I'm gonna sing the doom song...doom doom doom doom

[PBK]

ooc|| Lv 45 Max? Uh-oh... death may be more literal...

bic||

The cocky Houndour led the way through the baren land of nothingness. The smell of death lingered in his nostrils, making him almost rabbid with the thought. Though he had never been in the valley, he knew it. The pokemon was sure that this is where he belonged. He was capable of being loving. But there were certain beings that the wolf pokemon would rather be rid of, certain creatures of which he despized. He glanced backward to see the Onix following, trainer on back. Good. Just as he had planned.

The putrid smell was finally beginning to get to the boy, who began to wake now that the pollen had cleared. Marco, who now thought that he was dreaming, blinked, then cuddled closer to his large friend. He'd wake up from this nightmarish place evenutally...right?

[~A trainer with dreams~]

occ: The song is called Dooms Day.

[PBK]

ooc|| I've never heard of that song... I was making a reference to Invader Zim.

[~A trainer with dreams~]

the song on your subject Re: I'm gonna sing the doom song...doom doom doom is called dooms day.

[PBK]

ooc|| Who's it by? I tried searching the internet, but couldn't find anything...and just FYI, the song I'm referencing to is the word "doom" repeated over and over again by Invader Zim's little robot Ger. Not sure if it's a "real" song.

[~A trainer with dreams~]

occ:I thought you were talking about the piano you know when sombody hits the loud keys and go doom doom doom 3 times

[Professor Gravon]

A cold wind blew across the steaming, dry desert. Not a single living thing could be seen in sight, except the occasional dead scrub, cactus or skeleton.

[PBK]

The wind woke Marco completely up. Much to the boy's dismay, this wasn't a dream. "Where are we?" he asked in a low whisper as soon as he regained the courage to speak.

<Valley of Death,> Sparkle whispered back.

"Valley of Death!?!?!" Marco asked, forgetting to whisper this time.

<Shhhhh.....>

Meanwhile, Houndour was sniffing around the bones of what Marco presumed to be previous unlucky travelers. The dog type was actually checking for a scent which might tell him how long they had been dead, therefore how far away the predators were. It was probably a good thing that Marco didn't know that his Houndour had every intention of seeking out and attacking these so-called predators.

[Professor Gravon]

Finally, on the horizon, a pokemon's eyes locked on the travellers... It's sleek eyes focused on Marco and his gang. Muttering from it's stubby beak, weird incantations...

The sun seemed to grow hotter.

[PBK]

Houndour lifted his nose to the air. He smelled something funny...something alive. A rather strange thing to find in the Valley of Death, no doubt. A low growl rose from the pokemon's throat. He wasn't so keen on protecting his trainer as he was to get a bite out of whatever flesh dared cross his path.

Marco began to sweat as it got hotter. He didn't like this place. Not one bit. In fact, he'd rather die. Marco almost chuckled to himself when he realized the irony of his last thought. Sparkle gave his trainer a strange look. The pokemon was sure that Marco was losing it.

[Professor Gravon]

The ground beneath their feet seemed to whisper...
<Ssssunsset... Ssssun die... Moon rissse....>

Something invisible stirred up the sands moving at tremendous speed towards Houndour...

[PBK]

Marco shook with fear when he heard the voice. Had he escaped death so many times only to come to this? Sparkle looked on, worried.

Meanwhile, the Houndour was caught off guard by the thing suddenly rushing towards him. The pokemon blew embers towards the oncoming rush of sand, hoping to slow it down at least a little.

[Professor Gravon]

There was nothing in the wind. The wind died down before it reached the houndour.
Then Marco and his pokemon saw a vision. A blinding flash!
A closeup of a xatu's face. Another flash. Then another, more closer close-up of the bird pokemon's face.

Whenever they received these weird visions, the xatu teleported closer to the group. Still chanting weird incantations, but faster.

[PBK]

Marco covered his eyes, but it did not stop him from seeing the psychic bird's hypnotic face. Over and over and over, repeatedly.

Houndour, suddenly not feeling so tough backed away, this time a bit closer to his trainer. The pokemon even began to whine a little.

Sparkle was the only one of the trio to take any action. The pokemon moved its long snake body around his trainer and fellow pokemon, seperating them from the Xatu. <Who goes there?> the pokemon asked, his voice faultering just a little.

[Professor Gravon]

Now Sparkle received a vision: an extreme closeup of the xatu's eyes glaring into his soul menacingly. Thousands of eyes behind the xatu penetrated Sparkles soul.

The xatu spoke to him in the vision.
<You have entered sacred ground! A curse on you and your kin!>

A cloud of sand came up again, covering the travellers. But instead of the sound of sand coming from the ground, a faint sound of a drum came from beneath the ground.
To the left of Marco, a silhouette of the xatu could be seen. It's eyes piercing through the veil of sand.

[PBK]

Sparkle reared back at the vision and let out a devestatingly loud roar. The large crystal pokemon allowed his body to flop back onto the ground, creating a mini-earthquake.

Marco was also afraid. He was allergic to all of the dust which had been kicked up. Now the kid was coughing madly, and at the same time, trying to hide his face in his pokemon's crystaline exterior. But no matter how the boy tried, he could not rid his mind of the image of Xatu that was coming up at him through the sand.

The now cowardly Houndour had jumped upon the Onix with his trainer and was now curled up beside him, whining softly, trying to escape the drumming sound.

[Professor Gravon]

(Ooc: Sorry! Didn't see you finally reply!)

The xatu was shaken by the shock of the ground shaking but it only made the strong psychic pokemon take to the air. The sound of the miniature quake only amplified the sound of the drum beat. It bought up the drums tempo too.

It's silohette spread out it's wings and took to the air, some vague shadow falling onto Marco's companions. It hovered with it's wings spread out, not flapping. A blinding yellow mad e the silohette disappear for a second but appear again as yellow eyes burned on the eyes of the silohette's chest.

<Take your leave or prepare to fight. You have been warned.> There was a cold dark undertone that carried through the pokemon's mindvoice.

[PBK]

The drum beats, louder and faster, cut into Marco, making him even more fearful than before. He didn't even have the courage to reach for his inhaler, and began to cough wildly. He quieted down just soon enough to hear the Xatu's final words.

The boy gathered enough courage to whisper, "Let's leave," though it was so soft, there was a great chance that no one even heard him.

<We don't want to fight,> the Crystal Onix said in a deep voice, <My friends and I would just like to get through this valley so that we can be on our way- no bothering anyone or anything or...> The pokemon had run out of things to say.

ooc|| Yah...sometimes I take forever to reply.

[Professor Gravon]

Ooc: AH! Totally forgot this thread existed. Forive me!

Before Sparkle could even finish his sentence, the sandstorm vanished, along with the xatu.

But something spoke to each of their minds:

Leave this wasteland before things get worse
This wasteland's riddled with an ancient curse

Marco and his pokemon stood, once again, alone in the ancient, barren Valley of Death. On the horizon a Bone Shrine could be seen. Well... at least there's shade if they go there... Then again- a bone shrine might be riddled with curses and scary magic.

[PBK]

ooc|| It's okay...we can go for a new record...one for the slowest replied to ever...it takes us like a month each.

bic||

"I agree completely," Marco said, answering the voice in his head outloud. He would have wondered where the Xatu had disappeared to if it weren't for the fact that he was incredibly relieved to have it gone. "There's some shade," the boy commented, pointing in the general direction of the shrine.

<Ooh! Let's go there!> the Houndour yipped excitedly, licking his trainers hand. Marco sneezed.

<I think I get to decide where we're going,> Sparkle said, <Cuz I'm the biggest.>

<What?> Houndour growled.

<Well, if you want to carry everyone...> Regardless, Sparkle headed in the direction of the Bone Shrine.

[Professor Gravon]

As they appraoched the shrine, a bigger one was seem to loom behind it... Ugh!

The shrine was made from human and pokemon bones. Two cubone lay fast asleep at the entrance of the smaller shrine. The shade that the bone shrine offered was terrifyingly cold and unsettling. It was either Marco and his group would face the heat or the unsettling cold. Shadows seemed to dance within the shrines shadows.

[PBK]

Marco closed his eyes, thinking, hoping that this was another vision. But when he opened them again, the shrine wasn't gone.

Sparkle seemed weary of their surroundings and stopped for a moment, hesitated before continuing.

The boy felt goosebumps on his skin appear. The land which had been unbearably hot just a moment before was now unbelievably cold. But this cold seemed to penetrate through Marco, even to his bones. Perhaps this was how it felt to be dead. He looked at the bones again and gagged.

[Professor Gravon]

Two murkrow came from within the cool shadows and flew up to the top of the boneshrine and glared down at Marco and his pokemon.

The cubone had their eyes closed and seemed to be chanting.
From somewhere deep within the shrine came the sound of a low depressed moan. Well, the moan dragged on to something that sounded to turn into a croak and then a cackle as some insane hysterical beast started wailing within the walls of the shrine.

The chanting of the cubone got louder and more murkrow flew out from the shrine and landed above the shrine.

As the moan-croak-cackle and the sound of the wailing beast came from within the shrine, the chanting cubone dragged their boneclub out to the sands and started drawing out runes in the hot sand.
More murkrow flew out and perched above the shrine, watching the cubone.

They were expecting something...

[PBK]

Marco felt a funny sensation in his stomach that made him want to throw up. But there was nothing in it to throw up. Marco couldn't really remember the last time he had eaten. Perhaps the encounter with the Xatu had disturbed him enough to make him forget even things such as that.

He didn't like the way all the pokemon acted as though they expected something from him. Although there was something that worried him even more- maybe they weren't expecting anything from him at all...maybe it was somebody, something else. Something horrible; something terrible. The things of nightmarish dreams.

"I don't like this place," Marco said, such an understatement, that it would have made the boy laugh, had it not been for the fact that he was standing in the middle of the Valley of Death.

<Well, it's too late to turn back now,> Sparkle said. The pokemon continued, closer and closer to the Cubone, and whatever it was that was moaning and laughing within the shrine.

[Professor Gravon]

Suddenly the chanting stopped and the cubone's beady eyes focused on the shrine's entry way. The sound of the wailing beast had ceased.

Then a sound of trembling could be heard. The bone shrine clicked with each jolt, the murkrow and cubone about to embrace whatever was going to come out of the entry way.

None of the pokemon could care that a huge onix was among them. They were so fixed on what they were doing. Maybe Marco and the gang interrupted some odd ceremony or ritual?