[FIN] Bugging About

[TawnyAngel]

"s**t!" Aulus sprang up onto Phaethon's back, lent forward to urge him on... and then thought better of it and pulled the Rapidash up with a gesture, gripping with his knees as the equine pokemon reared up. "s**t," Aulus repeated, gritting his teeth and staring in the direction the legendary pokemon had gone. "Sorry base, blood thing's gone," he continued, speaking into his dex again. "I'm going to search the area, see if it's left anything behind... And I'm sending through the direction of travel now." Perhaps they could get a search party out soon enough to find it and flush it out. Perhaps. s**t, it had been right there!

Feeling cold and vaguely sick with the frustration of failure Aulus slid back to the ground, his features taut and lips pressed into a thin line. Really there had been just the two of them and they hadn't exactly expected it - this had just been supposed to be a nice gentle stroll - but he still felt as though he'd failed, hadn't been good enough to get the job done.

"Guess we should comb the area then," he muttered vaguely to Tam.

Paul didn't dare move yet; it looked like the big bird had gone but he wasn't chancing it.  

[Gwennythe]

"Oh. Frak." Tambrey muttered, then gave a quick nod to Aulus.
The bird had been right there... and then ducked out of sight, but legendary or not, it was big and they hadn't seen it fly away. It had made rustling when it had appeared, so it had a physical, hopefully trackable, presence.
Molted feathers, though, if they couldn't find the bird itself, though not as good as freshly plucked, /might/ be good enough for a sample.

"Combing the area sounds good. I'll send Pygi skyward, just in case, for now." /Now/ it seemed like a good idea. If Pygi saw it in the air, perhaps she could give chase and pluck feathers at least. If she saw it on the ground, she could alert them.
"It's a pretty big bird, so... easier than looking for a needle in a haystack, right? 'S not like it's a ghost type or anything."
She plucked Pygi's ball back up, replacing Ella's, and releasing the Pidgeot into the air.
"You're looking for a big blue bird, Pygi. Get feathers if you can, if you see it up in the air, and let us know if you can see it down here with us, okay?"
With a cry, the Pidgeot flew up through the trees, into the sky.

With an, almost relieved, little chitter, Jubilee informed Pili it was safe to come back out. The little Caterpie poked her head out of Tambrey's ponytail and looked vaguely disappointed; hide and seek was over already?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"See if you can find it," came a new voice over Aulus's dex, this one sounding more self-assured. "And it's a good thing for you - there's a reason we send full mission teams out after legendaries, and not just two Agents."

Pygi would be able to see a large spot of blue emerge in a spacious clearing in the forest down below.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus sighed; "Copy that." It was true but if they could have immobilized it and sent it to sleep.... But that hadn't happened, focus on the job at hand.

Aulus fumbled for Char's pokeball, gesturing upwards with his 'dex as soon as the Charizard appeared. "Follow Pygi, back her up; Articuno may or may not be nearby so be careful. If things get hairy pull back."

Char nodded his understanding and launched into the air, soon spotting Pygi's familiar shape and beating his wings hard to catch up.  

[Gwennythe]

Pygi had seen something big and blue.
She was looking for a big blue bird.
"Geee!" She called out to the party below, letting them know, and, also, greeting the rising Char, and letting him know too.

"I know there's only two of us, and, uh, I've got to admit, I rather like being alive and all that but... If we could just get a viable sample... At least we know more or less the territory, now, right? An encounter before, now this... 'S gotta be nesting around here." Tambrey vaguely wondered about the, apparently, increasing sightings of the bird. "I wonder how long it's been here and we just... didn't really know for sure? Ah! She's got something!" She sounded surprised, almost as though she hadn't expected the bird to be able to find anything again.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Down below, the Articuno unfurled its wings and beat them a few times to launch itself up into the air, releasing a flurry of snow beneath it as it ascended. It had apparently succeeded in finding food elsewhere, if the Butterfree hanging limply from its beak gave any indication. While it did notice the two pokemon flying nearby, it ignored them in favor of consuming its prey with a quick flick of its head.  

[TawnyAngel]

Char rumbled deep in his chest gold and black eyes narrowing as he focused on the target. He remembered what had happened last time he had engaged with a legendary and he wasn't keen to repeat the experience but on the other claw he knew Aulus would want a sample of it if at all possible. he decided aloud. Better him than her to stick behind the ice type in any case, at least he didn't suffer for a type disadvantage.

Aulus rubbed his brow with the back of his hand and nodded; he had been about to respond when Tam exclaimed. Squinting his eyes Aulus peered upwards but he couldn't see anything of help. "We may have something," he said into his dex, "Tambery's Pidgeot has sight of something, my Charizard is with her.... I'm going to see if I can get up a tree, get sight of what's going on." With one hand. Right. Aulus put his dex in his pocket and jumped for a thick, relatively low branch. Gritting his teeth with effort he brought his legs up and wrapped them around the branch before swinging around so that he was dangling by his knees. From there he crunched upward, grabbed another branch and continued his distinctly awkward ascent, glancing about as he went just in case there was a feather to be had. Even just a little bit of down would be something.  

[Gwennythe]

<> Pygi replied, before diving to check out the clearing. Feathers? If there were any, she'd find them, she was certain.

Suddenly, Aulus was going up a tree. Well, sure, she had an injury and climbing was probably a bad idea but he had one arm... Hm. Still, that was probably better than she could do right now.
"Uh. If you fall, the best I can offer you is a -slightly- softer landing..." She certainly wasn't going to be able to catch him...  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While the trees and forest floor did have a variety of feathers about, none of them were from the Articuno. Said Articuno, having consumed its meal, suddenly leaned to one side and swooped gracefully down in a half-circle to also scan the forest critically, ignoring the humans as it soared over them and instead looking presumably for more food. Snow flurries fell across the areas it passed over.  

[TawnyAngel]

Char banked gently to follow the legendary, silently weighing his options. Alone he didn't stand a chance of taking it down, he knew that, but if he could keep it in sight then.... Humm, if it flew away and he followed how would Aulus know where he was? Perhaps if he or Pygi took on of the humans' dexes? They could be tracked by those, he knew that much.

Aulus paused for a moment to grimace-grin at Tam. "Best not! I'd squash you. Can you get on to base? Ask them what's happening, are we getting backup? Going to keep going." With that he kept on climbing; the disadvantage of this sturdy tree was that even now he was up in the branches they were spaced pretty far apart, making the going tough.

At this point Paul finally unfroze and scuttled up the tree ahead of Aulus, quickly making it to the top and peeping warily out from among the leaves; was the bird still there?  

[Gwennythe]

<> The Pidgeot squawked as she zipped back up to rejoin the fire type, having completed her sweep of the clearing. Feathers? Yep. Articuno feathers? Nope.
<> The bird appeared startled to see a snowflake drift past.

"Roger that!" Tambrey acknowledged- there was a useful idea- and lifted her 'dex, communicator on, to speak into it.
"Uh. Hello? Base? Agent Tambrey here..." As though it wasn't obvious- same location, and clearly not Aulus's voice... "So, any chance of back up? Big icy blue jay's, uh.. still about. Would /really/ like to get a sample..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The appearance of the small bug caught the Articuno's attention and it swerved back around, its lengthy tail cracking like a whip with the bird's speed and sending a shower of snowflakes down over the forest. Once close enough, it flapped its wings to stay in one spot and attempted to snap at Paul.

"We're gathering a team to send out now, though it may take a couple minutes. Don't engage it yourselves," the voice warned.  

[TawnyAngel]

Paul gave a shriek of terror and zipped out of range with Shadow Sneak, only stopping once he was down the back of Aulus' shirt.

Aulus froze in place as the branches above him swayed with the force of the freeze pokemon's wingbeats, hardly registering the sting of pain down his back caused by Paul's less than gentle arrival. If it decided to try to popsicle its intended snack he was, to put it mildly, buggered.

Char rumbled, nodding to Pygi as she reappeared. He had seen it lunge at something down in the trees close to where they had left their trainers but as it didn't seem to have caught hold of anything he didn't approach, instead he started to circle above the Articuno at what he hoped was a safe distance.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey was about to reply when there was commotion above and... well, now the giant blue bird was basically on top of them.

<> Jubilee called from Tambrey's shoulder, while Pili swayed her tail back and forth happily, half in, half out of Tambrey's hair. She didn't really get what was going on but it was all very exciting.

"Uh! Right, we'd do that usually, I promise, but I think -it- is about to engage -us-... It's uh," She squinted upwards "in Aulus' tree... And, well, we have airbourne pokémon that might decide to... 'defend' us..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Displeased that its snack disappeared yet again, the Articuno gave a few mighty beats of its wings to regain altitude, sending biting gusts of wind and snow down on the two rockets below. It soared up and over the two flying pokemon, then banked to one side to scan the treetops from that height instead of further down like it had been.

The person on the other end of the line sounded like he was mumbling something to someone else. "Well, defend yourselves if it comes to it, but don't engage it otherwise. Just hold out a few minutes for backup."