First it's dark....Then cold...Why Mew? Why?

[Lee]

Huur was extremely proud of herself for having managed to actually hit the little pokemon, although having it cling to her face had been annoying. The only problem was, as she was turning back around, she heard a hissing sound. Kind of like what she imagined fire shooting through the air would sound like if it wasn't large enough to make a roar. This frightened her, and not many things would.

Zach, seeing the fire and knowing it would surely faint Huur, no matter how stubborn she was, tried a last ditch effort. "Mud slap!" Dodging was out of the question. Besides her mere size slowing her down, she was tired and hurt. There was no chance.

Apparently, mud slap wasn't going to work either, since Huur only managed to get enough snowy mud into the air in order to turn the stream of fire into a sputter. It still made it to her, and at this point in time, a weak ember attack probably would have fainted her.

<Wow! The ground really does shake when someone heavy falls!> Tripod wasn't too worried about the fainted Huur, more interested in the rumble of the ground her fall had produced.

Biting his lip, he recalled his fallen pokemon. "Rest up some. Lessee how...Kiln...does against Rapheal, shall we?" Choosing another pokeball, he released the Zangoose, who raised his hands up in a battle stance.

<You're a cute one.> Winking at the sandshrew, he didn't wait for Zach to give him a command, instead saying, <I choose first move!> Zach was a good trainer, no doubt, but Rapheal liked to have command of himself occasionally. Besides, Zach never chose to use pursuit, and it was a great attack.

[MorriganFearn]

Kiln bounced up and down again, as Hurr's great bulk fell. His little black eyes looked cross, but he soon calmed down, once the jouncing stopped. <Good,> he murmured, sitting down, and putting his arms over his stomach. <I'mma just goin' to go back to sleeeeep,> he mumbled, just as Rapheal appeared.

He snored loudly, and pointedly, as Rapheal introduced himself. Didn't anyone understand that it had been a tiring day? What was with all the excitement? Kiln didn't see the point.

He was catapulted out of his sleeping pose as Rapheal slammed into him. Kiln found himself rolling down the trail, before being stopped by a kindly snow bank. Getting up, and shaking the snow off his body the sandshrew blinked and rubbed his eyes. <Wha' was that for?!>

"C'mon Kiln, this is a battle," Cotta coaxed her lazy ground type. "Let's hit back with a bang! Zangoose are pretty fast, so let's use that against him, Gyro Ball!"

<Oh, alrigh',> Kiln mumbled, curling up, and beginning to roll up the snow bank. His skin took on a shiny gray sheen, just as gravity took a hold of him, and he rolled back down the snow towards the trail, gaining speed as he headed right for Rapheal like a small, heavy avalanche.

[Lee]

Tripod laughed in glee, <I'm going to do that!> Wriggling with excitement, she almost made it to a snow bank to roll down before Zach snatched her up in to his arms. <Hey!>

"Later, when I can keep an eye on you, okay?" At least with Rapheal he didn't have to be so attentive to the battle that looking away to keep Tripod from dashing off was devastating. The Zangoose was smart enough to dodge if he could.

However, it didn't appear as if he was quite fast enough, as his hindquarters were hit, spinning him off balance, as he tried to get out of the way of the minature snowball bomb. <Oi!>

"Crush claw, before he gets out from the snow!" Zach was willing to take advantage of an immobilized opponent. There was the chance the sandshrew would get out of the snowball-missing a chunk from impact-before Rapheal could get him, but there was also a chance that he wouldn't. Why waste the opportunity?

<One crush claw, coming up.> Leaping forward and dropping snow clumped to his fur as he did so, Rapheal attempted to bring his claws down on the sandshrew.

[MorriganFearn]

((First order of business, because I forgot in my last post: You have one extra level for any one of your pokies.))

"Kiln, gyro ball out of th--!" Cotta yelled as she watched the dark claws descending on her snow covered ground type. Rolling up the snow bank to give the gyro ball extra momentum had been a bad idea, as now the ground type was being attacked by the cold, to which the desert pokemon was susceptible.

Kiln didn't hear his trainer. A hard mesh of claws descending on your head at high speeds makes hearing irrelevant. He concked out, uncurling from his comfy ball, and shaking snow all over the trail. Kiln disappeared in a flash of red light, and Cotta sighed, as she looked at his pokeball. "Okay, last one. Not my first choice for this kind of battle, but let's go! Glaze!"

A baltoy appeared behind Rapheal, balancing delicately on her point. She rocked back and forth, examining Rapheal, and then her eyes glowed blue. There wasn't a sound, or anything to indicate that anything was about to happen. Her eyes just glowed blue, the earth opened up under Rapheal, and a spar of frozen ground slammed forward to hit the zangoose before he could fall the short drop.

((Note: Glaze used "Earth Power", a fairly heavy hitting special attack, with the rare chance that it might lower the targets' special defense.

Anyhooo,

Rapheal defeated a level 56 sandshrew
Rapheal gains a level
Rapheal is now level 56
Enjoy))

[Lee]

OoC:
I'll give it to Tripod. The little thing learned it by osmosis. Watching all these battles made her smarterz!

BiC:
Rapheal wasn't sure what to do about the glowing eyes, but they kind of freaked him out. Oh, he was excited over having won the battle with the sandshrew, but honestly, it hadn't been all that difficult. Sure, the giant snowball thing had caught him off guard, and he had to give credit to Huur for weakening the little shrew, but c'mon...Two attacks?

Then again, he was forced to reconsider in a few moments, two attacks could deal /alot/ of damage, especially to an already-weakened enemy. His crush claw probably had felt like the giant slab of earth that had just knocked his breath out of him, leaving him in a daze on the snow. He wasn't fainted, not yet, but he was honestly wondering if he would be victorious in this battle. He hadn't lost a single one yet...Was this really going to be the first?

At least there wasn't a large audience. Struggling up to his feet, he took some deep breaths and shook the attack off, at least visually. <C'mon Zach, let's get this underway!>

"Well...Blast 'im!" Zach knew he hadn't used the proper name for the attack, but his zangoose was smart enough to know what he meant. Besides, the baltoy hadn't given any warning. Now that he thought about, maybe he should come up with another way to direct the pokemon...It'd give him an edge by not allowing the opponent to know what it was in time to counter-attack, most of the time.

Tripod, having given up trying to squirm free of Zach's arms, was squirming in excitement in them. Her eyes grew wide as she watched Rapheal gaze at the baltoy, apparently doing nothing else, before he suddenly rushed towards the strange pokemon in a Focus Blast.

[MorriganFearn]

Glaze felt the concentrated strength of the zangoose hit her, and slam her back. Her hard brown body cracked, and she felt some painful crumbling.

Cotta groaned, seeing some of the blue and pink psychic energy that her little clay pokemon's hollow body contained shining through the cracks. Cotta knew that a pokemon center, or some quick drying cement, could fix the damage easily, but if the zangoose was that powerful the little psychic would probably be nothing but crumbling shell held together by telekinesis. Glaze always got so down when she was physically affected by battles, thinking that she was no long beautiful.

*Glaze, are you ready?* she thought to her psychic type. *It's okay, right?

*I'm cracked, Cotta. He really, really hurt me. Do we have to do this? I'm not strong enough.*

*Yes, you are,* Cotta thought furiously, trying to push her feelings of support on the tiny pokemon. *We got both you and Kiln up to an even higher level than Potter, don't you remember? You're strong enough to do that. You're strong enough to take on this zangoose. Now, let's fix those cracks. Use Cosmic Power.*

The baltoy spun around, her eyes glowing an unearthly blue. A beam of light shot down from the sky, which flickered black for a moment, all the stars shining down on them. The light cut off, and the sky returned to normal, but the baltoy was almost lit from within, and there seemed to be a glassy wash glazing over her body.

[Lee]

Rapheal frowned, his tail drooping somewhat. He hated battling those that could heal themselves. He was already tired, and now this baltoy was going and making it harder on him. Not to mention the fact that he didn't even know what her next move would be. One reason he disliked psychics.

<C'mon, Rapheal. You can do this..> Muttering to himself, he perked back up, settling into an offensive pose. <Let's do it, Zach!>

Zach, speaking from behind a tuff of hair from Tripod, had to be slightly louder so that his battling pokemon could hear him. "Swords Dance! Be ready to dodge!" He watched as the zangoose's claws seemed to glow and transform into swords, although it was only an illusion. He could have waved his hand through the luminescent constructs, but the somewhat slow dance of swords that Rapheal fell into was still amazing.

[MorriganFearn]

"All right," Cotta yelled encouragingly, as Rapheal upped the ante. She didn't particularly like the fact that the zangoose, already a powerful attacker, had increased his attack, but it bought her at least two more moves with Glaze, she figured. Earth power was a powerful attack, but Glaze prefered defensive battling so that meant a weaker attack, but hopefully a stat raiser. *Ready, Glaze, Ancient Power!*

Glaze's eyes glowed their unearthly blue, and suddenly boulders smashed mysteriously out of the ground, heading in a direct line for Rapheal, each exploding as it reached the apex of its arc.

[Lee]

OoC: -forces reply-

BiC:

Rapheal looked despairingly at the rising stones, wincing with each explosion and knowing there was no way he could manage to avoid it. Zach's words didn't reach him over the noise of the exploding rocks, and Rapheal acted on his own, trying to dive out of the way of one of the boulders.

Whether or not Glaze was able to increase any of her stats, as he had just done a moment ago, Rapheal missed. He leaped to the side as the ground shuddered beneath him, tripping him and sending him tumbling in a roll on the ground, the shattering boulder rocking his frame.

Zach held his breath, watching as his beloved zangoose lay still for a moment, then struggled up to his feet. Tripod began to make some sound he assumed would have been a cheer, but it broke off as Rapheal fell back to his knees, before fainting.

Very dramatic and all that, but Zach was still sad he had lost, as he withdrew the powerful pokemon, muttering some consolation through the thin skeleton of the man-made machine.

It wasn't the first time he had lost, of course, but it still stung to have done so. Still, he could console himself by saying that his pokemon had been tired after the troublesome path they had just traveled. Sending a grin at Cotta, he spoke. "You're really good."

[MorriganFearn]

"Thanks," Cotta grinned. "I'm surprised your pokemon are so strong, actually. I'm used to people having trouble getting past Kiln. Hey, do you need a pokemon center? Li Jing still isn't that close. You might wanna turn back to Nga, or look for the ski lodge around here. They have an older healing machine, but it should be working still, unless there's been a recent power outage."

[Lee]

Zach frowned, not wanting to go all the way back to Nga. "I suppose the ski lodge is my best bet. Do you have any idea where it is?" He didn't want to wander around and end up lost. Staying on the path was always the safest, as he had learned in past adventures.

Tripod, wiggling down out of Zach's arms, rolled about in the snow, having become bored with the conversation. There wasn't any action going on, so why should she be still and watch the events?

[MorriganFearn]

"Just down the path aways," Cotta replied. She pointed at a group of pines. "See the trees over there? The path will fork, and you'll have a choice between going right or left. To the left is the ski lodge. There should be smoke coming from the chimney. It looks a little Swiss-kitchy, if you know what I mean, lots of silly scroll work, and stuff, but the cocoa's good, and they have a healing machine."

[Lee]

"Well, the healing machine is the most important part, but cocoa really does sound good. It's infernally cold here." Zach was feeling more relaxed by the minute, despite having just lost. Akriso was nowhere in sight (the ghost had apparently elected to stay in her pokeball for a while), healing was within reach for his friends, and even if it was cold, there was sky above him, not rock. He raised his hand in a half-wave towards Cotta, "I hope you do well in whatever it is you plan on doing." With a small smile on his face he strode off, his rather scrawny, short frame actually semi-confident appearing.

[MorriganFearn]

Cotta waved farewell, and then sauntered up the path. She would head to Nga to heal Potter and Kiln, and then continue on her quest to winning Shing's beautiful heart.

Pretty soon, Zach would see smoke rising from the left hand path that Cotta had indicated, and see the steeply roofed little ski lodge, tucked away in a fold in the mountains.

((Blegh, posty of gross.))

[Lee]

((It's okay.))

Zach had to keep pausing so that Tripod could get herself out of a hole she had managed to get herself into in the snow, seeming to find all the weak, deep spots. She refused help though, and Zach wasn't on a time limit, though he really did want to get into the warmth as quickly as possible. Finally he made it to the warm looking cottage, raising a gloved hand to knock on the door. He'd never actually been to a ski lodge, so he didn't know if knocking was appropriate or not, but he decided to try the door. If it was locked, he'd knocked. If not, he'd wait for someone to show up before actually wandering far into the building.

[MorriganFearn]

"In a minute!" someone yelled from within. "Though if you're about the grain, the barn's round the back!"

A girl in a blue and white knit sweater answered the door, holding a bag of coffee beans in her mouth. She looked surprised to see a young boy with a three-legged zigzagoon, and spat out the top of the bag, so she could cradle it in both arms.

"Hey, who're you then? Customers don't need to knock, you know. We're a commercial establishment," she grinned with pride, and stepped aside, opening the door wider. "Are you a trainer? Here for lunch, I hope. Or just the healing? I mean, we only got the machine on guarantee that we'll do that for free, so it'd be nice if you bought something like lunch. Oh, come in, come in," she trudged back into a fairly large, but comfortable room.

There was a balcony on one side with stairs leading up. The windows looked out on some picturesque snowy scenery, and the fire place, which was large enough to get lost in, was crackling merrily. Surrounding the fire place was an array of padded chairs, couches, and cozy wooden tables. There was a door in the wall opposite the fireplace, the same wall along which the staircase ran at right angles to the balcony. A little before the door was a long wooden counter and what might have been a bar, or the order station. It was certainly where the bulging bag of coffee beans was dumped.

"I'm Anna, by the way," the girl said. "Alpine Anna. I run this place. So, how can I help you?"

[Lee]

"Ah, I've never really been here, so I wasn't sure about knocking or not." He sighed in relief as he stepped into the warmth, his nose aching some as it started to thaw-or at least, he thought it was thawing. It certainly felt like it had frozen. Patting his collection of pokeballs he added, "Uh, yes, I was told that I could heal my pokemon here. But now that you mention it, lunch does sound good. I do have some food, but I think something warm would go over better."

Tripod, ignoring Alpine except for a quick inspection, trotted into the warmth, shaking herself and spreading snow about the entranceway, before going to explore the seating arrangement. The cold didn't seem to bother her much, but then she had a thick coat of fur, and she hadn't really been out in the snow too much.

"Uh, I'm sorry. She's curious about everything..." Surely there was plenty of snow being spread about the entranceway? It was, after all, a snowy region. Hopeful that his apology would be enough, he took a proper look around the room. This was his element, safe and cozy. For once, he was actually relaxed and not worrying about anything.

[MorriganFearn]

"No problem," Annie replied. "I can get you a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate while I take your pokemon to the back. And then I'll take your order for lunch," she smiled nicely. "And it's no problem about the little girl. I just sweep it out and mop it up. She should be pretty popular when you get up to Li Jing. She's so cute." The lodge owner smiled.

[Lee]

"Ah, some tea would be good." He handed over the pokeballs containing the pokemon that needed to be healed, feeling better now that he knew his tired pokemon would be feeling better soon. He'd have to reward them for trying so hard, even if they had lost. Not every lost battle was technically a loss-They could still learn from it, after all. And besides, they had tried their hardest, but it had been a long road without healing. Zach smiled, even laughing a little bit, "If she doesn't get me in trouble first." In fact Tripod was currently halfway under a chair, for no particular reason Zach could figure out. She reminded him of one of his friend's growlithe's when the pokemon was trying to get a toy that had gotten stuck beneath a couch or something.

[MorriganFearn]

"Oran Cinnamon coming right up," Annie grinned as she took his pokeballs. "Right, I'll be back in a minute. You find somewhere by the fire to sit. We usually have a few trail clearers come in around dinner, but it should be pretty quiet this afternoon. It's not Tourist season, yet, you see."

She trotted off to the back, stopping to turn on the stove, and get the neat little tea bag out, and place it on a tray with the cup and a small water kettle to hold the hot water once it had warmed up. The pokeballs went on the healing machine, and Annie fiddled with the display pannel for a little, before she remembered how it worked.

Once she had that process started, the pigtailed woman came back out and poured the steaming water into the small kettle for Zach, and dumped the tea bag in. With the tray in her hands, Annie's bouncing trot suddenly smoothed into a swift glide, and she brought the tray over to Zach.

"Let it steep for a bit more before pouring," she advised. "So, you said you wanted something hot. We have a nice tomato soup on, or a French Onion Soup, if you prefer. We also make grilled sandwiches, and have a special deal going on tomato soup with grilled cheese, or we can do tuna melts, if you want one. Finally, there's the tiny meat pies, or our veggie casserole. That's got turnips, potatoes, carrots, and beets in it. As well as cheese."