Obsessing and Stressing

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Mission Infos:

Shadowhue was known for being dark, hence the name.  So dark that in some of the more densely forested areas it could be difficult to tell the time of day.  It was far darker at night.  It seemed as if this place was now the definition of darkness.  Visibility was little more than a few feet, making for an eerie and dangerous environment.  To top it all off, it was freezing....

Acually, the cold was more of a plus side for a certain glaceon who had decided to venture into the dark woods.  Sova had found that since evolving, he enjoyed the cold.  Likely because of his new ice typing.  One thing was not in a hurry to learn was how he handled something like desert heat now.

"Love what you've done with the place."  The icy fox sarcastically commented to the darkness that was Shadowhue Forest.  It wasn't like he had anyone to talk to.  May as well get used to talking to himself.  At least that would help keep his mind from wandering and playing tricks on him in the darkness.  Or maybe it would do the opposite.  Either way, he was here for the purpose of completing missions and no overly creepy atmosphere was going to stop him.

(37 energy NINJA EDIT)

Sova shrugged. "Alright, lets get a move on then." He began walking in the direction they'd originally come from without waiting for replies, figuring the others would follow along.
"By the way, don't worry about Linus. I purposely drew this fight out and didn't use any items BECAUSE there was a medic on standby, I won't be doing that under normal circumstances.", he spoke as he passed by the archeops, not caring to keep his voice low. It didn't matter if Linus heard.

Linus took to the skies, walking being rather inefficient to the honchkrow with his small crow like legs. He dived into the trees, keeping an eye out for the Big Apples since it was obvious that they would not be leaving without it. The sooner he found it, the sooner they could leave. (I have no idea why but Linus is reminding me of Zazu from lion king right here) He wove between the branches and dodged the trunks, searching around for the large red fruits that were key to leaving.

Acro followed the glaceon, and continued onward until they came to a river. The river was silent with its flow, only the smallest of noises emitted from it. What caught his attention was a loud splashing sound that broke the almost silence. He looked in the direction of the splashing sounds, to find another Pinsir, Heracross, and an Ariados. The Pinsir and Heracross were playing in the water wildly, while the Ariados was glaring at some slakoth, who seemed rather afraid. They looked to the water, and then to the ariados, as if they wanted a drink.

As the river came into view, Sova got his hopes up. He hadn't noticed it until now, but he was thirsty. He was sure the other two were too, as they had been walking all night with no water, after all. Or....flying in Linus' case. But when he saw the others at the lake, he got much, MUCH more excited. He approached the river and announced the group's presence by speaking loud enough for everyone there to hear, specifically acknowledging the ariados. "Is there a problem?"

"No. Go Away," the ariados responded almost automatically. Linus blinked as the Ariados gave a glare at the group.
"Mind your own business!" the heracross in the water huffed.
Linus looked to the slakoth, who seemed to be shaking and clinging to each other. The honchkrow knew he should speak up, but the fear he once had as a murkrow was returning. He wanted to open his mouth and speak out in defense of the slakoth, but no words came out. This wasn't his business, like the heracross had said, they should really just leave...shouldn't they? But what about the slakoth?

Acro seemed to have a bit more bravery, as he spoke up, "It seems to me like you're keeping those slakoth from getting water so your friends can play in it as they please..." He wondered if he could settle this matter verbally, seeing as he was rather exhausted, and the sun was rising in the distance. The Rising sun shot a few beams of pink light into the forest, but it was still rather dark and difficult to see for the flying type.

Sova smirked at the ariados' answer. It was rude as hell - just what he was looking for. An excuse to hit it. He fired off an Ice Beam, starting at their side of the river and running over the frozen water it was creating as he lifted the beam's aim, freezing a path across the river. He simply slid across the path, crossing the river within a few moments and leaping off with a firm halt, immediately darting over to the Ariados with the help of Quick Attack. It spit an electrified webbing silk out of its mouth as the glaceon neared it, but it just wasn't fast enough. He leaped up to a low hanging branch above the enemy and latched onto it with his front paws, avoiding the web as he swung along it. His grip didn't last long, but he didn't need it to.

As he fell off the branch towards the ariados, he slammed his back paws into its face and used it as a living springboard, spinning himself around and landing upright as the spider recoiled and held its face with one of its legs. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see the other two pests moving to the edge of the water, but he'd just let his allies handle those two, sharing the "fun".

Acro dashed towards the ice path with high speed, but took off into the air rather than slipping and sliding. The Archeops flew up and up and up, before he came down, down, down onto the Pinsir. The bug type screeched as the talons of the archeops smashed into it and left its reach before the pincers could latch onto him. Acro returned to the air, flapping his wings and giving a screech before turning to attack the Pinser once more, leaving the Heracross to Linus.

Linus joined him, the honchkrow figuring that he might as well try to help and not be a complete jerk about it. He attacked it from behind, while it was trying to get ashore to help its ariados friend. The honchkrow latched onto its horn, and began to drag it around. He was not strong enough to lift the heavy pokemon off the ground, but he could certainly drag it. The heracross flailed, trying to free itself as Linus dragged it into rocks, smashing its face into them.

Sova refused to let up on the ariados, immediately opening his maw and turning back to the spider, creating a dark purple ball of negative energy in his open mouth in the process. He snapped his jaws shut and sent the ball flying towards the ariados at a high speed, knocking it off its feet in a dark explosion. By the time it got back up and the smoke cleared, he was already behind it, positioning it between himself and the river on purpose. It spit a line of silk out of its mouth onto a tree branch and began climbing it in the hopes of getting a height advantage on the glaceon, but an Ice Beam froze the web in seconds and it could no longer support the ariados, shattering.

Before the spider could even hit the ground, he darted to the other side of it and grabbed onto one of its back legs, pulling it forward before releasing, causing it to fly in front of him, hitting the ground and tumbling for a moment before stopping, on its back.

The archeops smashed into the pinsir once more, this time his talons latched onto one of the pincers and he began to flap his wings harshly. He carried the pinsir up, and up, and up. He could see the river below him, along with the other two that were locked in combat. Acro released his grip on the pinsir, it gave a screech as it fell, splashing into the river. It stayed underwater for a moment before breaking the surface and struggling towards the land. It finally set foot on the gravel, before collapsing.

Linus finally released the Heracross, as it attempted to regain control over itself. He stabbed his beak at the heracross's shell, getting knocked in the face with the horn as it turned around to face him. Linus fled back into the air, swerving and delivering yet another Peck attack. The heracross screeched and tried to attack with his horn once more, only to be grabbed again and dragged off of his feet. The crow pecked at its back once more, clearly having a easier time with this heracross than the last ones.

As the ariados struggled to get back to its feet, Sova sped into it with Quick Attack, knocking it into the shallow edge of the water.  He fired an Ice Beam in the water near it, freezing the area around it and trapping it halfway submerged in the river.  He charged at it for the final blow, locking eyes with it, when its eyes glowed a very dark purple for just a moment.  He felt a strange numbing sensation in his body, followed by a black haze covering his eyes.  For him, everything just looked slightly darker.  However, if someone were to look at his eyes, they'd appear pure black.

This change in color tint was enough to halt the glaceon momentarily in confusion, but he found himself staying away from the ariados as something materialized before him.  It was.... him.  But it wasn't QUITE him.  IT.... looked like him, but it had an insane, sadistic smile and wide eyes, as well as a clearly hostile, aggressive and confident posture.  "Oh, this is gonna be fun....", it spoke.  It used his voice, but spoke with.... less emotion, less positivity in specific. The worst part was he knew exactly what this thing was.

"H-....  H-how....", he managed to stutter out as he found himself reflexively backing away, finally making a movement of some kind.  This.... thing.... scared him.  He looked around for his allies to help him, to save him, but they were nowhere to be found.  In fact, it seemed everyone had disappeared....  He had no clue what was going on, but he was too terrified to even consider the possibility that he was hallucinating.

(Note - Ariados used Night Shade!)

Acro rose into the sky, turning in a wide arc before stopping himself high above to assess the situation. He looked down to see that Sova was acting rather strange, the ariados wasn't moving, and Linus seemed to be struggling with the heracross a bit but not much. He was unsure of what to attack, and decided to try and figure out what was going on with Sova and the Ariados. He flew near them from high above, about to attack the ariados, when he felt something strike his body. He gave a surprised squawk that was quickly cut short as something struck his head. He blacked out, and began to fall.

Linus squawked as the Heracross managed to get up, the heracross glared at the honchkrow, before sending stones flying his way. The honchkrow remembered the pain of the rock type move, and avoided it, clearly not wanting to get attacked by it once more. The Stone Edge flew past him, and smashed into the archeops hovering above the battle with the ariados. Linus's eyes widened as he saw some rather important parts of the archeops get struck, such as his head. He may have disliked the current position he was in, but that did not mean he wasn't concerned for the safety of his leader. So long as he wasn't physically harmed or killed, that was the rule.

Sova continued to back away from the warped mirror image before him, completely unaware to anything happening around him.  He couldn't see it, after all.  All he knew was his worst nightmare was now a reality - literally.  This was FAR worse than disarming voice could ever hope to be already.... and he knew it was going to get much worse.  He turned and prepared to run in the opposite direction of the terrifying mimic before him, only to see it standing inches away from him as he spun around, face to face with the big, toothy grin.

He stumbled back in surprise, shouting, "You can't be here!  You're not real!!", in futility in the process.

"Oh, really?  Lets put that to the test, shall we?", the demonic impression of the glaceon replied before spinning and slamming its tail into the right side of his head.  The tail seemed to instantly flare up with spikes of darkened ice, pointed back and jagged at the edges.  It felt very, VERY real and hurt like hell.  He couldn't help but collapse to the ground as he began to feel a warm liquid flow down the side of his head.  It reached his right eye and he had to close it to avoid getting blood in it, which hurt his vision a bit.

He felt like quitting already, but slowly struggled to pull himself back to his feet, only to have the twisted mirror of himself use a move he didn't quite recognize.  It was somewhat like the Ice Beam he'd grown accustomed to using, but instead of a cylindrical beam, it was more of a blue lightning bold, splitting off into multiple zigzagging lines, all hitting him and surprisingly hurting him a great deal despite his typing advantage.  He was knocked off his feet and tumbled on the ground before sliding to a stop on his side, his vision fading already.

"Can you feel it yet Mr. Krabs?"  "Tell me, how real am I?"

(Note - the injuries occurring to Sova are not real, they are all part of the hallucination caused by Night Shade.  However, they feel very real, to the point that he IS on the verge of fainting.)

Acro fell and fell and fell, until finally, with a sickening sound of something being crushed, he fell on the ariados. He was unconcious, and could not hear the sound himself. His head had taken a rather harsh attack from the Stone Edge, and his body did not quite appreciate the assault either. His lay atop the crushed ariados, unconscious. The bug type beneath him was, at the very least, knocked out if not worse.

Linus gave the Heracross one final Peck, landing straight in its eye, before flying off to assist his team leader. THe heracross cried out, and covered its injured eye, turning and running before the other got pecked out. The bird perched at the branch of a nearby tree, the look of the ariados that had cushioned the archeops's fall was sickening to the honchkrow, making him feel as if he could not talk without being sick.

As Sova watched the demonic mirror of himself dart towards him at an unrealistic speed, he covered as much of his head as he could with his front paws in preparation for another of the painful attacks. But to his surprise and confusion, no attack ever came. Actually, the pain from the previous blows he'd taken was fading away.... rather quickly, at that. He slowly lowered his paws from his face as the feeling of blood over his right eye disappeared and he opened the previously closed eye to test this feeling.... There didn't seem to be any blood obscuring his vision. The dark tint everything had was gone as well. What was happening?

Acro remained there. Unmoving. knocked out. Lights Out. Unconscious. There are many ways to describe his current state of being, but they are all the same result. He is certainly not going anywhere anytime soon.

Linus, realizing it was practically impossible for him to speak while the ariados looked like that, decided to seek help from the Glaceon. He took off from the branch and landed on the ground near Sova, "Hey uh...Sova, Acro doesn't look too good...." He took a glance back to the archeops, a vile feeling welling within that made him want to hurl. He looked away, back to the glaceon. He wasn't sure just what he was scared of, but right now he just knew that Acro probably needed some help.

Meanwhile the phantump looked onward at the group, staring off into space and lost in its own little world.

Sova raised his head hesitantly and planted his paws on the ground one at a time, beginning to shake violently out of fear. He was so on edge, when he heard Linus' voice so close to him, he sharply inhaled in fear and did something that seemed to be a combination of skittering and jumping away from the honchkrow, collapsing to the ground almost immediately without covering more than a few inches due to the fact that he hadn't even gotten off the ground yet.

The big ball of paranoid turned his head to Linus, relieved to see what was standing before him looked nothing like a glaceon. However, this didn't calm his shaking. He had no clue what the bird had said to him, but he couldn't find his voice at the moment, his ability to speak having seemingly escaped him. There was no way for him to request for Linus to repeat what ever it was he'd said. All he could do was stare with involuntarily wide eyes and shaky movements, probably appearing as if he was scared of the honchkrow.