Vision

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The barren landscape and toxic air of the Grape Ocean were, to say the least, not much of a tourist attraction.  The very ground and air were hostile to outsiders, and the pokemon dwelling in the area weren't much different.  Home to to a variety of primitive savages and dangerous criminals, it wasn't the most pleasant area, even for those who would benefit from its nature as a place without law.  Despite this, there was one well-known attraction that always proved itself enigmatic and interesting enough to draw in explorers an treasure hunters alike: the Ruined Chateau.  While it provided shelter from the poison in the air, this was canceled out by the particularly aggressive pokemon that lived within.  Not only were some of them quite formidable, but they were also one of the worst kinds of pests, that being ghosts.  Many of them could slip easily through the walls of the building, making it difficult to deal with them.  Despite this, travelers still sought it out, but not for any form of solace from the outside world.  The main pull of the chateau was its unique situation as a building that had somehow decayed into a state of disrepair transcending even the boundaries of space.

"Mystery dungeons," as they were called, had unique properties to them that effectively put them outside the jurisdiction of basic logic.  With most, the effects weren't too prominent, thanks mostly to them being wide sections of terrain in which sudden... changes generally didn't cause too much trouble.  With a large building, however, the shifting of space was not only noticeable, but highly dangerous.  This danger also made it highly attractive to adventurers, and thanks to how difficult it was to thoroughly explore, it was shrouded in rumors and myths, some of which drew in pokemon in search of treasure and grandeur.  It was unique and mysterious enough that outsiders would gladly ignore the dangers of the outside area and even the house itself, all just to get a peek inside.  Alas, it wasn't too common for those who entered to become lost within, some never returning from its depths.  To one who had experienced it first hand, it could perhaps have been described as... bigger on the inside.  Much bigger.

The front door to the mansion was as tall and foreboding as ever, split down the middle with a circular handle on either side.  Mere feet away stood a dark figure adorned with vibrant, blue rings, staring idly at the entrance almost as if she could see through it.  She couldn't, but she knew what to expect, as she had been to the area before.  Truthfully, her memories of the Ruined Chateau weren't all bad, but they were certainly unappealing enough to make her think twice before coming back.  Despite this, there she stood, about to enter the deathly trap for the second time.  She knew from personal experience how difficult it was to navigate and how dangerous the ghosts within were, but she now had her own coordinated group, and she was far stronger than she had been during her first visit.  While she wasn't interested in admitting to any fear, this demented place concerned even someone so warped as herself.  She had "friends" with her, and she even had an innate advantage over those who called the building home, but she knew it could provide far worse things than a hostile pokemon or two.  The chateau itself was genuinely dangerous, and no amount of planning could change that.

A part of Krikka didn't want to enter, but her allies had come to expect the summoning of a god out of her, and she now had to deliver.  Or... perhaps they didn't expect anything, but that was all the more reason to prove that she was true to her word.  Besides, she still wanted to spite Arceus if only because it would indirectly spite her sister as well.  Ignoring her desire to simply turn around and call it a day, she stepped forward, not wanting to stay in place too long and make the two with her start wondering if she was fearful on top of being insane.  Yes, she knew she had shown herself to be a bit... psychotic as of late, and while she wasn't doing much to try and mitigate this, she still understood that it was in her best interest to be cautious with her behavior.  She was strong, which she figured was the reason the croagunk had stuck around with her, so she needed to make sure to continue making herself look as such.  Neither the new recruit nor the more acquainted buizel seemed too concerned with her aggressive behavior, but she wasn't sure how they would react to cowardice.  Besides, she still had something to prove to herself if not to them.

As she slowly approached the door, she felt tempted to call the others and direct them in front of her to open it.  She had the perfect excuse in mind: they had hands, which meant they could open the door with much more ease than she could.  The true motive behind this thought, however, was that she wanted someone else to enter first.  She saw an easy opportunity to make Solus and Goro take all the risk on her behalf, but she was hesitant to let her worries get the better of her.  Then, as if to make her decision for her, the doorway slowly opened, creating an eerie creaking noise that went on for far too long for her comfort.  Of course the doors would open on their own, because why the fuck not?  As if this place wasn't already disturbing and dangerous enough, it was clear already that it wanted to look spooky.  It really seemed like the place had a mind of its own at times, but even if it didn't, she intended to pretend it did if only so she could blame it for its own actions.

The umbreon absentmindedly paused her stride at this sudden development, an instinctual sense of avoidance getting the better of her in the moment.  "Oh, great, I guess it remembers me," she remarked in sarcastic joy before continuing onward, struggling not to hesitate any further.  It seemed the building wanted to embarrass her in front of her companions, but she would have no such thing.  Strutting through the open doorway like a queen to her castle that had just opened itself up to her, the first thing she noticed was the distinctly dim lighting.  Barely a few feet in, she stopped to take in her surroundings and was thoroughly underwhelmed at what she saw.  The room was large, but empty save for another door at the far end and a few candles adorning the walls.  However, what she found interesting was the fact that there were windows on the outside of the house, yet there appeared to be none within.  Sure, it wasn't very bright outside with the smog and dark clouds, but she was certain she would still have seen some light shining through the windows.  She wondered why she was even surprised that the windows on the outside seemed completely absent within the house.

This trip had only just begun, but already, it was shaping up to be unpleasant.

Uncaring for how the others found their way down to her, Krikka continued onward toward the door in her sights, her sole desire to reach her destination as quickly as possible. Due to the nature of the house, no way was the "wrong" way and it wasn't even guaranteed she'd ever find the place she was looking for, but she pressed onward still, as if this door would lead her straight to the passage. She was getting sick of the house already, her bad memories of the horrid place having been renewed. On the bright side, this trip was going better than her first experience, in which she had almost immediately been attacked and had to fight off an assailant alone. The house itself had been especially cruel as well, almost as if it were deliberately trying to torment its intruders. It didn't feel particularly different this time around, but at least there had been no sudden assault to go along with the house's sadistic games. As of yet, Krikka and her two lackeys had encountered little resistance aside from the building's confusing antics, and while that alone was annoying, she was thankful that it hadn't yet gotten worse.

She paused her stride as a peculiarity drew her attention to the floor below; it almost seemed to be moving, like water... or gas. Due to the only source of light being herself, it was a bit difficult clearly see the phenomenon, but all became clear as purple gas began rising up around her, seeping right through the floor. She took a step back, only to have some of the gas suddenly take form as a pillar or something of the sort and strike her in the chest, electricity flaring out around it in the process. She coughed as her breath escaped her, collapsing to the ground in a mix of surprise and confusion. While the attack hadn't been incredibly painful, it had certainly caught her off guard, enough so to drag her to the floor. "Why?" she coughed, partly just to vent her frustration and not actually expecting an answer. She was admittedly confused as to what she could possibly have done to provoke something so soon, but she knew that there wasn't always a clear reason for such aggression. Besides, she had a tendency to assault others for no reason on occasion as well, so it shouldn't have been surprising to her that some random thing did the same.

She knew whatever was attacking her was probably guarding its home, as with most of the house's residents, but she also knew a lot of them were even more warped and sadistic than herself. She wouldn't have been interested in trying to end a conflict peacefully in the first place, but in this situation, she didn't even consider it to be an option. The light of her rings dimmed as she strained to keep her focus on her own glow after being struck, and due to this low light, it took her a moment to realize the purple gas was thickening around her. She could taste the foul substance in her breaths, irritating her lungs and eliciting another cough. Lingering jolts of electricity surged throughout the aggressive smog, occasionally shocking the umbreon, which, combined with the slow suffocation she was experiencing, served to keep her in check on the ground. Her blue light faded out as her body weakened, putting her in the dark with her mysterious assailant. For a moment, she actually felt concerned, knowing her allies would fumble in the dark without her. She was growing lightheaded, and she knew it was just a matter of time before she passed out from the lack of clean air getting into her lungs. There was a good chance Solus and Goro wouldn't be able to help at that point; it wasn't their fault they didn't have night vision, but the result was the same nonetheless.

However, surprisingly, the looming danger wasn't what happened to be at the forefront of Krikka's mind. What she cared about, what encompassed her thoughts, was that this foul creature was contaminating not only her fur, but her throat and lungs as well. Her eyes fell shut under the pressure of oxygen deprivation, but despite this, her blue rings suddenly lit up once more. She let out a strained growl as a black aura surrounded her body, combining with the eerie, purple gas to tint her blue glow an ominously dark shade. With little warning, a shock wave of negative energy pulsed outward from the umbreon's form, the black aura blowing the toxic fumes away and eliciting noise that almost sounded like a muffled groan. Finally freed of the suffocating gas, she coughed and gasped for breath, the darkness around her fading and allowing her luminescence to shine clear. She split her focus between breathing and continuing to light the room, knowing that the others would need to see if whatever had just attacked her decided it wasn't done.

As much as she would have liked to hunt it down personally, she didn't quite feel up to the task. In fact, she was having trouble even standing, dizziness overcoming her when she tried. She could barely even open her eyes as sight simply served to make the feeling worse.

[+1 Energy for a whopping 1 total energy]

The door was a bit heavier than Solus had thought it’d be. Upon Goro’s relinquishment of his portion of the burden, Solus felt the full weight of the large door pressed against him. He moved farther from the hinges, more towards the handle in an effort to keep the door at bay. He succeeded in doing so, only losing an inch or three in the process. He could handle the door, but he wasn’t sure for how long. And, of course, Goro was still being antagonistic regardless of what Solus had said; he was taking his sweet time recovering from the burden that was the heavy door. Solus pretended to be considerate and waited until the croagunk got over himself and jump. Solus relaxed a bit once Goro did jump down, which caused him to lose more ground to the door before catching it again.

Alright, now to just… Jump from this ledge without letting the door mess up the jump. And then land without hurting myself further. Without an arm. This better pay off. The buizel tried to plot his landing the best he could, but the dim light didn’t make it easy. There didn’t appear to be any obstacles below but the low light levels didn’t reassure him. He decided it would be safest to half step, half hop off the edge and land not dissimilarly from how Goro had. He had just begun his approach when he heard Krikka coughing and noticed the light dim even further than it had before. He hesitated, trying to see what was going on, but the weighty door behind him had no regard for his sudden stop. It knocked him off the platform the same time Krikka’s light winked out.

In the total darkness, it became impossible for Solus to figure out his exact orientation in the minute moments of his time falling. He only knew which way was up and which was down; and that his feet weren’t directly below him. “Fu—” He hit the floor hard. Legs first, following by his back and his head making a noticeable thud sound. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—it didn’t manage to knock him unconscious. Apparently, he had managed to turn himself around in his fall. Probably not the best way to land, but certainly not the worst. He tried sitting up; upon doing so he was met with a sudden dizziness. He decided he’d just lie back down and wait for the feeling to pass. Solus figured that at this rate the house would kill him through incidents caused by its tricks rather than directly or by its ghostly inhabitants.

Speaking of ghostly inhabitants, Solus suspected that they were likely the reason Krikka’s light had gone out, seeing as the light returned following an attack from the umbreon, which the buizel sensed rather than saw. He attempted and succeeded to return to a standing position. His everything hurt to some degree or another, but he’d manage. He would have to manage if he wanted to get out of this place. He made his way up to his allies—for lack of a better term—at a seemingly unconcerned pace. “I really hope this evil god summoning thing is worth all of us almost dying in this stupid place. I don’t want to question your authority or anything Krikka—and feel free to ignore me or hit me, not that you need my permission, but maybe avoid my head, the floor already has that covered—but, uh, is there any particular reason you want to do this, or are you just doing it because it’s evil and you can?”

((Eyy a new page, ya boi got one energy.))

Goro had assumed that the group was going to wait for Solus to join them, but apparently, the Umbreon in charge had other plans. Once he'd stopped in front of her, staring into the darkness, Krikka strode right by him, her gaze locked forward and utterly indifferent to how Solus got down. The thought shocked him for a moment. Her subordinate had, presumably, gotten himself hurt by the Umbreon while he was trying to save her. And in return, she'd used him as a stepping stone to assuage her ego and remained unconcerned with how he ended up. It was a small thing, but it still put a frown on Goro's face. Maybe the Buizel had some way to patch himself up, and she trusted him to take care of himself. Either way, the total lack of response to the incident rankled him. More than that, though, he wanted to be in front of their formation, so he could fight the first enemy they came across. The trip to the Chateau wasn't something he dreaded, unlike the ther two; he'd never fought against ghosts before, and he was incredibly curious as to what it was really like. After it registered to him that Krikka was striding forward and she wasn't stopping, he hurriedly jostled forward, keeping a healthy distance from the temperamental vixen.

Instead, he busied himself with training his gaze on whatever her light could reveal. The hall they were passing through seemed barren - nothing on the floors, nothing on the walls from what he could see, and nothing coming to welcome them. The fighter's frown deepened at the lack of anything to occupy himself with, exhaling almost petulantly through his nostrils, his hands curling restlessly into fists. Irritated with the stifling silence, he turned his gaze upward, squinting to see what he could above the group. Krikka herself seemed to be doing the opposite, training hers on the ground they walked on, even stopping her purposeful stride to take it in. The sudden halt caused him to pause as well, and Goro looked at the Umbreon quizzically. Had she noticed something? Or was she just being eccentric again?

The answer to that particular question came in the form of a rising purple gas seeping up from the hall's floor, circulating around Krikka in specific. It seemed a Poison-type close by had set its sights on the leader of their group - but the gas had risen up from the floor. He'd never seen a Pokémon use a Smog technique or anything similar with such tight control; normally, such moves manifested from the mouth or hands of the user. His curiosity at the phenomenon distracted him long enough that when the gas seemed to materialize for an instant, suddenly crackling with electricity and striking Krikka into the floor, he froze rather than rushing forward to attack. The sight of the dark vixen on the ground, her lights dimming as she coughed miserably in the midst of poisonous gas startled Goro - when he fought her in the Marsh, she'd seemed so... indomitable. Untouchable, even. But she'd been caught flatfooted just like he would have been, in that situation.

To her credit, she bounced back quickly. Her light dimmed, leaving Goro in a frighteningly dark room with whatever it was that struck her down for only a few moments before she flared again brilliantly. At the same time, the dusky aura that accompanied her Dark Pulse technique flared up around her as well, contrasting against the bright blue light she emitted almost prettily. The shockwave pulsed outward immediately, covering the bulk of the poisonous gas that surrounded the Umbreon. In the first instant of the attack, Goro figured she was just panicking, but the attack was accompanied by a pained groan, of all things, and the toxic fumes were propelled back as if they were a physical body, vanishing in all different directions.

His fists raised in front of himself warily, Goro cocked a hairless brow when the Umbreon on the ground didn't make any move to pursue... whatever it was that attacked her. It had to have been a Pokémon of some sort since it'd struck her with what looked like an Electric-type move, but he had seen no physical body in the quickness of the moment. Did he just miss it, or was there truly nothing there? Either way, Krikka lay on the ground, her physical discomfort plain for all to see. Stepping forward purposefully, Goro positioned himself in front of the downed Umbreon with his fists poised ahead of him, aimed downward at the floor where the mysterious enemy had first come from.

Goro's eyes squinted as he peered forward into the darkness. His eyes shifted this way and that, searching the room for any telltale sign of toxic mist rising up from the floor. So focused was he that the Croagunk didn't even snap at the approaching Solus, the Buizel blabbering on a mile a minute. Even if it did manifest, Goro wasn't sure what he could do to it. How does one strike gas? His mind's eye flashed back to the instant when the Umbreon's assailant had materialized for just an instant before striking her with that electric attack - could he hit it then? Trade blows with the ghost when it solidified, or try and counter-punch it? Or was its gaseous form maintainable even while attacking?

Thankfully, he didn't have to stew on the possibility. As tense as he was, he immediately noticed when the poison mist started rising up around him, and the Croagunk quickly stepped back from its center, pulling his left fist back instinctively. Instead of traveling with him, like he half expected it to do, the gas merely rose up even further into the air, curling up into an almost... spherical shape. In the midst of Krikka's bright light, a pair of cruelly slanted eyes and a sinister grin manifested in the center of the gas, dangerously sharp fangs peeking out of the amused Pokémon's countenance.

At the first sign of electricity forming in the air in front of the Gastly, Goro drew his left fist back even further, his arms moving instinctively. The tactic was exactly the same as the one that it used on Krikka - this Pokémon was cunning, not wise. Crackling thunder centered around something decidedly solid, and before Goro knew it, the phantom fist was being trained on him, swinging upward at him as it did Krikka. However, where the Umbreon was caught unaware and flatfooted, Goro was tense, alert, and had seen this exact move and strategy up close and personal. Before the thought even registered, the Croagunk's shoulders turned inward, and his hand flared a brilliant silver hue - Bullet Punch. His left hand shot forward impossibly fast, the speed of his jab totally eclipsing the clumsy and telegraphed punch of the Gastly's, his punch tearing through the air right beside the ghost's incoming uppercut.

Before the Gas Pokémon's attack could strike Goro, it was met with a heavy left jab, the Croagunk's fist striking something -- something not quite solid, but definitely not incorporeal. There was no tell-tale surge of tension or crushing of flesh, the instantaneous attack delivering no feedback. Instead of the immediate rush of sadistic pleasure that accompanied the feeling of a good, clean punch, Goro felt decidedly empty when he counter-punched this ghost. Interrupted by a Bullet Punch to the face, the Gastly was sent hurtling back into the ground, its Thunder Punch veering off course and only managing to graze the underside of Goro's forearm.

The glancing blow sent a powerful shock through the Croagunk, but it wasn't the full force of the attack. A pained cry split the air as the cloud of gas dispersed and disappeared in the darkness. Goro stumbled back at the sensation of the electric punch, painful aftershocks lancing through his torso, grateful that he only tasted a fraction of its power. A tense exhalation of air through his nostrils followed the ghost's cry and disappearance, and Goro absentmindedly raised a hand to hold under his left forearm, cradling the area where he was hit. In the moment after the interaction, the fighter blinked owlishly at the realization that he'd got one over on the ghost. Whether it was truly defeated or only retreating once again wasn't something he could reliably determine, but after suffering a super effective attack from Krikka and getting outmaneuvered by Goro, it was probably a safe bet that it would leave them alone from here on out.

Laying on the ground, a feeling of nausea crept over Krikka, which she could only assume was either from the dizziness or the foul gas that had filled her lungs.  It was probably a combination of the two debilitating issues, but regardless, it only served to further agitate her.  She opened her eyes at the sound of Solus' voice, straining to see anything through her blurred sight.  He was asking something about why they were in this house of horrors, and the umbreon was starting to wonder the same thing.  Was all of this really worth... whatever her goal was?  She knew she wanted to spite her sister, but did she even have any reasoning other than that?  She didn't trust the entity known as Giratina, but if any of the prophets' proposals appealed to her, it was certainly the one promising a world free of law and order.  Regardless, she wasn't expecting her contribution to matter too much, and such a thing alone would not have been enough to motivate her to come back to such a wholly unappealing place.

To upset her sister was all the reason she needed to do anything, but this wasn't something she wanted to tell her two shadows.  Despite how she liked talking about herself, she didn't actually enjoy giving any information on her own background, and there was something about mentioning Ivirar in specific that just didn't appeal to her.  Even thinking about the runty little eevee made her want to lash out at everything around her.  She didn't want anyone to know she had a sister, let alone that this sister was the prophet of the god of creation, idol of holy light.  The last thing she wanted was for her minions to get the idea that she had some special snowflake sibling and decide that she was somehow inferior to the little brat.  She was better than her sister, better than her father, better than her absent mother, better than everyone, and...

...

In hindsight, perhaps her reason for this trip was just to prove that.  What better way to show her worth and import to the world than to summon a deity?  What better way to emphasize why one would fear her than to to bring evil into the world?  Her sister was just the one she wanted most to prove her own superiority to, but everyone else was on that list, and it certainly seemed to her that summoning some eldritch horror would give her the exact image that she so adamantly sought out.  Well, almost exact; there was the issue of making herself look like a pawn to someone else, even if that someone was a creature of unimaginable power.  She had no intention of actually supporting Giratina 'til the end, and the appearance that she was a servant to someone else was not one she craved, but she was confident in her ability to make it clear to the world that she was her own master despite what she was going to do.  However, worrying about that was pointless if she didn't get up and press onward.

On cue, the umbreon was given a reason to pull herself off the ground in the form of the sound of electricity crackling in the air.  She rolled away from the noise and used the momentum to help bring herself to her paws, spreading her legs apart to keep her balance through the still-present disorientation.  This time, she was prepared, and she had every intention of ripping the disgusting, ghostly creature out of existence.  She managed to focus her vision just in time to see Goro knocking the pest back into the floor from whence it came, and after a moment's pause, it was clear that he had finished it off.  Either it had run off or been knocked out, but the result was the same: it was gone.  That, or it had taken a more patient approach to the situation, but after failing miserably in its assault thus far, it seemed unlikely that it would be stupid enough to try a third time.  "Tch," she turned toward the door and away from her allies, annoyed about pretty much every aspect of the situation.  She had been caught off guard and dirtied by some gaseous filth, Goro was the one to defeat it, and Solus had done nothing but ask a question that bothered her to no end.

"Everything I do is just because I can," she practically growled in a quiet and agitated tone, giving no acknowledgment to Goro's accomplishment in dealing with the ghostly creature.  She was glad that the croagunk was at least proving himself to be useful, but that was pretty much the only good thing about the situation, at least, from her perspective.  She wasn't particularly upset with her pet despite the tone she was taking with him; the disdain was more toward the situation as a whole, but she had no interest in restraining her attitude on his account.  She was upset, and everyone and everything would have to deal with the consequences.  As she neared the door, the familiar black, wispy energy began rising up out of her figure once more.  She glared at the doorway as if her rising anger was somehow its fault, and despite it being a waste of energy, unleashed the full force of a dark shock wave upon the structure.  The sounds of wood snapping and metal clanging against the floor rang out as the door flew open, the shutting stile breaking off and falling to the ground.

A very agitated Krikka stomped through the portal into the next room, the warm glow of firelight enveloping her body from above.  She glanced up to see a chandelier full of lit candles, situated in the center of the perfectly symmetrical, square room.  There were even doors in on every side, though the ones to her left and right were both closed.  This was expected, and in fact, the thing that struck her as odd was that the door directly ahead was wide open.  She couldn't make anything out about the room on the other end aside from the fact that it was also well-lit; there was something blocking her view, and upon further inspection, she was quite certain it was the bipedal figure of... some... really ugly yellow thing.  It seemed to have been in the middle of crossing between rooms, as it was turned away from her, but her little tantrum seemed to have garnered its attention.  The fugly thing slowly turned itself around to face her, a blank stare plastered on its face as it locked eyes with her.

The fur along Krikka's spine bristled at the mere sight of the creature, its very presence enraging her despite the fact that it had done nothing to provoke her.  Having it look in her direction was more than enough, apparently.  She knew she had to think very carefully about what to say next if she wanted to avoid further conflict and conserve the energy she would inevitably need later, as every experience she had had with the chateau's residents led her to believe that they were all deranged and easily provoked.  She knew that if she said or did anything "wrong," it could easily set the creepy thing off and get her into another fight.  How unfortunate it was that, at that moment, she could not have cared less.  "WHAT!?" she screamed, disregarding her common sense in favor of lashing out at this new face.  It gave no response, which did nothing but further destabilize the umbreon's emotional state.

"Never seen perfection before!?  Get a good look then, you creepy, downsy fuck!" she shouted antagonistically, uncaring for any consequence.

The yellow creature lifted its left arm out in front of it and opened its hand, allowing a pendulum to drop down before being suspended by a string tied to it, still held between the being's fingers.  A vivid, pink hue glowed from the other hand down at its side.  If it hadn't been planning to attack before, it certainly was now.

The black aura around Krikka's bristled fur intensified.  Ears flattened and eyes narrowed in a bitter scowl, she could think about nothing but inflicting her ill will upon the one thing that happened to be in her line of sight.  Fortunately, it seemed intent on delivering itself to her.

Despite knowing good and well that Krikka had been attacked and that the attacker was very likely a Ghost-type Pokemon, Solus didn’t demonstrate any caution when he had entered the room and started talking. There wasn’t any point, since the Ghost-type would hit him regardless of what he did and he had no way to fight back. Besides, it seemed to be occupied with Goro and Krikka anyhow. Solus watched as Goro dealt what was apparently a debilitating blow to the assailing ghost as Krikka rolled away from where she had been. These two were able to fight the ghosts; Solus wasn’t. Why was he here? Because Krikka is here. Why was she here? To perform some dark, evil ritual or something. Why was she performing some dark, evil ritual or something? In her own words, it was because should could. Or, at least she thought she could. Solus had no reason for being here with her other than the fact that she was here.

And, in Solus’s opinion she was making very poor decisions. In retrospect she had been making poor decision since he had met her. Venen Gulch, the Marsh, bringing Goro along—a bad decision from Solus’s perspective—entering the Ruined Chateau… Solus flinched at the sudden sounds and motions of the doors ahead literally bursting open. He was relieved to some degree to find that the room the door led to was properly illuminated. All relief was lost as he caught sight of the room’s occupant. As if conscious of the mental list of Krikka’s bad decisions Solus was compiling, the vixen added another item to the list. The irritated umbreon didn’t waste any time or effort in deciding what course of action she was to take in dealing with this new entity, opting to act with verbal aggression. The house is already trying to kill us, you’ve already taken a hit from one Ghost-type, and we have no idea where we’re going. And come to think of it we don’t have a known exit anymore either. But sure, make sure to provoke any and all Pokemon we encounter here. Just in case they weren’t already hostile.

Krikka’s reckless and—in his opinion—kind of stupid actions were starting to bother Solus. When he had first met her he had hated her for what she was and what she had done to his friend. In recent times, however, after spending so much time alongside the umbreon, he was having a hard time keeping that hate kindled. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he had already spent more time with Krikka than he ever had with Xeno. Maybe the events during their little game in Venen truly did have a major significant impact on his character and his perceptions. Or maybe Krikka was more relatable than he’d like to think. Regardless, she was inadvertently aiding Solus in finding new cause to be upset with her. From his perspective, Krikka was being too reckless. She was endangering not only her follower but herself as well. Solus didn’t really care about Goro’s safety, but his own was very important. And Krikka? Well, he needed her because she was most familiar with this Mystery Dungeon, and she could very effectively handle its inhabitants. And he was still bound by verbal contract to follow her, of course. But those were definitely the only reasons.

Solus moved the the right side of the doorway, not wanting to cross into the next room as there was a definite enemy there. He didn’t recognize the species, but based on appearance alone he guessed it wasn’t a Ghost-type, meaning he could probably actually hit it, but his attacks were relatively weak compared to what Goro and Krikka were capable of, and he wouldn’t want to get in the way of either of them or the new adversary. Solus then noticed the pink glow emanating from the creature’s hand and retreated from the doorway, making his way back into the area of the room that the chandelier in the adjacent room could barely illuminate. “I’m guessing psychic type. No thanks, not interested, stay out of my head, thanks.”

Thankfully, it seemed his maybe-potential-kind-of-crazy-future boss wasn't too hurt by the surprise attack. After finishing off the ghost, Goro turned to observe the state of his companions, and while Solus was still standing there, doing... doing Solus things, it seemed that the sound of his brief scuffle had prompted Krikka into action. When he stepped in front of her, she'd been laid out on the ground, coughing harshly and determined to keep her light bright, but now she was taut and ready, having sprung up from the ground and rolled back to take her assailant on once more. Still, apparently what she saw was not to her liking, as the Umbreon let out an annoyed noise and turned from both him and the Buizel, her posture now the picture of annoyance and irritability.

With some terse words for Solus and absolutely nothing to say for Goro's aid, the Umbreon started for the door - the only way forward. It was probably a good idea for him, the muscle, to take point here and face whatever next challenge appeared, but it seemed that Krikka was dead-set on leading her group through the darkness. Or, at least, getting away from them and not having to look at her two lackeys. The Croagunk let loose a jaded exhalation of air through his nostrils, placing his hands on his hips as he strode forward behind the slender vixen. The chances of him getting anything fun to fight was decreasing with every moment - Krikka was agitated, now more than even before, and it seemed that her natural response to this was to lash out at whatever she could.

Case in point - Goro raised a hand to cover his eyes as the Umbreon in front of him let loose a powerful dark shockwave at the closed door in front of them. The impact was heavy, and immediately the door gave way to her power, slamming open loudly. And again, the dark fox strode forward, stepping into the next room screaming hostility and fury. Goro himself wasn't particularly perturbed - the last thing he wanted to do was hold a fucking door open again, and it seemed the next room over had some light in it. Dutifully, the Croagunk meandered into the next room, looking up to take in the hovering chandelier and the doorways on each side. While they were closed, the one in front of them was open, and there was only one obstacle in their way. Another Pokémon standing smack-dab in the middle of the room, turning to take in their arrival.

It was tall and yellow and fucking ugly, standing on two legs with a hooked nose. It didn't look young or small, so it was probably evolved, but there was nothing really spectacular about it. Just as Goro was about to speak up and ask his company what the fuck they were staring at, Krikka shrieked at the thing. Considering all it had done was turn around and stare at the group, he had absolutely no idea how it managed to offend her. Goro was beginning to think that it didn't take much to do so - really, just being there, existing in the same space as Krikka, seemed to suffice to incur her wrath when she was worked up. And she was definitely worked up now, shouting at the mysterious Pokémon hatefully.

He was beginning to dislike the creature himself, as it was still saying nothing and just... blankly staring at them. Despite himself, the Croagunk was beginning to feel a little disturbed by its unaffected demeanor. Not even Krikka was able to prod a reaction out of it. He watched with a strong sense of anticipation as the figure raised an arm and uncurled its fist, letting a little pendulum on a string drop down and dangle on a string. And at the same time, its other arm began glowing, radiating with an energy that Goro knew all too well. "Psychic," The word was hissed out loud as soon as he recognized the phenomenon. His tone was incredibly heated and hateful, the word dripping with anger. What the fuck was a psychic doing in a haunted mansion?

While Solus retreated to the doorway behind them once he recognized, Goro wasn't sure what he should do. He'd have loved to clobber the fucker in front of him, but it probably wasn't the smartest idea. Croagunks fared awfully against psychics - even Psychic-type attacks from a different kind of Pokémon could send them reeling. But Krikka held a natural advantage over this foe, boasting even an immunity to its attacks. Theoretically, there was no danger here, as long as he let her handle it. But hiding behind her would be cowardice, and Goro the Croagunk was no coward. Plus, this was his duty, now. He was the one who got to fight the uppity snots who thought they could fight Krikka. It was just... extremely unfortunate that they ran into a psychic. Especially before he'd found a way to effectively fight against them. Heaving a resigned sigh, the fighter strode toward their opposition, stopping only a pace behind the agitated Umbreon leading them, his hands placed on his hips. Despite stepping forward, his countenance was visibly hesitant and nervous.

"You, uh..." Conscious of her sensitive emotional state, Goro's tone was low and questioning. Honestly, he wouldn't mind if she shut him down and elected to handle this one herself. As much as he loved fighting, he knew better than anyone that Poison-types and Fighting-types did not mesh well with psychics. Let alone someone who was both. "Ya wanna tag-team it?"

There was a silence between the infuriated umbreon and her opposition; the creepy, yellow thing had been silent the entire time, but its lack of any attempt at communication was exaggerated to Krikka when she stopped communicating as well. It didn't want to talk, which was fine since she wasn't a big fan of talking anyway, especially with someone she didn't like. The creature had done nothing in particular to provoke her, but even so, she had already decided it was someone she didn't like, and so it had to pay for merely existing. However, its demeanor suggested it wasn't very friendly in the first place, so she doubted her hostile behavior made any difference. Perhaps she had made it more inclined toward violence, but she assumed it would have attacked anyway, even if she had tried to play nice with it. The creeper standing opposite to her didn't seem keen on making the first move, but it was clear that it was more than willing to fight, which was all the invitation she needed to attack first. Not that she needed an invitation, but at least she could say it was acting aggressive if her two lackeys decided to question her on her decision to assault the thing.

Just as she was about to strike, the familiar sound of her newest tagalong's voice broke her trance-like focus on the beast she'd branded a foe. She glanced back at Goro in silent acknowledgment of his offer, showing that she was at least paying attention to him. However, actually accepting the duet proposal did not appeal to her, as she wanted the satisfaction of beating the enemy down all to herself in this case. She understood that it was ideal to be safe, which was the only thing giving her any hesitation at all in her answer, but in the end, she cared more about satisfying herself than keeping safe. Besides, if the thing wasn't a psychic, it was still clearly planning on using a psychic attack, so either way, it probably wasn't too threatening. At that, the nature of the attack it seemed to be planning was all the more reason for her to fight itself, as she doubted Goro would be able to capably handle himself if he happened to take a hit from this thing. In the end, it was concern for one of her allies that solidified her decision.

"This one's mi-" she began, only to be cut off by the glow in the free hand of the enigmatic creature flashing a paler pink hue, seeming almost to glimmer in newfound radiance. There was no time to take in the spectacle, however, before it raised its hand forward and unleashed a gleaming pulse of light. Krikka responded immediately with a burst of dark energy, catching and halting the attack before it could reach her. The two energies intermingled in an explosive aura of color, with the lighter hue overtaking the darkness before tapering out. It didn't take a genius to see that this attack had beaten her own, which meant it would probably do something similar if a blast from it managed to hit her. Suddenly, taking this battle on alone was looking a whole lot less appealing. Still, she didn't want her allies to think she was afraid of anything of that nature, which drove her to the conclusion that she needed to win this one on her own since she had already said she would. Sort of. She technically hadn't been able to finish speaking, but she was fairly confident even someone as slow as Goro would have been able to fill in the blanks.

Before she could think to go on the offensive, the foe began... clapping? This sudden gesture of apparent praise took her by surprise, prompting a questioning tilt of her head. The claps were slow and rhythmic, the pendulum dangling from the yellow creature's hand swaying to and fro. She couldn't help but notice these motions in the trinket, and while she had glanced at it for but a moment, she found it... difficult to take her eyes off of it. Her vision tunneled in on the circular pendulum, guard dropping and dark aura fading from around her body as she stared, her eyes now trained on the odd device gripped by the foe's hand. An odd feeling began to well up inside her; something akin to pride, and yet still foreign to her. Pleasure? Joy? She felt... happy, the seemingly random praise taking her away from the anger that had gripped her mind mere moments prior. She was flattered, and this feeling quickly grew to the point of ecstasy; her heart began to race and a faint smile crept onto her face in absentminded delight.

An uncharacteristic, shallow giggle escaped the umbreon, followed shortly after by a louder repetition of the sound. She was so lost in this experience that she didn't even notice the door to the left opening, her hearing selectively focusing on the clapping, the sound of approval, of acknowledgment. She failed to register the psychic glow returning to the hypnotic creature's free hand as it finally ceased the clapping motions and turned its attention to the croagunk in the room, her attention being too occupied with nothing in particular for her to care. Her gaze rose up toward the chandelier dangling from above, the light seeming somehow prettier and more inviting now. She cared more about this than the blast of psychic energy directed at her very vulnerable ally. With the source of the flattery gone, her attention was now glued to this beautiful structure as if she expected it to somehow pick up where Mr. Yellow had left off. It didn't, of course, and yet it was enough for her despite this; somehow, the chandelier she had previously not given a second thought to was now the center of her world, the meaning to her life.

Not only did she fail to register an attack directed at her teammate in this haze of rapture, but her mind even skipped over a shadow ball approaching from the newly opened doorway on her left despite it being within the view of her peripheral vision. Even after totally missing that the foe was also calling for help with its clapping, it still should have been easy for her to notice such an obvious assault. The attack that should have been easy to avoid or counter instead struck her without resistance, knocking her clean off her paws and sending her into the ground like a severed marionette. It wasn't a particularly painful attack, yet she made no effort to get herself off the floor, instead opting to simply lay there and take in the sensation of happiness. Her reaction to being attacked grew further inappropriate as she let out another giggle; the tone of her laughter was truly joyful and innocent, parroting a sound of sincere contentment that was truly unlike her. "That wasn't very nice," she spoke in a hushed tone that could have been described as sounding almost weak despite the fact that she hadn't sustained any particularly heavy damage.

Despite what her words suggested, Krikka didn't care at all that she had just been attacked, nor that Goro had been given a similar treatment. She was oblivious even to if he was alright, she had no idea where Solus was, and she no longer cared about the looming danger of hostile natives. In fact, she hardly registered that there was a fight happening, let alone that she needed to participate in it.

As Krikka began speaking, Goro felt a thrum of relief run through him. As expected, the arrogant vixen would want to take on this enemy all by herself - she was agitated and that meant she wanted to hurt something. Against a psychic, she'd obviously need no assistance. Certainly none from a Croagunk with a crippling weakness to Psychic-types. Of course, Goro was only able to feel that relief for a brief, fleeting instant before their opponent attacked, its hand flashing with a much paler pink glow. Krikka noticed and reacted to the cheap shot much better than he would have, instantly cutting herself off and retaliating with another Dark Pulse, and the force of the two attacks clashing into one another sent Goro stumbling back, half in surprise and half in fear. The clash was quick, but the sheer power radiating from both sides of the exchange radiated through the room, and before the Croagunk knew it he had both arms covering his face as if to shield him from the contesting energy waves, naked shock showing on his expression.

When the struggle ceased and the psychic had actually won the exchange, its strange attack beating out Krikka's dark shockwave, Goro knew this fight was not going to be so simple. Whatever it had just done, there was no way it could have been a Psychic-type attack. Ergo, this thing had some way to battle darklings, and that was bad news for everyone. Goro knew that he was extremely disadvantaged against this particular enemy, but now things weren't exactly going to be simple for Krikka, either. Although she hadn't actually finished speaking, the Umbreon had made it clear that she wanted this foe to herself, so despite the rising stakes, the fighter made it a point not to intervene during the brief lull in action. Instead, he shuffled off to the side, strafing toward the right side of the room, so as to remove himself from the incoming firestorm. A darkling fighting a psychic was bound to be a long-range battle, and Goro didn't want to catch any wayward attacks if he didn't have to.

Still, though, the psychic seemed to have different plans. Instead of launching another strangely effective energy wave at the darkling in front of him, it brought its hands together sharply, the sound reverberating through the mostly-empty room. It repeated the motion several more times before it dawned on Goro that the creature was clapping, and its little pendulum had dropped from one hand and was swaying in rhythm with the applause. The fighter's hairless brows furrowed in on themselves, a perplexed and irritated expression clouding his face. What kind of wild Pokémon actually indulged in sarcastic mockery? A distracted glance at the Umbreon facing off against the strange creature caused Goro to realize that perhaps it wasn't so sophisticated - Krikka actually giggled, and her gaze floated upward to take in the bright lights hanging above them. It was a mind trick, and she'd fallen for it.

The psychic had gotten one over on Krikka, and Goro was defenseless. His expression quickly filled with horror, and the Croagunk's head snapped back around to take in the psychic in front of him. There was no stupidly powerful Dark-type to shield him anymore, and suddenly the Pokémon's hand was glowing with that same tell-tale pink aura as before. Panic lanced through the Croagunk, adrenaline and god-honest fear spreading through him as he began to comprehend the situation playing out before him. His enemy wasted no time, either, casting its hand forward with a sense of purpose. Out of its hands came a beam of wildly colorful energy, tearing a path directly for the frightened Croagunk standing in the corner of the room. Desperately, Goro threw himself bodily out of the way of the attack, leaping to the side and landing in a sloppy roll while the beam of power shot right past where he was standing before, striking the wall behind him and melting into the walls of the Chateau.

Wildly, Goro scrambled off the ground and rose his head to take in the psychic with its sights set on him, his eyes wide and frantic. Through his peripheral, he dimly registered the arrival of another Pokémon, this one slight and ghastly and carrying the appearance of a silk sheet draped over some kind of floating figure. Its appearance was accompanied by a surprise attack on his confused ally, a Shadow Ball soaring through the room to blast the Umbreon to the ground. At the same time, the stoic psychic's hand was beginning to pulse with that same deadly pink glow, its arm raising to take aim against the target that was now a little bit further away. In a matter of moments, the situation he was in went from vaguely worrying to fucked beyond all recognition - Krikka was laid out by another ghost and giggling on the floor, staring up at the chandelier as if it held all the wonders of the world, while the psychic had its sights set on him. Instinctual panic spread through the Croagunk's body, his fight or flight instinct kicking in - hard.

"No!" Goro's voice was noticeably distraught, but there was an undertone of anger in his voice as he shouted his enemies. Rather than preparing to dodge the still-charging attack from the psychic, the fighter elected to interrupt his opposition the only way he could. There was more than one enemy, here, and what he needed was to stop them all in their tracks before they got any luckier. His go-to option for speed wasn't applicable in this situation since both his foes were on the other side of the room, but there was one attack he could try out. With any luck, his allies wouldn't be too inconvenienced. The Croagunk straightened from his crouch and raised his arms high in the air, joining them together up over his head. In one smooth, powerful motion, he brought them down in a jack-hammer fashion, smashing his joined fists on the Chateau floor as hard as he could. Instead of breaking his hands on the hard surface, like they would have before he learned this particular maneuver, the ground gave way to his attack. The strike left a small cavity in the floor around his buried fists, and from that space, the foundation of the room began to tremble outward. In an instant, the minute trembles turned into powerful shaking, and his ploy was immediately obvious. Goro's best option, in this case, was also his most powerful attack - Earthquake.

Solus had never actually had any bad experiences with a Psychic-type Pokemon—at least not that he could remember—but he had heard stories of what they were capable of and the idea of having another Pokemon meddling with his mind bothered him greatly. He had also learned at some point that Psychic-types were weak to Dark-type attacks, so he had expected Krikka to deal with the yellow creature fairly quickly and ideally without assistance. Ideal because Goro was pathetically vulnerable to Psychic-type attacks and because Solus was very hesitant to go anywhere near the thing. Unfortunately, like everything else that had happened in this house, nothing worked in the group’s favour.

The bipedal yellow creature attacked first. Some bright, almost painful bolt of pale pink light that didn’t quite match up with the shade Solus had originally seen it emit. Krikka countered with her own Dark-type attack, sparing herself of a hit from the psychic’s attack but not landing a hit herself. In fact, between the two competing attacks, it seemed as though the yellow creature’s attack eliminated the remnants of Krikka’s attack before dispersing itself. This was enough to convince Solus that their opponent knew more than Psychic-type attacks. Not only that, but it seemed as though it had a hard counter to the type it should be weak to. What Solus hoped might have been a very one-sided fight had suddenly become a real fight against a potentially serious threat. Krikka was the strongest of the group and had a type advantage, but a well-timed, well-aimed attack from their opponent could possibly put her out of commission. Goro was probably the party’s second best, due to diversity in attack types if not due to raw power alone. Solus was weakest in many ways; most notably was his lack of type range. He didn’t even have a Water-type attack.

The clapping that followed the light show of the colliding attacks caught Solus off guard. It took him several moments to realise the source of the sound was the Psychic-type. He only realised what was going on when he saw Krikka’s dark aura dissipate, drawing his attention to her rather than what their opponent was doing. She wasn’t in a guarded stance, he noted, and his heart sank upon hearing the umbreon giggle. She had been furious just moments ago. Apparently, the psychic didn’t need to land a hit on Krikka to disable her; it only needed to catch her off guard, and it had. They had just lost their best shot at dealing with this threat.

Solus hesitated to act, even as the yellow creatures turned its attention—and its attack—to Goro. Even as an attack from a new, unknown source struck the now useless Krikka. Goro had moved out of his immediate line of sight, but with him he drew the Psychic-type’s attention. Solus mustered up what courage he could to face his psychic enemy and began a somewhat unsteady approach. He should have moved faster—he could have moved much faster—but he didn’t want to risk drawing the yellow creature’s attention for fear it might do something to him like it had done to Krikka. As he neared the doorway that connected the empty room with the chandelier room he caught a glimpse of the Pokemon he suspected had struck Krikka. Based on appearance alone he assumed it was a Ghost-type. He couldn’t hurt it, so he’d have to avoid it.

His eyes found Goro to his left as well, near the corner of the chandelier room. The croagunk had apparently evaded the psychic’s first attack and was now retaliating. Solus watched Goro’s fists strike the floor and felt the room shaking in the next moment. The floor splintered in places, the walls closest to Goro cracked, and the chandelier shook violently, threatening to free itself from what affixed it to the ceiling. The Psychic-type stumbled but attempted to make its prepared attack regardless. Its shot went wide, passing by or maybe even striking the Ghost-type who had just entered. The ghost in turn—either in an attempt to dodge the stray psychic attack or in response to being struck—collided with the open door, falling to the floor where it suffered the full effects of the Earthquake. The violent shaking of the floor could be felt throughout the room. The yellow creature eventually succumbing to the effect and falling to its knees, having lost its balance. Solus did the same. Krikka was already lying on the floor.

As the trembling began to subside, the Psychic-type began to rise again. It was at this point that Solus should have attacked—a Sonic Boom or a sudden Quick Attack to throw the thing off balance once again, leaving it vulnerable to a follow-up attack. But Solus didn’t make any move. He was frozen in place, not dissimilar to how he had been when the entrance doors had slammed shut. The Earthquake had brought up far too vivid memories of the events back in Venen, where the arbok had used the same move, kicking up heavy dust and causing rocky debris to fall from the crumbling cliff face. The Earthquake had allowed him to escape the ekans, but it was also the reason the ekans was pinned. Being pinned is what led to the ekans death. Images of that event flooded Solus’s mind and with them came a flurry of mixed and confused emotion.

Goro would have to handle himself for the time being.

The feeling of the cold floor below, the dull pain, and the slew of positive emotion were enough to keep Krikka willingly out of commission.  She had lost all sense of preservation, and in fact, had forgotten that there was even an opponent in the first place.  She had also forgotten that she had allies to worry about, and her reason for coming to the chateau in the first place had managed to slip her mind as well.  The only thing on her mind was the relaxing sensation running through her soul, soothing her pain and drawing her full attention.  This didn't last long before the ground reverberated from the force of a heavy impact, shaking violently and uprooting the very floor.  She was knocked aside as the flooring around her snapped apart, and while the scrapes received from the initial impact were more painful than the initial impact, it was still enough to bring her back to reality if only for a moment.  She opened her eyes and directed her gaze up toward the chandelier, but it was now a very different sight to behold.  The light was blindingly bright, and between the three images in her vision, she was unable to tell which was the real one.

Looking around her environment, she found that her vision was the same no matter where she gazed.  Mostly unaware of her surroundings, she pushed herself off the ground the second the shaking died down enough for her to even try.  Her reward was a feeling of dizziness that took her balance away, dragging her of her paws in an instant.  She expected to be reintroduced to the ground below, but to her surprise, she was met with a very different experience.  The feeling of something, or some things wrapping around her body came on so fast that she couldn't figure out how to respond before being whisked into the air above.  A drifblim had materialized from the ground below, wrapping two of its appendages around her underbelly while the other two coiled around her neck and threaded between her front legs, respectively.  Breathing quickly became a chore, then a challenge as the limbs coiled tighter around her throat, chest and belly.  Even through her distorted vision, she could see the ground growing ever further away as she was dragged nearly to the ceiling.  Despite the confusion and haze of emotion clouding her thoughts, her instincts kicked in and drew her toward an action of self-preservation as her body flared up with the dark aura she'd become so familiar with.

She didn't manage to get any further before her assailant suddenly released her, its intention being to allow her to fall to the ground with gravity doing all the dirty work.  She couldn't tell exactly how high up she was, but she knew it was high enough that she didn't want to just fall.  Thinking quickly, or perhaps not thinking at all, she spun her body around as much as she could and bit onto the first one of the ghost's appendages she could get her mouth around.  She could feel the creature's altitude drop slightly due to it being unprepared to suddenly be carrying her weight again.  A pulse of darkness emitted from her body, increasing the foe's struggle to keep itself afloat and causing it to begin drifting back toward the floor.  She couldn't make out the details of the figure she had latched herself to, but she could see it was purple and balloon-like in appearance.  Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone.  Her eyes widened as the feeling of the thin protrusion in her mouth vanished, leaving her to free fall to the ground.  She was lower than before, but she knew it was going to hurt nonetheless.

Krikka tried her best to get herself turned around and stick the landing, but she only managed to accomplish the prior.  As soon as her paws hit the ground, pain shot through her, causing her legs to give out and her body to collapse in a heap.  Despite the shooting pain emanating from her paws and racing through the the rest of her, she found herself still in surprisingly good spirits, enough so to elicit a laugh.  Unlike the childish giggles she'd demonstrated prior, this laugh was confident, showing a sense of accomplishment despite her unpleasant reunion with the ground.  "Hah!" she repeated the sound as she brought herself back to her paws in an unsteady, wobbly motion, "Your edgy balloon's got nothin' on me, Mr. Yello-"  Her speech was cut off by the familiar feeling of tendril-like appendages wrapping around her belly, this time lifting her up in a more violent motion.  The driftblim had reappeared directly above her, grabbed onto her once more, and was now in the midst of carrying her through a crescent spinning motion over it.

Krikka had no time to give any reaction, save for the gasp that escaped her after being apprehended.  Before she knew it, she was being slammed into the jagged, damaged floor below in a motion that was as violent and painful as it seemed.  This time, there came no laugh, and in fact, she exhibited no signs of consciousness at all.  Eyes shut tight, her mind was now clouded with a very different sensation from the blissful joy that had enamored her.  She was still conscious, but her body was still recovering from the shock of the sudden and brutal impact.  Her breath had been taken away, leaving her silent for a moment before a weak and audibly strained gasp showed itself as the first sign of life in her otherwise-silent and limp form.  This unbecoming sound was followed by a cough, then a pained groan, but not much else.  The ghostly limbs of the drifblim began wrapping themselves around her, the creature showing no intention of letting up on her.

She tried to move, to drag herself away, but she couldn't.  She tried to lash out with her dark aura, but the blow she had suffered managed to dissipate it, and to the same end, prevented her from using it once more.  All she needed was a moment to get regain her composure, but she wasn't being given any such luxury.  In the middle of all the pain, weakness and stress, she found herself laughing weakly, wasting what little oxygen she had regained on the task.  She should have been upset, but she wasn't; the blissful haze was still present in her mind, and it had garnered the entirety of her attention once more in what was perhaps the worst possible moment.  She was practically helpless, writhing in pain as her ghostly assailant prepared to further its assault on her, and yet she chose still to laugh in its face.  Perhaps such a decision would have been fitting for her, had it stemmed from a desire to antagonize the foe, but in truth, she truly just felt like laughing.  She was simply too confused to understand how bad the situation was beginning to look for her.

The power of Earthquake was unlike anything he'd expected. When Goro bought his fists down to the floor, the floor gave way. Minute quivers in the ground turned into powerful tremors, splintering the flooring and sending the entire room into a shaking fit. The chandelier overhead rocked precariously, the lighting of the room shifting this way and that, casting shadows in different places Goro's attack rocked the room. The effect that his move had on the environment around him filled the fighter with a righteous sort of power - if he could do this, if he could split and shatter the floors and walls of an ancient Mystery Dungeon, then why couldn't he deal with one pithy psychic? The Croagunk's head rose during his move, his fists still planted in the floor but eager to see how his foes took the blow. The psychic, it seemed, was shaken by the move but still managed to send another lance of power in his general direction. Still, the shot went wide of Goro as the Hypno rocked and fell to its knees, the Psybeam it fired crashing into the wall behind the grounded Croagunk.

A glance to the side of him revealed Krikka also faring badly against his attack, the ground around the fallen Umbreon splintering and getting uprooted, sending her onto her other side harshly. As much as Goro didn't want to hurt the only saving grace this giant clusterfuck could have, - Krikka getting her shit together and pulling their asses out of the fire, that is - he really didn't have any other option. Given the distance between him and the psychic, Goro was practically a sitting duck before. The Hypno had been fresh and untouched, having somehow rendering Krikka, the only Pokémon in the vicinity that could pose a threat to it, practically useless. Even now, the Umbreon struggled to rise up off the ground, only to get lifted bodily into the air by another fucking ghost, this one being a sort of balloon with clothy tendrils. That made two that had their sights on her. How long until another swoops in from the ceiling? She's gettin' swarmed, and I'm facin' off against a psychic.

The situation had gone from tense to bad, to way fucking worse. Goro had expected Krikka to simply Dark Pulse everything in the Chateau that got in her way, but instead, they somehow kept getting the best of her at every turn. The gas ghost caught her with her guard down, the psychic pulled off some kind of mind trick and turned her into a giggling mess, and now this balloon ghost was fucking slamming the vixen into the floor. She needs help. Goro had to win, he realized. He was facing off against a psychic and he had to win, despite the horrible disadvantage he was at. His head snapped back to take in the stoic yellow Pokémon once more. It was picking itself up off the floor, pushing itself up from its crouching position, and its eyes were very much trained on the Croagunk who had put it there. Despite himself, Goro let loose an anxious little croak, the sound echoing in the relative silence of the room, save for Krikka's nonsensical babbling and giggling. He considered simply smashing his fists down into the floor again, Earthquake-ing this particular problem until it either died or until the floor couldn't take it anymore. But there was no telling how Krikka would take it, nevermind Solus, wherever he was during all of this.

No, he had to get in close against a fucking Psychic-type Pokémon if his entire group to win this fight. Not only that, but he had to clobber the fucker until it was unconscious or worse, so it couldn't pick Goro off while he went to fight the ghosts double-teaming his sort-of-maybe-future boss. Despite the horrible odds of such a tactic, it was all Goro could do. Resolutely, the Croagunk tore his hands back up from the flooring and started forward, rushing as fast as he could to the disoriented Psychic-type in the middle of the room. Had he done this at the start, it was likely that it would have simply turned him into plaster against the wall, but now its legs were shaking faintly, its trusty pendulum laying on the floor in front of it, presumably dropped during the Earthquake. Faced with a charging Croagunk, it attempted to step back, but all it managed to do was trip backward and land on its ass. Once glance at the Hypno's feet told the story there - its feet were sunken and trapped beneath and between the splintered, uprooted floorboards. He's fuckin' rooted.

Goro's spirits rose at the thought. He could do this. Whereas before the Croagunk was the vulnerable one, now the Hypno was stuck in place and all Goro had to do was get to it without getting tagged. As he stomped his feet against the shattered floor beneath him, pressing forward as hard as he could, the Hypno took action. Both of its hands rose up, suddenly flaring with a deadly pink aura, and it cast them forward in one smooth, efficient motion. A brilliant, wildly colorful beam of power burst from the Hypno's palms, tearing a path through the air, aimed directly at the nearing Croagunk. The Psybeam screamed death as it flew, the vibrant lance of power flashing brilliantly in the dim light of the room, and it was all Goro could do to throw himself forward desperately, diving to the floor to duck the incoming energy beam.

The Croagunk crashed into the floor with a resounding thud, landing squarely on his face. His arms were splayed out in front of him, the fighter laying on his stomach in front of his sitting opponent. His expression was equal parts astonished and relieved as he looked up at his opponent, and the Hypno seemed just as shocked at the fighting-type's successful evasive maneuver as Goro felt. However stupid he might have looked while he did it, Goro had somehow crossed the distance and was now in close-range of his opponent. Desperately, the Croagunk scrambled to get to his feet, bringing his hands up in front of him as he prepared to lay into the psychic that had so royally fucked up his day.

It was a weird and terrifying sensation, Solus noted, realising that the danger he felt he was experiencing wasn’t real. It was more terrifying to trade that false danger for a real one. He wasn’t sure when it happened, but the room’s shaking had ceased. Solus’s had not. He was back in the Ruined Chateau again and he wasn’t willing to call that an improvement from the Gulch. The buizel frantically searched his surroundings to be sure he knew where he was and in doing so he became all too aware that the situation his party was in hadn’t necessarily improved. Goro seemed to be in a better position; the yellow thing seemed to have failed in keeping the close combat fighter at a distance. But Krikka…

Solus found the umbreon as she was slammed into the floor by some floating purple thing. Ghost or psychic? Solus couldn’t tell and he didn’t figure it’d matter much. Its strategy was simple, barbaric, and particularly effective. Perhaps if the floor was in its original state—relatively speaking—unbroken and smooth, this form of abuse would be quite painful. But with the floor in its current state, splintered and broken, it made this already brutal technique even more effective. Goro’s Earthquake may have given him an advantage over his current adversary, but it definitely wasn’t helping the team on their other fronts. Krikka was either still under the effects of whatever it was the yellow thing had done or was beaten enough to keep her from retaliating. Or both; again Solus neither knew or cared to know, it didn’t matter.

What Solus did know is that Krikka needed help and that Goro was busy with the psychic. Solus had to help his master. Problem was, he didn’t know how to help her, or if he even could. If the thing was a Ghost-type he wouldn’t even be able to hit the thing. Besides that, he wasn’t sure if he could even move. Solus made to stand, not even making it to his feet before failing. He had tried to assist himself with his hands, having forgotten the condition his wounded arm was in. He attempted to stand again with the assistance of only one arm and found he was able to stand, however very shakily. He almost lost his balance on his first step—he felt as if the Earthquake was still going. The maybe-ghost balloon-thing was already attempting to grapple Krikka again and Solus realised that he wouldn’t be able to help her at this rate. Gathering what focus he could and attempting to settle himself (and succeeding minimally), Solus attempted to dash to his leader’s aid. His hope was to compensate for his unsteadiness with raw speed. He wasn’t sure if that actually made any sense whatsoever, but he was pretty desperate. What he found was a burst of speed that surprised both the balloon-thing as much as it surprised him.

He met the thing at about the same time he stumbled—apparently, speed couldn’t totally eliminate his lack of coordination. He had stumbled over some part of the shattered floor, catching air and tumbling over Krikka and right through the balloon. The good news was that he had gotten to his master in time and that he had figured out that this enemy was indeed a Ghost-type. The bad news was that the enemy was a Ghost-type and that he couldn’t do anything to it. Before the ghost could drag Krikka back into the air, Solus did the only thing he could think of and covered Krikka with his only body. He was essentially hugging the umbreon in hopes that the thing might not be able to pick up their combined weight. And if it did, then he’d make sure to be the one to take the blow from the floor. And if it couldn’t, or just decided not to bother and made a different attack? Well, he’d take that too. From an objective standpoint, Krikka was more important than Solus—she could actually hurt the ghosts if she was in a better condition to do so. Solus decided that, in the long term, it would be in his best interest to take a few hits in place of Krikka so that she could recover and properly deal with the problem. It was the most practical option.

Still mostly unaware of her surroundings, Krikka lay idly on what could barely be called a proper floor by this point, making no effort to get herself up. Even if she had been in the right state of mind, the shock from the big balloon's onslaught would still have posed a challenge. She felt the arms or whatever they were wrapping around her once more, but she didn't register the danger this entailed. She was too out of it to understand that she was about to feel the same force she had just experienced moments prior. All that she could take from the situation was that the tendril-like appendages were tickling her, which she wasn't sure if she liked or disliked. Then, suddenly, she felt the ghostly arms release her body; part of her being disappointed that the almost soothing situation had stopped, she wondered what had happened. She opened her eyes just in time to catch a ball of orange fur with her body, which knocked what little air she had to spare out of her lungs. Despite this, she wasn't at all upset; rather, she was actually happy, though not because Solus was protecting her. In fact, she didn't even realize it was him at all.

"Mmmm, soft," she murmured, rolling onto her back so as to put the furry thing's chest against her own. She then wrapped her front legs around it in a sort of... snuggling motion, pressing her head against the orange fur and treating the thing on top of her like an overgrown plush toy. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, she felt it being pried away from her; it felt like her warm blanket was fighting to stay with her as much as she was, but the violent and unexpected motion of the ghost pulling was too much. She opened her eyes to see the drifblim carrying away her orange... thing, and while it took her a moment, she finally realized it was Solus. Her body rolling idly to her left so she was laying on her side rather than her back, she stared up at the sight, struggling to figure out why Solus had been on top of her and was suddenly being whisked away. Where was the ghostly balloon taking him?

The umbreon's yellow eyes widened as a bit of lucidity returned to her; more accurately, it hit her like a bag of bricks, both figuratively and literally as she suddenly became aware of both her situation and the pain she was in. Solus had protected her from an assailant, and its attention was now on him. It was a ghost, which meant its means of hurting him were surely limited, but it seemed to be content just manhandling him as it had done her. Out of her peripheral vision, she caught a grayish-purple splotch heading toward her, and as she tried to pull herself together and get on her paws, she felt a much thinner pair of limbs wrap themselves around her neck. She tugged instinctively away, looking up at the source in the process and finding it to be a much smaller and weaker-looking version of the big balloon that had attacked her. Her body seemed to prioritize its focus as her hearing went dull, the pressure of the situation all hitting her at once and making it difficult for her to think. Her mind raced despite her dazed state, her concern surprisingly directed more toward Solus than herself. She wasn't very worried about the things in the process of trying to attack her, but her buizel was a different story.

Her mind was stuck, so her body acted with the minimal thought it had to work with. She bit onto one of the stringy arms of the drifloon as the shuppet neared her, then spun, dragging the former along with her and smacking the latter with its presumed ally. This did... less than she would have hoped, mostly because her makeshift flail was of a very lightweight species, but it was still enough to catch both of the foes by surprise. The drifloon released her throat and tugged away in an attempt to escape her grasp, but she refused, dragging it down toward the ground so that it was at eye level with her. As soon as she released the living balloon, it tried to float up and away, but she didn't afford it the opportunity. Her tail took on a metallic sheen as she spun in a wild and clumsy circular motion, swatting both the small ghosts aside. The second she was clear of the pests, her black aura made a return, her attention redirecting up toward the larger balloon trying to carry her friend away. It hadn't gotten the time it needed to carry him out of her immediate range thanks to her quick reaction to the situation, and it seemed to know that.

Krikka had been planning on pelting the ghost with a dark pulse, knowing from experience that Solus could take the hit. However, the foe didn't seem too eager to take another hit from her, instead vanishing from view and seemingly from existence, leaving the buizel to free-fall to the ground. The vixen acted once more without thinking, rushing toward him and lunging into the air as he neared the ground. She managed to time her jump perfectly so as to catch him, biting onto his fur wherever she could grab without paying any attention to where. She managed to knock his straight course to the side a bit and get herself below him before the two of them hit the ground, resulting in her taking the force of the impact with the ground. This elicited a groan, but not much more, and she immediately released the buizel and rolled back onto her paws. She would have tried to make the extra effort to rise gracefully, but she still couldn't think straight and her sense of balance was shot, causing her to stumble and nearly fall.

It didn't take long for her to notice Goro facing down the large, yellow creature, all on his own. He had somehow gotten near it, seeming ready to beat it down, but his opposition was ready as well, the psychic glow in its hands making its intent clear. Krikka didn't want to wait and find out which of the two would reign victorious. Lacking her confidence to land a long-ranged attack with the state she was in, she instead rushed forward, aiming to join the croagunk. She was no stranger to fighting up close, even if keeping distance between herself and an enemy was her preference. Her goal was simple, as she was struggling to come up with any complex plans: if Goro was unable to deal with the psychic quickly, she aimed to get in front of him and shield him from whatever it threw at him. She knew it had at least one psychic attack she could block, and that was just what she intended to do.

Both fighter and psychic hoisted themselves to their feet, Goro's hands curling into fists in preparation and the Hypno preparing to strike the Poison-type down with a super-effective blow. At first glance, his situation seemed quite dire, but he felt the first tidings of hope since the battle started. Somehow, he'd managed to cross the distance against a psychic and now he was instants away from lashing out at it. If everything went smoothly, he could finish this one off and turn around to help the Umbreon on the other side of the room getting swarmed. If he could somehow smack some sense into Krikka or figure out how to return her to normal, she might even be able to help him finish all the different ghosts swirling around the room.  From there, the battle would be all but finished. Hell, with her Dark Pulse and all of its variations, she could probably just shoot them all down. First, though, he had to put down the psychic in front of him. Generally, he knew they tended to be physically frail and thus tended to favor long-range combat; as cripplingly weak to Psychic-type attacks as he was, he technically had an advantage at this range.

The Hypno's hands glowed a brilliant pink hue again, presumably charging another Psybeam to strike him down with. At the rate of its glow and the speed with which the psychic charged the attack and maneuvered its hands, it would probably manage to cast the attack forward before Goro could finish the wind-up on a regular punch or one of his moves. Fortunately for him, he had a tool fashioned specifically for this exact situation. Fighting against Krikka in the Marsh had been good for him no matter which choice he made regarding her, in the end - she'd brutally exposed his weaknesses on that day, and because she demonstrated them in such a surgical and ruthless manner, he knew that they needed to be addressed. There was a moment during their battle in which he'd managed to close the distance against the Umbreon, and it was on him to strike her before she could blast him away; exactly similar to this situation.

Last time, he had been too slow, and she beat him to the punch and laid him out. But since then he'd gone looking for a weapon to use in that situation, and he'd found one. Goro's shoulders turned in tightly as he thrust his left fist forward again, a bright silver glow cast around his hand. The motion was so blindingly fast that the silver coloring in addition to the speed almost gave it the appearance of a bullet in motion, and before the Hypno could launch its own attack, the Croagunk's fist smashed into its cheek, his knuckles digging in deep to the psychic's flesh. The force of this particular punch was completely unlike the one he managed against the Gastly - the difference between striking a ghost and a solid Pokémon was unbelievable. His punch snapped the Hypno's head back and sent it rocking backward. The psychic landed flat on its ass, its head turned to the side harshly, obscuring its expression from view, but Goro knew from the tension in his arms and the dull throbbing in his knuckles that he'd struck a fantastically clean hit. He drew back his right arm to swing again, eager to lay into his enemy and eliminate any chances of it striking back at him, but suddenly the Hypno... turned its head to face him.

There was a bit of scuff on its cheek, the right side of its face rapidly turning red and given some time it would probably swell up, but it was the look in his enemy's eyes that halted Goro in his tracks. The Hypno didn't look fearful or intimidated or even in pain. It turned its head back to regard him, and the look in its eye was blank. Not blank in the way that someone got when they were knocked out, but instead deadpan and expressionless. It was the same look it aimed at Krikka that set her off, and here it seemed to be mocking him. He'd managed to cross the distance and beat it to the punch, but what did that matter when the psychic's punch was still coming? Despite eating a Bullet Punch and falling backward from the force of it, the Hypno had kept hold of the psychic energies pooled in its hands and now was throwing them forward to aim at the Croagunk standing over it.

He knew it was futile, and that he was about to lose again, but Goro still made an attempt to avoid it. The fighter threw himself back, taking several sloppy steps backward and almost losing his balance. His hands flew up in front of his face as if to shield him from the incredibly effective blow - as if it would make any difference. Panic and fear surged through him at the realization that he was about to take a psychic attack, and it was all he could do to grit his teeth and endure - to try not to let it take him out of this fight. Things had gone from tense to bad to worse to fucked beyond all belief, and the last thing that was needed here was for him to get taken down by his enemy. The Hypno completed its motion, thrusting its hands forward and from them came the telltale beam of energy, flashing brilliantly in the dim lighting of the room. Time seemed to slow as his defeat rushed at him, but just before it struck him, a blur of black swooped in between him and the attack, and suddenly the beam evaporated against the intercepting figure. Stumbling backward, he realized it was Krikka, and that she'd somehow overcome whatever the Hypno had done and was back for revenge.

Goro blinked stupidly at the sight, of Krikka standing in between him and the move that would have almost assuredly taken him out of this battle. It made logical sense, he knew, for her to jump in the way of a move that had no chance of hurting her, but the sensation of being saved and Krikka taking a hit for him left him feeling squirmish inside. In the aftermath of the incredibly anticlimactic moment, Goro stood there silently, stupidly, not saying a word and staring ahead of him dumbfounded at the dusky vixen in between him and his foe. He couldn't see past her to take in the Hypno's expression, but he reckoned it was sure as shit not making that same aggravating, blank unimpressed stare with a darkling standing over it.

Solus’s plan had been to put himself in Krikka’s place and use the umbreon as a weight to make the balloon-ghost-thing’s task significantly more difficult. Krikka embracing him like he was a child’s plush and she was a child (and not a cruel, sadistic vixien) was not part of his plan; although it may have helped his strategy. He heard the umbreon mutter something that he couldn’t quite understand. “Wha—” he had begun to ask for clarification before being cut off. Literally, in fact, as he was cut off from his air supply by the arm—if it could be called that—of the balloon ghost. Despite his efforts, he was unable to prevent the thing from lifting him into the air, one arm in too much pain to provide much assistance and Krikka’s snuggling lacking any significant resistance. At the very least, the thing was leaving Krikka alone, which was his main priority anyhow.

The feeling of the blimp Pokemon’s arms wrapping around his body and, in particular, his neck brought on more memories of the events in Venen. The ekans had strangled him as well—although it hadn’t lifted him into the air to drop him onto a jagged floor. Still, the sensation was similar, with restraint around his neck, tightening his throat and cutting off his air supply. He couldn’t replicate the escape he had performed back in Venen Gulch here—he had used Sonic Boom to separate himself from the ekans, which this new enemy was immune to. He could only hope the thing chose to drop him like it had done Krikka and that it wouldn’t just float high in the air and strangle him to death.

In his futile struggling, Solus glimpsed two more ghosts advancing on Krikka. His heart sank. He had done everything he felt he could, including trade places with her in the blimp Pokemon’s torture game, to spare her some time to recover and even after all that she was still in danger. Solus stopped struggling against the Ghost-type’s grip, deciding it futile and a waste of effort—not that wasted effort would matter much if it kept holding him here. He was starting to get dizzy from lack of air. He was already short on breath after his little flashback and sprinting to Krikka’s aid. He was exhausted. It was quickly beginning to become difficult to keep his focus on Krikka and he decided to spare himself of a headache and closed his eyes.

The next thing Solus sense was a sudden lack of anything around him. The pressure around his body and neck was suddenly gone. The thing that was holding him aloft was also suddenly gone. So suddenly, in fact, that he wasn’t even able to gasp for air before plummeting toward the splintered floor below. He opened his eyes just long enough to confirm he was falling in a sort of reverse blink, shutting them immediately after seeing the blur of things moving around him (in reality he was the thing moving but that’s just being pedantic). At some point in the fall, he felt some twinge of pain that he could barely register with so many other sources already occupying his pain sense. Not but short moments after he felt a sudden shift in his trajectory and landing on something significantly softer than the hard, shattered wood floor he had expected.

Then that little twinge of pain lifted and a thought crossed his mind. Solus rolled onto his side and opened his eyes to find Krikka sprinting away from him. The buizel rolled further onto his back. It wasn’t anymore comfortable, given the state of the floor. He stared up at the dimly lit ceiling. The big balloon-ghost-thing was nowhere to be seen. He thought he saw the movement of two small, circular shadowy things disappear through the ceiling in his peripheral but didn’t bother to move his head to confirm. He simply lay there, chest heaving as he tried to get his breathing to resemble something remotely similar to normal. She saved me. Again. I was supposed to save her. That was the whole point of that. I thought you were supposed to be a cruel, heartless villain, Krikka. Solus considered his own thought for a moment. I was trying to save what is supposed to be a cruel, heartless villain. I was supposed to be the good guy, how is saving the villain a good thing? Right, I need her to deal with the ghosts, so I can survive this place and get out. Wait so am I saying I saved her to use her? I don’t think that’s a very heroic thing either… Solus managed only to confuse himself in his retrospection, bringing him to question his own morality and his motivations and everything about himself in general. And he blamed Krikka.

He muttered under his uneven breath. “Fuck you, Krikka.”