A Return to the Cave [Rameses/Rae/Mod]

The arcanine listened to Rae, twitching his closest ear. Looking to where Rae gestured, the big foo dog lolled his tongue out. Bowing down once again so that Rae would have what the arcanine would argue to his death bed was the coolest mount ever, he was more than ready to head out.

The mightyena, realizing what was going on, headed over to Rae’s group. <Alpha, I think he wants to go see about the scatterlings.> Biased as she was supposed to be, the maternal creature wanted to spend more time with the deino. Licking the blind creature, she would serve as an escort to make sure he didn’t get lost on the run over.

If there was nothing else to do and Rae was now upon the arcanine’s back, the foursome would depart.

After a few minutes of travel, they would eventually reach a dark part of the caverns. The only real light was from the red glowing eyes of the beldums, the distant magma flow, and the glimmering reflection of sableye’s, well, eyes. Of course, there were the give away reflective eyes of the mightyena and the arcanine.

Upon seeing the foursome enter, one sableye grew curious and approach… but could Rae even tell what it was in the dark?

---

Seeing the rest of his pack depart, the houndoom raised his lips back in displeasure. Rae had favored enough by the rest of the pack that he felt it stupid to argue over who the human went off with. This Rameses, however, the houndoom did not trust quite so highly.

<I’m not letting you near our dens--not as long as that charmander is in your party.> With that, the issue was settled. If the lucario showed up while they were out in about, that was fine and dandy. However, the alpha figured they already took enough risks. He would not be stolen from twice.

Furthermore, the boy was lucky the houndoom hadn’t reeled on him for bringing up an issue he had so clearly put down. He’d helped raise the growlithe-now-arcanine; he loved the fire type as much as a father-figure. This brunette human… no. There was no such love between them to spare the child from his fangs.

The houndour, feeling indebt to Rameses still, decided to smooth over the situation. That lucario was not so haughty as her father feared; even he knew better than to just hop straight up to the pack dens. Maybe he was out and about. They could always run into him, sooner or later… <Um, Papa, maybe we should check around the hunting grounds? If he’s there, then it’ll be another favor to us for this boy to take him. If not, then he’ll still probably find someth-- >

<Quiet,> the umbreon suddenly hissed.

The distant flapping and screeching of metallic wings served as a warning. How would Rameses react?

Sitting atop the arcanine's back like before, Rae was as stoked as he could be, considering everything that had happened to him lately. He tried his best to enjoy it. He was glad that the hyena-like creature had come along with him, to help look after his baby pokemon. He knew just by looking at her, that she was far better equipped to deal with the youngster, than he would ever be.

When they reached the darkness, Rae blinked his eyes several times, hoping they would adjust sooner or later. When time passed and they still hadn't he realized that it was just that dark down here and he wasn't going to be catching any breaks. He sighed, before suddenly spotting the red, glowing orbs in the night. His heart thumped in his chest as he looked into the black void and hunkered down lower to the fluffy-dog's back.

The flowing lava in the distance did offer a bit of a reddish glow to the dark, but it was still not enough to grant Rae proper sight. Then, he could've sworn he saw some sort of blackish figure moving toward them. His eyes widened, though it was fruitless in regards to his vision. Suddenly, he thought of an idea! Stuffing his hand into his pocket, he pulled his lighter into the open and rolled his thumb upon the striker wheel. A flame was produced and Rae waved his hand slowly before his face, trying to use the tiny light to see, whatever it was that had come near.

Knowing it wouldn't be enough, Rae's free hand scratched the arcanine behind the ear and he waved the lighter in its view, hoping maybe it would catch his drift. From what he could remember about his first encounter with the tiger-pooch, he seemed to recall it being able to produce flames of its own, much like Mr. Marco. If his memory wasn't betraying him, Rae hoped the beast could help with the lighting situation. If not, it was going to be extremely slow-going.

---

ooc: Rae can't see crap, lights his lighter to try n' help

Rae's eyes lit up as did the cavern, thanks to the arcanine. The smoker smirked slightly, as he was finally able to see. Then, he was taken aback by the sight of the creature he spotted ahead. It had jumped before he even knew what to make of it and swatted its claws toward Rae's face. Thankfully, the smoker's trusty stead had been paying better attention than he and had moved out of range.

Giving the pooch a thankful pat atop its head, the smoker prepared to dismount. However, before he could do anything more, he noticed movement via his peripheral and saw his newborn Pokemon charging forward, blindly, toward the creature. Rae didn't know if the beast was acting out to defend Rae, or if it was just blind and dumb, but the wheels were now in motion, regardless.

"Uhhh..."

It took all of the mightyena’s self control not to jump ahead of the deino and take down the sableye herself. The hatchling, she reminded herself, had prove that he was not crippled or hurt, or incapable of becoming strong. She just had to have faith.

The sableye was knocked back by the dark dragon. It let out a terrible hiss before leering and giving a mean look, though the dragon might not even realize it. The sableye was getting ready to deal punishment, and the dragon was going nowhere.

---

Knowing what that smokescreen could do, the houndour reflexively pinned her ears back. Fool her once, shame on you; fool her twice, shame on her. She was just glad she wasn’t having to fight through it this time.

The skarmory, confused as to what happened when the smoke appeared, was struck by the ember. She let out a trilling cry of shock before regaining her composure. Leering, she dove at the charmeleon with a feint attack.

The Charmeleon and Rameses were wiser to battle now. They had learned a lot from their encounter with Jenna. As such, the two were more in sync than they had been when Rameses had first captured him. With a hand motion, Surtur knew to dodge the incoming feint attack. Still, he had been lured in by the leer. His defense would suffer for that. The flame chameleon then created less difference between himself and the bird with another motion from his trainer.

"Alright Surtur, keep it up. We'll take whatever she throws at us."

"Char."

The fire type was enjoying the battle. It was weird, because not long ago he wouldn't have bothered with any of this. Rameses brought it out in him. He snorted out some more smoke as he continued.

Rameses looked on in pride. Charmeleon was just so cool. It was only when the blue eyed fire type looked back that he remembered to give attack instructions.

"Alright Surtur, growl and follow up with another ember."

The fire type began to snarl at the Skarmory. He did not fear it. In fact, this was more so his territory than that of the steel types. As such, he would not tread lightly. When he finished trying to intimidate the bird, he opened his mouth and unleashed another dose of searing flame.

Rae was stunned. He sat there atop the arcanine, looking on in disbelief, as the enemy pokemon fainted after the attack by his little, dinosaur thing. He blinked, looking over at the hyena-like creature and then back toward the two combatants. He didn't know what exactly had happened, but maybe this little baby Pokemon of his was much more powerful than he could've imagined.

Finally getting a grip on the scene, he pulled an empty pokeball into view and looked toward the unconscious, weird, creature. Giving the ball a gentle toss forward, it hit the ground, rolled and bumped into the creature's body, before springing open and sucking it inside. Rae pursed his lips in thought, still shocked over the whole display.

Falcor bounded happily in a circle, before eventually weaving his blind-self back to the hyena. He nuzzled into her and exchanged happy nips and yips of joy with the arcanine. He could feel and hear their praises and he was happy he had done well. The only person he hadn't heard from, was the speechless smoker.

Rae looked down as the little guy seemed to sniff up at him. "Uhhh... good job, little one," he said, before smiling softly. Everything that had happened on the rooftop of the Gym, with Jack and Sabrina, it all seemed to be gradually fading. Before, he had thought that getting this new Pokemon had come at the worst time. However, perhaps it was just the thing he needed, to turn him around. Time would still tell however, as they had only just begun their journey together. And, the harsh reminder of the incident would continue to plague Rae and fuel his desire to learn more.

Unsure of where to go next, Rae's dilemma was answered by the tugging of the deino on his pant leg once again. He looked down and nodded, figuring that the little one probably already knew these caves better than he did, even if it were blind or not. Rae patted his hand on the arcanine's head, signifying that he was ready to follow the youngster's lead once again. As the train started moving, Rae leaned far over the side of the tiger-dog's back and scooped up the pokeball as they passed.

He eyed the sphere, thinking about the interesting creature that now resided within and wondering what new and incredible beasts they would come upon next.

---

ooc: Rae has captured the sableye and Falcor is leading them onward toward the nidorans

species: sableye
type: dark/ghost
gender: female
level: 5
attacks: foresight, scratch, leer, zen headbutt, mean look
abilities: keen eye, stall, prankster
nature: All it wants to do is *gunshot noises* and *cash register noises* and take your money.

[img]http://www.pokestadium.com/pokemon/sprites/img/main-series/3/emerald/animated/302.gif[/img]
species: sableye
type: dark/ghost
gender: female
level: 5
attacks: foresight, scratch, leer, zen headbutt, mean look
abilities: keen eye, stall, prankster
nature: This girl’s got expensive taste. Whatever it takes to expand her hoard--whether it be working, stealing, or manipulation--she’ll do. She is more draconic in her greediness than most actual dragon types. That said, she also likes to pretend she’s very high bred; of course, this results in her showing how unrefined she really is.

The mightyena and the arcanine praised the deino, very proud of how well he had done. The mightyena kept it to herself, but she was a bit miffed that Rae wasn’t as excited as she was. Of course, this was merely bias. Everyone should be excited about anything the precious baby did, in her opinion.

The arcanine heeded Rae’s suggestion and the trio followed Falcor.

<Fantastic,> the arcanine muttered. <The cave rabbits.>

---

RAMESES’S ADVENTURE

The skarmory, possessing the keen eye ability, was not at all impeded by the smoke once her ability was activating. So, she swiftly dodged the ember, hissing in irritation. Her metallic body clacking, the huge crane-like beast ran at the charmeleon, preparing a peck attack.

Meanwhile, the pack lowered their heads to breath in the fresh air along the bottom of the cave. This was normal; they didn’t even think anything of the smoke. <... so, how do you think they’re doing?> the houndour pressed.

<I haven’t heard that d**** skarmory gorging itself, so they’re alive, at least,> the umbreon supplied.