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.

Mocha: [Energy: 0 + 1 (Page) = 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 7 + 1 (Page) = 8]
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Oh of course, how could she be so silly? She took a deep breath, then looked directly at Zadira, being sure to make eye contact. It was harder than she thought it should be. ”I’m sorry I judged you so quickly and being so rude. It was wrong because I shouldn’t judge so quickly and I should be more patient. Next time I’ll try to get to know someone better before making any judgements.” Her tone was still apologetic, but it wasn’t quite as sincere as before.

”Will you forgive me?” She was almost pleading this time.

She wasn’t quite sure why, but Mocha found this whole situation kind of entertaining. She covered her mouth with a paw to hide the smile that was forming. Based on the structure of it, she had to guess Zadira learned this from Caritas. She doubted he learned it from his own family or Roi, and she suspected he wasn’t particularly close to anyone else. If this is what you had to go through to make an apology to Zadira, she have to be sure not to slight him in any way—not that hse would ever intend to do so.

That was how it was supposed to be done. The tone towards the end was even better suited than before. He was satisfied with the method, but now...well, now he had to actually think about it and conclude whether or not he did forgive her for it. He wasn't sure. He didn't exactly feel better about any of this. The apology didn't help him have more positive feelings about Maxie. He pondered it with his gaze fixed on Maxie. Then, it dawned to him. He realized exactly why he didn't feel better about any of this.

"Why is it wrong to judge so quickly and why should you be more patient?" She didn't truly explain that she understood why it was wrong! Surely this'll help right? He had little clue just how annoying he was being at that moment. His eyes broke away to look over to Mocha, who seemed to have her paw over her mouth for some reason.

...Was he doing something wrong?

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 8]
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He had to be messing with at this point, right? Maxie stared at him for a moment. He was still being serious. This was a test of her patience. Moch opted to provide some encouragement.

”Come on, you can do this!”

She glared daggers at the zangoose. Mocha just smiled back. Patience. ”It’s wrong to judge so quickly because it’s impossible to know a person so soon,” she answered like a student answers their teacher. She felt like a student in a classroom. She did not like it. ”And I should be more patient” to deal with this garbage ”because it takes time to get to know a person and develop trust.” Unless you’re Mocha, apparently.

He didn't like the way the mawile looked at Mocha. Despite how obediently Maxie followed his instructions, he still didn't quite feel any better. He hadn't a clue just how humiliating this all was, but if he had, he might have regretted it just a little-perhaps even apologized himself. This was supposed to be the point where he accepted the apology and forgave the mawile, but it didn't really feel as if he did.

But, rules were rules. "...I accept," he spoke, though his expression seemed a bit more doubtful than it should have been. He glanced back to the entrance, to the outside. It was still dark. They needed to sleep. He opened his mouth to speak more, but suddenly the ground in between the trio burst upwards.

The demon was back.

The devil carried with it a few odd looking flowers, they certainly looked like lilacs, but they held a strange blue tinge that lasted all throughout what was supposed to be the green stalks. The diglett spoke up with a cheery tone, "I found teh wiwacs owo! nyow we can have uwu a pwopew auwa-cweansing session to soothe evewyonye's nyewves."

---

Meanwhile, in the depths of the cavern, the slumbering form of the steelix stirred. Its eyes snapped open just in time to see the forms of the two mightyena walking away. A wide ominous grin stretched from side to side, pearly white teeth shined in the dark as he lifted his head off of the ground.

"Well, Hello there." his deep voice rumbled the caverns.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 8]
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A wave of relief ran through Maxie when she finally heard the words “I accept.” She didn’t care if he didn’t sound so totally convinced, or that his expression indicated that he doubted his own words. She was just relieved to have completed the challenge that had been presented to her.

Then the diglett came back and all relief went out the window.

”Great! Good. But actually we’re all going to go to sleep now, because we are all very tired and need to travel a fair bit tomorrow. So we’re going to go to sleep. Which means we need it to be very quiet and still, so we can sleep.” She was sure to make her point very clear and leave no room for negotiation. She hadn’t forgotten about the steelix. She was just going to hope it stayed where it was. Besides, if it did decide to try and attack them, they’d hear and feel it coming a mile away.

Mocha was a little disappointed. In part because Zadira had finally relented and Maxie was no longer suffering the zangoose’s strange apology mandates—schadenfreude was fun. But mostly it was the fact that Zadira seemed uncertain. She didn’t want a fissure between the two. It would make things awkward for her, she knew, but she also wanted her friends to be friends. She’d have to work to mend the remaining damage later, she was sure.

…

“I don’t think he’s asleep anymore,” Pesky whispered to his brother.

Dart rolled his eyes—an almost unperceivable motion in the darkness of the cave. He turned to face the steelix. “Hi. We were just lookin’ around, taking in the sites, ya know? Lovely cave ya got here.” He was hoping that by being civil, they could avoid having to fight the steelix.

And by fight the steelix, he of course meant run away from the steelix through a tunnel the serpent could almost certainly collapse in an instant.
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Maxie's Rolls:

Badger carried out 4 launched of one Black Mist Mountain :

, , ,

Badger carried out 4 launched of one Echo World :

, , ,

Sleep sounded nice. His body begged for it. He didn't care much for the diglett's disappointed look, but the more it lingered the more he felt a little bad about it. It was just trying to help-but there was also the matter of this thing not being real. He buried the feelings under the explanation and opted to ignore it entirely.

It was at this point that he regretted not bringing a blanket with him-or even a pillow. Something soft to lay on that wasn't cold and merciless stone. He didn't exactly plan to be out here that long and didn't exactly own anything like that, but he could have found something if he looked for it around in the stuff people didn't want anymore.

He waited patiently as the mawile dealt with the fake-diglett in full acceptance that they were probably going to be attacked in their sleep.

"Oh-well, Lilacs also help for sleep! You guys can have these, I find tons of them in this one spot off at the edge of the mountain-they always come back every time I go there, so it's suuuuper convenient!" The diglett sang.

---

The steelix towered over the smaller pokemon despite the cramped nature of the cave. Its eyes focused down on them steadily despite the darkness. Its toothy wide grin didn't fade once as it responded, "Oh? Is that so? Well, I know this place like the back of my tail...I could show you all of the greatest places to see in this mountain...every single one."

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0]
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Maxie took the flowers. She wasn’t sure why, it was like an automatic response. She then proceeded to seat herself down near the fire. She set the flowers next to her bag, and tossed a few pieces of wood onto the fire. She hadn’t planned to be camping out here, so she had not brought anything to make sleeping in a cave in any way pleasant.

Mocha didn’t look forward to sleeping on the stone floor any more than Zadira did. Maybe, if she piled up a whole lot of dirt, it could serve as a very firm cushion. The thought of getting her fur so dirty, however, did not appeal to her. She come to sit down on the opposite side of the fire, a fair enough distance away that she wouldn’t roll her way into it in her sleep—not that she thought she’d roll much in her sleep. If she ended up lying on her back she was pretty sure the pain would wake her up.

…

Dart couldn’t tell if the steelix was trying to be ominous and threatening, or if that was just his natural demeanor. If he was trying to lure them into a trap, it seemed unnecessary. The iron snake could simply crush them on the spot, he was sure.

“That’d be pretty cool,” Pesky responded, no longer whispering. Dart gave him a look. “What? If he wanted to kill us, I'm pretty sure he’d just do it. Oh, ya know what? I’ll ask.” He turned toward the steelix, and at the same volume, he asked. “Hey you don’t wanna kill us, right?”

If Dart had a palm to facepalm, he would have facepalmed. His brother never had any subtlety or tact.

A not-so-comfortable spot was discovered at the side of the cave. It wasn't exactly near the fire, but he was well aware that he would have difficulty sleeping with an open space to his back-ready for just anyone to come out and strike. He pressed himself against the stone wall and shivered. Not from the cold that bit through his fur, but the eerie familiarity of what this place reminded him of exactly. It was a cell. A jail cell. A place he could leave with other people in charge of every aspect of his life.

In a way, it was the tiniest bit comforting. Despite how much he despised it, it was a familiar territory. He curled up into a ball and used his arms as cushions. He lowered his head and closed his eyes, ready to probably stay awake for another hour or two before his body finally forcefully pushed him into slumber...

Then the sun rose. Light flooded into the cavern from over the horizon as dawn cracked. At first, he thought someone had done something to the fire, but when he cracked open an eye to look, it seemed as if it were day already. Did...did he fall asleep without realizing it...?

---

"Kill you?" the steelix echoed, "Naaaah, that's no fun." A deep chuckle rumbled the caverns once more. Bits of dirt and dust collapsed from the ceiling as he lowered his head down towards the mutts. "I've fought things far stronger than the likes of you, it'd be a waste of my time and energy to tussle with you...but there's plenty of places where there's faaar more interesting things to see if y'decide to come along with me."

vMocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0]
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This was just like before, when the day had suddenly turned to night. But this time Mocha was certain an entire night had not passed by. ”Why’s it gotta become day the moment we decide to try and sleep?” she whined, burying her face into her paws.

”Because this place is determined to spite us at every opportunity,” Maxie provided a rather pessimistic explanation. ”Just ignore it and maybe it’ll go away.”

Mocha looked up. ”It’s the sun, Maxie.”

”is it?”

It was a fair point. Mocha rolled onto her side to look at Zadira. She didn’t have anything to say, though. She just wanted to make sure he wasn’t panicked by the tricks of the… Whatever it was. Not a zoroark.

…

“Told ya,” Pesky gloated. “Now let’s go see some sights!”

Dart sighed. “Fine. I don’t see any harm in it.” If anything, he felt a little safer traveling with the steelix. Few things would mess around with Pokemon who traveled with a gigantic metal snake.

No, he didn't fall asleep. Maxie and Mocha's reaction made that clear. His fur prickled as he leered towards the outside. He held little attention to Mocha, far too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice. Instead, he tucked his arms in tighter and buried his head into them. His bushy tail wrapped around him the best it could. He was acutely aware of the pounding of his heart in his chest, but what was there he could do?

Flail around uselessly at something he couldn't see? The only thing he really could do was try to block out the light and wait for his body to give up on staying awake. Somehow, the racing thoughts that flooded through his mind told him that he wouldn't get much. This is the point where a sleep seed would have come in handy. Even if it was only a brief nap, at the very least he might wake up at least a little more refreshed and prepared to take on this troublesome trip.

----

The steelix followed the Mightyena along. While he intended well and meant to help the duo, his movements rumbled and shook the cave. While there was no real danger of a collapse, it likely wouldn't bode well for those closer to the mouth of it as they grew closer...

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0]
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Maxie thought, for a moment, that she detected the slightest of rumbled. She chose to ignore this. She just needed to fall asleep. Just. Fall. Asleep. Like she had earlier, when the duskull jumped her. That memory seemed to distant now, but she was sure it had been so recent. She was pretty sure. This place was really getting at her.

Just. Sleep.

Nope. Nope, it wasn’t happening. She was never going to fall asleep. The mawile got up, picked up her bag, and walked out of the cave. She needed…. She wasn’t sure what she needed. She looked around at her surroundings outside. Everything looked pretty much the same as it had before the steelix attacked. It looked as it did when they had first arrived. It was morning. She climbed up onto a boulder and sat atop it. She had hoped that coming outside would help her somehow. It didn’t.

Back in the cave, Mocha found she couldn’t sleep, either. She watched Maxie leave, but she didn’t say anything. She just watched Zadira for a moment. She was in his line of sight, before he buried his face into his fur, let it was as if he didn’t see her. It was a strange experience—something similar to when he saw her as Caritas. She wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She had to wonder just how similar she and Caritas really were.

She wouldn’t ask, though. She didn’t want to say anything—no, that wasn’t true. She wanted to say lots of things, and ask a lot of questions. But she didn’t. She didn’t want to bother him, and she wasn’t even sure what exactly to say or where to start.

So she stayed put, and closed her eyes again. She wanted to sleep, but she was pretty sure her mind wouldn’t let her.

…

The movement of the steelix alone made the ground rumble. Not just the ground, but the walls and the ceiling, too. It was a cave, after all, it was all ground, really. Dart was beginning to wonder how safe this actually was.

“So what’s your name?” Pesky asked the steelix, as casual as could be. He intermittently swapped between walking forwards and backwards, as if he was compelled to face the Pokemon he was trying to hold a conversation with, but also didn’t want to stumble into a wall. “He’s Dart, and I’m Pesky. You can tell us apart by the fact that he’s kinda a stick in the mud and I’m actually fun to hang with.”

Dart batted a paw at his brother, but his target stepped to the side and out of range. “See? No sense of humor.”

…

Maxie looked behind her as she heard someone approach. She relaxed when she saw it was just Mocha. ”Shouldn’t you be watching Zadira?”

”Why would I need to watch Zadira?”

Maxie turned back to the landscape ahead of her, staring at nothing in particular. ”I don’t know, you just seem so constantly concerned with him.”

”He’s got a lot going on to be concerned about.”

Maxie didn’t turn to look back at the zangoose. ”... Yeah.”

Z buried his face into his arms. The more he thought about how much he needed sleep, the harder it became. He wanted nothing more than to think nothing of anything. He didn't want to think about the rumbling sensation. He didn't want to think about the zoroark. He didn't even want to remember where he was at that moment.

He wasn't going to sleep. He already knew it, but it wasn't going to stop him from sitting there and trying. He counted sheep, he imagined himself to be someplace far away, he even tried to think of himself back in Caritas' house, but nothing helped. His head wasn't in pain, yet it felt as if it was going to cave in on itself. He counted his breaths, he focused on the feeling of his arms, but could only find himself even more aware of how dry his mouth was. He had water in his satchel, but he didn't risk getting a drink.

----

"Chevy," the steelix responded happily, "You two seem like quite the characters, not gonna lie. Where y'all from? Don't think I've seen a duo like you two hangin' around the mountains." The steelix looked down at the two despite the darkness. He was far too familiar with these caverns to need light to know where he went. He took extra caution with his movements though, the last thing he wanted was to bring the whole cave down on this lovely duo of Tourists.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0]
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Mocha felt the vibrations, too. She had forgotten about the fact that there was apparently a steelix about. Would it fit through this cave? More importantly, would it fit through this cave without crushing them in the process? Her guess was no. She wasn’t sure how close it was, but the fact that you could tell it was coming was indication that it was already too close to get any sleep in before it showed up.

She sat up and crawled over to Zadira. She didn’t touch him or say anything, though. She was relatively sure he was still awake, yet she still didn’t want to bother him. She looked into the darkness of the cave—now that it was light outside, she could see all the way to the point where the cavern bent off to the side. There was no steelix. Yet. She didn’t have to bother him. Yet.

…

”You’re worried he’s going to do something.”

”No,” Maxie answered without missing a beat. ”I’m worried he’s not going to do enough.”

The zangoose was puzzled for a moment, then she realised what the mawile was thinking. ”You’re worried about Voix. You’re afraid he’ll go after Z again.”

”Assuming everything he’s said is true—”

”It is.” Her tone made it very clear that she was certain.

”—I don’t know why he wouldn’t do something like that again. Kid—Voix left me to get eaten by a flying fossil. That little brat is messed up.”

”And you’re afraid he’ll go after me to get at Zadira? And you don’t think Zadira would be able to stop him?”

”Yes.”

”And you think you could do better?”

The mawile didn’t have an immediate answer for that one. She turned to the zangoose. ”If you didn’t—”

”We both know I’m going to.”

”What, out of spite?”

”He needs a friend, Maxie.”

The mawile opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated. She had a response, but she wasn’t sure if it was right to say it. She decided she would say it anyway. ”Is he worth the risk?”

”I don’t know. That’s why it’s a risk. But if you’re really worried about Voix showing up and going after me, then maybe you should try and settle things between the two of you.”

Maxie responded with indignation. ”I did! I apologised!”

”Come on, we both know you two aren’t settled.”

The mawile rolled her eyes and sighed. Mocha was right, but she had no idea how to fix things.

…

“Oh we used to be from here,” Pesky started. “But that was like, ages ago. Not sure how long. Time’s weird.”

As they made their way ever closer to the exit, Dart was beginning to notice the cave was just a hint brighter, as if light was bouncing its way from the entrance far ahead and reaching just that much deeper into the cave. Time’s weird, for sure.

“Hey,” he interrupted. “You moving through here isn’t going to cause a cave in, right? ‘Cause we got friends up at the mouth of the cave and I don’t think they’d appreciate gettin’ squished much.”

The rumbling grew stronger. He could hear voices at the back of the cave now. He could hear movement draw closer. Why couldn't the world just let him sleep? It stressed him out just thinking of it. His muscles tensed, both in preparation for what was to come and because his muscles just felt as if they were in pain...yet not in pain. It was an odd sort of phantom pain that came with sleep deprivation.

His ears folded back. Someone was close now. It was Mocha, he could recognize her scent now-though the blood certainly helped. He really hoped that whatever it was that made the rumbles were a danger, but he couldn't help but scold himself for doing so. Why would the world be so kind so suddenly after everything that'd happened?

----

"Yeah, yeah, i'm bein'careful. If I wanted this cave to come down it woulda done so a while ago. I tend to make sure my home's're pretty sturdy." The steelix responded, "Had plenty of practice with the likes of my son roamin around. He's pretty awful at cave-tunnelin-so he always makes em collapse in on themselves." The steel type laughed as if this were a joke. To him, it was. Cave-ins were no big deal to large burrowing serpents like the onix family-so long as they could burrow right on through it.

"C'mon and introduce me to em then, so I know who not t'eat," the steelix guffawed, though this time it was a little more difficult to tell whether this was a joke or not.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0]
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Okay, now the rumbling was close. Really close. She was pretty sure she could hear voices echoing from deeper within, too. Was that… What was his name? Pesky? So the mightyena were still around. Which meant the steelix didn’t eat them. Which meant either the steelix was friendly—at least to them.

“...So there’s two zangoose, a blue one and a red one. The blue one’s… Zadira. And the red one’s… Somethin’ like coffee.”

“Mocha,” Dart provided as the two mightyena came around the bend and into view.

“Yeah, that’s it! And Then there’s the mawile, Maxie. She’s kinda like Dart here in that she seems a lot less fun than she probably is.” He turned to look towards where the camp had been made, as if suddenly remembering they had a destination. There was a clear expression of relief when he realised that said mawile was not in the immediate vicinity. “Hey guys, we found a steelix. His name is Chevy. He’s pretty cool.”

Mocha stood up and looked at the two, puzzled. She imagined the steelix must have been just around the bend. ”... Hi...?”

…

”Do you hear that?” The rumbling was making its way beyond the cave now, a clear sign that the steelix was on approach. ”Sounds like out giant friend’s here. We better get Zadira out of there.”

The mawile hopped off the rock and started making her way back to the cave entrance. The zangoose beside her suddenly became a bit uneasy. ”H-hey wait a sec—” It wasn’t a far distance between their spot to the cave entrance. It only took the mawile a few steps to begin to gain line of sight to the interior. The rumbling stopped. She could hear voices echoing from out of the cave.

”... Hi...?”

It came from inside the cave. Maxie glanced back at the zangoose behind her, her metal jaws suddenly shifting to a position more suited to combat. The zangoose, in turn, held up her paws.

”Maxie don’t! I’m not an illusion!”