Pure Darkness

First topic message reminder :

Zorre narrowed his eyes as he peered through the dark leaves of the Shadowhue Forest. The urgent note from a needy client was held gently between his blades, detailing the frantic pleas of a tiny skitty begging for help. Darkness had descended on the once-bright land that Zorre had known for quite some time, and missions like the one he was heading on today were growing more and more common, a very worrying thing to the Guild and the Police of Grassveil Town.

As it was, Zorre still didn't know what had happened to his former team-mates, Excalibur and Serenity. It was worrying that they had both disappeared before this all had happened, and now he had the additional worry that they had somehow succumbed to the disease that seemed to be spreading across the lands.

After Crysel had disappeared during their hunt for the Gastly in Pricklemist Hill, Zorre had been at a loss of what to do. He'd slowly made his way back to Grassveil, only to find the town in a panic due to the strange disease and the ominous, black clouds covering the skies. Zorre sighed as he dithered at the edge of the forest.

He was confident in himself and his abilities to fight off opponents, but who could fight a disease with tactics of pure physical strength?

Azeral placed the item in her bag and looked back at Zorre. Az was going to comment on his missing team member but something else had risen, after hearing the cry of pain Az had a reaction, she aimed her arm at the Pokemon that had attacked and fired a confusion attack at the Pokemon at close range, natural reaction to something like that.

"You ok?" Az questioned still having her hand pointed at the Pokemon, best to never lower your guard, right?

(Random Chance time, If the attack did land the confusion attempt is this, if the number is 1 or 2 its confused, 3 or 4 its not)

Random number (1,4) :

2

Zorre rolled over, sending a grateful look at Azeral as he pushed himself up. "Thankful, am I," he said, casting a glance over at the flabebe, who now seemed thoroughly confused as it banged itself against a tree stump.

Zorre blinked, wondering what on earth had gotten into the fairy, before he realized that Azeral still had a hand outstretched towards the tiny pokemon. He put two and two together, and figured that the ralts had used some kind of technique on the pokemon to make it confused.

Zorre glared at the tiny pokemon, cursing himself that he had let his guard down. But the tiny fairy looked so helpless now, still banging its head against the tree stump, that Zorre let his tight shoulders slump.

"Guard let never down, go," he said bitterly, more to himself than Azeral, but she was sure to hear him.

Azeral watched the Pokemon, start banging its head on a tree stump, confusion was a weird move indeed. It appeared to have a slightly different effect for other Pokemon. "That was a move called confusion, makes a someone, well confused." She decided to say watching the fairy. "Though last time it just made them throw up, and before that they just stumbled around a bit." Weird move indeed.

"While he's doing that we should get moving." Az said wondering how long this would last, most likely a while or it was going to knock itself out, whichever came first.

Energy: 13 + 5 (apple) = 18

Zorre nodded at Azeral's suggestion, willing to put the entire encounter behind him. He was still rather embarrassed about letting his guard down, especially in front of another Guild member, but he would just have to get over it.

They continued on in the forest, and Zorre spotted something glinting in the pale light, under a tree root. He snuck towards the glint, and soon realized that he had found one of the strange boxes he'd found before -they usually had something cool in them, but he would have to get it opened by the shiny-colored absol in the guild. There was something strange about the boxes that prevented them from getting opened, and only the absol -Izumi, Zorre remembered her name was- knew the technique to getting them open without destroying what was inside.

He also found an apple next to the box, which he quickly tossed in his mouth as he put the box inside his explorer bag. As they continued on their way, he crunched on the apple nonchalantly, enjoying the sweet taste.

Silver carried out 5 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

, , , ,

Azeral turned her head and looked at Zorre. "Did you find something intere-." Az asked before hearing something move, she was a bit too late in her response time before a Ariados came from the trees right at her, she made an attempt to do something, if she was dodging or moving that was undefined because she was hit by its purple pincer, the attack torn the middle of her jacket but luckily only scratched her instead of impaling her.

Az fell down feeling the blow, she looked behind her seeing the bug Pokemon standing a little bit away from her, she was lucky the attack hadn't poisoned her, but it did leave her slightly embarrassed considering she just talked about lowering her guard.

Zorre froze in surprise as the ariados leapt from the trees and attacked Azeral, sending her sprawling to the ground and the ariados looking proud of its accomplishment. Well, it wasn't for long, as Zorre sprung into action instinctively, letting out a feral-sounding cry as he raced forward, slashing with his scythes.

The ariados let out a shrieking hiss as his blades sliced through its abdomen, spraying a poisonous green-purple blood everywhere, especially all over Zorre's face and carapace. Zorre was unheeded by the ariados' cries or its attempts to strike at him, the feral scyther that lurked beneath Zorre's kind exterior brought to the front at full-force.

Zorre shrieked even louder than the ariados, causing several sound waves of energy to strike the ariados from all sides. The ariados cringed against the ground as it was assaulted by the foreign energy, and as it took a look up into the feral, bloodthirsty eyes of its black-colored foe, it fled in fear, unwilling to fight any more.

Azeral got up to attempt to fight the Pokemon. Though once she did get up the Ariados was already gone leaving Az only looking at the back of Zorre. Az didn't say anything and looked at the Scyther curiously, while she was knocked down even while unfocused her ability to detect emotions was always going, she had felt a weird spike of something close to them, it was almost like another Feral had shown up for a moment. Az took a quick glance around searching for another Feral, she ended up finding nothing.

"Zorre, you ok?" Az asked after a bit wondering if he got hurt during that time, it wasn't long Az spent on the ground so what exactly happened?

Zorre startled at the noise of Azeral's voice, still lost to the feral side of him and not recognizing her. He whipped around and stared at the ralts, a wild look in his eyes and a growl rising up from his throat, a warning sound. It was his way of telling the ralts to BACK OFF, but there was no way of knowing if the ralts would understand without him using any words.

Az instinctively backed up and got into her fighting stance, what was going on? Zorre was a guild member right? "Zorre, Zorre calm down I'm not a enemy. I'm a fellow guild member." Az said slowly reaching in her bag and pulling out her explorer badge. "Remember, I'm Azeral. Guild members don't attack fellow members." Az said not knowing what exactly was going on, maybe if she tried to calm him down or something. Even though Az was trying to help she was still a fighter, any threatening movements towards her and she'd teleport away from Zorre somewhere behind him.

Zorre's eyes dilated as the ralts backed up, and he relaxed slightly, though the wild look was still in his eyes. When the ralts pulled something out of her bag, he flinched, raising his scythes defensively. The glint of something shiny caught his eye, though, and he eyed the badge in her hands warily.

Something seemed ... familiar, about the badge. Zorre tilted his head sideways. What was it? What was so fam- The world seemed to go white as Zorre suddenly pitched backwards as if he'd been punched in the face.

He fell over and then lay on the ground for a moment, his heart racing. How long had he been under? How much power did that feral part still have over him?

Azeral let out a small breath as Zorre fell down, Azeral went over slowly to the scyther wondering what exactly just happened to make him act like that. "Zorre, are you ok?" The ralts asked standing slightly far away from the scyther, Az decided to wait for him to get back up before asking questions on what just happened. Az looked around the area wondering what Zorre did to that Pokemon, she shook her head once ridding herself of those thoughts.

While Az waited she held on to the badge, this seemed to be her only defense against whatever that was, luckily she could just use the badge to calm Zorre down, least that's what it seemed to be.

Zorre whimpered to himself, barely hearing Azeral's concerned question. How was he to trust himself not to attack other civilized pokemon -no, NORMAL pokemon, he was no civilized pokemon himself, obviously- when he kept being dragged back into the feral mind? He could barely even talk right! It should have been obvious to him that he wasn't cut out for civilization when he could barely talk....

He sighed, casting his bag to the ground and kicking the explorer badge off of it. He didn't deserve that badge of honor and pride. He didn't deserve to be able to help pokemon in need. He didn't even deserve to live or be anywhere near normal, civilized pokemon. He was a failure.

"Is.... sorry," Zorre said eventually, a black tide of misery and emptiness washing over him. "Enough good, is not I... is... failure."

He didn't even react when several berries and an apple fell on his head from the treetops above them, accidentally dropped by a pokemon. A slakoth's head popped through the trees, looking down at the ground, blinking lazily. It seemed to be contemplating whether or not to come down for its snack or leave it there. After a moment, it yawned and the head disappeared, the pokemon having apparently decided it would rather nap than fight.

Zorre hung his head. Even other feral pokemon could tell that he wasn't worth it!

Az saw Zorre kick his badge away, Az looked at the badge then at Zorre. The Ralts felt like just walking away after what had just happened, yet she didn't Instead Az walked over and picked up the badge that was similar to hers, she walked over to Zorre and held the badge towards him. "I don't know what that was but you are no failure, a failure is someone who gives up after something bad happens, you're only ever one if you choose to quit." Az said placing the badge on the ground next to the Scyther.

"I-I honestly don't know what that was but I'm sure you didn't mean it, it seemed to of happened after i was attacked though." Az seeing this as slightly her fault for letting her guard down, she just wanted to know what exactly that was.

Zorre sighed. Azeral at least deserved an explanation. If he could get the words to fit right.

"Is... not normal," he said after a moment of silence. "I... I is... feral. Attacked when get I, over-take, it does. Fight do I goodly, not alright after...." Zorre shook his head in frustration. He couldn't get what he wanted to say across.

He wailed in frustration, lashing out at the tree next to him, leaving deep, long gashes in the tree trunk from his scythes. "NOT OK!" he cried out. "...speak not can even I...."

Az looked slightly confused but tried to piece the words together she couldn't get exactly what he was trying to say so she decided to do something else. "I is feral, Attacked when I over-take, it does, Fight do i goodly, not alright after." Az repeated looking ar the ground. "I am feral, when i get attacked, it over-takes. I fight goodly? but am Not alright after." Az said thinking that's what he was trying to say, after she did a sudden realization dawned on her. "You were once a feral Pokemon huh." Az said looking slightly surprised. "So that's what the speech is about." Az mumbled looking down.