Lost Cause

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Each step was made with hesitance, but he was fairly certain that this path was the safest. The only problem was that it was a guaranteed safety. His eyes darted about to and fro with a growing sense of dread and anxiety. He was alone, out in the open, in the place he'd last seen Voix. For all he knew the damned Zoroark lived here and yet he was coming back. It made his skin crawl and fur stand. He honestly looked adorably fluffy more so than terrifying. He swallowed his fears as he stepped along, uncertainty kept him from making much progress.

He came with the intent of collecting some items, a sack strapped around his side. The light crystal blue necklace dangled from his neck as he walked on all four legs. It was much more comfortable this way. It kept his stomach less exposed, far easier to run from danger as well. Zadira needed more items though. Not only for his own protection, but to hopefully sell them to the local merchant back at Grassveil, maybe an explorer or two. The debt he needed to pay was big and the lawyer made it perfectly clear what would happen if he couldn't keep on his payments.

It was understandable, considering the pachirisu saved what was essentially the rest of his life, but the lawyer's expectations were brutal. He could either pay up or he was going right back to where he was found.

"Curriculum." Zadira answered quietly when Mocha struggled to pronounce a word...either that or she just didn't know it to begin with. He didn't know. What he did know, however, was that apparently his version of fun wasn't...fun. He couldn't help but to feel a little hurt at that jab, but there were far more things to worry about than his definition of fun. For example, Mocha's hurt back. He flinched at the sight of it. The red that marked the bandages made his stomach cave in on itself.

He looked away and focused on the ground as he just managed to stop himself from just staring. Games. He needed to think about games. What...what was something he used to play with Caritas? "Uh...Chess...Sudoku...the things on the newspaper where you have to figure out the words in a pattern? I forgot the name..." It was crossword.

----

The zorua squinted up at the predators that flew about up high. He watched them for a good long moment before he turned back to the mawile, "What's weird?" he questioned. He made sure to keep his voice quiet and low. The aerodactyl above, meanwhile, continued to fade in and out of existence, until the larger one disappeared altogether-as if it flew right through a wall of invisibility.

That wasn't normal.

Voix didn't notice.

Mocha: [Energy: 3 + 1 (Page) = 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 2 + 1 (Page) = 3]
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Her suspicions were more or less confirmed by Voix not noting the anomalies. ”Everything that’s happened in the last little bit or so, really.” Maxie muttered. ”If we keep to this wall, we should find the cave eventually. Mocha spotted it just before we got attacked by a steelix.” The battlefield of that encounter would be in view eventually. For all she knew, the steelix could still be there—though considering how still the ground was, she doubted it.

If she had a journal, she’d be taking notes about all of this, so she’d be sure to look into it once she got back to town. If she had a journal right now, she’d also make a note to get a journal to take notes in. Her working hypothesis at the moment was that something was tapping into Zadira’s past and dredging things up from it. That didn’t explain the aerodactyl, and she wasn’t sure if the things that had attacked them in the cave had anything to do with it. Or that group of Pokemon they encountered, or the hostages...

Okay there was still a lot she didn’t have any ideas about.

…

”Cur-ric-u-lum…” Mocha quietly repeated after Zadira provided the word for her. She was pretty sure she recognized Chess, but Sudoku was completely lost on her. She was pretty sure she’d never even tried to read a newspaper. She had no idea they put games in there. ”Chess is the one with the checkered board, right? You’ll have to teach me how to play it. You seem pretty smart, Zadira. I bet you’d make a great teacher.”

Voix hesitated at the mawile's explanation. The zorua's ears tilted off to the side as his head twisted in confusion. "Wait-if there was a steelix down there, why would it be safe now?" He blinked at the mawile, but followed her movements...perhaps a little more than necessary. He practically smashed himself against the wall, as if there were a sheer drop on just the other side of him.

The remaining Aerodactyl above opened its mouth for another screech, but no sound was emitted. Steadily, however, the rock type began to descend. Swirling around and around, it grew closer to the ground.

---

It seems like Mocha didn't know any of the games he listed. He supposed they must have not fit under the "Fun" category either. Uncertainty rose, but at the very least it was a better feeling than all the other stuff he could possibly focus on in that moment. The zangoose's claws unfolded and connected together once more, absentmindedly scraping them against one another slowly and quietly.

"Y-Yeah, but uh...I don't know if I could be a teacher. There's a whole lot of stuff I don't know still," Caritas was a good teacher. She knew everything. "I-I mean, I know the rules and stuff for Chess, but I'm not exactly good at it. Didn't ever really play with many people..." it was pretty much only Caritas. She was basically his only friend. There was a game or two with Roi, but Roi always obliterated him to the point where it was dull for both parties involved.

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
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”You don’t have to be a teacher of everything.” Mocha shifted back to a sitting position. She could guess Caritas was one of the few people he had played the game with. She was starting to get the idea that Zadira didn’t have many friends even before… What happened.

”You know a lot about items—more than I do, probably. Actually, you probably just know more things than I do in general.” An idea came to her in that moment; a possible way to get him to think of something other than his troubles. ”Tell me something interesting. About anything.”

…

”I never said it was safe. I said we were going to come down here and see if it’s safe. Besides, the steelix got into a big fight with a tyranitar so there’s probably only one of them left anyway—if that.” She was not trying to console Voix whatsoever. She glanced up at the two—or rather, one—aerodactyl in the air.

”Alright, good news bad news time. Good news is there’s only one aerodactyl now. Bad news is it’s descending. Further good news, I’m not sure it’s notice us yet. Further bad news, I have no idea where the other one went.”

She wasn’t sure how the zorua would react to all the information she had provided him—she was, admittedly, a little curious to find out. If he decided to bolt… Well, it might make a good distraction for the flying fossil. She felt a bit guilty for thinking that thought. Rather, she felt guilty about not feeling guilty about thinking of Voix as bait.

It was fine though, right? He wasn’t real.

Right?

Voix's ears fell. He swallowed fearfully as his eyes glanced up to the aerodactyl...s. The illusion of the zorua wavered and quivered as he struggled to keep it up, which made him look to be more of a mess of colors and shapes rather than a physical solid being.

He squinted at the aerodactyls in the sky before he glanced back over to the mawile with uncertainty. "B-but there's two..." his voice quivered in a quiet whisper. Though, if Maxie were to look up, she'd still only see one. The zorua, however, was entirely convinced that he witnessed two Aerodactyl in the midst of descending.

----

Something...interesting...hm...He had to think a moment on this. He'd read plenty of books on different "discoveries" of other pokemon, but he almost felt a little pressured to prattle off the most interesting thing he knew about. He hesitated for a few seconds, but he spoke up, "Well...I read about this volcano once. It uh...it's supposed to be so hot there, that the flames are blue instead of red-s-so it makes the whole thing look blue."

"They didn't have an illustration of it or anything, b-but it was supposed to be really pretty. The book said it probably had to do with something in the air around it that made it so hot and blue." The piece of writing he referred to was more of a collection of interesting sights to see. That particular "sight" was the most interesting one out of all of them to him, something that kind of spoke to him. He could remember wishing he could see it, but there was still the doubt that perhaps the book might not have been entirely true. He dared a look in Mocha's direction, trying to judge whether he'd just bored her or if t was something that was genuinely interesting to her.

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
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It did in fact interest her, and this was shown both in her expression and tone. ”I’d be impressed just to see a normal volcano, let alone a blue one! Where’s it at? Is it dangerous? Do you think we could go see it someday?” She rattled off questions faster than she could expect him to actually answer them. Her questions served two purposes. The first was simply to distract Zadira—overwhelm him with questions so that he couldn’t sink back into his doubt.

The second—and at this point, the primary—purpose of her questions was true and genuine curiosity. Interesting, exciting places… Well, they interested and excited her. ”Do you still have the book? I’d like to try and read it maybe.” Normally her excitement would be matched both vocally and physically, but she consciously restrained herself from moving so much for fear of upsetting her injuries. As if the excitement demanded an outlet, her fluffy tail twitched rhythmically as she spoke.

…

The mawile did a double take. There was definitely only one. ”Huh. This is like the mission document, except way more dangerous.” It never occurred to her how mad she must sound to the zorua. ”Do you think if we both started running in different directions they’d split up and chase us?”

At this point, her own curiosity was getting the better of her. She was turning this potentially serious threat into a test. If they did split, and the aerodactyl each chased one of them, how would she perceive it? Would the one Voix could apparently see but she definitely couldn’t chase her? Could it? Or would the one she could see chase her, and the other him? What would it look like if it caught him?

”Also, if I told you that I definitely only see one, what would you think? Oh, and how close would you say they are to us?”

"Uhh..." the zorua hesitated, unsettled by the mawile's behavior. He backed away from her, but didn't step too far. On one hand, this mawile was starting to sound a little dangerous herself, but on the other the Aerodactyl were also a very real and terrifying threat. The zorua's illusion fell altogether, which didn't do much help in hiding his terrified expression.

"I-I would think you need to get your eyes checked and it looks kinda like they're getting p-pretty close..." He didn't want to find out if they would split up to chase them, mostly because he figured the odds of him getting away were slim. The zorua shrank into himself, wishing his parents were here to comfort him.

"U-Uh...I-I don't think this is a such a good idea anymore," he pointed out, "W-We should probably head back to Z-Z'dummy and Whawhere..."

---

She was interested. Unfortunately, a little too interested, as she started to ask questions he didn't exactly have the answer to. Still nervous, his claws scraped slowly and silently against one another save for the quiet "click" of when he reached the end. "I-I don't have the book anymore, I-It was in the library-so I had to return it when I was done with it. It didn't say where it was at-nor really how we could go see it. I-I think it was an explorer's journal of the kind of stuff they saw walking around-b-but I don't remember there being anything to confirm whether they told the truth or not."

He focused on his claws, "It's possible that they were just lying to get attention..." He honestly hoped it wasn't. He certainly would have liked to see something like that someday himself. "B-But they said the place around it was pretty dangerous-given the whole super-hot thing and volcano stuff...maybe-if we get back-I could go look for the book, and you could have a look...?"

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
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”Yes!” Her affirmation echoed. She covered her mouth with both paws, glancing around to see if her outburst attracted any potential threats. After a brief moment, she relaxed. ”Uh, yes. Yes we should definitely check out that book. I’d love to visit some place cool like that.” It was quite apparent she was now trying to keep a measure of her tone and volume. Still, her tail was practically wagging.

”I sure do hope it’s all true. I’d personally like to see a Zadira-colored volcano.” She smiled at the blue zangoose.

…

It was becoming apparent to Maxie that Voix was getting scared. He dropped his illusion, and it was made very clear. ”Hey, focus up. Cave’s just ahead.” It was. Several yards ahead, cutting into the rock wall, was the entrance to a cave—much smaller than the one she had been to so recently. ”It’s a better bet to bolt for the cave now than try and turn around. Think you can sprint that distance?” She stated everything matter-of-factly, as if she was refusing to show any emotion.

Voix was going to need to be able to make the distance, because the strange aerodactyl—or at least the one she could still see—was beginning to swoop closer toward them. It wasn’t within attacking range as of yet, but it had clearly noticed them, and seemed to be deciding whether they were worth attacking or not. It was made more eerie by the fact that she couldn’t hear any sound from the thing—not even the sound of the wind being moved by its wings. It was as if it were only a projection.

The zorua leaned off to the side nervously to peer around the mawile. He took a few seconds to judge the distance with an uncertain whine, "I-I think? Y-You'd be coming with me, right?" the zorua's tail was tucked between his legs. His ears were lowered. He looked to the mawile with large and pleading eyes. He didn't want to be left alone at that moment, not when there were huge predators circling about with the intention to have them for a little snack.

---

He was surprised that Mocha was this interested in it. Caritas never was interested in whatever he had dug up much. She pretended to be, but he could tell that he annoyed her with it. It was probably because most of the stuff he grew ecstatic about were just ordinary every day things to her. She'd spent much longer in civilized life than he did.

"The book uh-also said things about these weird trees. They were just like normal trees-but their bark had all kinds of different colors on it. Like uh-tree-rainbows. B-But it's entirely possible that a bunch of smeargle just went and painted it-uh...the book didn't have any illustrations though, it just described things...like a journal," His claws continued their silent scrape despite his ramblings. He subjected his mind into putting in everything he could into remembering just what else he heard from that book. It did wonders in making him forget all about just how dire their situation truly was. "A-And there's this one place I read about-uh...it's supposed to be like-a huge graveyard for giant pokemon. All that's left is bones, but they're so big that it's possible to carve entire houses into them."

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
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Mocha listened intently to every word. Of the many things that got her attention, stories of adventure and interesting places were second only to actual adventure and exploring real interesting places. ”I want to keep a journal like that, of all the places I’m going to explore. I want to see a rainbow forest and explore a giant Pokemon graveyard—even if that last one’s a bit sad,”. Her expression became somber only briefly, before lighting up again; though not quite as bright as before.

”I grew up with a nomadic group of zangoose, but we never traveled anywhere interesting. It was all boring forests and fields. Before I met Maxie, the journey to Grassveil was the closest I’d come to any real sort of adventure. Now, thanks to you, I’ve got a growing list of places to find and visit!”

…

The mawile thought it an odd question. ”Well, considering my alternative is to sit out here and wait to see if they try to eat me? Yeah, I’m right behind you.”

Not but a few seconds after she finished, the aerodactyl swooped toward them. Maxie tensed, ready to jump out of the way of an oncoming attack, but the attack never came. It was as if the thing had stalled its decent but maintained it’s forward momentum as it crashed into the stone wall above them, fluttered to keep from falling, then took off in the other direction.

After a few more moments, it was turning back, as if it were about to make another attempt. ”Welp, no time like the present! Onwards and forwards!” Assuming Voix followed the order and started running to the cave, she would follow suit.

Voix followed alright, he was practically right on the mawile's heels. The little zorua scampered along as fast as his little paws could take him. The stone above them crumbled and collapsed, but the rocks never seemed to reach the ground below them. Despite the apparent lack of danger, the zorua sure seemed to think all hell was about to break loose.

And he was right. The ground just behind him suddenly seemed to erupt into stone spires that threatened to spear him. A terrified yelp from the zorua prompted him to overtake the Mawile and blitz ahead of her to the safety of the cave.

----

"Yeah, there's a lot of interesting places out there," he agreed with Mocha, a small laugh managing to work its way through. "I thought i'd get to see a lot of places like that when I became an explorer," he saw a lot of interesting things alright, but they weren't necessarily good things. "I don't know where any of the stuff I mentioned is exactly...but uh...if you do go looking for them just-be prepared?" It was phrased more like a request than some advice. He wasn't really in any position to be giving advice in that moment-not after all that'd happened that day.

"E-Escape Orbs are good-though they're kinda hard to come by..." he trailed off. He didn't bring one. He couldn't find one. The zangoose began to wonder just what he was thinking coming out here like this. He should have known things would go this terribly. "...And reviver seeds. Reviver seeds are good." He had some of those.

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
==================================================
A laugh was good to hear. It seemed she had managed to do a decent job getting Zadira to be a bit more cheery. ”You sound like an expert on useful things,” Mocha commented—it was sort of intended as a compliment. ”I’m sure if I follow your advice and find a good supply, I can be prepared for anything.”

His advice probably would have been useful before they had come up here. Maxie may have been a bit over confident that they’d be able to handle whatever came up during this trek. Still, as far as Mocha was concerned, it was worth it. She made a new friend, after all.

”Maybe that’s your subject. For teaching, I mean. ‘Useful Things and When to Use Them.’” She waved a paw above her head as if gesturing to a sign with those words on it. ”... Maybe that names a bit much, but still.”

…

Maxie envied quadrupeds. She just managed to evade incoming attacks, darting into the cave as one final stone spear erupted into the ceiling just inside the cave. The mawile leaded against the cavern wall, catching her breath.

”See? No problem; easy,” she panted between words. Now they just had to hope that the cave was either empty, or contained friendly occupants. She was hoping for empty. After another few moments, she spoke more calmly. ”Good job, kid. Very brave.”

She decided it would be best to encourage him at this point. The last thing she wanted to deal with was a terrified child while trying to ensure the safety of her group. The aerodactyl were going to have to be dealt with at some point, assuming the cave did turn out to be safe. Mocha wouldn’t be able to make that run.

The zorua cowered in the shadows as much as he could. His heart raced as his lungs struggled for air. The mawile's attempts to compliment him went relatively...well, unappreciated.

"Easy?? We nearly died!" the fox exclaimed, a bit more liberal with the volume of his voice now that they were out of harms way-or at least what he assumed to be harm's way. Teary blue eyes glared at the mawile in specific, "How are we gonna get Whawhere and Z'Dummy here?? Wait-scratch that, how are you gonna get Whawhere and Z'dummy here? Because I sure as hell can't help with that!" He sat his haunches down defiantly.

----

Zadira frowned, uncertain of what Mocha said. He certainly liked to think he knew a lot about items, but really it was just a basic requirement for an explorer...right? It's how he came about learning about all of them-since he couldn't remotely keep up with Roi and the others with his own strength. Even with items, however, he still lagged behind.

"I-I wouldn't call myself an expert," he admitted, "...I wouldn't call myself knowledgeable either. I don't actually know much. I-It's just the basics of going out and exploring." He focused on his claws as he spoke. Even with his calmer temperament at that moment, he knew that looking at Mocha would make him ill. He could work like this though! He just...had not not look at the person he was talking to.

Mocha: [Energy: 4]
Maxie: [Energy: 3]
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The fact that Zadira was keeping his attention on his claws hadn’t escaped her. But given her current state, she didn’t blame him for not wanting to look at her. ”You’re too hard on yourself. But if it is just the basics to exploring then I still have plenty to learn—which means you have plenty to teach.”

She wondered how familiar Maxie was with all this. Then she wondered how Maxie was holding up with Voix. She’d have to thank her for dealing with that for her, and for Zadira. That was another thing she added to her mental list of things to do after they got out of here—smooth out any resentment Maxie had toward Z. She wasn’t quite sure how well the mawile could hold a grudge.

…

”Mocha. Her name is Mocha, not ‘Whawhere.’ And I know you know Zaidra’s name. You’re terrified out of your wits but you can still spend the energy to insult your brother?”

She sunk down to a sitting position. She suddenly remembered she had Roi’s bag. She took this moment of relative peace to dig through it. Blast Seed, Warp Seeds, other various things one might expect an explorer to have—nothing particularly useful. There were also the mission document and a journal. ”Nice,” she whispered to herself as she pulled it out and skimmed through it.

While it looked like she wasn’t doing much more than reading, she was in fact multitasking. An idea was forming in her head for how to deal with the aerodactyl, but she’d need to convince Voix to help her.

"She said her name was that, I was just goin' with what she said!" the zorua sneered, "And it's not an insult if it's true."

The journal, at the very least, held far more interesting things than whatever Voix had to say about anything. As Maxie turned through the pages, it would be impossible not to notice how the words blurred and even mixed together. Parts of the journal were nearly incomprehensible, perhaps even a pain on the eyes of those who tried to focus on the blurred words too much.

Of what was legible, however, it was possible for Maxie to find a few familiar names among them.

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

...A lot of these seem to just be logs of his days. Flipping forward a bit....

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

xx/xx/xxxx:

----

"M-maybe," he laughed nervously. He wasn't really sure just how much he had to teach, nor how good of a teacher he was to begin with-but he supposed it'd be good to give it a try. At the very least he could drill it into Mocha's head to always bring an Escape Orb, so she could avoid situations like this.

"Uh...what do you do for fun?" he decided to ask back, seeing as his earlier answers were less than satisfying for her. What exactly was "fun" then? Exploration was an obvious one to him, but what else might she like? His claws were practically clean from the darker spots now. It took everything in him to not think about what those dried clots might be, but it was nice to have them off of his claws. Despite their cleanliness, he kept focus on them. While his sight wasn't exactly at attention, his ears certainly were.