon could just look like any other Pokémon on demand. But the Ghost type saw no reason to argue against his dream, so he decided not to say anything.
Instead he simply turned into a random direction and said:
"Shall we get going then? This is quite the big forest after all."
Indeed it was a huge forest and it would surely take them a long, long while until they would be able to find the leaf the Ghost type was looking for. Or had he been dreaming the entire dungeon? Had it never existed or was just this exploration a dream? He would know soon enough when he would wake up.

Ramira nodded. Walking like a normal Zorua did, but looking like she was taking bigger steps as a Haxorus, they continued on. Deciding to be utterly insanity-inducing for fun, Ramira disguised herself as a Zoroark next, her evolved form. Honestly, this would be fun if William would just deal with it and accept it was real. Sadly, he looked as if he was convincing himself it was all a dream. 'Poor guy.... he doesn't know what's real and what's not anymore..... I'll go easy on him.' With that, she was back to looking like her normal self. She spoke aloud. "I'm sorry if I confused you greatly, but this is what I truly look like. I take it you've never seen a Zorua or a Zoroark in your entire life." Ramira said.

As William turned around once more, the other Pokémon was looking like it had the first time already. This truly was a strange Pokémon.
"Indeed I have not. Your species must be a rarer one then. At least I've never seen any of your kind in the Grassveil Guild before. I must admit that this is one of the more outlandish abilities I have seen thus far."
As he finished speaking, the Ghost type seemingly evaporated into thin air: A short moment later the Zorua's shadow itself seemed to be moving on its own, placing itself in the Pokémon's line of sight.
A pair of gleaming red eyes and a devious grin appeared on the shade.

Savato carried out 5 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , ,

Ramira was startled, but then soon realized that that was William. She laughed. "Ah! That's a good trick." The shiny Zorua said. The dark type noticed 3 items on the ground, but before them were two Pokemon. One of which she could take out with ease; a Phantump. The other was a Deerling. 'Too bad I don't have a fire type move...' Ramira thought. Laucnhing a Dark Pulse at the Phantump, she could tell their opponents were not going to back down easily. Not really wanting to pay attention to the items, the Zorua payed more attention to the battle at hand. After all, she wasn't a thief. William might want those items, for all she knew.

William simply grinned, the shadow manifesting into the original Ghost type already.
"Fire type attacks will not be neccessary."
Taking a deep breath, the Gengar focussed, collected his thoughts and eventually launched a Focus Blast at the unsuspecting Deerling.
It was an odd type of move to have for a Ghost/Poison type, but William had found that a Fighting type move was an excellent choice for having to deal with both Normal and Dark types, types with which he usually had his fair share of trouble with due to their resistances.
Hopfully the...Zorua, wasn't it? Hopefully she was of a type that wouldn't cause her too much trouble here.

(E=54-2=52)

The Phantump seemed to have been down briefly, but it floated back up again. Grunting, Ramira ran at it, using Pursuit. This time the Phantump went down. It seemed it wasn't too strong of a Pokemon, in the Zorua's opinion. Joining William against the Deerling, the dark type tried going over her list of moves. Remembering Scratch, Pursuit, and Dark Pulse were the only useful ones in this situation, Ramira went for Scratch. Running at the grass and normal type, after the Focus Blast hit, Ramira's attack hit.

William cringed for a moment, seeing Ramira run into battle with the Deerling while his Focus Blast was still being fired. If it hit her it could cause some serious damage unless the Zorua was a Ghost type. And she didn't really look like the Pokémon to be a Ghost. At least William had never seen such a furry one before. In any case it seemed like quite the dangerous thing to do. But as William was able to open his eyes, which he had closed in surprise, again, he saw the unconscious Deerling on the ground, the Zorua next to it seemingly unharmed.
"Maybe you could try staying out of my line of fire next time?", the Ghost type asked politely, hoping to keep the friendly fire today to a minimum.

Ramira nodded and grinned at him. "I have a way with battle tactics and lines of fire." She said. The Zorua sometimes liked to be ^{a tiiiiiiiiny bit} annoying. This was simply naturally what she did, as she used to annoy her friends a little back in her old town. For some of them it was hilarious. For others..... not so much. The memory made the shiny Zorua's eyes sparkle with joy. This hadn't happened in quite a while, considering she'd been alone for almost a month.

"As long as it's just "a way" and not "in the way" you are having that's perfectly fine. But I'd rather blast the enemy and not you into the nearest tree.", the Gengar replied, already slightly annoyed by the Zorua's behaviour. This was not something to joke about but rather a serious danger to be considered. Why were there so few Pokémon to ever agree with William on anything? Had he missed some kind of cosmic memo or something of the sort? It seemed that barely anyone possessed even basic survival instincts anymore, always having to throw themselves into the biggest danger they could find without caring for the consequences.