The UNION Team

Flickry hissed as the food turned on him. He panicked at the tree lunged at him, throwing his attack off its aim which gave the horned one time to push his target out of the way. Flickry was angry at this. How dare they! They were food and should not fight back! The Slash attack that the bear tried was laughable, Flickry letting out a demented cackle at the mere attempt. It easily phased through him and he continued his charge at the small Kirlia. But he was unprepared for the Dark Pulse. It HURT! Flickry was knocked back and screeched in pain. How could they hurt him? HIM?! No, no, no! Nothing about this made any sense at all! So lost in his rage was he that he took the full force of the Confuse Ray.

Now he was dizzy, he couldn't see, everything was so fuzzy. It made him angrier, until something was waving in front of his face, a blue-ish blob bouncing in front of him. But wait, that smell, oh that smell! He knew that smell! Blood! He wanted it, he needed it. Blood meant life, life meant souls, souls meant food! The smell was moving though, he had to catch it! He easily took the bait and followed the trail of blood as it led deep into the caverns, wanting a taste of the soul that was taunting him.

Theo watched in shock as his newest attack flowed effortlessly right through the body of the infected pokemon. His attack had absolutely no effect, he even had more results if he were blowing on the pokemon, but in an instant he understood why. His mother had told him about the different types of pokemon before; she said they should always watch out for fighting types, and that if you fight a ghost type, most of our attacks would do nothing against them, most likely this one was a ghost. He had never fought one before, and the idea that he could do virtually nothing against one scared him, even if he was told their ghostly attacks cannot hurt him too, but this one also seem to be part fire.

Lostcall pushed him to run, and he trusted his judgment more than his own at the moment. He was going to pick up Ena and run also, but the houndoom beat him to the punch, but he was just relieved that Lostcall deemed her worth saving, maybe he would even learn to accept her like the rest of them. He watched as Seruru took It upon himself to lure the infected away, hinting more to the prospect that this infected was a lot stronger than Theo first though, but as much as he wanted to get away, he didn’t want to lose Seruru to the infected, but knowing him he would most likely mess up any plan the riolu had. “YOU BETTER NOT DIE ON US YOU HEAR ME!?” he yelled back as he ran after Lostcall, trying to not think of the possibility that he may never see his friend again.

Luke looked back to see the Sururu luring the infected away. “The idiot,” He growled as he watched the little Riolu flee with the infected hard on it tail. He would have ran after him if he didn’t have these three to look after, and he certainly couldn’t leave Theo to watch them, as big as we was there way no way he could possibly fend for himself let alone the others. He would have to go find the little Riolu later after he found a safe place for these guys.

He had been through the cave before, many times in fact, and they where no doubt heading to the place of Lapras, the opposite direction of there destination. Ena’s light was a little helpful, but he still didn’t like her. For every second she was with them a little bit of their soul was taken from them, but the others trusted her, so he wouldn’t say anything about it to them just yet.

((Skip me.. I still need a better opportunity to drop in. .-.))

Seruru could practically hear the malicious comment that left Luke's lips as he disappeared into the darkening cave networks, pursued by an intense light... and smiled, before taking the plunge into pitch black, and being forced to navigate by his Aura-based vision.

Quickly, the little Riolu zipped through the cave networks, each Quick Attack getting slightly weaker as his Stamina decreased... until eventually, he found himself too tired to run, and staggered across to a Cave wall, taking a glance up at a small Crevice near the cave ceiling. He looked at his bloody paw, and for a moment, questioned what he had planned... before jumping into the air and hitting the wall with a Force Palm, and digging his paw into the stone.

He repeated, blasting his other palm into the wall above, and dragging his first palm from the hole he'd made in the wall. He pulled himself up again, and crawled into the crevice, before retreating a few feet into it, and waiting, keeping his breathing quiet.

No, no, no! The little smell of blood was getting faint, Flickry couldn't follow it anymore. The trail had lured him to a large, open cavern, and with the scent gone and his senses still fuzzy the blue blob could be hiding anywhere. There were two paths in the walls of the cavern, and the little blue thing had to have gone down one of them, so he would choose the one closest, the one on his right, and hope that he could track down the precious soul he craved. The hunger was like a great stabbing pain inside, agony coursing through his body without any lovely souls to ease it. He launched Flamethrower after Flamethrower down the tunnel, hoping to drive out anything to eat at this point. He just wanted the pain to stop...

Flickry wailed in sorrow and in pain as his search brought nothing. He could barely stand it, his whole body felt like it was bending, twisting and curling into itself. He needed food, only blood and souls made the pain go away, if only for a little while. His flames flickered purple, dimming greatly as they went down to almost the stubs of his lanterns. Flickry could feel himself fading, he needed that soul and he needed it NOW! In a blind rage he began taking out huge portions of the cave with Shadow Balls, if he couldn't burn them out he would bury whatever was in this cave alive, and hopefully crushing anything nearby. It didn't matter how they died, their souls would be released and then he could finally feed.

It was hard keeping up with the quadruped pokemon, to think, that just earlier this day he would have been able to ride on the back of that houndoom like the rest of the party. He wasn’t complaining, but it just struck him as odd. They seemed to be getting deeper and deeper into the cave, and as they ran he swore he could hear running water coming from somewhere, but he put that off as the cave playing tricks on him. Every yard they ran, only seemed to unsettle Theo more, he could not stop worrying about Seruru, that somehow something would happen and the riolu would end up Undead food, he may not know him all that well, but he didn’t want to lose him. He didn’t want to lose anyone. The only problem was he had no clue how to fight ghosts.
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He looked towards Lostcall, he had a human trainer, so he must have lots of experience fighting all kinds of pokemon….It was getting to be that Lostcall was like the wise old sage of the group, though without all the added age, so he must know something. “That thing was a ghost right? How do you hurt a ghost? All I was able to do was phase right through it….”

“That thing was a ghost right? How do you hurt a ghost? All I was able to do was phase right through it….” Theo asked as he walked behind Luke. The Houndoom looked over his shoulder at the Ursaring, a look of worry not even hidden on the huge bear pokemons face.
Luke looked back in front of him, looking in the direction they where taking. “Of course you phased through it, Normal type attacks have no effect on a Ghost type pokemon, just like Ghost attacks have not effect of Normal types.” It was such a simple thing to learn, he had learned about that even before he met his trainer, but he didn’t want Theo to feel like he knew nothing and kept that part to himself. “As to what can hurt it, Dark type attacks have the most effect, same with other Ghost types. But that pokemon is also half fire type, so water attacks can also hurt it.” He felt like he was a teacher having to go over things you learn when you’re a month old.

He could hear the sound of running water getting louder as they seemed to get closer to the place where Lapras lived. He was starting to feel a little uneasy now; he should be out there looking for Seruru, not babysitting these weaklings. He clenches his teeth at the thought of the only other strong pokemon getting his insides ripped out by the infected Chandelure. The sooner he got these kids to safety, the sooner he can go and help the Riolu take care of that undead.

Kirlia stirred.
((Finally.))
Straightening herself from her place slumped over the hellhound's neck, a wave of negativity washed over her like the stench of a Muk. Frustration hung heavily in the air around Lostcall, and worry. Looking over the group, she saw no sign of Seruru... Seruru! It must be something to do with Seruru.

Which left her to wonder.. not for too long, of course, as another shock of hate and pain and hunger, not dissimilar to those Infected from before, struck faintly.. from some distance. It occured to the small creature that perhaps Seruru had been separated from the others by such a thing, and was probably in some sort of danger. They all worried about him..

She wondered if it was her fault.

If she had been there, maybe he wouldn't be gone, but how could she know?

... of course it was her fault. She was weak, and she had been sleeping. Easy prey would draw unwanted attention.

The Kirlia sighed lightly, almost inaudibly, and stood up on Lostcall's back. She owed them this, since this mess was obviously her fault..

She leapt from the hellhound's back and ran off.

((Kirlia just did a stupid, I'm aware. Keep in mind she just woke up and isn't quite in a decent state of mind to think things through all the way. <.<))

The Crevice shook uneasily as Flickry pounded the walls of the cave network with Shadow Balls, and Seruru braced accordingly, holding back yelps of fear only by biting into his paw to muffle the noise.
"Mmmmnf!" he snarled, before retreating further into the crevice...
He could hear the faint sound of running water, and from previous tales told by travelling Pokémon he'd met during his time in the forest, he knew Union Cave was prone to small reservoirs, that formed nearly everywhere. In fact, he'd heard there were Lapris who lived within these caves, though he'd never ventured into them before...

He followed the sound, squirming out of the other side of the crevice with an anxious expression on his face, before falling to the floor, and being as tired as he was, he couldn't brace himself for impact...
His vision was blurry, and his ears ringing, as he dragged his snout from the dirt, and pushed himself up onto his knees. He groaned, the taste of blood heavy in his mouth... but after a moment or two, his senses began to regulate, and once again he could hear the vile shrieking of Flickry.

There was a body of water not too far away from him... it wasn't particularly large, but it was deep, he could tell from the particularly dark shade of blue.
Suddenly, a gear clicked in the back of Seruru's head. Flickry was covered in flames... was it possible that, much like a Charizard, having these extinguished would lead to death? And in that case... did he have the energy?

The little Riolu rubbed his palms together, before bracing himself. The water would most likely be cold, and he'd be risking some form of cold at the least if his idea was to work, but the temperature didn't deter him for long. After a couple of seconds, Seruru strode to the side of the water, and took a plunge beneath it, the blood coating his paws and eye suddenly rushing out to the surface and spreading, coating the water a sickly blood red.
Seruru broke the surface, panting softly, his body quivering in the new found temperature. Then his eyes were drawn to a cave mouth, where he could faintly recognize the flames of the Flickry, now a ghastly purple.

He shuddered softly, before rolling his shoulders, and hugging himself for warmth. "Hey!" he called, his voice echoing through the lower cave networks, and easily into ear shot of the Infected, "There's a whole pool of blood in here just for you! Come get it!" he taunted, before using his force palm to launch a cup full of bloody water out onto the surface, to lure his prey in... then he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, before disappearing bellow the surface.

Nothing! How could his cave-ins not have produced anything? The hunger, it hurt so badly, was there no hope of relief from it? Where was the little blue one? Where were any Pokemon in this cave? Had he eaten them all already? The walls had finished crumbling, and not a sound came from the darkness. What was he to do...

A splash.

Well, perhaps something was alive, something he could eat. The smell of blood was filling the air again and Flickry would find it. He would! He found a small pool nearby, the surface slick with fresh blood, and couldn't help an eerie cackle. Blood! Life! Souls! Quickly readying himself a Shadow Ball he intended to launch it straight into the pool and kill whatever lay beneath.

"Hey! There's a whole pool of blood in here just for you! Come get it!" Before he could launch his attack he was doused with water, and agony tore through Flickry. The Shadow Ball dissipated as he screamed in pain, his precious flames were barely hanging on, small embers on stubs. Then, in an instant, they were nothing but smoke, his internal flame snuffed and he fell to the ground. Several moments passed, and it seemed as though the threat of the psychotic Chandelure was finally over.

Spark...spark...

Little embers began flickering in the glass chamber of Flickry's body, before suddenly roaring to life in a sickening blue and violet inferno. His limbs roared to life in a similar inferno, the sudden heat evaporating the water on his form, but causing it to twist and rust in an almost painful fashion. He was not defeated, not yet. The infection had finally taken its hold, Flickry was no more. Now, there was only HUNGER.

Theo listened on as the houndoom explained all about the ghost type, made him feel slightly stupid for having to ask in the first place, but his momma never let him fight, so him not knowing about this was because of that. Lostcall seemed to know a lot about this particular undead, made him think that he had had a run in with these types before. It made him happy to know though, that he had at least one dark type of attack, he almost never used it, he had no need for it since he never fought, but maybe now his faint attack could be of use.

The kirlia that had been so quiet on Lostcall’s back seemed to sudden stir; most likely it had fallen asleep on there. She was most likely scared at the sudden change in scenery, but the fact that she would get off the houndoom’s back and run away, was a shock to him, most likely to Lostcall too. He had figured out that the reason Lostcall had decided to run rather than face the ghost head on like he would be more inclined to do was because of Ena, the Kirlia and him. They were small, and basically weak at fights, Seruru might also be small, but in action, he can easily over power pokemon bigger than him. Now that the one of the pokemon being protected has run into evident danger, Lostcall would be at in impass, to continue to protect them, or to run after Kirlia, and most likely the undead ghost.

“If want to go after her, go ahead, I’ll either follow you after her, or stay here and protect Ena, your choice. I may not be that experienced at fighting, but I can at least be of use if I have to.”

((Skip it, I can't get ahold of Kirlia's picture (not on my computer) and I can't get two paragraphs of Kirlia trying to reach Riolu.))

Suddenly, Seruru's plan had become his only hope of Survival. He hadn't realized that this Pokémon had yet to submit fully to the infection, what had once been a challenge would now be the fight of his life.

He resurfaced, gasping for breath as the blood-littered water trickled from his fur. After a few sharp breaths, he focused all his remaining energy into his next few moves. This creature was stronger now, but even so, his foe relied on it's flames to continue living.. now he'd have to bring it closer.

He swam to the edge of the water, drawing his paws back before spitting the blood in his mouth out onto the surface. "Come and get me! C'mon!" he taunted, aggression rising in his voice, as he threw his Paw's forwards, initiating two Forcepalm's, and launching two loads of water in the Infected's direction. He didn't wait to see if it'd hit. After all, he was fighting for his life, he hadn't the liberty of being left alone if he fainted.
Throwing his arms forwards again, and again, Seruru's Stamina suffered greatly, but even so he threw Forcepalm after Forcepalm, dedicated to, if not kill this creature, at least cause it to flee.

"Souls...your soul..."

There was no such thing as pain anymore, the raging hunger was all hat remained in the burning globe that made up the Chandelure. The blue one, the one who weakened him, it was going to die. Flickry watched it carefully, this time he would be ready for it.

"Come and get me! C'mon!"

More water came rushing at his flames, but this go around he managed to disperse it with a quick Shadow Ball, the water spraying uselessly around him. Flickry's reverberating chuckle echoed throughout the hollow of his body, making it sound almost metallic. This creature was food, food didn't get to fight back. It tried of course, occasionally turning to launch pathetic Force Palms at the Ghost-type Pokemon. Fighting moves were useless against one such as him, the little puppy should realize. The thrill of the fight, of the hunt, it only fueled his hunger. This defiant soul would be his.

((OOC: Go me, went to edit for a typo and accidentally hit delete.../sweat))

((Please skip my turn))

Luke stopped and watched the Kirlia jump off his back and run off on its own, "Wait!" He shouted, but the Kirlia has already disappeared into the darkness. "Mierda." He said under his breath. It was a word his trainer always said when something went wrong, he didn't really know what it meant, but he had grown somewhat accustomed to saying just as much as his trainer did. If the Kirlia wanted to go get itself killed then let it, he wasn't responsible for what happened to these pokemon.

The Houndoom raised his head to sniff the air, and his eyes went wide when one sent came to his, blood. He began to pick up speed, not even looking back to see if Theo was following him. He followed the scent of blood, which seemed to be coming from Lapras's chamber, his speed picked up into a run till he came to a halt at the edge of the water, filled with blood, Seruru's blood.

He turned his head to the commotion happening on the other side of the water, seeing Seruru still alive left some relief, but how did his blood get in the water? He prayed to Arcius that he didn't go into the water, every pool of water in this dammed cave was filled with the infection, though this water wasn't as infected as the other smaller ones, it could still infect him if he stayed in it for a longer period of time, but for him to put this much blood in the water, he had to have gone into it. "The idiot," he said as he sequenced his face as the smell of blood once again hit his nose like a wave. The Chanadlure was still attacking him, that Riolu was an idiot, a fighting type taking on a ghost type was like fighting a legend with a stick, useless. He was to far to do anything, even his Dark Pule would be useless till he got close, he just hoped Seruru would be able to hold out till then.

Kirlia wandered through the cave, hugging the walls and doing her best to stay hidden from prowling Infected. Seruru and his pursuer were far off still, and it'd do no good to die before she could reach him.. If I'm gonna die, I'll die saving him. Right?

The thoughts of death made her shudder, so she pushed them out of her mind, in favor of a burning question.. How the hell was she going to save Seruru when he had already proven a better fighter? She didn't know what she was up against, and she knew she wasn't good in combat.. Perhaps this hadn't been thought through very well. Too late now, though, so onward she pressed.

Seruru's ears twitched slightly as he heard just the faint presence of Luke's voice. One part of him wanted to rejoice, wanted to leap from the water and have another whack at this infected. The other part wanted to cave his head in for insulting him- though in retrospect, as good as his intentions were, he'd now realized that he could've taken a much more intelligent approach, had he thinking time. Still, a 'Thank you' would've been appreciated.

Suddenly renewed with new vigour, perhaps encouraged by the presence of a fellow uninfected, or driven by an urge to gain some form of revenge for what this Infected had belittled him to, Seruru climbed out of the body of water at the opposite end to Flickry, and shook himself, the blood on his fur slowly dissipating, and soaking into the stone. He checked himself quickly. He'd covered his bleeding palms with dirt before he'd leapt into the Blood, and dropped the compounds to the floor, before falling back into a stance.

His eyes glinted with aggression, as he lifted a palm, grunting as he generated what little energy he had left. A thought had occurred to him, when pinned against impossible odds..
He could still run.

He threw a glance back to Luke, before turning to the Infected, and flexing a paw, "Come and get some," he taunted, stepping into the path of Luke. At the last second, he'd move, and then it'd fly right into the Houndoom's line of fire.

No, no, NO! The others were coming now, he could see them at the other end of the tunnel, and the horned one was with them. NO! Flickry felt a deep desire to kill the horned one, something still faint in his mind telling him that the horned one deserved to die. He didn't care what for he just wanted to watch it bleed and to feast on its soul. But the blue one was first, fair is fair after all.

"Come and get some." Oh the wicked blue one! How dare he taunt the very creature that would be devouring him. The red glow of his eyes grew even more bright in his fury, his black and purple flames shooting higher. He would feed and it would be NOW. Not caring what he hit he sent out a radiating Night Shade, hoping to catch any of them that strayed too near. To follow up he launched a Flamethrower at the elusive blue canine that taunted him. That tasty soul was so close now he could practically taste it, it just needed to hold still first.

"Soul...Burn..."

Seruru had jumped into Luke's path as he ran to help the Riolu out. He didn't know what the Riolu was up to, but he kept up his pace. When he got close enough the Chandelure let out a Flamethrower, hoping to hit the Riolu, but Seruru moved out of the way, so now the Flamethrower was head toward the Houndoom instead. Luke skidded to a halt before using his own Flamethrower. The two attacks colided, showing no signs of letting up he looked over at Seruru giving him a silent signal to attack before the Chandelure could relize what just happened.

Her tracking had led her to a crevice in a wall..

This didn't look right. The wall below had been blasted with something, and a lot of it. Her guess was that Seruru had escaped through here and his pursuer had attacked the wall in a furious attempt at stopping him. Both of them were on the other side of this wall here, now, so this was it.

Can I really do this? He's better at fighting than me.. what can I do?... too late to stop now.

She leapt up to the little hole in the wall and slipped through.

Leaping out of the crossfire, Seruru rolled across the floor, before springing back to his feet and running into Flickry. He'd already accounted for a lack of an upper hand. His moves couldn't land a hit, and the Infected could easily have gotten a good shot on him, was it not distracted... but it was.

Instead of attacking it, Seruru seized one of Flickry's Candle Holders, before using his Quick Attack to throw them both towards the water. With it distracted, he hoped to force it into the water.

Flickry raged as the blue one grabbed onto one of his limbs, and began hurling them both to the water. In a fury he phased through the little beast's paw and slipped away from it, instead charging right for the horned one. His flames were in full blaze, his whole body covered in fire in the strength of his fury.

"SOULS! SOULS! SOULS!" he screeched, wanting nothing more than to devour the very things they were keeping from him. He threw another Flamethrower at the group blocking the cavern, not even caring if it hit them or not. He just wanted them to BURN. To cook their souls and scorch their flesh. He wanted their blood to boil.

The flames grew darker, the purple flames almost completely black by the time he reached them. But, before he was in striking distance, he stopped cold. He hovered before them, blood red eyes just staring, when the sound of cracking glass could be heard. It started out small, then got louder and louder, as a series of huge cracks made their way around his glass center. His flames dimmed to almost nothing, his arms completely out and the small flicker of flame in his center chamber blinking pathetically.

He shuddered, and as he tried to move forward the glass shattered, sending Flickry to the floor in a broken mess. His limbs creaked loudly, screeching as the rusted limbs curled in on themselves. He folded up like a dying spider, arms twisting and curling until he formed an almost perfect ball of metal. As he took one last look at the group his inner flame snuffed out, and his eyes went dark. After only a few seconds his body began to dissolve, starting from the top and working its way down. Even the glass around him turned to ash and slowly drifted away into the cave depths. The only thing left of poor Flickry was a faint whisper to the group that he tormented...

"Sorry..."

((OOC: It's been fun guys, but I set a 10 post limit on my little buddy here before the infection took him. Since he was both a fire and a ghost the virus would make quick work of him since he was technically already dead. But you gotta admit, classy way to go. Till next time!))

Luke watched at the Chandalure curled up into an almost perfect ball of metal. Its flames no more. The infected had died. The Houndoom lay down to catch his breath from the running and the flamethrower he was a little tired. He looked over at Seruru. "Don't run off like that again." He growled. He looked over to see the Kirlia come through a crack in the wall, and let out a sigh as it was also safe. "You two are a pain you know th-" He wasn't able to finish what he was saying when he heard the worst singing ever. It sounded like a Perish Song, though it was flat and sounded worse then nails on a chalkboard.
He looked over near the water, since that where it seemed to be coming from to see the salute of a pokemon slowly making its way over to them. His jaw opened when he realized it was the Lapras that lived in this chamber, though it was a horrid sight as well. Its skin was the infected purple colour and half rotten off, revealing flesh and bone, and its shell was cracked and falling apart. He couldn't help but clench his teeth. The Lapras let out another horrible sound. "Lapras, it must have been drawn here by the scent of blood." He growled at the Riolu and Kirlia. Out of all the infected they could have run into in this cave, why did it have to be Lapras.

((Lets try and get his battle to last for awhile, think of it as the boss battle in a video game XD ))