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.

Garnet seemed to understand what the problem was, which made Sova's ears perk up once more. He had been saved from this awful predicament he'd somehow managed to end up in. Maybe everyone was ready to get a move-on and he could just leave this accursed place behind. Despite how comfortable the cold environment was to him, he despised the Icy Lands, having nothing but bad memories from them. He'd met a few friends in the cold landscape and gotten to know others better, but good memories still never came from this evil land. Even with Mirage, all of his good memories came afterward. "Sorry, looks like I've gotta go," he spoke up with a mere glance in the direction of the other glaceon.
He tried not to look excited about having to leave, which was very difficult to do. He immediately began walking toward Garnet at an increased pace without even waiting for his tag-along's response, but what he heard next made him freeze.

"Oh, okay! I can come. I've got nothing better to do."

Why was this random girl suddenly so attached to him? He knew glaceon were uncommon in this area despite it being a nice environment for them. That probably made it somewhat lonely being a glaceon, but.... "Wait," he muttered as he spun around to look at the "glaceon."
He knew what was going on, now. "You're a ditto, right?" he questioned.
Suddenly, all of his awkwardness was gone as something more important than his own emotions had just become apparent to him.

"W-what!? How'd you know? I don't understand, my transformations are perf-" the impostor started up, only to be quickly interrupted by Sova.

"I'm a member of Grassveil Guild. I came here looking for you. My client would like to enlist your.... services," he explained as clearly as he was willing to.
Going into details about what the ditto was needed for was not on his to-do list, and he hoped it could understand without any further explaining needed. Now it all made sense: he was fairly positive this was the right ditto, what with the.... fitting behavior.

"Woah, this isn't a work-day for me, so-" the ditto started up once more, only to again be cut off by the real glaceon.

"Just go to Grassveil and wait for me around the guild. We can deal with whether or not you're interested when I get back. You know the way there, right?"
He was being rude by constantly cutting the ditto off, and he knew it, but it kept trying to make the situation weird again. He wasn't having any of the difficulties the ditto wanted to bring into the equation.

By the looks of it, the impostor had conceded, as she began walking in the general direction of Grassveil with a huff. "Who doesn't know where that place is?" she grumbled, clearly dissatisfied with how her endeavor had turned out. She took a long look at the charmeleon before speaking once more: "I'm borrowing your.... you.... ness...."
And with that, her body took on a pink, gelatinous appearance before melting into a ditto and reforming into a charmeleon. The ditto was clearly good with transformations, having managed to copy the body of a charmeleon without any of Garnet's defining features.... such as injuries. "No one around here'll wanna come at a Fire-type," he huffed, now bearing a more masculine voice to match the fact that he'd just changed gender as well as form.
Why? For fun.


Dusk stared blankly at the slurpluff for a good, long moment, wondering what dictated "murder" from "monslaughter." She knew her particular situation wouldn't fall under the latter, though. "I feel sorry for your parents," she finally spoke up without acknowledging any of what the braindead creature had said.
As good as it felt to say such a thing, she figured she'd need to add on something else if she wanted to end this conversation. She looked around for something else to get the imbeciles to latch onto, and as if by a miracle, she spotted the other umbreon. "If you want to give your useless therapy to someone, there she is," she gestured a paw toward the other, more deserving umbreon before walking away.

As long as she wasn't interrupted, she intended to go check on Acro. The archeops was the only member of the group whom she had actually enjoyed talking to. Sure, she wanted to speak with Sova as well, but that didn't mean she enjoyed talking to him. At least Acro was actually somewhat nice. Plus, since it seemed everyone else who cared about his safety was gone, she figured that left only her to look after him.


Krikka sat idly and waited for something to happen to prompt her to react. Of course, the thing she was looking for was the charmeleon, but she was beginning to desire some form of distraction to pass the time while she waited. All she had on her was what was in her bag, and there was nothing in there that could distract her for long.... Well, she did have a plush-toy that she liked messing with, but she wasn't going to pull that out in public! She didn't fancy the idea of anyone in the group she was with catching her talking to an inanimate eevee plush. She actually preferred them figuring out she was an outlaw over that, even if it meant she got caught. She had yet to commit any serious crimes, after all! Or at least.... none she had any evidence against her for. Point being she figured she wouldn't get much jail-time.

Garnet watched as the other glaceon borrowed his "him-ness" and made a comment on how nobody wanted to mess with a fire type. "I wouldn't if I were you. There's been a charmeleon that's been burning stuff up around here, they might attack just because you're a charmeleon." Garnet pointed at Sova, "Be him, he's a lot stronger anyways...dittos copy strength too right?" He was not too familiar with how dittos worked, but the client would be a lot safer if she/he were to just go as Sova considering the glaceon was capable of firing a giant laser beam of death. The ditto may have been quite...quirky, but he was not sure if he would feel all that great about hearing that the ditto died because his form was not strong enough.

--

Acro was awake and he certainly was not feeling all too great. His head was light, but at least he was no longer giggling at everything and making bad ice puns. The archeops had wrapped himself in his wings as much as he could as he shivered. It was so cold, he could really go for just turning around and going home to a nice warm fire. Hell, he'll go to the desert if he has to. He noticed that Dusk was approaching, though he had only just recently come to his senses and was not quite aware of what had occurred between her and the clients.

"H-Hi..." he managed to speak to her as she approached. The archeops's body was obviously cold as he shivered and shook. Arceus he must have looked so pathetic right now! Why did he have to be so weak to ice? Why couldn't he have been something that resisted ice a bit better and not have this damned ability? Like uh...skarmory! Skarmorys could take the colder better than an Archeops, and they didn't have a hindering ability.

--

The snowcone and company looked to each other as Dusk merely stated that she felt sorry for her parents. Like the intelligent duo they were, they decided to pester her some more along with her friend. The fairy type approached, and looked as if he were about to tell Dusk off before looking to the shivering and weak looking archeops, "What's his deal?" the slurpluff whispered to Dusk though it was in a whisper that could quite clearly be heard by all...

--

Waiting...waiting...more waiting. The only thing he was enjoying out of watching the whole scene was how the archeops seemed to be on death's door. Freeze. Do it. Maybe then he'd be free from the damn archeops's curse. While he certainly had been having those types of thoughts, part of him was horrified that he was even thinking such things. He thought about it for a moment longer, but the longer he thought the more he just wished the Archeops would just breathe his last breath so he did not have to be dragged along on these stupid suicidal adventures...

The mock-charmeleon stopped and looked back with a doubtful expression at the claim that the glaceon was stronger.  After a pause, he responded: "No offense, but.... I mean I think glaceon are cute and all, but not really-"
He fell silent as the glaceon seemingly vanished without a trace, kicking up a cloud of snow.

"Strong?" Sova's voice spoke to the ditto.... from directly behind him.

"Alright, so you're fast," the ditto responded without even turning around to face the glaceon who was now behind him.

Sova was surprised at the calmness of the ditto, even with him having vanished from the.... thing's line of sight and gotten behind it.  "And speed's my weakest point," he simply responded.
There was a moment of silence before the impostor took a glance back at him and gave a light chuckle.  The orange body of the charmeleon melted back into the pinkish goop of a ditto before reforming in the shape and color of a glaceon once more.  However, this time, he more closely copied Sova, taking everything except the accessories.... and injuries.  "Alright, alright, fine," he conceded, now boasting a voice identical to the real Sova.
"Be seein' ya.  And this better be worth my time, because it's an awful long walk back to Grassveil," he continued as he started off in the direction of the town once more.

Sova was a bit unnerved by his duplicate, as he always held a certain bad feeling within him whenever he got to see what was essentially his reflection.  He hated being reminded of the way he looked: exhausted on a mental level.  There was nothing he could do to really change the way in which he looked.  Putting a false smile up never helped.  He was glad to finally be free from the ditto, for so many reasons.  He sighed in relief and made his way over to Garnet to express his gratitude for being saved.  "You have no idea how thankful I am.  I owe you," he spoke with sincerity in his voice.
He put a smile on his face as well, though it didn't really make him look happy so much as just relieved.  Figuring Garnet wouldn't be the type to sit around and chat about feelsy stuff, the second he'd said what he wanted to say, he started off back toward their camp.


Dusk tried to suppress her dismay at being followed by the annoyance of a slurpluff.  Making sure the archeops wasn't dying was her top priority, one she was willing to at least try to ignore the pest for.  He was at least conscious enough to notice her approaching, which she felt was a good sign.  The slurpluff spoke and, as if by some miracle, didn't say something entirely intolerable.  She still wasn't particularly interested in talking to the creature, but she figured maybe answering would silence it.  "He's hurt," she explained as briefly as she could so that she could get back to worrying about Acro.
He seemed cold, but at least he didn't appear to have much physical damage on him.  That meant he'd be able to heal up quickly.... hopefully?

"How're you holding up?" she questioned with sincere worry for Acro.
As far as she could tell, the bird had done nothing to deserve such a miserable time.  At that, it seemed like he'd gotten a pretty bad hand in life over-all.  "Anything I can do?  Anything you need?" she added on.
Warmth was probably the first thing the archeops needed, but she wasn't in charge of firewood.  Besides, the walking fire had to get back before they could fix that.  Still, maybe there was something else that she was more capable of helping with.


If not for the freezing snow, Krikka would have laid down and taken a nap.  In fact, her boredom was so severe that she was contemplating trying to lay down in the snow anyway.  She was intelligent enough to understand why it would have been a bad idea to lay in the freezing snow, but she still hated having to stand or even sit.  She also hated the cold feeling on her paws and the white landscape.  Everything about the area was just the opposite of "good" in her book.  The only thing she'd gotten out of this trip so far was a new ally who also happened to be a Guild member, which was nice and all, but not quite worth having to put up with the cold terrain.  She was going to be a very unhappy camper if there was no treasure to be gained through her efforts.

Garnet had been thanked just after the glaceon left. There was a slight moment of display of power on Sova's part, which he figured was a bit appropriate in order to get the stubborn thing to take a more powerful form an leave. He was going to hold onto this debt, even if it this was all just do to fortune deciding that he should arrive at the exact time Sova needed to be busted out of a situation. He wondered why the glaceon did not just tell the ditto off or something, explain how he wasn't interested...unless he was? What happened to amnesiac mcfox? Last he checked the zoroark was hell of a lot more powerful than him so she couldn't have just up and died like that, right?

He followed behind the glaceon as he spoke, "No problem, but we don't really have to go though I made that up. The snow cone found his friend and decided to chat with Dusk, they were getting too noisy and the honchkrow and the umbreon were taking too long to find fire," he decided to explain himself for his sudden appearance, "Last I saw Acro was still out of it."

--

The archeops paused for a moment as he quickly assessed his own body, "Freezing..." he concluded. He really couldn't feel a large majority of his body at the moment, though he could still move it around. "Don't think there's anything you can do about-"

"Is he dead?" the snow cone piped in.

The archeops's stressed expression quickly changed to one of disbelief. What....was he...dead? He paused for a few seconds to absorb the stupidity of the comment, and lose a few brain cells in the process probably, "No...I'm not dead..." he answered, a bit offended.

"Zombie? Ghost type?" the snow cone tilted his had.

Okay maybe he was losing a few thousand brain cells.

--

Linus was getting to be really bored. Like, really bored. He merely sat there and shivered as he watched the campsite. Hopefully the stupid charmeleon would stupidly arrive stupid soon, so he could stupidly drop this stupid log on his stupid head. Stupid. Stupid. STUPID! This was all STUPID! The more he thought about it, the more this idea seemed...pathetic. He was still going to do it, mostly because he wanted to, but still he felt that he could do a bit more than this. If only that glaceon wasn't around, Acro would be too weak to really do anything and he could do a bit more than just drop a damn log on the lizard's head!