How to Lose

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That mission tho:

After a very.... interesting encounter with what he'd originally thought to be a glaceon, Sova had mixed feelings about how his day had gone thus far. He'd had quite the unpleasant experience with a rather unappealing ditto; the second one of the day; but he'd also completed the missions he'd taken that were holding him back from progressing toward his true goal. In fact, the second ditto had actually been just who he had been looking for in order to complete one of his missions! Now, he could move on to the ruins, where he hoped he would find something that could solve his issue. This issue was one he'd kept mostly to himself, but it was one he shared with his group. Or at least, he shared a similar problem with the ones he'd chosen to come along with him.

He knew that he couldn't exactly send Dusk back to Grassveil alone, which meant she'd have to come with him and would inevitably figure out that he was going to the Snowcloak Ruins.... and, of course, she would figure out why. The glaceon knew this, but he still planned to keep her in the dark for as long as he could. It was something private to him that he wanted to keep between himself and those he'd entrusted with it for as long as he could. Plus, he figured Dusk would just try to convince him not to if she figured out. He didn't need any more forces tugging at his emotional state than he already had, and he certainly wasn't interested in being told he was wrong by someone who couldn't possibly understand.

The hail had stopped and he could now see the others thanks to the increased visibility. He looked over to the charmeleon next to him and spoke up: "Looks like we're home."
He had been planning to let Garnet respond, but then he spotted something that made him want to speak once more. The other umbreon Dusk had brought along with her was scurrying over to the two of them with a bag full of.... sticks. She seemed to be more focused on Garnet than himself, and since he didn't want to get sucked into any more social situations, he simply backed away and allowed the charmeleon to handle it. "Looks like you've got a fan," he joked.


Dusk was alone with Acro, watching over him while the rest of the group was either out or just avoiding the poor guy. She'd previously had company, but this company was.... dismantled by her after they pushed her to the point where she simply could not handle having them around. "He did what you hired him for, now get out of here! Can't you find something better to do!?" she thought about what she had said to get the odd duo of clients to leave the bird and herself alone.
She'd gotten a bit pushy, but it was only because they had refused to leave otherwise. She was just happy that now, she could get to know Acro a bit better. She could only hope he wasn't upset about the fact that she'd kind of chased his clients off. Surely, it would be fine, since he had already completed the mission.

"So, what's your team? I don't follow guilds too much," she questioned in an attempt to get to know Acro a bit better.
She was curious to know the name of the team the archeops was a member of, and she didn't recall asking him before. He seemed to be the leader, or at least the figure of authority between himself and.... Linus.... Dusk didn't like Linus, as he seemed to be the opposite of what she imagined a member of a guild as. Then again, Sova wasn't exactly what she felt a guild member was supposed to be like either. Still, she knew Sova at least seemed to do the right thing when it mattered, even if it meant putting his own life at risk. The umbreon had also come to understand that perhaps in the line of work of doing "right," Sova may have had to put his morals aside at times and thus, he looked like an ass.

Dusk was so distracted with the archeops before her that she failed to notice that the rest of the group was getting back. She had taken it upon herself to be Acro's guard, even though she knew he was stronger than her. The issue with his strength was that he was exhausted and had probably caught hypothermia. At that, from what she'd been told, the archeops had a rather crippling ability that was probably still active.


Krikka had become incredibly bored with her situation and ended up laying in the snow despite how cold it was. She was on her back, doing her best to get a good look at some of her pretty blue rings. In other words, she was indulging in a bit of narcissism to sate her boredom, as there was always one thing that never failed to entertain her in times of need. Herself. It was herself that she could always count on to cheer her up when the world was failing her, and the world failed her quite often. Perhaps she was just very picky and hard to please, but she didn't care. She was awesome! Her rings looked so much cooler than the tacky yellow that was on the lesser umbreon!

Despite being enthralled by herself, she still had her attention split enough to notice when the the glaceon and that foul charmeleon had gotten back. When she spotted the latter, she immediately rolled back onto her belly, pushed herself up off the ground, and shook the snow off of her. She then immediately got to work with her part of the revenge plan and trusted Linus to do his part. She put on the friendliest smile she could and began walking with a disgustingly happy skip in her step. This was to make her seem innocent, but it was also to make her look like a tripping hazard, like she could fall over herself at any second. She intended to fall, after all, so she needed to make it look like an accident. "Hiiiiii~" she waved a paw in the direction of the two returning members of the group. It was meant specifically for the one she was after.

Krikka intended to fall over like a klutz as soon as she got close enough to the charmeleon to potentially knock him over. She would, of course, try to put as much force into her little stunt as she could without making it obvious that she wasn't exactly falling. She figured the lizard was stronger than her, so she very much hoped she would have the element of surprise. Even if she couldn't knock him to the ground, she figured she would still be able to get him to hold still by pretending to be hurt and getting him to check her "injuries." He was with guild members, so he had to!

....Right?

His body was exhausted from the beam.  He was force to watch idly and helplessly as the monstrous absol turned back and rushed straight for him.  He could barely stand due to the drain Hyper Beam had on his energy, let alone move out of the way.  His eyes closed as the absol neared him, worry enveloping his mind.  He awaited the sensation of pain that the beast had given him once already, but there was nothing.  He finally opened his eyes again to find the absol stalled mere feet away from him.... by none other than his client.  The eevee's tail had hardened with the tip sharp like a blade, and she was now fending the absol off as it tried to cut her down with its horn and claws.  It took him a moment to realize he was being protected by his client.  It was supposed to be the other way around, but he still couldn't move properly.

Then the eevee was knocked off her paws as she struggled to block an especially forceful blow from her opponent's horn.  Sova had to watch as the large paw came down above his client, claws pointed straight at her.  "Useless, much?" a voice in his head echoed.
He tried to ignore it.  "I could help.  Just let me take over and it'll all be over.  Or wait until you don't have a choice."
Time seemed to slow down for a moment as he weighed his options.  Maybe his.... other half could do what he couldn't, but what else would S.S. do?  And did he plan to just let the monster in his head fight his battles forever?  "You'll never be able to live without me," the voice chimed in and interrupted his contemplation.

Within an instant, Sova was standing over Shara with a paw raised to stop the absol's strike.  With it quickly overpowering him, he did his best to redirect the large paw of the enemy toward the ground and away from his client, but he didn't quite manage to get himself out of harm's way as well.  On the way down to the ground, the absol's claws managed to get to the glaceon's chest and leave a few bloody marks behind.  Not even a moment later, the absol's horn was already coming down above him when a Shadow Ball suddenly shot up from the ground under him, exploding in the absol's face and stopping its attack.  The source of the attack was his client who was already up and fighting again.  Before he could react, the eevee darted under the attacker's legs, swatting them with her tail as she ran and leaving small cuts.

The absol turned around in an attempt to catch the quick little eevee, only to be pulled back by its tail by the glaceon.  He bit tightly onto it and refused to let go, hoping to give his client time to get away.  Instead, Shara simply turned around and attacked once more.  She leaped up and spin around in order to swat the absol in the face with her iron-hard tail, but it spun around and swiped her with its horn, sending her flying into a wall.  Sova was also flung off of the absol's tail in the process and send sent flying more forcefully into the wall on the opposite side of the hall.  Cracks were sent through the old wall of the ruins from the force of the impact, but the glaceon had managed to freeze his fur before impact and mitigate the damage.  Still, it hurt enough to force his eyes shut.  Just as he fell forward from the wall, he felt the absol's entire body slam into him with unbelievable force, sending him right through the old wall and into another hall on the other side.

Shara, meanwhile, was on the ground with a painful wound from her right shoulder all the way up to her cheek.  Thanks to her Eviolite, it was an injury she could get back up from, but it was still a serious wound.  Sova pushed his way out of the rubble that had fallen on top of him just as the absol was creeping closer to his client.  All he could think about was how he needed to get the eevee out of the area.  "Hey, we're not done yet!" he shouted to get the absol's attention with ample success.
The creature began to slowly turn around, and right as it got close enough for one of its eyes to gaze into his, its image suddenly began to.... seemingly blink.  The flickering continued despite the absol still moving, and Sova was left staring in confusion at what it was doing.

"Behind you!" he turned around in tune with the eevee's command to see another blinking image of the absol behind him with a raised paw.
He leaped back on instinct only to feel a great pressure on his back.  He was slammed into the ground and minor cracks formed on the floor around him from the force.  The absol had pretty much been in two places at once, and when he'd moved to avoid one position of the creature, it attacked from the other.  He growled in pain and tried to pull himself up as the absol's paw lifted off of him, but the other paw suddenly came down with far more power, bashing him back into the ground and sending a larger wave of cracks rippling out in a form similar to a crater.  The absol's claws were digging into his back and creating ever-deepening wounds.  His growls turned into pained whimpers as he struggled to keep himself from screaming out in agony; he didn't know how far away the others were and didn't want to worry them into turning around and coming back.

Shara had leaned against the wall as she watched the glaceon step away from one copy of the absol only to be brutally pinned to the ground by the other one the second he lowered his guard.  At that point, the eevee's body began to give off a white glow as she rushed toward the absol with speed that surpassed what she'd demonstrated prior.  She jumped off the ground and slammed into the absol's side, but unlike her other hits that barely qualified as love taps, this one sent the absol flying off of his victim and tumbling to the ground.  The glaceon gasped in relief from having the pressure and pain lifted, quickly getting back up despite his body's complaints.  "Looks like you aren't invincible after all," he panted.

The absol arose from the blow as if it were nothing, prompting a worried response from Shara: "That's all I've got...."


Sova glanced down to the eevee and sighed, dreading what he knew had to come next.  "Run.  I'll be fine," he urged.

"No!  I'm not leaving you to die some heroic death like an idiot, let alone for my sake!" the eevee protested in response.

Rather than directly respond, the glaceon merely sighed and asked another question: "Think you can carry my bag?"
He pushed one of his paws up under the two ribbons around his neck and tugged at them, ripping them off with ease due to his sharpened frozen fur.  He opened the bag and allowed the ribbons to fall into it.

"Yeah?" the eevee hesitantly responded, her tone suggesting she was questioning more than answering.
However, rather than receiving some kind of explanation for the odd question, the glaceon simply picked her up by the scruff just as the absol charged for them once more.  He managed to step out of the way of its attack, and in preparation for a counterattack, it got into a defensive stance.  However, instead of fighting back, Sova simply took off running toward the hole where he'd been sent through the wall.

"What are you doing!?"

He tossed the eevee to the other side of the hole and reached his head into his bag to grab a very particular seed, then spun the bag around on his neck and tossed it into the hole behind the eevee.

"No!  Wait, we can fight it together, but you'll die alone!!"

Shara's pleads fell on deaf ears, so to speak.  Sova had already made up his mind.  He swallowed the seed he'd taken out of his bag before letting loose a violent beam of white energy from his maw toward the absol in order to keep it at bay.  The foe avoided the attack with ease, but no matter.  He turned the beam toward the hole and blasted above it, causing it to cave in and trap his client on the other side.  "Now you've got no choice!  RUN!" he demanded.
He could hear shouts of protest for a moment, but it quickly died down into what sounded like.... crying.

"Just you and me now," he announced to the absol as it stared at him.
It seemed a bit hesitant to attack, but nonetheless, its horn and claws began to glow with an eerie black aura.
The absol was in front of him within an instant, leaving an afterimage behind that blinked out of existence within a split second.  Sova lifted himself onto his back paws and brought his frozen tail up to swat the absol's horn as it swung at him, which resulted in a wound across the length of his tail.  Still, it was better than what the horn could have done to more important parts of his body.  He then cartwheeled backward and away from the absol, only to have it back inches away from him him within moments.  Just then, his body began to turn invisible.  He rolled out of the way as one of the enemy's paws tried to slam down on him, then reared up onto his back paws when the other sharp-clawed paw of the absol came at him in a jabbing fashion.  He narrowly avoided both attacks, and before the guardian could strike again, he was entirely invisible.

"You want me?  Come get me!" Sova antagonized before making a beeline down the hall.
The absol gave chase through sound alone and managed to catch the glaceon for one last hit, digging its horn into his side as it ran past him.  Luckily, the Vanish seed was turning his blood invisible as well, or else it would have been quite pointless.  He fell to the ground and finally let out the pained scream that he'd been holding in for so long, then forced himself to go entirely silent.  The absol took the time to search and, to his dismay, its eyes seemed to lock right onto where he was laying on the floor.  He wondered if he hadn't been quiet enough, but then he realized....

....It could smell his blood.

Sova got up with a bit of a limp, but he quickly suppressed it.  He was all alone now, and while that had its disadvantages, it meant he still had one more card to play.  The temperature around him dropped dramatically dramatically and sudden winds began to swirl in circles around his location.  The absol seemed to understand what was happening, as it rushed right at him in an attempt to stop his attack.  However, the invisibility gave him the edge he needed to avoid being hit; he stepped out of the way of the absol's horn, then ducked as it jabbed at him with one of its paws.  The water in the air began to visibly freeze into diamond dust, then collect into particles of snow in the ever-increasing wind speed.  This slowed the absol down and made it even easier for him to avoid its attacks.

Finally, when blizzard was powerful enough to make it difficult for the absol to even walk, Sova decided to make his move.  While it would have been nice to have simply kept the storm up until the absol dropped from it, he knew he didn't have enough power nor energy to do such a thing.  He was already exhausted from what little time he'd spent keeping the blizzard up.  So in one final attempt to get the guardian off his trail, he made the entirety of the blizzard expand outward.  The force plus the surprise easily lifted the absol off its paws and threw it into one of the walls of the hall.  This blew the torches in the vicinity of the blizzard out, but that didn't matter much anymore.  The glaceon took of as fast as he could force his body to go in the direction he remembered to be "forward."  Soon, he was back in the light, and there was no sign of the absol following him.  He knew for certain that his attack hadn't been nearly enough to take it down, but it looked like the blizzard had at least stalled it enough for him to get away.


Dusk begrudgingly left the glaceon behind, bitter that he'd purposely forced her into it by making it the far better choice from a moral perspective.  She was also worried that Sova wouldn't be coming back from this fight, but it wasn't like she would have had much influence on it anyway, and she knew that.  She ignored the charmeleon's growls as she carried him and continued onward until the group ended up faced with a dead end.  There were three doors, but they all seemed to lead to rooms with no other way forward.  The entrances were lit by a torch on either side of the wall while the rooms were each well-lit on the inside.  They had passed some other branching pathways, but she figured this would be a good place to stop and rest, and to wait for the others to catch up.  She supposed she had to have faith that Sova would be alright.

Meanwhile, Krikka was just agitated about having to carry someone.  However, she still didn't want to lose the favor of the group she was traveling with, which meant doing what they asked.  Besides, it was pretty easy with the help of Linus.  She moved straight down the path until the only way forward appeared to be into a set of rooms with the distinct lack of any more paths forward within either of them.  She suspected for the group to turn around and head back in the other direction to choose another path, but instead, it seemed they were planning to stay right where they were.  Granted, Dusk was apparently the appointed leader and decision maker due to her powerful threat of an angry glaceon, but the result was the same regardless of whether or not it was a joint group decision.

Out of boredom, Krikka decided to enter one of the rooms and take a look around....  After a few minutes, Dusk decided to do the same thing in the hopes of getting her mind off the situation, although she chose to enter the room opposite to the one her annoying.... "ally" had gone through.

(This thread continues within two separate threads in the Chambers of Vision and Verity.  When business within the chambers is finished, the thread will pick back up here.)

The chambers had to be filled with plenty of treasures, but something within Acro told him one simple thing. "Do not touch ANYTHING." He looked about in search of at least one of the umbreons, not at all enjoying the current situation. He was fairly certain the charmeleon did not either judging from how he had no said a word since Acro had woken up. Beyond that was a mystery.

"Hello?" he called out just as the lights seemed to flicker on. His eyes widened and he swallowed his fear. He spotted her at last, the umbreon. The charmeleon finally caught up, but that was not as important now that the lights were on. At first he had thought the umbreon to be Dusk and was about to call out for her before he realized the rings were blue and not yellow. Oh, it was the OTHER umbreon...fine, he'd take anything at this point....what was her name again?

--

Garnet felt numb, he really did not want anything to do with anything at the moment. He just...wanted to lay down and not move. Sleeping was not exactly the right answer, but just a total stop of movement would have been nice. The archeops spotted the other umbreon, great it was the one he didn't like. He took a quiet deep breath and just kept to himself as the archeops seemed to approach her. They were in the chambers with the so called treasure, but he had a blank mind at the current moment in time.

He kept his eyes ahead of him, but not on what was in his path. He ended up tripping, and falling onto his bag and crushing something. His eyes widened in sudden horror. Which orb was that? House? Warp? Trawl? He forced himself back up, but it seemed that he was fortunate enough to have landed on a trawl orb. Items quickly appeared around him and the Archeops while one particular item seemed to appear above him and lower itself onto him as if someone had sprinkled fairy dust on him.

Confused, he gave a sneeze. Somehow, that sneeze seemed to TRIGGER the strange dust. It suddenly began to burn into his skin, causing him to scratch at it suddenly. His whole body ached and burned with each movement as he suppressed cries of pain. Eventually he fell to the ground once more and tried to use the ground to help rub the strange pixie dust off of him as he growled and snarled at the invisible tiny particles. It would probably have appeared quite amusing to anyone watching him, but he was not at all having any sort of fun.

--

Acro turned around to look at the charmeleon, quite confused as he suddenly began to growl and scratch himself...even rolling on the floor. He was about to ask what the hell had gotten into him, when one of the objects suddenly flung itself at him. He felt something clamp down around his neck as if attempting to strangle him. He suddenly began to struggle, terrified suddenly by the notion of something attempting to strangle him, even if it was what he had come here for. He felt something shift within him as he tried to rip the amulet off or at least give his air pipe some oxygen.

Why the hell was this thing trying to kill him!?

-

Linus is Linus and Literally Nobody Cares.

Within the other chamber, it seemed Sova would finally have his goal met.  Perhaps for once in his life, everything wouldn't go wrong.  Maybe he would simply accomplish something without bringing ruin to the world or hurting everyone around him.  It still seemed unlikely due to his track record, but he could hope nonetheless.  He shattered an orb on the ground - a Trawl orb in specific - in order to bring some of the items to him, knowing that whatever it brought would be momentarily halted from latching onto him.  Or at least, it was what he'd heard, but it was the best thing he had to go off of.  He'd had to ask around and research quite a bit to even figure out what he was looking for, but he knew.  Or at least, he had the unreliable information of sketchy travelers to go off of, which was the next best thing.

The things that appeared around him were.... kind of hard to see.  It seemed that the orb had mostly just trawled up.... dust?  He tried to locate the item he'd come for, but it seemed he hadn't been lucky enough to drag one to him.  He knew his time-frame was very short and, since he was surrounded by the treasure, he would be trapped with something other than what he'd come for.  What if something with some kind of awful effect latched onto him?  He didn't know the effects of all the treasures, and in fact, he barely even knew anything about the one he was looking for!  There was no way for him to pick between the choices he'd been given and know for sure that he wasn't signing himself up for some kind of misery, and yet from what he'd heard, the items would certainly pick for him if he didn't choose one.

Just when all hope was lost, he saw it: a dark purple ribbon drifting to the ground within a cloud of dust.  He reached a paw out, but paused as he realized the dust was probably some kind of cursed treasure just like everything else.  Or.... perhaps that wasn't very likely, but it was better to be safe than sorry.  He took in a deep breath and blew as much of the dust away from the ribbon as he could before quickly reaching a paw out to touch it.  "Whatever I first touch will be bound to me, body and soul," he muttered to himself.
"Hopefully."

After a moment of being draped limply over his paw, the ribbon suddenly sprang to life and began to twirl and wrap itself around his leg, slowly but surely making its way upward toward his neck.  It was a bit of a shock, but what worried him more was how tightly the ribbon was wrapping around him.


Dusk watched in silence as the glaceon performed a ritual or something weird like that, all just to get some kind of tacky purple ribbon.  She was no idiot; she knew there were likely effects tied to the "treasure," and she assumed there was some kind of risk involved if Jerkface was trying so hard to keep her in the dark.  Despite that, she kind of wanted one, especially once she saw that the ribbon seemed almost.... alive.  Maybe it would be kind of like a pet?  Either way, it seemed cool, and she at least wanted to know more about the treasure.  "Hey, you gonna share?" she spoke up with high hopes that the glaceon would finally stop being so secretive now that he had what he'd come for.
Instead, she simply got Sova telling her what to do again.  It seemed that was all he wanted to do, just boss her around constantly like he held some kind of authority over her!


There was too much going through Sova's mind already to have to worry about his idiot companion getting herself into trouble too.  "No!" he spoke in a demanding and aggressive tone.
It only took him a moment to realize he'd been a bit harsh, and once he did, he immediately tried to make up for it.  "Dusk, you do not want anything this place has to offer.  This treasure is cursed; the artifacts are rumored to be capable of making your greatest desires a reality, but it has a cost.  I couldn't figure out exactly what the downside is, but I've heard some things, and.... nothing you could possibly want is worth-" he paused as the umbreon suddenly swept a paw through his bag and dragged out an orb.
He'd been so distracted by the ribbon crawling up his leg that he hadn't actually been paying any attention to what Dusk was doing.


"I'm done listening to him," she thought to herself.

The glaceon was just chatting away trying to explain the situation, but in the heat of the moment, she wasn't listening too well.  "If I want something, he has no right to keep it from me.  He has no right to tell me what to do as if he has some kind of authority over me," thoughts continued to race through her head as her temper grew and grew.
Finally, Dusk just rushed over to the glaceon while he was in the middle of whatever he was talking about and snatched a Trawl orb out of his bag.  It was easy since it seemed to be the only orb he had with him.  She immediately tossed it to the ground a few feet away, making sure that Sova had no chance to stop her as she jumped toward the area.  Even if there was some kind of endless misery tied to the treasure, she didn't care.  All she could think about was how Sova kept parading around like he had some ownership over her, and she wanted to prove him wrong.

In a flash of light, a variety of what seemed to simply be fashion accessories appeared around her.  "You may be stronger than me, and sure, you could probably break every bone in my body if you wanted, but I am NOT your slave and I'm sick of you thinking otherwise!  You have no authority over my life!"
She waited for Sova's response, and he certainly tried, but it seemed as if he suddenly became incapable of speaking.  It took the umbreon a moment to realize he was suddenly in pain for no apparent reason, which made her look around at the treasures surrounding her and start to piece it together.  Sova had been trying to protect her, which she understood deep down inside.  She'd just gotten a bit heated, but now that the moment was passing, she began to realize that what she was doing was stupid.

Dusk began backing away from the items around her, but it was too late to change her mind.  Some kind of cape or cloak that had warped in with the rest of the items suddenly made a drastic change from inanimate to moving and coming right at her.  She tried to flee, but for a piece of fabric, the cloak was surprisingly fast.  It caught her by the legs and swirled around her body, fluffing out as it did so.  More and more of her body became entangled by the cloak until she simply tripped and fell to the ground.  She struggled, but to no avail.  She could feel the cloak tightening to her body, almost as if it was gluing itself to her; in specific, it was wrapping around her neck rather tightly and restricting her breathing.  "H-help...." she strained herself to speak, but it proved difficult with an article of clothing strangling her.

Entangled and stuck on the ground, she could feel an odd sensation enveloping her body.  It was similar to the rage she'd felt mere moments ago, yet.... different.  Whatever it was, it was getting worse by the second.


Sova's attempt to explain the situation fell on deaf ears, and perhaps that was justified.  After how he had constantly treated Dusk, it made sense that she wouldn't believe him and simply refused to listen to what he had to say.  And to think she'd practically begged him for answers earlier.  If he'd been less difficult then, he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the current situation could have been avoided.  As he watched umbreon stepped into the circle of what were likely life-ruining curses, he knew it was his fault.  He needed to make it right.  "Dusk-" he started up, but suddenly fell silent as the ribbon finally found its place around his neck.
As if it were locking itself onto him, the ribbon suddenly tightened, but that was far from the bad part.

The second the cursed ribbon tightened itself to him, he felt what was only comparable to needles being driven through his neck.  He couldn't even scream from the sudden agony focused on his neck, overwhelming him.  It seemed Dusk now understood what he'd been trying to tell her, but it was too late.  One of the items seemed to choose her, and within seconds, it was all over.  Dusk was helpless to fight off the cloak that had wrapped itself around her.  "I can still help her," Sova thought to himself with hopes that maybe he could tear the cloak away from her.
A mere step forward was all it took to bring the full.... experience upon him.  Suddenly, he was washed in a wave of pure, indescribable agony.  The feeling of needles stabbing through his neck had suddenly been amplified and spread throughout every inch of his body.

In pure shock, the only thing the glaceon absentmindedly found his head drifting up toward the ceiling.  His vision was rapidly blurring, and through all the pain, he could feel himself being brought down to the floor by the embrace of gravity.  Before he even hit the ground, everything went black.

--------


Despite her belief that the "curse" was nothing more than rumor, Krikka still decided to let the buffoons take the lead and check things out before she did anything.  Even though there was obviously no such thing as cursed treasure, there were still potential dangers such as traps.  One of the two meat shields tripped over himself and lost an orb, which she may have felt sympathy for if not for the fact that she hated the guy.  She realized the shattered orb had to have been a Trawl orb when it brought some items over to the guy which were presumably the "treasure."  She watched with mixed feelings about the curse; she didn't want to be wrong, but perhaps that was worth seeing the charmeleon suffer.

Sure enough, what followed was a display that would likely have sufficed as proof enough to most that there was some form of "curse."  However, Krikka was not satisfied.  While the charmeleon's sudden fit of irritation was entertaining, it seemed more likely to be some kind of allergic reaction to the pixie dust than a curse.  Then there was the archeops' "cursed" treasure, which seemed to just be a bit too tight.  Allergies and a fat neck didn't really sound like much of a curse to her.  She decided she would play her luck and see if she got a necklace that was too small or useless itching powder, but above all, she would prove to herself that there was no curse on the treasure.  She approached the items to pick one up, but they all simply.... vanished.  Actually, they seemed to melt into the floor.  "Oh, what, I'm not worthy of being cursed?" she sassed the items that probably couldn't understand her.

It was a setback, but all hope was not lost: Krikka still had a few orbs that hadn't tragically shattered.  She didn't fancy the idea of breaking any of her shiny things in the first place, but she supposed it was worth it to get some treasure.  Ignoring the two troubled individuals who likely could have used her help, she lifted an orb out of her bag and allowed to fall to the ground and shatter.  In the blink of an eye, there was a variety of little trinkets scattered before her.  She spotted some of the same dust that'd made the charmeleon break out in hives, and while every fiber of her being told her not to go for that one, she'd already decided on it.  It seemed to sparkle vibrantly in the light when she neared it, and sparkly things were a weakness of hers.  If she was going to pick her poison with nothing more than looks to go on, she was going to choose the sparkly one and hope she wasn't allergic to it or whatever.

Krikka approached the pretty sparkles and reached a paw toward the sight, which caused it to all swirl around her body before seemingly disappearing into her.  For a moment, her blue rings gave off an odd white glow which then spread to the rest of her body, but it quickly faded.  She waited for a moment before confidently speaking up: "I knew there was no curse.  You two are just unlucky."
However, despite her confident words, she was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded.  Maybe she was allergic to it after all?  But yet she wasn't getting the instant onset of irritation that the charmeleon seemed to be suffering from, so it couldn't have been that.  Or maybe her reaction just wasn't as bad?  Was it going to last forever?

One thing she knew for sure was that it was getting worse.

The charmeleon attempted to scratch the itchy areas, becoming so infuriated that he was unable to satisfy the itching that the claws began to press against his reptilian skin and dig deeper. The sharp ends began to gouge his skin and cause it to go from appearing to be mildly irritating to as if he had attempted to scratch himself to death. His own blood began to get on his claws as his body began to shiver. It felt as if his own body was beginning to self destruct on itself.

He could feel the burn of bile rising in the back of his throat as well suddenly. What the bloody hell was this!? Garnet screeched as loudly as he could, though it simply sounded like a strangled weak yell as he finally lost the energy to move anymore and simply laid on his side as his body shook with pain.

His vision blurred as his one hand dug into the ground and attempt to pull himself forward across the ground in pure instinct to continue itching himself despite the pain and the urge to vomit. He did not even make it several inches before his arm seemed to give up and everything seemed to stop...registering. He was no longer moving, his eyes were open and wide with alarm, but he was still breathing.

--

Acro pulled at the necklace with strangled gasps for breath, attempting to call for help as the amulet's glow began to fade. He felt a large weight upon him as if something was crushing him, he wanted all of this to just stop. His bones felt as if they were about to snap despite the lack of weight, but suddenly...it was gone.

The necklace released his neck and hung loosely at his neck as if it were any average amulet. He gasped for breath, eyes wide with fear as he felt himself around his body. Was he dead? No, it did not seem like it. He...he was alive and he had the cursed amulet! A smile of sheer glee began to form on the Archeops, he had done it! The ability should have been gone now! He would no longer be useless!

A wave of relief washed over him, one like he had felt like no other. To the point where...he let out a giggle. He looked down at the claws on his wings with his eyes still wide. He was laughing now, unaware of the two pokemon around him's conditions as he was more focused on his own. It was done, he was free! Oh so free!

Tears began to form at his eyes in sheer joy as he felt as if the weight from earlier had been lifted off of him all over again. He would never have to face that damned ability again!

--

Literally nobody cares about Linus.

For a moment, Sova was confused as to where he was.  His recent memories were escaping him, making it difficult to recall what had led him to such a point of being caged within the immersion of darkness.  There was a distinct haze in his mind, yet it wasn't one he had the processing capabilities to realize.  It took him a moment of studying his surroundings to realize that while he could see nothing past himself, there was something audible.  He could hear what could only be described as whispers echoing from all around, and yet there was no apparent source.  "Wh-who's there?" he absentmindedly questioned, his words fleeting into the void.

Then came the response.  "I hate it when you're like this.  Wake up so you can grasp the concept of me tormenting you."

As if the eerie voice had been some kind of trigger, the haze suddenly lifted from his mind.  He now knew where he was and what had happened, at least to an extent.  His memories were still a bit fuzzy.  "I get the feeling you have something to do with why my dreams are always like this," he stated the obvious in a mock-guessing manner.

"You think this is funny, do you?  I guess you don't quite remember.... what you did.  No, you can't even feel it....  I'M the one stuck here suffering because you're pathetic!" the voice continued to chat on, becoming increasingly agitated.
Sova wasn't quite sure what was so wrong due to his recent memory still being hazy, but he got the feeling he'd done something to upset his little.... friend.

"Why should I care about whatever I did to you?  Far as I'm concerned, you deserve it," he boldly spoke back.
The sudden appearance of what seemed to be a very angry mirror image of himself directly in front of him gave him the feeling that he was about to regret his words.

"Y'know what?  You don't get the bliss of ignorance.  Let me show you what I'm feeling right now because of you," the mirror image spoke.
Despite the obvious threat, the only thing Sova really cared much about was why S.S. had changed his appearance.  He'd learned that in his mind, the little demon could appear as pretty much anything and generally picked an.... edgier mask to wear.  This time, S.S. was just playing the part of an exact copy of him.  As riveting as this interesting little tidbit was, it became less pressing when a sudden pain flooded Sova's very being.  It was intense and, in a way, unlike anything he'd ever felt.  It was particularly bad around his neck, making it difficult for him to make any noise.  This resulted in an attempted growl coming out as a pathetic and rather high-pitched moan.

"Much better."


The cloak coiled and tightened around the umbreon's body, constricting her to a painful extent.  However, the intensity of it all seemed to diminish as her struggling died down, almost as if the cloak had simply been trying to stop her from struggling.  Not that this was particularly comforting, but she decided to just give up and let it do whatever it was planning on doing.  From Sova's reaction, she expected that the pain would pick back up and get much worse, but to her surprise, it just.... didn't.  She laid on the floor for a minute, a bit scared to move for fear of upsetting the blanket from Hell, but after a while it being perfectly still, she decided to stand up.  Perhaps more surprising than it should have been, the cloak had fastened itself around her neck and was now draped down her sides.

It didn't look half bad.

"Hey Sova, I think mine likes me," she tried to start up a conversation only to receive complete silence as a response.
It was then that she remembered the condition the glaceon had been in directly before her unique experience in being held hostage by a possessed article of clothing.  She turned back in his direction to see that he was on the ground, out cold.  She froze for a moment, unsure of what to do with Sova unconscious.  Who was she supposed to go to for help with this?  She felt a frantic panic rising inside of her, but an odd feeling suddenly made itself apparent and suppressed her fear.  It was.... bravery?  No, not quite.  "Help!" she shouted while making her way out of the chamber.
The first thing she saw upon exiting the chamber was Linus staring dully down the hall they'd come from, as if he was watching something.

Dusk turned to see what the bird was having an unamused staring contest with, and what she saw filled her with concern once more.  Or at least, it should have, but instead.... she just felt angry.  There was an absol coming down the hall, straight toward them.  It wasn't the horror they'd had the displeasure of meeting previously, but it was still something.  Normally, she would have darted into the other occupied room to alert her allies, but she felt oddly uncaring toward that at the moment.  There were more.... pressing things for her to address.  The bird was just staring at the approaching and presumably hostile absol, neglecting to bother to warn anyone even though it would have taken merely the amount of effort required to speak for a few seconds.

Dusk turned her attention to the bird and gave him a glare as she spoke to him.  "Linus.... right?  I'm sorry to hear that you lost your soul and brain, but I'm sure you can still be useful if you OPEN YOUR EYES!" she started off speaking relatively calmly before suddenly becoming possessed with aggression and screaming the last bit at the top of her lungs.
With that out of the way, she turned her attention back toward the absol coming down the hall.  It was moving too slow, so she decided to stomp on over to it in order to get the show on the road already.  It had flipped like a switch, and she was now virtually incapable of thinking straight.

There was also a ball of brown fluff laying against the wall, but she wasn't nearly as furious at the unconscious eevee for passing out after whatever had happened involving the monstrous absol.


Krikka just watched as her companions suffered, having to really focus on not showing how much joy it brought to her.  She had to keep the smile off her face, at the very least, or she was fairly certain it would bring her trouble.  Then again, the other two seemed a bit too.... preoccupied to notice, but she still wasn't going to press her luck.  After a patient wait for the supposedly great explorer and the random edgelord to stop being so pathetic, it all seemed to finally die down.  The archeops' pain seemed to have subsided, but that was fine since the one she really hated still seemed to be having a fun time, just without the energy to maul himself to death.  "Well, seems like everything worked out," she gave a statement that was purposely inappropriately optimistic, glossing over the fact that one member of the group was on the floor in agony.

As if on cue, the voice of the lesser umbreon then called out for.... help.  Krikka disliked the idea of doing such a thing as "helping," but she supposed she'd have to at least pretend to.  She decided she'd wait for birdguy to exit first, then she'd follow, and hopefully the bird would suffice as a shield against whatever the problem was.  As she waited for the archeops to lead the way, she could hear the faint voice of the other umbreon once more.  She tried to focus on the words when suddenly, the tone was amped up to a literal scream, making it impossible not to hear it.  "She doesn't sound happy," she stated.
To her, such a thing was just a joke, but she made the smart choice and hid the fact that she found the whole thing to be funny.

The cave was dark and there was an enemy approaching. He stared at the absol. He should say something, but he did not. The voice told him to remain silent and simply watch. The eevee was fast asleep off to the side as the footsteps of the absol grew closer. He watched the absol and it watched him. He was not frozen in fear, but he did nothing to alert the others. A voice shouted from the chamber the glaceon had entered, a call for help. He ignored it with his eyes steady on the absol that approached.

The dark fox like creature left the chamber and approached him. He could hear her voice, but he could not form words from what she said. His beak did not open as the haze that clouded his mind seemed to thicken. All he could see was what was ahead of him as he roosted in his position and watched.

Dusk had moved to confront the ever nearing absol while he remained behind with his eyes on the dark type. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion for him, as if his senses had been heightened just as the cavern begun to tremble. The pebbles by him began to shake as a sudden loud screech ripped through the confines of the tunnels that sounded like no pokemon he had ever heard before. He was snapped out of his strange trance, eyes wide as the screech lasted for what seemed like hours.

The umbreon had stopped in the spot, as well as the absol as the shaking began to grow worse. Suddenly, it all stopped. There there was a moment of dead silence before the ground beneath the absol suddenly ruptured. The absol disappeared into a mass of colliding bodies of steel as two Steelix burst from the ground. Each one slammed their tails into each other and bashed their heads against one another. Each one looked for a way to sink their teeth into the other.

One steelix was significantly larger than the other and appeared to be vastly different than the other. A shield of protective minerals floated around it as the thick skull smashed into the smaller steelix. The smaller steelix gave a cry of pain that echoed throughout the caverns as he collapsed onto the ground. He recognized the smaller steelix, it was Chevy.

--

Acro could not believe it. It was finally here! He looked down at his wings, unable to realize that somebody had been speaking to him or even crying for help. He was too busy with his own sort of trance as he stared at the cursed necklace. This was no curse, this was a blessing! His attention was at last ripped away from his fancy new attire by the loud screech that sounded quite familiar to what he had heard earlier when the steelix friend popped by.

He was on the move. He felt invincible now. He forgot to instruct Krikka to remain with Garnet, instead rushing to the action in order to test his new ability...well, lack of ability. Upon leaving the chamber, he spotted the foe. He looked around, searching for Linus and Shara. He could see neither one, up until he spotted a dark shape moving along the side of the cave, trying to get past the bigger steelix under the cover of the fainted one.

Unfortunately, the steelix had spotted him. The mega steelix gave a bellow as he spotted the honchkrow, and Acro flew into action. Multiple copies began to surround him as his tail began to glow. He charged towards the steelix with a powerful screech, feeling quite brave and bold as he moved in to distract the steelix. The copies slammed into the hide of the steel type pokemon, metal clashed against metal as the Iron Tail failed to produce any serious damage. The true archeops flew around the back of the steelix before shooting straight for the pokemon's eye. He waited for just the right moment to unleash a screech of his own.

The steelix turned just in time for the archeops to smash into the exposed eye. The steelix screeched in pain and rage. Acro couldn't believe it, his problems were solved! He had a stupid confident grin upon his expression as he avoided the strange minerals that floated around the massive pokemon. One eye was squinted shut as the other glared at the archeops. His wings flapped harshly as he struggled to remain in the air without the currents of the wind to help him. "Leave them alone!" He jeered at the steelix.

The steelix glared at Acro for a brief moment as the minerals around it began to slow down. Suddenly, the steelix took a deep breath and gave a bellow, suddenly diving forward. Acro dodged it, joy overcoming him just before the strange protrusion in the rock type's body smacked into him. Oops, guess he should not get so cocky just yet. While Acro was sent back to the cavern floor. The steelix charged straight into a wall near the opposing steelix that had been knocked out.

He forced himself back up just in time to see the dark bird of death spread his own wings. Time seemed to slow as feathers flew off of Linus's body. Acro could see the fear in Linus's eyes as the honchkrow looked to him. Linus wanted to fly to him it seemed, have Acro protect him. Acro wanted to move forward, but his body was too slow. The gaping jaws of the steelix grew ever closer. Time seemed to resume at its normal pace just as the steelix and the honchkrow disappeared into a tunnel created by the steelix.

Acro was frozen to the spot with wide eyes, unable to say anything at first. He snapped himself out of the trance and let out a horrified scream, "LINUS!" He charged forward to look into the tunnel, but the steelix had disappeared behind a wall of rocks where he would not be able to follow. He could feel his body begin to shiver and shake as he began to fear the worst. No matter who approached or even spoke to him, he would simply stare at the hole and remain unable to respond. He could feel his heart sink as he began to hear horrified shrieking somewhere down in the caves. He knew what it was, but he did not want to believe it.

The cavern began to rumble once more and the mega steelix returned with a manic grin upon his expression. The archeops could only stare as he spotted the dark feathers of a honchkrow about his teeth. The steelix spit something out. The archeops's head began to feel light as he stared at the dark scarlet covered object before him. The steelix leaned in close with his manic grin filled with power and confidence.

"You want to try telling me what to do again?"


Linus fainted!

Regardless of whether or not she could take the absol, Dusk was not afraid. The smallest things were infuriating her and all she could think about was hurting something. If she were more calm, she would have realized how bizarre the feeling was, but she couldn't think straight at that moment. Despite this issue, she still knew when to stop: as the ground below her began to rumble, she took the hint and started slowly backing away. She didn't get far before the ground burst open to reveal two large steelix. Despite her newfound temper, she still wasn't blind enough to try getting in the middle of just a fight. Without even a moment of hesitation, she turned and ran in the opposite direction of the battling beasts.

She didn't stop until after one of the steelix had reigned victorious and Acro rushed by, seeming eager to take part in round two. Her gaze followed the archeops and watched him fight very differently from what she'd seen thus far. He now seemed.... not exactly stronger, but perhaps more confident? Brave? Whatever it was, she assumed it meant he'd gotten what he'd come for, and he now seemed more than capable of handling a fight. She felt relieved up until the part where the steelix's attention shifted from the more capable bird to the.... other one. "Serves him right," she thought to herself as she watched the steelix drag Linus away into the wall.
The cloak's influence on her mind was already evident, causing her to think something she never would have thought prior due solely to an unreasonable sense of aggression toward the bird.

Her thoughts remained unchanged until she heard Linus' pained.... cries, which effectively snapped her out of it. Her eyes widened as she fully grasped what was happening and how she had just felt about it. In speechless shock and shame at herself, she simply stared as the steelix reappeared and spit out something bearing a distinct black and red coloration. This simply confirmed what had just happened, and it would have made her feel even worse, were she capable.


Krikka very willingly stayed behind as the archeops ran out to deal with whatever the problem was. All the yelling and loud noises made her feel quite comfortable right where she was, in the presumed safety of the chamber. After all, there was only one way in, and that way was currently being guarded quite heavily. She looked over to the presumed-dying charmeleon and decided he probably wouldn't be much for conversation. She almost instantly grew bored, but boredom alone was not enough to make her do something so idiotic as leaving the safety of the chamber. However, the increasingly intense-sounding commotion eventually got her attention, prompting her to take a peek out the doorway to see what was going on.

On the other side, she saw two very big steelix, one of which had a significant size advantage over the other. Plus the smaller one seemed kind of dead. "Well, that explains all the noise," she muttered to herself.
It seemed that the archeops was actually managing to go toe to toe with the remaining steelix despite being only a small portion of its size and having a fairly severe type disadvantage to it. Everyone except the moody glaceon was out there, but it seemed the fight was a one on one. It looked as if Linus just trying to get away, and part of her kind of hoped he succeeded since he was somewhat less unpleasant to talk to than the others.

Things panned out somewhat differently. "....'Kay," Krikka spoke to herself for lack of better words and turned right back into the room without even a moment's hesitation.
She was somewhat disappointed, but nothing had changed for her. She wasn't getting involved in the fighting if she could avoid it. She just needed to look out for herself and make sure she stayed alive, and she had a perfect excuse that she wasn't going to let go to waste: someone needed to stay behind and look after the dying charmeleon! Speaking of him, she decided to try speaking to him and seeing if he was even conscious: "Hey, are you dead?"


"I hear your thoughts, you know. Just like you can hear mine.... You're wondering why I'm doing this to you. Well, news flash: I'M NOT! I didn't cause this; I just lifted your.... numbness. This one's all you."

Sova was at a loss for words, although this was partially due to his inability to talk. He still couldn't quite remember what he'd done, but lying was one thing he knew S.S. tended to stray from, so he assumed it was true. He was unconscious, after all, so it stood to reason that he'd done something to end up in such a state. He was pretty sure it wasn't just a nap.

"As much as I'd love to stick around and chat about how you just wrecked our life, you need to be awake so nothing comes and offs us. See, I can't take over right now, because I guess being tortured by a ribbon isn't your trigger or something. That means I've gotta hope you can avoid getting us killed."

Suddenly, the glaceon's eyes shot open. Sova looked around in confusion for a moment before piecing together what had happened. Now that he was awake, he could clearly recall everything up until the moment he'd passed out. He tried to lift his head to get a better view of things, but a sudden surge of pain in his neck made him cease the movement. "I hope that's not permanent," he muttered to himself, trying not to take the situation too seriously.
Just as he made the decision to just lay down for a while and hope the pain would pass, his ears began to pick up the sounds of commotion outside of the chamber. His focus was still returning to him, but when an incredibly loud roar echoed into the room, it was virtually impossible to ignore.

He slowly and shakily moved his paws into the proper positions to support himself with every movement bringing immense pain. It felt as if every muscle in his body was torn to shreds, despite the fact that they were all clearly working fine. The agony made him want to cry out, but he ignored it to the best of his ability as he forced against the ground to lift himself up. Every movement was a feat. He slowly made his way to the entrance, feeling closer to passing out once more with every step. Maybe S.S. would take over? To an extent, he hoped so, but it wasn't something he was willing to put faith in. He just kept on forcing his eyes to stay open and his legs to keep moving until finally, he reached the exit that led into the hall.... and immediately regretted even getting up.

The first thing Sova noticed was a massive steelix, trumping the friendly one they'd met in size. It was hard to miss, yet somehow, such a small detail managed to catch his attention even more.... A mere black dot in comparison to the serpent, yet so much more prominent in the glaceon's sights. He'd come just in time to see Linus being ripped out of view through a tunnel, followed by a scream filled with emotion he couldn't recall ever having heard from Acro. "This isn't real," he thought to himself, but he just couldn't make himself believe it.
He then moved on to trying to convince himself of a more reasonable lie: "He's alright."
For a moment, he actually had some faith in this one.

Then he heard it.

It was a noise that could only truly be described as someone's life being ripped away from them. Sova was no stranger to losing allies, but he'd never experienced it in such a way before. He'd never had to hear such noises. Suddenly, the feeling of needles piercing through his body seemed to.... fade. He found his gaze falling absently toward the floor, yet his body remained standing. His eyes went from wide with shock to a more.... soulless look. There were two distinct personalities within the glaceon's mind, but for just a moment, neither was truly present. Sova could not bear the situation, yet his will was still around and entirely against allowing S.S. to take control. His last conscious thought before virtually slipping into waking unconsciousness was a simple desire, and the fact of the matter was that this goal was not one that his will would give to S.S.

For quite some time, all he'd wanted to do was help others; to save them. Despite this, time and time again, he always seemed to fail. Thoughts raced through his subconscious about how he wanted to save Linus along with memories of how he'd treated the bird. He thought about how the others were likely to share Linus' fate due to the absurd level of danger he'd brought them all into. If he'd never have brought the idea up, none of them would have come with him, which meant it was all his fault. The feeling of it all being his fault and an immense desire to somehow make up for it was what was driving his mind to keep S.S. from taking over.

The sounds of something bursting through the ceiling above directed his absentminded gaze upward to the sight of a significantly abnormal metagross coming straight down on him. Its four appendages were tipped with razor-sharp claws that were all pointed right at him, but he didn't flinch or even try to move out of the way. He remained almost frozen as a violent wind spiral suddenly whipped up around him, rapidly freezing the water molecules in the air into diamond dust. The current of the wind nearly instantly changed to send it all violently rocketing upward and slamming into the metal beast, knocking its trajectory away from him and causing it to crash to the ground in front of him. The icy mist leftover from the attack drifted throughout the area, putting up an eerie atmosphere around the glaceon.

One of the metagross' massive arms suddenly reached out for the glaceon, only to have him vanish before it could even touch him. He was instantly on the other side of it with a black orb of energy forming in front of him, and before it could even react, he'd already fired. The resulting explosion from the Shadow Ball was enough to completely shroud the two until more freezing wind whipped up around the glaceon, sucking the black smoke into it. This time, the current of freezing mist was sent flying toward the monumental steelix's head, and in a far bigger blast than the previous ones. The freezing wind spun in a funnel perfectly shaped to pass harmlessly around the archeops that was blocking the path toward the steelix. It was expert craftsmanship that Sova normally would not have been capable of, and even S.S. would have been at a loss. However, a mind with no distracting thoughts combined with an unimaginable steroid in power made such control possible.


After the ordeal with the absol and making it back to the group, Shara had pretty much just passed out. Her body was sore and exhausted, her mind was a wreck, and she was tired. Despite trying to fight it off, she'd just.... drifted into sleep. This came back to bite her when she was suddenly awoken to loud voices, roars, and the very earth around her shaking. It was quite the wake-up call to receive, especially since she'd been in such a surprisingly deep sleep considering she was laying on the hard floor of the ruins. Her first instinct was to back away from the initial source of the noise and try to figure out what was going on. She stayed close to the wall she'd fallen asleep next to and backed away while using it as a sort of guide.

At first, her vision was a bit blurry, but it all finally came into focus just in time to catch some of the archeops' standoff with a giant steelix. Normally, she would have rushed straight in to help, but she just ended up falling instead due to a mixture of dizziness and grogginess. Being woken up to such chaos when she was already in a bad condition was taking its toll on her. By the time she managed to get back up, she noticed a distinct lack of the big angry steelix.... and one of the birds. The remaining avian then proceeded to scream out the name "Linus," and despite being incredibly confused, Shara could still piece together what had happened.

She considered making her way to the newly formed hole in the wall to see if she could help, but it was already too late. The steelix made a reappearance with a gruesome gift to show what it'd done. Shara felt anger at the fact that she'd been given such incapable explorers to work with, but the more prominent feeling enveloping her was deep regret. She'd allowed herself pass out and failed in her job to protect others. Before she could even think to do anything, the noise of more of the terrain being broken away caused her to turn her attention to the glaceon who'd just been reintroduced to the scene. A metagross had burst through the ceiling and was coming down on top of him, but not just any metagross: she recognized the effects of mega evolution.

The glaceon handled the immediate threat nicely, showing an almost disturbing increase in all-around fighting perfection from what she'd seen prior. The eevee spotted the purple ribbon around his neck and sighed as she came to understand why he was suddenly so much stronger. She couldn't help but wonder what he'd sacrificed for the increased power, but that question would have to wait. She tried to temporarily suppress the memory of what'd just happened so that she could help protect those who could still be protected. The metagross still seemed to be capable of fighting after the assault it'd received, so she decided to take that one's attention. A Shadow Ball formed in front of her and fired toward the enemy just as it began to move once more, and while it didn't seem to do nearly as much as the glaceon's Shadow Ball, it was still enough to get the metallic creature's attention.

(Personal reminder: Shara's move set - Detect, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Shadow Ball, Swagger, Last Resort)

He was dreaming. He had to be! Acro was still as stone as he stared at the object the steelix had dropped. He felt as if he were enclosed in a box. Nobody else around, just him and the object. His eyes were wide with sheer terror and shock as his jaw hung open in horror. He was having difficulty believing this, it just could not be true, could it? He could hear the steelix chuckle along with the a large variety of other dangerous sounding noises, but they all seemed to be so far away.

George had the right idea. The buizel must have sensed what was going to happen and left while he still could. He had said the team was just not going to work out. He had met with the buizel later on in his life and spoken to him about it and thought he had been wrong all along about George. He was a fool. The buizel just felt guilty about Acro's conditions, didn't he? Was he lying? Was Acro actually really that weak?

The poochyena...oh Arceus he couldn't even remember the pooch's name! He had left in the middle of a mission...or did he? He died didn't he? Died just like Astrid, died just like Linus. The guilt he felt began to grow as he realized that he could not for the life of him remember the pooch's name. He had probably gotten him killed and yet he could not remember the pooch's name. Astrid had been nice. Astrid was so confident. Astrid WANTED to be on his team and yet he had let the little dragon down so easily. The dratini had relied upon him to keep him safe and he had failed. He wondered with dread if the Astrid had the very same look Linus had in his eyes before...

No. That was not a look begging to be saved. He would remember that face clearly. It was a face of sheer hatred. The veil of confidence the amulet had given him was burned as he begun to see the reality of things. That was not a plea for help, that was a look of blame. Linus was right, he was the weaker member. He did not even want to come here. Acro had insisted anyways, feeling that it would be safer for Linus. He was wrong.

He could feel a faint chilling breeze as the temperature around him began to sink like a rock. The object of focus had been pushed away along with the steelix that simply sat there to soak in the archeops's indescribable expression. The winds passed harmlessly around him. While the object was gone, it still felt as if it were there. he managed to pull his eyes away from the scarlet stained ground and looked towards the tunnel the steelix had dragged his previous partner into.

Maybe...maybe he was still okay? The steelix was bluffing, but if they just stayed here then Linus would surely die. He...he could still save him! A slight hope being rekindled in the archeops, he began to walk towards the cave. The battle around him went unnoticed. He needed to go help Linus, Linus was still down there! As he walked, however, deep down he knew the true answer.

--

"Hey are you dead?" he could hear a voice ask as he began to return to consciousness. He suddenly took in a deep sharp gasp as if he had been holding his breath, immediately regretting it as he began to cough, spatting out a few embers as he did so. His body still hurt, but...strangely enough he did not feel as bad as he did when he had passed out. The wounds throbbed and begged for treatment, but the burning and itching had stopped. His stomach no longer felt as if it wanted to leave his body and he even felt strong enough to push himself up.

Garnet tried to push himself up, but his body shook with the effort and gave out as he collapsed back onto the ground. He needed to start carrying around some kind of medical equipment, this whole near death experience business was happening far too often.

He looked around the treasury, but all he could see was just the bubbly little umbreon he hated so much. "Where are the others?" he asked in a raspy voice, wondering just why the hell he was here all alone with Bubbleton over there.

Perhaps with a personality to process what he'd done, the husk would have been in awe of what he was now capable of.  Yet all he did was stare blankly in the direction of the steelix as the vicious tunnel of freezing wind came over it and tore it away from the spot it'd situated itself in.  His head idly swiveled toward the wall to his left as the sound of something bursting through caught his absentminded attention.  The guardian absol had found the group, and it wasted no time in picking a target and jumping into the fight.  It made a dash not toward the glaceon, but to the more occupied eevee who was already dealing with an opponent.

Despite having been virtually unable to keep up with the absol's speed before, the glaceon's body had been enhanced dramatically and he could now clearly follow its movements.  Before the foe could reach his preoccupied ally, he was blocking its path with his front paws outstretched.  The absol reacted in time to lower its horn in an attempt to cut the glaceon down, but his paws managed to catch the dangerous horn and bring the enemy to a halt.  However, despite his dramatic boost in power, it seemed the absol was still stronger.  It slowly but surely began to push forward, forcing the glaceon backward and inching him down toward the ground.  He opened his mouth to reveal a brilliant white glow, taking energy away from his body in a struggle to gain ground on the absol with a Hyper Beam.  The second he shifted energy away from his body, his foe lifted a paw and slammed it down on his head, forcing his maw shut against the hard ground before he could finish his attack.

He could feel the teeth of the absol bite into the fur on his back, shattering the freezing quills he attempted to put up in defense.  He was lifted off the ground, unable to fight back, and tossed through the hole in the wall the guardian had come through.  Before he could even touch the ground, the absol's horn was against his belly and he was crushed against the far wall of the next room over.  Actually, this "room" was the main hallway they'd originally come from, although it was a well-lit area of the hall.  As the horn against his underbelly dug through his defensive quills and began to cut him open, his mind finally returned.  The force of the impact and the damage he was enduring had managed to snap Sova back to reality.

He lifted his front paws and dropped them against the head of the absol pinning him to the wall, surprised to find that he now had the strength to faze the beast even with such a weak attack.  The absol's head lowered just enough from the impact to release him and allow him to fall to the ground, at which point he began to feel the distinct presence of the ribbon once more.  The familiar sensation of needles gouging into his neck as he tried to get up forced him to collapse back to the ground with a pained whimper.

"You ended up with a very bad one.... but it will all be over soon," the absol responded in acknowledgement of the cause of the pain.


The affliction of the ribbon was so intense that the glaceon couldn't even feel the rather large gash across the width of his belly.  He'd stopped the foe's attack before it became a life-threatening injury, but it was still rather serious and would have been quite painful if not for the more dominant pain drowning it out.  Despite this, he managed to stand through sheer determination.  Every movement was agony comparable only to the most severe injuries he'd ever experienced, as if he was being sliced open every time he moved.  The absol came at him with its head lowered and horn pointed forward, boasting the same speed that'd previously been too much for him to match.  However, once more, he displayed the ability to keep up and the strength to block the attack.

Yet again, Sova's front paws found themselves pushing against the horn of the absol in an attempt to stop it, but this time, it was his own life in danger.  He was slowly forced up until his back lined up flat against the wall, stopping him from escaping.  He struggled to keep the horn back as it neared his neck, only to begin feeling the true force of his curse.  With every bit more effort he put into fighting back the absol's horn, the pain in his body grew more severe, quickly becoming nearly indescribable agony.  It was like something was stabbing every joint and muscle in his body, making him almost want to let the absol win so that it would all be over.  He could feel himself becoming lightheaded from the pain just like when the ribbon had first attached itself to him.  His limbs were beginning to shake.

Unable to hold it back any longer, he let out a blood-curdling scream of agony.  Still, he pushed through this to keep the absol at bay, but the horn inched ever-closer against his slowly failing body.

"Take solace in knowing your pain will soon end," the absol spoke calmly.

The glaceon's scream suddenly faded into silence, followed by a quiet chuckle.  The absol's horn was now stationary, entirely ceased from moving by a sudden increased resolve in the blue fox's limbs.  Blood draining from his paws as the horn dug into them could be heard dripping to the ground in this moment of quiet.  "Solace....  That's a pretty word, but I'm not interested.  I was damned long before this, and my cursed life doesn't end until I say so," spoke the glaceon's voice, although in a tone that was distinctly different.
It was cold and emotionless, along with a deeper, scratchy sound.

It was S.S.


The metagross was large and powerful, but as Shara soon found out, it was also sloppy.  The first thing it did was try to lunge at her and.... if she wasn't mistaken, it attempted to just land on her.  She took a step back to narrowly avoid the large metallic creature and waited for it to land right in front of her.  It was now inches away from her and could clearly see the confused look on her face.  "You okay there, buddy?" she questioned in mock-sympathy, which effectively infuriated the metagross.
One of its arms suddenly shot forward at a blinding speed in an attempt to skewer the little eevee, but to her, it was moving in slow motion.  Using Detect, she increased her perceptive abilities enough to make the attack trivial to avoid.  She stepped aside and allowed the arm to rush by her, whipping up a bit of a gust in the process.

"I almost felt the breeze from that one," she continued to taunt and enrage the metal beast even further.
It carelessly flailed its large arms around at her in an attempt to hit her and eventually swung so hard that it spun out onto the floor.  Shara took her time making her way around to the metagross' face and stared into its fatigued eyes for a moment.  A dark orb of energy began to form and grow in front of her face as she stared into the foe's eyes, but just as she prepared to fire, a commotion behind her got her attention.  She turned to see one of her recruits - the glaceon - holding back an enemy who seemed to have been coming for her.  Before she could even think to help, the glaceon was apprehended and taken away through a newly formed hole in the wall.

Of course, Shara wanted to help, but the sound of the metagross getting back up once more told her she was going to have no such luck.  She turned around just in time to see one of its arms coming for her.  Again, she stepped out of the way of the predictable attack, this time firing a quick and weak Shadow Ball toward the thing's ugly face.  The attack made contact, though it was with a leg as the metagross managed to block the attack.  The metagross raised one of its legs to attack again, this time trying to stomp on the little eevee and mash her into the ground.  She prepared to simply move out of the way once more only to freeze when a distinct scream rang out.  Her eyes widened.  "T-.... two?" she muttered to herself.

Did that make two?  Was she that much of a failure at protecting others?  Her tail took on a gray color and metallic sheen as she stared up at the limb coming down over her.  She needed to end this immediately.  When the claws were mere inches away from her face, she spun, whipping her tail up toward the arm and parrying it into the ground next to her.  She stomped straight toward the metagross with a suddenly determined look as a dark orb formed in front of her face.  The beast's arm was stuck in the ground, so it couldn't move away.  It attempted to strike her with another of its large arms only for her to sidestep and continue walking as if nothing had happened.  When she was mere inches away from the metagross' face, it opened its maw and moved forward in an attempt to bite down on her head.

At the last moment, she released the Shadow Ball into the open maw of her foe.  The orb exploded within the metallic body, causing the metagross to go limp and drop to the floor with dark haze seeping out of its mouth.


Dusk watched as conflict blossomed around her.  For some reason, the violence was making her heart race, as if in.... excitement.  She wanted to join in, held back only by the understanding that she was likely out of her league with the present opponents.  She tried to focus, but the thought of hurting something kept popping into her head and making it hard to think.  She searched for something to mentally anchor herself to, finding only Acro.  He'd have to do.

She rushed toward the bird and ignored all of the chaos happening around her.  She failed to take notice of Sova being swept away due to the disorientation overcoming her.  "Acro," she tried to appear calm, but her shaky voice betrayed her.
It seemed the bird was going toward the tunnel his friend had been dragged down.  Dusk stopped for a moment as she thought about what was likely in the tunnel.  Red flashed through her mind.  "I wonder what it looks like...." she thought to herself.

She wanted to see it, and not out of some hope that it wasn't real.  She just genuinely wanted to see the "horror" that she assumed could be found through the tunnel.  It didn't really feel like a horrifying idea to her, though.  Rather, it seemed.... exciting?

She suddenly realized what she was thinking and snapped back to reality.  Acro was going to see something he probably wasn't ready for.  "Acro!" she called out once more and rushed in front of the bird.
"Hey, woah, where are you going?  We've gotta stick together!" she tried to talk some sense into the bird and pull him away from the desire to see what lay within the tunnel.


Krikka watched with mild satisfaction as the charmeleon awoke to pain and struggle.  It made up for the bird failing to hurt him previously, and now the aforementioned bird was dead too!  It was a perfect happy ending!  Well, except for the still-present risk of death.  She just hoped the remaining fighters could handle whatever was happening out in the chaos.  If not, that meant it was her and the self-mutilated charmeleon versus whatever was too tough for the ones who were actually strong.  She didn't like the idea of that.

Guy had been awake for a whole five seconds and he was already asking the hard questions.  How to answer?  She weighed her options and decided to simply be honest about the whole thing, figuring there wasn't much that could go wrong.  "They're out there dying," she explained, still adorning the perky persona she'd taken to.
As if on cue, a faint scream echoed from.... someone.  It was quite convenient to help her get the point across that she was serious without having to explain it.  It was quite a drawn-out scream, too, which made it seem like someone was having a very unpleasant death.  "Like that," she simply commented with an inappropriately happy demeanor.
In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to be acting so happy about such things when she was trying to pretend to be sane and innocent.

Her feelings toward this were equivalent to a shrug.

-S.S.-

The glaceon's expression was blank with his gaze directed toward the ground as he held the absol's horn away from him.  The shaking in his limbs had ceased to show that he was no longer struggling.  "Okay little Timmy, you gave it a solid effort, but now it's daddy's turn," he thought to himself in bitter agitation at the weak little leech he had to get out of trouble once more.
Nearly all at once, the fur coating his body stood and glossed over with ice as the ground and air around him began to quite literally freeze.  Even the absol's horn began freezing over due to the dramatic temperature spike.  Seeing this, the absol pulled its horn back and leaped away, leaving the glaceon's front paws to fall to the ground.  At first, the way in which his body fell looked like that of a puppet with its strings cut, making it appear as if he was going to simply collapse.

He then caught himself in a rather awkward pose, the movements appearing disturbingly unnatural.  For a moment, he simply continued staring toward the ground.

"Surrender and I shall grant you a swift death.  Your paws must be burning.  In fact, your whole body-" the absol tried to reason in its own way, only to be interrupted.

"Don't you want me to accept Arceus as my lord and savior first?"

The absol's head tilted in confusion.

"That's what self-righteous murderers do, right?  They kill in the name of their god.  So what religion demands you to kill?"

"My motives should be of no concern to the damned."

S.S. chuckled quietly at the remark.  "Well, I have an advantage.  After all, I'm.... damned.  A damned killer can be restricted by no one," he began to explain before pausing.
The absol's mouth opened to speak once more only to freeze as the glaceon suddenly appeared in front of it, staring directly into its eyes with wide eyes and a maniacal grin.  It raised a paw to swat his head only to have the glaceon's much smaller front paws shoot up to block the attack, easily catching it in the air and putting the two at a stand-still.

"Not even the gods."

With a forceful thrust, the glaceon overpowered the absol and caused it to slide back along the floor.  He then darted in front of the foe with the same abrupt burst of speed he'd demonstrated moments prior, but this time, the absol was ready.  It quickly raised a paw and stomped down on the ground in front of it only to find that the glaceon had seemingly disappeared.  His speed had increased even further and he was now behind the absol, having left behind a brief afterimage to further the confusion.  His body hurt.  He could tolerate pain, but he wasn't used to having to.  He couldn't shut it off like normal pain.  The agony from the pressure he was putting on his body made him hesitate for just a moment.

S.S. then leaped into the air above his foe before firing a blinding beam of vibrant white light from his maw.  It pulsed with waves of blue energy as what appeared to be distinctly yellow electricity surged all throughout it.... and it plowed right into the absol, blasting it into the ground.  The complex light-show was short-lived, lasting mere moments before fading to leave behind a crater with the foe plastered in the middle of it.  The absol was having trouble getting up, but the glaceon was beginning to experience his own problems as well.  Namely, he was unable to catch himself which resulted in him falling to the ground, even further representing the appearance of a discarded marionette.  He gritted his teeth from the immense pain, but nonetheless, still pulled himself back to his paws.  However, he arose with a bit of a dazed stumble.

What was happening to him?  Was he actually becoming disoriented from the pain?  He found that his vision was getting blurry and his thoughts were becoming clouded.  His body felt weighed down toward the ground and his limbs began to shake, but he quickly steadied himself.  He was not the weak one.  His sole existence was....

Pain was not going to get the best of him.

S.S. took a deep breath, his body suddenly rising a bit as he was pulled out of his puppet-like posture for a moment.  The absol was just getting up when he bolted in front of it and spun around to swat it in the face with his tail, which collided with its horn.  The loser of the two was the ice-covered tail which was left with a gash running along the length of it.  In agitation, he lifted himself onto his front paws in a cartwheel in preparation to slam his tail down onto the absol.  Then, instead of simply finishing the maneuver all at once, he abruptly paused and held himself up.  The absol was subsequently faked into waving its head to the side once more in an attempt to counter the paused attack with its horn, hitting only air and leaving itself wide open.  S.S. then brought his bleeding tail down on the foe with enough force to allow each and every frozen quill to dig into the absol's pretty face.

The guardian stumbled back from the hit, barely managing to keep itself standing.  The entire right side of its face was now bleeding from the scratches covering it.  "Red looks good on you," S.S. taunted with a slight smirk that seemed almost sane.  Almost.
He then looked down at the bloody marks on the floor all around him from his wounds.  "Better on me though."
The red-and-white warrior rushed toward him with its own blinding speed, almost appearing to be in two places at once, but he now had his own speed to match.  The glaceon's left paw raised to redirect the horn of the absol as he spun out of the way, effectively dancing around the attack.

The foe spun around once more in an attempt to swipe at the glaceon with its horn which had taken on a faint pink glow.  He ducked down under the attack and immediately spun his tail around to counterattack, swiping the absol's legs in an attempt to restrict its mobility.  The absol responded avoiding the attack in an impossibly flawlessly manner, quickly moving its front legs back just enough to barely avoid the barbed tail by mere centimeters.  In a very springy motion, S.S. then propelled himself out of his spin and into the air with his front paws, cartwheeling yet again with far more speed.  The absol had already cheated to avoid the last attack and he knew it, but more importantly, it was still stabilizing itself from having to suddenly move both of its front paws back.

Two consecutive attacks within split seconds proved to be too much for the absol to react to as it was forced to take the brunt of the glaceon's tail over its head once more.  As if having its face bloodied further wasn't enough, this time, it was followed up with an incredibly forceful and freezing blast of wind that slammed the guardian straight into the ground.  The force of the attack was so great that cracks surged throughout the floor around the absol from the impact as the ground froze solid.  As S.S. came close to the ground, he failed to land properly and ended up formally meeting the ground beneath him once more.  He looked down to see a pool of blood forming in front of him from his front paws; he was losing blood; the pain was affecting his perception; when it came down to it; he couldn't feel anything other than pain and oncoming nausea.

He couldn't think.  His mind felt entirely blocked from the slew of things he wasn't used to having to deal with.  He laid on the floor for a moment in the hope that it would fade, but a groan from the absol prompted him to force himself back up.  Unlike the last time, however, he began to stumble to the right before outright falling over.  He prepared himself to feel the ground in humiliation once more, but instead, he found that he was suddenly being propped up by something.... fluffy.

-Shara-

The second she was sure the annoyance wasn't getting back up, Shara rushed toward the hole in the wall as fast as her little legs could carry her, which was quite fast.  She leaped through the hole just in time to see an utterly blinding light that forced her to look away.  When the light faded, she found that she could not see properly enough to tell what was going on.  As her vision slowly came back into focus, the scene of the glaceon facing off against an earlier foe became clear.  The weird part was that he seemed to be winning.  Was the influence of the ribbon truly so extreme, and how was he even managing to fight with the pain he had to be in?

The attentive eevee looked for an opportunity to jump in and found none, so she instead ended up simply watching idly as the other two fought.  She was prepared to enter and assist at any moment, but the two were simply fighting non-stop and the glaceon was attacking in a manner that seemed incredibly dangerous and risky to be around.  It was distinctly different from how she'd seen him fight thus far, almost enough to worry her.  The act of observation also told her something else: her mercenary's situation was clearly putting stress on his body, made evident when he fell to the ground in a maneuver that should have been easy for any skilled combatant to land perfectly.  Her suspicion was further proven when the glaceon attempted to get up only to stumble back to the ground.

Or at least, he would have fallen to the ground if not for the eevee rushing to catch him with her own body.  He was kind of heavy and his fur was digging straight through her fur and into her skin like needles.  She could feel her own fur beginning to freeze over from the astoundingly low temperature she was now enveloped in.  But more importantly, she could see the red already painting the ground under the glaceon's paws.  "You're gonna bleed out at this rate, and that ribbon has to be taking its toll on you.  I'll take over from here," she offered.
The glaceon suddenly pulled himself away from her, which she was surprised to find painful due to his quill-like fur being pulled off of her.

"This is my fight.  You don't want to be part of it," the glaceon responded rather ominously.

His voice was.... different.  It was harsh, cold.... hostile.  It sounded like someone totally different from the guy she'd come to know, and it rubbed her in a bad way that she wasn't quite accustomed to feeling.  The voice sent shivers down her spine and prompted her to back away in hesitance.  "Don't.... try to be noble.  You've already weakened this one.  I can handle-"

She barely even had time to process the movements before the scruff of her neck was gripped in her ally's mouth and she was at his mercy.  Unlike the last time he'd done this, he was now biting down extremely hard.  "W-what are you-" she tried to reason only to be lifted into the air and tossed to the ground in a violent swing of the glaceon's head.
With her breath stolen by the ground, she was defenseless as the jaws of the glaceon bit down on her tail and lifted her into the air before releasing her to fall.  Before she could touch the ground, she felt his tail swat into her side and send her flying into the wall with a loud thud.  Her body peeled away from the wall and fell pathetically to the ground as the pain from the blows began to fully register in her mind.

She was bleeding.  The bite marks on the back of her neck and her tail were beginning to seep blood while the cuts across her side from the needle-like fur of the glaceon's tail aimed to dye her fur red.  It hurt, but more than anything, she was confused.  So very, very confused.  She forced her eyes to open despite her body's desire to shut the world out and wait for the pain to go away, but what she saw made her regret her course of action.  The glaceon was staring at her with some awful, horrifying grin.  Another fearful chill ran down her spine as she stared back into the eyes of the fox.  He seemed so disturbingly thrilled, yet his eyes appeared.... almost soulless.  It was like looking at a husk that just happened to have a happy look plastered on its face.

The two merely stared at each other for what felt like an eternity for the eevee despite having been only moments.  Her trance-like state was finally broken when a horizontal "cut" through the very air itself suddenly flew from the absol's position toward the glaceon.  Despite clearly being nothing but air, there was such extreme force behind the attack that it was visible to the naked eye.  The gust of wind shattered through his icy armor and cut into the side of his body like a razor, leaving behind bloody wounds.  The impact caused him to stumble a bit to the opposite side and nearly fall to the ground, but the eevee watched to her own surprise as he seemed to simply shake the attack off and pull himself back up.

He moved like he was being pulled up by an invisible source.  It was an unnatural sight, to say the least.  Shara didn't know who she'd gotten herself stuck with, but she was regretting her decision to ask for help.

-Dusk-

Acro looked bad.  He was clearly shattered over the situation, which Dusk really couldn't blame him for.  She had no clue how such loss felt.  She felt bad about Linus, but it had to be hundreds of times worse for the guy who was his leader and presumably his friend.  Despite this, he still responded coherently, which was a good sign.  He agreed with her proposal to stick together, which she assumed meant he would be following her or at least not continuing toward the tunnel.  She turned to lead her emotionally crippled new friend toward something where he could be useful or at least stay safe.  She turned back to make sure he was following her, but instead, she found that it was quite the opposite.

"I can't," came the bird's quitter talk.

Dusk was suddenly overcome with a feeling of intense agitation.  She desired to lash out at the archeops, and since she was quite aware that he was far stronger than her, she decided not to attempt to physically attack him.  "Yes you can!  I get that your friend just died, but now's not the time for a PITY PARTY!" she lashed out, practically screaming.
The words just came out without her even realizing what she was saying until it was too late.  She stared at the bird with an aggressive glare that faded into shock when she finally realized what she'd said.

"W.... w-....  I-I'm so sorry, I-....  What's happening to me?" she looked down at her own paws in shame and horror.
It was as if she could think perfectly normal one moment, then she was suddenly blindly harassing someone seconds later.  Was she going insane?  Why?  What had she done to merit going unhinged!?  There was no mental illness in her family history as far as she knew and she hadn't received any severe trauma....  Or at least, she had experienced no physical trauma.  Was it simply the will of Arceus to torment her along with everyone else?  Or was it perhaps some kind of drug or even the attack of an opponent that she hadn't noticed?

"I'm sorry, I would never...." she tried to think of a way to explain and excuse her behavior that didn't sound completely insane and ridiculous.
Nothing was coming to mind other than outright saying she thought she was going crazy.  However, she got the feeling that no amount of excuses or apologies would be able to make Acro feel better after what she'd just said.  This made her feel so much worse.  Would he ever forgive her, even if she could convince him that it hadn't been her fault?  And what if it was her fault?

Then it hit her.

Her front paws pinned the left side of the cloak running down around her body to the ground while she pulled her neck as far away as she could manage.  She struggled and pried at the item in an attempt to pull it off of her, but it was as if the thing was fused with her.  "I-I can't get it off," she muttered to herself in rising panic.
The cloak was the only thing that'd changed, so it had to be the source of her current problem.  This was surely the reason Sova had told her not to touch anything in the room.  THIS was the downside.  It was doing something to her mind!

-Krikka-

Guy seemed upset about her remarks.  She really didn't care.  When he decided to walk up to her like he was about to make a move, she just sat back and allowed him to do whatever he wanted.  He wasn't going to kill her with no justification when guild members were around and there were more important things to worry about.  Her expression and demeanor suddenly took on a dramatic change from bubbly to.... bored.  Rather than fear or even anger, the only thing present on her expression was pure, unamused boredom.  She put her right paw forward and pushed against the charmeleon's chest as if to get away from him to no avail.

In reality, she didn't care about getting away.  In the short time her paw had to touch her assailant, it took on a faint purple glow around the pad.  She assumed the lizard was too infuriated to notice that he was being poisoned, especially since it wasn't exactly known for being immediately painful.  He would suffer for daring to lay one of his scaly hands on Krikka Wolf.  He spoke, but his words meant nothing to her.  Her only response was a smirk that showed just how little she cared about what the guy had to say.  Then something that was admittedly a bit surprising happened: rather than being released gently, she was tossed away rather carelessly.

The pain of the impact meant nothing to Krikka.  In fact, she even managed to find a bit of comedic value in being tossed straight into a pile of gold.  Despite how it hurt, it was actually rather appealing from her perspective.  On the list of ways to be harmed, being tossed into a pile of riches was certainly one of the better ones.  Rather than get up and attempt to pay the charmeleon back, she instead stayed down and relaxed as she began to laugh.  "Good chat.  I wonder how much your friends had to suffer for your little detour," she made light of the situation before giving another hearty laugh.

Despite having feigned a happy persona throughout her entire trip with this group, her current behavior was genuine.  She was actually happy despite having just been rather violently assaulted.  The annoying brute was going to go join his friends and attempt to help them, then the poison would kick in and add to his already-weakened state.  He would be trying to fight capable foes while in such a pathetic state.  If that didn't kill him, he would surely suffer all the same.  Aside from that, his allies had already suffered enough for it to affect him on an emotional level as well.

Despite generally having a rule against attacking someone without some kind of loose justification, S.S. could not clearly think.  All he knew was that there was an annoying eevee trying to interrupt his fight.  All he could think about was how he wanted to shut the eevee up, rather than reasonable ways to do that or consequences of lashing out.  With minimal thought on his part, he found himself attacking the little eevee for virtually no reason.  Judging by how easy it all was, she seemed to have been taken off-guard by it.  He violently battered the ball of fluff around before sending her into a wall and waiting to see if she was going to get back up.  Instead, she just stared at him, and he stared right back.

Then came the sudden pulse of wind against his body.  Even without suppressing his pain responses, he wouldn't have been able to feel the agony from having the side of his body carved open.  The pain from the ribbon easily surpassed and suppressed all else.  Worse yet, it seemed to be connected directly to his mind, because he couldn't turn it off like he could with physical pain.  This thing was affecting his mind rather than his body.  He stumbled a bit from the force of the attack before catching himself with a low grunt.  For a moment, he stood staring at the ground under him, at the blood pooling from his wounds.  There were red markings covering his body, glowing faintly as if to distinguish themselves from the blood.

A sudden light took his attention away from his current state and prompted him to look up just in time to see a blast of fire blaze through the hall.  It seemed to have been aimed at the absol, but the aim on it was quite bad and thus the foe avoided it with relative ease.  The both of their heads followed along with the ball of fire as it passed by, then simultaneously turned to stare at the charmeleon.  S.S. was considering tearing into the lizard just like he'd done with the last "ally" who'd tried to help, but it seemed his job was done for him by gravity.  His gaze slowly redirected to the guardian to see it staring right back.  There were.... two?  It took him a moment to realize he was getting double vision.  He was becoming delirious from blood loss and pain.  Time was ticking down to the point where he would inevitably pass out.  The fight with the mythical creature known as "Genesect" flashed through his mind.

He needed to end this.

S.S. ducked his head into his bag for a mere moment to retrieve a large, dagger-like silver spike.  When he looked back up to the absol, he found that it was right in front of his face with one of its huge paws in the process of coming down on his head.  It had crossed the distance between them in the moment of vulnerability he'd presented.  He couldn't tell which image was the real one through his own malfunctioning sight, so he couldn't risk trying to directly block the attack.  A gust of wind whipped up in the direction of the absol to slow its movements as the glaceon stepped just out of range of the attack.  His tail flowed forward in the wind toward the absol's paw as his fur quill-armor repaired itself.  Then, before the guardian's paw could even touch the ground, S.S. suddenly jerked his tail back just as it was in range.  This caused it to contract in its coiling motions, resulting in it wrapping around the absol's paw and latching onto it with the needle-like quills.  The two appendages began to freeze together from the glaceon's body temperature as he yanked the absol forward.

The large foe stumbled toward the smaller fox in surprise as he suddenly flung his body forward and rammed right into its chest.  His sharp fur dug into the absol until it raised its free paw to stamp him into the ground.  S.S. looked up before suddenly spinning, pulling the absol's caught paw out from under it and causing it to fall freely toward the ground due to having both front paws off the ground.  However, it still managed to keep itself just stable enough to pull off the sucker punch, and the glaceon didn't have enough time left to get out of the way.  He did his best to focus on the double-image of the absol's paw and moved his head to the side in order to block the attack with the spike held in his mouth.  He then jumped to the side and pulled the spike through the absol's paw, tearing into its pad.  The absol was finally allowed to fall to the ground, but it didn't stay there for long before getting right back up.

"Why won't you just DIE!?" S.S. shouted in agitation.
As he spoke, he noticed something....  He was panting?  He looked down at himself once more to see his wounds still bleeding, continuing to paint his body and the floor around him red.  The double-vision was getting worse and everything was beginning to blur.  He could hear his own heartbeat.  It was fast.

"I could ask you the same," came the voice from the absol.

S.S. looked up to see the enemy's sharp claws reaching out for him.  Now panicking, he threw his own paws up against the absol's paw-pads in an attempt to block the attack.  Its claws then clamped down around his much smaller paws, threatening to crush them and digging into his skin.  He could hear the ice around his lower legs shattering.  The absol continued to bear down on him, pushing him back toward the ground.

"Your reckless and unpredictable attack pattern gave you an advantage, but it seems the effects have caught up with you," the absol muttered, or at least that was what it sounded like.
In reality, it was speaking loudly and clearly, but the glaceon's mind was not processing his senses very well.  Sounds were muffled and drowned out by his own heartbeat.  His body was about out of adrenaline and blood to give, and his paws were in the process of being broken.  He was being pushed toward the ground, preventing him from trying to move to pull free from the absol's grip.  His body was already stressing so much from simply trying to push back against the absol that he couldn't bring himself to move at all.  Every slight muscle twitch was agonizing, even to someone with his incredibly high pain threshold.  He couldn't bring his body to move.

"So this is it?" he thought to himself.  "Man, now I kinda wish I hadn't dusted that eevee," he continued, this time aloud for his foe to hear.
He took a breath and let out an arguably-involuntary chuckle.  Pain shot through his lungs and throat, causing him to close his eyes and wince.  When his eyes opened and he looked back at the absol standing over him, he found that he was looking at.... his father?  No, Sova's father.  He had no parents.... yet the sight was still surprisingly comforting.

Then the situation really hit him: he was in full delirium and there was no one around capable of helping him.  He was going to die.  He was actually going to die because of Sova's idiocy.

He was afraid.

"How much pain are you in right now?" the absol taunted.

S.S. let out a gurgled, strained growl.  "I'll show you."

His front paws suddenly dropped to the ground, allowing the absol's larger paws to slam down on top of them.  The sudden surrender caught the absol off-guard and caused it to fall just close enough to the glaceon for him to spit the spike out of his mouth with enough force to puncture its left eye.  The guardian stumbled back and opened its mouth as if to howl in pain, but there was no sound.  S.S. then realized he couldn't hear anything.  He was beginning to feel the sensation of spinning, and black splotches were stealing his vision away.  But his legs and paws were still functioning, albeit barely.

He began to spin around, freezing the ground around him within an instant as a powerful wind whipped up.  The wind followed his body in a swirling motion, picking up speed dramatically and turning into a cyclone with a powerful updraft.  The absol attempted to stop the attack with its own Razor Wind, but the more powerful current tore the weaker gust apart before it could reach the fox.  S.S. then released his cyclone and allowed it to spread outward without care for anyone else in the room.  The absol was lifted into the air and frozen solid by the extreme temperature of the Blizzard.  Water in the air froze and collected into ice crystals within moments, creating a blinding haze of wind and snow.

Just the world faded from view and the airborne absol was obscured by the snow, S.S. let loose another bright beam of light at the frozen foe.  Energy pulsed around and raged throughout the Hyper Beam, making it clear to see even through the snow.  The blizzard winds faded just as rapidly as they'd appeared, and along with them, the last of the glaceon's vision.  As he fell to the ground, a slight, content smile crossed his face.

He couldn't even feel it when his body hit the cold floor, but it didn't matter.  His consciousness was gone within moments, leaving him to slowly bleed out.


After being violently thrown against a wall for trying to help, the eevee took the hint that she was not welcome in this fight.  Besides, her body was begging for her to just lay down anyway, so she decided to give herself a break and simply hope the glaceon could take care of himself.  But from what she'd seen so far, he was being careless and losing a lot of blood.  The sounds of footsteps made her look over to the hole in the wall to see the charmeleon she wasn't particularly fond of.  She watched him try to help and fail miserably, completely missing an attack before simply passing out.  That was probably for the best, though, or else she figured Mr. Psychopath probably would have just knocked him out anyway.

Shara watched in preparation to help in any way she could if it looked like her ally needed it.... if he was even still her ally.  Sure, she'd just been violently assaulted by the guy, but her injuries were far from fatal, and she certainly wasn't going to let him die just because he was having some kind of psychotic mental breakdown.  To her surprise, the glaceon continued to fight perfectly fine despite his injuries, and he was actually winning.  Shara knew what the cursed items did, so she understood the dramatic increase in power that someone could experience from some of the treasures, but it was still surprising to see him able to take so much punishment and keep going.  Then, just as she allowed herself to relax a bit, the tables of the fight suddenly turned.  In a total reversal, the absol now had the edge while the glaceon's power seemed to have just vanished.

The little eevee groaned as she propped herself up against the wall to get up.  Moving wasn't particularly comfortable, but her injuries weren't debilitating.  She could hear the conversation between the two combatants: specifically, she took note of a remark that she assumed was referring to her.  The glaceon expressed regret for.... dusting.... her?  She assumed this was slang for "hurting."  A dark sphere of energy formed in front of her as she prepared to jump into the fight regardless of what her reluctant teammate wanted.

She paused when she heard her ally's voice once more, this time expressing nothing but hostility.  Her intent to help was then dropped when the glaceon managed to get himself back in the fight by using the guardian's own force against it and gouging one of its eyes out.  The absol released him and let out a noise that was somewhere between a howl and a cry, which seemed like the reasonable response to such a thing.  Shara then aimed her Shadow Ball at the absol and, as she prepared to fire.... noticed the temperature dropping.  A wind-tunnel was being kicked up around the icy fox.  He was about to bring on a blizzard.... without a care in the world for her or the charmeleon who was supposedly his friend.

Shara bolted toward the gaping hole in the wall in an attempt to get out before it was too late.  She didn't want to leave the annoying lizard behind, but she figured he wasn't particularly conscious to feel it anyway.  Just as she reached the makeshift doorway, a blast of cold air sent her flying through it and tumbling to the ground on the other side.  "What is WRONG WITH HIM!?" she shouted in frustration, then fell silent as she remembered the others.
She looked around to see how many of them had heard her little outburst.  Then, as if nothing had even happened, she regained her composure and got right back up.  She looked through the hole from a safe distance and watched the blizzard completely shroud the hall on the other side from view.

Then there was a sudden burst of light that was visible even through the thick fog of snow, followed by what sounded like an explosion.  The blizzard then died down within moments, signaling it was safe to investigate.... probably.  She darted back in the room and almost fell on the slippery, frozen floor.  It seemed like everyone inside was out cold, or worse.  She hesitated before running back out and shouting, "Hey, help!  Your friends are hurt pretty bad!"
She then ran back into the hallway of doom and tried to figure out which idiot to help first.


This entire situation was just terrible.  Dusk struggled with the cloak for a moment before giving up and accepting that it wasn't going to come off.  She then turned her attention to the more important matter: Acro.  The bird was very reasonably upset and she'd just made it worse for no reason.  She was still concerned about what she'd said, and while it was nice to think there was something she could blame it on, she felt guilty all the same.  "Acro, I'm sorry.  None of this was your fault," she tried to make up for what she'd done and level the arhceops' mood out, even if just a little.
She couldn't think of anything else to say other than repeating herself over and over again, which she doubted would help.  She paid no mind to the fact that half of the party was now on the other side of an ominous hole in the wall, probably needing help.

Then some kind of noise that sounded like a dying absol rang out, catching her attention and prompting her to turn toward the hole.  Immediately after, a familiar eevee was seemingly ejected from within by the wind itself.  Dusk stared and wondered what was going on in there.  It seemed like someone had done something to tick the eevee off, and the only present who could throw someone around with blizzards was Sova, so it was easy to assume who this "someone" was.  Then there was a rather loud noise like a mix between an explosion and something shattering.  The umbreon watched as the eevee ran back through the hole before coming back once more and asking for help.

Apparently, it was serious.  Dusk looked back toward Acro.  "Listen, I'm sorry and I can keep telling you that as much as it takes later, but right now you're needed.  Come on, please," she practically begged the bird.
She had very little medical knowledge, but an experienced guild member would surely be different.  She needed to make sure Acro helped those who were still alive.  She didn't want to see what the archeops would be like if anyone else died, especially if it was because he was too upset to help them.  Plus, she was worried about Sova.... and the other guy.


Krikka decided to make the intelligent choice and just not get up.  If anyone questioned why she hadn't helped with the fighting, now she had the perfect excuse: the mean charmeleon decided to throw her across the room.  Granted, she wasn't really hurting all that much, but she would certainly pretend otherwise if questioned by anyone.  She ignored the commotion going on outside the chamber and just waited for someone to come get her when it was all over.  Or at least, she certainly hoped someone would be coming to get her.  Someone friendly who wasn't going to kill her.  If her meat shields all died, she would be in trouble.

Though she still hoped the charmeleon would end up dead from her.... gift.  But in a perfect world, it would be only him dying while the others were left alive to escort her out of this place.

The glaceon's consciousness returned to the sound of silence.  At first, he wondered if he was finally dead.  Then he opened his eyes just enough to barely see what was going on around him.  He was still in the ruins, surrounded by the idiots he was sure he'd end up having to protect again.  Why was he even here?  Why was this his job?  He tried to keep his eyes just barely open so that no one would notice he was awake as he watched in total silence.  His memory was a bit fuzzy, but he managed to piece together what was going on.  Granted, there wasn't much to piece together, so it was easy.  One of the two umbreon was watching over him.  She was behind him and he didn't feel like turning around to face her, but a shadow cast by torchlight stretched over him and told him everything he needed to know.

The other umbreon with the colorful rings was not in his vision, so he assumed she was straying away from the group for some reason.  The annoying eevee was sitting down, leaning against a wall and watching everyone with an impatient demeanor.  She didn't seem particularly happy, which was probably from the bandaged wounds on her body.  The charmeleon was in a similar condition, minus the consciousness.  It was then that the glaceon realized his own body was wrapped like a mummy.  Whoever was responsible had done a decent job, considering he wasn't bleeding through.  His wounds felt serious... or maybe that was the ribbon.

Finally, his hazy field of sight focused on the bird who was distancing himself perhaps most of all.  It was clear that no one in the group was happy, but this guy seemed about the least-happy out of everyone.  The bird was constantly diverting his attention away from everyone else, making it seem like he was trying to avoid eye contact or something.  It didn't take long for the realization to register that this was not the case.  The feathery rainbow was actually trying to focus on something else without being caught: a very specific tunnel.  This tunnel had been burrowed by a steelix, and there was only one thing worth interest within...  The glaceon wondered for a moment how he could have forgotten.  They had come with two birds, and the other was...

In a particularly unhappy mood, the glaceon decided to do something he wouldn't normally do.  "Do it," he encouraged.
The umbreon hovering over him began to talk, but he ignored every word out of her mouth.  His eyes opened enough to make it clear that he was awake and staring directly at the archeops.  He then pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the wave of pain that came as a consequence.  He then heard the eevee join in and start speaking to him as well.  The two pests were trying to get him to lay back down.  He didn't care what they had to say, and he had no intention of listening.  For once, he was interested in someone else.  All he cared about was what the guy... Acro was planning on doing, and he was fairly confident that he knew what it was.

"Go ahead, do it...  It'll be the last sane thing you ever do.  Then you'll end up just... like... me..." he elaborated.
His voice was scratchy and strained, sounding almost weak.  The distinct sound made both of the annoying mouths fall silent, of which he was grateful.  His gaze then fell to his bandaged front paws as his ears flattened at the thought of what he'd just said becoming reality.  He openly showed sadness if only for a moment before suddenly perking up.  His gaze raised back up to the archeops, this time with a distinct smirk.  "If you're lucky."

As he spoke, a sole thought ran on repeat through his mind.

"Sova, where are you?"


For what felt like an eternity, Dusk sat over Sova's unconscious body, staring down at him.  She was worried about so many things.  She'd followed him just to ask if she could join his team.  She had been certain that she would be able to handle Sova's attitude on top of the guild work.  It had started out as a simple and hopeful day; one which had actually excited her.  Now she felt only dread over the future.  It seemed like the lives of everyone around her were being thrown away in one way or another, including her own.  The only thing she felt she had the right to do was watch over Sova, even if she couldn't really do anything to help him.

Her refusal to listen had resulted in her being cursed.  She felt a distinct aggression inside her that she didn't like.  This was causing her to behave in ways that made her feel horrible about herself, but perhaps even worse were the thoughts.  As she stared down at the unconscious blue figure, she kept letting thoughts... slip into her mind.  The fresh memory of what remained of Linus was sitting in the back of her head, begging for her acknowledgment.  What she'd seen... she wanted to see it again.  She wanted an up-close perspective of it.  As she gazed absently at Sova, she wondered... could she kill him?  Would she be able to do it fast enough, or would he wake up?  Maybe she couldn't, but... what about Garnet?  Maybe the other umbreon?  No matter how much she tried to suppress the thoughts, they just kept coming back.  Worse yet, she didn't entirely want them to go away.  Sure, most of her did, but there was a part that just...

The sudden voice of the glaceon snapped her back to reality.  "You're awake!  Are you alright?" she spoke with newfound energy.
Her question went unaddressed by the glaceon who seemingly had something he was more concerned with.  When he stood up, of course, Dusk urged him to sit back down: "Hey, you'll open your wounds..."  And of course, he didn't listen, even when his own client joined in on telling him to lay down.
Then the umbreon got a chance to hear his voice once more and finally realized that something was off.  She fell silent and took a worried step back.  He always sounded moody, but this... was different.  It didn't sound like Sova.  The way he spoke and the things he said were ominous and twisted, and then there was his voice...

What was he even talking about?  "What do you mean?" Dusk hesitantly questioned.
Was he calling himself insane?  Why?  Sure, he was a violent, antisocial jerk, but... insane?  That seemed like a stretch even for him.  Was there something she was missing?  She didn't really know much about him, so it was entirely possible that she just didn't know him well enough.  Maybe his words would make sense to someone who was more experienced with him such as Acro.  With that in mind, the umbreon looked to the archeops for some kind of response to clear things up.


Luckily, this client was not some helpless child in need of saving.  She could handle the injuries she'd been given, and she'd come prepared to handle everyone else's injuries as well.  Of course, there were some things she couldn't mend... but she did her best.  After everyone had been patched up - or at least, everyone alive - she decided to hang back away from the others while she waited for them to recover.  She was ready to get going, but it seemed like it was a different story for everyone else.  She watched over all of them in a mix of disappointment, sadness and annoyance as she looked back on everything that'd happened.  She could hardly believe that one of her guild "allies" had senselessly attacked her over he trying to help him.  Nonetheless, it wasn't like he'd seriously injured her or anything, so she still hoped his injuries wouldn't be the death of him.

The charmeleon had also annoyed her quite a bit, though it wasn't comparable to being attacked.  She hoped he would be alright as well.  She already felt like a failure after one casualty, so making sure not to add to the list was her top priority.  When one of them finally awoke, her ears perked up.  Then the stubborn idiot tried to get up almost immediately.  His friend tried to coax him back down, but he wasn't listening, at which point Shara decided to chime in: "Lay back down before you hurt yourself!  AGAIN!"

Then she noticed his voice.  It was the same as when he'd attacked her.  Choosing to avoid any further conflict with this deranged glaceon, she decided to go silent.  She wasn't scared of him; she just didn't want to have to go through hurting someone she felt it was her job to protect.  Even after how he'd acted, she still felt obligated to make sure he survived.


While everyone else got bandaged up and practiced dying, Krikka stayed of to the side.  She pretended to be upset, but really, she just didn't want to be around them if she could get away with distancing herself.  Since this seemed to be popular with the group, she figured no one would question her for doing the same.  She avoided looking at them aside for occasional glances in the direction of the charmeleon to see what his condition was.  She was kind of hoping he wouldn't wake up, but on the other hand, that meant they'd probably have to sit around waiting longer.  She wanted out of this place, and as far as she was concerned, she could always poison him again later if he recovered.

When the commotion started up, she initially ignored it.  However, when her ears caught the glaceon's voice, she couldn't help but glance over.  He sounded different.  His voice was edgier, but it didn't quite seem like he was trying to sound intimidating or serious or anything like that.  It was unnatural compared to the voice she'd heard from him so far, but at the same time, it didn't seem like he was forcing it.  Krikka was the slightest bit interested in what was going on with him, and it seemed like some of the others were interested as well.  They seemed like they would probably end up addressing it if it kept up, which was good since she didn't want to do it herself.  Sure, she was interested, but that didn't mean she wanted to talk to anyone.