Trees Fall, Everyone Suffers Grievous Injuries [Open]

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Rex is not like the average Pokémon. Rex is not a friend. Rex is almost always openly hostile. He seeks to demonstrate his superiority, typically through combat. If one were to speak to him, they’d be equally likely to receive a response in the form as an attack as they would one in the form of words. Rex fully understands the concept of mercy, but it’s highly unlikely he would show it in any form. He is cruel, and derives great pleasure in other’s displeasure, suffering, and misfortune.

Combat and destruction was Rex’s panacea. Something blocking his path? Destroy it. Someone causing him trouble? Break them. Hungry? Bored? Trample through a forest, unrooting trees, crush any other Pokémon that gets in the way, perhaps make a meal of the fallen. Fallen fruit, or fallen foes? Rex wasn’t picky. Pecha Forest was home to relatively weak and docile Pokémon. It was also a popular place for adventuring types to explore and berry pickers to… Pick berries. Rex saw little difference in the types of Pokémon he may encounter in the territory. To the onix, they were all little more than pieces in his game.

The massive stone serpent buried his head deep into the soil, twisting and squirming as he buried himself ever deeper into the earth. Then, at the moment that the tip of his tail disappeared below the ground’s surface, the onix suddenly shifted directions, curving back upwards and quickly drilling his way upward, on direct course to impact the base of a sturdy tree. Upon reaching the deepest roots, he changed path once again, shifting from a direct route to one in the shape of a spiral, shifting and loosening the dirt in which the roots kept hold. Following this, the rock snake darted downward at an angle, made a rather tight U-turn, and then rocketed upward at an even sharper angle.

Rex roared as he breached the soft and loosened soil. The onix’s large horn crashed into the trunk of the tree, and with his great weight in combination with the displaced roots, the tree fell easily to the floor with a resounding CRACK! Rex stood and looked upon the fallen tree, then glanced upward to see the many others that had already met similar fates. After a long moment, Rex turned his attention to the next tree, and pondered how he might break this one.

The wanderer nodded her head as the Seedot replied to her words, finding his words flattering in a way. Desiree was not an official explorer but it was something that she had pondered about becoming, when she had finished with her wanderings. She did not wish to be tied down with an organisation at this point and she was still enjoying the freedom that had come from leaving her home and seeking out own path. To some, it might have seemed rather dull or cliché but she cared little about that. The Mareep had spent her childhood dreaming of travelling the world and to be able to finally live her dreams brought her an immense amount of joy and confidence. She was going to travel this world from one end to the other and solve every problem that she came across along the way, raging Pokemon included.

She was about to reply when the large reptile suddenly awoke and turned his massive head towards them, his voice sounding as bold as ever despite the situation he was now in. The woolly Pokemon listened to every word he said while her eyes were locked directly on to his. Desiree was not all that surprised by what he said although she had perhaps been hoping for a perhaps more sadder tale. However, it seemed that was clearly not the case and he was simply a raging beast who sought to cause as much mayhem as possible. He still maintained the superior attitude that he had been showing since the start. It was a little frustrating and her expression hardened slightly to show her distaste.

"I have nothing to hide," the Mareep said, her tone seeming to match her expression, "I am Desiree, the woolly wanderer and for the moment, it would seem that your fate lies with us rather than with you. You should think about that before making threats."

(Energy: 4+1=5. New page.)

(Energy = 6 + 1 (new page) = 7)

With his eyes locked on the onix, Leander was not slow to notice that the rock-type was starting to move his mouth to speak. Eager to hear what he had to say for himself after all of that, the acorn was certainly not going to interrupt him. Why would someone do something like this? To feel powerful? To get revenge? Maybe he was pushing some sort of agenda? He had some experience with the views of outlaws, but couldn't quite pinpoint what the onix had been trying to achieve by wrecking some random forest.

The answer he received did explain it, even if it was almost poetical, in a brutal way. But being far from critical enough of the odd aspect of flowery descriptions like that one, Leander took it seriously with no issue. This guy was a bona fide villain in his eyes, terrifying and without sensible reasons for his violence. And outlaws with no motive were the some of scariest ones in his opinion, with their unpredictability and inability to be reasoned with. They just did their own gruesome stuff, often with little care for anything or anyone. Right now the nut was too deep in his own malice to care, though. Added up with his impulsivity, the spite wasn't making him particularly strategic. So when the snake asked for their names, promising them death, he would respond with a reckless: "Leander von Linnden!" Worst part was, he rarely ever introduced himself using his full name. This was purely his vengeance-fueled courage speaking, and doing so at a terrible time.

"And you should be very careful, yeah. After all you've done, and with the way you're bound and trapped, it's baffling to hear you speak as daringly as this, y'know! You should be begging for mercy, not threatening us."

The onix wasn't the only one who was being daring, but the seedot hardly cared. It didn't feel like they would lose, and he had never been good at planning things ahead when he was like this, anyway. The looming threat of future destruction didn't even graze his mind at the moment. He did not care much about making their enemy beg for mercy, either. That comment had been said in hopes of angering the serpent, and make him slither into combat on his own volition. All for that sweet revenge that had overtaken the focus of the grass-type.

With his explosive seed fastened to his stem and his body shaking ever so slightly from anticipation, he awaited an answer from their captive.

[Energy:9  + 1 (New Page) = 10]

The mareep, ever so brave, ever so bold. And confident, apparently, at least for the moment. Desiree. Rex repeated the name in his head, as he studied the self proclaimed “woolly wanderer.” There was something about the mareep that onix found interest in. Some ulterior characteristic that he couldn’t quite name. Rex turned to face the seedot as he spoke up. Despite the nut Pokémon’s minimal ability to show any sort of expression, Rex found him much easier to read.

The stone serpent turned his head toward Desiree once more. ”Your friend is telling me to beg for mercy. Perhaps he is attempting to provoke me. Regardless, he seeks to justify bringing harm to me. Would you do the same?” With a sudden jerk, the onix tore the webs encasing his rocky body free from the ground. He remained bound, but he was no longer fixed in place. He wormed his way closer to the two Pokémon—as close as he physically could while still keeping them both in sight.

”I cannot say hurting me is unjustified. However, I must ask; does it help? Having a reason to hurt others, does it make it easier for you? Does it make it okay?”

To be questioned in such a way was not what the sheep like Pokemon had been expecting but any surprise that she felt did not show across her face. She saw no reason to either ignore or lie about her own feelings on the subject and Desiree briefly thought about how best to answer. To rationalise violence was something that all those with a moral centre did naturally. To fight for the sake of fighting was seen as animalistic and unbecoming of those who had any sense of control over themselves. It was a lesson that she had learned that night when she and her uncle had defended her family from a pair of attacking Pokemon and the truth behind her heritage had finally been told to her by her parents. She would always have the violent tendencies that the rest of her kind did not but she had come to understand that they were a part of her.

"If your plan is to continue causing chaos here then that would be provocation enough to attack you further," she eventually said, her tone firm but there was little in the way of pure anger now, "As for your questions, the answer is yes I think. Finding justification for violence is what most tend to do. There are those who fight for money, territory, mates, as well as countless other reasons but there's usually at least one. Even those who walk a darker path have some reasoning behind their behaviour, even if it's somewhat more cruel that most. Even your love for destruction could be seen as a reason I suppose or perhaps a need would be a better word for it. That's why you cause chaos, right? For that feeling of superiority that you feel? Or is it that there's more to it? Being abandoned by your fellow Onix perhaps?"

She did not move an inch as he broke free of some of his bonds and held her ground as she had since the start. Desiree had found her centre and was handling the tension with relative ease.

Leander disliked being seen through that easily. Pretending and acting would usually be honed skills of his... but today they were just not agreeing with him. Something about not being able to think so straight. He had taken quite a beating, felt exhausted and wronged, and was frankly getting a little impatient with this onix. Couldn't Desiree just whack the thug into oblivion so he could get him off his mind?

Though their enemy was of a great stature and normally would have terrified him by moving even when they had wrapped him up so well, Leander remained on the spot as Rex closed in. Desiree's boldness and confidence seemed to remain ever so unfaltering, and their enemy was still in quite the predicament. More than enough to encourage an already trigger-happy seedot to stay put, and stay calm. Well, as calm as he could be while being: a) in front of a ginormous snake monster, and: b) intensely wishing for and encouraging the misfortune of said snake monster. He was naturally still shaking.

Since he feared he'd do a lousy job at justifying his desire to harm Rex on his own, Leander was quite thankful when his ally delivered such an elaborate answer to the serpent's question. I don't have to explain much more than that, right? Hell, this guy hardly deserves an explanation, anyway. He should see stuff like this coming with what he's doing. He was still battling some hesitation, though. Some feeling telling him that he had to answer and explain himself. But he was slowly overcoming it. Why do we bother getting so philosophical with him? He attacks this forest for basically no reason, and still tries to make us doubt ourselves when we fight him for it. I shouldn't feel deterred, I should bring him justice! With "justice" meaning a few more Iron Tails, of course. That he still regrettably could not fire on his own.

"Either way, if you're gonna do stuff like this, you've gotta expect retaliation and anger! Did you think nobody would be mad at you for this? You've hurt your share of pokémon today, and ruined the homes of many more, so it's just about fair that you get something back for it. To hell with "making it okay"!" he said shortly after the mareep had finished her justification, bitterness apparent in his tone. The fact that the snake had seen through his act earlier with little issue made sugarcoating things further seem pointless. Stupid, even. Debating reasons for violence with an unreasonably violent person was something he did not care for, even if him coming to that conclusion had not happened instantaneously.

Rex listened intently as the mareep responded. He wasn’t looking for any specific answer—the answer hardly mattered to him, in fact. Sure, he found pleasure in knowing how others worked, why they did what they did, how they justified their actions. But in all honesty, Rex had only asked the question so that he may continue to observe the two Pokémon before him, so that he may discern their emotions, how upset they really were with him. With the seedot’s own words added at the end of the mareep’s, Rex knew that they were both still quite upset. This pleased him greatly.

Rex slowly turned his head to face the seedot. He had seen the seed the nut Pokémon was holding, he recognized it, and he knew what it could do. Still looking at the seedot, Rex spoke, quick and loud. ”Do it then! Attack me! Use that seed of yours, inflict pain, make me suffer. Try your best to make me regret my actions. Try your best to get your revenge.”

((Short post, but to the point. Sorry for the long wait!))

The anger that was radiating from Leander was palpable and it was difficult for Desiree not to be pulled back in to that state herself. The Onix truly did seem to be asking to be beaten to a pulp, despite the Mareep's efforts in trying to shift the encounter in another direction. Sure, she was naturally direct but that did not mean that she wished to simply butcher everyone that she fought with, regardless of what they had done. Her own morales were so mixed up and she was still developing her own stance on many things. There was much about herself that she was coming to terms with, which was part of the reason for her travels in the first place. The more primal side of her was one that she had not fully explored just yet although perhaps indulged was a better word for it. Her thoughts briefly drifted back to her first fight, where she had almost became feral during the encounter. Everything else had been pushed aside in those moments and all she had wanted to do was to take her enemies head and cleave it off. Yes, that had been the level of her destructive thoughts. Not just knocking the opponent out but ripping them to shreds.

What she felt now was not that extreme although she was certainly frustrated by the Onix. She had listened carefully to the brief words between Rex and Leander and her eyes briefly glanced towards the seed that the Seedot was carrying, recognising the type. It would certainly deal damage to the Onix but the Mareep found herself neither egging Leander on nor talking the Seedot out of doing it. This was a decision that he needed to make for himself.

(No worries! This post is just a filler one since the focus is on Rex/Leander for the moment. :) )

”Do it then! Attack me! Use that seed of yours, inflict pain, make me suffer. Try your best to make me regret my actions. Try your best to get your revenge.”

Rex's sudden encouragement of his violent wishes had Leander second-guessing himself. Thoughts rushed stumblingly through his mind. Why's he OK with this now? Does he like pain or something? Is it a trick? It just seemed fishy. However, he had suspected the onix of attempting reverse psychology on him earlier, and had not exactly had his theory proven wrong, even if that was because he simply had no way of finding out. Therefore, he was quick to jump to the same conclusion again. Possibly also because he really was aching to just throw the damn seed at the snake and end the vindictive tension already. Yes, he's definitely just trying to save his skin. Look at him! All whacked down and tied up. Who wouldn't try to weasel their way out of more? After what had been two seconds or so of hesitation, his body began quivering even more violently, as if to announce in its own odd way that he had decided on what to do.

"F-Fine! I will!" he cried, tipping his body backwards before catapulting the seed away in a quick forward lean that resembled a major twitch more than a throw. Still, it did send the Blast Seed flying swiftly towards its target. "Have it, you creep! Learn from pain!"

Even if it made him appear as unnecessarily cruel or violent, Leander was alright with hurting this particular guy today. Oftentimes, his vindictive side would crave borderline sadistic pranks or karmic "confiscation" of belongings to calm down, but right now only violence was on the menu. That had not happened a whole lot before, but he supposed it was like that now because of how violent this day had been already, or because of the lack of his usual options for revenge. Either way, it was not a good practice, and hopefully, for the sake of his wish to become a better person and citizen, one he would not repeat. Becoming like his parents was not something he wished for.

(It's fine! I'm not in a hurry ^^)

With impressive reflexes, Rex battered the seed with his head, causing it to crack on impact. The seed burst into flames as it landed on the webs encasing the onix. The webs caught fire with ease, and carried quickly across the rock snake’s body. Within seconds the entire stone serpent was aflame, and within only a few seconds more, the fire dissipated, having rapidly burned up the mass of webbing restraining the beast. Rex stretched and raised his head high above the forest floor, looking down on the two Pokémon below him, and the seedot in particular. ”Excellent work, Leander von Linnden.”

Without warning, Rex’s head plunged towards the earth below, colliding with and plummeting through it only a few steps away from either Pokémon. With each passing second, more and more of the onix’s body sank into the earth and the rock snake buried itself below the surface, it’s tail lashing about while it still remained above ground, until it too disappeared into the dark earth. The ground rumbled as the onix moved below it, but it would be difficult to tell where exactly it was headed.

For the first few moments after Rex had vanished in to the earth, Desiree did not utter a word, simply staring at the large hole that was now in front of herself and Leander. Her expression was completely blank but inside was another story. All the hard work that they and the native Pokemon had done had unravelled and now the Onix was on the move once again. She had tried to keep her composure and act as her uncle had taught her but it seemed that it was just not going to be enough here. This was not the time for meekness and compromise, it was the time to take on a more aggressive approach. Rex would not harm another creature or landscape and it did not take much for her darker side to feed on that thought and stir up the anger that she already felt. Oh, she was starting to feel that sense of pleasure. That sense of primal emotion that could turn the most mild Pokemon in to a wild beast. The elation of the hunt and the thought of destroying the Onix for good.

That was the true reason why she had not tried to step in and stop the Seedot. There was simply a part of her that had wanted Rex to escape or feel the pain of the seed. A part which wanted Rex to feel every twinge of agony that he had caused others. Was it wrong to give in to her darker urges? Perhaps things were not as simple as simply being good or evil, perhaps there was more to it than that.

"The hell with reasons for violence," she said, throwing away her previous reasoning and a harshness appearing in her tone, "Let's just put that rocky snake out of its misery and take it out. All we have to do is follow his trail and it'll lead us right to him. He's not going to harm anyone else."

Was diving in to the hole a risk? Hell yes but when had that ever stopped her before.

"Are you in?" she then asked Leander, turning her head to look at the Seedot, the lust for battle glowing in her dark eyes.

Complete silence was all the seedot replied with as he watched the flames spread, licking hungrily at the cobwebs as they covered them up and whisked them away from the serpent's body. Leander only shivered, dumbfoundedness preventing him from taking action. Inside his head, things were different. He wanted to scream. At both Rex and himself. How could I be so stupid? Of course an explosion would make fire. What was I thinking? He lured me right into it, that clever bastard... Gahh, screw this all! I'm not gonna let him get away with what he did, then make me look dumb too!

As Rex taunted him, an obvious twitch from his yellow pupils revealed the words to have been very effective. Now more than ever, the acorn wanted to have this guy ground to powder. Revenge would have been quite possible for him to get, too, had it not been for the fact that his target had such easy means of escape now that he was not bound. Means which the snake naturally did not wait to make use of. "Come back here! We're not done! WE'RE NOT DONE!" the nut yelled at the now disappearing string of rocks, having finally snapped out of his initial silence. But little did it help. He was not sure Rex could even hear him with his head underground.

Leander calmed himself down a little as Desiree began speaking, and turned to her instead of continuing his fruitless yelling. And he liked what he was hearing. At least we're on the same page here. I won't have to try and convince her to do this, so that's good. I wouldn't have had the time to do that. He quickly assumed that by "follow his tracks" she meant for them to run after him through the tunnel. It wasn't like they would have any luck tracking him from above the ground, anyway. And while the idea to enter an Arceus-knows-how-long underground tunnel they did not know the stability of was crazy and probably crazy dangerous as well, he did not have any qualms with it. If that was what he had to do to get back at Rex, then he would do it. No second thoughts, no "what if"-s. Just action. He was definitely not aware of the freakish speeds onix were capable of underground, either.

So when Desiree asked if he was in, the answer was an eager: "Did I seem like I wouldn't be?"

And with that, he began making his way down the hole, swiftly hopping and landing on rocks and somewhat solid chunks of dirt along the walls of the hole to get as far down as he could before he would have to take the rest of the fall.

Rex didn’t lose. Rex couldn’t lose. If he left the fight before it ended, then he wouldn’t be there to be declared the loser. It wasn’t fleeing, it wasn’t running away, it was simply… Delaying. Eventually he would resume the fight and then he would win. That’s just how it worked. At this very moment, as Rex tunneled below the surface of the forest, he was not running, he was simply relocating. He’d go somewhere else, do something else, and at some point, eventually, he’d run into those two Pokémon again and happily resume the fight. Then he would crush them, then he would win.

Rex was fully capable of collapsing the tunnels behind him. It would easily stop his pursuers, perhaps even harm or kill them, if they got caught in the rubble. But the thought never crossed his mind, because the idea that those tiny little Pokémon would be so bold as to follow a colossus such as himself into a tunnel of his own making never occurred to him. Even if they followed, they would be far, far behind him. Onix moved so very quickly when tunneling.

((After this post we’ll have one more rotation and then that’ll complete three pages. I’m thinking after my last post on this page I start a new thread in The Small Pond and that can be where Rex resurfaces? Maybe I’ll bring in one of my other characters, too if that sounds cool with you all?))

The Mareep wasted no time in following Leander's lead and leapt in to the hole as well although her descent was somewhat less graceful than his. Her kind were not exactly the most graceful of Pokemon nor were they as fleet footed as most other electric types. At first, she tried to take the Seedot's approach by jumping from rock to rock but soon found herself losing balance and deciding to simply jump. It was a decision based solely on emotion but fortunately her woolly coat came to her rescue. It had a habit of being able to grow or shrink in size when necessary and that useful effect gave her a far softer landing than she might otherwise had although the impact did stun her for a few moments.

Clambering back to her feet, she shook her head to regain her senses and then waited for the Seedot to finish his own descent. She sorely wished to simply charge down the dark tunnel but it was best to wait, even if her sense of reason was a far smaller voice in her head than it had been earlier on. The tables had turned inside her mind and it was the primal adrenaline loving creature that was in command at the moment. It did make her feel slightly nostalgic in a way and certainly felt great, as it always did. Her frustration only added to the sensation and every nerve and impulse seemed like they were aflame inside her body. She wanted that rocky serpent so badly at that point, to find him and finish what had been started. He had spat on her attempt at being reasonable so now he would pay the price for his choice.

(Sounds like a plan to me, go for it. :) )

In the end, the seedot ended up not having to jump far. Only from a somewhat long and tall boulder resting where the tunnel was starting to even out a little and to the tunnel floor. Before he could hop down, however, he spotted Desiree fly by before she reached the dirt beneath. Right before she would hit the ground, Leander closed his eyes and looked away, then slowly peeked back, too curious to keep restricting his view. A sigh of relief escaped him as she seemed to be getting back on her feet mostly unharmed, and so he skipped off the stone and joined her on the ground.

"Guess that works, too," he commented on her jump, while attempting to shrug. Suffice to say, it looked little like a traditional shrug.

In front of them, Rex's tunnel snaked deep into the earth, its interior already completely shrouded in darkness mere metres from the entrance. "Let's go!" Leander began running in, not at all halted by the fact that he could barely see. There were walls to guide him, after all. And since it was so dark, the mareep would hopefully not see how embarrassingly often he ran into them. It wasn't like the lack of light helped with muffling the noise of the impacts, though...

After a little while, his strategy did get exhausting, so he began slowing down sometimes to feel his way through the passage before picking up the pace again. From the walls, he could hear the scuffling of underground pokémon digging. The air was getting slightly colder and damper than it had been back when they were on the surface as well. He found it unsettling, but tried to ignore it, figuring that paying it too much mind would only freak him out. And right now, he needed to stay focused to fulfill his and Desiree's shared goal.

(Oooh, more characters! Yeah, sounds great, go on ^^)

Rex spent a lot of time throughout his line tunneling. The process was simple, natural, he could do it in his sleep, he was sure. It gave him ample time to dedicate solely to his thoughts. But he rarely had much to think about. He could have been thinking about where exactly he was going, but he usually didn’t. He much preferred figuring out where exactly he was by coming up from the ground in as violent a manner as possible, just in case it happens to be in some populous area.

What Rex didn’t realise—other than the fact that the Pokémon he had just left were still following him—was that he was rapidly approaching the Small Pond just outside the town of Grassveil.

((I’ve got a lot of little projects going right now but I’ll (HOPEFULLY) make a new thread in Small Pond sometime this weeks, before next Sunday, hopefully sooner than later.))