The Rise Of The Fluffies

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Proteus found himself in a large forest. He blinked, looking around. The forest seemed rather serene, but at the same time it unsettled him. Even his instincts as a gyarados seemed to be cowering in fear rather than the usual desire to tear every living thing apart. He swallowed, looking to the ex-fluffy before lifting her to level with his eyes using his tail fin to carry the umbreon now. She didn't seem to be too hurt, but that still did not excuse the tactic the glaceon used.

The shiny gyarados placed the umbreon on a large flat stone that looked as if it had practically been made to be a bed of some sort or perhaps a pedestal [s]to worship the ex-fluffy[/s]. Proteus looked back to the cave, wondering if he should go help out, but the appearance of Sova somehow carrying Kira stopped him. The Lucario seemed to be passed out along with some burns that seemed to be fading quickly thankfully.

Proteus glared at Sova, once he had set Kira down, Proteus used his tail fin to scoop up the Lucario and place her near Dusk. Once he was finished, the tail suddenly and swiftly moved to slam into Sova, punishing him for such a stupid idea. Proteus normally was not one to do such a thing, but that was by far the stupidest idea he had ever seen as his life as a gyarados. He could have killed her! He could have broken something! They could have done that in a much more peaceful manner!

Sova couldn't help but chuckle at the talk of some guardian in the forest and the not-so-misguided view the natives seemed to have about the outside world. He'd immediately gathered that it was the rest of the world that the espeon had referred to because he'd experienced plenty of the mystery first-hand.... and far too much of the violence. However, this forest seemed.... well.... perfect! It was full of his own kind, there was clearly plenty of mystery to be explored here and there was even some big bad guardian thing! Now THAT sounded like a challenge, something that would actually be fun to fight!

"What's the rush? If you all call this thing a guardian, surely it's not evil. Maybe we can talk to it instead of having to fight it. Aaand under the assumption we can't.... well, we all know how to fi-," he replied to the espeon, but paused near the end as he felt a tug on one of his head-ribbon-things.
If they had a practical use, maybe it was this.... to be distractions for kids. For now, he decided to just ignore the eevee and let it play with his ribbons, since its little eevee teeth weren't exactly a threat to him and he didn't need to move yet.

Dusk sighed in relief as the eeveelution group around them seemed to lower their guard. She had no doubt about the fighting capabilities of any of her allies, but.... well, given Sova and herself were both eeveelutions, she knew not to underestimate the power of their own species line. A fight between the two groups was definitely not one she wanted to experience. As Sova spoke, a more pressing matter came to Dusk's mind.... He wanted to stay!? With some powerful guardian thing that attacked outsiders?? Did he realize THEY were outsiders!? However, she was still a bit worried about actually speaking up, as she knew it would result in her arguing with Sova and that could lead to even more distrust between them and the natives.

"Fight? The guardian? What foolish ideals do they teach you foreigners? The Guardian protects us from the outside, from diseases you bring, from violence you teach! Many have already been infected with this disease, I would rather not more become infected but I would rather not you be sent to this terrible world. The guardian means well but there are no exceptions! You. Must. Leave!" the espeon spoke with a firm tone, as if mother to children.

Kira wondered what this plague was that the espeon spoke of, she could only remain silent and continue to resist the urge to hug the eevee and call it cute. She would rather not get her tail handed to her by the psychic and fire type within the area.
Proteus meanwhile did the same, not having much else to say since Sova seemed to take on the subject of talking to himself, though he added, "We really should leave Sova if there's a guardian that doesn't like foreigners, we should respect his or her wishes..."

Sova fell silent for a moment, taken by surprise at the sudden change of tone from the espeon.  However, he wouldn't let ANYONE talk down to him or boss him around, ESPECIALLY one of his own kind!  He put a paw up towards Proteus and semi-jokingly shushed him, "SHHHHHH," before stepping forward towards the espeon.  "Look, if your guardian wants us to leave, that's fine, but I'm gonna wait for the spooky guardian to tell me that, because I don't see any reason I should have to leave so soon.  I'm not sick and I'm.... only violent if I'm attacked, which I personally think is good reasoning.  Now, I would greatly appreciate you helping us find the way out for my friends here, but as for me," he paused and made direct eye contact with the espeon, to show his unwavering confidence and resolve.

"I wanna meet your "guardian.""

Dusk sighed at the glaceon's persistent obsession with the supposed guardian of the forest.  She had to admit, she herself was also curious about what exactly it was and if it even existed, but not quite curious enough to risk getting herself killed just to find out.  She quickly thought up a way to end this conversation before it escalated and decided to finally speak up.  "Just let him get himself killed if he really wants to.  He's like a kid, he doesn't listen," she suggested.

"Heey!," Sova responded.

The flareon looked at Sova, though it didn't seem to be the same gaze as before. It seemed to be one of looking at some idiot with offense. The flareon's fur puffed out, "Fine then! You and the other's go, i'll take all four of them to the guardian!" it spoke.

The espeon seemed to roll her eyes as the vaporeon who had been silent stepped near the Flareon, "Whatever, come on you three let's go home," she spoke to the two umbreon and the eevee.

Kira flinched as Sova seemed to be thinking about challenging said guardian. How stupid was he? He couldn't possibly be of the guild if he was this arrogant, well then again this arrogance could be the exact reason he was in the guild. The explorers there always had an air of arrogance around them as they viewed themselves as holy beings that saved the sinful ones. She hated it.

Proteus gave a uneasy growl, it was meant to be a puff of breath but the hatred building up with the gyarados instinct managed to get a growl loose. He looked at the vaporeon and the flareon, they seemed to want to lead them somewhere, while the espeon wanted to take the remaining family and go to this home.

The eevee who had been pulling on Sova's ribbons, toying with them, flinched when it heard its mother's tone. It looked to the group of foreigners, as if the thought of defying his mother touched his mind. The eevee decided against it as it simply released the ribbon and went back to the espeon.

As everyone seemed to just submit to his selfish desires, Sova's mood completely changed from that of determination to prove himself to just.... really happy. He couldn't help but let out a happy laugh as he turned to his apparent two guides, "Ha-haaah, wooo!"
It seemed like he'd shifted completely back to being totally laid back in a matter of seconds. However, his attention was then turned to one of the two umbreon, who seemed to want to come as well.

"I'll come alon-," the umbreon who'd been eyeing Dusk spoke up, revealing himself to be a male by his masculine voice. However, he was cut off by the second umbreon immediately saying "No," in a rather bored tone, as if this kind of thing was common.
The second umbreon's voice was a bit deeper, suggesting it was also a male and possibly a bit older than the other one.
"Aw....," the younger umbreon whined as his ears flattened.

Dusk sighed in frustration as Sova somehow managed to drag them all into going to see the death-monster known as the "Guardian." However, considering she didn't exactly have anywhere better to be or much of a choice in the matter, she simply walked over to the group that was designated to go find the Guardian. She was worried for a moment as it seemed the stalker-umbreon was going to be coming with them, but relief shot through her as it was once again stopped by the other umbreon. She definitely didn't want that annoying guy near her.

The espeon and umbreon left, and the Flareon led the way, being sure to keep pace with the glaceon known as Sova, "So you're explorers huh?" it asked, "What kind of stuff do you do?" he seemed eager to know.

Kira noticed the vaporeon give the flareon a rather hurt look, the flareon didn't seem to notice. Kira wondered if the flareon and vaporeon were close? Perhaps brother and sister? Oh well, didn't bother Kira that much as she was more focused on trying to find out whether or not the arrogant prick known as Sova was an Guild Member or not. She almost wanted front seats to the fight between him and this guardian to see him get swept again and again.

Proteus had uncoiled himself and began to follow, not noticing any of the strange actions of the eevees since he was more focused on anything that might attack them. A strange kangaskhan with a strange child seemed to glare at him, the kangaskhan holding her baby tightly. He wondered if she thought he was going to eat her child, like most other mothers with small children that he usually passed by.

Sova followed the guides, merely glancing at the flareon that seemed oddly interested in talking to him. While it seemed odd for any of the previously hostile group to be overly interested in idle chatter, he wasn't going to turn it down. "Well, I figure the two non-eevees here are explorers because I met them while exploring a place I know they couldn't have lived in. As for myself, I work for a place called a Guild, so it's my job to help others and uphold laws.... and stuff. A lot of the tasks of a Guild member involve going to new places and exploring them, too," he explained.

Dusk listened in to the conversation, but grew displeased as her name wasn't even mentioned. "AH-HEM!," she sounded in an attempt to get Sova to realize that he FORGOT TO MENTION SOMEONE.

"Oh, right, that's Dusk. She follows me around because she wants things from me," the glaceon added on, looking back at Dusk for a moment.

Dusk rolled her eyes and decided to just direct her attention to something other than the conversation at hand. She looked over to her right to see a group of yellow and orange mouse-pokemon; A pichu, two pikachu and two raichu. It was a nice sight, certainly something more appealing to her than the conversation she was feeling excluded from. Then, however, the group of Electric-types suddenly scattered, as if they'd been spooked by something. Sure enough, an umbreon came running through the brush towards the group, seeming rather happy about itself.

"Alright, I'm here! Now what are your other two wishes?," the umbreon questioned, making it evident that he was speaking to Dusk by stopping right in front of her.

"GO AWAY AND DON'T COME BACK," Dusk responded in a rather harsh and agitated tone.
However, her mean behavior didn't seem to deter the other umbreon at all.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that," the other umbreon replied.

"UUUUUUUHG," Dusk moaned in displeasure at the apparent new addition to the group.

A guild member! She knew it, Kira's opinion of Sova immediately dropped even lower after that arrogant performance. Now she just HAD to watch him get his butt handed to him. What kind of guild member shows up at some forest and just demands to fight the boss? She huffed, getting a bit irritated that this entire time she had been with a guild member and had not even known it. Didn't they usually spout their nonsense about being a guild member when they introduced themselves?

Proteus finally looked down to the ground, spotting them past a spewpa that seemed to look up in amazement at his massive size. He remembered what it used to be like to be so small, it was terrifying looking back on it, but he hadn't a care in the world when he was small. He looked to the eeveelutions, an umbreon seemed to join them while the vaporeon seemed to look more and more depressed as the Flareon spoke more and more to the glaceon.

"Well she can't have that from you," the flareon huffed, obviously assuming, "a cool guy like you deserves something much hotter like m-" a sudden blast of powerful water knocked the flareon into the glaceon.

"What the hell!?" the flareon cried out, to find the vaporeon glaring at him with what seemed to be tears in her eyes,

Sova gave a slightly confused look as the flareon began speaking, showing that he wasn't sure what the Fire-type's point was. Then, just as he began to understand, a blast of water knocked the flareon into him. He managed to stay standing despite having a whole flareon slammed into him, but the burning sensation from the very high-temperature body of the flareon certainly wasn't pleasant, eliciting a pained "Rrrrrhg" from him.
He took a moment to allow the flareon to get up and stop leaning on him before speaking up. "I.... am SO confused....," he paused for a moment, as if to try and figure out something reasonable to say to get rid of the tension.
If he had gathered everything right, he literally had no clue how in the world he was supposed to respond.

At the same time the shenanigans were going down, Dusk was still trying to tolerate the other umbreon. "Come oooon, gimmi a cha-," the male began, but was cut off by Dusk's paw in his face as she heard the topic of the others' conversation and became immediately infuriated.
No longer in the mood to even try to tolerate the other umbreon, she simply shoved him backwards into the ground before turning her focus to the others. "HEY! That is NOT what he meant! We aren't even FRIENDS, let alone.... that! And....," suddenly, she calmed down as she realized that she wasn't the only one who should feel embarrassed about the situation.
It seemed Sova was getting hit on.... by a guy! She could barely hold back laughing, which resulted in it coming out rather restrained and muffled. "Never.... mind.... You can have him," she commented in between her silenced laughs.

"Oooow....," the other umbreon muttered as he got up off the ground, seemingly unfazed by the attack, at least emotionally.

Kira and Proteus were just as surprised as the glaceon, while Kira had to stifle a laugh just as much as Dusk. She was more successful in hiding her emotions, and simply stared at the scene with a blank face. Proteus lowered his head to the ground and questioned what was going on, resulting in Kira explaining what had occurred.

The vaporeon didn't look the least bit happy, seemed to be crying, and was glaring at both the flareon and the glaceon as if she didn't know who to be mad at. Her rage wanted to focus on the glaceon for taking her man from her, but she knew it made more sense to focus it on the flareon since he was the one who made the move.

"Avera! Has the plague infected you too!?" the flareon snarled, thinking that the vaporeon had turned hostile against him because of the sickness. The vaporeon furiously shook her head, "They why did you-" he paused as she pointed at Sova and then him, "Wait we were actually a thing!? I was just playing-" the answer seemed to anger the vaporeon more as another Hydro Pump blasted into the flareon and knocked him into a tree, the vaporeon seemed to be shaking now as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Sova merely stared with an expression that was somewhere between confusion and sadness at what was happening. "Uuuh," he lifted a paw as he tried to think of something to say to relieve the tension, but just then, the flareon was blasted with another water jet.
At least it wasn't into him this time, though. Still, he could see the vaporeon was very hurt by what'd happened and despite not really doing anything.... at all.... he couldn't help but feel he held some kind of blame. Being too appealing, maybe? Regardless, he wanted to make her feel better, so he slowly and cautiously approached the Water-type.

"Hey.... Look, I-I'm sorry for.... that, but.... I'm.... not into guys.... so you don't have to worry," the glaceon explained in an attempt to make the vaporeon.... Avera.... feel better.
He was always bad at this kind of thing. Always. Making others feel better just didn't seem to be his area of expertise. Making others feel worse, physically, through physical harm and stuff.... that was what he was good at.

Dusk's restrained laughing began to subside as the situation grew more serious. She couldn't help but feel bad for the vaporeon, though she didn't really get much time to do so before the sounds of pawsteps behind her directed her back to the pest that was so persistently following her.

"Heey, sooo-," the other umbreon began, only to have Dusk cut him off.

"Aren't you supposed to be grounded or something?," Dusk replied almost immediately, hoping to drive the male away.

"Not even the ground itself can keep us apart," the male responded, trying to be romantic.... or something.

Dusk tilted her head at the rather bold statement. "No? Then how about the very overprotective glaceon?," she questioned, referencing Sova.
The other umbreon seemed to fall silent for a moment, as if contemplating the newly revealed possible consequences for his pursuits.

The vaporeon's tail slammed against the ground, showing obvious displeasure with these events anyways as the Flareon recovered from the attack though he seemed incredibly weakened. It was amazing that he was still up and rmoving after the two powerful attacks!

"C'mon Avera, we were never serious, you should know th-" before the flareon could finish another hydro pump blasted him in the face. The water type move must have been held back, because he got up once more and this time he looked angry, "Knock it off! You seriously thought that? Quite obviously, i'd rather have a hunk of ice! Who could love someone who can't say 'I love you' bac-" another blast of water, this time it came from above.

Proteus had fired a Water Pulse at the Flareon, hitting it with everything he had. The rage of the male treating the female like that getting to him and building up to the point where he couldn't hold his anger back anymore. His eyes were wide as he fired the water pulse again and again before he finally realized what he was doing, "Oh...my arceus i'm sorry!" he seemed terrified suddenly, fearful that he had seriously hurt someone.

"Nah he deserved it," Kira responded promptly, a bit disgusted herself. Though she saw that the glaceon seemed to be trying to talk to the sniffling vaporeon, she simply figured he was only doing it because he felt as if he absolutely had to because he was a member of the guild.

Sova directed his attention to the flareon, who seemed intent on running his mouth. Honestly, he would have been inclined to give the mouthy little flareon a beating himself, despite the clear type-advantage and his distaste for hurting his own kind. However, he began to feel the others were taking it a bit too far after around the time Proteus' second water pulse was fired. The guy definitely deserved to be hurt, but not KILLED! His fur flash-froze into spiky ice-armor instantly and he managed to reach the flareon before the second pulse of water hit, blocking the vast majority of the attack with his own body.

The splash of the water around him effectively shrouded him from clear view, making it appear sort of like he'd vanished to anyone who may not have been paying attention. The second blast of water was enough to break away some of his ice armor and send him toppling backwards over the flareon. He then struggled back to his paws, rather surprised by the sheer power of an attack he hadn't been expecting to do too much. He quickly put one of his front paws over the flareon in case anyone else was planning on attacking, as he wasn't exactly sure what else to do other than attack back, which didn't seem like much of a solution.

The male umbreon seemed completely unfazed by the events, though it was honestly because only paying attention to one "event." He opened his mouth to speak, but upon hearing the mere intake of breath that signaled the oncoming words, Dusk shoved a paw into his face and knocked him to the ground yet again, bluntly stating "Shut up" in the process.
She then continued to stare at what was happening with her mouth slightly open in shock. She honestly didn't know what to do at all and was beginning to just hope it would all die down very quickly.

Proteus looked down at the other pokemon, seeing that the flareon and even Sova had gotten hurt, "Oh my arceus i'm so sorry," he cried, "i-it just happens sometimes-no no excuses its my own fault for failure to control myself! I'm so sorry please forgive me!" Proteus stumbled over his own words in his own panic. He looked over the two from different angles from above, trying to spot any serious injuries. He felt like he wanted to curl into a ball and die, he had gone and done it again. Why did he have to fail so much at controlling himself?

"I thought I told you he deserved it?" Kira spoke matter of factly, staring with a rather disapproving expression, though it was unclear whether she was staring at the Flareon or the Glaceon. Her ears gave a flick, as she heard something in the distance. She sent a pulse of aura in its direction, only to find it was merely the shape of a pidgeot flying away from the strange noises they were producing. He looked back the vaporeon, who seemed to be crying. No sound was coming out except for sniffles, but her head was buried in her paws with her body heaving as she sobbed. Kira approached the vaporeon, she must have really been hurt by the flareon...she wondered what to do, but she was not good at being helpful in emotional situations.

Kira cleared her throat, "You don't nee-" the only response to her was a swift tail-slap to her out stretching paw...

Sova shuddered for a moment as he stood over the unconscious flareon, feeling a stinging and throbbing sensation in his body from the rough impacts of the attacks. As he heard Kira's comment, his vision began to blur, though not completely from the injuries. This definitely wasn't something that was going to make him pass out.... In fact it was far from it, though it had been far more than he'd expected. The main reason he was beginning to feel like he was going to pass out was due to anger. He was, for once, trying to be NICE and he was merely being insulted for it? An expression of dead-anger crossed his face, with his eyelids falling into an almost tired position and his mouth opening just enough to show his teeth. He didn't actually realize he was doing it, not that he would have minded.

"Wouldn't it be nice to do what you really want right now....?," a familiar voice rang through his head. His own voice. Yet, he knew that it wasn't REALLY his. "I bet I could fix the little problem here," the voice continued, urging him to just let it take over.
However, he kept himself in check by forcing himself to turn away from Kira and turn his attention to the ground. He simply stared at the ground for a moment, then closed his eyes and shook his head slightly, snapping him out of his half-tranced state. "No, Kira, he doesn't deserve to DIE," he responded as he looked back up, giving the lucario the benefit of the doubt and assuming she was referring to the flareon still, as he really didn't know what he himself could have done to her.

Dusk just continued staring in shock at the situation. The other umbreon fell silent as he began to realize important things were happening that he probably should have been paying more attention to. Dusk just watched, her ears flattening as the realization really began to sink in that the rather mouthy flareon may have been severely injured.... and Sova had jumped in front of some attacks, possibly saving him. Her opinion of the glaceon seemed to constantly fall into polar shifts, completely changing from utterly good to utterly bad. He'd do something to make her think he was some kind of storybook hero, then something to make her think he was more of an outlaw than a Guild member. How could someone possibly be so.... two-sided?

However, this time, Dusk was having very mixed feelings. While the glaceon's selflessness made her like him more, there was something else.... something that she had never felt towards him. A look that had fallen over him for just a few moments. She didn't know what it was about this look, but it terrified her. It looked.... unnatural. She'd seen Sova's mad look before, and that WAS DEFINITELY NOT IT. It was more of a psychopathic "I'm gonna kill you" look. She was just glad the look wasn't directed at her.