Continued from HERE (put under a read more because it’ll be long)
The stranger took a moment to catch her breath. Nothing seemed to be working the way she had intended, neither of her opponents were even slightly fazed by her attacks. She felt an eerie burning from the dark pulse used prior and the remnants of it felt suffocating. She noticed the sneasel muttering something, as if he were controlling it, becoming more and more encased by it, almost disappearing? Whats going on?
The stranger shook her head, she needed to focus. This was going nowhere and the chances of someone new joining the fray were growing too high. She needed to get this over with, or at least buy time to retreat. Her main target would be the Finneon, protect does not always work and she was quite tired of the guardian act. Luckily the stranger knew a move that would fry that fish real good.
Visibility was about zero in this dense mixture of smoke and mist. Pinkan took a few steps back, gazing around blindly for the stranger. He could not see anything through the dense smoke that now surrounded him. He tentatively creeps backwards until his back hits the protect Lana has set up. He looks back make sure that Lana and Natalie are ok, then gazes back out into the smoke. He figured it would take a couple of minuets to fade, and in that precious time he needed to be ready for a counter attack out of the blue, as he was unsure if his moves had the desired impact on the stranger.
The stranger landed on her stomach. It hurt. Dark type moves do not hurt like this. Sneasel can not move like that, she foggily thought. Then the pain pulsed through her whole body from the point where the feint attack hit her in the stomach. It left her out of breath, struggling to breathe. The suppressive fog caused by the dark pulse and her own smoke screen made her head spin with every attempted breath. She was starting to struggle maintaining her meowstic forme. Keep it together. It took considerable effort to bull herself together, literally, and stand up. She took a few shaky steps forward, her head was pounding. Did she hear something? A quick glance showed her nothing. Another step forward. Just get out of the smoke and you will be fine.
The stranger’s status is currently unknown. Shura’s status is currently unknown. Neither are open for asks.
There was only silence. Soon enough the smoke faded and the stranger was nowhere in sight. This relieved Pinkan. He could not sense the dittos presence. he uncomfortably adjusted the scarf around his neck. “Seems like my injuries are acting up again... I have to be more careful of that in the future.” He makes a mental note. Then turns back around toward Lana and Natalie.
“It would seem that they have fled. I must thank you for your h-” Pinkan was momentarily taken by a coughing fit. He clears his throat and continues, albeit a bit roughly. “I must thank you for your assistance..... though I have to ask, why were you traveling with that mon in the first place?” Pinkan’s tone was cheery and conversational but his words carried tension. He had a pretty good idea of why the ditto attacked Natalie, but how Lana fit in eluded him.
Hehe. I can do more, obviously.. but. This is probably one of the flashiest things I can do. Now you can walk on water for a little bit too! Pretty cool, huh.
Ah, but after it wears off it might feel like you have water in your ears for a while. I don’t know why, I guess it’s some kind of weird spell thing.
Hey Asher, what has gotten you so salty about Natalie? She and her family are very nice pokemon.
“These kids mess with everyone they don’t like. Their parents encourage them to be mean to some kids. I get picked on enough, I don’t need to be around her to make it worse. I don’t want to get beat up by them, I want them to just leave me alone. Besides Natalie always gets into trouble with other kids. No one wants to be friends with a hyper loudmouth.” Asher says rather bitterly. He receives a nasty glare from Natalie. Someone else steps up with a question for Natalie.
“I nyever did anything to him and he just started being a jerk! Nyow I don’t have any friends and I get picked on every time any of them see me.” Natalie huffs.”None of the kids like me now, they all just stay away. There are even some adults that are mean to me. They don’t like me because they don’t like my papa. They let their kids beat me up and say nyasty things and just sit back and laugh. It’s why I nyever like coming here. Everyone is mean nyand it sucks. It’s his fault because he started saying stuff to the bullies he shouldn’t have.”Natalie finishes miserably. She takes a deep breath and answers the other half of the question.
“I just nyeed to find out where the exploration team outlook base is and get someone to help me. I just wan’t to find my papa and go home.” Asher shoots her a weird look at that but keeps quiet. “He is the only one I know of who knows where it is but he won’t help me because he’s just a big scardy jerk, isn’t that right ashy.” Natalie ends that sentence with a biting tone. It seems to have gotten the desired effect, as Asher stares at her in shock before the two launch into a incoherent argument.
Continued from here (shout out for @askthewanderingdoctor who sketched this to help me out with poses!)
The stranger seemed thrown off of her game by Pinkans fast movements. His Dark Pulse had left the field in a slight haze, and had knocked back the stranger more than she would have liked. As a struggle to gain an upper hand she tries a razor leaf which quickly cuts through the field.
The stranger begins in a casual tone. “So you are a little shit you know that? But there is clearly a good reason you are out and about. You said you needed help, help from the rescue teams that are not here. You can fight me on that but the horror to the north-west would say otherwise. You probably knew that already right?”
She pauses to take in Ashers expression. His ears have drooped a bit and he is not looking at her, there is a hint of guilt on his face. She continues. “Back on track. You have a friend who is in trouble yea? Someone who you want to help, but maybe you don’t. Could get you in a lot of trouble, and you don’t want trouble. You just wanna dick around below your parents noses. I can respect that. I can help you you know?” Asher’s brow furrows.
The stranger cackles. “What are your other options? The load of mon coming out of nowhere? Do they look native? Do they look like they know their way around? Don’t cha think it’s just plain fishy how they pop up out of nowhere? They’d probably rat you out if they found out that you weren’t planning on helping your “friend”.” The stranger sneers as she watches Asher’s expression drop farther and farther. This kid was just too easy to read, not that anyone else cared to try to read him. ‘Just a bit more and I’ll have him’ she thinks before continuing.
“So you have some faith in me and I will help your buddy out and let you be on your merry way. It will all be under the rug and you can go and enjoy your night. I know my way around, I used to know a few local teams and my assistance would be priceless.” At the mention of a team Asher looks up with some expression of confucion. The stranger grins. “I can track down just about any damned mon, that’s why I am here. Looking for someone. Maybe this deal could help me as much as it could help you.” She waits, knowing she has began to sway the young mon.
Asher turns to Lana. “What do you think? S-she has a point. Plus if we don’t figure something out soon Natalie will probably just run off on her own.”
“Do we have a deal? Will you drop this silly protect? That way the kid can lead us back to his friend. You can come along and if I pull something funny you can...spit water at me and tell me I’m a bad girl or something.” The stranger snorts at her own joke.
[asklepidoptera] Lana slowly drifts over in her bubble of water, eyeing the stranger carefully as she approaches Asher. While she talks to him, she keeps an eye on the Meowstic. "Hello, darling, we heard you know where the rescue base is? Would you mind taking me there? We should get out of this dangerous night as quick as possible, I'm sure your mothers are worried about you." She puts up a Protect bubble around Asher and herself, while staring the stranger in the eyes.
“I know you’d rather hear it from your little buddy there, but the outpost isn’t exactly as close as you would want it. 10 minuets out of town. Doesn’t seem like that bad of a walk, but a lot can happen in 10 minuets. Might be wiser to stick aroung here, wouldn’t it? Be a shame if something happened while your backs were turned~.” The stranger says coyly. She flashes a toothy grin at Lana.
“M-my mom’s don’t even know I am out here....I don’t want to try to get around her..... Especially if what she said about no one being there was true... Maybe you can stay with me?” Asher practically pleads.
Seems like Lana may be sticking around for Ashers safety. The air is tense.
