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)

"Trying? There's some loudred or something in there snoring? Last I remembered it was rather quiet at night..." he spoke. He wondered what had been bothering the glaceon when he did go into the guild. It was very quiet in Ailreon, practically empty since he and Linus were the only apprentices at the guild. As far as they knew there had only been one other apprentice, a duskull, but she had disappeared one day. Was the training there really that rough? It didn't seem like it to him.

Linus finally had the energy to move, he slid off of the Glaceon, before spotting two Oran berries on the ground. His eyes brightened, the berries of healing being claimed and gobbled up by the small crow. He was rejuvenated and he looked back to the group to try and tell them, but spotted a strange being floating above them just behind them. He instead gave a squawk, and pointed at the Ninjask in fear.

Sova sighed and shook his head in response to the archeops as he felt his luggage leave him. Linus was only half dead now, it seemed. "No no, it's....ah.... I've been having some.... issues. One of them is nightmares. I can't sleep for more than a few hours at a time without-" He was cut off by the squawk of the little crow and spun around to see....

"Oh, WONDERFUL." He commented sarcastically as he glared at a shedinja. "Fair warning, the last thing that lurked on us, we went easy on. You aren't the last thing." He explained to the shedinja that'd apparently been lurking on them. He didn't expect it to back away, he simply wanted to have a clear conscience as he beat the daylights out of it.

The shedinja made a sound that was a mix between a buzzing and a hum, and a Venomoth dropped from the tree tops and a shroomish did a front flip into view from the bushes. The shedinja rose into the air, its wings spreading slightly as a purple shape of an eye appeared before it directed at Acro.

Acro blinked in surprise, wondering what the shedinja was doing. A rumble sounded from the back of his throat as boulders began to float in the air around him once more. The rocks shot towards the Shedinja, but it moved out of the way and suddenly Acro felt a presence within his mind. The shedinja was using Mind Reader to predict his attacks, and the Archeops could not strike the shedinja while it was still doing that.

Linus flared his wings out in surprise as two more pokemon appeared. He swallowed, what should he do? His eyes locked onto the shroomish, and he gathered his courage before darting forth and using Peck on the foe. The shroomish was struck, it gave a yelp as the attack struck it, and he narrowly avoided the spores coming from the shroomish's body from paralyzing or even putting him back to sleep.

Sova watched as the shedinja made an annoying buzzing sound, followed by more enemies showing up. Seeing as his allies had taken on the other two, he set his focus on the venomoth and trusted the others to hold their own. As it descended and pulled its wings back in preparation for an attack, the glaceon carefully aimed and fired a radiant beam of blue cold, hitting the moth in a wing and causing it to spiral and fall lower to the ground.

With the enemy now in jumping range, the glaceon sped towards it with Quick Attack and leaped into it, causing it to spin more before outstretching its wings to abruptly stop the spinning and sending him flying to the ground. He managed to land on his feet, but perhaps landing in some other position would have been better. Now his legs were feeling the burn. Literally.

Acro watched frantically as the rocks attempted to strike the shedinja, but failed again, and again, and again until they finally faded in their aura and dropped to the forest floor. He took to a second plan, and flapped his wings fiercely as he moved in to attack the Shedinja with Fly, only to miss once more and collide with a tree. He attempted to hit the bug type again and again, but failed as the Mind Reading shedinja avoided each and every attack, "What the hell?" the archeops muttered.

Linus meanwhile was having his own battle with the shroomish, his beak glowed and extended as he Pecked at the shroomish. The shroomish was coated in strange energy and suddenly grew a beak of energy as it used Mimic. The shroomish pecked back at the murkrow, and the two were suddenly in a peck-fest where they used nothing but Peck on each other, Linus on the winning side so far due to type advantages.

Meanwhile the client had been sidetracked by a bush that had strange flowers on it and was staring at the floral patterns with fascination.

Sova groaned in agitation at the venomoth doing its best to stay away from him.  What fun was that?  He fired an Ice Beam at it, which it avoided and responded to by flapping its wings, sending a flurry of purple dust at the glaceon.  He backed away to avoid it, but the lingering pain in his legs was just enough to keep him in range as the toxic powder coated him.  He coughed as some of it got in his lungs.  The poison began taking effect almost instantly, starting with a burning sensation on his skin and in his throat and lungs where the powder was.

Ignoring the pain, he fired another blue beam at the venomoth, hitting it right in the chest and knocking it to the ground.  As it flapped its wings to get back up, he once again tackled it with the help of Quick Attack, this time ending up on top of it, on the ground, with his front paws pinning its wings down.  He prepared an Ice beam to finish it off, but noticed Acro's difficulty dealing with his assigned enemy and looked to see what was happening.  Apparently, the archeops was having some....trouble.  Deciding to help, the glaceon opened his mouth and created a dark shadowy ball in front of him, snapping his jaws shut to fire it at the shedinja.  Really, all of the mouthwork wasn't necessary, but it helped him focus.

Then he felt a liquid hit his chest with enough force to knock him off the moth he was standing on.  As he was knocked to the ground, the purple liquid continued being poured onto him, from the venomoth's mouth.  For a second it just stung a bit from the pressure of being hit by it....then it started burning, a lot.  The poison in his body seemed to react to it, instead of just hurting where it had hit him, he was hurting EVERYWHERE.  He couldn't help but yell in pain from the burning sensation.  He knew this feeling....  Venoshock.

He could feel himself about ready to pass out, but....if he lost consciousness, surely that....thing....would take over.  He couldn't....  But the agonizing liquid kept coming.  It seemed like there was no choice.  He was too weak to stay awake, let alone to fight back.

The shedinja could not spot the Glaceon's shadow ball, as it was too busy being focused on the Archeops with its mind reader. The ghost type was struck with the super effective attack, falling to the ground almost as quickly as a rock as it was knocked out. Acro noticed that his foe was down, and looked to see who had assisted him only to see Sova being coated in a purple sludge that seemed to be hurting him quite a bit. The archeops gave an enraged screech as he flew into the Venomoth with Fly, dealing Super Effective damage with the flying type move and getting it to cease the poisonous moves.

Meanwhile Linus had finally managed to overcome the beast of a shroomish in the peck battle, he was breathing hard, but got to work again as he spotted that the glaceon was having problems with the Venomoth, he was about to go help but Acro seemed to take care of it easily. Linus decided to take advantage of this lull in battle to Roost, a white feathery glow surrounding him as the healing properties of the move kicked in.

((Roost does not effect Energy in this use))

As the attack ceased, the glaceon slowly rose to his feet. The pain hadn't even stopped yet since he was absolutely drenched in the purple liquid, which had even stained his fur with a purple tint. As he stood, a dark smile crept across his face and his eyes widened. He lifted his head, looked straight at Acro....then snapped back to reality. Sova's eyes drooped back to normal and the crazy smile fell into more of a pained frown. He hadn't completely lost touch with reality this time, the attack was stopped just in time. There was just enough consciousness left in him to hold himself back.

Linus's eyes widened as he spotted the glaceon, something was rather...sinister, about him now. The murkrow shivered and he stood up, backing away rather slowly. The look on the Glaceon's face was terrifying, what was wrong with him? He tried to speak up, but words refused to leave his mouth, instead looking like a gaping magikarp.

Acro had been too busy attacking the venimoth to notice the glaceon's sudden change in posture. The bird had given a screech before crashing into the venomoth once more, only to have a strange powder be spread onto the Archeops. Acro landed, sneezing as his body attempted to expel the powder, but it had already been too late. A haze covered Acro's mind, and he could feel a powerful rage welling up from within him. His eyes widened as the Rage Powder took effect, and threw the archeops into an uncontrollable rage.

As Sova slowly came out of the trance he'd almost completely fallen into for....well, he'd lost count how many times at this point, he realized he was standing....and hurting. A lot. When had he gotten up? The pain had dulled almost completely for a moment and with it, his awareness. He'd managed to get up in that time without realizing it.

His attention was taken away from his own worried thoughts as a strange powder was dusted onto Acro. It definitely wasn't the Poison Powder he'd been hit with before. In an attempt to help, he focused his energy into an attempt at an Ice Beam, but ended up wincing in pain and jerking his head downwards, firing the attack at the ground in front of him instead. "Acro....you alright?" he muttered in a low and weak tone, since he clearly wasn't yet ready to fight again.

Acro's only response was a "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGLE" roar that sent chills down Linus's spine. The small bird retreated, the fierce battle beginning to be too much for him. He dived into the bushes, away from plain sight, and shivered. Where was his mother? Why wasn't she here to protect him? Why did she have to leave him? The murkrow covered his face with his wings, trying to convince himself that everything was going to be okay.

The archeops would likely not recognize his own face if shown to him in a reflection at this point. The archeops bellowed once more, his tail glowing brightly as he dashed towards the Venomoth and slammed the glowing tail into the bug type, sending it flying into a nearby tree. The venomoth struggled back up into the air, to find that the archeops had begun to use Double Team. The bug type swallowed, regretting its choice of action.

After the point of the roar, Sova began to understand what was going on. The powder had clearly done something to the poor bird, which seemed to be agitating him, at the very least. The glaceon decided to just stay back and let Acro take the time to beat the venomoth on his own. He hoped Acro would just burn the effects of the powder off in the fight. Besides, he REALLY didn't want to get in the way of the archeops who was clearly in a less than sane state right now. In his current state, he didn't want to risk taking any more damage.

Acro smashed into the foe once more, the venomoth giving a final screech before the Archeops stood there, his shoulders hunched as he panted, the rage powder still in effect. The longer he stood there, the more the rage took effect. He flared his wings out and bellowed, looking for the next thing to attack. His eyes lay their sight on the shedinja, who had woken up from its knock out in attempt to flee. The archeops gave a screech and attempted to Fly into the ghost type. The shedinja squeaked in fear and used Mind Reader to attempt to dodge.

Linus, meanwhile, was still cowering away in the bushes. The battle cries making him shake more and more in fear, practically the entire bush was shaking by this point. The leaves rattled and the branches scratched the poor bird, who wished he was elsewhere, perhaps dead? No, not quite. Just not here would be his preference.

Sova sat down as he figured the mad archeops would at least be distracted for a while. Just as he sat, his body again reminded him of the poor condition it was in with a wave of pain. He resisted the urge to show any signs of how bad he was hurting, not wanting to damage his image. Though honestly, it didn't seem like anyone was really interested in paying attention to him at the moment.

He opened his bag up and dug through it, pawing items around until he found a pink berry. Wasting no time, he grabbed it in his paw and tossed it into his mouth. He would have taken time to enjoy the sweet flavor if it was possible for him to enjoy anything with the lingering and worsening pain he was in. Instead, he chewed and swallowed it quickly, proceeding to wait for it to take effect.

Linus stopped his shivering as he realized that the screeching had turned down in volume considerably. He blinked, peeking his head out of the bush to see that the Archeops had followed the Shedinja as it attempted to flee, the two were growing farther and farther from him and the glaceon. N-No! He couldn't stay here with this glaceon alone! That face, it was too much for his weak bird heart!
"A-Acro?" he called, hoping to call the archeops back.

The archeops's head swiveled as it at the very least acknowledged his own name. The archeops looked as if he were about to attack, but his sense was slowly returning to him as the Rage Powder's effects seemed to wear off. He struggled with the decision on whether or not to attack Linus, but eventually the real Acro prevailed, and he merely collapsed onto the ground, not from weakness but more exhaustion, "Wh-what happened?" he finally spoke, feeling as if he had overworked himself.