The SAFARI Team

Leliana had raced over to the source of all the booming noises, wondering where Nuii and Kide and raced off too...reaching some sort of sandy mountain, noticing signs that meant there must've been a rockslide or something of the sort to have caused such booming noises. Fatefully, Leliana peered down to see something small under a huge boulder. Carefully going towards it, Leliana lifted the heavy boulder and threw it to the side, but was not prepared to see the crushed body of the Blitzle, Nuii. Dead. Lifeless.

"Noooo!"

Leliana let out a tremendous roar, one that echoed throughout the Safari Zone and perhaps beyond. A sound of madness and sorrow. Another young one dead and gone from this world. If only Leliana had been there to save the young Blitzle, taken that boulder onto her own body. Then the female Garchomp heard something peculiar, like hooves thudding against the ground. An acrid stench, though faint, was detectable....flames, perhaps, the smoke from the flames. Maybe it would be an Infected....easy prey for the furious Leliana.

But then another great roar filled Leliana's ears. To her side, an Infected Salamence barrelled into her flank, knocking the Garchomp into her back and making her lose all the air in her lungs. Gasping for breath, Leliana jumped back up and faced the menacing Salamence, pure fury racing through her blood. I will kill all Infected! They both attacked at the same time, the Salamence's teeth sinking into Leliana's shoulder and his claws ripping through her stomach. She then ripped off one of the undead dragon's wings, bracing herself for the incoming screeches. Blood was pouring from both of them, but neither backed down. The Salamence was tearing Leliana apart, and she could feel her strength ebbing away. If she didn't finish this, the Infected would kill her.

Her claws raised, ready to kill the dragon; it leaped forward to sink its fangs into her heart. As it neared, Leliana brought her sharp claws downward, towards the beast's neck. With a loud riippp and the splattering of blood, the Salamence hit the ground, decapitated and truly dead. But Leliana was dying herself, her heart slowing tremendously and her consciousness fading.

She hit the ground on her knees, staring at the Salamence. We're not so different, are we? Finally, finally Leliana fell forward, face-first. She hoped Kide survived....he had to survive.

Kaze, I'm coming home...

((OoC: Yes, Leliana is now dead, and rejoined Kaze and her kids at the end of the journey. ;-;))

With the help of the flame charge, the flame enveloped NightMare was quickly pressing across the vast expansion with ease. The area was a lot more under populated than it first looked like, he had yet to meet any pokemon to serve as a quick lunch on the way. It didn’t matter, the ones he would have meet in the wide open area would have been stupid and posed no effort on hunting. To him, the hunt was the most thrilling, especially seeing the look of horror as they saw their own death coming at them right before they died. There was no basis for heading to a mountain that just had a rockslide, if there were any pokemon, the rockslide would have done them in, but that small chance that a pokemon survived, and hopefully came out unscathed, was enough motivation to go.

When he got near enough to the mountain that he could make out distinguishing features, a purple pokemon was visible to him. NightMare was gradually losing all memories of before his infection, so he should have no way recognizing pokemon, but he almost always did, and he knew this type of pokemon, it was a garchomp. For some odd reason, the garchomp raised some deep seeded hatred within NightMare, it was odd, and if he was living he would have been worried why this feeling was there, but as an infected, it felt natural to hate, and this specific hate felt like it had deep meaning. He wanted to tear the garchomp apart, to let it see as he ate it alive, to know how it felt to die. But his enjoyment would never come to be, another had taken his kill. All he could do was continue running as a giant unknown blue dragon easily swept down snatched the purple land shark, there was a bit of a struggle, but in the end, both stopped moving, leaving lifeless bodies behind for stray undead. It left him disgruntled, the garchomp put up a good fight, it should have been him to watch as the pokemon struggled for its life, and watched as that last spark of life slipped away. No matter, that fight would have attracted strays over, hopefully he would still have his hunt in a matter of minutes.

Kitana growled seeing the infected, her ilusions started rise, she changed her appearance to become the Legendary Pokemon Suicune, as a giant tidal wave followed her from behind.

As experience thought her...first intimidation...than confrontation. True her Ilusions wouldn't do much after if she would be discovered but while not, she had the upper hand to make herself more threatning.

As she was getting closer to the infected rapidash, Kitana used Double Team so instead of just one Suicune, the infected would get an horde of them...If an army of Legendary followed by a tidal wave isn't enough to get you running...than you either are infected for too long or you are a fool that thinks it's brave to attempt fight it.

Kides ears flicked as he listened for any possible sounds. But he didn’t seem to get anything. He heard Leliana call out in the distance, but that was about it. He had no clue where he was, or what to do. He said he would go look for that Zoroark, but where does one start looking for a pokemon that doesn’t want to be found. He wasn’t looking where he was going and walked into a tree, and a banana fell on his head. He looked up seeing that it was the same tree he had climbed earlier to get those bananas for Nuii, though he didn’t know if she ever ate them though.

Then his senses tingled, the Zoroark was using its illusions again, but in which direction? He always had a keen sense of when one of his own kind was using their power, but in which direction was it coming from. So without thinking he just ran in the direction where the pull felt stronger.

NightMare was shaking. Though not from fear, fear had long since been wiped from his memory, it was only used for preserving life, so those without life had no need for it. He was shaking with anticipation. His rotting mind had forgotten a lot of things, but this water type pokemon that was running across the raging water towards him was not forgotten. Suicune, a legendary, the mere thought of it made him smile a sickly skinless smile. He might have had a type disadvantage against it, but getting to go one on one against this legendary would prove to be a worthwhile hunt, and the fact that there where an army of them only multiplied the enthusiasm. The whole world would know that they were no match for his speed or power after this fight.

The wave that the suicune were riding on was huge, but if he could survive it, all would know that no type was superior to his dark flames. He has already been charged up and had his speed increased with flame charge, so he let loose his Flare Blitz. The flames that were previously dancing started to increase in size, then circling around the Rapidash in a spiral giving it the appearance of a giant bullet. The skin where his wounds were exposed could be heard being fried up, almost like bacon on a pan. If this revolving flame was not enough, NightMare unleashed a Fire Blast straight ahead, it would have reached the wave like normal if his speed was not so high. As it got near to the wave, NightMare started sprinting instead of running, till his flare blitz collided with his Fire Blast just as it was about to hit the wave, unleashing a large collision of flames. He planned to evaporate the wave before going after the army.

The infected Rapidash tried to attack the huge wave, it had little to no effect, due being just an Illusion. The Rapidash was falling into Kitana's trickery, that made her grin a lot, as both of them were getting close, she made the "Suicunes" move out of the way as the Tidal Wave disappeared, revealing a large boulder. With it's speed, it would be very hard for the Rapidash to stop now and would eventually crash.

If not...Than Kitana wouldn't stop. The "Suicunes" started to run around the Rapidash, being Kitana also desguised as one it was very difficult to know wich one was the real one. When facing the back of the Rapidash, Kitana would dig her claws on the putrid burning flesh of the Rapidash, after the attack she would jump back and continue to run around the Rapidash to confuse it and attack from behind, this being her Pursuit attack.

Kide continued running in the direction that the illusion sensation was coming from. As he was soon able to see what looked like a huge watery wave, that soon disappeared revealing a large boulder behind it. He could also make out what looked like… Suicune? No, it was the Zoroark making itself appear to be Suicune. It looked like it was fighting an infected, how interesting. The young Zorua couldn’t help but smile, it was so interesting to see the Zoroark try to take on an infected with mere illusions. He couldn’t help but want to join in the fun. So using his own illusions he made himself appear to be the great electric pokemon Raikou. He knew the Zoroark would hate him for this, but he wanted to have some fun with the pony as well.

As he got closer to the fight he let out a mighty roar. Making it look like a large electric cloud began to cover the sky, a swearing mass of electric energy. But making an illusion of this mass was sure to drain him since he didn’t have the kind of power that his evolved form had, but if it meant having some fun, then he didn’t really care.

He had expected the water to disappear, but by his explosion of fire, not on its own. The next thing he knew, he was running straight to a large builder. He was going too fast to stop without hitting the massive structure, he would have hit it if it was any other rapidash. But his body had gone through much racing training while it was alive, his mind might not be able to remember what to do, but the action came naturally as a reflex. His front legs slowed down slightly, while his hind legs kept at the same speed as NightMare turned sharply to the left. The results where that he was able to pivot sharply while not having to completely slow down. A task he had to learn early on while alive, in order to trick the humans whenever he stole things.

He looked back to his enemies, the army of suicune’s where still there, but a newcomer had joined the ranks, sticking out like a sore thumb. Amidst all the blue identical legendaries, a single yellow raikou had infiltrated the army, and along with it came a darken sky surging with trapped lightning. Something was off here, the wave disappeared on its own, and now suddenly, a second legendary pokemon appears with a sea of identical suicunes. Someone was playing a trick on him, it pissed him off that he had to waste time on a pokemon so cowardly that it had to hide behind illusions to fight. He would crush it immediately, and show it that the only way to fight was head on, it would know his power. He charged at the only noticeably different one, the yellow raikou, his flames once again dancing around him, almost like a protective shield as he lowered his head, the spike fully ready to be plunged in an awaiting pokemon. There had to a reason this one was different than the rest, if that didn’t work, he could just attack the rest till he eventually found the real one. The suicune were charging at him, but that didn’t matter, they were fake, they would disappear in time, and if they didn’t, he would know what to spend his time on.

Kitana saw the Rapidash being able to move away from the rock, she smiled...Finally a worthy Challenge. This is what she wished. If Kitana would be going down, she would go with an worthy opponent with good abilities and this Rapidash seemed to slightly reach her level. As Kitana was about to attack it...Something roared...

She looked at her side and gasped seeing a Raikou...But it had a different energy, at closer look she noticed it was nothing more than an illusion. But she didn't do it...Than who d--...She immidiatly remembered of the Zorua! She couldn't believe the brat just did that. Obviously if the Rapidash dodged the boulder, it would notice that something was awfully wrong.

As she looked towards the Rapidash, it was charging straight to them, she knew that the flaming beast noticed the problem. She made a large illusion like wall rise, as she broke the illusion of being a Suicune and grabbed the Zorua away from it. She jumped over a tree and putted the Zorua on a branch. "Stay here if you want to leave. Move away and I personally kill you!" Kitana never made threats...She made warnings, anyone that attempted to contradict her would meet the consequences.

She stepped in clear view growling...It was Flamming Infected Horse against Illusion Fox. She wouldn't lose this fight for anything...As her claws started to glow red, she got herself ready to attack as soon as the Horse would come close to her.

Getting saved by the Zoroark was really humiliating to the little Zorua, he could have easily evaded that Rapidash’s attack with ease. “Stay here if you want to live. Move away and I will personally kill you!” She said before going off to fight the horse pokemon on her own. Kide knew that she meant it, if he moved from the tree it would be a one way ticket to the next life. But that was only if he couldn’t get away from her. But he was interested to see how this battle would play out, who would be the one to come out alive, the Zoroark? Or the undead Rapidash.

So apparently there where two preys hiding behind the masks of illusions, it would have made him shudder with more anticipation if the bigger one did not whisk the smaller one away. If the small one thought so much of itself that it wanted to challenge him, then let it, let it see how hopeless it would be against him. He wanted to see their doomed faces as realization kicked in that defeating NightMare was not an option, he would like it even more if they tried to run, chases where the prey was frantic and highly unstable brought joy to him.

The dark beast thought it could fool him by making a wall, the same tricks won’t work on him twice, now that he knew they were mere illusions to hide behind, he would just charge right through them and to the master of these illusions. It used the wall as a possible divergence, but in doing so, it had to let up the previous illusion, showing NightMare the true form. Now that he knew what he was up against, things would go more smoothly, he hoped that the pokemon could do more than create illusions, or else this hunt would be over sooner than expected.

NightMare saw the thing’s claws begin to glow, most likely preparing an attack, that made him happy, though he was not just going to let the thing attack him that easily. He shot a fire blast straight at the dark pokemon as he charged, it would need to dodge it, and when he did, that was when his horn would impale the beast and let the sweet, sweet blood pour down.

Rook was lucky to be alive. He needed to stop running, but why? Just so his undead mother can catch him and turn him into one of them?! No...he wouldn't think about it for one second. He thought to himself, "I think I'm far enough."

He stopped in a field to rest. He tried to lay down and close his eyes. But all he saw was her. He was used to this. It didn't bother him that much...on the outside. He drifted off into sleep, with one eye open of course.

He woke up to a voice. A female voice. "Stay here if you want to live. Move away and I will personally kill you." She was talking to someone else. Maybe there are other survivors. He peeked through the bushes to take a glance at the commotion. He saw a Zoroark battling against an undead Rapidash. They were being watched by a Zorua. It looked like the battle was just starting, so for now, he would just keep watching.

Kitana stomped furiously on the ground, the Rapidash shot a Fireblast and started running straight forward. Kitana would dodge to the side if the infected wouldn't be running towards her, probably it wanted to impale her. She was able to jump high enough to dodge it, fortunatelly she was well trained and thanks to her, no deceased, trainer she knew a lot about several pokemon.

She landed behind the beast and used her Double Team to hide herself creating several illusion images of herself all around the creature, it would now be a lot more complicated to find her, she grinned and growled loudly. She made her copies jump above the beast and fake that they were clawing it, among them she jumped herself using Night Slash on the beast.

Her pride was driving her to a strong bloodlust and wish for kill as big as an Infected would have. The only diference was that she was alive...and she knew exactly what to aim and attack to.

Kide sat in the tree watching the fight play out. It was amazing, like one of those action moves he would watch with Kari way back when. He was on the edge of the branch, waiting to see the conclusion. He wanted to know who would win, he hoped the Zoroark would win; cause the Rapidash would be hard to deal with if it did. But once he evolved into a Zoroark, he would have that kind of power. He couldn’t wait till the time came when he could be a Zoroark, he just wished he could reach that level already, he wanted that kind of power, but until then, he would have to just keep training.

He turned his eyes toward a bush where he had heard the faint sound of the bushes behind him rustle, and not the kind that the wind could cause, this was caused by a pokemon, he was sure of it. His smirk grew larger and the young Zorua waited for the right time to attack. He would have the element of surprise. He swayed his shoulders, getting ready before turning and pouncing on the other spectator with a ‘raaa!’ He made contact with the pokemon and they rolled through the bush and into a small clearing where he managed to pin the other pokemon down. Kide looked down at the other pokemon, a little disappointed that it was a living and not an undead. How was he going to get stronger if he didn’t have any undead to fight? He looked the Pawniard in the eyes, and asked it a simple question in a somewhat stern voice. “Who are you, and why are you spying?”

Again the dark creature was using its illusions to attack, it was as if it knew nothing else than to cower behind such petty tricks. NightMare needed a strong prey, not some petty weakling that cannot go into battle without it’s tricks and deception, that thought alone would have been reason enough to forget the illusionist in search of better prey. It had made the mistake of taunting him with the biggest prey around, the fake suicunes, he had been so joyful when seeing them, but now he wanted to rip open the prey’s throat and watch as it futilely tried to scream, but it would not be able to, nothing but blood would come out of its mouth, and it shall know true worthlessness as it saw that it could do nothing, but breathlessly scream as it was eaten alive. He would toy with his food, by slowly ripping off limb by limb, using his unholy fire to burn the wound so that no excess blood flowed out, he would not want it to miss the fun by passing out. And when it was left with nothing but a head and torso, he would slowly roast it alive, all the while watching its face as the melody of contorted expressions of fear, pain, and total helplessness showed.

The clones all pounced at him, though he knew they were all fake, most likely the cowardly pokemon was either using it as a distraction, or was near the back waiting to attack last. Nightmare closed his eyes, it would be useless to have them open, with that many illusions, relying on eyes would only spell defeat. He would have to take a hit if he wanted to get the trickster, last he saw, they were all jumping up into the air preparing for an attack, most likely close range attack, and in the air, one cannot dodge, that will be when he would strike. It came suddenly, a harsh slash, but not a regular one, it dug into his skin, almost scrapping the bone, but he had caught it. NightMare put all of his weight on his front legs, his hind legs now off the ground, with all his strength, he kicked the pokemon using a midair double hoof stomp.

((I've seen horses do something like that, though i have no clue what it is called, so tried to describe it as best i could))

Rook hid behind the bushes to watch the Zoroark and the Rapidash fight. His mind wandered as the fight went on. "Hmm, she seems to be putting up quite a fight. It sure is unlike anything I've-" He was interrupted by something attacking him.

It was the Zorua. He must have spotted Rook watching the battle. He had him pinned down. Zorua looked him in the eyes and asked in a stern voice, "Who are you, and why are you spying?"

"Rook. My name is Rook. I have been wandering this place for some time, looking for a group of pokemon who are tough enough to survive. I came across that Zoroark battling that creepy looking Rapidash. The reason I was watching was because I think that she's strong, and I think you're strong too. That's my story. If you believe me, please let me go. If you don't believe me, then you can attack me until it kills me."

Rook remained still as the Zorua thought about what he said.

((I know what Rook said, but please don't kill him.))

Kitana snarled in pain as she's thrown back by the kick of the Rapidash. The creature was smart for an infected but it seemed to have some flaw on it...There was something that was it's major weakness, Kitana knew of the existence, but she had yet to be able to notice what. It seemed to be quite difficult.

But Kitana was starting to get angry...She was not someone to be patient, specially towards infected. She quickly got up and used her Pursuit attack to run after NightMare, she jumped above the demonic horse and landed on it's back as if riding it, she stabbed it with her claws on the back making them dig in the flesh and violently started clawing using her Fury Swipes. Kitana seemed to have her bloodlust growing to a be nearly considered infected herself...but as far as it looked she wasn't.

After finishing her devastating Fury Swipes, being considered her strongest and most violent attack, she jumped off backing away a few feet, she kneeled over in pain gasping but got herself back up, she only now has noticed the injuries over the burning of the infected Rapidash. She needed some way to be able to get the Rapidash without being too close...but it was nearly impossible for Kitana...she growled in anger...She would not give up, she was trained to never give up...NEVER GIVE UP!

Kide pondered on what the pokemon said for a moment. He could simply kill this pathetic creature and be over with it, but he decided that perhaps it could be useful later on. “Well, Rook, its your lucky day, cause you not going to die just yet.” He said with a smile on his face. He backed up off of the Pawniard and went back over to the boshes to watching the rest of the battle play out. He didn’t seem to miss much, just the Zoroark clawing at the Rapidashes back. He looked over his shoulder at Rook again. “Names Kide by the way.” He simply said before climbing the tree the Zoroark had left him in. You could see the battle more clearly up in the tree rather then on the ground, but he wasn’t about to tell Rook that, he could find out on his own by climbing up the tree and seeing for himself.

NightMare’s patience was quickly depleting as the fight went on. He did find pleasure in the fact that his prey was not totally useless without its illusions, it had managed to recover from his midair double hoof stomp after being practically thrown a good distance like a ragdoll. The creature then did the unforgivable, there were few things NightMare remembered before he was turned, but the most vivid memory was that he would never let any human or pokemon ride him, only one has had the privilege, and though he remembered nothing of that human, the pride of being rider-less was ingrained in his memory. The bitch of a cowardly illusionist had had the nerve to ride him, he immediately set his flame a blazing, his only real defense since his neck could not turn far enough to properly bite prey.

He could hear the fur starting to burn, but the bitch would not let up, it continued to ride him all the while unleashing an onslaught of rapid slashes across his back. NightMare was still fairly new to being an undead, so the pain still registered if it was more than average, and this pain was. He had tried to buck the prey off, but still it stayed, and finally when it got off, NightMare started to charge, but something was off. Sometime along the onslaught of attacks, the bitch had sliced through more than just skin, most likely hitting the bone on his spinal column. Not enough to break his spine, but enough to do enough damage to it that NightMare could not run normally, it came out as lopsided tramping, his hind legs no longer moving the way they were supposed to.

As much as he hated ti run from a good fight, a rapidash that could not run properly was useless. With his hind legs no longer responding the way they were ment to, he would need to relearn to properly run, so for now, the fight needed to be postponed. NightMare roared in frustration, the knowledge that the dark illusionist caused this sending his temper through the roof, he would come back just for that bitch, and he would take pleasure in its suffering. NightMare launched a FireBlast at the illusionist, using that as a cover for escaping, using the added speed of flame charge to properly escape with his weird lopsided jog., leaving only the smell of burnt flesh and a trail of burning grass in his wake.

Rook was relieved that the Zorua, whose name he learned to be Kide, chose to let him live. Kide climbed back up into the tree. Rook wasn't sure why he would go back in the tree, but he didn't question him.

Rook kept watching the battle between the Zoroark and the Rapidash. During the battle, Rook heard a roar and then a Fire Blast attack. When the fire died, the Rapidash was gone. "Guess he needed a way of escaping." Rook thought.

As the Zoroark tried to catch her breath, Rook came out from the bushes and said, "Nice fighting out there."

Being in pain from the burning Kitana wouldn't be able to take much more of this fight...She was getting ready again, even though affected by Burn. The Rapidash roared in frustration and fired a Fire Blast. She couldn't crouch down, nor jump away...Her only option was roll to the side out of it's way, even she was able to miss great part of it, the Fire Blast still did some damage. With a deep moan of pain, Kitana slowly started to get up holding her left leg which was what was more burned from her body.

She slowly got up and looked at the retreating infected, she noticed that it was running awkwardly. "Probably hit his bone..." sayed Kitana to herself while rubbing her leg softly trying to calm down the pain. She was angry since the knowledge of such strong infected around would be problematic and she wanted to end the fight before the coward would escape, she was injured too, what was the problem of not continueing the fight?

"Nice fighting out there." Startled by the voice, her claws were glowing red as she spinned around in a quick movement followed by a roar and stabbed the ground with a Night Slash next of a Pawniard missing the small Sharp Blade Pokemon by an inch. Kitana was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't sensed other presences nearby. She removed her claws from the ground and got up looking at the small Pokemon "Sorry..."

Kide let out a little giggle when he saw Rook almost get slashed by the Zoroark, “and that is why I waited a while before coming out,” he snickered as he jumped off the branch and walked toward the both of them. “But sharpies right, nice fight.” The Zorua said as he came to halt next to the Pawniard. “Can’t wait till I get that strong.” Though he had a long ways to go, he was sure he would have the power in no time at all.

He looked off in the direction of the burning path the infected fire pokemon had caused, he was a little impressed at its power as well, maybe he could be the one to take it down, that’s if the Zoroark didn’t get in his way. “I don’t think we have been properly introduced, my name is Kide, mite I ask what yours is?” He said with his mischievous tone. He didn’t really much care about its name, but if he could learn how to gain power by being around it, then he mite as well know its name.

NightMare was both mentally and actually cursing the dark pokemon that had done this too him. His hind legs still not responding the way they were conditioned to, though now, each leg was running at a different pace than both of the front legs, resulting in a stumbling undead shiny Rapidash. Any unlucky pokemon that he had noticed on his escape met an untimely death, he probably would have eaten the remains but by the time NightMare was through unleashing his anger on the pokemon, they were nothing but unrecognizable ashes, and some bones.

When NightMare finally stopped running, he was in a condensed area full of trees, not suitable for what he needed. He set off his flames in all direction, watching as his flames danced from tree to tree, burning them all down, in time, there would be a clearing large enough to suit his needs of a large open area for running. If he continued with this onslaught of flames on his surroundings, the safari zone would quickly end up a barren wasteland, but he didn’t care, as long as he can feel the warm blood drizzle down his throat and taste the freshly burnt meat of the prey, they whole world can go up in flames for all he cared.

Rook got up after the Zoroark attacked him. Of course she would attack, he startled her. "Sorry", is what she said. Rook said, "No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have sneaked up on you like that."

He felt his head blade to make sure that the 'R' was still there. It was. As soon as he was finished, however, he smelled something odd. Just to make sure, he asked the other, "Hey, do either of you smell smoke?"

(OoC: I'm not sure how far NightMare ran, but I'm sure the fire spread fast, or the smoke came fast enough.)

The Pawniard was okay, barelly startled by her sudden move. The Zorua had revealed itself, Kitana wasn't too pleased with it's presence. The small fox seemed to think this was all a game, nothing more than a little play in the park, it was demanding her name...Kitana turned around looking at the burning path that the Rapidash made and kneeled down looking at the marks. My name is Kitana... she had to make sure that thing wouldn't come back any sooner...but to make sure they needed either a Rock, Ground or Water types...That beast was strong and seemed to have a major pride due to it's persistence in trying to fight.

"Hey, do either of you smell smoke?" she heard the pawniard and looked into the distance...There was a large fire starting to grow. "That stupid Rapidash must be a pyromaniac or is insolent enough to not mind it's own power. It's starting to burn everything up by just stepping on things.