Gloomy Sunday

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Depresso-Expresso Mission Info:

The light levels had dropped tremendously the further one got to the forest, the trees no longer as sparse as they were near the edges. The canopy up above was very thick with barely any holes, not letting much sunlight in. Shadows covered most of the land with even darker splotches behind trees and rocks, perfect hiding spots for whatever might be lurking in the forest. The ground was mostly covered by grass and fallen leaves, there not being enough sunlight for the smaller plant life to prosper next to the large trees' shade. Thanks to the lack of sunlight, the forest also felt quite a bit cooler than one might expect... But the day was otherwise warm, so it wasn't unbearably cold yet.

A strange group of Pokémon walked through the forest. Varda, the little bird, hopped happily along the forest floor and didn't seem to at all mind the dark. By his side was his client, a large and round Blissey with a bag full of all kinds of goods, her eyes determined as she marched on deeper into the forest. It was the Swablu who had originally met the Blissey and heard her request for aid at the Guild, but it seemed like he had caught the attention of an old friend as he was accepting it. Sova from another team ended up tagging along, bringing a new friend with him. Sova had never talked about his teammates, but as it was a team, Varda had always assumed that there had to be other members! It just made sense and he was happy to finally meet someone!

The bird hopped and occasionally turned to look at the newcomer, named Keith. They hadn't had much time to get to known each other back at the Guild before accepting the mission, as the Blissey had urged them along. According to her, the mission was very delicate, very important and very time sensitive, and they didn't have one moment to spare! But while they were walking, the Swablu felt like they were going to be fine...
"Sova actually never told me about you before, Keith! Have you been doing missions together for a long time?"


Current Energy: 30 (40 -10 from entering. Sky Powder in use, every other Pokémon encounter takes 1 less energy.)

Sova was careful not to look suspicious until Keith was out of view and earshot. He knew he had to be especially careful of the ears, since Keith was, after all, a jolteon, one of the many large-eared eeveelutions. He knew from personal experience that eevee ears allowed for a wide hearing range, a lot wider than most from what he could tell. Varda questioning what he wanted to talk about snapped him back to the topic he had intended to discuss, at a good time too. It seemed like they were far enough away to talk.

"Alright, so Keith's a newbie on my team. He really wanted to join and he's got uses, but he's.... really timid. He doesn't like socializing much and he's afraid of fighting, so I want to teach him how to fight. That way I won't have to worry about him all the time," he paused for a moment, thinking his plan over in his head to make sure his wording would be correct, so as not to give off a negative impression.

"I sent him off on his own because I know he'll get into some kind of trouble.... if he doesn't, I'll just give him a little push towards some trouble. I'll be nearby in case it gets too hectic, but I want him to feel the pressure, so he really has to try and fight. You're welcome to come along too, but first I need you to do something for me," he explained, trying not to make his plan sound too harsh or inconsiderate of the jolteon.
"Can you go tell everyone in the clearing not to worry if they hear any calls for help? I feel like that'll probably happen and.... I'm guessing you see why it'd be bad if any of them responded," he requested.

Keith walked off on his own at a steady pace, trying not to look afraid. He wanted to show Sova he could manage on his own, but.... why did it have to be HERE? Why not Pecha Forest? Why did it have to be in the forest of eternal shadows? Knowing his allies were.... hopefully close by was at least some comfort, though. If he got into some kind of trouble, they would be there to help. Surely, they would be there. He ventured away from the clearing, into the forest to check the surrounding area as he was told to do, despite how much he wanted to just stay in the bright, sunny area.

Before much time had passed, the jolteon was out of sight of his allies. He hadn't even noticed that he'd walked so far.... or at least, he assumed he'd walked far. Considering the rather dense forestation, it was hard to tell. Maybe they weren't actually very far away. Regardless, it was unnerving, the feeling of isolation that he was already getting was pressuring him to go back. Honestly, though, he wasn't completely sure which way "back" was. Had he walked in a straight line? He honestly hadn't paid much attention, so it was hard to tell.

(There's a pinsir left still, right?)

Varda turned to look at Sova, listening happily to the explanation. He could tell that Keith was a new one, so that wasn't a surprise... But once the Glaceon started talking about how timid the Pokémon was, having difficult time socializing and fighting... The little bird just opened his beak to gasp in surprise, his beady eyes wide.
"I had no idea!" He gasped, completely taken by surprise in his usual oblivious way. The Swablu wasn't someone who wanted to fight himself either, but well, he thought he could take it most of the time if he got involved somehow. That was kind of his job. So he could understand the need to teach Keith how to do it too, but...

The bird Pokémon cooed deep in thought, closing his eyes for a moment. Trouble in a place like this... It could get actually dangerous really fast. He wasn't too worried of himself or Sova, but many smaller and younger Pokémon... Well, the fight with the hungry spiders made it obvious that some unfortunate soul could end up as lunch. That would be taking it too far. If the two of them did watch over the Jolteon, maybe it would all be alright...?
"Hmm... Alright! But only if we step in if something is going wrong or he's looking like he doesn't want to continue anymore," Varda accepted with a nod, opening his eyes.

Doing what he was told, the Swablu waddled back to the clearing in the middle of the dark forest, hopping over to the Blissey still busy with her work. She seemed like the kind of a person who could keep everyone under control, so the little bird just whispered the message to her ear. Even though she did seem quite concerned, she didn't outright object, so Varda was quickly making his way back to Sova, waving his wing.


((I think we got them both already, but there should still be a Slakoth, 3 Shroomish, a Flabébé and a Forretress left?))

Sova nodded in response to Varda, agreeing to step in if Keith didn't want to. Though, honestly, he didn't intend to step in unless absolutely necessary. He had his suspicions that Keith would try to run and if they revealed themselves, would just give up. If this were to happen, he was already thinking of ways to push the jolteon to keep fighting. As he split off from Varda for a bit, the shedinja followed the little bird, showing who it was more interested in.

As the glaceon moved along, he made sure to keep his pace slow to give Varda time to catch up. He was heading in the general direction Keith had gone in, figuring he would eventually hear the jolteon and get a better idea of where to go. He knew Varda wanted to come along to help Keith, but he had no intentions of letting his newbie teammate receive any help unless absolutely necessary. The only way to break someone out of cowardice that he could think of was forcing them to face their fears. Of course, Keith's life would never actually be in danger, but that didn't mean an illusion of such couldn't be put up.

Keith hesitated for a moment before turning and heading in the general direction he thought "back" was in. Honestly, though, he wasn't too sure if he'd picked the right direction. For a moment as he walked, he thought he heard something following him. However, turning around revealed that there was nothing there. He convinced himself that it was just his imagination and kept moving, only to hear something following him once more. This time, he could hear it walking in rhythm with his own steps, as if trying to better hide its presence. This time, he didn't stop, nor did he pick up his pace. He just kept walking as if nothing was wrong, not wanting to provoke whatever was following him into attacking.

(Actually, there seems to be a heracross left too. I must have gotten it mixed up for one of the pinsir.)

Varda quickly waddled over, the floating bug husk behind him as it always seemed to keep the same exact distance. It seemed like it had taken a liking to him! ...Or something. It had decided to follow him instead of staying back with Sova, so maybe there was a reason? Whatever it was, the pair – or a trio more like – was ready to move. The shadows of the forest gave them an excellent cover where the sparse plant life couldn't shield them, but they still couldn't be careless. Keith's ears would surely pick them up if they were too noisy...

The Swablu followed the Glaceon's lead, concentrating hard on being as stealthy as possible. His form wasn't made for the most graceful moves, but luckily his weight made him very light and thus barely making any sound on the soft ground. Varda was a bit worried about their strange tag-along bug friend that might not be aware of their idea, but at least it was very quiet as always. The quiet rustling up ahead could only be Keith, so the bird Pokémon just held his breath in anticipation as he shot a look at Sova as if to question their next move. They couldn't speak here, so communication ended up being very difficult...


((Poor forgotten Heracross. I hope everyone forgets about it in-game too as it tries to make an entrance and gets ignored...))

Sova picked up his pace a bit when Varda reached him, though not enough to cause too much noise.  He kept low to the ground in a sort of prowling stance, which let him stay as quiet as possible.  Soon, he began to hear noises up ahead.  However, there was something off about the noises....  They were coming from two places, something he wasn't sure Varda could pick up without sensitive ears.  He caught the swablu looking over to him out of his peripheral vision and glanced back.  It was clear the bird had at least heard the sounds and was probably looking for some sort of confirmation, so he just nodded.  Around a few trees and bushes, careful not to make any noticeable noise, then he stopped.  Sure enough, Keith was there, looking around frantically.  Clearly there WAS something else in the area and it was following the jolteon.  Perfect!

Keith kept up his pace for a bit, hoping whatever was following him would just stop.  However, as it became very clear that this wasn't going to happen, he stopped and began looking around the area for the source of the noise.  In his panicked state, he had trouble figuring out where the noise was coming from.  He kept turning around and looking to the sides, but couldn't seem to find anything.  The sound seemed to suddenly grow louder, as if it was coming closer and when he turned back around.... there was a rather angry-looking heracross in front of him.  He would have fallen backwards in surprise, but it seemed his legs were now neglecting to move enough for that.

Sova watched as Keith looked around frantically, apparently completely missing a heracross leaping down from a tree branch right in front of the jolteon.  He shook his head in disappointment at the display, but kept watching.  This kind of thing was the reason he wanted to teach Keith how to fight, after all, so there was no reason to stop it just yet.

(It just wants some attention, man.)

Varda just grew even more determined when Sova nodded at him. He wasn't the best at understanding non-spoken messages, but he felt like the Glaceon understood! It just had to mean that Keith was just up ahead, so the little bird's movements became much more careful and slower as his little heart started to beat faster in the rather tense situation. This was the first time he had ever even shadowed anyone, so it certainly was exciting in a way! He already was a very quiet little ball of fluff when he didn't speak and just walked normally on a soft surface, but now it seemed like he was pushing that even further the closer they got, just so the Jolteon wouldn't hear their approach...

But the closer they got, the more sounds the Swablu was hearing. At first he thought that the leaves above them were just rustling in the wind, but... He started to doubt that as the sounds just started to sound off. His eyes glanced above them, but he couldn't see anything in the dark abyss of the leaves. Despite that, he was starting to be so convinced that there was something, his gaze falling back down as his little beady eyes looked at Sova, concerned. Did the Glaceon hear it too...?

Keith looked very nervous, but Varda couldn't say what caused it. The darkness and the fact that he was alone might have been enough – after all, who liked going to this kind of forests on their own? Unfortunately the Jolteon didn't have eyes on his back and missed what was painfully obvious to the pair spying on him: some kind of blue beetle ended up lowering itself on the ground, almost right next to Keith! The Swablu obviously grew quite worried, his large eyes signaling as much as he glanced at the Glaceon, but Sova did nothing. Keith didn't do nothing. So... He did nothing, too. There was no proof that the bug was hostile or very strong yet, right?


((But will it get it?! Find out in the next episode.))

"....H-hi," were the only words Keith could think to say to the thing right in front of him, with the hopes that it wasn't hostile and was perhaps just annoyed at something else.
Receiving no response gave him mixed feelings. On one hand, the silence was making him nervous. On the other, he wasn't being attacked yet, which was always good. Then things just got more confusing as the bug got into a sort of fighting stance and began hopping from foot to foot, like a boxer warming up. The jolteon had no clue that this was Swords Dance in action,

Suddenly, the heracross lunged forward with a powerful jab. Sadly, Keith couldn't react in time and was hit directly in the face, sending him sliding back across the ground. Keeping up a fast pace, an uppercut from the bug knocked the jolteon off his front paws momentarily, before a forceful palm NO NOT FORCE PALM on the back of his head shoved him down to the ground. Everything was happening so fast, he wasn't even really sure what was going on anymore, unaware that the heracross was using Close Combat. However, upon hearing the heracross' two hands slam into the ground, he forced his head up to look back. It took a moment that seemed much longer than it was for him to realize it was likely using a ground-based attack, but he quickly caught on and rolled out of the way to the left just as pointed spikes came out of the ground, grazing him and causing two rather painful-looking cuts on his side and one on his shoulder. The stones sunk back into the ground as he rolled out of range, seemingly at the will of the heracross.

"H-.... help....," he managed to say into the void of the forest around him, hoping for some kind of salvation.

Sova sat back and watched as his ally "fought." Honestly, it wasn't really much of a fight, more of the heracross wrecking Keith. He was beginning to worry that this experiment was going to be a failure, but he wasn't ready to give it up and help Keith quite yet. As the heracross summoned a dangerous and possibly deadly Stone Edge, he prepared to Shadow Ball the creature in the face if Keith wasn't going to be able to avoid it, but to his relief, it seemed the jolteon was quickly learning how NOT to get hit by everything.

Sova put his paw up as the jolteon weakly called out for help, trying to signal Varda to show restraint. He was guessing the swablu would immediately want to help, but he really wanted to wait longer.... Just a little longer. He wanted to believe his choice in teammates had gotten better after time, he wanted to have faith in Keith.

(Of Pokemon Z.)

Varda tilted his head at the scene. The bug thing wasn't attacking yet... But it didn't answer to Keith's friendly greeting, either. Honestly, he probably would have done something similar himself and be just as confused at the strange hopping dance-thing the beetle performed. But before he even managed to put the two and two together, the bug Pokémon attacked with a mighty lunge, taking both the Jolteon and the Swablu completely off guard! The bird's beak opened and he fought to keep the gasp in his mouth – though maybe Keith wouldn't have really heard it in this case, seeing that he had a lot more on his mind with the battle that was happening.

The bird Pokémon looked at Sova, not liking where this was going. The enemy Pokémon was relentless and Keith was having a difficult time, but... The Glaceon didn't seem to want to do anything yet, even though Keith asked for help. Varda had already spread his wings to jump into action, but the disapproving paw stopped him. He didn't really like this, but he forced his wings to fold against his side, his eyes concerned.

What was there to do? Did they just have to watch? It didn't feel good at all! The Swablu's eyes wondered, coming across a little greenish spiky thing on the ground, like the thorn of some kind of cactus-plant, honestly! It was pretty big and as he ran his claws over it, it felt really sturdy and sharp... Maybe they could use it somehow? Looking at Keith to make sure that he was busy with looking at his opponent, Varda grabbed the spike and threw it closer so that it might be of assistance to the Jolteon. Teaching him to use what was around him would be a good thing, right...?


((Canceled.))

Sova resisted the urge to sigh as Varda picked up a spike and tossed it near Keith, presumably for aid. He supposed it wasn't too big a deal.... After all, learning to use the environment was important too. Still, he had been hoping to see the jolteon manage to beat the enemy on his own. Either way, managing to win a fight in general would definitely be progress. So, with that in mind, he stayed behind cover and allowed for the spike to be offered up. It seemed like the jolteon kind of needed some help anyways and this was better than outright saving him.

Upon realizing no one seemed to be coming to save him, Keith began to REALLY panic. His fur's sparking became much more than just audible, actually lighting up with electricity as his fight-or-flight response kicked in. However, instead of fight, he landed on flight, forcing himself up onto his paws and immediately bolting in a random direction, away from the heracross. Sadly, the ground turning into a hazardous mess of spiked rocks in front of him forced him to stop dead in his tracks. The spikes continued to form until they made a complete circle around himself and the heracross, showing what the enemy had decided to be an arena and preventing him from escaping. The Stone Edge was proving to be very troublesome for him.

For a moment, the jolteon's thoughts began to fill with dread. He couldn't think of a way out of this, it seemed no one was coming to save him and he was trapped, unable to run away. However, he knew there was still one way out.... Not the way he would have preferred, but he didn't exactly have much choice. He turned around just in time to see a blue fist in his face, knocking him back, almost into the spiky ring. However, he'd managed to charge his fur with a large amount of electricity just as the heracross made contact with him, shocking it and in turn stunning it long enough for him to recover from the attack.

The heracross' horn began to glow a light green hue as it prepared to attack once more. It ran forward and started with a punch, which was easily avoided by the now-ready jolteon. It then attempted to charge the jolteon with its horn, but he simply sidestepped, allowing the heracross to run and fall into its own spike trap. Sadly, the tough shell of the beetle stopped the stones from doing too much to it. Keith quickly discharged a bolt of electricity from his fur at the heracross before it could get back up, covering it in a yellow electric glow as it was shocked. However, it seemed to simply ignore the electricity as it got back up and once more ran towards the jolteon, forcing him to cut off his Thunderbolt in order to avoid.

The heracross had caught on to Keith's strategy of avoiding, first throwing a punch to get him to sidestep to the left before swinging its head and slamming its horn into his side, knocking him to the ground, near a conveniently placed green spike. The jolteon quickly grabbed up the spike in his mouth and rolled back to his paws just in time to see the heracross just about to slam yet another Close Combat punch into him. He quickly lunged forward while keeping as close to the ground as he could, stabbing the sharp spike into the bug's leg and knocking it off balance just in time to stop its attack. However, given he was in such close proximity to it, it simply fell right on top of him and pinned him to the ground as it prepared for Stone Edge, to finish the fight.

Sova sat back and watched as the fight went down, a bit worried for a moment as the jolteon tried to run. However, to his relief, the enemy had managed to stop that from happening. He had to back away a bit to avoid the spiky arena outline, though. It seemed Keith had begun to catch onto the attacks, focusing on avoid them and counterattacking since he was outmatched in terms of power. Sova couldn't help but like this strategy, considering it was what he'd used to do when he was young and weak in comparison to.... pretty much everything else. "Huh....," he couldn't help but mutter as Keith made surprisingly good use of the spike Varda'd tossed over.

Then things took a turn for the worst as the jolteon seemed to be pinned by the heracross. Sova noted that the bug had its hands placed firmly on the ground, clearly planning to create more of the familiar spiked rocks. A Shadow Ball appeared in front of the glaceon's face as he prepared to intervene, however, he hesitated for a moment as he noticed Keith beginning to light up with electricity.... as if blinking, for lack of a better word. He was curious as to what the jolteon was planning and could only hope that Varda felt the same.

Varda felt rather bad, watching the situation unfold. Keith asked for help, but it didn't come – even though they were right there, perfectly capable of doing it. And didn't they pretty much promise to do it, too? Could the Jolteon trust them to have his back if they clearly didn't? Perhaps the bird only tried to make himself feel a bit better about just sitting there and not doing anything when he threw the spike closer to Keith. Maybe it would be enough help – but the Jolteon hadn't noticed it yet and the poor thing just seemed so frightened, alone in the dark forest. Well, alone when it came to allies, as the hostile blue beetle was still there.

Running away wasn't a bad idea in the Swablu's mind, useless fight was exactly that if there was an easier, safer alternative. To him, a successful run would have been a successful outcome when it came to this little test. But the path was blocked, leaving Keith nowhere to run! Varda was on the edge of his metaphorical seat, inching closer unconsciously as he grit his beak. The Jolteon did some very nice dodges, but also got attacked many times, until he was sent flying...

...Right next to the spike the little bird hard thrown into the ring to help Keith! To his relief, the Jolteon did manage to notice the spike, grabbing it and using it to his advantage to knock the bug off its feet! Varda wasn't a fighter himself and didn't even like the idea of it, but right now he was just so full of emotions as he watched the rather morbid show. He was so close to cheering for Keith, only barely able to keep his shouts inside his chest. His excitement quickly died down as the heroic motions of the Jolteon caused the beetle to roll right on top of the poor soul, trapping him.

That wasn't good, the beetle looked like a really heavy Pokémon. Noticing that Sova was preparing a shadowy orb to attack the bug, the Swablu prepared as well, spreading his wings. It was finally time to intervene... Except the Glaceon didn't attack, even though Varda had waited for the signal! Confused, the little bird looked at Sova, still so very ready to jump in to help.

The flashing lights emitting from Keith quickly amped up, getting brighter and faster with each flash, visibly shocking the heracross each time. The jolteon's fur stood so straight with static that it began actually piercing the beetle's shell like needles, only worsening the electric shock. As the heracross attempted to get up off of him and away from the shocks, Many strands of his fur seemingly fired off of him at once, making him a sort of spike-grenade, covering the heracross in electric needles. Keith rolled back to his paws and immediately bolted straight into the bug while it was distracted with his previous attack, knocking it down and ending up in a complete flip of the situation he'd previously been in. Literally! His fur scratched and pierced the heracross as he landed on it, exposing it more and more to his attacks.

Sova watched as the jolteon managed to turn the fight around. He lowered his guard and allowed the shadowy orb in front of his face to disappear as a slight smile crept onto his face. He quickly realized Keith was building up electricity in his body, specifically in his fur, presumably preparing for a powerful shock. "Keep your eyes on him. This is gonna be good," he said just audibly enough for Varda to hear, figuring Keith wouldn't be able to hear it over the electrical sounds and would be too distracted to notice it anyways.

Finally, all of the electricity that Keith had been building up was released, signaled by the flashes of light turning into a persistent electric glow. A powerful build up Thunderbolt surged directly from himself into the heracross under him without having to travel through the air, making it more potent. However, this strategy came with more risk than he was aware of, draining the electricity from him much more quickly than he'd foreseen. Within moments, he was completely out of electricity to attack with.... and energy, for that matter. The enemy had been rendered well-done unconscious, but by a very overkill margin. At that, the jolteon immediately felt recoil for exerting so much energy, standing still on top of the enemy for a moment before falling to his right and collapsing.

"Nicely done," Sova commented the second he was sure the fight was over, hopping out into the open and over the spiky terrain that was now beginning to fade back into the ground.
He wasn't sure if Keith was awake to hear, but it was more of a signal to Varda that it was now okay for them to reveal themselves.

Varda just looked even more confused as Sova's attack dissipated and disappeared, leaving nothing behind. The bird was still so prepared, his wings stretched... But eventually he was forced to fold his wings, even though the confused, questioning expression never left his face. He... Supposed they were going to have to stay back again. He did want to trust the Glaceon on this, he really did! Maybe that was the only reason he had willed himself to stay back this far, even though the situation looked dire and every second they missed could be really bad for Keith...

A blinding flash erupted from the Jolteon, bathing the forest in white light that illuminated the shaded nooks and crannies of their surroundings. All the shadows weren't completely eliminated of course, as the presence of strong light created very strong darkness to contrast it, but this light source lit up the areas not normally light. Some Pokémon nearby, a trio of stubby little mushroom things were spooked by the sudden light, quickly scurrying away into the bushes around them. And just like that, the light was gone, the shadows returning.

The Swablu had to rub his eyes as he tried to regain his sight, not having expected something like that to happen. Once he could see, he was the charred bug on the ground, smoke rising from its body. And Keith... Keith was still there, lying on the ground but seemingly completely exhausted. This was the moment when Sova decided to make his presence known, hopping over and speaking up. Even though Varda had constantly wanted to hop in and do something to help, right now he wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Would Keith be mad at them for doing something like this? Just watching and testing him without telling him about it? It made him feel so bad...

The bird Pokémon did end up following Sova, but he clearly was looking quite guilty. The spiky ring that had been created by the beetle was disappearing now that their creator was unconscious, so getting over to the Jolteon wasn't difficult.
"Are you alright...?" He chirped carefully.

For a moment, Keith merely laid on the ground, unresponsive. He could hear the two talking perfectly fine and recognized the voices, he just didn't feel like answering. Finally, he replied in the form of a moan. "Could you get here any later?," he questioned as he lifted his head to see the two familiar faces.
He was relieved to see them, no doubt, but the fact that they'd taken so long to show up wasn't something he was happy about. He tried to pull himself up to his paws, but quickly realized the extent of his exhaustion and felt himself falling to the ground.... then something grabbed onto him, keeping him from falling.

Sova couldn't help but smile a bit at the jolteon's naive complaints. They'd actually been there the whole time, watching to make sure the fight didn't go bad. He watched Keith attempt and fail to get up, and since he was close enough to grab onto the jolteon, he did. Right on the fluffy, electric scruff of his neck. Sure, the shock didn't exactly feel good, but it wasn't too bad since most of the built up electricity had been pumped into a certain heracross recently. He pulled Keith back to his paws and allowed the jolteon to fall against his side and lean on him, not seeming to care in the slightest about the electricity shocking him.

Keith almost immediately pushed himself away from Sova out of fear of shocking him, however, he quickly fell back against the glaceon. "Am I.... not hurting you?," he questioned, clearly a bit confused.

Sova merely shrugged as a response, implying that it did hurt, but that he just didn't care. He waited to break the news that they'd been here the whole time, seeing if perhaps Varda wanted to be the one to inform the jolteon.... for whatever reason.

Varda felt quite bad about the accusations of them being late. Well, it was correct, but... Not the entire truth, and the bird couldn't really hide the guilt in his eyes. They had promised to help, but they failed, setting the poor Pokémon up for this. Keith couldn't even seem to be able to stand on his own legs, so exhausted over the battle that he almost fell down when he tried! As usual, the bird waddled over as he tried to quite helplessly catch the much heavier Pokémon with his weak little wings, but luckily Sova was there with him to help. Keith was caught by the Glaceon and even the bird extended his wings as an attempt to support his tired friend. The static electricity of the Jolteon's fur caused a slight crackling shock to appear when Varda's feathers touched it, forcing him to pull back his wings.

It was... A bit quiet now. Sova said nothing, there was no explanation and it seemed like Keith hadn't noticed that the two were watching the whole time. He didn't even seem to question how fast they had appeared right after the beetle had been dealt with! The Swablu glanced in Sova's direction, uncertain. Were they supposed to keep it as a secret? It would probably be easier, the Jolteon probably wouldn't hate them after that, but... It would be lying. Keeping a bad secret that should probably be told, even if it was painful.

The little bird was conflicted. He didn't want to do what Sova wasn't doing, as this was the Ice-type's idea and he didn't want to ruin it. But his own conscience was digging at him quite deeply.
"Um... You're tired! We should probably rest for a while, right?"

Keith decided to allow himself to be held up by Sova, figuring that his only other choice was lying on the ground until he was able to get up on his own. He took note of Varda's seemingly upset demeanor, but thought it could simply be from the fact that he seemed to be pretty beat up after the fight he'd just had. He himself flinched slightly as Varda touched him, feeling bad for shocking the swablu, but there wasn't really much he could do about it. He tilted his head slightly as Varda asked him if he wanted to rest. "What's.... what's wrong?," he questioned, feeling that something was bothering the swablu.

Sova listened to the conversation for about a whole four seconds before intervening, figuring it wasn't going to go in a good direction unless he intervened. Actually, he figured it would probably go in a bad direction even if he stepped in, but at least then it would be blamed on him and not someone else. "We.... I wanted to see if you could take care of yourself. I felt like you would never really learn how to fight if I didn't force you to, so I let you get yourself into some trouble. We were both here the whole time to make sure you didn't get hurt too-," he tried to explain the situation away, but the jolteon eventually cut him off.

Keith merely listened to the glaceon's explanation for a moment, then decided he was done listening. He lifted himself off of Sova and stumbled in the opposite direction for a moment before firmly planting his paws on the ground in a rather aggressive stance. This stance was partly due to how difficult it was to stand and partly because.... well, he wasn't happy. At all. His fur began to spark and crackle with electricity once more to show his mood shift, despite there not being much energy left in him to produce said electricity. However, despite his agitation being a bit more towards Sova than Varda, he knew they'd both watched him suffer and knew just the right way to make them both hurt for doing such a thing to him. He looked directly at the swablu, ignoring the glaceon's words and replying, "I'm fine," in the most bitter and cold tone he could muster.

The jolteon knew that Sova generally didn't care all that much if one of his friends insulted him, but he certainly cared ABOUT his friends. Thus insulting the soft-hearted Varda would serve to hurt both of their feelings at the same time.

Sova fell silent, astounded at his ally's sudden straightforward and harsh attitude. He had expected Keith to be mad, but.... at HIM, not Varda! He wasn't quite sure how to react to this, as he technically couldn't justifiably defend Varda or himself for that matter and he certainly didn't want to choose between his.... allies. He was completely speechless, simply showing slight surprise in his look with widened eyes.