The OUTSKIRT Team

Crescent sighed in relief when she heard the Charizard tell the Samurott not to attack her. "A-as Regale was saying, did you guys find any water?"Crescent asked, daring to inch a little closer towards the two.

Regale's golden eyed gaze is steely as he crosses his scythes, trying to keep the tears of betrayal from his eyes.
Hiroshi...
He would never admit it out loud but he quite liked having friends again...Perhaps even hoped they could eventually be something more.
But no the big stupid mercenary had to go and ruin everything for him and now he could never show his true feelings. Land dweller's were all the same!
The Kabutops bends his scythes in on each other so they resemble a massive "W"
"Wwhatever." He says haughtily turning away before the others can see the thin tears starting to ooze down his face.
Was there really no-one out there who really loved him?
"Screww you guys." Aware that his voice is starting to tremble the Kabutops turns tail and flees back to the Outskirt Stand where he can throw an infantile temper tantrum in peace.

"Regale...Oh now look what you've done." Hiroshi says disapprovingly, glad he has something to distract himself from the awkwardness of their conversation.
"There's a big bunch of cactus's to the west of here. We can squeeze water from them if we have to." The Charizard says, glad he remembers that the squat desert plants are filled with drinkable, if not very nice, water. Their desert hideout will survive another day.
But now Regale was sulking...
Hiroshi was used to Hideki over-reacting whenever he was off his game, the Water Type covering for any of his trips and spills was what had allowed them to survive the epidemic for this long. However the Kabutops was overly sensitive and had taken things the wrong way.
"Hideki...Crescent. I'll go calm down his majesty." Here the Charizard rolls his lava orange eyes to show his disapproval of how much of a drama queen the Shellfish Pokemon is being. "[color=#EE4000]Why don't you go and start harvesting some Cacti? Just lop the spines off and we'll squeeze the water out of them back at the stand.
Flapping his wings once the Charizard rises in the air and follows the distant shape of the Kabutops.

The Samurott turns his head away, pointing his nose towards the remaining pokemon.
Come on. He signs, not caring that the Lesser God can't understand his hand movements.
He hasn't seen the cactus patch his God of Flames and Stone was talking about but he knew which way west was.
Head lowered against the wind which is once again starting to pick up the Samurott walks into the desert.

Sighing Crescent followed the Samurott as he walked off. She didn't really want to be alone with Hideki, in case he turned and attacked her when Hiroshi wasn't around. Crescent get a hold of yourself! He won't attack you! Maybe... Crescent thought, making sure to keep a good distance from the water type, but close enough to not get lost as the wind started to kick up a sandstorm.

((OOC: I'm not sure how you'd react to the sandstorm, and If you don't agree to it I can edit it out.))

Sulkily Regale sits on the sands and crosses his scythe-like arms.
It was his fault for thinking these land-dweller scum could possibly be real friends instead of treachery greedy grasping creatures like all land dweller, spilling their poisons into his oceans.
This was all some kind of game to them.
He had never really regained his leadership, never really ruled over this pathetic scrap of land. He wasn't really capable of forming an army to rule this plane of existence and reclaim his birthright. He was simply hiding like a frightened little child.
A stream of tears, tinged faintly purple streams down his angular face as he hides his tears behind the back of one of his scythe blades.
He is so very, very, lonely...
"Wwhatever." He says to himself, his tone shallow and trembling. "I don't need fronds..."

"Regale, I mean, Your Majesty!" Hiroshi calls out as he stumps over the sands. The two-toed footprints of the Kabutops are still fresh enough to be seen and he doesn't want to stress his wing by flying.
Through the faint dusty haze of the dry air he sees the hazy shape of the hunched over Kabutops.
"I'm sorry about Hideki." He says with an embarrassed look on his toothy jaws. "He gets carried away sometimes but he didn't mean anything by it."
When the Kabutops remains sullenly silent Hiroshi softly sighs and sits down next to him, his flame tipped tail slowly twitching.

Hurry up. Hideki signs irritably as the winds picks up and bends his long elegant white whiskers back.
He is used by now to the feel of many tiny grains of airborne sand against the thick water-proof fur of his back but it is still an irritation.
The warmth of the sun is less marked on his back, night is approaching and with it the desert will become nearly freezing.
The bitter scent of desert plants lets Hideki know he has found the cactus patch Hiroshi was talking about.
With a curious delicacy the Samurott sniffs at the plants, arranged in a huddled formation of small squat cacti and larger thin tall cacti and tentatively reaches out a paw. The spines are sharp, an attempt to prevent any predator from biting into it.
Hideki draws his Seamitar and looks down at the Lesser God.
Well come on, what are you waiting for?
A sandstorm starts to blow...

Crescent bit back a snide remark as the Samurott looked at her as though she was going to do all the work. She examined one of the cacti before stepping back a little. "You may want to step back a bit." Crescent said as her head scythe glowed white with the power of a Razor Wind. She tried to ignore the sand hitting her fur, but she soon realized it wasn't just because of the wind. Oh no... Not a sandstorm. I don't want to get caught in a sandstorm with Hideki... She thought, hoping that this was all the water they needed.

"I'm pathetic." The Kabutops says softly, looking down at the sands as the few speckled drops of his tears wash into the dirt.
It is obvious from his tone that Hideki's sudden attack has startled him but that isn't the real reason for his breakdown. No, there is some deeper psychological issue here.
Regale takes off his crown and holds it in his blades.
"I'm not even a real king but still I keep on pretending. Pretending that I'm important. Pretending that I'm liked..."
Regale slumps in his depression.

[quote="Kaze"]

"I like you." The Charizard says softly, twitching his flame tipped tail.
"I mean sometimes you can be kinda annoying but your also quite cool and fun and that big white lazer beam thing was really awesome. You saved our asses back there and you know it so stop sulking o.k? I'm your friend and Hideki's your friend even if he has a really weird way of showing it so why don't you get up and help us harvest cacti. We need your leadership skills if we're going to make it through this."
The Charizard grins, extending a clawed hand towards the Kabutops.
The growing wind tugs at his strained wing and he instinctively folds them in against his back before he realizes the growing wind is being caused by the start of a sandstorm.
He doesn't have time to give more of a motivational speech to Regale.
"Come on!"

The moist sound of splitting plant flesh reaches Hideki's ears and the large Water Type draws his blade to try and trim the sharp spines from the bulbous plant.
The sand stings his blind eyes but the Water Type stoically ignores it until, reaching a paw out towards the next cactus when suddenly the bitter plant scent moves, the tall cactus bending its body inwards, sharp thorns closing like fingers over his metal arm and gouging scratches in the metal with a high pitched shrieking sound.
The rush of sand, drawn up from the desert to whirl around the cactus, becomes more violent.
The abrasive grains batter Hideki from the side as he yanks his arm free of the plant reviving in the cooling air.
The warmth of the sun is disappearing.
Several of the small lumped cacti start to move free of the place where they were resting, waiting for the cool of night.
The Cacturne bends down and blows sand in Hideki's already blinded eyes.
Please help me kill this. Hideki politely signs to Crescent.
"Who are you?" The Grass/Dark Type says in a voice like the hiss of the wind.

"Oh that is just fucking unbelievable. We find a cactus and what do you know? It's a fucking Cacturne. Un-fucking-believable" Crescent surprised herself at the curse words, but then again, she was tired and her mood got the better of her. Sighing she rolled her eyes. What else did she expect? For them to be real cacti? With their luck? No way. I'm really starting to hate this desert. Crescent said, trying to brace herself against the harsh wind blowing and the sand hitting her side. This was turning out to be a lousy day.

((Hooray! Crescent reached 25 posts!))

Startled at finding himself abruptly pulled to his feet the Kabutops stumbles and nearly falls over as the Charizard pulls him up.
"Unhand me peasant!" He protests irritably on principle. "I can wwalk by myself!"
The gust of wind that blows up into the Kabutops's face merely bounces off the tough caramel colored shell but the fossil pokemon isn't bothered by it at all, unlike his more vulnerable companions.
It takes a while for the situation to click in his head as he realizes that getting caught in a sandstorm would be a bad thing for the others.
Keeping pace with Hiroshi the Shellfish pokemon straightens his crown on his head and stumbles forwards, heading for where he last saw the others going.
The wind is whipping up an obscuring haze of dry sand.

"Come on!" Hiroshi says in a panic, one wing flapping uselessly as he tries to get airborne.
The sand stings his eyes as he tries to seek out his companions.
The tall shadowed shape he mistakes for Hideki turns out to be nothing more than the spiked shape of a cactus and Hiroshi is about to leap onwards before he realizes the tall spiked plant is is starting to move.
Squinting in the haze of the Cacturne's sandstorm he catches sight of Hideki, metal arm caught in the Grass Type's sharp spines.
"Let him go!" The Charizard growls, a spark of flame growing in the back of his throat like a pilot light as he prepares a Flame Burst.

My God! Hideki manages to sign one handed and with a loud scraping sound like nails on a chalkboard he tries to free his hand from the Cacturne's grip.
The plant's body simply smells like plant and the hot dry sand the dark type is sweeping up with its Sandstorm attack with no hint of rot.
"It has been so long since a fresh meal has come so close." The Grass Type says with a hiss as it picks up the Samurott bodily and turns him towards the Charizard, using Hideki's body as a shield.
Hideki winces in pain as the many spines on the Grass Type's body poke into him.

Crescent's head scythe glows white as she powers up a Razor Wind. She sees the Cacturne turn away from her and she sees her chance. "Hey Ugly! Don't blink!" She said, letting loose the Razor Wind. The wind scythe hit the Cacturne square in the back, shedding off a lot of the spikes on it's back. Crescent saw her chance and raced at it with a quick attack, jumping off the ground to rebound off it with her hind legs, making it drop Hideki.

"Wwhat? Wwe're under attack by plants?" The crowned Kabutops says in confusion as he struggles to see through the growing haze of sand.
He's hardly been a land dweller for long and the thought of a walking plant is strange to him, as was nearly everything about deserts.
The Sands bounce harmlessly off his caramel shell as the Kabutops raises his angular head towards what he figures is the source of the disturbance.
"Begone!" He states imperiously, waving his scythes.

The Charizard tilts his head backwards and the growing ball of searing flame that had been building in his throat breaks free of his teeth and slams into the sand dunes, melting part of the impure sands into a dirty layer of glass. Though the fire ball has missed the cacturne and Hideki it's unstable structure means it sends licking flames along the ground where it has impacted. Flickering red embers spread along the sands and scorch at the cactus patch, those Pokemon sheltering among the actual plants shrilly protesting and fleeing into the growing night.
The Cacturne steps away from the flames, clear sap dripping like blood from its severed spines.
"Back away!" Hiroshi growls, his lips raising to show his sharp teeth as he snarls.
The Sandstorm buffets him from all side, the irritating grains obscuring his vision and making it hard for him to even see let alone aim for the Scarecrow Pokemon.

The swirling sands confuse even Hideki as the Water Type drops to the dune and immediately draws his Seamitars, both blades of secreted shell held tightly in both organic and mechanical paws.
His metal arms creaks as his grip tightens around the handle of the blade.
The Cacturne's large spines have left deep ragged edged gashes in the outer shell of metal, not deep enough to damage the prosthetic limb itself but enough that sand is starting to get into his joints.
My God!
With a soft dripping sound the Cacturne slowly regrows its spines, feet digging deeply into the sands as it uses Ingrain. The darker the sky gets and the cooler the desert becomes the easier it can move.
"Irritating." The Cacturne raises both arms, the dark green spines on them suddenly becoming larger as it launches twin barrages of Pin Missile, one towards the Charizard and Kabutops. the other towards the Samurrot and Absol.

Oh shit... That's a bug type move!Panicking, Crescent used Quick Attack, getting out of the line of fire. She then charged up a razor wind, running in zig zags before releasing the Razor wind, nearly point blank. "Damn it's heard to see in this sand." Crescent said as she finished her razor wind attack with a quick attack rebound kick. She then charged back at the Cacturne, her fur glowing with the black aura of a Foul Play attack.

The thorns come out of nowhere and with a girly shriek Regale crosses his blades in front of his face. The sharp thorns bounce off the solid metal of his blades without causing much damage but it makes the haughty Kabutops angry.
The crowned Kabutops makes a disapproving noise under his breath as the vast swirling storm of sand reduces the shadowy silhouette of the Cacturne to nothing more than a flickering patch of shadow in the whirling sandstorm.
Bloody plant.
"Stand back!" The Kabutops declares impressively, waving his scythes as a sign that his mercenaries should flee for their lives as a flicker of light starts to play across his sharp edged jaws.
Spreading his legs for balance the Kabutops opens his jaws wide and prepares a devastating blast of "wwhite magic" any other pokemon would recognize as Hyper Beam.
In the growing dark the tiny light gleams brightly.

Hiroshi roars at the darkening sky in frustration, leaping violently into the fray in an attempt to find Hideki.
His priority is defending his friend now the plant has let him go.
The thorns strike him in the chest, the bug type move not doing much damage against his thick orange scaled armor and the few tiny droplets of blood oozing down his back only serves to make him angrier.
He blinks his bright orange eyes in confusion as he struggles to penetrate the thick dust cloud swirling around him.
"Hideki!" He roars, trying to locate the silent Samurott.

Hiroshi! Hideki signs back as he swings his blade in a long arch and splits the thorns that soar from the boiling sands.
The dark green needles fall to pieces beneath him and drop into the sands as Hideki sniffs at the air, the swirling sands carried on the back of violent winds shredding any familiar smells.
He can hear Hiroshi's voice and smell the faint scent of his warm scaled body but both seem ethereal and hard to trace. Ignoring the Kabutops's cry of warning the Samurott charges forwards into the heart of the whirling sandstorm.
With a skeletal grin the Cacturn sways its body to the side. The arc of slashing wind flies past it, nearly clipping the fringed ends of its hat-like brim before it becomes nothing more than a flicker of shadow behind a violent gust of wind-driven sands and that too flickers and disappears.
The Dark/Grass type is immune to the sand it is blowing from the row of holes that form its grinning mouth thanks to his Sand Veil ability.
Rooted in place by Ingrain it is none the less rapidly becoming nearly impossible to hit.
"Go away."

As she got close enough to unleash her Foul Play attack, Cresent hears Regale shout a warning sign. She turns her head so that she hits the cacturne head on, her head scythe colliding neatly with it's face. In one swift arc motion, Crescent makes a huge gash down the cacturnes face, hoping to get out of it's way before Regale unleashed whatever attack he was doing. She jumped backwards, narrowly missing the spiked arms as they turned to catch her. Risking a glance, she looked towards where Regale could have been standing. She sees a bright white light and she immediately recognized the attack. Hyper Beam. Grinning to herself, Crescent turned and raced out of the firing line, charging a Razor Wind.

Regale tilts his head to the sky where the glow around his jaws now resembles a small star sparkling on the horizon.
Even through the violent sandstorm the light shows as Regale's power builds inside him.
His metallic golden eyes scan the boiling cloud of twisting sands with concern.
He can't see Hiroshi any more, where had the large Charizard gone?
Though the bright beam of energy is starting to hurt as he forces the beam of pure science downwards.
He can't fire this devastating burst of white hot power until everyone is clear.
A wisp of wind blows aside some of the sand and Regale catches a glimpse of the grinning face of the Cacturne before it is obscured once again.
"'ideki...leave." He manages to gasp around the growing power of Hyper Beam.

His eyes tightly closed against the stinging sand Hiroshi lumbers forwards, his clawed arms reaching out to try and find the Samurott.
His flame tipped tail forms a small beacon in the raging heart of the swirling sands as he struggles to catch a glimpse of dark blue fur.
"Hideki!" He roars again, swatting ineffectively at the swirling sands as if it will clear his view and he will be free to see where the Samurott has gone.
His questing fingertips brush something but it is gone as soon as he turns and tries to grab at it.
His tail twists and his wings threaten to unfold and drag him away.
"Hideki!" He cries out again.

Hiroshi! The Samurott signs, as he searches desperately through the swirling sands. The maelstrom around him confuses his enhanced senses and gives him a glimpse into madness.
This God of Sand and Plants was powerful, more powerful than the other two lesser gods though not as powerful as his God of Flames and Stone.
The familiar scorched scent of scale and brimstone reaches the Samurott's nose as he leaps forwards, his long whiskers twitching as they brush the softer scale of the Charizard's underbelly.
The Water Type leaps forward and embraces his god. For a few moments the pain of the scouring sandstorm doesn't matter. They have found each other.
"How touching" The Cacturne says apathetically.

Crescent launches the Razor Wind, the wind scythe narrowly missing Hideki and Hiroshi as it went on a collision course to the Cacturne. "Shut up freak." Crescent said as the wind scythe hit the cacturne square in the face. Her whole attitude had changed from happy-go-lucky to ruthless assassin. "Hey freaky face! Bet you cant keep up with me!" Crescent taunted at the cacturne. She grinned as it turned and shot a pin Missile at her. Crescent dodged it, with only a few centimeters to spare. She continued to dodge the pin missiles the cacturne shot at her, charging her Razor Wind as she got ever closer. Once it was fully charged, she released it, point blank.

While it was still recovering, Crescent used Pursuit, spinning on her front paws to kick it with her hind legs, severing its Ingrained roots from the rest of it. "Not so tough are you now huh? Come one wimp, come get me." Crescent said, using the time it had to recover to get a fair distance away. Her plan worked well and the Cacturne slowly went towards her and out of the way of Hiroshi and Hideki. "Let 'er rip Regale! The fir'in' line's clear!" Crescent shouted towards Regale, grinning as he plan fell into place.

Lowering his head the Crowned Kabutops opens his glowing jaws and releases a shining column of pure energy.
It lances through the sand as a solid beam of pure glowing heat and light.
Where it cuts through the top of the sand dunes the sands are reduced to nothingness, a smooth patch of scorched glass marking where it has been.
The Hyper Beam travels incredibly fast, showing not as a projection of energy but a simultaneous column scorching its bright way through the swirling heart of the blinding sandstorm with a consistent blaze of heat and light.
The attack is legendary in its strength, never before has the Kabutops encountered any opponent that had ever survived the bright barrage.
Its light shines like a beacon in the darkening desert, leaving nothing intact before it as the bright lance of the Hyper Beam flares brightly for a moment then dies away completely.
Regale falls to his knees, utterly spent and panting for breath. It will be a while before he can stand again, let alone raise his head enough to see if the cacturne is dead.
"Noww...its over."

"Hit the dirt!" The Charizard roars out loud in a panic as he spots the growing light of Hyper Beam on the horizon.
Grabbing Hideki up in his clawed hands he slams forwards onto the dunes, trying to make himself as small as possible as the searing beam of white light arrows across the dunes.
Even with his eyes tightly closed the sheer brightness of it etches itself into his retinas, leaving behind a phantom image of itself.
A very real fear of the powers that Kabutops could wield came over him, what a devastating attack!
Its heat was stronger than that of the volcano where he had dwelt and in his mind's eye he sees the Cacturne dissolve into tiny flecks of blackness as the Flygon's neck had the last time Regale used such powers.

Even with his mostly blind eyes the Samurott can see the bright burst of light that destroys everything in its path. Truly Regale was an old god, no regular lesser god could summon let alone control such powers.
The Samurott sands tall as the stinging sands that irritated him slowly stop then fall away, leaving nothing but the cold, dry desert around them.
His short ear flickers but he can no longer hear the sounds of conflict.
Hiroshi... He signs and starts to walk, the opposite direction to where the fight had been taken place.
The Chrizard follows, not realizing that the Samurott has tired of the desert in his usual way of things and is no leading them away, to some place cooler and more entertaining.

As the bright column of light sears past him the Cacturne's grin grows. With the sands swirling around him even the great power beam that glowed like the sun could miss.
"Sun warrior!" The Cacturne hisses in disgust as he charges forwards.

((OOC: Leaving Post))

Blinking hazily the crowned Kabutops sees the bright flare of Hiroshi's tail disappearing over the horizon.
The Charizard and his strange Samurott friend are leaving, taking the cactus they have harvested and walking back across the darkening desert.
The sudden burst of the Kabutop's anger is instantly replaced by a strong feeling of longing.
He doesn't care whether or not they were really mercenaries, he wanted to be with his friends!
"Wwait up! Wwater 'boat me?!" He cries out as he stumbles forwards clumsily in an attempt to catch up to the two.
It has been so long since he last had a real friend...
Leaving the Absol to her fate the crowned Shellfish Pokemon disappears into the desert.

((Leaving Post))