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Told in present tense. 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The rest of Part 9 can be found here.

Also, obligatory link to the comic itself to which this is a fanfiction of.", "writing": "[center][t]Act 55: Enemy Camp[/t][/center]\n\nBack in Bleached Bastion territory, in the Four Eyes' camp, things are starting to pick up, and mons are being organized for the fight that is soon to happen. Their sneaky tactics worked and the bulk of the enemy forces is going to assault a location under the guise of it being where the Four Eyes camp is, now is their chance to hit the enemy where it hurts now that they let their guard down. \nWithin all this movement happening, Luca is looking around for his partner, they were temporarily separated from each other before the order to prepare for the battle started going around. \"Ranii? Ranii?\" He calls out to her.\n\n\"I'm here!\" Ranii calls back out to Luca, following the sound of his voice and eventually seeing him. \"Over here!\" She waves to him.\n\nLuca finds her and meets up with her. \"There you are! I guess something big is happening right now...\" He looks around, seeing all the other pokémon gathering in the center of the camp, looks like Aceo and Elec are about to tell everyone what their strategy and objectives are going to be for the upcoming battle.\n\n\"Sure looks like it.\" Ranii replies.\n\nThe two of them stick around to hear what's about to be said.\nThe two generals explain what the plan is, the enemies are moving part of their forces somewhere, their deception with the message made the Grove think they Four Eyes' camp is somewhere else, thus now it's the time to take their strategic points while they are looking the other way, this being their main camp and the town itself. The Grove's camp is what they need to worry about the most, since even with a portion of their forces distracted it's best to no underestimate them, so the most specialized troops of the Four Eyes, the ones with the most skilled fighters and crossbows, are going to approach the enemy camp and tell them to surrender...\n...And if that doesn't work and they try to attack then the crossbows will be used to soften them up and suppress them. Meanwhile the rest the Four Eye forces are going to surround Bleach Bastion and wait for the others to be done with the camp the town can be surrounded and presented with a chance to surrender...and if that fails they will be dealing with mostly flying types, so they will have to summon a sandstorm to siege the town.\n\nRanii listens intently, nodding her head in acknowledgement. The plan seems good so far.\n\nSo the bigger group is going to be led by Elec. Luca and Ranii will be in this one too, so they are going to take on the enemy's main camp. After all crossbows had been taken, with Luca even leaving his shield behind to get one for himself too, it was time to start marching.\nAs the two inseparable partners go together, they might notice someone familiar is going with them...it's a particular Pachirisu and a Dedenne.\n\nAnsel comes up behind him. \"Together again, eh?\" Ansel greets them cheerfully. \"Ah, yes, Ansel!\" Ranii greets him back. \"Yeah, it looks like we will be together again.\"\n\nThe two electric type girls, or at least one of them, hears some familiar voices speaking and turns to it.\n\"Well hello there, Ansel. So you coming along for this too huh?\" Luca says to him. \"I understand that you wouldn't like fighting...but i think there is a big chance that the Grove will not accept surrendering...\" He is just saying this so the Weasel Pokémon knows what they might get into, hesitating is not an option if things get violent.\nPachi comes over to them. \"Yeah you guys!\" She greets them. She brought Dedee with her too.\n\n\"I've come to terms with the fact that I'll be fighting.\" Ansel sighs. \"Let alone killing...\" He frowns at that prospect. \"I've already seen what pacifism gets us. It nearly cost me my life, after all.\"\n\n\"Do you have any experience with crossbows? Or do you prefer to fight without a weapon?\" Luca asks Ansel. Of course it's not something absolutely necessary, there are only so many crossbows, let alone weapons in general, available to every single member of the Four Eyes' forces but it's still enough to make two firing lines for when the time comes.\n\"I know I do.\" Dedee speaks now. \"I trained with them before we even left Sandstone. And honestly...i think it kind of beats blade things like that.\" \n\"Obviously.\" Pachi added. \"They have to get close after all.\"\n\n\"Well, I\"m already good to go with my spear\" Ranii replies. \"As always.\"\n\"I'm afraid I didn't get much in the way of training with a crossbow,\" Ansel admits, twiddling his long nails in nervousness. \"I mean, I wasn't part of the original defense for... reasons I think you all already know.\"\n\n\"That is alright.\" Luca reassures him, it should be his job as captain to make sure the soldiers are also emotionally okay, right? \"Crossbows require some investment on your part, have to carry them everywhere and they are slow to reload. It's not a role for everyone.\"\n\"Yeah, he said it.\" Dedee agrees. \"It's still a weapon never seen before though, that is pretty exciting. I wonder if this is how it felt like when Iron was new all those years ago.\"\n\n\"Maybe.\" Ranii replies, not really having an answer to that.\n\nAfter a rather long trip, they start seeing the Grove's camp up ahead. It certainly looks like it has a fair number of mons stationed in it. The Four Eyes' Pokémon with the crossbows begin forming a firing line at the front, two rows of it, the second one will step forward when the first one needs to reload. But for now no hostilities. Certainly the Grove has spotted them by now, so it's time to begin contact at a safe distance...\nFor that purpose, Elec sends forward a Loudred. A purple, bipedal Pokémon with a square-ish build because of the main feature of this species: the mouth. It's a big mouth that this loud species of mon is known for, it even has round ears that can serve as loudspeakers. After inhaling, he begins speaking...VERY loudly so the enemy can hear. \n\"ATTENTION POKÉMON OF THE GROVE! THIS IS THE ARMY OF SANDSTONE! WE WISH TO NEGOTIATE YOUR PEACEFUL SURRENDER TO US! PLEASE SEND FORWARD A REPRESENTATIVE SO WE CAN TALK!\"\nIt's not likely they will get a reply right away, talking over such a distance is not easy, so for now they are just waiting to see how the Grove is going to respond to their offer of diplomacy.\n\nRanii waits alongside Luca, and Ansel alongside Dedee. \"I get the feeling they aren't going to surrender this easily.\" The former admits to the group. \"Despite their setback in Sandstone, their morale is bound to still be quite high.\"\n\nUnfortunately and predictably, things don't start out favorably like they wanted. The enemy gathered together and began advancing towards their position to meet them head on for a fight. Though fortunately for the Four Eyes, they are not going to be giving the Grove what they expect.\n\"Crossbows at the ready! Start aiming!\" Elec orders the pokémon forming the line with crossbows to prepare and they all point their weapons in the direction of the enemy, Even Luca, Pachi and Dedee are joining in on this. There is no command to fire yet, Elec must be waiting until they are a bit closer, and he is raising one of his arms in preparation to give the signal.\n\nRanii of course summons her trusty spear, ready to fling it onto the oncoming crowd on a moment's notice.\n\n\"Now! Fire at them!\" There is the order to begin.\nThe first row of crossbows launches a salvo of bolts at the Grove soldiers, inevitably hitting them and thinning a few of their numbers, this did catch them by surprise, even slowed them down a bit...but the Grove is still advancing, Grass types running towards the fighting force of Sandstone.\n\"Second row, step forward and take aim! First row stay back and reload!\" Another order is given, prompting the first row of crossbow mons to let the ones behind them get ahead of them while they reload their weapons.\n\nRanii throws her spear into the air, trusting the artifact's magic to hone in on a target. Unfortunately there is a little bit of time between reloads, and it reappears in her hand only after the second row begins to aim.\n\nNow it's time for the second row to open fire, and on Elec's command it does, causing more losses to the Grove as they approach. Though after that it's clear that they are getting too close for another salvo of bolts, so the next orders are to charge the enemy as well.\nDropping his crossbow and quiver with bolts so he can be lighter on his feet, Luca takes out his swords and goes to take on a Grotle. Meanwhile The two electric rodent girls begin facing off against a small bunch of Pansage.\n\nAfter throwing her spear a second time and hearing it impale some unfortunate, the spear reappears in her hand. While she could throw it again, she decides not to, and instead decides to help her 'cario out with the Grotle.\n\nShouting, screaming and a lot of chaos ensues as close quarters combat breaks out all around.\nAs Luca and Rani Approach the Grass-type turtle, they get assailed by a bunch of leaves coming from the bushes in the back of that mon, and these leaves are sharp...sharp like razors!\nThe Lucario raises his sword to try to defend himself, gritting his teeth as he feels the leaves blowing towards him and cutting him when they touch anything exposed. Though since he is a pokémon it doesn't cause any sort of permanent damage from the move.\n\nRanii does her best to dodge them by jumping up. However, she is not quiteso fortunate.\n\"AAGH!!\" She grunts as one the leaves grazes her exposed leg, delivering a cut on it that causes the leg to drip a bit of her purple blood.\nOnce she lands, she grips her leg briefly, checking it for bleeding, and seeing that she is bleeding, she gets angry.\n\"You little bastard!\" She yells, throwing her spear right at the turtle!\n\nThe Grotle, seeing the spear coming his way, gasped and made it's arms and head retreat into it's shell for protection. The spear got lodged in it's chest...or rather at the shell that protects that part of mons body, if it did penetrate it wasn't too deep for it to be anywhere close to fatal.\nThinking fast, Luca gets an idea. He can not. wield that spear himself as far as he knows, it belongs to Ranii that fact will not change because of it's magic, but being able to touch it for a moment before it vanishes might be more than enough. He lunged forward and threw a punch right at the shaft of that golden spear, aiming to hammer it through the defending grass-type's shell like it's a big, golden nail.\n\nRanii watches her Lucario partner hammer that spear right into the Grotle's shell, finishing the job her throw alone could not.\n\"Got'em!\" She yells, the spear soon reappearing at her side once it goes through the Grotle.\nHer foot injury is under control for now.\n\nThe Lucario had heard that grunt of pain from Ranii. Worried, he turns to her. \"Are you okay?!\" He asked as he noticed the wound in her leg.\n\"Die you bastard!\" A Breloom comes running up behind the blue jackal, aiming to attack him.\nLuca looks in the direction the voice came from, not sure exactly what was coming his way, he was expecting some sort of punch, maybe even a kick...or even iron, those he could reliably block. However he got simply tackled instead and took a bunch of Spores to the face from the Grass-type's mushroom-like cap! This renders the Lucario asleep, and with an enemy right on top of him...that...that is not good at all.\n\n\"LUCA!!\" Ranii shouts, her immediate thought is that this attack really harmed in severely to make him go down in one hit. She forgets momentarily that pokemon attacks on each other never permanently harm each other. Angrily, she takes her spear, and tosses it directly at the Breloom, the magical artifact seeking its target like some sort of air-shark that has just smelled blood.\n\nThe Breloom gets skewered through the chest by the spear. Despite the scream of agony he let out he didn't quite die yet though, he steps back from the downed Lucario and grips the spear in shock. He might just bleed out and die if the spear disappears...or Ranii can do something to finish him off, either way this grass-type is not long for this world.\n\nRanii, full of rage at this Breloom for harming her partner like this, doesn't even wait for the spear to disappear, she yanks it out and drives it straight through his head, with an enraged howl.\n\nWith that enemy dealt with in a efficient and brutal fashion, if Ranii were to look at her partner she would see that he is not exactly harmed. He seems to be...sleeping, just lying there on the sand and sleeping even with all the noise of fighting in his surroundings. Granted he has been put to sleep against his own will by whatever sedative effect those spores had on him, if he is conscious in there he might be trying to do his best to get his body to awaken...\n\nWith her rage temporarily subsided, she leaves the spear to disappear on its own, and goes over to Luca's side, and sees indeed that he is merely sleeping. she shakes him, trying to get him awake in a hurry.\n\nUnfortunately he doesn't wake up just yet. And Ranii needs to stay on her toes because Luca is very very vulnerable like this...and there are more enemies approaching, it's a pair of Skiddo. There is something slightly unusual about these two though, they are armed with shields, flat pieces of wood made into crude shields, to be precise.\n\nRanii has another idea to get him awake, it's a little cliche, and it'll be a bit embarassing for Luca when he does wake up. But just as she's about to do it, she hears noise. She turns to see the two skiddos approaching. \n\"Ugh, shields.\" She sighs to herself as she gets her spear ready. \"How annoying.\" Indeed, shields are a spear's one weakness. She checks to see if they're armed with anything else other than the shields.\n\nIt does not appear like they are armed with anything else, they are tightly gripping at their shields with both of their hands. One of them yells as he begins charging towards her with his shield, seems like he wants to ram her with it.\n\nRanii waits until one of them is almost on top of her, then leaps into the air, allowing him to run right past her. She then attempts to attack him from the back with her spear.\n\nThat was a good hit, got a pained welp out of that goat. And made the other one hesitate about doing the same the other one just did. Right now these two got her surrounded on two sides though, and they realize this and are certainly going to use it to their advantage...\n\nJust as Ranii thinks about this, a blast of cold air blows her way, an [b]icy Wind[/b]. Ranii being an avali, feels next to nothing from it. But her attackers...\n\nLike plants in the winter, this sudden cold wind affects the Skiddo badly. They try to cover themselves with their shields but they are still being blasted by the low temperature winds, they can't hope to block it with pieces of wood.\n\n\"They're open!\" Ranii hears a shout from her rear, a familiar shout. \"Get them, now!\" \nRanii wastes no time, spear in hand she stabs one of the skiddos right in the gut, quickly pulling it out and attacking the other just as quickly, before the opening can wear off.\n\nOne of the grass-type goats got gutted and died from the shock, and the other one stabbed deep and bleeding on the sand. It looks like that's two more dead enemies. \nLuca gets dragged away from Ranii by whips of vine that tied themselves around one his legs. Who did that? Turns out it's a Bayleaf, and puts a foot against the Lucario's face too. He is trying to threaten Ranii, as it looks like she is trying to protect this blue jackal...But the Bayleaf doesn't realize that the mon under him is regaining consciousness.\n\n\"Ranii has just stabbed the other skiddo, and watches it bleed into the sand, \"Thanks Ansel!\" \nShe looks over to the sneasel, who nods at her. However, his face turns from mild worry to fear as he notices something. \n\"Ranii! Luca's...\" She looks to where Luca is supposed to be, but goes wide-eyed to find he's not there, following the drag-trail in the sand, she sees that Bayleaf with its foot on Luca's face. Her eyes narrow as she grips her spear. \n\"If you know what's good for you, You'll walk away. Now.\" She growls.\n\n\"Hmpft! You think you can boss me around!\" He mocks her threat. \"This pokémon here, it seems you really like him! If you get close he is going to get hurt.\" \nBefore this grass-type can say anything else to Ranii, be it taunts or monologuing, Luca stabs him in the thigh with one of the spikes in the back of his paws! This causes the Bayleaf to yell in pain and fall forward on the sand, leaving him vulnerable.\n\nWhile feeling relief that Luca is awake, she doesn't waste a moment before she acts, rushing forward and stabbing him in the heard with that spear. \"You were warned.\" She hisses at him, twisting the spear in him before yanking it out.\n\nNow Luca starts getting up, shaking his head to get himself fully wake. \"Aaaah...\" \nIt would appear that the battle is reaching it's conclusion. Because the Four Eyes manage to outnumber the Grove when it comes to who has the most mons left standing, so the latter of the two are retreating back towards their camp.\n\n\"Luca!!\" Ranii runs over and pulls him up and hugs him. \"I was afraid I lost you there for a moment.\"\n\n\"Ranii.\" He hugs her too. \"I'm sorry...What happened? I remember one of them tackling me.\"\n\n\"That Breloom blasted you with some spores and apparently you fell alseep. I thought... I thought...\" She sniffles. She puts on a brave, snarky face, trying to hide her fear. \"I thought for a moment I'd have to kiss you to wake you up, like some old story book.\" She laughs a bit at that notion. \"Wouldn't that be something?\"\n\n\"Ah, really?\" He is feeling kind of bad for making her worry like this. \"I should have been more careful, I'm so-\" \nBefore Luca can apologize, they hear their general, Elec, shout something as everyone begins pursuing the Grove back to their camp. \"I don't have to remind you, right?! Do not kill any enemy that is clearly surrendering! Also should they flee away from the camp, do not bother pursuing them!\"\n\n\"Erm... right.\" Ranii says awkwardly. She looks to Luca with a reassuring look. \"Don't worry, I haven't broken any of the rules.... despite the kill count.\" She looks around seeing what she did while he was out. Thankfully none of them bothered to ask to surrender. \nOnce that bit of awkwardness is over she goes over to Elec. \"It looks like they're in full retreat, General.\" She reports in. \"Any word on the attack on Bleach itself?\"\n\nWhile she is talking with the general, Luca looks for his sword, he dropped one of them when he was dragged. Maybe it is here somewhere.\n\"We haven't got any word of what's going on in Bleach Bastion yet...\" The Electabuzz looks up at the sky, seeing a Pidgeot turning around and flying in the opposite direction, Elec knows what this mean. \"But whatever reinforcements the enemy would have hoped to have from here, they are not getting any of it.\"\n\n\"Let's hope not...\" Ranii looks over to see that Luca is looking for something. Upon closer inspection she realizes he's missing a sword. \"Oh! Here let me help you out with that...\" She joins Luca in the search.\n\nThe Lucario finds his weapon before long and picks it up. \"Alright, here it is.\" He then looks to the Grove camp, their allies are getting in there, looks like they are actually managing to run the Grove out of their camp. \"Should we go help them?\"\n\n\"Yeah.\" Ranii says while reading her spear. Before she leaves with Luca, she turns towards Ansel. \n\"Oh, and thanks to the assist, Luca here owes you his life.\" She says to him.\n\"I'll... remember that when we see a bar next time.\" Ansel laughs nervously.\n\n\"Thank you.\" Luca nods to the Sneasel. If Ranii says that it's because of him that he is alive then he trusts her on that.\nNow onto the camp, it would appear that the Four Eyes/Sandstone forces are dealing with some enemy grass-types trying to stand their ground in some sort of last stand. Some of these Grove soldiers really take their duty seriously, though there are some that have surrendered already.\n\nRanii readies her spear. \"You and your forces are outnumbered and outmatched!\" She yells to them. \"Surrender now and you will not be harmed! \"\n\nThere are some already putting their hands up, but Ranii can also see some are not being so peaceful. Such as that Tropius over there needing to be tackled to the ground and separated from his stone-edged spear by Dedee and Pachi.\n\nRanii turns her spear around so the blunt end is facing forward. She sighs at the stubbornness of some of these guys, and joins Dedee and Pachi by jabbing the Tropius in the belly with her spear.\n\nThe grass-type dinosaur with the banana-like fruit beard (Yes, it has that) growls in pain. \"Get off of me! now!\" He shouts in anger.\nDedee gets on top of his back, putting all her weight on it. \"Q-quick! help me here, Pachi!\"\nThe Pachrisu holds on to the Tropious's neck, making sure she is holding tight so he can't move it. \"Thanks, Ranii. We got this under control! We just...might need some rope...\" She looks around. \"Hey! Does anyone have any ropes?!\"\nElec is helping the effort of making sure everyone is accounted for, to count who is wounded or dead. Unsurprisingly, there were some casualties for their side, unfortunately...\n\nRanii looks around for some rope. Finding none, she turns around, shielding her view from everyone, and pulls out her matter manipulator, checking it for some rope. And sure enough...\n\"Here.\" She says as she tosses the rope, having put the matter manipulator away before turning back around. \"That will do, I hope?\"\nAs Dedee and Pachi deal with that, she takes a look at the casualties, both of the grove and their own. Some sort of monkey with a tree growing out of its head, a leafeon, a large flower-person with a grey body and large, thick petals for a 'hat'. She still hasn't learned the names of all these mon types. On theirs, she spies the still bodies of a Krokorok, a Gible, and a Dedenne. As she looks on, she silently makes a small motion across her chest, a silent show of respect and mourning amongst her people.\n\nAfter helping secure some other prisoners, Luca came over to Rani. He noticed how she seems to be mourning the fallen. He doesn't decide to say anything, he doesn't want to interrupt his partner, so he goes to stay beside her.\nHopefully news of the situation in Bleached Bastion might come and shed some light on what's going on over there.\n\nRanii looks over to her partner for a brief moment, saying nothing, before returning to the solemn moment of mourning. \nWith a sigh however, and her ritual of a moment of silence done, she turns away, heading back to the General, hopefully to get some news on how exactly the Bleached Bastion campaign has gone.\n\nRanii is able to see someone coming over to Elec, it's a Helioptile. She can also hear that Elec is getting a report on the battle of Bleached Bastion, the second ground led by Aceo managed to get into the town itself but the battle is still fierce over there. Perhaps sending some reinforcements would be a good idea...\n\nThe Electabuzz sighs and shakes his head before laying down all he knows about what's going on. \"Doesn't appear to be terrible at least. Aceo and his mon have pushed into town but the fighting is still going. I also wager that if we are going to find an authority figure of the Grove, it's likely going to be there, because their commander hasn't present in our battle it seems.\" He turns to the side and crosses his arms as he walks away to the center of this captured camp. \"Gonna see who i can round up to send as reinforcements, If the enemy see they have no help coming, their will is bound to break...we should have to show it to them.\"\n\n\"Well,\" She looks to Luca. \"Looks like we'd better get going.\" It's fairly obvious that Elec intends to pick the two of them to add to the reinforcements. Why wouldn't he?\n\nHaving heard everything, Luca agrees. \"Yeah, let's go.\" He too thinks it's obvious that they would be picked. And he would be correct, both of them got picked and some other variety of mons from their forces also were picked to form a group with them. \nThey initiate their trip to Bleached Bastion right away, what they spot first is a column of smoke in the air coming from the town, something must have ended up burning there. It also would appear that the town lives up to it's name of 'Bastion', it has taller walls than Sandstone and they can see they have a keep instead of a mansion.\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Act 55: Enemy Camp


Back in Bleached Bastion territory, in the Four Eyes' camp, things are starting to pick up, and mons are being organized for the fight that is soon to happen. Their sneaky tactics worked and the bulk of the enemy forces is going to assault a location under the guise of it being where the Four Eyes camp is, now is their chance to hit the enemy where it hurts now that they let their guard down.
Within all this movement happening, Luca is looking around for his partner, they were temporarily separated from each other before the order to prepare for the battle started going around. "Ranii? Ranii?" He calls out to her.

"I'm here!" Ranii calls back out to Luca, following the sound of his voice and eventually seeing him. "Over here!" She waves to him.

Luca finds her and meets up with her. "There you are! I guess something big is happening right now..." He looks around, seeing all the other pokémon gathering in the center of the camp, looks like Aceo and Elec are about to tell everyone what their strategy and objectives are going to be for the upcoming battle.

"Sure looks like it." Ranii replies.

The two of them stick around to hear what's about to be said.
The two generals explain what the plan is, the enemies are moving part of their forces somewhere, their deception with the message made the Grove think they Four Eyes' camp is somewhere else, thus now it's the time to take their strategic points while they are looking the other way, this being their main camp and the town itself. The Grove's camp is what they need to worry about the most, since even with a portion of their forces distracted it's best to no underestimate them, so the most specialized troops of the Four Eyes, the ones with the most skilled fighters and crossbows, are going to approach the enemy camp and tell them to surrender...
...And if that doesn't work and they try to attack then the crossbows will be used to soften them up and suppress them. Meanwhile the rest the Four Eye forces are going to surround Bleach Bastion and wait for the others to be done with the camp the town can be surrounded and presented with a chance to surrender...and if that fails they will be dealing with mostly flying types, so they will have to summon a sandstorm to siege the town.

Ranii listens intently, nodding her head in acknowledgement. The plan seems good so far.

So the bigger group is going to be led by Elec. Luca and Ranii will be in this one too, so they are going to take on the enemy's main camp. After all crossbows had been taken, with Luca even leaving his shield behind to get one for himself too, it was time to start marching.
As the two inseparable partners go together, they might notice someone familiar is going with them...it's a particular Pachirisu and a Dedenne.

Ansel comes up behind him. "Together again, eh?" Ansel greets them cheerfully. "Ah, yes, Ansel!" Ranii greets him back. "Yeah, it looks like we will be together again."

The two electric type girls, or at least one of them, hears some familiar voices speaking and turns to it.
"Well hello there, Ansel. So you coming along for this too huh?" Luca says to him. "I understand that you wouldn't like fighting...but i think there is a big chance that the Grove will not accept surrendering..." He is just saying this so the Weasel Pokémon knows what they might get into, hesitating is not an option if things get violent.
Pachi comes over to them. "Yeah you guys!" She greets them. She brought Dedee with her too.

"I've come to terms with the fact that I'll be fighting." Ansel sighs. "Let alone killing..." He frowns at that prospect. "I've already seen what pacifism gets us. It nearly cost me my life, after all."

"Do you have any experience with crossbows? Or do you prefer to fight without a weapon?" Luca asks Ansel. Of course it's not something absolutely necessary, there are only so many crossbows, let alone weapons in general, available to every single member of the Four Eyes' forces but it's still enough to make two firing lines for when the time comes.
"I know I do." Dedee speaks now. "I trained with them before we even left Sandstone. And honestly...i think it kind of beats blade things like that."
"Obviously." Pachi added. "They have to get close after all."

"Well, I"m already good to go with my spear" Ranii replies. "As always."
"I'm afraid I didn't get much in the way of training with a crossbow," Ansel admits, twiddling his long nails in nervousness. "I mean, I wasn't part of the original defense for... reasons I think you all already know."

"That is alright." Luca reassures him, it should be his job as captain to make sure the soldiers are also emotionally okay, right? "Crossbows require some investment on your part, have to carry them everywhere and they are slow to reload. It's not a role for everyone."
"Yeah, he said it." Dedee agrees. "It's still a weapon never seen before though, that is pretty exciting. I wonder if this is how it felt like when Iron was new all those years ago."

"Maybe." Ranii replies, not really having an answer to that.

After a rather long trip, they start seeing the Grove's camp up ahead. It certainly looks like it has a fair number of mons stationed in it. The Four Eyes' Pokémon with the crossbows begin forming a firing line at the front, two rows of it, the second one will step forward when the first one needs to reload. But for now no hostilities. Certainly the Grove has spotted them by now, so it's time to begin contact at a safe distance...
For that purpose, Elec sends forward a Loudred. A purple, bipedal Pokémon with a square-ish build because of the main feature of this species: the mouth. It's a big mouth that this loud species of mon is known for, it even has round ears that can serve as loudspeakers. After inhaling, he begins speaking...VERY loudly so the enemy can hear.
"ATTENTION POKÉMON OF THE GROVE! THIS IS THE ARMY OF SANDSTONE! WE WISH TO NEGOTIATE YOUR PEACEFUL SURRENDER TO US! PLEASE SEND FORWARD A REPRESENTATIVE SO WE CAN TALK!"
It's not likely they will get a reply right away, talking over such a distance is not easy, so for now they are just waiting to see how the Grove is going to respond to their offer of diplomacy.

Ranii waits alongside Luca, and Ansel alongside Dedee. "I get the feeling they aren't going to surrender this easily." The former admits to the group. "Despite their setback in Sandstone, their morale is bound to still be quite high."

Unfortunately and predictably, things don't start out favorably like they wanted. The enemy gathered together and began advancing towards their position to meet them head on for a fight. Though fortunately for the Four Eyes, they are not going to be giving the Grove what they expect.
"Crossbows at the ready! Start aiming!" Elec orders the pokémon forming the line with crossbows to prepare and they all point their weapons in the direction of the enemy, Even Luca, Pachi and Dedee are joining in on this. There is no command to fire yet, Elec must be waiting until they are a bit closer, and he is raising one of his arms in preparation to give the signal.

Ranii of course summons her trusty spear, ready to fling it onto the oncoming crowd on a moment's notice.

"Now! Fire at them!" There is the order to begin.
The first row of crossbows launches a salvo of bolts at the Grove soldiers, inevitably hitting them and thinning a few of their numbers, this did catch them by surprise, even slowed them down a bit...but the Grove is still advancing, Grass types running towards the fighting force of Sandstone.
"Second row, step forward and take aim! First row stay back and reload!" Another order is given, prompting the first row of crossbow mons to let the ones behind them get ahead of them while they reload their weapons.

Ranii throws her spear into the air, trusting the artifact's magic to hone in on a target. Unfortunately there is a little bit of time between reloads, and it reappears in her hand only after the second row begins to aim.

Now it's time for the second row to open fire, and on Elec's command it does, causing more losses to the Grove as they approach. Though after that it's clear that they are getting too close for another salvo of bolts, so the next orders are to charge the enemy as well.
Dropping his crossbow and quiver with bolts so he can be lighter on his feet, Luca takes out his swords and goes to take on a Grotle. Meanwhile The two electric rodent girls begin facing off against a small bunch of Pansage.

After throwing her spear a second time and hearing it impale some unfortunate, the spear reappears in her hand. While she could throw it again, she decides not to, and instead decides to help her 'cario out with the Grotle.

Shouting, screaming and a lot of chaos ensues as close quarters combat breaks out all around.
As Luca and Rani Approach the Grass-type turtle, they get assailed by a bunch of leaves coming from the bushes in the back of that mon, and these leaves are sharp...sharp like razors!
The Lucario raises his sword to try to defend himself, gritting his teeth as he feels the leaves blowing towards him and cutting him when they touch anything exposed. Though since he is a pokémon it doesn't cause any sort of permanent damage from the move.

Ranii does her best to dodge them by jumping up. However, she is not quiteso fortunate.
"AAGH!!" She grunts as one the leaves grazes her exposed leg, delivering a cut on it that causes the leg to drip a bit of her purple blood.
Once she lands, she grips her leg briefly, checking it for bleeding, and seeing that she is bleeding, she gets angry.
"You little bastard!" She yells, throwing her spear right at the turtle!

The Grotle, seeing the spear coming his way, gasped and made it's arms and head retreat into it's shell for protection. The spear got lodged in it's chest...or rather at the shell that protects that part of mons body, if it did penetrate it wasn't too deep for it to be anywhere close to fatal.
Thinking fast, Luca gets an idea. He can not. wield that spear himself as far as he knows, it belongs to Ranii that fact will not change because of it's magic, but being able to touch it for a moment before it vanishes might be more than enough. He lunged forward and threw a punch right at the shaft of that golden spear, aiming to hammer it through the defending grass-type's shell like it's a big, golden nail.

Ranii watches her Lucario partner hammer that spear right into the Grotle's shell, finishing the job her throw alone could not.
"Got'em!" She yells, the spear soon reappearing at her side once it goes through the Grotle.
Her foot injury is under control for now.

The Lucario had heard that grunt of pain from Ranii. Worried, he turns to her. "Are you okay?!" He asked as he noticed the wound in her leg.
"Die you bastard!" A Breloom comes running up behind the blue jackal, aiming to attack him.
Luca looks in the direction the voice came from, not sure exactly what was coming his way, he was expecting some sort of punch, maybe even a kick...or even iron, those he could reliably block. However he got simply tackled instead and took a bunch of Spores to the face from the Grass-type's mushroom-like cap! This renders the Lucario asleep, and with an enemy right on top of him...that...that is not good at all.

"LUCA!!" Ranii shouts, her immediate thought is that this attack really harmed in severely to make him go down in one hit. She forgets momentarily that pokemon attacks on each other never permanently harm each other. Angrily, she takes her spear, and tosses it directly at the Breloom, the magical artifact seeking its target like some sort of air-shark that has just smelled blood.

The Breloom gets skewered through the chest by the spear. Despite the scream of agony he let out he didn't quite die yet though, he steps back from the downed Lucario and grips the spear in shock. He might just bleed out and die if the spear disappears...or Ranii can do something to finish him off, either way this grass-type is not long for this world.

Ranii, full of rage at this Breloom for harming her partner like this, doesn't even wait for the spear to disappear, she yanks it out and drives it straight through his head, with an enraged howl.

With that enemy dealt with in a efficient and brutal fashion, if Ranii were to look at her partner she would see that he is not exactly harmed. He seems to be...sleeping, just lying there on the sand and sleeping even with all the noise of fighting in his surroundings. Granted he has been put to sleep against his own will by whatever sedative effect those spores had on him, if he is conscious in there he might be trying to do his best to get his body to awaken...

With her rage temporarily subsided, she leaves the spear to disappear on its own, and goes over to Luca's side, and sees indeed that he is merely sleeping. she shakes him, trying to get him awake in a hurry.

Unfortunately he doesn't wake up just yet. And Ranii needs to stay on her toes because Luca is very very vulnerable like this...and there are more enemies approaching, it's a pair of Skiddo. There is something slightly unusual about these two though, they are armed with shields, flat pieces of wood made into crude shields, to be precise.

Ranii has another idea to get him awake, it's a little cliche, and it'll be a bit embarassing for Luca when he does wake up. But just as she's about to do it, she hears noise. She turns to see the two skiddos approaching.
"Ugh, shields." She sighs to herself as she gets her spear ready. "How annoying." Indeed, shields are a spear's one weakness. She checks to see if they're armed with anything else other than the shields.

It does not appear like they are armed with anything else, they are tightly gripping at their shields with both of their hands. One of them yells as he begins charging towards her with his shield, seems like he wants to ram her with it.

Ranii waits until one of them is almost on top of her, then leaps into the air, allowing him to run right past her. She then attempts to attack him from the back with her spear.

That was a good hit, got a pained welp out of that goat. And made the other one hesitate about doing the same the other one just did. Right now these two got her surrounded on two sides though, and they realize this and are certainly going to use it to their advantage...

Just as Ranii thinks about this, a blast of cold air blows her way, an icy Wind. Ranii being an avali, feels next to nothing from it. But her attackers...

Like plants in the winter, this sudden cold wind affects the Skiddo badly. They try to cover themselves with their shields but they are still being blasted by the low temperature winds, they can't hope to block it with pieces of wood.

"They're open!" Ranii hears a shout from her rear, a familiar shout. "Get them, now!"
Ranii wastes no time, spear in hand she stabs one of the skiddos right in the gut, quickly pulling it out and attacking the other just as quickly, before the opening can wear off.

One of the grass-type goats got gutted and died from the shock, and the other one stabbed deep and bleeding on the sand. It looks like that's two more dead enemies.
Luca gets dragged away from Ranii by whips of vine that tied themselves around one his legs. Who did that? Turns out it's a Bayleaf, and puts a foot against the Lucario's face too. He is trying to threaten Ranii, as it looks like she is trying to protect this blue jackal...But the Bayleaf doesn't realize that the mon under him is regaining consciousness.

"Ranii has just stabbed the other skiddo, and watches it bleed into the sand, "Thanks Ansel!"
She looks over to the sneasel, who nods at her. However, his face turns from mild worry to fear as he notices something.
"Ranii! Luca's..." She looks to where Luca is supposed to be, but goes wide-eyed to find he's not there, following the drag-trail in the sand, she sees that Bayleaf with its foot on Luca's face. Her eyes narrow as she grips her spear.
"If you know what's good for you, You'll walk away. Now." She growls.

"Hmpft! You think you can boss me around!" He mocks her threat. "This pokémon here, it seems you really like him! If you get close he is going to get hurt."
Before this grass-type can say anything else to Ranii, be it taunts or monologuing, Luca stabs him in the thigh with one of the spikes in the back of his paws! This causes the Bayleaf to yell in pain and fall forward on the sand, leaving him vulnerable.

While feeling relief that Luca is awake, she doesn't waste a moment before she acts, rushing forward and stabbing him in the heard with that spear. "You were warned." She hisses at him, twisting the spear in him before yanking it out.

Now Luca starts getting up, shaking his head to get himself fully wake. "Aaaah..."
It would appear that the battle is reaching it's conclusion. Because the Four Eyes manage to outnumber the Grove when it comes to who has the most mons left standing, so the latter of the two are retreating back towards their camp.

"Luca!!" Ranii runs over and pulls him up and hugs him. "I was afraid I lost you there for a moment."

"Ranii." He hugs her too. "I'm sorry...What happened? I remember one of them tackling me."

"That Breloom blasted you with some spores and apparently you fell alseep. I thought... I thought..." She sniffles. She puts on a brave, snarky face, trying to hide her fear. "I thought for a moment I'd have to kiss you to wake you up, like some old story book." She laughs a bit at that notion. "Wouldn't that be something?"

"Ah, really?" He is feeling kind of bad for making her worry like this. "I should have been more careful, I'm so-"
Before Luca can apologize, they hear their general, Elec, shout something as everyone begins pursuing the Grove back to their camp. "I don't have to remind you, right?! Do not kill any enemy that is clearly surrendering! Also should they flee away from the camp, do not bother pursuing them!"

"Erm... right." Ranii says awkwardly. She looks to Luca with a reassuring look. "Don't worry, I haven't broken any of the rules.... despite the kill count." She looks around seeing what she did while he was out. Thankfully none of them bothered to ask to surrender.
Once that bit of awkwardness is over she goes over to Elec. "It looks like they're in full retreat, General." She reports in. "Any word on the attack on Bleach itself?"

While she is talking with the general, Luca looks for his sword, he dropped one of them when he was dragged. Maybe it is here somewhere.
"We haven't got any word of what's going on in Bleach Bastion yet..." The Electabuzz looks up at the sky, seeing a Pidgeot turning around and flying in the opposite direction, Elec knows what this mean. "But whatever reinforcements the enemy would have hoped to have from here, they are not getting any of it."

"Let's hope not..." Ranii looks over to see that Luca is looking for something. Upon closer inspection she realizes he's missing a sword. "Oh! Here let me help you out with that..." She joins Luca in the search.

The Lucario finds his weapon before long and picks it up. "Alright, here it is." He then looks to the Grove camp, their allies are getting in there, looks like they are actually managing to run the Grove out of their camp. "Should we go help them?"

"Yeah." Ranii says while reading her spear. Before she leaves with Luca, she turns towards Ansel.
"Oh, and thanks to the assist, Luca here owes you his life." She says to him.
"I'll... remember that when we see a bar next time." Ansel laughs nervously.

"Thank you." Luca nods to the Sneasel. If Ranii says that it's because of him that he is alive then he trusts her on that.
Now onto the camp, it would appear that the Four Eyes/Sandstone forces are dealing with some enemy grass-types trying to stand their ground in some sort of last stand. Some of these Grove soldiers really take their duty seriously, though there are some that have surrendered already.

Ranii readies her spear. "You and your forces are outnumbered and outmatched!" She yells to them. "Surrender now and you will not be harmed! "

There are some already putting their hands up, but Ranii can also see some are not being so peaceful. Such as that Tropius over there needing to be tackled to the ground and separated from his stone-edged spear by Dedee and Pachi.

Ranii turns her spear around so the blunt end is facing forward. She sighs at the stubbornness of some of these guys, and joins Dedee and Pachi by jabbing the Tropius in the belly with her spear.

The grass-type dinosaur with the banana-like fruit beard (Yes, it has that) growls in pain. "Get off of me! now!" He shouts in anger.
Dedee gets on top of his back, putting all her weight on it. "Q-quick! help me here, Pachi!"
The Pachrisu holds on to the Tropious's neck, making sure she is holding tight so he can't move it. "Thanks, Ranii. We got this under control! We just...might need some rope..." She looks around. "Hey! Does anyone have any ropes?!"
Elec is helping the effort of making sure everyone is accounted for, to count who is wounded or dead. Unsurprisingly, there were some casualties for their side, unfortunately...

Ranii looks around for some rope. Finding none, she turns around, shielding her view from everyone, and pulls out her matter manipulator, checking it for some rope. And sure enough...
"Here." She says as she tosses the rope, having put the matter manipulator away before turning back around. "That will do, I hope?"
As Dedee and Pachi deal with that, she takes a look at the casualties, both of the grove and their own.  Some sort of monkey with a tree growing out of its head, a leafeon, a large flower-person with a grey body and large, thick petals for a 'hat'. She still hasn't learned the names of all these mon types. On theirs, she spies the still bodies of a Krokorok, a Gible, and a Dedenne. As she looks on, she silently makes a small motion across her chest, a silent show of respect and mourning amongst her people.

After helping secure some other prisoners, Luca came over to Rani. He noticed how she seems to be mourning the fallen. He doesn't decide to say anything, he doesn't want to interrupt his partner, so he goes to stay beside her.
Hopefully news of the situation in Bleached Bastion might come and shed some light on what's going on over there.

Ranii looks over to her partner for a brief moment, saying nothing, before returning to the solemn moment of mourning.
With a sigh however, and her ritual of a moment of silence done, she turns away, heading back to the General, hopefully to get some news on how exactly the Bleached Bastion campaign has gone.

Ranii is able to see someone coming over to Elec, it's a Helioptile. She can also hear that Elec is getting a report on the battle of Bleached Bastion, the second ground led by Aceo managed to get into the town itself but the battle is still fierce over there. Perhaps sending some reinforcements would be a good idea...

The Electabuzz sighs and shakes his head before laying down all he knows about what's going on. "Doesn't appear to be terrible at least. Aceo and his mon have pushed into town but the fighting is still going. I also wager that if we are going to find an authority figure of the Grove, it's likely going to be there, because their commander hasn't present in our battle it seems." He turns to the side and crosses his arms as he walks away to the center of this captured camp. "Gonna see who i can round up to send as reinforcements, If the enemy see they have no help coming, their will is bound to break...we should have to show it to them."

"Well," She looks to Luca. "Looks like we'd better get going." It's fairly obvious that Elec intends to pick the two of them to add to the reinforcements. Why wouldn't he?

Having heard everything, Luca agrees. "Yeah, let's go." He too thinks it's obvious that they would be picked. And he would be correct, both of them got picked and some other variety of mons from their forces also were picked to form a group with them.
They initiate their trip to Bleached Bastion right away, what they spot first is a column of smoke in the air coming from the town, something must have ended up burning there. It also would appear that the town lives up to it's name of 'Bastion', it has taller walls than Sandstone and they can see they have a keep instead of a mansion.

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