» Under the Burning Sky [Ajax&Nyx] «

[Rin]

► “What?” It was over? Meccido slumped to the floor, exhausted. He felt the strength in the couple of levels he had gained, but he was still tired as anything. “Come back, Meccido. Good job with the Bide,” came Ajax’s words through the haze, and he closed his eyes in relief as the red light of the Pokeball enveloped him and he went back into the Pokeball. Styl, on the other hand, nodded to the Baltoys’ praise with a bit of a smug grin on her face and trotted up to Ajax. “I can still fight,” she smirked. Unfortunately as she said this, she lost her footing, having to catch herself with her arms. The fight had taken a good chunk of her HP - all the little hits had added up over time. Ajax snorted, but knowing they were going to see the Durant leader, he figured Styl had the best shot against it – if it was even fightable at her level. “Okay, jeez, don’t be too rash. Let me give you this,” he said, fishing a Fresh Water out of his bag and giving it to Styl to drink. The Combusken grabbed it eagerly, gulping it down, and soon she looked fit enough for another entire battle. "You telling me not to be too rash," she laughed, but Ajax turned away and ignored her little jibe.
«

► Ajax shook his head at Chatot’s suggestion. “No, I don’t wanna catch any of these meaniepants home-stealers. But yeah, let’s go see the leader Durant.” He bounced on his toe-claw a little, clacking his claw in anticipation of whatever would come. Nyx peered over at the Baltoy, asking, “Would you know how to find your brethren using your psychic link?” Frowning, the Ninetails-daemon turned her thoughts to coming up with a plan on how to talk to the Durant leader. She honestly wasn’t sure exactly what they would say. If there were many more Durants, she begrudgingly thought to herself that they could probably take on the Baltoy, since Fury Cutter was super-effective against the clay dolls. Behind them Styl stared around at the tunnel with interest, as she finally had time to concentrate on surroundings instead of fighting. The group as a whole, however, seemed ready to follow wherever the Baltoys would lead.
«


Deducted one Fresh Water from Ajax's PC. 

[Birdybot]

Chatot was glad Ajax didn't want to catch any of the Durants. He didn't want to spend time with Pokémon like those, but it had been Ajax's choice to make. The two Baltoy thought Nyx's suggestion was a good one. "We can try. It might work." The smaller one agreed before the two of them grew still as they concentrated.

After a minute, the larger one spun smoothly on its axis to face a particular tunnel. "I do believe I'd found him," they began gliding along, dim glow illuminating the passage just enough to get by. The trainer and his dæmon and Pokémon looked ready to follow, so the smaller Baltoy brought up the rear. That way the light from the two Baltoys reached all the group, and showed some of what was in front of as well as behind them, useful in case something tried to sneak up on them. Luckily nothing did, but now they knew all these Durants were about the smaller Baltoy wanted to take care. They'd hate to see anything happen to the nice Scizor boy and his Pokémon after he'd so kindly helped them. He seemed like a nice kid, too, and deserved to have a good experience down here.

The odd Baltoy was some way down the fairly straight tunnel. It had sloped down, so they were further underground, but they hadn't left the main tunnel so it would be easy to find the way out again. The odd Baltoy was hard to see in the dim light against the pale clay and rock that matched his body, but when he saw the group he moved to let them see him. The larger Baltoy looked relieved. "Thank good-"

They were cut off when the strange Pokémon batted them gently with an arm. To avoid any confusion, he beckoned for the group to come and see what he'd found. Slowly, cautiously, he led them to what looked to be the entrance to a side tunnel.

Within was a large Durant in a large chamber carved by the ant Pokémon into the rock around the ancient tunnels. A few eggs rested behind her, and regular Durant like the ones they'd seen earlier suttled up to her to bring her gifts, food or news. She would bark orders at them before they hurried off again as quickly as they could. Thankfully, she couldn't see them. "The Queen," the smaller Baltoy whispered. There was fear and awe in their voice. There was no way they could fight her, she was too strong. "We have to try reaching an agreement. We can't force her to do anything, she's too strong and all those other Durant would take us out before we could get to her. We have to just talk to her, see if she can allow the Durant and Baltoy to coexist." The larger Baltoy voiced their thoughts. The Baltoys and Chatot made no attempt at being the first to enter the room, perhaps more intimidated than they let on.

[Rin]

► Now that he was out of the battle, as Ajax walked around the tunnels again he cradled his large red claw against his stomach, feeling a little claustrophobic with the dark tunnels around them. They Baltoy were already having enough trouble, though, so he just didn’t say anything and walked down the tunnel in silence, with Nyx padding alongside him and Styl lagging slightly behind as she continued around the tunnels curiously. Once they reached the odd Baltoy, Ajax and the rest stopped, apprehensive. Once they were in the side path, he could faintly hear the noises of the Queen, and the hairs on his neck prickled as he had a feeling she would not be something they could contend with by force. «

► Soon, they got very close to her room. A quick peek inside told him what he was expecting – she was far, far too strong for them to fight. He met Nyx’s gaze and nodded, then turned around and threw Styl’s Pokeball at her. She protested, “Hey! I wanna see! What are you--?!” when the red light flashed and the Pokeball bounced safely back to his hand. He clipped it to his belt, biting his lip, his eyes flicking down the side corridor and in the direction of the main entrance – where he would be running as fast as possible if the Durant attacked. In a situation like this, one always had to have an escape plan. «

► But first, they would have to try some diplomacy with the Durant Queen. And that would be difficult. He had always been bad at speaking nicely, coming to agreements, that sort of thing. In court he had always watched and not spoke often. Nyx is far better at this sort of thing, he thought as he frowned at her. Understanding, the Ninetails-daemon drew her paw over her ear and squinted, trying to think of a solution herself. “Do you guys have a leader who can speak for you all, or are your party the leaders? Are you willing to come to a compromise in order to try to coexist, like sharing the tunnels? Have you ever had a conflict with them before now?” she asked. She steeled herself to enter the room, but before she set paw in with Ajax behind her, she wanted to ask the questions to know what she was dealing with. She just hoped that the Durant forces didn’t greatly outnumber the Baltoy, because then the Durant could really threaten to destroy the Baltoy homes. Once the Baltoy answered, the cool-headed daemon would poke her head into the room, calling softly, “Your Majesty. We wish to have audience with you, if you please.” «

[Birdybot]

The Baltoy didn't know much of Nyx's personality, but assumed Ajax had returned her because she wouldn't be good to have in a diplomatic discussion. Fair enough. It might hurt her feelings, but that was preferable to risking her annoying the Durant population further.

"We don't have leaders per say, but we can speak on behalf of the Baltoys. The others would be fine with that, and we've both taken on leadership roles before. We haven't had a conflict with the Durants before now. In fact, we never even knew they were here." The larger Baltoy responded, glancing uneasily at the smaller one as they began to add to his response.

"I don't know if we'd be happy to share the tunnels. We've lived here for ages. There were probably Baltoys here before the man-made parts were ruins," they weren't pleased about the idea of coexisting. In their mind, the Durants were the invaders and had to go. This was their home, how could they share it with these bugs?

"Maybe so, but not all change is bad. Perhaps we and the Durants might be able to help each other. We might even be better off. Let's hear what the Queen can offer us. The only Durants we met were fighting us, perhaps they'll be more pleasant towards us as allies," the larger one replied. The smaller one agreed reluctantly, but was still clearly wary of having to share their home with the invaders.

The Queen stared at Ajax when he walked in. How had she not noticed him approaching? The workers scuttling about froze and faced the newcomer. She was about to order them to get rid of him when she saw that he was accompanied by three Baltoys. "So, you Baltoys have finally come to speak with us instead of just sitting about complaining. You took your sweet time in taking action. I see you brought a pet, too," she eyed Ajax and Nyx carefully. The bird on his shoulder looked too anxious to be a bother. The dæmon might be more trouble, and the trainer looked young but had that strong claw. They wouldn't trouble her with her steely exoskeleton. She wasn't afraid of them. "You may speak with me, I'll grant you that. Workers, guard me." The dozen odd ant Pokémon scurried to surround the Queen. This might be a trap - this group could be hiding something that was actually capable of harming her, and she would take no chances. Her eggs were too important to risk, too. "What do you want?" She asked. Part of her was curious, another part annoyed. There was little wish in her to submit to the Baltoys.

[Rin]

►Ajax stayed still and quiet, head erect and hair spikes lightly brushing Chatot's wing feathers, claw clenched tightly by his side and legs tensed and ready to jump away. He had met very few Pokemon as powerful as the Durant Queen in his life. If he had to guess her level, he would say in the 60s. It was amazing that such a strong Pokemon lived on merely Route 3. Worse yet, he had no idea why the Durant would agree to any of the Baltoys’ requests – there was really little reason to, considering that the Durants had attacks that were super-effective to the Baltoy, and the Durant Queen could probably stomp a good number of the Baltoys flat by herself. Just looking at the raw power scales, there was nothing the Baltoy could do, unless there were many, many more than the group he had seen. He was stumped. The insult of him and Nyx being a “pet” he easily brushed off at least – goodness knows how many times he’d been called that before, back at home. «


►But Nyx had remembered some details that the Baltoy had mentioned previously – knowledge that the Durants' activity was disadvantageous to them even if they did end up defeating the Baltoy clan. The tunnels had been collapsing, and that would be a tragedy that the Durants would not be able to avoid if they continued to build. “Your Majesty, I recognize that you and your workers have sunk much time and investment into this area. You feel that it is your claim, by exploration and if I am not mistaken, by conquest if necessary.” She dipped her muzzle slightly, acknowledging the Durant Queen’s power. “However, the Baltoy have lived here for many generations, and they know quite a bit about these tunnels. They are agitated over the fact that the tunnels are collapsing due to your workers’ activities – if the ground above collapsed, it would be a catastrophe devastating both your clans. Might you be willing to work together and find a way to expand the tunnels so the Baltoy have their area, but there is no instability and your Durant colony would have space to live as well? It is also my impression that Baltoy do not eat as well, so you would not have to compete for food.” She glanced sideways at the Baltoy that were with them – it was important that they speak as well, or even if there were a truce it would fall to pieces once she and Ajax were long gone. «

[Birdybot]

Nyx was being polite. Excellent, the little dæmon knew her place. The Queen heard her through. She couldn't deny that she had a point, but she was more reluctant to admit that there was sense in her words. Being informed on all their triumphs and failures throughout this network of tunnels, she had indeed heard that some were collapsing where Durant had tunneled too close to the ruins or otherwise damaged them. When the walls were left too thin they fell through. Some of the colony had attacked the ancient walls to make more convenient passages. They knew how to build tunnels, of course, but theirs were rougher and more direct. The old tunnels caused problems as they usually just ignored them and their Baltoy occupants. If this party had seen that, there was no way she could deny that any tunnels had caved in.

"Yes, tunnels are collapsing. We won't let the ground collapse," she didn't sound so sure about this, "and anyway, it's just that the ruins are so ancient they're all weak." She was stubborn, adamant that they weren't causing all the harm Nyx said they were.

The larger Baltoy disagreed with a glare. "These ruins are not weak. The ground around them is strong. You Durant just don't know what you're doing."

Before he could go further, the strange Baltoy nudged him. He could see that that talk would only serve to anger the Queen further should he continue. The smaller Baltoy spoke up, continuing the speech in a more calm and reasonable tone. "Everything Nyx said was right. We know an awful lot about the tunnels. Collapsing them must be a hindrance for you when they get in the way of your digging. If we work together, Baltoy can help Durants in the construction. We know where the ruins all are, how deep they go and how much earth is between them. We can stop any more roofs caving in. Your home will be more safe with us helping you," they offered.

Help? The Queen was too prideful. "We don't need help, we're just fine on our own! Food might not be a problem, but can Durants and Baltoy really get along? Your lot are all slow and clever, always thinking about pointless things. We're much more efficient. We keep ourselves busy. Everyone had a job to do, so no one's left standing around thinking," without being able to deny the obvious benefits of working together in construction, she had turned to whatever other argument she could find. She hated admitting other people were right, least of all strangers.

[Rin]

►Nyx squinted slightly, thinking. She could tell that the Durant Queen knew that she had some good points, but she was prideful and unwilling to cave in - aha, a pun – to the common sense of others. It would take some smarming up to her to help things along, and she wondered how fragile the relationship between the Durant and Baltoy would be in weeks to come if they would not be able to realize that. “Your Majesty, if you know the ruins are so ancient that the area has been made weak, why do you seek to tunnel here in the first place? I know you seek a strong, fortified area, one that will stand stolidly should any rivals or attackers try to invade. Your Majesty’s Pokemon have fortitude, but it would be easy to break down the defenses in an area with weaker walls. On the other hand, the Baltoy have mentioned that the ground around the ruins are strong.” «


►She lowered her gaze, hoping that the Durant Queen would realize it might be advantageous to tunnel near the Baltoy tunnels instead of in them. But she couldn’t say it – she had to let the Queen come up with the idea herself. “And of course, they would not really be helping you – it would be saving their own skins – well, clay hides – as well, for what should happen if dangerous Pokemon attempt to come to their ruins and your tunnels? The Durant, with their tough hides and sharp pincers, would be able to fight them off far more effectively. Allow the Baltoy ponder things like the strongest points in the earth alone in their own tunnels, and use their advice while your clan works to the great efficiency you speak of.” Nyx hoped, dearly, at this point she would not offend the Baltoy and they would see how she was trying to negotiate with the queen. She knew that the Baltoy could certainly defend themselves well in a fight (perhaps not as well as the Durant), but now was not the time to play that card, unless things got bad. «


►Meanwhile, while Nyx was being (relatively) useful, Ajax was thinking: ARGH, this queen is so STUPID! I mean, she could just conquer all the Baltoy if she wanted to, but they’d stupidly tunnel around, the ground would fall in, and then they’d DIE. Uuuugggghhh why can't she seeeee already. But he kept his mouth shut dutifully and stood quietly, knowing that talking and negotiation was certainly not his strong suit. Chatot, however, who was sitting on his shoulder, might feel the boy occasionally clench his neck, gritting his teeth in order to keep from spitting out his thoughts. To distract himself, he looked around the room at the other Durant, trying to read their expressions. Perhaps they might see some sense in his daemon’s words? «

[Birdybot]

The Queen shifted uncomfortably. In reality, she'd hoped that by collapsing the tunnels they might have rid themselves of the Baltoy swiftly and easily, but she could hardly confess to that in front of them. Originaly they had stuck to the normal ground. Once a Durant had accidently dug through one of the ruins only to find it had collapsed, much to the Baltoy's upset, they had begun targeting them more frequently. In all cases they had dug in such a way that it would be an advantage to the nest - new passageways, shortcuts and such - so that where tunnels did not collapse they would still be useful. In addition this method meant the Baltoy's suspicions were not raised. Their method had failed to remove the Baltoy, it was plain, but the Queen had not realised just how much they would persist in staying in their crumbly old ruins.

This dæmon would have them stick to the nest they had built when they first came here. Its pathways were more convoluted since they had to dig around the ruins. The Durant would then act as the Baltoy's protectors and take advice from them. That idea she liked less. She could see a lot of point in giving up the caving in tunnels thing, but helping protect the Baltoy she's been trying to get rid of? What would she get in return, advice? That didn't seem like a fair trade. She still felt a stubborn desire not to listen to these strangers, regardless of how much sense they made.

Some of her guards bore blank expressions, but a few showed varying opinions towards their Queen's actions. A couple appeared supportive; one nodded slowly in approval, the other glared at the Baltoys with something close to loathing. Maybe about four of them were looking fed up with what their ruler was saying, clearly thinking along the same lines as Ajax. One looked set to speak up, but the Queen gave him a subtle look which made him settle down dejectedly, a glum expression introducing itself to his face.

The Queen was struggling to find excuses not to listen to the intruders at this point. "OK, OK, fine, so say we decide to allow the Baltoy to stay in their ruins and we stick to our tunnels. Even if my people agreed to that, and they won't like it I can tell you," this seemed a lie if the looks on the faces of her own guards were anything to go by, "how would you propose we make this work? Sure, in theory we'll protect the Baltoy as well as our own, but they can't just rely on us. The nest comes before helping out some weak clay thingies. Living so close, one of us will provoke the other sooner or later. Neither of us particularly like each other." This sounded more truthful.

"We are not weak! We can fight too, just in different ways to you guys," the smaller Baltoy huffed, pride hurt.

"Oh really? You're a trainer, how do you think we could fight together, complement one another or whatever it is?" the Queen turned to Ajax. On his shoulder, Chatot felt all the eyes turn to them and didn't know where to look, feeling uncomfortable.

[Rin]

► Ajax gave an involuntary twitch when the Queen talked to him. Darn it! Now he would have to talk. Nyx turned to look at him as well, but her quiet expression reassured him. He cleared his throat. “Er, me?” Well, at least she had asked him about tactical fighting strategy. If there was anything he could talk about in a logical manner, perhaps it was that. “Um, well, first of all, your two type ranges would be super-effective against a wide range of Pokemon types. Between your four type ranges – bug, steel, psychic and ground – you’d be able to attack super-effectively against grass, psychic, dark, fighting, poison, rock, steel, electric, ice, and fairy types,” the Scizor boy rattled off. “But obviously you’re going to tell me that typing isn’t everything and it’s clearly not. So…strategies. The Baltoy don’t really have to sleep, and they can move silently due to their levitation. They would make excellent sentinels. Durant move more efficiently though and could be galvanized to action more quickly if the Baltoy alerted them. Also, movepools. Mostly Durant seem to have physically based moves, using their jaws and whatnot.” He snapped his metallic claw to underscore his point. Ajax was starting to almost enjoy himself – tactics was one of his stronger points, and his monologue continued with an eager sort of tone to it. “Baltoy tend to attack from afar with moves like Confusion, Rock Tomb, Psybeam – psychic attacks and summoning rocks. Durant get close to their enemy and get in close. It’s like having ranged and close combat fighters. Plus, there are even combos you could make. Like trapping an enemy underneath a Rock Tomb and then using the Durant’s jaws. Or using Psybeam or Confusion to corral the enemy into moving in a certain direction, only to meet up with a Bite attack.”
«

► Nyx blinked at him with her expression of reassurance, looking almost…proud of her human. Barely – there was only a hint of it in her flat expression. Then she stepped in to reaffirm his point. “What we’re saying, Your Majesty is, that – yes, while you have well-noted, working with the Baltoys could cause some problems, and there may be misunderstandings along the line. But working together as opposed to working against each other would cause a rise in efficiency.”
«

[Birdybot]

The three Baltoys listened to Ajax in approval. They were glad he and his dæmon were talking about this from a logical approach rather than a 'everyone should just get along and be happy because it's nice' direction. The Durant would likely have kicked them out if they'd even tried that tactic. They clearly wanted to do whatever was best for themselves with no consideration of how that affected others, so logic and efficiency were what they were most likely to respond to.

The Queen hadn't thought of what Ajax was saying. "I must admit, I'd thought we were so different fighting alongside each other was hopeless, but you make it sound better than just fighting with Durant alone," she mused over his words. Her guards looked for the most part won over to the Baltoy's cause. She knew what happened to queens who the colony thought was doing them more harm than good. Old ones, sick ones, useless ones... there was always the potential for one of the young females to train to be a queen rather than a worker. She might be stronger than any individual here, but all together they could overcome her. She herself had replaced a queen growing feeble in her old age. It was somewhat cruel, but an excellent way of keeping a queen loyal to the colony rather than just herself. If that failed, they'd get one that did. She could see plainly that none of her arguments were good enough here. She had to do what was best for the colony even if it meant wounding her own stubborn pride.

"You've made a good point, child. Baltoy and Durant will fight well together, and collapsing their tunnels won't earn us their favour. If we stop... we'll want a few good connections between our two dwellings. My Durants will be allowed full use of your ruins to stop any need to digging shortcuts through them." The larger Baltoy gave her a look. She sighed. "Fine, and the Baltoy can use our tunnels if they really want. In return we'll both fight for each other. I can pair up each of my soldier Durants to any Baltoy willing to fight, and they shall train together. Together, we will be stronger than any intruder! This had better work, kid," she said with a hint of warning to Ajax.

Chatot let out his breath in a soft coo, relaxing as the tension in the room eased. The three Baltoys looked happy. The smaller one turned to Ajax. "Ready to lead you back to the surface whenever you want me to," he said. It was fine if the boy wanted to explore more, but he knew humans tended not to enjoy spending too long in dark underground tunnels.

[Rin]

Ajax’s shoulders slumped visibly with relief as the Queen agreed to work together with the Baltoys. “Thanks, Your Majesty,” he responded. “I do hope everything goes well for your colony and their excavations, and the Baltoys and their ruins.” He felt a slight twinge of guilt that he would not really be there to oversee how things would go – what if it all fell apart when he was gone? But it was not his responsibility to care for all wild Pokemon he met. Plus, he had to go on his mission, and return to his original kingdom. Nyx dipped her head respectfully to the Durant Queen as well, and then to the Baltoys who had travelled with them, to show equality – even if she was sure the Durant Queen would be far more offended if she hadn’t extended the polite gesture.


As the Baltoys offered to take Ajax back to the top, he nodded thankfully. Once he had spent a little more time in the tunnels, he didn’t feel as nervous and claustrophobic as he had at first. However, that didn’t stop him from feeling uncomfortable underground. He much preferred the forest and mossy soil beneath his foot-claws as opposed to all this sand and rock. “Thanks,” he said, after some awkward silence. Then some more silence. “This was pretty interesting, actually. The Queen is right though, you guys have really different societies. And there are bound to be misunderstandings. Maybe the Baltoys and Durant could each have an…” oh he had heard of this, they had visited the palace where he used to live frequently, and Nyx jumped in: “An ambassador, that learns about the other group’s culture, therefore understanding and leading to better communication with them.”


“Yeah, that,” Ajax commented, a small smile appearing on his face. He could smell the fresh air, and while it was sandy and dusty (and hot – that was one thing he had enjoyed about the underground tunnels, the relief from the sweltering sun), fresh air was certainly welcome. As they approached the light and the tunnel’s opening, he turned around awkwardly. He had been forming an idea since he had watched the Baltoy battle, and seen the “odd” one cleverly figure out things by using its intuition that the others hadn’t seen. The Scizor boy faced the Baltoy. “Thanks for showing me around…hopefully I was able to help.” He gave an awkward sort of grin, then said: “If any of you would like to join me, Nyx, and my team, you are welcome. I understand though, if you want to stay at your home and take care of your colony. That’s important, and I can’t promise a quiet life with meditation or anything, but there’ll definitely be lots of exploration and things to see.”

[Birdybot]

The larger Baltoy nodded. That experience had been interesting, he supposed, but perhaps a bit too nerve-wraking for his liking. He'd spent most of his life quietly thinking and working, never straying far or adventuring

"An ambassador? Yes, that does sound like a good idea. We shall have to vote on who this will be. Soldiers chosen should work closely and live together too, to form close bonds between Durant and Baltoy fighters." he did not believe that keeping peace would be easy. Members of the two colonies being friends would help, but there would always be those rejecting new things or simply deciding they did not like anyone from the other colony. They would have to work at introducing the change gradually, with the aim to achieve total integration. Some might want to preserve some of their separate identities, but perhaps that was better kept by friendly Baltoy-vs-Durant competitions in battling or games. It would be hard, but it could work. Baltoy had faith.

They reached the surface, and Ajax said he would welcome any one of them to his team. The larger Baltoy knew that his place was here. "A kind offer, but I don't enjoy adventuring all that much. I am needed here, to maintain peace," he declined. The strange one kept up his silence. The small Baltoy jumped at the chance. "Suit yourself, that was exciting! I'd like nothing better than to get out there and have even more adventures! You're on, kid!" they said excitedly. They tapped an empty Pokeball, nodded goodbye to their friends, and in a flash of red light was gone.

"Well, trainer, we thank you enormously for all you have done to save our home. We wish you luck in all you do," the large Baltoy said with respect before leading the remaining Baltoy back into the ruins.

Baltoy was caught! Continue to next route?


Name:
Species: Baltoy
Gender: Genderless (thinks of self as gender neutral)
Level: 20
Attacks: Harden, Confusion, Mud-Slap, Rapid Spin, Rock Tomb, Psybeam, Power Trick

((Hope the level's all right, couldn't check what level the rest of your team are))

[Rin]

Ooc:// Yeah, level 20 is about right. :3 

Ic:// Onward to the next town!