The Cold Shadow of Statues of the Great

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"Right this way!" the drowzee spoke with calm enthusiasm, gesturing for the eeveelution to follow him. He made his way through the rough shack to the rooms where they performed the different services The DreamCatchers had offered. The glaceon was the first customer in months! Why was this service so unpopular? Was it too expensive? He wished he could have made it free, but he needed a way to pay Kyrie and support himself. The worries of the drowzee were masked by a cheerful grin.

"Just have a seat and we can begin. I'm going to have to hypnotize you, so don't be alarmed if you suddenly fall asleep. Some rather odd things may happen once you're asleep and dreaming, but just don't move and keep calm. I've done this plenty of times. Any questions or concerns?" he asked, after gesturing to a light purple cushion. Morpheus made sure to keep the cushions comfortable, so that the nervous clients would not get uncomfortable.

"I have my ways, as you have yours," his voice echoed throughout the cavern. The icy monster stalked about, waiting for the opportunity to strike. The grin was on his face, as if he were actually enjoying this despite the beating he had taken so far. Morpheus slashed at the ice, slowly chipping away at it but making progress. He was close to reaching the absol, he wondered what would happen if he broke them free, would they turn on him? Continue to ignore him? Were they even still alive in there?

((Stalling :D))

What good was this thing hiding going to do for it?  It wasn't going to get him by waiting for an opening if that's what it was thinking.  He would stand his ground no matter what and he sure as hell wasn't going to be caught off guard again.  Then it hit him, what if this thing went after Morpheus?  He began skating in the direction of the drowzee, covering the distance rather quickly as he headed to guard the drowzee from attacks.  It seemed Morpheus was busy beating at the hunk of ice that was once an absol.  As he hadn't taken notice of what the drowzee was doing until now, he hadn't tried to figure it out until now.... then it hit him.

Things were hitting him a lot today.  Metaphorically and literally.

Morpheus was trying to free Alma!  Maybe he could help free the absol too!  Did this mean maybe Alma hadn't died!?  Maybe Esprit too??  He found himself hoping dearly that this was the case, having finally given into the desire to care about them.

(Numbers: 14, 8, 12)

Morpheus slashed away at a thin layer of ice, the fur of the absol finally being revealed. He felt a bit of triumph at this, but knew better than to get his hopes up too far, for all he knew this could all be pointless, and they were both going to die to that weird abomination of the glaceon's mind.

"Okay, I think it's just about time to stop playing around then if you're going to be like that," it huffed, finally noticing the drowzee's actions as the Glaceon darted towards him. It stepped out of the icy wall, angered now as the grin faded, "Ever heard of the term, 'Let sleeping dogs lie'? That'd be a pretty good thing to do right now you know...they're dead," it laughed, "They are not coming back no matter what you do, forever dead, forever alone. Oh wait...I just lied dear Sova, for you still have me."

Kat carried out 1 launched of one tower :

30

Sova halted as the eldritch monster finally stepped out of the walls.  It was spouting some rather hateful and infuriating words, but he did his best not to let this thing get to him any more than it already had, if that was even possible.  "It's kind of hard to take you seriously when you look like you're wearing a froslass.", he replied, purposely not even acknowledging anything it'd said.  He didn't immediately want to acknowledge it as he was worried it was true, but then his mind started working correctly.

He began walking calmly towards it as he spoke, "So, if you're so sure they're dead, why'd you just come out of hiding?  If they're dead.... there's nothing for you to worry about.  I think you're lying.  So, here's what's gonna happen.  You're gonna fight me while he keeps breaking away the ice....  But that doesn't mean I'm relying on my dead parents to win this for me.  Actually, I'm kind of excited that I finally get you all to my self."

He stopped and began planning his strategy.  He would have to play this perfectly to have any hope of winning....  The creature responded as they stared each other down, "The same as you, I don't know.  At least, not for sure.  However, I'm not interested in taking that risk and finding out.  Now, be a good boy and go sit in the corner and hide like you usually do while I.... assist your friend with his breathing disorder.  I've heard that it's oh so much easier to breathe without a trunk.  Removing the bad lung can also help.  Maybe I'll remove both...."

Of course, Sova knew exactly what the menace was implying by this.  "If you wanna maim someone, I'm right here.", he replied.

"Well then.... time to tango.", the hybrid beast stated before making a bolt towards the much more normal looking glaceon, crossing the distance rapidly with the assistance of Ice Shard.

Sova once again Detected the fiend's movements, noticing the tail fur all freezing over, the ice pointing back and looking rather jagged.  If only he knew how to do that....  He ducked just as the other glaceon neared him and spun around, avoiding the rather painful looking tail that likely would have torn away at what ever part of him it hit.  He attempted to counter-attack by focusing his own icy armor to his shoulder and ramming shoulder-first into it, as it was busy spinning out on the ice.  To his dismay, the creature's back legs kicked and its back paws slammed into his chest, taking his breath away and halting his own attack.

The frosceon turned its self back around and its tail seemed to become cloaked in pure black.  In moments, all of the darkness seeped out of its tail, forming a pitch black golf-ball sized orb at the edge of it.  The tail whipped forward and the tiny orb flew straight into Sova's face, creating a black explosion, the glaceon hurdling through the air out the other side of the cloud of darkness, a trail of the negative energy following him as if it was smoke.  He tumbled to the ground before stopping, immediately forcing himself back to his feet.

He could see the twisted smile and the horror of a body materializing from within the shadowy smoke as it faded away, coming at him at full speed once again.  He'd only just gotten to his feet, but with the help of Detect, he found that the only way he could avoid this capably was to drop back to the ground, and so he did.  As the creature leaped over him with icy mist seeping from its mouth, he spun around and lunged for its left back leg, knowing that if it did freeze the fur there, it would take longer to freeze over and the armor would be weaker.  As he expected, the second he latched onto it, he could feel little needles piercing the inside of his mouth, followed by larger spikes, but nowhere near as bad as it was with the neck.  He ripped the monster out of the sky and to the ground, it slid to a stop about a foot away from him and they locked eyes for a moment.

Sova immediately raised his front paws into the air and slammed them down on the twisted monster's head as more of the icy mist began to seep from its mouth, slamming its jaw against the ground and stopping it from attacking him with Frost Breath once again.  As he moved his paws away, however, the nightmarishly warped ribbons on the creature's head reached up and grabbed onto his own, normal ribbons with their strange hand-like appendages and pulled his head down as the creature rammed its own head into him.

Seeing he wasn't going to get away, he simply went with the attack and headbutted the vile monster, their protected foreheads slammed together and they pushed against each other for a moment, before the enemy won out and knocked him back, still latched onto his ribbons.  It then lunged to bite his neck, but yet another Detect guided him to ducking in order to avoid the attack, followed by him ramming head-first into its lower jaw.  It finally released him and stumbled back in pain as one of its ribbon-appendages reached to hold its jaw, probably to attempt to fix it again.  This time, however, he wasn't going to let it go that easily.

Sova bit onto the creature's ribbon as it raised up and pulled it towards him, proceeding to freeze his shoulder yet again and ram into its chest while still pulling at its ribbon.  As the wind was knocked out of it, he knew this was the only chance he would get to go for the neck, while it was too short-breathed to manage to protect its self.  He opened his mouth and latched onto its neck as hard as he could.  For a moment, he heard a pained cry, but his teeth slowly breaking through the frozen fur and sinking into the vulnerable flesh seemed to make it difficult for this thing to make any sounds.  Its neck suddenly erupted with little icy spikes in an attempt to stop him, but it was too late.  It had far too little energy left to stop the attack now and he wasn't going to let these little spikes stop him.

He applied more and more pressure to the creature, feeling its paws grab onto him and what felt like claws of ice rip into his right shoulder and the left side of his chest.  The claws hung on for a moment, before releasing him and falling limp.  He could feel the least breath of the demon leave its lungs before it went completely limp and he finally released the body, letting it fall to the floor.

He now looked like he had just gorged himself on Cherri berries and felt like he'd just eaten lava, but it was a small price to pay.

Warning: more nightmare fuel for the young ahead

Morpheus slashed away at the last of the ice, finally freeing the absol and the leafeon. However, it seemed as if neither of them were moving. He shook them, hoping to wake them, but failed as they remained still. He looked back to the glaceon, to see that it had already defeated the foe. He sighed in relief, but quickly turned to worrying if the client was harmed or not.

The glaceon had begun walking towards him, his back to the beast. Morpheus was about to question his health, when he saw the creature behind him move. His eyes widened, his ears flattened in horror, as the arms of the glaceon's head ornament shoved itself up in a bit of a push up, before he used his legs to support his body once more.

There was a small laughter, that quickly grew into a wicked cackle, "Buahahahaaa! I'm not dead yet you little sh*t! You can't kill me here!"

A frosty breath leaked from its jaws, as it prepared to fight once more, "I'm not a living being, I cannot die, I-" a sudden realization seemed to strike the beast, "Wait a min-"

The head of the mutation suddenly dropped off of the body as a white figure flashed by. An absol stood on the other side of the mutation, stopping just as the head collided with the floor, "Stay away from him..." the absol grunted.

"Yay! Yay! You did it honey!" a familiar bouncy voice returned, the Absol and the Leafeon had returned to life, never having actually been dead due to never having actually been alive.

Morpheus looked to the two parents, who the leafeon looked happily to her 'son' while the father moved to sit beside her, his blade now red as if it had decided that he would now be part shiny.

The head seemed to glow slightly as it rolled, before eventually suddenly appearing as a box that automatically popped open to reveal a strange pink ribbon within. Morpheus recognized it as the halfway prize, he cleared his throat, trying to catch the glaceon's attention before the parents took it once more, "Well then-"

"When did that drowzee get here?" the leafeon blinked, pointing at Morpheus.

"As I was saying," the drowzee spoke, ignoring the leafeon's question, "Congratulations Sova, you are my first customer to have ever reached this far in the dream tower. If you want we can collect the prize and wake up, or we can keep going and aim for that egg move. If you desire my advice, i'd suggest that we head back and take a break."

Sova's ears perked and he turned at the sound of the voice, his eyes widening with fear. This thing was STILL alive!? How?? He was certain it had stopped breathing when he released it.... Just as he began to worry once more, a flash of white followed by the head of the creature becoming rather detached from its body gave the glaceon the relief he'd wanted. It seemed his.... the echoes of his parents were alive after all. "Looks like you were wrong.", he thought to himself.

He looked over his tattered body, blood had been dripping from his mouth onto the ground and the shredded wounds on his chest and shoulder were bleeding quite a bit, he felt like he'd just ran through a window.... then ate some of the glass. Taking a break seemed nice. Besides, he didn't care at all about getting an egg move. He didn't need Detect or anything else. His only regret was that he had to leave this fantasy. He knew these two were not his parents, but still, it didn't make them seem any less real.

"Alright....", he replied to the drowzee, before looking to the two beings that seemed so much like his parents. "Thank you for all of your help. I wish I could believe you could really be my parents, but they're dead. Still.... you're nice. I wish I could stay here forever, but I'm pretty sure my body would starve. So, maybe I'll come back here some time, hopefully you'll still be here, but I can't stay for ever.", he explained to the two, hoping they would at least PRETEND to understand, if they really were just mindless drones sent to pretend to be his parents.

Morpheus nodded, and clapped his hands together, suddenly disappearing. Before anything could be done, the entire area around the glaceon was now darkness. His parents disappeared, and the entire tower had disappeared. The glaceon felt the sensation of falling, as if the ground under him had disappeared, but a second of the feeling was enough to jolt the ice type awake.

The drowzee grinned, the joy ribbon in front of the client, "Congratulations, you made it without me having to eat the dream! Here's your prize, and I hope you come back soon to try again!"

((End of thread until character decides to return and try for more.))