VGS2's notes: As you can tell by the chapter title... in this chappie, a strange character from Baldi's Basics Plus will be showing up to darken the whole floor when you don't look at him, all to piss everyone off! :D
... I'm kidding, of course. Honestly, I'll bet none of you even know that game got a full(ish) release recently, did you? XP Honestly, I'd recommend going and buying it, if you like a fun little game that's, as of now, constantly updating. It seems the creator wanted to take it beyond meme status and actually make it a fun time to remember!
Anyways, enjoy the final chapter of the bluff! Then we can finally do shit that's recognizable to long-time Questing For Respect™ fans! :P
Last time: A shitty sword showed up to annoy everyone. He's not very popular.
Chapter Seven: The Test
While continuing her travels through Drenched Bluff with the others, Buneary checked herself over as she walked. No thanks to that lileep from earlier, her front was all muddy and nasty. Thankfully, she was aching less than before, so it wasn't much of an issue.
Looking over at the others, she saw Corsola and Snorlax walking along, with Yamask and Aegislash floating nearby.
Also nearby was Remoraid, who was still a... well... a remoraid. Amazingly, although he'd shrunk from devolving, his bag and twisted headband still fit him perfectly as he flopped along the ground.
The rabbit had to do a double take. Surely, his gear had been bigger before...
She kept thinking about it up until Snorlax piped up. "Oh, here we are, the next floor!" he exclaimed, cheerfully pointing towards a large, distant hole in the floor.
Curiously, sunlight was also pouring out of it. A nice contrast to the general darkness of the caves, kept alight only by what seemed to be some kind of dungeon magic.
Buneary and Corsola cheered, while Yamask and Remoraid gave sighs of relief.
"Is the next floor the final one?" Buneary asked.
"Must be! There's sunlight!" Corsola replied.
"What? Why's there sunlight underground?" Yamask asked, scratching his head. "There shouldn't be any sunlight going down, should there?"
"There would be if someone used Sunny Day..." Aegislash replied with an air of cheekiness to his voice.
"Well... most of the time there shouldn't be. Eheh."
"Actually, the next floor's the second-to-last one," Snorlax interjected. He grinned. "Buuut... there's an extra special surprise waiting on the way to floor six!"
Buneary clasped her paws together in excitement. "Ooh, really?" she asked.
"S'it that big hole in the wall where you see-?" Remoraid started, until he was shushed by Snorlax.
"H-Hey, now, you'll ruin the surprise!" he chastised. "Anyway, let's go!"
The gang eagerly went towards it. On looking down it, Buneary saw a long ramp to the next floor. Along the side of the wall was a huge, jagged gash with sunlight streaming through it. Wow. There really was underground sunlight!?
Curious, Buneary bounded down the ramp in large hops, being followed by Corsola and Yamask. Briefly shielding their eyes from the unexpected brightness, they peered through the hole to a pretty sight.
Surrounded on all sides by a giant wall of naturally-formed rock pillars was a huge canyon, lit up by the rays of the morning sky above. At first glance, it appeared to be a huge grassy field, with pathways woven into it and massive boulders dotted around... but on closer inspection, it all seemed to actually be thick moss instead of grass.
Loud, rushing water could be heard coming from somewhere, like a waterfall was nearby. However, Buneary couldn't see anything like that, save for the many rivers and ponds throughout the mossy canyon. Maybe they were related in some way?
The rabbit watched the scene in front of her in wonder. Wow... who knew such a place could exist? A canyon filled with moss. It would sound ridiculous if she'd tried to tell someone, yet here it was.
"Gosh..." Yamask said, looking just as amazed. "I never knew this place was in Drenched Bluff! I thought it was all just underground, or something!" He excitedly clenched his fists. "It's so cool!"
"Yeah!" Buneary agreed. She tilted her head. "But... wait, if we're not underground, how are we... like... under sea level?"
"Out there's a... valley thing, or whatever," Remoraid said, coming closer. "So up the wall's all land, and stuff. So the place is just frickin' weird, pretty much."
"Ah, um... okay," she replied, sort of understanding what he meant. She smiled again while bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Well, either way, this place is lovely~!"
"Um, if you say so..." Corsola replied, rubbing her head in what seemed to be contemplation. "Just looks like a field of rocks and really soggy grass to me."
"Aww, I think it looks nice," Buneary replied, slightly dejected.
Smiling awkwardly, Corsola waved her hands reassuringly. "W-Well, whatever floats your lapras is fine by me. I'm just sayin'."
"Well, uh... all the same," Snorlax said, with a smile halfway between pleasant and awkward. He stopped beside the three pokémon, closely followed by the remaining two. "Here it is! The thing that gives the bluff its name!"
"... All the moss?" Corsola asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah! The-" He stalled with a bewildered frown. "What? N-No!"
"Because it's... deceptive?" Yamask asked.
Snorlax huffed out a laugh, but stopped himself with a shake of the head. "Uh, wrong sort of bluff."
Aegislash laughed. "I think you guys need to check out a dictionary sometime," he teased. "A bluff's a cliff overlooking some land or sea. This drenched dungeon's inside a cliff that does exactly that. Put two and two together there, and what do you get?"
"Smartass," Remoraid snarked, earning an amused huff from the sword.
Buneary gasped in a eureka moment. "Is that why they call it Sharpedo Bluff? The special cliff near Treasure Town?"
"Yeah, that's right!" Snorlax praised, sounding impressed. "Wow, Miss, for someone who apparently lived most their life on a secluded island, you sure know your geography, huh?"
She felt another blush coming on. "I... like to read a lot, and I..." she said, pausing for a while as she wondered if she should risk what she was going to say next. After deciding that she'd already hit max embarrassment earlier, it wouldn't hurt to try. "Umm... I saw it in your book, Time & Darkness. It said that was your old home, so..."
Snorlax's features lit up in what looked like pleased surprise. "Ooh, really? Haha, cool! You have great taste, then, Miss!" he praised.
She smiled, happy that he'd reacted positively. "Th-Thanks, Mr. Snorlax! It's what convinced me to join this guild, out of all the options I had. Your story was so inspiring~"
"D'aww, you're gonna make me blush, saying things like that," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. As promised, a blush may have been forming on his face, too.
"Ha!" Aegislash said. "You say I haven't changed, and yet you're still as up for a stroke of the ego as ever. "
Snorlax was definitely blushing, now. "Well, y'know..."
After a light giggle at the banter, Corsola asked, "So you wrote an autobiography?"
"Um, no, not me. A butterfree came and asked me, Donphan and some other relevant people some questions, then made a story out of it."
Yamask gave an excited inhale. "Oh, the butterfree that was friends with, er... Peace Psychu and Redemption Flareon of Team Unity! Right?" he asked. "I read his story on The Angels, called 'Gates To Infinity'!"
"Yep!" Snorlax said. He scratched the side of his head. "... Actual events might be a little different than how Hero Recorder Butterfree wrote them down, though. Fair warning."
"Different...?" Buneary asked.
"Eheh, well..." Snorlax started. He began walking down the ramp, prompting the others to follow. "For starters, this bluff was where me and Donphan had our first mission, you know! But, um... it wasn't sparkling treasure we were looking for, like the book said."
"'Ey? You told me you found pearls, here, though," Remoraid argued.
"Well... one pearl. For a poor baby spoink, who'd lost it."
"... Ah."
"R-Really!? That's not what the book said at all!" Buneary squealed in shock. "It said for your first mission, you had to scour some dangerous caves to collect enough treasure to save your client's life!"
"Eheh, yeah... Sorry to disappoint, Miss, but, er... it exaggerated the truth a bit," Snorlax said with a sheepish smile. "Butterfree's really excitable, y'see, so he has a habit of sprucing up events for the sake of storytelling. So... yeah."
She pouted. "Aww. Next you'll be telling me that Future Grovyle isn't Miss Donphan's ex-husband. And that she doesn't have the dimensional scream, giving her visions of the future so she can save people and dodge attacks effortlessly."
Snorlax bit on his lip, making her worry. "... They're... a little exaggerated in the story, too, but don't worry too much, Buneary! Haha..."
"Er, sure..." Yamask mumbled, sounding unconvinced.
Buneary's pout deepened. She was starting to doubt things, too, honestly...
"Dimensional... what the...?" Corsola mumbled, sounding utterly confused.
"... Someone married that woman?" Remoraid mumbled, sounding just as confused.
"Have we learned a lesson today, paisanos~?" Aegislash quipped. "Don't believe everything you read just because it's official, or you'll turn stupid."
"I guess so..." Yamask replied, sounding displeased.
Buneary let out a long breath. She'd rather just trust that people were being truthful, so it was a displeasing thing to think about, for sure.
Buneary watched Yamask as he flung purple, fiery Will-O-Wisp balls at the two wild chinglings blocking the gang's way. They hit the two floating bells, making them wince.
"I-I got 'em!" Yamask called out.
Taking the cue, Buneary leapt forwards and, with a front flip, slammed her two feet against one of the chinglings.
The bell squealed as she was launched away from them, crashing into a large lake nearby. Jumping away in a back flip, Buneary landed and faced the other chingling.
"Oh no, Sister!" he called out, gripping the red burn marks appearing on his skin. A blast of hot water from Remoraid hit him in the back, knocking him to the floor with a cry.
"Wooo!" Corsola cheered from nearby, waving her arms as if holding pom-poms. "Go, go, team! Go, go!"
Now on the ground, Buneary grinned at her. It was strange, but the cheering really perked her up. The coral was good at her job!
"N-No! Screw you!" the chingling snapped. he jumped to his feet and glowed an otherworldly blue. "We'll never lose to lousy chumps like you!"
The same glow began to surround Buneary, and she felt herself begin to float in the air against her will, as if being lifted by some unseen force. "Wahhh! H-Help!" she cried, wriggling as much as she could. She flailed her feet as she felt herself slowly flip upside down.
"Damn it, me too!" Remoraid yelled. Looking at him, Buneary saw him being lifted upwards, too. "It's Psychic, or some shit!"
"D-Don't worry, I've got this!" Yamask called out, flying towards the chingling.
The bell looked at him as he approached. Immediately after, Buneary felt herself get flung, spiraling through the air. She screamed until she crashed onto something soft. She heard Remoraid crash nearby, too.
Groaning, she picked herself up. Looking around, she saw that they were in a big, open room. It was a fair distance away from the fighting, which she couldn't even see from where she was.
She was surprised to see a hoard of items, all neatly arranged around a carpet that covered a large section of the room. They also had little paper signs underneath with prices on them.
A murmur from nearby caught her attention. Turning, she spotted a male kecleon watching her and Remoraid in surprise.
"... Um... welcome to my store!" the chameleon said with what looked like a forced smile. "Need something to fight back against... er, whatever attacked you? Well, feel free to browse!"
"Hell no!" Remoraid said. "I hate spending money on stuff that's free in dungeons! It's a waste!"
The kecleon sighed, but held the smile. "Oh... well, suit yourself." He turned to Buneary. "And you?"
"Um... I-I can't, sorry," Buneary replied, getting to her feet. "I left my money with my friends back there..."
The chameleon's face fell. "Ah... um..." He smiled again. "Say, did you have one hundred P?"
"Oh, I-I think it was something like that, yeah."
The kecleon held out a wand. The end of it was a sphere in the same colors as their planet, Earth. "Well, if you come back and give me the money after your fight, then here: take it! You seem trustworthy enough."
Buneary gasped. "Oh, um... th-thank you~"
She reached forwards to grab it, but Remoraid flopped in the way, stopping her.
"Wait, what does it do?" he cut in, glaring at the shopkeeper. "I've been sold some utter crap before, so don't even think about giving us a bad item!"
"Uh..." the kecleon replied, taken aback. "It's new, so I don't... um..."
"N-No, it's fine, I trust him, Remoraid!" Buneary interjected, frantically waving her paws. She bowed her head to the kecleon. "Um, th-thanks, Mr. Kecleon!"
The chameleon handed it over to her, smile returning. "Think nothing of it. Now, off you go!" he said.
Buneary nodded and bounded away, back towards the action. She heard Remoraid following closely behind.
As she came close enough, she spotted Yamask and Corsola still duking it out with the chingling, as Snorlax watched on in worry, and Aegislash in vague interest. Annoyingly, the other chingling had come out of the water to rejoin the fight, giving them some trouble.
Taking a deep breath and keeping a tight grip on the wand, Buneary carefully aimed. It wasn't easy, though. One of the chinglings - presumably the male one - seemed to be using Psychic to hold onto Yamask, incidentally keeping him in the firing range. Though the ghost was struggling too much for it be effective, it was enough to keep Buneary from trying to shoot at the chingling.
The other chingling was dancing around, avoiding bubbles flying out of Corsola's mouth. Because some of the bubbles were clinging to the bell, she was rather sluggish in her movements. Still fast enough to be a problem, though.
Buneary gave a deep exhale and waggled the wand. "That's enough!" she cried out.
The chinglings stalled to look at her. In a split second decision, Buneary aimed the wand at the female chingling just as a beam of green, blue and white energy fired out of it.
The bell shrieked and flew upwards, dodging it. Surprised, Buneary fired another beam, but it was dodged as the chingling went high enough to hide behind some stalactites.
"S-Stop attacking my sister, you- Ugh...!" the male chingling yelled, stopping to grip his burnt side.
Seeming to notice the big lapse in attention, Yamask broke free of the Psychic attack and flew away a short distance, out of harm's way.
Gasping in happy realization, Buneary turned her wand on his captor and fired. Its energy hit the chingling square in the face, making him glow red.
"A-Ah, what the-!?" he yelped before disappearing into red light. It travelled straight up, seemingly going through the ceiling.
Buneary stared at the departing pokémon. Huh, a wand that warped its target? Well, that was one way to end the confrontation, she guessed. Just in time, too. The wand was splintering lightly, so it probably wouldn't last many more uses.
Floating into view, the other chingling stared at where her brother had been moments ago. As Buneary aimed the wand at her, ready to fire again, the chingling squealed and fell to the floor, bowing profusely towards her.
"I-I surrender! I'm sorry!" she begged. "It was his dumb idea to attack you, anyway! Forgive me!"
Buneary lowered the wand. "Oh... okay," she mumbled, not expecting that.
Everyone else in the area became less tense, relaxing their fighting poses.
"Well... g-glad you learned your lesson!" Yamask said, grinning somewhat boastfully.
"Yeah! Now get outta here!" Remoraid yelled, flopping closer to Buneary's side.
The bell complied, flying away for dear life.
"Nice one!" Snorlax praised.
Aegislash huffed amusedly. "Tsk. Anti-climactic, but that's one way of doing it," he said.
"Wonder where he ended up," Corsola said, looking up at the spot on the ceiling the chingling had warped through.
Buneary tilted her head. "Not sure..." she mumbled, looking up at the same spot.
"Now what do you have to say for yourselves!?" Chatot yelled, very much at the end of his rope. He had the two youngsters he'd come to know and hate in front of him on the bottom floor of Wigglytuff's Guild, both receiving a tongue-lashing for their latest stunt. "You had better choose your words carefully, or mark my words, I'll-"
"Yeah, yeah, no dinner, whatever," Pancham retorted, defiantly crossing his arms. "Who cares? You can't stop us!"
"Yeah, we'll probably just eat stuff from our bags, again, anyway," Shelmet added, tilting his head as if to shrug.
"W-What?" Chatot gasped. He angrily stomped on the ground. Aghh, damn it! He'd been desperate for new recruits to join their guild. Especially ever since Team Destiny's book had come out and ruined their reputation for no good reason... but what had they done to deserve such delinquents for newcomers!? He squawked loudly. "You know what? The guildmaster will hear of this! A-And then he'll-!"
A red light appeared in front of him and produced a chingling covered in red marks out of nowhere, startling Pancham and Shelmet.
Chatot screamed loudly. "W-W-What is-!? Who are you supposed to be!?" he yelled.
The chingling yelled back, making Chatot hop backwards in fright. Losing his balance, the parrot toppled to the ground with a yelp. "G-Goodness me!" he squealed.
Pancham and Shelmet began to laugh at him. If he weren't so terrified, his anger would be at boiling point!
"Hey, Pancham, quick," Shelmet said. "He's distracted, so we should book it!"
"You got that right! Let's scram!" Pancham replied.
The two of them made off towards the ladder and scrambled up it, with Shelmet riding on top of the panda's head.
"N-No! Get back here for your scolding, you utter hooligans!" Chatot cried out to them. Before he could even think of a way to get to them, it was too late. He could only stare off in the direction they'd been, inadvertently in the same direction as Croagunk's old stall. Before he had found a way to dislodge its swap cauldron from the wall and make off with it, anyway.
"W-What is this crazy place!? Where's my sister!?" the chingling yelled. "Where are those jerks we didn't like the look of!?"
Chatot clambered to his feet and huffed irritably, before rounding on the invader. "Ohh, you door-to-door salespeople get worse every year!" He angrily fluttered his wings. "I hope you realize how much shame I went through because of your... tomfoolery!"
"I-I didn't do anything! What's going on!?"
"Don't give me tha-!"
"So much noise!" a cheery voice called out from the guildmaster's chambers. Wigglytuff stepped out of the doors leading into it, looking in Chatot's direction with a concerned gaze. He had a familiar igglybuff riding on his head, holding onto his fur curl. "Who's being picked on by Chatot toda-?" He stopped and stared at the chingling.
"G-Guildmaster!" Chatot called out, choosing to ignore his statement. He straightened himself out and smoothed down his chest feathers. "This pokémon here is trespassing! And-"
Wigglytuff clapped his paws together with a bright smile. "Ooh, a new friendly friend~! And not just any friendly friend, but one that looks like my Igglybuff's mama~!" He blinked. "... Sort of." He danced from foot to foot. "Yaaaay~!"
"Yaaay~!" Igglybuff joined in, waving her paws around while balancing on him. "Want Mama!"
He gasped. "Great idea!" He ran over to the chingling and grabbed its paw. "Come on, come on! Let's get you enrolled~!"
"W-What!?" the chingling yelped. He started to be dragged into Wigglytuff's office. "W-What's even going ooooon!?"
The doors closed before Chatot could so much as even process what had happened. He stared off in their direction for what felt like minutes until he sighed heavily.
"... I need a drink," he grumbled, already knowing what to order from Spinda's Café.
Buneary trudged down the ramp leading to the next floor along with her friends, treading carefully to avoid sliding on the moss. It hadn't taken them too long to find the ramp, after the issue with the chinglings had been sorted out, which was very nice indeed.
Despite that, honestly, she was rather disheartened. After the battle had ended, she had gone to pay the kecleon back for the elsewhere wand, as it was called... only to discover that she'd been short by about twenty poké.
The kecleon had been nice about it and had let her keep the wand anyway... That is, until Remoraid had stepped in and insisted on paying the difference, saying something about how you shouldn't shortchange people.
It had been very nice of the both of them to be so generous, but it had left her feeling bad. She would have to find a way to repay them at some point. Even if she had to be incessant!
Octillery would be easy enough to pay back. For that kecleon, however... it would be hard to find him, again. Not unlike several kecleon orphans on Wellware Island, it was common for members of their species to travel all around to different dungeons, looking for opportunities to sell things to anyone passing by.
Despite that, however, Buneary was sure she would make it work out somehow.
"Ooh, here we are! Final floor!" Snorlax chimed as the ramp leveled out under him.
"Fuckin' finally!" Remoraid yelled. "How long have we been in this damn place now, anyway?"
"Er... over two hours, if I had to guess," Yamask replied. "... Well, for... us who joined Buneary, anyway."
Corsola gave him a strange look. "... Feels longer than that, somehow," she said, to which Remoraid agreed.
"Yeah..." Buneary mumbled. Using her arm to shield her eyes from the sun, she looked around as she left the ramp, which seemed to lead out of the cave. Interestingly, even though they were finally outside, it seemed that they were still in dungeon territory, indicated by the cliffs walling in the entire area.
She inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh air. It smelled damp, but after being in such a dank cave for so long, it was a delight.
After exhaling, she looked around. She recognized this floor as the one they'd viewed from that huge hole in the wall, earlier. Wet moss coated the ground almost everywhere, with the only exceptions being lakes, large rocks jutting out of the floor, and lengthy pathways of stone trailing all over the place, almost seeming pokémon-made.
While very spectacular and interesting to look at, she couldn't help but be concerned. The moss seemed traversable enough, but very slippery, not to mention deep in some areas. Maybe sticking to the pathways was the best bet for safety?
Noticing the sounds of crashing water, she looked around. The wall that made up the bluff had water cascading down from various different holes. It was so lovely that her concern was put at ease.
"Yeesh, it's completely different, isn't it?" Corsola asked. "How will we know when we're at the end?"
"There's a fountain in the middle, somewhere," Snorlax explained. "It's considered the end, because it's where our badges will let us teleport out!"
"If you can fly, though, it's a different story," Aegislash added, indicating toward the sky. "Nothing like cutting corners~"
Buneary pouted lightly. She wished she could fly...
Buneary continued her travels, using stone paths to traverse safely across the moss. Her friends did the same, except for Remoraid, who was swimming in a long stream of water running alongside the paths.
The group had encountered a few wild pokémon here and there, but, thankfully, they'd seemed to be minding their own business for the most part. A few had tried their luck against them, but they hadn't been very successful at all. Especially an armaldo that had slipped on some moss and cracked its head against the floor, fainting immediately. A reminder not to stray from the path.
After several minutes of nothing special happening, Buneary wondered if there was something she could say to fill in the dead air.
While looking around for some topic inspiration, she spotted Aegislash's badge, pinned against his metallic body. With golden wings, an equally golden round body and a shiny, dark blue button-like spot in the center, it was a truly pretty sight.
Seeing it gave her an idea. "Hey, um, Aegislash... I heard you're an independent explorer," she said with a smile. "What's it like?"
"Heh, a million times better than the guild life," the sword replied. "With no people telling me what I can and can't do, life is more fun than ever~ Not to mention, we keep every poké penny we earn."
Snorlax gave a sheepish chuckle. "It's, um... hard trying to get those missions without being in a guild, though, right?" he asked.
"Heh, a bit... but we were already known for being a good team, so it didn't take us long to get personal requests." He huffed amusedly. "Especially since our team does the more dodgy jobs no one else likes doing~"
Buneary frowned lightly. Curious as she was, she hoped he wouldn't give any examples...
"Eheh, well, um..." Snorlax stammered, sweating, "it's... a bit lonely, though, isn't it?" He smiled hopefully. "A lot more lonely than having friends to fall back on!"
"Haha, hardly," Aegislash replied. "I don't need anyone to fall back on. Even back then, me and my team pretty much never worked together, and look at us now! Nothing's changed, and now we're Ace Rank."
"That sure explains a lot..." Yamask mumbled, getting a chuckle and nod from Corsola.
"W-Well..." Snorlax started, flustered.
Aegislash laughed. "Face it, Kitty, you just don't want me to give the guild bad advertising, do ya?" he teased.
Snorlax sighed in exasperation. "Well, I can't exactly go telling our guild members that there's better options," he said somewhat dryly.
"There's definitely worse ones..." Corsola mumbled.
"Sure you can," Aegislash replied to Snorlax, seemingly not hearing the coral. "It's-"
"'Ey, shut up for a second!" Remoraid interrupted. He indicated a fin towards the sword. "Your badge is flashin'!"
Everyone looked to the sword. Indeed, the blue button on his badge was slowly pulsing.
"Oop! Looks like that dough seed was around here, after all," Aegislash said, pulling the badge off and holding it between his fingers to stare at it.
"I wonder how badges always know where to take ya..." Corsola mumbled.
"You sure do like your questions, huh, Lil' Centaur?" Aegislash said.
"I'm... not exactly a pro at any of this..." she replied with an embarrassed smile. Buneary felt her pain.
"Heh, fair enough," he replied. He gave a big shrug. "Anyway, beats me! You'd have to ask Mr. Director. The mysterious big shot who keeps HAPPI running."
Buneary hopped over a big lump of moss in her way. "He makes people happy?" she asked.
He laughed. "Nice one. No, it's H.A.P.P.I.," he explained, annunciating every letter. "An acronym, of course."
"O-Oh, right..."
"... If I ask 'what's HAPPI', will that make me look bad?" Corsola asked.
"Oh, ya dozy miltank," Remoraid chided. He jumped from the current stream of water he'd been swimming in to a different one. "It's the company that gives us missions, and our gear, and other dungeon shit. Didn't ya read the pamphlet thing?"
"... Whimsicott did," she mumbled awkwardly.
"Ah. Well, it stands for... er..." Snorlax started before stalling. He quickly pulled a small booklet out of his bag and looked at it. "... Yeah. The 'Helping Adventurous Pokémon Prosper Institute'." He put the booklet away. "... Used to be called the 'Exploration Team Federation', but they wanted it to sound friendlier."
"... I'll never remember any of that, but thanks," Corsola replied, looking even more awkward.
"Just HAPPI is probably fine, eheh..." Yamask reassured her.
Buneary tried to commit everything said to memory. Probably easier said than done, but...
... Actually, thinking about it, HAPPI had been mentioned in her Gates To Infinity book. Just as The Angels had prepared to teleport to the Great Glacier, via one of their special 'magnagates', they'd learned of a new, emergency law created by HAPPI. One created as a result of an incident that had happened somewhere in the Air Continent, in a place called Shallow Beach Village.
She wasn't exactly sure on what the details of the law had been... but, because of it, the Angels had been forbidden from leaving Paradise without at least one member of the team occupying it, meaning they'd had to leave their friend, Enforcer Emolga, behind. Even as Underdog Dunsparce had been left in tears, being without his best friend.
Buneary frowned somberly. It had been such a sad part of the story... She would have to check up on those 'laws of HAPPI' to make sure she didn't stumble into any unpleasant surprises, just like they had.
Hmm, and thinking back on going independent as a freelance explorer... she wouldn't lie, it had been something she'd thought about, at first. However, the idea, while a bit enticing, had also scared her silly. She wouldn't have even known the first step of going independent!
She would've had to find a place to live... track down some teammates, or otherwise handle missions on her own... make it big enough to actually get mission requests in the first place... and like Snorlax had said, it would've been awfully lonely.
No, she was glad she'd joined this guild. Well... was about to join this guild. Even with their awful cold showers.
After about fifteen minutes of walking and talking - or swimming and flopping, in Remoraid's case - the gang had finally made it to the middle of the huge canyon.
It was very easily identified by its landmark: a large, circular area made up of cobblestones, and surrounded by a sea of thick moss, with huge boulders poking out from within here and there.
At the back of the stony area lay a big, pretty fountain. It had water trailing down the small set of steps it was made up of, pooling into large ponds at the bottom.
Buneary couldn't help herself from staring in awe. "Ooh, it's so pretty~!" she cooed.
"Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?" Snorlax replied. He sighed with a smile. "Y'know, being here is so nostalgic. It's exactly here where we ended our first mission on a success and found Spoink's pearl," he explained. He paused to scratch the back of his head,"... on the third try, after Wigglytuff had to give us some stuff to help us. Eheh..."
"Well, it sure was hard in there, so I'm not judging," Corsola reassured.
"Thanks, but it was way easier back then, so it's still a bit embarrassing..."
"Ah..." Buneary mumbled. Tsk, she knew his book had said they'd barely scraped by on their first mission, but had it played things up again...? Oh well, maybe it had been close enough.
"But hey, you still did it eventually, right?" Yamask said.
"Eheh, yeah... eventually," Snorlax replied.
While flying around, seemingly checking the environment, Aegislash huffed amusedly. "Yep, and that little spoink rewarded you eight years later by joining the guild, didn't she?" he added.
Buneary tilted her head in intrigue. Joining the guild?
Yamask gasped. "Wow, really? Y'mean Sasspot Grumpig?" he asked in disbelief.
Corsola looked at him with wide eyes. "Ohh, so it's Grumpig back at the guild? You knew her that long ago, Snorlax?" she asked.
"I sure did!" Snorlax said with a chuckle. "She was still a baby back then, but she's not much younger than me, you know."
Buneary shrugged, though smiled all the same. She didn't really know who they were referring to, but in a way, Grumpig sounded like a celebrity! Especially since she had been Team Destiny's very first client! The rabbit was excited to meet her already.
... Still, a 'sasspot'? Buneary hoped that didn't translate to being a 'quipper' like Marowisp...
From a pond near the fountain, Remoraid huffed in amusement. "I'll bet she was fuckin' sassin' you even back as a brat, huh?" he asked.
"Actually..." Snorlax replied, "she was a lot jollier back then. A mite quirky, too." He laughed. "In her own words after we saved her pearl, she'd been 'boinging and sproinging' everywhere, looking for it. And gotten herself covered in 'dings and bumps'."
Everyone either laughed or giggled at the news. Even Remoraid, who had snorted out a chortle.
"I would've never guessed she'd said something like that," Yamask said. "She's always so calm and sharp-witted all the time."
"Well, everyone has to grow up, I suppose," Buneary said. She let out a breath through her nose with a small smile. "I had to watch my cute little brother grow up, after all. From relying on me all the time, to being hyper competent..."
"Ain't that the truth..." Corsola replied.
Yamask looked like he was going to add something, but Aegislash piped up before he could. "Oh, would'ja look at that?" the sword said, holding something up. It looked like a golden droplet. "Guess my objective's done."
"Well, er... well done!" Buneary praised.
"Good, now piss off!" Remoraid added. "We're getting' sick and tired of your bullshit!"
Aegislash laughed and gave an exaggerated shrug. "Oh, what a pity. And here I was going to suggest something, too."
"Oh, what did you have in mind, Aegislash?" Snorlax asked.
"Well... the rest of my team got to fight the greenhorns, and I just hate being left out, so..." He fell from the sky and landed in front of Buneary, Corsola and Yamask, surprising them all, "... entertain me for a while, why don't'cha? Just you four and me, without Snorlax. No wands, orbs, or stuff to heal with."
Buneary stared at him in shock. Looking at the others, she saw them looking just as surprised.
"... Really? Us?" Corsola asked, confusion written all over her face.
"Why not?" Aegislash replied. "They say every good dungeon needs something nasty to fight at the end... so I may as well be it, eh?"
"Now, now, Aegislash..." Snorlax said sternly, but also with an air of worry. "You know they're, er... not as experienced as you, so-"
"Not experienced?" Remoraid yelled. "Ey, screw you, I'll take this prick on by myself!" He leapt out of the water and shot a barrage of big seeds at Aegislash in a wide spread, using the force of them to stay airborne.
The sword's blade glowed white. He took to the air, spinning like a propeller. The seeds ricocheted off his body, going in all directions.
Yelping, everyone on land dodged out of the way. Cringing from the sting of stray shots hitting her, Buneary watched the cracks they created in the floor with horror. Y-Yeesh, how was Aegislash taking this with no problems!?
As the final seed came close to the sword, he stopped spinning to swing his arm outwards. His shield collided with the seed, sending it flying back. It struck Remoraid before he could fall back into the pond, sending him sprawling into the thick moss while yelling in pain.
Buneary gasped and looked at Aegislash. He'd landed to look back at the others with amusement in his eye. "Heh, should I take that as a 'challenge accepted', then?"
"... Welp, we're screwed," Corsola said with a laugh that sounded far more scared than amused.
"Y-Yeah, how can we compete with that!?" Buneary added.
Aegislash laughed. "Oh, relax. As if I'd go all out against rookies. Where's the fun in fighting anyone if you're just going to steamroll 'em?" he explained. "May as well not even bother fighting at all, right? So I'll go easy. You could even consider it a test of some sort, if you want."
"How can we even trust you?" Yamask asked, frowning in distrust. "You keep making fun of us, s-so this could be one of your tricks!"
"Haha, oh please. I might be a rude dude with some 'tude, but lying is Marowisp's thing, not mine," the sword replied. He put a hand to his hip. "C'mon, consider it a mission request. I'll even make it worth your while."
"Yeah, he probably means it..." Snorlax said with a sigh. He shrugged and turned to the others. "Well, it's up to you. Being a challenge, your teams'll get some rank points if you satisfy him enough. Plus whatever he's offering up!"
Buneary stared at him. Rank points? With enough of those, she could go up the ranks, and maybe even get to gold rank and beyond. Just like she'd always dreamed...
... She gulped and nodded at the sword. "Okay, I... I accept!" she said, frowning in determination, and in an attempt to quell her nerves. "I'll fight!"
Everyone looked at her in surprise.
"Hah, what do you know? The teddy's got a spine!" Aegislash joked.
"Well... she's not going alone!" Yamask added, balling a fist. "I-I'll join in, too!"
"Yeah, now you're... talkin'...!" Remoraid called out. Looking, Buneary saw him in the distance, using his fins to slowly glide through the moss with a pained grimace on his face. "I ain't... scared of no friggin' metal dick head! I'll kill ya!"
Buneary smiled at the two of them. "Thanks! That's nice of you guys~" she said, feeling a lot less nervous.
Corsola gulped. "... Hoo boy..." she muttered.
"It's okay if you don't want to fight, Corsola," Buneary said, noticing her reluctance.
"Yeah, we've got this, I-I think!" Yamask said.
The coral took a deep breath and shook her head. "N-No, it's okay...!" she said through a clearly strained smile. "Um... there's no 'I' in 'teamwork', after all! Haha..."
"Thanks, Corsola..." Buneary replied, hoping that she wasn't dragging the poor girl into things.
"Well... if you're up for it, I guess I'll watch and be the ref for you," Snorlax said. He smiled reassuringly. "If anything fishy happens, I'll put a stop to it. No worries!"
Aegislash happily clapped both hands together. "Heh, swell! Better not disappoint me, then, rookies!" he said.
"B-Back at you!" Yamask retorted.
"We'll try..." Corsola mumbled with a breath.
After everyone had shared some oran berries and drunk some elixirs from Snorlax's bag, Buneary and her friends had taken up their places to the side of the fountain. Aegislash stood opposite them on the other side of their makeshift arena.
"Ready?" Aegislash asked.
Everyone responded with varying amounts of positivity.
"'Kay. Better give it your best shot, then~"
"Yep! Um... off you go, everyone!" Snorlax said from a safe distance away. Remoraid and Aegislash's bags were by his side for safekeeping. "Best of luck!"
Buneary took up a fighting pose, as well as Yamask. She saw Remoraid flop towards one of the ponds next to the fountain. Corsola just stood in place, looking very nervous.
Buneary took a deep breath. To be honest, she couldn't blame the coral. She was nervous, too.
She expected Aegislash to come at them, but he just stood in place, seeming completely aloof.
"... Er..." Buneary mumbled.
"I-I'll go first!" Yamask yelled. He conjured some dark, fiery balls and flung them.
Aegislash effortlessly batted them away with his shield as they drifted close. "You call that a starting attack?" he asked in amusement. "It's no good if I can see it coming, amigo~"
Yamask frowned. "Ugh, drat..."
"Whatever!" Remoraid growled out before inhaling. Steaming water erupted out of his mouth, splitting into several streams as it shot through the air.
"Oh, interesting!" Aegislash said. He dashed forwards, aiming in-between the big streams of water like they were part of an obstacle course. Seeming to get away with just a graze, he made it through and came at the others, blade tip first.
Yelping, Buneary dodged out of the way on instinct, and accidentally crashed into Yamask's body. They tumbled to the floor in a pile.
Unhurt, but embarrassed, she tried to apologize. When her words came out muffled, she became doubly embarrassed when she realized she was speaking into his crotch.
Scrambling off him on all fours, she apologized profusely, embarrassed beyond belief. However, that didn't stop him from freaking out and going entirely red. Whoops.
Aegislash laughed at the spectacle. Looking, she saw him standing next to them. "I didn't even need to attack and you're already on the floor. Well, alright," he said. He angled his head towards Corsola. "Well, that leaves you, doesn't it? Shall we tango?"
"Eep! N-N-No thanks!" Corsola squealed.
His metallic body glowed green. "Too bad. Get ready!" he said. He did a back flip, flinging a sharp, green projectile her way.
She shrieked and stiffened up, making her skin go visibly hard. The projectile hit her, sending her sliding backwards with a pained grunt. Still, she stood firm.
"'Ey, you ignorin' me!?" Remoraid yelled. He fired hundreds of big seeds in a spray.
Aegislash took off his shield and dropped it. Instead of falling, however, the shield hung in the air, allowing Aegislash to jump into the back of it, planting himself firmly behind it. His arms took up a peculiar posture behind the shield as he allowed the seeds to pelt him all at once.
Now on her feet, Buneary tilted her head in confusion. Just what was he doing?
He allowed the seeds to keep smacking into him. Weirdly, though, they didn't seem to have much of an effect. Whatever the sword was up to had apparently worked wonders.
"What!?" Remoraid yelled, looking flummoxed. "Shit, did Hustle make me miss!?"
Aegislash hummed out a chuckle. "Nope! Maybe you're just too weak," he taunted.
"You son of a-" Remoraid started before growling and leaping out of the water. He hopped closer in big bounds, looking infuriated. "Screw the water! Sniping is for pussies!"
Buneary took that as a sign to go on the offensive herself, readying her feet for Bounce. Glancing at Yamask, she saw him looking like he was busy conjuring something in his hands, though with great difficulty due to embarrassment.
Feeling her own face warm up to match his lingering blush, she shook her head and leapt towards Aegislash, feet first. She smashed both feet against his face, though he didn't budge an inch. It was only then she realized he was completely surrounded by some sort of transparent barrier, made up of tiny, shield-like emblems weaved together.
Her attack made useless, she bounced off the barrier, frowning in disappointment. Landing, she gasped when she nearly stumbled to the floor. What the...?
Looking at her feet, she was alarmed to see a strange pattern on both of them, shimmering brightly. They looked like the small emblems that the barrier was made of, making her feel suspicious.
Seemingly not noticing, Remoraid leapt forwards at Aegislash, flailing about like crazy with his skin glowing red. "Eat this, you cocky bastard!" he yelled, slamming into the sword and striking rapidly with every body part available.
Sadly, the barrier was still protecting Aegislash, making Remoraid's attacks useless. Oddly, though, the fish's twisted headband kept on flashing, once for each time he struck the shield. On top of that, no emblem symbols seemed to be appearing on him.
Eventually, he bounced away from Aegislash's barrier only to rush at him again as soon as he landed, this time from the sword's side. However, he fell through the sword - who had immediately gone transparent - and crashed to the ground.
Aegislash quickly used the tip of his bladed body to yank Remoraid's twisted band off his head. "Nice choice of clothing, jabroni," he praised. He flung it away, sending it sailing into one of the fountain's ponds. "Go fetch!"
"W-What the-!?" Remoraid exclaimed, patting the top of his smooth head with a fin. He began to aggressively flop around, going even redder with anger. "Oh, you bitch! You wanna die, or what!?" He sprung towards Aegislash and began to pummel the sword's barrier for dear life.
Shortly after, Remoraid stopped attacking as his skin went back to normal. He flopped to the floor as glowing emblems appeared on most of his body. He suddenly looked very tired.
"Oh, Hell... everything feels heavy..." he muttered, limply trying to move his fins.
Buneary gave him a worried glance. Had he fainted, because of all the emblems!? Pokémon didn't always have to be unconscious to 'faint', per say, so...
Buneary tried to go over and take him away to safety. Going in for a hop, however, her legs suddenly felt immensely tired, like she'd been travelling for hours. Her legs were shaking too much to even attempt another hop. Ugh...!
"Problem?" Aegislash asked Remoraid tauntingly, dropping his barrier. He used the tip of his bladed body to flick the fish, sending him rolling away swearing.
Seeing his helplessness, something clicked in Buneary's head. "I-It's the shield!" she shouted.
Still charging an attack, Yamask looked at her in shock. "What? His Protect did that?" he asked.
"I-I think-"
Corsola dashed past Aegislash, sailing through the air as if she'd just used Tackle. As it ended, she stumbled out of the air and crashed against the floor, landing on her face.
Everyone stared at her.
She picked herself up off the floor. "Ohh, I hate having Hustle..." she moaned, rubbing her face.
"Aww, shit! Tell me about it!" Remoraid agreed. "I didn't miss that piece of crap."
Aegislash laughed. "You have Hustle, Bubble and Icicle Spear, but you're using ramming moves like Tackle? Oh my..."
She cringed. "I-I don't know! I just use my moves, and hope for the best!"
He clicked his tongue, though the look in his eye told Buneary it was done in amusement. "Take a while before using your move, and it'll be weaker but more accurate. Heh, or if you wanna keep it strong, run around and keep on firing to stir up some chaos. Spray and pray until one of us drops unconscious, in other words. Got that?"
"Umm... got it?" Corsola replied, sounding confused.
Buneary was also confused. Why was he offering advice while fighting them?
"Good! Anyway, on with the show!" Aegislash exclaimed, jumping 'out' of his shield while his blade glowed light blue. A beam of light stretched out from the tip as he went in for a swing at Buneary.
She yelped and prepared a Dizzy Punch. Thankfully, unlike her feet, her ears were working, so she was just in time to catch the blade of light with the tips of her ears. Straining hard, she kept him in place, saving her face from being struck. Oh, legends, he was strong...!
"Aha, finally!" Yamask yelled, holding out his hands. Dark rings of energy poured out, flying towards Aegislash.
Seeing it happen out of the corner of her eye, Buneary smiled. There was no way Aegislash was going to avoid that!
The sword huffed and lifted his body upwards, taking her with him.
Brought off her feet, she squealed and let go, only for a horribly weird sensation to course through her. She saw the rings pass through her body and wrap around Aegislash as they reached him.
"Oh... haha, whoops," he said, eye widening. He grunted as the rings caused a dark aura to constrict him for a while. "Ghost on normal... Shoulda seen that coming..."
Landing on her bum, Buneary scrambled away backwards a safe distance, all while looking at him in surprise. What? Why hadn't that hurt her? She could hurt ghost-types just fine, unless they went transparent... but Yamask's move hadn't hurt her, even though she hadn't done anything?
She put a paw to her forehead. Ohh, this made her head hurt. Well, at least things had gone well!
"Haha, yeah!" Yamask said excitedly. Flying closer to Aegislash, he raised both hands again. A scary, wailing face erupted out of the wisp.
Aegislash hopped back in surprise. He was blasted by a jet of steaming water as he landed in Remoraid's line of sight, sending the sword reeling backwards.
"That's what you get, chump!" the emblem-covered fish yelled, cutting off his attack.
"Heh, no kidding..." Aegislash replied, skin looking red in places.
Buneary decided to join in by holding out a paw and firing a round of Swift stars. They passed through Aegislash as he turned invisible, going towards Snorlax in the process.
The bear yelped and held his arms up to block. The stars smacked into them before bursting, thankfully to little effect.
"S-Sorry!" Buneary yelled, putting her paws to her mouth in shock.
"D-Don't worry about it, Miss!" Snorlax called out, tenderly rubbing his arms with a somewhat awkward smile.
She let out a breath. Darn it...
Aegislash turned solid again, a blade of light growing from his own blade. "I did say I'd go easy on you, but, hey... let's turn it up a notch~" he said. His blade of light grew really long and he back-flipped away from Buneary.
She looked at him, worried. She yelped when his blade cleaved through the stone floor like butter. "H-Holy moly!" she yelled, getting ready to hop away.
Her tired legs refused to budge. It felt like someone had tied heavy bricks to them. No, no, no!
The blade of light burst out of the floor under her, slamming between her legs and flinging her high into the air with a slice.
She screamed in pain. Owww! Son of an orb!
She tumbled uncontrollably into a deep pond with a big splash. Unable to tell up from down, she felt the urge to panic begin to stab at her... but the combined force of her tired legs, the cold water, and her horribly stinging lady parts made it hard to dredge up the energy to even think about it. Ughh...
Finding the bottom of the pond, she lay there to collect herself. She was fairly good at holding her breath, so she would be okay for a while.
Shivering, she rubbed her tender nether regions with a groan of pain. Thankfully, Aegislash's attack hadn't cut through the fluff, keeping her decent... but it still stung like heck. Ughh, she was so glad she wasn't a boy.
With a little difficulty - due to the pain, her weakened legs, and the nasty cold water - she slowly swam back to the surface. She noticed something white and blue floating a close distance away as she rose.
Even with the water warping her vision, she recognized it. The twisted headband Remoraid had been wearing! The one that had protected him from Aegislash's special... well, Protect!
... Aww, darn, but it was useless to her because of her ability, wasn't it?
She mentally sighed. Well, she may as well take it to Remoraid, anyway. She swam towards it and took it, placing it onto her extended ear. It fit perfectly.
Just as she was about to go back to the surface, something dove into the water with a splash. It grabbed her waist, causing air bubbles to escape her mouth from surprise. It quickly swam back up, dragging her along.
As they broke the surface, Buneary took a deep breath and looked at her savior. She saw Corsola's characteristically pink back, which Buneary was unceremoniously splayed against. It was delightfully warm, compared to the water.
"Ugh... thanks..." she replied, pushing herself up onto the coral using the branches on her back. None of them broke off this time, thankfully.
Corsola jolted lightly. "Oh! I'm surprised you're still awake after taking such a nasty knock to the cooch, Buneary," she said.
Now fully sitting on her back, Buneary groaned in embarrassment, face going warm. "C-Corsola...! Do you have to phrase it that way...?"
Corsola giggled. "Just saying it how it is~"
Buneary pouted. That girl could be so shameless, sometimes...
She looked towards the others. Oddly, she couldn't see anyone. A thick, black smoke was enveloping a large section of the battlefield, obscuring everyone from view. She remembered it being Yamask's Haze attack, though she could only imagine why he'd used it now. An attempt to fool Aegislash and get past his shield, maybe?
Corsola stopped giggling at her earlier comment. "Seriously, though, you okay?" she asked. "Snorlax said..." she started speaking in a silly, deep voice, 'Oh dear, and Sacred Sword's fighting-type, too. She'll sure hate that!'"
Buneary giggled. "Um... nice impression," she praised.
"Heehee, why thank you~" Corsola replied, continuing to use the voice.
Buneary giggled again. Calming down, she nodded. "But yeah, I'm... okay." She winced. "... If I take another hit like that, though..."
"Y-Yeah..." Corsola replied in her normal voice. "Then no more babies for you, huh?"
Buneary cringed, embarrassment returning. "Th-That's not what I meant...!"
Corsola giggled mischievously. "I know~"
Buneary blinked. She clicked her tongue in exasperation, but she was amused, she wouldn't lie. "Oh, you're so naughty, Corsola."
Corsola gave a playful hum, as if sticking out her tongue. She stopped shortly after. "Seriously, though, you're right. He'll freaking wipe the floor with us when he's done messing around! That's why I knew this would be a horrible idea. How can we even come close to beating a guy like that?"
Buneary frowned lightly, wondering the same thing. She looked around for ideas. A way to get around Aegislash's defenses...
That powerful Protect of his was very worrying, indeed. Not only did it block attacks, but it could weaken people with those strange emblems, too. Buneary bet that was related to his ability, somehow. Whatever it was.
She suddenly heard Remoraid ranting something from within the dark cloud. She listened intently, wondering if it was important.
"So it is Haze!?" the fish yelled.
"Y-Yeah... why?" Yamask panted, sounding really tired.
Buneary found herself worrying about him. Oh dear, had he run out of stamina, because he'd been overusing attacks too quickly? If that was the case, he wouldn't be able to use any more moves for a while...
"Aghhh, you numbnuts! Haze gets rid of weird weakening problems! We coulda gotten rid of your dumb Shadow Bone fire... thing way earlier!"
"Ah! S-Sorry! I thought it just... made enemies weaker, or something!"
"Agh, whatever, it's fine! Just help me find that damn sword!"
"R-Right!"
Aegislash said nothing, but Buneary could faintly hear him humming out a chuckle from inside the dark cloud.
The rabbit blinked. Haze could do that? Get rid of weakening problems? She'd thought it was just a Smokescreen! Though Corsola had mentioned that a smokescreen-like Haze counted as a 'powered move', so maybe it wasn't always like that?
Either way, she smiled, suddenly realizing how to fix things. Looking around, she saw that some Haze had drifted towards an upper part of the fountain. "Hey, Corsola," she said, catching the coral's attention. She pointed at the drifting cloud. "Could you take me up there, to where the smog is?"
"Huh? Well, okay, will do!" Corsola replied. She swam to the ledge and, after pulling herself up, quickly climbed up the several steps leading to the top of the fountain.
The second she was inside the dark Haze cloud, Buneary immediately felt refreshed. Looking at her feet, she could see the emblem patterns fade away into nothing.
She happily kicked her feet, super pleased when they no longer felt like lead weights. "Ahhh~ Thanks, Corsola!" she chimed.
"Umm... you're welcome?" Corsola replied, sounding a bit confused.
Buneary smiled sheepishly and geared herself up to explain. She paused when she noticed that the Haze cloud was beginning to disperse. Ah, no time! If she wanted to put a plan into action, she needed to act fast, while they had stealth on their side! After all, if Corsola had thought that the rabbit had fainted earlier, then surely Aegislash was assuming something similar, right?
She looked around for an idea. Any idea. Seeing all the thick moss surrounding the arena, though, something occurred to her. Stealth, huh...?
She wondered how to word her plan to Corsola. The coral spoke before she could, however. "Hmm, y'know, I wonder how to do that 'spray and pray' thing Aegislash mentioned..." she mumbled.
"Oh, you mean where you run around and wildly fire attacks, or something?" Buneary asked.
"Something like that, yeah. I can't aim to save my life, and if I aim for too long, my attacks are weaker than toilet paper, so... sucks to be me, I guess!"
Buneary nodded slowly in understanding. Her eyes widened when she thought of another plan. "Ooh, actually, let's try it! Why don't you run around and fire icicles, or bubbles, or something?" she suggested. "I'll wait for an opening in the moss!"
"Um... couldn't hurt to try, I guess!"
"Okay. Good luck!" Buneary hopped off Corsola's back and dived into the moss. As she'd expected, it was thick and concealed her perfectly, if she lay down. That said, it was unexpectedly slimy, too. Ugh...
Putting that thought aside, she crawled through the moss, doing her best to ignore how messy her front was going to be after this. As she worked her way around towards one of the sides of the arena, she listened to what was going on in the battle.
"Umm, here's that chaos you ordered, Aegislash! Whooo!" Corsola sang. Buneary could hear the crashing of icicles ring out from all around the arena.
"Ah! Hey, you dweeb, get down!" Remoraid yelled.
Yamask yelped, presumably as he got down to the floor.
"Oho, finally, you're doing something useful, Centaur~" Aegislash said. Buneary heard some energy come from the sword. The same sound his strange Protect had made. "Can you make it through my shield forme, though?"
"Probably not, but let's goooo~!" Corsola sang.
Buneary nodded to herself. Good, it sounded like he was distracted. That 'shield forme', though... that was going to be a pain. Thinking about how to deal with it made her nervous... but she had to carry on!
After a short while of crawling, she bumped into a wall. Rubbing her head, she looked up at it to see one of the really big boulders, which littered the dungeon floor.
She noted that it was shaped in such a way that it had a ring-like layer around the bottom half, like a step, almost. Deciding it would make a good vantage point, she hopped onto the bottom half of the huge boulder and peered around the side of the top half.
She saw Corsola running around, firing off huge clusters of icicles off her back in all directions. She wasn't watching where she was shooting, so she must have taken Aegislash's advice to heart.
Aegislash was floating around, using his shield to block any projectiles that happened to fly in his direction.
Yamask was on the floor, allowing the icicles to fly over his head. Remoraid was by his side with gritted teeth, poised in such a way that he almost seemed like he was trying to protect the ghost next to him from danger.
Buneary smiled at the sight. He was so caring, in his odd little way.
Corsola suddenly tripped on something with a yelp, catching Buneary's attention again. It was Yamask's golden mask, which had apparently been dropped, earlier.
As the coral picked herself up, bandages emerged from it and began to wrap themselves around her. She squealed and tried to shake them off, but they clung to her for dear life.
Aegislash hopped in front of her, shield now on his arm. "Hah, oh dear. Guess you should learn to watch where you're going, huh?" he teased, blade glowing green.
Corsola took a step back. "O-Oh, Hell...!" she said, producing some more icicles on her face and front. She shot them all at once, hitting him with all of them. Sadly, though, they were pretty tiny, so Aegislash barely reacted.
"Probably hypocritical of me to say it, but..." the sword started. He spun around like a propeller, rapidly sending sharp, green projectiles flying, "... don't rely on abilities too much!"
The many sharp projectiles bombarded Corsola, cutting into her and leaving many bruises. She cried out in pain as they took her off her feet, sending her sprawling away across the stone floor.
As Aegislash stopped, she didn't move again. She stayed on her side, out for the count as the tattered remains of the bandages drifted down around her.
"Corsola! D-Damn!" Yamask called out with a frown, floating back into the air.
Buneary cringed. Poor Corsola... How many times had she fainted today?
The rabbit blinked and gasped. Wait... those Mummy bandages had come out of Yamask's mask, hadn't they? Plus, they were contagious, from what she could remember.
Yes, she had an idea!
Hopping onto the top of the rock she'd hidden behind, she powered up a Bounce and leapt high into the sky. With a forward flip, she came straight down, slamming into the floor right next to the mask. The force sent it into the air, so she grabbed it, allowing the bandages that came out from the back of it to travel up her arm and around her body. She tried to hold back a shiver at the tickly sensation.
Aegislash's eye widened in surprise. "Oh, well what do ya know, you're still-!" he started.
She felt bad for it, but she leapt towards him before he could finish, leaving the mask behind. She aimed for his spiky, golden head, ready to wrap her paws around it.
In a swift, flawless motion, Aegislash slipped his shield onto himself, swapping into his shield forme. His familiar barrier appeared before him. "Aha, not quite!" he taunted.
She yelped. Oh crud, she'd failed! She flailed her limbs in a desperate attempt to stop. Unfortunately, she smacked into his special Protect with the full front of her body.
She tensed up, fully expecting the emblems to coat her and make her useless. A soft tingle went through her body and she fell to the floor.
Landing, she hopped away a short distance and looked herself over. There wasn't an emblem to be found.
She tilted her head, confused. A quick flash from above brought her attention to the twisted headband she was wearing.
Looking at it in her peripheral vision, she smiled in delight. Oh, yeah, because of Mummy, she didn't have Klutz for a while! Nice~
"Huh. Guess I should've banned special items from the match, huh?" Aegislash said with an amused huff. He came out of his shield, blade glowing green. "Well, whatever keeps things interesting!" He sliced at the air, sending a sharp projectile flying at her.
She jumped over it as it carved the air below her, lunging for him when high enough. She reached him as he corrected himself and wrapped her paws against his spiky, golden head, body plastered against his face.
The bandages around her seemed to multiply as they slithered across to transfer over to him, wrapping him up in as many as there were wrapped around her.
"Th-There! No more shields!" she said, continuing to cling on. If she stayed like this, it would hinder him, right?
"Oof! Color me impressed, Teddy..." Aegislash said, sounding surprised. "You're just full of surprises, ain't'cha?" He let out an amused huff. "Guess that's it for using King's Shield. If I use it now, it'll do jack in this forme."
Buneary stared at him. King's Shield? Wait... so it hadn't been Protect, but a different move? Oh... She'd banked on him having an ability that made Protect even better, or something, so... whoops.
Well, it had still worked out, so she'd take it, she guessed. Even if the massive coincidence made her feel way less smart.
"Wow, nice..." Snorlax muttered.
"Sweet! You did it, Buneary!" Yamask praised excitedly.
"Yeah, good going!" Remoraid added. "Now, let's attack the bastard!"
The praise brought Buneary's spirits up, making her beam. Well, either way... hooray, she'd helped~!
Her smile fell as she felt a hand wrap around her ear. She squealed as she was yanked off Aegislash and slammed onto her back.
Through her dazed vision, she saw the sword floating high above her. His blade was pointed straight at her, glowing brightly.
"If I can't use defense..." he started. He plunged straight towards her, "guess I'm stuck with offense!"
Buneary screamed. She could do nothing as he plunged straight into her stomach, causing intense pain. Her consciousness slipped away from her immediately afterwards.
Waking up to aches and pains, as well as a lot of commotion, Corsola slowly opened her eyes. Ughh... Oh, if people could get medals for losing streaks, she would have enough to fill a wall. She knew she should've just stuck to the sidelines and cheered, like usual.
Oh well. Thanks to her ability, Regenerate, she didn't tend to faint for too long. She could even move around and fight afterwards, which fainted pokémon usually couldn't do. So that was something.
... Wait, but she shouldn't have any abilities, because of Yamask's Mummy ability thing. So how had Regenerate even worked?
... But then again, she had Natural Cure, which quickly healed her of any nasty issues she had. Did Mummy count as a nasty issue? But... how would it have healed her, if it had been turned off?
... That said, all the bandages had been cut to ribbons, looking at the mess of cloth surrounding her. Maybe they hadn't been working properly, or...?
She mentally shrugged before a headache could form. Oh, whatever, she didn't know. She wasn't paid to think about such complicated, advanced things! Usually, she would just leave thinking and fighting to Whimsicott, seeing as she was much better at it. Though... maybe that was why Corsola was so crap. Oh well, whatever.
Still too pained to move around just yet, she looked around at her surroundings. Buneary - with Remoraid's headband on her ear - was on the floor, looking completely out of it. Judging by the horrible bruise on her belly, she must've been knocked out by an attack by Aegislash. Poor girl.
The sword in question was fighting off Yamask and Remoraid with sword swipes. They fought back by firing attacks at him, floating and hopping around to avoid hits.
Her two comrades seemed like they were starting to get worn out, but Aegislash looked like he could still go several rounds without any problems, even with his burns. He was such a beast! A rather attractive beast, perhaps, but still a beast!
Snorlax was watching the three fight with keen interest, seemingly not noticing Corsola being awake. Sadly, his arms were crossed, covering that rather macho chest of his, despite his species' natural plumpness. Pity.
With nothing better to do, and not wanting to distract them with cheering, Corsola slowly made her way over to Buneary, wondering if there was some sort of way to help her out. Healing items were off the table, but she was sure she could take a crack at something, anyway.
As she reached Buneary, she formed some ice on her hands. Careful to avoid touching those weird bandages, she rubbed them against the rabbit's soggy, mossy fur, on top of her bruise. After a minute or so of this, that bruise was sure to die down!
Unfortunately for Buneary, though, she'd have to heal her poor pulverized pussy, herself. They weren't quite that close for Corsola to be rummaging down there with her icy hands just yet.
Going back to watching the fight, the coral smiled to herself. Honestly, Buneary was a refreshing change to the guild. Most of the other girls seemed pretty prudish in some way or another. Whimsicott, especially. There was nothing Corsola hated more than painfully awkward situations... so she was happy to meet someone who she could make perverted comments around, without things becoming insanely awkward~ Not to mention, Buneary was a nice, innocent kind of girl, too, which was a nice bonus!
Continuing to watch the fight, Corsola noticed something gleaming in a small patch of weeds nearby. Intrigued, she slowly moved towards it and reached through to pick it up. Bringing it closer, she saw that it was one of those emera things, light blue in color.
Huh, neat! This was that drug thing that helped a pokémon fight, right? And, er... whatever else Aegislash had said. Something to do with shoving them into bracelets. She'd forgotten, honestly.
All of a sudden, Yamask finally scored a hit with his Night Shade, causing a painful-looking aura to wash over Aegislash. Cringing in pain, he didn't notice Remoraid hop high into the air and come down towards him, skin glowing red.
"Here ya go, ya prick!" the fish yelled, slamming his tail fin into Aegislash. He followed up with a lot more strikes, practically using his whole body to pummel the sword, who flinched with every hit.
Corsola watched in awe. Ooh, she'd always enjoyed watching a good, testosterone-fueled battle. It was a lot more fun, hot and less painful than getting into fights, herself!
Remoraid began glowing brightly, surprising Corsola. He jumped away and fell to the floor as tentacles grew out of his bright silhouette of a body, which was also growing in size. Seconds later, the bright flash subsided, leaving a pleased-looking octillery behind.
"Cool, you evolved! ... Um, again, I guess!" Yamask said, staring in awe.
"Oh, friggin' finally!" Octillery yelled.
"Hoo boy, if that's not cause for concern..." Aegislash mumbled.
Octillery lunged forwards and grabbed onto Aegislash with all tentacles. He aimed his nozzle at the sword's face and blasted him with a full jet of steaming water.
The sword flew out of the octopus's grasp from the force of the water, grunting in pain. He crashed against the floor, groaning.
Corsola watched in glee. Wow, what a critical hit! If that wasn't the end of the fight, she didn't know what would be!
Yamask flew above Aegislash and Octillery crawled over to his side, both looking pretty triumphant.
Aegislash pushed himself up. His metal body could apparently bend, which surprised Corsola. Wasn't he made of metal, or something? Yeesh, how did his species work, anyway? Where did he even store his dong? ... Did he even have one?
"So... you guys think you're the winners, eh?" Aegislash mumbled with a tired chuckle.
"You bet, you shitty metal stick!" Octillery said.
"Y-Yeah!" Yamask piped in. "We've got you right where we want you!"
"Heh... same~" Aegislash replied, turning transparent. He phased through the ground.
Octillery and Yamask both yelped in surprise and moved closer to the spot he'd gone through.
Corsola's eyes widened. They widened even more when she saw the sword leap out of the floor behind them, hands bright with intense energy. He went high above them.
A hundred panicked thoughts went through her head. W-What should she do!? Shoot at Aegislash? Knock them out of the way? Run away?
... W-Wait! Call out! She had to call out! She yelled, "W-Watch o-...!"
Aegislash zipped downwards in front of Octillery and Yamask. He slammed his hand into the floor.
A massive geyser of molten gray energy poured out of the ground, completely engulfing all three of the boys. Yamask's and Octillery's screams were loud, but brief.
Corsola couldn't stop herself from shaking in fear. Oh, Arceus alive!
Aegislash's huge laser evaporated after several seconds, leaving behind a big, burnt crater. The only patch left unmarked was the very middle, where Aegislash was knelt down with both hands against the floor. All of his metallic skin looked red and painful.
Octillery and Yamask fell from the sky and landed in the crater, completely black with soot. They didn't look like they were getting up again anytime soon.
The hundreds of panicked thoughts going through Corsola's mind turned into thousands. This was bad...! Everyone had been knocked out but her! Oh no, oh no... She couldn't handle the pressure!
"Y-Yeesh!" Snorlax cried to Aegislash, eyes widened. "Did you have to use Steel Beam on them so recklessly?"
Aegislash slowly stood upright, not floating. "Heh... gotta win... somehow, right...?" he said, sounding like every word was a strain.
Snorlax put his paws to his hips with a dry frown. "Tsk. So much for taking it easy..."
Oh, crap, Corsola had to act fast, before the fight was declared over!
She looked around frantically. Her eyes fell on the emera in her hands.
Well... that was one idea! It wouldn't heal her, exactly, so...!
She crushed it in her hands and poured it on her face. She could feel powerful energy pour through every vein in her body at once, like it was liquid electricity. All of the colors in her vision looked super bright, especially those of her now-light-blue hands.
Wow... this was amazing! It really was drugs, like those tiny mushrooms, or stardusts she'd heard about!
"Huh? Oh!" Snorlax suddenly said in surprise. "Corsola, you're still up and running, huh?" He paused. "... Why're you all turquoise?"
Aegislash looked in her direction, eye widened in shock. "... Huh. Didn't think you'd come galloping back, Centaur." He strained, as if trying to do something. Apparently giving up, he let out a huff and began to hop towards her. "Well, I'm burnt, I can't hover or use my ability, and Steel Beam recoiled me something silly... Not to mention, you've used some sort of emera, for sure..." He hopped forwards some more, his bottom half faintly glowing. "Buuut, with one more Sacred Sword in me, I still like my chances!"
Still buzzing from the emera, Corsola didn't feel scared. She had too much energy to feel scared! "No way! Ohh, no way, no way, no way!" she yelled, producing bubbles all around her body. She filled them with energy, energy and more energy, making them grow massive. "Put this in your pipe and smoke it! Whooo!" She shook her body to and fro as fast as she could.
The humongous bubbles chaotically whipped around the arena, going whichever way they pleased. She barely heard Aegislash murmur out, "Eheh, oh... never mind, this is gonna suck," and hop around, trying to avoid them.
A stray bubble caught him, however, engulfing him and taking him along for the ride. It tumbled around, smashing him into the floor, some rocks and other bubbles at breakneck speeds. After a while, it flew up high and popped, letting Aegislash tumble down to noisily crash into the floor, sending stone fragments flying.
All of the bubbles burst noisily, leaving a shower of water to pour down on the arena.
Corsola calmed down from her emera high, and all the bright, blurry colors in her vision returned to normal. Her hands returned to their normal pink color, too.
She blinked several times. Wow... that sure had been something.
As the water stopped pouring down, a wave of tiredness hit her all at once. Oh man... even with Hustle and that emera giving her Bubble a boost, she'd still had to use up a ridiculous amount of energy for doing all that. She was pretty spent, now.
Snorlax stared at Aegislash's unmoving body. "Wow, uh... good job, Corsola!" he praised, rubbing water off his own head. "You really outdid yourself, there!"
"I, um... Y-Yeah!" she replied, not really believing the results herself. She really was the last one standing, wasn't she? Her friends, having been unaffected by her bubbles - aside from being a bit soggy, now - were still lying where they'd fainted... and Aegislash...
Gulping, she cautiously approached Aegislash's collapsed form, wondering if that really was it. Had she... actually won? He looked unconscious, so...
When she was close enough, his hand suddenly shot towards her face.
She shrieked and leapt back, cowering. Nothing happened for a while, so she looked back at him. His hand was pulling an 'okay' gesture.
"Hah... it's your win," he mumbled. His hand collapsed to the floor.
"Haha, you heard it from him, first! Well done!" Snorlax replied, clapping for her.
She let out a giggle of sheer disbelief. Her giggles soon turned into full-on laughter as she did a celebratory back-flip. Wow, she'd done it~! Sure, it'd only been the last attack on an already weak opponent, but... it'd worked~!
She'd only started exploring for the sake of her little sister, but maybe... maybe she actually had a shot at this dungeoning business, after all!
She looked over at the others. Buneary... Yamask... and even Octillery, too. She would have never managed it without their help, so when they woke up, she had to give them all a big hug and a cheer!
... Hmm, though Yamask was extremely awkward - as cute as it was to see him flounder - and Octillery sort of scared the shit out of her. And hugging Buneary just on her own would seem sort of weird.
... Okay, maybe just the cheering, then.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Finished: 31/12 (December)/2020 (Merry belated Christmas, and Happy New Year! :D)
Word count: 12,093 (Oh, Christ, sorry! O,o If it makes you feel any better, the next few chapters should hopefully calm down a bit, now that we've almost left the shitty bluff)
VGS2's sausage notes: ... I fucking forgot that Remoraid had the Twist Band on him, at its one moment to shine. Jesus Christmas... XD Had to rewrite a lot of the battle as a result, goddamn it!
... Actually, I screwed up with Hustle, too. (It only affects physical moves, not special ones). Oh well, whatever. As long as I don't make Swift miss, or let a starter pokémon win against someone who's heavily handicapped, I'm sure it'll be fine!
Ah well. At least we're finally done with the bluff, more or less. Huzzah! :D Next chapter, it's time to go back to the guild, make some more friends, and maybe even find out how to avoid freezing to death in the shower! :P
By the way, ravengal suggested the title 'Sasspot Grumpig', because I'm bad as Hell with names. 'Sasspot' might actually be a British-ism, but aww, whatever. I'm from the United Dictatorship of Great Britain, so me accent's bound to slip, guvnah! XP
Today's shameless promotion: Free 'n' Forth
Author: Darkestccino (Previously known as NeonYoshi)
Universe: Mystery Dungeon (Mostly an originalverse, but with elements of other MD games)
Main species: A minccino, a shinx, a zorua, several eeveelutions and quite a few more!
Summary: A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story. On the Stone Continent east of the other continents, a young minccino named Tamin runs away from her abusive family into the wilderness. She soon meets with a shinx named Locke and they join an exploration guild together. But it doesn't take long for both to learn that evil can be found not just in criminals, but within the guild itself.
Romance: Lots of couples present, and an obsessed squirrel!
Wackiness: Not too much! Despite some quirky levity here and there, it's mostly grounded!
Lewdness: None really! (Especially since a scene from the original version got canned, thankfully for a certain someone!)
Action: A fair amount! Especially in two certain arcs
Grittiness: A surprisingly high amount! Violence and abuse make for fun times!
Length: Very long! (Also, it's finished!)
This fic is actually a rewrite of a fic of the same name on the writer's Deviant Art profile. (Yeah, believe it or not, that, too, counts as a fanfiction site!)
Reading the original, I can safely say that there's a ton of things to expect. Most of which you wouldn't expect. Not to mention, the rewrite is adding content that wasn't in the original, making it even better! The characters in the fic make it very memorable, so I'd recommend giving it a good check! :P
Fun mistakes of the day:
#1:
'Yamask said, looing just as amazed.'
(Hold it in, Yamask!)
#2: '"What? Going underground?" Remoraid argued. "You won't find any sunlight down there!" [Etc etc] "Actually, on the second-to-last floor..." Snorlax interjected, grinning, "there's an extra special surprise waiting." [Etc etc] "S'it that big hole in the wall where you see-?" Remoraid started, until he was shushed by Snorlax.'
(So... Remoraid's questioning being able to see sunlight underground... but he knows that there's a hole on the floor under him, where you can see the outside, where the sunlight is...? Um, okay. Whatever you say, octopus gun fish. XD)
#3: 'It was strange, but the cheering really perked her up. She was good at her job!'
(Clearly! Now because of Corsola, Buneary's getting a big dick and praising herself randomly.)
#4: 'The same glow began to surround Buneary felt herself begin to float in the air against the will,'
(This reminds me of those inherited will things from PokeMaster64's Bandits of the Forest. I sure hope there's one for flying!)
#5: 'she spotted Yamask and Corsola still duking it out the chingling, as Snorlax watched on in worry, and Aegislash in vague interest.'
(Duking it out the chingling? Sounds rather sexual. No wonder they're being watched so much!)
#6: 'Taking a deep breath and keeping a tight grip on the wan,'
(Is it a dog? That's how they bark according to the Japanese, after all. "Wan, wan!")
#7: 'Seeming to notice the big lapse in attention, Yamask broke free of the Psychic attack and flew a short distance away, out of the way. Gasping in happy realization, Buneary turned her wand on him and fired.'
(I forgot to mention the chingling, so it now looks like Buneary's turned traitorous. XD Should've learned the IQ skill 'Non-Traitor', from the first two games.)
#8: 'The wand had splintered on its third use, becoming useless. Oh well... [etc] As Buneary aimed the wand at her, ready to fire again,'
(Um... I've got bad news for you, Buneary. XD)
#9: 'Buneary lowed the wand.'
(According to the internet, to 'low' means to moo, like a cow. Did equipping that wand turn Buneary into a miltank? Considering it always has its udders on display, maybe so...)
#10: 'it was common for kecleons to travel and scour dungeons to sale things to anyone passing by'
(His favourite dungeon is Steam Cave, where he puts lots of things on sale constantly.)
#11: 'To fill in the dear air, she decided to speak.'
(Ruining that dear, precious oxygen by filling it with Co2. It's a good job the floor's filled with plants, Buneary.)
#12: 'Seeming to get away with just a grave, he made it through'
(RIP In Peace)
#13: '"You son of a-" Remorad started before growing and leaping out of the water'
(Not only did he turn into a radical dude, but he apparently turned giant, too. Is this what they call gigantamaxing? Aka, Mega Evolving and Z-Move-using, but bigger and weirder-looking?)
#14: 'She felt the weird sensation rings of the energy pass through, wrapping around Aegislash as they reached him.'
(Lol, I don't know what happened, but it sounds like Aegislash is in for a good time!)
#15: 'She jumped over it as it carved the air below her and lunged for him.'
(I guess his attack boomeranged back and hit him, instead. Is he Frieza?)
#16: 'She tumbled into a pong'
(*Buneary gets battered about by some white sticks*)
#17: '"So it is Haze?" THE FISH YELLED'
(Apparently, he yelled so hard that Buneary's POV joined in with the yelling. My poor ears.)
#18: 'Buneary found himself worrying about him.'
(So Buneary has breasts, but is male...? O,o Um, let's just say that we'd better not take this to either Twitter or a furry website. XP)
#19: 'Aegislash's eye widened in suyrprtiosu'
(Imagine winning a challenging fight just because your opponent had a stroke.)
#20: '"[Blahblah]" Aegislash said, sounding surprised. "You're just full of surprised, ain't'cha?"'
(It's like reading a bad manga translation, or something. XP "I am surprised!" "You're just full of surprised, aren't you?" "What you say!?")
#21: 'Her two comrades seemed like they was starting to get worn out,'
(Innit, mate! On that note, don't forget that most British people from London-ish places talk like this. Don't believe the lies that we're a fancy lot, 'cos we isn't, mate.)
#22: 'Corsola watched in glee. Wow, what a critical attack!'
(Wow, what a nerd. XD I guess she plays lots of RPGs.)
#23: 'He was smashed into giant bubbles,'
(Lol, I made it sound like he was hit so hard, he dissolved into bubbles. Either that or he was executed Bubble Bobble style. RIP In Bubble.)
#24: 'Aegislash murmured out a comment and hoped around, trying to avoid them.'
(I see he tried to pray the bubbles away.)
#25: 'And higging Buneary just on her own would seem sort of weird.'
(You're right about that...)
- Bonus mistake from ravengal's PikaBun one-shot collection one-shot, Designer Wear -
#26: 'Buneary couldn't help her heat exploding in joy at that.'
(Clearly Pikachu's been giving her a good time in rg's latest one-shot, eh? The wonders of good fashion!)
- Bonus mistake from ravengal's fic, Shallow Waters -
#27: 'Pikachu's worsening wood'
(Lol, while taking notes, something went wrong. And when the topic was about romance, too... XD So much can change when you flip the first letter upside down, apparently.)
#28: 'It popped open, and Pansage appeared in a flash of "(Yeah!)"'
(I appreciate the enthusiasm!)
#29: 'She flew past both Ash.'
(Like we needed more of the bastard.)
#30: 'Tornadus reminded him of a bra'
(Despite his manly chest, I guess. Kek, honestly, it just makes me imagine him in women's clothing, which is a funny image. XD)
Ah well, that's me done for this year! Thanks again for reading! :P
Here's hoping you review, favourite and Comrades, and I'll see ya next year! Tata for now! c:
