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[Pokémon] Skoúro Anámnisi

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
σκούρο Ανάμνηση
"It's been awhile, hasn't it? Honestly, it doesn't feel like it's been that long… why aren't you listening to me?! You always ignore me! Sigh… why… ever since you and your idiot friends activated that time warp; twice I must add, the world has been spiraling into the hellhole it is today! Don't apologize, you're not gonna see me again anyway. The 'space time continuum' is starting to screw around. Soon enough, we might not even be in the same dimension; heck, we'll both probably be in two different dimensions! It's all your damn fault! If you hadn't… just- argh! Can't you do anything right?! What is wrong with you pathetic humans?! GRAAAH! Hah… hah… no… i'm not that sorry. Why should I be sorry... to myself?"

-85 Hours Ago-
There was a lone cat, sitting on a lone hill on the edge of town. That small town was called Connet. This cat was simply looking upon the happy pokemon screwing about in the town, as usual. Being happy and all that.
Happiness… what is… no. Never will feel happy. Not envious. Just a useless emotion.

The cat's name was Mischief. He was the strangest thing that anyone had seen, as he could hardly be recognized as a pokemon. He always wore a black fedora, a winter scarf, and kept bandages wrapped around all of his legs. Mischief's reason being that it was 'protecting him'. Of course, everyone just assumed that he was just an insufferable jerk.

"Hey." Mischief turned his head to see a delivery pidgey on his left. "How long are you gonna be sitting there?"

Mischief scratched his face a little before responding. "Up to about 4 days."

The pidgey blinked, perplexed by this answer. "And uhh… why are you sitting here?"

"Don't know, don't care." The cat sighed. Tick, tock. "Wait." He suddenly said. "Did you hear that?"

The pidgey adjusted his cap in response to a different sound he heard. "If you mean the thunderclouds, then yes. I gotta move before it starts raining." He took off and started flying out of town.

It's gonna rain, huh?
Mischief took a second to cough, and then walked into town. Tick… tock…

All around, the people of Connet were speed walking to wherever they were going to avoid the rain, most of them, anyway.

...they also avoided the strange cat walking through the street. They were looking at him, pointing and saying things.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Does he even notice it?"
"He doesn't took too good."
He ignored it all, of course, but he was a little interested in what they seemed to be talking about. But it's usually just some useless chatter.

What's the matter with you people? A little rain never hurt anyone.
"Uh." Mischief bumped into a chicken with fiery bits on it or something. He couldn't exactly remember the name of it.
Hmm…
"Hey, do you know if there's any clocks around that can create a loud, reverberating noise around?"

The combusken glared at him as if he did something wrong, which he did somewhat. "First, can you say sorry for bumping into me?"

You're such a waste of time. Why do I even bother?
"Fine, if I must. I apologize -sincerely- for bumping into you."

Combusken didn't seem to like that answer, but he let it go. "Okay then. There's an old abandoned clock tower out north a long way. If you don't mind me asking, what do you need to know that for?"

Mischief just gave him a look in response.

"Alright then. Go ahe-" Combusken stopped suddenly when he got a good look at him. "Did, did you know that you're uh… bleeding?"

Mischief tapped his nose. "Er, no, i'm not." He started walking forward past the Combusken, now limping.

"No, not your nose. You're bleeding from your side!"

Kept walking, didn't hurt that much. "I'm… fine. Don't…" Mischief just collapsed after a few steps.
No… I have to… find them.



"He's been bleeding for a couple of days now. Not only is that concerning, but if we try to touch any of his accessories, they'll sting us." Guy's voice. Doesn't sound like a doctor, kind of casual for one.
"What's he bleeding from?" Girl's voice. Mostly annoying.
"Nothing too bad. It was literally just a scrape from a rock."
"So, how long until he recovers?"
"At best, he'll be out in a day. I got a question, by the way. Do you know this guy's name?"
"Nope."
"So i'm gonna guess he's not a friend of yours."
"Nah. I just found him collapsed in town. Welp, i'm outta here. See ya."

Dizzy. Feeling. Can't stop. Feeling pain. Pain. Still pain.
Pain? No, didn't hurt. It didn't hurt before, so it didn't hurt now. Bandages are appreciated, though. "Rrrrr…mmf."
Must keep quiet. Can't risk them hearing me.

Mischief opened one eye, barely. He looked around the room, it was a pleasant feeling place, but it seemed like just a house as it had some flowers and assorted decor around the room. Along with that, he was rested in a bed. It was all insignificant though, as the only thing Mischief cared about was the room being clear. He started to lift himself up. "Urgh." It hurt a little all of a sudden.
How am I hurting now? It didn't hurt before… It's fine though… I still have my hat and scarf.
He easily slid off the bed and walked to the only doorway in the room, checking what was past it.
Just one of those yellow fox things with the spoon, sitting near the exit. He's reading a book, but I don't think I can get past him.
Mischief's distraction was a simple, but also a rude one. He walked to a nearby flowerpot and knocked it over, causing it to shatter against the floor. Afterwards, he ran under the bed before the Kadabra came to investigate.

"What the? He's gone…" he went to check the broken flowerpot and soil on the floor, and while he was distracted, Mischief made a run for it. "Hey, stop!" The Kadabra teleported in front of Mischief before he could try to open the front door. "Why're you running away?"

Just don't say anything…
Mischief simply backed up a few steps to make it look like he didn't understand.

"I'm just trying to help you. Can't you understand that?"
No, I don't need your help, I never needed it.
Mischief shook his head in response. He was getting really annoyed now.

The kadabra started to calm down. "Oh, so you do understand me. Can you… talk?"

The cat squinted before saying an extremely rude sentence. "I never asked for you help. Get out of my way."

"You can hardly take care of yourself. Are you sure you're able to go to that clock tower by yourself?"

Oh my god, shut up. People like you are so damn annoying.
"Yeah, I was always fine, see?" Mischief started radiating a bright energy, with a little trouble. However, he couldn't do whatever he was trying to do.

The kadabra scoffed. "Oh, are you trying to use recover? Now that I think about it, I don't think you can even learn that move."

"You don't know who I am. Now move."

"Okay, okay. Fine. You can -obviously- take care of yourself." The kadabra stepped aside for him and opened door. "Oh, by the way, it's gonna rain soon." Mischief walked through, back out to the town. Mischief sighed. He went out of town in a seemingly random direction, but he knew which way North was, of course. The sun was starting to fall below the horizon, creating a bright light that seemed to be more blinding than when it was in the blue sky. Soon the brightness of the sky would be replaced with darkness, but Mischief didn't care. He could see just fine at any time of the day.

"Hey buddy, how're you doing?"
Mischief looked up, then to his left. There was a rockruff sitting on a nearby boulder.
Great, more company.
 
Last edited:

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
The storm was brewing. Mischief and the rockruff, who introduced himself as Rhodes, were both sitting by a campfire, along with a makeshift awning above them. "I can't believe I listened to this stupid idea."
Mischief wasn't so intent on introducing himself.

"Heyey, it's gonna rain soon. You don't want to be out there when it's stormy out." retorted Rhodes.

Mischief scowled, though it's effect wasn't very strong. "Pffft. The rain suits me just fine. I don't need your help."

Rhodes relaxed against a rock, ignoring Mischief's remark. "Well you listened, didn't you? You're staying here until the rain passes."

If I must. Am I forced to make friends again? I can't rely on them. They can't help me. I'll just leave as soon as I can.
Mischief closed his eyes to try and get some sleep. But his nearby companion kept talking, much to his annoyance. "So, why do you wear that hat and scarf? It's springtime."

"It's for concealing my identity." was all he had to say. He kept his eyes closed.

Rhodes shook his head. "No way, buddy. It can't be just that. What's your name, by the way?"

"I don't have a name. I lost it long ago."

"Okay, so what do I call you, then?"

"What everybody calls me. Mischief."

Rhodes sighed in frustration. "Why are you so moody? Can't you relax for just a minute?"

Mischief angrily opened his eyes in response. "Relax?! I can't calm down! You know why? Because if I let my guard down, people near me get hurt!"

It didn't work so well. "Why do I even bother, I don't know what language you're speaking." he sighed. "I'm sleeping." Rhodes just made himself as comfortable as he could and closed his eyes.

Ugh. I made him feel bad, I bet he's going to leave tomorrow. That's good, I never needed any help anyway.
Mischief closed his eyes so he could sleep for real this time.

"Why won't you leave us alone?"
"You don't know who you're messing with."
"Let's end this."
"You can't fight him! He'll destroy you all!"
"So, Mischief, you've decided to speak to these weaklings?"
"I don't care. We're stopping him."

This is a nightmare…
"I see that both of your shades are gone. Now let's do this!"
"Foolish. Futile. You'll now see what i'm truly capable of. AS I DESTROY YOU AND ALL OF YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS!"
"Come on, Mischief! We can do this!"
"We can't…"
"DODGE THIS."

"Ow!"

Mischief opened his eyes, after hearing a familiar voice. "Wha? What's happening?"

Rhodes was crying on the ground, with his frontal right paw burning with a pitch black fire on it. "Owhow! Make it stop! Argggggh!"

"Rhodes! What happened?"

Rhodes was starting to cry profusely at the pain. "Your… hat… uhhgh… hh-hh."
What, how? That kadabra said he touched my hat and he was fine!

"Umm… okay Rhodes, you… you need to… uhh… nonono… why can't I think?" Mischief started clutching his head, panicked.
Come on… focus! If you don't stop the black fire, someone is gonna die because of you!
"Okay, okay… put your hand in the campfire!"

"Are you crazy?! It already hur- arrrrrgh!" The black fire started to slowly spread along his leg.

Mischief nodded. "Listen, if you don't do it, you will die, understand?!" He grabbed Rhodes' head. "Rhodes! Put your hand in the fire!"

Maybe it was hopelessness. Or fear, but Rhodes put his paw into the orange flames, still screaming. Without any explanation, the fire on Rhodes' paw changed from black to orange.

Rhodes' pain started to subside, as the flame quickly dissipated from his paw, along with the pain that came with it. "Wh… what?" His paw wasn't charred at all, but he started rubbing it, as it still probably hurt. "What just happened?" He was shaking.

"You touched my hat, and it lit your hand on fire." Mischief said casually.

Rhodes blinked in confusion. "How can you say that without any concern?! That hurt a lot!"

Mischief seemed to stop caring, despite his panicked state earlier. "You know when I said that people near me will get hurt? That's what I meant. Though I don't remember my hat ever lighting people on fire."

Rhodes buried his face into his paws. "Oh Arceus…"

"Who's Arceus?"

"It's… the deity of all pokemon." Rhodes lifted his face up a little. "That's about it. Don't think it's someone you'd want to know."

Mischief scoffed. "Tch, whatever. Talking is also not my thing. If you don't mind, i'll be going back to sleep. Try to stay away from me this time."


Rhodes frowned, like he felt threatened. "Oh… okay, alright then." Mischief tried sleeping, but Rhodes just stayed huddled up, still shaking. After a few minutes, he decided to speak again. "Mischief."
"Hm?"
"Thanks."
"Psht. By the way, i'll have you know that I dislike canines such as yourself.
"Good night to you too."
Sigh. Still annoying. I have to separate from this companionship or he'll likely get hurt again.
It took a while, but Rhodes eventually did go to sleep.

Mischief made sure that Rhodes was actually sleeping this time, and then pulled out a piece of paper. Though it was written in a foreign language, Mischief knew how to read it.

Spoiler:

There were more pages, but they were missing.
 
Last edited:

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
AN: I would appreciate some feedback. So I don't feel like nobody is looking at my fiction even though it says that people are viewing my fiction.

The sun was rising, with the calm pitter patter of the rain still persisting.
Mischief was up real early, because he hardly required any sleep. He had taken his hat off and was combing his fur with rainwater.
Peh. "You don't want to be out there when it's stormy out." Yeah right. Water isn't -that- bad...
Rhodes started stirring, so he put his hat back on. "You're up, now?"

"Ugggh… owww." Rhodes felt his paw, still painful from the night before.
He's still hurting. He's gonna need to be taken to a healer.

Mischief looked at Rhodes, slightly concerned for once. "Your hand still hurting?"

The rockruff frowned in response. "That's not very helpful, why do you even have a hat that hurts people, anyway?"
It would be much better if I didn't give you the answer to that.

Mischief scoffed. "A better question is why are you still trying to be friends with a person who nearly burned you to death?"

"Because I thought it'd be funny to be friends with 'that crazy looking cat'. One of my buddies from Connet said that you were going to the old clock tower, which was close to where I was going." Rhodes huddled up against the rock to make himself a little more comfortable.

"And guess what happened there." Mischief started stomping out the remaining bits of fire. "You got any more questions to ask 'that crazy looking cat'?"

Rhodes' eyes widened a little, in an apologetic manner. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Good." Mischief moved his hat one last time. "I'm gonna go now."

"Owww..." Rhodes held up his paw, rubbing it some more. "My paw still hurts… a lot. How long is this going to last?"

If Mischief's face could be seen, then a wide grin would probably appear on his face. "79 hours, I'd say."

"Wait, what?! 79 hours?!"

"Hehe, calm down. It's just an estimate. If you go back to Connet, you can probably find someone who's willing to heal your arm, and I can go on my merry way."

Rhodes didn't like the sound of that. "Wha? No way! I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!"

Ugh. Just when I thought I could go alone for some peace at last.
Mischief sighed. "Okay fiiine. But you're gonna have to show me where to go."

"Yes! Alright, so let me think…" Rhodes started thinking… "Next turn should be a couple of miles away from here."

Do you really think you can last that long? Tch, we'll see.
They left their makeshift camp to go find this other town. Luckily Rhodes didn't feel like talking much, so Mischief could focus his minimal energy on walking. The rain hadn't completely subsided yet, as there were still small drops of water falling from the sky.

He hasn't asked about my bandages yet… I bet he will soon…
But he didn't. The only thing Rhodes was doing was looking around like he lost something, with his ears occasionally twitching in response to the light rain. He was even sniffing randomly too.
Mischief paid no attention to it; he was just focused on finding this other town so he could get more directions.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Mmmmm… nothing."

Eventually, Rhodes' stopped trying to sniff around the road. His ears were still twitching occasionally, must've been the rain, even though its dying down.

"Do you know where you're going?"
"Yep, I remember plenty of details on the road."
"This better not take much longer…"

The rain stopped. The only remnant of it now was the flora dripping water into nearby puddles. It was significantly better than listening to others, though.
Why are your ears twitching like that? You're starting to make me a little paranoid here.
Rhodes suddenly stopped walking. "Wait a second, can you hear that?"
"The rainwater? Yeah. Anyone could hear it."
"That's not the water…"
"Oh yeah? Then what is it?"
"Sounds like… a creepy crawler."
"...what."
"I think we're being followed."
"I still don't hear anything. Can we just go already?"

Rhodes looked around some more and started sniffing. "How can you hear with that hat and scarf on you?" His ears twitched more as he kept walking around and sniffing the ground. "Hear it, smell it. Know it's around here." he rubbed his injured paw before continuing. "Smells like water, and something else. Hear two of them. They're coming for us. Probably water soaked bugs."

Mischief shook his head. "I'm pretty sure that bugs don't like water."
Wait, I think I actually hear something.
Some skittering was now heard. "Okay, I guess you were right after all."

"Oh wow, thanks for trusting my instincts." Rhodes said sarcastically.

Whoever was following them now revealed himself. Some sort of six-legged spider with a water covered head creeped down from a tree in front of them. The skittering didn't show, and Mischief noticed another one coming down from a tree behind him.

More trouble, huh? Alright then, i'll humor them.
Though there were only two of the water spiders, they seemed to be surrounding the two. "Rhodes, how far until the next town?" Mischief asked, keeping a close eye on the bugs.

Rhodes looked around a bit. "I'd say that we can reach it in a minute or two if we run… are you thinking what i'm thinking?"

"No, definitely not. Here's what's gonna happen. You run to town and find a healer to help you with your hand." Mischief adjusted his hat in an intimidating manner. "I'll deal with these friends here."

Rhodes looked at Mischief, worried. "What? Are you sure that you can even take them both on by yourself?"

Mischief made a slightly devilish laugh. "Heheheh. You've seen what i'm capable of, now go!"

"Oh… okay! Try not to get yourself hurt!" Rhodes started running past the spiders, with Mischief running behind him. They tried to block his path, but Mischief readied his claws and scratched one of the spiders. It recoiled, letting Rhodes avoid it.

"Honestly, I don't know what you things are called, but you're not going any further."

"Sss-s-s-s-s…" one of the spiders seemed angry. "We are Araquanid. You are alone; you cannot stop us." It fired several slow moving bubbles at Mischief, who simply avoided them by walking.
"Grrrrrah!" The other one tried running towards Mischief with it's water soaked head, but he dodged again.

This is too easy. I'll be out of here in no time.
He took two quick scratches on the second Araquanid, and then moved away from them both.
The gloves aren't even coming off.

The two Araquanids started spraying a stream of water at Mischief, who started running away from them as they started moving in his direction. But he wasn't fast enough. He was caught by one; and two streams of water blasting him. "Aggggghhh… it… hurts…" The water really hurt for some reason.

They stopped attacking after a few seconds. "Pheh. Worthless." he heard one of them say. The two spiders started walking away.
No… i've never lost… and I NEVER WILL!
Mischief tried lifting himself up a little, then started to slowly crawl towards the two Araquanids. "Ergh… heh…"

One of them turned around, and the other did as well. "Looky here, brother. This one still thinks he can fight us."

"Hyeh-heh-heh. Guess we gotta teach him another lesson now." The two sprayed a stream of water at Mischief again for a few seconds. "Heh, heh, you like that?" As the water cleared, it appeared that they hit nothing. "What?!"

"I'm right here, boys." Mischief was behind them, still soaking wet from earlier. When they saw him, the two Araquanid stepped back a few inches. "You're gonna teach me a lesson, huh? Well how about THIS?"
Mischief jumped into the air, floating. He started to glow with an eldritch energy as he started charging a powerful move.

"What's he doing?"

"Μεταλλικά κυκλώνα." With a sudden flash, hundreds of thin, sharp blades sprang out from around Mischief, hitting everything within several yards of him.

The Araquanids didn't stand a chance.

After his powerful attack, Mischief dropped to the ground, worn out from his attack.

"Mischief!" Rhodes came out from behind a boulder, and ran up to Mischief.

Ugh… my heart. It feels like it's beating out of my chest. This never hurt -that- badly before. Ow.
Mischief coughed twice before talking. "I told you… to run away."

Rhodes shook his head. "What? No, i'm not leaving you behind! Not after what you just did, what did you just do, anyway?!"

"Ehhh… heh… you're talking too much." Mischief sat himself up, and took a few deep breaths. "Okay… okay… i'm fine. Let's just… get outta here. I'm tired." Despite exerting a significant amount of energy on a move, Mischief stood up like it was nothing.
Don't feel too well. I hope I don't need treatment for this.

Away they went to the town, whatever it was called. As usual, Rhodes kept asking questions. "Hey Mischief, why do you wear those bandages?"

"Because they make me look cool." Mischief said casually.

"Really?"

"No."

"Oh." Rhodes looked dejected for a second, because he wanted Mischief's initial answer to be right. "Then what're they for?"

Mischief grunted before answering. "Concealing my identity, as usual."

Walking… soon leading to dusk.
Rhodes found his way to the town, which was named: Cogsburg.

A pikipek came forward to greet the two. "Welcome to Cogsburg! Are you travelers?"
Probably, and I would like to continue traveling real soon.

"Uhh, yeah… listen, my friend here is kinda hurt, and he needs some help." Mischief quickly said. Rhodes slowly turned his head towards him, with a contained grin on his face. "...what?"

Mischief frowned at what he heard next. "HAH! I knew it! You're my friend now!" Rhodes shouted with a big smile. The pikipek jumped in surprise when he heard Rhodes, but quickly calmed down.

"Ahem! Now… what's wrong with your friend?" the pikipek asked.

Rhodes stepped forward and held out his right frontal paw. "My right paw is hurting really badly, and it won't stop.

With an answer, the pikipek smiled cheerfully. "That shouldn't be too hard to fix. Come follow me! I think Ribombee can help you with your paw!"

"Oh thanks." Rhodes started following the pikipek, until he noticed Mischief wasn't following. "Uhh… Mischief? You following, because I don't think you're in a good shape yourself."

Mischief's eyes widened, but he decided to go with it. "What? Uhh, yeah, sure."
Come on, just let me go…
They went to a house with a sign labelled: [Nurse Ribombee's] outside the door. "Here it is, boys. Now if you'll excuse me…" the pikipek flew away to do his own thing.
Sheesh, how gaudy for a clinic. A sign?
There was some sort of cape wearing bug in the clinic, which must've been Ribombee herself. "Hello! Do you need anything today?" she asked, as she saw the two walking in.

"Yeah." Mischief said before Rhodes could. He then pointed at Rhodes to describe the situation. "His paw is hurting and the pain isn't going away."

Ribombee fluttered in front of Rhodes. "We'll see about remedying that. And do you need anything?" she asked Mischief.

He yawned in response. "Eh, not really. I'm just tired, is all.

"Well there's a couple of beds in the clinic, you can use those if you want."

"Thanks…" Mischief hopped onto a nearby bed, but not before hearing Rhodes say something excitedly to Ribombee.
"He's my new friend now. He didn't want to admit it, but he's now my friend."

As time passes, the sky blackens.
Mischief woke up at exactly an hour after midnight. Rhodes was asleep near him.
Alright, now's my chance.
He resisted yawning and got off his bed to leave, but he noticed a strange thing on a nearby drawer.

Taaakkkeee ittt…
Without thinking much of it, Mischief swiped the item on the drawer: a sealed envelope, and left, abandoning Rhodes.

Obtained paper 'Mischief VII'.
 
10,175
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen today
Since you asked for some feedback, I read through your story so I could leave you some comments.

Your story is a good one. Mischief is an interesting character, with a past I want to know more about. I can't figure out what cat-like creature he is, and the attack that he used isn't a clue. Mainly because I don't know what language that is that he used when he attacked! I do want to know more about him. And I hope that Rhodes comes back, because he adds a little fun to the story. It's always great to have a character in the story that knows about as much as the readers do, so we can discover it together.

I'm sure that there are clues about Mischief in that paper that he found. It's weird that Nurse Ribombee had it just lying around.

Looking forward to seeing where the story goes!
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
AN: The note that Mischief picked up will appear in Part 2, along with Mischief's other notes.

The dawn was reaching across the grasslands as the sun slowly rose up, bleaching the area. That is what it looked like, anyway. Mischief was running across the field, intent on making sure that Rhodes couldn't follow him. Sure, the clock tower could've been a harmless, oversized watch, but he also didn't want to make new friends. Though… he felt regret for ditching Rhodes.
Where am I even going? I just know i'm heading north, that's all, but I could be going in circles for all I know. I probably should've picked up a map from Cogsburg.

Mischief's running was stopped by a river. It was flowing fast enough so that he couldn't see his reflection in it, so he couldn't exactly swim across.
...he never liked water, anyway.
It's good to think to myself, lets me talk without wasting energy.
The cat started to pace back and forth along the edge of the water, thinking of a good solution.

Swimming across is right out.
The river is too wide for me to attempt throwing a vine across.
I can't make a raft. Not only am I physically weak, but that would take too long.
I can't see the bottom of the river. I can't try using stepping stones.
My flying powers only take my a few inches, unfortunately, and I can't teleport.
Rhodes wouldn't be able to cross this, either.

Mischief put one of his paws on his face. He was lost for once. But maybe… he started walking left, to find an area that he might be able to cross.

Rapids… rapids… more rapids… still rapids, come on…

Aha! There! He found a bridge after several minutes of walking, with a couple of pokemon standing away from the middle of it for some reason.
What are you standing around for?
He found out why they weren't moving. The bridge was out. A section of the stony bridge that was several feet long was visible in the water below. "Umm… what's happening here?"

There was a doduo, a strange looking rattata, and a pikachu on his side of the bridge. "We can't get across the bridge." Duduo said. They all sounded like kids.

"We?" Rattata asked. "You can get across just fine! You can FLY!"

"I don't have any wings."

"Heyyy…" Mischief asked the rattata. "Why do you look different from the other rattatas i've seen?"

Rattata gave him a hard stare. "What? That's how every rattata looks! Stop judging me!"

Pikachu chuckled a little. "Heh heh. Where I come from, Rattatas are purple, and don't have those thick whiskers of yours."

Mischief shook his head. "Yunno what… forget it. How are we gonna get past this?"

"Hey!" a Luxio yelled from across the bridge. "Are you stuck or something?"
How strange… your voice sounds familiar.

"Yeah! -Thanks- for asking!" Mischief responded sarcastically.

Luxio waved in response. "No problem!"

Idiot… Mischief thought, facepalming. "That was sarcasm, if you didn't notice. Now can you help us get across the gap?"

"Just tell your bird friend to fly all of you across."

"For the last time," Duduo said, frustrated, "I. Can't. Fly!"

Luxio didn't seem to hear that. "Go on, just let one of your buddies climb onto your back and fly across!"

"I don't have wings!"

"Oh yeah?" Pikachu said. "Well then if you can't fly, how come ghosts can?"

Mischief ignored the bickering and sighed.
Welp, looks like i'm gonna have to pull a trick outta my sleeves.
He then charged up a move, and when he finished, jumped up into the air and darted forward across the gap with a burst of force. "Whew. That was a little tiring." he said, landing on the other side of the bridge.

"Wow!" Luxio exclaimed, her eyes sparkling. "How'd you learn to do that?"

"It's a long story that would probably bore you to death if I told you." He just started running forward without waiting for Luxio's response.

"Waaaaait! What about usss?" Rattata yelled as Mischief took off.

He forgot about the trio of randoms on the bridge, but the Luxio remained fresh on his mind.
Who are you? Why are you important?
But his thoughts were interrupted when he bumped into a tree. As he shook his head to shake off his dizziness, he found that he was in a thick forest.
Oh great, i'm lost again.

The road seemed to have disappeared while Mischief was recklessly running as fast as he felt like, and there was no good way he could retrace his steps. "Hmm… swimming was right out, no vine, no raft, no rocks, and no wings… wait, yes wings."
Mischief started to climb a tree, but he… didn't know how. He only got up a few feet before falling back to the ground.
Crap. Can't climb.

"Sssssssss…"

Mischief turned his head. "Who's there?"

"You ssshould not be in this foressssst. Ss." It wasn't a spider this time. More like a slithery snake.

If you don't want me in this forest, then why don't you tell me the way out?
"Umm… okay? If you want me to leave? Which way do I go?"

"Ssssouth."

"Isn't that where the river is?"

"That isss correct."

Facepalm. "How about nnno. Not only do I not know which direction South is, and I would like to-"

"SSSILENCE! You will leave this forest now."
Keep yelling, if you don't mind. You don't make that slithering noise when you're angry.

Mischief shook his head. "No way. I'm going wherever I want and there's -nothing- you can do about it!"

"Sssss…" The slithering became louder. And a big black snake with purple and yellow marking revealed itself. As usual, Mischief had no idea what the pokemon's name was.
Aren't you supposed to be bigger?
It hissed before pouncing at him with glowing, purple fangs.

He dodged, the fangs only grazing him. However, he bumped into a tree as he dodged, and the snake took the chance to try and bite him again. He was barely able to dodge this time. "Stop trying to attack me! You don't want me to kill you!"

"Then leave!" the snake yelled, obviously irritated.

"If you want me to leave, then tell me which way is North!"

"No! You will go back from where you came from!"

That's it.
"Okay, fine then!" Mischief hopped into the air, and just like last time, he started glowing with a dark energy. And once again, he whispered: "Μεταλλικά κυκλώνα."

A flurry of blades threw themselves out from around Mischief's body, hitting anything nearby and cutting up the flora around him. The snake was able to dodge. "Hissss! Impossssible. You're…" the snake slithered away.

Mischief was lowered to the ground, breathing for air. "Hfff… hgggh… heh." With nobody around to help him, he had to wait a few minutes before standing up.
I'm fine, I can keep going.
He looked around. That move did more than scare the snake off, it left several slashes in the trees. The razorblades disappeared after a short time, so Mischief could now climb the trees.

He struggled up the tree, but with success this time, finally reaching the top of the tree. He could see everything now.
Wait… that's!
There it was, hidden in a blue fog but still visible, a dilapidated looking wooden tower. That must be the Clock Tower. Excited(kinda), Mischief hopped down from the tree, landing face first into the ground. "Oof….. ow."

"Is anyone there? I heard a crashing sound… and also the sound of a spring blowing up!" It was the Luxio from earlier, who seemed to suddenly appear, creating some sparks everywhere.
Feel really sick. Need help, i'm over here. What is this feeling of dread I have?
"Umm… hello?" Luxio asked again.

Mischief was too weak to say anything, because he suddenly felt contaminated by a really vicious infection. "Rrrrrgh." he groaned.

Luxio turned, but didn't take any steps. "Umm… who said that?"
Wow, i'm impressed.

Mischief lifted his face off the ground, frustrated. "Ehh. Ahem."

"Oh, there you are!" She zipped over to where Mischief was, creating a trail of sparks behind her. "What happened to you?"

He was still having trouble talking. "Pffff…" He faceplanted into the ground.

"Oh, don't tell me, you're poisoned! I can tell with those purple bubbles coming off you!"
Yes, i'm poisoned, and it's getting more painful by the second. Please help me already.
"Here, eat this!"

Mischief lifted up his head again. "Whsssit." It was a pink berry, resembling a peach.

He wasn't sure if she knew what he asked. "This is a pecha berry. Eat it, it'll cure poison." Mischief stared at her for a few minutes, until she eventually decided to put it on the ground in front of his face. "I'll just uhh… put it here, and you can… eat it I guess." She turned away for a second, and she heard a "Nm." come from behind her. Mischief ate the berry.
This tastes a little funny.

There was a delay before she decided to speak again. "Umm… are you better now?"

Mischief coughed. "Eh, ghk. Ahem. Y-yeah, I feel better I guess, but i'm probably going to remember that horrible pain for the rest of my life." He slowly stood up. "Thanks I guess."

"No problem! By the way, haven't I seen you before?"

"At the bridge, yes."

"No, silly! It was… back in Connet! You fell down and I had to carry you to Kadabra's to get you patched up. What's with you falling on the ground all the time?"

Mischief put one of his paws on his face. "It's bad luck. Something you don't want."

Luxio started rubbing her chin with a mischievous look on her face. "Sure. By the way, what's with that hat? Can you take it off?" She reached over to grab Mischief's hat…

"Nononono don't touch my hat!" He stood up on his hind legs, stepping back two feet and taking his hat off, while holding out his other paw in a 'stop-right-there' motion. Additionally, his scarf loosened and slid off his face.
Umm… uhh…
After Mischief realized what he did, he quickly put his hat back on and put his scarf back.

"Oh… my… Arceus! Your face is so CUTE! You were blushing too! Can you take your hat off again?" her eyes were sparkling again.

Mischief shook his head repeatedly. "No no… I can't and I won't." he started to walk towards the direction of the clock tower.

"Hey wait! Who are you, anyway?"

Ugggggh. Not this again.
He turned his head a bit. "Maybe you'd want to introduce yourself first."

Luxio giggled. "Hee hee, alright. I'm Kerah, what's your name?"
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
The Clock Tower, wasn't in fact as easy to reach as Mischief thought. When he was able to leave the forest, along with Kerah, he saw that the Clock Tower was in the middle of a large city.

"Thaaats Geniscity! I don't know where the name came from. I think maybe a Genesect made it up."

Mischief scoffed. "No. I can assure you that the name of that city is because of a completely different reason."

Kerah looked at Mischief with a smug expression on her face. "♪Ohhh yeah?♪ How would you know? You've never ventured out of Connet before!"

"I just do. Don't ask questions." was his response.

Kerah smirked. "That include questions about your hat, scarf, and bandages?"

YES. I'm glad you understand.
"Exactly."

"Aww. You're no fun."

Mischief shrugged. "Well, people ask me a lot, and I don't have time to answer every single one of them. But what I will tell you is that I need to get to that Clock Tower."

Kerah looked at the tower with curiosity. "Ooh, what for?"

Mischief gave a slight chuckle before saying his next answer. "Doesn't matter, because you're not coming with me."

Kerah's eyes widened. "Wha? Why not?!"

"Because if you come, something bad will happen and you will quote unquote 'get rekt'."

"Get… what? What is that supposed to mean?"

The cat sighed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it too much. I don't need other people getting in trouble because of me. And because of that, I'm not interested in being your friend."

"Ugh." Kerah said. "You're so rude, i'm glad i'm not you." she started running away towards Geniscity.

"And i'm glad you're not me!" Mischief shouted. "At least you aren't annoyed by people talking all the time!"
Alone at last. Of course, i'm sure that'll change very soon.
Mischief kept walking for a minute to make sure that he wouldn't find Kerah, and then started running himself.

A light run through a green meadow later…

Genescity was a lot bigger than he anticipated. It would be about four times as big as Cogsburg, if he took the time to even look at that town.
Really, he cared for none of it. Without admiring anything in the city, Mischief headed for the Clock Tower.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a tourist attraction. Though it -was- abandoned and it probably -was- on the verge of collapsing… there were two angry looking gumshoos standing near the entrance of the Clock Tower. Oh, and a yungoos on top of the left one.
Tch, angry. Do they even have different faces?
Cluelessly, Mischief just walked towards the entrance, ignoring the two gumshoos guarding it.

The left gumshoos stepped in front of the doorway while the right one spoke. "Oyoy, you can't come in here."

"Why not?" Mischief questioned.

"There's a problem inside, and we can't just let anyone in to solve it."

Mischief rolled his eyes before asking another question. "What problem?"

The gumshoos pointed up into the sky. "That one." There was a cluster of storm clouds brewing over the Clock Tower, but the skies that weren't so close to the tower were a clear blue.

Huh, that seems familiar…
"...right. Listen, i'm a professional, and I can solve this 'problem'." Mischief said confidently.

"Oh yeah? Then show me what you got."

"No."

The gumshoos smirked. "Okay Mr. Big Shot, if you're so special, then why don't you see what the Sheriff thinks of you, hm? Now get lost."

Mischief stared at the gumshoos, slightly annoyed. "Fine, where's the sheriff?"

The yungoos spoke."He's got an office down the road, it'll look real fancy."

Without thanking the rascal, Mischief went on his way. Though, he did get lost a couple of times, because the city was real big, he found his way to the sheriff's office. Which, by the way, had a big sign on it that said: Sheriff's.
Again with the signs, huh?
He entered the building to find a whistling krokorok sitting in a rocking chair while filling out a sudoku puzzle. "Hey." The sheriff either didn't hear him or was too engrossed in his game of sudoku to listen, both of which were the same thing. "Hey!"

The sheriff didn't notice Mischief entering earlier, and him raising his voice surprised him. "Wha? Uh, *ahem* hello citizen, do you need anything?"

"Yeah." Mischief said blandly. "I want to go into the Clock Tower."

"Woah, boy! We can't just let kids into the Clock Tower to play around. There's something strange going on in there and it has to be stopped by a professional."

Mischief looked around the room before responding. "Well let me tell you this, Mr. Sheriff." Though he was short, Mischief looked intimidating as he took a few steps forward. "Do your kids have moderately deep voices like me?"

"How do you know I have kids?"

"Those pictures on the wall behind you." Mischief answered, pointing behind the krokorok.

"Oh."

What am I saying, this is a waste of time. Mischief mentally told himself. "Anyways, can you let me into the tower?"

"What do you need to enter the tower for? You don't look like the type of person that wants to help people."

Mischief shrugged. "It's none of your business. I'll just say that it's important."

The sheriff looked at Mischief with curiously. "Alright then, friend. But first, what moves do you know?"

"I know… stuff."

"Like what?"

Can't let you know about my magic attack. That's a secret.
"Recover."
Words couldn't describe the sheriff's expression right now. It was like a…
._.
"What?"

The krokorok just made a subtle facepalm. "Ugggh… you know what? There's a training dojo on the west side of town. You can go… learn some moves or something, alright? Then umm, come back and i'll see if you really have what it takes."

Mischief frowned at that. "What, is he gonna ask me for a favor from another person before he helps me?"

"No, no! Just… ask him you sent me." The sheriff faceplanted into his sudoku puzzle. "Go on… go."

Reluctantly, Mischief left the sheriff's office without approval to go into the Clock Tower, and walked to the dojo, wherever it was.
And of course, Mischief got lost again. He had to 'ask for help' this time. He made it to a dojo with a generic [Dojo] sign.
This better be good. I've had it with these wastes of time.

There were only two pokemon in the dojo. A smeargle painting something, and some sort of short, grass-cloaked bug watering some flowers. Ignoring the bug, Mischief walked up to the smeargle. "Excuse me-"

"Shhh." the cloaked bug said.

Mischief glared at the bug for 3 seconds, and then looked back at the smeargle, lowering his voice. "Hey, can you… help me?"

Smeargle answered without turning away from his painting. "That depends on who needs help. Who are you?"

"Mischief."

"That is your name?"

It was strange, the painter's calmness, and the scent of the flowers was stopping Mischief from getting angered. "Yes."

Smeargle stopped painting and turned around to look at Mischief. "What are you, Mischief? What pokemon?"

How is he… getting to me?
Mischief wanted to tell him what he was, but he was reluctant. "A curse on others."

Smeargle smiled in response, his interest growing. "Well then, we'll learn soon enough, won't I?"

"No you won't!"
Oh not you, you've seen my face.
Kerah the Luxio came into the dojo, ignoring the shushing of the nearby gardener. "I know what he is! Want to know?"

"That would be appr-"

"No Kerah, you can't tell him what I am!" Mischief interrupted.

A look of disappointment appeared on Kerah's face. "Wha? Why not?"

Mischief responded by putting one of his paws on his hat in an edgy way. "This mask; I wear it for a reason." he turned to Smeargle. "Listen, if you want to see who I am, tell everyone to leave. I don't like it when people see my face."

After a brief delay, Smeargle looked at Kerah and the bug. "Go on, Everett, Kerah. Leave us alone."
Without saying a word, Everett the… whatever he was left.

"Aww, I want to see his face again!"

"No! Just go. Privacy would be heavily appreciated right now."

Kerah turned around, dissatisfied, and left.

"I see you do not like to make friends." Smeargle remarked.

Mischief shook his head. "They are at risk, anyone near me -will- get hurt. Now…" Mischief lowered his face and took off his hat.

"Interesting. You know Recover, yet you lack the ability to use it. I will teach you how to use Recover, and… another move that you must leave your shell to use."

Obtained 'Mischief IV'

EDIT: Sheriff changed from Swampert to Krokorok.
 
Last edited:

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
AN: Feedback would still be appreciated. I would like to know if i'm good at doing these emotions.

"What?" Mischief exclaimed to the Sheriff.

The krokodile crossed his arms. "You heard me. Your sparky friend is -coming with you-."

"Yaaay!" Kerah cheered, annoying Mischief some more.

The cat facepalmed with both of his frontal paws. "I don't. Need. Her help. She can't get herself out of a problem if she gets into one."

Kerah frowned. "Heyyy! I can fight too. I can do Thunderbolt, and… Thunder Wave, and Quick Attack…"

"No arguments, pal. I don't trust you going into that place by yourself. Now either you take your friend with you into that tower, or you keep standing here like an idiot." Sheriff said smugly, waving an access pass in front of Mischief.

"Okay fine, gimme that-" Mischief attempted to take the pass, but the sheriff moved it at the last second.

"Ah ah ah." The sheriff said, his smile growing. "Your friend is holding onto this." He hands the pass over to Kerah instead.
Great… give it to the person who has no good way to hold onto things except with their mouth.

Kerah eagerly took the pass. "Yay!"

Mischief reluctantly kept his mouth shut, and just left the sheriff's office.

The sheriff poked his head out the doorway as Mischief was leaving. "Don't forget to file any complaints you have to me!"
Screw you too.

Kerah ran out after Mischief, walking next to him. "This is gonna be great!"

"No it's not." He adjusted his hat before complaining some more. "Worst case scenario, there's a bad guy in there and he's gonna throw you out of the tower from the top floor."

Kerah recoiled slightly when she heard that. "Why do you have to be so serious?"

Mischief eyed the pass that Kerah was carrying… except that there was no pass on her. He decided to answer her question before asking her about the missing pass. "Because, emotional connections to 'friends' are threats to me. If I become friends with anyone, one of us will get hurt."
Where's your pass? Ugh, you're an idiot.

"That's never happened to me."

"Ugh, whatever. Nobody understands. Now-" Mischief gave Kerah a hard stare. "Where'd you put the pass?"

Kerah blinked. "What pass?"

The glaring intensified. "The pass, which the sheriff gave you."

"I thought you had the pass."

"How did you forget the pass? The sheriff literally handed to you and you took it! What is wrong with you?!" His anger turned into confusion when Kerah started to laugh.

Kerah started to fall to ground, laughing a lot. "Ahahahahahahah! Hahahahahaha haaaaa, heheheh!"

Mischief started to look around to see if anyone was watching, and sure enough, there were a few spectators standing around to watch.
Perfect.
Without much thought, he gave Kerah a good kick in the side.

"Ow!" She quickly stood back up, dropping the access pass that she did have after all. "What was that for?"
I hate friends! I don't need any friends at all, because of this!

Mischief started to angrily spout out his complaints with -almost- everything he had. "I don't have a lot of time on my hands and I don't like wasting it! I only slept for approximately 6 hours last night and my insomnia is hardly helping, so i'm really tired!" Kerah started to shrink back… "But no, i'm not gonna sleep because I absolutely cannot wait for you to be messing around so you better hurry up so I can go to the Clock Tower to investigate it!"

Kerah looked somewhat scared, but not that much. ".........what's so important about the Clock Tower?"

"I've been suffering from a terrible case of amnesia for so long that I can't remember how long i've been able to maintain my insanity, and I recently learned that there's something in the clock tower; something I can use to uncover what I did in the past!"

Kerah had backed up into a wall. "Okay, okay! We'll go." Mischief calmed down, taking a few breaths, and picked up the pass. "...grumpy pants."
Heh, tired. I shouldn't be exerting myself, but I don't need to worry anymore. The key to my past should be in the Clock Tower.
They arrived at the entrance with the two Gumshoos and the Yungoos. Of course, one of them blocked the entrance. "Alright, you-" Mischief started before presenting the sheriff's access pass. "Here's the pass you wanted so badly."

The gumshoos that talked took a good look at the pass before looking at his cohorts. "Alright, he's clear. He can enter." His friend moved. Mischief walked in, but the gumshoos sidestepped to stop Kerah. "Nah nah nah, you can't enter."

Mischief turned his head, and reluctantly said: "Under explicit orders from the sheriff, she is to accompany me in the case of an accident. Stand aside for her."

Kerah's face lit up a little as the gumshoos let her pass. "Thanks." she said as she walked up next to Mischief.

"Make sure to watch out for ghosts!" The yungoos yelled after them.

"Don't mention it." he looked up. There were several flights of stairs, with visible flooring around the middle section of the tower prohibiting is view near the higher parts of the tower. "Let's move." without delay, he started running up the stairs, with Kerah following after hesitating.
When he got to the middle floor, a loud sound got Mischief's attention, causing him to jump.
What was that? We aren't alone, are we?
One of the gears moved slightly. Kerah bumped into Mischief as she caught up. "Ofh, eh. Hoo… hew… Phew." she looked at Mischief, wondering why he wasn't running anymore. "Hey, what's the hold up?"

He started looking around. "Gears moved. I think something's watching us."

Kerah scoffed. "Psh. I'm sure this'll all be fine. By the way, what was that move the smeargle taught you?"

"Flamethrower."

"Oh nice! Have you tried it yet?"

I don't need flamethrower. All I need is my innate abilities.
"Nope." He continued going up the stairs, slowing down to a walk. "Watch your step. These floorboards are becoming brittle."

Whrrrrrrr…

That wasn't wind…
Still couldn't find anything. Stalker will reveal themselves eventually. Just keep waiting…
Just keep waiting…
He's around here for sure.

Whirrrrr………

"Nnnnngh… Mischief? I'm feeling a little… sick here." Kerah said, her voice sounding less cheery than usual.

He ignored it. "You got a cold or something?"

"Thasss not…" she took a moment to cough twice. "Feel bad." she looked up from the ground, seeing something suspicious near Mischief. One of the shadows on the walls was moving slower than it should've. Wait. Shadows? In an abandoned building? Kerah reacted instantly, shooting a bolt of electricity at the shadow on the wall. "Watch out!" Mischief turned his head.

The thunderbolt struck the target precisely. "Argh!" The shadow recoiled, then came out of the wall. It was a big, purple figure, with a wide grin on it's face.

"What the heck is that?"

"It's a… a gengar!" Kerah answered, still weak.

The gengar started chuckling. "Heheheheheh… so you're the one that he's been talking about. He's gonna love it when I bring you back to him."

Mischief scowled at the gengar. "No you're not." He lunged forward, preparing to claw the ghost, but it dived into the shadows before he was able to hit.

"Hehehehehe-hehhh…" Without being seen, the gengar hit Kerah with… something.

"Agh!" Her eyes widened, panicked. She turned around and sent a thunder wave in front of her, but it hit nothing.

"Ehh." the gengar also attacked Mischief, but he wasn't affected as much. "Show yourself, you coward!"

"Of course!" the gengar rose out of the ground in front of Kerah, smiling as usual. Kerah was about to fire a thunderbolt, but it grabbed her by one of her legs and threw her over himself, slamming her onto the ground. "Oof!" she didn't get back up.

Oh, is that how you want to play?
Mischief reacted by unleashing a small burst of razors at the gengar, but he sidestepped them. "That's it."

The gengar slowly shook his head, still smiling. "Is that all you have? You're no f-oofh!" His sentence was interrupted as Mischief lowered his scarf to start incinerating the ghost with a flamethrower. He kept it up for a few seconds, making sure it wasn't going to be able to bother them again. The gengar collapsed, smoking a little.

Mischief ran to Kerah's side.
Oh no, please don't be hurt badly.
"Hey, Kerah. Wake up. Wake up."

She raised her head a little. "Nnnngh…"

"Listen, i'm gonna be right back. Sit tight." Instead of running downstairs to get help, he went upstairs to check the top floor.
Something feels familiar… it feels like… a part of me?
The sun was shining through several cracks in the walls at the top floor. The storm that was previously above the tower was starting to dissipate… but it wasn't leaving. Something other than the poisonous ghost was causing the storm.

There was a single, shiny item on the ground. Mischief eyed it, and he recognized what it was. A jet blue collar, with a golden tag on it. He picked it up to inspect it, and there was only one word engraved on the collar: Mischief.
What…?
Suddenly, a sharp pain entered Mischief's mind, and he stepped backwards, dropping the collar. "AH!" he clutched his head in pain as fragments of his previous memory started to drill into his head.

He took several deep breaths.
I remember now… what everyone sees me as… is not the full picture of me. I am… more different than they think. My mask, my personality, my abilities, me… as a pokemon. That is half of what I am.
That wasn't it, though. A name had started reverberating in his head. Though he kept it to himself. He would never tell anyone about it.

With mostly everything settled, Mischief stuffed the collar into his scarf and went back down to where Kerah was. "What, those second degree burns didn't affect you?" the gengar was up, but burning.

"Yes, damn, that hurt a LOT." the gengar said. "This isn't over yet!" he exploded into shadows, and the ground around where he was started burning.
Oh f- I knew I shouldn't have used that flamethrower.
Mischief quickly ran over to Kerah and started patting her on the cheek. "Hey Kerah, wake up!" It wasn't working. He decided to slap her to wake her up.

*BAAAP*
"Ugh. Uh. What's happening?" Kerah asked, now wide awake. A burning piece of wood fell near them as a good indicator.

"The tower is on fire, we have to get out of here!" Mischief forcefully lifted Kerah up and ran down the stairs with her following.

They seemed to be going fine, until around 20 steps collapsed in front of them, leaving no room for jumping. "Wah! We're not gonna make it!"

Mischief looked at the 10-yard fall below them, and the fire that was coming for them.
There's still a way. I've never lost before and I can't lose now.
"Kerah."

Kerah was now whimpering, fearing the approaching flames. "W-what?"

"Close your eyes. I have an idea."
Besides calling for help and hoping that a bird flies in and saves us…

"Oh, oh okay." Kerah covered her eyes, still fearful.

Hope this works. Mischief took a deep breath before starting his plan.
He grabbed Kerah, who didn't have time to say anything because Mischief jumped off the stairs. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" even though she was covering her eyes, Kerah knew that she was falling and screamed really loudly.

Right before he hit the ground, Mischief used the same speed burst that he used on the bridge, moving forward instead of downwards. "Gah!"

Time was slowed down for a moment. Mischief mentally acknowledged that he was still alive, and hadn't broken any of his bones.
And so did Kerah. She slowly uncovered her eyes and opened them, shaking. "Wh… what? I'm… alive?"

Mischief lifted up his head. "Yeah, you are. Now get off me."

"Oh, sorry." She stood up, a little wobbly, but relatively fine. She looked at Mischief as he straightened himself out and dusted his accessories. "How did you do that?"

One of my many tricks.
Mischief was really tired, his heart was beating really fast and that was slightly painful. "I'm too tired to answer. I need to rest…"

The two started to walk out of the Clock Tower, now significantly more ancient than before.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
The skies above the Clock Tower had cleared, becoming a sea blue as the sun was starting to be replaced with the moon. Well, not really, as there was still smoke coming out of the now ruined Clock Tower. Within a minute of their departure, the fire had completely destabilized the tower, causing it to collapse.

Kerah's mild injuries from the encounter with the gengar sent her to the clinic. Mischief, however, used Recover on himself and insisted that he was fine, despite his critical need for sleep.

He sat against a wall in the city, near where the Clock Tower used to be. There several water Pokemon dousing the remaining fires and others were trying to clear out the smoke.
That doesn't look too good. I hope they don't blame me for this.
Mischief pulled out the collar he found in the tower. Name was on it, memories were imparted to him, what more was there to do?

Something. There was still something he had to do, but what? His memories appeared to be complete, but there were holes missing.
Plus, those new memories that he got made him more internally miserable than he was previously.
This will take time to think about. Maybe I should sleep after all. I don't have anything important to do right now, I guess…

Mischief stood up and started walking down the road towards the clinic, yawning. "Auhhhhhhh… mm."
Feeling dizzy. Can't walk straight.
Mischief collapsed on the spot, after having avoided sleep for so long.
Tired. Sleep. Will think of… later.

One what-could-be-considered-a-pleasant-sleep later…
Mischief felt something different about him. He felt… comfortable? No, he usually felt some sort of restriction on his cardiovascular system from the things he wore, then that means... "Guh!" His eyes widened, his hat and scarf were missing. And he was in the clinic in a nice bed, too. He looked around some more, but his accessories weren't anywhere to be seen, or Kerah either.
Damnit. I knew sleeping was a bad idea, I knew it!

"Hah hah, check out my hat, guys!" There she was; in the other room. Mischief slid out of his bed and peered out of the doorway to the next room.
Kerah was there, wearing Mischief's hat and screwing around in front of a Lucario playing on a 3DS. The lucario was wearing a doctor's hat, by the way.
I think i'll be taking that hat back, if you don't mind.

With a quick motion, Mischief dived at Kerah, taking his accessories back and putting them on. "Shouldn't be taking my stuff, Kerah!"

One of her eyes started twitching a bit. "That's not fair! How come you get to be a magician and do all that stuff?"

"How were you able to take my stuff without getting hurt?" Mischief said, ignoring her question.

"Well, I took it, and that's about it?" she responded, with an innocent look on her face.

The Lucario looked up from his 3DS. "Miss Kerah, would you please go back to bed? You still need some rest."

Mischief looked at the doctor with a look of minor confusion. "If she still needs some rest, why'd you let her out of bed?"

"I was busy playing my game." He glances at Kerah, who didn't move at all. "Please go back to bed… I don't get paid enough for this."

"Awww…" Kerah walked back to the beds, her head down dejectedly.

"What about me, can I go?" Mischief asked.

The lucario went back to playing his game. "Yep, you were just suffering from sleep deprivation. Now that it's Noon, you should be good to go."

"Mischief?" Kerah said from the other room. "You're not leaving me, are you?"

Mischief shook his head, even though no one was paying attention. "No, i'm not. I'll still be in town when you leave the clinic."

"Okay!"

Mischief left the clinic, and sighed.
I'm stuck, I don't know where else to go, so what am I supposed to do?

"HEY!" there was the sound of something; or something running towards him. Before he was able to turn his head, whoever was running towards Mischief got close enough to punch him.
You could tell that hurt a lot as Mischief got knocked over, landing against a wall. "Why'd you leave me behind?!"

It was a wolfy thing… though Mischief couldn't determine who he was talking to, as the sun was kind of in his eyes. "Sorry, I don't recognize you."

The wolf growled. "How do you not recognize me?! You burned one of my paws!" he held up his frontal right paw, but it had some sort of fingerless 'glove' over it.
Oh right, maybe I recognize you.

"Oh, Rhodes." Mischief moved himself into a sitting position. "I didn't recognize you for a second, since your face is a lot less slobbery than before."

"Oh, is that so? Okay." Rhodes calmed down, and stepped back a little. Mischief could now see that he evolved into a Lycanroc within the 36 hour period in which he abandoned him. "I'm gonna guess the Clock Tower burning down was your doing?"

"Heh, maybe." Mischief said as he wiped the dust off of him. "You said that you were supposed to go to the Clock Tower for an errand, didn't you?"

Rhodes scowled. "Yeah. I -was- going to investigate the tower to get rid of the storm cloud above it, and I was initially hoping that you would accompany me to it!"

Mischief shrugged in response. "Well too bad, because you might've gotten replaced with someone else."

Instead of his frown intensifying, he started to smile a bit. "Oh, does that mean that you -are- making friends? Who is-"

"Hiya!" Rhodes' question was answered as Kerah suddenly zipped over next to Mischief, causing him to jump a bit. "Hi, i'm Kerah, what's your name?"

After a brief delay, he answered. "I'm Rhodes, I assume you must be one of Mischief's new friends?"

Kerah nodded. "Yeah! Doesn't he have -such- a cute face?"

"You saw his face? How? When I tried to take his hat off, it burned one of my paws!"

"Nah, it's nothing. He's just wearing a regular hat."

"If you say so… hey Mischief!" he shouted to the Mischief, who was attempting to walk away. "Can you take your hat off?"

Those manners that he hardly used weren't present. "No."

Kerah waved it off. "Eh, it's no biggie. I know what he is. You don't mind if I tell him, do you, cutie-cat?"

"I do mind you calling me 'cutie-cat'. But you can tell him if you can keep it to yourselves."

"Alright!" Kerah leaned towards Rhodes and started whispering something in his ear. "Hiss sah sssssn."

Rhodes looked at Mischief when he got the answer, and then Kerah, and then back to Mischief. "I see, that makes sense. Somewhat. Except I don't remembe-" he paused, so he didn't say what Mischief actually was. "Except I don't remember cats like him ever using steel attacks."

"Really?! What does he do?"

Meanwhile, Mischief put one of his paws on his fedora, facepalming.
Oh god please stop talking so I can go…
 

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
Before I start my comments proper, curious why some dialogues, like Mischief and Rhodes, have different colors while others you didn't change. I'll have no trouble following the dialogue to be honest.

One thing I noticed on occasion, like from your last fic, is sometimes you rely on telling and thoughts over how a character feels. The suggestion I gave is more body language. For instance, instead of saying "Rhodes didn't like the sound of that," mentioned Rhodes flinching for instance.

As I was reading the third part, the one where Rhodes and Mischief went against the Araquanid and made it to town, a couple thoughts came to mind. First, I thought you could expand a bit more how the Araquanid got owned by Rhodes after the "The The Araquanids didn't stand a chance" line. Doesn't have to be very descriptive, maybe just a sentence or two. Second is you can probably do a bit worldbuilding for Cogsburg. What kind of buildings are out there? What sort of Pokemon are outside/living in town? Is it a quiet town? I do agree with Astinus that there is this sense of mystery with Mischief that made me curious about him and those notes more.

Onto the fourth part, I thought the part with alolan rattata was cute hehe. Mischief and Kerah's intereaction are nice too, especially at the part where his face is revealed to Kerah.

Reading the next few parts, the one scene with Mischief and the krokorok sheriff I feel you could have described the sheriff's facial expression better, like his face dropped and eyes blinking.

I like the Clock Tower and the stuff going on with Gengar there, and I think you did fine with Mischief's reaction upon finding that collar. Does makes me wonder if/when he got involved there before.

"Oh, sorry." She stood up, a little wobbly, but relatively fine. She looked at Mischief as he straightened himself out and dusted his accessories. "How did you do that?"

One of my many tricks.

This part I feel you could have Mischief be more smug, like a smirk.

I was wondering when Rhodes would return, and heh he evolved into Lycanroc! Should be interesting how Mischief will interact with both Rhodes and Kerah, along with them knowing what he looks now. I might try to follow this more often if I can.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
Mischief, Kerah, and Rhodes were seated under an awning outside of a building. They didn't have much to say.
This doesn't give me all the answers. I need the complete picture. This stupid collar is useless to me now.
Rhodes broke the silence by asking Mischief a question. "So, Mischief, what'd you find in the Clock Tower?"

"Nothing." he lied.

Rhodes didn't like that answer. "Then what was causing the storm above it? And how did the tower collapse?"

"There was a gengar doing evil stuff, and I had to burn him because none of my other attacks were working."

"Heh, I bet you're making things up. Hey Kerah is he lying?"

Kerah shrugged. "There was a gengar, and it hit me really hard in the head, but other than that, I don't know. And even if I knew if Mischief found anything, how would you know that i'm not lying too?"

Mischief grunted, getting their attention. "Mm. You should learn to stop asking questions so much, and let me talk instead. First off: Rhodes, what're you gonna do?"

The lycanroc scoffed, with a slight grin appearing across his face. "As if you don't know, i'm -still- going to hang out with you."
Of course you will. You just want to be the bane of my existence.

"Whatever. Second-"

"Oh, so now you're going to let me come with you, huh?" Rhodes questioned.

Yes, as you seem pretty capable of protecting yourself, unlike before where I really didn't like your face.
Mischief tilted his head a little as he answered. "Yep."
Rhodes responded by just shaking his head a little and relaxing.
"Okay, is this the last city on the continent?"

"I wouldn't call it a continent… per se, more like… just an island." Kerah half-answered, using her paws to indicate the smallness of the island.
That's close enough for me.

Mischief closed his eyes and started thinking. "Hmm…"

"Oh, oh. Yeah this is the last city on the continent."

"Nah, no it's not." Rhodes interrupted. "There's one more town, but it's mostly secluded."

Mischief wasn't listening to that at all. He opened his eyes as he finished thinking. "Okay, I think i'll try going to Cogsburg."

Rhodes frowned. "Cogsburg? What's there? The place wasn't that interesting when I was there." It probably wasn't interesting as the place was kind of small and the town seemed a little… sleepy.

Kerah waved one of her paws in a 'psssh' kind of way. "Pft, no way. I've never been to Cogsburg and i've heard plenty of exciting things about it!"
Isn't Cogsburg supposed to be between Connet and Geniscity? How have you never been there?

"Okay, stop talking for a minute, i'm losing my patience." Mischief sighed. "I found a letter in Ribombee's clinic. It was very different from other papers since it seemed familiar, and it was, since it was written in a language that wasn't English."

"English?" the luxio asked.

"Yes, Eng- oh forget it, it was just a different language, okay?"
Oh right, you don't know what English is.

Rhodes leaned forward with interest. "Really? What language is it?"

Mischief held up the paper in front of Rhodes. "This."
The first line said: Αυτός είναι ένας ενδιαφέροντος κύκλος κύλησης που έχουν χρησιμοποιήσει.

"Wow, what does it say?" Kerah asked, interested.

Mischief put the paper away. "I'm not gonna tell you because you'd just keep asking questions." He looked around a bit. "Well, it's still early in the day, so let's get moving."

Rhodes crossed his front legs and tried standing on his hind legs in an attempt to imitate Mischief. "Ehhhh, I gotta be -edgy-. Bleh. Wuh-waaaaa-" He lost his balance and fell forward, slamming facefirst into the ground.

Eh, let's just go. He'll wake up eventually.
"When you get back up, make sure you don't touch me with those rocks around your neck." Mischief said, as he walked away.

Kerah also started walking away. "We're going this way, Rhodes-y! Make sure to follow us when you wake up!"

"Nnngh…"

The sun dropped below the horizon as the team was on the road, blanketing the area in darkness.
Only Mischief was able to see through the darkness just fine, but everyone else was having trouble.

"Uhh… Mischief? I don't think I can keep walking through this, can we stop and make a fire?" Kerah asked.

Fine, i'm not in any hurry anyway… I guess.
"Okay, but you…" Mischief started feeling a little strange. It felt like something was trying to close his eyes, making him drowsy…

"What?"

Can't… think… too tired.
Feels different than that other time I collapsed.
What's happening?
Can't… can't… trouble. Something is in pursuit.
Mischief collapsed. Again.

...

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Psh, don't worry about it, he does this fainting thing all the time."

A whirling mix of colors fills the mind, coming in different shapes. The memories come and go as they please, but nightmares will lurk. All of the colors disperse.
It felt cold. Colder than it should be. Mischief felt something above his nose. That was also cold. "Brr." he shook it off, and slowly opened his eyes, seeing a sky filled with blurry clouds. There was some white powder falling all around the place. "This… what is it?" he waited for his eyes to adjust, and saw that a light blanket of snow covered the surrounding area.
Rhodes and Kerah were nearby, sleeping. They created a small campfire, but it had went out sometime in the night. "Thh. Snow?" He didn't like the coldness of winter. "Vrrrr… eh… ah… CHIW!"

"What? Huh? Who's there?" Kerah asked, suddenly sitting up, awake.

Mischief just gave Kerah a good stare before answering. "Take a look around."

Kerah looked around the place, her eyes starting to shine once she knew what she was looking at. "Is that… snow? Wow! Let's go play!" she started by running around looking for snowflakes. "Weeee!"

"Kerah wai- oh forget it." Mischief walked up to Rhodes, who seemed to be deeply sleeping, and started tapping his face.
Well, it could be described as tapping, he was actually taking his entire paw and shoving it into Rhodes' face repeatedly. "Rhodes. Rhodes. Wake up, you stupid dog."

The lycanroc responded by yawning, and… still sleeping. "Come on." he started quote unquote 'tapping' Rhodes' face again. "Mmf."

Kerah came back to where Mischief was, sliding on the snow. "Hey Rhodes! Let's go play in the snow!"

Rhodes reacted again. "Pbbbbbbbbth." He was still asleep.

"Rhodes-y, are you gonna wake up?"

"I got an idea." Mischief scooped up some snow from nearby, and bunched it up in a ball. "Okay, no way you aren't gonna wake up from this." he threw it at Rhodes' face, with a satisfying 'splashing' sound.

Rhodes still didn't wake up. "I don't think that worked."

Mischief lost his patience. "Ugggh… this leaves me no choice. But to be a huge jerk right now." He walked up to Rhodes, and started pulling on one of his eyelids. "Hey Rhodes!"


"Oww!" Rhodes woke up this time and swatted Mischief's hand away. "What are you doing?!" he covered his eye. "That hurt, you know!"

Mischief chuckled slightly, as he found that funny. "Well it worked, didn't it?"

Rhodes gave an angry glance at Mischief. "You're an idiot, and why is there-" Rhodes coughed before continuing. "Snow on my face?"

The cat yawned. "Awhhh. Yunno, a certain someone told me it was Spring a couple of days ago."

"Who?"

"You!" Mischief snapped, without a reaction from Rhodes. "I heard it from you that it was Spring! I have a good memory, Rhodes, do you?"

Rhodes simply shrugged, and then started wipe the snow off of his sleepy face.

"Hey guys?" Kerah pointed in the direction of Cogsburg when the boys looked over at her. "Is that smoke over there?"

Rhodes squinted, though that probably would've made it a little harder to see smoke. "Yeah, I think it i-"
*ZZZAAP* Kerah immediately zipped forward at lightning speed as soon as she got Rhodes' estimate. "Oh, okay then."

"Watch, something bad is gonna happen because I was at Cogsburg." Mischief said, walking forward.

They walked, until they smelt the ashes.
"What…" Cogsburg was… different. The buildings were… shorter. Very short. It didn't seem like many people lived around here. In short, the town was destroyed. "...happened?"

Mischief's particularly bad suspicions came true after all. "..." he simply walked forward to the town to look for Kerah.

She was nearby, talking to a crying Ribombee. "What's wrong?"

"S…s-someone destroyed t-" she was having trouble talking, as she kept sniffling in between words. "Th-the town."

"Who destroyed the town?" Mischief asked.

"I d-don't know. H-he was too fast." she kept sniffling.

Mischief looked around, then pulled the envelope out of his scarf. "Ribombee, this is very important. Where did you get this from?"

Ribombee looked up at the letter. "Th-thats, from… her!" she pointed at Kerah, who put on a confused look.

"What are you talking about? I've never seen that letter before!"

Mischief sighed with disappointment. "This doesn't give me any answers. What are we supposed to do now?"

Ribombee wiped the tears off her face and started fluttering up to Mischief. "You should help us! The attacker, I saw him go into the western forest. Please, you must stop him!"

"Well that makes it easy, let's go!" Rhodes said.

Mischief was thinking, despite the obvious choice to go look for the attacker, as he had ran out of things to do. "Ugh, I feel a little strange. Maybe we shouldn't-" he shook his head. "Nothing, guys. Let's go into the forest."

"Oh thank you! By the way here, take this." Ribombee pulled out a pollen puff and tried handing it to Mischief, who stepped back.
"Uhh, no thanks."

"Okayitsmine!" Kerah quickly took the pollen puff. "Umm… what exactly do I do with it?"

"You can soothe injuries with it, you may need it if you find whoever attacked the town."

Mischief didn't care, and just started walking to the forest. "Okay, let's just go." soon after, he broke into a run, with Rhodes running after.

"H-hey wait for me!" Kerah dashed after them.

.....

Rhodes was able to run in front of Mischief, as he was more suited to it, but he started trying to skid to a stop when he saw something in front of him. "Woahwoah wait guys, stop!" he was able to slow down to a halt, but Mischief bumped into him, causing him to fall forward. "Ack!"

"Whoops." Mischief could now see why Rhodes wanted them to stop. There was a frozen lake, and he accidentally shoved Rhodes onto it. He had slid all the way to just beyond the center.

Kerah arrived in front of the lake. "Hey guys, woah!" she set a single foot on the lake, and a crack came through the ice.

Mischief pulled her back quickly. "Be careful, Kerah! Rhodes is on that lake!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Kerah said nervously.

"Oh sure, telling someone to be careful when you got me over here!" Rhodes shouted. He stood up on his four legs.

Mischief scratched his head and shrugged.

Rhodes made sure it was -mostly- stable, and then tried walking forward. "Okay, don't come over to help me, i'm sure I can-"
*cric-cric*
"Rhodes! Uhh… be careful!"
"Don't worry, I got this all under control, I just need to…" he continued walking forward.
*cric…*
Mischief wasn't holding his breath, he was simply staring hard at Rhodes.
*cric-crac!*
"RHODES!" Kerah ran across the ice when she saw Rhodes going under, stopping at the hole in the water. Not knowing exactly what to do, Kerah took a deep breath and prepared to jump into the freezing water.
"Kerah no!" But Mischief stopped her by dashing to her and grabbing her by one of her legs, causing her to trip.

Kerah aggressively and desperately started trying to kick Mischief away. "Let go of me!"
The ice started cracking a little more.
Mischief was heating up a little, and he could feel some of the ice around him liquefy. "Listen, Kerah! You cannot jump in the icy water, you'll die!"

"I don't care! Rhodes needs our help!" she stopped resisting when the ice started to crack some more. Panicked, Kerah stood up, with Mischief letting her go.

The frozen lake started breaking into multiple pieces. "Run!" The two started running to the shore, with the ice breaking behind them with each step they took. It felt like a full minute, but they soon made it to solid ground.
*splash!*
"Aaaah!"

Mischief turned his head, and a hint of fear appeared in his eyes as he saw that Kerah had fell into the water, but was still safely able to make it to shore. "Oh sh- Kerah?"

"Cold! Coldcoldcold agggh" Kerah started shivering profusely.

Mischief started scratching his head, stressed. "Ah crap." he cleared his throat as he continued to say his plans. "I'm not gonna flamethrower you, so i'm gonna have to find a way to stop you from freezing to death."

Kerah looked back at the lake with concern. "B-b-but what av-v-v-v-bout Rhodes?"

A solemn expression appeared on Mischief's face as he looked at the ground. "I… don't know. I don't think there's anything we can do."

Obtained 'Mischief II'.
 
Last edited:

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
The lycanroc scoffed, with a slight grin appearing across his face. "As if you don't know, i'm -still- going to hang out with you."
Of course you will. You just want to be the bane of my existence.

"Whatever. Second-"

I feel you should put some sort of reaction from Mischief, like him rolling his eyes or mouth twitching. Similar thing to when he finds out Kehah doesn't know where Cogsburg is, you can have Mischief's eyes wide upon hearing that for instance.

The frozen lake started breaking into multiple pieces. "Run!" The two started running to the shore, with the ice breaking behind them with each step they took. It felt like a full minute, but they soon made it to solid ground.
*splash!*

The splash part I think you can write it as "Until a splashing noise was made" or something.

Speaking of Cogsburg, what happened there didn't sound all too good. And the possibility of Rhodes not making it from falling into freezing waters is not good either, oh dear (hopefully Rhodes is still alive, though). You did Mischief's reactions toward the end where he wasn't sure of the situation better there, though perhaps he can find some wood to warm Kerah there.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
Though it was a waste of daylight, hypothermia was a problem that had to be treated immediately. "Okay, Kerah, I will make a campfire or something, you stay put." Mischief started by gathering twigs and whatever wood and plant-y things he could find. He didn't actually know how to start a fire, but it shouldn't be -that- hard, right?

After gathering a bunch of twigs and some random leaves, Mischief tossed them on the ground in front of Kerah. "I don't actually know how to make a campfire, is this gonna work?"

Kerah was too cold to reply, and kept shivering. She simply nodded.
"Okay… let's see if this works." Mischief lowered his scarf and breathed a stream of fire onto the sticks. Several bits of fire appeared on the stick, but they soon disappeared. "What? How did that not work?"

"Nnngh…" Kerah started charging up an attack, and zapped the sticks with a small bolt of electricity. The sticks started burning, melting the snow around them.

Mischief looked at the fire, and then Kerah, who was still shivering. He made a frustrated sigh. "That's not good enough. Wait here, I will go search for help."

"S-s-s-s… o-okay…" Kerah tried her best to nod at Mischief, before scooting herself closer to the fire.

Mischief hesitated for a second, afraid to leave Kerah alone, but… there was no other choice. He started sprinting around the lake, looking for the town.
The evergreen trees were covered with snow, making them appear more white than green. As he kept running through the snowy forest, a stinging cold was biting him. The trees appeared to be part of a blizzard; nature's attempt to freeze anything in it's way. And then cover them in snow. But it wasn't much use. Any snow that touched Mischief became nothing more than water, melting for reasons unknown.

Unfortunately, despite his resistance to the cold, running through what seemed like an inch of snow was tiring. He couldn't keep this up for much longer… but still, giving up was not an option, especially when the coldness was not only coming for him, but Kerah as well. Rhodes… was gone. There was nothing they could do for him.

"Hey, stop!" Mischief listened to whoever yelled at him, and skidded to a stop.

He looked around, around the trees and in the snow, but there didn't seem to be anyone around. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Up here." the speaker was a pikipek perched in a tree, who gave a wave of his wing when the cat saw him. "Don't go any further, you don't want to find out what's over there!"

"What're you talking about?" Mischief recognized him from somewhere… that's right. "Haven't I seen you before? In Cogsburg?"

Pikipek nodded. "That's right. You came here with a quote unquote 'injured' buddy. Where is he, by the way?"

Mischief's expression was blank as he answered. "He's dead."

The bird's eyes widened for a second, and he shrank a little as a sorrowful look appeared on his face. "Oh… i'm sorry."

Mischief ignored that fact that he was able to say that one of his friends was gone as he continued, his face only being serious. "I had another friend, and she fell into cold water. Can you help me?"

"You're not great with friends, huh?" Pikipek lowered his head and shook it. "No, I cannot help you with that."

"Ugh, whatever. I will go find someone else that can help me." Mischief started walking forward, past the bird's tree.

However, Pikipek still remembered his previous statement. "Wait wait!" he flew down in front of Mischief, and spread his wings out, despite the fact that he was small and could be walked around. "Listen, you cannot go this way!"

Mischief stepped closer to Pikapek and leaned his face forward to intimidate him. "Oh yeah?" Pikipek shrank back nervously, but held his ground. "Why's that?"

Pikipek put his wings down and backed up a little, his nervousness not waning. "Have you seen Cogsburg?"

"Yes." he could still remember the signs of destruction: buildings destroyed along with a few scorch marks around the place. And one crying Ribombee.

"The person who did that; they attacked the forest town too!" Pikipek glanced behind him to make sure no one was watching. "You have to run away!"

If anyone could see Mischief's face, they'd see him grinning a wicked grin. "Oh really? Perhaps you underestimated me, but i'm a lot more powerful than I look. I can handle him."
Despite this, Pikipek didn't move out of the way. "Just move." Mischief stepped forward and started pushing the bird out of the way.

But the second he touched the bird, it burst into shadows, causing Mischief to move back. "What the?!" It was nothing but a puppet, or was it a hallucination? Evil things are lying all the time, so that meant that the forest town wasn't actually destroyed, right? Mischief started running forward to look for the town.

.....
The burnt trees were a dead giveaway that something was wrong. Along with that, a column of smoke was up ahead. Mischief took a few more steps forward, to find something he'd seen one too many times.
Several clusters of planks littered the ground. Houses that were in the trees were on fire. There were scratch marks instead of explosive patches all over the ground.

One thing was standing amidst the carnage: a bladed, dark thing. A pawniard, Mischief remembers it being called. "Who're you?"

The pawniard turned around. "Mischief."

"Who the hell are you?!" Mischief repeated, more aggressively this time.

"Names aren't important. Not to you, right?"

"...yes." Mischief walked forward. The glare on his face was increasing in intensity with every step he took, until he made a stop several feet in front of the pawniard. "I'm not expecting much from you."

Pawniard readied himself. "Against you? This won't last more than 30 seconds."

Mischief sighed. "Alright. Whatever you say."

Pawniard chuckled for a second. "Hehehe. Takethis!" He lunged forward very quickly, barely giving Mischief any time to dodge.
Mischief sidestepped the attack, feeling a tingling sensation on his face. He rubbed his right cheek, feeling some blood on it. "Hm." He attacked by spewing a stream of flames at the Pawniard, who ran out of range before the fires engulfed him too much. He countered with another lunge. This time, Mischief jumped into the air and dashed forward to avoid the attack.

Already, Mischief was a little winded. "Hff… ha… it's not working?"

"Mischief!" Kerah arrived, limping a little. "Are you okay?"

Mischief became worried; he kept his gaze on the Pawniard. He could attack Kerah, who was significantly less durable than him. "I told you to stay, and you didn't! Why did you follow me?!"

Kerah ran next to Mischief, with an also worried expression. "I can't let you go alone, not after what happened to Rhodes!"

The cat turned his eyes towards the Pawniard for a second to check to see if he was sneaking up on them. He wasn't, he was just standing still, his armed cross impatiently as he waited for Mischief to finish talking. "Kerah, listen. Go hide. If I need your help, i'll tell you. Got it?"

"But-"

"NO! Just go hide!" Mischief said angrily. That was enough to convince Kerah to start running. He turned to the Pawniard. "And as for you…"

"Yeah?" he didn't seem to be paying attention, as he had a rather bored look on his face.

Mischief started cackling, with blatant hints of malice reverberating from him. "ί'ιι… ί'ιι shσω yσυ… ωhατ ί'm ςαραβιε σf!" He unleashed his unknown attack, sending a storm of razors all around him.

"Agggh!" that scream came from someone other than the Pawniard. Mischief looked to his right; Kerah's attempt to hide behind a wooden crate was in vain, as evidenced by the numerous cuts on her wounded.

The dramatic voice left him. "No…!"
Pawniard blocked the majority of the incoming blades, and after shaking off the minor scratches, started sprinting towards Mischief.

Kerah, despite Mischief's order for her to hide, started dashing towards him too. "Mis… chi…!" she jumped in front of Mischief, right as the Pawniard was about to attack…

Mischief closed his eyes, not knowing exactly what to do… he waited, for a noise. A feeling. There was a noise. A swift slash was all that he heard. He opened his eyes to see what happened.
Pawniard was standing in front of him, his claws bloody. And near him, was Kerah, sprawled on the ground near him with a trail of blood behind her. She was unmoving. "You…" a mix of rage and sadness was brewing from within him. Someone that was with him died again.

But before he could do anything else, he was stabbed. Right in the neck. The claw severed his vocal cord, stopping him from screaming in agony. As quickly as he executed him, the Pawniard removed his claw, watching Mischief as he fell to the ground.

The pain… he watched as his killer started laughing at his death.
Blood was pooling. The dark shadows of death started to engulf him.

Obtain 'Mischief VI'.
 

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
Oh, ouch over Kerah gone and Mischief getting mortally wounded too (though sometime tells me this isn't the last of Mischief). I think Mischief's reaction over Kerah dead is fine, but perhaps one or two sentences of Mischief's body language, like shoulders/body shaking and gritted teeth, would make it even more emotional.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
Pain. Can?t feel anything. No blood, no wound, nothing. Only the darkness.
The cat lay quite still, but that didn?t stop him from attempting to open his eyes. Surprisingly, he appeared to be fine. The memories of Rhodes and Kerah dying were still fresh in his mind, and? the time he got stabbed in the neck. But his neck was fine, there was no blood and no hole in his neck. Any trace of him being executed appeared to have been nonexistent.
With assurance of him being alive, Mischief looked around. There was a single Pawniard standing in front of him.
He?s looking away. Now?s my chance, i?m gonna kill him!
With all the strength he could muster, Mischief lunged forward and slashed the murderer with his claws, only to fall flat on the ground.
Wha? how? That?s impossible.
The attack didn?t work. The pawniard seemed to burst into shadows as soon as Mischief touched him. ?N? no? no??

Give up. Just give up. Mischief sat up, and looked at the ground. He had nothing left. All of his accessories were gone, showing his pure black coat.
?Rhodes? Kerah? I?? he closed his eyes as tears started leaking out from them. ?I?m? s-s-sorry.? time passed. Mischief didn?t notice as all the snow around him was quickly melting, to reveal the autumn grass. But he did notice the grass whistling as the wind passed through. Mischief stopped crying, and looked around. Something was off.
He noticed something particularly strange; his tears weren?t being soaked into the ground. They were pooling into a puddle that was showing his reflection. It was bigger than it should be. And there appeared to be something behind him: a shadow, and it started solidifying into something more dark than it should?ve been.

?Wah!? Mischief turned around, and was taken by surprise from the shadowy stranger in looming in front of him. ?You? you?re??
I know you from somewhere. You?re a part of me.

?Do you remember me?? The stranger was dark and wispy, with a big red spiked collar of some sort around his neck, and had long white ?hair? billowing out from it?s head. He was unnerving to look at.

Mischief simply shook his head.
It?s Yes and No. But I can?t pick which one.

The stranger started to float around him. ?Such a shame? we have so much in common.?

Mischief took a few steps, wary of the stranger. He was sure that he was a troublemaker. ?Who are you, and where am I??

The stranger appeared to show a grin as an answer. ?Really, you don?t know? It?s all in your head.?

All in my head? all in my?
It occurred to him. ?This was all just a dream??

?Not just a dream. It was my nightmare.?

Mischief stepped forward angrily, staring at the stranger angrily. ?Why? Why did you give me a nightmare of my friends dying, while I helplessly watched them die?! What is wrong with you?!?

The stranger was unfazed by the sound. He merely steepled his fingers before answering. ?I am simply showing you a vision. Of what will happen if you continue on your current path.?

Mischief didn?t care. He jumped forward, trying to slash the stranger, but like all the other hallucinations, his target burst into shadows. ?Why should I believe you? You look darker than anything i?ve ever seen!?

The stranger reformed behind Mischief. ?Do you really think that? You look about as dark as me.? He started sinking through the ground as the cat turned around to face him, turning into a puddle of tears. As Mischief looked into the puddle, a reflection of him appeared in it, crystal clear.
Only it looked different; wearing all the accessories that he didn?t have. ?It?s been awhile, hasn?t it??
This confused Mischief slightly. ?What??
What is happening?
The autumn forest dissipated, everything changing into a dark room with only a mirror in front of him. The reflection kept talking in chicken scratch.
?Honestly, it doesn?t feel like it?s been that long? why aren?t you listening to me?!?

?I?m not quite sure I follow??

?You always ignore me!? the reflection sighed with disappointment. ?Why? ever since you and your idiot friends activated that time warp; twice I must add, the world has been spiraling into the hellhole it is today!?

Mischief still couldn?t make out what he was listening to. ?Time warp??
That sounds somehow familiar. What is that thing trying to do to me?

?Don?t apologize, you?re not gonna see me again anyway. The ?space time continuum? is starting to screw around. Soon enough, we might not even be in the same dimension; heck, we?ll both probably be in two different dimensions! It?s all your damn fault!? That last accusation cracked the mirror, causing Mischief to step back in fear. ?If you hadn?t? just- argh!? The reflection punched the mirror, causing shards of it to come flying off.

What is this feeling? I feel very? afraid.
Tears started leaking out of Mischief?s eyes, but the reflection?s strange speech went unhindered.

?Can?t you do anything right?! What is wrong with you pathetic humans?! GRAAAH!? The entire mirror broke down, and Mischief tried running away, but the darkness blocked his escape. The reflection was real. ?Hah? hah? no? i?m not that sorry. Why should I be sorry? to myself??

Mischief realized something. He didn?t want to listen to this chaotic side of himself anymore. He realized? ?This isn?t real. It?s all just a bad dream.?

Kerah
Kerah had a pleasant dream. It was about her living in some sort of house, and there was an unknown person giving her food and caring for her. She had no idea who or what the person was, but she didn?t care. It was nice.

Or it was, until her dream was interrupted by something. ?Help! Someone, help me! Please!?

Kerah was eating several berries when she heard this. At first, she didn?t seem to pay much mind to it, but the pleas for help grew louder, and they started drilling their way into Kerah?s mind. ?Help me, please! Heeelllp!?

The luxio stood up and started running in that direction of the noise. ?Don?t worry, i?m coming!? She had never run away from the house before, but she wanted to find this person and help them. ?Where are you??

?Over here! Please hurry!? The voice was oddly familiar.

Kerah kept running. The world around her became a blur. There was only one thing guiding her. ?Help! Help!? But as time passed, the voice started becoming harder to hear, despite Kerah?s attempts to find whoever needed help. Eventually, she stopped running. ?I?m lost?? she looked around. ?My home?? she didn?t know where to go.

?Help!?

Kerah gasped, her eyes opening.
What was that? What was?

?N? no? no! S-stop, no?!?

They were near a campfire, past the river between Cogsburg and Geniscity. Rhodes was having a pleasant sleep, after eating several Pecha berries. But Mischief on the other hand, was writhing in his sleep. ?Sss? no? I-?
He was having a nightmare.

Kerah quickly walked over to Mischief and grabbed him in an attempt to calm him down. ?Mischief, wake up! It?s okay, it?s just a nightmare, wake up.?

Mischief?s eyes opened as Kerah shook him a little. ?No, no!? he was breathing heavily; the recent nightmare still fresh on his mind. When he saw Kerah, he immediately hugged her closely. ?...please don?t leave me.?

This was a surprise, as Mischief usually didn?t like touching people. Kerah reacted by just holding him. ?Don?t worry? it?s okay.?
I?ve never seen Mischief scared? except that one time he took his hat off, maybe.
?I won?t leave you, Mischief.? she even noticed him start sniffling. He was crying too? This was new, but Kerah thought it was really cute. ?...I promise.?
 

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
The one paragraph where Mischief said "What?" and then he mused the exact same thing, I don't think the "What?" musing there is needed since it's repetitive.

Sooooo, I take it the past few events were just a dream/nightmare with time wrap shenanigans then? If so, I don't mind those kind of plotlines, so I'm interested to see how you'll pull that off. Otherwise, I think you're getting better with Mischief reacting through body language and actions more, like him running away from fear and crying.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
The sun was rising. It was shining in Kerah?s face, preventing her from sleeping some more. ?Nnnngh.? she held up a paw in front of her eyes as she woke up. Mischief was sound asleep, and was also leaning against her while she was sleeping. She moved away, gently laying Mischief on the ground.
I?m hungry. Better find some berries.
Kerah stretched a little, and started walking around to look for food.

...except there was one problem. She and Rhodes plucked every bush within several yards of the campsite clean.
Whoops.
Oh well, there would probably be some food in Cogsburg, anyway. She ran over to Rhodes and started shaking him a little. ?Hey, hey Rhodes can you wake up??

?Ugggggh.? he said, clearly stating that he was awake.

That wasn?t good enough for her, though. She shook him some more. ?Come on, Rhodes. I wanna see Cogsburg.?

He swatted her paw away. ?Cogsverg isit that great??

?Ugggh?? Kerah groaned. She walked to Mischief and started trying to wake him up too. If anyone knew how to wake someone up, it is him. Or maybe not. It was just a wild guess anyway. ?Hey, hey Mischief can you wake up??

Mischief woke up within seconds, his eyes mostly normal as if he never needed to sleep. Which was probably true, but?
?What??

Kerah pointed at Rhodes to emphasize her request. ?Can you wake up Rhodes so we can get moving??

He took a few glances, alternating from Rhodes to Kerah. ?If you?re -so- excited about going to Cogsburg, then why don?t you just go there yourself and we can catch up??

?Great idea! While i?m at it, do you want me to deliver your letter to Ribombee?? Mischief considered it, and decided to pass up his letter to Kerah. ?Okay, thanks!? Kerah started to run off.

?You better not lose the paper!? Mischief shouted after her.
Rhodes was still sleeping.

This?ll be great! I bet the city will be all fabulous and fancy and all that? stuff.
Kerah was able to zoom through the plains quickly thanks to her lightning speed. Well, not actually at the speed of lightning, but still fast.

There was also another thing on her mind besides the town. Mischief. He had a particularly bad dream last night and was in a crying fit, hugging her for safety?
Mischief is so adorable. Why does he have to wear that scarf all the time? I can?t see his cute face when he?s wearing them.
But those thoughts would be interrupted when something caught her eye. After about three minutes of running, she had found Cogsburg!

...and it was about as exciting as the boys said it would be. She counted only 14 houses made of stones, and the whole place seemed kind of bland. Aww man, I thought Cogsburg was gonna be cool. It just looks like Connet? but smaller. she thought, but looks can be deceiving, though! As she discovered with Mischief. Kerah ran to the sleepy town to meet its citizens.

The first person she would meet was a pikipek standing on a fence post. He was sleeping. ?Hi!? Kerah said, without any decency to let the bird continue sleeping.

?Wah!? Pikipek fell off the fence post in fright, falling to the ground.
Oh no!

?Oh whoops, sorry!? Kerah walked over to behind the fence. ?Are you okay??

Pikipek took a few deep breaths before answering. ?Ye? yeah. I?m totally okay? don?t scare me like that.? He stood up, shook whatever dirt there was off his feathers, then flew back up to the fence post. ?So? you uhh? new here??

Kerah scratched her head a little. ?Umm- yeah! I?m looking for Ribombee, do you know where she is??

?Yeah. She?s the nurse. Do you need medical help or something??

?Nope.? Kerah shook her head as she answered. ?I just need to deliver a letter to her!?

?Okay then.? Pikipek pointed to a house with a sign on it reading: [Nurse Ribombee?s]. ?She?s over there. In that house with the sign.?

It was hard to miss, with all the other houses not having signs in front of them. ?Okay, thanks mister Pikipek!?

?Uh huh, sure.? Pikipek just resumed what he was doing earlier: sleeping.

Kerah started walking down one of the roads in town, taking glances at the nearby pokemon. They seemed kind of bored. She could tell by the sleepy eyed Garchomp leaning on the doorway of one of the houses.
Wow, why are you so all drowsy? Eh, i?m sure it?s nothing much. Must be the morning.
She reached Ribombee?s house, and knocked on the open door. ?Hello? Is Nurse Ribombee here??

?Yes, dear. I?ll be right there.? Ribombee flew out from one side of the room, holding a jar of pollen puffs, and placed them on a table with other medicines. Then, she flew in front of Kerah. ?Is there anything you need??

Kerah was overwhelmed by Ribombee?s presence. ?Awww! You?re so adorable!? her eyes started sparkling too.

Unbeknownst to her, Ribombee was biting her lip to avoid smiling too much. ?Er, yes, dearie. Would you please lower your voice? People are still trying to sleep.?

Whoops, again.
Kerah realized how embarrassing it was, and changed to an indoor voice. ?Oh! Sorry.?

?Now, did you need anything??

?Yeah.? Kerah took out the letter and held it in front of Ribombee. ?Do you know what this is??

Ribombee took the letter and inspected it. ?Where did you get this?? she asked, looking at Kerah with suspicion.

Kerah shrugged. For a split second, as she wasn?t bipedal. ?Wellll, I got it from someone.?

?Who??

?Me.? Mischief was nonchalantly standing behind Kerah when he said that. He walked past her and stood in front of Ribombee.

Ribombee fluttered closer to Mischief?s face and started waving the letter in front of his face. ?Did you steal this??

Mischief tilted his head a bit. ?I?m not sure that stealing would be the proper term, as the letter is addressed to me.?
Are you sure? Because nobody has any idea what any of the words on the letter mean.
Ignoring Ribombee?s perplexed expression, he continued. ?I need to know something. Where did you get the letter??

Ribombee sighed. ?I?m not sure if this letter is addressed to you, but? two Araquanids gave it to me.?

?What?? apparently, Mischief may have known about two Araquanids.

?Is there a problem?? Ribombee asked, now having her standard face, except without the smile.

Mischief took the letter, prompting Ribombee to move back a bit. ?Yes. The first time I came here, two Araquanids tried attacking me for -no- reason.?
Well that?s rude.

?What happened?? Kerah asked.

?Simple.? Mischief said, with a smug expression on his face. ?Had to employ some ?self defense?. That is all.? he turned to Ribombee after putting away the letter. ?Now if you?ll excuse me, i?ll be taking my leave.? Mischief walked out of the clinic.

?He?s a little scary?? Ribombee commented.

Kerah looked at Ribombee. ?He?s cute.? she walked out, leaving a slightly confused bug fluttering by.
She walked next to Mischief. ?So now what? Think we can find those spiders??

?No. I gravely wounded them two days ago, but i?m sure they?re long gone.? he looked frustrated; only a slightly angrier look for him.

They saw Rhodes walking up to them. He looked a little tired. ?Heh? hah? heeeh?? he was panting a lot. ?Finally? why?d you leave me behind??
Wait, what? He left you behind?

Mischief didn?t seem to care much. ?Because I could.? Kerah started snickering as soon as she heard that. ?But this time it wasn?t an attempt to ditch you.?

Rhodes squinted, as he didn?t entirely believe that. ?Sure? anyways, did you ask Ribombee where she got the letter from??

?Yeah. Two araquanids gave it to her for about no reason.?

Kerah tapped Mischief on the shoulder to remind him of something. ?Erm, Mischief? What are we gonna do now, because I don?t think we have any more leads.?

?Not to worry.? Rhodes gasped for air before continuing. ?I know of a place where you might be able to find some answers.?

Mischief looked at the lycanroc like he didn?t know what he was talking about. ?Oh yeah, Rhodes? Where is it??

Rhodes took out a map that he somehow had in his possession this whole time and put it on the ground. ?You see this map??

?I think so.? the map depicted the entirety of the continent. However? it wasn?t as big as a usual continent. It showed Connet, Cogsburg, and Geniscity on the southern, central, and northern parts of the map respectively. Additionally, there was a river covering the top area and a massive forest covering a majority of the western half of the island.

?Good.? Rhodes cleared his throat, then started pointing at Cogsburg. ?As you know, we are at Cogsburg. However-? he moved his paw to the forest. ?There?s a, *ahem* secret grove in the forest here. I think you might find something here? if you?re lucky. Just show some manners, okay??

Mischief looked at Rhodes expectantly. ?Okay. If you know me well, my mannerisms will be the same tomorrow as they were yesterday. But Kerah?? As he turned to look at Kerah, her ridiculous smile changed to what could be described as? only slightly confused. ?You talk too much.?

What are you talking about? I don?t talk -that- much.
?What?s wrong with that? You don?t mind.? With this, Kerah started pondering about whether she did in fact too too much.

?Don?t worry about it.? Rhodes said optimistically, closing his eyes for effect. ?I?m sure that if you just tried not to make much noise, we?ll be good.? he waited 14 seconds for a response; he never got one. He opened one eye too see Kerah staring blankly at him, and Mischief looking around impatiently. ?Ohh? kay. Let?s just uhh? go, alright??

?Good.? He looked at Rhodes expectantly before saying: ?Okay? Lead the way.?

Rhodes? eyes widened briefly as he realized he was doing nothing. ?Oh, uh. Right.? he started walking in the direction of the forest, with Kerah and Mischief following.
I hope where we?re going is gonna be a little more exciting than this town.

?Hey wait!? they turned around to see a Weavile behind them. They wearing a captain?s hat of some sort. Or maybe that was just a postman?s hat? They -were- holding a satchel, after all. ?I have a letter for you.? she took out a letter from her satchel and held it in front of Kerah.
I don?t know a lot of people, and i?m pretty sure they wouldn?t send me a letter, but i?m sure it?ll be fine!

?Oh okay!? Kerah took the letter, and Weavile didn?t notice as she dropped the letter due to her lack of opposable thumbs. ?Thank you, ma?am!?

Weavile ignored her thanks and just speedwalked away to continue delivering letters.

Mischief walked over next to the letter. ?What does it say??

Kerah started opening the letter, though with some difficulties. ?H-hold on? I got it?? Eventually, she was able to rip off one side of the envelope and take out the paper. ?Okay, let?s see??
Wow, this looks fancy. The paper looked expensive, and had streaks of gold leaf on it.
?Dear Paral?ptis, you are cordially invited to Ski?s party. Please come to the K?ik Estate on? Pikr?s street??
 

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
One grammar point first

Spoiler:


I admit upon reading this I was confused over how the group got the letter in the first place. I do remember Mischief going against those Araquanids, didn't think they would be mentioned again. I do wonder about this Skia's party and what it's about.

Mischief tilted his head a bit. ?I?m not sure that stealing would be the proper term, as the letter is addressed to me.?
Are you sure? Because nobody has any idea what any of the words on the letter mean.
Ignoring Ribombee?s perplexed expression, he continued. ?I need to know something. Where did you get the letter??

This part I think you should put some sort of reaction or expression from Kerah, like how she thought both the nurse and later Mischief are cute.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
135
Posts
7
Years
?Gimme that.? Mischief swiped the letter and started reading it himself. ?Dear Paral?ptis, you are cordially invited to Ski?s party. Please come to the K?ik Estate on Pikr?s street.? he carelessly tossed the paper into the air, with Kerah quickly grabbing it. ?This looks like a prank to me.?

A prank? No way!
Kerah inspected the paper some more, then looked at Mischief, with a doubtful expression. ?I don?t know about that? it looks expensive.?

Mischief shook his head. ?Look, even if it was real, we have no idea where this ?Pikros street? is.? He looked at Rhodes. ?Unless you know where we could find a mansion that nobody else could??

?Nope.?

?Okay then. Now Rhodes, if you don?t mind, would you continue leading us to the place you spoke of??

Rhodes yawned before answering. ?Auuuuuhhhhh? alright.?

This letter can?t have been just a prank. I guess i?m gonna have to keep ahold of it for now.
Kerah put the letter away and started following Rhodes.

The trees thicken.
Rhodes was occasionally glancing backwards to make sure neither Mischief or Kerah were missing. But the two were standing a little close together, so that wouldn?t be a problem.
However, Kerah did notice something a little off? Mischief was sometimes looking at Kerah distrustfully. But whenever Kerah saw Mischief looking at her, he turned his face away. ?Hey Mischief? Why do you keep looking at me like that??

?Hmph.?
Oh don?t be that way.

Kerah leaned in closer to the cat. ?Heeey? is something wrong??

Mischief sighed, then decided to answer her question. ?I may have had the weirdest dream last night.?

?Well, it was more like a nightmare. I had to wake you up to calm you down.?

Mischief tilted his head in thought, but dismissed it. ?I don?t remember waking up in the middle of the night. Are you sure about that??

Of course i?d remember something like that, silly.
Kerah snickered slightly as she answered. ?Yes I am. After I woke you up, you were crying and...? she leaned in even closer to Mischief. ?You hugged me for comfort.?

The look in Mischief?s eyes told her that he was a little disgusted. ?Pft.? He was probably blushing too.

?...what??

?I?m pretty sure that i?m not the type to cry and be scared.?

Kerah started laughing more audibly. ?Pfheheheheh, of course you would. That just means you?re starting to become more like a normal person.?

Mischief scoffed. ?You don?t know me, you?re just-?

?What are you two talking about?? Rhodes interrupted.

?None of your business!? Mischief snapped. He then lowered his hat to hide his face.

Kerah decided that Mischief didn?t want to dwell on this subject, and changed the topic of the conversation slightly. ?So, what was that nightmare you had last night about??

He stopped walking and started trembling. It was a particularly bad nightmare, apparently. ?...horrible.?

Nothing else to say. ?Oh kay? so are you gonna tell me what the nightmare was about??

Mischief didn?t give much of a clear answer. He just started going into this disjointed ramble that Kerah could hardly understand. ?Snow covers the grass of Spring. But only to become red in the coming hours.?

?Mischief.? Rhodes had turned around and walked right up in front of Mischief when he noticed they stopped. ?Can you keep following me? It might get dark if you keep stalling.?

Mischief and Kerah resumed following Rhodes, with Mischief continuing to speak gibberish. He lowered his voice so that only Kerah could hear him. ?Something destroyed Connet and left only one lead. Before that, the winter froze the lake.? coincidentally, Rhodes was leading them around a lake at the time.
Yunno, I think it might be a bit more descriptive if you? described it? Maybe?
The cat started sweating a little as he continued. ?It was an accident? But was it? He died because of me.? He closed his eyes, creating a dramatic pause. ?Rhodes drowned in that lake.?

?What?? It was only a dream, but still. Kerah was getting a little concerned now.

Mischief opened his eyes and kept talking. ?As if it wasn?t bad enough, Kerah had gotten hypothermia in her attempt to save the poor wolf.? the fact that he didn?t seem to be talking to Kerah was a little strange, but apparently for him after what he?s seen in his life. ?I looked for hours to find help, but there was nothing left of our last chance. A murderer had taken our hope and ripped it to shreds in front of us. I fought valiantly against him, but even my magic was not enough to stop him from killing you.? He looked up at Kerah, his eyes tearing up, and his voice becoming more sullen. ?I always tell myself that I need to avoid making emotional connections with other people to stop them from getting hurt.? He wiped the tears from his eyes, and the sadness into his voice changed to anger. ?But no, no. That?s not true. -Something- had manipulated my dreams and warped them into something that could never happen. I? i?m tired, Kerah. I don?t want to talk about my nightmare anymore.?

Okay? that was a lot to take in, anyway. But something did something to your dreams?
?Mischief? Can I ask you one more question??

?Can you? Yes, what is it??

She had a faint idea, but it wouldn?t hurt to ask? ?Do you know who it was that gave you that nightmare??

?I?m not good with naming pokemon. But I saw what he looked like. He was a floating, wispy figure. All black with a spiked red collar and had white smoke billowing out of his head.?

?Darkrai??

?Woah, what happened here?? Rhodes said, getting the attention of the others.

Mischief ran up next to Rhodes to investigate. After a quick glance, he said: ?I don?t have a clue. But seeing as you know where we?re going, i?m sure you can make up your own speculation.?

?Hey, what are you looking at?? Kerah ran up to look, and was very surprised at what she saw. There was an Araquanid, Mightyena, and a Corphish, all incapacitated.
Hey? didn?t you say an Araquanid attacked you went to Cogsburg?
Kerah tapped Mischief?s shoulder to tell him about it. ?Oh, hey Mischief, didn?t one of those spiders attack you before??

He was a bit annoyed, as Kerah should?ve known that he remembered that, but it was fine. ?Yep.? he walked closer to all of the unconscious pokemon and inspected their injuries. ?Only one person attacked them. They must?ve been working together.?

Rhodes didn?t understand Mischief?s reasoning. ?Yeah, so what does that have to with this mystery??

Mischief adjusted his hat and cleared his throat. ?This is complete conjecture, but I think that there?s some sort of evil cult that?s after me.?

?What??

?The Araquanid, the Gengar, and the Mightyena look pretty evil. But the crab thing looks like a total twat.?

?But it does evolve into a water-dark type. And I guess it looks a little evil??

Mischief scoffed. ?Sure whatever. Now Rhodes, you probably didn?t know this, but I had a particularly bad nightmare last night caused by a shadowy thing named Darkrai, who sent a Pawniard after me in the dream.? he took a few moments to breathe so that he could keep talking. ?So? all those guys look evil-ish, and that means that someone wants something from me.?
So? you think that Darkrai gathered a bunch of pokemon to form an evil cult, and he sent them to get you?

Rhodes blinked a few times while taking a minute to process this. ?Erm? okay. I?m not sure that that?s true, but sure.?

Mischief and crossed his arms. ?Okay, fine. Just assume they?re randoms who are not associated with a sinister faction.?

?You say too many complicated words. Anyways.? Rhodes looked over the unconscious pokemon. ?What do we do about these guys??

?Pft. Leave them.?
What? But why?

?Aren?t we supposed to help them?? Despite her suggestion to be helpful, she was poking the Mightyena.

Mischief scowled, but Rhodes put a decent suggestion forward. ?There?s a town about half a mile into the forest, we can go there and see what the locals think of these fellows. Since we can?t help them anyway.? Mischief shrugged in moderate agreement.

Rhodes led his friends through a thicket of trees, they found themselves in a new place.
Wow! It?s?
There was a hidden village in the forest, with wooden houses decorating the ground and the tops of trees. Bridges connected the huts up top, and there were berry bushes planted around a few of the houses. ?What is this place??

?The founders of this place didn?t come up with a good name. This is literally just called the Hidden Grove.? Rhodes sniffed the forest air, then smiled pleasantly. ?Okay, i?ll be right back. Don?t cause any trouble while i?m away, okay?? he jogged over to one of the bigger buildings and entered it.

Mischief?s opinion of this place was quite bland, unfortunately. ?So? what exactly do we do??

Kerah started walking forward, taking in the sights. ?Well, we take a walk, look all over? and- oof!? she had bumped into someone. ?Oh! Sorry!?
Wah! Big scary monster!

Standing in front of her was a big, bipedal wolf that looked quite maniacal. It was a midnight lycanroc. ?Well, haven?t seen you two before.? his voice wasn?t scary, it was deep, but had a rather mature tone. ?How did you get here??

?Well? I? uhh? Rhodes led us here.?

?Rhodes, huh?? Midnight started scratching his chin, but kept his gaze on Kerah. ?If you don?t mind me asking, where is he now??

Mischief raised a paw and pointed at the building that Rhodes recently entered. ?He went in there- oh look now he?s leaving.?

Midnight frowned. ?Lead me to him.?

Mischief knew why Midnight wanted him to walk in front, but Kerah didn?t. They walked toward Rhodes, who was walking in a different manner than usual. ?Hey, Rhodes!?

?Rhodes, what?re you-? Midnight walked closer to Rhodes, knowing that something was a little abnormal with him. ?Damnit, what?ve- you? Rhodes!?
Huh?
 

Bay

6,388
Posts
17
Years
Grammar and formatting stuff under spoilers.

Spoiler:


Something I notice this time is you would have certain phrases have smaller font (like when Mischief said, "Rhodes drwoned in that lake"). I know you tried to do that for dramatic effect, but that is more distracting than you intended purpose. Body language, tone of voice, and the phrases themselves speak more volumes.

The part where Mischief is fine with leaving the unconscious Pokemon I thought you could have done more with Rhodes' reaction, like him glaring at Mischief for instance. I do wonder what's up with him and Midnight though since it seems Rhodes doesn't want to interact with him.
 

Razgrey

Excalibur
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Years
AN: Sorry if reading pink on a white background is hard on the eyes. I don't want to change Kerah's lines to magenta color, or just remove colors entirely.

There was something very wrong with Rhodes. He was having trouble standing up, and he had a woozy expression on his face. "Heyyy… Abbby." Along with slur in his speech.

Midnight's frown intensified. "The first thing you do when you come back is not to greet me, but drink that swill!"
Geez, you're kinda scary…

"Whaaaaa?"

"Excuse me," Mischief interrupted. "But who're you?"

Midnight turned around to look at Mischief, grabbing onto Rhodes' collar to stop him from walking away. "Well, you didn't introduce yourselves first but okay. I am Avery, Rhodes' older brother."

"What? He never told us he had a brother!" Kerah exclaimed. But then again, they -were- both Lycanrocs.

Avery started to look even more disappointed, as if he was his whole life. "Oh really? That's typical of him."

Typical? Kerah didn't know exactly what that meant, because Rhodes was a nice guy. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"He doesn't like me. Believe it or not, he's actually jealous of me." Avery then picked up Rhodes and carried him over his shoulder, causing Kerah to back up a few steps. "It's because i'm better than him in a lot of ways. Follow me, kids, I got a house and I don't need any more attention." He started walking towards a wooden house set on the base of a large tree.
"Funnel cakes… get your funnel cakes here."
As they entered the house, Avery quietly told the other two to "Wait here." as he walked into another room and calmly placed Rhodes in a bed. "So, what're your names?"

Kerah noticed that Avery's eyes had changed from a disappointed to a sleepy look, which was meant that he must not have been a rude person like she initially assumed. "Well i'm Kerah!"

"Nice to meet you Kerah, and you are…?" He looked at Mischief, and noticed that he was just staring. "Err… what are you doing?"

Mischief kept staring Avery down, but still talked. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
What? Na way, he doesn't look like Rhodes at all. You've never even met this guy before!

Avery walked to a comfy looking armchair and sat down in it. "I don't think so. I've never met you before." His voice was also very toned down, and his eyes started to look dull, as if he hadn't slept in a long time. "Have a seat, why don't you." He said, gesturing towards a nearby couch.

"Okay, whatever you say." Mischief leapt up onto the couch and sat down, not noticing that Kerah was expectantly looking at him.

Umm, your name, Mischief? Are you gonna tell h- oh fine.
"He's Mischief. He isn't very social." Kerah said, while also sitting on the couch.

"I picked that up." After saying that, Avery just suddenly closed his eyes, his head tilting forward.
He just suddenly decided to sleep in front of the two.

Mischief didn't seem to mind, and didn't attempt to wake the lycanroc up. He just kept his frowny face on.

However, Kerah just decided to take a look around. The house was kind of small, but still cozy enough. There were a few pictures on the walls, showing Avery and Rhodes when Rhodes was only a rockruff, and some where both brothers were rockruffs. There was also one picture showing several rockruffs, along with a midday lycanroc leading them. "Hey, Avery?" Her question was met with a slight snore. "Um, hello?"

"Uh, whah?" Avery woke up quickly, surprised but still sleepy. "Did I doze off again? Sorry." He rubbed his eyes.

"Why is Rhodes jealous of you?"

Avery laid back in his chair and sighed. "It's not a particularly good reason, but I won't judge it. It was a long time ago, when we were both rockruffs. I was about… a year older than him. You see, when I was young, I was a very helpful person. I helped everyone, including my brother. He wanted to be like me. But unfortunately for him, he wasn't the brightest. He frequently caused trouble and couldn't do anything right by himself. His parents reprimanded him for his poor behavior, and telling him about how much better I was." He leaned out of his chair and took the picture of the two in their early days off the wall, and looked at it. "It was a serious blow to his happy-go-lucky personality that he usually had. He became lazy, and didn't want to help people. He pushed away anyone that wanted to help with his problems. He said that I was the worst of them, saying that I kept being better than him on purpose." He started sniffling.

"What happened after that?" Mischief suddenly said, with only a half-interested expression.

"He ran off one day, and I had to chase after him to stop him from getting lost. A salandit attacked him and poisoned him. On that day, I evolved and was able to fend it off. Then, I took Rhodes back home, where he was able to be nursed back to help."

"But he wasn't grateful." Mischief assumed, ignoring Kerah's annoyed glance.
Mischief, you can't interrupt him!

Avery put the picture back on the wall. "That's right. Despite saving his life, that made him even more sour, because he thought that everything I did for him was for bragging rights. Our parents got so fed up with his rebellious attitude, that they did something as extreme as abandoning him, leaving him alone without any help. I didn't want to let him go alone, so I came with him, and said my goodbyes to my parents." Avery closed his eyes to rest them, but kept talking. "And that is how we ended up where we are today. I think he's partially 'forgiven' me, but he still dislikes me."

"What about your parents? Don't you miss them?"

"Honestly, I couldn't care less about them. What they did wasn't right, leaving my brother out in the cold like that." He yawned. "Auuuhhh. I'm so tired." He was about to go to sleep, but he stood and walked to the door. "I'll be going out now. Feel free to rest here, but don't disturb anyone in town."

You look tired, shouldn't you go to sleep?
Kerah hopped off the couch. "Where're you going?"

Avery opened the door and rubbed his eyes some more. "I got to go get some berries out in the forest to cure Rhodes' drunkenness. I should be back at around midnight."
Midnight? It was just becoming dark out, doesn't that mean you'll be out for hours?

Kerah ran forward to Avery. "Wait, let me come with you!"

"What? Why do you want to come?"

"Because…" Kerah glanced behind her, then quickly looked back at Avery. "Because I want to help Rhodes, not only because he's acting weird, but I want to help him with his other problems!"

Avery was hesitant, but he smiled as he answered. "Hm. Okay, you can come."

Kerah made a little jump for joy. "Yay! Hey Mischief, want to come?"

"Sur-"

"No. He stays." Avery quickly said, raising one of his paws.

Mischief was a confused by this. "What? Why's that?"

Avery put his paw down. "Honestly, I don't trust you. I've had a few run ins with some especially strange people outside of town. Despite the fact that my brother trusts you, I don't think I can let you near the berry forest."

Mischief scoffed, his voice growing smug. "Right, and you trust me enough to stay in town with your brother that you've been working -so- hard to protect."

"I don't have to tell you my exact reasons, but i'm not allowing you to come with us."

"Fine, have it your way." Mischief just curled up on the couch into a resting position. "Try not to do anything particularly stupid while you're out, Kerah."

"Okay… try not to cause trouble either, Mischief." Avery started walking off.

There was a slight chuckle from the cat. "You're asking for too much."

Obtained 'Avery's Letter'.
 
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