Pokémon Umbral ~ Ruinous Origins Mission 2, Chapter 1

[DanteFalcon]

Matthias regarded the Phantomere with an expression somewhere between impressed and intrigued. Clearly the pokemon was somewhat intelligent and was an imposing figure besides. He half wondered what a battle of wits against the reaper pokemon would be like. The team was moving on before he could give it much more thought.

Upon engaging with the crazy man his eyes were drawn to the ghosts. It seems that he didn't notice them. Perhaps the Ruin types were aware that the Team was a threat and the farmer wasn't. Regardless they appeared to be malevolent and thus would need to be dealt with.

He focused on the nearest one, stabbing at it's conciousness. Psybeam.

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Look at this, all sorts of new kills to add to the record book," Charlotte said, reffering to the Mononke, and kind of the Phantomere earlier. " I wish I brought my camera, they don't let me keep the kill."

Charlotte just laughed off most of Shannon's insults from earlier. It appeared that Shannon had truly learned nothing from their last experience, and didn't bear much fear towards Charlotte, she'd have to change that some time, but not now.

She already had Sol-leks and Pike out on the battlefield, and they were prepared to fight. "Sol-leks, give suport against the Exploud," she would let him decide the attack. Sol-leks made a charge for the Explaud and spun to use an Iron tail. Curse its lack of super-effective moves.

"Pike, use an ice fang," she ordered. There was a small chance that the foe would be frozen from the attack. If necessary, Charlotte could order an Ice fang to freeze the trainer to freeze him, Charlotte herself would give a good kick to the shins. She unfortunately didn't have Impact supplying her with artillery.

[Geminex]

Impact had selected his equipment in the van. He had felt a sense of... righteous satisfaction at being selected as leader, at least temporarily. He'd make sure not to disappoint them, though that might prove a challenge. He'd have preferred to settle the matter privately with Pierce, since he didn't seem the kind of person to easily accept authority, but it'd do for now. He had been meaning to reopen the discussion while they were driving, but his eye had caught the new weapons and accessories he'd be using, and, for a brief moment, he had known love. As he had stepped from the van, love had been replaced with the feeling of being really well armed, but that had been acceptable also. Further distractions had come his way, in the form of a pokemon with coherent speach and almost tangible malice. This really interested him. Communication with Ruin pokemon had so far been impossible, short of sticking swords in their heads to indicate that they were not welcome, so if this one could be captured... it'd be fascinating! Particularly when they brought in Pyschic types to get inside its head and maybe tried torturing it a little to make it divulge what it knew. So taken in was he by this line of thought, that he barely noticed that combat had started. Not very leader-like, of course, but he'd make up for it. "Pierce, can you and Rachel fight his Bacon and Eggs? Me and Matt can hold the ghosts off, you can help us finish them when you're done. Tell me when his pokemon are down, I'll take him out with the revolver." There wasn't much tactical coordination to do in this battle, so, when his piece had been spoken, he activated the adrenaline surge, felt a blast of... energy? Power? Clarity? take hold of him, took aim at the ghost that Matt had been attacking, let loose with a surge of spectral energy from the ghost rifle.

[Astral Harmony]

Team Buscuits Synopsis (Pierce/Matthias/Impact/Rachel): Blissey is hurt and paralyzed. Grumpig is down. Impact is hurt. Quiksilver the Metaleon is hurt. One of the Mononoke is down, but is replaced at the end of the round. The three Mononoke that remained attacked Pierce's Tyranitar, Blaziken, and Matthias. It's...difficult to determine how much it hurt exactly...

Tyranitar and Blaziken were satisfied with the results of their attacks, even if both Pokémon survived.
Matthias' Psybeam struck his Mononoke. It seemed to scream from the mental assault, but the scream was voiceless. It's shaking was shifty and disturbing. Impact finished off the sorry sight with his Ghost Gun, causing the spectral horror to dissipate into a violet fog. Then and only then did it make a sound, a shriek much like a blast of ethereal wind.

Rachel kicked off her part of the battle by deploying Metaleon and, you guessed it, Registeel.
"Quiksilver!" Rachel began, calling Metaleon by the name Rayleen gave her. "Use Iron Tail, please! Registeel, give them a Flash Cannon if you could!"
Grumpig just couldn't stand up to that kind of assault. Blissey was suddenly paralyzed. "Thunder Wave, bitch."
"Damn gal don' know 'er mannuhs!"
"The more Pokémon of his we beat, the worse his country drawl gets."
"Yew enjoy the beecon, didja? Here, try sum chick'n!"
Next up was a Blaziken. "Here they come!"

Blaziken (Fire/Fighting) [Male]
Moves: Flare Blitz / Sky Uppercut / Fire Blast / Focus Punch
Ability: Blaze

The farmer rushed Impact, and despite Impact being a more capable human, still gouged him with the pitchfork. It hurt, but Impact didn't see a whole lot of blood loss. Blaziken opened up by smashing Quiksilver with Focus Punch, knocking Quiksilver hard enough to leave an imprint into the wall. Quiksilver hopped down from where it made a near complete hole in the wall. Despite that beatdown, she held strong. Blissey was locked down by her paralysis. Then the Mononoke attacked. Their attacks didn't hurt, but they did feel...kind of weakening. Pierce's Tyranitar, Blaziken, and Matthias all felt a little sluggish and cold from the touch of these disembodied spirits.
Then one more rose up from the floor. "Hmmm," Rachel frowned. "I wonder if they'll just keep coming until we get rid of farmer guy and his breakfast items? Anyways, I'm ready for orders, leader."

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Team Gravy Synopsis (Renny/Charlotte/Shannon/Lola): Two Explouds go down. Pike is hurt. Cacturne is badly hurt and recalled. Jumpluff (who is normally too high during Bounce) and Togekiss (who would normally be immune) were able to be struck by the Mononoke attacks. Sol-leks eats the other two attacks.

"Take my awesome fighting spirit!" Lola cheered, which excited Renny's Magnezone...and a few others. Shannon frowned, apparently out of a complex about her own chest. Hers wasn't bad at all, actually a tantalizing C-cup, but even nicely stacked girls like Lola had their complexes about their bust size when told that there were even bigger, bouncier bosomed beauties to measure oneself up with.
Renny was rewarded with Magnezone's Exploud going down, and staying down. "Can't even survive a single round," soldier guy grumbled as he tossed out his next Pokéball. Surprise, a fucking Exploud.
Charlotte worked on the Exploud that wasn't so fresh, nearly killing it, but not freezing it like she would've liked.

Shannon spun around and playfully kicked two Pokéballs with her heel after tossing them lightly into the air. "Cacturne! Jumpluff! Your beloved beckons!"
She was fast on the draw. "Cacturne, Sucker Punch! Jumpluff, Bounce!"
Cacturne smashed his fist directly into the eye region of the Exploud Charlotte's Pokémon harassed, taking it out. How Jumpluff found a way to get some air in a place with a ceiling and air that wasn't really circulating all that much was as mysterious as the mansion.
Soldier guy deployed his next Exploud, then came their turn. "Everyone, prepare for their counterattack!"

Soldier guy kicked his round off by taking out his frustration on Pike. "Damn mutt!" he shouted as he carved a gash into Pike's side with the combat knife. Pike looked wounded, but could continue the fight. Cacturne ate two Overheats. He quickly wriggled his body and put out the flames, and stared down his enemies. "Cacturne, return. I know you felt that. Take it easy, okay? You did marvelously."
Then the four Mononoke attacked. Jumpluff took an attack despite being out of range. "Guess they don't follow Pokémon rules."
"Those aren't Pokémon. We should fight them with more caution."
Sol-leks ate two of the attacks from the spirits.
Togekiss ate one...and felt it!
It was a strange feeling. One couldn't tell the extent of the damage, just a chilling sensation and a sluggishness. Sol-leks felt it worse than the others, even looking a little unsteady.
"Those attacks of theirs are so strange," Shannon mentioned. "They can hit Pokémon that they couldn't normally hit, like my Jumpluff in the air and Renny's normal type Togekiss."
"Definitely not Pokémon," Lola agreed. "We'll have to alter our tactics to suit these new foes."
"None of them flinched, either," Shannon observed. "But it did look like Twister hit 'em. This is a pretty bizarre battle."
Welcome to the Watchmen, Shannon.
"Orders, sir?" Lola asked Renny.

[Geminex]

Impact hissed in pain as he felt the Pitchfork pierced his armor somehow (he'd really have to talk to the armorers about their product's ability to stop agricultural implements), but it wasn't bad. This guy wasn't much of a fighter. Still, it annoyed him. He hit the old man in the face with his rifle-butt, then kicked him away. Nothing overtly painful or damaging, just enough to just get him out of his face. He was itching to give him a few revolver rounds to the face, but his team might object. Then again... They couldn't harm the ghosts, so the only viable targets were the old man's pokemon. Once they were out, the battle would (hopefully) be won. If they could knock out all the on-field monsters this round, then they'd get hit by another three attacks next round. He usually wouldn't consider such a tactic, but it'd mean only one more round of attacks by ghosts, and he really wanted to minimize those, since he had no idea what they did but he had a feeling it really wasn't good. He sighed, turned to his team. "Kay, I'm gonna gamble here. We want to end this battle quickly, I don't like those ghosts. Blissey should be easy to take out with another physical move or two, Blaziken should't survive for long against rock or ground attacks. If I can finish the farmer now, we can finish this in short order with one more salvo of attacks, provided we manage to eliminate his rogue pokemon, which shouldn't be too hard. If we do this right, Matt, at the very least, should have time to buff himself for next round. Or maybe use toxic spikes, poison the opponents as soon as they come it." Without waiting for a response (affirmative action was what it was all about, right?) he stepped forward, pulling his revolver from his holster. He couldn't shoot to kill, couldn't risk the consequences, but he had to at least lure the farmer's pokemon out of their balls. And that meant somewhat-serious injury. He stepped forward, following up on his previous attack. He first smashed the revolver grip against the farmer's temple twice, savagely kneed him in the stomach, slammed him against the wall, then brought his revolver into play, shooting him in the buttocks twice. The gunshots would bring quite a lot of pain, but wouldn't do any permanent damage (buttocks healed extraordinarily well), same with the knee in the stomach, and the pistol-whipping would probably induce unconsciousness, without causing damage to brain or skull. He could be careful when he needed to. And perhaps he had gone for overkill, but his plan depended on the Old Man being out for the count. He just hoped he had made the right choice. He didn't know this team well enough. Though enough of that. He had spent too much time beating up the elderly to really participate in this salvo of attacks, but he still had a revolver in his had. He fires off the remaining four shots at the enemy Blaziken.

[Dracorion]

The ghosts. What the hell was up with them? They didn't seem to outright damage enemies. "That doesn't make any sense. You're telling me this hillbilly is controlling the ghosts?" Pierce asked Rachel incredulously. "Fine. We'll take him out first. Blaziken, return!" He said, returning Blaziken to his pokeball.

"Tyranitar, Earthquake! Metagross, Zen Headbutt!" He called, tossing Metagross' pokeball. Metagross slammed itself hard into the enemy Blaziken, while Tyranitar stomped the ground once, sending a massive tremor at the same Blaziken. Normally, Earthquake hit everything on the field, but Pierce and Tyranitar had spent the last two weeks practicing how to focus all the power of Earthquake into a single target.

[Menarker]

Renny couldn't help but be marveled at the cheer, and the results that came of it was extremely statisfying.

"Yes, I think you're both right", smiling all the while. They had learned quite a bit of details and the pokemons were going down fast. Renny tapped into his scouter, patching into communication with group 1.

"West side team, do you copy? Don't know if you have encountered any non-pokemon ghosts yet. They seem to take damage like normal to dragon types moves, but they seem to bypass the defences of pokemons, including being able to affect normal types. In addition, they may be resistant to some status effects as they seem to be immune to flinching. Otherwise, everything ok on our side."

Renny refocused on the situation at hand, thinking of what to do next.

"Let's continue as we're doing though, you're all doing great. The pokemons are going down fast. And he turned to Lola pleasantly although a slight shocked about being called "sir". You can just call me Renny, Lola. However, I got an idea... Magnezone return, you did great!"

Renny recalled the steel pokemon back to its pokeball as Renny pulled out another. As good at their plan was going, he rather not have the military manic adjust his target and attempt to use Overheat on Magnezone.

"Swampert, let's try something interesting! Swampert arrived on the floor with a powerful expression that was just a bit wary of the ghosts that it didn't recognize. Just watch for now. Shannon, Charlotte, we're going to do an wide spread attack, so do what you want to do then make a little room up front!"

Renny then leaned closer to Lola so that his shouting wouldn't be intercepted by the foes, almost close enough to be whispering to her ears. "Lola, I'm going to have both my pokemons do the same trick to you, so can you do a Blizzard?"

Renny then smiled to both his pokemons.

"Togekiss, mimic that Helping Hand! Swampert, once you see Togekiss do it, you do so too!"

Togekiss flew round and round Lola gracefully spreading what looked like glorious angel dust all while singing as Swampert joined in a bit awkwardly but with what he felt counted as a war dance as it circled around Lola like a totem of power, both lending their support to the Lopunny hybrid.

"Lola, once you got a clear shot, you go ahead and take it! Blast everything and every one of them in snow and ice!"

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Both Togekiss and Swampert use Mimic to mimic Helping Hand, using it on Lola whom Renny requests to use Blizzard on every foe. Blizzard with a 1.5 Multiplier and then another 1.5 multiplier. ^^

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Pke, Sol-Leks, fall back," Charlotte ordered them. Sol-leks was still uneven from the ghosts' attaacks, and Pike was bleeding from the knife.

"Sol-leks, give a flamethrower to one of the ghost, she commanded," Sol-leks managed to fight the dizziness, and sent a flamethower at one of the enemies. It was worth a test to see what attacks had effect.

"Pike, attack the foe's with a discharge," she said, "including the trainer." Adding to the blizzard, this should deal even more damge off to them, and paralyze any (unlikely) stragglers. Although Charlotte wasn't sure if the Mononoke would even be factored into the attack.

Either way, Pike complied and let out a surge of electricity, which spread out and jolted for the enemies.

[DanteFalcon]

Matthias had a great deal of contemplation to do. He didn't like Impact's choice of tactics but he wouldn't go against him for the moment. Insubordination wouldn't help anyone or anything at this stage. And it seemed they had the Trainer's pokemon under control. So it looked like he'd continue focusing on the ghosts.

However instead of killing them to be replaced he just needed to delay them. His wings exuded a copious amount of dust, flowing towards one of the ghosts

Sleep Powder

[Astral Harmony]

Team Hawt For Gardevoir Synopsis (Impact/Pierce/Matthias/Rachel): Enemy Blaziken is down. Enemy Blissey is down. Rachel is slightly hurt. Impact is seriously injured now. Quiksilver (Metaleon) is down. Tyranitar is seeded. The farmer is healed. Matthias is hurt. Sleep Powder is ineffectual against the Mononoke.

The farmer struggled to tough out the pain from the bullets he took in the ass, and then got back into battle, suddenly healed as one of the Mononoke that had attacked earlier swept right through him and emerged, looking different somehow. "Hum...somehow I feel kinda better. Mus' be uh guardeen angul watchin' o'er meh," the farmer said, apparently not noticing that a ghost had just passed through his body.
When one looked at them hard enough, one would notice the attacking Mononoke to be somewhat more glowy than those that hadn't. The one that passed through the farmer was no longer glowing. Wait, that's it! They stole life force when they attacked. And that one healed the farmer. An interesting way of running support. Why the Mononoke would support the farmer was the question, but it caused problems.
The Blaziken took the remaining shots from Impact's revolver like a hero, and looked no worse for the wear. That is until Pierce sent his Pokémon out the attack that same target. Blaziken staggered backward and got ready to lift his fists before tumbling and falling face-first onto the floor. "Damn it! C'mon, ya worfless varmints, show 'em sum muscle!"
Hey, a Miltank! Totally unexpected, that one!
Matthias frowned. The Mononoke was bathed in Sleep Powder, but apparently ignored its effects entirely. Too much ancient suffering, probably. The ghosts seemed to be immune to all kinds of negative effects. Flinching didn't work, and they couldn't be put to sleep, either. Maybe they were immune to everything.

Registeel and Quiksilver put Blissey down, and then Rachel literally hovered off the ground for a minute as her cheeks glowed and blasted Miltank with Thunder. The farmer replaced the fallen Blissey with Cherrim. "Ah, I luv me sum berreh milk!"
"Best we can do for now," Rachel said. "Here comes the counter!"

The farmer decided to keep pestering Impact. He was actually starting to become a threat. With only one Pokémon in his reserves, it wasn't a terrible time to go ahead and put him in his place.
Miltank finished the job the Blaziken started by removing Quiksilver from the fight. "Beautiful job, Quiksilver. Please return."
Cherrim seeded Pierce's Tyranitar with Leech Seed.
The one Mononoke that wasn't glowing and hadn't already used its turn healing the farmer hit Rachel. "Oooh, that's so cold. It's like it's sucking the heat right out of me."
The two that were already glowing did something strange. They flew back toward some dining room chairs, then hefted them off of the ground and threw them, smashing Impact and Matthias. Geez!
The Mononoke had separated from the chairs just shortly after they were thrown, and they weren't glowing anymore. They could also use the life energy for other purposes like interacting with the environment, it seemed.
The farmer looked behind him quickly to see who threw the chairs, but didn't see anyone. "Crickey, who th'ew those churrs!?"
"You haven't seen them until now? This place is haunted."
"Haunt'd? Haw haw haw, yer jus' pullin' muh leg!"
"Whatever, stay ignorant."

New Enemy Pokémon!

Miltank (Normal) [Female]
Moves: Milk Drink / Rollout / Body Slam / Zen Headbutt
Ability: Scrappy

Cherrim (Plant) [Female]
Moves: Leech Seed / Petal Dance / Take Down / Solar Beam
Ability: Flower Gift

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Team Hawt For Lopunny Synopsis (Renny/Charlotte/Shannon/Lola): Both of the second set of Explouds are down. A Mononoke is downed, restoring the stolen life energy to Sol-leks. Sol-leks is hurt by Pike's Discharge. Jumpluff is downed. The remaining Mononoke use the stolen life energy to hurl stools at Togekiss and Swampert, downing Togekiss and hurting Swampert.

Lola nodded and prepared her Blizzard. "I hope you all like goose pimples! Blizzard!"
A powerful blast of biting-cold winds and frozen water sludged down in a diagonal arc, savaging the Explouds. They didn't freeze, but Blizzard didn't have much of a chance of that anyways.
Sol-leks experimented on the nearest Mononoke. The fire seemed to work as the ghost reeled away from the attack, and the ghost dissolved. Wait, from just the flamethrower? They didn't have a whole lot of health, did they? Then Sol-leks suddenly felt stronger. That Mononoke was one of the two that attacked it. Maybe Sol-leks stole his life energy back after defeating the ghost?
Pike's Discharge smacked both Explouds and Sol-leks, hurting all three pretty seriously but the Explouds looked much worse for it than Sol-leks did. Small sacrifice for greater victory, one would guess.

"Let me lend my help," Shannon said and playfully tossed another Pokéball. It was Florescence, Shannon's Leafeon. "Florescence, Leaf Blade! Jumpluff, do your stuff!"
Both Explouds went down again, one from a vicious Leaf Blade critical and the other from the Jumpluff's Bounce. Shannon snapped her fingers in satisfaction. "Ha ha ha. One more round and Gomer Pyle here'll be left with just his stupid combat knife."
The final two Explouds were deployed. "We can remove the threat of the Battle Master without increasing our own troubles, sir." Lola advised Renny. "That's his last two Pokémon. Anyways, everybody prepare for the counterattack."

The fake soldier slashed Togekiss with his combat knife, hurting Togekiss badly. The Explouds removed Jumpluff from the battle. "Geez, why's e'erbody always hatin' on me?" Shannon asked nobody in particular as she returned Jumpluff to her Pokéball.
The three Mononoke that remained all glowed with the life energy they had stolen from the previous round and used it to pick up some stools and give them a good slingshot-like launch across the room, where they smashed into Renny's Pokémon. Swampert was still relatively okay, but Togekiss was on the plush carpeted floor where it remained a second before disinigrating into energy and returning to its Pokéball. The Mononoke emerged from the flung objects, no longer glowing.
"Ha ha ha! Even the house wants you to leave!" the fake soldier laughed.
Moron.

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Mononoke Updates

- Seems like they absorb the life energy of their targets when they attack, and they glow after having done so.
- They can use this life energy to heal allies or interact with objects in the environment by possessing them. After doing so, they return to normal.
- They may very well be immune to all kinds of status changes.
- They don't have a great deal of health themselves and are easily dispatched.
- Defeating a Mononoke that has life energy returns it to the one it was taken from.
- Ultimately, the life energy theft doesn't seem to harm you physically, but does make your body sluggish, lowering your statistics little bit by little bit.