@DusksongActually, in my plan it was a Comfey who was the culprit. Juana's been making Comfey jokes for the past month and it's coming back to bite her.
Level: 1 Day/Time: Day One; Evening Location: Kingdom of Erion - Raganival, Forest Beyond Castle Grounds Tag: Amaterasu @Gentlemanvaultboy, Luigi @Bright_Ops, Samus @Lmpkio, James @Zarkun Mention: WC: 304
Hapu admittedly felt a twinge of distaste for Brigan, especially after witnessing his cruel, patronizing attitude towards Luigi. And yet she had to commend Luigi's courage in approaching such a foreboding general, and the family bond Mario had with his brother... perhaps the haughty hero was more golden than his behavior showed. Hapu felt reassured by this.
The tasks were split amongst the three squads, and Hapu learned that the team she was on was to head to the abandoned castle to check upon the princess and the ring. Luigi, Samus, and James would set off to scout the location first, leaving Amaterasu and Hapu to stand guard.
Mudsdale looked down at Amaterasu as the wolf curled next to its mud-caked hooves. The horse gave a short neigh. Hapu, on the other hand, said, "Mudsdale and I shall stay with..." She thought for a second. "We shall stay with Amaterasu, and if any trouble arises, we will be on our way." She gave James, Samus, and Luigi a nod. Mudsdale snorted.
“If there are no objections or alternative suggestions to us staying here, then I wish you luck on your reconnaissance,” Hapu said.
She then saddled up on Mudsdale and proceeded to start patrolling. Mudsdale trotted through a twenty-five yard radius, shifting its head left and right in order to spot any trouble. Hapu herself kept a diligent eye on the area between the trees; growing up on the untamed Poni Island, Hapu had to quickly learn to be vigilant among nature.
“Do you see anything, friend?” Hapu asked, stroking Mudsdale’s nuzzle.
The horse looked back and shook its head.
“Perhaps that is a good sign. Or perhaps it is an ambush.” Hapu shrugged. “It’s difficult to determine our situation in such a foreign land. But hopefully Luigi, Samus, and James return all right.”
The Dugtrio recoiled back, met after popping out of the ground with dog teeth to the faces, which gave Leavanny lease to reunite with the fallen Sewaddles. The motherly bug grabbed the two juveniles and put them behind it, before launching another web into the hole to give Juana another handhold. Juana pulled herself out of the hole.
"Bounsweet, Razor Leaf!" she shouted, landing with a thud. Bounsweet launched a flurry of leaves into Dugtrio, causing it to retreat into the earth.
"HA!" Juana taunted the Dugtrio. "Couldn't handle a bunch of pre-evolved Pokés, couldja! Bet you wish you had long, glorious metal hair, do ya?!" She thumbed her nose after the churned earth.
She folded her arms. "In all seriousness, though, I think there was definitely something up with that Dugtrio," she added. "Probably the same thing that was up with the ol' Nidorino back where we saw that Torterra."
Juana turned back towards that hole. "Somebody ought to put up a sign," she remarked. "I can now say from experience that Dugtrio holes are not fun to fall into."
She let out a heavy sigh. "In any case, thanks for the save, guys. Would've been mole chow. And jeez, that would have been embarrassing."
Juana turned and spotted Tora checking her dex. "New catch?" she asked.
Meanwhile, Bounsweet was playfully hopping around with the Sewaddles, as the Swadloons and mother Leavanny watched the grubs. Bounsweet stopped and hopped over to Leavanny with a question.
"Whee-whoo?" Bounsweet asked.
"Chirrip-chirp, chrrrip," Leavanny replied, pointing a particular direction through the forest. "Chirp, chrrrp."
The Leavanny had seen a large Pokémon tear through the trees, disrupting the Sewaddle colony.
Bounsweet looked back up at Juana and pointed intently with its stem in the direction Leavanny pointed out.
"What's up, amiga?" Juana asked.
Juana looked in the direction that Bounsweet was pointing. The Leavanny confirmed this.
@Silver FoxI thought that was for, like, official PNW-logged battles so I was having Corphish doing Vicegrips and Bounsweet Rapid Spinning and all that...
Tomoe was distressed about the lives lost and the way that the battle ended... at the very least, though, she did not fail her primary objective.
She might, if Jarde did not get the arrow wound that Keerin pointed out treated as quickly as possible.
Tomoe hustled over to Jarde's side. "Milord, it would be best not to pull the arrow from the wound; it could damage your vitals. Please keep still."
She pulled off one of the sashes on her kimono and washed it best she could in a running stream. She then cleaned the area around the arrow (careful not to touch the sharp edges). Then, she stabilized the arrow so that it would not move. Protecting these officials meant addressing dangerous injuries as well. "It'd probably be best not to move until we can get you to a proper healer," Tomoe stated.
@Dusksong Did you by any chance accidentally call Juana "Tora?" I mean i get it, they're both bisyllabaic names with an -a ending, and it's an error I sometimes make.
The vines wound around each other, creating a sturdy rope for Juana to grab onto. She tenderly held on to the Sewaddles as well as her own Pokémon as she reached for the combined length of the Bulbasaur's and Skiddo's makeshift rope.
Meanwhile, the Dugtrio was recovering from the blows and readying a second Mud Bomb to launch at Juana's Pokémon. As it did, however, Dewpider sprayed a jet of bubbles that broke the mud bomb into harmless blobs.
Juana felt the rumbling, as the vine swung precariously, causing the poor Sewaddles to cower. "Tora? Cillian? What's going on up there?" she asked, climbing a bit further.
Then she looked up and Juana realized just what was going on. "Are you kidding me?!" she shouted as the dark shadow of the Onix loomed overhead. The rock monster was incredibly angry, and from the sounds of it, affected by whatever that Dugtrio was affected by.
Speaking of the Dugtrio, it had retreated into the cave wall.
Now, the wild Leavanny was apparently the queen of its colony, and it was not happy with a gigantic Rock-type traipsing up into Bug-type territory. And so, Leavanny with an angry chittering sprayed a sticky web of silk on the ground that would trip the Onix over and tangle it up to make it easier to deal with. The multitudes of Sewaddles and Swadloons up above attacked with Razor Leaves, set upon defending their colony from the enormous rock snake that could probably flatten them all in one go.
Juana carefully detached Corphish's Poké Ball, and called Dewpider back (she didn't want her poor little water spider getting squashed by the Rock-type). She threw Corphish's capsule, and the crawdad jumped out of the pit, beating its chest like a gorilla (or, at least, making an adorable gesture that resembled that). Corphish opened its mouth and bubbles blasted out of its mouth, striking up the underbelly of the Onix as it struggled against the Sticky Web.
Corphish spotted a line of tilled dirt streaking towards Archie--the Dugtrio wasn't running away, it was using Dig! Corphish turned around and sniped that trail of dirt, causing the Dugtrio to pop out prematurely and miss Archie completely.
Juana continued to climb up the vine. "Bounsweet, Skorupi, can you get these Sewaddles back up to the trees?" Juana asked.
Bounsweet nodded, and put one of the little Sewaddles upon its calyx. Skorupi gently gripped the other in its claws, and the two Pokémon bounded up the side of the wall to reach the lip of the pit.
Leavanny turned its attention to Juana and spat out a string of silk to help her out of the pit (perhaps as an instinct stemmed from wild Leavanny's maternal nature), but the Dugtrio slammed into Leavanny, causing it to stumble and trip, and Juana to swing wildly.
"¡¡¡MADRE DE ARCEUS!!!" Juana hollered, kicking against one wall of the pit as she tried to right herself in mid-air.