Frozen Heights

First topic message reminder :

Garnet: 12
Linus: 9
Acro: Enough....48

missions for Acro/Linus:

It was cold, not a problem for him through. The very snow around him gave way and melted with ease, the heat of the fire type forcing the snow to melt. Garnet stared up at the mountain once more, his long tail swishing behind him a bit. The tall white mountain was quite different from the dark crevice he had been beaten to a bloody pulp in not too long ago. The reptile glared at the peak, he wanted to go. Now. Ever since he had awoken and learned of what had occurred, he had felt an intense rage building within him far worse than what occured when he used Outrage. It was a more natural rage, pent up anger. Who was it directed at? Himself.

The charmeleon was leading, walking quickly as he wanted to get there quickly. It was annoying that the newcomer by the name of Acro and Linus had brought missions with them, it would slow them down. Hell, he couldn't even use Fire Blast now because of those two missions. His strongest move, gone. Just like that. Well, he could use it, but he would get in trouble. He had decided that overall he was friends with Sova. He almost kind of felt that he was allowed to be real around the glaceon, but still he was going to keep that whole taking joy in harming others on the down low. Wouldn't want to make it a habit now would we?

The charmeleon looked back ahead of him rather than looking up with narrowed eyes. He had been a grump ever since the events in the rift. While he had not taken it out on others by snapping at them or growling at them, he certainly showed it in his body language and growling to himself when he was alone. He certainly had a good hold on his anger with himself, but he was not bothering to hide it around this group like he would have around Garnet and Namataki. The two probably would have been terrified to see him angry, which is why he had cancelled his search for a bit, in order to come here and obtain one of the precious items hidden within the mountain.

Sova had invited him along on this journey to the mountain to obtain what was rumored to be the cursed items. Powerful items that could give great boosts in strength. Sure they had massive drawbacks, but he was willing to do anything to make sure he wasn't slammed against a wall again.

--

The archeops followed along behind the charmeleon, alongside a client. The vanillish needed to be escorted to a friend, a slurpluff. It was a bit of an odd combonation fo friends, but who was he to judge? He barely had friends in the first place. Acro was a bit unsure of this newcomer Sova had brought along. He seemed to be angry, the charmeleon had barely said anything to him. Apparently this charmeleon was the friend of the snivy's they had come across. If they just knew where the hell the snivy went afterwards, they could have told this charmeleon where to look for his friend. Was he angry about that?

The glaceon had not told him the specifics of where he had met the charmeleon, so he was not exactly sure what was going on between the two. The archeops was walking, keeping himself paced with the charmeleon and the glaceon. The vanillish beside him seemed to be looking around and amusing itself, "oo"ing and "ah"ing at the pretty sites of the frozen forest.

The archeops glanced up to the skies, where a dark bird flew. Dark not only in typing and color, but in mind. Linus had been acting differently as of late, worse than even before the events in Monochrome Ruins. He was snapping at everything, he seemed to be angry with everything. He had not yet informed Sova of the situation, but he believed that Linus had been touched by the madness that had started up when the events of Giratina's Rising began. He felt awful. It was his fault wasn't it? Maybe that curse was a real thing after all, the superstitious bird should have left. He should have flown far far away.

Acro looked down to the ground he walked on and merely focused on it. He wanted to get this mission over with, he wanted to grab that ability suppressent that was rumored to be in the ruins as well. Maybe things would be better if he wasn't so damn useless? Would he be able to help Linus? What was even going on in Linus's mind right now?

--

The world is trash. Everything is useless, futile. the yelling started up in the bird's mind as he glared at the mountain ahead. Linus flapped his great wings, flying high above the group and out of the way. There was no way of holding a conversation with him, even if he were close to the ground. The honchkrow huffed as the yelling in his mind continued, Kill it all! Kill it all! Destroy it! Build anew! No, he should not. He knew what was happening. He was not some dimwitted simpleton that was just going to give in to the strange thoughts.

He was angry, he had always been angry as of late. Over the simplest things, even if the temperature was just slightly uncomfortable it always set him off. The honchkrow was having difficulty controlling this rage, and had found himself to be glaring at pokemon whenever he looked to them. His combat had become more vicious, and it felt as if all the fear he had once experienced in combat simply vanished.

It...it actually felt kind of...good. To be able to fight without fear for his life, to simply enjoy fighting for fighting. Who knew it could have been this fun? Concede!No, those weren't proper thoughts. Or were they? His mind was still clouded and plagued, the bird was confused, infected, and there was nothing he could do about it that he knew of.

To Sova's disappointment, the other glaceon seemed to have pretty good control over his own momentum, enough to stop and prevent himself from taking a hit.  Sova was beginning to notice a trend, in that they seemed to have the same moves, and there was something about the other one....  Every single afterimage looked like so much more than just some random glaceon.  Now, he was focused, and he was able to see clearly that it was a copycat, a ditto.  He followed his duplicate by sound in the direction of Acro, stopping when the Shadow Ball went out in the direction of Dusk.  He formed a dark orb of his own in another attempt to counter-attack, but he doubted he had the accuracy to hit it.  Still, he tried anyway, and failed once more....

However, this time, Dusk actually managed to avoid the attack on her own.  The umbreon just barely managed to roll out of the way of the direct impact, though she was blown back like a rag-doll from the explosion.  Sova then created two more dark orbs of energy, one in front of him and one behind him, cradled by his tail.  He fired the first directly at the impostor then spun around and flung the second where the ditto was heading, trying to account for lead in order to hit it if it were to continue moving on the same path.  He then darted around behind it in preparation for it to attempt to turn around.  His goal was simple: limit the enemy's options for movement, since it seemed to just want to run from him and attack the others.  It would likely cease its current path in order to avoid being hit by the Shadow Ball in front of it, then it would need to back up to avoid the one coming directly at it.  Then, it would be forced to get into close range of him.  Or at least, this was how it would happen in a perfect world.

He didn't need his sight to handle this.  All he needed was to hear the movements of the faker and somehow force it to get near him.  He already had an idea for what to do if this didn't work, though he really preferred avoiding it if he had a choice.


Dusk could not at all follow the two glaceon through the flurry of images.  Her eyes were not trained for such a feat, and she was not skilled enough with her ears to figure out where either of them were.  However, she didn't need to have perfect vision and hearing to realize another Shadow Ball was coming at her.  She'd had enough being a damsel in distress for one day.  The umbreon quickly forced her aching body to roll out of the way, then lifted herself clumsily to her paws and attempted to jump even further away.  While she managed to avoid a direct hit from the attack, the explosion sent her flying back and tumbling to the ground.

Dusk moaned from the impact, but forced herself to stumble back up to her paws in preparation for another attack.  She was pretty sure she couldn't help, so her goal was now to stay out of the way.  She couldn't help but remember Sova's words that had seemed so harsh just moments prior: "That same worry has hurt many stronger than you."

Well, now, she was beginning to understand.  She was being battered just by indirect damage from attacks, and the freezing blizzard was beginning to get to her.  Even if she managed to avoid any future attacks, she was going to drop fairly quickly from the wind and snow alone.


As she had been doing, Krikka continued to merely watch the fight play out.  Perhaps if whoever was attacking actually managed to win, she would be able to convince them she was friendly to them.  It wasn't like she particularly cared about anyone in the group, or anyone in general, so it made no difference to her if all of them perished.  However, as the attacker was clearly hostile and dangerous, she decided that if it seemed bleak, she was just going to turn around and try to get a head start on fleeing.  But for now, she simply sat back and watched the show.  It was hard to tell what was happening from so far away, but he mixture of explosions and the snowstorm made for quite the show regardless.

(Sova - 66)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , , , , , , ,

(Dusk - 1)

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

(Krookodile Dundee - 1)

Lord E V carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

The ditto had been paying more attention to the targets rather than what was coming at it. The glaceon ran right into the Shadow Ball, being blasted aside by the ghostly energy before catching itself so that it did not flat to its side. The copy of the glaceon got to moving as quickly as it could, utilizing even more copies as Glaceons now covered the field. Who next? It surveyed its options, the archeops seemed to be struggling with just the winds, so he'd probably be down in a bit which meant-HOLY SHIT FLYING ROCKS!

--

Acro had finally gotten a feel for the winds and which direction they were heading. The archeops held a protective shield against the boulders before sending a flurry of rocks at the copy, able to distinguish it through the way it was running away rather than getting up close and personal. It had gotten significantly colder once the other half of his shield flew away to attack, but he could not bring himself to sit there like a damsel in distress. He successfully managed to strike the opponent as a surge of newfound energy flowed through him, the effects of Ancient Power taking effect.

--

The raptor-bird could follow their movements!? Garnet growled to himself. Why couldn't he?! He was just in the way damn it! The charmeleon backed off, seeing that this was no fight for him to participate in. As much as the lizard wanted to hit the other glaceon for throwing him around, he knew better. He imagined that if his friends were in this situation, Jaden would be calling for a tactical retreat while Namataki would be charging in guns blazing for hitting her friends. Garnet would have joined her, but she was not exactly here now was she?

He had been all for fighting the genesect, but that was when the world was on the line. Here? The only thing that was on the line was his life and a few pokemon he barely knew...and Sova but Sova could take care of himself. He backed behind a tree, his tail suddenly bumping into something. He looked behind him to find...he was looking in a mirror? No, it was another charmeleon?

--

Linus was enjoying his time up here. Drifting...a bit chilly, but better than down there. He gave a flap of his wings, keeping an eye on the client in the tree as he observed the battle raging below. Would they hurry up? Hey...where did the charmeleon go? Eh, did not matter. Not like he was important to Linus in any shape or form anyways.

Acro: 33

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, , , , , , , , ,

Linus: 1

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

Garnet: 1

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

Sova was relieved to see his plan had worked.... sort of. He had expected the doppelganger to be more capable, to avoid his Shadow Balls and back into his range, but this was good too. He continued his pursuit as the enemy fled once more, testing the waters to see if his attack had weakened and slowed it at all. However, before he really got far enough to tell whether or not he could catch it, he was forced to stop as a flurry of rocks suddenly flew into the faker. The poor ditto hadn't accounted for his friends being more capable than the sneasel. Perhaps more importantly, though, it hadn't accounted for him. He bolted into it without giving it a chance to even get off the ground, biting onto its neck and lifting the upper half of its body off the ground.

Since his counterpart was just as much of a lightweight as himself, he kept a fairly quick pace as he dragged the other glaceon across the ground and slammed it against a tree. He had the other glaceon lifted off its front legs in the hope of minimizing how well it could push back against him. The entire time, the grip of his mouth on the neck of the foe continuously tightened without him even realizing it. He pressed the double into the tree as hard as his body could allow and pushed his shoulder against its chest, trying to take its breath away in order to stop it from struggling. He wasn't sure if a ditto could be killed through normal means while transformed, nor did he even know for sure if it was a ditto, and he was too unhinged at that moment to realize that what he was doing had the potential to break someone's ribs.... and neck.


The blizzard was taking its toll on Dusk despite not even being focused on her. She wasn't nearly durable enough to handle such a thing. She forced herself to stay up for as long as she could, ready to jump away - or at least try to - if she was attacked again. She couldn't see much of the fight due to the sheer speed of it, but no more Shadow Balls were coming at her, which she was thankful for. Then there was a series of hits to.... one of the two glaceon; she wasn't entirely sure who was being hit, but whoever it was, it was made fairly evident that they were losing. She finally collapsed just as one of the two glaceon was thrown off his feet by the rocks. The snow on the ground was cold, but the blizzard wind was even worse. She could only hope it was going to let up soon.


If all else failed, maybe the bird wanted a companion. The black spec flying around in the sky didn't seem particularly confrontational, so if none of those who were on the ground ended up as fit escorts, Krikka made a note to attempt to get the attention of the airborne bird. Still, she hoped Sova would win, as that would mean having a whole group to keep her safe. At that, she assumed anyone who the glaceon saw fit to take with him would probably be capable. Maybe the thing in the sky was even with them.... but then, why was it not helping? Maybe it just felt itself to be too weak to assist? She certainly didn't plan on helping, so it wasn't like she didn't understand the mindset of someone who wanted to stay out of such a fight.

Yes because Linus was just ever so lonely up in the sky. Really though, this bird could not give a hoot over what was going on below. Normally he would have been at least slightly concerned, but right now he just felt...bored. When was this going to end? Could they just get a move on already? The honchkrow yawned, feeling a bit tired. He should get some sleep after all of this...he had not been able to sleep well in days because of some certain thoughts that crept around in his mind. The honchkrow's gaze followed the slope of the mountaintop, spotting two avaluggs and their young passing by, avoiding the fight all together and giving a wide area so that they and their children would not be dragged in. He wondered what they were up to...

--

Another charmeleon? Garnet stared at the other lizard, as the other lizard stared at him. The two spent a few good moments merely staring at each other, before territorial instincts finally kicked in. The other charmeleon was the first to show signs of aggression, before Garnet returned the growling and hissing with a display of pearly teeth. Their eyes widened as the feral stood tall, while Garnet kept low. The outlaw was attempting to make themselves appear bigger in order to intimidate Garnet, but Garnet knew better than to expose his neck and stomach to this thing.

The fiery lizards gave a snarl at each other before Garnet made the first move, he leaped forward and smashed himself into the other fire type, attempting to clamp down on its neck. He was not going to kill it, but he was certainly going to teach it a lesson about showing hostility to him through the use of his pent up urges to harm another.

--

Acro had been successful, he was a bit relieved to see that Sova had things covered. The relief was quickly washed away with concern as Sova seemed to...not let go or ease up. The archeops gave a strangled squawk of surprise, "Sova? Sova!" he called to his friend, hoping to snap him out of...whatever he was currently doing. Sure the ditto had tried to kill them, but the archeops was not one to allow murder unless it was absolutely necessary.

The bird watched as the form of the glaceon Sova had latched onto suddenly began to melt into a pink pile of sludge. The sludge moved quickly as Sova was still latched onto it, and attempted to wrap itself around the glaceon's head. Acro gave another strange squawk as the concern shifted from the life of the ditto to the life of his friend. He had changed his mind, kill it with fire.

He could hear Acro's voice calling out to him, but he felt so numb, so distant, that he couldn't get a grip on himself. The world around him didn't matter; he just wanted to put down the one who had harmed his friends. He continued to bite and press harder until a faint sanity struck him and he suddenly realized what he was doing. His grip loosened as he came back to reality; his adrenaline began to fade; both forces of wind behind the blizzard began to die down. Then, just as he decided the ditto'd had enough.... it suddenly transformed back into its true form and latched itself onto his head. He at first attempted to back away, but given he was literally pressed against the creature, it was already too late by the time he reacted. He tried to shake it off of him to no avail, and for a moment, he felt panic.

The panic didn't last more than a few seconds. Sova had been in worse situations than having some living pile of jello trying to suffocate him, and he had yet to die. His struggling ceased, which, to an outside viewer, may have looked like he was conceding. He wasn't. The air around him quickly dropped even further in temperature, quickly reaching the point where a cloud of diamond dust began to form. His body was far colder than the air around him. If the ditto wanted to wrap itself around him and attempt to strangle him, he was just going to burn it off of him with his own freezing body temperature. If he felt the ditto's grip loosen even the slightest bit, he was prepared to jerk his head down toward the ground in an attempt to catch it off-guard and fling it off of him. All he had to do was hold his breath longer than the opposition could hold out against his freezing body.


One minute it was absolutely freezing and sleep was looking like a good idea, and the next, it was all over. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly warm, but it was no longer absolutely freezing. The harsh wind was dying down, which signaled to Dusk that perhaps it was safe to get back up. It wasn't like she was any safer collapsed on the ground, but nonetheless, she felt more comfortable trying to get back up now that the blizzard was dying down. She lifted her head to look around, and almost immediately, she spotted the two glaceon against a tree. Only one was.... melting. Well, she was going to assume Sova wasn't a ditto and thus was the one not melting.

It seemed like the ditto had lost when suddenly, the melting figure latched itself onto the real glaceon. Dusk pulled herself back up to her paws and called out: "Help him!"
She didn't feel particularly able to reach the glaceon herself, let alone do anything about the problem, but she figured maybe one of the others could. The large bird seemed capable enough. However, she then noticed the haze forming around the glaceon and the ditto, which she hoped was some form of retaliation from the prior. She didn't know Sova's full capabilities too well, so she wasn't entirely sure if it was something he could do.


The explosions ceased and the blizzard began to die down. "That's my cue," Krikka spoke to herself and began a casual stroll forward. She didn't know what to expect, so she had her guard up just in case it turned out to be unfavorable for her. Still, she doubted such a capable group would be defeated.... Actually, she didn't even know who was in this group other than Sova and Dusk, and while she knew Sova was at least competent, she wasn't entirely sure about the other one. Maybe the glaceon was the only remotely capable member of this "group," maybe the others were just burdens. If that turned out to be the case, it didn't seem too far-fetched that whatever had attacked them could potentially have reigned victorious. Perhaps it was unlikely, but she was going to prepare for the worst scenario.

Acro was already on it way before Dusk cried for someone to help the glaceon. Acro grew close to the glaceon, but the air around it was freezing. The archeops backed away, instincts telling him to run like hell. The freezing air was definitely a nice deterrent for the rock and flying type as he was already freezing from the blizzards from earlier. He could feel his body shaking and shivering in attempt to regenerate warmth with movement. The archeops looked back to Sova as he seemed to suddenly stop moving, he was about to charge in there, when something quite unexpected happened.

--

Linus looked down at the group below. The ditto seemed to be trying to suffocate the glaceon now. Interesting. The glaceon suddenly stopped moving, proving to be a prime target as both the glaceon and the ditto were now out in the open. He could no longer take it. The honchkrow gave a deep caw before his wings dipped and the bird suddenly began plummeting down from the sky at a high speed. His talons outstretched, he claws buried into the ditto's form as the honchkrow felt the blast of sudden icy air that was even more freezing that the air up high. He continued on with his plan, gripping on with whatever he could and attempting to throw the ditto that still clung ever so stubbornly to the glaceon into a tree before flying away so that he would not be harmed. The plan was stupid, for he could have easily dug his talons straight through the ditto and right into the glaceon's eyes. He didn't care.

--

Success! He had bitten down on the charmeleon's neck, but the other was trying to throw him off. The wild charmeleon elbowed Garnet off before turning to counter-attack. The two rolled about in the snow in a fury of claw swipes and bites, rolling out from the cover of the tree and into view. Garnet had become much more verbal about the fight as he swore under his breath and snarled much more. Just an average day for him.

It was all.... pink. Purple? Something between those two. Sova could see nothing through the gelatin horror coating his face. This meant he couldn't see who was grabbing at him, but it did not mean he couldn't feel the talons going through the ditto and brushing against his face. He had his eyes shut tightly, which stopped the talons from gouging them out thanks to his armor-like fur. However, this did not mean he was simply going to forget something that could easily have blinded him if not for his fur being like armor. To make matters worse, whatever was behind the talons then TOSSED HIM INTO A TREE. This knocked some of his breath away and made the situation just a bit more dire.

Now, the glaceon had no option to just stall out until his foe was forced to let go. He no longer had enough breath left to confidently wait this situation out and just freeze the ditto off of him. He managed to find his footing and avoid falling to the ground, which was quite a task with no sight.... then a burning started up inside of him. It started out coursing through his whole body, but soon centered in his throat and mouth. He then forced his maw open against the ditto and let loose a bright, white beam of pure energy straight through the creature. He lifted his head up toward the sky as he did so in an attempt to avoid hitting anyone with it, but with ditto-blindness, he couldn't guarantee anything.


Dusk had requested for someone to help Sova, and technically, someone did. Sort of. The spec in the sky came down and tossed him into a tree, which wasn't exactly what she considered to be helping, but she at least hoped the bird's intentions were good. It seemed fairly idiotic, though, and it was definitely something she would point out.... later. For now, she was just worried for Sova's safety, but she still couldn't exactly get near the glaceon to help at all. She just had to hope this situation would sort itself-

Her worries suddenly ceased as a beam of light shot out of Sova's mouth and straight through the ditto, continuing very far up into the sky. She was left mesmerized by the sight, not having seen any such thing from him before. Had he been capable of such things all along? Sure, she knew very well that Sova was strong, but she for some odd reason didn't expect a giant death-ray from him. She just stared with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She was speechless.


Suddenly, the strange black bird decided to fly down out of the sky for a visit, which was shortly followed by some holy beam of death or something. Krikka stopped at the sight of the bird coming down, then began backtracking when she witnessed the beam. If that hadn't been from Sova, she didn't want to know what had done it. In fact, she just wanted out of the general area. Treasure no longer seemed particularly appealing. Proving her sister wrong held less merit as well, but it was now the only reason she wasn't simply turning around and bolting. Curses didn't even directly relate to her sister, but she still felt like she needed to prove they didn't exist.

Okay, so treasure also still seemed nice, but it wasn't quite nice enough for her to have no doubts about the situation she was getting herself into. She wasn't particularly interested in dying for some goodies that were supposedly cursed.

The beam of light seemed to shoot out into infinity and pierce the heavens as the glaceon utilized Hyper Beam in order to free himself from the ditto's grip. The blob of goo screamed in pain as cells were obliterated from its body. The ditto released the glaceon and recollected itself on the ground. The body bubbled and rippled as the cells reproduced and the ditto was fine once more, though it certainly did not look like a happy little blob of goo. The ditto reformed into Sova's form once more, a rather angered looking expression upon it as it opened its jaws. A small white sphere formed at his tongue as the ice type gathered as much energy it could into one compact little sphere.

The ditto-glaceon unleashed the gathering of strength into one large blast very similar to the one the real glaceon had just unleashed. The attack was directed at the glaceon, meant to take advantage of the recharge that came after such a powerful attack. The white glow illuminated the area as the burst of energy headed straight for Sova.

--

Acro stared at Linus without remorse as the bird was also struck by the Hyper Beam, his claws clenched as the honchkrow made a very reckless move with the glaceon being thrown into a tree. It was not that he was angry, but more of disappointed. He would have to have a word or two with him later about that.

Now was not the time to scold his teammate though, as he instead moved to attack the false glaceon. He aimed to interrupt the beam, but he would be too slow to do so. The familiar hue of purple and rush of energy returned to the archeops before boulders lifted themselves into the air. The archeops gave a pitched intimidating screech as he clashed with the fake glaceon who had just finished its hyper beam. The boulders crashed down around him and threatening to smash the body if it were to avoid the Archeops's physical strike.

--

Linus was feeling proud of himself for once. He was...satisfied. That was until he was blasted with a beam of energy. Well, not blasted. More of clipped. That did not make it hurt any less though! Linus gave a deep and strangled caw as his wings flapped in a panic to get away from the beam of energy. The honchkrow ceased his flapping altogether in order to allow himself to plummet away from the attack. He dropped down before he flared his wings out in order to avoid the possibility of snapping his neck on the ground below.

--

Garnet was getting tired of this. This damn charmeleon kept struggling! He snarled and growled as the two slashed at each other. Garnet kept stepping around the wild one's movements, much quicker about movement rather than focusing on hitting the feral. He was caught once the charmeleon jumped at him with his entire body. The charmeleons continued to tussle until they grew closer to the fight. Garnet looked as if he was going to lose, before he kicked the in the gut and sent him flying when he was pinned. The charmeleon flew back a few feet...and right into a white blazing light of death. Oops.

Sova could feel the energy seeping out of his body through the vibrant beam. Luckily, this seemed to succeed in getting the ditto off of him, but the vile little creature wasn't quite down yet. It turned back into him, then copied his attack, and he was in no condition to avoid it. His body felt completely drained from the Hyper Beam, leaving behind a burning numbness. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but it also made it nearly impossible to do anything. Moving was difficult in this condition, let alone avoiding a point-blank attack or counter-attacking. He was going to have to take it, and if the ditto kept up with him as well as it had prior.... he wasn't entirely sure of how well he would be able to take it.

The beam enveloped him in a searing pain, and while it wasn't one he was unfamiliar with, it had more power behind it than previous iterations. His eyes were forced shut by the burning and his body subconsciously stumbled back in an attempt to get away from the pain, but neither helped. However, there was one silver lining: he began to go numb from the pain shortly after it started. By now, he was positive his armor had been utterly destroyed, leaving him defenseless to the attack. For a moment, he felt himself drifting away, which was the sign of his own weakness getting to him. He knew this was the point where he would trade places with someone more capable of doing the things he couldn't.

As his mind drifted, he couldn't help but remember a similar situation way back during his time as a young eevee, when he'd taken a Hyper Beam from an opponent that outclassed him. He had no.... other half to save him, not that it would have mattered, considering the fact that he had been an eevee. However, he had a certain gengar around to protect him. He had collapsed from the beam, and now, he was going to collapse again in pretty much the same situation. Nothing had changed for him; he still fell prey to the same weakness he'd spent his entire life avoiding. Now.... the one who was different would save him from a bad situation once more, as had been done for him so very many times.

But he didn't want to. He was sick of being helpless, useless, no matter how hard he tried! The pain of the beam returned as he snapped out of the mental haze he'd been falling into. He fought against the beam to keep himself standing, ignoring it no matter how much it hurt, refusing to let himself go. His body could handle it, clearly, if the other one could do it! This was noth-

Then a charmeleon flew into him, knocking his balance off and nearly causing him to fall despite only brushing by him. He was confused. Luckily, the beam ended soon after. His first thought was to see just how much it truly took to kill the ditto, but Acro got to it first, which meant his sloppy fighting would risk hurting his friend. Instead, he decided to play the supporting role: he forced his body to move despite the extreme stress, darting behind the mock-glaceon and crouching down as he neared it. His aim was simply to bite onto one of its back legs to hold it in place long enough for Acro to hit it, positioning himself on the opposite side so that he wouldn't get in the way. Yes, it was risky to jump in when someone else was attacking the creature, but he didn't really care. With the fact that it'd just created a Hyper Beam, he doubted it would be running even without him helping keep it still, but it was better to be safe than sorry.


Dusk watched as the beam flew up into the sky, managing to clip the black bird. Well, if he hadn't attacked with the intention of helping Sova, now she could rest easy knowing karma was doing its work. And if that wasn't the case, well, accidental harm for accidental harm, so it wasn't like the bird could be particularly upset. The ditto at least seemed to be fazed by the attack, as it dropped off of the glaceon's face. She hoped to see it stay on the ground in a heap of goop and just be defeated, but of course, that would have just been too easy. The creature turned back into a mimic of Sova and returned his attack. Dusk hoped to see the real glaceon move, but it seemed he was too fatigued from his own beam to do anything.

She resisted the urge to fill some cheesy damsel stereotype and call out Sova's name in a worried fashion. Sova was Sova; he could handle this; he would be fine. A fight the umbreon hadn't paid much mind to between the group's charmeleon and some other random charmeleon came to a close with one of the two being tossed into the beam of eternal death and evil, but that wasn't particularly important to her. To her relief, Sova was still standing once the beam ended, and if she knew anything about Hyper Beam, this pretty much meant the ditto was done for. The archeops guy was already attacking, and Sova was preparing to assist, all while the creature would be exhausted from its attack.


One beam, then another mere moments later. It seemed the first beam hit the black thing that had come down to visit. The second one.... well, Krikka was still too far away to tell what was happening with that. It was quite a lightshow, but it wasn't something she felt comfortable getting close to. If anything, she just wanted to stay very, very far back until all the flashy lights stopped, then maybe just leave. In fact, maybe she needed to leave immediately. But.... then there'd be no treasure. Maybe she could go around the fighting and just brave the journey alone?

No, that was stupid.

The archeops crashed down onto the false glaceon, the bite keeping the ditto in place. There was the sound a few sickening cracks as its ribs were crushed before Acro suddenly felt the body become squishy underneath him and the ditto fled from capture.

"Just give up already!" the ditto exclaimed in rage. The shapeshifter changed into the glaceon once more as the blizzard began to swirl around it. The ditto's transformation seemed to be a bit slower this time around, though Acro was too busy collecting around him for protection to notice.

--

Linus crashed into the ground, his body flat against the snow as the wind picked up once more. He forced himself up, struggling to get out of rage of the attack. He ended up just propelling himself forward in the snow slightly, blindly flailing in desperation to get away from the Blizzard attack. The honchkrow managed to pull himself behind a boulder that blocked the blizzard. Why was he here? Seriously, he had no reason to be here. He could have been home, enjoying a nice damn cup of tea or something. No, he just had to come to this damn place and go to the damn mission with this arceus-damned bird and that giratina-damned glaceon with this zygarde-damned ditto. WONDERFULLLLLL!

--

Garnet watched as the charmeleon took quite a bit of the damage FOR Sova. Well, that was a plus. It certainly did not look like the other charmeleon was getting back up anytime soon as well. The wind was picking up again, fuck.

Just as he thought the word the winds picked up with a fierce intensity. He lowered himself against his ground and dug his claws beneath the dirt and into the ground below. The fake needed to die right now, he was not enjoying this fight one bit, that was for sure. At least the damn charmeleon was out of the way.

Sova made sure to stay low to the ground, out of the way as Acro swooped in and laid into the ditto.  For just a moment, he thought that perhaps it was over, but it seemed the ditto was fairly durable.  Was this creature immortal?  It had taken quite a few heavy hits, yet it just seemed to be getting right back up after every single one.  This worry made him search for any way to prove himself wrong, to prove the ditto wasn't immortal.... and he found it.  Perhaps it was just his imagination, but.... "Why would I give up just when you're nearing your limits?" he questioned in a condescending tone.
The ditto had barely even touched him and instead focused on his allies, so he was still in fairly good shape.  He wondered if perhaps he could now catch it without having to corner it.

Without even waiting for the enemy's response, the glaceon bolted straight toward it as fast as he could manage.  His fur was still bristled, and he was already planning for what to do.  If he could reach it before it had a chance to move, he was just going to ram it into the nearest hard surface.  If it moved, he would hopefully still be close enough to fire some of his fur off like needles.  As long as he could get close to it, there would be no way for it to avoid such an attack, even if it wasn't exactly the most painful thing in his arsenal.  If he could manage to immobilize it or even slow it down briefly, he was going to give it another Hyper Beam.  He was no longer interested in sparing this creature.  Regardless of its reasons, it had hurt his friends, and that was all he could think about.


As expected, the ditto was #rekt left helpless to the archeops' attack, and it seemed to be a very brutal one.  Dusk was almost certain that it couldn't possibly get up after the hits it had endured, but to her surprise - and worry - it did.  In fact, it made it look easy to get up after what seemed like being killed.  Twice.  She wanted to help, but she couldn't think of any way she could possibly be useful in this situation.  The blizzard was kicking back up, and that alone was already enough to make her want to collapse again. However, she forced herself to stay standing, just in case the ditto decided to attack her again. Perhaps she couldn't help fight it, but she certainly wasn't going to be a hindrance!


The fear of dying was really starting to dull.  The entire situation was dragging on and becoming boring.  Krikka was becoming a bit tempted to go see why in the world it was taking so long for someone to kill someone else.  At this point, she didn't even care who won.  The light show was getting old, especially since she was a bit too far away to fully enjoy it.  The only thing stopping her from moving forward was that she could see the blizzard.  Regardless of how boring sitting back was, walking through a fierce blizzard didn't seem much better. Still, with her patience wearing thin, perhaps that would change if this kept up. Maybe she would end up wanting to get a closer look at what was going on....

The ditto was too slow to move out of the way, its heavy breaths could be seen in the air as did so. The glaceon charged towards him, but the creature's form began to shift once more. The ditto's body suddenly became sparse and gaseous. The creature had changed into a gengar before it sunk into the ground and out of the glaceon's way. The blizzard ceased once more.

The Archeops could only seem to focus on how much of a pest this damn ditto was to fight as the rocks collapsed around him. The blizzard was no longer present, therefor he had no need to shield himself any longer. His legs tensed before he launched himself into the sky, only for a figure to reach up and pull him straight back down from the ground. The archeops gave a squawk, but managed to give the poison and ghost type a good smack with an Iron Tail that forced it to let go. The ditto was no longer confident that it would be able to achieve its purpose as it sunk into the ground.

--

Linus just kind of laid there. He could do nothing, say nothing, nor really see anything of use. He was more useful staying out of the way at this point. He had attempted to help, and it did nothing. He glared at the sky above him as he flipped himself onto his back, the snow feeling kind of good against the slight bit of damage caused by the Hyper Beam. The cloud was dark...still. Could he please just....go home? He wanted to go home. They weren't even anywhere near their destination anyways. They were still in the first dungeon. His life was great. He loved living right now.

--

"Could we stop with the blizzards PLEASE!?" Garnet shouted to no one in particular. His lips curled into a snarl as he spotted the ditto form into a gengar. He could do nothing then, but when the archeops had been grabbed the charmeleon shot forward. The bird's iron tail collided, right in time for the charmeleon to smash into the ghost type before it sank into the ground with an Outrage. He tore into the ghost type as much as he could, only to be thrown by the tail up at the archeops were they both promptly collided and fell from the sky. Good job Garnet.

Sova watched as the ditto transformed into what he immediately recognized as a gengar.  It then proceeded to phase into the ground before he could reach it.  He skidded to a stop and scanned the area for any signs of it, but for the moment, it was nowhere to be found.  He could feel himself getting lightheaded again as his temper threatened to consume him, but he wasn't willing to allow the other one to take control so easily.  This fight was his, and he wanted to be the one to personally rip the ditto apart.  All he could think about was how the creature had infuriated him; nothing else seemed to matter.  He'd tried to resolve the conflict without violence, but his life was just destined to be full of bloodshed and pain.  He was beginning to remember why, in the past, he had hated and resented the world.

The glaceon's ears twitched at the sounds of fighting.  He directed his gaze toward the source of the noise to see the ditto, still in the form of a gengar.  It was above ground and in range to be hit.  His friends were close to it, but.... they would have to forgive him.  They would have to understand that he had no other choice.

Or maybe he did.  Either way, he just couldn't resist.

Wind began swirling around Sova as he spun in a circle and whipped his tail in the direction of the ditto.  Almost instantly, a freezing slice through the air was sent flying toward the enemy, threatening to hit anyone else near it.  It was bigger and faster than normal, which had taken its toll on him.  He was panting; his vision was blurring from stress, but he wasn't done.  He didn't even care if the attack was enough to beat the ditto, or if it hit anyone else.  He opened his maw and a light began to emanate from it before a massive, white beam of light materialized, aimed straight at the ditto.  Again, there was no care put into making sure he didn't hit his allies; his friends.


Dusk watched as the ditto transformed into something more suitable for a defensive role.  This came at the cost of ceasing the blizzard, which she was thankful for.  She felt very helpless to the situation, unable to provide anything in the form of assistance.  She didn't like admitting it, but she knew when she was completely outmatched, and she wasn't quite stupid enough to try and fight despite that.  She watched the mock-gengar come up out of the ground in an attempt to attack, and it seemed to be working.  The archeops and charmeleon fought back, but it seemed like the ditto had the upper hand.  Then she began to worry for a completely different reason as Sova.... assisted.

She knew Sova was strong, but that didn't excuse what he was doing.  His attacks were carelessly aimed and surely powerful; the visibly freezing gust of wind alone seemed far bigger than it needed to be.  The other two were still near the ditto!  What if they were hit!?  Wouldn't the archeops be seriously hurt by an ice attack??


The blizzard began to die down and it seemed once more that the fighting was over.  Krikka started up walking toward the scene when yet another bright beam of light erupted, prompting her to stop.  However, this pause didn't last long before she continued forward.  She was sick of waiting with no clue what was happening.  The blizzard had died down, so she was confident she could just creep up close enough to see what was going on without getting in harm's way.  If the situation didn't look good, she would just turn around and start walking in the opposite direction.  No biggie.

Just as he requested for the blizzards to be ceased...they started right the fuck up again. Garnet took on a rather unhappy expression as Sova summoned another blistering cold wind to attack the pokemon. The Blizzard had struck the gengar, but the hyper beam? Not so much. The gengar merely stood there as the beam struck its gaseous form and went right through its body. The Hyper Beam struck the trees behind it as the gengar stared at the glaceon as if he were a total dumbass..which he was at this rate.

The gengar was certainly breathing hard, and its form seemed to be bubbling and shimmering as if it were having trouble staying together. Garnet felt something burn from within him. He wanted to tear this thing limb from limb, make it die a horrible death. The gengar raised a hand, preparing to perform an attack before the charmeleon interject, "NO."

He threw himself at the gengar as he caught a second wind, "FUCK YOU. NO. I AM DONE WITH THIS SHIT!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. His body emitted a purple energy mixed with a white and red tint as he attacked the ghost type. The attack caused the ditto to fail to upkeep the form and revert to its original form.

"FUCK. YOU. FUCK. YOU." He repeated over and over again as he slashed at the ditto with sharpened claws. "YOU ARE DEAD! I AM NOT DEALING WITH THIS, SOVA'S NOT DEALING WITH THIS. BIRD-BUTTS AREN'T DEALING WITH THIS. NOBODY IS! NOW, GO DIE!" Garnet clamped down onto the ditto's body as it attempted to regenerate its cells. He tossed the ditto up into the air before giving a sharp turn and slamming his tail into what was left of the ditto's body. The ditto was then sent flying by the Iron Tail. The body of the ditto landed not too far from Krikka's position, it seemed unconscious as it splat against the ground.

The charmander was breathing heavily, still glowing from the energy, adrenaline, and power that was coursing through him. He turned back to the group pointing at Sova, "NO MORE ICE." He pointed to Acro, "NO MORE ROCKS." He pointed to where the ditto had landed and shouted even louder, "NO MORE OF THAT SHIT, I AM DONE." He was breathing heavily, the combo of Blaze, Outrage, and Frustration getting to him a bit as he resisted the urge to begin burning the whole forest down. His teeth gnashed together as he focused on his breathing, attempting to calm himself down as his head began to grow a bit hazy as the confusion affects of Outrage kicked in.

"No more." he repeated in a more hushed and condensed tone.

--

Acro had fallen after being struck by the charmeleon, he managed to protect himself just in time to avoid being hit with the blizzard directly. He could feel his body slowly shutting down on him still as his damned ability kicked in. He was breathing heavily, but lucky the storm had ceased. The archeops collapsed onto the snow, unable to fight any longer. He struggled to keep his eyes open as he watched the scene with Garnet unfold. He was unsure of how to react to this.

--

Linus is off being Linus and will be skipped.

Sova only realized his mistake in using an ineffective move on a gengar after it was already too late, and at that point, he felt like a bit of an idiot. He always forgot the smallest details such as things certain types of pokemon were entirely immune to. Very small details. Still, he wasn't too worried, as the blizzard seemed to have been more than enough to significantly hurt the creature on its own. Surely, his allies would be able to avoid any weak attacks it could put out until his body was ready to fight again, and he still wasn't particularly worried about it hurting him. However, he suddenly became a bit more worried when Garnet jumped into its face and started attacking it. First, he was worried for Garnet's safety.... theeeen he became worried for a slightly different reason. He didn't want Garnet to kill the ditto! Sure, he'd kind of wanted to just moments prior, but now that someone else had taken over in ripping it apart and he had some time to calm down, he was coming to his senses.

He tried to speak up, but his voice was weak due to the Hyper Beam: "Garnet...."
He still wasn't used to the effects this move had on his body when he used it. The weakness was temporary, but it still wasn't fun while it lasted. By the time he was able to move again, the ditto had already been flung very far away.... toward.... something in the distance. If not for the fact that he knew Dusk had brought another umbreon with her, he wouldn't have known what the black figure was. He would probably have a very unhappy word or two for both Dusk and this other umbreon, but for now, all he was worried about was Garnet's mental health.

"Garnet, Garnet, calm down," he spoke up as he slowly approached the charmeleon.
He didn't like seeing his friends so upset, even if it was a bit hypocritical of him to ask them to "calm down." He approached Garnet the second his body would allow him to move without too much of a struggle and continued speaking: "Fight's over."
He raised a paw as he neared the charmeleon, hoping to touch his friend in order to snap him out of the state he was in.


To Dusk's relief, it seemed she was not going to be attacked by the crazed ditto again. At that, it looked as if no one at all was going to be attacked by it anymore, as the combo of Sova's attack - the one that wasn't pointless - and the charmeleon's waylaying seemed like it would be enough to keep the gelatinous creature down, if it was even still alive. Sure, maybe it was a bit overkill, but she for one did not care about that thing's safety. Maybe Sova had done something wrong, and maybe the ditto had some justification for being upset, but either way, it had attacked innocents for no good reason.

Since it seemed like Sova was going to the charmeleon, Dusk decided to take it upon herself to properly meet the archeops. She moved her aching body over to the bird and spoke up to see if he was even still alive: "Hey, you alright there?"
She figured anyone Sova had allowed to come with him had to be tough enough to take some punishment, so she wasn't too worried about anyone with him dying, but the archeops still seemed like he'd been roughed up quite a bit. Maybe she could help if he needed it, or if he didn't, maybe she could at least get to know him. She was curious as to who was so much better than her that Sova would allow them to go places with him!


Krikka was coming into viewing range of the combatants, though she still couldn't make out any details. She recognized Dusk and what she presumed to be Sova due to their colors, but even squinting and focusing very hard didn't make it easy to identify the others. LUCKY HER THOUGH, it seemed fate wanted to make it easier as something came flying through the air in her direction. "What...." she muttered before realizing it was coming awfully close to her. She instinctively jumped backward and away from the ditto, even though it wasn't threatening to land on her in the first place and it really didn't seem very capable of attacking. After waiting a moment to ensure it wasn't getting up, she approached it and got a good look at it; the creature was most definitely unconscious. Or dead.

She passed by the ditto and continued on toward the group, having taken the liberty of assuming that this thing was the enemy that had attacked them and thus was now dealt with. There didn't seem to be any more fast movements or attacks going out, so it certainly looked like the fighting was all over.