This Bites

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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)

The piplup was kind of surprised to hear that the electric type was afraid of the water. She blinked as she watched him, her wings flailed as the pikachu began to fall over, the bag flying into the air. She managed to catch the bag, only to turn to see that the pikachu seemed to be drowning! She had to do something, she had to save the pikachu, this was her moment to shine as the hero. She was going to jump in and push the pikachu to safety, save him from his one true fe-

Linus reacted swiftly and smoothly, launching himself off of the log and grabbing the pikachu. At first the honchkrow semi-dunked him underwater with the force of his grabbing, but as his wings beat the air and brushed against the surface of the water he swiftly dragged the pikachu out of the water. The honchkrow carried the pikachu by the arms, holding him and keeping him from falling into the ground below. The bird flew over to the spot that was significantly less deep Namataki had found earlier. He lowered him until he was about a foot over the ground before dropping him. The water moved as the wings of the bird flew him over to his log once more. Linus said nothing and merely watched as Namataki hurried her way over with the bag.

So much for being a hero. Namataki rushed over to Nate, crossing the deep water with ease though the bag did get quite a bit soaked in the process, "Oh my f*cking god are you okay!?" she asked.

The Pikachu barely even noticed as he threw his bag away, already preoccupied with the idea of not drowning. Oh, man, what was this, the second time he'd accidentally fallen into the water in the Marsh? And of course his swimming hadn't even gotten much better since that time, considering he hadn't practiced or done anything like that. As a matter of fact, he'd probably gotten even worse.

Suddenly, he could feel the Honchkrow's talons grasp onto him, but before he could get out of the water, the flying type seemed to dunk him in further. A moment of more than mild panic occurred for the electric type as he wondered what exactly was going on. Had Linus tried to pick him up, but been unable to with his weight? Was Linus just shoving him underwater? Oh god, was he unsatisfied with his answers, or lack of, and decided to try and get them by dunking him underwater and pulling him back out again in some kind of cruel torture?

Within a second or two, the Honchkrow had lifted him up and dropped him back over by dryer land. Guess that answered that question. Nate took several deep breaths as he sat on the spot, trying to calm himself down as Taki came back over with his bag.
"What? Oh, oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit panicked, y'know? Give me a few seconds, I just need to get it all out...I don't really, ah...I can't swim." He sputtered out between breaths, eventually starting to slow down and return to a more normal breathing pattern, looking like he'd just seen his life flash before his eyes or something.

He seemed to stare ahead for a few moments, before hearing something else nearby. Was it...a chuckle or something? The Pikachu turned his head and glanced over to the side, catching notice of another pokemon floating through the water towards them. They seemed to have a blue body color of sorts, with some white, and...wait, was that a red scarf?

"Well, that looked like a good time." Ava mused for a moment as she gently kicked the water, casually making her way towards the group, ignoring the somewhat dumbstruck look Nate still had that seemed to carry over from the near-drowning experience.
"What are you three up to around here? I don't suppose you came out all this way for swimming lessons, did you?" She continued, getting straight to business without so much as an introduction or explanation. She stopped kicking, letting her momentum slowly carry her through the water towards the three pokemon, her smirk showing a bit of amusement and smugness about the situation.

Nate: 8/30 (+1 for a new page)
Ava: 10/25 (-15 for entering)

Namataki glanced towards the newcomer as they spoke, they did not seem all that threatening to be quite honest, so she did not react negatively towards the approaching water type. She blinked and stared at the oshawott for a good moment before speaking up, "We're not taking swim lessons?" She blinked in utter confusion for a moment before she heard an exasperated sigh from Linus. Why was he sighing like that unless-"OH" she said a bit loudly before covering her beak. It was sarcasm...she wasn't serious. Great now she looked like an idiot, fun.

The honchkrow had sighed loudly, his wing rising to his beak once more as he became annoyed with the flightless bird. He spoke up however to the newcomer, "Explorer Guild Business ma'dam," he informed her, "What brings you here I must ask however?" he asked with a calm expression as if he had not just dunked a pikachu into the water before saving his life.

Below the water's surface, a small purple shell peeped open to spy a blue waving tail as a creature swam through the water. Mischievous thoughts crossed its mind, as it quickly lept up toward the paddle like tail, ready to latch onto it.

...what? Nate had practically blanked out for the ensuing conversation, still staring at the Oshawott that had approached them. He knew that look, and that voice, and he had no doubt that it was Ava. What was she doing here, though? Of all places? Why was she even in the general region? How was it possible? He remembered the last place he'd seen her, and after everything he was sure she was...well, gone, frankly. By all rights, he was having a difficult time registering the pokemon in front of him.

Ava kept her attention on the Piplup and Murkrow, raising a brow at the Piplup as the sarcasm went directly over her head. Mmm, alright. This one's going to be fun. She simply thought to herself, before looking to the Murkrow as he picked up the slack on actually answering the question. Of course, explorer guild business. That sounded typical, given the pokemon involved there. Of course, she had to wonder if her own goals in the area were similar to theirs. Her own goals having to do with the prophets and their rumors, this seeming like a good possible location to find the answer to Zygarde's champion in.

"Nothing you need to worry about. I'm just doing my own thing really, looking around for anything of interest." She shrugged as she spoke, glancing over to Nate, noticing the still silent and dumbstruck Pikachu, regarding him with a smug smirk.
"Well, I should probably get going. I wouldn't want to-" She started to continue, before suddenly feeling something crunch down on her tail. All smugness was lost for the moment as she let out a yell in surprise, turning around and looking down into the water at the purple shelled pokemon currently latched on and crushing her tail into oblivion. Without hesitating for a moment, she reached up and gripped onto the Blessed Scalchop she wore atop her head and swiped downward, attempting to land a good Night Slash on the pokemon.

Of course, with that, everything seemed to kick off. Before Nate could process it, another blue shape jumped up from the water behind him, the frog-like pokemon leaping into the air and forming a blue, spiraling shurikan of water in its hands, launching it at the Shellder. The Pikachu looked up, panicked for a moment before he realized that it didn't seem to be attacking him, Taki or Linus at the moment. He did catch sight of its tongue-scarf, though, which seemed to be suspiciously crunched up near the end of it...

Right. First things first. Deal with the mission, deal with Ava, then deal with the Zygarde prophecy thingy. The Pikachu stood up and paused, watching the Greninja land back in the water a short distance away.
"We can't let the Shellder faint! We're just supposed to teach it a lesson!" He called out loudly, directing it mostly to Taki and Linus, but also partially to Ava and the Greninja, though he wasn't sure if they would care about the mission.

A chain of events unfolded before the crow and the penguin. The two flapped their wings furiously, but only one took flight. The crow gave a deep cry as he rose into the air, his large wings beating the air beneath him as he moved to get out of whatever danger was there. Once he was safely out of harm's way he surveyed the situation from above. The target of the mission had made an appearance, and the oshawott was going straight for the attack! The Honchkrow moved swiftly, snagging the shellder in his talons and pulling up to bring the small pokemon out of the way of the attack. He did not take into attention whether or not the shellder would let go or bring the oshawott along for the ride as it gripped the tail, however.

Linus rose higher and higher into the air, meaning to bring the mission target out of harm's way. He had thought himself successful, until something slammed into his back and caused him to fall a few feet before he recovered. The crow gave a squawk as he was suddenly attacked, his mind suddenly clouded as a volbeat buzzed around him. It had struck him with a signal beam, and managed to confuse him. The crow's flying was suddenly ragged and strange. The confused bird was trying to keep from running into anything. He attempted to ram himself into the volbeat, but it dodged easily out of the way and coated the crow in a bright purple yet thin layer of sludge.

The crow felt a burning sensation overcome him as the purple liquid seeped through his feathers and sunk into his skin. Linus cried out in pain once more before he managed to turn and ram his beak into the volbeat. The bug type cried out as the beak pierced into her back and through a wing. Both bug and bird suddenly began to plummet towards the ground. The volbeat gave an enraged snarl, its eyes wide as it seemed to glow with a green energy that seemed to be mixed and tainted with darkness. The bug latched onto the bird's wings and sunk its enlarged teeth deep into the feathers of the bird as it drew blood. Linus shouted in pain once more and was finally forced to release the shellder. The shell fish pokemon plummeted as Linus tried to prevent himself from breaking his neck on the ground below by gliding into a landing with a volbeat latched onto his wing.

The shellder dropped down onto the greninja, effectively latching onto the long tongue as it fearfully bit the closest thing to it. Linus landed on a log partially, half his body submerged as he attempted to cling to the log and bring himself upright. The volbeat finally released him as it collided with the water, however she returned into the air while her face seemed to glow a bright red. The volbeat unleashed a flurry of fireballs and flames down upon the injured Honchkrow, causing Linus to cry out once more as he was unable to react in time. The volbeat had eaten a Blast Seed from Linus's bag, and it seemed to be moving in to use yet another Bug Bite on the honchkrow before the flames could even disappear.

Namataki squeaked as things suddenly started happening. A greninja appeared, a volbeat was attacking Linus, the shellder was biting Ava, so many things were happening at once! What should she do? She wasn't any good at on the fly situations like this, Jade or Garnet was usually there to tell her what the plan was. The Piplup flailed her wings before deciding that it was best to save the client. Linus seemed to be taking a pretty harsh beating, but he was a strong bird, he could take it right? The piplup faced the greninja, still panicked and not quite thinking straight before a sudden blast of water shot forth from her beak as she used Hydro Pump to get the greninja to stay away from the client...even though the client was the one biting it.

There were a couple of points Ava quickly found herself needing to address a few new...variables in the situation. One: She was still being bitten in the tail by a Shellder. Two: She was now airborne, as the bird from before seemed to grab onto the aforementioned Shellder and began to take flight. Three: She was upside down in the air, which was very disorienting.

Right. One thing at a time, shall we? Let's figure out how not to die if we get dropped on dry land... Reaching for her scarf, the Oshawott took action, pulling it free from her neck. Finding the end of it, she reached for her personal scalchop and began to tie the scarf around it-

-when suddenly Linus became the worst flyer on the face of the planet. She couldn't see much of what was happening, but she could feel the Honchkrow drop a few feet, the sudden motion causing her to drop her scalchop to the ground. The shell landed in the ground near Namataki, embedding itself into the wetland. With one of three options lost, despite Linus' terrible aerial display, Ava reached for another scalchop, the second one she'd been carrying along for a while. With that, she struggled, but managed to tie a somewhat decent knot around it.

Just in time, too-Linus seemed to plummet, causing Ava and the Shellder to drop along with him, before he fully let go of the two. As they fell, the Oshawott searched for a tree branch, another pokemon, anything she could chuck her tied shell at to at least slow her fall. Before she got the chance to, though, the fall suddenly stopped, the Shellder clamping down once more on both her tail and something feeling a bit more slimy...

The Greninja, paying no attention to the other pokemon at the moment, found itself blasted into the air by the Piplup's attack, a short gasp of surprise and pain escaping its mouth. Having noticed that the Piplup was going for the frog pokemon, Nate decided to work together and fire off a Thundershock quickly after. However, before it could hit, the Greninja vanished out of the air, leaving the Shellder and Ava to fall once more.

"Careful, I think we might have pissed it off...don't suppose you have a plan, do you? 'Cause that'd make one of us" Nate remarked, sounding fairly wary as he turned around, searching for where the other pokemon had disappeared to. It couldn't have fainted, he was sure of that. Things were never that easy, not in his experience.

His thoughts were answered when the shadows behind the Pikachu seemed to enlarge, and before he knew it he felt the evolved pokemon's foot slam into his back, sending him airborne and towards the water. He seemed to yell out in an incomprehensible panic as he landed with a splash, hitting a spot with the water luckily only up to his shoulders. With that taken care of, the Greninja turned to look towards the Piplup and vanished once more, in the same way it had before it last used Shadow Sneak.

As Ava and the Shellder fell, the Oshawott turned upward and immediately threw her scalchop without much thought, hoping to catch anything. Luckily, the shell embedded itself into an overhanging branch, and she grabbed her scarf, dangling overhead with the Shellder hanging from her tail like some kind of piñata for everyone to use. She grimaced, but took the chance to survey the scene from above. Taki was dealing with the Greninja, Nate had gotten kicked into the water, and Linus was frankly getting destroyed by a Volbeat. Lastly, her own situation seemed to have its own problems. Her shell wasn't exactly embedded very well, considering she threw it in a panic, and with the extra weight on her it probably wasn't going to hold for very long.

To try and draw some attention off of Linus, and to hopefully put out the flames from the Blast Seed, Ava opened her mouth and fired a blast of water, using a Water Gun attack on the Volbeat from where she was hanging.
"Nate, bird, how about you two start working together as a little anti-air? The Piplup and I can handle the Greninja. Oh, and your names would be nice when you get the chance. Take your time." She called down to the group rather callously, trying to put together some kind of plan better than flailing about. Nate stood up in the water and gagged a bit, gasping for breath before glancing up to the hanging Oshawott.

"Sounds great, as long as you hold up your end of things and get down here to help." He remarked, turning his gaze to the land around them to try and find a spot of dryer land. Ava shrugged and looked up at her scalchop tied to her scarf, watching it wobble looser.
"Something tells me I'll be right there." She responded casually, looking down and hoping that the area beneath her was somewhat deeper water as opposed to anything shallow or dry.

The water gun attack was successful as the water blasted into the volbeat. Since it was still latched onto Linus, it only bit down harder. The flying type cried out in pain before attempting to peck at the pokemon even more. The poison was slowly eating away at his energy, but luckily the volbeat latching onto him did not make hitting it difficult. He pecked at it, aiming for its head at first. It seemed to refuse to let go as it continued to latch on. It was not until Linus gave a sharp Peck attack to its eye that it released him and buzzed off with a scream of pain.

The crow's wings drooped and hung a bit limply at his sides as he attempted to recollect himself and get some health back with Roost. He began to glow a light blue energy as he tried to heal the wound on his wing and stop the bleeding. The poisoning was growing worse, for the Toxic attack was taking its effect. Once the Roost was finished, he felt a bit better...only slightly.

The oshawott had been speaking with him and the others...what was it saying? The crow struggled to keep his mind straight as his heart seemed to pound a million miles per hour. He felt a bit...odd, but he figured that it was simply because of the poisoning. The Volbeat seemed to think that it was finished with Linus, luckily for the bird, as it instead turned away with one eye closed and faced Nate. It seemed to be bleeding from that eye as well. The volbeat hissed as its antennae seemed to quiver. The volbeat rushed at the pikachu even though he was shoulder-deep in water, aiming to bite the explorer with a Bug Bite.

Namataki on the other hand...was being a panic queen. Her arms flailed at her sides as she freaked out completely as Nate was launched into the air and the frog was coming for her. She looked around, her eyes skimming the ground around her for a strange shadow. Her eyes were wide, and were not quite doing a good job of searching for the greninja as she was too panicked.

The oshawott spoke and the pikachu asked if she had a plan, "WHY THE F*CK WOULD I HAVE A PLAN!?" she responded to the pikachu before being launched into the air by a Shadow Sneak from the greninja. The piplup did something different from Nate though, she blasted another Hyrdo Pump in the direction of the greninja while she was still in the air. She had her eyes closed the entire time as the attack was done out of sheer panic, but it was still in its general direction.

Namataki seemed to very clearly not have much of a plan at the moment either, which the Pikachu couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at. Since he, she and Linus didn't seem to have a plan, the only plan they had to go by was Ava's. Sure, it seemed like a reasonable plan, but he wasn't really looking to jump at the chance to show that he trusted her. Because he didn't. Definitely not.

However, he would have to think about all that stuff later. Right now, he had more important things to handle. Like a bloody Volbeat coming at him from one side, and a flying Piplup propelled by a Shadow Sneak and a Hydro Pump together from the other. Without thinking, Nate panicked and blindly fired a Thundershock at the bug type, whiffing the attack, before rushing towards the spot the Piplup was going to land.

"Wishful thinking, to answer your question. I got-oof!" The Pikachu started to respond, but didn't really get to finish that declaration of what he was going to do, as the Piplup flew directly into him, slamming into the Pikachu and knocking him into the ground underwater. It took the rodent a few seconds to realize what had happened before the headache started kicking in, and he flailed about beneath Namataki, trying to get her to get off of him.

As the two flailed, the Greninja, not expecting the Hydro Pump from the air, was knocked back once more as it took the brunt of the attack. Staring down the Piplup and the Pikachu, looking to be fairly angered by the surprise hit, its flippers glowing with a dark hue as it hopped forward towards the two in one leap, aiming a Night Slash attack.

From above, the Oshawott watched the situation with a heavy dose of dismay. The Piplup seemed to be flailing about wildly, Linus looked to be practically out of commission, and Nate...well, he tried. That was all she could say really. Seemed like she'd have to pick up the slack. Turning her attention to the Volbeat coming after now both Nate and Namataki, once more she opened her maw and fired another Water Gun, trying to cover for the two other pokemon.

It was around that exact moment, however, that her shell finally dislodged itself. Ava quickly found herself dropping down, the Shellder currently biting her tail dragging her down with a bit of extra force as the two splashed down into the water below. Luckily, the spot seemed to be deeper, and so she stayed submerged for the moment. Of course, she could go help the other three, but she also had a shell to go grab...

With the choice obvious, she kicked her feet and started to swim in the direction she had dropped her shell. After a few moments, she resurfaced near a more shallow bit of water and started to step towards her scalchop. However, before she could get to it, something else seemed to hop out into view. A smaller frog pokemon, a Frogadier, hopped out of the water, landing by her shell and picking it up. With a surprising amount of speed and precision, the pokemon chucked the fallen shell at Ava, the Oshawott barely having enough time to raise one of her own to block it as she staggered back, the other pokemon quickly reclaiming the thrown shell as it recoiled back to it.

The piplup was still as stone as she had passed out from being smashed into by a Shadow Sneak combined by the panic of the situation. Luckily for the Pikachu, the piplup's weight was removed as something curled its hands under her and lifted her above its head. The boxing-glove like hands of the creature held the piplup up as if she were an offering, however looked down at the Pikachu, "You alright, mate?" the poliwhirl spoke to the pikachu with a concerned look.

Linus looked up from his daze, his mind still clouded as everything seemed to spin. He could barely focus, but he could at least make out what seemed to be something fighting with the oshawott. Once again the client for the pikachu was in danger, and Linus forced himself off the log and smashed into the frogadier with his body in a Peck attack. The Peck attack kind of failed however, as Linus merely tossed his entire body into the frog.

He could not think to fly upwards again, and instead began to rake his talons across the frog as he pecked at it. The volbeat seemed to have buzzed off after being struck with the water gun, off to find easier prey most likely. The honchkrow found himself being thrown off as he found himself flipped onto his back as his entire body became soaked. After having nearly drowned, the honchkrow gasped for breath and pulled himself up as he gasped for breath.

Once the Piplup's weight was lifted off of him, Nate jumped back up to a standing position in the water, coughing out some excess marsh water he'd swallowed and gasping for breath on the off beats. That delicious, tasty marsh water. Except it wasn't, it was completely disgusting. He looked up towards the pokemon that had helped him out once he recovered a bit, staring at the Poliwhirl.

"Uh...no, not really. Well, yeah, I'm fine, but we've gotta beat these guys and not let them hurt the Shellder. Guild mission business and-" He'd started to try and explain the situation to the Poliwhirl, forgetting for the moment that they were in the middle of something, before catching a glimpse of the Greninja that had been jumping at them beforehand, ready to use Night Slash on the Poliwhirl now.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the Pikachu panicked just a tad. He wasn't exactly thinking straight, and frankly he was just trying to make sure the Poliwhirl wasn't about to get cut. So he jumped forward, one of his paws crackling with electricity as he put himself between the Poliwhirl and the frog ninja, aiming to try and get a punch off. Which was a lot easier said than done.

Nate let out a sharp cry as the Greninja slashed down across his front, leaving a cut across him and knocking him back into the Poliwhirl. However, before he got fully knocked back, he did manage to land his punch, sending the Greninja back as well, electricity crackling over its body. It seemed wounded from the combination of the Thunder Punch and the two Hydro Pumps, albeit still standing. Continuing to fight back despite its own wounds, it held its flippers(?) over one another and began to form a few more Water Shurikans, firing them off at the Poliwhirl and Nate.

Dealing with her own problems at the moment, Ava was in a stand-still of sorts. She knew she couldn't just charge in towards the Frogadier, it would probably just throw her own shell at her. Again. She didn't have much as far as ranged options went, either. She supposed jumping back into the water to try and get around it was an option, but as it turned out, she didn't really need to worry about it. Before either of the two could do anything, the honchkrow came flying back in, throwing itself at the Frogadier.

While the flying type seemed to eventually get thrown off, it gave Ava a clear shot at the pokemon in its distraction. Wielding her blessed scalchop, the oshawott lunged forward and sliced, aiming for the frog's arm. Landing her blow, the other pokemon hissed in pain from the Night Slash and hopped back, dropping the scalchop it had been holding. Quickly picking up the shell from where it fell, Ava situated it back onto herself and ducked down under the water, swimming underneath the Honchkrow and attempting to help push him up out of the water, barely catching sight through the murky waters of the marsh of another frog-like pokemon, a Frogadier, hopping down by the two of them. Standing in front of the bird, it stood still for a moment before exhaling, releasing a flow of smoke from its mouth that covered the general vicinity, providing a Smoke Screen around both Frogadiers, Linus and Ava.

The honchkrow flared his wings open as the frogadier appeared before him, giving a harsh flap and blowing the smoke right back into the frog's face before it simply covered the area. Linus found himself unable to see. Great, now not only could he not think straight, but he couldn't see. The bird struggled to make sense of the situation, but only found that he was getting frustrated. He gave a growl as his wings flapped once more harshly as he kept his balance and moved about. More water was flung from his feathers before he crouched and leaped into the air, his wings flapping harshly as the tips of his feathers brushed against the surface of the water below.

Just as he flew up a shape zipped past beneath him, he had just inadvertently avoided an attack. He was cool with that. The dark form of the bird rose above the screen of smoke, his eyes watering from the burn of the smoke. His white ruff was now a dark gray and his red feathers were now tainted by the dark smoke that still clung to his feathers. The bird had rose quite above the plume of smoke, before allowing himself to fall and glide over the smoke and towards the yellow and blue form that he had spotted from above.

He had a plan, that plan, was to get out of here. He had figured the two forms were Nate and Namataki, though Namataki's form sure looked bigger...and fatter. Didn't matter. The honchkrow swooped in as the water Shurikans drew near. The bird grabbed the form of Namataki and snapped his beak around Nate's tail before taking off once more. He still could not see clearly, and was quite surprised to find that "Namataki" had gained quite a bit of weight...33 pounds of a bit more weight. He had snatched up the poliwhirl as well, however. The unexpected weight caused Linus to struggle to get into the air, the poliwhirl clutching to Namataki as well. The Water Shurikans rushed in for the attack, both striking the poliwhirl...only for it to absorb them. The poliwhirl's ability Water Absorb kicking in.

The few seconds bought allowed for Linus to get some air. The crow dove into the black mist once more, and came the other end with a certain oshawott. The honchkrow wanted out of there, and he was taking everyone that was nice with him. The honchkrow struggled to fly, but managed to pull it off as he pulled everyone away from the fight. This task had seemed much easier in his head, but the sudden weight Namataki had gained was certainly taking its toll on him.

That's when the poison decided it would be a great time to take effect again. The crow squawked in pain as purple crackles of energy damaged his body and weakened him. The bird's body began to freeze up as the muscles refused to function correctly. The bird and company began to plummet, though luckily they were not all that high.

Everything above the water seemed to get even murkier in the Oshawott's line of vision as she watched the smoke expand and fill the general area. As Linus seemed to beat his wings and get himself in the air, Ava popped her head back out above the water and decided to stay still for the moment, trying not to make any movements that would stir the water and potentially alert the two Frogadier to her location. Of course, that left the problem of what to do next, but she probably had at least a minute or so to figure that out...

Meanwhile, Nate had fallen back into the water and grimaced, the slash stinging as the water hit it. Great, he was sitting with an open wound in the middle of some marsh. The water was pretty dirty, wasn't it? He was gonna die from all that crap getting in his cut, if the Greninja didn't get to it first. It was nice to know he had options when it came to how exactly he was going to go. Very, very nice.

There was a sharp pain, but strangely enough, it didn't come from where it was supposed to. That feeling was followed by himself getting dragged out of the water, and into the air, which made him assume that it wasn't the Water Shurikans that hit him. No, after a decently panicked yell, he managed to catch a glimpse upwards while he was dangling upside down, noticing that Linus had...bitten? Pecked? What was the term for it? Well, his tail was in the bird's beak. Which hurt, but wasn't killing him, so that was a plus.

Ava was still staying put in the water, hearing the Frogadier move about in the smoke. She couldn't figure out exactly where they were, but suddenly, as the smoke seemed to clear a bit, she found she didn't have to figure that out. The smoke hadn't gone away completely, but it cleared up just enough for her to get a good view of the Honchkrow flying downward towards her. He seemed to be carrying Nate, amusingly enough by his tail, and the Poliwhirl and the Piplup as well. Which brought her to the logical conclusion that this was a good time to escape.

As he got closer, the Oshawott hopped up a bit in the water, managing to reach upward and grab onto the pokemon's free talon, adjusting herself so Linus could get a grip on her as he flew off. She grimaced a bit, feeling some weight pulling on her tail once more, before looking downward. The Shellder was still there, having been clamped onto her tail the entire time. She'd almost forgotten about it, the bite had stopped hurting for a bit and started to feel more numb...which was a problem, now that it occurred to her.

It seemed like they had bigger problems at the moment, however. The Honchkrow had done a good job of getting them out of there, but now he was falling again. Kind of like last time, when he'd just been carrying the Oshawott. What was the problem? Was it the amount of pokemon he was carrying? The weight maybe?

Taking matters into her own hands, Ava set her sights on who seemed to be the biggest liability in that way. The Poliwhirl had just randomly shown up, and was probably the heaviest one out of all of them. Which meant she figured none of them would be too upset with her for cutting it loose. Reaching for her personal scalchop off of her front, she grabbed it in her free paw and flailed about a bit, before striking the Poliwhirl with her scalchop in hopes of knocking it off.

That didn't seem to help things, however. The group continued to descend, and crashed back down into the marsh below. While dangling upside down, Nate got a good look at the future crash-sight.
"Oh, no...no, no, no this isn't good-" He started muttering dejectedly, before the impact came. He took the brunt of the water landing with his face, splashing down into the water and finding himself knocked loose from the Honchkrow. Ava hit the surface with a yell, the impact a bit harsher than expected as she found herself submerging as well, free from Linus' grip. Swimming upward, she quickly resurfaced, groaning slightly from the impact she'd taken mostly with her back.

A few seconds later, the Pikachu popped up from under the water, gasping for breath as he flailed his limbs about, trying to stay afloat.
"Ack! Ah, that's disgusting...everyone alright? Uh, Linus? Including you? You didn't, like, pass out while you were flying, did you?" He questioned, continuing to kick about in the water, panicked but managing to keep himself afloat for the time being.

The poliwhirl had been struck by the attack, which caused it to release the honchkrow in a fit of pain. There was a problem though, for the poliwhirl was what linked Linus to Namataki. The piplup plummeted with the poliwhirl into the waters below. Namataki had awoken half way through the fall, just in time to see herself falling towards the water below. She had no way of telling how deep it was, so she promptly screamed like a little girl that was quickly cut out as she fell into the water with a spectacular splash. The water in the area took a bit to settle, and when it did bubbles began to surface before the piplup resurfaced with a gasp of breath.

"Wh-what!?" she gasped. She turned to see the poliwhirl resurface as well. The water type seemed to glare at her though, before simply swimming away. She had no clue what just happened, but it seemed like it was not going to be a threat. The piplup looked around a bit more, and spotted Nate trying to keep afloat on a rather deep end of the water. The piplup's arms flailed wildly, "Oh sh*t!" she whispered to herself before rushing over to his rescue. Hopefully he wouldn't shock her...

He could hear the Pikachu's voice calling out to him. The honchkrow burst above the surface of the water, his hat seemingly being dragged down by the weight of the water as his wings propepelled himself through the water as quickly as they could take him. The crow managed to reach a boulder large enough for him to rest on, he struggled to climb up the rock before simply collapsing on it. His wings hung off to the sides and dipped into the water as he attempted to breathe. He really had blacked out for a brief few seconds during their trip down, but the poison was still not gone. It would take time for his body to work it out, which would only mean more pain for quite a while.

"Alive," he managed to croak with a weak voice.

"Alive? Uh, that's a great start, great, that's great, but uh, anybody want to help me out here? Time might be a factor..." He managed to practically spit out as he continued to flail about in the water, oblivious to both the Piplup coming to help him, and the fact that he was treading water for the moment and honestly shouldn't have been worrying too much. As Namataki neared him, the Pikachu blinked, his cheeks having been sparking more and more the longer he panicked in the water. Now, the sparks seemed to be jumping off his cheeks, a some of them pretty likely to hit anyone around him. It wouldn't be too bad of a shock probably, but more like a slight static shock.

After taking a momentary breather, Ava took in the rest of her surroundings. Nate was panicking, but the Piplup seemed to be taking care of that. The Poliwhirl was heading off, thankfully. Of course, if it had decided to stick around or confront her, she would have told everyone that she panicked a bit and just flailed, happening to hit the other pokemon mid-flight. That would probably be believable, right? To most of them, at least As for Linus, something definitely seemed wrong with him. He was hurt, probably from the beat-down he had taken in the earlier fight they'd all been involved in. He was alive, sure, but Ava figured he would probably need some rest.

She started to swim towards more shallow water, instinctively going to use her tail before she remembered she had a...friend, attached to it. The Shellder still clamped onto her tail messed with her direction a bit, but the Oshawott managed to paddle her way over to a spot she could stand, the water still about waist high on her in the spot she had found.

"I'm glad we all got out of that, and while I'd love to get some introductions done, I've got more important things happening. Meaning, if you don't come and help me get this Shellder off my tail, you're going to fail the 'unharmed' bit of your mission. Potentially very badly." She stated bluntly, turning and looking down at the Shellder stuck on her tail as she finished speaking, as if issuing it both as a statement to the others and a threat to it. Reaching for one of her scalchops, she held onto it in her paw and kept it at the ready, prepared to stick it into the other pokemon's shell and try to pry its jaws open.

"I'm TRYING stop moving and stop-OW!" the blue penguin snapped as the pikachu managed to shock her while she was trying to help, "Fine f*ck you then!" the piplup growled, deciding to stop trying to help the pikachu after an over-reaction to being shocked. She rubbed her shocked wings with a glare at the pikachu, "Just stand up you f*cking p*ssy!" she stomped away to leave the pikachu to his panicked state. She had tried to be nice, but he had gone and shocked her. It didn't even matter if it was on accident, she expected an apology! She marched over to the oshawott as she neared the Shellder, raising a wing and giving the shelled creature a good slap on it's back part of the shell.

The shellder cried out, releasing the oshawott's tail and plummeting into the water. Namataki picked up the creature and held it to her face so that its terrified eyes matched her own that was boiling in rage. "And YOU," she began, "Stop biting sh*t or i'm going to come back here personally and make sure you don't have anything to bite WITH! GOT IT!?" she snapped at the shellder. The shelled creature's wide eyes nodded, before Namataki tossed the shellder aside where it fled as quickly as it could away from the scary water types.

Linus forced himself to stand. Owwww his everything still hurt. He managed to get to his legs despite the pain and folded his wings properly. He was wet, in pain, and miserable. Fun. It seemed that they had gotten quite deep into the marsh, the mire was not too far. If they were to head back the way they came they would just meet the frog and friends again...who were probably chasing after them.

"We should...keep moving..." he spoke between heavy breaths.