Facing Danger Head on (pt. 2)

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It was a wonder the wood did not splinter and buckle under Rhys' huge force. It gave suddenly, smacking the wall as it swung open on its hinges at high speed. As soon as the door opened, a stifling silence fell. The room was pitch black. No windows were within, and light from the corridor only touched a small area around the entrance. Once the group's eyes adjusted, they would be able to see a dim and dusty room, the stone floor worn by countless feet. The edges of the room were too dark to see so there was no telling how large it was. No movement could be seen apart from a thin trickle of dust stirred in what could have been the centre of the room, as though something had been in here recently. The rest of the dust around that spot was untouched.

Lifelessness returned to the castle, but there was no mistaking the screams and chanting for what they were. Something was here. But where was it now? There was no sound of anything stirring in the shadows. The temperature did seem to drop a little, but that could just be the imagination interpreting the situation in some strange way. Or the draft that seemed to be coming from somewhere in the room. If it was a draft. There was a path where the dust was thinned, carved out by what felt just like a thin breeze escaping from some crack low down - like the one between a door and the floor. There was no light creeping into the room to indicate such a thing. A thin sigh started as the draft blew stronger. It was somewhat suspicious as to why there was dust there in the first place - dust was bits of dead skin and the like, wasn't it? There weren't any people around to make dust, so how did it get here? From the direction of the draft, a thin shaft of light was cast on the ground, barely noticeable. Perhaps it had just appeared. Perhaps it had been there all along. It was strangely inviting, as if asking the group to go and investigate.

The door gave way under the force of Rhys's weight. The meganium staggered slight, Liz instantly at his side, one hand stroking down the long neck of her daemon as they entered the dark room. It took time for their eyes to adjust, but once they did, all they saw was an empty room, layered thickly with dust.

"What the..." The pink haired woman looked around herself, confused. The chanting and the screams had definitely come from this room. She tugged her jacket closer to herself, feeling suddenly cold. Seraphina puffed herself up, fluffing her feathers. As a fire type, she wasn't feeling the cold, her own internal warm burning more then bright enough to keep her warm. But still, there was something indefinably creepy about this place.

There was a path through the dust, Rhys leaning down to examine it, the meganium daemon's long feelers shivering with agitation. "I don't like this" He said, voice echoing in the empty chamber. ~This place is creepy~ Seraphina said, puffing hot air at the dirt and watching it swirl upward a moment before falling back to the floor.

"Come on" Liz called to the pair, already starting to follow the path through the dust. There was a tiny bit of light, showing a way through the darkness. Had it always been there? The group wasn't sure. Quickly Rhys caught up with his human, Seraphina hurry to walk alongside the trainer.

"Hello?" Th woman called out, hearing another sighing sound "Anyone out there? I promise, we're not here to hurt you"

All remained quiet when faced with the voices of Rhys, Seraphina and Liz. Why shouldn't it? After all, nothing malicious was likely to reply when asked if it was there. At least, nothing that was hiding like this. At first the only response was the door behind the group creaking shut, leaving them in total darkness aside from the thin shaft of light on the ground a couple of feet away. As it was now the only light, it seemed much brighter. The base of a door identical to the one they had just stepped through could just be made out. As could a pair of angular red eyes.

A response came now that her prey was safely trapped. "You might not be here to hurt me, but who's to say the same is true of me?" the owner of the eyes spoke with amusement in her voice. The eyes neared the group slowly, biding their time. She liked to draw things out. "Now, what to do with you? You've got some guts coming in here with such a weak Pokémon. New, are we? Easy prey. Shame. I like to win, but I do like some resistance," a low chuckle fought its way into being, harsh and cruel.

The door with the light underneath shook. The eyes' focus left the trio and turned on it, narrowing as a thin growl escaped their owner. "Gengar, I won't let you do this. They have done nothing wrong," a notably human voice called from the other side of the door. The door shook harder. Gengar, as the voice had addressed the eyes, remained still and silent, all her efforts on the fight over the door. Finally a victor emerged. Gengar let out a deep breath as the door swung open reluctantly. A man stood in the doorway, bathed in light from a corridor which ran alongside a courtyard as Liz had been searching for earlier. He was dressed in a torn cloth shirt and trousers, his hair messy and brown, eyes a piercing blue. A trickle of blood ran down the right side of his face. The knuckles of his hands resting on the hilt of a dull sword were rubbed raw. Even all this was of less note than the fact that he was entirely semi-transparent. "Run!" he shouted a simple command at the trio as he launched himself at Gengar, now illuminated with the light flooding the room. She wasted no time in retaliating, twisting to try and get herself close to the trio anyway.

Elizabeth did not need to be told twice when it was time to get out of there. She might be a foolhardy woman sometimes, given to a lack of selfpreservation instinct when another was in danger, but even she knew when she was outmatched. This man, see-through though he may be, had a much better chance of dealing with the Gengar than she did, with only Seraphina for protection. Perhaps she should have listened when everyone told her it was a bad idea. But then again, she had not made it to where she was in life by letting others tell her what she was and was not going to do. if she had left others dictate her life, she would be stuck behind a desk in a pokemon center, chaffing at the restrictions of the family job and wishing she were out there with the trainers who came to bring in their pokemon.

Scooping up Seraphina, Liz took off in a dead run, Rhys following along only a few steps behind her. She didn't pay attention to where she was doing, pelting headlong down the corridors as she sought to do as the man had said and get away from where the Gengar had lured them too.

[Birdybot]

The clash of steel on what must have been Gengar's claws or the stone walls and floor wrang out behind Elizabeth and Rhys as they ran. Dark wisps of an unsettlingly odd smoke came into being around the fleeing trio. Gengar was desperate not to miss out on her fun. The semi-transparent man could surely not hold her off forever...

The corridors Liz blindly ran down finally led her to the courtyard she had been searching for earlier. The bright light of day was in stark contrast to the dusty gloom of the castle's interior. It would appear they had escaped Gengar, too, although who was to say they could have got away so cleanly? This place might seem safe, with its warm sun and cold autumn breeze, but there were enough cracks in the walls to give anyone a strong feeling they were being watched. There was no living thing in sight, save the weeds that had grown to dominate the overgrown yard. Time had allowed them to wind their way up columns and walls, tearing down some bits of stone and leaving others to cling to as they climbed higher. Everything was green, except the red and brown leaves on the few trees.

Something stirred. Thankfully, this Pokémon was smaller than Gengar and looked far less threatening. He glared at Liz all the same. He did not appear to be a very high level. Most likely that was why he had chosen to show himself to Liz. The majority of trainers who came here had stronger Pokémon than she, so he was seizing the chance to pick on someone closer in strength to himself rather than taking on too difficult a challenge. "Stop! I won't let you leave!" he shouted, sounding a little unsure of himself. He rushed forward to try using a Psywave attack on Seraphina. While he was close, he muttered, "I'm sorry. I have to do this or they'll hurt me," under his breath. Exactly who 'they' were was uncertain, but there was no telling how strong 'they' could be.

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Elizabeth was panting, as much from fear as exertion, as they stumbled out of the dark corridors and into a sunlit courtyard. The woman let Seraphina down as she looked around the place they had wound up. "Now, why couldn't we have found this to start with?" It was a rhetorical question and the only answer she got was a snort from Rhys as her daemon poked at one of the vines which was running up the walls.

~Ahh~ Seraphina cried out as they were ambushed, the Misdreavus's psywave attack hitting her straight on. Elizabeth turned, saw what was happening and swore. "Whose going to hurt you?" Rhys called out to the wild pokemon, catching the quiet words pokemon when the misdreavus got close to them.

"Sera, Flame Burst" Liz thanked providence that the Torchic knew that move. They would be in a very great deal of trouble if she hadn't, for her only other damaging move was a normal type, which would not effect their ghost type enemy.

Seraphina growled at the wild pokemon, before opening her mouth to loose a ball of fire at her opponent.

((OOC: Sera uses Growl and then Flame Burst))

[Birdybot]

Misdreavus shook his head at Rhys' question. There was no way he would openly say who would hurt him, that would only get him in more trouble. He knew they would be watching him right now to make sure he followed his attack through to the end. He wasn't trusted by the other Ghost types, he was too nice to strangers. They all thought him a spoilsport and were trying to teach him otherwise. Just apologising could get him in trouble if they had heard that.

Thankfully Misdreavus' only damaging move was Psybeam, which depending on special attack rather than regular attack, so the Growl would not affect him. The Flame Burst, on the other hand, was a completely different story. It was a powerful attack to start with, and cost Misdreavus quite a bit of damage. Wincing, he wasn't sure what he could do about it. He knew Growl as well, but just as with his own Psybeam attack, Flame Burst relied on special attack so would be unaffected by a lower in regular attack. There was something else he could do... Spite would make the last attack she used, Flame Burst, occasionally disabled. That might give him a break later on in the fight. He tried using the move now, sending a wave of darkness out at Seraphina. It wouldn't hurt, and might not even disable Flame Burst straight away, but in time it could prove useful.