This Bites

Mission Thread Psyduck wrote: Psy-y-y~! Make him stop biting me! I have a bad enough headache! PSYYY!! Qu-quit it! He doesn't know better, please just teach him a less-OW!! » Client: Psyduck » Target: Shellder » Place: Cattail Marsh » Restrictions: Do not knock out the opponent, you must teach them a lesson about biting! » Difficulty: F » Reward: 150 Poke » Expiration: 3 Months since last attempt, or 6 months after creation. Whichever is latest. » Exploration Points: 10

A pikachu that seemed to be absolutely dreading every step he took into the water held his paws up a bit as he waded into the mucky marsh, looking a tad unsettled as he moved forward. He held his bag above the water level, trying to keep it and its contents from getting wet as he muttered to himself.

"Right, then. I can totally do this...I can...I can definitely...probably...okay maybe not..." He muttered, mostly to keep himself focused more on talking to himself and less on the water as he continued forward. Today's mission seemed to consist of finding some Shellder in this part of the world and teaching him a lesson. About biting.

"Yeah, genius idea Nate. Water and biting. You love those two things, don't you? Just had to come out here and get involved..." Nate continued to speak, glancing over to his left paw as he thought about the prospect. He had to wonder if getting bitten by a Shellder would hurt as much as getting bitten by a Mightyena. After all, Mightyena was known for its bite, but Shellder was pretty intimidating with its shells...

Okay, maybe he was getting a bit off topic in territories he shouldn't have been going into. That said, he did have a reason to at least semi-want to be out there. It wasn't like he hadn't heard about the whole situation going on with prophets and legendary pokemon, given the fact that Tsukishiro was his teammate. And with that, he was definitely going to be keeping his eyes out for places that fit the description the riddle had given. He could take care of the mission, and continue onward to check out the Mire at the same time.

As he started to lose himself in thought, he caught something in his peripheral vision. Water just a short distance away had seemed to start rippling. With all sorts of ideas in his mind of what might be waiting under the surface, the Pikachu let out a quick yell and felt a surge of electricity course through him, zapping the water in the nearby radius. After a few seconds of staring at the spot the water had rippled, he watched as a small stick seemed to resurface. Blinking, he glanced up at the trees overhead, and figured the stick must have broken off in the wind and fallen there. Nate chuckled sheepishly, glancing around to see if he'd attracted any unwanted attention.

Energy: 15/30 (-15 for entering)

Namataki: 4/19
Linus: 15/30

His movements were silent, swift, and calm. The large crow sailed the winds just above the water before flapping his great wings and pulling himself up. His feather tips skimmed the surface of the water, sending off ripples as the ever so quiet splash of the water reformed into the gap the dark feathers had created. His talons reached out and gripped onto a large elderly tree, his wings flapping as he gained his balance and surveyed the area. Linus's keen eyes skimmed the area, spotting nothing of noteworthy significance. This was good, everything was running smoothly. He just needed to deliver the client to the targeted area, and-

"Why is this taking so f*cking looooong!" a whiney voice piped from the water behind him rather loudly. The crow was startled by the pitched voice, his feathers fluffing out to make him appear twice his size before his head turned sharply to look down at the creature that followed him.

His feathers eased themselves before he gave a great sigh, "We're almost there, do not fret."

The blue penguin that swam in the water below sighed again, "That's what you said an hour ago!" she complained, despite the last time she had asked being only a moment ago. The piplup stopped to swim in place, her legs kicking to keep her above the water as her small wings stroked the surface of the water. She lowered herself a bit, blowing bubbles into the water with a face of exaggerated exhaustion.

The crow shook his head, his wing raising to cover his beak. He was getting tired of this...what was that sound? His wing lowered as he raised his posture as a sound caught his attention. His eyes were attracted to the voice of a Pikachu he had failed to notice before. His sharp eyes being drawn towards a certain badge on the pikachu...an explorer badge! Oh sweet merciful heavens, maybe the world wasn't such a terrible place after all!

"Come," The honchkrow spoke to the piplup, launching himself off the branch and swooping over to the pikachu. The piplup followed close behind, a string of swears and complaints leaving her beak as she did so. The honchkrow landed in the trees above, "Greetings," he spoke he took a closer look at the pikachu, "Nate of Yozorah, correct?" he asked while the piplup merely stared at the pikachu.

A stream of expletives Nate wasn't even sure he wanted to repeat alerted him to this new company as he turned, first catching sight of a Piplup swimming along in the water. She seemed to just...stare at him. Like, that was all she was doing. Staring. The Pikachu blinked, staring back for a moment before glancing away somewhat awkwardly, looking up towards the source of the second voice that had spoken.

The second pokemon seemed to be a Honchkrow, one that seemed to at least know of him considering it mentioned his name and team. Nate paused for a moment as he considered a response, given the situation. He didn't exactly know how they had heard of him, whether it was just from being around the guild or if they had prior experience on the business end of a mission the team had taken, but for the moment he figured it was safe enough to answer truthfully.

"Huh? Yeah, that's me. Hello to yourself, and..." He looked back down to the Piplup as he spoke, trailing off a bit as he looked at the pokemon, just...staring.
"...and, who are you two? I don't think I recognize you from Grassveil, but I guess I could just not have noticed before. Sorry if that's the case." Nate continued, obviously a bit uncomfortable with the Piplup as he once more diverted his gaze to Linus, giving a slight chuckle at his last remark, hoping that he just hadn't noticed them before. Man, that would be awkward.

The honchkrow listened as the pikachu responded, the beak moving up and down slowly as he nodded in understanding. He shook his head upon mentioning of Grassveil, "I bear the crest of Ailreon though my teammate originated from Grassveil," he spoke. At least, he was supposed to wear the badge. The current client wasn't actually a real mission, he was just giving her a helping hand so he did not feel the need to wear the badge. The honchkrow spread a wing and bow his head slightly as he decided to introduce himself, "I am Linus of Team Roark," he spoke, "And this is-"

"Namataki, just call me Taki!" The piplup interrupted the honchkrow as she finally ceased staring and raised a small wing above the water to wave at the pikachu. The blue penguin seemed to take it upon herself to continue the introduction however, and left Linus in the dust as her beak began to ramble, "He's taking me to the Mire, I heard some rumors about someone i'm looking for being there so i wanted to go check it out. What are you here for?"

It took all of Linus's willpower to not swoop down, pick up the pikachu with his wings, and beg the little mouse to take the piplup now and free the avian from this burden of a flightless bird. He maintained a calm exterior, looking down upon the pikachu and the piplup from in his tree. The honchkrow's wing raised to adjust the hat upon his head that came along with being a honchkrow slightly, a bit concerned about it looking odd.

With a sigh of relief, the Pikachu listened to the rest of what Linus had to say without worry, thankful that the potentially awkward scenario did not come up. He was interested about the fact that his partner apparently had come from Grassveil Guild, and was planning on asking who it was, before the Piplup had interrupted. Looking back to her, he figured she seemed to be a lot more talkative when she wasn't busy staring blankly. After all, she was talking up a storm now with everything, and already getting into questions.

"Alright, well, it's nice to meet you both. I'm here on a mission actually from Grassveil, there's this Shellder that's apparently causing some trouble by just running around and biting random pokemon. Actually, well, it's probably less so running, and more just moving...how does a Shellder move anyways? Is it just, like, swimming? Or something else...you know what? Nevermind, that's just what I'm here for." Nate explained, getting a bit off track halfway through before coming back to his main point. He would have pulled the mission paper out of his bag, but he was busy holding it above his head at the moment to avoid getting it wet.

"You said you were here looking for someone, though? Who are you looking for?" He continued to question Taki, starting to move a few steps further into the marsh, moving slowly and cautiously as he waded onward, looking ever so slightly panicked about being in the water. Especially when the pokemon going around biting others he was looking for was probably going to be swimming around in the water, out of his line of sight.

Namataki hesitated, not sure if she wanted to tell the pikachu. She had not exactly told the honchkrow who she was looking for either, just that she was looking for someone. The piplup opened her beak, however no words came out. Her beak closed with a rather puzzled and even sad expression. Should she tell them? What harm would come of it? She spoke up, "Well...two someones," she spoke, "A snivy and a charmander, they're both my best friends and we got separated."

She had heard that a snivy was spotted in the mire at some old inn. The messenger had been drunk, but she was desperate for some kind of evidence that her friends weren't dead. A wing reached behind her head as she rubbed the back of it, "I uh...actually don't know if they're still alive. They're probably dead after what happened, but yeah..." the piplup shook her head, "So uh, the shellder right? Maybe we could help!" she attempted to divert the subject.

Linus blinked, the piplup's mood had changed awfully fast. He remained silent in his perch as the piplup continued to drive the conversation. He could feel a wave of dread as the piplup spoke about her friends possibly being dead. Great, it was an Acro 2.0! The honchkrow's head retreated into his feathery body slightly as his hat concealed his eyes. His body seemed to shrink as he began to grow nervous at the grim reminder that he just might die for affiliating with the Archeops, after all everything around that bird seemed to die.

There was certainly a heavy amount of mood whiplash as the talkative Piplup seemed to swap to a more sullen attitude, recounting the fact that she was searching for two friends who may or may not even be alive. Nate glanced away and rubbed the back of his own head with a paw, listening to the rest of what Taki had to say, before she thankfully moved on from the subject. He was happy to get off of that topic, but he did feel badly about feeling that way about it.

"Right, yeah. Well, if you want to help out with the Shellder, that's fine by me. Just make sure you watch out for yourselves, and try not to get hurt, either of you. And if we don't see any sign of your friends on the way, I'll help you look around for them, alright?" The Pikachu responded in an attempt at reassurance, turning around and nodding to both the Piplup and the Honchkrow, completely glossing over the fact that Linus hadn't even offered to help out, it had been Namataki that offered for the two of them.

"I'm probably going to be spending some time around here after the mission anyways, so it won't be an inconvenience or anything. I'm looking for something around here too, in the Marsh or the Mire." He explained, turning back ahead and wincing slightly as he noticed another ripple in the water, one that was most likely caused by something arbitrary, but still was enough to worry him.
"Well, uh, first off, do you know if there's any dry...er, dryer land around here? I'd like to get out of the water a bit..." Nate remarked, gaining a more worried tone now that his attention was back on the water.

Namataki

Kat carried out 4 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

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Linus

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

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Linus allowed the two to speak, only being drawn back into the conversation as Namataki volenteered him without his permission to help. Well shit he couldn't just ditch the guy now! He sighed quietly, he would have to put up with this piplup even longer, great. The honchkrow glanced down to the pikachu, staring at the badge for a moment longer before something sparked in his mind as he remembered something upon the pikachu's mention of searching for something else.

His eyes widened, this guy knew Tsukishiro! The one who had the vision from Zygarde himself! "Deep in the mists of seclusion, a friend ensnared by an unfair advantage. Help her be free, and once again purify the lands of pollute," he mimicked with an ominous tone, "You are searching for that friend, yes?" he asked the pikachu, ignoring the request to find higher land. His eyes seemed to spark with much more interest, leaning down as he gazed upon the pikachu as he awaited an answer.

Namataki smiled sheepishly as the pikachu offered to help. What was she doing? They were dead. This was pointless. She had to make sure though, she loved her friends. As much as she was jealous of Jade, she would miss her. Garnet especially though, the charmander helped her in her time of need. He was her friend...

She was brought back to reality as the Pikachu wanted to find higher land. She thought for a moment before ducking underneath the water and deciding to take a look around. She spotted an area that had much higher land, but it was still just barely. The water would come up to the pikachu's knees if he went there. She popped back up, swimming around the pikachu and sticking to the deeper waters so that she could swim.

"Over here, there's a spot that's deeper than it for a few feet but over here is someplace much higher," she offered to the pikachu.

"Eh?" The Pikachu blinked and looked upwards to Linus as he spoke once more, rehearsing the hint that Tsukishiro had received from Zygarde. He was a bit surprised for a second at how the Honchkrow knew that, but in hindsight, he figured it was kind of a big deal, what with the three different factions practically going to war with one another. Plus, the place they were in did seem like it could possibly fit with the legendary pokemon's hint. Though, that was always something that got to the Pikachu. Why did it have to be a hint or a riddle? Why couldn't the pokemon just up and, oh, maybe tell them exactly what they wanted? It was kind of an important, world-changing event, or it was supposed to be. So why make things difficult for their own sides?

"I mean, I wouldn't call them a friend, but yeah. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone, y'know? Take a mission, check the area out, stuff like..." Nate continued to say, explaining himself with a slight chuckle as he obliviously glossed over the figure of speech he had inadvertently used. As he finished speaking, he looked back to where Taki had been as he caught a glimpse of her diving underwater in his peripheral vision. He paused for a moment, wondering where she had gone, before looking back to her once she resurfaced.

"Oh, really? That'd be helpful actually, I don't really...well, I'm not really big on water, y'know? I just need somewhere to stop and rest for a few seconds...wait, didn't you say it gets deeper too? Can I walk there?" He started to question, relaxing a bit more now that he had a destination in sight. Well, not in sight, but in mind, and he knew there was a spot he could go to with less water.

Pikashock carried out 5 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

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Namataki thought for a moment as the pikachu raised more questions, "Well, Linus could hold your bag and you could just swim over?" the piplup suggested. Why wasn't this pikachu fine with water? He was an electric type after all, shouldn't he be strong against these types of things? The piplup blinked, swimming backwards before lifting herself up onto the land she had been telling Nate about. She sat down in it, the water not bothering her period. She would have offered to give the pikachu a ride, but she was too small. Wait, a ride! "How about Linus flies you?" she offered.

"I'm not becoming a pack mule and i'm not becoming your personal flier," the crow responded, repulsed by the idea, "back on topic, you know Tsukishiro yes? No, dumb question. Of course you know her. Were you around when she had the vision by any chance?" he asked, a bit eager to discover what had happened during the time of the visions. Here he had a first class walking resource. This pikachu had the potential to have experienced the events himself!

The honchkrow dropped himself from the branch, swooping down to a log that was wedged between two rocks. It bobbed as he landed on it, but he maintained his balance with ease. He turned around and looked to the pikachu, waiting for him to hurry up and answer his question.

Nate hesitated for a moment as Taki offered her suggestions and Linus quickly shot them down, doing his best to keep up a somewhat strained smile despite the lack of good options. Even if he could handle a short swim mentally, he really couldn't swim physically. He could flail, sure, and sometimes it yielded results in the event anything happened, but it wasn't something he felt like willingly throwing himself into.

The Honchkrow seemed to be highly interested in the whole vision thing, though. It seemed a little weird at first, but then again, Nate was sure plenty of pokemon would be interested in the visions. And since he was Tsukishiro's teammate, well, it made sense that he'd be asked about it.
"Uh, well, I wasn't really. But she told me about it after the fact. To be honest, if I was there for it, I probably wouldn't even have seen anything. Visions are usually something in your head, aren't they?" He remarked, giving a slight shrug as he looked back around the water.

"You know what? I think I'll be fine if we just keep moving, as long as I don't step somewhere a bit too deep, y'know? Let's just keep going, we can get the mission done, look for your friends, and I can answer your questions if you have any more." The Pikachu continued to say, regarding Namataki and Linus respectively with the last few phrases, though there was a little less zeal with the last one. To be honest, he wasn't all that big on answering all these questions about things. Especially in the middle of a mission, but that said, it wasn't like he was going to refuse if the Honchkrow kept asking.

Energy: 7/30 (-3 for items, -7 for pokemon encounters but only -5 because Pichu Card)

The honchkrow huffed, "I know that, I was talking about how she acted. Did she suddenly freeze up while she received the vision? Did it come to her in a split second? Did she collapse?" the honchkrow elaborated on the kind of answer he wanted. He had a faint feeling he was probably annoying the rodent with his game of 20 questions, but to him this was important. He wanted to hear everything about it. What was currently going on was something that would go down in history books, he would be one of the pokemon to witness first hand the wrath of the very gods of this world!

Namataki seemed a bit disappointed that her offer of help was not accepted. She shot a quick glare to Linus before piping up, "Would you shut your f*cking beak already? Jeez!" the piplup through her wings up and down to emphasize her frustration before crossing them as her cheeks grew larger, holding her breath in a pout.

Linus stared at her for a moment before opening his beak, she immediately cut him off, "NO! Bad, no more talking!" she stood up and pointed at the bird with one of her tiny wings. The crow stared at her, shocked before attempting to speak once more, "Ah-ah-ah!" Taki cut him off once more, "No more."

When Linus finally silenced himself she pointed at the pikachu, "And YOU, stop being a wussy and come on, it's not even that deep. You can't even drown either, i'm here afterall!"

"Uhh...." Nate started to freeze up slightly as Linus kept asking questions, bringing a paw up to the back of his head. Frankly, he hadn't asked Tsukishiro about what had happened when she got the vision. He didn't really know the answer to the question, but luckily it seemed that he didn't have to answer. The Pikachu blinked and stared over at the Piplup as she interrupted rather rudely, flinching slightly as the Honchkrow opened his beak only to be quickly shut up again. Once Taki shifted her remarks to him, Nate hesitated and gulped slightly.

"Well...I mean, I don't think you being here makes the water any more...breathe-able. It's not like I don't trust you or anything, but, well, we don't even need to go that way. I was just asking, we might as well move forward, y'know?" He continued to speak, quite obviously trying to get out of having to try swimming over there. Even if a few of his points were at least somewhat valid.

With that, he turned back towards the way they had been going, stepping forward. When he did, he felt the water start to rise, the ground getting a bit deeper up ahead. The electric type pokemon quickly stepped back to where he had been standing before, pausing a moment as he thought about the situation. Well, he could always go around or something, but he'd just tried to get out of swimming over to the side with the excuse they were moving on. Something told him he wasn't going to get out of swimming easily, not with the pushy Piplup around. Even as the thoughts occurred to him, he could see some bubbles coming from underwater ahead. This time, he was pretty sure it wasn't a fallen stick, or his imagination.

"Uh...well, we don't have to go directly ahead right now..." He suggested fairly pitifully, figuring it wouldn't do much, but at least giving it a shot.

Namataki was confused, the pikachu seemed to not want to go to high ground anymore just because he would have to go a little deeper at fist. The piplup tilted her head before sliding herself back into the water and across the small gap to reach the ground the pikachu was standing on.
"Then where are we supposed to go?" the piplup asked, her head tilting in confusion. A wing rose and rubbed the back of her head as she was unsure of where to go now.

The honchkrow looked upon the two, studying the actions of the pikachu. His eyes narrowed as he focused for a moment, before they widened a bit more in realization as he pieced together what exactly was going on. He leaned forward a bit as if to get nearer to the two before speaking, "You're afraid of the water...aren't you?" he asked. His tone was rather sinister, though he did not mean for it to be. The honchkrow often found himself appearing more dark and sinister than he really was, he had assumed that it was merely because of his most recent evolution.

He watched the Piplup swim back over to him and took a slight step backwards, trying to think of a good way to rationalize his thoughts. Well, a good way without outright letting them know that he, an electric type, was indeed scared of a little water. Yeah, sure, he had a type advantage and everything, but that didn't do much when it came to the prospect of drowning. On top of it, the type advantage just made it more embarrassing. Sure, people wouldn't question why a fire type was afraid of water or anything like that, but an electric type?

And then it happened. Of course, Linus just had to outright come out with it. Nate turned to look to the admittedly intimidating bird as he flinched slightly, shaking his head and chuckling nervously.
"Pfft. What? No, I'm not...c'mon, why would I be..." He started to protest, starting to lose more and more credibility as he backed up a few steps, not exactly paying attention to where he was going.

"Alright well maybe just a little...honestly it's not that big-" As the Pikachu continued on, he took another step back, and suddenly felt himself lose his footing in the deeper water. His eyes widened for a split second as he began to sink, before all sorts of water began to splash up in a frenzy of scrambled movements, the electric type flailing all of his paws in a spastic manner to try and stay afloat.
"O-oh! OH! OkayokaypleasehelpmeouthereohgodIthinkI'mdrowning!" He sputtered out, his flailing seem to keep him afloat a bit despite what he was saying.