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PMD: Eclipse of Worlds Team Polaris Mission 2 wip |
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Morana and Incultyr scoured the Bulettin Board. It has been nearly two weeks since their first mission at Starburst Islands. Both Morana and Incultyr has had sufficient time to recover, and they've agreed to take their second mission.
"Hmm...this one?" Morana asked, tapping one near the bottom of the board about someone who had dropped an egg in the Misty Forest. Incultyr read it over and shrugged.
"This one's as good as any I guess." he said, about to tear it off, but another Pokemon that had walked up the Bulletin Board knocked him aside by accident.
"Watch it!" Incultyr growled, catching his balance before he fell. The pokemon looked startled. He was slightly taller than Incultyr, his entire body a shade of steel blue. A mask-like area across his eyes were black, as well as his legs and two oval ears. Incultyr remembers seeing Pokemon like him before, but he can't seem to remember what their species was called.
"Oh, sorry about that. Are you ok?" The Pokemon asked. Incultyr looked back to the Bulletin board.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, trying to find the mission he was about to tear off, before he noticed the new Pokemon putting a piece of paper up. Incultyr stepped over to the pokemon, and without asking, tore it out of his hands.
"Hey!" The Pokemon cried, trying to snatch it back. Incultyr read the mission over.
"Through Warrior's Plateau huh?" Incultyr asked. The Pokemon stopped trying to grab it and nodded.
"Yeah...what about it?" He asked hesitantly. Incultyr walked over to Morana and handed her the paper.
"Well, what do you think, you want to take this?"
Morana accepted the Mission Sheet and read it over, then glanced up anxiously.
"Warrior's Plateau? All the way to the end? I don't know...it would take us at least a full day, and the area's all fighting types..." Morana didn't need to point out that both she, as a dark type, and Incultyr, as a rock type, are both weak to fighting. Although then again, Morana's never figured out why being a dark type made one weak to fighting types.
"It'll be good training, and honestly it sounds a bit more exciting than rescuing an egg."
"I...I guess." Morana still didn't like the idea of this mission, but she really didn't object enough to gain the courage to tell her partner no. Inculty rolled the Mission Sheet up and turned to face the other Pokemon.
"We'll take your mission. Me and Morana will go and prepare, we'll meet you just outside the castle tomorrow morning."
The Pokemon nodded, looking vastly relieved.
"Thank you! Well, I'm Altus, and you are...?"
"I'm Incultyr, and this is Morana. We're Team Polaris."
---
Morana and Incultyr split the 900 PD their team possessed and went to buy supplies. Morana for the food and Incultyr for items they might need. Both of them were startled to find how little they actually could do with their small stash of PD.
Both hoped they they can get more PD from this mission, because after they came back, their team had a total of only 9 PD remaining.
The next morning, Morana and Incultyr woke up early and headed to the font of the Castle just before sunrise. After waiting about five minutes, their client, Altus, joined them. He had a backpack on, and a headband wrapped around his head.
"Thanks a lot for agreeing to this." He told the two, bowing to each in turn. "As you probably already know, Warrior's Plateau is south of here." As he was talking, Incultyr took out a map of the Southern Territory, and pointed at the area labelled as the plateau.
"Where in particular are we heading to?" Incultyr asked, and Altus pointed at a canyon marked on the map, all the way on the other side of the plateau.
"Here."
Incultyr nodded and rolled up the map. "We don't have any time to spare then." He put the map away, and dug something out of his backpack. He handed one to Altus and one to Morana. They were small blue spheres, which Morana recognized as a Wonder Orb os some sorts.
"These are Rollcall Orbs. We each have one, and they can teleport nearby willing Pokemon to you. This is just a precaution, in case we are ever separated." Incultyr explained.
With everything prepared, they were ready to head out. As they turned to leave, Morana stopped Altus.
"Um...Just wondering...but, what kind of Pokemon are you?" It's been bugging Morana for a while, she just couldn't identify their client's species.
"Oh, well, I'm a Riolu."
---
Altus seemed to know the area well, and spent the entire journey there explaining things. The rocks, the plants, the Pokemon- you name it, and he had some information on it. because of this, Incultyr and Altus became fast friends, the Larvitar being always open to more knowledge. Morana trudged behind them, silent, offering words only when asked.
When the sun finally broke free of the distant mountains, the ground was noticeably sloped upwards. They had reached the plateau.
"Let's take a short break here." Incultyr suggested when Morana pointed this out, and everyone agreed. They found a small patch of grass that was flatter than the surrounding areas and sat down to rest.
"So Altus, why do you want to come here anyways?" Incultyr asked. The Riolu seemed to ponder the question for a moment, and hesitated.
"I'd just like to train and get stronger, that's all."
He was sure Altus was not telling the full truth, but he didn't push it. Altus seemed harmless enough.
Several minutes later, the group continued onwards, climbing up to the Plateau. The grass was thinning out, the land covered in reddish soil. The Sun was now fully up in the sky, unsupported by the peaks of the mountains. Even this early in the morning Incultyr and Riolu were beginning to feel the heat, although the fire-typed Morana felt no difference.
"So how much fighting do you expect us to see here?" Incultyr asked Altus, who thought about it for a moment before answering.
"A lot. Unlike most places, the Pokemon that live here lives for fighting and improving themselves. We'll get a lot of challenges. That's why I wanted an exploration Team escort. I can't make it by myself if I have to fight half the Pokemon the Plateau solo."
This of course, made Morana extremely uncomfortable. She really didn't want to do all that much fighting. And at about the same time, they spotted their first Pokemon up ahead of them.
Higher up, about fifty meters away, on the side of the slope a large boulder was embedded in the ground. On top of it rested some Pokemon, sitting down in an odd pose, facing the rising sun. Which happens to be behind the group, so the Pokemon must have seen them. If it had it wasn't showing any signs of it.
"Should we go around?" Morana asked the others nervously, when she pointed out the Pokemon she had spotted. Both of them thought it over for a moment, before being interrupted.
It seems the pokemon had noticed them after all.
"Halt, who are you?" It asked. Larvitar looked over to his partners, wondering if they heard the voice as well. It was a quiet voice, but the Pokemon was too far away to be heard unless if he had yelled.
"It's a meditite, a psychic type." Altus explained quickly, assuming that the other two would automatically connect 'psychic type' to the fact it must have used telepathy.
"We're an exploration team, and we're just passing through. Why do you care?" Incultyr asked cautiously.
"We do not permit passage to the weak of mind. Defeat us and pass, be defeated and suffer, or turn back and we will leave you be." This time it was two voices. Startled, Morana spun around and saw a second Meditite sitting on the grass, right behind them.
"Bring it, we didn't come all the way here just to go back." Incultyr challenged the two in a loud voice. He lowered himself into a ready stance, and Altus backed up to cover his flank. Morana nearly tripped over her paws as she backpedalled to form an outwards-facing triangle formation.
"Then let us test you."
The first Meditite jumped off of its rock, landing about a dozen meters off towards the group. It walked towards them, but stopped at about ten meters.
"We do not permit passage to the weak of mind!" Both Meditites echoed, and then a soft, wavering glow began to develop around them.
"Careful guys!" Altus warned them just as the glow radiated out of the two Medichams, flowed over the ground, and converged on the group.
What happened next Morana wasn't too sure, but she felt Altus stiffen up beside her, and he stopped moving. Incultyr twitched as the attack hit, and began shaking. Morana didn't feel anything wrong at all, as if the attack had simply just passed through her.
The two Meditites were closing in on them now, power pulsing from them. It seemed to get stronger, and Altus yelped and fell onto his knees, and Morana heard Incultyr growl in defiance. She still felt nothing.
Deciding that since her two teammates seemed to be incapacitated and she wasn't, she should really do something. And in the excitement of the happenings, she almost didn't notice that she had leapt forward, fangs bared, until she crashed onto the second Meditite. It was startled, not expecting Morana to be still able to function, and thus didn't offer much of a resistance. Morana had the Meditite pinned, her power jaws threateningly close to its neck.
Which its attack disrupted, Incultyr seemed to find the will to move. The Larvitar ran forward towards the first Meditite in a tackle. The Meditie seemed to be ready though, and shifted out of the way at the last second, leaving Incultyr to stumble past. A veteran of many battle though, Incultyr expected this, and grabbed the Meditite's arm on his way past. Both pokemon crashed to the ground, and after a quick scramble, Incultyr managed to pin the fighting type down.
"Well?" Incultyr asked.
"We yield, you may pass." The first Meditite told him, and Incultyr cautiously unpinned the other pokemon. Looking back, he saw Morana still on top of the other Meditite, staring at him for permission to release it. He nodded and she backed off of it.
"We have made a mistake it seems." The first meditite told the second one as they joined each other again.
"Yes, the little one is dark-typed. That's why our attack had no effect on her."
Both turned to the trio and bowed before leaving. They could continue.
Morana and incultyr turned their attention on their client, who was attempting to pick himself off the ground. He almost got up before on leg gave way and he tumbled back down to the ground.
"Are you ok?" Morana asked, worried, and still trying to figure out exactly what had happened. The Riolu shook his head and replied groggily, "Yeah...I have a headache but I'll be fine."
Incultyr and Morana helped Altus to his feet.
"It seems it's true that fighting types are weak to psychic attacks." Incultyr commented as they continued forward, him supporting Altus. He was starting to get his balance back, and after Morana handed him one of their Oran Berries, he was fine once more.
The land began top even and level out soon. Looking ahead of them, all Morana could see was an endless expanse of rolling hills covered with tough yellowing grass and small bushes. The sun was well above them now, heat beating down on the trio.
Altus wiped sweat off of his forehead, trying to ignore the glaring sun as he studied the map Incultyr had taken out. There weren't that many landmarks to go by around here, and they were worried they might be going in the wrong direction. Even Altus who knew this area so well wasn't entirely sure where they are.
"Well, there's a river that flows just west of here. If we can find it -which shouldn't be too hard, we should just travel west until we hit it- we can follow it south where it meets the canyon, but..."
"But what?" Incultyr asked, peering at the map and wondering why none of them had realized or said anything about this earlier. If there was a river that led to the canyon, then it would make things a lot easier.
"Well, it's the only reliable source of water for miles." Altus answered, sighing. "Most of the Pokemon live near it and protect their territories fiercely."
Morana stepped forward to look at the map.
"Why can't we just continue south until we hit the canyon- oh." She stopped when she saw the layout of the map. The River ran into the canyon, which continued south before turning east. It was possible for them to walk right past the Canyon if they simply went south.
"Well...let's head towards the river at an angle then. We'll have a pretty good chance of hitting the river, but we'll travel along it a bit less...is that good?"
Everyone agreed. Altus took the lead, Incultyr trailed behind, and Morana anchored their little formation. The sun was high in the sky now, baking the ground and distorting the air above it.
Ten minutes or so later, the group crested the top of a hill. The other side of the hill was already occupied.
About five grayish humanoid Pokemon stood at the base of the hill, all of whom were holding up large boulders, apparently trying to see who could hold up the heaviest. All five of them were laughing and joking with each other, but that stopped almost instantly when the five saw Team Polaris and their client. One of them pointed over at them and said something excitedly, and four of them dropped their boulders, heading up the hill towards them. The fifth kept his boulder above his head, walking up towards the trio.
"Morana, to my left, Altus, to my right." Incultyr ordered, and the other two wasted no time in following them, backing up so they were able to protect each other's flanks.
"We don't want to be separated, so stay close."
The Machops closed in, all looking rather eager, and of what, well, that was answered when the machop with the boulder hurled it at them. His aim was true, heading straight for the three pokemon.
Incultyr and Morana dived out of the way in opposite direction, but Altus stayed where he was, in a ready stance.
"Get out of the way!" Incultyr roared as he landed on his feet, five feet away from the nearest machop. Morana had sprinted away, from the boulder, and skidded to a stop to watch in horror as the rock fell.
Altus, however, didn't seem worried at all. Just before the boulder which was about three times his size was about to hit him, the Riolu jumped up and back, dodging it. The Boulder crashed into the hill with a thud.
With all three of them split up, the Machops closed in on them.
Two of them ran up to the top of the hill where Altus stood behind the boulder, two -including the one who threw the rock- circled to surround Incultyr, and the last one cautiously approached Morana.
Incultyr watched the two Machop closely as they attempted to surround him. He wasn't going to let him flank him anytime soon. He considered using Screech, what he considers the most effective move in his arsenal, but he understands that it would distract his teammates as much as his enemies, especially since Altus would not expect it.
So he settled for what he considers the second-best move in his arsenal. He gathered energy within his hands, waiting until he could get a good shot...
Morana was so constantly scared that she doesn't even realize it anymore sometimes. She watched the Machop approach her, and half of her wanted to run away as fast as she could from the fighting-type, while the other half was telling her exactly how to crouch and stalk and pounce on this would-be prey pokemon.
Before she could really decide between those two options, the Machop was there in front of her. She took a step back, he took two forward. And then the fight started, for the Machop leapt into the air at her, and brought one arm up presumably to strike her. Morana leapt aside reflexively, and when the Machop twisted to try and land facing her, she darted in.
Altus watched as the two machop approached him. He had jumped on top of the boulder, giving him the advantageous high ground. He was ready to fight the two- until something smashed into him from behind. He toppled off of the boulder and landed heavily on the slope. A third machop had jumped him from behind, and the two began to struggle together on the ground, both trying to get the upper hand. The other two Machops reached him then.
One of the Machops stumbled back as the dark pulse hit him squarely. He flinched as the dark energy went into him, and that was enough to make him lose his balance. The Machop stumbled and fell, and on the slope of the hill, he began to roll down, flailing.
Incultyr turned, facing the second Machop who seemed less sure of himself. After seeing his friend go down, he's probably cautious of the fact Incultyr has a ranged attack, and he doesn't.
Morana clamped her jaws down on the other Pokemon's ankle, calling flames to her throat and mouth, so that fire seeped out from between her teeth. The Machop tumbled to the ground, twisting to try and get his ankle free from her grasp.
She just bit down harder, drawing blood. Its tough skin protected the machop's ankle from cooking, but Morana imagined that it would still hurt quite much. She could taste the blood, and that set off the hunter in her. This was her kill, she will not lose it. Her fear was gone in that one exhilarating moment. Until the Machop got a good enough angle to chop down on her head. It drove her jaws to close together more, drawing a strangled cry from the Machop, but dazed, she immediately let go. The fire in her mouth extinguished.
Altus managed to extract himself from the fight with the machop that had jumped him, and he was carefully backing up as the two mahops helped the third get back onto his feet. His eyes momentarily distracted by Incultyr's battle, he watched one Machop roll down the hill quite a ways before he managed to top himself, stand up, and look extremely dizzy.
That gave him an idea.
"Ink, dodge!" The Riolu yelled as he turned, jumped on top of the large boulder, and landed behind it. Bracing his weight against the big rock, he pushed. Not well anhored to the side of the hill, it began to roll...
"My name's not Ink!" Incultyr roared, and looked up just in time to see three of the machops get scattered by the rolling boulder. The machop he was fighting took advantage of his distraction to kicked down low, tripping the Larvitar, who tried to ignore him and scramble out of the way of the boulder. It sailed past, knockinf the machop aside. It also clipped the larvitar on the side of his head, which drove it to collide with the ground.
Altus watched the boulder hit Incultyr and winced, ready to go over to help him when he noticed Morana dazed, trying to keep her balance as the machop next to her attempted to stand up with one mangled ankle. he looked angry and ready to chop Morana in half.
The Riolu stood there, trying to decide who to help, and then sprinted towards the houndour. There was no immediate threat to Incultyr yet. Just before the machop was about to attack the houndour, hand raised high up in order to strike, Altus ran past him and punched him in the face. Hard. With all of his momentum behind it. The poor thing was knocked out cold.
"Are you ok?" Altus asked Morana, who shook her head to try and clear it.
"Y-yeah...I think so." She murmured. Looking up and trying to stay on her feet, Morana's eyes fell on Incultyr.
"Oh my..." Morana and Altus went to Incultyr's side. His touch skin had protected him from having his head torn off by the boulder, by the impact with the rock and then consequently the ground had knocked him out. There's no telling how much damage it must have wrecked.
"Oh god...I'm so sorry...I..."
Morana stared at her partner fearfully, and then glanced around at the machops who were stirring. They couldn't stay here, they might get up and attack them again at any time.
Altus and Morana took turns carrying Incultyr until they were well away from the machops.
"Why did they attack us?" Morana asked at one point, carrying Incultyr on her back. Altus shook his head.
"I don't know exactly, but knowing the pokemon that live around here, they probably just wanted to test their prowess against new pokemon. I'm afraid both of us probably pushed it too far..." Altus's voice was choked and quivering. The Riolu still hasn't recovered from the fact what he did had possibly seriously injured Incultyr.
When they neared the river, two mankey stood in their way. Obviously frustrated, Altus didn't even wait for anything to be said. Before Morana had even caught up to him, the Riolu had grabbed the two pokemon, and smashed their heads together hard enough to make both faint. Morana only stared at the two unmoving pokemon for a second before running to catch up with Altus, trying her best not to jostle Incultyr whom then had secured to her back.
A few minutes later, Morana and Altus could see the River, and the ribbon of green that followed its path. Green grass grew on the ground and trees clung to the water's edge. Altus sprinted into the shade of a tree with relief, and Morana padded to his side.
She sat down and Altus helped lower Incultyr from her back. The sun was directly overhead now, beating down on the three of them. While it didn't bother Morana, even she could feel it.
Altus stared down at Incultyr, worry in his eyes.
“We can't just go along like this...if we follow the river north, it'll lead us back to the palace.” He suggested. Morana padded over to his side and pawed at Incultyr's backpack, digging something out of it while trying not to jostle the Larvitar too much.
“But...your mission...” Morana murmured, looking at Altus with concern. She finally found what she was looking for- their explorer's badge. “We can get back at any time with this.” She explained, holding the badge up for Altus to see before she put it into the pouch tied to her collar.
She nuzzled Incultyr before taking a step back and glancing over at the river. “I think we should take a break here. It's nearing noon, so we should eat. I have apples with me...”
Altus agreed, and the two Pokemon took out some of the apples from both Morana and Incultyr's bag. Morana headed to the river for a drink.
She padded up the riverbank. The edge of the soil dropped away sharply, with the water about a foot below solid ground. Morana stared at the water, which was a milky green opaque colour, and tried to figure out how to take a drink without falling in or getting wet.
And just as she was shuddering at the idea of getting wet, the water before seemed to explode, water flying up and then cascading back down, saturating her fur and drenching her to the bone. The shock of being doused in water paralyzed the Houndour, for whom too much water is anything but healthy.
“What the-!?” Was all she heard Altus yell out before something seemed to scoop Morana up and dump her in the river.
Ok, so, you've got Morana, who's usually a nervous wreck although she's been doing admirably well today, who's a fire type, who's also insanely terrified of water. Yeah, you guessed it, she's in permanent panic mode.
Morana's never been in water before, because, well, being in water is just a bad idea for her species. So she really didn't know how to swim, and her wild flailing was hardly any help. The current of the water was stronger than she though -the surface looked so placid and slow!- and it dragged her along, despite her best efforts to fight it. She tried to hold her breath, she really did, but the shock of falling in didn't really help with her control. So she breathed, and water came down, and she began to cough and hack. There was also the matter of what had dragged her down. It was probably still in the water.
Then she felt a big hand grab her midsection (She tried to bite it but the reflex to not get more water down her throat prevented her from doing it effectively) and then she was lifted up out of the water. She instantly began coughing and hacking. Shuddering, Morana was barely aware as she was placed onto the shore.
“Are you ok!?” She heard Altus yell, and within seconds the Riolu was by her side, shaking her. She coughed up some more water, shivering violently. She felt her inner fire flicker, trying to stay alive.
She really didn't know what was going on, but she caught snatches of conversation as she laid there, semi-conscious.
“The fight is off, we must tend to the little one...”
“I'm sorry for attacking so suddenly, I didn't think anyone else would have come here...”
“She's going to be ok.”
“Morana, wake up damn it, Anna!”
She raised her head with a jerk at the familiar voice. Blinking and trying to shake off the nausea, she looked up to see Incultyr standing by her, looking worried.
“Ink...you're ok...” She murmured, twisting her head to see him better past a strand of hair that had fallen down in front of her eyes. Incultyr brushed it away.
“I have a headache but I had an oran berry, and I'll be fine Anna. What I'm worried about is you.”
Altus appeared next to Incultyr.
“Thank goodness you're awake, here, eat this.” Altus took out an Oran berry. Incultyr took it from him and helped Morana eat and swallow it. She felt better immediately, although part of her noted that this was the third Oran berry out of the four they had brought.
“Thanks.” She said weakly, smiling. She shivered, rolled over, and promptly began to throw up.
When she finally felt better, she got up onto her feet and looked back to see a peculiar sight. About a dozen pokemon excluding Incultyr and Altus were standing there About half of them were big and blue, and the other half were about half the size and yellow. All of them were looking at her.
She felt really self-conscious then. It seems she had been lying on dry land long enough to dry out completely, but that had left her fur in a tangled mess, with sand and soil strewn in. Couple that with the fact she had just thrown up, and she felt like a complete wreck.
“What...what happened?” She asked in a small voice, not liking the attention she was getting.
One of the big blue pokemon stepped forward.
“I'm sorry. We the Poliwrath Clan had agreed upon a battle today here with the Combusken Clan. When you approached the water where we had planned out fight, we thought you were them, so we attacked. I apologize for myself and on the behalf of the entire clan.”
The Poliwrath then bowed before stepping back. One of the yellowish pokemon stepped forward.
“I'm sorry you were caught up in this little ones. We heard that you are heading to the canyon down south?”
Morana nodded, and then looked over to Incultyr for help. She really wasn't all that comfortable talking with these Pokemon, especially the big blue ones. Incultyr obliged and stepped forward, taking out his map as he went.
“Yes. You said you know where it is and where we are right?”
The Combusken nodded, and the two pokemon began to discuss it over the map. Altus dropped a small pile of apples by Morana's feet.
“If you're feeling up to it, eat something. Both me and Incultyr have finished lunch.” he said, and by the way he stole an odd glance over at the Larvitar when he said this, Morana assumes that the Riolu had found out about Incultyr's diet of soil.
Morana thanked him and quietly worked her way through the apples, barely tasting them. As always when she ate apples and berries and other “prey-food”, a part of her wished for meat.
Incultyr walked over to her as she finished off the last apple, and laid the map down. Several meters away the Poliwrath and Combusken were rescheduling their fight to later that week. After waving the trio goodbye, the fire-types headed back into the wide flat expanse of the Plateau and the Poliwrath dove into the water.
“We are here, according to the Combusken.” Incultyr indicated the spot on the map, next to the river.
“The area where the river meets the canyon is here.” He pointed at an area not that much farther south.
“So we're not all that far off.” Altus commented, and Incultyr nodded as he rolled the paper up.
“Yeah, so let's finish this.”
They were relatively undisturbed as they continued their way down the river. Morana was understandably more nervous and kept away from the banks of the river. Altus was surprisingly quiet, and Incultyr was still trying to ignore the headache caused earlier by the boulder.
And thus none of them really talked much. At one point they bumped into a Croagunk arguing with two Heracrosses. When the three irritated pokemon lashed out at the trio, the Houndour, Larvitar, and Riolu beat them back surprisingly effectively. Even more grumpy, the three of them stepped aside and continued their argument as if nothing had disturbed them.
 Cherry_chain · Mon Feb 15, 2010 @ 01:05am · 0 Comments |
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