Free Roaming Reihe

[Deleted]

A Wild Aipom Appeared!

The purple simian bounced from karst to karst with an acrobatic grace. His tail bounded behind him, offering an extra layer of balance in addition to another way to grab on to the towering karsts should he make an unlikely mistake and tumble. The frigid air around him was unrelenting. The sun shone down distantly from a cloudless diamond sky. He took a careful step across an unstable ledge before a gust of wind blew past. He sniffed the air carefully, nostrils flaring as he did so. Was that... Food? His entire being perked up. Yay! Aipom loved food- though, in his opinion, it always tasted better when it wasn't his to begin with. Quickly, he scurried through the karsts towards the origin of the scent- it had to be close by. Eventually, he came towards a large boulder with a divot- and if his eyes didn't deceive him, there was someone inside, likely a trainer. He hid behind the nearest outcropping he could find. He had no intention of killing the trainer- but surely maiming them a little and making off with their belongings while they were dazed wouldn't be the end of them. He picked up a fist sized rock from the ground with his prehensile tail before sneaking back around. A wide grin split his features. He drew his tail back... took aim... and let the rock fly directly towards her face. This would be fun!

[Deleted]

Pokemon
Aipom Gender: Male Type: Normal Ability: Skill Link* Height: 2'00 Weight: 24 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Fast Level: 7 Division: D7 Total Stats: 84 Attack: 18 Defense: 20  Sp. Attack: 1 Sp. Defense: 20  Speed: 25 (30%)	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Tail Whip 4. Sand Attack Unique Moves: -Double Slap (egg move) - - - Item: N/A Used: Nothing(threw rock at trainer) Hit By Ember

The woman and her lizardy pal, Salazuli trekking through the gorge, could feel the beating of the sun raining down on their skin. It was a dream come true for the Salandit, keeping it incredibly toasty and warm but along with the sun itself, her trainer was faring less well with the naturally warm lizard's own body heat acting like a neck-warmer with it draped around the back of her neck under her hair. Exhausted by the heat she sat down against a large rock and Raven leaned back not noticing the Aipom on the fragile ledge above. The lizard however, heard the air whistling slightly as the rock was hurled down at the woman and tried to jump in the way...

To no avail, she was not able to block the rock and it slapped down against the trainer's thigh, tumbling off to the side after leaving a welt on her leg and in retaliation Salazuli stood on her hind legs with mouth open and a small fireball roiling up inside until it formed a sphere and launched it at the feet of the Aipom to try to knock it's balance off and send it down into the gorge alongside them.

"Shit! W-why though? Why would-what hit me? Who did that?" She clutched her leg, distracted from the overall goings on for the moment and tried to proccess what was going on.

Pokemon
Salandit Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Salazuli Gender: Female Type: Poison/Fire Ability: Corrosion Height: 1'4/3'00(snout to tail's end) Weight: 15 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Fast EXP Gauge: (7/9) EXP Gained: 0 Level: 5 Division: D8 Total Stats: 55 Attack: 9  Defense: 8  Sp. Attack: 15 (29%) Sp. Defense: 6  Speed: 17 (31%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Poison Gas 5. Ember Unique Moves: - - - - Item: N/A Used: Ember

Snickering like a little gremlin as he watched the woman clutch at her leg, the Aipom was too pre-occupied with itself to realize the flame bolt coming for him in time and stumbled over the edge of the karsts, flailing until his tail caught the rock of the walls on the way down and was able to slow but not end his descent. Low enough to push off the edge, he still had his goal in mind, raiding the trainer's bags for whatever goodies he could find. All he had to do was get around or take down this Salandit first and he could do as he pleased. There was no way a human, especially injured would be able to stop him, slippery as he was, from putting the movement on them and getting away with a treat.

With all these pillars around he certainly had the maneuverability and home terrain advantage, plus the river below would be good to douse any flames that caught his fur, so he was feeling more than safe. With that in mind the Aipom started making a run in towards the pair, dead set on robbing them blind, on all fours with his tail's hand swinging from side to side to disguise where the attack would come from first. 

Salazuli got low to the ground with the Aipom closing in quick, it was clearly faster than her and the massive grin on its face did nothing to betray it's intent, it just seemed to be barreling forward with no regard for her being in its path. Salazuli hissed defensively, stancing up to avoid getting hurt further if at all possible and closing her mouth as her cheeks began to puff out. 


WC: 520

TWC: 520

[Deleted]

Raven took a deep breath in and let it out a few times over as she took her hand off the spot she'd been hit, it was very red for a radius around a further injury where the rock had cut her just a little bit. She'd have to disinfect that in a little bit just to be safe, she was sure it was fine but there was no sense in her finally leaving Cherry's just to be downed by a silly monkey throwing rocks. She wasn't going to stand just yet but she turned her attention to the battle going on just to her side, Salazuli knew what she was doing having knocked the Aipom down here who was now making a b-line at them, but the Aipom's intentions were a total mystery. If it just wanted to be annoying, it would have run away the moment it got hit, wouldn't it? It may have been aggressive and this could have been a territorial thing perhaps? 

"Salazuli, we don't want to have this Aipom running circles around us forever, try to limit it's time in the fight."

Salazuli took a quick look back and nodded as her cheeks swelled up further but before she could act out on it the Aipom managed to close in and it's tail swung from below, knocking up into the Salandit's jaw and sending her flying back a bit, skidding across the ground. She managed to keep the attack she was building up inside but it was certainly all willpower that she managed to do so. Salazuli after a moment, threw her legs over back onto the ground and picked herself up, hunched over again as her cheeks reached their largest and expelled from her mouth was a thick cloud of Poison Gas, spreading across the field in front of the monkey pokemon. After the gas left her mouth though, Salazuli was panting, trying to get some oxygen back into her lungs and get her bearings again.

Satisfied with having knocked the Salandit out of the way, he snickered again not realizing that just ahead was a cloud of purple noxious fumes being sprayed directly at him and on the inhale he started feeling a bit light headed but kept running towards Raven and her bag. But as he got closer it became quickly apparent what was happening, a surge of nausea took over, halting him in his tracks for a moment as he broke into a sweat. The Salandit was rolling over and getting up behind him and the trainer was still sitting down and as he could see now, bleeding a bit. If nothing else it was a relief they wouldn't likely be chasing him but until he had taken care of the other pokemon, there was a good chance he would be out of it before they were. Plans had now changed, he needed to get into that bag and failing that, find a berry that could either help him hang on longer or help directly with the poisoning. He could feel that his time being conscious was limited but if he could get out of here quick enough, he'd have enough time to probably do something.

Raven was surprised to see the Aipom keep running towards her after hitting Salazuli, who was the more hostile threat she'd think from its point of view. It was going for something then wasn't it? And from the beginning, it had targeted her, which made it especially weird. She felt like she was slowly getting onto something but she still wasn't sure quite what.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

Pokemon
Aipom(Poisoned) Gender: Male Type: Normal Ability: Skill Link* Height: 2'00 Weight: 24 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Fast Level: 7 Division: D7 Total Stats: 84 Attack: 18 Defense: 20  Sp. Attack: 1 Sp. Defense: 20  Speed: 25 (30%)	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Tail Whip 4. Sand Attack Unique Moves: -Double Slap (egg move) - - - Item: N/A Used: Scratch Hit By Poison Gas

Pokemon
Salandit Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Salazuli Gender: Female Type: Poison/Fire Ability: Corrosion Height: 1'4/3'00(snout to tail's end) Weight: 15 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Fast EXP Gauge: (7/9) EXP Gained: 0 Level: 5 Division: D8 Total Stats: 55 Attack: 9  Defense: 8  Sp. Attack: 15 (29%) Sp. Defense: 6  Speed: 17 (31%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Poison Gas 5. Ember Unique Moves: - - - - Item: N/A Used:Poison Gas Hit by Scratch

WC: 600
TWC: 1120

[Deleted]

Aipom now two missions in mind, theft and safety, turned around to face the toxic lizard pokemon once more, he wanted to take as little extra damage as he could here to give himself more time to take care of the situation he was now in. The Salandit wasn't that far off from him since he last hit her, digging his big tail into the ground he used its appendages to scoop up dirt and sand before quickly dragging it up and tossing a handful into the eyes of the black reptile. If it couldn't keep track of him, surely it'd be easier to get out of here with the least injuries he could take. Actually, if it couldn't hit him, he might be in a position to get a little revenge for this and having knocked him down, or so he'd like to if the clock weren't ticking. He'd have to make a return appearance if that were the case once he was good. Now that the poison was coursing through him, he was getting more uncomfortable by the moment, breathing as heavy as the opponent he definitely damaged more than they were capable of doing to him. 

"Oh hell, didn't think a single attack would take it out of her so much. We might not be able to fully take it down."

"Don't worry, I won't let them knock you out Laz. I just need you to do your best to weaken them and we'll figure something out."

The reptilian pokemon nodded, if there was anything that was going to be strong enough from her, it'd be her embers. Still winded though, she inhaled and the flames streaking along her tail rose up as the small orb of flame roiled in her open jaw. As she tried to build her embers though the sand was coming in fast and she fired it early, definitely not as strong as it could have been through the cloud which the empty pocket of air quickly filled in with the swirling of the sand particles in the air before hitting her in the eyes, stinging as she brought her little hands up up paw at them and wipe away what she could.

Raven winced, hearing the hisses coming from Salazuli, that had to have been unpleasant. She almost felt like she got off easy with the rock, at least that didn't require flushing it out to stop the hurting, it just needed some gentle cleaning and a bandage. Speaking of which that rock bounced off her thigh because of its shape, but she wasn't sure where it landed, it didn't look like just some pebble or cracked off piece of rock. Honestly, that might have hurt more, it could have been sharp and gotten stuck where it hit her. She looked around where she was and off to the side there was a hunk of stone, rounded with some rough surface in areas but a lot bigger than she would have assumed a small monkey like that to have picked up, it must have used its tail hand for that too, those regular paws were tiny. Giving up for now, she ran through the rest of the cloud towards the Aipom, it was going to be too hard to hit him from further off now.

"Please hang in there Laz, just a little more and we'll get you feeling better. I didn't think the Tribule Karsts would be this stressful a place to explore first."

On Aipom's end, coming from the cloud of dust he sent into the air, the fire bolt zoomed directly through as he snickered again at the hisses and hit him square in the chest, tossing him a bit back but not off his feet. He quickly patted out the flames and heaved as the surge of nausea hit him again, this time he could feel his head pounding along with his heartbeat. The poisoning wasn't getting worse per se but he was running out of energy to keep up the fight, forget doing sand again, he needed to finish this off soon.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

Pokemon
Aipom(Poisoned) Gender: Male Type: Normal Ability: Skill Link* Height: 2'00 Weight: 24 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Fast Level: 7 Division: D7 Total Stats: 84 Attack: 18 Defense: 20  Sp. Attack: 1 Sp. Defense: 20  Speed: 25 (30%)	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Tail Whip 4. Sand Attack Unique Moves: -Double Slap (egg move) - - - Item: N/A Used: Sand Attack Hit By Ember

Pokemon
Salandit Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Salazuli Gender: Female Type: Poison/Fire Ability: Corrosion Height: 1'4/3'00(snout to tail's end) Weight: 15 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Fast EXP Gauge: (7/9) EXP Gained: 0 Level: 5 Division: D8 Total Stats: 55 Attack: 9  Defense: 8  Sp. Attack: 15 (29%) Sp. Defense: 6  Speed: 17 (31%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Poison Gas 5. Ember Unique Moves: - - - - Item: N/A Used:Ember Hit by Sand Attack

WC: 685
TWC: 1805

[Deleted]

With the Salandit bursting out of the smoke and already upon the simian, the smile dropped and in a panic, swiped its smaller paws at the lizard about to snap at him, batting her off to the side before stumbling down onto his butt and breathing heavily before the smile returned. He snickered again, as he stared at the fiery pokemon's now unmoving body, pretty certain it was knocked out. Picking himself up off the ground he turned back to Raven and stared intensely at the bag, her, then the bag again. Making loud chatter and pointing at the bag it made it clear what it wanted. It was a trainer, certainly they would have what was needed to take care of a pokemon in case something bad happened like this, humans always had a bunch of cool junk on them that could be played with or used if you took it from them. 

"Laz!"

Raven looked between the tail with its one little digit pointed at her bag and the bag itself as it clicked what was going on, the little shit was trying to rob her this entire time, no wonder it didn't just scamper off and its attention wasn't fixated on Laz. Getting up off the rock she was on, she slowly crouched down onto one knee, setting the bag on the ground and staring down the monkey mon and flicking her eyes between it and her injured Salandit. Catching just a glint of fiery spark from Salazuli's mouth and a small flare up on the tail, her movements slowed to a crawl as she set her fingers on the zipper. Laz was still in this but needed time to do this right or they were going to be coming up all zeroes. No victory, no new pokemon, and with less in their bags than they started with. She felt like their best option was to take Aipom by surprise attack then as much as it had hurt them, she had to admit the Aipom wasn't weak by any stretch of the imagination, it had them on the ropes, her best bet was to catch it before it could take Laz down.

Laz's chest burned and not in the comfortable way it warmed up when she prepared an ember but the scratches had taken their toll and she was hanging on by a thread. Dizzy, she laid still on the ground in hopes that she could trick the Aipom into thinking she was down for the count with her mouth shut as she breathed slowly. Inside her maw was the beginnings of a larger fire ball starting that grew and grew as sparks crackled out the side of her mouth like Raven saw and the flames on her tail were growing to peak size. She crawled slowly behind the simian as the bolt's size reached its zenith when she opened her mouth for it to expand and she let out a clicking noise, projecting the fire ball into the back of his head, knocking him over onto the ground before herself collapsing and staring weakly at Raven with chirps and pleading eyes to help her out.

"Good job Laz, I'll take it from here, you did your best."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

Pokemon
Aipom(Poisoned) Gender: Male Type: Normal Ability: Skill Link* Height: 2'00 Weight: 24 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Fast Level: 7 Division: D7 Total Stats: 84 Attack: 18 Defense: 20  Sp. Attack: 1 Sp. Defense: 20  Speed: 25 (30%)	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Tail Whip 4. Sand Attack Unique Moves: -Double Slap (egg move) - - - Item: N/A Used: Scratch Hit By Ember

Pokemon
Salandit Caught at Level 5 Nickname: Salazuli Gender: Female Type: Poison/Fire Ability: Corrosion Height: 1'4/3'00(snout to tail's end) Weight: 15 lbs Health: Low EXP Rate: Medium Fast EXP Gauge: (7/9) EXP Gained: 0 Level: 5 Division: D8 Total Stats: 55 Attack: 9  Defense: 8  Sp. Attack: 15 (29%) Sp. Defense: 6  Speed: 17 (31%) Vitamins Used: None	Moveset: 1. Scratch 1. Poison Gas 5. Ember Unique Moves: - - - - Item: N/A Used:Ember Hit by Scratch

WC: 541
TWC: 2346

[Deleted]

Aipom chattered angrily as his face hit the dirt and on all fours picked himself up to finish off the reptilian nuisance, ready to strike her over and over until he was certain she lost this time. But this was his undoing, had he focused on Raven, he would have seen the human open the bag up and take out a shiny red and white ball. But instead he centered every bit of his focus on the insolent gecko that got one over on him, which wasn't unfair, supposing that he ignored her, she'd just do it again and his headache was splitting so bad he couldn't think straight. As he raised his tail to slap Salazuli silly he felt something hit the back of his head before glittering red light surrounded him and felt a strong pull.

Raven had thrown a pokeball and the simian was sucked in as it fell to the ground and the capsule's button glowed. She hoped they'd done enough with every bit of her heart, it was hit enough that it was running out of energy and on top of that the poison had gone off without a hitch but if he broke out, there was just about nothing she could think of that they could do to remedy the situation. It wasn't like she was in fighting condition herself let alone against a pokemon that unlike her was able to use aura when it wanted to hurt someone. It shook back and forth on the dirt as it tried to escape the capsule's confines with its anger and unwillingness to lose this battle.

Shake.

Shake.

Shake.

Then all of a sudden it stopped moving as the light faded from the seal and Raven collapsed to her knees, shifting her way over to Salazuli with her back hanging off her arm. She reached out her hand and stroked Laz's head gently as she gave a few happy but tired chirps in response. She fished for Salazuli's pokeball in her bag and tapped it on her snout, the same light coating her before the toxic lizard retreated into the ball. She'd be safer there, no telling if another pokemon would appear from the woodworks of this place and finish the job they just stopped Aipom from completing.

"You did a good job Laz, get some rest, we're heading back."

Raven turned herself around and picked up the ball now containing Aipom as well, frowning a little at. She sighed and placed it in her bag as well, returning to the rock formation she had fallen onto earlier, fishing a water bottle and some cloth bandages from her bag she set on her lap while she poured water on her thigh to clean up the blood and clean out the wound the best she could for the time being. She gripped one end of the cloth, clenched her teeth and and wrapped it around her leg tight. That'd have to do, she didnt remember to bring an actual disinfectant with her or potions for Salazuli, she wasn't prepared to have gone out yet and she needed to sort that out before she went out next time.

WC: 530
TWC: 2876

SPOILER: Click to show

{Full Battle Summary}1. Aipom instigates fight throwing rock at Raven
2. Salandit hits with ember and knocks off ledge[end of round 1]

3. Aipom hits with scratch
4. Salandit hits with poison gas, aipom takes poison damage[end of round 2]

5. Aipom hits with sand attack
6. Salandit hits with ember, aipom takes poison damage[end of round 3]

7. Aipom hits with scratch
8. Salandit hits with ember, aipom takes poison damage[end of round 4]

9. Aipom caught in PokeBall

[Deleted]

As much as she felt guilty for her lack of preparation there was no use dwelling on it for too long, there was a weird rock she'd had thrown on her that she might as well check out before heading to the nearest town. She walked over to it and picked it up off the ground, giving it a good turn around as she examined the stone. The side that hit her she could see a touch of blood on where it was rough and a bit sharp but turning it to the other side revealed something way more interesting, there was something on it resembling a sort of fist with an arm or perhaps a stem with some sort of base or very weird flower or something. It was a little hard to make out really but it was distinct enough that she knew it was something at least. She was pretty sure it was some sort of fossil but whether it was a weird plant fossil or a creature with plating, a total mystery, either way she put it in the bag as well and adjusted her bag so it sat neatly on her shoulder before turning back the way she came and heading back.

Well, nearest was sort of subjective in this scneario, technically Sangproctor would be closer but she'd need to get through the entire Karsts to make it there so instead she was walking up north to Melka Village. It would be getting colder as she went but she supposed it was better than how dry a place Sangproctor sounded and surely there'd be a pokemon center somewhere on the way. Best case scenario, when she made it to the village, the pokemon in the area would be more likely a favorable match for Laz given ice types probably made their home in those colder regions. She couldn't deny she was interested in the gemcrafts she heard were made there of Beartic and some other pokemon, they sounded pretty and whether or not she bought one for herself, she at least wanted to see what they looked like up close at some point.

Raven irregardless of what her plans were, was getting tired though and being able to rest unconcerned she'd find herself vulnerable to attack in the middle of the night was of utmost priority, it'd be a terrible way to repay Cherry's kindness in taking her in to wind up dead within the week. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she managed to be that pathetic and she wasn't going to crawl her way back to her friend's charity immediately either. She had a responsibility to figure out how to make it on her own by the next time they met, at least that's how she felt about it. That and she needed some more fun stories to bring back to her, not whatever this embarrassing tale was, at best she thought it should be a footnote to explain how she found a cool fossil that she should brush over the details of.

[Collected Root Fossil]
[End]

WC: 513
TWC: 3389