The PYRE Team

Anubis smiled when Suzaku let him keep a grip on his hand. It was comforting to know that someone solid, someone real was there. All these months he had been living with a shadow, a memory of what was once a person. While in his mind he could see her, he could never touch her, never hold onto her like he used too. Mother was gone. Mother was...dead. He finally had to accept it.

"...Purple guy?"

Anubis finally opened his eyes and looked back, and he too noticed that their smaller friend was gone. What could have happened to him? Anubis swore the Nidorino was right behind them. There was noise somewhere nearby, and it didn't sound good. He gave a timid squeeze to Suzaku's paw, concerned for the other one of their group. "What do you think happened to him?"

((OOC: Sorry for the short post. Running a little short on time. I will make it up in the next post, promise!))

Before Pierce could wander too much farther, the ground beneath him began to shake. The rumbling grew to the point that he flipped over himself again, trying to stand up. That was the second time in a short time that that had happened. The first time was when the Swampert had been attacking them... Shocked with fright, he slowly turned around to face the caved-in tomb. Paces from where he stood, was the Infected, arm against the ground, grinning with a deadly maniacal smile. Fear pulsed in his body, as he realized the direness of the situation. He was alone. The Swampert nearly towered right over him, and it was much, much, stronger than he was. If he had been stiff when he was confronted with the beast with the other three pokemon around, now he was petrified.

Pierce's thoughts raced through his head. Strange how his life didn't flash before he eyes. He had heard that was what happened when someone stared death in the face. He had made too many mistakes tonight. He had come to an island, and a mountain on an island no less. He had approaced Thorn, in the heat of battle. He had panicked when the Swampert arrived. He had fled when the two large ones stayed to fight. He had daydreamed when he should have fled. Pierce no longer felt the extent of his fear. It was covered by another emotion. Rage.

He wasn't angry at anyone else, though. He had only hatred for himself for the moment. He had made all the mistakes, he had fallen behind. Now he was face to face with a creature he had no idea existed, which he thought only could exist in the deepest recesses of his nightmares. And yet... here it was.

Something interesting came over him, however. One might find that, when faced with a deadly beast, one as gruesome to sight as this, it is very easy to slide blame onto it, instead. Slowly (or, rather, as slowly as thought can be with adreneline pumping through every vein in your body), Pierce's rage slid to the beast in front of him. Purple bubbles appeared, and rotated around him, as he prepared a Venoshock attack. He wouldn't make a dent on this beast, he knew that. But he would buy his friends some time. And if he was going to go down... He would go down fighting.

Drowned crazily eyed the Nidorino, his wicked grin growing even larger. Slowly opening his mouth, he bellowed. "LeTs HaVe DRRRRRRRRRROWNING LESSONS!" Without another word, he swung his arm right at the Nidorino, cackling madly.

For a moment, the Swampert thought that he should've just used another Earthquake, that would bring down others if they were near as well. However, he thought against it as he felt his stetchy skin and muscle collide against the Poison-type's body- and he felt satisfaction well up inside him. However, Drowned felt sickly. It only took a while for him to realize that the Nidorino's poison point had poisoned him.

[OOC: Sorry for short-ish post. Also got permission to attack Pierce.]

Suzaku's eyes searched the dimly lite terrain around them, but it was no use. His eyes weren't made for darkness. He couldn't see a damn thing, and the purple guy had just sort of vanished... nevermind that he blended into their shadowed environs.

Then, a noise off in the near distance, then a wretched, terrible scream, "LeTs HaVe DRRRRRRRRRROWNING LESSONS!" Another crash sounded, and it would not take a genuis to realize that the little nidorino had gotten himself into trouble again. Suzaku grimaced, not really wanting to envision what that noise could have led to...

"We need to see if he's ok..." the blaziken found himself saying. While the little yellow rat had pissed him off, the other hadn't done anything to warrant abandonment. Though, before rushing in to help or anything else brash, he wanted to make sure that the guy was still alive. He quickly made his way to an upper ledge over-looking the small coast, trying to drag Anubis behind him.

His eyes were too weak to see the nidorino through the dust the swampert's attack had caused. Was he ok...?

Thorn grumbled a little in her sleep as a slight tremor rumbled underneath her. It didn't wake her, and she slept on. Around her, the forest gave off little murmurs and giggles from time to time. Occasionally, a pair of eyes stared out at Thorn but they quickly withdrew. Seemed that all the Pokemon around had watched her annihilate the Duskull. Besides that, it was all quiet.

What began as a light doze slipped into something deeper as Thorn's exhaustion kicked in. She'd done a lot of fighting and running and even for a Jolteon it was a bit much. Her fur sizzled from time to time with growing static electricity, but besides that there was no movement from the Jolteon except slight breathing. She was almost comatose with exhaustion, and probably couldn't be woken.

Xadian giggled wildly as Drowned beat the little purple one down. Served him right for being such a jerk!.. Only.. He seemed less of a jerk than the others. Maybe. A little. That, or maybe Xadian just thought he'd make a good trophy. He wasn't quite sure himself. In any case, the goblin tapped on the side of Drowned's head. "If you kill him, can we keep him?" He grinned, baring all of his dagger-like teeth, and quickly started giggling again. "I'll carry him if we can!"

"LeTs HaVe DRRRRRRRRRROWNING LESSONS!"

Oh, that wasn't good. If the little poison type had gotten back into the sights of that vicious monster Anubis would feel just terrible. He liked the Nido. "We need to see if he's ok..." Anubis looked to Suzaku to find a very serious expression on his face...before being dragged up a cliff. Anubis cried out in a alarm as the faster fighter almost hauled him up there by his arm, and once they stopped quickly wrenched himself free from his friend's grip. Suzaku seemed to be peering into the darkness, as the sun was still barely coming up. Much of the forest was still bathed in shadow. He knew what the bird wanted.

Closing his eyes, Anubis called out to the surrounding auras, searching for one in particular. He found it, a bright purple spot among the soft green glow of the forest. But...the dark red one, it barely splotched with blue, was right there beside it. It was the one he felt before, full of hate and destruction. Anubis whimpered at the sight of the darker aura colliding with that of the smaller Nido. He was in trouble. "We have to help him..." Anubis whispered, pointing to where his aura sight pegged the battle. "There."

Whatever the decision, he would follow Suzaku's lead. Anubis was a good fighter but it certainly seemed that the other fighter had much more battle experience then he did.

The roar of the Swampert filled Pierce's mind, as his last few precious moments of life slipped away. Pierce was prepared for death, but couldn't have imagined the pain that stung his body the moment he was hit by the monstrous arm. He was slammed to the side, ramming the spikes on his back against the sheer cliff face. He sent one last mental cry to his friends, and took one last moment to realized that a piece of his horn was gone, then... Darkness...

Images swirled in his unconscious mind. Faces he could no longer recognize. Voices he could no longer hear. His trainer, fading away, his friends dying. Infected monsters carrying them away. During his instability, he failed to remember one important piece of history from his Trained days. His Trainer had given him a Focus Sash. The energy of the sash was all that kept him alive, though it could do nothing to heal his injuries. After what seemed a very long time, Pierce slowly opened his eyes, though no more than halfway.

"Where... Where I am?"

When Anubis confirmed the little nido was still alive, he did not hesitate. In one movement, he stood and jumped off the ledge, landing between the swampert and the barely alive nido. "Anubis, grab him!" he called as he stared up at the lumbering beast. He wanted to get the two away as he distracted the monster, and he knew that it would be easier for one pokemon to run rather than two.

He took a fighting stance and fired up his wrists, hoping the stark light would offset the darkness, letting the others escape without detection. Without another word, he jumped into an acrobatics attack, the only one he could really use against this foe.

Thorn rolled over and grumbled a little bit. Deep down, there was a small niggling feeling that she should be awake right now, doing something. But although she usually trusted her instincts, right now the Jolteon was exhausted and she still.

slept.

on.

Her left ear twitched a little at the sound of fighting, but she did not awake. It would take a heck of a bang to wake this Sleeping Beauty. Besides, she couldn't really be much use against a Ground type...right?

[ooc: Jegus, guys, I'm so so so sorry. This site keeps logging me out and then I don't get the email alerts and I have no clue what's happening. Thanks, Drago, for emailing me.]

Hungry...

He had been wandering so long...he needed a new meal. A commotion nearby caught the psychic's attention and he traced it down to its source. A great blue beast battled a tiny poison rodent. While the blue on looked repulsive the purple thing on his shoulder looked very delicious.

So hungry...

The Alakazam crept behind his prey, waiting for the right moment. Excellent! The blue brute was caught off-guard by poison, and the psychic fox used that moment to use a Telekinesis to lift his target right off of its shoulder. It was a Sableye. It hollered and howled at the treatment, but he didn't care, carting it away into the woods.

Time to eat! Time to feast!

Rather effectively, he carved out the center gem with one of his spoons, watching with sick satisfaction as the dual type's blood spilled. How often others forgot that dual type ghosts can still bleed...

Life! Death! An end to hunger!

Lapping at his spoon, tasting the fresh crimson life upon it, he gave a wicked grin and stuck his whole hand inside, letting the spoon dangle from his mouth. Pulling out what he found inside he dropped the limp form from his power and let it hit the ground in a dull thud. Gulping down the innards and gore held in his clawed hand, coating his whiskers in blood, satisfaction hit him in a euphoric wave.

"Close your...eyes..." he murmured to the lifeless form. Using his spoons he carved out the gemstone eyes in his prey, tucking them away for safe keeping. Such pretty eyes...so pretty...

((Time for some amensia. Wooooo...))

Fear gripped Pierce, as he viewed the brutal mauling of the small dark shape. The yellow beast that had done the evil deed stood only yards away from him, and he could smell the fresh blood of its kill. His half-opened eyes widened. He was sure he was next. And then, it was gone. Relief coursed through his body, never thinking that the creature was still around. Then there was the large hulking blue beast in front of him. The dark shape had been on its shoulder. Pain blossomed into Pierce's brain as faded images coursed through his mind. Roars and abandonment... Someone bringing down the tomb. The poor beast. It had just lost a friend, someone close enough to it that it was allowed to ride his shoulder. Tears filled Pierce's eyes as he remembered his trainer, and their seperation. "Are.... Are you okay?" He asked softly, speaking to the beast in front of him. It was large, and against the morning sun, it looked rather strange, but... Just because it looked different, was no reason to hate it. It was obviously friendly, if it allowed the dark one to be with him for so long. The poor thing.

More images flashed through his head. He could remember pain and straggled emotions through the previous night, but... All he could remember clearly was arriving on the island. Trying to bring forward any specific memory since then forced his mind into a blank. What's going on? He thought to himself, shaking his head as if to clear it. His horn brushed up against the tree next to him, sending a jolt of pain through his body. When did I break that? He thought, loss filling his body. It would be difficult to heal that, if it was possible.

((Talked to Drago, since he accidentally skipped me I'm posting now then it will be Lute's turn. Sorry Lute!))



"Anubis, grab him!"

Anubis blinked his eyes open, adjusting to letting go of his aura sense. It always threw off his normal vision, going between the two. He shook his head clear before taking off after the Blaziken and headed straight for Pierce. He was almost to the Nidorino when some kind of monster came up and snatched the crazy Sableye right off of the blue behemoth's shoulder. What?

The brutal slaying of the mischief maker was enough to make Anubis nauseus and he stopped before making it to Pierce. Suzaku was launching an attack at the bloody water-type, and he feared for his friend. Placing himself between the undead and his smaller friend Anubis put his arms out wide to draw attention to himself. He may not have much that could hurt the demon, but Anubis could at least draw its focus so Suzaku could get a solid hit in.

"Please!" he begged. "Let us be!"

The lack of weight on the Swampert's shoulder shocked him. Drowned immediately whipped his head backwards only to see the sight of Xadian being eaten by an Alakazam. Although blood had driven the Mud Fish Pokemon crazy with lust for the crimson liquid, the scent of the Sableye's only allowed him to emit a small wail of anguish. He only stood there now, staring as the Alakazam finished his meal. Anger began to rise up in the Undead's body. "NO! HOW COULD YOU?!" the roar echoed across the landscape as he rushed to Xadian's body, laid onto the bloody grass. The psychic type was gone, his friend was dead.

"Are.... Are you okay?" A voice behind him... The little poison rat? Drowned looked behind him. The Nidorino's eyes were watery... Was the Poison Pin Pokemon crying in sympathy for him? The Swampert was about to reply, but the Blaziken from earlier had jumped inbetween them. "Anubis, grab him!" 'The living must be back to save their friend...' Drowned thought. His eyes trained back to Xadian. 'Friend.'

The Swampert honestly couldn't care less that he was getting attacked now. The Acrobatics not only hit him, but hit him hard. Drowned's body collapsed, his snout only a few ways away from the little imp's body. He pushed forward, gently nosing his body. Then he felt something. Something wet rolling down his cheeks.

Tears?

Drowned couldn't believe it. Even he himself hadn't known the Undead could cry, and the clear water fell down his cheeks like raindrops trailing down a glass window. "CoMe BaCk..." he whispered.

"FrIeNd..."

[OOC: Bawww... Came back to find Xadian dead. Sad moment. ;A;]

In the time that he had begun his attack and by the time it was executed, he saw a completely different opponent. Not the strange psychic pokemon that had killed the imp, but the swampert. His attack landed hard, sending the swampert sprawling. However, it did not get back up, only laid near the corpse of the sableye... crying? Suzaku stared in disbelief as he watched the monster that had been trying to kill them... crying.

No time to waste. He turned to Anubis and the little nidorino and tried to get their attention without making too much noise. "Let's get the hell out of here, guys..." He took a few steps away, but paused to make sure they were following.

Thorn jerked awake, the echoes of a roar resonating over the landscape before fading into utter silence. She lay sleepily for a moment, then with a shake of her head and a long and luxurious stretch truly awoke. The Jolteon looked around sleepily. What had woken her? She could see the distant figures of Pokemon in the distance...in fact, they looked even more distant than before. Hm. Looked like that Swampert was back as well...Too bad they weren't her problem! Besides, not like I could help anyways, the Jolteon thought to herself, dispersing much of her doubt. She didn't want to fight! She was trying to figure out a way to get off this cursed island!

Thorn looked further up the slope and saw a mesmerizing sparkle that flickered for a moment before it was drowned out by the ever-present fog. "Up the mountain it is, then," the Jolteon muttered with a sour expression. One final shake to disperse the lingering mist, and Thorn sped towards the mountain's summit.

Anubis had never been more confused. The blue demon had taken the full force of Suzaku's attack, and now it lay there crying over the death of its friend. He had fully believed that once their aura was fully taken, once they were dead, they had no emotions left. Only instinct. if he was wrong then...oh, Arceus.

"Let's get the hell out of here, guys..." the blue canid looked back over to Suzaku and nodded. He began to follow his friend, hoping that Pierce would stay with them. Pierce's aura had changed slightly, something was...different. He couldn't place his paw on it but something was up with their small purple friend. He looked down to the Nidorino and gave a sad smile. "Are you alright, Pierce?" he asked softly.

((OOC:Sorry for the short post, I just couldn't really think of anything.))

Pity and other emotions welled up inside Pierce as he watched the Gargantuan mourn its friend. It shocked him when a large red pokemon attacked, however. The poor beast ignored it for the most part, and went on mourning. Why would someone attack so harshly? Something about the red one tickled the back of his mind, however. He shook his head, but the feeling didn't go away. A smaller, blue pokemon approached him, and the itch grew worse. Like a thousand Spinirak trying to claw their way out of his brain. Purplish blood splattered the ground as he coughed. What the hell was goin-

His thoughts were interuppted as the Blue one spoke to him. "How do you... Know my name?" He said, eyes going wide. He was sure he had never seen the pokemon before, and yet... Somewhere in the back of his head, something itched, more fierce than ever. Images flashed in his head. Abandonment. Exile. Searching. Arriving at the Mountain. Fighting. Thorn. Darkness. Everything else was a dark gap in his memories. What happened to Thorn? he asked himself, digging deeper into his mind to try to find the answers. However, the situation at hand frightened him. He did what any in his place would have done. He panicked.

He gave a shout, dislodging more blood from his throat, as he backed up as fast as he could from the blue creature. "Who... are you?" He said, wimpering.

A small Golett clawed its way free of the rubble, pushing rocks aside as he climbed out to see.. this.

A tall, red pokemon was beating up a large, blue one.

A middlish, purple pokemon was cowering from a small, blue one.

Golett assessed the situation in its tiny head, before wandering up to Suzaku and throwing a shadow-filled punch toward his head.

Suzaku really couldn't understand what had happened in the past thirty seconds.

The swampert attacked the Nidorino, Pierce. Ok. He and Anubis went to fight said swampert. Great. The sableye from before got killed by a weird psychic thing. Scary, but still on board. Then, the swampert starts crying for the sableye, Pierce cries too, doesn't seem to remember them AND a weird rock person comes out and tries to hit him. For hitting the OBVIOUSLY infected swampert that, not five minutes ago, was trying to kill them all.

WHAT.

When did he suddenly become the bad guy?! Though the punch was easy enough to dodge, he took a few steps backward to get a look at the thing. God knew he had never seen one of them before. "The hell are you doing?!" he uncharictaristically shouted, voice strained a little. "That thing has been trying to kill us, asshole! Who the hell are you? You kn-- fuck it. Pierce, Anubis, let's get the hell out. I don't know what the hell's going on, but I do know that we should leave." He kept his eye on the new one, not wanting to let him get in a cheap shot while his back was turned.

Aggron paced around the mountain, rusted armor creaking with the effort, looking for a new meal. This was her mountain, now, and it was feeding time. A yellow blur went by her, and the decaying female allowed herself a sick, demented smile.

New blood...

The smaller creature was easy to follow, even in the dark, due to the yellow pelt it wore. The pelt would have to be the first to go then, wouldn't it? The Aggron marched up behind it, waiting for it to slow and stop. It did.

NOW...

Without warning, just the groan of heavy and damaged armor, she went for her prize. Her claws snatched up the struggling creature. A Jolteon. How fitting. With a twisted pleasure she generated a Metal Claw and slowly dragged one claw down the center of the Eevolutions abdomen. Not cutting too deep, she was able to slowly peel away the creatures skin.

It screamed and cried in agony, and the sond was music to her ears. Blood ran hot down her arms as she worked, and Aggron would only pause to lap it up once in while. She paid no mind to the creatures up the mountain that the Jolteon had been heading to, they were of no concern. When all that was left of the pelt was what was on the other female's face, Aggron grew bored.

She HATED boredom.

Angrily, she tossed the scalped Pokemon to the side and a sadistic smile spread across her face as an idea came to her. A glow surrounded her clawed hand and she swiped at the girl, and at first, nothing seemed to have happened. But the Metal Claw had done its work. Slowly, piece by piece, the creature fell apart like a sliced holiday ham. Taking a few of the larger chunks with her, the Aggron ate them happily as she walked away to scoure more territory, leaving the rest of the gory pile behind.

((Skip please. Not enough for me to work with to make a decent post. :x))

((are you really forcing me to skip? all golett can do is glare at Suzaku ;w;))

The Humanoid Pokemon stood from the half-destroyed grave as he finished giving his respects. Ciallmhar had no clue on what he was doing in such a place, nor did he have an idea on how he even got here. All he did know, was that he felt a powerful force from Unova, and magically poofed over here! All the way in Hoenn! Well, if that was it was, he vaguely remembers the texts his trainer had read, but yes, Hoenn.

Nonetheless, the bulky, yet old, Conkeldurr grabbed the giant cylinders of cement next to him, using it as support as he got moved himself forward around the area. It was saddening to see some graves were half-destroyed, some graves fully taken out of the ground. Ciallmhar supported violence, but he also wanted respect to be shown around here. 'Cursed young Hoenn Pokemon...' He grumbled in his mind, undead could lurk around any corner, but he didn't mind. He was old of age, he would die any minute probably.
But he can't. He has to find her. He must.

As he moved forward, the ground shook as he slammed his cement on the ground, it was ear wrecking, especially since it attracts so much attention. He could do without the cement, but he didn't want to stumble on any graves.
That was when voices were heard from nearby, "That thing has been trying to kill us, asshole! Who the hell are you? You kn-- fuck it. Pierce, Anubis, let's get the hell out. I don't know what the hell's going on, but I do know that we should leave."

Ciallmhar gave a hearty chuckle, a youngster he supposed due to the cursing. He abandoned his cement, and walked over to the group slowly, still having his hearty ol' chuckle, "Leave? Boy, you should pay your respects to the Pokemon around you, they received nothing, but having their graves destroyed."

[Ooc Note: He is referring to Mewtwo's incident long ago in the first paragraph]

Suzaku had half expected for the swampert to rise up and try to kill them again, and half expected for the strange rock person to launch another attack at him. But no, Fate surprised him once again as niether outcome happened, and an old pokemon rose from the more intact parts of the crypt. " 'Leave'? Boy, you should pay your respects to the Pokemon around you, they received nothing, but having their graves destroyed."

The blaziken's eye twitched. ...Yes. The world was against him. That was the only explanation. He tried defending his friends from a bloodmongering lunatic and yet he was the antagonist, the bad guy, the one who needed to be lectured! Suxaku had always been one for respecting the dead, the elderly, the authorities. However, he was at his wit's end. WHAT HAD HE DONE WRONG?

Suzaku had to bite his tongue for a moment to not lash out verbally at the new pokemon, another fellow fighting-type from the look of it. "...Sir..." he began carefully through gritted teeth, "...I'm fully aware of the situation. However, if you will look to the large bloody thing, we have been fighting it for our lives. Not five minutes ago, it was trying to kill our friend Pierce here, who seems to have lost his memory." His feathers ruffled a little more. "I'm not sure why that one's attacking us," he stated, pointing at the golurk, "but right now, I think we've been through enough. Now, once we get away from this swampert -who no doubt will trry to kill us again- I'll be happy to regail the story in more detail. But right now is not the best time," he finished, his voice a harsh whisper at the end.

He was about to pull feathers out if this got any more ridiculous.