Private/Closed Haunting Initials

[Merciless Medic]

Natalia smiled sweetly at the compliments, chuckling at how he hoped he'll live up to them. Ohhh, he will. Eventually.

She nodded somewhat sleepily at his suggestions, covering her mouth as she yawned... again. "Perfect. That sounds like a good idea." Then she chuckled. "We gotta quick copying each other's yawns." Natalia lazily watched Koa get Gabite to be a protector of the cave. Her Bisharp, Ferrothorn, and Toxapex - after eating their rice balls - went back to Naka and returned themselves, poking their own PokeBalls. Dracovish - on the other hand - lumbered back to Naka and sat down, his legs resting outwards as his head laid on the ground in front of his other half. Naka got up, wincing a little from the pain in her back from the floor before and rested her body against his red and green dragon half, petting his fishy head.

Natalia watched Koa's and Mo-o's interaction, smiling at how cohesive they seemed. "Yup, quick nap. You two seem so in sync, by the way. I also just noticed both your names combined almost sound like Kommo-o." She chuckled, her eyes drooping to sleep. "I hope you do. It'll not only help us but secure the future you want, too."

With that, Natalia and her Vishy fell asleep, the soft hissing and occasional bubbling of the Dracovish's breathing apparatus being the only sounds from the two.

Four hours later, Natalia woke up with a start. There was a bang, she swore she heard it. It now smelled a lot like fossil fuels and it disgusted her. Scrambling to her feet while her Dracovish slowly woke up, she returned the Dracovish and peeked out of their entrance, looking around for the source. Looking over at the waters nearby...

They were black.

Fuck...

 

[Fenix704]

Koa blinked, falling silent for a second as the thought donned on him. "Wait... yeah, you're right! My name kinda does complete Mo-o's nickname!" With a tired smile, the young man patted his scaly partner, who grumbled in sleepy comfort. "I guess we're pretty tight, yeah... but I wanna be so in sync with the others too. Can't just... do it all today, though..."

Soon, the Kommo-o and his trainer fell asleep, gathering strength for the path ahead. But that nap didn't last too long... roughly four hours later, a loud bang woke up everyone present -- and Rebel was soon stomping and chirping to warn Koa. He got up with an exasperated sigh, while the Dragon/Fighting type stood up to his full height behind him. "What's the hurry, bud?"; Koa asked as the Gabite suddenly started pulling on his leg with his clawed arms. "Ow, ow!" Koa protested in pain, signaling for Rebel to stop scratching. "Okay, we'll get moving then... hey Natalia, are you up?"

Mo-o, however, took less time to notice what the issue was. The hulking pseudolegendary growled in disgust at the foul stench of petroleum that filled the air, and Koa would follow soon after. He signaled for both dragons to follow both him and the Interpol agent, as they checked for the source of the smell. But that wasn't the worst...

"Oh no..." Koa couldn't help but lament the absolute tragedy of this reckless pollution. The Water types in the area must've had a terrible time... but there wasn't much the young man knew about this, being so sheltered and all. He could only turn to Natalia for answers. "What the heck did they do now?!"

 

[Merciless Medic]

Rebel's noises was causing something else to stir, but that was okay. The Dracovish was now raring to go and he hobbled on to stand behind Natalia, waiting for orders. Natalia turned to Koa, sighing. "Well, good news and bad news. Good news is, I know how to find them easily. Bad news is, something happened to cause this cave water to become oily. I do not know if this was intentional, or if there was an accident and it caused something to blow up and spill its contents into the water. But we aren't going to swim in that. That is a toxic mess and I'd rather not deal with that. If it was intentional..."

She paused, a chill running down her spine. She looked up. Bright yellow eyes stared at her from the cave ceiling's darkness, then the concentric circles of the dragon bat's ears glowed a bright light blue. "Aegis! King's Shield!" Releasing her sword and shield in a flash of white light, the Aegislash hummed and glowed a bright purple, taking the incoming Boomburst head on. While the attack wouldn't have affected Aegislash, it would have affected everyone else below him. "Pretty sure that oil is to further enrage the local Pokemon. This cave is no longer safe. We have to move."

The Noivern unlatched itself from the cavern's ceiling, swooping down and blocking their only exit with a mighty roar, its ears glowing a bright blue again. This time, his mouth was overflowing with draconic energy. "It's using Dragon Pulse!"

 

[Fenix704]

"So the water's a no-go... crap. When I get my hands on whoever's behind this darn mess..." Koa's fists clenched. His home was being defiled once again by malicious actors, and this was not going to stand. Sadly, swimming was out of the picture, and Koa and Natalia's escape options were narrowing by the minute... but the young Trainer wouldn't have to think about where to go for very long, as a stray Noivern lunged into the offensive! Mo-o didn't have to worry about that Boomburst thanks to his Soundproof ability, but poor Rebel tried to cover his ear nubs...

"Mo-o! Fight back the pulse with your Flamethrower!" The Kommo-o obeyed, before gurgling up fiery energies. Smoke and ash emerged from his nostrils, and soon enough, a stream of flame blew from the Dragon/Fighting type's maw, intercepting the Dragon Pulse and threatening to push against it. The oldest Dragon trick in the book -- breathing fire. For an aspiring Dragon expert, Koa couldn't forget to teach his main partner such an essential skill! As Mo-o proceeded with his orders, Koa directed the Gabite on the other end. "Rebel! Flank this rascal, and give 'em a Rock Slide!"

The Dragon/Ground type growled in response, raising his claws and gathering a Rock-type aura to influence the area around him. With haste, some stray rocks started falling from the cave's ceiling, threatening to strike the Dragon/Flying type while it was distracted!

 

[Merciless Medic]

Koa's frustrated ramblings was a bit adorable. It was a little funny, but there was a further problem with the Noivern being a thing. Natalia noticed that Mo-o was left rather unaffected by the Boomburst. So, it had Soundproof? Interesting.

The Dragon Pulse fought against the Flamethrower, but it was ultimately cancelled out. The Noivern roared in frustration, but that was when rocks fell from the cave's ceiling and bashed the poor Noivern. The Flying/Dragon-Type began glowing with orange aura akin to Totem Pokemon, but Vishy acted quickly. Running past Natalia, his fangs glowed a bright green and he bit down on the wing of the dragon bat, growling and viciously shaking its head while the Noivern tried to free its wing, using its talons to grab a hold of Vishy's face and squeeze, its ears glowing a bright white before firing off a point-blank Boomburst.

That was, until Vishy suplexed the bat, throwing its head back and smashing it into the floor behind it. Boomburst was interrupted, and it caused a crater to form underneath it, while Vishy got to heal from his past fights. With a gleeful grin, Vishy let go and turned around to face the Noivern, roaring and gurgling, which caused the Noivern to shrink back in terror. That was when a Scizor - glowing with the same orange aura - came from behind the Noivern, its head glowing a steely color as it tried to headbutt the Dracovish with Iron Head.

Immediately, Vishy's head also glowed metallic and he swung his head like an unwieldy hammer, the Scizor being hit and was thrown towards Mo-o. As if waiting for the Scizor to come back to it, Vishy's tail wagged (also shaking his head slightly in the process), panting as if it were a canine Pokemon.

Natalia walked out of the entrance as her Pokemon fought, looking for a way out. There were two exits south of them, since the waters in the north were now blackened and she didn't want to have her Pokemon swim them through that mess. Since they moved these boulders around, it was likely they can find an exit. "Koa, let's try to go this way!" She pointed to where she had meant, but since there were two exits, she didn't know whe-

Hearing loud noises coming from one of them, she decided to head to the exit on their left. "Alright, found a way out. Come on!"

 

[Fenix704]

The wild Pokémon were now glowing with energy akin to that of the Totems?! This was borderline sacrilegious for Koa, who panicked at the thought of these poor wildlings being given the power of the greatest Pokémon guardians of each island. Could they even handle it? It didn't seem like they did, as the Noivern and Scizor's violent spree indicated. For now, Koa focused on cleaning up the remaining enemies, right as the Scizor was thrown in Mo-o's direction.

"Finish 'em off, bud!" With that direction on the trainer's part, the Dragon/Fighting type cocked back his right arm and launched it skyward, covered in Fighting aura, to deliver a mean Sky Uppercut. Koa chose to go with a neutral move, anticipating that a Flamethrower would've probably hurt the poor thing a bit too badly. The sound of Mo-o's scales, reverberating as he struck the Bug/Steel type with a mighty blow, might've alerted some other nearby Pokémon, but Koa didn't mind -- they'd all have to get out of that cave as fast as possible.

"Let's scram, both of you!" Motioning for both Mo-o and Rebel to follow, Koa followed Natalia's lead down the leftmost entrance, with the bulking Kommo-o and the scrappy Gabite following closely. The young trainer looked around, thinking of a good spot to have Rebel dig for another escape whenever needed. "Jeez, are these guys ever lettin' up?" Koa asked, sprinting to try and catch up to Natalia. He was still a bit tired from the nap, but when it came to action, he'd come into his own again soon enough.

 

[Merciless Medic]

The Totem energy was beginning to put a toll on their opponents. Their fight to attack whoever was in front of them led to their own demise. The Scizor was smashed into the air, hitting the ceiling and then falling on the Noivern, who yelped. The two bickered as Natalia was able to run off with Koa and his Pokemon, leaving the cave.

Of course, that wouldn't be the end of it, would it? The exit they came out of happened to lead to a drop off. They were on a ledge, with a grass patch to their right. It was a dead end.

Or so they thought.

The Dracovish looked around, confused on where to go, only for Natalia to look off towards their left and spot a ledge above them. She followed this ledge with her eyes, seeing that it led to a bridge that went to another ledge, that then sloped down in a circular formation and led them back to the Totem's cave. "Up there!" Natalia yelled, pointing at the ledge above them.

"Vishy, return. Ferras." In the same motion, she returned the Dracovish and sent out her Ferrothorn, who looked around in a bit of confusion. Off on another ledge to their right were glowing eyes of more Pokemon, their bodies glowing orange. "Oh boy. Ferras, Rock Climb."

Humming, the thorny pods turned white and she smashed them into the sides of the wall, with Natalia grabbing hold of the third pod's vine and holding on for dear life. With ease, the Ferrothorn lifted up and climbed, only for rocks to be thrown at them from nearby. Natalia shielded her head from being hit with them, looking over to see Hakamo-o throwing rocks at them. They didn't seem to have any other attacks to use. She looked back down at Koa. "Got any Pokemon who can climb?" She then looked up at her Ferrothorn. "Ferras, Flash." With Natalia lifting herself off the third pod, Ferras pointed the shiny metallic portion of this pod at the rock throwers. It then flashed a bright light, the Pokemon crying out in frustration and pain as they rubbed their eyes from the light.

 

[Fenix704]

The Interpol agent and the would-be tour guide raced outside the cave, reaching an outer clearing. Koa's Pokémon followed close by, until the eventual roadblock caused by the high ledge. He looked upon with disappointment, as he hoped to have a more immediate way to clear this while on the run. Both Mo-o and Rebel looked to him, seemingly waiting for directions. As soon as the young trainer witnessed Natalia's Rock Climb strategy, a metaphorical light bulb turned on in Koa's brain.

"I got... somethin' like that! You two, tactical retreat!" Trying to sound cool like Natalia, Koa returned both his partners to their Poké Balls in a single move, and looking upwards, he threw out a third Poké Ball: the one member of his team that hadn't had a moment to shine yet.

"...G-Gutor!"

With a grumble --several grumbles--, a massive, luscious Alolan Exeggutor stretched into the heights of the Canyon, gleefully smiling with blissful ignorance. Stretchy's enormous neck twisted gently to stare back at his trainer, expecting something to happen. "Stretchy!", Koa called out, "you know how this goes. Mind leanin' a bit closer to the ledge, bud?" With some happy "gutor's", the Grass/Dragon type moved his neck ever so closer to the ledge, as much as he could. Koa got in position to approach, before catching some eye contact with Stretchy's leg tail. This one chirped at the sight of the aspiring Dragon expert, but eventually its stare got a little sinister. There was something about that one, alright...

Without further hold-ups, Koa jumped up and clung to Stretchy's neck with all his limbs. This procedure was in no way uncomfortable for the Alolan Exeggutor, who seemed used to it. After securing Stretchy's consent, the young man began the climb up the near 10 meter pole with surprising agility and familiarity. To Natalia, it might seem as if this was something they regularly did to reach vantage points, perhaps!

Around the 6 meter mark, Koa could see the ledge. With a little nudge on Stretchy's shoulder to signify the stop, he safely crossed the gap, reaching Natalia's position in no time. "Huff... Well, how was that?" Koa asked, not willing to admit how tiring it was to climb up his partner's neck in such a short time.

 

[Merciless Medic]

Natalia looked back down as her Ferrothorn continued to scale the wall, watching as Koa returned all of his Pokemon and then released...

Oh, his Alolan Exeggutor!

Natalia looked up at the growing figure, the Pokemon towering over them and reaching the ledge, giving Koa a sentient ladder to climb up. Chuckling, Natalia patted Ferras's metallic shell and soothed her whining as the Grass/Steel-Type continued to climb up until they finally made it to the ledge. Natalia pulled herself onto the ledge and returned Ferras, who sighed in relief when she was brought back. Natalia then watched as Koa landed beside her, noting that he's done that before - likely plenty of times. "Nice one." She grinned. "But we have to keep going." She sent out her Bisharp, the Dark/Steel-Type's blades on her arms glowed a ruddy read and the blade on her head glowed a metallic sheen. She smashed the incoming rocks with Brick Break, and a larger one with Iron Head, the rocks shattering to tiny pieces.

The upset Hakamo-o roared in frustration. The totem energy glowed around it as it leapt across the large gap in a blur, its claws glowing a bright royal blue. "Metal Burst." Natalia commanded, Kiriki's body shimmering momentarily as she crossed her arms in front of her in an 'x'. The Dragon Claw met the arms, but the power of the Dragon Claw seemed to seep into the Bisharp. With a sudden shine, the Dragon Claw's royal blue became a silvery grey as the energy exploded back with even more energy, blasting the Hakamo-o back and sending it flying back to the ground it jumped from.

Two more Hakamo-o, who had climbed above them, jumped to ambush Natalia and Koa, snarling and growling as they did so. "Koa!" Natalia yelled, her eyes looking up at the angry Hakamo-o. One of which had fighting energy exuding from it as it prepared a Close Combat for when it was near a human or Pokemon, while the other had a glowing blue tail for its Dragon Tail.

 

[Fenix704]

"Thanks, Stretchy. You did good." Koa remarked, not wanting to leave his woody friend unthanked for the time being. The young man watched in admiration as Natalia's Bisharp, Kiriki, fought back against one of the Hakamo-o with a mighty Metal Sound. However, his distraction allowed two other rowdy Hakamo-o to almost sneak up on him!

With Natalia's word of wording, Koa performed a dodge in the form of a roll to quickly get out of the way, getting a bit close to the ride. Thankfully, Stretchy literally had his back. The usually carefree Exeggutor seemed almost unaware of this exchange, but he was not. He simply waited for Koa's next direction, which came soon enough. "Lift 'em, big guy!" With a hand wave, almost mimicking the supernatural waves involved in the move, Stretchy could tell what Koa meant. Leaning his egg heads closer to the cave, the Grass/Dragon type unleashed a powerful Psychic attack, entrapping one of the Hakamo-o in mental energies, constantly squeezing. "And now, toss!"

Closing his fist, Koa conveyed a more intense display of power in his next direction, which reached his Pokémon. Though the aspiring Dragon expert was sometimes more cryptic than others, he believed in his Pokémon's intelligence, not always needing to spell out a move's name if his partners could understand those directions. Syncing up with Stretchy, the Alolan Exeggutor now displayed some truly mischevious faces, letting out his cunning tricks as the Hakamo-o was lifted into the air, before being flung by the Psychic-type aura straight into its partner!

 

[Merciless Medic]

Natalia jumped out of the way of the two Hakamo-o, watching Koa roll away which was kind of comical if they weren't in danger. Lift 'em? That's when she remembered that despite Alolan Exeggutor not being a Psychic-Type, Exeggcute was, and it likely learned Psychic-Type attacks by virtue of its pre-evolution.

Fascinating.

She watched as the Exeggcute grabbed the one of the Hakamo-o and then throwing it into its partner. Natalia chuckled, and now her and Kiriki were able to attack. "Aerial Ace!" Kiriki let out a short chuckle, the Bisharp's armblades glowing a sky blue before she charged, slashing the now startled Hakamo-o and getting the dragons to scramble up the side of the cliff face and crawl into a small hole.

"I don't think they're coming back down." She looked back to where they needed to go. A bridge led to the other side of the canyon, but the raised ground had a slope circling back down to the ground. They needed to get there. "Alright, let's go." Natalia didn't hesitate, but she had to stop when there was a rumble. A Scizor appeared, orange totem energy surrounding it as it rammed into the very bridge, breaking it. The wooden bridge rippled from the impact before the strings keeping the wood together broke off and the bridge was now impassable. Natalia groaned as she returned Kiriki. "Really?" She sighed.

She looked back at Koa, then back at the Scizor. "Things are gonna get chilly." She sent out a Pokemon, and it looked like someone made a big snowman but with only two huge snowballs on top of each other. The face had a icy, furry moustache and beard and its blue face and eyes are the only pieces of skin anyone can see from its snowball afro, its arms reminiscent of the strength of a regular Darmanitan. The air around the Galarian Darmanitan started to get chilly.

The Scizor wasn't getting any closer and Natalia looked back at Koa. "Got anything to force that Scizor nearer? Darma has no ranged attacks." As soon as she said that, the Scizor used a move only its pre-evolution would learn. It happened so quick, that the Galarian Darmanitan couldn't react properly. The Scizor's its pincers to create a sudden vacuum wave towards Darma.