City Summerween Part 2 [Left Prompt]

The dark grey colored Espeon sighed to himself as leaves crunched under his paws. He hadn't spoken to Elton himself, instead he'd still been asleep when Maggie had gone to town to see if any last minute help was needed. Apollo tended to be a Pokemon who came off as lazy, and maybe he was to some extent. Really though, he just struggled with energy and motivation at times. Helping decorate had been fun and had brought him energy he hadn't been able to find in a while. He ended up working much later than he had to, which was why his teammates let him sleep late.

Apollo had been proud of the event decorations he'd help set up, and to be woken up to only be told that it had been destroyed really dampened the usually upbeat Eeveelution's mood. He didn't like to get mad, in fact it was often hard to make him angry. Part of him felt a little silly for being this mad over party decorations, but he had worked hard. So many of his fellow adventurers had, they were just trying to make something fun for everyone.

He was also frustrated for Firework, the kid Shinx in their group that handled their inventory and money. He was good at it despite being young. He was so excited for things to start, and had been as equally excited to help decorate. They didn't often have time to do fun little stuff like this that kids could enjoy, and now someone had trashed everything. Wonderful, fun, great.

Being so distraught over it, Apollo offered to be the one to check out the forest. Might as well put the energy that his anger about the decorations gained him into good use, since the energy he had used the day previously had been wasted. Shaking his head a bit to clear his thoughts and focus on the task at hand, he kept himself on alert. Perhaps he'd find out who caused this.

Twigs snapping in the bushes behind him made him whirl around with a snarl, readying an attack just in case... only for Fireworks head to pop out of the leaves. "Jeez Fire!" Apollo huffed, letting the prepared attack die out. "I could have hurt you, don't do that!" The Shinx seemed to pout for a second as if he were ashamed, but not enough to feel that bad. "Sorry Apollo. I just wanted to see who tore up all the decorations."

"Absolutely not. Go home." Apollo's voice was firm, moreso than it had been maybe ever. There was a worried sternness to his tone. "But-" Before Firework could get a word in, the Espeon cut him off. "No buts, we don't know what kind of Pokemon are doing this, if they're even Pokemon. It's too dangerous for you to be here!" He was... shouting, now. He didn't shout at others without reason, almost never. But his once annoyance this morning at ruined decorations had slowly changed into worry over what it was they could be dealing with. Firework looked like he wanted to protest yet again, like he thought this was some silly game.

Before either of them could make another comment, they found themselves face to face with what appeared to be an Umbreon. It wasn't a normal Umbreon, instead looking more scruffy with underbelly markings and much larger fangs and claws. Other sets of eyes glowed in the distance as the Pokemon before them spoke, explaining themselves as "weremon". Apollo wasn't really listening. Instead he was trying to focus on both the Pokemon around them and making sure Firework was still safe. so far the Shinx was fine, other than his fur being extra fluffed up, but who knew what would happen. Shit. Apollo should have been more careful and payed better attention.

When the Umbreon before them moved towards them, leaning closer to Firework with a curious look in their eyes, Apollo growled and raked his claws across the other Eeveelution's muzzle, moving quickly to stand in front of his younger teammate as the weremon yelped and jumped back. A snarl rippled through them as they raised their own claws, paw coming down hard across one side of Apollo's face.

A gasp of worry and fear came from Firework as he watched Apollo be struck, the cat Pokemon's breathe catching in his throat as he saw the few drops of blood sprinkle onto the grass below. In some odd turn of luck, the Umbreon grumbled an annoyed "let's scram, boys." and suddenly they were alone. Firework panicked a bit, he didn't deal with healing and such! He moved to Apollo's side though, tail laid against his shoulder so that the could guide him back home.

Guilt hung heavy in Firework's gut. Apollo only got injured because of him. He tried not to focus on it as they made their way home, and didn't speak a lot when they did and their other teammates rushed to help Apollo. Instead the Shinx quietly slipped away to his room and curled up, hoping that he would sleep and stop thinking about it.