2 Weeks Later…
πλαισίου, Ξέρω ότι δεν με είδατε τους τελευταίους δύο μήνες, αλλά κάτι απειλεί την ασφάλεια του καθενός στην ήπειρο. Παρεμπιπτόντως, έλαβα την προηγούμενη επιστολή σας, αλλά δεν μπορώ να βρω έναν καλό χρόνο να απαντήσω νωρίτερα. Παρακαλώ συναντήστε με στο ςοgsbυrg.
με εκτιμιση, Κακό
Several dozens of yards north of Cogsburg, there was a single litten, leisurely walking to the town. But, there was always something in the way. One araquanid.
"Hey pal, I wouldn't mind if you moved out of the way."
"Kshhh! You killed my brother, you ignorant wretch!" Araquanid said angrily. His voice was weird, though, so Mischief couldn't exactly tell if he was actually angry.
"I apologize, but it didn't -once- occur to your brother that I was going to beat him when he was fighting me." Mischief retorted negligently.
"If you aren't as incompetent as him, I would advise you to let it go."
"NO!" Araquanid shouted with a vengeance. "You will die, here and now!" It immediately attacked by firing a torrent of water from it's head in Mischief's direction.
He dodged it, like he did with the other one.
Damn pest. Quickly, Mischief lunged forward and gave the bug a good slash on the face. Though he briefly got stuck in the araquanid's bubble, he quickly struggled free from it.
Araquanid started snickering a little, but Mischief still couldn't tell what he was doing. "Phah! Stupid cat! Do you not know that you have no advantages over me?! Water beats fire!" He fired another stream of water, oblivious to the results of the last time he tried it.
Once again, it missed.
"Come on! I don't have time for this." Out of patience, Mischief jumped behind the spider and started breathing fire at his exposed backside.
"Gaaaaah!" it was super effective. Araquanid quickly turned around, the fire on it's body extinguishing quickly. "HOW?! You lost your powers!"
"Maybe so, but nothing else has changed, so last chance! Run or die!"
"Grrrrr!" Third time's a charm, which was obviously not true as Araquanid started firing inaccurately with another hydro pump, sweeping the area in front of him.
But Mischief was too fast. He immediately ran past the spider right after it started it's attack and used his flamethrower again.
"Arrrrrggghhh!" that was enough. The idiot finally stopped moving as he collapsed on the floor.
About time. I was scared I was gonna lose.
"Phew." Mischief straightened himself and started walking in the direction of Geniscity, completely indifferent about whether the bug was dead or not.
Rustling, he heard it. Mischief turned around, ready for another fight.
"I know you're there! Show yourself!
A head poked out of some nearby bushes. It was a leafeon.
"Mischief…? You look different!" He hopped out of the bushes he was hiding in and started walking towards the cat.
"Long time no see, Cadre." Mischief looked around, and true to his name, randomly said
"How's the wife?"
"Don't talk to me about that, please. I've seen sitting at the port for two months, now." Cadre said, slightly annoyed by Mischief's question.
"Hey, what happened to your hat and scarf?" He said, pointing them out.
Mischief smirked.
"Hm. I'm glad you decided to come all the way out here for me. It's an emergency." Mischief sighed, combing his head a little.
"My hat and scarf… were stolen. You remember that I can blast out a flurry of blades, or make my wounds disappear, right?" Cadre nodded.
"Someone has ripped all my powers from me, and has taken all my friends away."
Cadre's eyes sparked with interest as he heard that last sentence.
"You have friends? I thought you wanted to be alone after last month."
Mischief tilted his head a little and looked towards the ground with clear sorrow in his eyes.
"That… used to be so. But the solitude was painful."
"That's nice," Cadre followed Mischief as he started walking.
"So who are your new friends?"
"There's Rhodes, a lycanroc, and Kerah, a luxio." Mischief thought about not introducing Avery, but it wouldn't hurt if he did, so…
"And then there's Avery, he's a midnight lycanroc."
Pretty good, considering the state that Cadre saw him in last time he saw him.
"I bet they're nice people, huh? Where are we going, by the way?"
"A big town up ahead called Geniscity. I might be able to find some of my missing friends if I go there."
Something minor occurred to Cadre as he was just calmly listening.
"Yunno, I thought you didn't like answering questions."
Mischief scoffed.
"I did, but… i've been learning -some- social skills, and… it's really hard not to." The color in his face brightened up slightly.
"Hey, is that…?" Cadre leaned in closer to Mischief's face.
"You're in -love-, aren't you?"
There was a really long delay before the litten just mumbled:
"No."
"Hah! You can't fool me, I just know there's someone you like." The leafeon leaned even closer.
"...who's the lucky person?"
Mischief raised a paw and shoved Cadre's face away.
"You're not gonna stop talking, just like everyone else, huh? Fine." He took a deep breath.
"The Luxio; her name is Kerah. She's a sweet person, and she just adores how I look without the hat."
Cadre's mouth widened slightly into a mischievous grin.
"Go on…" But his face drooped when his eye took a quick dart around.
"Hey wait-"
"Well… oof-" Mischief accidentally walked into a river without noticing. Being a fire type, it felt like he was burning like he wasn't actually a fire type.
"Aggghhh"
Cadre quickly grabbed Mischief by the scruff of his neck and pulled him out of the river.
"Mischief, you okay?" He asked, only slightly worried. It was just a little water.
Mischief was breathing heavily.
That really hurt. It was fine though, he'd live.
"Yeah… I hate water." he then just took an interested glance at Cadre, prompting him to say:
"What?" Mischief's face just went blank as he asked his next question.
"Can you carry me across the river?"
Cadre just stared at Mischief with an equally blank face.
"Umm… why? Isn't there a… bridge?"
"It's broken." Mischief thought about it for a moment, and then decided to rephrase that sentence.
"It's probably broken."
There was an awkward silence, but Cadre answered with
"Okay." he grabbed Mischief up by the scruff of his neck, which for some reason caused all of his muscles to just completely freeze, and placed him on his back.
"Hold on tight."
"My neck hurts." Cadre slowly walked into the river and even slowlier, started swimming across it.
"Brrr. Cold." Halfway through his walk, he started shivering a little, but he made it across. And then clumsily dropped Mischief on the ground.
"Coldcoldcold." The leaves on his body were looking pale.
Mischief wasn't so sure about lighting a fire for his leafy friend, but he asked anyway.
"Need a fire?"
"N-n-no thank y-you… i'll j-just…" The leafeon shook all the water off of him, and the hue in his leaves returned slightly.
"Oh-kay, let's go; i'm not carrying you." Through the forest they went.
It was a trivial walk, actually. The seviper that was previously there wasn't around, and there were even more scratches on the trees. But it made the trip easier, as they didn't need to have another unnecessary fight.
"So, what's this Geniscity like?" Cadre asked.
"It's huge, like an actual city. It used to have a clock tower in the middle of it, but it got burnt down by an evil gengar."
Cadre pointed forward, towards where the city should be.
"Oh, you mean that one? Correct me if i'm wrong, but it doesn't look burnt to me."
"What?" he turned towards the city, and there it was; the Clock Tower. Suddenly intact, in the middle of the city.
"Whaaat the hell?"