Helping a friend gain strength

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Jak {37-16=21}
~Before Reaching Mountain Base~
After spending some time in grassveil in his home to rest from his recent journey's. Jak to take a visit into the town center.
He stumbled across an old friend in town. That person was a buizel named Jet. Jet had always come off as a little shy and timid pokemon to Jak. However Jak knew he had a lot of potential.

When Jak had saw his old friend. Jak offered to help train Jet some more. He seemed to like the idea of getting more training. Jak offered to bring him to Black Mist Mountain for some training. It would be a bit tougher then the normal areas around grassveil, but it would be helpful to Jet. Jet was a bit hesitant to do so at first, given that he had never been very far beyond Rainfront Town before. But he would be with Jak, somebody he knew he could trust and rely on...and it would serve to help him grow better than what he was used to. He needed greater progress than what he was currently receiving. After agreeing, Jak stated that they should prepare for the trip. It would be a few days trip to the mountain, especially from grassveil. The Buizel nodded to him, knowing full well that the mountain range was much farther than he had ever traveled before. He was definitely going to need to be properly prepared.
"So, I am going to get ready for the trip.. Meet me at the exit from town when your ready to head out." Jak stated as he waved to the Buizel. Jet nodded again, returning the wave before departing and seeking to gather what materials he would need as well. He just hoped that he could pull his own weight out there and wouldn't end up dragging Jak down with him....

~On the way to Mountain~
Jak had been walking at a steady pace with the Buizel, ensuring that they had not gotten too tired when they arrived there. Having breaks every so often , resting at night in natural shelters along the path. They both would have to be in top condition if they happened to have come across some hostile natives early on their adventure. "We are almost there. We should arrive there before tonight..." Jak stated as he looked around to see if there was any natural shelters from the elements for the night. The weather had been unstable in recent days. So Jak had not liked being out overnight without something overhead, Just incase the weather decided to go for the worst and start raining on him. Knowing that he could die if the rain got heavy enough, being something he had gotten used to doing before nightfall,

"We should probably keep an eye out for shelter the rest of the way. I really don't like getting caught outside when having to rest... It isn't fun being caught outside if it suddenly starts to rain... However, I can't say the same for you." Jak stated with a slight chuckle.

"How are you holding up so far?" Jak asked the Buizel, making sure he was still doing alright on the travel to the mountain.

Note For Staff:

{Energy = 8+1 = 9}

Jet looked at the Charmeleon as apologetically as he felt again when he started talking about what was keeping him so down again. He couldn't help but feel partially responsible for leading him down that road in the first place. He really wanted to help him, but he would have no idea what to do in that regard. There were only two options as far as he could tell: Either find Fang and return her back to him at last or, perhaps more as a last resort, try to get him to move on. Though he had high doubts that he would ever be able to convince him to forget about her. He just seemed far too attached to her for that. The Buizel looked away for a moment, thinking about his options. He had no idea where he could even begin looking for Fang...let alone a place that Jak can't or probably hasn't already looked. It seemed that the best he would likely be able to do would be to distract him from his worries.

As Jak turned and looked out to the clouds, he saw the same thing that the Charmeleon did. A flash of light was always indicative of something that he never wanted to be struck by. Now, had he wanted to go out into the rain, he would be too nervous out there to even enjoy himself that much. So he forced a small chuckle and smiled at Jak again. "D-don't worry about that, Jak," he said. "I-I'll have enough fun training with you I bet. A-and I would rather not tire myself out before-hand anyway. I-I might feel it later during the training, resting or not." He looked off to the distance again. "I-in fact...I think I'm doing alright as I am....

Digizel carried out 9 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , , , , , , ,

Jak looked towards the Buizel with a slight smile on his face, "I suppose it can be" Jak responded to the comment about training being fun. In all honesty, it can be. As long as it isn't life threatening. However, by then... It probably isn't considered training.

He looked to the distance once more as he saw another flash within the clouds. Seeming to get a little more frequent with the flashes, however there was still no thunder along with the approaching storm. Jak leaned against the wall of the alcove as he watched the storm, slowly but surely approach them.


((Recommending time skip to morning in some way, I couldn't think of more dialog at the moment...))

{{Heh. Sure, I suppose it is a good time to start getting on with things. xD}

Jet said nothing in response to Jak and simply stared out at the incoming rainstorm. Jet leaned himself up against the nearby wall and watched as the storm drew ever nearer. sure enough, the thunderstorm was headed straight for them...or perhaps slightly to their side? Well, whatever the case, the thunder could be clearly heard and the rain eventually began. Over time, Jet found himself staring at water falling from the sky outside of their shelter. Both the Buizel and the Charmeleon remained in silence as the rain fell and the Buizel eventually found himself letting out an audible yawn...and then eventually drifting off to sleep.

~~~

"Huh...?" came the Buizel's murmur when something bright appeared in front of him. His eyes twitched and they eventually opened. The early morning sun was beginning to rise outside of their shelter. It seemed to be morning. Jet groaned slightly as he picked himself up off the ground--apparently he had fallen over at some point in the night onto his side--and rose back to his feet. He stretched his arms and let out another loud yawn, almost forgetting that he was supposed to begin his training with Jak today. When the Charmeleon crossed his mind, he quickly turned himself around. "J-Jak, are you...?" he asked, looking for any sign that the Charmeleon was still there.

{Energy: 9-13=0}

Jak had been asleep for small portions of time, waking up every now and then to the occasional rumble of thunder. He sighed as he watched the storm outside.

He looked around and noticed the Buizel seems sound asleep, and oddly had fallen over. Jak let out a slight smile, as he knew the Buizel probably was trying to stay up or at least sleep standing against the wall.

Eventually Jak fell back to sleep, knowing this area was usually very safe before reaching the mountains.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Jak woke up as he heard or better yet the lack of hearing any sound. The sun was just beginning to rise, the Buizel still seemed to be asleep. The storm had also passed. It was beautiful outside, "Today is the day we reach the mountains..." Jak stated as he looked around for a moment. He decided to look around just outside the shelter they had used to see if the storm managed to blow any items into the area.

As Jak went around the corner for a moment he noticed a ribbon caught on a nearby branch. He picked up the ribbon and looks at it for a moment. Beginning to walk back to their shelter to see the Buizel just waking up.

As Jet rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, he allowed his vision to settle and his eyes to adjust to the bright light. The familiar form of Jak appeared in front of him, approaching from just outside their shelter. He sat up from the ground completely and stood back up to his full height. "O-oh, there you are..." he murmured somewhat sleepily. He allowed himself to let out an audible yawn and he stepped forward to meet him. "M-morning," he said simply, unsure of what else he could say. But at that point, he realized that there was something in Jak's grip. He turned his focus down to the Charmeleon's claws and saw the ribbon that he was carrying around.

"Hey...what is that?" Jet asked, pointing to the ribbon with one of his paws. "Where'd you find it?" He had to admit, he thought it was kind of weird to just find something like that all the way out here...and they weren't even in the mountains yet.

Jak looked towards the item in his paw, he looked at it for a moment longer. "Oh, the... ribbon" he said as he remembered why it looked familiar. It was a Joy ribbon, an item he had wanted to get as a gift for Obera a while back but had always had trouble finding one. This hit him fairly hard as he gripped the ribbon briefly and then swapped his trap scarf for the ribbon on his neck. "It is a Joy ribbon, I think the storm blew it from the mountains..." he said with a heavy sigh... "Something I had been searching for, for a long time to give as a gift to her..." he said as he walked over to the buizel, holding the trap scarf in paw. "Here, you might need this there, it will break any traps that your trigger, causing them to not function... Please don't ask me how it works, I have not the slightest clue myself." he said with a chuckle as he offered the ribbon to the Buizel.

Jet watched as Jak once again started talking about Fang. He let out a small sigh, annoyed that he could not keep Jak's mind off of her for more than a few minutes at a time. Well, perhaps it would be easier when they were actually in the dungeon itself doing the actual training. After all, Jet was likely to need Jak's help a lot out here. He was not used to such a far-away, likely more dangerous dungeon. He had his doubts that he was going to last long against the wild Pokémon out here by himself.

It wasn't long before Jak finally exchanged the scarf he was currently wearing for the ribbon he had picked up. "A Joy Ribbon?" he repeated. He had heard about those while in town. They were supposed to be exceedingly rare. He had been hoping to find one himself while he had been out here, but he supposed he would have to wait. Perhaps he would find another once they reached the mountains. He was surprised, though, when Jak handed him the scarf he had just removed. "Huh...?" he asked, looking down at the scarf in his claws. "Are you...giving that to me?" he asked. He had to admit, it was rather tempting. He had fallen into all kinds of traps during his journeys in plenty of dungeons before, most harmful. "I'm...not sure. Is it...really okay for me to just take this...?"

Jak nodded in response to being asked if he was giving it to him, "If you don't feel comfortable keeping it, We can say you are borrowing it for the dungeon.. Besides I have an extra at home. I much rather see how this ribbon works... If those rumors are true." he stated with a smile on his face. Jak then turned around towards the entrance of the shelter they had been resting at. Noticing a white and black pokemon at the entrance that seemed to dart off after he saw it. Jak was pretty sure that what he was was the disaster pokemon. A name that has been given to them for their unique ability to sense disasters.

"Did you just see that?" he said to Jet as he continued to watch the opening of the alcove. Oh man, I hope it isn't following us for a reason... If it is following us that is... Jak thought to himself. He shook his head for a moment, "Anyways, lets grab a snack before we head out. Might need the extra energy." Jak said as he pulled an apple from his bag and began to eat it.

^{Note: This pokemon has not left our encounters just yet, It is maintaining a distance from them after finding them.}

Jet smiled slightly as Jak said that he was allowing him to have this. Or at the very least as long as their training in the mountains was still ongoing. He was hesitant to accept it, but he knew that this would be very beneficial for his training. If nothing else, he wouldn't have to worry about exhausting himself from falling into another pitfall trap again, like had back in Shadowhue. "W-well, I-I suppose I should take it for now then," he replied. "Th-thank you." Without any more objections, he wrapped the scarf around his neck, tucking it just underneath the section of his neck that was blocked by the floatation sac. "W-well, I suppose we should hope that they are true," he added. "I would really like to not fall into another pitfall trap again." He let out a small, nervous chuckle at that.

He did not turn or change his line of sight until after Jak asked him another question. "What?" Jet asked, turning to face the Charmeleon again. He followed the Fire-type Pokémon's gaze to the shelter and looked at it questioningly. "Did I see what, exactly?" he asked. But then he corrected himself. "H-heh. W-well, I guess if I'm asking that, then I suppose I didn't see whatever it was."

He finally looked away from the shelter when Jak spoke up a third time. "O-oh, yeah, I suppose that is a good idea," he replied. "I am kind of hungry right now..." With that, he reached into his Explorer's Bag and pulled out the only Apple that he had stored away. He started to eat it as well, smiling slightly as he got to share this simple moment with Jak before things started to get crazy out in that dungeon.

{Energy: 0 + 5 (Apple) = 5}

Jak nodded, "Your welcome, and yes the trap scarf does work, I have had it break traps before.. I just don't know how it does it to be honest." he said as he scratched his head. "I don't understand how half those ribbons and scarves even work. They just do, so I figured... I wouldn't question it." he chuckled.

~~~~~~~~~

Jak stared back at the entrance to see if the pokemon returned in view, however it never did. "Umm, never-mind... I don't think it is too important." he stated as he thought if he was either seeing things, or that there was someone watching them.

"Alright lets head out." he stated as he saw Jet finish his apple. "It shouldn't be long before we reach the mountain, It should probably only be a couple minutes walk from here on out." he stated as he pointed in the direction of the mountain. The mountain was far more visible at this time of day, as the other day it seemed that it blended in with the surrounding area due to odd lighting conditions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Here we are... the base of Black mist mountains." he said with a smile. It had only been about 15 minutes to get the rest of the way to the mountain, leaving plenty of time to explore and train.

Jet simply nodded back to Jak as he explained that he had seen it work first-hand. Well, at least he now had direct confirmation. But still, not knowing how these things worked really bothered the Buizel. He felt a rather strong desire to look them over and study them a bit more closely. How could wearing a single article of cloth or other form of clothing actually help a Pokémon get stronger or avoid such traps? He let out a small, defeated sigh quickly enough, though. He doubted he would ever know the true answer to those questions. "I suppose it is just enough to know for certain that they do somehow manage to work," he said simply.

~~~

Once more, Jet found himself nodding as Jak spoke. As far as he was concerned, the Charmeleon was temporarily his mentor, just as Fang had been when he had first taken to Shadowhue Forest. He did, however, shrug his shoulders as Jak said that whatever he saw probably wasn't too important. He trusted his judgment. Plus, it was possible that he had just been imagining things. Whatever the case, it probably wasn't worth being too concerned about.

"O-okay then," the Buizel replied with a small, but obviously-nervous smile. He followed the Charmeleon's claw and saw the mountain before them. It wasn't quite as distant as he had thought it would be. In fact, he almost thought that perhaps they could have just gone straight to the dungeon, had it not been for his exhaustion the night before. "L-let's go then. The sooner we start this training...th-the sooner I can get stronger and better help my friends."

~~~

Jet stared up at the huge mountain before him in awe. "S-so this is Black Mist Mountain..." Jet murmured. He then looked over at Jak and smiled a nervous smile. "S-so...we're going inside this thing, right?" he asked. "Wh-what's it like in there?" He looked back over toward the mountain again and lowered his gaze. he looked for whatever opening would take them inside, wondering what kind of dangers they were going to face once they were.

Jak watched the Buizel look at the mountain and then back towards him. He then asked if they were going inside it. Jak shook his head briefly at the comment. "We actually traverse the mountain. Only few caves exist on the mountain. One bringing you to a new area on the mountain." Jak stated, "We can go inside some of the caves if you like though." he continued, trying not to make Jet feel bad for thinking that they were going into the mountain. It is because there were some caves there, just not too many.

"And to answer the question of what it is like up there... To put it simple, it can get quiet foggy... Not just any kind of fog though, oddly it is black.. It comes in patches from what I noticed." he said as he looked up towards the mountain.

From where they were, they could see some of the odd black clouds hugging different area's of the mountain. Slowly drifting around it, "I am not too big of a fan of the mist... Some of my fire attacks does disperse it briefly." he said in assurance.

At that point he saw the black and white figure dart out of his view once more... The same absol it seemed, Man, I really hope I am imagining that thing... he thought to himself. Jak went to start towards the first path he spotted that went up the mountain. "This way, it is easier to take some of the existing paths to traverse this mountain.. Just like any dungeon, they tend to shift." he stated.

"O-oh, I see," came Jet's simple reply when Jak explained to him exactly what they were doing. He looked back up at the mountain again, thinking about it. There were certainly no visible caves that he could see, so he supposed that it at least made sense. Still, he had actually expected to be going inside the mountain, as that was what places like this seemed to lead to. But traversing the outside was probably just as fine. The only downside would be that they would be exposed to the elements out here. And if it started storming again, they could both be in trouble. Especially if they got attacked at the same time. But he quickly shook his head, trying to clear away that kind of negativity. There was no point in thinking about the worst-case scenario so much. Things would probably go a bit better if he focused on the brighter side instead.

Jet nodded as he listened carefully to what the Charmeleon said about the dungeon ahead. A black mist, was it? He looked up at the mountain once more, finally seeing what he was referring to. Sure enough, there were black clouds of...something obscuring the view of some segments. Hopefully, they would not be too big of a problem, though. To that end, he figured that it would probably be for the best if Jak led the way at those points. The flame on the tip of his tail would make him a lot easier to keep up with than if it were the other way around.

"Alright, then let's get going," Jet replied with another nod. "A-and let's hurry before we get too mixed up." With that, he stepped forward and stood beside the Charmeleon. He was more than read to follow him through the dungeon, no matter where it took them.

Jak nodded as he started making his way towards the path he pointed out. Walking along the path on the slow upward climb up the mountain. Jak looked around to see if there was any nearby items, knowing that this area could contain a few items due the possibility of items falling down the mountain. He then noticed a pile of TM's nearby. "Hey, check this out..." he said as he walked over to the pile. However, just as Jak got about 4 feet away from the pile. A bone club smacked the ground in front of him, causing him to jump back slightly. He watched the bone bounce back towards its thrower.

A cubone bent low to the ground in a more offensive looking stance. "It seems we have our first hostile..." he said as he kept his eye on the cubone's movements.

As both Jet and Jak made their way up the mountain, the Buizel kept his eyes open for any sign of hostile activity or anything that they could find useful in their travels. As Jak had demonstrated, it was probably possible to find just about anything anywhere. However, it seemed like the pair of them were out of luck for sometime. Neither of them seemed to notice anything particularly out of place. Eventually, however, both himself and Jak had apparently noticed something at approximately the same time. Unlike jak, however, he did not vocalize his findings because he didn't think it was all that significant. He strayed off the path for a moment as the Charmeleon approached the TM's to retrieve a small Seed laying out on the ground. He picked it up, quickly identified it as a Bound Seed, and stored it away for later use. It could come in handy in an emergency situation.

But at that point, there was a loud smack as a bone struck the ground powerfully. This caught Jet's attention quickly enough and he spun around to look at the source of the commotion. The Buizel quickly scurried back to the path and stood at Jak's side, ready to face whatever threat they were about to meet. In the end, however...it turned out to be just one Cubone. "Y-yes, I suppose you are right," Jet commented, looking steadily at the Cubone. But then, a thought crossed his mind. What a perfect opportunity this was.

"J-Jak," Jet said, turning to look at his friend. "M-maybe you could...erm...l-leave this one to me this time? I-I know we're supposed to fight as a team...b-but this is just one Pokémon. A one versus one match should be good for my training too. A-and you'll get to see where I need to improve by watching me." He paused at that, considering one last thing to himself before deciding to vocalize it. "P-plus, I don't really want to gang up on him, hostile or not..." Regardless of the situation, it seemed like he did not greatly enjoy the thought of double-teaming a Pokémon like this when he doubted that its level of strength would pose that great a threat.