Body and Mind.... are Fragile Things

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Sova struggled to hush his own laughter, ending up collapsing to the ground as the pain from the attacks he'd taken suddenly hit him.  On the bright side, this made it difficult to laugh, so it was easier to stop himself from doing so now.  He just sat there, catching his breath and laying in his own pain and misery....  The burning feeling inside of him.... had been toned down.  He could now think.... almost straight.  He stared at his work as he tried to gather his thoughts; what was he supposed to do now?  ....Right, Mirage.  MIRAGE, was she alive!?

Then he heard the voice of the charmander, stating to have found Mirage.  He pushed to lift himself off the ground, no longer caring about his exhaustion, and jumped off the ledge he was on without even looking down to see how far it was.  He landed on his paws rather ungracefully with a bit of a stumble just as the lizard spoke once more, stating Mirage was breathing, and it relieved him to no end.  Suddenly, the intense burning was gone and he felt clear and sane.... and the pain felt a bit more.... vivid.  But that last part wasn't important right now!

"Oh, sh-she's alri-!?" he frantically questioned as he rushed over to see the zoroark.
....No, she was definitely not alright.  Not alright, but alive.  He frantically looked over his friend, immediately spotting a pretty severe-looking bite wound on one of her arms.  He reached his paw up to his neck and between the two ribbons he wore, pulling off the outer one, which was a light blue Guild ribbon.  He liked covering up the girly Joy ribbon with it, but Mirage's safety was far more important than his own fashion.

Suddenly, he was actually focused, and he no longer seemed like a depressed drone nor a psychotic monster.  "Lift her arm for me," he spoke clearly, expecting the lizard to help him.
However, he wasn't calm and this was something he wasn't trying to hide.  His voice was audibly shaky, but rather than a mixture of sadness and mania, this time.... it was just out of fear.  Mirage seemed pretty badly hurt....  He didn't want to lose her.  If given the option, he'd be willing to give up his own life for Mirage, and he doubted said life would even be worth living without her around.  He would feel like a complete failure in every possible way and he doubted he'd ever really feel joy again.

"Explorers," the glaceon immediately stated, as if this were some urgent question that needed to be answered immediately.
He didn't want to risk either of the others answering, especially since Mirage WAS a criminal and.... well, for all he knew, Garnet could actually be a financial adviser. It wasn't likely that one of them answering would cause any problems, but he just wanted to make sure he was the one to respond, just to be safe. He considered not giving any more information to avoid potentially worrying the duskull, but decided it would be better to be honest if the child was coming with them.

He started off walking the path with the others as he continued speaking: "We're here to.... deal with a demi-god who wants to help destroy the world."
Of course, he didn't want to say that he wanted to kill it, as he had gathered that the duskull seemed to be a child. Just telling it they were here to fight would probably be enough information. It didn't need to be burdened with such dark details. Then again, judging from its idea of a "prank," perhaps it could handle talk of death.

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The duskull paused a second before speaking, "Do you mean the big purple dinosaur thing? Well he's not exactly big, but he's suuuuuuper powerful. I followed that guy around for a bit a while ago, not much of a talker. A lot of pokemon seemed to be attacking him for no reason...is he trying to destroy the world? What would he want with down here?"

Garnet was quite surprised to have learned that the Duskull had previously seen the creature...and lived. Well, it was technically dead already. Was it killed and it did not realize it? Did ghosts even originate from dead pokemon? It was certainly a rumor that revolved around ghost pokemon, but there was never any confirmation. There were sometimes ghosts claiming of that, but they could have just been looking for a pity party or something. The charmander remained silent as he walked along and seemed to ignore the conversation as he listened in.

The zoroark blinked, "You followed it?" she asked, remembering how the beast had attacked her. She looked back to the duskull for signs of lying to see if he was simply pulling their legs. It seemed to be fairly obvious when it was lying, but it seemed to be telling the truth this time to her judgement.

The duskull nodded, "Yeah, I tried to ask him things but he just kept on walking..."

Mirage roll

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Sova fell silent and looked toward the duskull for a moment as it brought up the purple thing. He was a bit surprised it even knew about that thing, but what surprised him even more was that the beast hadn't simply ended the little ghost. It certainly hadn't hesitated in attacking them, so why the special treatment for the duskull? Maybe it wasn't attacking natives to this place? Or perhaps it just had a soft spot for children? It was certainly weird, but regardless of the reason, it wasn't going to change anything. He was still here to stop the end of the world, and that involved stopping the purple creature at any cost.

Mirage seemed just as confused as he was, and the duskull's response didn't really help. However, one thing he wondered was if perhaps this information would be of some use. If the.... thing didn't want to attack this duskull, and if it was impossible to convince it to just not fight, then perhaps the duskull could be a second distraction. Along with Mirage's ability, perhaps they could disable the enemy enough to take it down. "Well, it attacked us on the spot, before we could even try talking to it. But yeah, that's it," he nodded in agreement, admitting they were indeed after the big purple dinosaur thing.

Hopefully, the duskull wouldn't get cold feet or whatever the bottom part of a duskull was. Considering it was a child and it'd already encountered and not been attacked by the creature, he could see it simply not wanting to fight.

"He attacked you?" the duskull spoke, "That's strange...he usually only attacked those meanies that attacked him. He has been acting strange lately though ever since some big spooky guy came by," the duskull spoke, talking non stop. The little ghost was an open book, saying whatever he wanted and not bothering to hide a thing, "He used to be a lot...nicer I guess? If you could call blatantly ignoring me nice. Ever since Tall, Dark, and Spooky came along he never killed anybody that attacked him...nor did he attack others..."

Spooky? Was it another dusknoir? "A dusknoir?" Mirage asked the duskull. The little creature shook its head to her surprise. The only "spooky" thing she remembered was a dusknoir...and this kid's sick sense of joking. She continued on in the darkness, her eyes returning to surveying the area for the dusknoir or for any potential ambushes.

"No, he was smaller than a dusknoir, spookier too. He had these dark shoulder things too that would wave all like ooooOooooOOOOOooo" the duskull waved his cloth like hands in front of him in attempt to recreate the way the other pokemon had moved.

Garnet Roll

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The others spoke once more and Sova merely fell silent as he listened to them.  The duskull seemed to be implying that the way the creature had been acting wasn't its own fault, that something else had come along and forced or pushed it into hostility.  He would have felt upset about this if not for the dizziness that hit him as the duskull finished speaking.  What was being described.... an image of it flashed through his mind: a black creature with a red ring of spikes around its neck, tattered ribbons flowing from its shoulders, and a patch of painfully contrasting white on its head.  He had no personal memory of it, but it seemed the one who did hold such memories was currently interested in sharing with him.  He could feel the uncomfortable, painful presence of the other one as well.

The glaceon felt like he was going to fall from the sudden haze cast over him, but his body just kept standing and even moving, following the group.  "Darkrai," he bluntly stated.
He knew what Darkrai was after doing some recent research on myths, but he didn't really have a good image of it until the sudden memory was granted to him.  With that, it was clear that the duskull was speaking of Darkrai, and it made sense.  However, he also knew S.S. lost to Darkrai, and it'd been far worse than the loss to the purple thing, at least from what he knew.  He doubted there was any chance at all for him to stop Darkrai, which meant if this was all correct, he wouldn't be able to avoid fighting with the purple creature.

He could only hope Darkrai wasn't interested in making a personal appearance.  "I.... fought Darkrai, sort of.  Whatever he is, he's stronger than the "purple dinosaur."  If he shows up, I'd ask all of you to just run," he explained, being very open about it.
Of course, he technically hadn't fought Darkrai, but it was close enough and saying it was him was just easier.  All he really cared about was making sure the others didn't try to help if it turned out there was more than one near-deity to deal with here.  And of course, he was pretty sure running wouldn't do without someone to stall the enemies, so.... if it came to that, he wanted to be the sacrifice.

"Darkrai? Is that some Raichu trying to be edgy?" Garnet snorted, not acting concerned in the slightest about the possibility of some strong guy showing up. He would worry about that when it happened.

"No," the duskull huffed, "He was Darkbutt I guess. Either way, he made Purple Guy go psycho or somethin...I want the old Purple Guy back, we used to play the quiet game all the time, and I still haven't beat him yet!" the ghost type crossed its arms with a pouting face.

The charmander rolled his eyes and merely continued on without saying anything else. His tail flames finally reflected the form of the dusknoir. Garnet stopped as the ghost type turned around, "There you all are-who's this?" he pointed to the duskull.

"Duskull, he's coming with us I guess..." Mirage shrugged.

Sova remained silent for the rest of the walk, keeping his head down and staring at the ground the whole time. Garnet and Mirage were keeping an eye on their surroundings, and considering how "useful" he'd been so far, he doubted he could really contribute much. The conversation topic was putting him in an even worse mood than he was already in, as it was really making him doubt himself. Was what he was doing right? The duskull likely didn't quite gather that to stop the purple creature, they would probably have to kill it. He felt bad about the idea of lying through omission in order to get a child to help him toward a goal that would surely upset them.

More importantly, though, he felt bad about how the creature he'd come for apparently wasn't that bad. It sounded antisocial, but not exactly aggressive and certainly not deserving of death. But.... he couldn't just leave it to live and roam free, especially when it was now attacking and apparently even killing others. Even with that aside, it was who the self-appointed Dark Lord had chosen to fight for it, so he couldn't just let it go if it wasn't willing to cooperate. As much as he hated the idea of such things, well.... apparently, this was what being a "hero" meant.

Only when the group reached the dusknoir did the glaceon finally look up. He tried his best to look like he was fine, though it was likely unnecessary considering how he'd acted earlier. Everyone other than the duskull had seen it, so they all surely knew he was far from alright, but he would still try to appear otherwise. Even if everyone knew it wasn't true, it would probably be less awkward. "My choice; don't question it. Got any orbs yet?" he spoke in an obviously annoyed, very serious tone.
His face was lacking anything but focus and general unhappiness as he stared at the dusknoir.

He was trying to look alright, but he simply couldn't do it. The most he could do was to hold himself together and come off as kind of a jerk. The wonder of whether or not what he was doing was right just kept finding its way into his mind.

The dusknoir nodded, opening his palm to show several small orbs that looked like just any orb. Upon closer inspection a dark aura could be seen in the center of the orb. The house orbs would just need to be broken and it would summon pokemon nearby whether they wanted to be there or not. The dusknoir closed his hand around the tiny objects once more, "I'll keep a hold of them for now, until it's time."

Garnet did not seem to see an issue with this as the dusknoir seemed to be rather trustworthy and somewhat careful. He did not really think much of the ghost type, but for now the dusknoir was not on his bad side. The charmander spoke up, "How many orbs do you think we should get together? Should we just stop only when we haven't seem to have found any for a while?" the charmander was asking the question to everyone in general, and it was fairly obvious from how he looked around to everyone.

The zoroark shook her head, "We should be careful with how many we use, considering we might end up bringing some sort of allies that work for it or something or might just start attacking anything that moves." She paused as she listened to the darkness, thinking she heard something within the darkness. To her relief, it was just some rock falling somewhere far far away.

House orb because get your fucking ass over here Genesect

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Good, they already had some orbs. They could really just go ahead and use the ones they had if they wanted to, but then they'd risk not bringing the intended target. It seemed better to just collect as many as they could find, since the only real risk was in how many random bystanders would be summoned along with the beast. Sova wasn't particularly worried about that little risk since he was confident in his ability to bring down anything else this place had to offer. It seemed more reasonable to just go all-out on the orbs, at least to him.

"Let's get as many as we can. As long as you all stay out of the way, I can clear out any unwanted guests," he assured.
He then began to look for orbs, and almost immediatley, he spotted one behind a rock. To his disappointment, however, it was a mere Trawl orb. It wouldn't be bringing any living things to him. Then he realized that if he was lucky, a Trawl orb could bring a House orb! "Speaking of orbs...." he muttered and began rummaging through his bag.
Within just a moment, he carefully pulled another orb out with his front paws. Another Trawl orb. He sat it down next to the first; it was another Trawl orb. "Supplies would be useful, too," he continued.

The glaceon then carelessly swatted the two orbs into a rock with his tail, creating a flash of light.

(Gimmi dem 2 trawl orbs tho)

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The glaceon brought out a new shiny looking orb, this one had a whiter light to it, a lot more friendly looking than the house orbs. The fox had raised his paw and smashed the orb in front of him. The flash of light illuminated the area around them far more than the charmander's tail and the dusknoir's will-o-wisp could have lit the area. It concerned Mirage though, while it was useful for bringing supplies and they were already going to attract a ton of pokemon with the house orb, the bright light could attract even more pokemon. They were here to kill a dinosaur not an army!

The charmander looked away from the flash so that he would not be rendered blind. When he looked back he could see only a few actual supplies had been brought by the mystical orb. To their fortune, however, the orbs had brought them yet another trawl orb along with another house orb! He figured that the glaceon was going to smash that one as well for more supplies, however made no move to get close to it. He had no idea if he would be territorial about it.

"OW!" the duskull squeaked, having the intelligence to look directly at the bright light. The ghost type's cloth-hands reached up and rubbed its two eye-holes even though it only had one eye. "A little warning would have been appreciated!" the little duskull huffed as it pouted with crossed arms. The dusknoir had looked away from the flash like the other intelligent pokemon among the group, and simply picked the house orb from the few items that had been brought and added it to the collection of other dark colored orbs that would bring about an army for them to take down.

Garnet: Ate Sova's apple because fuck him (5 Energy) Note to self: Sova gave me two storage Apples

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Sova's TRAWL ORB

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Sova's HOUSE ORB

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The light filled the room, and behold, it brought.... pretty much nothing. Sova just stared for a moment, expressionless and void of emotion. With his Trawl orbs, he'd merely summoned.... another Trawl orb. There were a few other things mixed in, but none of them really interested him at all. He growled in frustration before simply swatting the orb with his left paw, sending it flying into one of the walls of the crevice and creating another bright light. Surely, this time, he would be given something more useful. There was no way he would get nothing that could be used against the beast out of THREE Trawl orbs.

But it seemed fate had a sense of humor today, as he was given yet ANOTHER TRAWL ORB. More House orbs as well, but more importantly, ANOTHER. TRAWL. ORB. This little game life was playing with him had now successfully enraged him; his reaction to this orb was not quite like the others. In a fit of rage, he walked up to the orb and slammed his left paw down on it, creating yet another flash of light. He held his paw where it was for a moment, a stinging pain making itself known. He'd cut himself by stepping on the orb like an idiot. It wasn't anything severe and it certainly wasn't going to stop him, but it really didn't help him feel any better.

If he saw another Trawl Orb when the light faded, he was going to just give up entirely on trying to gather supplies. He much preferred taking his chances against the purple creature without any supplies at all. Maybe he'd die, but right now, it felt like he'd probably die of a heart attack anyway if he kept this up.

(NO, MECHA BARNEY, TODAY IS THE DAY YOU DIE. DON'T FIGHT IT.)

Trawl Orb

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House Orb

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The zoroark looked away again as the glaceon frustratingly smashed even more trawl orbs that the original ones had brought forth. She was a bit more positive about the constant arrival of more trawl orbs considering that meant that they could get more supplies. Though, it seemed that the supplies they were being given were a bit...less than acceptable. A few apples, some oran, not much that could help them go up against that monster of a purple bug thing that they had faced earlier. She could hear the duskull's outcry with each trawl orb smashed. The duskull seemed to be getting sick of the laser light show the glaceon was giving, and swooped down and took any orbs that were in this catch this time.

It was a house orb. There were no trawl orbs this time around, unfortunate. Garnet watched the duskull swoop down and snatch the orb, however he spoke up, "That's a house orb." The duskull looked down to the orb before looking back to the group and shrugging with the orb held in one fabric hand. The larger spectral creature that was the dusknoir plucked the house orb from the duskull's limb and added it to the collection of round shiny objects he had amassed.

"Got any more?" Mirage asked, hoping they could get something like a reviver seed or even some item that would help them boost stats. Hell, maybe there was some seed that could make them invisible or something. Can't hit what can't be seen right? She chuckled to herself mentally, thinking that an item like that could not possibly-wait a second.

"Sova..." she spoke up with a bit of hesitance, "Don't you have...like...a seed that makes you un-see-able or something?" she did not know how she had gotten this feeling that he had one at some point. Had she seen him pick one up here? No, she was fairly certain she had not seen a single one of those here...so...where was that vague memory coming from?

This dice is not existing.

The ground was now covered in useless things the glaceon didn't care about. However, one good thing did come of this endeavor: they'd gotten quite a few House orbs from it. He mostly ignored what the others were doing as he combed through the things he'd trawled up, but then something was said that really got his attention. Mirage questioned what he currently had with him.... but.... she seemed to know the answer already. Was her memory returning? Already? He hesitated to respond, letting the words echo through his mind as he tried to find some other way to explain it all away. If Mirage had some other way of knowing such a thing, he didn't want to get his hopes up, but there was no way.

"Vanish seeds. I have three with me. I've also got Reviver seeds, a Blowback orb, Decoy orb, a Lum berry, some weird sticky fabric-y thing I picked up earlier.... and...." he began listing off the things he'd brought with him in preparation, trailing off as he reached his right paw into his bag and pulled out a sharp, silvery spike.
It was almost like a small sword with its size, or perhaps a large knife. He stared at the spike for a moment, recalling that S.S. had used it on a friend not long ago. He'd washed the blood away, of course, but the stains he saw weren't something that could be so easily disposed of. Keeping this spike was an eternal reminder of all he had done that he needed to make up for.... and now, he had what was likely to be his only chance.

"I can use this to get at the chinks in its armor. The knee-areas of the exoskeleton looked especially vulnerable, so if I can hit one of those, I might be able to cripple it. The only issue is that it won't turn things you're holding invisible, so I can't use a seed and the spike at the same time," he concluded.
The glaceon then slowly raised the spike up to his mouth and bit onto it, letting it hang out of the side of his mouth like a majorly over-sized toothpick. His bag was still around his neck for now, but that didn't mean he wasn't willing to share his supplies. All he wanted was to do what he'd come for, and it didn't matter whether or not he was in the spotlight.

Once the orbs were used, he would shout for anyone who didn't want to fight to run. Then, hopefully, the others would take cover somewhere so he could whip up a Blizzard and mow down anyone who got in his way. After that, he'd.... just have to rush the beast. Maybe he could stall it out long enough for someone else to actually hurt it. Maybe someone else would do better with the spike, then? If it turned out he couldn't do anything with it, he'd give it to someone else. Maybe Mirage? The orb could be used as an emergency safety net if the beast got too close to seriously hurting anyone, or it could be used to repeat what he'd done last time. The berry.... was really just a safety precaution he always had. Even the sticky thing he'd found could have its uses if he could get it over the enemy's eyes. Powerful or not, it likely wouldn't be nearly as intimidating without its sight.

Mirage's idea was shot down quickly. She kind of took it as, "You're stupid, shut up," with how it was not quite considered or even thought through. Even with the size of the spike, it would still be difficult to hit Sova considering Genesect would not know where he was going with the stick. The movements would be erratic for the genesect, he would not be able to read Sova's body language and aim properly. She clammed up, however, since her ideas were obviously not working for anyone at the moment. Was she this useless back when she had her memories? The fucking lizard was being more useful than her!

"So, we doing this?" the dusknoir spoke, holding out the orbs.

The charmander looked to everyone before speaking, "It's going to be extremely dangerous, so if anyone wants to back out, now would be the time," unanimous and awkward silence, "Alright then everyone, the only rule here is 'No Dying'...right?" he looked to Sova with the last sentence, making sure that the glaceon was not planning on suicide behind his back mid-fight.

Stupid questions. Sova did not dignify them with an answer. The third of the stupid questions, however, seemed to be directed at him in specific. Well, since he knew he was supposed to be the one responding to that one, he decided he'd do it, but it likely wasn't going to be the response the lizard wanted. "The only rule here is to win," he responded bluntly, managing to speak fairly clearly despite the spike in his mouth.
"Now get to cover. I'll break the orbs and tear down anything that won't leave once you're all protected from my blizzard," he continued, so very focused and apparently calm despite how he'd acted earlier.

He could handle everything other than the "beast" on his own, surely. This was perhaps one of the most dangerous places he'd ever been to, but nothing he'd ever encountered quite held a candle to the legends themselves. He just wanted to make sure the others understood that they needed to stay out of his way long enough for him to clear out all of the pests that would inevitably come with this plan. Although there was one of the group whom he actually wanted to have with him, even from the beginning. He reached his left paw into his bag and pulled out a seed before looking over to Mirage and holding his paw out.

"Except you. I know you can't remember me, but I still want you watching my back. As long as you stay close to me, I can keep you out of the blizzard," he requested of the vixen.
"It was supposed to be you and me, anyway...." he continued on in thought to himself.
It still felt kind of like Mirage had left him, and in a time of need. In the end, though, he also felt like it was entirely his fault. Now he just wanted Mirage with him. No matter what she thought of him, he trusted no one else in the world more to fight alongside him. No matter what she could or couldn't remember, no matter if she hated him, no matter if she'd lost all ability to fight properly....

Besides, even if Mirage couldn't handle this, that was why Sova was giving her a Vanish seed.