As the trio made their way toward the Ruins, Roxy couldn't help but pick up her pace. The Ruins were an archaeological wonder of sorts, and just the thought of seeing it in person had her hands trembling with anticipation.
"Oooh, I wonder what it'll be like inside! I mean, I've seen, like, hundreds of pictures, but in person?" She was skipping now, giving Lucina and Aela a tough time keeping up with her.
"Apparently the Ruins have a connection to the Alph Ruins all the way in Johto! Which is, like, wild since the Alph Ruins have to do with Unown. Rumor has it that you can find Unown deep inside the Zamak Ruins, though, which means the two are most definitely related in some way!" She paused momentarily, realizing she was actually a short distance ahead of her companions, and put her hands on her hips as she waited for them to catch up.
"C'mon, guys, we gotta hurry!" Roxy was joking, of course...mostly.
Roxy noticed that Aiden seemed a bit...on edge? Zorex was also agitated to some degree, but all Roxy did was continue walking toward the Ruins with both Aiden and Novis in tow. Maybe Aiden and Zorex were upset about the food incident earlier? The trio eventually stood before the Zamak Ruins, which Roxy found to be utterly beautiful despite their obvious old age. She looked around at the tourists and scientists bustling about, and suddenly felt the same wave of anxiety that she felt when they were in the dig site earlier. Why hadn't she expected to run into more archaeologists? These were the
Zamak Ruins, after all! Roxy stood very still, realizing that she actually recognized one or two people around here; maybe she'd read about them, maybe her parents knew them? Regardless, it was definitely putting a damper on this little archaeology adventure. Glancing down at Lucina and Aela, Roxy wondered why they were both on edge too; in fact, they were acting the same way Zorex was. Lucina's arms were positioned as though she was about to
Force Palm something, while Aela was crouched down with her teeth bared.
"Um, hey guys, do you think something's-" Roxy was cut short when a horde of Mankey suddenly sprang on the group, seeming to come almost out of nowhere. She felt her bag being torn away from her as several Mankey shoved her to the ground. Lucina, furious at the sight of her trainer being attacked, used
Force Palm and quickly managed to drive them off of Roxy. Aela immediately chased after them, delivering a nasty
Bite to one of their tails. But the Mankeys seemed to be everywhere, and Roxy could hardly process what was happening; in fact, she'd since lost sight of Aela, while Lucina was set upon by even more Mankeys. Roxy's bag, meanwhile, had been tossed about six feet away, and a group of the little demons were hastily rifling through it. Inside, they found a couple brushes, and a strudel of Aiden's that Roxy had snagged before they'd left the rest site. They also found the Fire Stone, which they quickly discarded after realizing it wasn't food. The Mankeys did take the strudel though, and ran off soon after. Stumbling to her feet, Roxy shoved several Mankeys aside with her foot as she made her way through the horde.
"Lucina! Find Aela, hurry!" Lucina nodded, forcing her way through the horde until she found her teammate and pulled another Mankey off of the Rockruff.
As quickly as the horde came, they were gone, it seemed. Zorex drove them off with a nicely aimed
Dragon Rage, meaning that the Mankey were gone. Roxy pushed a stray bit of hair out of her face as she turned to Aiden and Novis, panic still on her face.
"Are you guys okay?!" she called, brushing sand off of her clothes. They seemed unharmed, at least. Lucina and Aela were also mostly unharmed, Roxy realized, with a sigh of relief. What on earth was that all about, anyway? Spotting her bag a ways away, Roxy quickly walked over to it and fished it out of the sand, huffing as she realized there were grains of sand
everywhere inside. Not to mention that her Fire Stone seemed to be missing, in addition to her strudel.
"I can't believe this! We just got jumped, and that stupid ghost thing stole from us too!" Roxy looked at Novis, confusion evident on her face.
"Ghost thing? What ghost thing?" Regardless of what the 'ghost thing' was, it had apparently stolen their Fire Stones. Which, to be fair, they had also stolen, but...still! That was one hundred percent
not cool! "Ugh, this sucks!"It was then that Novis approached some lady standing over by the Ruins, who had evidently been a spectator to their little incident. Roxy had no clue who she was, though she seemed to be yet another archaeologist studying the Zamak Ruins. Novis mentioned a Yamask, which Roxy couldn't help but find...unsurprising. The Zamak Ruins were full of ghost types, among other things, so a Yamask wouldn't be uncommon around here. She continued brushing off bits of sand as she approached the lady too, exasperation practically emanating off of her. It seemed that a large group of tourists and scientists were flooding out of the Ruins, clearly scared off by
something. Goodness, what else could possibly be going wrong today? The scientist lady was speaking to another person-likely a colleague-who appeared to be in distress. That...wasn't good, was it? Regardless, she apparently didn't want to let them inside, which just wasn't going to do.
"Ma'am, we really need to get inside. That Yamask stole from us, and we're trainers, after all. We can handle ourselves!" Aiden came up behind them, also trying to persuade her to tell them what was going on. He was right, though; they were plenty strong together, right? Novis seemed eager to bash some heads in himself, and if there was something that could possibly damage the Ruins, then...well, that was more than enough reason for Roxy to crush some foes too.