Fire Province: Blaze Desert(30F Mystery Dungeon) 15F: Blaze Oasis: Age of Mew(waning): Year 656: Crustle's Caravan, Part 5
Moonbrand Present: Magdalene, Gina, Bennett, Verden
Gina wasted no time in firing an Ice Shard towards the gyarados in the oasis, however, even as she did so, the gyarados countered with a quick Dragon Rage, and the ice was sent straight back into Gina's front left femur.
Cassius the crustle could hear the bone snapping from back inside his wagon.
"Gina!" Verden worriedly exclaimed as Magdalene hurriedly used a Disable.
"Hup!" Bennett shot a Toxic sphere towards the gyarados, who was easily able to weave her body around it, and responded to Bennett's attack with a Scald blasting from her mouth.
Bennett took the full force of the attack and was knocked back towards the caravan wagons. As he tried to scream in pain, he realized that his throat had been burned so severely that he couldn't make any real noise with his vocal chords.
"Gina, can you still move?" Verden asked as he ran up to her, while quickly tossing a Spore seed towards the gyarados, only to have the wind in the desert blow the spore directly onto Gina.
"Well, I guess this makes it easier to protect you." He sighed as he made sure to block the gyarados's line of sight to Gina.
"You will give my pressures treasures BACK!" The gyarados roared as clouds began to move in over the oasis and a heavy rain began to pour down on the sandy area.
Magdalene concentrated with all her might on launching an Extrasensory attack upon the gyarados, who quickly recoiled in pain from the mental pressure.
Verden, realizing the team desperately needed a group huddle or something, shot as large of a Spore attack as he could at the gyarados, however, the serpent was able to swerve her body and dodge the attack without effort. Bennett saw the opportunity to flank the gyarados and let loose another Toxic. This time, the poisonous projectile managed to splatter itself all over the serpent, who let out an ear-piercing howl. Unfortunately, Verden's previous Spore was so strong, Gina slept soundly through the atrocious noise. Magdalene kept up the fight with another Extrasensory attack, reality around the gyarados's face warping to damage her psyche.
"Guraooohhhhh!" The gyarados screamed in agony as she writhed in pain from the attack that left no physical scars on her body.
"Gotta make a distraction." Verden mumbled to himself as he created a nearly perfect looking substitute which then ran off towards the gyarados, making as much of a riot as a substitute possibly could in order to get the serpent's attention. Bennett, once again taking advantage of the opportunity Verden had presented him with, charged up a Shadow Ball and fired it at the enraged gyarados. However, the gyarados noticed the attack in the knick of time and used an Aqua Tail to bat the Shadow Ball towards the Verden substitute, which nimbly dodged the attack and jumped out of the area now affected by the newly formed sinkhole. Bennett fired off another Shadow Ball from near the caravan, nearly sniping the gyarados in her head, knocking her incredibly off-balance.
As the gyarados turned her attention towards Bennett, Magdalene let loose another Extrasensory, though the gyarados seemed unaffected by the warping this time. Her attention was too focused.
Verden realized this, and quickly had his substitute launch a Seed Bomb towards the serpent, hitting her right in her belly, causing her to keel over in pain as her eyes narrowed in on the substitute once more, much to Verden's relief. The gyarados let a large Scald shoot out of her mouth towards the substitute, and almost immediately, the entire substitute melted down to the ground as the sand below it become an unnerving boiling mud.
Realizing that the substitute was a trick, the gyarados snapped her head to look back at Verden, the real one. "YOU! That trickery was used by one of the thieves! You've poisoned me to chip away at my energy, you've stricken me with techniques I can't comprehend, and now you've done this cowardly actions! That settles it! You must DIE!" She shouted before letting loose another Scald, this time aimed directly at Verden.
"Gaaahhhh!" Verden screamed as he absorbed all of the Scald that he could, making sure none of it accidentally harmed the sleeping Gina. As he gritted his teeth to brace through the boiling pain, and realized he wasn't burned anywhere, he quickly turned to talk to Gina.
"Don't worry, Gina. We're not out of this yet at all." He smiled before quickly kissing her forehead and tossing a Leech Seed into the air.
"V-...huh?" Gina opened her eyes, and, upon realizing the rain, immediately began to create Hail instead.
The resulting effect was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. The Leech Seed broke apart in midair and each piece attached itself to falling hall, those that feel in the oasis quickly both pelting the gyarados and sapping her of energy, however, Magdalene and Bennett both quickly found themselves subject to the same adverse effects, and Verden himself was pelted by the Hail, which the still groggy Gina seemed to have no true control over. Bennett, despite having taken serious damage prior to this, noticed that the strange hail had somehow managed to heal his burn as though it had never happened in the first place.
"Huh...cool." He said, groggily, as Gina regained consciousness.
"Huh? Oh!" She soon realized where she was and what was going on.
"Did you enjoy your nap?" Bennett asked Gina as he tossed another Shadow Ball at the gyarados, which managed to scrape the serpent's body as she found it increasingly difficult to move thanks to the plenty of Leech Seed Hail pellets covering her body.
"It was more pleasant than...whatever this fiasco is." Gina said as she looked around at Magdalene, Bennett, and the gyarados all covered in the Leech Seed Hail, and Verden, flinching with each successive Hail pellet to hit his head.
"You caused this fiasco!" Magdalene told it like it was.
"It's best we talk about that later." Verden said as he stood up to face the gyarados. "Right now, we need to focus on subduing her. Come on!" He announced as he tossed a Seed Bomb, which, while it went wide, it did gain the gyarados's attention.
Magdalene once again performed an Extrasensory attack, though by now it appeared that the gyarados had resigned herself to accepting the warping reality that Magdalene was making her witness. Gina let loose a Frost Breath, and as the gyarados's body began to slowly run out of energy and lose heat thanks to the ice-attack, Bennett once again fired a Shadow Ball.
It was the final hit to cause the gyarados to lose consciousness, as she fell down towards the mud that the precipitation had created out of the sand. Everyone managed to move out of the way before the thud occurred, and after they had waited for a few more seconds, the Hail died down and the desert sky cleared back up again.
"Well….I don't know how you did that Leech...Hail...thing, but please don't involve us in it next time." Magdalene sighed as she wolfed down an oran berry along with a max elixir, as Bennett and Gina did the same, while Verden carefully nibbled on his own, making his disgust with the taste and texture of the berry clear with every movement of his lips.
"I'm not sure how we did that either," Verden said as he scratched the back of his head. "All I know is that now that I know we can do it, it would do us some good to try perfecting it."
"Not while on the mission though." Bennett grinned. "Do it during down time, while you two are chilling."
"The annoying ghost is right though." Magdalene agreed. "If you do want to practice, a mission isn't the time or place to do that."
"Remind me again why we haven't moved on yet to complete the mission then?" Gina asked.
"Two reasons." Verden replied with a smile and a gesture towards Gina's front left leg. "We need to decide how to handle your broken bone, because nothing else could make that sound, and we also…" Verden looked back towards the gyarados. "Should probably hear her out when she wakes up. If there are thieves in these parts, they might have gotten their hands on the goods that the vibrava stole the other day."
"Will she talk willingly and calmly though?" Magdalene pondered. "She did kind of just try to kill us."
"She'll be willing, alright," the heliolisk in the distance sneered at the mercenaries eating their lunches."But that's exactly the trap! Kekekekekek! Kek!"
Fire Province: City of Emberguard: Artisan District: Age of Mew(waning): Year 656: Espionage in Emberguard, Part 5
Moonbrand Present: Aaron, Terune, Hex
Aradia's Schedule:
6:00 AM: Wake Up, Get Ready
7:00 AM: Breakfast in Mansion
8:00 AM: Approve or Deny petitions for future appointments from Emberside locals.
9:00 AM: Feed and Groom Hereweald*
10:00 AM: Collect Information Walking Around Nobility District
11:00 AM: Peruse Artisan District, Head to Calbridge by hour's end
12:00 PM: Lunch at Visha's Court
1:00 PM: Exit Visha's Court``
2:00 PM: Return to Mansion, Meet With Scheduled Emberside Locals
3:00 PM: Feed and Groom Hereweald*
4:00 PM: Walking Hereweald^
5:00 PM: Walking Hereweald^
6:00 PM: Return to Mansion, Dinner Feast
7:00 PM: Bath, Get Ready, Head to Calbridge
8:00 PM: Ballroom Party in Visha's Court
9:00 PM: Return To Mansion, Feed and Groom Hereweald*
10:00 PM: Set Hereweald to Sleep, Retire to Bedroom+
*: If wearing ring, remember to use Magic Room before entering
^: Avoid another 'Sunstorm Incident'. Free Roaming at rival owned lands only.
``: Make sure the others all leave before you do. No one but you can be left alone with him.
+: If successful at ballroom party, retire to Calbridge.
10:45 AM
"Aradia's schedule sure does...reveal a lot." Aaron noted as he, Hex, and Terune walked around the Artisan district, full of enterprising craftsman attempting to outshine the others pursuing a livelihood in the same skillset. "Why can't we just call this proof enough that she's got a heatran?"
"Because it isn't." Hex responded. "Anyone could have written this down, and from the look of things, I believe Inkeri transcribed this. This is not the handwriting of nobility."
"So um…" Terune wondered aloud. "How are we supposed to follow her when as, non nobles, we can't get into most of the areas she'll be?"
"That's what makes this espionage, kid." Aaron grunted. "Gotta be all stealthy, because we aren't supposed to get caught by the target in the first place.
"Looking over this again…" Hex looked at the schedule. "It seems like we might actually already have a clue to the properties of the tether for this alleged heatran. The ring mentioned at the bottom of the schedule. I think that's probably the jewelry Inkeri was talking about."
"But how do we get her to show us the ring closely?" Aaron pondered. "I doubt she'll even talk to us unless she thinks we're nobility, or if we construct a convincing enough lie that we're residents of the township of Emberside, but making an appointment seems like it could take months, and I doubt we have nearly that much time."
"Then we'll have to go with the convincing nobility lie." Hex grinned. "How well can you guys fake proper etiquette?"
"Um...Not at all." Terune answered honestly.
"Ah, Milady Marquise, you look as lovely as I've heard." Aaron replied, surprising even himself with how convincing it sounded. "I am Aaron, Earl of Claybreach, in the Rock Province. I have travelled here on a whim, asking all nobles I have encountered for aide in the form of soldiers so that I might liberate my lands from the Obsidian Legion, and I was directed to you by Queen Tashia herself."
"Maybe don't mention Tashia to a noble of an outer settlement?" Hex realized. "How about something like, I was directed to you by Visha himself I was. He told me, there is not a kinder and more beautiful woman in all of Emberguard!"
"Well, if you're so good at it, why don't you do it?" Aaron asked.
"I thought you'd never ask." Hex's grin grew wider. She looked around and noticed a magmortar guard.
"Pardons, guard, might I have a moment of your time?"
"I haven't seen you here before, madam." The magmortar responded. "You speak as though you are of noble blood, yet the Dragon Province is both far away from here and largely silent since the terrorist attack. What is your purpose here in Emberguard?"
"Peace, guard, I am merely an estranged Duchess, who has been journeying back to her home to find out what might be transpiring there. I have heard that Duke Visha hosts lunch in Calbridge Hold that noblewomen are free to attend. Have I heard truth, or have I missed a point?"
"The lord's luncheons? I'm sorry to say, milady, that those are solely for nobles looking to wed, either to the lord himself or just in general. It is a ceremony he brought back with him from a trip he once took to Momiji, if you can believe it. Apparently many powerful unions between nobles can be made through the process. Unfortunately, the lord is a bit too hesitant for his own good, and has yet to choose a wife of the plenty of noblewomen that to this day dine and dance with him."
"It's weird." Aaron whispered to Terune while Hex spoke to the guard. "The more I hear about Visha, the less I hate his guts, and the more I feel kind of bad for him. He clearly doesn't have any confidence in himself whatsoever. I don't really want to fight him in a civil war if I can help it. There's got to be another way to resolve all this."
"Wishful thinking at best, foolish ignorance at worst." Hex responded as she returned from the guard. "In any case, I've got some good news for you two. We've managed to get ourselves into the Nobility District and Calbridge Hold. I am a noblewoman, and the two of you are my closest retainers. You get doors for me and all that. You also defend me with your lives if things get dicey. Basically, you are to me, what Cochrane and Inkeri are to Tashia."
"So are we actually going to that lunch party?" Aaron asked.
"Yep. You may even get betrothed to a noble who takes a liking to you if you're lucky!"
"That's…." Terune looked around. "I think I'm too young for that…"
"You read Charlie's book, kid." Aaron grunted with a bit of a laugh. "You don't get to use the 'too young' excuse after doing that."
As an oricorio cooed 11 times, the three noticed a braixen walk out of the gates to the Nobility District, and as she walked around, looking at the various artisan stations, both Terune and Aaron nearly went slack-jawed and how exceptionally beautiful the braixen was.
"Milady, Aradia!" The magmortar guard bowed. "Your presence in our artisan district is an honor, milady!"
"The honor is mine." Aradia responded quietly with a smile. "Everyone is so skilled here. So ambitious. It's very admirable, I think."
Hex grinned as she saw the conversation unfolding before her. "Ready to get started?" She turned to ask Terune and Aaron, who were both still transfixed.
"Boys!" Hex snapped in front of their faces, shaking them out of their stupor.
"I'm the noblewoman you serve, alright?" She asked, inflecting her voice to sound far more prim and feminine, akin to how Aradia had sounded. "So please keep me at the forefront of your minds as we go through with this plan, my cherished and loyal friends."
Fire Province: Town of Wildeburn: Age of Mew(waning): Year 656: The Wildeburn Summit, Part 5
"Contestant #10, Ornia the carbink, and contestant #16, Gertrude the gardevoir, please take to the newly reconstructed arena!" Alvar announced as he motioned towards a newly paved arena.
"I would rather not shame a Serenity Soldier in such a trivial setting." Gertrude announced as both she and Ornia moved to separate ends of the arena. "Forfeit now, and avoid an unnecessary and disgraceful defeat."
"I believe the gardevoir should watch her tongue, before I rip it out!" Ornia snarled. "Do not talk of Tapu Lele's chosen as though you are on par with them!"
"I am not on par with them." Gertrude conceded, before lifting her head up and looking down at Ornia, only moving her eyes to do so. "I'm far above them."
"I can't be the only one thinking this will be over in like, two seconds, right?" Bravero asked.
"The two fights I've seen Gertrude in both lasted...very few seconds." Conlan agreed.
"I like the one where she lost to Sari." Rudo snickered. "It must suck that she was so easily defeated by a salazzle, only to then see Conlan creatively defeat one before her very eyes."
"The riolu would do well to realize that she has a fight coming up next, and should therefore be focusing on how to not get utterly demolished by me!" Pierce laughed from behind the rest of Moonbrand, sitting on the bleachers.
"Um…" Mandy turned back to him. "I'm going to say it now, since it will bother me if no one brings it up. You...do realize that you are incredibly weak to moves like Force Palm and Reversal right? Rudo loves to use both of them."
"Don't forget Copycat!" Rudo smiled. "And Endure and Counter!"
"Yes, tell me your move set before the fight, that's not a recipe for defeat at all." Pierce gave a sarcastic chuckle.
"Hey, the fight! Watch it!" Satinka hissed as she pointed back to the arena.
"Match 3, Ornia the carbink and Gertrude the gardevoir!" Alvar announced. "Pokemon ready...begin!"
Gertrude, as both Conlan and Rudo expected, held out her arm as she fired a Hypnosis.
Ornia immediately fell to the ground.
"You all may not want to watch. This is embarrassing for the Serenity Knight." Gertrude announced to everyone watching as she knelt down near Ornia, and slowly hovered her mouth over the white rocks on the carbink's small neck, slowly draining a strange form of energy from her opponent, before bringing her head up and licking her lips.
"Yep." Conlan sighed. "It's the Dream Eater strategy again."
"I think putting the opponent to sleep is a cowardly way to fight." Rudo crossed her arms. "Ornia can't defend herself while she's asleep."
"I think the point Gertrude would make is that Ornia should have been able to avoid being put to sleep at all." Bravero responded.
As Ornia had yet to wake up, Gertude leaned in again.
"This isn't entertaining at all, where's the fighting?" Pierce complained, only to be shushed by Satinka.
Gertrude pulled herself back up again much earlier this time, and gave a slightly puzzled look.
"Oh I see." She nodded after finally realizing what was happening. "Ladies and gentlemen, Ornia knows I'm using Dream Eater. As such, she's begun to shut down her dream complexity so that I have trouble finding them. A very good way to protect yourself while you sleep. Unfortunately, if I can't defeat her the painless and intimate way, I'll defeat her the other way."
Gertrude put her hand up to the carbink.
"What other way?" Ornia asked as her eyes shot open and she zoomed up into the air once again. "Ancient Power!" She announced as molten rocks from all over began to float and zoom in towards Gertrude, each colliding with the gardevoir with more force than the last.
"Moonblast!" Gertrude responded as she held out her hand and shot a beam of white energy from a small moon at the carbink.
"Nice try, but Tapu Lele has me protected!" Ornia exclaimed as the beam bounced off a Light Screen circling around Ornia.
"Don't act like you've turned this battle around." Gertrude shook her head and held out her hand again, firing another Hypnosis, though this one Ornia easily dodged, whilst she barraged Gertrude with a Rock Throw of counterfire. Gertrude spun out of the way and as she turned to face Ornia again, she let another Hypnosis go free from her hand, and Ornia once again began to descend to the ground, though Gertrude caught her in her arms before she could.
"There we go. All over now." Gertrude tried her best to point blank Moonblast the carbink, but with the Light Screen still in effect, she couldn't do anything.
"This is actually taking way longer than I thought it would." Bravero yawned. "You sure they aren't trying to use Hypnosis on us?"
"You, be quiet." Gertrude pointed at Bravero. "Do not wake my opponent."
She sighed, out of options, as she leaned in for a Dream Eater yet again, this time managing to gulp up a fair amount of dream energy as the bruises she received from being hit with Ancient Power began to heal.
"Great, now she's winning again." Rudo sighed as Gertrude leaned in for yet another Dream Eater feast.
"Oh wait a minute…" Conlan noticed. "This is like, the fifth or so time she's used Dream Eater, right?"
"Yeah, and?" Rudo asked.
"Well, I think Ornia might be stalling." Conlan responded. "Light Screen is still affecting things after all, and eventually, Gertrude is going to run out of Dream Eaters to use, and will have to resort to tactics she know won't work. Ornia is trying to back Gertrude into a corner."
As Conlan talked, Gertrude's Dream Eater seemed to get weaker with each use.
Her most recent one was the quickest Dream Eater yet.
Ornia had still yet to wake up, however, so Gertrude once again proceeded to lean in for a Dream Eater, though nothing seemed to find its way back to Gertrude.
"If Ornia is religious, she's probably very good at clearing her mind of things like dreams and thoughts, right?" Mandy asked.
"I mean, I think that's probably not true of all religious pokemon," Rudo thought about it. "But someone as clearly devout as Ornia definitely has some sort of skill when it comes to meditation."
Gertrude was clearly losing patience as she once again leaned down for the Dream Eater, which once again yielded no results.
Just when it seemed like nothing was going to change, Ornia's Light Screen disappeared.
Gertrude grew a wicked smile.
"Moonblast!" She announced as she put her hand right towards Ornia's body, and immediately sent the carbink flying so fucking hard that when she hit the ground, she kept sliding for a good kilometer.
"Ornia is definitely no longer able to battle." Alvar announced. "Therefore the winner is Gertrude! Gertrude moves on to the next round of the tournament!"
"Oh man, oh Mew, oh my!" Pierce grinned as he rubbed his spike-like hands together. "I'll get to battle that sexy gardevoir in the next round? Let's get this next fight done and over with!"
"I think you might be jumping the gun a little there." Conlan turned to look at Pierce.
"She can jump my gun, if you know what I mean!" Pierce held his hand up for a high-five, without realizing that even Conlan didn't have his girlfriend right next to him, and did want to high-five, Pierce's hand was a fucking spike.
"Good luck out there, Rudo." He instead wished Rudo luck. "Not that you'll need it against that poor kid."
"Hey, the reward for beating this kid is getting to beat up Gertrude. I'm already more determined to win than he even realizes." Rudo laughed. She gave Conlan a quick kiss before heading off towards the arena. "I'll be back in just a sec!"
"The next match will now begin!' Alvar spread his white wings with a roar. "Rudo the riolu and Pierce the pawniard, please take your positions in the arena!"
"You ready to lose?" Pierce smirked as he and Rudo took fighting stances.
"I was about to ask you the same question." Rudo replied.
AN:
Aight, Caravan four, send in any questions for the now hopefully subdued gyarados. Who knows? She may just have some interesting knowledge to share.
Also, Pierce, strategies for how to deal with Rudo would be very much appreciated.
AN2: OC Sheet
OC Name, Sex, Species:
OC Home Province (Where they are from):
OC Role(Teammate Hopeful, Other Team Member, Minor Villain, Commoner, Etc.):
OC Profession(Are they unemployed like Terune, are they a veteran like Concordia, an assassin like Semora, etc.?):
OC Moveset:
Move 1(From Natural Movepool):
Move 2(From Natural Movepool):
Move 3(From Natural Movepool):
Move 4(From Natural Movepool):
Alt Move 1(Can be TM or Egg Move):
Alt Move 2(Can be TM or Egg Move):
OC Personality:
OC Background:
Anything Else Doobop Should Know:
That's all or now! Thanks for reading ^.^!