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The Crystal [pg-16]

Blade tried on his new armor.
Very nice...
Blade heard Leon say time to go, and sheathed his sword, and strapped on his shield, stowing his old armor and weapons.
"Ready to go Lieutenant" Blade said, snapping to attention.
 
Jen shook Spoink awake the second she heard Leon's announcement; Spoink glanced around warily, blinking.

[Did... did we reach the camp?] he asked - even the voice within his head sounded tired.

"Yes, we did, but it's time for us to leave now. I can't fight if I have to carry you, so you'll have to get up," Jen explained, tucking both kukri into her belt and hauling herself to her feet, joining Blade and Talulah. Spoink hopped slowly alongside her and stood bouncing at her feet.
 
The sack on Leon's back may prove a problem latter, but it out weighted the cons of being stuck in hostile territory with no supplies. Everyone quickly gathered around him for the next part of the missions. Leon smiled at his team's readiness, but it quickly disappeared. "Alright, yet again we are going to be going around the battle. We are going around it this time, not through it. While the general and his men create their diversion, we will slip in through their broken lines, and into a cave that has been prepared earlier for us. We will be staying there for a while, so feel free to rest right when we get there. No fire, we will be traveling by the light of the moon and the battle only. Any questions can be answered by me while we are walking. Lets move out."

Leon now started out of the camp, going through the forest slightly to the south of where the army had left. He would let them walk this part, as they would get tiered out if they had to run all of it. Leon turned once more, "Stealth is the point of this. If we get caught, its all over. Be careful, and no fighting." Leon turned back and kept walking. The edge of the forest was in sight now.
 
Jen frowned at Leon's instructions - would they ever get to fight? Her run-in with the Heracross, while scary and unexpected, had been the only fight she had seen thus far, aside from the massacre Leon's Kabutops had done to the man that had hit her before.

[We will fight soon - I can feel it.] Spoink said, seeminly sensing her sentiment. She nodded harshly, following the group, but her hands were still itching on the handles of her freshly-sharpened kukri and her mind wandered back to the dream she had had at the castle. With nothing to think about but walking for the time being, she allowed herself to remember...

It is years ago now, back when Jen still lived and trained with Edgear. Scyther had helped her learn more about blocking attacks, and she is still living each day with her knives bound to her hands as extensions of her limbs. At present, she is munching on an apple, having cut into it enough that it clings to the blade of her kukri and she can hold it to her mouth.

"Jen! Jennifer?" Edgear's voice calls to her, beckoning her into the house. Jen sighs and flicks the apple skywards, slicing it while it was still airbound and leaving the two halves to fall to the floor. She stands up - with difficulty - and makes her way into the house. Edgear is waiting with a bag in his hand. Jen frowns, puzzled.

"Edgear... what's going on?" she asks, her stance awkward due to the knives fastened to her hands.

"Jennifer, our time together is up. I have been called to duty, and thus can no longer stay here to train you. And I'm afraid Scyther must come with me too - after all, we have soul-bonded," Edgear holds the bag out to Jen, and then realises her position and her inability to take the handle. "These are your belongings. You must leave for the village and find your own residence. You can no longer live here. I am very sorry."

Jen cannot stop the tears in her eyes from falling. She tries to brush them away with her forearm but more come and soon she is sobbing.

"Edgear, you can't leave me! My... I... my training isn't complete, and I have nowhere else to go!" Jen cries, pulling Edgear into a tight hug. "Edgear, what if you're injured? Or killed? What will I do then?"

"Jennifer..." Edgear prises her arms from his neck and pushes her slightly away. "Jennifer, don't be so foolish. Pull yourself together and listen to me. You will go and take up residence in the village until enough time has passed for you to retake the entrance exam. You will pass, and you will enter the Witherian Army. Do you understand? This way, you will make the most of your training. After all, what else good will it be? Besides, your mastery of the kukri is amazing; I would go so far as to say you were better than I."

Jen listens vaguely and then nods, but still sobs. "No, Edgear. There's no way I'll ever be better than you."

Edgear smiles weakly and then turns around. He leaves the house, Scyther by his side. Jen stands alone, bag at her feet, with tears rolling down her face.

She will never see Edgear again.

Jen shook herself back into focus and stared at the path below her feet as she walked. Of all the things she could have remembered, all the times she and Edgear had laughed, been merry, celebrated or simply trained together, and the only thing she could think about was the day he left her. She tightened her grip on the kukri - now, they were her only physical connection to him. She smiled to herself - she would avenge his death, even if she had to plough her way through the entire Arleon Army to do so.
 
LordSephy said:
"Right" Was the only response Shen gave to Adric's idea before hopping on the horst nearest to him, Shen was used to traveling and could do so quite quickly, but the weight of his armor slowed down his horse for a couple minutes, but when the horse got used to it he went to full speed and came up on Marc quickly. "Come on, I don't want to push these horses to hard but we've got to make it there as soon as possible." He called to Marc before racing ahead as fast as the horse would carry him, they were almost there, hopefully the place would still be saveable.
Click to expand...

After making sure they had left, Adric looked for other means of transportation.

"Blast! We should've brought and extra Rapidash!" he shouted as he looked around.

Adric looked down at Pupitar.

Is digging faster than running...?
 
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"Lieutenant, are we still moving in formation?" Blade asked.
Whatever the answer, Blade was happy to hear that they would be resting soon, but was cautious about it being in Arleon territory.
Not so much for myself, but for everyone else... Blade thought to himself.
Blade looked around for Lametto, and found him asleep near the tent.
I guess I'll carry the little guy for a bit.
Blade started to follow Leon's lead out of the forest.
 
Leon heard Blade's concern. "No, we will move as a group. The point is to move fast. If any of us are seen, we have already lost, so we might as well move as a large group." The forest cleared now, and Leon looked out at the battle raging north. "Alright, follow me, and stick close." Leon dashed out from the cover of trees, and across the plain. He wouldn't stop running until he made it to the brush on the other side. From there, they would go north.
 
It looked to Talulah like the next miserable unending amount of time would be silent, and consist of running-- two things she was currently NOT a fan of. As Leon made a dash across the field, Talulah could see the battle going on to the North and couldn't help but feel the thirst for battle creep up her spine yet again.

They were picking up pace, and Talulah realized with a large frown that Lise was having trouble keeping up. He hadn't said anything, but was staring straight ahead, breathing hard, and waddling at a hurried pace. Talulah's eyes softened, and she stopped, turning around quickly.

Lise-- caught up in his concentration on running-- slammed into her legs, then stumbled back a few feet to look up at Talulah with mixed parts confusion and pain.

"Prinp?"

The group was moving farther and farther away. Formalities would have to come later. Before Lise could object, Talulah grabbed him up, swinging his body around to rest on her back. Instinct caused Lise to wrap his flippers around her neck, then relax a bit to grab her shoulders. Talulah straightened up, placed her hands against her back to support Lise, and then took off going double-time to catch up to the group.
 
Leon made it to the brush on the other side. He turned to watch everyone run across too. He saw Talulah stop running halfway through. And throw Lise on her back. Whatever keeps the pace up. Secretly thought, Leon was proud of her. When she caught up to them, Leon turned north and started walking again. "Rest up; we're 2/3 of the way there." Now they where heading north thought the forest. They finally came perpendicular to the battle, at the boundary line of the warring factions. Leon once again turned to the group surveying each of them. "Now all we have to do is cross this field. Jog and try to be quite." Leon looked out over the field.

He spotted the cave, hidden by the trees on the other side. Leon started to jog quickly across the open field, being careful not to make a sound. The whole group was in the middle of the field, and the moon was covered by clouds. Darkness engulfed them. "Follow me." Leon was whispering. He had taken a good long look at the rest of the journey, and could still faintly see it. He maneuvered around some rocks, and the around a few trees as the forest over took the again. The moon returned over the field. To anyone who had seen them, they would have disappeared, and not known where they were stopping. Perfect.

The trees hang on the left/west of you. The cave entrance is in front, small enough to barely let a man through. To your right/east, is the cliff that the cave resides in. The opening into the mountain is not visible for the town because of the blocking trees. The cave goes in, and turns left. The inside is hollowed out, and spacious. There is enough room for 5 people, and a small area in the back where you could be given a slight amount of privacy.

Leon walked a good way into the cave, and turned to his group for the last time. "Good work. We just ran across a kingdom in one night." Leon opened the sack, and handed out sleeping bags to everyone, with one left over. "I want one person to keep watch at all times. I will go first, since I can see that you are all tired. We will shift every two hours." Leon looked at his Kabutops, who nodded back at him. Leon turned to leave the cave, but remembered something. "No fires, for any reason. The smoke would build up, and give them a tower to follow to us, and the light would make us stick out at night." Finally Leon walked out of the cave.

Leon found a nice tree right by the entrance to the cave, and climbed up. From the top he could see the whole field, and most of the village. The leaves provided a fair amount of cover too. Kabutops tucked under some bushes at the farther end of the small group of trees. Leon leand back against the tree. It had all gone according to plan.
 
[[OOC: Yeah, another ItalicAttack. :3 What can I say? I leik Jen's past. :D:D ]]

In the cave, Jen caught her breath, leaning against the wall. She couldn't remember the last time she had travelled so much in one day - first from her village to the castle, then onto the ridge, down to the forest, fighting a Heracross, back to the ridge, travelling through two battles and finally a sprint across a field to the allotted hiding spot. Spoink was also terribly weary; without so much as a word spoken between them, he flopped to the floor in a deep slumber, his tail weakly lashing outwards. Jen frowned; with a heartbeat that slow, surely he would be in danger? She worried once more about Spoink's fragility and then slid down the cave wall to the floor. There was a gnawing hunger burning within her stomach, but she ignored it in favour of the peace of a good night's sleep. That, however, would soon be denied to her as she fell into another deep memory.

She is young now. She is seven years old and has just learned of her parent's death at the hands of a rampaging Ryperior. She does not understand death yet. She had never witnessed it. But she knows that her parents are never coming back, and she is saddened by it, although not overly. She was never that close with her parents. She preferred the company of the other village children, and sometimes even the Pokémon that lived there too. She does not realise the extent of her loss until three days later, when, in the village square, she is attacked by Rager, the vicious Taillow that attacked anyone who got too close.

Jen runs screaming across the square, Rager in tow. He is lashing out with his talons, scratching at her face. She can do nothing to stop him, and so runs.

Suddenly, Rager is knocked away by a wooden pole. Jen looks up and sees a man she does not know, but he has undeniably saved her. Rager glares at them in disgust and then retreats, taking up post atop the village clock, in search of his next victim.

The man helps Jen to her feet and brushes her clothes down. He touches gently at a cut on her forehead, but she squeals and pushes him away. He simply smiles and continues, pressing something to the wound which cools it and stems the flow of blood. Jen stares at him in amazement.

"Did you hit Rager with your stick?" she asks, incredulous.

"Yes, I did," the man confirms. Jen cocks her head.

"But he was going so fast. Were you faster than him?" she says.

"Yes," the man says again, "And so were you. You managed to run away, didn't you?"

"Yeah..." Jen confirms, but she is unsure of what he means.

"What's your name?" the man asks.

"Jen."

"Where are your parents, Jen?" the man glances around as though he expect them to come running at the sight of their injured child. No one comes.

"They're dead," Jen states emotionlessly.

"But... where do you live?" the man looks shocked.

"I don't live anywhere. After they died I wasn't allowed to live at home any more so I don't."

"Where do you stay?"

Jen glanced around the square as though to say, right here, this is where I stay.

"Oh, Jen. We can't have that. Listen, you're going to come and live with me," the man says, smiling warmly.

"Really? Really, mister?" Jen says hopefully. She is smiling too now.

"Yes, and you know what? I'm going to teach you how to be fast like I was just then. Would you like that, Jen?"

"Oh yeah, Mister! Please!"

The man laughs and takes Jen by the hand, leading her away from the square and towards the house that she would come to love so much. He glances down at the little girl by his side.

"Please, call me Edgear."

Jen jerked awake, her face wet with silent tears, but this time she was happy. This time, she had seen something that warmed her to the core: the happiest day of her life. She smiled and wiped her face dry, and then sat up, leaning against the cave wall again. Spoink had snuggled against her side during the time she had been asleep, and his tail was still air-bouncing, albeit stronger that it had been before. She smiled again, in spite of herself. She knew that, even though Edgear was gone, he was still with her, in the way she fought, in the weapons she used and in her memories and dreams.

She sat that way for a while longer, occasionally glancing towards the cave entrance where she was Leon sat with his Kabutops. She hoped they could evade the Arleon troops for long enough that they could get this job done. She truly hoped.
 
Marc and Houndoom looked at the little farming village. It was on fire, with Witherian troops killing everything in sight. The farmers of the village were putting up little resistance, just fleeing in terror.Weak fools, Marc thought. Marc remembered suddenly what terror he caused when he did this to villages that didn't pay him for his help. Marc thught about it, this village reminded him of his own home village. A farming village, small, insignificant and on the outskirts of Arleon. It reminded him of the innocence of his childhood, until he began training with his Houndour, as it was then. It was his training that made him cold hearted, emotionless and it was his training that made him kill his parents. Marc felt mercy and pity for the first time in his life. Marc then whispered to himself,"Stop! Emotions only get in the way, down to business."

Marc and Houndoom ran to the square in the centre of the village. Marc decided that if they kept this square they may stand a chance. he looked down the street and saw a Witherian soldier chasing two innocent farmers down the street. Marc drew his sword and nodded at Houndoom. He waited for the farmers to enter the square then jumped at the soldier. Houndoom leapt at him and bit him on the arm. He had enough strength to throw Houndoom off and ran at Marc. Marc got his sword and held it by his side. He timed his next move perfectly. The instant the soldier ran into arm's length, Marc stabbed. It hit and the soldier was wounded. He could still walk and just about fight, however. Marc smiled, he ordered a Flamethrower from Houndoom. The last thing that soldier saw was a large amount of fire heading in his direction. Marc and Houndoom went back into the square.
 
The group finally reached their destination: a cave in the Arleon territory.
Blade was handed a sleeping bag, and headed inside. He then switched out of his plate armor and into his light armor.
Blade laid down, and attempted to sleep, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fall asleep.
I've been across a kingdom, running part of it, been up since midday yesterday, and have made a new set of armor, I should be exhausted...
Instead of trying to sleep, Blade just sat there and thought...
Eventually, he heard someone jolt up, he looked over and saw Jen sitting up, wiping tears from her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Blade asked, kinda quietly to not disturb orders, but loud enough to surprise Jen.
 
[[OOC: Damn, I was still writing mine when you posted, Link. :3 I'll adapt, so please excuse the fact that Jen shuns Blade very quickly.]]

Still awake behind Leon's back, Jen's eyes widened as she saw the flames from a distance, lighting up the sky through the blackess of the night. She considered alerting Leon before she took note of the direction and realised it was the village they had passed before, where the Witherian troops had invaded.

"I'm fine," she said in response to Blade, and then turned away from him, cutting the conversation short and ignoring him completely. She didn't feel that this was something she wanted to share with anyone else. She bit her lip and touched Spoink on the head to gently wake him up. Immediately, he placed a stubby arm to his general mouth area and glaced about, glaring at Blade without real reason.

[Do not speak. Think, and I will listen to your thoughts. We must stay silent. I need to speak with you, and it does not concern Lieutenant Leon or his rampaging sword-beast, nor that idiot with the hero complex.] Spoink relayed to Jen hurridly. Jen frowned, her eyes darting towards Blade and then back to Spoink.

Why are you getting so serious? she thought. You used to be carefree; what changed?

[Our duty and importance to the entire kingdom of Wither. Listen to me now. I know the reason you joined the army. I know your reasons for fighting. Vengance is not the best reason. Stay silent,] he snapped as Jen opened her mouth to talk. [You need to stop now and remember that you are fighting for the freedom and glory of your homeland.]

My reasons for fighting are none of your business, Jen thought angrily. She crossed her legs and arched her back against the wall to ease the growing ache in her muscles. And I am fighting for the glory or whatever of Wither. It just so happens that the kingdom we oppose is the same that my teacher's killer belongs to.

[Vengance. You fight for Edgear. And now I am forced to fight for that same reason.]

Forced? Jen clenched her fists, confused at this sudden turn of events. Who's forcing you?

[You are. You and I share souls now, and so your battle is my battle. Even if I wished to run from this, I could not, for I would be risking the tearing of my soul from my body, and would die.]

Spoink suddenly turned away from Jen and retreated to the back of the cave - or rather, tried to. He could only get so far before Jen felt a terrible pulling in her chest, as though someone were trying to rip her heart from between her ribs. She bit back a moan of pain, but tears still sprang to her eyes. Spoink turned to face her, and even though he was far away, she could see that he was shaking in pain.

Stop! she called in her head. Please, stop! Come back!

[Do you believe me? That I am forced to go with you?]

Yes! Jen doubled over in pain, but was immediately relieved when Spoink took a single bounce forwards, and the pain subsided. Her heart had been returned.

[This is the distance our souls stretch to. This is how close we must always be. Until you learn the right reason to fight, this is the distance I will keep from you. One slip up, one wrong though, one digression on your path to understanding and I will take one step. If need be, if you do not learn, I will rip our souls apart. I will keep pulling until I am free, or until I die. And you will soon learn that I mean what I say. Do you understand?] Spoink glared across the cave at Jen. She was sat with her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

Yes, she said in her mind. Yes, I understand.

Spoink nodded, lay down and went back to sleep where he stood. Jen laid her head against the cool rock of the cave wall and thought about what she had just heard. She was no longer allowed to fight in Edgear's name, but instead in the name of the kingdom of Wither. She bit her lip. She didn't think that she could forget about Edgear that easily. She wondered if she could adapt soon enough, or if she would rip her very soul and die alone. She looked over at Blade, willing him with her eyes to forget what he had just seen.
 
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Marc arrived back at the square. He didn't know what it was but there was something familiar about this village. The people were familiar, the square was familiar and even the buildings seemed familiar. Marc felt someone watching him and turned around to find one of the farmers he's saved earlier looking at him strangely. The farmer was wearing a white tunic with a balck belt, white stockings and black boots. He seemed as familiar as the rest of this village did. The farmer approached him and whispered,"Marc. Is it really you Marc?"

Just as he said this an arrow hit him and pierced his heart. Marc saw his body fall to the ground, and saw the Witherian archer who had shot him. Houndoom roared, as did Marc. Marc suddenly felt furiious, and him and Houndoom chased him. They chased him down the street and eventually caught up with him. Houndoom was just scratching and biting him. Marc got out his sword and began stabbing him with it. The archer died. Marc turned around and saw the place he feared he'd see. A burnt, wooden building, destroyed entirely by fire. The fire of a hound. It was his parents' house. Marc walked up to it, touched the walls and sank to his knees.
 
Shen had made it to the little farming village, the fire burning through it made his armor glow a very light shade of orange, for one moment a fire from another time went through Shen's mind. "Never again." Shen saw Marc guarding guarding the square, good idea, the Square was the choke point that could lead to anywhere else in the village, without a word Shen and Scizor ran/flew in opposite directions, Scizor to the town hall to make sure the village leadership wasn't annihilated, after the battle was over the survivors would need someone to rally to, and Shen...he was going to the front lines to do what he did best. When Shen reached the front lines he saw armor and swords everywhere he looked, the Arleon troops were heavily outnumbered, time to fix that. A young looking Witherian soldier stumbled out of the fray, he was obviously new to combat and afraid of fighting more experienced warriors, Shen stood in front of the man and brandished his sword, the man ran at him yelling and it took Shen only a moment to cut the strap of his shield and send his sword flying out of his hand, them and was on the ground with Shen's sword an inch away from his neck. "Please sir, don't do this! I was drafted, I don't want to fight, but I'm just so scared and I heard all the stories and...pleas don't kill me!" Shen looked at the man for a moment before walking away without a word, the man bulled a large dagger from his armor and ran up behind Shen, the dagger raised to strike.

Scizor reached the town hall, there were six Witherian elite soldiers there with Molotov Cocktails poised to burn down the building. With a bullet punch Scizor cleared the stance in moments, the man's helmet dented and a crunching sound could be heard from underneath before he flew into and knocked down another one, Scizor grabbed the first one's bottle before it hit the ground and threw it into a third one, the remaining three soldiers didn't have bottles and charged Scizor, he quickly dispatched the last three with Double Hit and an X Scissor.

Shen pulled his sword out of the greenhorn soldier's corpse and flicked the blood off the blade before charging the front lines, he saw the tide shift because at the sight of him most of the Witherian soldiers lost some morale and didn't have the bravery to fight at full capacity, whereas the Arleon soldiers' morale went way up and they fought harder than ever, combine that with the Witherian soldiers numbers making the Arleons like cornered animals and Shen joining the fight, and the odds were almost even.
 
Still in the cave's silence, and still ignoring Blade, Jen clutched at her chest; the pain of Spoink's attempt to be apart still lingered, but now it was more of an ache. She looked over at the grey pig, who was laid on the floor, asleep.

If he was asleep, he wouldn't know what Jen was about to do.

Without making a noise and risking his wake, she shuffled along the cave wall until she was much closer to Spoink than before. She grinned as she found that the pain had dulled considerably, and at the same time wondered why distance affected her soul-bond so much. She had seen distance between human and bonded Pokémon before, and in the forest, they had separated themselves, so why had it hurt so much just then?

A thought slowly occurred to her. Did Spoink just trick her? She had seen his power in action, and wondered if it would be capable of pulling at her chest like that. Had Spoink made the whole thing up? And if he had, why? Why had he changed so much since the bond? She leaned back and wondered if his reasoning had been just. He was forcing her to stay at a distance from him until she fought for her country and not for Edgear.

Suddenly in spite, Jen lunged down and grabbed Spoink's tiny body in one hand. He woke with a start and glared up at her.

[Jen, what on earth are you doing? Set me down!] he squealed in her head. Jen stood up, her face stony, and walked to the entrance of the cave, staring up at the tree Leon was in in a vague attempt to catch his attention.

"Leon, you made a mistake with that crystal. I don't need Spoink to be my partner, and I don't need a soul-bond anymore," she hissed monotonously, using her spare hand to extract the crystal. She thrust it at him, tossing it up into the tree in the hope that he would receive it, and then, with all her might, threw Spoink as far as she could into the night. She smiled as she realised she felt no pain from it, and concluded that it must have been Spoink's power that had caused that before; he had tricked her.

"Don't let him back in the cave. Don't let him anywhere near me, okay?" Jen said, and then turned around, laid down and closed her eyes in one fluid movement.
 
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Adric used his Soul Bond to dig in the direction of the closest barracks.

The battle had been raging for a long time, and he hoped he'd get there soon to end it.

Marc and the Lietenant were doing their job, and he needed to do his. With a new sense of vigor Adric urged Pupitar to dig faster, eager to reach reinforcements.

-------

A couple of knights sat at the round table near the barrack entrance, enjoying a game. The rest were either downstairs or in their own rooms. Suddenly, a low knock inerrupted them. Before a knight could answer, the door flew wide open.

Adric stepped inside, his red eyes ablaze.

"Soldiers! Did you not hear about the attack! Get you equipment and assemble outside, we will launch a counter attack on the Witherians!"

Chairs were pushed back as the subordinates scrambled for their weapons and armor - their recent task abandoned.

Adric turned to a nearby knight.

"Get me a towel and Rapidash."
 
When they reached the cave, Talulah lowered Lise, wandered over to the far back wall and flopped down. Talulah sat upright with her back against the wall, and Lise did the same for a moment, before sliding down and flopping his head onto her lap. She frowned-- more as a reflex than anything-- but didn't attempt to move him.

Lise was small, like a little kid almost. Her thoughts drifted back to the daycare, where Talulah's aunt treated her like she was her own child. She'd had a lot of friends there, and a lot of enemies. She snorted to herself, remembering the kids she'd forced to be Arleons in the play fights. She had a nice little army built up when she was little.

Suddenly, Lise sneezed. It made Talulah jump a bit-- surprising herself.

Great, she thought sourly. I got skidishness from Lise now too?

But in truth, she really and truly didn't mind. Lise was making her really happy, and that was something she hadn't experienced in a long, long while. Being in the war had numbed her. She honestly hadn't expected to do anything in her life besides fight. Even now it was true, but now she had a friend-- that was unexpected.

She was drifting off to sleep, absentmindedly stroking Lise's head feathers, when she heard a rustling inside the cave. Her eyes snapped open, and she listened carefully.

She pinpointed the noise pretty easily-- over in the corner of the cave, Jen was shifting around a bit. All at once, she stood, grabbed her pokemon (which had for some reason moved a few feet away from Jen when Talulah wasn't looking), stormed over to the cave opening, screamed something outside to Leon, and then chucked both her crystal and the gray blob outside.

Lise sat up, staring across the cave at an engraged Jen. Talulah's mouth was agape.

"Don't let him back in the cave," Jen yelled out to Leon. "Don't let him anywhere near me, okay?"

With that, the woman stormed back to her spot, lay down, and fell immediately to sleep. Talulah wasn't sure what to think. Beside her, Lise chirped uncertainly before furrowing his brow in Jen's direction. He stood, as if to walk over to her, but Talulah grabbed him in a hug-- no way was she letting him get flung out of the cave too.

"Calm down," she whispered soothingly against his squirming head. "We'll go check on it okay? No need to deal with an angry soldier. Shhhh. Calm down."

In truth, she was a little more nervous of Spoink. After all, that thing was what she had come into the clearing to find waving around random body parts of dead pokemon. And who knew what kind of powers it had? After seeing what Lise could do earlier today, she was a little cautious of dealing with the creatures. At least with Jen, she knew what she was dealing with.

In her arms, Lise finally stopped squirming, giving up to place his head against her chest and peep sadly. Apparently, he didn't find what Jen had done one bit interesting or exciting-- only sad.

She seemed so nice earlier, Talulah thought to herself, why would she have done that to her friend?

Talulah thought bitterly that if Jen would do that to something so close to her, how could her teammates trust her?

They sat still for a few minutes more. No doubt Jen would hear them get up, regardless of whether she was asleep or not, but they didn't want to just dash out there without at least giving the woman a chance to pretend to fall asleep. When the time was up, Talulah finally released Lise into a standing position, and slowly stood up herself. They shuffled quietly to the edge of the cage, and peeked out.

"Leon!" she whispered. "Lise and I are going to make sure the Spoink is okay."

She didn't listen for a response. She was going to do this with or without approval-- she just didn't want him shooting the two of them from the trees, thinking they were intruders.

Damn this empathy, she grumbled to herself, following Lise in the general direction of where the Spoink had been flung. This is definitely not a pro to having bonded.

They came through some trees, pushed back a bush, and found the creature sitting-- or bouncing rather-- unhappily.

But Talulah didn't know quite what to say now that they'd found it. Lise stumbled forward instead.

"Prin, prinplup? Priiiiinplup," he chirped to Spoink, reaching out a hand as if to give support to the bouncing creature.

[[OOC: Just FYI for Kon, Lise is asking if Spoink is okay. :3 Exact words: Are you okay my friend? We are here to help you.]]
 
Spoink looked up at Lise and seemed to consider him for a moment, and then lashed out and slapped his hand away. He crossed his stubby arms and pointedly looked away.

[I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'm not in the mood right now, in case you haven't noticed.] Spoink said in Lise's mind, staying silent to Talulah. With a burst, his pearl flashed brightly and a huge force was suddenly exerted against Lise's entire body, pushing him away with a cry.
 
Lise stood for a moment after speaking, seeming to listen for a response from the Spoink. Talulah couldn't see much in the darkness, but the Spoink turned away from Lise, as if snubbing him. All at once, Spoink's pearl let out a bright glow.

"Prinp!" Lise cried, suddenly thrown backwards by an invisible force. Talulah gasped, running forward to help him up and stroke his head feathers. Once she found he was okay, she glared up at Spoink.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she growled, but Lise put up a flipper as if to stop her. He stood in front of Talulah and looked up straight into her eyes, showing her he was fine. There was nothing wrong.

So Talulah pursed her lips, and let Lise try again.

"Prinplup. Prinplup prinp?" he cooed, waddling up to Spoink once more, albeit a bit slower than last time.

<Please do not be upset with us for coming to you. We did not want you to be all alone.>

Talulah braced herself. If this thing hurt Lise again, there was a good chance she'd charge and punt it deeper into the trees. She didn't agree with Jen's actions, but Lise was so obviously concerned and trying to help, and this thing was being such a little brat... well, it seemed Talulah's childishness from the days before battle were coming back to haunt her. She huffed in frustration.
 
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