Clear As Crystalline [Mod]

[Willow]

Raven was treading water in the river while a Piplup swam in front of her. The pale girl with wearing a two-piece black swimsuit, average but effective. Her wild black hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail for once, where as normally she let her hair own with no styles at all. The Piplup in front of her was Gia, a water-type whos moves she was planning on improving with a little training.

[Admiral Striker General]

As Raven and Gia moved through the river shallows, something a little further out made a splash. If Raven turned to look, she might see a purple shell barely break the surface once more, and a few more times after. Somewhere along the wall of the cave, a peculiar rock stuck out like a sore thumb. Even by the cave's dim mystical light, it was an obviously stark white, and seemed to be just hanging from the wall as if pinned there, or perhaps held with a hefty amount of invisible duct tape.

[Willow]

While Raven missed the shell she did notice what looked like something white on the cave wall. The black-haired trainer cast a quick glance at her Piplup who was happily swimming around before getting out of the water. She then walked toward the white thing to find that is was actually a stark white rock just hanging on the cave wall. Well, thats odd.

[Admiral Striker General]

Or was it? The porous hole-filled rock certainly didn't look very remarkable aside from its color and unusual position. If Raven looked closer, however, she may see the slightest bit of something sticky and slimy oozing out of some lower holes around the side against the wall. Of course, these bits were the same pure white as the rest of it, and may have easily gone overlooked... if about twenty seconds the rock hadn't twitched with a small sound of exclamation! Had it just.. noticed Raven's presence?

Just a moment or two after the sound, the rock suddenly cried out, and not only detached from the wall, but launched itself directly at Gia's head! Out of the holes had come long five long squishy tendrils, one of which appeared to have... a face? Yes, with pink eyes. It was a Shuckle- leucistic from the looks- and it was currently putting quite a Wrap on poor Gia!

[Willow]

Raven gave a small yelp of surprise when the rock lunged off the wall and at Gia's head, revealing itself to be a leucistic Shuckle. With a quick shake of her head Raven went in to battle-mod and called, "Gia, use dive and get that Shuckle off of you're head!" Gia did not say anything in reply, instead she just dove under the water as ordered, anxious to get the Shuckle off of her head.

[Admiral Striker General]

The Shuckle gave a small yelp before remembering to hold its breath as it was pulled underwater. Once under, it was all right if unpleasant, but that initial splash an the elemental force radiating off of it from the Piplup's attack had been quite painful indeed. Fortunately, her species was by and far the most resilient beast out there, even if they did suffer in every other area for it. .... Of course, she could fix that, couldn't she~

Clinging just as tight as before but shifting around a little on Gia's head (so as to be off her face and out of direct line of fire for any mouth-based attacks), the little white Shuckle began to glow, and her Piplup host soon after. When the light faded, Gia was really no worse for wear; it seemed it hadn't been a damaging move. However, she would soon be discovering she felt much weaker, while the Shuckle felt much stronger. To her disdain, she found the boost fairly low in comparison to some foes, but all the same the Power Split would help.

[Willow]

Raven scowled when the Shuckle and Gia began to glow, it seemed like no damage had been done so she figured it was a status attack. However, she had no way of knowing which one. Come on Raven, its a battle, don't get distracted by guessing. With a new fire in her eyes Raven called, "Gia, use featherdance fallowed by using headbutt on the water!" She had a simple plan of action at the moment, lower the Shuckles attack, get it off Gias head, then lower its defense and defeat the Shuckle once it was off.

[Admiral Striker General]

The Shuckle leered in annoyance as she was lifted out of the water only to be pounded back against the surface, though she had actually smirked at the preceding attack. Of course, she couldn't match the Piplup's speed- at least not in present conditions- but the Headbutt had done far less damage than the Dive. And now her attack... well.. The Power Split had always been more about weakening the opponent than anything, but this was working rather nicely. All of a sudden, the white shell began to ooze a thick, nasty-looking and even slightly bubbling purple liquid which- aside from tainting a small section of the river temporarily- began to seep between the Piplup's feathers, resulting in a light poison that would steadily grow stronger with every passing minute.

[Willow]

Raven was horrified by how weak Gia's attack was, so that was what that weird glowing move did. When she noticed a strange ooze seeping in to Gia's feathers she decided enough was enough, while she might not be psychic she knew poison when she saw it. If she was both weakened and poisoned at the same time Gia was dead meat. With a sigh Raven held out a pokeball and called, "Gia, return!" Upon her Piplup returning to its pokeball the black-haired girl silently opened another pokeball, releasing a Zorua. While she was not very happy with the Shuckle she couldn't help but grin, Zorua was a dark-type, hopefully the move the Shuckle used was Psychic, that would mean no more tricky status changes.

[Admiral Striker General]

When the Piplup suddenly deteriorated into a beam of light, the Shuckle found herself suddenly without a ride, falling into the water below and sinking like, well, a rock. Very slowly, she began crawling back toward the surface along the floor of the riverbank. The current wasn't really a problem, but it was difficult to get traction down here. All the while she cursed under her breath, half of her certain the cowardly trespasser would run away, the other half just knowing she had some more powerful opponent on the surface, yet she couldn't see what and therefore wouldn't know where to aim even a ranged attack. In the time it took Raven to switch, the Shuckle only made it not quite halfway to the surface.

[Willow]

Raven frowned as the Shuckle sank when Gia was recalled, so is seemed that rock and bug types where not the best swimmers. With a sigh Raven did something that she might regret, she waded in to the water. She walked a little deeper in to the river before talking a deep breath and submerging herself underwater with her eyes open. While it stung a little she could make out the blurry shape of the leucistic Shuckle. While it might have attacked her Pokemon she did not want to risk it drowning, and so offered her hand to the Shuckle, willing to help it get back to land.

[Admiral Striker General]

Ever so slowly, the Shuckle trudged along. Just slithering and crawling and inching toward the surface, until all of a sudden the large dark form of a human came at her in the water. As the girl's hand outstretched, the blinding white Shuckle went into defensive mode. Lashing out with a rush of adrenaline, she opened her small mouth wide and lunged her head at the girl's fingers with a nasty Bug Bite. ...Of course, her 'teeth' were hardly worth calling such and the elemental energy attached to it, while making her rather stronger than just a nip, would not have such powerful effect on a human as a Pokemon, resulting in something akin to the bite of a mid-small lizard- painful, but not particularly damaging.

The lash did spark an idea in her, however, and upon drawing back she ducked down into her shell. After a moment to prepare, the small moon of a rock tilted back, then rolled forward and a fairly high speed up along the river floor, up the side of the bank, and into the air. After a short flight, she hit the wall posterior-first, and back legs extended enough to stick on while the rest of her succumbed to gravity and fell... with her back literally against the wall. ...Well.. This could have gone better. She'd prefer not to just drop down, and began trying to figure out how to get herself turned around without twisting something too uncomfortably.

[Willow]

When the Shuckle bit her finger Raven sprang back up to the surface of the water before letting loose a long sting of words that would make a sailor blush. It was not because of the pain, while it did hurt she had dealt with far worse, it was that the Shuckle had bit her when she was trying to help her. Thats it, no more playing nice! While she would normally have more mercy this Shuckle had tried her patience, which was why when the Shuckle stuck herself to the wall Raven exclaimed, "Ilira, use hone claws fallowed by night daze!"

Ilira couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor Shuckle, she didn't know what happened but whatever it was Raven was pissed. While it might not have been that hard to upset the Zorua's trainer it meant that she was not about to go easy on her target when in battle, the Shuckle was in for a hell of a fight. Before attacking the Zorua glanced at the Pokemon before saying, "sorry about this." With that she sharpened her claws before aiming a horrible back shock wave at her opponent.

[Admiral Striker General]

The wave certainly stung much more than the Headbutt before, but not nearly so much as the Dive. Unfortunately, it was enough to knock off her already poor balance and send the little Pokemon tumbling down the wall and a few feet across the cave floor. Finally coming to a stop, though on her belly this time at least, she established the Zorua seemed stronger than the Piplup. Well, that couldn't be left to stand. It wouldn't be as effective as before, but she could still put a dent in there. Again she glowed, as did Ilira, and their attack stats were combined and split at average. Yes, even with her Dark-typing, non-damaging Psychic moves, which operated on a slightly different frequency than those intended to assault the mind directly, still worked.

[Willow]

Oh, so it seemed that the move the Shuckle used before worked even though Ilira was a dark type. No matter, we can beat it anyway. Oh yes, Raven had a plan. With a grin the black-haired girl exclaimed, "Ilira, taunt fallowed by punishment!" There was a feeling running through her that said she could keep going forever, that she was unstoppable. While something in the back of her mind knew that was not true she ignored it, she loved this feeling, it was amazing.

Ilira felt a strange mix of pity and excitement as she attacked the Shuckle. Taunt meant that she would only be able to use attacks for her next three moves, no more status changes. Punishment was an attack that could never miss and grew more powerful if the opponent used status changing moves. This would be a powerful attack considering that the Shuckle just used power split, it seemed the Zorua's trainer was serious about winning.

[Admiral Striker General]

The Shuckle being as she was assumed the reasoning for the trainer's decisions, cursing the use of taunt but not particularly bothered by the other. After all, while Power Split did alter stats, it didn't act as other moves that simply raised or lowered them, given its special averaging nature. She never used true self-buffing moves. Ever. As ever, the little mold-monster thanked her god-like defense for the ability to more or less shrug off the damage. The girl was getting better for certain, and this was starting to intrigue her, but she would not let herself become distracted so easily; nor would she be disposed of so easily. She still made Shellos look like Rapidash in the speed department, but her attacks had become at least fairly respectable for a battle like this, and that Punishment had brought the Zorua in close. With a burst of effort, she began to flail and thrash at the fox. The Struggle Bug, while weak on its own, was super-effective, and in the process managed to lower her foe's non-physical power despite the Taunt.

[Willow]

Raven scowled as Ilira was hit by struggle bug, this Shuckle was a strong opponent. No matter, Ilira is strong, she can take it. With a sly grin the girl exclaimed, "Ilira, hang in there, I know you can do it! Use swords dance then foul play! Jump back after you hit it, use you're opponents lack of speed to you're advantage." Swords dance was a move that sharply raises the users attack, Raven figured that this would fix the effects of power split. Foul Play was an already powerful move that gained strength depending on how strong the opponent was, that combined with swords dance should make a lethal combination.

[Admiral Striker General]

The Shuckle actually deadpanned in disbelief when the trainer called out her attack. ...Perhaps she'd been too loose with her compliments earlier. Well.. if the girl was thinking on the lines the Shuckle assumed she might have at least had a good thought in theory. The unfortunate reality was far less glorious than Raven had predicted, however. Foul Play did gain strength based on how powerful the opponent was... but because it used the opponent's attack strength instead of the user's. The Swords Dance was therefore entirely useless for powering up the Foul Play itself, though its later effects would be helpful assuming Raven didn't make more similar mistakes.

However, the time wasted in the Swords Dance combined with the fact Raven clearly called out her plan of attack gave the Shuckle the opportunity to prepare, and when the Zorua rushed in to hit her, she lashed out with a Bug Bite. Hanging on as the Zorua jumped back as ordered, she managed to ride her long enough to loose a Struggle Bug as well, though this did make her lose her grip and fall back to the ground.

[Willow]

Raven was holding back a growl of frustration at this point, however she was not about to give in. When the Shuckle fell off Ilira's back she smirked, this was her chance. With determination shining in to her eyes Raven called, "Ilira, use swords dance again then pounce on that Shuckle and use night daze, twice if you can!" Her plan was simple, have her Zorua used swords dance to make her attack stats even higher before pouncing on the Suckle, pinning it to the ground. While it would bring her in to close range it would also allow her to use attacks in rapid succession. Night daze was a strong attack that shot a pitch-black shock wave at the opponent, if that hit twice in a row it should do at least some significant damage.

Ilira nodded and did as Raven ordered. While pouncing was not an actual move it was there deep inside of her, the hunters instinct. While the bug bite and struggle bugs hurt she was not about to faint, she was a though fox. I have to win, no, I will win.

[Admiral Striker General]

The proximity only worked to Raven's disadvantage, however. The Swords Dance which followed the pounce gave the Shuckle plenty of time to Struggle Bug her way to mobility again, and once again proved completely ineffective as the move that followed did not draw from her physical power. Thanks to Raven's orders being followed so directly, Ilira was still quite close when the first Night Daze was taken, giving the white mold-bug the opportunity to attack again without much trouble. However, rather than lashing out with another bite, she decided to invest in the future a little, loosing a String Shot. The thick sticky silk-spit tangled around the fox; that ought to knock those fast feet down a knotch.