Determined to Help, Determined to Fall

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Mission Details:

The Frozen Stream, a rather dull area of the Icy Lands named for the continuously frozen stream that ran through it.  Of course, it wasn't JUST a stream, since streams weren't very big.  The stream flowed into the Descant River, though, so of course it was the most noteworthy feature of the area.  It also happened to be the most fun part of the area.... if one was an Ice-Type, that is.

Sova was a bit excited to be back here, since the only other time he'd ever been to the Frozen Stream was when he was an eevee and it was.... less than fun.  Now, though, he was an Ice-Type with a body so well-adjusted to the cold that he could probably swim in the water under the sheet of ice covering the stream.  The swablu with him probably didn't enjoy the cold nearly as much, but at least a bird could fly over the stream and not risk breaking the ice and falling in.  Though, honestly, he doubted someone as small as Varda could even break the ice with weight alone.

The little bird probably wasn't enjoying being in such a cold place and the glaceon knew it, but he never asked for help.  Varda had offered.  Actually, Varda had insisted.  It wasn't like he was bad company either, the swablu was fairly nice and not annoying.  He even liked to give out compliments, so the glaceon wasn't going to complain.  Sova was just glad he didn't have to put up with someone like William following him.  That gengar agitated him to no end.

"So, how're you feeling?", he asked, rather rhetorically since he knew Varda was probably not enjoying himself.
He looked around for any sign of the stream, but it was currently snowing, which obscured vision a bit.  If the stream was nearby, he couldn't see it.  He could see a few trees though.  He was content with just staying here, but he wanted to get to the stream to practice skating on ice.... and they had a mission to do there, that was important too.

(Ninja Edit - 38 energy)

Varda kept watching from the skies as his friend kept working. He felt a bit bad, not being able to help himself... But Sova just was so much better for the job. With his wings, trying to clear out the snow would take days – or weeks! And the two of them had already seen what would happen if the bird stayed too close to the strong winds caused by the other Pokémon's attack. He tried to be a part of it all in spirit and didn't just rest while Sova did the work, constantly cheering on his friend mentally. Though then again, it wasn't like his flight was the easiest and most enjoyable one: the winds were harsh and freezing, the ice gathering on his weighing him down constantly the more of it stuck to his feathers. The Swablu was certain he couldn't fly like this forever!

Luckily Sova stopped eventually himself, the wind he had controlled coming to a stop. The bird saw it with his keen eyes, waiting for a moment to see if his friend would continue right away before he swooped down, in case he would accidentally get stuck in the middle of the Blizzard again. When it looked like it was time for a rest – or a talk, it was hard to say the exact reason – Varda started to slowly descend all the way to the ground, landing as gracefully as he could on the snow close to Sova. By now, the blue feathers were clearly more white than blue.

"Brr! Good job, Sova!" The little Pokémon chirped with a shudder, clearly feeling the cold by now. While he didn't seem to mind it all that much, his movements were a bit sluggish and heavy thanks to the icy shell he had started to develop. The Swablu let his eyes look at the frozen stream now that he was on the ground. Well, the entire river wasn't revealed... But it surely would be a very long one in any case, they possibly couldn't try to clear it all out in such a short time!
"I couldn't see any Sneasels from above..."

Sova took some time to catch his breath, almost jumping in surprise when Varda landed near him. His fatigued mind was too worn out to expect things at the moment. Then the bird started talking and he did his best to pay attention. The swablu hadn't seen anything from above. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. This just meant either that the sneasel wasn't nearby or Varda couldn't see things well from so high up. Regardless of which it was, following the stream was still their best bet as far as the glaceon was concerned.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to keep moving till we find him, then.", he replied, turning in the direction the stream could now point them in. All they had to do was keep walking in this direction. Easy.
"You know, if we just walk straight, we won't even have to do this again. Unless the river changes course father up, that is.", he pointed out. It would be nice for him to not have to worry about Varda again due to having to do something like this multiple times, so he hoped there were no difficulties.

The glaceon wasted no time in getting moving. As soon as he no longer felt drained, which didn't take very long, he started off in the direction of up-stream. Hopefully they found the sneasel soon, as the only exciting thing to him about being here - ice skating - had been taken away by the snow. Though due to the blizzard, enough of the ice had been revealed for him to skate around without the snow slowing him, at least for the moment. Of course, he didn't pass this chance up and turned his walking into gliding gracefully over the ice. He'd already had a fair bit of practice at this, just not on an actual frozen body of water.

Varda nodded enthusiastically, not seeming at all discouraged by the fact that he hadn't seen a Sneasel. One could easily be hiding somewhere nearby – or maybe their target had a house somewhere he lived! At least the bird would have required a nice, cozy nest with plenty of warmth to live in such a cold place. Such thoughts just made him shudder again and he did his best to try to shake off some of the frost that had gathered on him, puffing up his feathers with a little sneeze. It certainly had gotten quite cold for him all of a sudden...

"Do you think this river will go straight?" The Swablu started to hop in place to warm up his body, his breath visible in the cold air as little puffs. He didn't know this river, so he didn't know. It did seem like it was going more or less straight and had been doing it for a while now... But unfortunately the bird didn't speak water and couldn't get an answer from the little stream itself!
"It would make things easier," he added with a little giggle, ready to move once Sova was willing.

The pair was on the move again, this time both of them walking on the ground. A lot of the snow had been pushed away from the ice and into neat little piles on both sides, but luckily Varda was light enough to be able to walk on top of it all without sinking in too much. The snow was awfully cold to his feet, though! Sova ended up ditching the snow to walk on the ice instead... Or more like slide around, something that looked quite strange – but at the same time, very interesting – in the bird's eyes. With a tilt of his head, he waddled over to his friend and stepped on the ice.

"What are you– Whoa!" The Swablu chirped as his feet slid in opposite directions and he quickly tried to regain his balance, unsuccessfully. Once again the bird fell on his behind on the ice.


Current Energy: 20 (19 +1 from the new page)

Bird carried out 3 launched of one Frozen Stream :

, ,

"I hope it'll go straight.", Sova replied to the swablu's question. The river keeping a linear path would certainly make things a lot easier for the two. Honestly, he would have preferred being alone, so he could feel free to run at full speed and use his no-guard fighting style, but alas, both of these things put others at risk. So he couldn't really run off and leave Varda behind or completely focus on hitting something in a fight without protecting his ally. But it wasn't all bad, Varda was good company after all.

He gave a slight chuckle when the swablu tried to hop on the ice to see what he was doing. Poor thing really hadn't ever been on ice before. "I'm skating. It's faster than walking.... and easier, if you get good at it. Since I'm an Ice-Type, it's easy for me to make ice where there's not any, so I get a lot of practice.", he explained, gliding over the ice in circles around the bird in the process.
"It's pretty fun too. Or.... for me, at least. Then again the cold doesn't bother me.", he added on.

He wondered if perhaps Varda would need help getting back to the snow. Or maybe he wanted to try ice skating. The glaceon wasn't sure how to go about teaching that, but it'd surely be easier than teaching one how to use a TM. As he circled around the swablu, something caught his attention blowing through the wind. He picked up his pace and skated over to it before leaping into the air and catching it in his mouth. A band. He figured he must have blown it into the air with Blizzard. But he didn't really need this....

(Wanna bring the sneasel and the penguins in within the next few posts and end the thread after we get this page so we can move on to the higher ranked missions? I've already got an idea for the scenario.)

Varda tilted his head as the other Pokémon explained. As someone who hadn't really been in contact with ice before, of course he hadn't ice skated before! Even though the ice was slippery and cold, he couldn't help but feel so very curious about it all, Sova made it look so fun after all! Getting back up on his feet was a bit difficult what with how smooth the ice was, his feet just sliding around as he tried. Using his wings as both arms to push himself off the ground and as a way to quickly hop off on his feet with the power of flight, the little ball of fluff finally managed to get back up.

"Ice is very slippery!" The little bird chirped out the obvious, looking quite happy even if his wings were still spread, used as an aid for balance. His legs were a bit shaky, not knowing what to do – but luckily for such a small Pokémon, the ground wasn't too far if he did end up falling. It didn't hurt much.
"How do you do that? It looks so easy but it's so hard," Varda cooed, obviously having noticed how little effort his friend had to put into moving on the ice, just sliding quickly like it was nothing. Clearly, he was a different story.

Something seemed to have caught Sova's interest and the Pokémon skated off to the side, leaving the Swablu on his own for a moment. Not that he really minded, trying out the ice on his own with shaky feet as he slowly slid forward. A cracking sound from behind caused him to turn around forever, just in time to notice two blades of some kind cut through the ice from underneath like it was nothing. Not wanting to end in the icy waters, Varda spread his wings and jumped in the air as quickly as he could before a huge penguin-like Pokémon jumped out of the water and on the ice.


((I THINK IT'S ABOUT TIME FOR A PROPER FIGHT YES, you can handle the Sneasel thing after this and all.))

Sova shrugged as he looked at the ribbon, before draping it over his paw so he could free his mouth and speak.  "Well, first you need to be able to balance on the ice.  I've got four legs so it's easier for me.  Maybe you could try using your wings to-", he began, but stopped and spun around as he heard something break through the ice.
A massive and intimidating looking pokemon, an empoleon.  He would have been thrilled to see this.... if he was alone.  But again, he had to worry about Varda.  He couldn't use Blizzard with the swablu around, nor could he let Frost Breath activate....  He also had to worry about not letting himself.... break.

The empoleon huffed, looking at the two tiny creatures before it, before speaking in a deep, prideful and authoritative tone.  "You will leave my territory, now."

Sova chuckled and responded, "Someone so fat shouldn't be making such passive-aggressive remarks.  I don't think you know who you're talking to."  He seemed completely unfazed by the obviously implied threat.

"I know you are members of Grassveil Guild.  I do not care.", the empoleon retorted.

Sova smirked at the flightless bird's comment.  "Oh no, I wasn't talking about that....  If you attack us, you don't need to worry about the guild.  You'll need to worry about me.", he explained.
It was clear that he didn't care at all about the penguin's threats.  The only thing he was worried about was Varda, who could fly too high to be attacked if necessary.

The empoleon stomped one of its flipper-feet on the ground, which, for a moment seemed pointless.  Then a prinplup sprang out of the water, apparently upon being given a signal by the larger penguin.  Sova figured this empoleon had to be fairly strong to have authority over a prinplup, as the species-line of these Water-Types all had a natural rebellious, self-centered, loner personality that seemed mandatory among them.  For one to be swayed to another's side meant that the latter would have to be very powerful.

The glaceon dropped the ribbon in his bag and pulled out the spike from earlier in its place, biting onto the dull end of it in preparation for the fight.  He then lowered himself closer to the ground and spread his legs apart, as well as flaring up his fur and freezing it over into icy spiked armor as he prepared for a fight.

Varda flew away from the strange Pokémon that had hopped out of the water, landing on the ice next to Sova – after sliding around a bit first due to not being able to stay still on the ice yet, of course. He had no idea what was happening, though the large penguin didn't attack them right away, instead just telling the two of them to leave. Now the Swablu was more than willing to follow such a command if this really was the other Pokémon's territory, not wanting to be rude and get in the way... But Sova had other thoughts, it seemed. Adding fire to fire – well, metaphorically – the smaller fox-like Pokémon didn't agree, causing Varda to drop his smile into a more worried gasp.

"T-That's a bit mean," the bird chirped quietly to his friend, referring to the insult,
"I think he's more... Buff than fat," he continued, perhaps completely missing what was going on, but there just were some things he had to comment on! The air had suddenly grown so awfully tense, like something was about to happen any second now. The situation was charge, any little thing could set the whole thing off. It really wasn't helping how both sides had someone trying to intimidate the other with their presence instead of backing down.
"Um, um, I think we should just–" the Swablu was about to offer a peaceful solution with a shaky voice, but the mighty slap of a flipper on ice forced him to stop, even jumping in the air from the surprisingly loud sound he had not expected. From the water, another penguin-like Pokémon emerged, but this one was much smaller than the other.

The largest penguin, the Empoleon, let out a squawk as it pumped itself up for the attack. Using Swords Dance, it prepared the sharp, blade-like wings for the upcoming battle, clearly already demonstrated to be sharp enough to cut through the ice blocking the stream. With surprising speed, it launched towards the Glaceon with its wings, sharp like steel – Steel Wing, one could say.

Even though Varda wasn't the target, he was still potentially in the way of the slashes. Hardly a fast one on the ground, he flapped his wings to avoid the large Pokémon rushing at them, flying over the penguin's head and landing on the ice behind.
"We really don't have to–" the bird Pokémon tried again, but this time he was stopped by having the other, smaller penguin ram itself into him, knocking the air out of his lungs.


Current Energy: 15 (20 -3 from the enemy encounter, -2 from the item rolls)

Sova completely ignored the little bird's comments, focusing on the enemy. The empoleon charged at him, aiming to slash at him with its powerful wings and he knew he couldn't go blow for blow with it. He slid back on the ice to narrowly avoid a swipe, and repeated the process as its other wing came down from above, crashing into the ice and shattering a large area of it. The penguin fell into the water as a result, disappearing from view as it rapidly swam away from the opening.

For a moment, the glaceon found himself wondering if perhaps the enemy had run away. Then he realized what it was doing. "Oh no....", he muttered as he slid back, then stopped himself and bolted forward, managing to juke the empoleon's aim as it burst through the ice behind him. "Nice trick, you almost hit me that time!", he taunted.

The empoleon huffed before charging him once again, swinging its steel wings at him like mad, but with a clear method to its swings. The glaceon did his best to avoid, but he seemed to be too slow and it got closer and closer to hitting him with each swing. He had no chance to run or counterattack, he was going to get hit eventually.... and it was going to hurt. So, instead of just stalling out the inevitable, he decided to do something rather bold. Perhaps something some would call stupid.

As the empoleon brought both of its wings in at the sides of the glaceon, like a pair of scissors, he threw his front paws up and slammed them into the blade-like wings. His paws instantly began to bleed and this time, it wasn't some mere prick from a thorn, it was very serious. But he kept pressing against the steel wings, pushing through the pain and creating a shadowy orb in front of his face. He found that he couldn't open his mouth as it was reflexively sealed shut due to the pain, plus he was still holding onto his spike, which was a problem considering this was his trigger for firing Shadow Balls, as he didn't know how to propel them without some kind of physical motion. But now was as good of a time as any to learn, he supposed.

He closed his eyes, partly from the pain and partly to try and focus, before opening them and tensing his body even more than it already was, sending the dark orb flying into the empoleon's face. The blade-wings finally slid away from his front paws and allowed them to fall back to the ground as the empoleon was knocked to the ground. Immediately, the glaceon's injured paws hitting the ground was simply too much and he cried out in pain before falling to his elbows with his paws out in front of him, attempting to keep them from touching anything. He closed his eyes for a moment once again in pain before he heard the empoleon's wings scraping at the ice and its flipper-feet stomping down as it got back up. He had to get up.... but how could he? His front paws literally felt like they were on fire even without being pressed down on the ground.

Varda let out of a chirp, his body sliding across the ice from the impact. He hadn't expected things to escalate so quickly! Feeling a bit dizzy, he looked up to see the small penguin rushing at him, giving him just enough time to roll out of the way of its attack before he got hit again. Being at a disadvantage, the little bird had to get up as quickly as he could, but the slippery surface and his own round body was making it awfully difficult. The peck from the attacking Pokémon was actually pretty much required for Varda to finally be able to bounce on his feet... Still at a disadvantage on the slippery surface he couldn't properly walk on without sliding around uncontrollably.

But he had an ace up his metaphorical sleeve the other bird Pokémon did not. Spreading his wings, the Swablu rose up into the sky, away from the little penguin. How smart he felt at that moment, realizing that the other Pokémon couldn't follow him... At least, until he almost got hit by the bubbles his attacker was now shooting in his direction, clearly able to hit him if he stayed still. Doing his best to avoid the attacks, the little bird kept soaring and twirling in the air as gracefully as a little clumsy ball of fluff could. It was actually going very well and he felt really good being able to stay out of the harm's way like this – but then he heard the howl of pain.

His eyes immediately darted to see what was going on, noticing Sova on the ice half collapsed, blood pouring out of his paws on the ice.
"Sova!" Varda chirped in panic and worry, noticing how the larger penguin was getting back on its feet and started to once again loom over his poor friend, blood staining its wings... The Swablu didn't waste any time ignoring his own opponent, flapping his wings as fast as he could to speed at the other two fighters faster than ever, even causing tears to be pushed out of his eyes by the wind slapping against his face. While there was no way the little Pokémon could physically beat a much larger opinion... He could always be a distraction!

Landing on the bigger penguin-like Pokémon's head, he gave it a good peck to catch its attention, as an attempt to seem like some kind of threat so Sova could get out. But his friend's paws were bleeding, so... Maybe he even couldn't run away? It was such a big problem! Mere distraction might not be enough, but the bladed wings swung closer and closer every time the Swablu dove closer. Opening his beak, Varda tried a desperate attempt at singing, his voice bird-like and calm like a lullaby.

The empoleon glared at the little bird before it, trying to put it to sleep.  Its response was merely opening its beak and firing an intense beam of devastatingly powerful energy at the swablu, a Hyper Beam.  It wasn't really interested in the swablu; the one it wanted was the glaceon who had insulted it and refused to leave its territory.

Sova watched helplessly as his little friend tried to protect him.  He couldn't do anything.  He was already on the verge of fainting from blood loss and pain, struggling to even keep his eyes open.  He fought against the slow loss of consciousness, knowing what would happen if he didn't.  As he began to fade out of consciousness, a voice rang through his head.... his own, yet more malevolent.  It had an.... evil tone to it.  "Just let me take over.  Look at your friend, fighting for your life.  He'll probably die, all because you're too weak to get up and help.  But I'm not.... so what's more important to you?  His safety, or your selfish desire to keep me caged?", the voice echoed through his head, making him WANT to pass out for a moment.  But he knew what happened if he did....  It would take over.

"I don't need.... your help....  I don't need.... anything....", he muttered under his breath as he fought to stay in control of himself.
He bent his head down closed to the ground and bit onto the dagger-like spike that he'd dropped before looking back towards the empoleon with a determined glare.  Then it fired a Hyper Beam and that was it.... he couldn't sit here, it didn't matter how much pain he put himself through, it didn't matter if he made himself want to die, he could NOT sit here and let someone else risk their life for him while he cowered and wallowed in weakness.

Slowly, the glaceon raised one of his front legs out of the pool of blood which had formed around his front paws and planted it on the ground.  He suppressed a pained scream, which resulted in muffled, shaky groaning sounds as he sealed his eyes shut and fought against it.  He quickly lifted his other leg, but realized he had begun to shake too much to be able to get himself up, resulting in him falling back down on that leg.  After taking a deep breath, he quickly lifted his leg and slammed his paw down, once again suppressing the cries, before opening his eyes and glaring at the empoleon.

As he began to slowly walk towards the empoleon, the prinplup darted in front of him, blocking him off.  He let out a low, enraged growl that actually seemed to strike fear into the prinplup as a surprised look crossed its face and it backed away a few steps.  "Get out.... of my.... WAY!", he shouted through the spike in his mouth, not even giving the prinplup a chance to consider moving willingly before he bolted into it, dropping to his side and sliding under it, his ice-shard-coated body scratching its legs up as it was knocked off its feet.  Before it could even hit the ground, he spun back onto his feet and in a circle, slamming his tail into its back and sending it sliding across the ice.  He bolted after it, leaping on top of it and slamming his head down on its back sideways, jabbing the spike into it before pulling away and turning to the empoleon.

His silver spike dripped a bit from its newly coated red tip. He began to feel a burn in his throat as icy mist started to leak from his mouth. His look was one of pure rage, almost to the point of seeming "mad" on an insane level. His breathing was heavy and shaky, indicating he was pushing his limit.

Varda continued his desperate song, knowing that when their opponent was already so into the battle, trying to put it to sleep was extremely difficult. Who could fall asleep right after a tense battle with their body still so prepared for everything? Not many, that was – and unfortunately, the bird was in a situation where his song was doing nothing despite his good intentions. The big penguin wasn't having any of that, either. Its rather abrupt and unamused response was to open its beak, but it wasn't because it wanted to say something. Oh no. Instead, the last thing Varda managed to see was a bright glow in its throat before it erupted from its mouth, the bright beam hitting the bird head on.

He could feel the energy surge through his body, his muscles and skin burning even if there was no actual fire or burn damage one might see – but that was certainly how it felt. His little chirp of pain was quickly cut off when the Swablu suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe, any voice he was making stopped by the pain itself as it ravaged him. His wings stopped responding to him, his flight stopped, but the strength of the beam itself pushed him further away from the penguin-like Pokémon. Varda fell in a nice little arc, finally falling on the ice with barely an audible thud, his eyes closed.

What exactly had happened was quite hazy in the bird's mind. A split second had felt like it had taken ages, yet he couldn't remember ever landing on the ice. Everything hurt. His vision was kind of blurry and eventually he did realize that he was staring up at the sky, some snow falling on his face. His back was feeling kind of cold due to the ice underneath. Had he lost consciousness at some point? It certainly was feeling like it. His limbs didn't really feel like moving, his muscles awfully limp.

It took him a while, but he remembered! He remembered Sova and the penguin... Or more like, the penguins. He couldn't remember what had happened to the smaller one after he darted after the big one. It took a lot, but the Swablu forced his body to listen to him, using his wings to push himself off the ground very slowly. His entire body was shaking from the pain and tiredness his muscles experiences, barely able to do what they were being asked to do – and even then, it did take a couple of tries. He saw the three familiar Pokémon still going at it, so it couldn't have been too long since he was attacked. The little penguin was on the ground, Sova was back on his bleeding feet... And the large penguin was ready to go after Sova again, having turned around after the Hyper Beam, looking a bit fatigued after the strong attack.

"Pleaaaaase," Varda chirped from behind, his voice quivering and weak, but he did his best to make it audible. With a slow, pained waddle, he made his way closer to the pair.
"I-I don't even know why we're fighting! We don't have to fight, please don't..."

The empoleon had gotten just enough time to regain its energy due to the prinplup acting as a distraction, turning its head to face the glaceon before it. "If you will not leave, you will die.", it threatened, still seeming fairly unfazed in the battle, meanwhile the glaceon was a bloody mess who looked ready to collapse. It was amazing that he could even stand, but he seemed to be at his limit.

"You hear that, Varda? One of us is gonna die. Stay back, I don't want it to be you.", Sova replied to both of them at once, his voice muffled and gurgled by his weakness and the spike.
He then began a slow, forced-looking walk towards the empoleon. Every step seemed like he was dragging his legs, forcing them to move against gravity's will. This was how it felt, too. Like he was ready to pass out at any second.... but he wouldn't pass out until he knew this overgrown flightless bird wasn't getting back up. The empoleon responded with a walk of its own, though it seemed more like a march.

The empoleon suddenly bolted forward at nearly blinding speed, Aqua Jet's effect when outside of water. The mist leaking out of Sova's mouth seemed to just increase in quantity, creating a freezing icy haze around him in the process as his Ice Shard allowed him to match the penguin's speed. Just as it reached him, trying to impaled him with its horns, he ducked below it and drove his silver spike into the underside of its left wing, causing it to fall to the ground on its right wing. It quickly got back to its feet as it slid along the ice, before charging forward and swinging its two wings wildly.

Sova slid back on the ice to avoid the first slash, ducked for the second, but just wasn't fast enough for the third. The empoleon's right wing, which was still uninjured and able to hit at full power, swiped the side of the glaceon's face as he tried to move away, knocking him back and causing him to drop his silver spike on the ice, with a *clang* sound. He growled as blood began to run down the side of his face, from up near his ear to all the way down by the side of his mouth as the gash was quite large. The empoleon wasn't going to wait for him to recover, no no; it charged forward and once again brought its two fin-wings in on the glaceon from both sides, preparing to repeat history.

This time, Sova had something else in mind, however. He spun on the ice towards the penguin and lifted himself to his front paws.... it hurt, it hurt so much putting all of his weight on his front paws, but he ignored it. He just tuned it out as he focused on the goal at hand - winning, no matter how much punishment he had to take to do so. His tail slammed into the underside of the penguin's left wing, further worsening its wing injury, before coming down on its right wing before it could hit him, slamming it down and knocking the empoleon off balance as the glaceon seemed to do a sort of cartwheel. A dark purple ball of negativity then appeared in front of the glaceon's face as he landed on his hind legs, a Shadow Ball, before he tensed his body up and fired the projectile into the empoleon's chest. As it fell to the ground, he leaped onto its stomach and bit into its neck, his Frost Breath burning the small wounds his rather sharp teeth created, as well as burning its skin.

Finally, he released the enemy and proceeded to march over to his spike. He picked the spike up in his mouth, turned towards the downed empoleon who was at this point barely conscious and walked back up over its stomach, stopping on its chest. He then turned his head back as he prepared to deal a finishing blow and end the fight.... along with a life.

(Telltale-Games level impact choices must be made on Varda's part, WILL NAPOLEON LIVE OR DIE?)

"N-No one's going to die!" Varda chirped with a weak voice, not liking how fast everything had turned into this, escalated into pure madness. It all was quite much for the little thing to take, his life before this being mostly living in a single little nest without ever leaving it, with no major worries or large incidents. The storm, that had been a thing that changed his life, but even that wasn't an entirely negative thing as the bird had enjoyed the new things he experienced, always keeping his chin up with his optimistic outlook on life. It had all been a pleasure adventure with some rather tense moments, but it hadn't been anything too bad. But this? This was starting to be a bit too much, wearing the Swablu out physically and mentally.

His words did nothing to stop anyone. The two fighters started to walk towards each other until the penguin darted forth with great speeds, trying to impale the smaller Pokémon with the rather magnificent trident-like horn sprouting from its face. Varda gasped, taking another rather hopeless dash forward in an attempt to stop it, but he couldn't really get anywhere. Blood was drawn, dripping on the cold ice below. But it wasn't Sova's blood.

They were just the first drops of blood in this next showdown, but they certainly didn't end up being the last. The penguin-like Pokémon's bladed wings took a slash at Sova, their sharp edges cutting at his fur and skin to allow the ice be stained by even more red. At this point, the little blue bird covered his eyes with his wings for a moment before forcing himself to look, forcing himself to do something to help his friend before something worse happened! The worst, luckily, hadn't happened yet: Sova was still alive and moving. A blast of some kind of shadowy power erupted from the little ice fox, enough to knock the larger Pokémon on its back. The ice let out a nasty crack from the force, but it did not shatter under the weight.

Varda did not object when his friend dug his teeth into the penguin, but he did force himself to waddle over as fast as he could – though the only reason for that might have been because Sova actually let go rather fast, something that the little bird quite appreciated. The large one, it was down and clearly hurt, but it was still breathing as was apparent from the chest that kept rising up and down. Sova was still injured and that was still a worry, but the Swablu found it quite impossible to worry about that when his friend had picked up the silver spike off the ice and climbed on top of the penguin Pokémon, clearly about to strike.

"Noo! Stoop!" He let out a yell as he forced his wings to flap up and down, using the last ounces of his strength to take a quick hop right on top of the Pokémon that could be considered their enemy seeing what it had done. With heavy breaths and gasps, the little bird looked at Sova with rather wet eyes.
"W-Why would you... This doesn't make any sense!" Varda chirped with a shaking voice,
"There... There didn't have to be a fight. We don't have to be here. We have a mission somewhere else! We... We should have just left if we were being a bother, it's not worth... Doing that for!"


((Gasp!))

Sova stopped as his little bird friend got in front of him, lifting one of his bleeding paws to open his bag and dropping his spike in. He got some absolutely LOVELY red stains on the bag in the process that he'd need to was out later.... but that wasn't important at the moment. He took a moment to consider how to respond. He knew he was wrong, but there was an issue.... he didn't care. The point at which someone threatened him or attacked one of his friends was the point at which he stopped caring for their life. This empoleon had done both.

His facial expression dulled from anger and pain to something more like.... dead inside. He looked as if he didn't care, though on the inside he was truly sad. "You're the one who wanted to come.... This is me, take it or leave it.", he replied in a weak and low tone as he stepped off of the empoleon to the side, leaving red marks on its chest.
He figured Varda probably hated him now, seeing what he was really like, so he just started walking. He seemed to limp with each step, the burning pain in his front paws and the rising exhaustion from blood loss and physical exertion getting to him. But he didn't care. He was going to keep going until he found that sneasel, then he was going to beat it to a bloody pulp if he had to.

The glaceon had decided Varda wasn't going to want to come any more, now knowing just who he was with. So he didn't bother looking back. However, he did say one last thing. "You can leave me. I won't blame you."

(10/10 would drama again)

Varda felt his breath quiver as he kept looking for Sova, waiting for some kind of response. He didn't want his friend to strike the Pokémon they two were standing on, but he didn't even know if he could stop it. Well, other than standing in front, which he was doing now, but... You never knew. Luckily, Sova ended up opening his bag and throwing in his spike, stopping his attempt at taking out the penguin there. The bird breathed out a sigh of relief, his expression clearly lightening up as his body relaxed. It felt so good he couldn't even put it to words.

But Sova didn't look happy at all. Actually, he couldn't even figure out what his expression was supposed to mean, but he didn't sound happy. The Swablu looked quite worried, his eyes puzzled as he tried to figure things out. Sova was still badly injured...
"N-No, that's–" He chirped out as the other Pokémon said about this being the true him or something, all things that confused the little bird greatly. Had he done something wrong? Didn't Sova want him to be here? He could have just said so before the two of them left...!

His friend hopped off and left Varda all alone on top of the large penguin, still breathing and seemingly conscious, even if it didn't do anything. Sova started to walk away, limping and leaving bloody paw prints on the ice. Even though the Swablu himself was very tired and barely able to move himself, he just had to force himself to hop off and waddle after the fox, not even really able to keep up.
"D-Do you want me to go?" He asked as he continued to walk,
"Do you... Hate me? D-Did I do something? I'm sorry," the bird continued, not even knowing what the problem was. He was worried however, something clearly apparent from his shaking voice.
"You're hurt and you shouldn't walk..."


((No drama for you, mister.))