The MOUNTAIN Team

Ujue's whole body tensed with abhorration as the infected aerodactyl took out their foe, leaving only a twisted, mangled carcass. Soon, though, her muscles trembled with absolute exhaustion.

When the horrific creature seemed to be gone, disappearing into the skies, Ujue stiffly and awkwardly stood up straight. As she walked back towards the group of living, she limped slightly (although she tried to hide it) and her ivory-gold coat was once again dirtied with the soil and gore that had coated the undead kabutops.

"Okay," Ujue said hoarsely, "we should move on. I want . . . to wash off, briefly . . . again." She walked towards the stream with all the elegance she could muster, but it was still a far cry from her usual grace; Ujue hid her frustration at her physical state. She looked over her shoulder and added, "I'm quite thankful that all of you survived."

[OoC: sorry for the late reply!]

Seeing that winged infected make its appearance was probably one of the most frightening experiences that Kringle had experience. The beast was huge, and not any type of pokemon he had ever seen before, and he had seen a lot in his travels. It looked like it had been dead a long time, and he sort of wondered how it kept itself in the air, but he was relieved that its target was not any of them, by some sheer force of luck, it went after the other infected and saved them from an being eaten by the smaller faster infected. It had flown off, to do who knows what, but Kringle did not want to stay in case it came back, he was more than willing to help any of his friends fight off infected, but going up against that beast was practically suicide.

It took a few minutes for him to shake off his trembling and be able to move, though the effect of using two substitutes was still there, his legs wanted nothing more than to get some rest. He was glad no one was killed, the furret was hurt badly, but she would live, and that kept him happy. He looked on at the ninetails, it seemed to recover the fastest from the scare, and had its mind immediately on hygiene. Kringle chuckled, more for to release the tension that had pent up, “Scrub-a-dub-dub~.” He had no clue where their paths went, but he had no were to go, so he would follow them all.

((Meh, didn't really know what to write...))

She watched the Aerodactyl swoop down, killing the Kabutops. "They're both fossil Pokemon... Amazing..." she murmured, eyes wide. The Kabutops didn't even stand a chance as the Harbringer ripped him apart.

"Sorry for the delay, I'll get to it now." Wind's voice snapped her back to reality. She felt herself being lifted into the air. She was defying gravity! "If it hurts anywhere, tell me so I could put you down." Kyu nodded. "I'm fine, thanks." she replied.

She looked to Ujue. "Where are we going to go?"

Arashi's eyes grew wide as the huge Kabutops was lifted out of the air and devastated by the other fossil Pokemon. The bug type sighed in relief as the Aerodactyl flew off and he shifted over to where the others stood. He was extremely thankful they were all alive.

"We need to move quickly before something else comes. Someone may ride on my back if they need to." Arashi's eyes looked everyone over thoughtfully.

Had Ujue had more energy, she might have found more amusement in the delibird's chuckle, along with his cheery "Scrub-a-dub-dub~" As it were, she was so exhausted that she could only catch a faint tingle of the amusement she would have felt at his rather childish interjection. She was, however, grateful to him for lightening the mood.

Ujue wavered at the edge of the group as the pokemon group started to converse. Would it be rude to jump in the stream immediately while the other pokemon were talking, perhaps about important things?

The froslass created a huge shadow ball to lift the iced-over furret, along with niceties to the injured party.
"Sorry for the delay, I'll get to it now. If it hurts anywhere, tell me so I could put you down."
"I'm fine, thanks."

The insect pokemon appeared to have shed all the childishness in his character when he shed his form. He, quite responsibly, added, "We need to move quickly before something else comes. Someone may ride on my back if they need to."

"Anyone willing to find a good cave for us to rest?" The froslass asked. "I ain't gonna make it far with Kyu. So we must go somewhere nearby."

Ujue gauged that the group was ready to move, so she turned and slid into the stream. She dog-paddled for a moment, then, bracing herself, rolled over once to wash off her back. She hauled her tired, sodden body out of the water, a little distance away from the group, and shook off, water flinging every which way from her nine tails and steam rising from her fur.

When she walked back to the group, she was completely dry, and much cleaner. She added her piece to the conversation. She addressed the delibird, who looked rather worn. "Perhaps you could ride on . . . his back." She gestured to the insect pokemon with a tail, then addressed him. "You and I could scout for a nearby cave." She switched her focus to the forslass. "Or, since the shadow ball is so tiring, perhaps you could make an ice raft and float Kyu down the stream?" Ujue twitched her ear in discomfort. "I'm sorry, I don't know all of your names; my name is Ujue. . . ."

[OoC: Sorry to start the name thing again; I reread the RP and Ujue wasn't introduced to most of the pokemon. She was asleep for Kringle's and Arashi's, too far away to hear Wind's; she hear Kyu's introduction though.]

If there was one thing his new friends should know about him was that if they were going to offer something such as a ride one a big electric spider bug, he would most likely not say no. Every part of his being wanted to ride on him, not because he was so tired that he couldn’t walk, but because it seemed like fun. He had seen how fast the spider was in the fight, so most likely riding on him would have been thrilling, he would be the first Delibird to ride a bug pokemon such as him. He could even imagine managing a sleigh of like 6 pokemon such as Arashi through the land, if there was no snow to ride through, he’d make an ice path. But sadly, his common sense kept interfering, he could manage to walk, and if the icy ghost could not keep up the shadow ball, they would need Arashi’s help if they had to run, and he wouldn’t be able to run if he was tired from carrying Kringle. The ninetail’s insistence that he take the ride did not help either, but in the end he just shook his head to deny the request, he didn’t trust his mouth to convey the right response.

He had wandered through this area before the infected started, during his travels, but he had never had any need for caves, he liked sleeping outside, where he could see the stars, knowing that there were other pokemon looking at those same stars made things seems less lonely. So he could not for the life of him recall any caves being nearby, except for the icy cave he had gone out of, but that noise that came from deep within made him reluctant to go back. In his failed recollection to remember if there was a cave nearby he only really caught the end of the ninetail’s dialogue, he had already introduced himself once, but a second time couldn’t hurt. “Kringle’s the name, and presents are my game,” He said as he pulled out a glowing orb and span it on the tip of his wing, but sadly fate did not want him to look cool, for the orb made a small explosion and made his face go black. He rubbed out the most of it around his face, but the edges of his face and around his beak where still tinged black.

"Anyone willing to find a good cave for us to rest? I ain't gonna make it far with Kyu. So we must go somewhere nearby." Kyu nodded an approval. "Or, since the shadow ball is so tiring, perhaps you could make an ice raft and float Kyu down the stream?" Kyu shook her head. "I already have an ice casing on, I don't want to get any colder."

“Kringle’s the name, and presents are my game,” She watched as the present exploded, and laughed. "Looks like your presents aren't very fond of you." she giggled, coughing a bit.

Arashi looked to the Delibird and cocked his head in his not wanting a ride.

"I assure you that you will not make me tired. Galvantula are notorious for storing energy and, believe me, I have plenty stored."

Arashi looked to the others and sighed. He wished that infected had been killed sooner before anyone was hurt but fate decided against that. A cave face lingered ahead of them and he nodded towards it.

"Should we go there?" he asked curiously. He was never really fond of caves but it was a good shelter.

(OOC: sorry about the short post I'm kind of sick and can't think of anything more to write.)

Dorian was not happy. What he’d thought was a slight detour to his original route to Azalea Town had now found him totally lost in a mountainous land. The great, black serpent moved slowly, hesitantly about the area, being totally unfamiliar with the environment and eager to return to a place that he’d previously navigated through. Hissing audibly, he turned his head aimlessly towards a particularly strong gust of wind, his empty eye sockets suddenly experiencing a strange sensation as the wind passed inside his head. His torn tongue flicked from his mouth as he slithered onwards, lightly coiling his tail around any previous rocks that in the event of straying too close to an edge, he may have a chance of pulling himself back to safety. He emitted the occasional hiss as his charred scales were torn from his body via the ragged rocks that he happened to pass. Having previously been set on fire, Dorian’s body had been reduced to a black, flaky mass and on his travels patches of scales had cracked to reveal the raw flesh beneath. The serperior was hardly recognisable – he was now nothing more than the stuff of nightmares.

Being blind always left Dorian with a disadvantage; but being blind in a foreign, dangerous environment could be interpreted as a death sentence. He wasn’t about to take any risks in manoeuvring his way about the area, so made a habit of smearing his own blood on rocks in an attempt to mark his whereabouts. He had applied a similar technique to routes between the region’s major cities, but with one small difference – he’d use his victim’s blood. He hadn’t eaten in a good few hours and the serpent was starting to feel the effects of the unquenchable hunger. Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks as a familiar aroma swept into his burnt nostrils – a frosslass. He’d had some trouble killing one in the past week, but after his success, the creature’s meat had become a personal favourite. Lifting his slim head, he focused on the scent where other smells were soon emerging and mingling together – he couldn’t identify them from this distance, but the sources were definitely alive. Bearing two particularly long, sharp, bloodstained fangs, Dorian slowly headed towards the smells – his dark body blending in surprisingly well with the rocky terrain despite his inability to fluently navigate.

Ujue fluffed out her coat against the sudden, chilly fog that descended around the motley party of pokemon. Ujue's sore and bruised body felt to her like a limp doll, and the damp and cold took her exhaustion to a new low, but she wearily kept her head held high. The fire type's coat steamed sluggishly. Ujue felt like her mind was moving as slow as molasses as she reasoned about the fog and the newly discovered cave.

"We need shelter; we're very exposed in the open like this," she said. "Do you think you can locate the cave in the fog, Arashi? Or Kringle?" she asked. "Perhaps we can hear the wind in the cave. . . ."

Unsatisfied with her lack of a solution, Ujue glanced around. She couldn't help but begin to raise her hackles at the sinister fog that turned the quiet forest into a muffled, eerie, and menacing backdrop.

Everyone seemed to want Kringle to ride on top of Arashi, especially Kringle himself, and he if they were gonna be persistant about it, was not gonna say no. He got close to the gaint spider, when he pointed out the cave no one seemed to notice in the distance. He was going to offer that they both go check out the cave to see if it was safe while the rest stayed here when the dense fog came rolling in. Normally he liked anything that made the weather colder, but fog in a forest was bad news, made it easier for people to get lost. It would be easier to for a flying type to find their way back since they could easily fly over the fog and look down, but he would not be able to see them from the air, he’d only see the top of the trees. Plus there was the chance that any infected out there could easily smell them and take advantage of this weather to catch them off guard.

It would be easier if one or two went off to look for the cave, that way the wounded Kyu and the tired froslass could be protected. Kringle was tired himself, and could not run for long, but he could make ice walls with his ice beams to slow anything down so he could get away, plus he can just fly away from it if it was anything other than a flier. “Fear not dear citizens, for Kringle shall find this allusive cave.” Sometimes he just couldn’t help himself, he had meet many school kids in his travels, some who were over joyed that they meet a pokemon that hands out presents would sometimes want to show him their schools. It was hard saying no to them, mostly because they didn't understand pokemon, but also because most of the time they were so eager that they practically dragged him to the school. It happened more often than he would have thought, so that was how he got to sit in in a few classes as a show-and-tell figure, he loved it when the teacher or students would read to them, so quoting some of his favorite books would come out randomly. He decided to use one of this almost fool proof methods to not get lost, which he also happened to learn from a children’s book. He fired a narrow ice beam at the ground and started walking, leaving a trail of ice on the ground that he could use to find his way back. It was narrow enough that it was hard to trip over, but thick enough that it would not melt or break easily.

So he walked out into the fog with the ice trail in tow, in the direction that the cave was in before the fog covered the area.

Kyu bristled against the evening rolls of the chilly fog. She was already freezing as is, but now this? Was the whole arceus-damned world against her or something? She let out a small growl of annoyance.

“Fear not dear citizens, for Kringle shall find this allusive cave.” She rolled her eyes, but then she as she saw Kringle make the ice path, she perked up. "Clever idea." she murmured, a sly smile on her face. She watched as his figure vanished against the thick fog. "Stay safe, Kringle."

Arashi watched Kringle disappear into the fog with an increasing dread. His thoughts could only go deeper and more dark as Kringle was gone longer. He paced a bit and then scuttled after his icy friend. Arashi could see very little but was aware of the gentle pulse of Kringle ahead of him.

"I will go along with you." Arashi called to him through the thick air.

With a quick thought, Arashi spun an electro web into a ball which he held in front of him with his mouth. It was a very effective light. Off in the distance he could still hear the other Pokemon's heartbeats and was glad nothing had happened to them. As fast as he could, he wanted to find the cave and to help everyone inside so they were safe.

[Ooc: Please just skip me ;; Wind is just carrying Kyu with her shadow ball still so I really have no idea what else to do. Sorry.]

The scents were growing ever-stronger and in his excitement, Dorian had increased his pace – hardly aware of the tearing of scales from his underbelly, until he finally felt a more familiar ground beneath his body. Instead of jagged rocks, he was met with grass and patches of exposed earth. His suspicions of this new environment were confirmed as the serperior’s head made contact with a particularly thick tree trunk. He emitted a hiss in irritation, shaking his slim head before attempting to focus in on the scents of the living once more. Shredded tongue flicking from his mouth, he paused for a moment – his body motionless as the prominent aromas of a frosslass and a ninetales overwhelmed his senses. They were close. A sadistic grin stretching across his blackened face, Dorian returned to the hunt.

With the majority of his nerves totally inoperative, Dorian rarely felt pain; let alone the freezing weather that was only intensifying as he neared his targets. Had he not been eyeless, the group of survivors would be in his vision by now – however, Dorian’s disability meant he would soon have to decide whether to attack prematurely or at the last minute. In his escalating hunger, Dorian chose the former choice. He blindly launched a series of frenzy plant attacks in the direction of the scents. Roots from nearby trees suddenly burst from the earth, accompanied with a spraying of dirt, as they flailed and swung about the survivor’s vicinity. If they were careful, they could dodge the powerful roots with ease – however, a well-aimed hit from one of the roots could send a pokémon flying. Dorian had launched about three frenzy plants at once, and was now paying for his eagerness.

( HiddenHero, you’ve got a point, I’ve edited the ending. Hope it's okay c: )

As he slithered forward, a savage pain stemming from his chest began to slowly envelope his entire body. Hissing savagely as his coils scrunched up in indescribable pain, the energy fuelled for the attack was slowly being extracted from whatever living matter remained within the serpent. With none to offer, the period of rest was transformed into utter agony. He felt as if his insides were on fire, charring away to match the colour of his scales. He began coughing then, blood splattering from the depths of his being as he struggled to breathe. His slender body shuddered with every cough until a new substance started to emerge; a thick, crimson bile that stripped away the skin on the back of Dorian’s throat as it emerged. As a pool of the toxic substance grew before him, the serperior suddenly found the pain subsiding and returning to that all familiar numbness, but with a difference. The internal pain had successfully paralyzed the infected and he now lay motionless, breathing harshly from his body’s reaction and struggling to regain control of his currently inoperative muscles.

Ujue watched Arashi and Kringle leave feeling hopeful that they might find shelter soon, as well as regretful that she was too exhausted to go with them.

She heard the awful scraping before she saw anything in the fog, and her chest constricted in fear. Her ears flattened against her head.

"Wind," she said, hoarse with fear, "there's another one coming..!!" She thought it was coming from, the left, but the sounds seemed to be coming from all around them, closing in....Ujue shifted closer to Wind, her muscles taut and trembling, staring at the imposing walls of fog around her. Left, right, in front of her, behind her--the sinister creaking and kissing and rustling closed in.

As smoothly as a bad dream turned into a nightmare, writhing shapes burst out of the fog in the form of squiggling, snaking tree roots that whipped back and forth with great heaves, and little tendrils that groped madly towards the three living.

Ujue jumped and writhed away from roots. "Where's the ice trail?!" Ujue screamed, and fired a Flamethrower before she closed her mouth. She charred away some immediate growth around her, Wind, and Kyu, before a root as thick as a human's arm slammed down on her back and head, leaving her sprawled out cold on the ground.


***OoC: Snitch, remember that Frenzy Plant only has 5-8 PP and that you need a turn to recharge your energy after using Frenzy Plant. So even unnaturally strong and undead/mutated, a series of Frenzy Plants and an Iron Tail might be a bit hard to do...***

He had stopped in his tracks when he had heard scurrying coming from behind him. In this fog, it was hard to tell exactly where sounds come from, it was like the fog made the whole area into a cave, and sound traveled, but the direction was hard to distinguish. He put up his guard, not knowing what the sound’s owner would be, but immediately relieved to see Arashi scuttling up to him proclaiming he would join him in search of the cave. Kringle grinned, he has happy to so that his buggy friend was willing to join him on this exploration, though he hoped no more came, some needed to stay behind to protect the injured furret, and maybe even the icy ghost. “And so, the two continued their journey through the never ending fog, knowing that the greatest treasure of all, shelter, was just on the other side.”

Sometimes it was hard for even him to even know if he was saying these things on purpose, or if he really had no control over the odd things he said, but he didn’t mind, it made things interesting. He watched with amazement as the electric spider spun a ball of web infused with electricity making it give of a glow, making traveling through the fog easier. He continued his ice trail right where he left off, letting Arashi lead with the glowing web ball, as he brought up the rear with the ice trail.

He halted a bit on another strange sound, it was very faint, but it sounded like a tree was falling, or possibly breaking apart, he wasn’t so sure, he did know that it did sound like it involved a tree, or possibly several. He looked towards his companion to see if he had also had heard the noise, or if kringle was just hearing things.

Kyu screamed as a giant root came from under her, flinging her into the base of a tree. He body was aching as she tried to stand, the ice casing on her making it harder to move. Suddenly, she felt something. It felt like the tre behind her was falling.

Suddenly she looked up, the gargantuan tree she slammed into starting to fall her way. She screamed, trying to draw herself away but part of the ice casing was caught on a root. She began to cry, scared. "Help me! Help m-"

The tree came crashing down on top of her, she felt her skull break and her ribs crack, she let out an ear-splitting yowl of pain as she impact killed her. Her body limp and blood forming under her. She was dead.

[OOC: Never really liked Kyu in the first place. ;; Bye guys! ;A;]

A cold chill ran along the length of Arashi's abdomen when he heard the splintering of roots. It was as if something cold had washed over him and he instantly looked back towards the way him and Kringle had come. Something else was out there, near the living, and Arashi had a bad feeling about it. He sensed the tree roots had to do with that shady character who lurked beyond everyone's senses. Arashi knew better, Arashi could feel his presence and energy, even though fleeting since it was infected, he could feel it all the same and it angered him.

He thought to turn around and go back but he didn't want to live Kringle on his own in the midst of this fog and terror. At least the Pokemon who stayed behind could take care of themselves. He thought this until he heard a chilling yowl of pain rise up from the mist like a mocking call from a bird. Arashi instantly felt the presence of one of his friends disappear and he shudder. His heart was torn. He didn't know what to do. Should he stay or should he go? Arashi froze thinking it over. He knew that Pokemon was gone and he knew it would kill the others but he couldn't leave Kringle behind after all he had done to help save Arashi.

Many thoughts fluttered, panic-stricken through Arashi's brain that, for a bug-type, was extremely large and logical. His heart was beating at a pace not normal for something his size or for something of his species. Electricity formed in the air around him from the stress building up inside of him but when it touched the fog, it disappeared. Arashi looked at it in wonder before moving forward on his quest with Kringle to find the cave. The large spider couldn't believe what he was seeing. The sparks from him were disintegrating the fog around him. With confidence, he strode forward in front of Kringle to guide the way and in no time, he saw the cave mouth looming ominously in the near distance. Arashi prayed to Arceus that all the others would get there in one piece and that they wouldn't lose another.

Dorian’s body gave another spasm as he coughed up a final amount of bile. The back of his throat was on fire and as control of his slender body returned to his power, Dorian was more intent than ever on making a kill. Slithering forwards, driven on by blind impulse, it took the serpent a moment to realize that something wasn’t quite right. His attack had subsided to drop a certain serenity and peace onto the area, but he now found that the scents had changed. For one, the frosslass’s delightful aroma had literally vanished, a certain rotting stench had appeared and most prominently, the smell of blood.

As he moved slowly onwards, Dorian was suddenly taken aback when a water attack made contact with his side. Hissing in irritation and blindly swinging his thick body at the attack’s source, the serperior soon managed to knock down and successfully locate the creature foolish enough to challenge him. It was the rotting one. Displeased that his coils had secured themselves around a fellow infected rather than a meal, Dorian decided to look on the brighter side of things – at this stage, any blood was worth shedding, especially if it were in revenge. Grinning sadistically as he tightened his coils around the struggling quagsire, totally numb to the frenzied clawing and chewing at his flaking skin. Tightening his grip, he relished in the creature’s panicked squeals before it slowly transformed into gasps for breath. He was going to make this thing suffer; how dare it attack something as noble as a serperior? Before the body in his coils went completely limp, Dorian suddenly relaxed, allowing it to cling to life. He had successfully crushed the majority of the quagsire’s bones and possibly a lung, but it was still alive; infecteds were always a pain to dispose of completely. Moving his slim, eyeless head towards the wheezing creature, Dorian suddenly striked at what he believed to be the face. Two sharp fangs sank directly into the quagsire’s eyes. The creature emitted a silent scream of pain, hushed by the lack of air supplying the lungs. Dorian could feel the pokémon using its remaining energy to struggle against his coils and in disapproval of its efforts, removed his fangs from the creature’s now severely bloodied face and slung the body away with one powerful movement from his tail. He heard a thump accompanied by the cracking of bones, alerting Dorian that the victim had successfully made contact with a tree.

Satisfied with extracting his revenge, Dorian lifted his head once more, searching for the scent of the living. They were close, even if they were in smaller numbers now. With a flick of his bloodstained tail, he began to slowly inch towards the scent of blood. Whilst the ghost type had vanished, the scent of that addictive, crimson liquid gave the snake confirmation that a pokémon was at least wounded. And a pokémon wounded in this new world would rarely last a week – wouldn’t last a day when Dorian was on its trail.

Tamashi walked to the edge of Blackthorn City. He looked around. Jirachi... Where are you? Tamashi walked further into the the Mountains. He saw something. It looked like electricity. He got closer. It looked like a Galvantula. He stepped closer. He saw a Delibird. They looked living. He got closer.

Hello? My name is Tama...Er...Soul. Tamashi said.

Throb. Throb. Throb. Ujue's consciousness was assaulted with wave after wave of pounding headache. The base of her skull, neck and shoulders was swollen and bruised, on top of the exhaustion and bruising the infected kabutops had caused. The waves of pain and wear nearly sent Ujue back under, but with a groan she opened her eyes.

The fog was still present, but beginning to dissipate. The surrounding forest looked like a disaster zone, roots, leaves, broken branches, and even fallen trees littered the clearing. Ujue's chest contracted in horror as she smelt fresh blood, and spotted Kyu's limp form beneath a tree.

"Kyu! Kyu?!" Ujue called, and writhed out the of the roots and branches entangling her. "Kyu. . ." Ujue nosed Kyu's body. Her eyes were glassy and she wasn't breathing. Her blood was stagnant, not flowing.

Ujue staggered away, horrified, but something caught her eye and gave her a burst of hope: a shard of ice! Desperate, Ujue began smiffing after the faint trail left by the delibird and galvantula.