The Gang Joins a Cult

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"Help the little skiddo who's gonna get himself killed," the note said.  Well, perhaps not those exact words, but that was how it'd been interpreted by a very moody glaceon.  The injuries he'd received in a recent, stupid, STUPID endeavor had just recently healed and he was already looking to get himself killed again.  He couldn't help but notice a particularly dangerous mission that some guy had been reading at the guild - a Pikachu named.... something - and so, he did the only reasonable thing.  He snatched the notice paper from the pikachu and told the guy to go do something less dangerous.

It didn't work.  Instead, he now had the bipedal rat following him on this mission, along with the client, an arcanine.  He'd hung his head the entire trip and mostly ignored any attempts made at conversation, merely giving one-word answers when possible.  He was afraid of speaking to anyone or even looking at them.  It wasn't a fear of endangering himself, more like.... having others see how weak he was.  They'd see it in his eyes, they'd hear it in his voice.  They'd see that there was something wrong with him, that he needed help, that he'd failed countless times!  The pikachu, Nate or whoever, probably knew of his oh-so-impressive escapades already.  Surely, the guy who'd managed to triple Giratina's power would be well-known by now.  How was he even still in the guild after failing so miserably two times in a row?

Trying not to look at or talk to anyone also served a second purpose: it made it easier for Sova to control himself.  He didn't want to say.... or do anything he'd regret, but in truth, he didn't feel too up to controlling himself at the moment.  Nate seemed like a nice guy, one he didn't want to make an enemy of just because he was seeing red.  They were already to the destination of the Monochrome Ruins; he could make it long enough to finish this.  He could make sure no one was hurt while keeping himself under control.


Keith had been yelled at by his leader recently.  A lot.  So had his teammate, Skylar.  Maybe he'd done something wrong and just didn't know, but he knew for certain that Sky had done nothing wrong.  They were just worried!  Sova kept leaving and yelling at them when they tried to tag along, then he'd come back half-dead and not give any explanation as to what'd happened!  Skylar was willing to respect her leader's wishes despite being confused, but Keith?  He was worried Sova was going to get himself killed.  He couldn't just stand by anymore.  He barely knew Sova, but he'd also been saved by Sova.  What would he be worth if he left his savior alone in a mental haze to end up dead somewhere?

Good intentions were fine, but Keith wasn't very strong and he knew that.  This time, he'd managed to figure out what his leader was planning on doing by talking to a pikachu who'd just had an encounter with the glaceon.  It was a mission, but one that seemed absurdly dangerous, and Sova apparently wanted to do it alone!  The pikachu seemed intent on still going, so that was good, but would just two be enough?  Doubting it, he went looking for the guild for someone to come with him and back the two up.  As if by some miracle, he did indeed find someone who was capable of doing such dangerous missions: Acro of Aileron Guild.

It was weird to see a member of the flappy-bird-aristocrat guild in the earth-bound Grassveil Guild, but the jolteon wasn't going to question that.  After a brief explanation of the problem, the archeops agreed to come along and help.  The two followed the path of the others, staying hidden on request of the jolteon as he didn't want his leader to be aware of his disobedience unless it was necessary.  He didn't like being alone with someone he didn't know very well, nor did he like going against a very clear order from someone like Sova, but his heart was saying something very different from that of his mind.  For once, he was listening to the prior.


An eevee had been wandering through the darkly forest, accompanied by an oshawott.  The two had recently done the bidding of Arceus himself, and while the companion of the eevee didn't seem particularly interested in her faith, she was still appreciative of the help.  "Maybe we could even be friends," she thought idly to herself.
The two had decided to travel together since they were both headed for the same place - being nowhere in particular - and strength in numbers something something she didn't care.  It was disappointing that the oshawott was no longer willing to be a bag-slave, but that was reasonable.  Besides, with nearly all of the contents gone, it was now much lighter.

Just when Ivirar had decided to try and spark up some conversation, she and her companion were met with a kabutops.  It had a very vile attitude, but there was something about the sharp claws and death threats that made her decide not to comment on it.  If not for her own sake, she still held her tongue for Ava's sake.

Jk.

"You seem bothered.  You should allow Arceus to guide you through this hard time in your life," she suggested with genuinely good intentions.
However, the kabutops didn't take her friendly advice too well, responding by "asking" the two to come with it and low-key threatening to kill them on the spot if they didn't.  Oh.  Ivy and her companion followed along without much choice in the matter and she couldn't help but wonder if this was going to affect that whole friendship thing.  She wasn't stupid; she knew this was her fault.  Maybe Ava wasn't one to hold grudges?

They were led into the maze-like ruins and shoved inside a jail cell where the kabutops was switched out for a charmeleon.  Not only that, though: anything the two had on them was confiscated.  While Ivy was actually okay with this since it meant she'd gotten rid of the Prism Ruff without having to willingly give it up, her company seemed to have something a bit more important taken.  Then, to top it all off, they were bound.  The eevee just couldn't help but comment on this: "Woah, I didn't know you were into that!"

....

The lizard just gave a deadpan stare to show how unamused it was before deciding to add an extra, entirely pointless measure.  It took a bit of extra cloth and gagged the little eevee to shut her up before leaving.


Not too far away, another eevee was roaming the area of Shadowhue.  However, this one wasn't interested in getting into any trouble.  Uthinare simply wanted to relax and have some time to herself.  Pecha forest was a much nicer place, but that was an issue because it meant everyone went there.  So, in the end, she picked the less-appealing forest to wander through in the hopes of it being more peaceful.  She was right.

After a while of walking, she began to grow fatigued and decided to pick a tree to rest under.  In such a shady forest, being under a tree wasn't really necessary, but there was something comforting about being so near to such a big structure.  This particular tree was lifted off the ground by the roots just enough for a very small creature such as an eevee to slip under it to hide.  If anything happened, she could just dart under her little hiding spot and she'd surely be fine.

With this reassurance in mind, Uthinare decided to take a nap next to the tree.  She tended to be a light sleeper, so if anything approached, she was confident she'd wake up.

The day had started pretty regularly. Nate had woken up, decided to head out on a mission, and went to the boards to take a look at what was available. All standard fare. The Pikachu had been scanning through the various papers posted up on the board, before catching a glimpse of one in particular. He blinked, and with a bit of effort managed to pick the mission papers off the wall. It seemed to have come from an Arcanine, one talking about a Skiddo child that was hanging out with some shady pokemon apparently. Definitely suspicious, and definitely something worth checking out.

He was all set to take the mission, when out of nowhere, he showed up. Some super edgy Glaceon he'd heard about around the guild, Sofa or something, walked on up, took the note out of his hand and told him to do something less dangerous. As if he wasn't in the guild, fully prepared to take a dangerous mission, to help someone out. And for the fun of it. Who even was this guy to just pull a mission out of his grasp? Well, Nate definitely wasn't putting up with that kind of crap today.

And so it was that the rodent ended up following a Glaceon and an Arcanine out to the Monochrome Ruins. Good thing, too, he figured. So far, the other pokemon was living up to his Ice typing and giving everybody there the cold shoulder. One word answers, nods, and little to no communication. As the group arrived at the ruins, the Pikachu hopped around a bit, trying to jostle the water from the waterfall out of his fur as he glanced back, looking to the Arcanine they were escorting.


Part of her wanted to murder the Eevee currently sharing the cell with her. All she needed were a few good Water Guns, just knock her against the wall a few times. Of course, this bloodlust might have been a bit escalated by the fact that all three of the most important assets she had to herself were gone. Just like that, all three scalchops she had were confiscated. Three! She had three of them and lost all of them. What kind of Oshawott was she?! No, no, she had to remind herself. It wasn't really her fault. It was mostly Ivy who had gotten them into the mess.

And that was where the other part of her came in. The part sitting down on the ground and silently staring at the wall, paying no attention to the Eevee as she tried to calm herself down. Once she managed to calm herself, maybe she could get to figuring something out. She had no materials, no use of her paws, or anything like that to help out. Just herself, and the bound and gagged Eevee with her.

Things had started out fine enough. She and Ivy had finished what they were doing, and gone off on their way together. That was when the Kabutops showed up and started speaking. Before she could say anything, the prophet just had to go and do her thing. She had to open her mouth to him about Arceus, and the rest was history.

"...is there anything, anything at all, you've got available to you? Moves, abilities, items you managed to smuggle in, anything?" The Oshawott simply questioned, continuing to stare at the wall whilst barely keeping her tone calm, and not outright pissed about the situation. She'd heard the Charmeleon leave, and figured now would be the best time to try and figure something out as far as a strategy went.


"...s-so, are you telling me there's really some kind of b-berry out there that heals you when you get hit by c-certain kinds of attacks?" After their previous excursions in Shadowhue Forest, where they had parted ways with Victoria and Joey, Shintara had found herself wandering throughout Shadowhue alongside Jaden, the Snivy that she met there. He seemed nice enough, and he was proving to be a wealth of knowledge on berries. Shintara had never really dealt with berries before, other members of her tribe took care of that, and considering her tribe lived in the desert, if it wasn't your job, you typically didn't deal with the little amount berries they had available.

Of course, despite her sense of air currents and other senses available to her, the absol wasn't exactly the best navigator. And so it happened that instead of heading out of Shadowhue, they only seemed to go deeper, heading further towards the Monochrome area. As she listened and waited for an answer about the current kind of berry they were talking about, Shintara paused for a moment. Blinking her eyes, her nose twitched as she sniffed around and tuned into the air currents being kicked up by the breeze. Sure enough, there seemed to be a shape laying down nearby a tree, carrying a scent that seemed like it belonged to a pokemon. Probably living.

"Jaden? I think th-there's someone over there..." She stated, unsure of whether or not she was interrupting him due to focusing more on this new shape in the past couple of seconds than what the Snivy had said. She came to a halt and turned towards the direction of the Eevee, preparing to step closer...


The Arcanine stepped through the waterfall behind her two escorts, shaking herself off to get rid of any excess water in her fur as she heard the rodent ask her something.

"Hey, er, Raine, right? You fine with the whole water thing? I mean, being a fire type and all, y'know..." The Pikachu kept speaking, but all the Arcanine did in return was stare at him, gradually raising her brow even more as he continued to speak himself into a hole. Luckily, the electric type seemed to figure out when to call it quits and rubbed the back of his head, turning away and staring down the tunnel towards the ruins once more.

"I'm fine. This is the entrance to the ruins, though. Aries' scent seems to lead here, but the water makes it a hell of a lot harder to follow it. From here on out, I think we're on our own finding him." She stated, not sounding very amused with the Pikachu. Taking a few steps forward and sniffing around a bit, she checked to make sure that she was correct. Sure enough, his scent seemed to have been washed away.

Stealth, that was what he needed right now. He had been asked to come along for a mission with the jolteon in order to protect Sova. The archeops did not quite know what Sova had been up to lately, having been focused on his own affairs in Ailreon with Linus's odd behavior as of late. The Honchkrow seemed much more irritable as of late and the archeops had been busy trying to figure out just why. He failed.

He had gone down to Ailreon to do some shopping, the prices in shops there being significantly cheaper than the high class Ailreon that was high in many more ways than height. The shopkeepers certainly had to have been so if they thought Acro was willing to pay that much for a package of seeds if they were 75 percent cheaper in Grassviel! It seemed that a lot of the residents in Ailreon did not know about the unfair pricing of the shops in the area though, and were quite shocked when he told them about it. He figured that with his spreading of the word, the shopkeepers might just change their minds about their prices soon...at least he had hoped.

Going back on topic, he was currently picking his way around and through undergrowth in order to keep up with the glaceon and keep pace with the jolteon known as Kieth. The jolteon had informed him of Sova's recent adventures, and was worried that this one might kill him. While Acro was fairly confident that the glaceon was capable of taking care of himself, he decided to go along to ease the jolteon's worries. He left Shinka to a babysitting service since Linus did not seem exactly well in the head at the moment, and went along with Kieth to follow the glaceon.

The glaceon was accompanied by an Arcanine and what seemed to be the pikachu that resided in Grassviel, Nate. The pikachu was a part of Team Yazora, a rather famous guild that used to have a gengar in their team that was well known for the many successful missions he pulled before going missing, and an absol that had been selected by Zygarde to be his prophet. A rather famous team, and yet Sova was bringing along what most could consider to be the dull one of the three...or rather two since one was missing.

Acro did not think Nate to be dull, however, as he figured that Nate was a superior explorer to him. The pikachu could probably kick his ass if it really wanted to. The archeops stayed back and laid in wait as the group approached the falls for the ruins, not saying a word as he glanced to Kieth. How long would it take for Kieth to be satisfied with himself? He was fairly certain Sova would not appreciate being followed, and what were they going to do if something terrible DID happen that Sova could not handle? He was uncertain about all of this, but he was not about to let Kieth go and get himself killed trying to help someone vastly stronger than him not get killed.


The queen was missing, and he had an idea as to where she was. Victoria had last been sighted heading into Shadowhue, he had no clue why her majesty would desire to go to such a low place even if it were to seek strength, but she had not returned to the kingdom in days. She was lucky that the kingdom was small enough to allow her to travel like this, otherwise the kingdom would be in ruins. The grass type soared in the sky, flying over the leaves of Shadowhue and instead surveying the falls from above.

There had been rumors of a cult inhabiting the Monochrome Ruins, a dangerous one that favored living sacrifices to give to their gods. It was also rumored to be quite a powerful one, one could rival the guild in terms of strength and numbers. He had a feeling that she might have been captured by them, she could have been a prime target considering her appearance. Her amulet practically screamed wealth despite how poor the kingdom actually was, but it was the queen's most prized possession as it was her family's heirloom. For generation to generation it had been passed down, and it had landed itself into her tiny claws....only to land her in a dangerous cult that could possibly be killing her as he thought.

Veriq swallowed. He had no knights with him, no real strategy or knowledge of the area, and no real plan. He was pretty much planning on sneaking in, grabbing Victoria if he found her, and leaving. There was no other place she could have gone! Where else would she be if she was never seen leaving Shadowhue recently? It did not occur to the tropius that perhaps she had traveled into Pecha Forest and left the forest-filled land through there, as he was in too much of a panic over his princess to do much.

He was usually a rather laid-back kind of pokemon, but when it came to the queen, things always get him...nervous. He did not understand why, but it felt like deep down he needed to be careful around royalty and important figures. Not for the sake of not making a fool of himself, but for something else entirely. The tropius stopped and flapped his mighty leafy wings as he flew in place, slowly descending so that he did not break what little legs he had on his massive body. It was going to be tough to be stealthy, but he was still confident that he could form some kind of plan as he went.

The tropius's mighty green wings finally stopped flapping as he landed himself, a heavy thud resounding as the earth shook slightly from his weight. He had stopped flapping while he was a bit too high up. His eyes widened in sudden pain as his knees expressed their discomfort in landing so harshly. He was a bit furious with himself, for he should have been more careful! What if the queen had been around?! His long neck rose as he surveyed the area, not quite noticing he had landed in front of an eevee sleeping near a tree. The tropius failed to look behind him, not realizing he had given the little fox pokemon one hell of a wake-up call.


"Yes," the grass snake nodded with a delightful smile in confirmation to the absol's question. He searched through his mind as he dug out the files of what he knew about the particular berry he had decided to inform his new friend about, "The Enigma berry is a rare berry, it's black and white with strange swirls on it. A pretty neat looking berry, but when you eat it while being hit with an attack that's particularly effective against you it'll heal you right back up! It's an interesting berry that i've read about, but i'd like to see one in real life. Some say it does not even exist at times," the grass snake smiled politely and paused as Shintara spoke.

The absol seemed nice, stuttered a bit and seemed to overthink things. At least that was his theory of her nervous stuttering. He figured that she probably overthought things to the extreme and became nervous of what others thought of her, something he was not unfamiliar with. The little snake used to be just as bad before he met his friends, considering he used to have a good dose of daily bullying before Garnet and Namataki came along.

The snake's bright red eyes trailed to head of them and spotted an eevee. It showed little sign of movement save for breathing, it seemed to be asleep. Shintara was beginning to walk towards it, however Jaden had been lucky enough to hear something coming from above. He looked up and his eyes widened. Vines whooshed out from behind him and wrapped themselves loosely around Shintara's chest in order to gently prevent her from moving forward, "Watch it!" he cried as a big beast seemed to land just in front of them, nearly crushing the little eevee from their perspective despite some distance between them.

The vines retreated once the beast had landed, "Wha-" he spoke, "What just happened?" the snake was not too sure of what had happened himself as there was now suddenly a tropius in front of him and the absol.

The tropius's mighty head swung towards the two before it spoke, "Oh...sorry, my mistake," he had spoken politely."


The darkness was creeping in on the little skiddo as he shivered in his little corner like a small animal. His legs were folded underneath him as his head rested against the wall as he stared at the floor with tightly closed eyes. His horns separated the wall from his forehead as he shrunk into the corner in attempt to make himself unnoticeable. His ears were pinned against his head in attempt to drown out any noise as he attempted to block out all his senses and imagine himself in someplace better. A field of grass, a shining sun, and his mamas all there to comfort him. He wanted that more than anything at the moment, but he was denied that upon the clanging sound as something was dropped in the distance. He did not want to know what.

The skiddo wanted to be anywhere but here. The pokemon were mean here, they mumbled about some diety and would always hit him whenever he did not do as they pleased. He did know how long he had been here for, but it was too long. The shaking little skiddo could hear pokemon approaching and his quivering began to grow worse. The guards passed, and he was safe...for now.

He was chained, metal links connecting him to the wall that prevented him from going wherever he pleased save for his little corner. He had long since given up and breaking free after a session with the charmeleon. The evolved pokemon was strong and had beaten him down with ease, leaving various scars across the skiddo's body for him to think about next time he tried to escape. Sometimes one of them would come back just to remind him of what would happen if he tried to leave.

Aries's day dreams were constantly plagued by nightmares as his mind was brought back to cruel reality with each sound. He wanted to go on his journey, he wanted to leave, get out of here. Why did these pokemon even want him? They had said something about saving his blood whenever the charmeleon and kabutops had attacked him, but why would they want that? The confused skiddo could only quiver in fear, not even whimpering in fear of being punished for making the slightest of sound and movement.

He could feel his stomach practically caving in on itself, he was hungry. They did not provide food for him, and when he had complained they said that he should just photosynthesize. He had tried to explain how he could not in this dark and dreary place, but they refused to listen. He was just beginning to slip into the bliss of a numbing slumber, when he heard the jail cell's doors open. He shrunk against the wall as much as he could, trying to close his eyes even tighter and make everything just disappear before him.

He expected to either be dragged or a sudden explosion of pain, but instead it seemed that something was thrown in. Two somethings. One eye slowly opened as he dared to sneak a peak at what was going on as the doors clanged shut. Two new pokemon, by the torchlight he could make them out to be an eevee and an oshawott. Were they new recruits? The thought terrified him, his eye squeezing shut once more as he moved his head to face the corner and hide his face. He did not register that one was a familiar face, nor that they seemed to be restrained and one even gagged. 'Mama...' he cried in his thoughts.

Sova didn't care about the water, not even bothering to shake it off of him.  He was more worried about finding "poor lost skiddo child" and getting out of here as fast as possible.  He'd been to the ruins before and had mixed memories about them, but right now, he didn't feel like thinking about even the good memories.  Plus, the longer this took, the longer he would have to tolerate having company.  The other two weren't particularly talkative, but they weren't particularly quiet either.  He would have much preferred to be in complete silence.

The glaceon just continued walking without partaking in the conversation or waiting for the others to shake off.  He didn't care whether or not he led, but he wasn't going to wait for his tag-alongs.  The pikachu had to be either unusually brave or unusually stupid to want to go anywhere with him, and after overhearing the conversation about the arcanine and water, he decided it was the latter.  That just made him not want to talk to the guy even more, but still, Nate surely had some kind of merit to be on a successful guild team.  Even so, he wasn't interested in speaking to his temporary ally, nor even the client.  He knew the gist of why he was here, and that was all there was to it.

Still, he kind of needed to speak to them at least a little bit, if only to make sure they both knew what to do.  "It's easy to get lost in this kind of place, so stay close.  If we end up fighting, I'd advise you two just sit back and watch.  And if you don't follow these two rules, don't expect me to be there to save you, Nate," he spoke in a harsh and uncaring tone.
In truth, he would do his best to protect the client as well as Mr. Nate if it came to it, but he was still bitter about the pikachu deciding to come along, so he was just going to pretend otherwise.  As long as the other two did as he asked and stayed out of his way in the event of a fight, everything would hopefully be alright.  He could handle whatever this place had to offer on his own.  Or at least, he very much hoped so.


After a moment of consideration, Keith decided it would be better to wait for a minute before entering the ruins.  He wasn't sure if there would be an immediate hiding place inside, nor if Sova's group was just sitting on the other side of the entrance, doing nothing.  If he just ran straight in, there was a good chance of him getting caught on the spot.  Instead, he would wait until he felt it was safe to continue on without being spotted.  In the meantime, now seemed like a good time to talk, since the waterfall and distance would drown out their voices.

"We should wait for a minute, just to make sure we don't run right in on them," the jolteon stated what was perhaps obvious.
Then he decided to use this time to get in some idle chatter: "Soo.... how have you.... uh, been?"
He wasn't very good at idle chatter.  Or just any kind of conversation.  Okay, he sucked at socializing in general.  Had he done it right?  It was easier since he already knew Acro; talking to a complete stranger like this would have been more difficult. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure he would have been able to start a conversation with a stranger at all.

"And Linus?  Shinka?" he continued out of worry that he hadn't given enough to start a proper conversation with.
This was how one started a conversation, right?  Ask how the other's doing, how their friends are doing?  He didn't really know anything about Acro other than the fact that the bird was in a team, so he didn't have many ways to start a conversation up. Or maybe he did and just didn't know it. Either way, he couldn't think of any better way to do it, so the awkward attempt he'd made would have to suffice.


While her companion was sulking, Ivirar was busy flopping around dramatically, as if her life depended on it.  In all honesty, it probably did, but she was mostly just doing it because she was very uncomfortable with being tied up.  She wasn't worried about dying, but being all bound and gagged was incredibly weird, and the bindings were kind of hurting.  She was basically throwing a tantrum.  However, she stopped when the oshawott spoke to her.  Ava sounded kinda sad.  She'd totally blown her shot at friendship with this, hadn't she?

"Mmmph," she responded.
She couldn't really say anything for obvious reasons, but she'd tried anyway.  However, she did in fact have one or two moves that could help.  If she could only somehow get Ava to come closer to her, close enough to touch, she could use Helping Hand.  Then maybe the oshawott could break the bindings or something.  However, she currently had no way of telling Ava to come closer to her, which meant she had to improvise.  She sighed before beginning to roll across the floor toward her comrade, looking like an idiot in the process.  She finally came to a stop upon bumping into the sulking oshawott, but sadly, she was facing the wrong way.  Her back was facing Avaria and it would be difficult to try and move, so she just decided to do the next best thing.

"MMMHMMM," she made an obnoxious noise through her gag and raised her front paws into the air as they began to glow white.
If Ava would just turn around and understand to touch the pretty light, maybe they could get out of here. She could heal Ava too, but she doubted that would be particularly useful at the moment.  Maybe they wouldn't be friends after this, but that worry would have to wait until later to be addressed, as now wasn't a very appropriate time. She would have considered addressing it right then and there if not for the gag in her mouth.

The eevee failed entirely to notice there was someone else occupying the same cell as them.


Uthinare was relaxing, having a nice nap in a forest, when a sudden earthquake jolted her from her sleep.  She looked around to see the ground ripping apart around her.... and then she woke up.  Again.  She was in a forest, dreaming about being in a forest and sleeping.  Literally the most boring dream ever until the earthquake came about.  However, upon actually waking up, she was met not with an earthquake, but with some huge leaf-dinosaur-thing standing near her.  She immediately rolled under the roots of the tree she'd been sleeping near and fell completely silent.  What had she just woken up to?  Was the thing friendly, or would it attack her if she came out?  Had it seen her?

She knew not the answers to any of these questions and was not interested in finding out.  Hopefully, the creature would just leave if she hid long enough.  Even if it'd seen her, it hopefully wouldn't be able to reach her past the cover of the tree.  She took a quick glance around in an attempt to decide where she would run if it came to that, spotting a snivy and an absol in the process.  Maybe they'd help?  Well, she wasn't going to try talking to them since she didn't know whether or not they were hostile.  She didn't even know where she was for a moment, having just been woken up by some giant thing landing in front of her.

She was in Shadowhue, she had been sleeping, and then this thing must have done something to make a loud noise.  It seemed to have wings, so it'd probably just landed in front of her.  It didn't appear to be looking at her, so maybe it hadn't even noticed her?  Maybe she could just slip away without any trouble.  But then, what of the other two?  Had they noticed her, and if so, would they be a problem?  Rather than making a run for it, she decided to just stay under the tree for now.  Maybe the newcomers would all just move along and leave her alone if she hid long enough.

Then the big thing spoke.  It didn't really seem hostile, rather quite the opposite.  The eevee sighed in relief at this.  She peeked out from the safety of under the tree and spoke up: "You could have killed me!"
Of course, now that she knew the giant was.... probably friendly, she was going to let the guy know just how unhappy she was about being woken up in such a manner.

Nate had been watching the client sniff around to verify that she couldn't find any more of Aries' scent yet when Edge McEdge had spoken up once more, this time offering the two of them some 'advice'. The Arcanine only seemed to stare over at Sova with a thoroughly annoyed expression, but the Pikachu was just a tad more expressive. His cheeks sparked with electricity as he turned back to look at the Glaceon, giving an indignant glare at the Ice-Type. Really, what was this guy's deal? Sure, he'd heard about a few of his exploits and how powerful he was, but that didn't mean he couldn't even take care of himself!

"Hey! I can handle myself just fine, thank you very much! Don't come looking to me when you..." Nate suddenly stopped as he spoke, thinking about what exactly he was saying.
"...if you..." He started to try and speak again, a bit quieter this time. Yeah, well, something told him the Glaceon wouldn't need his help in any sort of circumstance. What could he even say to Sova at this point? Oh, wait! Didn't Sova have that partner of his back at the guild? Keith or something? The Jolteon had been asking him what Sova was up to, just after the Glaceon had tried to pretty much steal the mission right out of his paws. Keith seemed pretty worried about him, and the ice type didn't seem to be looking to bring him along.

But, that also begged another question. Was it really going to be wise to piss off this pokemon? By maybe bringing up some kind of sensitive subject while they were on a mission? Probably not, no. At least not yet. He could definitely try and show just a little self control for the time being. At the current place in time. For this second. But if Sova kept acting like a grade-A dick he wasn't going to hold onto that little tidbit.

With a begrudging grumble, Nate picked up the pace and started to move forward, attempting to pass the Glaceon and continue onward towards the ruins.



"Mmmph,"

Ah. Right. Ivy had gotten herself gagged because she just had to keep speaking to their resident guard. From what she'd seen of the Eevee thus far, Ava couldn't help but assume that she just didn't know when to shut her mouth. Something told the Oshawott that her current companion wouldn't be a good pokemon to share any secrets with, based on that. Something good to make a note of before she spent too much time around the normal type pokemon.

As she had attempted to speak up, Ava glanced back to look at the prophet just in time to watch her roll her way over, in a rather undignified way. She just stared at Ivy as she rolled over to her, staring and not even saying anything as she bumped into her. The whole display itself was...certainly a sight to see. In another situation, it might have even been a bit amusing. But right now she was missing her scalchops, and when she got out of that cell, she was going to give any of those cultists she came across hell...

She found herself distracted from her own thoughts as the Eevee's paws lit up, glowing with a strange hue. Considering Ivy was an Eevee, and she was just waiting there with her paws lit up, Ava figured she was waiting on her for something.
"You...want me to touch your paws?" The Oshawott questioned, pivoting around to fully face the prophet. Instinctively, she went to reach forward with her paws, before remembering exactly how she had been bound up. Well, she couldn't really get the good ol' handcuff treatment, considering they'd probably slide off her paws, so...she'd pretty much been body wrapped below the neck and above the feet.

Lifting up a foot, she poked the Eevee's paw with it, and suddenly felt a surge of strength rush through her body. She wasn't sure what exactly she had been expecting, but that was...well, not completely unexpected, but still a slight surprise. With this newfound power, the Oshawott started to squirm around in her bindings, trying as best as she could to break her way out of the wrapping. After a few moments, with a sufficient amount of pressure, she stopped struggling. She hadn't broken the bindings, but she'd managed to stretch them out a bit, make them looser. Loose enough to slip the wrapping down her body, allowing her use of her paws.

She gave a quick glance to make sure the guards weren't there before she reached down and grabbed the gag Ivy had in her mouth, pulling it loose and slipping it down into her neck fluff.
"First things first, we need a plan. We have to get out of the cell, get our stuff, and leave. Preferably as quietly as possible." Ava whispered to her temporary companion, making sure to keep her voice down just in case it carried. Well, she didn't quite want to leave just yet, she wanted to...thank their hosts for their hospitality. But she would probably need to ditch Ivy before she did anything like that. As she finished speaking, she started to look around the cell, checking for anything they might be able to use. As she looked, she stopped, noticing another occupant.

It seemed like a Skiddo, huddled over in the corner. He seemed to be more thoroughly chained up, and if the wounds he had were anything to go by, he'd been there longer than either she or Ivy had been. She couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the grass type there, but at the same time, she had to think about the situation a bit. Why was he apparently so much more important to bind than she or Ivy had been? Did they just run out of chains, or was there something special about the Skiddo? She started to get lost in her own thoughts, staring over at Aries, not particularly paying attention to anything Ivy might have been saying.



Before she could take another step forward, the Absol suddenly stopped, nearly tripping as Jaden's vines stopped her. After a second of confusion, the Snivy's warning and the air currents both immediately pointed to what was going on for her. Something big was falling through the air, something pretty huge actually. It fell and hit the ground with a thud, making Shintara let out an involuntary yell in surprise. From the sudden blast of wind the Tropius' landing had created, she could sense the Eevee rolling towards the tree, before...almost disappearing, sort of, around the roots of it. She could tell there was a shape mixed in with the tree roots now, but she couldn't figure out if the shape was just more roots or something else.

Luckily, Uthinare poked her head out from among the tree roots and started to give Veriq a piece of her mind, confirming to Shintara that the Eevee disappearing from her senses didn't mean she had been squashed underfoot by the Tropius in front of them.
"Y-yeah, you could have just squ-squished her, though, if nobody got hurt I g-guess it isn't a huge problem..." She spoke, sounding a bit more unsure with the last piece, like she was stretching to try and grab at a silver lining.

Oh, wait. What if Veriq had hurt himself when he had just fallen down in front of him? He didn't sound hurt when he apologized, but what if he was just hiding it? And she was standing there berating him and assuming nobody got hurt? Oh, and she hadn't even introduced herself. She was such a mess!
"Ah! I-I'm Shintara, are you alright?" She intially questioned while a bit out of it from her earlier panic, intending on apologizing to the Tropius. When she suddenly realized her mistake she froze up.
"W-wait, no, I mean I'm sorry, b-but my name is Shintara!" The Absol quickly corrected herself, feeling like she wanted to go join Uthinare in the roots of the trees and go hide from the conversation, a look of heavy embarrassment on her face making her turn her head away so it didn't look like she was looking at Veriq.



Arceus, she was supposed to be the client here. And yet after listening to the two guild members who were supposed to be escorting her, the Arcanine was getting the feeling that she was about to become a babysitter for the two of them. The Glaceon seemed pretty capable, but he was pretty much acting like a dick to the Pikachu. Meanwhile, said Pikachu definitely seemed to be letting it get to him too much as he seemed to try and move on ahead past Sova, instead of letting the obviously stronger one go first just in case anything happened.

"Fine by me, always handy to have somebody by the back anyways in case something comes up behind us." She nodded, tolerating the Glaceon's behavior much better than Nate. If she was going to have to put up with the two of them, and both of their problems, then that was fine by her. As long as they all got in, got Aries, and got out, she'd put up with all sorts of things...to an extent. She started to walk forward once more, but stayed behind the Glaceon and the Pikachu, sticking true to her word and keeping an eye on things behind them whilst they continued on.

55 - Acro
10 - Veriq
5 - Jaden
9 - aries

Acro

The archeops's head turned to look at Kieth as he seemed to start up some conversation with him. Now? Of all times? Well if he wanted to...The archeops did not exactly think it to be a good idea to talk idly as if everything was fine and dandy, after all there was a dangerous cult running around here! He supposed he could just grab Kieth and take off if things suddenly got nasty. The archeops thought for a moment about the jolteon's question before answering, "Fine...I guess?" He answered. He was about as fine as he was ever going to be, it wasn't exactly good or the average standard of being 'fine' but he was not going to waste time explaining.

"Linus has been..." he paused again, a bit uncertain, "Not so good. I think he's been affected by that feral sickness that started going around when the whole Giratina business started up. He's been snappy lately, i've heard him talking to himself, he's been acting odd, and he's generally a lot meaner than he used to be..." The team leader was genuinely concerned for his teammate, considering he was responsible for him. The archeops was unsure of what to do with his teammate. Was their a cure? Was this his fault? His expression turned to a look of dark worry as he thought about it even more.

"I had to leave Shinka with a different sitter...I can't bring myself to trust Linus when he's like this. It's like he's not him anymore. Shinka's been doing fine though it seems, happy at the least." The archeops turned to watch the falls, "You?" he said automatically out of politeness since Kieth had bothered to even ask about his life.

--

Veriq

The tropius found himself being scolded left and right even though he had apologized. He frowned as his head hung lower, "I'm sorry.." he spoke in a low voice, unsure of how to really go about this. Suddenly the absol that had been one of the ones to scold him was asking if he was alright. He smiled sheepishly, "Yes i'm fine, I may be a bit on the old side, but i'm not that old!" at least he hoped not. He was aware that he was a bit old, but he could not exactly remember how old he was.

The tropius still lacked memories, many MANY memories. The grass and flying type had lost them long ago, and still had yet to regain them. Well, he had one memory but it was assumed to have been a vision of the future. Back on topic, he raised his head a bit after examining his knees and flexing them a bit to make sure that he really was fine. The tropius gave a sigh before getting his priorities on a bit straight, "You...you all should not hang around here for too long," he decided to warn them.

"What for?" The snivy asked.

"There's a dangerous cult around here," he spoke, "They attack any who's not in it and those that usually encounter them are not seen again. Their power rivals the guild from what I have heard."

--

Jaden

The grass snake was a bit surprised to hear about a dangerous cult that rivaled the guild. The snake's eyes widened as his crossed arms fell to his side. That was most certianly dangerous! He avoided glancing at Shintara, wondering if she should really be here if there was that dangerous of a cult around. The absol was certainly a capable fighter and was generally plesant to be around, but wouldn't this place be too dangerous for her?

Wait a second..."So why are you here?" he asked the tropius, an eyebrow raising with the question.

"I am Veriq, the tactician of Queen Victoria of the Blacktooth Kingdom. My queen has gone missing as of late and I am in search of her, she was last spotted around here..." the grass and flying type answered smoothly and what seemed to be honestly.

Wait another second...Victoria? He knew her, "Uh...she's not here. She went back I think?" Jaden spoke, his arms crossing once more. "We met her a while ago, she was just fine handling herself it seemed...?"

He felt a bit bad from the reaction the tropius gave, "Oh..." the grass type had said.

--

Aries

Silent and still. Don't move. Don't do anything to antagonize them and maybe they'll just let him pass. Maybe they wont hit as hard, maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Many chance situations were popping up in the skiddo's mind, but not one of them thought that the two would be friendly nor that they too were prisoners. The skiddo was trapped, chained, and weak. He wanted food. He wanted water. He wanted sunlight. He wanted his mamas. He wanted many things, but none he could have at the current moment. Just stand still, and stay silent.

Acro

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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Veriq

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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Aries

Kat carried out 9 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , , , , , ,

Jaden

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , ,

There was something funny about how Nate couldn't even have a death-wish correctly.  Perhaps Sova would have considered continuing the hostility, but after such a pathetic attempt at a comeback, he didn't even care.  In fact, it was genuinely funny; it made him chuckle for the first time in a while.  Neither of his allies were happy with him, yet all he could think about was how funny it was.  Maybe the madness was starting to get to him, or maybe it had already.  The latter would have explained a lot.  But madness or not, he still had a job to do.

The rat now seemed to be trying to pass him.  Couldn't beat him verbally, so attempting to take the lead was somehow supposed to fix that?  He considered his options in this situation: let the pikachu lead or don't.  One would result in more conflict, while the other was wrong from a moral standpoint.  He needed to lead to make sure he could protect the rat.  It was a nice thought to just let Nate take the lead and end up getting hurt for it, but he couldn't do that....  Okay, he could, but he wasn't feeling up to being morally gray at the moment.  In the end, he picked up his pace to keep ahead of the pikachu, knowing it would probably spawn more conflict.

Conflict was fine.  He didn't care about conflict.  If anything, it would just be a way for him to let off some steam.  Or.... some.... mist?  Ice-types usually didn't "steam."  Point being he wasn't worried about getting into another argument.  At the very least, it was better than the possibility of Mr. Deathwish getting killed by leading the way.  "I'd suggest you let me lead the way.  You don't look like you're built to take hits," he got to the point as quickl yas he could, not wanting to speak more than he had to.
Of course, he had to admit a glaceon didn't really look much more capable of taking damage than a pikachu.  However, he knew his own limits, and he knew they were high.  Or maybe he just liked praising himself.  Still, his past feats didn't lie: he'd survived multiple encounters where he'd been completely outmatched.


Upon asking about Acro's life, Keith hadn't quite expected such a dark, depressing response.  He barely knew the guy, but he still felt bad hearing about everything that'd happened.  Linus didn't really seem to like him, but that didn't mean he wanted the poor edgy bird to end up going crazy!  He couldn't help but furrow his brow in a worried look as the bird talked about what'd happened.  Sadly, he had no clue if there was even a way to fix the madness, so he couldn't offer any help.  He tried to look on the bright side, though: Shinka was doing alright.  The goomy.... that hated him.  He was bad at bright sides.

He was in the middle of trying to think up some kind of response that didn't sound insensitive or meaningless when the archeops reflected his question back on him.  He wasn't quite doing as bad as Linus, but his time as a guild member so far hadn't been as pleasant as he'd hoped.  "The guild's nice.  Most of the other members are okay.... or at least, Skylar says they are.  She's a lot more social than me," he tried to explain, having to correct himself halfway through as he was reminded of how little he really socialized.
He'd seen some of the other guild members, and they really looked nice, but he hadn't done much talking.  "O-oh, Skylar's the other member of.... uh.... Sova's team."

He wanted include himself and Skylar in ownership of the team, but in truth, he didn't really feel like much of a co-owner.  He'd barely done anything so far, partly because Sova wouldn't let him and partly because he was scared to to out alone.  "I like Skylar.  And I like Sova too, but.... he's been.... really mean.  More than usual.  He's "forbidden" us from going on missions until the Giratina thing is sorted out and he just yells whenever we offer to help him with anything.  He's hardly ever around the guild; I don't even think he sleeps inside.  Or at all," he continued explaining, getting to the less pleasant stuff.
He fell silent for a moment and hanged his head as he reminded himself of his leader's recent aggression.

Sova was likely going to end up finding out about this and wouldn't be happy.  The jolteon knew that.  "He's gonna be mad if he finds out I'm following him.  He'll just yell more.  But...." he trailed off.
Sova had saved him, which meant a lot.  He felt like he owed the guy, even if he just ended up getting chewed out for even thinking of helping.  


Oh, sweet relief, Ava wasn't an idiot!  The eevee sighed as her companion  gathered what she wanted, and to her relief it worked!  Sort of!  The oshawott wasn't quite able to break the bindings, but it was close enough.  She then waited for her turn to be freed, which was surely coming.  First, the gag; she took a deep, exaggerated breath as it was removed, as if she'd been suffocating.  It hadn't actually restricted her breathing at all.  Then.... nothing.  Ava started talking about a plan, but without untying her first!  Why weren't her poor, tied legs the priority!?  She held her front paws up pitifully and stared at them in the hopes of not-so-subtly getting the oshawott to realize she needed to be untied, but it seemed her friend was not paying attention to her.

"Plan: Untie me," Ivirar suggested.
Ava wasn't paying attention to her, just looking at something in the room.  She followed the gaze of the oshawott to what appeared to be someone else who was in their cell with them.  It took a moment to figure out what she was looking at, but that was likely due to how she was lying on her back and leaning her head back to look at the skiddo, resulting in everything being upside-down.  The goat looked to be in pretty bad shape, something even Ivy could see.  She fell silent for a moment in pity before getting an idea.  Maybe she could help the poor thing.

The eevee's eyes drifted shut and her mind was filled with the sole thought of helping the skiddo.  After a moment, her body briefly glowed white, and at first, it seemed like it'd done nothing.  In reality, though, she had just made a wish to rejuvenate the skiddo.  It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was the best she could offer.  Now, hopefully, Avaria would start paying more attention to her!  "Okay, there, they'll start feeling better in a minute.  Now untie me!" she spoke once more and assumed the reason she had yet to be untied was because Ava was too busy worrying about their cellmate.

Perhaps she was getting a bit anxious.  It wasn't like she was worried, as she had Arceus' protection....  It wasn't like what Celebi had told her was bothering her at all.  It wasn't like she thought maybe she was expendable, that maybe she could meet an unfortunate fate here.  She just.... didn't want to take the risk.  Plus, while she had Arceus, Ava was not so fortunate.  The oshawott was not of the eevee's faith, which meant no protection.  With that in mind, she wanted to try and get out of here as fast as possible.  Yeah.... for Ava.

In truth, though, the slight worry over such things wasn't her main concern.  The cryptic riddle that she didn't fully remember was still in her mind, eating away at her thoughts.  Maybe it'd just been Celebi trying to get to her.  Yeah, it had to be that.  Or more-so, she had to assume it was that for now.  Now wasn't really a good time to be worrying about silly future things that probably weren't going to happen.  Right now, there were present things that were definitely going to happen if they didn't do something about it.


Uthinare quieted down and allowed the others to talk for a moment, having gotten her point across.  Absol was agreeing with her at first, but suddenly decided half-way through to just start apologizing.  No no, giant grass guy was supposed to be apologizing!  What had the absol done that deserved an apology?  Told someone they were wrong for not looking where they were going and almost stepping on a poor, innocent eevee?  She fully agreed that almost stepping on innocent fluffy creatures was not okay, especially since she was the innocent fluffy creature in question!  The giant oaf then explained himself to be something something kingdom something something yeah she wasn't listening very well.

Seeing that the conversation could probably spiral off if left alone, the eevee decided to vocalize her thoughts on the situation before it was too late.  If the big guy truly was sorry, and there truly was a cult roaming about, perhaps there was something he could do to make it up to her.  "Excuse me, but it sounds like you won't be finding your princess here.  So, how about you escort me out of here instead, to make sure I'm not caught by this.... cult?" she pestered.
Guy owed her.  Maybe the other two would want to come along too, which would be okay, though she figured they could probably take care of themselves.

"I think that's only fair considering you woke me up and almost stepped on me," she added on, putting emphasis on the last part to really get her point across.
She didn't like asking for protection, but that was the smart thing to do.  There was no shame in being cautious, nor was there any point in pride if she wasn't alive to enjoy it.  Had she been aware of the cult earlier, perhaps she would have chosen a different place to nap, but it was too late to worry about that now.


(Now time to appease the crab gods.)
(Sova - 101)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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(Keith - 14)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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(Ivirar - 5)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , ,

(Uthinare - 5)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

, , , ,

Much to Nate's annoyance, the Glaceon picked up his own speed as well. On top of that, he made some kind of snarky one-liner about being better at taking hits than the Pikachu. Well, that wasn't exactly what he said, but the implications were there that he meant he was better at doing it. Which was most likely true, but it didn't mean he was incapable, for the love of Arceus.
"Says the icicle. Have you ever punched an icicle before or something? That stuff breaks easily." He remarked with a great deal of stretching and troll logic, starting to speed up once more to try and at the very least keep up with Sova.

He was starting to get pretty annoyed with the Glaceon's attitude about things. Maybe unwisely, he decided he was going to try and hold things in for the time being. For the sake of the client, of course. Totally not himself because the other pokemon would probably wipe the floor with him before turning what was left into an ice skating rink, definitely not that. And holding things in absolutely wasn't unhealthy, and he definitely wasn't going to probably explode at some point.

Well. He could probably hold it in for like a few more minutes. Maybe one. Something like that.



Ivy seemed like she wanted to get untied.

Ivy was going to have to deal with it and wait.

The Oshawott looked back to the tied up Eevee for a moment and silently shook her head, before glancing about the area. Alright, let's see...we're locked in a cell. I don't have any of my items or scalchops, so I'm definitely not getting up anywhere high in here to hide. The Skiddo seems way too scared to cooperate, might even get dangerous if we don't properly convince him we're alright. Plus, he looks pretty injured. Depending on how much Ivy helps him, he might not be a ton of help. But, he's still better than nothing.

They seem to be rotating guards, but only with one guard each time. If we could get the guard in here, we could try and take him down quickly and quietly. The three of us could do it if we work together, maybe. Of course, we'd have to be quick, and coordinated. Which might be asking a bit much. Still, though, we can get the guard inside maybe. The guard came in to gag Ivy when she complained, so since I don't have a gag, I bet I could earn one myself...

In review. Make it look like I'm still tied up, and keep Ivy tied up. Move over by the Skiddo and get Ivy over here by me. Say something to the guard, get it in here, then when it doesn't expect it the three of us jump in and take them out.

"I can't untie you yet. If I untie you, the guard will know we're free. We need to look like nothing happened." The Oshawott stated calmly, picking up her bindings and turning towards the Skiddo, waddling over towards him.
"Which means I'm probably going to gag you when I hear the guard coming back. Sorry." She added in a way that sounded very not sorry, moving over towards Aries. She made sure to approach calmly, hoping to not set him off any sooner, watching him from just a few steps away.

"Hey. My name's Ava, if you don't remember from the last time we met. The three of us can all get out of here, but we're going to need your help, alright?" Ava made sure to speak slowly and calmly, managing a small smirk to the Skiddo. Of course, time was of the essence, but she needed to make sure they could talk the Skiddo into helping them. After all, the more power they had behind them when they ambushed the guard, the better. She had to find a compromise between gaining his trust and confidence, and getting to the point.



The Absol couldn't help but offer a soft smile and a quiet laugh as Veriq protested his age whilst reassuring the group that he was fine. It almost brought her back to her own life in her Tribe, when she was training with her mentor. Most of the time they worked together one-on-one, but every so often he would work with her in a larger group, one made up of other trainees and their mentors. It would usually be a group sparring session, and every so often, she'd find herself questioning the others after battles to make sure they were alright. Most of the time, the older ones tended to respond to things the same way Veriq had. Of course, normally she got berated, and they'd tell her she was supposed to be a warrior, not a medic, but she always figured the thought counted...

For a moment, she found herself lost in her own thoughts. How exactly was her clan doing now? When she'd left, it'd practically been in the midst of an all-out civil war. Were the old friends she knew still alive and fighting? What about her father? And her mentor? Had one side won finally? It suddenly dawned on her that she wouldn't know. She left, and her mentor and leader sent her off as well. They said she wasn't ready...

All of that would have to be pushed aside for now. The Tropius had gone on to mention something about a cult nearby while she was spaced out, one apparently with enough power to rival even the guild. That newfound information was a bit of a shock to Shintara, especially considering how close this was to Grassveil. There was the Falls, and Shadowhue, but other than that it was pretty close...and what if it got there? Maybe the guild could stop it, but what would happen to the civilians in the town?

"W-wait, before you talk about l-leaving, shouldn't we...shouldn't w-we do something about this? We can't j-just leave some cult lying around here, it isn't r-right...what if they start h-hurting other pokemon here?" She questioned the group. However naive and illogical the thought was, she still felt a sense of duty in the situation. Sure, maybe they weren't guild members as far as she knew, but didn't they have a responsibility to help out where they could?

It was around that moment that she started to pick up something in the wind. In the surrounding forest, she started to pick up movement. From the shapes in the wind, she couldn't really tell what exactly they were, but she knew something irregular was moving about. Instinctively, she dropped into a crouch and tensed up, preparing herself.
"G-guys, I think something's coming..." She stated, seemingly spacing out and staring off into the distance at nothing, considering she wasn't really using her eyes to look at anything.



"...where are we supposed to go, anyways?" The Arcanine blinked and stared up ahead at the Pikachu and Glaceon as the former begrudgingly asked the question. She couldn't help but let her head tilt ever so slightly as she raised a brow, as if to silently ask 'Really?'. And of course, the Pikachu had been trying to take the lead all the while. Sure, she could understand some bitterness with Sova's general bad attitude, but there was a difference between dealing with it and being an idiot. And he certainly wasn't dealing with it.

"Further into the Ruins, I'd assume. Since this is a tunnel. And not the Ruins. And the tunnel leads to the Ruins. And this is the only way." She responded to the exasperated look the Pikachu shot her with a shrug and a fairly neutral expression. It wasn't anything personal towards him, she was just answering an obvious question with an obvious answer simple enough.

"So, not to be blunt," She started to ask, before immediately getting blunt. "But why are the two of you taking this mission together? I mean, I'm pretty sure you're not on the same team, and you're not exactly playing well together." The Arcanine figured some questions needed to be asked, especially if she was going to understand the situation she was walking into. After all, if she understood things better, maybe she'd be able to get them to work together just long enough to get Aries out of here.


Nate: 16/31

Pikashock carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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Avaria: 11/26

Pikashock carried out 10 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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Shintara: 9/24

Pikashock carried out 9 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

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Acro

The archeops listened to the Jolteon as he spoke on. His head tilting as he went on about Sova's recent behavior. He did not quite know Sova all too well, just that he was strong and they both had their issues. His mind briefly flicked back to the moment in Shadowhue, the terrifying experience with the flabebe and the breloom. A shiver went through his spine, he never wanted to go through that again.

"Erm..." he started off, "It sounds to me like he just wants what's best for you. It's dangerous out here, and..." he paused, not quite sure how to put what he wanted to say into words. He certianly was not going to justify Sova's harsh and mean behavior, "I don't know..." he admitted. He frowned with uncertainty.

Some noises caught his attention, his head twisted to the side of the lake, spotting a fair bit of pokemon on the side. What were they doing here? Were...were they being attacked?

--

Veriq

Veriq turned to the little eevee as she spoke, the foul little thing was now demanding that he do things for her just because of a little mistake. He frowned deeply as he stared at the eevee, "No." he refused her request, "Just because I nearly stepped on you does not excuse a rude attitude, please try again when you've checked your privileges," he huffed. He would have been happy to help if she had just been a bit kinder in her words, but her tone had merely invoked a rebellious response. He wasn't actually going to leave her on her own, but he would like an apology for her rude attitude.

Back to the more polite and pleasant duo that had spoken to him. The absol seemed to be convinced that they should do something about this. His frown changed to a more sympathetic type, "I came here willing to die to save my queen. How could we take down something that stands as equals with Grassveil? I don't quite think even my queen's army could take them down without proper planning. We have no plan and no-" the tropius was cut off as the absol suddenly stated that they were not alone...

--

Jaden

The snivy blinked as the events unfolded before him. Shintara then declared that there was potential danger afoot. Just as she had spoken, two steel bodies flung themselves forwards from the bushes in order to attack just as a small ghost suddenly appeared from the shadow of the tropius. The snivy had no time to react as the Duskull's glowing red eye suddenly appeared in front of him just after melting to the floor once again and darting over to him.

The red eye glowed brilliantly and reflected in Jaden's wide eyes. The duskull remained there for a moment as Jaden was frozen to the spot before suddenly melting into a shadow and slipping into the darkness once more.

The snivy blinked, wondering just what the hell that was all about. It seemed that two durants were heading straight for Veriq and the eevee though. He moved to give some assistance, only for a purple figure to suddenly shape itself just behind the snivy. The purple energy formed a sharp spike before slamming itself into Jaden. The grass type cried out in pain and fell over as if he had tripped. The purple spike did not actually impale him though it had appeared to have done so. The spike crackled with dark energy, as the Curse took effect on Jaden.

--

Aries

The two talked some more, what were they waiting for? Was this some new technique? Anticipation? He opened an eye, curious to see what was going on. An oshawott and an eevee were staring at him. The eevee spouted something about feeling better. What? He suddenly began to feel quite warm...and fuzzy. It was as if he had spent weeks in a winter chill before finally sitting in front of a warm fire place with some warm drinks.

He had finally pieced together that these two were not one of them, but more of ones that had also been caught by the cultists. The skiddo felt much better, but he still felt like general sh*t. His thirst was still an issue, and it still felt like he was about starve to death.

The oshawott was approaching, Ava. That name rang a bell. They had met before? Recalling things from long ago was difficult for him at the moment, and he could not seem to remember the oshawott. They wanted to escape. Oh arceus, no.

"B...Bad things happen when you try to go away..." he spoke with a raspy voice, trying to tell them that he had tried that before and failed horribly.

Sova suddenly stopped, allowing the pikachu to pass him.
His head hanged as he continued his struggle not to make eye contact with anyone. Perhaps it made it look like he was in a bad mood, but while that wasn't quite the intention, it wasn't exactly misleading either. He chuckled once more. The pikachu was very entertaining to him, even though his outward behavior likely made it look like his laughing was sarcastic and mocking in nature. To an extent, it was, but he still found such a remark to be genuinely funny. It was mostly funny because it was so easy to prove wrong.

The glaceon silently listened to the exchange between the other two before speaking up, carefully considering his words. Okay, he didn't do much careful consideration. "I'm here to make sure he doesn't die. And since he seems to think an icicle isn't fit to protect him...." he fell silent and suddenly darted in front of the electro-rat, leaving behind a brief afterimage in his starting position.
His gaze was still directed toward the ground, but he had kept enough of an eye on where he was going to know he was in front of Nate.

"Wanna put your money where your mouth is?" he questioned as the temperature around him dropped.
"Go ahead and hit me. If you can even faze me, I'll let you lead. Try not to hurt yourself," he proposed an offer.
If Nate actually accepted, then tried to physically hit him, he was going to demonstrate why hitting him was a bad idea by bristling and freezing his fur. If the pikachu was smart enough to use a ranged attack, then he'd just take the hit. Surely, Nate couldn't hit too hard, right? Aaand if the guy decided to be a wuss and not hit him at all, he would take that as an easy victory.

While it was perhaps counter-productive to intentionally hurt someone he wanted to protect, Sova figured this was the lesser of two evils. Yes, if Nate tried to punch him or do something similar, it would be unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as potentially dying due to leading the way. Of course, if the pikachu was actually strong enough to hurt him, even a little bit, he also planned to stay true to his word. Maybe he was morally gray or even black, but he was at the very least honest.


Keith didn't respond hostilely or even negatively toward the archeops. In fact, he completely agreeed, and he was glad to see he was with someone who felt the same way as him. Sova wanted to protect him, and the harsh behavior was due to that. Plus stress. He assumed stress probably had a lot to do with it. He couldn't necessarily defend the behavior, especially since he wasn't the only one being affected and couldn't speak for others, but he certainly understood it. That was the whole reason he'd wanted to help Sova in the first place. He wouldn't have wanted to help someone he felt was just yelling at him for no reason other than to be mean.

The jolteon heard the commotion not far off, what with his big ears and all, but he tried his best to pay no mind to it. He knew Acro was strong, hopefully strong enough to handle anything that happened to pop up in the area of Shadowhue. Either way, right now, he wasn't going to worry much about potential danger until it became more than just potential. He was in the middle of an important conversation, and besides, he really needed to practice being less scared of things. "I know he's just worried about me, and I'm not mad about it. That's why I want to help him. Even if he doesn't need help, I want to show him I can be useful," he responded honestly.
Maybe it was wishful thinking that someone like himself could be useful to an experienced Guild member, but he still wanted to try.

"I'm just.... not sure how to do that," he admitted.
If he'd known how to be useful to Sova, he wouldn't have needed Acro's help. However, for now, he did need the bird's help to ensure he didn't get himself into too much trouble. It would be counter-productive if he got himself in trouble while trying to help Sova and prove he could avoid getting in trouble, after all.


Despite how she generally acted, Ivirar was no idiot. Careless? Sure. Blind? Perhaps. But she was aware of these faults, and the reason she didn't try to fix them was simple: she just didn't care. So, on the topic of strategy, it wasn't as if she couldn't keep up with what the oshawott was suggesting. It wasn't as if she didn't know that being caught untied would be a problem, and she was aware that Ava would likely just re-bind herself to hide that she was untied. However, the eevee didn't quite understand why she couldn't just be unbound as well, then pretend to still be tied up along with Ava. Sure, maybe it'd be a bit harder for her with her quadrupedal body, but she could surely manage it. At that, she wasn't exactly socially inept, so it wasn't particularly difficult to see the inconsideration in Ava's comment about the gag.

This told her one thing: Avaria was most certainly mad at her. She could worry about trying to fix this later, but for now, she felt the need to speak and give her own input on the so-called plan. "They probably tortured him. I wouldn't blame him if he's afraid to help," she spoke, hoping to get the oshawott's attention.
She could understand if the skiddo couldn't find the will to help them escape, as she understood the fear of torture. The mere thought of some form of punishment for attempting and failing to escape terrified her. Maybe if she ended up failing, she would regret it and come to feel the same way as the skiddo, but for now, she still had her will.

"I could help, though. I could just pretend to be tied up like you. But if you really don't wanna untie me, you're probably gonna be on your own, since I can't do much like this," she then persisted in the hope of getting herself untied.
Really, it was more for her than for Ava at this point. She hadn't seen Ava fight or do anything else that would make it easy to judge, which meant she had to just put faith in Ava's ability to succeed. The only issue was that she didn't trust the oshawott to be capable of managing such a thing alone. She wasn't going to put her faith in the hands of someone who was probably mad at her and probably making decisions out of spite. At least, not in the situation they were in.

And more importantly, the bindings were starting to hurt.


No? NO!? THAT.... was.... honestly not very surprising. Still, Uthinare was not going to tolerate such a thing. She'd been woken up from a nice nap to being nearly killed by some big oaf, and now she was being told of danger in the area and denied safe passage out. Well, she wasn't going to apologize to someone for being upset at them nearly killing her, nor was she going to beg them to help her. She also didn't intend to help any of these random 'mon if none of them were interested in repaying the favor. Really, they'd woken her up, yet not a single one seemed interested in helping an innocent little eevee get home safe?

She began taking her situation a bit more seriously upon witnessing the snivy being attacked. Now she was.... perhaps just a bit worried about what would happen to her if she didn't get someone to help her. However, she still wasn't going to apologize nor beg. "Well, I guess I'll just go die, then. My blood is on your hands," she remarked casually and started off walking in a random direction with no particular goal in mind. Despite the fact that a battle was starting up that would probably put her in extreme danger if she just wandered away from the group she'd found herself in, she was wandering away anyway. Her thought process was that if any of them were actually worth sticking around, they'd at least try and get her to stop for her own sake.

In the event that she was left alone, she was prepared to just run as soon as she was out of sight of the group. She would run until she either got out of the forest or found a good place to hide. Probably. Maybe she'd just stick around the area and let the oaf handle any threats. Even if he didn't want to protect her, he'd surely still fight for himself. Her only concern other than her own safety was the safety of the snivy. Whatever the strange attack had been, it seemed to have really done a number on them. She didn't feel very comfortable leaving if the snivy was seriously hurt, because unlike Mr. Banana Beard, she wasn't a heartless monster.

He'd been trying his hardest to deal with the companion he hadn't asked for in the first place, and as he heard the Arcanine they were with question why they were together he was fully prepared to answer her question. Until, at least, the Glaceon spoke up for him and said that he basically was there to babysit the Pikachu. And if that wasn't enough for him to get upset about, then his fellow Guild member made use of Double Team to get in front of him, throwing down a challenge, along with the temperature of the general area.

"Oh, what, you're here to protect me? Really? That's cute." The Pikachu huffed indignantly, glaring at the ice type pokemon standing before him. In the moment, with everything that had been going on, it felt like the Eeveelution was managing to hit every single one of his insecurities just right. And then of course, he had the audacity to say that he was there to keep the electric type safe.
"I didn't ask for your protection, alright? I'm a guild member, and I might not be some awesome legendary explorer or a prophet of some legendary pokemon, but I can hold my own out here! What makes you think I've gotten this far in life without being able to keep myself safe? It's not like-"
"Nate," The Pikachu blinked, glancing back at Raine mid-rant as she approached the two of them. "Just punch him so we can move on, alright? Get your feelings out, both of you, do whatever you need to so you can work together. We're here for Aries, and the more you both talk, the more time we waste. If you need to punch each other to do that, go for it. Just hurry it up."



Well, the Skiddo's spirits certainly seemed broken from the sound of things. For a moment, she had to wonder how long he had been there to end up at that point. Of course, maybe he was just sheepish beforehand, but in her mind she couldn't really understand how someone could just give up like that. She kept her sights on Aries, nodding her head as she listened to both him and what Ivy had to say to her. She didn't have a lot of time before another guard came back around, that was something Ava was sure of. Which meant she needed to deal with both Aries and Ivy before it was too late.

"Not this time, alright? Sometimes you can be better than the bad things, but other times? You have to be worse than them. And that's what we've got to do to get out of here." Ava addressed the Skiddo, trying her luck at some sort of pep-talk. As she finished speaking, she gave the grass type pokemon a wink and a smile before turning around to her companion, starting to waddle over with her bindings before adding a few last words to Aries.

"I won't ask you to help or do anything you're uncomfortable with, not until you've got some proof that we can get out of here at least. So you don't need to help with the guard situation if you don't feel up to it, but at least look natural. Now, Ivy," The Oshawott tried to compensate for time, speaking quickly as she finished what she had to say to Aries and moved right onto the Eevee she was with.
"We can use all the help we can get. You'll be more useful untied, but you need to be able to make yourself look like you're still tied up. If you can't do that, you're better off tied up for real until the guard's taken care of. Are you sure you can pull it off? We might only have one shot at this." She questioned the Eevee, a look of seriousness on her face as she reached for the bindings, fully ready to untie her if the Eevee said she truly thought she could do it.



The Absol's attention was immediately caught by the two durants darting out of the bushes, seeming to be making their way towards Veriq and Uthinare. However, before she could act and chase after them, another presence started to make itself known. A weird feeling sort of body seemed to materialize right by Veriq, one that the wind seemed to somewhat blow through, though the air was denser in an area matching the shape of a body. She could remember the last time she'd felt something like that, or at least one of the more prominent times she'd felt it. And that was back in the ruined Chateau, with the ghosts...

Shintara let out an involuntary gasp and shivered somewhat, still not terribly alright with ghosts after that whole venture. Especially with the itemizer orb she'd accidentally used on one of them. She still wasn't completely sure on how to feel about that. Was using an itemizer orb on someone basically killing them? And what if they were a ghost? Did it still really count?

In her distraction, she found herself brought back to the situation at hand when Jaden cried out and fell, jumping slightly and stepping over to him quickly. She couldn't tell exactly what had happened, she couldn't sense much, though the area around his back seemed strange, denser in the same way the ghost had felt. Before she could even process that, she overheard the Eevee calling over to them, basically saying she was going to go walk off to her death.

"Jaden! Wait, no, don't run off...uh, ma'am! Stop...augh!" She looked back and forth between the Snivy and the Eevee as she spoke, mentally cursing the situation as she tried to figure out what to do. There was no way she could leave Jaden there hurt, but they had to go stop Uthinare from walking off like that. It wasn't safe, and she was really going to get herself killed if she did that! Shaking her head, the Absol growled slightly in annoyance before turning her attention to the Tropius.

"Veriq, please! I know she was rude, but don't let her run off. It's not safe!" She decided to call over to the Tropius, hoping he'd help her despite first impressions. Standing by Jaden, she lowered her head and nudged him a bit with her nose, trying to get him to get up.
"Hey, can you stand? If you can, get on my back, you shouldn't be walking around if you're hurt..." She quickly spoke, keeping her senses peeled for any pokemon that might come around and attack her, like the ghost that had done this to Jaden.



This was going horribly. There was no other way to put it. Neither of the explorers with her were managing to get along, and for the love of Arceus, there was a possibly life at stake here! Were they just so used to that kind of danger and risk that they were comfortable talking like this to one another during this kind of thing? If that was the case, then it wasn't a good thing by any means. They were letting their personal feelings get in the way, and they were wasting time. Period.

Nate blinked as he looked back at her, grumbling before turning his attention back to Sova, muttering something along the lines of an "Alright, fine then.". He seemed to pause for a few seconds, looking over the Glaceon as if trying to find a good spot to punch. He didn't seem to want to go for the face or anything, avoiding that area, before settling on the shoulder.
"Okay then, here we go. One good punch here, alright?" For a second, the Arcanine wondered if she could sense a hint of nervousness and hesitation in the Pikachu, before he pulled back with a paw and punched forward, landing a solid hit on the Glaceon's shoulder.

The room was cold and silent for a few seconds, the Pikachu blinking in a look of surprise as he pulled his paw back, shaking it a bit.
"...alright, I'm...confused. What's the catch?" He questioned, as if unsure of how to process what had just happened.
"I mean, I kind of expected something more, like...I don't know. I didn't think you'd just let me punch you without you doing something to me..." Nate continued, frowning slightly as he waited anxiously for an answer, genuinely confused as to why he wasn't more hurt from punching somebody with Sova's reputation.

Nate: 0/31

Avaria: 0/26

Shintara: 0/24

Jaden--

Despite the curse attack seemingly to have jammed a nail into his back, he managed to force himself back up. Shintara was at his side, calling something over to the Tropius before talking to him. She wanted him to hop up on her back, but the Curse seemed to have cut him some slack, "No, no, i'm fine," he spoke with a leaf folding behind his back in order to rub the spot where the curse had afflicted him. He was fairly sure he was fine, but that had certainly hurt like hell!

"We should help them," He spoke before he looked over to the Tropius and the eevee. It seemed that the tropius was moving to scare off the durants, but they did not seem all to intimidated by the grass and flying type's size. Two vines rose from his back and quickly reached out and wrapped around the abdomen of one of the durants, dragging it back and away from the two. The durant struggled against his grip, and tried to twist around to bite him.

He could have easily thrown the durant into the lake and watch it sink, but the morals behind that did not sit right with him. He instead decided to try and lob it back into the bushes it came from.

Veriq--

Ugh, the fool! He nodded at the absol's words and tried to make his way back to the eevee, "Excuse me," he spoke as he kicked aside a durant just as the other one was dragged back by the snivy. He was quite impressed considering the weight of a durant, but that was not what he was here to do. He looked over to the eevee as the durant struggled to flip itself back on its feet.

"It would be quite dangerous for you to go alone out there, while I will not escort you home I think it would be a bit safer to leave when you don't have feral pokemon on your tail," he spoke to the eevee. He did not notice the strange dark shadow that popped out in front of the eevee, the Duskull beginning to glow as it attempted to use Pain Split on the eevee. If the attack was a success, then it would follow up the attack with a Curse.

Whether or not the attacks had worked, the duskull chuckled as it disappeared into the ground once more. It seemed to be enjoying the fact that it could simply pass around free curses willy nilly with the help of Pain Split. Now, who next~?

Acro--

The archeops's eyes widened as he realized a group of pokemon seemed to be getting attacked by the natives around the area. He looked to Kieth and then to the group of pokemon, wondering what he should do and having difficulty in deciding what he should be prioritizing.

"Uh...look, I think we need to put this conversation on hold, there's some pokemon over there being attacked and..." he was not sure why they were being attacked, but the archeops was not going to just leave some pokemon being ambushed and not help them. Sure there was the possibility that they were bad pokemon, but that did not exactly cross his mind. The archeops looked to Kieth, hoping that the Jolteon would understand as he had with his previous words.

He was not going to just ditch the jolteon either, that was rude...but lives at stake...but that was just a dick move. The Archeops's mind was not exactly taking this situation well, and his breath began to quicken as he waited anxiously for the jolteon's answer. If the jolteon was okay with it, then he would be off to help the group in a matter of seconds.

Aries--

He listened to the oshawott, Ivirar certainly was not persuading him to help any but the soon-to-be dewott was certainly encouraging. He had to admit, the one thing he did not have during the previous escape attempts was a team to work with. Things usually worked out if people worked together, right?

The skiddo's face was still filled with uncertainty, but he managed to swallow his fear with his dry mouth and speak with his raspy voice, "I-If there's something I c-can do i'll help...but only if you promise that we wont get caught...a-and they wont-" the skiddo fell silent as he heard footsteps in the distance. The ear of the skiddo twitched and he fell silent, eyes staring in the direction the guard was coming from. He hoped the two would help him go home. He was willing to try just one more time, but he doubted he would be able to keep going on like this if they were to fail. He wondered if he would be going on his journey soon, getting away from here certainly seemed quite nice right about now...

ooc:Pretend this was posted yesterday

For many reasons, Sova began to have doubts about his plan as he waited for the rodent to hit him. Being given a moment to think about what he was doing, he began to realize just how violent it was. He remembered the mindset he'd come into this with: to avoid hurting or lashing out at allies. He'd forgotten his mental decision to do everything in his effort to avoid being.... himself. But aside from that, he was beginning to realize a better alternative to getting his point across to Nate than with physical abuse. He had already planned to just take a ranged attack, but something involving contact was what he intended to punish the pikachu for. However, willingly taking the hit regardless seemed like the best way to demoralize the guy, to show that he didn't even have to do anything to win. It was, in a way, even more disrespectful and mean than what he had originally planned, but he felt it would work better.

Now all that was left was for Nate to ACTUALLY HIT HIM. He had given up on avoiding eye contact, because the unnecessarily long rant was boring him to the extent that he no longer cared about hiding his gaze. He stared directly at the pikachu with a highly unentertained expression and idly waited for the ranting to finish so that he could restate his offer. Instead, the client interrupted the raving pikachu to push him toward the deal, which just made the whole situation that much easier. Sova kept his paws planted firmly on the ground as he awaited the attack from the pikachu, and when it finally came.... it was highly underwhelming. Even with what he had been expecting, the attack was pathetic! There wasn't much effort put into making it hurt, but even then, he had barely felt the punch at all.

Nate then began to question what had just happened, apparently having expected his original plan. He had decided against actively trying to harm someone just to get his point across, but that wasn't the answer he was going to give. He still needed to prove his point, which meant he still needed to show why he was in the best position to take the lead. He looked at his shoulder, then back to the pikachu with a slight chuckle. A smirk crept onto his face as he responded: "Wait, you're joking, right? That's really it?"
He turned around and gave another chuckle. "Well, the catch is that I lead, and you follow.... obediently," he finally got to the point.
He hoped that his neglect to actually hurt anyone wouldn't go unappreciated, but even if it did, he didn't care as long as he could do his job. Besides, he wasn't exactly asking for appreciation with the way he was acting.

If Nate still refused to let him take the lead, he felt he would have to get a bit more.... assertive. Even though he had decided he did not want to, he still wasn't going to let the pikachu waltz into death by leading the way. He wasn't particularly worried about the place they were in, but the mission they were taking.... was a different story, to say the least.


Keith expected for the conversation about Sova to continue, or perhaps for the archeops to decide to hurry things along and head toward the cave. One thing he didn't expect, though, was for his partner to just up and decide to leave him to go get involved in some unrelated fight! Sure, he knew what Acro was talking about, and he understood being good and all, but that didn't mean he was particularly excited at the prospect of being left alone, even if it was for a short time. He also wasn't too fond in joining in on a fight he had no context on, so he wanted to just beg the archeops to stay. In the end, though, he decided to do the right thing and just let the guild member go do guild things while he.... sat there like a coward. This was the type of thing that made Sova distrust him to take care of himself, and he knew it.

But that didn't mean he was going to let it hold those around him back. He could tell by the commotion he could hear that the situation was probably something that needed someone like Acro's help. "Go ahead. I'll be here," he simply responded, trying to make it look like he wasn't at all worried about being left alone.
He was doing a bad job of it, but at least he'd tried. He just couldn't help but be worried about his bodyguard leaving him all alone. Technically, it was his own choice to be left alone, but the alternative was to willingly throw himself into danger! The latter was what a true guild member would do, but he was no true guild member and he knew it. It wasn't like he was some seasoned explorer with nerves of steel and, more importantly, the power to defend himself.

The jolteon managed to justify his cowardice to himself by considering that if he were to even try to help Acro, he'd probably just get in the way. He was very weak in comparison to the bird, and he knew this. Even if he could handle whoever was attacking whoever, he figured that just meant Acro would be able to handle it easily alone, and better without any distractions. This was mostly just a desperate excuse to mitigate the guilt he felt due to not offering to go along, but the reasoning was still fairly sound.


"We can use all the help we can get."

This comment made Ivirar feel alienated, like her new friend was considering the half-dead skiddo more of an ally than her! Truthfully, this little thing was more upsetting than the situation she had gotten herself into with probably being tortured to death in the near future. Maybe that would change once said torture started, for for the time-being, she just felt like throwing a hissy fit about Ava not being nice to her. Despite this desire, she wasn't too stupid to understand that they needed to work together in order to even have the slightest chance of escaping. So she'd decided to be cooperative, which.... came with its own issues. She wanted to help, but she was virtually useless in a fight and she knew it. What uses could she possibly have in taking down one of the guards?

This question echoed throughout Ivirar's mind, the answer to which was the deciding factor in whether or not she wanted to be untied. She didn't want to just be a burden to her own escape, after all. She wanted to just take her time considering what she could and couldn't offer, but she suddenly felt extremely rushed when the sound of footsteps reached her ears. She knew she wouldn't be able to fight, but she also had her doubts about all three of them together being able to handle even one single guard, let alone however many this place had in store. So, if she couldn't help in a fight, and their little group winning a straight-up fight was unlikely in general.... Suddenly, she had an idea for a way she could be useful.

The eevee stared back at the oshawott with an equally serious look. She hoped Ava wouldn't get used to her being serious, because it was a very rare occurrence. After all, she'd just recently talked back to a living legend who probably had the power to kill her in more ways than it could even keep track of. "Untie me and pretend you're still tied up. Trust me; it's not gonna be like that one time I got us stuck with a cult," she assured, giving a little harmless joke and a lighthearted smile in the process.
It was also her way of trying to subtly apologize for kind of sort of invoking the wrath of cultists upon both of them. She did have a plan, but she felt it was a bit too long to explain in the time they likely had before the guard reached them.

Ivirar's plan was actually quite simple: she knew she couldn't really help much in a fight in terms of offense, but she figured the other two could really use some help all the same. She also happened to be aware of the fact that she had a talent for being very annoying. At that, the skiddo was quite clearly chained up, and trying to free him would surely make it obvious that something was wrong and quite possibly make it impossible for them to get the drop on the guard. Her plan was, simply put, to stand within the range of the skiddo's chains and get the guard to come after her. She was going to make it painfully obvious that she was free and do her best to get the guard to come after her alone.

And of course, she was going to be putting herself in harm's way. And if there was more than one guard.... well, she supposed she wouldn't hold it against Ava for not helping her.


Uthinare hanged her head to give the look of being just slightly sad as she walked, though in reality, she had a joyous, cheeky smile on her face while the giant tried to talk her into coming along. She wondered if she could get him to beg, after being so strict and stubborn mere moments prior. She carefully considered her options: either respond immediately or just stay silent for a while longer. She didn't want to make the big guy just throw in the towel and quit trying to help her, so she figured she'd at least give him a response. But what to say? She wasn't going to act all depressed, as her proud nature pretty much disallowed her from actively making herself look pathetic. It was fairly easy for her to decide on just continuing the stubborn act she'd gone with so far.

Just as the little eevee was about to respond, a shadow shot out of the ground in front of her. She immediately recognized it as the thing that'd attacked the snivy, prompting her to jump back in fear of being next. Before her paws even touched back on the ground, she felt a severe pain suddenly shoot through her body. The pain caused her to temporarily lose full control of her body and tumble to the ground in a very awkward and pathetic display. It looked as if she'd just jumped back and tripped all over herself, but it was far worse. She gritted her teeth and tried not to make any demeaning noises to moderate success. For a moment, she just laid on the ground, figuring the leaf giant would surely protect her while she was down. Then, just as suddenly as she'd decided to lay on the ground for a while, she remembered something that made her want to get up: the way in which duskull had attacked the snivy.

Uthinare forced herself to roll forward just in time for the spike that'd formed above her to stick into the ground and narrowly miss her. It appeared to be a solid object, now stuck in the ground as if it were a real, metal spike. She pulled herself together, got up off the ground, and sighed. For a moment, she was relieved.... then the shooting pain in her belly came. She looked down to see a spike similar to the last one in appearance coming up out of the ground and impaling her in the belly. For a moment, it felt almost real and made it difficult to breathe or make any noise, causing her to just collapse on her belly. The spike had gone through her body and the end of it was coming out of her back, though there were no visible marks on her from it, as if it was just phasing into her.

ooc: Pretend this was posted 3.5 years ago.

Maybe he hadn't been hurt physically by the Glaceon when he'd taken the bait to punch him, but the aftermath had surprisingly hurt a lot more than he thought it would have. Sova had simply shrugged off the hit afterwards, barely fazed by it, and proceeded to basically mock the Pikachu over the hit. Sure, he had hesitated on his punch, but he still thought he'd put a decent amount of effort into it, and to see the other Pokemon brush it off so callously hit him hard.

Was he really that weak? That insignificant? Part of him told himself that it was a trick on Sova's part, but he knew better. There wasn't a need for tricking him. If he couldn't even faze the Ice type, how could he hope to be able to help out with the mission? He wasn't sure where these questions were coming from all of a sudden, or why he cared so much about it, but this instance was intermingling with something else inside him and making the feeling ten times worse.

The Pikachu had clenched his paws at the Glaceon's response to him, gritting his teeth as his cheeks sparked up rapidly. In the end, though, Nate brought himself back under control and nodded his head, looking down and blinking his eyes a few times.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever..." He mumbled, just loud enough for his two companions to hear. The Arcanine with them glanced at him and raised a brow, before shaking her own head.
"Alright then. Let's go, we shouldn't waste anymore time." She stated, waiting for the group to move onward. Nate, in his fairly demoralized and unconfident state, simply waited for the other two to move forward, before following along, his head low and ears drooping a little.



Ivy's response was...unexpected, really. As the sound of footsteps reminded Avaria and the others that they did indeed have a time limit, the Eevee made a change of plans. She wanted Ava to pretend she was tied up, and she wanted to be untied. In addition to that, she seemed to take a more serious tone to the situation. Granted, the Oshawott hadn't known Ivy for a long time, but this seemed like a very unique situation, and something somewhat out of character for her.

Which means she understands how important this situation is. Tic-toc, Ava, time's wasting.

"This is still that time, Ivy, but alright. I'll trust you, for now." The Oshawott smirked at the Eevee and gave her a wink, speaking relatively casually for the situation at hand. Reaching forward, she grabbed the ropes and began to pull at them, trying to just stretch the ropes and not break them. Of course, she could have just sliced them off with her claws, but then it'd be obvious that Ivy was free. After all, why would Ivy want to look obviously free?

After some pulling and stretching, Ava took a few steps back. The ropes were loose around Ivy, and if she chose to do so, they would be easy enough to shake off and fully remove. With a nod of her head, the Oshawott turned and stepped back to the Skiddo. Aries had seemed nervous and unsure, but still agreed to the plan in question. Giving him another quick once-over, it was obvious why. The Pokemon obviously had a rough time here, given the wounds he seemed to have, and the lack of will to try and escape on his own. The Oshawott couldn't help but feel a genuine sense of pity for him, and she felt just a bit more angry at their captors simply from observing the Skiddo. Not that she allowed any of that to bubble to the surface. She was far from a shining example of morality, and she'd done her fair share of bad things, but that didn't mean she didn't have a heart for certain situations like these.

"Hey, I promise you. I won't let you get caught again, alright?" She told the grass type with an unusual sense of warmth in her voice, keeping a cool smile on her face to mask the true meaning behind her statement. Of course, she was going to try as hard as she could to get out of there, and she'd help the other two out as well, but if things failed...well. Aries didn't want to suffer, and she could...alleviate it before they could get him. It would be quick, and relatively painless. It wouldn't have been the first time she needed to put someone out of their misery...

Ava shivered at the resurgence of this unwanted memory and forced it back down, making her way back to her discarded ropes as the footsteps grew louder outside their cell. Slipping them back around herself, she leaned down onto her side and stayed put, trying to pin the more loose rope under her to hide the fact that the ropes had been stretched. She kept her eyes on Ivy, and waited for the guard to show up, wondering what the Eevee's plan was...

For a second, the thought crossed her mind that it could be a terrible plan that wouldn't work. But, they were out of time, and they would just have to deal with that if it was the case.



She wasn't fully convinced by the Snivy when he said that he was alright, but she nodded somewhat hesitantly before turning her attention back towards the other two friendly Pokemon. Veriq seemed to simply kick one out of the way, while Jaden had made use of his vines to pick one of the Durants up. Her options quickly flashed in her head as she tried to come to a conclusion as quickly as possible.

Jaden's fine. Veriq's getting Uthinare. The ghost is somewhere. One disengaged Durant accounted for.

The Absol turned her attention towards the Durant that had been flipped over, deciding that it would be her target. Like she'd thought before, Jaden had proven he could handle himself for now with this. Veriq seemed capable himself, and he was taking care of Uthinare. That meant her job to do now was to keep the other Durant occupied until everything was taken care of.

Considering it was flipped over onto its back, Shintara hadn't taken too much strategy into account. Veriq had kicked it over earlier, so she made the assumption based on the shape and position of the other Durant that this one must be upside-down. Deciding to use that to her possible advantage, she darted over towards the pokemon and lashed out with a swipe of her paw, scratching her claws along the creature.

However, it seemed to have little effect. Her claws clanged against steel, and made a scraping sound that assaulted her hearing. The Absol blinked in confusion, pulling her paw back and taking a step away, keeping her attention on the Durant as it seemed to correct its positioning. Was it not actually upside-down? Or was it like a Steelix, where even as a steel-type it didn't really have any weaker spots to hit? She assumed it was the latter.

The Durant seemed to wobble a little before righting itself, standing up and setting its sights on the Absol that had tried to attack it. Wasting no time in going for the one that didn't seem to be able to damage it all that much, the ant lunged forward with pincers wide open, looking ready to clamp down onto her with a Vice Grip. Shintara jumped back quickly to try and avoid the attack, but not quickly enough as the pokemon managed to catch one of her front legs with the attack, squeezing down on it with a good amount of force. She let out an audible sharp gasp as the bug-steel type pokemon's pincers hit, stumbling and nearly falling over without the use of her other leg. Her trapped leg was hurting badly, and a warm feeling mixed with the texture of a liquid in the area pointed to the fact that she was probably bleeding. With the amount of force being applied by the Durant, she wouldn't be surprised if one of the bones in her leg was injured, maybe even broken. Hopefully not the latter.

"Let...let go of me!" She managed to gasp out between hits as she brought her other front leg up, struggling to stay balanced on her hind legs as she swiped down at the Durant repeatedly. She scratched at it with her claws and hoped that maybe she could do just enough damage to make it release her, but the Durant didn't seem to be showing any signs of loosening its grip, holding her in place there for the moment.



After the theatrics with Nate and Sova, it seemed like they were finally going to be able to move further on into the tunnel. Which was a relief to Raine, all things considered. She'd come here to find that Skiddo and make sure nothing had happened to him, not to babysit a guild member with some sort of deep insecurity and another that just acted like more of a dick than he needed to be. For a moment, she contemplated the idea that maybe she would have been better off coming on her own, before dismissing it. If things were worse than she expected, it'd be nice to have some back-up. Even if they were having trouble working together, they both probably had their own strengths that explained why they were both in the guild.

Well, at least the Glaceon probably did.

The tunnel opened up ahead into a wider, more cavernous space. The more tunnel-like rock walls, rough and looking more naturally formed, seemed to slowly change into something that looked intentional. The walls became carved, and smoothed out, taking the appearance of pokemon-made structures. The room in front of them had a rectangular shape, with the tunnel walls turning to two walls on either side, and a third wall standing further ahead, connecting the two other walls and blocking their path. On the left and right sides, two arches stood, big enough for everyone in the trio to continue on in either direction. Directly ahead on the wall blocking their way, along with the various inscriptions the Arcanine couldn't begin to decipher, there seemed to be a damaged hole in the wall. Raine knew there was no chance in hell she'd be able to fit through the hole, but maybe one or both of the other two smaller pokemon could...

"Well...which way do we go now?" The Pikachu spoke up for the first time since his incident with Sova, stepping ahead of the Arcanine and glancing around the room. He quickly made his way over towards the left wall, looking it over as curiosity replaced his previous grumpiness. He seemed to be looking at the inscriptions that seemed to cover spots on all the walls, though from the looks of it he couldn't seem to make them out.

"Like I said before, the water's making it harder to follow the scent. I say we go whichever way we feel like, and we stick together keep going until we find him." The fire type stated, taking a few more steps towards the center of the room and looking at the archways on either side of them, taking a look to see if there was anything she could see in either direction.

"Well, yeah, but don't you think we should maybe think about it a little more beforehand? Maybe see if we can find anything pointing towards the direction Aries would be?" The Pikachu glanced back to her and rubbed the back of his head as he made his suggestion. The Arcanine raised a brow and thought for a moment, before turning her attention to Sova.

"What do you make of this? I don't suppose you've got any commentary on what we should do, do you?" Raine questioned the Glacion, before taking a quick glance back the way they had come, wanting to keep checking and make sure nothing was coming down behind them. For a moment, she thought she could hear sounds coming down from that way, or maybe they were coming from one of the other pathways around them. However, just as soon as she'd thought she heard them, things seemed quiet again. The Arcanine decided not to think too much about it and to shrug it off.


ooc: Pretend this was posted

Acro ---

He had been permitted to help, but the Jolteon's answer only made him uneasy. He really shouldn't have expected the jolteon to come with him. What had he been thinking? The Archeops mentally kicked himself as he began to regret the very decision to help the strange group. It was too late to go back on his word, however, as the group seemed to struggle with the rampant ghost that toyed with their every move.

He could get rid of it easily.

He was hesitant still to leave Kieth behind, but he was not going to force the jolteon into doing something he did not want to at this moment in time. The archeops gave a nod before he suddenly turned and bolted. His wings moved as he was taken off of the ground and into the sky. The Archeops had taken to the skies as he looked down at the group. The eevee had just been impaled by the duskull. It had taken a moment, but he had finally spotted the shadow down below as it began to resurface.

With a swift movement, the Archeops had suddenly dropped down from the air and crashed down onto the Duskull. The duskull gave a horrified screech before it was quickly knocked out. The archeops planned to take flight immediately once more, but the pokemon he had just saved seemed to think he was an enemy...

Veriq ---

Oh god! His eyes widened as the little eevee had suddenly been impaled through the stomach. Despite how annoying the eevee had been towards him, he did not wish for this upon her! He wasn't sure whether to yank her out of it or to just leave her there. There was no blood, but that could not have at all been healthy for her.

"Oh my Arceus!" he cried out as he approached her once more to see if there was something to do. "Are-Are you alright?" he questioned, though the answer was obvious from the look upon her expression. He had been about to say more, but he was startled once more as something suddenly slammed into the ground beside him.

Startled by the sudden movement that he had assumed to be a failed attempt to attack him, he stepped away from the archeops and sent forth a flurry of powerful winds accompanied with a plethora of leaves. As the archeops had been assaulted with the Leaf Storm, Veriq was quick to unleash a seed upon the bird as it gave a pained screech and attempted to fly away from the attack. The small object had landed on the Archeops and was quite quick to spread like a disease. The vines stretched around the archeops and began to sap away at his energy.

Despite this, the archeops had still managed to take flight and get away from the ally-turned-foe. Veriq had no idea what to do about the impaled eevee, but he was going to protect her from this new and more powerful opponent that had appeared!

Jaden ---
He had successfully gotten rid of the durant as it did not seem to return from the bushes. He had half expected it to return, but it had given up on the fight and abandoned its allies.

"Let..go of me!" he heard Shintara voice demand The snivy gasped as he looked to see that the durant had locked itself around the absol's paw. The snivy hurried over to assist. He ducked under the absol's paw that scratched at the metal hide of the monster before he attempted to force the jaws open himself.
There was a space between the durant's actual mouth and the pincers, one he couldn't quite fit into, but use to his advantage. The snivy put both hands on one side of the pincer with his hind legs on the other. Two vines reached out and wrapped around the pincers. He began to push and attempt to spread the locked death trap apart.

"Can you get out?" he asked with a strained voice. If he was not careful, he would end up being the one entrapped in a metal pinch.

Aries ---

The skiddo was unsure of what was happening. The eevee had a plan it seemed. The oshawott had decided to trust the eevee. The water type had turned her attention to him, his ears twisted away from the oshawott, but he made no movements to do much of anything else as the Oshawott spoke up.

The water type had made a promise to him with a strange tone that brought him back to the days he lived with his mothers. It was nowhere near as similar or motherly, but it made him feel...safe. He was desperate for that sense of security.

He nodded, completely unaware of the second option to "getting out" of this mess that may or may not has been presented to him. The skiddo's ears suddenly shot forward in the direction down the corridor as he heard the sound of footsteps approach. Anxiety began to over-rule the sense of security that Avaria had given him as she shrunk against the wall once more.

Whatever the eevee's plan was, he hoped to arceus above it worked...