Mach Speed

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Spoiler:

Perhaps what he was doing was reckless. Maybe it was even stupid. It's definitely not something he should be doing, but here he was anyways. He should be able to take all these missions on his own...he was supposed to be able to handle these. His team was higher ranked than these missions. Yet, he expected himself to lose.

With a slight twist of his wings, the Archeop swung around into a different direction. His eyes scanned the mountainside in search of either of the two mission targets. One was a breloom, a jerk that stole some innocent cubone's money. The other was a combusken who injured themselves on the mountain. Why they practiced on a mountain of all places, Acro could not understand.

It was kind of a surprise to him that he managed to get through the other two missions relatively unharmed. There was still the scar along his body from the seviper attack last mission, but otherwise fine. The wound was treated back at the guild, the poison was too weak to really get to him from what he was told. He guessed that meant he could go to stronger places.

Energy > 95 -16 > 79

"O-oh, uh, okay," Osiris acquiesced, slightly humbled when the word "kill" was getting thrown around. So it wasn't just a jerk, but a really, really bad guy that Acro was out to get this time around. "Well, I can be a good lookout! What are we taking back from the breloom? Is it a king's crown, or a magic wand, or maybe like the scale of a legendary dragon??" he asked frantically, excited at the prospect of being a treasure hunter. They weren't just taking this guy in for being evil, but rescuing a sacred, lost artifact for a really important client, probably!

Likewise, Acro's impromptu sprinting was fun as heck to experience from his position as the archeops' living necklace. He snaked his head out a little bit, keeping the majority of his body wrapped around his mount, but peeking out into the open air, not unlike a dog sticking his head out of the window of a moving car.

(+1 from new page)

the sunset hero carried out 1 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

"Cubone's 500 Poke." Acro answered quickly, so that the dratini's mind wouldn't get a little too grandiose with ideas. "Look uh...I'm an explorer, yeah, but my team's only Bronze...we're not trusted with uh...missions like those..." knowing his luck, he'd probably destroy the item in the process of "rescuing" it. The Archeops sped along with a keen eye on his surroundings, however, what he failed to notice was the rhyhorn within the rocks ahead.

The pokemon seemed to take issue with their approach, as it began to stampede toward them in a game of chicken. It certainly seemed to think it was intimidating, though Acro continued straight towards it. The bellows of the beast were loud and clear enough for him to notice just moments before collision, allowing him to step up onto the Rhyhorn and literally run right over the rock type. It was thoroughly confused as it looked about for the giant ostrich, but ultimately decided that it struck the bird so hard that it was sent into the stratosphere. It didn't even feel a thing. Hah! They were so strong!

Acro Energy: 29+1 = 30

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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Osiris nodded along, only a small wave of disappointment rushing over him. 500 Poke was still a lot of money (at least to a kid like him), and even if Acro wasn't like a top top top tier explorer, Bronze rank didn't sound so bad. "I'll keep hold of it then! Don't worry aboOOOOH MAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING??" the dratini erupted, eyes wide as saucers as the archeops ran straight at a rampaging rhyhorn. He clenched his eyes shut just before the moment of impact, but when no impact came, he reluctantly opened them to see... nothing. They kept moving, and there was no rhyhorn about to smash them.

Did... did they just jump it? That was kind of awesome. He fought against a grin on his snout - riding Acro around was kind of like a rollercoaster, except you were closer to the ground the whole time... and you dodged pokemon instead of doing loop-de-loops and stuff. "Nevermind," he mumbled, a little embarrassed, his ear fins fluttering weakly.

(+10 energy from a Munchy Mix)

the sunset hero carried out 9 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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Acro wished he could reassure the dratini that he knew what he was doing, but the truth was that he absolutely did not. The Archeops continued along at his speed, leaving the rhyhorn in the dust. It's been a while since he just ran like this, mostly because most of Aileron village was, well, flight-adjusted. Instead, he would just...not respond.

Unfortunately, he couldn't just ignore the form of a shape shooting straight up out of the ground. With a surprised squawk, the moved to run around it. As he did so, the dull grey shape pitched something at him. He felt something smack against his face before he smelled a strange substance in his nose. His pace began to slow as his head began to feel a little dizzy. He wanted to say something, but the Archeops was down and out in a matter of seconds.

The form that harassed the duo seemed to snicker, as a much smaller colorful looking bird flapped its flightless little wings eagerly as it started running towards the duo.

"FOOD! GOOD! FOOD! CATCH!" the archen loudly proclaimed as the mischievous duskull floated along behind it.

Trawl Orb in 3...2...1...

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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Osiris hit the ground just as roughly when Acro crashed and burned from a surprise spooker from out of nowhere. Wrapped around the archeops' neck as he was, it took him a moment to untangle himself from the sleepy bird boy, and another moment on top of that to realize he was asleep. "Ugh... A-Acro?? What the heck, man?" he mumbled in a dazed fashion, poking the explorer's face none too gently.

Then he heard the frenzied squawking of a mini-Acro that was not as far away as he would have liked, and Osiris freaked the fuck out. "NOT FOOD! NOT FOOD!" he blurted out in a panic, raising himself up off the ground. This was not what he had in mind when he said he wanted to help fight pokemon! He was supposed to be backing Acro up!! "I taste awful anyways!!" he cried, rearing his head back.

Iris took only a moment to think a lot of angry thoughts before he barfed out a surge of dragon rage, in a pretty telegraphed and straightforward arc headed right for the archen who thought he looked tasty.

(fuggit leggo, trawl orb)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

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(By the way, Osiris was the first mon he saw in this thread so his ability is Shed Skin.)

The dragon rage shot forward and blasted against the Archen, knocking them back onto their rear end. They sat there for a solid second as they stared into the distance, as if just barely registering what happened. The eyes of the creature began to water before it suddenly began to wail as loudly as it could. The Uproar caused Acro's eyes to snap open.

"Wha-" was all his dazed mind could process before his ears were assaulted by the screech of the Archen. Unsteady but capable, he stood himself back up onto his two legs. "What happen...?" His mind was a daze, it was difficult to concentrate. As he did so, an Aron seemed to nearly pop out of the ground close by. It stood proud and tall, ready to defend itself...until something else opped up beneath it. An alolan diglett popped up beneath the Aron. The steel type gave a panicked cry before it was flipped over onto its back. The little stubby legs of the aron flailed in the air as it tried to flip itself back over like a tortoise on the back of its shell.

The duskull seemed to roll its one lonely eye, "Now you've gone and done it..."

Osiris' flinched back at the sound of the archen wailing like a baby, wishing desperately that he had hands so he could clamp them over his ears. Honestly, looking at the thing, he felt bad... but he'd been justified, right?? Acro wasn't going to wake up and see him next to a crying archen and assume that Osiris was bullying the guy - oh god, Acro was getting up. The dratini swallowed a lump in his throat, slithering up next to the archeops now that he was awake.

"It called me food!!" he blurted at the duskull, feeling an absolutely ridiculous need to defend himself. "It was gonna eat me!" It was mostly for Acro's sake, but also - what the heck was the duskull on about?! It made them hit the ground running and now it was all 'ooh, you shouldn't have done that, blah blah blah'? "What's the big idea, anyway, tripping us up like that?!"

"It wasn't calling you food," the duskull spoke with a condescending tone, "We were just going to take your friend's stuff."

"WELL DON'T TELL THEM THAT!" The aron cried out in fear as it continued to wave its stubby little legs around.

"What's the point? That was my last seed." The duskull responded. Honestly, it was difficult to hear any of their words over the sound of the Archen's wailing. Acro struggled to get his bearings, the wailing induced a splitting headache as he looked between the much smaller pokemon. Wait, they wanted to take his things?

"Can someone shut him up?" the duskull shouted over the Archen's wails. Acro would look to the little crying Archen just in time for a little diglett to show up next to them. He wondered just how a digglet was going to ease the Archen down from its emotional state, when the Diglett somehow reared its head back and smacked the Archen in the face. He flinched at the sound of the impact as the wailing went silent. The archen plopped onto the ground with a dazed coo.

"What now?" The digglett spoke out to the duskull as if Osiris and Acro weren't even here.

"Call Brie in, I dunno..." the duskull shrugged.

"Wait-what's going on?" Acro questioned once again in hopes of receiving an answer.

"They're trying to rob you, Acro. And I think the archen was gonna eat me, but they're not admitting it." Osiris said slightly exasperatedly. If you put aside the rough tumble they took and the brief instant of panic and fear that he experienced, facing down a spooky ghost and crazy bird, it was kind of a novel experience... almost getting robbed, that is. "Not that it matters anyway!! My friend could beat up whoever this 'Brie' is, no sweat. He's super-duper strong." he bragged, grinning at the rotten duskull.

He felt a little bad for the poor bird that he blasted, but in his defense, that was seriously not a cool move to pull. It was almost kinda cute now that it was calmed down and laying there all domesticated-looking. Was Acro like that when he was smaller?

Oh, he was being robbed. . . He was being robbed!? The archeops was wide away now. "Who's Brie?" He questioned. Instead of a polite response, instead he would receive more screeching. It was like the sound of steel being ripped apart as the diglett unleashed a horrific screech upon the Archeops. Acro's arms flew to cover his ears. His tail whipped around in frustration as his head lowered itself, as if that would help.

It was at that moment, that "Brie" decided to show themselves. From higher up the mountain, a kangaroo-like pokemon stood above them all with a wicked grin on their expression. "Well, the little rat actually sent someone after me eh?" It spoke once the horrific screeches ended. "At least we'll get to raid an explorer's bag this time around!" The Bandit King spoke.

The breloom jumped down from rock to rock until finally he reached the same level. He did not hesitate to...punch the air? No, a shockwave was sent forward from that punch. The Vacuum Wave shot straight into Acro, blasting him right on back to the mountain floor...you know, where he belonged.

Every one of these pokemon had a thing. The duskull was just a jerk, trying to rob someone for no other reason than it thought it could get away with it. The archen was a big scary until it reverted to big baby, the diglett was a screamer, and the aron... well, honestly, that one seemed to be the most sane one of the bunch. Osiris thought back to the icy lands and the cloysters that ripped apart the frozen stream just trying to shoot Acro down, and wondered just how this place could be more dangerous than that.

"What the heck?!" he burst out sourly, side-eyeing the diglett who saw the need to shriek like a banshee. What kind of pokemon did that kind of thing?! Even if it was just calling its friend, there were a hundred less weird ways to do that! "You got this, Acro!! Just be confident and watch out for those air punchy thingies!" he called over to the archeops, raising himself up so the big bird could see him.

In the meantime, he'd like some distance, yes he would thank you very much. The dratini tried to slither away from the action as best as he could, mostly away from the crazy breloom in particular. None of the little guys scared him, really - all at once, heck yeah, but that was a different thing. Acro's warnings about the breloom being okay with killing pokemon were fresh in his mind, however.

"Man, you guys couldn't handle a wimp like this?" the breloom sneered as it took some leisurely strides towards the downed Archeops. The bandit king snorted as it placed a foot on Acro's dazed head. "This is nothin!"

"It was the crybaby's fault," the duskull spoke up, "Everything else was according to plan."

"If one of you fails, all of y'all fail!" the bandit sneered. He looked back to Acro with a snicker. He reached back into a little satchel tied around his waste, "Looking for thiiiis?" He teased as he pulled out a little sack of coins. He jiggled the bag as the clink and clatter of coins sounded from inside. He tossed it back over his shoulder, the duskull was quick to catch it and back away from the field. "Too bad, there it goes~" The grass and fighting type laughed.

Acro, thoroughly motivated, struggled free with ease much to the Breloom's surprise. He pushed himself back up a the breloom was quick to bounce away from the Archeops. "Dig, again!" The breloom instructed. Once again, a horrific screech was sounded at Acro's direction. The archeops covered his ears once more, but this time attempted to push through it. He took his hands off of his poor ears and instead opted to take this opportunity for an attempt to fly. With a few quick steps, he was in the air. A Vacuum Wave narrowly missed him as Acro began to leave after-images that followed him around wherever he went. One Archeops. Two Archeops. Three. It became difficult to discern who the true Archeops was...

Meanwhile, the Duskull thought it fit to attempt an escape...in a very bad direction that was entirely obvious to the little dratini just down the way.

Osiris watched with bated breath as the breloom bandit unveiled the prize of the day; a pouch of money! That was his job!! Immediately, he zeroed in on it, and when the grass/fighting-type tossed it over to the duskull, he caught on immediately. That was his target! He wanted a piece of the rotten spooker since it sent them a-tumblin', anyways, so this worked out just fine.

He wasn't worried about Acro - he'd seen the archeops win tougher looking fights. Now it was his turn to win a fight and prove to the guild member once and for all that he could help. So when he saw the ghost-type just so happen to make a run for it toward him, he grinned, bright and eager. "Think twice, dummy!!" he shouted, rearing his head back and spewing another blast of dragon rage.

Maybe it was the fact that he yelled before his surprise attack or perhaps the duskull was simply that prepared, but it quite simply and easily floated over the attack, staring down at the dratini as apathetically as a duskull could, what with the masked face. And it just... moved on, floating away with surprising speed.

"Hey no, wait up!!" he called, slithering after it, the job given to him the only thing on his mind. He couldn't let it get away!

"Briiiiiie I can't get uuuuuup!" The little aron whined as it rocked back and forth on its back.

"Shut yer YAP!" The breloom snapped as it narrowly missed another Archeops. The frustration in his voice was already apparent as the swarm of Acro seemed to almost taunt him with every miss. The Breloom couldn't keep up with their movements. So much so, that the attack from behind shocked the breloom. Acro slammed into the breloom's back, forcing them to fall onto the ground and drag across it before he would use it to bounce back into the sky.

The breloom took a pretty harsh hit from that one single Fly, it was honestly surprising for how big it talked. The Breloom prepared itself to try again, though this time he waited for Acro to come to him. The Breloom's claws took on a bright glow, holding position there until finally one of the copies dove towards him. He faced the copy head on, but quickly turned and slammed his fist right into Acro's chest as the archeops attempted to take him from behind again.

"Not foolin me twice!" the breloom sneered as Acro collapsed onto the ground. Acro pulled himself up again, just in time to see the the glowing dynamic strike of the breloom smash into him again, this time leaving him rather dazed and confused. He could hear the breloom's wicked laughter as the world spun around him...this...wasn't good.

Meanwhile, Osiris wasn't faring much better. He knew he had to catch the duskull, but the only problem with that was the rotten ghost could levitate! Even if he caught up, it wasn't like he could reach the pouch of money and get away with it. Nonetheless, he slithered furiously after the fleeing ghost, doing his best to keep pace with the bandit pokemon.

He knew ghosts could phase through walls and the ground, though, and while he didn't know if it could take material things with it, he didn't want to risk it and find out. Osiris had to do something before that option occurred to the duskull and it escaped that way. So he paused in his slithering, eyed the direction the ghost-type was running, coiled up, and rocketed off in a burst of Extremespeed. Of course, he passed right through the ghost-type, but he had been planning on that.

The dratini skidded through a stop after phasing through the duskull's back to land in front of it, and it put the ghost-type on the back foot. "Ack!" it snapped, backing up. "Can't you just get lost?!" It tried to change direction and flee another way, but Osiris was quick to cut off its path with another burst of speed, doing so over and over. Just to make it clear that outrunning the dratini wasn't an option.

It might have been a foolish decision, though, because if the duskull couldn't flight, it had to fight. It cast its wispy robe sleeves forward, and an Ominous Wind immediately passed over Osiris, throwing him to the ground forcefully as he shuddered in dismay.