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 Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2010 4:50 pm
Lake of Purity
A beautiful lake that seems to be lit up from within by a bright golden glow.
The surface shimmers like starlight and to drink from its waters ensures good luck, or so they say.
Dungeon Information:
50 Floors
Grass/Water/Dragon Type Pokemon
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 9:02 pm
A lone bored Gardevior sat at her desk, staring out into space; paperwork either stacked neatly in a pile in front of her, concealed from others by the higher thin ‘bar’ part of her desk, or lay neatly in filing cabinets to be dealt with later. She was shaken from her dreamy state by the sound of hoofs clopping hollowly on the smooth tile floor. Closing her eyes for a moment she sighed and plastered a smile on her face, standing up. “Welcome to the Partner Assignment Office. How may I help you?” She asked politely, her brow furrowing the slightest bit, for in front of her was what appeared to be a Mawile. Strange enough, because his waist reached the top of her high desk; he was unusually tall. Besides, she could have sworn she heard hoof trod-like sounds, but—before she could continue her thought, the Pokemon spoke, “Yes, I’d like to see about creating a rescue team, ma’am.” He replied, his hands clasped behind him. The lady nodded knowingly and brought out a fair stack of papers. “Just sign here on the first page and I’ll have that back… thank you. You may take the rest of these documents and deal with them as soon as you can, but first please take a number. Have a nice day; available partners are around the corner.” She gestured to the ticket dispenser and then to her right where other Pokemon waited to be chosen as partners. He smiled and thanked her, nabbing a ticket and tucking the documents under his other arm before turning to leave. She watched him go and then gripped the edge of her desk to keep herself from falling over in shock. The Mawile’s hindquarters were that of a Ponyta!
--
Finding Damon, freaking out, introducing themselves, going to their team room and a long, long while later… (As I don’t really have time to write all of that out)
--
  Sirius & Damon
Sirius walked uncertainly toward the unfamiliar bulletin board, followed by the young Damon Kingcrest. The equine said, “We should quickly get into our work and find a mission to do; there are many kinds of missions to choose from, like—“ The centaur placed his finger on a mission request from some young lady freaking out over her boyfriend and was about to read it aloud before Damon interrupted him. “Uh, yeah, Sirius? Do you think we can, you know, sorta lay low for our first few missions? You know, uh, something that doesn’t require long face-to-face talk with other Pokemon?” The cub said nervously. His eye caught a post that asked for help on diffusing an explosive situation with an electrode with long-hours of talking and shuddered lightly. Sirius turned to his partner with a quizzical expression on his face, “Whatever for, Mr.Kingcrest?” Damon shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and looked away to the side. “Mm, you know. Don’t you think people would freak out at the sight of us if we just walked out there and said ‘hello! Here we are, lookit us!’? I don’t know, it just doesn’t sound… very healthy. You know, maybe if we just sort of… eased our way into this business, gained some rep, some experience, then we wouldn’t be so bad off. Right?” He looked up to the face of his captain. Sirius stared at him for a few moments then sighed. “Alright, Mr.Kingcrest. If it makes you feel better, we’ll go on a, ahem, ‘safer’ quest.” The leader searched the bulletin board for less dangerous adventures, finding it quite hard since that ‘let’s not talk to people’ demand put well more than half the board’s posts out of the question.
“Hey, how about this one?” Damon said out of the blue. His tail claw reached out and pried off a note and brought it toward him. Laying a paw on it to keep it from whipping away in the wind, he read aloud,
Client: Pikachu
Area: Lake of Purity
Mission: "Accept this mission and map out this entire area near the lake so we can add it to our territory charts."
Floors: 30
Sirius scratched his chin thoughtfully. “It sounds good enough to me. The plains of Chaos is an uncharted area; who knows what to expect? All we’ll be doing is exploring.” Damon nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, that’s why we’re called exploration teams, right? This should be a good place to start off, and it’ll be a challenge, since we don’t know what to expect.” Damon paused and asked cautiously, “But it’s a lake. You wouldn’t mind getting your mane wet or anything, would you?” Sirius laughed, which startled Damon a bit. “Of course not! I can stand a bit of water, and you’re sure to have fun with all the grass and water types. I’m glad to have you at my back.” The centaur beamed. “Well, then, shall we return to our room to prepare for our journey? It’ll be quite a long trip.”
“Yeah!” Damon agreed happily and took up the paper in his maw, setting off at a brisk march at Sirius’s heels.
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:29 pm
Sirius & Damon A feeling of excitement as well as dread grew in the pit of Damon’s stomach as they walked down the path. The novelty had worn off after they gathered the needed supplies back at the team room, all packed neatly in Sirius’s ‘man bag’ slung across his shoulder, and headed toward the Lake Purity. The centaur’s badge clung to the area where the strap met the main part of the bag and was worn proudly. Directions written on the back of the mission note led them down the dirt path of the grassy plain. It was mostly quiet, the journey there was, with only the sound of birds chirping in the towering trees above and occasionally mutterings of Sirius as he tried to figure out where to turn at a fork, but the lack of sound didn’t calm his nerves the slightest. The feeling worsened as they spotted a bundle of tan tents and tarps supported by metal beams in a messy fashion. A cry of alarm broke through the still air as a distant figure at the edge of the campsite spotted them and dashed into a tent. After a few moments, a small group of assorted Pokémon rushed out of the tent to face the duo. A few surprised gasps were sounded as they saw the strange appearance of the two. Quickly, Damon snatched up the mission that Sirius was holding, with his tail claw, and waved it in the air. Sirius quickly caught on before the group decided them as a threat to their camp and tore his badge from his side, holding it up for them to plainly see. The tension quickly broke in the group up ahead and one ran off into the tent to their right for a few moments as the guilders walked calmly toward camp, returning shortly with a Pikachu in tow. The electric mouse looked at them and his eyebrows shot upward, though his eyes remained half closed as if bored. As they got close, the mouse beckoned them and disappeared into the large tent he was dragged out of. Sirius opened up the flap of the tent and walked inside, followed by Damon who gave the Pokemon standing outside a nervous glance before hurriedly pushing through the entrance. The looks they gave him were not kind.
“Hello, guild members, welcome to my camp.” The Pikachu began, sitting in a chair behind a desk swamped with paperwork before continuing, "Sorry for that misunderstanding out there, my friends mistook you for… Ahem, anyways, my name is Nicholas Dedman; I run this establishment.” Honestly, Nicholas didn't care what his employees were as long as they got the job done. Sirius crossed his arms and nodded, “My name is Sirius Vasillian, leader of this team, and this is my second in command, Mr. Damon Kingcrest. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Nicholas returned the formal greeting, “The pleasure is mine. Anyways, we wish you to explore and map out all of Lake Purity. We are quite interested in this area; recent scouts that returned, the few that did anyways, reported little. Mostly that the waters ensure good fortune upon those who drink of it, as they reported many residents believed. This myth is in the least of our interests, though. Along with you mapping the entire area of the Lake, we would also like you to collect water samples along different areas—be sure to mark them on your map, by the way—and note what kind of Pokémon thrive where, plus anything interesting you might come by.” Finishing on that note, the Pikachu slid forward a slate and stylus, plus a small notebook and vials. “Don’t worry about the vials; they aren’t too delicate. As long as some careless absentminded Meganium doesn’t sit on them, they’ll be fine.” Nicholas reassured them as Sirius pocketed the items. He continued, “I trust you have some mapping skills?” Nicholas asked. If not, he would have to send one of his men to travel with them, and that would be quite a bother. Sirius nodded his head, “Yes, I do.” Even when he was young, when his herd traveled to new territory he was sent with the older centaurs to scout out, map out the area and familiarize themselves with things such as the daily patterns of other groups of Pokemon and the areas plentiful of food to ensure the safety of the stable. Nicholas nodded and grinned slightly, “Good. Now, if you are not too tired from your journey here, please begin your expedition as soon as possible.” With a wave of his paw, they were dismissed and he already seemed to forget about them, being engrossed in his paperwork. Sirius opened the tarp for Damon to exit and then followed the lion behind. As soon as they were outside where the other Pokemon waited, some milling about doing small chores, Damon turned to the equine and asked, “Sirius, are you too tired to go today?” Sirius shook his head, “No, but I think it would be wise if we stayed the night and got up bright and early so we would have a full day to explore. See, the sun is already lowering at quite a fast pace.” Sirius gestured to the afternoon sun as it began its decent toward the mountains. Damon shrugged and nodded, “Yeah, it seems best if we do that. Well, let’s find a tent or something. My feet are sore anyways.” He mumbled before wandering off to find an empty tent. Sirius looked at the sky where heavy clouds hung, soon to be cast pink and orange from the setting sun. Inhaling deeply, Sirius smelled a hint of rain; it would pour tonight, and it sounded like a good idea to rest inside a tent while they still could before heading out to explore. He turned his back and started to look for Damon as an almost silent rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.
It poured that night. Damon was glad to be safe under the protection of a tarp’s thick canvas, huddling in a spare sleeping bag one of the camp Pokémon provided him with. “Sirius, get away from the entrance… you’re letting the cold in.” he muttered miserably, pulling the thick wool covers over his head. “Sorry.” Sirius abruptly dropped the tent flap and allowed the warmth to build up again in their small sized tent. At least it was tall enough for Sirius to stand up in comfortably. Sirius stood up wobbly from his lying down position and walked over to the far end of the tent to sleep. Before he could close his eyes, he was aware of two large yellow eyes staring intently on him from the opening of Damon’s sleeping bag. “What?” he asked, folding his arms and leaning against a post. Damon waited in embarrassed silence before speaking, “How do you sleep? You know, uh, your kind. How do they sleep?” Damon asked nervously before his imagination took off. Did they have to lie down or stand up? Or their upper portion lean against something? Maybe slump on a pillow in front of them so their spine was one continuing line or maybe lie back against their equine backs, or…
“You won’t know until you see,” Sirius mused, grinning. Damon growled, but kept his mouth shut. Fine, if that’s how Sirius wanted it to be, he would just stay up all night until he saw it himself. Before he could quite finish the thought, his eyes drooped and he fell asleep. Sirius chuckled and settled down to snooze, the soothing patter of pounding rain on the tent growing faint as he drifted off to sleep.
--
In the morning, the ground was wet, even soppy, and the rain was still drizzling a bit from the night before. Sirius was sure that the clouds would clear up in the next hour or so as stood up to awaken his partner. The two rose up early, breakfasted, and left as the sun came up into view, lighting the fields up and casting a brilliant rainbow in the sky. As they walked down the faint dirt path, Damon asked Sirius, “So, Sirius, what do we need to look for first? Nicholas gave us more than just mapping to do.” Sirius, slate in one hand and apple in the other, took a bite before replying. “Our friend Nicholas wants to know everything we can find out about this Lake Purity and its surroundings in the shortest amount of time possible. We might as well start with small things like how fertile the soil is, what kind of soil is where, signs of erosion, small streams and gullies, and so on. Small stuff like that,” he said, tossing the apple core to the ground. “We can eventually build up to the bigger things such as the patterns different groups of Pokémon travel through daily for grazing or hunting and dangerous areas best avoided whether from the Pokémon inhabiting the area or if the environment itself is no good.” Damon nodded, half hearing what he said. “Well the grounds all caked up and spongy now.” He said, lifting a paw encased in mud. “The soil seems pretty rich in nutrients, though.” Sirius nodded in agreement, shifting his weight and freeing a few stuck hooves from the mud sucking ground. Probably a nice rich loam, with a bit too much clay. He jotted down a note in the booklet Nicholas gave him. Damon had wandered off and was batting a large clump of leaves growing out of the ground, quite taller than the rest of the grass. It was probably just a bundle of weeds, but it was very glossy and green; Damon noticed that a few other clumps grew nearby. He put his mouth over the stalk of the weed and yanked it upwards, uprooting the Oddish. The small round creature shrieked as it was uprooted; clods of rich brown dirt flaking off of its almost indigo skin, startling Damon who hurriedly let go of the loudly screaming plant. The leaves of other large clumps rustled for a moment before three other Oddish burst forth from the ground, angry beady red eyes focused on Damon. “Oh snap! Sirius! Help!” Damon yelled out, dodging a spray of Poison Powder the first Oddish released. The fire horse quickly charged over there, trampling over a few of the blue Pokémon before spewing out a jet of flame to startle them. Damon let out a high pitched screech that stunned an Oddish before he launched himself at it, knocking it over. The Oddish struggled to its feet and fired a series of violet Acid balls from its mouth at Sirius’s feet that exploded, making the centaur rear in surprise. Damon leapt at the Oddish again and grabbed it by its leaves. The Oddish accidently let loose a small Poison Powder in his face. Wincing, the cub quickly tossed away the Oddish where it landed harshly in the mud and lay still and Damon rushed toward another Pokemon. Sirius Stomped an unsuspecting Oddish before Damon Tackled it, Biting its plump body. Quickly releasing the stunned creature, Damon somersaulted away and Sirius kicked the small Pokémon away with a hind hoof before incinerating the third Oddish with a few Embers. The Oddish tossed a blob of black Acid into Sirius’s chest before passing out, which stung terribly as it ate through his skin. The last of the Oddishes quickly devoured a Pinap Berry it was holding and swelled up with power, releasing its built up strength on Damon who was blown away a few yards and skidded to a halt in the sticky, clay mud. Sirius quickly shooed the grass-poison duo type off with a Flame Wheel that quickly expired and rushed to Damon’s side. “Kingcrest! Are you alright?” Sirius demanded, kneeling awkwardly in the muck. Damon slowly got to his paws and shook out his wings. “Myeh, I’m fine. Sorta. Did you bring any Oran berries?” He asked, beginning to clean his bat-like wings. He was slightly embarassed to have to ask for them so early in their journey, but that Poison Powder must have gotten to him. Sirius reached into his knapsack and brought out two Oran berries, handing one to Damon and eating the other. He asked, “Feel better?” Damon nodded, “You should note down the Pokemon we found here in that book thing of yours for Nicholas. My pride of lions didn’t travel any, so I haven’t seen many different Pokémon—what were those?” Sirius got up with some difficulty and whipped out his notebook and the slate. “Those were Pokemon called Oddish; my stable traveled around a lot and we’ve encountered those creatures several times before. Did you notice how glossy and smooth looking their leaves were, Mr. Kingcrest? That shows how rich the soil is; the glossier the leaves, the better the soil. I’d better make note of that, too.” Damon looked up at the rising sun, “Hmm, the ground'll be dry again soon, thank goodness. But we’ve only gone for a few miles. We should continue on before we lose any more daylight.” Damon found his way back to the path and they headed down toward the lake which was just a glimmering sliver of blue in the distance.
As they walked down the road, they looked around for anything of interest. Sunfloras and Sunkerns sat in the fields, drinking in every drop of sunlight they could absorb with their leaves outstretched. Chikorita happily bounded across the drying grass in small groups, a bit sluggish and sleepy from the low temperature. A few Hoppip were already in air, to the mercy of the winds that blew at them gently around, searching for any thermals that would make them skyrocket higher into the blue sky. A Slowpoke, obviously lost, stared dumbly in oblivion at the goings on around him. He lumbered about aimlessly and finally decided to follow the group of Poliwhirl who were probably just heading back to the lake, but caught a glance of a Poliwhirl’s spiral stomach and grew drowsy. The Tadpole Pokémon group set off at a brisk jog toward the distant lake, leaving a snoozing Slowpoke behind. The ground was finally merely damp instead of the sucking mud it was early morning and all the dew was collected by the reaching rays of light. A Hoppip faltered in the air and dove in front of Sirius, nearly making him loose his footing. The Hoppip shouted an apology as it shot back into the air, Sirius waving at it and nodding. Eyes still turned upward, Sirius accidentally stumbled on a slumbering Tropius’s neck. The Fruit Pokémon woke and grumbled irritably and moved its bulk off the path. Though it was forgiving, its partner wasn’t. The smaller Tropius huffed angrily and fluffed its wings, whipping up a small Gust that he sent Sirius’s direction. The equine was caught up in the small tornado and knocked away with a yelp; struggling to get back upright as Damon hissed and launched a Poison Stinger at the dinosaur-like Pokémon. The small Tropius swatted the barb aside as if it were nothing and lifted a stubby leg to Stomp the cub while the larger Tropius watched from a distance, half bored and unconcerned about its companion’s safety. Sirius quickly let out a lick of flame to distract the Tropius and its foot slammed downwards inaccurately, missing Damon by a foot ((haha, bad joke?)). Blue Sparks enveloped the manticore’s body and he bashed into the large Pokémon’s chest and quickly somersaulted to the side as the Tropius reared and roared, shaking its short forelegs in the air for a moment. Swooping its neck down low, it caught Sirius’s waist and knocked him to the ground, sending a Leaf Storm his way to keep him buisy. Damon cried out and leapt onto the Tropius’s head and clamped his paws over its ears. Letting loose a jolt of electricity, Damon hung on it as it bellowed and slowly sunk to the ground, releasing his grip and jumping off just before it hit the ground with a soft thud. The larger Tropius calmly walked over and nudged the smaller one’s neck until it sleepily opened its eyes and, surprisingly, mewled like a kitten. Standing unsteadily to its feet it followed the big Tropius with its head bent down slightly, clearly tired from the battle. Damon let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and ran to find Sirius who was just picking himself up and brushing off the dirt on his coat. “That was a close one.” The centaur said. Damon nodded in agreement; if the larger one joined in the fight, they would have been toast.
Damon stood admiring the small clumps of trees spread out through the area as Sirius made notes about the hills, soil, Pokémon, where fruit was plentiful, prey and foliage. Every so often he brought out the slate and sketched the area they were on and where trails were best put, being clear of rocks or the way of dangerous Pokémon. Though plentiful, the trees appeared not to hold nests for bird Pokémon, for some reason—and the reason soon became apparent. “WHOA. Sirius, duck!” Damon wrapped his tail around the Centaur’s wrist and pulled him sharply behind a tree.
“Hey, what are you—“ Sirius was quickly hushed as a Salamence thundered by. His face’s color draining to a sickly white, they waited in silence as it wandered past and then stepped back out into the open. After the brief moment of dread, Sirius found himself surprisingly giddy and started to giggle.
“Wow, it was so close! I could almost touch it.” The centaur said, bending nearly double in laughter. Damon was taken aback at the sudden step out of character and tried to shake Sirius to his senses. The dragon would have probably eaten Sirius in two chomps of its horrible teeth if he tried to pet him like some animal at the petting zoo.
“It was a bloody great dragon! It would have killed us!” Though he was just as amazed as Sirius was by the great creature, Damon was nearly frightened to death by the close encounter. Forcing the chortle back into his throat, Sirius struggled to regain his composure.
“Ah, mm, yes, we should probably get a move on now, yes, uh, right.” He said awkwardly and decided to pretend nothing happened in the last two minutes.
“Anyways, continuing on.” Turning sharply, Sirius walked through the clump of trees, back to his normal self.
Before they could continue on, a territorial Altaria descended from the treetops above and landed in front of the two with an intimidating hiss, feathers ruffled. Before either of them could react, the massive bird opened its beak and exhaled a thick, green beam of air that swirled their way.
“Gah! Watch out!” Damon shouted, diving to the right. Sirius was knocked back from the blast and hit the base of a thick tree, dazed. Sparks surrounding his body, Damon charged toward the Altaria, who swiftly shot upwards with a powerful thrust of its wings. Growling, Damon opened his mouth and shot multiple purple darts at the Humming Pokemon. The Poison Stings pelted the bird and jutted awkwardly out of its left wing. With a shrill, the Altaria wrapped itself in a wall of cotton to hinder further attacks. Sirius finally came to his senses and ran back to them, firing a stream of flame that quickly ate up the Cotton Guard, much to the Altaria’s annoyance. Damon quickly Tackled the Altaria before it could build up another Cotton Guard, hanging onto the bird’s soft plumage as it jerked uncertainly in the air, trying to regain its balance. With another irritated shriek, the Altaria shook the cub off and called up a round of Mist.
“Where… did it go?” Sirius whispered to himself, scanning the fogged up landscape. Damon nervously fired an experimental Poison Stinger at a shadow that turned out to be a bush. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Altaria appeared, opened its beak and formed a green ball of light, quickly lighting up the place, and fired it at Damon’s back. With a scream, the cub was knocked away from the blast and skidded to a stop lying on his side. Sirius scowled and ran up to the Altaria, the monstrous jaws on the back of his head agape. With a quick snap, he tossed the bloodied bird aside and ran over to his co-capt.
“Kingcrest! Can you stand?” He asked, rummaging through his bag and withdrawing an Oran Berry. With a groan the manticore shakily got to his feet, wincing, and accepted the berry.
“Yeah, I should be fine. Did you take care of the bird?” He asked. Sirius sighed with relief and nodded yes. Any birds in around the Lake probably nested higher in trees to hide from the view of predators like the Salamence and not have to abandon a nest of eggs.
“If you feel rested enough, we should really get going, it’s almost noon and we still have a lot to explore.” Sirius said before turning toward the lake and setting off at a brisk walking pace, Damon trailing behind.
By the time they’d reached the lake, the sun was high in the sky and nearly free from clouds. It was now starting to get a few degrees past pleasantly warm and the two thanked Arceus that they arrived at the large body of water. The lake stretched out wide and disappeared out into the horizon, from Sirius’s point of view. Kinglers and Krabby skittered on the shore, some sitting halfway in the water to keep cool, minding their own business and waiting until something interesting happened. Unfortunately, the interesting thing was them. Three Krabby and a Kingler skittered out of the shallow end of the lake and toward them at a high speed to get a closer look at the strange guilders.
“Uh oh, look out, Sirius!” Damon warned before yellow Sparks sprung out of his pelt and he charged at the Kingler. The bright show of lights quickly warded off any other Pokémon who might decide they wanted in on the fun and they scattered outward and away. The Pincher Pokemon fell onto its back where its feet twitched in the air, paralyzed with electricity still running through its body. The Krabbies slowed down and approached Damon cautiously, being more careful since they were facing a much dangerous foe than they’d expected. Foaming at the mouth, one brave crab decided to attack and launched a BubbleBeam at Damon’s face. The water began to beat his skin raw and Damon gurgled, trying to get out of the bubbly stream. Seeing he was distracted, another Krabby ran close and clawed at his ear which stung like heck. Sirius quickly stepped in and yelled loudly, making a scary face at the Krabby and attacked with a vicious hoof as it turned toward him. The Krabby tumbled over and gave up early in the fight, deciding that it wasn’t worth its trouble. As the crab retreated, another skittered in to take its place and lashed out with a Metal Claw. Damon’s vision filled with red and he lunged blindly at the crustacean, catching its thin arm in his maw and crushing down on it. The Krabby screeched and pulled back, mauling Damon with its free claw until he let go. Sirius blew a Flame Wheel and it swept around, rolling over all of the remaining foes before expiring into smoke. Sirius moved to finish one off with a well placed Stomp, and kicked it aside, back into the water where it slowly skittered off into the deeper ends. “Catch!” Sirius shouted, tossing an Oran Berry Damon’s direction. The bloodied cub surprisingly caught it accurately and swallowed it whole, wincing as it burned all the way down his throat. The gash on his cheek immediately closed shut with a faint scab sealing it over. Wiping the blood off his face, Damon stabbed at a Krabby with his Stinger, Poisoning it. Damon swiftly Tackled the poisoned Krabby and hung on to its horns as it thrashed about. The last of the Krabbies turned to Sirius and launched a series of Mud Shots at the centaur’s face. Temporarily blinded and wincing at the stinging pain, Sirius tried to kick at the orange creature, missing by a mile. Damon sunk his teeth into the Krabby’s tough shell and sent a jolt of electricity through it, shoving it toward the shoreline as it stood stunned. With that over with, Damon Tackled the last enemy, dodging Sirius’s badly aimed attacks. A thrashing hoof caught the Krabby’s underside and flung both into the water. Damon splashed around frantically, releasing the crab and trying to keep his head out of the water.
“Sirius! Help!” He cried helplessly, beginning to panic.
“OH, geez!” The centaur cursed as he wiped the last of the mud out of his face. He stopped to kick the still paralyzed Kingler into the lake, then trotted over to the waterline and hesitated for a moment before splashing into the water. He frowned, it wasn’t the best feeling ever, but a little water wouldn’t hurt. Damon’s sore limbs took a rest for a brief moment, kicking back into action after his head dropped under the cool water. An orange and black blurry figure reached down into the water and pulled out the drowning kitten. It was Sirius. “Are you okay?” The centaur asked.
“Omigod, SIRIUS! Put me down right now! At the shore!” The lion shouted after fountaining a lungful of water. The Ponyta-hybrid obediently walked the two feet out of the lake and dropped the despairing feline.
“DON’T do that again!” Damon gasped, hugging the earth. Sirius sighed and waited for the cub to come back to his senses.
“Feeling better?” The captain asked, watching Damon as he calmed down. “Yeah, I’m fine now, thanks.” He replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “But wow, the water’s really clean! It’s the best tasting stuff I ever drank.” The cub said; while drowning, of course he managed to swallow a few mouthfuls of the water.
“Mm, hmm…” Sirius murmured as he collected a sample of the water into one of the vials in his bag. Sealing it tightly, he turned around. “Okay, ready to go? We still have a lot of ground to cover.” Damon sighed and nodded yes, walking down the left side of the shore a good three yards away from the water.
After the battle, they finally had time to drink in the scene. The water practically glowed under the golden sun, though it seemed that something else, something in the water, gave it its ‘glowing’ effect. The lake was perfectly translucent, though a glare was starting to fog over it from the lowering sun, making it reflect the light fluffy clouds that hung above. Various Water Pokémon bustled about their business under the water’s surface, darting left and right, Damon could watch it for hours on end and not get bored. A few lily pads dotted the lake’s smooth surface as well as a few Surskit and Buizel gliding about, but otherwise was clear. The ground was moist and extremely soft, a rich brown color that complimented the green, orange-red and yellow leaves that hung on trees, blowing gently back and forth in the wind.
“Hey, Sirius?” Damon asked as they walked down the shoreline.
“Yeah?” Sirius peered over his slate down at the cub, “What is it?”
“Well,” Damon said, “Dad never taught me about hybrids; can you tell me more about them?”
“Sure,” Sirius said, putting down the etched map and clasping his hands together. “After a union of two Pokemon which results in an egg, it is more common if they are in different egg groups, then a hybrid like us is born.”
“Wait,” Damon interrupted, “What’s an egg group?” For some reason, his father never educated him on these sorts of matters, always looking slightly embarrassed when Damon brought up terms others of their group spoke about. Sirius nodded,
“Right. Egg groups are categories which determine which kinds of Pokemon are allowed to interbreed, safely. A long time ago, a few Pokemon got together, taking biological traits which decides which ‘egg group’ certain Pokemon are in. Though it’s quite a complicated system and doesn’t make much sense to me since a Pokemon like Gyarados can breed with a Treecko.” Sirius shook his head. “’Wonder what that union would make spring forth.” Getting back to the matter, Sirius continued his other thought. “Let me use a female Mightyena and a male Gallade as an example. Usually, the dominant species or part of the hybrid will be like the mother, in this case a Poochyena with hints of the father in his look. The offspring can have any similarities to the father such as color change or parts change. So he could look like a Poochyena with red horns and white fur or something. On the contrary, the child can turn out to be a bipedal Ralts with hints of Poochyena such as ears, tail, teeth, etcetera. A couple from the same egg group would normally have a normal looking child, either looking completely like the father or completely like the mother, but on occasion the same thing happens as if the parents were not from the same egg-group.” Sirius explained. “Does that make sense?”
Damon nodded slowly, “Yes, but what if there was a third Pokemon in the mix?”
Sirius’s eyebrows rose, “What?”
“You know, what if the first Pokemon was already a hybrid, but the second a normal purebred?” Damon explained.
Sirius settled down a bit, “Oh, you mean would the end results be like you?”
Damon nodded vigorously, “Yeah, I’m part Zubat, part Skorupi, and part Shinx. How’d that happen?” Sirius paused for a moment then said slowly, “Well, since the dominant part of you is Shinx, it is possible that long ago a Shinx-Zubat hybrid met up with a Shinx-Skorupi hybrid and ended up with something like you. Or, down the line, your ancestors looked a lot different, perfectly balanced in their parts, and changed because they most oftenly mated with the Shinx-line.” Sirius shrugged. Damon nodded, “So, back to the egg group-y thing, I would be able to marry someone in the same egg-group as either of my parts, Zubat, Shinx, or Skorupi, and it would be okay?” He asked. Sirius shook his head. “I don’t think so. Since your other bits are only faint suggestions now, it wouldn’t be good to be with the kind of either the Zubats or the Skorupi egg groups. For example, since I have only two kinds, Mawile and Ponyta, it would be safe for me to be with either of their egg groups because I'm balanced between my different bloods. Or at least that’s what I think.” Sirius again shrugged; though it wasn’t awkward for him to talk about this stuff to another person, as he grew up in the sort of culture where it was quite normal, he never really thought much about it before and wasn’t too sure about his theories.
A Water Gun to the face quickly ended his thoughts and the centaur sputtered, looking around wildly for the guilty Pokémon. A Totodile snickered along with its Squirtle and Wooper friends as they pointed at the drenched equine. Sirius strongly disliked being splashed or rained on and stepped toward them with a threatening huff. The three water-types looked at each other for a moment before exploding into mirth at the centaur’s hilarious display, one of them diving under the surface, unable to keep afloat. With a small snort of frustration, Sirius belched out a Flame Wheel that rolled over the water a short ways before poofing into black smoke. With a gasp, the three dove underwater for a short while, letting the flames pass overhead before surfacing. Their once mirthful expressions had now twisted into fury with a hint of annoyance. They quickly swam to the shore, charging out of the water while shooting Water Guns at the retreating centaur’s heels. The Wooper was laughing as the equine darted away; it shot a Muddy Water ball out of the pit of its stomach and through its wide mouth, splashing on Sirius’s tail and putting his mane out. Damon stood and watched as his captain struggled to fend off the three water types, seething with anger. With a roar, the small cub sent a flurry of Spark balls the Water-types’ way. The Squirtle and Totodile turned in surprise as their friend Wooper fell into a useless heap, cringing from the pain, to see Damon charging at them. Before they could do so much as cry in alarm, the manticore Tackled and sunk his claws and teeth into the Totodile, sending jolts of electricity through its body. Rolling upright, he quickly sprung at the Squirtle who backed away, stumbling over its own feet. Before Damon landed on it, the turtle retreated into its shell and began to spin rapidly in place. Damon was flung aside and the Squirtle came out of hiding only to be Stomped sharply by the tormented centaur, which hurt equally for both of them and Sirius cursed as pain shot up his leg. The Wooper picked itself up and ran toward the unsuspecting centaur, slamming him with an Aqua Tail. Grimacing, the equine sidestepped and tried to stomp the blue creature, but it just laughed and dodged easily, springing up to fire a stream of water out of its mouth.
“Sirius, just focus on one at the time!” Damon shouted before the Totodile recovered and chomped the cub’s leg. Sirius would surely wear himself out trying to attack all three at once. Damon generated odd sound waves from his body that stunned the croc for a moment and swatted it off his leg, leaving it to stare dumbly at the sky as he attacked the Squirtle again. At the last Tackle, the Squirtle quickly shouldered him off and made a beeline toward the safety of the lake. Things had gone quite out of hand and if they’d seen the mutated Shinx, they would have thought better of attacking its fire-freak friend. The Totodile quickly snapped out of its confusion and formed a small blue orb of water in its scaly hand. As he tossed the ball at the two hybrids, the orb grew in size and exploded into a large wave that quickly swept over the two. Damon ignored Sirius, who was sprawled on the ground, and charged toward the Totodile, sparks quickly surrounding his body. Yelping, the Totodile scrambled after its Squirtle friend toward the lake closely followed by the Wooper, who didn’t want to be left behind to deal with the electric-type.
“Get away from us, freaks!” The Totodile shouted over its shoulder before diving headfirst into the water and darting away. Damon slowed to a halt, sparks dying; that comment stung. A lot. Wincing, the cub turned back around and headed to Sirius, who was unsteadily getting to his feet. The centaur was shivering in the breeze, arms wrapped around his wet torso.
“Hey, you okay?” Damon asked the equine. The centaur's face was crusted with dirt and mud covered his sides. Sirius nodded slowly, looking past Damon’s left ear as if he couldn’t quite focus on his face. Frowning, Damon leapt onto his back and tore through the miraculously dry satchel, coming up with an Oran Berry. Holding it in his tail claw, he jumped down and offered it to the centaur, who stared at it, still shaking from the bitter cold. Sighing, Damon shoved the blue fruit into the unprotesting Sirius’s mouth who forcibly swallowed. Slowly, the equine relit his mane and shuddered.
“That Water Pulse really did a number on ya.” The Manticore explained as Sirius lost his blank look. “Glad you’re back to your senses.” He said. Welcome back, Sirius, he added silently.
“Mm… you okay?” Sirius asked. Damon replied, “Yeah, they didn’t hurt me too badly.” He admitted, though the insult the Totodile gave him still stung for some reason. He was just called a freak; he shouldn’t worry about it, right?
“At least you’re dry now.” Damon pointed out.
“Yeah, thank goodness.” Sirius sighed, shaking out his damp hair. Suddenly, as if just remembering something, the equine quickly checked his pack.
“The bag’s fine; nothing got wet. Don’t worry about it.” Damon said airily.
“Mm, none of the vials broke either, that’s good…” Sirius trailed off as he checked a few more things then closed the bag with a snap. “Okay! Well, everything seems to be good, let’s go.”
“Gladly.”
As they continued on, they noticed burrows in the grassy ground a little ways from shore followed by rockier terrain in where caves varying in size clustered together. Dragon-types roamed this area of the Lake, some coming from the more wooded areas or the lake after hunting for the day, prizes in tow. A few sparred with each other, tearing up the grass and messing up the caves or pushing dirt into burrows much to the older and more tired dragons’ displeasure. A bundle of especially territorial Gible and a Gabite charged from their warm cave some twenty yards away and ran after the two explorers.
“Uh, oh…. Are they…? Damon, run!” Sirius said before breaking into a full gallop with Damon scrambling behind him, beating his wings frantically. Hissing in annoyance, the three dragonets ran on after them, older dragons staring after them in an unworried fashion. As the pursuers caught up to the two, one Gible opened its oversized maw and launched an orange-red fireball Damon’s direction, hitting the ground just behind him. The explosion made Damon faulter and he tripped, somersaulting to a stop. Sirius quickly skidded to a halt and reared, switching directions to fire a Flame Wheel to grant the vice captain some time to regain his footing. The three land sharks paused for a brief moment, letting the fire pass, before they charged toward the two. The first Gible charged and Bit Damon’s shoulder sharply, bowling him over as he didn’t bother to slow down. Busy in a tumble of limbs and flashing teeth, the last two decided to attack Sirius. The Gabite called out and a giant sand twister appeared, swirling around its body. Gritty dirt and small rocks shot out of the small Sandstorm with speed and pelted the two guilders mercilessly. Damon flung the Gible off of him with a powerful thrust of his hind legs only to be caught in a Sand Tomb the other Gible conjured. As the small torrent of surging sand half-blinded all Pokémon, Sirius galloped over to the Gabite and reared, shrieking and beating it with his hooves. Hissing, the blue lizard slammed both arms down on Sirius’s lower chest in a Duel Chopping motion. As the rushing tornado of sand died down slightly, Damon glared at the Gabite with an intimidating look on his face and knocked it over with a Tackle. Kicking the cub away, the Gabite hurriedly Dug into the ground, sending clods of earth flying. Within the safe embrace of the earth, Sirius’s Fire Wheel passed over the ground harmlessly and he instead Stomped a Gible in frustration. When the Sandstorm finally died down, a Gible quickly whipped up another Sand Tomb which enveloped Damon’s small frame, filling his nostrils with grit and dust as he tried to inhale. The recently squashed dragonet kicked up a cloud of sand into Sirius’s face and temporarily blinded him. The Gabite waiting patiently underground suddenly burst forth from the earth and attacked the centaur while he was still trying to rub the matter from his reddened eyes. Rearing, Sirius blew out a long hot stream of flame before slamming both legs down on the Gabite. Crying out in pain, the dragonet called to its siblings and made a hasty retreat to the safety of their cave. Damon sighed as the sand settled to a gentle swirl at his paws,
“That was close.” He said, giddy with relief.
Sirius nodded and asked, “Any injuries?”
Damon replied, “No, but my lungs are thoroughly coated with dust. Can we go to the lake?” Sirius nodded and headed off the path toward the water. Damon’s Wings drooped with exhaustion; they had covered a lot of ground, and now the sun was setting. As they gratefully lapped up the Lake’s fine water, the now red orb dipped into the lake, creating a beautiful display of vibrant colors that danced across the waves.
Breaking the silence, Damon said, “Sirius, can we go home now? I think we’ve pretty much covered most to all of the lake.”
“Sure,” came Sirius’s reply as he finished the map and tucked it into his man-bag. A beam of light descended from the heavens, enveloping the two, and then slowly faded, teleporting them back to Nicholas’s camp.
Mission Complete.Foes Fought 16. 6 Battles Items UsedApple x6 Oran Berry x8 ((15.5 Pages in OO at 14 text size Food taken from ShadowWolf's inventory as well Wow, I haven't posted a mission in a long time. Feedback on the writing is much appreciated and thanks for reading :3))
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:15 pm
When the Team returned to Nicholas' encampment, they were greeted in a rather more amicable fashion than they had been initially. This time the various Pokemon that were still busy bustling about on this or that odd errand, despite the hour, nodded to the pair as they made their way over to the tent wherein Nicholas himself resided. The Pikachu was still as engrossed in his work as he had been when the pair had left him the night before; in fact, if one hadn't known better, they might have said that he hadn't moved at all from his place. As it was, it took a good several minutes for the Pikachu to notice Sirius and Damon, and when he did he blinked a few times, as if startled to find them there. It didn't take more than an instant for him to recover however, nodding briskly to them both. "Ah, you're back," he stated, "Your expedition was a success then I take it?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, Nicholas continued, "Show me your results if you will, I'm afraid we haven't the time to waste in pleasantries."
When the Team handed their findings over, the Pikachu snatched them from the pair very quickly, eyes hungrily looking over each and every detail of the map and then the various samples in the vial. As he did a bright smile spread across Nicholas' features for the first time since Sirius and Damon had seen him, and he chuckled delightedly, muttering vague comments such as, "So that's where it comes from..." and "How peculiar that they would be there..." After several moments of studying the items, Nicholas rolled up the map and placed it, along with the water samples, upon his desk. "Gentlemen, I do believe you've done quite adequately," he announced, the smile still on his features a definitive representation that he was clearly pleased with what they'd brought back, "Feel free to return back to your Guild, I'll send appropriate compensation in short order." With that, he dismissed them both with a nonchalant gesture and the Electric Type could be seen eagerly returning to the pair's findings as they left.
After a much deserved and likely much needed rest safely back at their Team Room, Sirius and Damon would be awoken by a knock on the door. When they opened it they would be greeted by an odd collection of Pokemon eyeing them with various expressions. From the right, a Gabite looked at them sharply, his eyes glinting with a mixture of malice and respect, and on the left a small and slightly timid looking Tropius looked up at them curiously. In the middle, a Kingler eyed them suspiciously as it clenched and unclenched its pincers. Although none of the three said anything, it was rather evident that they'd all come for the same purpose: to join the Team.
"Excuse me, pardon, coming through!" a rather impatient sounding voice said. The owner of the voice was soon made clear as the silent trio parted and an Altaria flew forward, glasses balanced on the tip of her beak and a letter as well as a very full sack in her talons. Peering slightly skeptically over the top of her glasses, she took in the sight of the two of them, "Sirius and Damon I presume?" she questioned, "Well Mr. Dedman did say to expect..." Out of politeness she didn't finish the sentence and instead cleared her throat and handed them the items which she held. "These are for the both of you, as a reward for your efforts." Even after she handed it over however, the Alteria remained. Perhaps she wanted to join the Team too?
The letter, when opened, was a note from the Pikachu himself:The Note I cannot possibly thank you both enough. Thanks to your contributions we have reached a breakthrough that has been a long time in coming. We now have the capability to confirm several experiments which were unable to be affirmed without the samples and locations which you retrieved for us. I am happy to report that our data is progressing at a rapid rate and we will be able to file our results to the Guild's archives in due time. I have sent one of my workers with payment for your services and I thank you once again for your efforts.
-Nicholas Dedman: Chartmaster and Surveyor of the Lake of Purity and Surrounding Regions
Rewards:
10,000 PD
x1 Scald TM
x1 Acid Armor TM
x1 Calm Mind TM
Recruit Choice: 2 of Gabite, Kingler, Tropius, or Altaria ((Excellently written Mission Cassady! It was entertaining to read, and the character interactions especially between Sirius and Damon were very nicely done. I also particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the area and the natural activities of the Pokemon as you wrote them. One thing I would suggest (which is suggested a lot, so don't worry too much about it) is to put spaces between your paragraphs or center the text in order to make it easier to read and less blocky. Also, an advanced warning for next time, your mission only made 15 pages when the sprite coding was added, and normally the sprite coding is not counted into the page length, although the word color coding is. I let it slide this time, but keep that in mind for your next Mission. Once again, great job, it was a pleasure to read!))
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Dark_Hunter-Angelic_Tears Crew
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:29 am
Sirius & Damon Damon opened the door and shouted nervously for his captain. "Uh, Sirius...?"
"What is it?" The centaur asked as he arrived. "Oh."
Sharing a glance with Damon, the centaur faced the group crowded outside their door and said, "I'm sorry, we are not taking recruits at this time. Thank you." Besides, Sirius felt as if they just didn't quite understand them so.... yeah. Sirius thanked the Altaria and politely dismissed her, accepting the offered sack she held.
"Alright, that's over with." Sirius said after closing the door and turning to Damon. "Well, let's get back to what we were doing." He said. And that was sleep more; with nothing else to do, the two returned to their quarters.((Thank you O///O Yeah, my writing is very cluttered, huh? I really need to work on that. Oh, and if I'm wrong correct me, but I thought it said use size 14, and mine came out to fifteen and a half pages... hmm, I wonder what's going on... anyways, I'll just write a few pages more than required for future missions ^^" Thanks again :3))
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