The Water's Rage(open)

[Umbra]

Torva growled to himself as he swam through the rushing waters of the Azure River, lips bared to reveal his terrifying fangs. The gyarados' red eyes were narrowed with a contempt that could only be described as awe-inspiring... Noone could pull off the "I'm so irritated I could bite your head off" look like he could.

Torva wasn't like other gyarados... He was violent... Of course, all gyarados were violent, but he was exceptionally unpredictable and dangerous. Not to mention quite a bit larger. A large, scary, predatory serpantine pokemon bigger than a building with a thick hide of azure blue bony plates and scales.

Currently, Torva was in a predicament. The other denizens of the water... The water pokemon that Torva allowed into his range of territory(Part of the lake and a huge section of the river) were simpering and moaning about some kind of disease in the Tree.

Weak cowards didn't deserve such sympathies. They were too frightened to seek out anyone who knew about the problem themselves... And obviously there had to be a problem, otherwise they would regret ever showing their face by bringing up such a false complaint around him again. But Torva had his honor as well... If only to get them all to shutup, he would seek out this Soul, this lucario who knew about the Tree more than he could.

And if thos Soul couldn't be found, Torva had an idea to make him appear.

In the meantime, the male gyrados decided to rest near the calmer bankline of the river, submerging his enormous head. He had been fighting the current so far for several miles, and it didn't hurt to keep your strength up for the challenges ahead.

[Rain]

``S I L V A the meganium ~ level 100
``Z E P H Y R the dratini ~ level 27

From the distance came a soft sound, a cross between quiet singing and humming. A few moments later, a Meganium appeared, a wicker basket half-filled with berries carried in her extended vines; it was she that was softly and rather sweetly singing a happy little song about spring and flowers and such. On her back was a smaller-than-average Dratini; although it had a rather nervous look to it, it seemed more content and relaxed than usual, its violet eyes half-closed as it listened to the Grass Pokemon sing.

The Meganium was named Silva, the Dratini Zephyr; both belonged to Lilian, and both were currently out collecting berries. Now that spring was here, berries were appearing again, and although the lab did have a greenhouse to grow them Lilian always preferred wild ones. Silva, looking for a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful day, quickly volunteered to go looking for some and had convinced Zeph to come along.

Currently, the pair were at the Azure River, looking for Sitrus berries; Silva had remembered a large patch of them growing somewhere nearby. A couple moments of searching passed; then, the Meganium let out an excited, happy squeal, causing Zephyr to blink and look up. <"Found 'em!"> Silva trilled, her lilting voice rising happily. <"Oops."> The Grass Pokemon turned her head to look at the Dratini on her back apologetically. <"Sorry 'bout that Zeph,"> she said sheepishly, rubbing her head with a vine.

Zephyr giggled softly. <"It's okay Silva,"> the young Dratini said in his soft voice, giving a rare smile. The Dragon Pokemon jumped off the Meganium's back. <"Can I go for a swim?"> Zeph asked, pointing to the river with his tail. The Dratini was a bit nervous; after all, there were other Pokemon in the river, and who knew how many of those were unfriendly? But he hadn't been swimming in a while, and besides, if there was any trouble, Silva was there to protect him.

The Meganium nodded, her attention already turned to the Sitrus berries. <"Sure, go ahead Zeph, but don't swim too far,"> Silva replied a bit absentmindedly, waving one vine as a signal to go while picking a berry with the other. The Dratini chirped a quick <"Thanks!"> before zipping off to the water. Slowly submerging himself, Zephyr gave a content sigh, closing his eyes. However, after a couple moments, the Dragon Pokemon felt rather uneasy...almost as if something was watching him.

Violet eyes snapped open -- and Zephyr found himself looking into the red eye of an enormous Gyrados.

Needless to say, the Dratini was very, very quickly out of the water. <"S-SILVAAAAAA!">

The Grass Pokemon's head immediately snapped up, gold eyes widened with worry. <"Zeph? What's wrong?">

The Dragon Pokemon was almost immediately on the Meganium's back, curled up and cowering. <"G-G-G-yrad-dos....">

Silva gulped softly. A wild Gyrados? That wasn't good. She had a type advantage, at least against the Water part, and at level 100 she hopefully was stronger, but Gyradoses were notorious for a bad temper and extreme strength, and there was always the chance that Zephyr would get hurt if it came down to a battle. Not good. <"Now, now, Zeph, calm down,"> Silva whispered soothingly, patting the Dratini with a vine while looking over her shoulder at the Dragon Pokemon. At the same time, the Meganium was releasing the calming powder her kind were known for from the petals around her neck, hopefully soothing Zephyr and maybe even the Gyrados if it was mad (which it probably was). Silva picked up the berry basket and slowly walked away from the river, moving further from the potential danger while still making sure Zephyr didn't get startled or fall off or something. <"That Gyrados won't hurt you."> I hope.

[Umbra]

Torva, at the time before the grass and dragon type came, was lurking in the shallows of the water, slowly regaining the strength in his aching muscles... And then his red eyes blinked in confusion... He was hearing... Music... Singing in a foreign tongue. For a few moments, Torva thought he was imagining it, and slowly closed his normally harsh reptilian eyes in contentment.

Then he felt a disturbance in the water, and his glowing red eyes snapped open to face the terrified face of a small dratini. After a short moment of angry/scared exchanges of looks, Torva bared his white fangs in the murk, and the dratini was gone almost as quick as it appeared... The small feeling of satisfaction didn't last when the huge gyarados heard muffled words above the surface... Wonderful... He had visitors...

The surface near the edge of the river suddenly became wild, bubbling fiercely as waves started to smash against the bank... Then the water exploded as an enormous and imposing figure composed of azure scales glinted in the sunlight, water splashing and dripping down it's nearly impenetrable hide.

Shaking the water from his head, Torva narrowed his red eyes down at the puny insects that were Silva and Zephry. Finally, Torva said, "<No I will not hurt him... I'm not HUNGRY yet Meganium.>" The gyarados took a deep whiff of the air, nearly gagging on the sweet scent, but sneered at the two pokemon below him regardless. "<Human stench... Slaves of those hairless apes.>" Red eyes shifted to their baskets.

"<And collecting prey food... Probably not even for you. How soft.>" Torva growled in a guttural voice that vibrated his massive, scaly throat. "<Whatever... Your lucky I'm moving on, or I would take offense at this transgression. Human owned or not, you would pay to listen to the lords of the different territories... You ask for my permission on this part of the river from now on.>"

[Rain]

When Torva first appeared, Silva felt a stab of fear -- not for herself, but for Zephyr. If the Gyarados was taking the time to appear, then it was probably not very happy, and that was only echoed by the nasty look on the Atrocious Pokémon face (although honestly, Silva thought Gyarados were rather stuck with an angry look no matter what). Once the Water type began talking though, the Meganium's emotions shifted to that of annoyance.

This Gyarados...had to be one of the most territorial and most importantly conceited and disdainful she had met -- huge strength with a mouth and an ego to match. For one, Silva was immediately annoyed by anyone who judged who she was just by the fact she had a trainer. Well! How would they like to know she was stronger than probably all of them? If Silva wanted to be judged for anything, she'd at least want it to be for her personality -- at least then they would have tried to get to know her first.

And more irritatingly, this whole mess about "transgressing" his territory or something...Great Arceus, Silva knew these things were territorial, but wasn't this taking it a little to far? Lord of the territory...asking permission to go to the river...the Meganium barely suppressed an angry huff. Who did this Gyarados think he was, making other Pokemon ask permission to go into "his" river? It was a free river, and Silva wasn't about to ask some uppity Gyarados who thought it owned it to go for a swim.

In fact, Silva was just about ready to take on the Gyarados, then and there. This Gyarados seriously pissed her off and on top of that frightened Zephyr...that was probably the worst part of all. It had taken a long time to get Zeph to even leave the lab, and even longer to get him to do anything that was in any way done "alone." The little thing was just trying to go for a swim and relax...now he probably would be too scared to swim for months.

Still, it was also Zeph that kept Silva from voicing all her opinions and launching a full-scale attack. If she fought, Zeph would probably get hurt. Besides, the Dratini didn't need another traumatizing experience, and a battle would probably count as one. So the Meganium just stuck to giving the Gyarados a quick but clear glare with fiery gold eyes, muttering a <"We were leaving anyway,"> that bordered on a growl (although it was kinda true -- although Silva probably would have stayed longer to give Zephyr time to swim, she had gotten all the Sitrus berries she needed). Silva then proceeded to walk toward to forest bordering the river at a somewhat slow pace, one for Zephyr's safety and also to show this Gyarados she wasn't scared of him and wasn't about to run off like some startled Pidgey. Moments later, the Meganium, still comforting to Dratini on her back, melted into the forest.

[Umbra]

Raising a scaly eye-ridge as the two pokemon eventually left, the gyarados' red eyes shifted up river. "<Now... Time to move on anyway.>" He growled to himself as he submerged himself with a thunderous splash, huge wave of water going upstream. Once he got deeper into unclaimed forest area, he would ask around for anyone who knew Soul... If no one did, then Torva would MAKE him come.