Passive but alert, Shannon watched the Sableye scurry back into the depths. Well... Hostile Pokemon. Of course. At least this one seemed more a scavenger than an assailant. Cautious to enter, waiting for the Hex's lead, he stepped carefully along the edge of the wide crack to the far side, taking a closer look at the end of the chasm. A beautiful place, really... Albeit eerie. The Sableye proved that. Wonder how dee- Scrambling sounds in the quartz gravel, and Shannon swiveled to see which Scarab had lost their footing and tumbled.

One, Hex, two, Anthony, four, Josh plus Matt, six; Strife. Cantering precariously back towards the team, irony's cruel hand lashed out at Shannon. His flank and side pushed down onto the rugged quartz fragments by his weight, the Amaura expended costly seconds to regain balance, propping himself right with his muscular neck. There was yelling, crashing, bruising in his field of hearing. The species went unrecognised by Shannon, but their form was disorientating, hard to track if one didn't know what was looked at. Each seemed to have two bodies, one a compact humanoid, the other thrashing, black, burly... Terrifying. Shannon's heart paused, and his legs followed. In fright, he took in as much as he could, steadying himself. One was running, hunched over to balance the massive alternate head. Eyes locked. The body glanced towards the ungainly newcomer.

Shannon had seen Josh, if briefly, out of the bucket. It was easy to judge the attacker's direction. Reacting immediately, his crests flared a sanguine glow, and his lungs emptied in a harsh bellow. The running Pokemon visibly jumped, spun towards the sound completely, its eyes widening to match the Amaura. It hissed something in a dialect Shannon didn't know. Both fighters were wary, but Shannon's opponent was wily. Twisting its bodies, the black mass opened into a maw, and a glittering mist now curled around its teeth. Shannon was momentarily enveloped by a gust of fog. It dizzied him, blurring his vision, inducing a throb in his head. Your breath's not alone, windbag, came an angry thought, and Shannon's lungs contracted again. Snow crystals from his frozen interior swarmed around his face, dispelling the stinging mist, then pulsed outwards.

The opponent tensed and shivered violently in the gust, but recovered, albeit even more cautious now, and with one arm on the ground for support. It barked something wary to its companion, who was less imposing in stature. More determined, however, and wearing more wicked fangs. The second Pokemon turned from Anthony towards Shannon, vigorously wiping frost from its body. Neither snow nor yell had changed its disposition. I have never been this scared in my life until now, thought Shannon mildly, unmoving but unaware of his crests discolouring to a pale yellow. Backing off now would be a poor decision.

"Mawile." Hex muttered, staring at the pair. "It had to be Mawile."

Mawile. They were known for their cute, bipedal appearance at the front, with little skirts and gloves. However, at the back, there was a massive, gaping maw. The frontal appearance was used to lure lovesick prey into it's massive mouth. These two seemed to be going for more of a straightforward attack, no real distraction or clever plan. One Mawile rushed forward, using it's secondary mouth to bite into Josh, throwing him into the air. It happened very quickly. Shannon rushed forward, sending forth an icy gust that damaged one, but not very much. Anthony countered an attack from one and used Water Gun on another. Hex supposed she ought to lend a hand.

Hex began to flutter her wings rapidly. She felt a strong, harsh wind beginning to swirl around it, a vortex of wind. Gust had become slightly stronger since she had last used it, but not by much. At least it was a bit more than blowing air and hoping that they would be a little bit pushed back. As the wings began to compact more of the surrounding air into the gust, one Mawile rushed forward surprisingly nimbly. It swung around it's second mouth, and used it's forward momentum to clip Hex. The gust was suddenly released, a swirling mass of air not formed properly. The air blew forward, and luckily pushed back the less intimidating Mawile. The second Mawile tripped on it's own feet, falling to the ground, slightly dazed.

"Can anyone get this one?" Hex asked, pulling herself out of the reach of yet another deadly swing of the mouth. "I can't really gust it without getting smacked."

The Mawile let Josh fall as it went to attack Shannon. He was lying on the ground now, unable to do anything while everyone else was fighting off the Mawile. His eyes shifted over to the bucket. All of the water had been spilled out into a small puddle around it. Josh sighed. Unless they could find some sort of underground lake down here, he would have to go without water until they got back to Allure.

His attention shifted back to his teammates. They were all firing attacks at the Mawile, except for Matt, who was putting up Reflect and Light Screen. He tried to use Water Gun on one of the Mawile, but it was too far away. It did come close, though. If Josh could just get a little closer he'd be able to hit it. He couldn't, though. He just ended up flopping around in the same spot, barely moving at all.

He had another idea. If he could use his psychic powers to push himself just a few feet forward, the Mawile would be within range. It was a long shot, but what was the worst that could happen. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. He had to do the same thing he does to move objects, but he had to do it on himself. That was what Matt told him.

Surprisingly, it worked. He only moved a few inches, but he was still able to do it. He tried it again. And again. He was moving slowly, but at least he was moving. Once he got to a point where the Mawile was in range, he fired a Water Gun at it.
The Mawile, who was focusing on everyone else, was caught completely off guard. The stream of water knocked it to the ground, leaving it open for more attacks.

[Spruce]

Another tackle from the tyrogue, and another vine whip from me were all that was needed after the support that my other teammates gave. "Whew..." I said to the rest of my team as I turn towards Gregory, who seemed to be looking off in some direction, for some reason. I went a little bit ahead of him, and could just barely make out the shape of a circular pokemon several feet ahead of me. I needed to find out what this pokemon was, as it seemed hostile. Another enemy already? Also, where the heck is M!? I think as I look back and say "Uh... you three stay there, alright? I'm going to go check out this mystery pokemon." I then hurry towards it, the fact that I only had short-distance moves made sure that I had to get close to anything that I wanted to fight. Eventually, I got to the magnemite... wait... that was just M, wasn't it? I put away the vine whip I had summoned, and say "Oh, it's just you, M... sorry." At least I found him, but I still had no idea what he was doing here. I could have asked, but it didn't seem as important as guarding Gregory, which is why I ended up saying "Alright, let's go, M. We've got a gible to guard." I then started heading back to Gregory, who will only have two pokemon guarding him for a little bit.

---

[Anthony]

I braced myself for another attack, as these mawile seemed to like using bite on me, however, the one that attacked me next used something else... an odd, pink mist found its way to me, and at first I thought it was safe, but some sort of strange material in the mist started slicing away at my skin, leaving me with almost no energy left, and no way to effectively heal. "Agh... this was a mistake... I might not make it." I tried to say to my team as I desperately looked through my bag in hopes of finding at least an oran berry, or something to heal myself with. Unfortunately, no such luck happened, and I had to try plan b. I faked my own fainting. It wouldn't have been as believable if I didn't have my helmet and the mawile could see my (still open) eyes. I simply made myself look like an inanimate pile of sludge to make it seem as though I've fainted, which had the mawile start focusing its attention on someone else in my party. If the normal enemies were going to be like this, then I'm not sure if we stand a chance against the boss of this area... but, we had to try, we had to at least give it a shot, we needed to help these pokemon... we just needed to train a little more than your average pokemon would have, as these mawile apparently have some sort of way of effectively attacking dragons, and were steel types, something none of us could actually hit with decent damage. I watched as the mawile made its way towards Matt, who was still working away with his reflect and light screen... if it weren't for those, I would have fainted by now. I'll have to remember to thank him when my life's not in danger.

Eyes snapped tight as a sudden airflow pushed past the Amaura's head, but fear soon opened them again. To his relief, but fueling more disorientation, targets had already shifted. A dance had been engaged between the long-fanged Mawile and Hex, attempting to out-maneuvre the Mawile long enough to focus the moving air. A sound stole attention before he could give it to the other fay, presently being buffeted by water and yelping. The rapidity with which Shannon's situation was dismantled was enough to force a simple realisation through his daze- The Mawile were powerful, but outnumbered, perhaps even recklessly so. Two was easy enough to divide into individuals, and individuals were easy enough to overpower.

The fanged one's disruptive. Goodnight for you first, then. Sails pulsed back into red, glowing fiercely as Shannon overloaded them with energy. "Hex, make way!" A clear but abrupt warning; Shannon didn't wait before a swirl of light flowed from his headgear. The irregular aurora broke over its target like a wave, and there was a crackle of electricity. A spasm from the Mawile's jaws, but most of its body was stunned. It regained its footing with twitchy, disconnected movements. There's your upper hand, Hex Flutter. Gust to your heart's content.

Perhaps without due wisdom, Shannon turned away from the somewhat-paralyzed fairy to their other opponent. With a roll in his head, the sharp throb of the magical gas subsiding into aches and dull nausea, he considered approaching the Mawile and headbutting it while it was down, but not for long. There was a silver glint to their fangs which Shannon was growing steadily more conscious of, and in his ignorance of the species, he wasn't eager to engage one at close range. Amaura's internal cells rely mostly on ice for structure, and their porous fossil bones are frozen solid for strength, at the cost of brittleness. Their bodies are shattered by iron, not cut by it. Unmoving, Shannon inhaled softly and deeply, replenishing his snow should either Mawile need further beating from distance instead.

"Are you blind? (Trust me; this fog isn't that thick.) I'm not more than a metre away from Greg." I said with annoyance, facing Spruce from a height. "You three dabbled off to focus on one Pokemon, I was left to guard Greg from 3 sides. Which somehow ended well." I continued, sounding unpleasant.

"Would you cut it out, 'M?'" To my surprise, Gregory started to talk to me. I turned from Spruce to Greg (who was behind me) to pay attention. Which I really wished I hadn't. "Come on; we're not getting any closer to the treasure with your whinging." I rolled my eye and added an 'urgh.' "Look, I asked you to come along for protection, not for this nonsense. I hope I'm clear on that." I was left twitching, which a dull headache from last night following. As much as I wanted to either to scoff, it wasn't like they'd be willing to put up with more complaints from me. I instead sighed quietly before following Greg's direction.

So much for finding Davis. I groaned, in my head as I silently followed Greg's little footsteps. I intermittently jerked my eye around to see if anyone was going to attack us again, although this time not much movement was going on in the shifting fog. How suspicious...

Celes listened to everything, all the fact that people were getting lost and found, that they left their guard duty, that they did not do a good job. She sighed at this. Seriously, did they have to be so serious about it? Sure they left for a couple of minutes, but that is because there was a pokemon attacking, and they needed to take care of it. She breath deeply.
"Well... let's just move on. Like Gregory said, we won't find anything just by standing there idle." she says before moving forwards, keeping a eye off everywhere, looking for anything that might attack or anything that might hurt them. Seriously, with all this fog, it was a surprise no one hit each other while doing ranged attacks or anything. She been careful with her swift attack... which she knew she would keep cause of how strong she hit with it compare to her other moves. Well... it was surprising to see how effective she could be right now. Hidden power for ground and swift... those 2 moves actually helped her so much...
"Oh and M, please don't be hard on everyone. No one can be perfect." she then says quietly and with the nicest tone possible.

"Indeed!" Kamina agreed "our great adventure into the lands of fog have but just begun. I wonder what other hazards we will encounter in such a place. Maybe the lands just beyond are plagued with the undead, or maybe the treasure is guarded by some horrific beast from some strange world outside of our understanding. We could be walking into a den of death and despair, surrounded on all sides my creatures so foul and evil that their very presence could harm us! Or maybe the fog itself comes from another plane of existence, and it is merely leaking into our world through some sort of gateway between words, one that will lead to the treasure, inside a world s strange and alien that our very ability to move might be hampered!.........It sounds so exciting! I can't wait!!"

"Thanks, Shannon!" Hex called out, glancing over at the Amaura.

Her Mawile seemed to be half-paralyzed by the aura that Shannon had just released. It stumbled around on less-than-steady feet. There was an occasional crack of electricity and the Mawile would actually buckle, it's joints seemingly giving way. It was perfect for a gust. Hex began to flutter her wings rapidly once more. These Mawile were certainly starting to be come a pain. If they weren't dealt with soon, they could seriously jeopardize the whole mission. Already it seemed some of their teammates were badly injured. Anthony looked like a pile of slop. Josh was out of his bucket, the water spilled everywhere. Another strong gale was beginning to be formed. Her crystalline wings suddenly gave forth to a strong gust, letting loose a strengthened gust of air. The paralyzed Mawile was easily pushed back, it's limbs twitching and out of order.

"I think I got this one." Hex said, watching as the paralyzed Mawile was thrown back. "Seems pretty weak right now."

The Mawile seemed to be done for. The paralyzation, the water, and the wind had to have effected it. It was off balance and cross eyed, trying to make sense of the battle. Hex stirred up another strong gust, her wings working hard. A steady flow of adrenaline seemed to be what mostly kept her wings steady. Otherwise, they would have given out a long time ago. She released another gust at the weakened Mawile, but quite a bit less thick and controlled. The gust knocked the Mawile to it's feet. She released a series of smaller gusts at the Mawile until it seemed to stop fighting. The only movement from the Mawile was the occasional twitch of it's legs or elongated mouth. Hex fluttered down, examining it. It seemed knocked out, but she didn't want to get too close for fear that it was just playing dead, and it was just waiting to snatch her up in it's fangs.

"This one is done." Hex said, flying back up from the Mawile.

One of the Mawile was paralyzed by Shannon. This gave Hex an opportunity to finish it off. Josh glanced over at the knocked-out Mawile for a moment. "Great, we got one." He turned back to the other one. "One left."
The remaining Mawile was going for Matt. Once again, Matt had the Mawile's enormous jaws latched onto his arm.
"I got it!" Josh said, aiming another stream of water at the attacker. It let go of Matt's arm immediately, and turned to Josh. "Oh no...I need some help!"
He was now struggling to get away, pushing himself across the ground with his psychic powers. He was moving very slowly, though. The Mawile would get to him if it wasn't dealt with quickly.

[Spruce]

A long walk through the fog revealed no more enemies beyond what we've already fought, and, after listening to Gregory's directions, we finally make it to where the treasure supposedly lies. The fog cleared to reveal a marble altar, on top of which was a strange, grey crystal that seemed to be holding something in place, or, rather didn't seem inactive, at the very least. "Whoa... is that a void crystal?" Gregory asks me, to which I reply by simply shrugging as the fog around the general area dissipates, revealing a strange set of scenery. The floor under us looked as though it was made of the same material as the altar, yet didn't feel as if it was, and there were several strange trees also possibly made from this stuff. The trees came in varying sizes, and, with what they seemed to be made of, it looked as though they were made by a master sculptor rather than nature, heck, even the roots seemed unnatural, as they formed an arc above the crystal in question, which seemed to pulsate an odd, yet somehow familiar energy when I got near it. I edged closed to the crystal before I get stopped by Gregory, who shouts "Hey! You can't take one of those! I mean, yeah, I kinda feel like I should get something from this whole adventure, but you just can't take a void crystal. If you do that, some other universe will seep through where the crystal used to be, killing all who are nearby at the time... yeah, just leave that thing where it is, okay?" Unfortunately, I didn't listen, and continued to edge towards the crystal, drawn to it like a bug-type to a charmander's tail. Fortunately for those around me, I was stopped yet again, this time by a mysterious figure, which was revealed as an absol after she slashed at me, throwing me back towards my teammates. "Ha!" she gloated, later adding "So, you're the one who's supposed to replace Vine, then?" I shake my head, not even knowing what's going on, and she laughs an evil, cackling laugh as she continued "Of course you are. I guess he never told you who I was... pity. I'm Desia, future ruler of this pathetic mud ball, and I'm here to destroy you, and take this crystal." another figure still seemed hidden just outside where the fog cleared, and therefore, in the fog, however, so I was guessing she didn't come alone. I tried to get up from that one simple attack that was thrown at me, but, wow, it wasn't easy. It took a little while, but I finally got back up, only to have her use night slash on me, knocking me out right then and there. "Don't... let her win... don't give up..." I tried to say to the rest of my team as I struggled to maintain consciousness.

---

[Anthony]

The mawile were no longer focusing on me, and one of them was already down for the count. The other didn't seem as though it could take much more, either. Hey, now's my chance! Everyone already thinks I'm KO'd, so maybe I can pull off some sort of stealth attack. I think as I get up from being a sludgy mess on the floor and start to head over to the mawile, who was about to attack Josh, carefully. The thing didn't even notice me as I tackled the thing, heck, I even had enough time to scope out the thing's weak spot, and I aimed right for it, resulting in a powerful attack, one that seemed to be just enough to finish off that last mawile. "Whew... that was close, huh, guys?" I ask the rest of the team. I then add "We... may want to rest up for a bit, you know, to regain our energy." that fight took a ton out of me, but, for all I know everyone else could be in perfect shape. I just hoped that they would let me rest, I mean, yeesh, I was beaten within an inch of my life back there, and only managed to come out of that fight alive due to sheer dumb luck. Of course, what lies ahead could be even worse... which just means that we should be in peak condition if we want to continue through this beautiful, yet extremely dangerous cave. I then wondered what kinds of shady pokemon would hide in here, and if we're even remotely ready to take them on in a fight. We had to be ready, even if it meant that we had to stay behind to train up our levels, heck, I'll even stay here until I'm fully evolved if that's what it would take, but... my teammates might think differently than me on that regard.

"Aha! So here we are at last; the epic battle I have been waiting for for so long! My entire body feels tingly just thinking about it! Strange Absol, I have no idea who you are, but I will still engulf your body within the flames of my passionate burning soul! It's embers will consume your very being until you are no more! Now...taste the might flame that lies within my body!" His rant done (for now, Kamina's rant is never truly done) he fired of a volley of Ember at the Absol "I shall make you pay for harming my companion and......whatever else it is you were planing on doing here. I'm not quite sure what that was again, but I know it was something very bad. Therefor, I shall stop you! I the name of great justice! he declared, although his words his words lost most of their impact since it was a Magikarp saying them

Celes looked at Desia with eyes of anger at the moment. Ruling over everything? Was she really serious!? Was she really thinking about doing that! She looked at her and then suddenly used confuse ray, hoping to hit. Seeing how Spruce was hurt so much by one attack, their best bet might be to confuse her and possibly make it easier for them to strike her.
"Controlling the world! Do you really think we would let you do that! No one should control the world! Everyone should be free! Not trapped by the will of the others like a iron fist!" Celes then says before launching a large swift attack towards the Absol, seeing that it... did not do much damage at all. Who was she anyway! God... here comes the boss battle it seems. This will be hard.

"Yeah, except it's natural for Pokemon to seek perfection." I grunted to Celes, catching the attention of Greg who jerked his head at me. I waved my magnets into the air as I made a 'woah' expression. He didn't seemed too fazed, but otherwise he was nice enough to tolerate my complaints. I settled down after he began walking with Spruce again, although I narrowly got hit in the head by a branch... or, was it a Pokemon trying to swipe me there? I couldn't tell, because that disappeared as soon as I passed it.

Half an hour later, we were in the presence of a dull crystal. Heck, pretty much everything in the particular area became a monotone colour, except for us since we weren't really made of this stuff. Spruce did have an unnatural tint though - he seemed to loose a bit of contrast. Except, so did everyone else. I think it was because of the light emanating from the crystal. "Well, let's get pillaging." I stupidly said, not hearing Greg's voice over the sounds of... earth being ripped up from the ground. At a fast velocity... "By the way, what's that sound? It's giving me a headache." I turned to the direction of the sound. There was definitely some activity going on.

... .... . .----. .-.. .-.. -.-. --- .-. .-. ..- .--. - - .... . --

I couldn't be bothered translating this time. All I knew was that he was following me around. I shook my head, letting my eye wobble for a bit. At least now I didn't feel so miserable. Except, it was replaced with disapproval (Spruce not listening as he began walking to the crystal, as if in a trance) and annoyance (meeting Desia, who... was actually rather familiar).

"You're Desia? Sorry, Davis' stories about monsters suddenly got a lot more real and unrecognisable."

... (Be aware this isn't morse code.)

At that point, I can safely say I became a main target for her. For... how about, even after death? What I meant was, she'd be chasing me for a while. I sometimes wish I never came up with that brilliant insult.

"You're crazy!" Greg shouted from the tip of his tongue. "You'll kill us all if you take it!"

The burly assailant moved with dexterity that, while lacking full vigour, came unexpected to Shannon- Although presumably much less so than to Josh. Despite starting to exhale the breath he was holding in response, Shannon ceased his flurry promptly when Anthony's movement caught his eye. He's sneaking. Mustn't draw attention this way; He'll see us both... And I'm told Goomy are Draconic. The mawed Pokémon had proven capable of using what was likely a Fay specialty, and Shannon was as yet unable to focus his icy powers on a single target. Risking a self-inflicted loss for Team Scarab was recklessly inappropriate. Snow crystals dissolved in Shannon's lungs and he kept quiet as Anthony struck the Chasm local with a splat and a thud. Bravely done, nodded Shannon, revolving his head again. The other was no longer in shape to fight, and if it was wise, it wouldn't try. He nodded to Hex with a small smile. The skirmish was over.

Beyond that moment, however, Shannon was lost for words. Team Scarab had repelled its enemies, as such teams were required to do. The team would move on... Soon. What of the defeated Pokemon? Did the plan even include entering the depths yet? The battle had come as an interruption. Focusing on the present, he put his attention on Anthony, who was speaking. Such a strange body. It was hard to judge his wellbeing, but the Goomy did look rather... Ill-congealed? Liquefied? ...Poorly. Poorly will do for ah damn it, no, no I must not offer to carry him in the bucket, that is demeaning. Or at least... Not until he knew Anthony better. He'd wait for that.

"I'm sure we'll wait if that is needed now," offered Shannon simply, but audibly enough for the entire team. It was a question, or at least a discussion. He fixed his tossed satchel around his shoulder. Memory rang. "...And Archibald put something in my bag for health." Fetching and holding the little blue berry lightly between his teeth, Shannon plodded over and craned his neck to drop the Oran before his new teammate. "I recognise what these are well enough. Say Josh, are you quite well? Without that water?" The Skrelp had been tossed around more than the rest of them, certainly, and now the bucket was empty. Shannon saw tooth marks and bleeding. ...How does he still move, then? He's upright. He's... What? Whaaat.

"That was tough." Hex said, fluttering lower, her wings shuttering to a stop. "Those Mawile must've been pretty strong."

Hex lowered herself onto the craggy, rough ground. Beige dust blew up in thick clouds around her as she landed, her insect wings shuttering to a stop. The Mawile were surprisingly strong, and that was only one of the many pokemon located in the chasm. Who knew what else they could deal with in Crystal Chasm? Sinister pokemon, waiting in the shadows to lunge out at them, twice as strong as the Mawile that had nearly just sweeped their entire team. However, there were pokemon down there, that could use their help. It was quite a predicament. They could go down now, but risk losing their entire team. Or they could wait, and train, but risk the pokemon in the chasm getting hurt or another explorer team coming down to help instead of Team Scarab.

"So, what do you guys think we should do?" Hex asked, looking between her bruised up team. "I think that we should take our chance now, while we can, while it may it be dangerous."

She slowly fluttered back into the cave. "I'll just scout ahead for a moment. I'll be back in a flash." She announced, turning to the cave. Hex held her breath, hoped that she wouldn't snatched from the air, and flew into the cave. She made sure to stay high, far away from any hungry wild pokemon moping about in the cave. She spotted a fair couple of pokemon on her way in. There were several Geodude surrounding a glowing crystal. There was a group of Mawile, which she noted as a problem, relatively close. There was a Gible who seemed to be climbing one of the crystals. That was about the extent of her trip. There didn't seem to be many other pokemon beside that. However, the pokemon that were there were strong, and most of them could rather easily sweep the entire team, so they had to be careful. She no

As she began to fly back to the entrance, several pokemon around the bottom spotted her. "There she is, the little snack." A pokemon purred from the darkness. It's eyes glowed. The Sableye had returned. "Take her!" Several Geodude from the bottom made potshots of gravelly rocks at her, luckily missing due to the darkness. Some Mawile growled, their second mouths snarling and drooling, but they were much too low to really reach her. The only threat was the Sableye. The little mad pokemon had climbed onto a crystal, and was leaping gracefully from one bioluminescent quartz to another, aiming for the ones that were high and jutting out of the craggy walls. He was gaining quickly. He was beginning to be quite the annoyance. As he leaped once again, right in snatching distance of Hex, she blew up a quick, strong gust, which interrupted his little game and sent him flying back down to the bottom once again.

Hex came breathlessly back to the entrance. "I think our best bet is to stick to the darkness." She panted. "Probably safest when they can't see us."

"I'll be fine." Josh said. "I can go without water for a while." He actually didn't know how long he could go without water, but besides having dirt between his scales, he was feeling fine at the moment.
"Nonsense!" Matt said. "You may be fine now, but we need to find water as soon as possible. Aquatic Pokemon such as yourself need it to survive. "
"So, what do you guys think we should do?" Hex asked. "I think that we should take our chance now, while we can, while it may it be dangerous."
"i agree." Matt said. "Josh may not make it if we waste time training."
"Yeah, let's go for it." Josh said.
Hex flew ahead for a moment, and came back moments later, completely out of breath. "I think our best bet is to stick to the darkness. Probably safest when they can't see us."
Matt gave a slight nod. "It would be best not to waste time fighting." He picked up the bucket, and put Josh inside. "You move rather slowly with your psychic powers. Carrying you around is still our best option."

[Spruce]

I watched in horror as my teammate's attacks failed to have any sort of impact on the apparently super-powered absol, who quickly jumped and ran between my teammates, possibly even attacking a few of them. Unfortunately, she noticed that I was still up, and an evil grin spread across her face, with her saying "Well, well... seems that I've underestimated you, Spruce... but not much." Knowing that my 'cover' was blown, I slowly and clumsily got back up. I couldn't even stand correctly, and to the uneducated, it looked as though I've had too many X-eye seeds with how much my body was swaying back and forth. Desia then took this opportunity to slash at me using some sort of weird, shadowy energy, or, perhaps she missed? Somehow, by some miracle, I took no damage from the move. Sure, I coughed up a bit of blood from Desia's previous attack, but this one didn't seem to hurt at all. Desia seemed just as confused as I was, as all she reacted with "...Huh? D-did I somehow... miss? Gah, Quartzil! Get your lazy tail in here and attack this flea!" This was followed immediately with "Yes, ma'am." and an attack from the side. The attack seemed to simply consist of Quartzil, who turned out to be a haxorus charging towards me whilst emanating that shadowy aura, meaning that it was probably similar to Desia's attack. As intimidating as it was, the attack didn't to a dang thing to me... somehow. "Uh... miss Desia? I think we've got one of those, er, evasive pokemon." Quartzil reacted to his attack utterly failing. I then noticed something, where those two attacks hit, my body seemed to completely lose its coloration, reverting to a grey color, meaning that I now had a grey blot on my left side, and a grey slashmark (though, non-damaging) on the front. "Hm... Quartzil, is it possible that this freak isn't effected by our shadowy attacks?" Desia then asked her assistant, who nodded. The two then both attacked, one with dragon rush, and the other with psycho cut... which was more than enough to knock me out. They then started to focus on the rest of my team, no longer needing to pay me any heed. Desia started with M, an evil look came to her eye as she announced "You're next." to him, and a shadow-enhanced slash was thrown in some sort of effort to get him to stop mocking her, while Quartzil focused on Celes, using a dragon rush on her.

---

[Anthony]

"Are you sure we can't wait? I'm kinda tired from that fight... fine, I'll see if I can pull through." I said to my team once they decided on continuing onwards. Normally, I'd be all for diving head-first into danger, but, well, I was almost out of energy already. Hex then left for a while, leaving me with the weird dinosaur, the seahorse, and the jelly-thing for a little bit. None of them were very chatty during the time that she was gone, but when she came back, she came with some bad news... apparently, things were so bad up ahead that we had to use the shadows to get around. Wait... I'm no good at sneaking around! Ugh... well, this is going to turn out well. I think as I try to look for any kind of shadow that I could hide in. Unfortunately, there weren't any in our immediate area, with the crystals' light erasing most, if not all, of them. I was certain that this mission's reward would be worth all of this hassle, and, with enough searching, I did eventually find a shadow, though, it wasn't all that large, and would probably only fit one of us. I took my place there, and simply hoped that the others would find their own shadows to hide in. I then tried to head onwards without detection, moving slowly and carefully and occasionally moving on the walls or ceiling to evade the eyes of our enemies. I ended up passing by a group of mawile, geodude, and even a gible as I did this, thankful that none of them could attack me while I was on the ceiling... given that they were already alerted to my presence... oops.

Celes saw the dragon rush coming right towards her, and stares in horror. She quickly moved back a couple of feet, luckily dodging the ferocious attack. She then attempted a swift attack... that unfortunately did not seem to do a dang freaken thing to the haxorus. He then attacked her with the same shadowy attack, hitting her hard and sending her flying straight to a tree. She fell on the floor, but still conscious. She had to not give up.... but they were so strong.... they hitted so hard.... She knew they were going to take the crystal... but what if... what if someone else were to take the crystal instead of them? She knew the concequence of that happening.... the void crystal would affect them all... but what good would it do if the actual villain gets it? Not much.... She tries to get up, but barely gets on her feet. She looks at the haxorus who was moving towards her with large stomps. She had to get away from it... She quickly used confuse ray... which luckily affected the big thing, and rushed to the side, moving to Spruce.
"Spruce... wake up... please..." she says desperately. She then hears the Haxorus hitting near her. She grabs Spruce and move him a bit farther to not get him to receive more hits, before seeing the haxorus shaking his head and then rushing towards her mad like a tauros that got his tail pulled by someone. This was gonna hurt. She quickly jumped in the air, and used her hidden power attack, seeing it not do much damage. She then got hit by a dragon claw attack, sending her flying, and making her slowly on the ground. She had to stay awake.... Too weak.... she looked at the whole group, her eyes feeling heavy. A oran berry... she had to use one... This fight was impossible.... they could not win this... they had to escape... they had to get away from those crazy maniacs.... they had to get away so next time they would be able to train up and actually affect those guys... They had to...

...'You move rather slowly with your Psychic powers.' An unnatural psionic, then. That's... That's rare, I suppose. Shannon had come off lightly from the battle, compared to the rest of the team. Ungainly proportions and a slow plod would be detrimental to scouting, though. Thus the Amaura was left to count out minutes while Team Scarab rested and congealed and awaited Hex's word. Word which wasn't especially positive when it arrived. The Combee didn't let on about having encountered any hostile native Pokemon, although... Judging by her breathing, Hex had either moved at a sprint most of the way or she had flown evasively for the last stretch. Hex was just flying to make the most of the time. This cave isn't crowded, Shannon, there wouldn't have been need to do that.

The decision to sneak was prudent and logical, but Shannon's misgivings grew quickly, straining against the knowledge that there likely wasn't a better way. Dimming the auroras around a lowered face would not shrink him down to an inconspicuous size. A target was rarely comfortable. "...A moment please." Although the effect wasn't major, Shannon took a moment to manipulate the ice crystals on his flanks, flattening and enlarging them irregularly. Soon, the sides of his body were glazed over with a thin crust of faceted ice that glinted where the light hit them, like the quartz around him. Most of Shannon's body- Back, neck, tail and limbs- Still cast a silhouette against any glittering crystal, but there was improvement. Soon enough he was tailing the group with a steadier step, laying his head low, moving in short instances between staying hidden and motionless. Danger lurked and risk was high, and Shannon's face found a roguish grin in the dark.