[X] My Assistant

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Because Justin as running from behind the tyranitar, he saw the whole thing unfold. Well, not the whole thing. There was a lot of sand flying in all directions and it was very difficult to keep his eyes open. He managed, though, and was able to see his companions make a sharp turn into a small tunnel. The tyranitar was not so quick to change course, however, and ran straight past.

It realized not too late afterwards, though, that it was chasing nothing. Not the most intelligent of beasts, it tried to simultaneously slow down and pull a complete 180 turn while in a tunnel in which it barely fit. Terrible things ensued, as one might imagine. It unconsciously began tearing down the cave walls at its sides, causing rocks to fall from above and the side. While Justin's initial worry was that the small tunnel would cave in on itself, his fears changed when he saw the tiny larvitar waddle out into the larger tunnel.

Justin did not stop running, but he was still too far away to do anything. Hitmontop could probably speed up really quick, but he insisted on staying near its trainer. As Justin suspected, Raven followed the larvitar as if it were her own. By the time she got hold of it, the tyranitar had turned around completely and the ceiling was beginning to fall entirely. The beast attacked but missed and hit the wall, causing more rocks to fall.

------------

"Raven!" Nate called as she abandoned the two to chase after Larvitar. Before he could chase after her, though, a large rock fell right in front of him. He looked up and to the right to see the wall around their tiny tunnel begin to crumble and fall inwards. To his left, the same was happening. This was not a very sturdy tunnel. "Tag," he said, forcing himself to breathe normally, "We need to get back."

As the two backed up (difficult to do in such a narrow corridor) they watched the walls collapse on themselves and completely block them in. They had to keep moving back as the rocks piled up more and more and created a pile pretty far back. They were either trapped, or were in a different part of the same cave. "How far back does this thing go?" he asked as things quieted down.

------------

Quite immediately, Tag and Nate were locked in their smaller tunnel. Justin didn't have time to hope they were okay. Tyranitar was about to go to town on Raven's unconscious body. And no. Just no.

"Fake Out!" Justin said, his breath dwindling as he closed in. Hitmontop nodded (or at least Justin assumed he nodded, as his eyes were focused forward). Hitmontop bolted forward with damn near ridiculous speed, spinning wildly on its head, and burst itself from the ground, clapping its particularly large feet right in front of Tyranitar's face. This caused the beast to take a few awkward steps back as Hitmontop gracefully landed on the ground, still spinning rapidly.

"Mach Punch!" Justin shouted. He came to a slow and leaned over as he ran. The rocks above Raven's body were falling harder as bigger ones began to crumble. He kneeled down and slid his left arm under her knees and his right under her back. "It's alright, bud," he said to Larvitar. "Follow me," Lifting with his legs, he pulled her closer to his chest so her head didn't flop about. "Keep Doing it, Hitmontop!" he shouted as he ran forward. Luckily, Hitmontop's Fake Out had pushed Tyranitar back enough steps for Justin to move forward enough to avoid the falling rocks, which were filling the tunnel behind him.

He looked to his feet to see the frightened Larvitar, and then up towards Hitmontop and Tyranitar. Apparently, the Giga Impact had taken a lot out of it. Still, Justin never thought Hitmontop could actually hold his own against this thing. He spun his way around Tyranitar's Crunch and socked it in the face with another Mach Punch. Then it deflected rocks thrown at it with Stone Edge with its spinning feet as if it were nothing. "Triple Kick!" Justin called out.

Little did he know at the time, that would be its finishing move. As Tyranitar leaned forward to bite down hard, Hitmontop's spinning legs knocked it in the mouth, making it stand. The spinning grew in velocity as Hitmontop followed through, jumping off the ground and kicking it another time in the face and finally a third extremely powerful and precise hit before falling back to the ground. He spun gracefully back to Justin, who was holding Raven with relative east as the three (Hitmontop, Justin and Larvitar) watched Tyranitar roar with a dazed look on its face. They all braced themselves as the large pokemon hit the ground, causing it to shake slightly, but it seemed all the loose rock in the area had been wedged free by that point.

He wondered why there was so much loose rock in a cave home to such a large and reckless creature in the first place. He did not recall, however, Da Bomb's Magnitude 10 not an hour before. That probably shook things up a good amount and caused Tyranitar to forget its footing in its own home.

[Kamaitachi]

Tag rose up from the ground unsteadily as it trembled around him. Furiously wiping sand from his eyes, he looked around wildly until things focused. Unfortunately, the first thing he saw was a large rock fall directly in front of Nate, effectively blocking the two from the main tunnel. He vaguely heard Nate cry out Raven's name, and hoped that the girl was okay.

Backpedaling in the tiny cave with Nate, he found himself essentially pressed up against the other trainer, almost uncomfortably so.

Finally, a heavy thud and a tremble, and the rest was relative silence. In Tag's mind, something had taken down the Tyranitar, but that left Raven on the other side. Tapping the rock experimentally, he noted grimly that it was far too big and even farther too unstable to try and get through.

"We'll just have to find out." Tag grumbled. It was at times like this that he wished he had a mobile phone, that way he could call people. Even still, one couldn't expect to get great service inside of a mountain, he mused.

A strong odor hit his nose, interrupting his thoughts. He fidgeted uncomfortable next to Nate, ready to accuse the lad of flatulence, when he looked down to see Kyoko, smiling up at him. Of course. It was his stinky pokemon. Evidently, in her terror of running from a gigantic opponent, she'd worked up quite the eau-de-fear. For all intents and purposes, it smelled like she'd soiled herself, when really it was just the acid-honey dripping out of her mouth.

"Thanks for your work, Smelly." Tag nodded. He noted the look of displeasure on Kyoko's face before she disappeared. Evidently she didn't take kindly to being called Smelly. It was unfair of Tag anyways; it was just in her nature and her biology to stink. It was the defense mechanism of the Rafflesia plants anyways.

As he re-clipped her pokeball to his belt, making a mental note to apologize to her later, he noted that his hands were empty. This was an atrocious omen, because it meant that his flashlight had been discarded in the run and was somewhere in the tunnel where the large Tyranitar lay fallen.

"Uh...let's try to find out how far back this tunnel goes." He squeezed himself past Nate and dusted himself off. He hadn't yet noticed that his prized jacket was all torn up. Without much hesitation, he plucked another pokeball from his belt, dropping it on the ground in front of him. He had recalled earlier that Nate and Justin mentioning Nate's Numel as a torch, and figured he'd mimic the idea.

"Tobi. Would you mind playing flashlight for a bit?" The Vulpix yawned almost lazily, completely unaware of the doom it had just missed. He trot forward into the cave, tilting his head back slightly, tossing a little flame into the air. The little fox pokemon kept it at a constant glow, much like a little candle flame, and led the two misfit partners down the tunnel.

"Let's hope this goes somewhere." Tag sighed, then turned around to look at Nate "Because you're probably the last person I'd want to get stuck in a cave with forever."

* * *

As they walked, Tag noted the air growing increasingly colder. Before long, he could see his own breath escaping from his mouth in front of him. For that brief moment, he wished he'd warn something warmer, although he honestly hadn't foreseen the need for it. However, as it grew colder, it also grew lighter, which seemed like an odd combination.

The trio rounded a bend, stepping into a frigid opening. Tobi immediately extinguished his flame to look around the room, much to Tag's subconscious chagrin. However, he was far too awestruck at the sight to issue complaint.

They found themselves standing on something of a ledge, which was the circumference of the entire room, forming the edge of a rather large basin. Below them, a beautiful cavern sprawled out. The main floor of which appeared to be a large sheet of ice with several jutting protrusions. Upon closer inspection, Tag discerned it to be an underground lake, frozen over. They weren't that high up, altitude wise, for the temperature to be that cold naturally, so he deduced that this was the work of ice pokemon. As he looked up, he noted something at the top of the ceiling, which appeared to be almost a skylight. Faint light was shooting downwards through the hole, striking a crystalline rock in the very center of the room. This crystal refracted and reflected the light, sending and eerie, cool glow throughout the entire room.

Scanning the room once more, he spotted another tunnel entrance at the 90-degree spot from where they were, just to their left. Hopefully that would reconnect with the main tunnels.

"There we go." Tag pointed to the opening, preparing to step down a little. across.

They hadn't taken three steps into the cave when they heard some fairly unsettling noises. For a second, Tag thought he heard a chorus of an incredibly inappropriate word, until he realized that it was merely a rhyme.

"Runt, Runt, Runt Runt!"

Of course, they'd attracted the attention of the ice pokemon who had created the ice lake, and probably inhabited this portion of the cavern.

Several of the protrusions in the lake started wobbling around, as if roused by the presence of two men and a vulpix. Almost magically, they sprouted feet and started skating around on the ice, chanting their little mantra with increasing volume. Tag looked closely to see several little faces on the black spots of the little cones.

"Snorunt." he stated matter-of-factly. The statement came out with the usual hardened edge that Tag spoke every sentence with, but inside his mind, he was cooing gibberish at the cute Eskimo-like pokemon.

Without much warning, the pokemon on the ice skidded to a halt and turned to face Tag and Nate. Tag managed to count six pokemon, all of which appearing peeved at the intrusion on their territory. Almost like watching synchronized skating, Tag watched as the combo attack unfolded. Half of the Snorunt (That is to say, three), jumped upwards, slowly tilting forwards in an angle aimed at the travellers. The three behind them launched a frigid blast of air from their little mouths in a tandem icy wind attack. The wind itself propelled the three frontline Snorut forward at a startling speed, turning their cute little cone bodies into very dangerous and sharp projectiles.

Without so much as an millisecond of hesitation, Tag shoved Nate one way before throwing himself in the opposite direction while Tobi scampered forward, down the slope. Three sequential 'thuds' resounded off the cave wall as the Snorunt bounced harmlessly off of the sold rock walls.

"Balls." Tag sighed as he unceremoniously got to his feet once again. Unclipping another pokeball, he tossed it down next to Tobi. In a brilliant display of light, it unleashed its charge: Bachi.

"Tobi, Ember! Bachi! Double Kick!"

Two things happened at once: Tobi's ember seemed much more focused, and shot out a solitary ball of flame. It looked quite condensed as it raged with a tightly packed fire. Tag allowed a look of utter confusion to cross his face: The spray of the ember attack was what he'd been counting on, not this focused projectile. However, as it impacted with the first of the three Snorunt, it exploded magnificently, blasting out flame that engulfed the other two Snorunt in its blast. He flipped out his pokedex and pointed it at the aftereffects of the attack, only to have it mechanically drone at him: "Bursting Flame."

In all his experience, Tag had never heard of such an attack. He'd have to look further into it later.

At the same time, Bachi had charged forward across the ice, preparing to launch into a powerful double-kick attack. However, with such low friction, he found himself in trouble of finding a decent grip. Slipping around comically, the pokemon face-planted into the ice and slid forward, only gently bumping into one of the downed Snorunt before sliding off on his belly in a little twirl. Tag realized dully that it wasn't the best battlefield for his comrade, and quickly recalled the pokemon. As he was doing so, the three Snorunt that landed on the ledge turned to face Nate, preparing to attack.

[Tymid]

Raven's eyes fluttered open, and her vision was grey. She coughed, causing a cloud of dust to explode from her brown mane, and she squinched her eyes shut, rolling her eyes about inside of her eyelids to try and move some of the dust over to the corners so she could see. She inhaled deeply after her dust attack, and something smelled different. It smelled...what did it smell like? It smelled musky and manly...and sweaty. Still somewhat dazed, Raven lifted her head, and about a foot higher than her was the face of a man she had recently met, his face stuck in a stoic frown, reminiscent of battle. She tilted her head up to him, and in a soft, shaky voice whispered the most profound thing she had thought of all day.

"...You're not Superman."

Truly a moment of genius for the dizzy girl.

As her mind began to clear, her entire body tensed within his muscular arms. "There's a Tyranitar somewhere in here, and it's out to eat me." she rasped, her small hands clutching onto Justin as though he were her last hope for survival. Little did she know, he had been. She pushed herself away from him slowly, swaying like a drunkard, her vision still swimmy from the impact. A loud "Tar!" met her ears, and as she looked down at the small Larvitar that was scampering towards her, she fell flat on her ass once again, shielding her face, and making a sound that sounded like a mouse who had just been doomed in a mousetrap.

She slowly uncovered her face as she realized that this Tyranitar was much smaller, and instead of chewing on her, was instead burrowing his head between her breasts. She looked down at the creature, then up to Justin, a hint of red touching her cheeks. "Typical boy." she murmured, prying the cooing Larvitar out from betwixt her feminine pectorals, and setting him down beside her, patting him on the head lightly. Unfortunately for Raven's slightly unstable psychie, this meant her eyes were now directed towards true Tyranitar, who was knocked out a mere 20 feet away. Doing some sort of a backwards crab walk, she reiterated her squeak of terror, and crawled backwards into his legs. Releasing the tension from her muscles, she fell flat on her back, her breathing heavy and her eyes wide with fear. She not only saw an upside-down Justin, but also a right-side up Hitmontop.

"This is just not my day..." she groaned, speaking mainly to herself, reaching her hands up and dragging them down her face, causing a few streaks of sweaty sand to make her look even more bedraggled than she looked originally. She slowly sat up, and groped for her balls to see if they were still there.

Her poke'balls, that is.

Finding that they were both secure, and that she was in a somewhat steady state of mind, she slowly rose to her feet, slapping at her jacket and pants, sending clouds of dust in every direction. She was facing Justin and his Hitmontop now, which meant that the murderous Tyranitar was behind her. She slowly turned around, hands on her hips, and the slow tilt of her head showed that she was either in deep thought, or disbelief. Turning back to Justin, her hand made a thumbs'-up pose, and she threw it over her shoulder, her brow raised. "So...you did that?" she asked, but then threw her hands down, turning away from him. "Never mind. I don't want to know. It's not trying to steal my soul, and I'm okay with that." she murmured, taking a few steps away from him, purveying the area.

"Talk about remodeling..." she said softly, bending down to pick up one of the smaller rocks, and turning it over in her hand, observing it. She then turned back to Justin. "You lied to me." her voice rang in menacing, warning tones. "...But you saved me, I assume. I don't think I'm ugly enough to make even that thing drop of sheer fright. For that, I have to thank you."

Her head dipped slightly in thanks, but her lips were pursed into a line of annoyance. "But that doesn't mean I can just...let what you did go. I have pride, you know." she stated defiantly, turning away from him again. "Then again..." she said in thought, one hand coming up to scratch her head, "...I could just use the whole eye-for-an-eye thing. But lying is a completely different matter. I swore I would never let myself be lied to again, intentionally. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

It was obvious that she was merely speaking aloud the thoughts growing through her head, and as she continued mumbling to herself, her hands a visual scale of which decision she was going to make, each side rising and falling like a conflicted Libra. As her hands fell to her side, she turned back to him. "I have decided." she said formally, crossing her arms in front of her. "I promised your friend I would help him get his poke'mon back. I intend to do just that. However, my talents do not lie in anything even closely resembling spelunking, which means that without help, I will probably die in this cave. I told you I would not help you if you lied to me. Which means...you will help me find your friend and Tag..." she paused at the mention of the man, dearly hoping that he was safe "...and then, I will continue to help your friend get his poke'mon back, in which case, I will be in no way helping you, and thus, I stick to my promise. Sound fair?" she concluded, tilting her head curiously his direction.

Without waiting for a response, she nodded curtly. "Good. We should be off before this thing decides to wake up...again."

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin stood with his arms crossed as he watched Raven regain her senses, in a way in which he did not expect. She spoke gibberish, compared him to Superman, screamed at the sight of a tiny larvitar, screamed again at the sight of a fallen tyranitar, hid between his legs and then, finally, had the longest conversation with herself he'd ever seen, barring homeless people.

"It's not waking up for some time," Justin just shook his head and nodded towards Hitmontop. He actually did it. This was something he far from expected. "But yeah, that all sounds fine," He could tell based on her tone that she was no longer mad at him and was simply being stubborn. He knew that she knew that his little lie (What was he supposed to say? The truth? Completely out of the question) did not compare with him saving her life from falling rocks and an angry tyranitar. This was beyond eye-for-an-eye. Justin didn't care a whole lot, but he knew she cared, and hell yeah he was gonna use that.

He recalled Hitmontop and they continued down their path, looking for any tunnels opened up on the right which might loop back around towards Tag and Nate in relative silence. Awkwardly so. Justin wasn't a huge talker and didn't mind walking with someone in silence, but this was not regular silence. It was intentional silence. It was so awkward, and Justin didn't handle awkward very well.

"I am, by the way," he said the first word in five minutes, looking to his left at Raven. "Superman. He lies all the time, you know."

----------------

Nate backed up with three snorunt coming at him. He gulped and tossed out three pokeballs. It only seemed fair. Three on three, right? So out came Pinch the Krabby, Ninja the Sneasel and Teddiursa, who did not have a nickname. Nate, slightly better at pokemon battling than his partner, Justin, actually had some coherent idea of what he wanted.

"Ninja, use Screech on the far left one. Pinch, use Metal Claw on it. Teddiursa, you attack the middle one."

Ninja and Pinch's combo attack was sufficient to knock out the first snorunt, who became extremely weak defensively after a Screech and was also already weak to Pinch's Metal Claw. Teddiursa's powerful Shadow Rush did significant damage to the middle snorunt, but did not knock it out. It and its remaining buddy both used Powder Snow against Teddiursa, who took the hit like a champ. The snow engulfed the shadowy bear, but it did not burst forth even though Nate knew he was capable.

"Ninja, Screech on the far right one, Pinch, Metal Claw on the middle one." As they executed their attacks while the snorunt prepared another Powder Snow, Nate rushed over to Teddiursa and brushed the snow off. Sure enough, he was a pale blue and was frozen completely solid. "Sorry, buddy," he stood up and called him back inside his pokeball. He looked over to see Pinch finish off her target, which was already weakened slightly by Teddiursa Shadow Rush, on top of her attack boost from her previous Metal Claw. The final snorunt took a Screech from the sneasel, but brushed it off and, rather than using Powder Snow or Icy Wind as Nate had expected, it used Headbutt on Ninja.

She took the hit and fumbled backwards, but got back up. Her defensive qualities were fairly weak, to say the least, but she was still in the game. Meanwhile, their single opponent recently suffered a pretty severe defense drop.

"Ninja, Faint Attack. Pinch, Metal Claw." Before the little snorunt could even waddle away from the other two pokemon, it was swarmed. Ninja disappeared into darkness and appeared behind the little guy, attacking relentlessly. Pinch caught up and, with her boosted attack against Snorunt's weakened defense, completely smashed it with Metal Claw. Honestly, she didn't even need Ninja to use Faint Attack, but it was still nice.

"Tag, you need some help?" he asked, noticing Bachi fumbling over itself on the ice below them. "My sneasel can handle herself on the ice."

This post has been edited by Yzarc Drowsnam: Jan 8 2011, 02:14 PM

[Kamaitachi]

"Tag, you need some help? My sneasel can handle herself on the ice."

"While I appreciate your concern, I'll let you know when I need help." Tag nodded to Nate. Tag had caught glimpses of Nate's battle. Never having seen it before, Tag was somewhat impressed with Nate's ability. This was mostly in comparison to Justin, who seemed to order attacks at random, or even let his prized Hitmontop just do its own thing.

Snapping back to reality, he watched as the trio of Snorunt he was facing launched their attacks. As they each took a deep breath of air, they fired off what appeared to be a triple Powder Snow attack. Tag woefully misjudged this, as two had launched Powder Snow, but the center one had fired off an Icy Wind attack instead. Icy Wind moved a bit faster than Powder Snow and struck Tobi before he could brace himself. As he staggered back, the two Powder Snow attacks fell over him, slowing him down immensely.

"Tobi, Bursting Flame!"

This time, the Snorunt were prepared. Each of them mustered up what appeared to be something of a force field in front of them, crouching in braced positions behind it. The fire attack burst against it magnificently, but otherwise left the trio in tact.

Tag, not wanting to risk his Vulpix in the fight, recalled him, drawing forth two pokeballs. Not wanting to appear flustered in front of Nate, he dropped the two capsules casually in front of him, revealing Suzu, his Ledian, and Bachi, his Nidorino.

Tag sized up the three pokemon before him. Each of them had been hit with the devastating Bursting Flame attack. The center one had sustained the most damage by far, so he quickly calculated a turn of action.

As the Snorunt Trio prepared to launch another attack, he quickly barked out his orders.

"Suzu, Mach Punch on the left. Bachi, Leer on the right!" As he yelled the commands, he drew an empty pokeball from the side pocket in his back pack and threw it at the most damaged Snorunt. Suzu blitzed forward, knocking the left most Snorunt back several paces. However, it hadn't been quite enough to finish off the little ice pokemon as it launched its Powder Snow attack at Suzu, covering her with a wave of cold. Bachi, despite his glowing eyes, received a similar wave. Suzu retreated to Tag, having sustained some damage, and Bachi, likewise, stayed rooted to his trainer, having a complete mobile disadvantage in this battle.

As the battle unfolded, the first Snorunt found itself struck with a pokeball. Within moments it had been sucked in, and despite her bravado, she was too weak to resist the capture device. The pokeball announced its success with its signature ping, reducing the number of enemies by one. However, the two remaining seemed in fighting form, and Suzu and Bachi were at two horrible disadvantages.

With a sigh filled with self-disgust, Tag hung his head. It took all of his effort to not punch himself in the face for uttering the next few words. Instead, he clenched his fists tightly, and through fairly gritted teeth he said:

"Now I'll accept your help."

[Tymid]

Raven was busy dragging her hand on the surface of the wall, pressing outwardly in an attempt to feel if there were any soft spots in the wall, indicators of a possible, hidden tunnel. She listened to Justin's comment and smirked, "Yeah, but at least he's good at it." she said soothingly, knowing very well that he knew that he had deceived her. It wasn't an easy thing to do, and Raven had had her doubts, but she knew full well that he had gotten away with a lie to her face. She might not have been so livid about it anymore, but her pride has taken a severe blow.

Finding a semi-indention in the wall, Raven slowly dropped to her knees and started pawing at the loose dirt. The Larvitar to her side started eating it, which did the trick, all the same. The light was dim, and Raven procured the second poke'ball at her hip and summoned forth the Pokemon within, which just so happened to be the Shinx. With a large yawn, Aria blinkingly looked up at her trainer, tilting her head to the side curiously. Raven frowned. Aria had lost so much of her playful, kittenish tendencies, that she was worried that she was sick. Raven picked her up, and with a pleasant mewling emitting from the Shinx's mouth, Raven established that the small kitten was alright. Giving the cub a nuzzle and a pat on the head, she casually issued a Charge command, to which the kitten nodded, and proceeded sparkling with energy.

And glowing.

As Raven watched the little cub, the glow became brighter and brighter. "Whoa, turn down the light there, Aria." Raven said as she shielded her eyes. Unable to look at the place where she had been digging any longer, Raven squinted her eyes shut, finally waiting for the red glow to go away from behind her eyelids. Cautiously opening her eyes, she looked at the place where her Shinx had last stood. A wide smile split her face, however, when she saw not a Shinx, but a Luxio standing where the smaller kitten had once stood. "Well, I'll be damned..." Raven whispered, looking at her newly evolved companion. However, though her appearance was different, Aria still bore the scars from her previous evolution, making her look exceptionally intimidating, especially the gash over her left eye.

Aria circled, a lower, more mature purr emitting from her chest. Raven reached forward, and the gentle creature came over and sat in front of her, the purr growing in volume as her friend stroked through her longer, silkier mane. Her happy smile was still on her face...a happier smile. So that's what had been wrong! Aria had simply been wanting to evolve, and didn't know the right time. Obviously, the Charge move had given the Shinx enough energy to do so. "You look so pretty." Raven said sweetly, nuzzling the Luxio's nose with her own, only to be licked happily with a sandpapery tongue. Raven didn't mind.

Raven looked up to Justin happily. "Look at her. I have a Luxio." she said proudly, and yet in a soft tone that was reminiscent of a doting mother. After a few more moments of staring in awe at her companion, Raven cleared her throat, turning back to the task at hand. "Now, then. Shed a little light on the subject, will you?" she asked Aria, and with a confirming, almost soothing sounding "Lux." Aria began her Charge move once again. Since her electric powers had been significantly increased during the evolution, Raven stopped her once the light was enough for her to see.

As Raven pawed at the loose gravel, trying to see if the indentation was a tunnel, she decided that conversation was indeed necessary with such a tedious task. "So...why did you lie to me? Were you afraid of what I would do? Afraid I would refuse?" she queried, still looking forward at the pile, occasionally sticking her head into what she had dug out, seeing if there was any headway. "I can understand that. I don't tell many people about my life." she said thoughtfully, pausing to sneeze as a cloud of dust rolled towards her face; the Larvitar had kicked some back as he dove into the tasty dirt.

After her sneeze, Raven shrugged, chuckling lightly. "Then again...I don't really socialize with enough people for them to ask, really." she added, scooping out another handful of dirt and placing it in the steadily accumulating pile. She wiped her brow with her jacket sleeve; Raven was getting increasingly dirty. She looked up to Justin, dirt smeared all over her pretty face, and she offered him a soft, genuine smile. "Feel free to 'dig in', if you'd like. Your big hands could do a lot more than mine." she murmured up to him, before turning back to her task. "You are supposed to be helping me after all."

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

"Congratulations," Justin cracked a smile when he watched Aria evolve into a fairly magnificent looking pokemon while Raven was trying to dig a tunnel. She seemed pretty confident it would lead to another path, one which might cross with Tag and Nate. Truthfully, though, Justin was fairly confident the entire small tunnel in which Tag and Nate had retreated collapsed. He hid his fear well, of course, but he was pretty sure they were dead. Raven, contrary to what he gathered from their conversation minutes before, was an optimist.

So as he watched her dig, relentlessly, he saw a sad, recently adopted puppy positive that its mother was on the other side of the fence. If she could just dig a little bit further, she'd be away from this weirdo and back home to someone she liked. Justin sighed when she asked for his help, trying to carry on a conversation all the while, and looked to his left, down the path on which his enemies continued. He had to get the money back. If he found Da Bomb with them, he'd take care of it too, for Nate.

But when he looked back down at Raven, digging away, he sighed. "Yeah," he finally said, getting down to his knees and squeezing in the small tunnel. "I had to lie to you," he said after some thought. "It wasn't about being a dick, and it wasn't about proving I could or whatever. I mean, I can't go around telling everyone I meet that I'm in a criminal organization. You gotta understand that. And just because you told me you hate being lied to doesn't make it any different. No one likes being lied to. I hate being lied to. But you can't insist on complete honesty from strangers because you're going to be disappointed."

After his hands started to hurt, he called out his two earthiest pokemon, Bonsly and Nincada, who he thought might be able to speed things up. Nincada's sharp and fast claws made it easy for her to dig into the cave and he initially figured Bonsly's Rock Throw would be useful, but after a little more consideration, decided that throwing rocks around this place was probably a pretty terrible idea.

"Nincada, Scratch, Bonsly, Copycat," He watched as Nincada tripled his own digging speed as she slashed her way through the dirt wall. Bonsly simply watched her movements, but instead of copying it exactly, as Copycat would suggest, he mimicked parts of Scratch and modified it to suit himself. He used his little green balls to dig away larger chunks of dirt though at a much slower pace. This was the ability Mimic, though Justin had no idea, and it was just different enough from Copycat to do something spectacular.

With all the added help, and to Justin's great surprise, they eventually tore through the wall into a whole different part of the cave. It was cold, bright and noisy. There were pokemon battles going on. As Justin powered his way through the dirt, he eventually found himself on the opposite side of the frozen lake as Nate and Tag. He turned to his right and leaned over, holding out his hand to Raven to help her to her feet. They were both covered in dirt. Once she was up, he grabbed Nincada's and Bonsly's pokeballs. Nincada was out first, crawling rapidly around Justin's leg and then she climbed up his back. It was so adorable, he was willing to look past the sharp pain of her claws using his skin for a grip.

Rather than recalling her, he decided to let her chill outside and reclipped her pokeball to his belt. Once Bonsly emerged from the dirt, he held up the ball to him, but waited for a second when he saw the little pokemon concentrating uncharacteristically hard.

"You alright, bud?" he asked.

Perhaps he had had a little pokemon conversation with the newly evolved Aria and wanted to try out his new Mimic skill in more practical ways than digging through caves. Or maybe he caught a glimpse of a tree while being covered in dirt. Either way, he more than doubled in height, grew arm/branches and actually gained somewhat of a face. "Sudo?" he said, trying to say "Bonsly,"

"I knew there was something different about that Copycat," Justin crossed his arms, "It was a different move entirely. He totally just copied Aria's evolution." Nodding, he held out his right hand to Sudowoodo with a fist. "Pound it." Sudowoodo moved its right branch to Justin's fist, curling up his little green rocks while doing so. When their "fists" met, Justin pulled his back and opened up his hands. Sudowoodo mimicked it exquisitely. "That's what we call 'blowing it up,' and that's gonna be our thing, alright, bud?"

"Oodo," it seemed in brighter spirits than when it was a dull little Bonsly. Justin, pleased with his evolution, called him back into the pokeball. With Nincada still resting painfully on Justin's shoulder, he walked over to the edge of the ground and looked down into the icy lake. "You guys think you can cross?" he called across the cave.

------------

Nate nodded when Tag finally swallowed his pride and asked for help. "Ninja, Quick Attack, Pinch, Bubblebeam,"

The snorunt on Tag's left, as it approached, was cut off by the sneasel's Quick Attack. As it tried to counter, Nate called out "Faint Attack!" and it blew snowy powder just as Ninja disappeared, evading it entirely. She reappeared behind its back and and slashed it, knocking it out.

The other snorunt was cut off, not physically, but by a stream of bubbles from the krabby. As they engulfed it and popped all around, it was pretty heavily slowed, unable to move up and land a hit on Suzu. As it waddled with reduced speed, Pinch crawled over, sideways of course, and began walking side by side with the icy pokemon. "Metal Claw," Nate ordered. As Pinch's claw shined with a steel coat, and crunched down on Snorunt's icy body, defeating it.

"Good work, girls," he said, walking over to Tag. He looked out to the icy lake, trying to figure out if there were any other ways out of the cave. That's about when Justin broke through a wall across the ice, followed by Raven, a newly evolved Aria, Larvitar, Nincada and finally Bonsly, who quickly evolved into Sudowoodo.

"You guys think you can cross?" Justin called out.

Nate looked down at Tag's nidorino. "Well, we know someone can't," he said softly enough so only Tag could hear. Then he looked back up to Justin and Raven. "We can try!" he called, moving over to the edge of the lake and trying to see if he could rest his foot on the ice without it breaking. "It seems pretty sturdy," he said to Tag, allowing his other foot to rest on the ice. Allowing, however, did not mean it happened. He immediately regretted letting go of the edge as he found himself completely incapable of maneuvering, and regretted making fun of Bachi as well. "Dude what the hell?"

He looked back up to Tag, Tag's pokemon and his own as Ninja the Sneasel ran towards the ice and jumped in gracefully. As she landed, she immediately began skating beautifully on the ice and quickly moved over to Nate, reaching both her hands up to his. He looked over to Pinch, who crawled down into the icy lake and began crabwalking all the way across, as if it were solid dirt. Once he knew she was okay, he reached down to Ninja and let her take his hands. He kept his feet completely still as she pulled him effortlessly across the ice. For a moment, he forgot all the trouble he was in, he forgot that Da Bomb was probably scared and on the verge of death. And he just enjoyed skating across ice with his newest pokemon.

[Kamaitachi]

Tag stood back and watched Nate tackle the remaining two Snorunt with surprising aplomb. As the battle ended, he pointed Suzu over to the pokeball. She buzzed over, scooping it up off the ice and returned it to Tag, depositing it neatly in his hands.

Tapping the button lightly, the ball creaked open. In its signature flash of light, it revealed Tag's first actual capture in Furoh, a little Snorunt.

He knelt down next to it extending a hand to its little nub.

"Pleased to meet you." It shied away a little from his hand, but slowly reached out to accept it. Tag noted that this particular Snorunt had a look of concern, and wondered if it was worried about the situation, or simply had that look in general.

"Boy?" It shook its head. Female, evidently. "How about I call you Orin?" Her concerned look almost appeared to be somewhat of a smile. Nodding once, she then turned to see her fallen comrades. "Your brothers and sisters will be fine, Orin." Tag reared back up to his full height, holding her in his arms. She felt really quite cold in his arms, even despite the leather jacket. Drawing a little spray type potion from his backpack, he gave a little spritz onto the area where the Bursting Flame attack had hit her. She shivered a little bit, then turned to see Suzu picking up the unconscious Snorunt and laying them against the cave wall to recover.

Tag turned to Nate and nodded curtly.

"Appreciate it."

As they scanned the room to see the exit, a wall came tumbling down. Tag clutched the Snorunt in his arms a little tighter, noting as Suzu and Bachi fell into their battle stances on instinct. However, they all relaxed visibly to see Justin, Raven, a Luxio, Larvitar and a Sudowoodo enter through the new-found opening.

"You guys t hink you can cross?" Justin called out. Despite hoping to have run into Justin again, Tag found himself a little peeved that the guy was still there. Concerning Raven, he found himself incredibly relieved to see that she was well.

"Well, we know someone can't." Tag heard Nate mutter softly. Repressing the verge to glare angrily at Nate, he opted instead to turn his head and offer a tiny consolation smile to his Nidorino.

"Indeed we do."

Tag watched with crossed arms and a mixture of amusement and disdain on his face as Nate skittered about on the ice. But Nate's pokemon seemed pretty loyal, and moved to aid their trainer.

Recalling the three pokemon to their pokeballs, Tag took something of a jogging start and slid gracefully across the ice. Just because Bachi had trouble crossing didn't mean that he did too. Tag had grown up in Blackthorn City, and had spent many days playing around in the Ice Caves just north of it; he knew how to travel on slide-ice.

Using a couple rocks (although he was uncertain as to whether or not they were actually more Snorunt), he maneuvered his way across the frozen lake to the other side. He gave a curt nod to Raven and Justin.

"Happy you're not dead." He muttered, his gaze moving across Aria and the artist formerly known as Bonsly. "Well. You two got a bit bigger." He had been curious to see whether or not Aria would retain her scars upon evolution, or if the change in her genetic pattern would erase them. It seemed, however, that she'd kept the painful reminders of her sordid past, and she looked all the more intimidating for it.

"Well. That's enough detours for today. Let's go rescue a Numel."

[Tymid]

"Happy to see you're still as cheery as ever, jackass." Raven said with a smirk, tucking her jacket closer around herself, unable to stifle the shivers and tooth-clattering that was going on. She was not a fan of the cold, and it was not a fan of her. Anything under 75 caused her to bundle up with a hot chocolate and a blanket, and this was far below 75. However, as her breath puffed out in front of her in a white cloud, Aria nuzzled against her leg, as though attempting to try and keep her warm, her lower, rumbling purr rising in volume as she saw Tag.

The Larvitar also seemed to not like the cold much, and was doing a tantric dance on the cold ground, attempting to not keep one foot on the ground for very long. Aria was well insulated, and thus, didn't care. Raven sighed, leaning down to pick up the Larvitar, wrapping him up in her jacket. "You're a poon, you know that?" she muttered, but the Larvitar was completely content with burrowing into Raven's warm bosom.

As Tag mentioned that they needed to move forward, Raven nodded fervently. "As long as we get the hell out of here, I don't really care where we go." she mumbled, a large shiver causing her to shake violently from her head to her toes. Seemingly, this caused her stomach to rumble, which informed her that she was hungry. She peered into her satchel; there was a few parcels of salted, roast fish in there, as well as a few berries. As she started walking, she pulled out a parcel, which had about 5 or 6 pieces of small Magikarp filet inside, she pulled out a piece and began eating. The salt had worked well; the fish maintained it's crunchy exterior from being cooked, as well as being a bit more jerky-like on the outside, since the moisture had been pulled from it. The inside, however, remained tender, and still tasted a bit smoky.

"Y'all want a piece? I have some berries, too." she offered, but at the mention of berries, she heard a soft, mewling "Luxio...Lux." at her feet, and a gentle pawing at her pantleg. Smiling down at the Luxio, Raven pulled forth about 3 Pecha berries, and laid a filet of Magikarp down in front of her, which was devoured almost instantaneously. "Well...I had berries." Raven said with a shrug, licking her fingers free of residual salt that had been on her filet. It didn't do much for her hunger, but at least it would give her enough energy to make it through this dismal cold.

"So, who knows where to go?" she asked through chattering teeth, the Larvitar poking it's head out with a soft chirp, as though he knew what she had said. However, upon meeting the cold air, it retreated, blue eyes and all.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin just nodded at Tag and Nate awkwardly when they made it back. Tag didn't mention the whole "criminal" thing, but Justin knew it was still on his mind. Nate's face, once the thrill of skating across the ice with his new pokemon was gone, became serious again as he recalled both Ninja and Pinch.

Nate approached Justin and just glared at him for a few seconds, looking up because Justin was taller. Finally, Justin broke the silence. "I'm glad you're okay, Nate," he said. "I thought the, uh, the tunnel crushed you guys. You too, Tag. Glad you're alright."

"What happened to the tyranitar?" Nate asked.

"What happened to it?" Justin grinned real big. "Hitmontop happened to it. I don't even understand, that thing was huge and Hitmontop just beat the hell out of it. It wasn't even, like. Wow. Anyway, I'm glad we're all back together and whatnot."

Then, Tag said, "Let's go rescue a Numel."

Justin nodded and walked back over to the small tunnel he, Raven and their pokemon had dug and got down on his knees, preparing to crawl under it again. "What?" Nate asked. "You're still with me?"

"Yeah," Justin stood back up. "Tyranitar kinda freaked me out, but once I realized Hitmontop could take it, it all sorta clicked. Also, those guys didn't beat it. They put it to sleep and ran. They're cowards and they're probably weak. Also, it's not like I could bail on you after you called me out like that and make myself look like even more of a jackass."

Nate cracked a smile. "Sorry about that,"

"I'm not," Justin said. "The only thing I'm sorry about is my own affiliation with them. And that's my fault. But yeah. We got us a bomb to save, yeah?"

"So, who knows where to go?" Raven asked.

"Those guys didn't take this detour," Justin said. "We gotta go back out on the main tunnel."

Nate agreed and crawled under first. After him, Justin and Nincada (who was still outside of her pokeball) and then Tag and Raven or Raven and Tag or whatever order on which they decided. Oh, and the other pokemon. Aria and Larvitar were still out, so they came too. Then they walked down the tunnel. At first, Justin was concerned that they lost too much time with their detour, but then he remembered all the running they did from the tyranitar. That probably had them breaking even-ish. Maybe? He really didn't know. Either way, they weren't going to catch up at this rate.

"We should probably pick up the pace or something," he said. "We need to catch them before they get to the city. I don't think I'd be able to pick them out of a crowd."

Nate agreed, but Justin looked over at the little larvitar. "I don't think he'll be able to keep up with us if we run," Justin said. "Maybe he wouldn't mind being put inside a pokeball? I mean, you're gonna adopt him anyway, right?" he asked Raven. "I'm not gonna claim to know you super well, but that was gonna happen eventually, right?"

[Kamaitachi]

"Happy to see you're still as cheery as ever, jackass." The drawling sarcasm definitely warmed his heart a little bit. No lie. He found a certain honesty in the jab aimed at him, and he found that he enjoyed it immensely. She was not attempting to be friends with him, but was getting along with him just fine. He much preferred that to people following him around, looking up to him and making conscious, awkward attempts to befriend him. Tag was a man who enjoyed equals. He tended to call everyone else an idiot.

The ghost of a smile flitted across his face as he watched Raven pick up the Larvitar. He had no idea what a poon was, and decided to hide his ignorance on the matter by not asking.

Justin mentioned that he was glad he hadn't been crushed by a tunnel. Tag agreed; it would've been most unpleasant. He was about to ask what happened to the Tyranitar, but Nate beat him to it, verbatim, in fact. Justin boasted a bit, but this was great cause for some level of concern in Tag.

Tag's pokemon had grown considerably since last he faced Justin at the Happy-Happy Department Store in Petropolis. They had not once been able to take on Hitmontop, even from their first encounter. The mere fact that Hitmontop could now wipe out a Tyranitar with apparently minimal effort was alarming. Sure, its attacks were quadruply effective, but even still, Tyranitar's alarming defenses and rock body made it very sturdy. Tag's pokenmon surely could not have taken on the beast, even if all four...nay...five were out at the same time.

However, Tag deduced that Justin had most likely been favouring Hitmontop once again, and somewhat neglecting his other lot, save the Bonsly who had evolved fairly recently. However, he wondered how that Jerk of a Pinsir with its bizarre moves was growing. Was it still as murderous as before? He allowed himself a little shudder as he remembered nearly losing Bachi to it.

Tag nodded assent at the thought of picking up the pace after they'd crawled through the little opening again. However, the issue of Raven's Not-Raven-Larvitar was an issue. He turned to Raven, eyes inquisitive.

"You should after all. There may be no more room in your apartment, but you'll probably be travelling a bit more. You can think of what to do in the meantime."

[Tymid]

As Raven held the Larvitar close to her breast, and listened to the ensuing chatter, she allowed a small, genuine smile to cross her dirty face as she looked over to Tag. Throughout the short time she had known him, he was the one person who she could generally see herself being around for longer than a few minutes. Every time she looked at his tatooed, scarred face, she felt a small warmth, and a gentle tingling in her fingertips and toes. She didn't mind the warmth that she knew was a budding friendship, but she quickly talked herself out of the tingling; she knew exactly what that meant. She wasn't about to let herself get hurt again, and risk losing a friend in the process. Besides, she and Tag both had far more important things to worry about regarding their lives. However, she couldn't help the softening of her gaze that happened every time she looked into his eyes.

Pushing those awkward thoughts out of her mind, she looked down at her hand, to see it softly scratching a cooing Larvitar. She had to admit, despite her best efforts, she had become quite attached to the disabled creature, and had learned a lot about communicating with a poke'mon that couldn't hear her words. He smelled of dirt and soot, much like she did at the moment, and as he turned his blue eyes up to her, she couldn't help but smile. The smile faded, however, as she realized that before she got out of this cave, she would have to let him go. She pressed her nose to his scaly hide, and exhaled a deep sigh, her green eyes permeating out from beneath her dirty, mudstained skin, glimmering as though they were the cleanest and shiniest gemstones that one could find.

As she was tucking the majority of the parcel back into her satchel, still shivering, she handed a piece of the fish to Nate, Justin, and Tag. "You're going to need the energy. Trust me." she murmured, tucking what was left safely amidst her quill and notebook. She was the last to follow the trio into the much warmer climate, and shivered appropriately with the temperature change. As Aria followed, she shook her longer fur majestically, and proceeded to clean herself while the group attempted to figure out what to do. Little did she know, the attention was about to be all on her.

As she was barraged with the questions about her adopting the Larvitar, her mouth fell open; she was obviously not expecting the conversation to turn to her. After Tag said his piece, her mouth slowly closed and thinned, her eyes narrowing in an agitated fashion. "Now wait just a damn minute..." she said softly, her voice in obvious warning tones, "...I told you, I can't keep him. I can't afford to keep him. He's deaf. How in the hell would I train a deaf lizard?"

However, as the three looked at her, and the Larvitar nestled in her jacket slowly lifted his sleepy head, blinking up at her with those radiant blue eyes, and offering what looked like a small, sleepy yawn in her direction, Raven sighed, and her eyes softened. "But...look at you. You're just so...so special." she murmured lovingly, chuckling softly as the Larvitar ended it's yawn with a tiny squeak. Raven's free hand rose to her temple, as she weighed the options. She should have known this was coming...there was no way in hell she could have let a disabled Poke'mon go into the wild. She should have known that by letting it follow her, she would grow attached, and end up not being able to let it go. She should have known...she should have known that she would grow to love the little blue-eyed monster.

A gentle pawing at her leg caused her to look down, and Aria was looking up at her, her happy smile and curiously tilted head showing that she thought it was alright. Or at least, that's how Raven interpreted it. With a resigned sigh, ending with a "...Damn it..." Raven put the Larvitar down, and as she reached into her satchel to pull out a vacant poke'ball, she knelt down in front of the Larvitar, showing it to him. "You see this?" she asked, and though the Larvitar couldn't hear her, she could tell by the way it was slowly turning from sleepy to excited showed that he understood. "This means you're a part of my family. This means that you have to follow my rules, which means no dirt in the house." she said sternly, but the tiny smile on her face belied her emotions.

As she threw the ball, the Larvitar practically leapt into it's waiting depths, and as the ball slowly ceased glowing, she looked down at it. Aria was already beginning to paw at it eagerly. Reaching forward, she picked up the poke'ball, and holding it close to her lips, she kissed it, looking down at it in a loving, maternal gaze. "Forte." she whispered, giving the little Larvitar a name that she knew he would never be able to hear. The name, in Italian, meant 'loud', which was very ironic for the poke'mon who could not hear. As she took a moment to turn the ball over in her hands, she eventually clipped it to her belt, right next to Aria's empty ball.

She looked up at the three, and her demeanor changed greatly. "You guys are going to buy me a new apartment when he eats it." she said, pointing a finger at each of them in turn, but by the newfound glint in her eyes, she knew she had made the right decision. A broad smile crossed her mock stern features, and she laughed aloud. "Well, come on! We've got a Numel to rescue. A dead Slowpoke would move faster than you three." she quipped whilst walking past them, Aria at her heels. Her pretty voice was humming a melody as she walked down the path. She didn't know where she was going, nor did she worry about the battle ahead. She did know one thing, however.

She had a new friend at her side.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

No one said a word as Raven argued hopelessly with herself as to why she could not adopt Larvitar, soon to be Forte. When she finally settled the debate, Justin just smiled and rolled his eyes, arms still crossed as he watched the events unfold. He looked over to Nate, who just smiled back, finishing off the strip of magikarp. When Raven ran past the others, Justin just chuckled and nodded. He shrugged at the others and followed her, Nincada still resting on his shoulder, though he was used to the pain from her claws digging into his skin by then.

So they all ran, and with much more speed than their five opponents were walking. He only hoped they ran fast enough to catch them before they came to a split in the tunnel or, worse, outside of the mountain. It would be hard to sight them there, as they could take a number of paths to get back to the city, depending on what part of Arasam was their destination.

When they turned a corner, though, they saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel with five figures, which either meant they were dying and those were angels of death, or that was the exit to the cave. Spoiler Alert: They found the exit, and the figures were the five guys they were after. Sorry 'bout that.

"Hey!" Justin yelled. The figures seemed to stop. "You got my friend's numel!"

"It's ours now, kid!" they heard a voice respond.

Nate didn't wait for their group to make a plan. He sprinted, as fast as he could, towards the exit. The others followed with such aggression that the five men backed up outside of the cave and waited on the mountain path in a more open area. When the three got out of the cave, they went to stand beside Nate, who had already called out Pinch the Krabby.

Four of the five men had their favored pokemon out: Magmar, Ariados, Cranidos and Xatu. The Xatu's trainer was the largest of the men, whose face was bruised and bleeding. This was the man on whom Justin pounded away about an hour before. Justin noticed that the fifth man, the leader of the group, did not have out his pokemon, which was Gallade. This man was holding the briefcase. Also of note, lying behind the five was a fainted numel, Da Bomb. "Kill them," the leader said as Justin, Tag and Raven prepared for a fight. "I'm not gonna play games with these morons."

Rather than staying to watch, he turned and began walking away, both the money and the "package" with him. While Nate's, Tag's and Raven's primary concerns were with the numel, but Justin's eyes followed the leader, holding the money. That was his job: To get the money. He had Hitmontop out, as he always did at the beginning of battles, but as he watched the money walk away, he took a deep breath as the battles commenced. The bruised up man insisted on fighting Justin, which meant Hitmontop had to fight Xatu, a pretty unfortunate matchup (though Hitmontop was definitely stronger).

Nate's Pinch was lined up with Ariados, Tag was lined up with Magmar and Raven with Cranidos. Just as the battles began, Justin yelled "Fake Out!" Hitmontop clapped its feet together in front of Xatu, causing it to flinch. "Nate, can you take two?" he asked in his brief moment. "I'm gonna chase down their boss."

"Justin, I don't know, man," Nate replied after he saw Pinch try to use Bubblebeam on Ariados, but before it even released the bubbles, the bug jumped forward and Sucker Punched the little crab right in the face, The bubbles still went off, but Nate cringed at how much damage Pinch seemed to take. "He's tough,"

"I gotta do it, man," Justin patted his partner on the back. "You got 'em,"

Before even confirming with Tag or Raven, he backed up and called back Hitmontop, running around the fight to try to chase down the leader. He looked over his shoulder to see Xatu following him, but it took a hit from Ninja's Ice Shard because, apparently, Nate managed to call out a second pokemon to help in the fight. Xatu, now that it was engaged by a real threat, turned to face Ninja and Pinch beside its ally, Ariados in a two on two battle. Nate's strategic mind was spread thin, however, as he was forced to command two pokemon at once.

Justin, meanwhile, abandoned his partners to chase down the money.

[Kamaitachi]

Tag almost grudgingly accepted the fish. A brief protest escaped as to how he had his own food in his shoulder bag, but upon smelling the salted fish, he decided he could simply share that with Raven later. As thanks. Just as thanks. Right?

He watched with crossed arms and something of a knowing smirk on his face as Raven's inner monologue floated around in a place where inner monologues usually didn't go. Of course, the foregone conclusion was that Raven would 'capture' the Larvitar. It had followed her all the way from Lenoilia to the Loch Ranch, and evidently even from the Loch Ranch to Mt. Carello as well. The little Larvitar would evidently follow Raven to the World's End and back. This was convenient, because that's where they were headed next.

As Raven threatened them with the costs of a new apartment, Tag looked genuinely surprised, then his face hardened.

"Hmph." he grunted. It was really quite manly. "A new apartment? Here I figured you'd just follow me all over Furoh." It sounded catty. He didn't mean it to come out in the way it did. But he figured he'd gauge her reaction to decided whether or not he was kidding.

With the skip in her step, and the melody in the air, he figured she hadn't taken it poorly, and decided that he was, in fact, serious. He'd invite her to Arasam with him while he took on the gym leader there.

Justin breaking into a run snapped him out of his reverie. In no time flat, the group had evidently caught up with the men they'd been chasing at the cave's exit. Some senseless, very stupid sounding banter was shouted back and forth, and then there was more chasing.

However, as Tag wound up standing next to Nate, he found himself square up against a Magmar and its trainer. This was most unfortunate for Tag, as three of his five pokemon were outright weak against fire. (Little did he know, Arasam's Otis specialized in Fire and Flying, which would probably cause him much grief). Unclipping a pokeball from his belt, he summoned Suzu to the field first. As she appeared in the air, he could tell she was still reeling a bit from the ice attacks from the Snorunt earlier. She had some good stamina, but against a Magmar? He'd have to see.

"Torchwood! Ember!"

"Suzu, Light Screen!" Suzu quickly summoned up a bright, translucent yellow wall with her four arms, spreading out to cover herself as the ember bounced against it. Elsewhere, Tag caught a glimpse of Justin abandoning their fight. Anger welled up inside him as his periphery caught the muscle-bound teenager run off, leaving Nate to handle a 2 on 2 battle. It was obvious that Justin had simply abandoned the Numel again, and was in pursuit of something else. The Leader it appeared. Tag had no more time to ponder as he heard his opponent issue the next command.

"Huh. Torchwood, Fire Punch!"

"Suzu, Mach Punch the Light Screen!" There was no way Suzu could meet a fire punch dead on without being decimated by it, so Tag had her punch her own floating screen. It flew towards the enemy Magmar, Torchwood, with surprising speed. It didn't do much damage really...it just sort of crashed on the flame body pokemon, stopping it in its tracks. This was no good. Tag didn't really have time to dilly-dally.

"Torchwood, Fire Punch again!"

"Suzu, Silver Wind!" He'd have to have Suzu keep her distance. As the Fire Punch seared towards her, Suzu flashed backwards, flapping her wings with a loud buzz. The air itself rushed forward with great concussive force, but the Magmar seemed to whether that as well.

"Torchwood! Kill that damn bug! Fire Punch!" The enemy trainer was all about the direct attack, which left Suzu at a precarious position. Tag couldn't have her use encore to give himself a lull, because he would simply get a whole barrage of Fire Punches instead...but...that would actually work just fine.

"Suzu! Encore!" The Fire punch stroke him with Suzu, sending her reeling back with a horrifying screech. She slammed hard on the ground, slowly rising back up into the air to clap her hands. The familiar, glazed look came over Magmar's eyes, and a familiar green aura surrounded Suzu. This was the Swarm Ability, but Tag had no time to utilize it.

"Suzu, return. Tobi. You're up."

The little fox pokemon appeared on the field, bristling his six tails menacingly.

"Huh." The enemy trainer was really quite eloquent. "Torchwood, Smog." Torchwood the Magmar opted not to use smog, and charged forward with a Fire Punch. Tobi hopped up, over the extended arm and landed on it, absorbing the fire from its fist. His eyed glowed a fierce red as he hopped off, resuming his stance as his Flash-Fire Ability powered him up.

"Uh. Torchwood, Smog" Once again, the Magmar lumbered forward to use its fire punch.
"Tobi, Hypnosis!" Once again, the Magmar lurched forward with its arm, which Tobi hopped up onto, absorbing more of its fire. In turn, in such close range, his eyes glowed blue as he stared directly into the Magmar's eyes. After a moment, the opponent simply toppled over, asleep.

"Torchwood, return. You're up, Doctor Who!" The Magmar disappeared from the field. In its stead, a Noctowl took to the air, hovering a good distance above Tobi, who calmly trotted back towards Tag, taking his position with almost a lofty flick of his nose.

"Doctor Who! Air Slash!"

Tag grimaced, not expecting such a high level attack from his opponent. A thin blade of wind sliced dangerously through the air, slamming Tobi into the ground. The poor Vulpix cried out in pain as the wind blade pressed it to the ground, and worse still, it was messing up his fairly pristine coat.

"Tobi, Bursting Flame" As soon as the air let up, Tobi hopped back up, growling as he reared back his head. The Bursting Flame he whipped up this time was augmented by his Flash Fire in full effect. The fireball hissed through the air, combusting upon impact with the enemy Noctowl. However, the Noctowl was not yet done. Doctor Who swooped down, his own eyes glowing blue as his trainer yelled: "Hypnosis!"

Tobi, now a victim to his own attack, simply curled up on the ground, asleep. Tag growled audibly, recalling his pokemon once again. Kyoko, Bachi and Suzu were all weak to the Noctowl's flying and psychic attacks....so that left him with his new comrade. He flipped out his pokedex, scanning the little snow cone pokemon as she appeared on the field. The pokedex neatly summed up a list of moves that she was capable of performing. This was somewhat annoying to Tag, as he usually preferred to let his pokemon show him what they were capable of, but this situation was a bit more dire. He did not have the leisure of learning beforehand Orin's capabilities.

"Doctor Who! Confusion!"

"Orin, Protect!" A blue wave of energy shot out from Noctowl's eyes, but it washed harmlessly off of the force-field that Orin conjured up before her. "Now. Icy Wind!" Drawing in a deep breath, the chilly willy little pokemon launched forth a potent wind, completely with snowflakes and shards of ice. Screeching in pain, the Noctowl plummeted earthward, wherein it was recalled by his trainer.

"Weeds! You're up!" This time a Tangrowth appeared on the field, taking Tag a little by surprise. His ice-type Orin had the advantage, yet he was sending out a pokemon with a clear weakness.

"Fine. Orin. Icy Wind." As Orin drew in another breath, Tag's eyes widened sharply as he heard the next command.

"Weeds! Ancientpower!" The Tangrowth forcibly shoved its hands into the mountain side. With a tremendous effort, it lifted several chunks of rock clear out of the ground and hurled them towards the incoming Icy Wind attack. The Wind didn't affect the rocks at all; not even enough to deflect them from their course. The consequence? They slammed violently into Orin, rendering her senseless immediately.

"Orin, return. Suzu, Bug Bite!" Tag cursed himself for not remembering that in order to evolve into Tangrowth, a Tangela first had to learn Ancientpower as a pre-requisite. He'd just lost a part of his battle because he'd forgotten that simple fact. Now, unsettled, and upset at his lack of clear thought, he started flailing a bit with his commands. Usually, he kept Suzu staggering her opponents with a series of status moves, but here he had her charge in to take advantage of her type advantage, as well as her activated Swarm Ability. It did not last long as the Tangrowth simply chucked some rocks at Suzu, slamming her backwards. The force had been too much: Between the icy winds from Snorunts earlier, the Fire Punch from Magmar, and this, a rock to the face, Suzu was out for the count. Tag recalled her, muttering an apology to the pokeball. His anger at Justin running off again, as well as his self-directed anger for missing a beat in battle really had thrown him out of sync. So, taking a deep breath, he summoned Kyoko to the field.

"Weeds-"
"Kyoko-"
"Stun Spore!" The command rang out simultaneously from both trainers. The two sets of green spores clashed up against one another, spraying harmlessly out to the sides, just short of the other battles. Kyoko sized up her opponent, her acid dripping out the side of her mouth like a venomous bile. Time to put it to good use, Tag thought to himself as he issued his next command.

"Kyoko, Acid!" The Acid was much faster than the icy wind attack, so the Ancientpower moved didn't whip up in time. The purple goo smacked the Tangrowth right in the face, knocking it back a few paces.

"Now, Kyoko. Acid!" Before it could regain its balance, another acid attack smacked it right in the same spot. Kyoko's accuracy with the attack had been spot on. Flailing its arms about angrily, the Tangrowth's face seared away as it howled in pain. The trainer seemed at a loss as to what to do, so Tag simply ordered Kyoko to keep firing. Like a little smelly cannon, the Rafflessia pokemon fired off shot after shot of her acid, ultimately forcing Weeds' retreat to its pokeball.

"Fine dude. You're askin' for it." The criminal trainer cracked his knuckles and neck menacingly before drawing out yet another pokeball.

"House! You're up!" Tag found himself expecting a Chansey for some...hospital related reason...instead, an intense looking Weavile appeared on the field.

"Kyoko, ret-"
"House! Pursuit!"

As the beam shot out, the Weavile flashed out of site, appearing before the terrified grass pokemon only to slash viciously at her. She shrieked in pain as the red light enveloped her, sucking her back into her mobile home. Tag really only had one pokemon left in fighting form, but at least he could do some damage with it.

"Bachi, Double Kick!" The attack was certain to be extra effective, as the fighting move was both effective against Ice AND Dark, Weavile's exact typing. Bachi burst out of his pokeball already in a charge and flung himself at the enemy, jumping up into the air and turning himself backwards. He landed a solid two-footed kick right to House's face, rendering the opponent unconscious in one fell hit. Bachi certainly had a lot of power behind him. He pawed at the ground anxiously, waiting for the next opponent.

Tag watched as the trainer recalled the evil looking Weavile to its pokeball, before tossing another out.

"Dexter, you're up."

Of course. Replacing the vicious looking Weavile was an even more vicious looking Houndoom with a somewhat more ominous name to its person. The Houdooom tilted its head back and howled skywards, doubly having the effect of unsettling Bachi and raising its own attack.

"Bachi, Double Kick!" "Dexter, Ember!" Tag watched as the little fireballs sprayed out from the enemy, repeatedly slamming into his reeling Nidorino and realized, with a frown, that he was on the verge of losing this battle. Suzu and Orin were unconscious, Kyoko was hurt and weak to fire, Tobi was asleep, and here Bachi was getting battered by fire...things were looking grim.

This post has been edited by Kamaitachi: Jan 12 2011, 01:48 AM

[Tymid]

As Justin had sprinted by her, her face swiftly turned from a happy smirk to a concerned frown. Naturally, she followed, her hand on her poke'balls cautiously, and she ran smack dab into...dialogue. As Justin, Nate and the goons bantered back and forth, Raven scouted out the situation...but someone was already scouting her out. She looked at the man with the Cranidos, and at the two poke'balls at his hip, one which she assumed was already empty. This meant one of two things; he was either very new to the group, with only a couple of stolen poke'mon to his name, or that he was very smart, choosing to only train a couple of poke'mon at a time. Judging by the eager way his Cranidos pawed at the ground, Raven could assume it was the latter.

Tag and Nate were already involved in battle, and Justin was...gone. Raven didn't have the time to be angry, considering that the man with the Cranidos was stepping towards her, his eyes darting to Aria. "Get behind me..." she whispered, and while Aria was eagerly wishing for a battle, snarling, she did as she was told, and stood behind Raven. Raven plucked Requiem's poke'ball, and quickly summoned forth the Totodile, who was raring to go. The opposing trainer frowned as he saw the water-type poke'mon, as did the Cranidos, who snorted and backed into his trainer's legs. Then again, maybe it was because the half-blind, snarling, saliva-dripping, lip curling blue thing in front of them was rather intimidating.

"Rocky! Focus Energy!" the other trainer cried, but Raven snapped her fingers, and as Requiem crouched in his offensive stance, Raven whistled shrilly, trilling the tone with her tongue. After the short whistle, she pointed to the opposing poke'mon, and shouted 'Cranidos!'. A jet of water shot forth from Requiem's mouth, and it was noticeably stronger than the last time she had seen it. The Cranidos and trainer were both without an inkling of a clue for what to do, and the Cranidos was buffeted with the full-on force of the attack.

"Yes." Raven muttered under her breath, knowing that the attack would be super effective, and would make a huge difference in the battle. The only problem was that the trainer and the poke'mon would know exactly what that command meant, meaning it would be harder for Requiem's only effective attack against the sturdy Cranidos a chancy endeavor. However, as the Cranidos was shakily attempting to rise to it's feet, she saw by the way it's eyes glared at Requiem that he still had some fight left in him. However, Raven took the opportunity to snap, calling Requiem to attention, and also gave the command for Leer, which was a bark which sounded like "He-EY!".

The Totodile, who seemed much more aggressive than the last time Raven had used him in battle, looked simply rabid. As his eyes glowed with the Leer attack, the blue lizard snarled, and the shaky-legged Cranidos fell back to the ground, seemingly having lost the will to go on. Raven couldn't believe it. Had her baby, sweet Totodile taken out a Cranidos in one hit?

"Rocky, TAKE DOWN!" the opposing trainer cried, and the Cranidos, with one last burst of energy, charged straight into Requiem, and both slammed into a wall. The Cranidos fell limp, and Raven could tell that he was laying on top of Requiem. As his trainer recalled the unconscious Cranidos, Raven took a step cautiously, toward Requiem. Not only was Take Down an extremely powerful attack, the Cranidos' previous Focus Energy move had almost guaranteed a critical hit. "Requiem?" Raven whispered, keeping one eye on the trainer and one on her poke'mon. Requiem lifted his head gingerly, and grunted at her, as though he was saying "I'm alright, woman. Just help me up." Raven picked up the Totodile, and she witnessed the owner of the Cranidos summon a Roselia, a confident smile on his face. He knew what her other poke'mon was, other than her newly acquired Forte, but there was no way that she was going to use him. She didn't even know what he could do yet, nor how she could command him.

Raven looked towards Nate's battle, finding that things were going alright, but that Nate seemed a little off of his game. Tag's corner of the field looked about as grim as the others, but as Raven saw each match-up, and how the type-advantages were off in each instance, an idea brewed in her brain. Taking a potion out of her satchel, she spritzed the tired Totodile, and as he perked, he reached out a claw and touched her nose. "You've got to trust me, okay?" she murmured, knowing that despite the potion, the Totodile was very tired, and it would only be safe to use him for two more attacks. However, if things turned out the way she was envisioning, things might be alright.

"Tag, make Bachi attack that Ariados." she called to Tag, setting Requiem down in front of her. Turning to Nate, she called "Nate, have Ninja use Ice Shard on that Roselia.", gesturing from the Sneasel to the Roselia in front of her. All four of the trainers were now quite disoriented, the change of battle partners being quite disconcerting. Raven could only hope and pray that they would listen to her, otherwise, all would be for naught. Raven, taking advantage of the confusion, snapped and trill-whistled again, this time pointing to the Houndoom and calling out his name, who was still focused on Bachi. A Water Gun attack broadsided the dog, and with a loud yelp, it slammed against the wall, steaming with the contact of the attack. Raven snapped once again, and trill whistled once again, focusing on Aria as Requiem made the final blow onto the Houndoom.

Calling the Luxio to attention with a click made by her tongue and cheek, and proceeded to make a "Shhh..." type sound, which stood for Charge. As Aria Charged her attack, Raven pulled out Requiem's poke'ball and called him back inside, the tired poke'mon literally sagging with exhaustion and pain. She did so with a good sense of timing, as well, since the Roselia was looking hungrily toward the weak poke'mon.

A glow at her side caused her to squint, and the sound of crackling and sparking brought Raven's attention back to Aria. She was ready. "-aBAM!" was Raven's next command, which stood for Spark, and pointed to the Xatu, calling out it's name. Aria sprinted over to the psychic bird, and as soon as they came in proximity of each other, the Luxio tackled the Xatu with surprising strength and agility, and the bird literally lit up with the contact. Raven winced for the Xatu, but as the bird fell to the ground, and Aria came sprinting back over to Raven, Raven couldn't help but smile breathlessly. Aria's speed and accuracy was remarkable, showing that she was slowly gaining the legendary eyesight of a Luxray.

Raven hoped that the confusion caused by the sub-attacks would be enough for Tag and Nate to take out the remaining two poke'mon. One could only hope.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Nate sighed angrily as he watched Justin abandon their cause. Technically, the money affected Nate just as much as it did Justin, but his concern was, naturally, with the numel.

Now that he had both Ninja and Pinch out against Xatu and Ariados, it seemed like it would be fine. He didn't notice that both trainers he was facing had two extra pokeballs each, meaning his three pokemon were going to have to take on six. Fantastic. Seeing as how Ariados was causing the most problems with its high powered Sucker Punch, he decided to have both his pokemon focus on it. First, though, seeing as how Xatu's biggest threat was in its dangerous tricky moves, he decided to put an end to that.

"Ninja, use Taunt on Xatu," he pointed, and then, "Pinch, use-" he almost said Bubblebeam, but as it seemed clear Ariados was going to counter with Sucker Punch, he formulated a new plan. "Harden," As Xatu's trainer, the larger man with the broken face, commanded it to use Confuse Ray on Pinch, Ariados charged forward towards the same krab pokemon, but punched just a second too soon before collapsing on its own many legs. It was expecting Pinch to move forward to attack, but instead it backed up and boosted its own defenses, rendering Ariados' attack useless.

Xatu, meanwhile, charged forward towards Ninja and landed an awkward and aggressive attack with a combination of its wings, head and feet. The attack seemed to hurt itself more than the sneasel. Nate smiled as her taunt seemed to be effective. Xatu was ignoring its trainers orders in an effort to seek revenge against the smart mouthed sneasel.

While the larger trainer recalled Xatu, Nate commanded both Ninja and Pinch to attack Ariados. "Bubblebeam and Ice Punch," while its own trainer commanded a Bug Bite on Ninja. Things happened very near simultaneously, but there was still a slight order: Ninja charged forward the fastest, her fists turning a light blue. She punched Ariados in the face as it opened its mouth to bite. As she began to move back, though, Ariados managed to bite down pretty hard on her leg, causing her to fall over awkwardly. It released, however, as Pinch's Bubblebeam overtook it with...bubbles.

The larger trainer, by the time Ninja managed to limp back to Nate, had summoned his next pokemon, Solrock. "Damn," Nate said under his breath. He wanted to finish of Ariados, but Solrock's Rock type was going to be quite the threat to Ninja. "Faint Attack Bubblebeam on Solrock," he said, quietly enough for only his pokemon to hear. As Solrock predictably threw a rock (Rock Throw) at Ninja, she disappeared from what seemed like our plane of existence for less than a second (long enough to evade the Rock Throw) and appeared behind the sun pokemon. As she slashed at it from behind, it was pelted by Pinch's Bubblebeam. As Solrock fell to the earth. As Nate began to smile, however, Ariados ran over to where Ninja was standing at bit her again. This time, its effects were pretty bad. Ninja looked over to Nate, an apologetic look in her eyes, as she allowed them to close and her body to hit the ground alongside Solrock's.

As both Nate and the larger man called back their fainted pokemon, Ariados' trainer did not waste time. "Bug Bite on the krabby!" he called out. Pinch tried to defend herself against the attack without an order from Nate, and was going to use Bubblebeam, but when Nate yelled "Harden!" her priorities got all funky. Not being an incredibly smart pokemon, she jumbled herself up with thought and ended up just taking the bite. Ariados managed to knock her over, causing her even more confusion. By that time, Teddiursa was out and ready for combat. "Shadow Rush," Nate insisted.

Ariados was knocked aside from the super effective hit. It was very strong, however, and remained in play. Its trainer, however, decided to recall it anyway. Nate shrugged as he noticed the larger man's next pokemon, Xatu. No longer affected by the taunt, it was prepared to unleash some pretty heavy devastation. Unfortunately, Nate did not have Ninja to perfectly counter Xatu. Ariados' trainer, in lieu of Ariados, sent out Heracross, evidently to counter Shadow Teddiursa.

"Yeah, I don't play around with shadow pokemon," he smirked right before shouting, "Brick Break on Teddiursa!" Nate was at a loss for what to do. Heracross was a very dangerous pokemon, but he couldn't just let Xatu screw everything up either. He decided, since Teddiursa could very well be taken out in two hits from Heracross, to finish it off first. "Bubblebeam Shadow Rush Heracross," he said very quickly.

As Heracross' direct path to Teddiursa was slowed by the bubbles, popping all around him, dealing some damage, Teddiursa charged, a purple aura forming around him. As he forced himself to stop, the shadowy aura continued and plunged itself into the Heracross. It wasn't nearly enough to knock the fighting bug out, however, and it landed an incredibly power Brick Break on Teddiursa. Nate didn't expect it, but the bear fainted. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed a band tied around its arms. This was the Choice Band, an item which made his attacks very powerful, though it limited him to just one.

Sighing, he called Teddiursa back, now facing a one on two battle. Pinch's defenses were way up thanks to two Hardens, but he doubted she'd be able to take many Brick Breaks. On top of that, she was walking around very awkwardly. It seemed that during the chaos of the most recent flurry of attacks, he didn't notice Xatu use Confuse Ray. He gulped. What choice did he have? "Bubblebeam on Heracross,"

Heracross landed a powerful Brick Break on Pinch, but not enough to knock her out, while Xatu flew around in the sky, creating a Tail Wind, boosting the speed of its allies. Pinch, beyond its confusion, still managed to let loose a powerful Bubblebeam, which finished off Heracross. Its trainer sent out Ariados, yet again. "Deja vu," Nate shrugged, noting that the only thing different from the last time he was face to face with the same Xatu and Ariados, he had two more pokemon by his side. Each trainer also had one more pokemon.

That's about when Raven decided to strategerize.

"Tag, make Bachi attack that Ariados." That would be nice.

"Nate, have Ninja use Ice Shard on that Roselia." Oh.

"Um, Ninja's knocked out," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

As Dexter the Houndoom took its last hit from Requiem and Xatu fell to Aria's charged up electric attack, Pinch used Bubblebeam on Ariados, which combined well with Bachi's attack to finish it off. The Roselia which went unchecked, meanwhile, managed to release a sleeping powder into the crowd of pokemon at Nate's side of the battle.

The larger man's Xatu was down and Ariados' trainer's Ariados was down, but each of them had a remaining pokemon. Tag's opponent was completely out, but Raven's opponent still had Roselia. Meanwhile, Nate's final remaining pokemon, Pinch, was asleep, as was Bachi. Tag's remaining conscious pokemon was Kyoko, but she had already taken a few hits. Aria was Raven's remaining pokemon, and she was in good health, but could not fare well against Roselia and the next and final two pokemon to emerge.

Mamoswine from the larger man and Lunatone from Ariados' trainer. It was kind of cute that one had Lunatone and the other Solrock, but it was unfortunate that they weren't used at the same time. At least Lunatone and Mamoswine had some synergy, because neither were affected by Mamoswine's Earthquake. Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that this Mamoswine was at a high enough level to know Earthquake which, by the way, was super effective against both Aria and Bachi and would easily finish off both Kyoko and Pinch, which accounted for all of the remaining conscious pokemon, unless you count Tobi, who was asleep, but also weak to Earthquake.

"I'd say it's about time for Earthquake, wouldn't you, Jake?" Araidos' trainer asked.

Jake, the larger man with the bloody face, just nodded. "Why yes I do, Will,"

---------------

Meanwhile, Justin had finally managed to chase down the leader of the bunch, you know him well.

The man turned around and summoned a pokemon, Gallade, and so Justin summoned Hitmontop. "Psycho Cut!" "Fake Out!"

As Gallade charged Hitmontop, it was stopped cold by Fake Out, as tends to happen. The leader walked around a decent sized radius from the fight to approach Justin, but still kept his distance from the youngster. "You really want this money, huh?"

"It's ours," Justin said. "That's how these transactions work,"

"That's how most transactions work," the man smiled. "You, as a member of Team Deception, should know things tend to work differently in this world," he paused and looked over to the battle. "Keep going, Alexander,"

"Mach Punch, Hitmontop!" Justin responded.

"Either way," the man continued their conversation on the side. "I didn't expect you to chase us down with help. I'm impressed. I'm more impressed, however, with your dedication to your organization over your friends."

"They're fine,"

"Are they?"

Justin looked back just in time to see Ninja fall prey to Ariados. "They'll be fine,"

"You seem confident. I respect that," the man smiled. "Respect is the wrong word. I admire it, I should say. It's a useful trait."

Justin noticed Hitmontop was not faring well against Alexander. Psycho Cut was, of course, super effective against Hitmontop and Mach Punch was not very effective against Gallade. He decided to change it up a little. "Counter!"

As Alexander landed a powerful Psycho Cut, Hitmontop countered phenomenally, wiping out its opponent. "Figures," the leader sighed, calling his gallade back. "You're up, Napoleon,"

His next pokemon, Napoleon, was a proud looking Manectric, whose powerful special attacks would go uncountered by Hitmontop. "Shockwave," "Counter!" Justin was unaware of that little tidbit and decided to change up his strategy when he saw Hitmontop stand idle as he took a powerful attack. "Mach Punch!"

"Your Hitmontop is very strong," the man nodded, "I would love nothing more than to continue this fight until he is defeated. And rest assured, with your terrible mind commanding him, he will be. But I am in a hurry and you have somewhere else you need to be. Now, it's gonna take both of us to agree on a cease-"

"I'm not giving up!" Justin yelled.

"You have no choice!" the man yelled back. "Your friends are going to die!"

Justin cringed at the thought. He looked from his opponent's face to the battle between Hitmontop and Napoleon, and then behind him where, in the distance, he watched as one of the men summoned a Mamoswine. It was incredibly powerful looking. He could make out the faces of his friends, if he could even call them that anymore, and saw that they were not optimistic. He jerked his head back to his opponent, who stood, arms crossed and a single eyebrow raised.

"What's it gonna be, kid?" he asked. Justin felt his heart pounding. What would happen to him and Nate if he let this man go with the money and the package? He wasn't sure what Team Deception was entirely capable of, but he figuring killing wasn't too far out of their way. Still.

"Hitmontop, stand back!"

"Napoleon, retreat!" Both the pokemon simultaneously backed away from each other, some confusion on each of their faces. "You've made a wise decision, Justin Smart," the man said. "I'm sure we'll meet again."

Justin didn't bother concerning himself with the fact that this man knew his name. Instead, he yelled "Come on!" to Hitmontop and began running back to the entrance of the cave, where the others were fighting. Hitmontop got there just in time to hear "Earthqu-" but decided not to wait for Justin's command to use Mach Punch on Mamoswine from behind, causing the "ake" to be replaced with "The hell?" Altogether, it was "Earthqu-The hell?" When Justin finally arrived, out of breath, he stood behind the enemy trainers and watched as Hitmontop went to town on Mamoswine.

"Lunatone!" the other trainer decided to jump in to help his buddy out.

"Nope," Justin shook his head, summoning Sudowoodo. That, of course, left Roselia, who was good and ready to just throw some more sleep powder everywhere. Justin looked down at his two remaining pokeballs, Nincada and Pinsir, neither of whom he wanted in this battle, though for two very opposite reasons.

He looked to his right, though, to see Da Bomb, who was formerly fainted, twitch his leg. He finally pulled himself up with a big yawn. It was knocked out for a good hour, but it seemed to gain enough energy from that hour's worth of rest to stand up. "Hey Da Bomb," Justin got down on his knees to pet the camel. "I know you're tired, but I need a favor. That Roselia over there is causing us problems. Think you could handle up on that?"

It nodded slowly and began walking around the quadruo of enemy trainers to throw embers all over Roselia before she managed to do any real harm. While those two fought, Justin noticed that Sudowoodo was quite a few levels weaker than Lunatone, as its Rock Throw was doing very little damage (if only Justin knew to tell it to use Wood Hammer).

Hitmontop was faring well against Mamoswine, taking some hits from Ice Shard here and there, but his Mach Punch was by far superior. The only iffy battle seemed to be against Lunatone.

[Kamaitachi]

With the battle whipping up all around them, Tag watched as the team of Nate, Raven and himself wore down. As far as he was concerned, they were now teetering on the brink of defeat.

Snapping back to life from his grim reverie, he followed Raven's order to switch up sans hesitation.

"Bachi! Fury Attack on Ariados!" He watched as the swap worked fairly well. Requiem's water gun washed over the Houndoom, Dexter, rendering it senseless. Requiem's water gun was growing increasingly powerful, Tag found himself musing.

On Nate's end of the battle, after his interference with Bachi, things seemed to look up, except that the Roselia had gone unscathed. A Sleep Powder later, and Bachi, too, was asleep. That meant his only pokemon able to even move was Kyoko, and that seemed like a fine enough bet to him.

Tag recalled Bachi before the Earthquake, if only to save his friend from the pain of the attack, but it never happened. This was because Justin Smart had come charging back into the fray.

Tag found himself a bit angry at this. The kid had run off, abandoning them to a fight, and now he got to charge in like some heroic cavalry. On the other hand, Hitmontop would be good in taking on the gargantuan Mamoswine, who would've been a huge problem to all involved.

"Kyoko, back out." With what could only be described as a blank look on her face, she appeared back on the field to relieve Justin's Bons---scuse...Sudowoodo. Bonscuse Sudowoodo. Hopefully, Justin would shift the rock throws over at Mamoswine, where it might've done more damage.

The drooling plant pokemon looked to be in pain still from the Weavile's pursuit slash. Evidently House's claws were as sharp as his human namesake's wit. However, there was a way to remove the threat of Earthquake all together. Tag found himself once again relying on one of his favourite moves in this arsenal:

"Worry Seed Lunatone!" The seed shot out with startling speed, alighting with a sharp stinging sensation of Lunatone's nose, wherein a small flower bloomed. Tag had been correct in his assumption, that Lunatone stayed afloat due to its Levitate Ability, just like the Koffing from Lenolia.

The Psychic Rock pokemon slammed violently into the floor, before turning itself slightly to fire off a psywave at Kyoko. The psychic waves lanced through the air, striking the grass pokemon heavily, sending her flying backwards. However, it seemed that she wasn't quite done yet.

Tag closed his eyes for a moment, mentally scanning the list of techniques in Kyoko's repertoire. He'd been using Kyoko mostly as a support pokemon for quite some time, aside from her acid attack. However, there was a move that would damage her opponent AND heal her.

"Kyoko, Mega Drain!" It worked like a charm. Kyoko ran/waddled over to Lunatone and shot out her little ribbons, wrapping them around the grounded Moon pokemon. With all the strength she could muster, she began to drain it of its energy, healing herself in the process. However, another psywave attack sent her flying back through the air at Tag, roughly back at square one.

"Kyoko, Sleep Powder!" He balled his hands up into fists, and rather uncharacteristically took a battle pose, pointing at his opponent. He hadn't done anything so...dramatic...as a pose since he was a young trainer just starting out. Perhaps being on the verge of losing brought out that old fire, that old love of battle.

Nah. It was just battle that brought out the love of battle.

Kyoko's pink powder floated gently about the Lunatone, who, grounded, was unable to avoid it. It closed its eyes, and if a floating piece of rock could snore with no mouth, it would've snored.

The other trainer, Jack, Will, or grace, he couldn't remember and in all honesty, didn't care, recalled the sleeping Lunatone, seeming somewhat at a loss as to what to do. Now it seemed to have all boiled down to Hitmontop and Mamoswine, then Da Bomb and Roselia. It seemed that things were looking up.

Unconsciously, he'd moved closer to Raven, however, watching the rest of the battle unfold. His face, surprised and flustered earlier, had returned to the normal cold, calculating gaze in which he viewed battles. He stood there, waiting for his moment to strike with Kyoko, while not getting in the way of anyone else. The pokemon in question moved back to Tag and Raven, waiting with Aria and Requiem.

However, the stillness of that group was broken as they heard

"Huh. Dexter, Fire Fang."

Evidently the Houndoom had not been as out for the count as they all had hoped. It launched forward, fire swiriling around in its vicious fangs before it clamped down hard on Kyoko.

Uttering something of a gasp, Tag watched as Dexter flung Kyoko around like a dog with a chewtoy, all the while his pokemon screaming in pain and terror.

"Kyoko, Sleep Powder!" Sadly, Kyoko seemed to preoccupied with being in immense pain to listen to her trainers orders. "Raven," he turned, grabbing her arm with a panicked grip, his eyes belaying intense concern for the well being of his friend. "Raven, help her." It was an odd quality in his voice. It sounded for all the world like he was...begging?

[Tymid]

Raven uttered a soft "Yes." of victory as enemy poke'mon fell out of battle, but blanched as Justin ran back in. Her face contorted in anger, and she screamed a vicious scream. "No, go ahead. We don't need your fucking help. Run away, asshole." She glared at him horribly, even as he revived the Numel and sent his Hitmontop after the Mamoswine. She knew that he would keep fighting, and yes, they needed his help, but now was a really bad time for him to come skipping in.

Tag had moved closer to her in the fray, and she could tell he was back on his game. "Good job, thank you." she said breathlessly, before sending Aria a Leer attack towards the Lunato-...oh, it was gone. She instead sent the attack towards the Mamoswine as Aria was sprinting towards the battle. She apparently understood, and was on her way to the large, icy beast. As the Luxio's eyes narrowed, and it's lips curled back in a snarl, the Mamoswine was temporarily distracted by the intimidating gaze, giving the Hitmontop a great opportunity to critical on the thing. Even Raven was slightly scared. Leering Shinx was one thing. Leering Luxio? Whole 'nother level of creepy. Especially when it was covered in scars.

A broad smile crossed Raven's face. They had done it. Once again, against immeasurable odds, they had achieved their goal. This had been a much harder encounter than against common street thugs, but they had done it. She turned to see the burning Roselia fall to the ground with a shriek, due to Numel's ember attacks. With the same broad smile on her face, she turned to Tag, expecting to see that familiar, tiny smile of victory on his face. As she was about to mention something about "Well, at least you weren't shot." her smile fell as he gripped her arm, and she saw the horrific sight of Kyoko on the ground, wailing in pain and the ground around smouldering, as well as the leaves on the top of her head flickering with flame.

As she heard the tone in his voice, her heart fell. Her face paled. Her face, in it's entirety, was in shock and dismay. She had never seen the strong man in such a state, and it was her fault. She had been too cocky; she thought the Houndoom was out of commission. Kyoko was suffering for it. As his weak voice asked her to help his poke'mon, she wrenched himself out of his grasp, backing away. She didn't say a word, and she was deaf to the world. She didn't see the other trainer smile, nor did she hear him utter another command for Fire Fang. Raven had to help.

Sprinting over to the fallen Kyoko, fumbling at Requiem's poke'ball at her hip, she summoned the tired poke'mon forth, and as she heard his rasping, exhausted and agonized panting, she whispered "One more. One more Water Gun. Take it out. Get it." She removed her jacket, and placed it over Kyoko, squishing out the remaining flame with her bare hands, ignoring the searing pain that it caused. Requiem was inhaling as best as he could to prepare for the Water Gun attack, but as the Houndoom charged past, aiming for the shrouded Kyoko, Requiem simply fell over, to exhausted to continue.

"Aria, Spa-..." she managed to get out, before the Houndoom's firey fangs sunk into her shoulder, and it's head began to shake. Planting her knees and toes into the ground, Raven's body was shaken ruthlessly as the Houndoom, determined to get to the Gloom underneath the jacket, burned and shook and tore at Raven's shoulder. Raven gritted her teeth, her body still guarding Kyoko's to the best of her ability. "I've...got...you..." she whispered to the plant, the stench of the Poke'mon the least of her worries. Every time she heard Kyoko whimper, she attempted to reach over and grab the loose sand and rock on Kyoko's opposite side, the blistered skin on her hands peeling off in the process. A snapping sound finally caused Raven to send her head back, and she screamed silently, the pain too great for her to get a sound out.

She didn't get a chance to see Aria leaping over and using Spark on the Houndoom, rendering the weak creature, finally, unconscious. Raven fell limply across Kyoko's form, and her eyes flickered open, and she saw a heaving, gape mouthed Requiem, water slowly dripping out of it's mouth. He was still alive, but he couldn't move. With her working arm, Raven groped, much like a flailing fish, for his Poke'ball. She was able to press the button to recall the poke'mon, whispering "I'm...sorry." to the Totodile, who she could tell was weakly trying to lift it's claw to touch her. Her clavicle was broken, and while there was visible puncture wounds, they didn't bleed. The extreme heat of the Houndoom's fangs had effectively cauterized the wound, and there was a slight amount of plasma leaking from them. Around each puncture wound, there was blistered flesh. Aria came over, nosing at Raven's hair, Raven being in so much pain that she couldn't move. A tear leaked out of Raven's emerald eye, her mouth open, panting for breath, but her hair lay like a mask in front of her dirty face, where the tear was making a pale trail through the soot.

She slowly propped herself up with her good arm, so not to squash Kyoko. Her other arm was limp, dangling grossly at her side. Her head hung low, her chin to her chest, her typically gorgeous hair tangled and matted with stress and dirt. With a loud groan, she sat herself up, using her other arm to drag her wrist slowly to her lap. She used the able arm to uncover Kyoko, who was in pain, but not on fire, like she had been. "Good...girl..." she rasped, reaching out the good arm to stroke the Gloom gently. However, as soon as her hand reached the Gloom, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell over backwards, in an awkward angle, her heels beneath her back.

Raven had blacked out.

This post has been edited by Tymid: Jan 14 2011, 02:06 AM

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Nate uttered a sigh of relief when he saw Hitmontop stop Mamoswine from unleashing Earthquake. Like Tag and Raven, he did not see Justin as some big hero, coming in to save the day, but he did see Hitmontop as such. Surely if Hitmontop was a person, he would be so much better than Justin in every way.

With Mamoswine distracted by Hitmontop and Lunatone by Sudowoodo, Nate took the opportunity to to kneel down next to Pinch. "Come on, Pinch," he said, shaking her claws. "Come on, girl. Wake up." He looked up when he saw Bachi being recalled and Kyoko come out. She did a good job taking care of Lunatone, much better than Sudowoodo was doing, at least. Then, he looked over to see Justin commanding Da Bomb, who apparently just woke up. Nate was honestly relieved that he was able to do that, as he, himself, was in an emotional shock at the whole situation.

He stood up and called back Pinch in an attempt to stay out of the way and just watch as the events unfolded. Hitmontop, with the help of Aria, managed to bring down Mamoswine. Da Bomb was finishing up with Roselia and Dexter pulled itself up. Nate watched as the hellhound had a dark look in its eyes as it stood. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out. He watched, in terror, as it charged Kyoko, its mouth bursting with flames.

When it bit down, it looked as though it was trying to tear her to pieces. He raised his eyebrows as he watched the vicious dog go to town. "Sleep Powder!" he heard Tag say, but Kyoko did not respond. He watched Justin's eyes wide open in surprise and then Tag break down. Justin wanted to jump in, but he was beaten to the punch by Raven, who summoned Requiem to finish off the houndoom. Reqiuem was unable to do so and then the worst of it happened.

As Dexter's fiery mouth tore into Raven, Nate had no reaction. He'd never seen anything so brutal. His breath ceased, his hands flew to his hair and he fell to his knees. "Oh my God," he managed to utter.

"Hitmontop!" he saw Justin point to Dexter, but, again, was beaten to the punch, this time by Aria, who refused to hesitate as she decimated the remaining consciousness of the houndoom. To everyone's shock, Raven was not yet out. She had enough strength to sit up and even speak a few words. She called Reqiuem back into her pokeball and fell over in a very awkward position.

There was silence. With Dexter gone, all of the opponents' pokemon were out of commission, either due to sleep or being knocked out. As Nate rushed over to Raven to try to move her legs so they didn't break underneath her, allowing her to lay down flat, Justin turned to the largest of the men, the one who had summoned the Mamoswine. The one whose face was beaten senseless by Justin's rage an hour earlier. Justin's rage was not gone. In fact, it was much stronger.

"You guys are gonna want to get the fuck out of here," he said, feigning calmness, though his face was turning a bright red. "Because I'm gettin' ready to kill every last one of you sons of bitches." They each took a step back, all of their pokemon now inside their pokeballs. "Now!" he yelled as Hitmontop spun around in front of his trainer. They all turned and ran.

With them gone, he called back Sudowoodo and Hitmontop. He didn't say anything to them, but they knew he was proud. Then, he walked over to Raven's beaten and broken body, looking down on her with Nate sitting on his knees next to her. Nate was filled with guilt. He had brought her into this to save Da Bomb and he was sure she was going to die. Justin just looked up to Tag, guilt all over his own face as well.

"I, uh," he began, not sure what to say. Sorry didn't seem like it would cut it. And in any case, there were bigger concerns. There was a very real possibility that she would die unless given very urgent care. More to the point, though, how do you move a body so battered down a mountain and back into a city without destroying it even more? "What do we do?"

[Kamaitachi]

Tag had frozen at the sight of Kyoko's brutal attack. Now he wished he'd been more of a man and rushed in to save his own pokemon. He'd asked Raven to help simply because she still had pokemon, but the woman had once again thrown herself in the way of bodily harm, this time with much more dire circumstances than the last. Tag could only watch, paralyzed with shock as the Houndoom tore into Raven's shoulders.

As he watched her silent scream, he suddenly found his will to move again and began to dart forward. He was ready to kick the skull dog, as it seemed to be his only defense left. However, Hitmontop beat him there, and Aria beat Hitmontop there.

As Justin gave a big manly threat, Nate moved Raven into a position where she wouldn't be able to break anything else. In this moment of duress, all of Tag's emotions seemed to fade away from his face, and even his person. He stood numbly over the girl who had moved to save his pokemon.

He looked to the guilt ridden faces of Justin and Nate, and realized that he felt just as guilty as the duo, simply because he'd asked something of Raven he should've done himself.

"Looks bad." He muttered darkly. They weren't too far up the mountain from Arasam, but Tag didn't feel comfortable moving Raven without knowing the severity of her injuries. There was only one thing that Tag remembered from the First Aid he'd learned concerning third-degree burn, and that was to place a dry, clean towel around the wound so as to not get it infected. However, he wasn't sure if he was dealing with burns, seeing as it was a bite mixed with fire that was dangerously hot enough to cauterize a wound. If the wound was cauterized, then there was no need to further stop the blood flow. Unfortunately, if the fire was hot enough to cauterize the punctures, then it was hot enough to have caused third degree burns on the skin, which was bad. However, Tag was unsure as to how much internal bleeding was occurring, and if there was any bone-breakage in her shoulder from the bite itself.

"One of you, go get help in Arasam." That was all he could think of. He felt really helpless, having no medical knowledge for this sort of thing, and the last thing he wanted to do was botch it up, further endangering her life. "Now."

As he took a seat next to Raven, he calmly scooped the unconscious, whimpering Kyoko into his lap, stroking her smelly little head-flower almost absently, if not reassuringly. Before long, he recalled her into her pokeball to rest, and as soon as Raven was okay, he'd take all of his pokemon to the center in Arasam.

This post has been edited by Kamaitachi: Jan 15 2011, 03:28 AM