Is Water Really That Bad?

First topic message reminder :

Mission Details:

Approaching the entrance to a dull gray colored waterfall in the middle of the dull, dark Shadowhue Forest definitely wasn't Sova's idea of a fun time.  But there were missions to be done and he could do two at once here, so that was that.  Though, he'd been to Shadowhue a few times before and never actually checked out the Monochrome Falls....  He didn't even know there were supposedly ruins behind them.  Nearly everything he knew, he'd learned from his parents.  Apparently they hadn't gone to Shadowhue much either.

Perhaps the least desired part of his situation was the dead weight he found himself having to carry.  What was he, a gogoat?  The houndour, whose name he still hadn't gotten, at least wasn't burning him like he was worried of.  "Hey, are you still dead?"  He questioned to the passenger on his back.

As the glaceon emerged from the brush and trees of the forest near the waterfall, having had to go off the path he was on to follow the sound of the water, he immediately spotted someone else already there.  A vaporeon was sitting in front of the waterfall and the pool of water under it, simply looking into the water.  Despite the urge to immediately greet another eevee-lution, he decided to stay back and try to see if it was hostile before approaching it.

Skylar stared into the water, looking at the reflection of her self.  Being a vaporeon was....okay, but when she had evolved, she was apparently turning into water.  WATER.  She'd have to learn WATER TYPE moves too if she wanted to be useful.  What if she drowned her self trying to use Hydro Pump or something!?  Could she even drown any more?  She distinctly remembered being able to breathe under water when she'd evolved.  Or maybe she'd just imagined it.  What if she didn't imagine it?  What if she could, but now that ability was gone?  She wanted to find out so badly, but then she'd have to dive under water....

(Sova - 33 energy)
(Skylar - 11 energy)

Zera watched the baltoy leave, blinking as the scared pokemon fled from something. He wondered if it was him? Oh well, it didn't seem like the group was doing anything at the moment and-"BOO!" a voice erupted from behind him. Zera snarled, a Thunder Fang sparking up instantly as he turned and bit the source of the startling sound.

"OWWW!" a misdrevious cried out, struggling free but not after taking quite some damage from the electric type attack. The houndour snarled, and moved to attack it once more, but missed as it disappeared under the ground once more.

Aries's head snapped towards the sound of the hound fighting, "What?" he asked, as he spotted a strange looking creature. His legs began to wobble, as fear struck through him at the very sight of the ghost type. His legs suddenly locked in place and the goat fell over, his eyes wide open and his jaw still hanging open like a gaping fish. His entire body was frozen over as if he had been dead for months. His natural defense mechanism taking control, as the fear of the ghost type enveloped him.

Sova spun around at the sound of pain to see his houndour companion nomming on his mission objective.... As the ghost escaped and floated back into obscurity, he sighed. "Feel free to knock that thing out, but try not to eat it.... I need SOME proof completion.", he sarcastically remarked to the houndour.... though he was serious. He really hoped the hound didn't plan to eat the misdreavus.
His attention was taken away from his allies as a faint hum sounded behind him.... VERY close to him. He turned back around to see the misdreavus mere inches from his face, looking rather agitated. Its eyes lit up with a blinding violet light, flashing the entire area and anyone who happened to look a it.

Skylar turned her head to see what was happening, to see the houndour getting into a fight with some Ghost-type. For a moment, she was kind of glad it got away, it seemed like he really hurt it.... then the glaceon mentioned it was his mission objective, presumably an outlaw if he didn't care whether or not it was knocked out. A flash of purple-hued light out of her peripheral vision cut her train of thought, effectively blinding her as well as making her very dizzy. She had absolutely no clue what was going on and worse yet, was suddenly having trouble thinking coherently enough to figure it out.

....Then after a few moments, a faint hum started.

Sova was instantly blinded by the flash. He immediately fired an Ice Beam blindly in front of him, then froze the fur on his tail and spun around, flailing his mace-tail around to no avail. He found himself falling to the ground due to spinning around while blinded, though it seemed to him like he was way too dizzy for this much disorientation. The misdreavus must have used Confuse Ray, he decided. Just as he'd figured out what had happened, something else confusing came his way. A strange sounding, quiet hum in his right ear, barely loud enough for him to hear and surely too quiet for the others to hear.... He had no clue what it was, but it made him feel.... worried. He felt like he knew this from somewhere, like his parents had told him about it, but he just couldn't put his paw on it.

Then the hum grew louder, slowly louder. It was an eerie tune that wasn't very pleasant to the ears, but it didn't seem all that harmful. His vision had returned to him, though it was so blurry he couldn't tell what was happening. Then it finally hit him. Perish Song. He attempted to stand to his feet, only to fall back over in his daze. He didn't think to try and tell the others what was happening, due of course to the confusion.

Luckily, the confusing ray had missed Zera, as he managed to avert his gaze in time. He looked away, only turning his head back when he heard the haunting melody. He spotted the Misdrevious appearing to be singing. He thought it had been a normal Sing attack, but he certainly didn't feel drowsy. His battling fury kicked in, as he got moving, pushing his body towards the Misdrevious and interrupting its song with a Thunder Fang. He aimed for the throat, but the misdrevious had attempted to float up and avoid it, causing him to latch onto the beads around its neck.

Aries, meanwhile had recovered from his paralyzing fright. He got back to his feet, and noticed that the misdrevious was attacking his friends! The hound had latched onto it, and Aries growled in anger, his ears flattened downard with an angry look on his face. He gave an angry bleat, which sounded more cute than furious, before vines erupted from his leafy mane and moved to constrict the ghost type.

Sova sighed in relief as the sound stopped and simply allowed himself to relax. He was pretty much useless for the moment, so the best thing he could do was lay on the ground until the confusion went away. Besides, by the sounds of there no longer being a malevolent hum, it seemed like the others had it covered.

Skylar, meanwhile, was still staying on her feet. Perhaps she just had a better sense of balance than the glaceon, She certainly didn't want to just let the others fight, but from what she could see - which was more than the glaceon who had stared right into the Confuse Ray - there was no way for her to help. Even if she had some way to attack from a range, she didn't trust her own accuracy at the moment. Maybe if she knew water gun or something she could have tried to attack, sure, but what if she hit the houndour? She could see clearly enough to notice he was latched onto the little ghost. She could also see that Aries was wrapping his vines around it. She slowly and carefully made her way over to the other two, making sure not to fall over, just in case they ended up needing her help.

The ghost type attempted to flee from the Skiddo's grip, pulling the grass type this way and that. The skiddo's hooves scraped against the ground as the ghost type and the skiddo played tug-of-war. Aries struggled to keep a hold, and to his dismay, the ghost type rammed itself into a wall, releasing itself from the vines and plowing into the wall so that the skiddo's vines could not follow. Aries cried out in pain, his vines retreating to him as he held the wound with his other vine, it was a scrape, but the youngster had not quite felt any real pain throughout his entire life.

Zera huffed as the skiddo let the misdrevious escape from his grip. He had been about to use Flamethrower on it, but it was too late. The hound looked around, his head whipping about as he searched for some kind of sign of the ghost type. His eyes widened as he heard a giggle coming from underneath him. He was suddenly launched into the air as the pokemon collided with his stomach, using Shadow Sneak. The hound landed on the ground harshly, but he forced himself up and blindly fired a Flamethrower, nearly hitting the ice type in the room.

Sova did his best to figure out what was going on, but all he knew was that there was fighting going on. And that a FLAMETHROWER HAD ALMOST HIT HIM. Though it had missed, he rolled further away from it as the heat was still uncomfortable. "Watch it!", he shouted, knowing it had to have been Zera who had almost enveloped him in flames. He tried again to get to his feet, figuring this battle was going on way too long, but he found himself simply falling over yet again. He then took to just laying there again. Why even bother trying? The others could surely handle it. He definitely wasn't just being a lazy bum and taking advantage of free labor. DEFINITELY.

Skylar's vision was close enough to normal to tell what was happening, unlike the glaceon's. She could tell this little ghost was giving the others some trouble. Worse yet, it hurt the only one who was remotely nice! Now that it had come close to the ground in order to attack the others, she could hit it.... As the misdreavus attacked the houndour, she carefully followed it with her eyes, watching it dive back into the ground. Then it popped out of the ground near Aries. That was the last straw.

The vaporeon rushed over to her skiddo friend's aid, her tail suddenly becoming coated with a silver shine, as if it had suddenly turned to metal. Her body took on a faint black glow and she slowed slightly as she reached the ghost, before spinning around and smacking it with her tail fin, making a very audible SMACK sound. The ghost went hurdling away from the skiddo, in the direction of the houndour.

The hound's hungry eyes glared at the misdrevious as she neared him. His fangs sparked and he leaped into the ghost, latching onto it with a Thunder Fang. As he gnawed away at the ghost type with his electric typed attack, a purple Smog leaked from his throat that the ghost type was forced to inhale due to how close it was to Zera and its gasps of pain as the hound bit into the ghost and shocked it. The misdrevious fell, this time allowing itself to flow through the floor and force the hound to let him go.

Aries had frozen up as the ghost and vaporeon grew near, the vaporeon defending him from the ghost. He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut before vines erupted from his side. They wrapped around the misdrevious and dragged it out of the wall as it peeked its head out slightly to see where everyone was. The ghost type attempted to drag the grass type back towards the wall, planning to use the same tactic it had last time to free itself.

The incapacitated and toolazytoseeifhecouldwalk glaceon finally decided to try and help, seeing that the misdreavus was being held in place a lot. His vision still hadn't returned to normal, but he was confident enough in his ability to aim to give it a shot.... He stood up, stumbled to the left slightly and opened his mouth in preparation to expel a beam of freezing cold energy. However, a vaporeon leaping in front of him made him stop, just as a light began forming in his mouth.

Skylar had seen that the glaceon was preparing to recklessly attack the enemy with an ICE-TYPE move, with no care for the skiddo who was already attacking it! She stepped in front of him, figuring she could take the attack if all else failed since she had defensive typing against it. "Don't! You could hit Aries' vines!", she demanded.

Sova glared at the vaporeon as the glow in his mouth faded, before speaking. "Fine.", he huffed as his fur froze over, covering him in spikes and boosting his speed drastically. In seconds, he was leaping at the ghost, aiming to bite onto it and help Aries drag it down.

Aries had failed to notice the glaceon's preparation to use Ice Beam, and was too busy with the Misdrevious to notice Sova change tactics and charge towards the misdrevious. However, the ghost type was overpowering the skiddo once more, and was beginning to sink into the wall and out of harm's way. A smirk grew on her mouth as she realized that if things kept up at this pace, she would be in the wall and the glaceon would ram into solid rock. Aries cried out in pain as he felt something latch onto his vines and yank them. He tried to tug them free while still grasping the misdrevious, but the bite let go once the glaceon had collided with the ghost type.

Zera had noticed the pace as well, and had latched onto the skiddo's vines and yanked them away from the wall, attempting to assist him but not quite realizing, or caring, that harming the vines would harm him. The houndour was simply happy that the misdrevious did not get away yet again. He snarled and dropped the vines that had gone limp from the pain and moved to use Thunder Fang on the misdrevious, prepped to slam into it just as hard as the boss and finish it once and for all!

Sova managed to bite onto the misdreavus thanks to the other two keeping it where it was.  He landed against the wall and leaped off it, dragging the misdreavous with him, planning to take it down with the houndour.  Then something caught his attention.... a figure creeping up behind Skylar!  He released the ghost, allowing it to freefall towards the houndour, before landing on the ground and bolting at full speed towards the ant-like figure as it opened its pincher-like jaws and closed in on the vaporeon's neck.  He didn't really know why he was helping, why he was risking his own life for someone else so desperately.  He didn't really think about it, his body just.... moved.

Skylar watched the others fight, staying near Aries to be able to guard him if anything else attacked him.  Then the glaceon suddenly left the battle, almost as quickly as he'd entered it.  For a moment she had trouble following him with her eyes, he was moving extremely fast.... then she noticed he was heading for her.  The glaceon flew past her, bringing a cold wind with him as he stopped literally RIGHT next to her, holding the jaws of a durant open by the time she managed to turn her head towards him.

Sova bolted past the vaporeon, barely missing her and getting between her and the durant just in time to stop it.  He slammed his front paws against its jaws to stop them from snapping shut on himself or Skylar, however it almost immediately began to overpower him, his paws slowly being pushed closer and closer to his chest and beginning to bleed from the steel pincher-like jaws.  For a second, he thought that perhaps he could manage to slip away from its grip without being harmed, but then.... all of his energy suddenly seemed to burn up within a second.  Literally, it felt as if he'd suddenly caught on fire, an intense pain coursing through his body and seemingly replacing all of his energy.  He'd heard the Perish Song just a few seconds longer than the others due to the misdreavus trying to be stealthy about it....  Just long enough.

No longer being able to fight against the durant, his paws slipped out from under its powerful jaws as they slammed shut around his shoulders like a Guillotine, making a few cracking sounds and shattering through his icy armor, beginning to draw out red from under the broken holes in his spikes.  He tried to scream from the pain, but it seemed he'd lost the ability to make noises, other than a slight, faint whimper as his eyes slowly closed and his body fell limp, his head falling to the left and draping over one of the durant's steel pincher-jaws.  Due to his voice being lost, preventing him from crying out for help, or just crying out for that matter, he began silently pleading to himself. Well.... not really to himself, but.... close enough.

"Please....  Help....  You can take over....  Do what ever you want, just.... make it stop....  Make........ make it...."

"....", his thoughts seemed to be slowly blocked out as his consciousness faded to nothing but blank.  No dreams, no nightmares, not even death.  Just blank.  Blank, all but a faint.... eerie laugh.  His own, yet not.  This time, he wasn't going anywhere....  There would be no waking up to save him.

The durant dragged its unconscious target to the left with a sway of its head, before whipping its head to the right and tossing the blue fox away.  He seemed more like a ragdoll than a living being, falling limply through the air and hitting the ground without any signs of life.  He looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Skylar's eyes widened as she watched the glaceon save her, then be punished severely for it.  Thoughts immediately flooded her head that he'd died, as he seemed to fall lifeless under the attack.  To think, she'd thought nothing more of him than just some self-centered ass and here he was, probably dead just to save someone he barely knew.  She began backing away out of fear as the durant turned its attention to her, opening its red-stained jaws and snapping them shut once as it began a slow march in her direction.  Her body was shivering, because she knew she was next.

Zera's tail had been wagging, waiting to latch onto the Misdrevious who had been severely weakened. His mouth met the ghostly body, and the fun began. He whipped his head back and forth like a rabid dog, flailing the misdrevious about long after it had been knocked out. He was only stopped at the smell of blood, his nose twitched and he dropped the misdrevious its body not phasing through the ground due to being unconscious. He looked towards the smell to see Boss's limp body and a bloody Durant nearing the vaporeon. A snarl curled on his lips, it had hurt boss! The hound gave an earsplitting howl, and opened his mouth an unleashed a column of flames towards the Durant, before running in to latch onto the thing with Thunder Fang, planning to never let go.

Aries was frozen, his vines had returned to him, but he had no idea what to do. The houndour was savagely attacking the misdrevious, and his friends were being hurt by a strange ant thing. His eyes were wide and he was unable to move. His legs were planted to the ground, shaking in fear. He shook his head, gathering courage before charging right for the durant after a column of flame snapped him out of his fearful trance.

The durant slowly approached its next intended victim, before a burning sensation caught its attention. A column of flame blew over its body and it was literally lit on fire for a few moments, burning it and damaging it quite a bit. It turned to flee in the opposite direction, but a heavy fish tail slamming into its face forced it to turn back to the other things attacking it.

Skylar watched as the durant was pretty much barbecued before trying to flee. However, she wasn't going to let it just KILL her savior then run! She snapped out of her fear and forced her body to move, her tail covering in a metallic coat as she spun around and pimpslapped it in the face. Of course, it didn't do all that much damage, but it forced the durant to stop and face the punishment it was about to receive from the others.

Sova laid there, unconscious as the others fought for him. However, he was about to fight a very different battle. He seemed to be in complete darkness, yet there was a floor for him to stand on in this dream.... or lack of a dream, perhaps. He couldn't see it, but he wasn't falling, so he had to assume it was there. He didn't know how he ended up here, his memory having been temporarily ravaged by the shock of the events which had just occurred, but he knew something was here with him. He could hear a voice.... that voice. Occasionally, he saw something dart through the darkness, or at least he thought he did. But upon going to investigate, he found nothing each time. There was only darkness and an eerie laugh, as far as he could tell anyways.

The skiddo rammed its horns into the steel type, doing almost nothing against the iron armor of the bug type. He took a few steps back, a loud clank having been made and his head shaken up from having headbutted the steel type been similar to ramming his head into a brick wall. The world was spinning, and the durant was turning to attack the skiddo. Aries managed to move away from the steel type's grasp, and stayed to the sidelines until everyone decided to stop using Double Team.

Zera went to town on the durant, clearly handling this with his new found rage to fuel his energy. He latched onto the steel type, electrifying it and keeping it in place with paralysis before coating it in a heated Flamethrower once more. The hound kept the flames going more and more, until he ran out of breath and was forced to stop. The durant was no longer moving, but that didn't stop the hound from latching onto it with another Thunder Fang and shaking it around like the Misdrevious.

The durant RIPd in peace.

Skylar watched as the other two, mostly the houndour with a huge type advantage, took care of the durant.  It didn't seem like it was going to be getting back up.  Then she remembered the reason they were fighting the durant....  The glaceon!  She rushed over to him and immediately saw how bad he looked.  He wasn't moving at all and if he was breathing, she couldn't tell.  His shoulders had rather bad looking wounds and his icicle-armor was beginning to melt away.  Blood was beginning to pool around him due to the injuries, so the first thing that needed to be done, obviously, was somehow stopping the bleeding.

Sky began rummaging through the glaceon's bag, feeling kind of bad about going through his belongings, but she needed something to help him!  Surely a guild member kept SOME kind of first aid supplies with him.  No Sitrus Berries....?  Not even an Oran Berry!?  Reviver Seeds??  There was nothing that could help restore his energy....  Apparently he hadn't thought he would be needing any of that for this place.  He probably would have been right, too, if he hadn't had to go and save someone....

Finally, the vaporeon settled on grabbing two golden ribbons from the bag.  She could use these to try and stop the bleeding, at least....  But she kind of needed help for that.  She looked back to see if either the skiddo or the houndour was interested in helping.

Sova continued to drift around in his own mind, surrounded by darkness and eerie noises.  He tried running, but it seemed he wasn't actually going anywhere.  The darkness persisted and the noises around him refused to fade, as if they were simply part of the dark area.  "Wh....who's there?", he finally worked up the courage to ask.  He wasn't used to this feeling of being afraid, it was horrible....

"Me.", a voice rang out from behind him.  His own voice.  He jumped forward and spun around in surprise, but there was nothing there.  "Oh, no.  You don't get to SEE me, not just yet.  I'm sure you know who I am, though.  You're not quite THAT stupid.", the voice sounded once again, right in front of him this time.  Yet there was clearly nothing there.

"You....", he muttered under his breath, beginning to understand that this was either a dream or hell.

Aries had turned away from the durant to look to the vaporeon, spotting that the glaceon he had been working to help was on the floor looking as if he were about to go on a journey to get better. The skiddo's eyes widened, he couldn't go on a journey! He needed to stay here, were he could help him! The skiddo dashed over, vines reaching out and taking the gold ribbon from the vaporeon and wrapping it around the bleeding wounds. His mothers often did this to his other mothers if the had ever gotten harmed, so what was the difference with a glaceon, "Is it working?" he asked, keeping his vines around the glaceon to hold the ribbons to the wounds.

Zera was still whipping the durant back and forth. He finally released the steel type, his mouth beginning to ache from the repeated action. He let go of the creature and launched it into the darkness. He huffed and released yet another Flamethrower in the direction of the durant, not caring if what he was doing was a bit overkill, so long as it was not getting up. He huffed and turned around once he was finished, looking to the glaceon, "Boss?" he asked, wondering if the glaceon was alright.