The big monster was down again, so that was a start. It was nice to see that it could be done without the help of whatever missile they had used the other times, and in a more effective capacity, too. It emboldened Chris to stay close and try and hit it again, though as soon as the thought crossed his mind, something else happened – something worse, to balance it all out. All the other monsters seemed to wise up, straightening out and actually starting to put effort into giving chase. It caught Chris off guard, very nearly getting him to flinch, but thankfully he had already been on a heading of “don’t get grabbed by the shadow monsters again” so the instinctive reaction of “speeding up as well” was also the correct one. Or a correct one, anyway. Chris could already tell that this was not a permanent solution. Even if he did that string trick, teleporting in an awkward direction to buy some more time, if he did that enough times, Chris just knew he’d get nauseous again and lose whatever gains he had been making. And without it, well, the fight had been going on long enough, most of that spent running around (and the parts where he hadn’t been running, he’d been climbing -- even worse!). His breathing was heavy, taking in huge gulps of air with each breath, and his chest ached at the effort, on top of all the other aches and pains he’d been accumulating. A lot of what was keeping him going was force of will, and the knowledge that if he didn’t, he’d probably die. The three shadow monsters had all split off to attack each of them, one each. He was back on good news again. Well, medium news overall -- it wasn’t exactly good news that they were still under attack despite their accomplishment, but most of the problems that he had had were when he had been dealing with two of these monsters at once. He had to remember, they were clever enough to try and flank him that one time. And they’d sped up all of a sudden -- what else were they holding back? There was no shot he was going to get close to those things if he could help it, even to try and fend them off. With as mighty a “Raaah!” as he could muster, he lunged ahead, charging with his sword practically at his hip and running right into the fallen giant. He had to brace his foot against the monster to wrench the sword back out again, and good thing he did, because his pursuer was right on top of him and Chris had to twist his body and leap out of the way of its clutches. He landed on all fours, and pushed himself back up to his feet. He wasn’t going to land another hit like that one anytime soon, which meant it was time to change tactics. Chris started running again, this time towards one of the monsters attacking the others. He hoped that, if he couldn’t keep attacking the main, big monster himself, he could at least distract another one and give his friends and teammates more time. Chris took out a dagger, and, taking a running leap, hurled it at the nearest one and just kept running. Hopefully that got its attention.

It was done. This child, who had terrible manners, reacted with immediate hostility, and nearly caused Normandie to be seriously injured, was defeated. On the one hand, she was relieved that it was over, and that she & Quinn were victorious. However, she would have been lying if she said she didn't feel just a little bad when she saw his face. Not nearly as upset as she was satisfied at some just desserts being served, but there was still that twinge deep inside. A twinge that quickly gave way to recognition and curiosity when the boy opened his mouth. "Fine! You win! Just take what you want and go like those red guys." Red guys going around taking what wasn't theirs, huh? This certainly sounded familiar. Just the thought of them and their haughty, "we'll change the world" attitude got Bridget's blood boiling again. "Wait, hold up. Those guys, were they about so-and-so tall? Long red hair, jacket with a bird on the back? Bit of an attitude problem?" "Y-yeah, so you ARE with them aren't you?" He clutched his Pokeball to his chest and seemed to be debating trying to go out the window. "What? No! They stole my Trapinch! They nabbed the grand prize from a fishing contest Quinn and I were in! And they had the audacity to act like they were in the right for it! When I get my hands on that miserable lot, I swear I'll..." Bridget paused, taking a deep breath or two to regain her composure before she started getting a bit too into her justified anger. And she put her wild beast of a Shellos back in its poke ball while she was at it. "Point being, we've got it out for them, too. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did they take? And if you happened to overhear anything about where they might be heading, I'd appreciate that a lot." "They took all my snacks! D-do you know how long it took to get my stash that big? Then they just came in here saying things about looking for relics or something and grabbed everything up." "Relics. Got it. Dunno if we'll be able to get your snacks back, but I've got a mind to crash their party and steal back all their stolen stuff." She did steal a glance over to Quinn, though, on the note of snacks. "I don't suppose you've got something we could give him? I don't really carry snacks on me, so..." Quinn was already fishing around in hir bag. "I can give you a granola bar, but it would not be a trade -- Normandie and I are taking our berries back whether you accept this offering or not." "W-what do you mean your berries? Haunter only finds things that people aren't using anymore he's not a thief!" Well, that was for the boy and the ghost to settle. Bridget, for one, was spent. She took a step back, gave Quinn a simple "I'll meet you back downstairs," and started down those hellish stairs. After this lighthouse trip, she never wanted to see another staircase again. And, as if realizing it hadn't met some sort of mischief quota just yet, one of the poke balls on Bridget's person burst open just a couple steps down, with the resident Shellos springing out and latching onto Bridget's leg, making the descent that much harder. Sure. Why not at this point?

would not recommend riding a scooter with no headlight late at night