"Ugh..."
In an alleyway, not far from the resturant, Alain slowly opening his eyes, wincing as the sun shone straight into his eyes.
"...what the hell happened? Last time i remember, i was running from a load of people..."

He got up, and proceeded to fall off the dumpster that he was lying on, landing face first into a puddle with a loud splash. If he was slightly coarser, he would have yelled a cluster of swear words into the puddle, cursing his bad luck and the fact that he had spent the previous night lying on a dumpster in an alleyway.

...unless those two things were linked. They probably were. Being slightly more sophisticated, he simply grit his teeth as he slowly got up.

"Up now?"
He turned, to see Exo perched on a nearby windowsill. As the scyther hopped down, he gave Alain a dirty look.

"You wander off, leave me behind, and when i find you, you have just partially drained someone and are running like hell!"

"I drained..." Alain started, before thinking back. Now that Exo mentioned it, he could remember something like that. Was it self defence? No, that person...had asked him. Why the hell would anyone want him to do that? Did they have....too much life?

"Its pretty late in the day." said Exo, walking up to him. "Theres some sort of parade going on now. About you avatars. I assume you arent getting on a float, but you may as well at least watch. For all you know, that idiot who wanted to be drained might want you to finish him off. And who knows, we might have fun."

Alain walked past him, giving Exo a hard look.

_____________________

"Brothers and sisters in humanity!" an amplified voice rang out from the crowd. "I urge you to think twice about who you're cheering for!"
Alain looked up from staring at the floor and hoping people would think he was just a bad cosplayer.
"...what?"

People were screaming, running, the various things that people who were scared did. Alain stood there dumbly, looking around, avoiding being trampled somehow. It took exo zipping towards him and kicking him in the back to bring him back to the world.

"We need to get out! I dont think im strong enough to ta..."
Alain ignored him, instead with his eyes transfixed on the situation. Contrary to most situations, or rather, all situations, he felt...calm. He had felt this feeling before. Too many times. He assessed what was going on, as the...whoever these people were, began their attack.
"No."

He put his hands on his jacket, and pulled it off, showing the absence of a shirt underneath. Usually, Alain would turn bright red at the prospect of walking around with his jacket off, but he barely showed it this time, a slight pink hue on his face being the only indication.
"These people are not open to negotiation."

However, there was something still covering him. Something feathery...
He stretched, letting his wings uncurl from around his body, opening fully, a sickening crack accompaning the unfurling. Alain groaned in pain. He hadnt unfurled his wings for over two weeks, they were incredibly stiff. Slowly moving them to work out the aches and pains, he looked around for the people who had attacked. He had been near the middle of the parade, and saw the groudon girl from yesterday fighting a man and his pokemon.

"You have free rein." he whispered, as he lifted his arm. A mass of dark energy materialised in his palm.
"Do what you will."

Exo stared at him, his teeth bared and his eyes open in shock. "Oh shit!" Exo yelled, taking several steps back before taking to the air. "I didnt mean..."

Alain ignored him, slowly walking foward as he let the energy roll from one hand to another.

He stopped within ten metres of the fight.
"..."

He lifted his hand.
"...DARK PULSE!"

Seras strode at the head of her float, basking in the joy and adoration of the crowd. The excitement in the air was almost tangible - the spectators were having a wonderful time, her cosplayers couldn’t possibly be happier and every beaming face she saw made her heart fluttering gleefully in satisfaction. Today really was a perfect day.

Then an explosion tore through one of the floats ahead, erupting in a plume of fire and burning debris. And after a moment of perfect silence, the screaming began.

Seras stared up to face Charity, blood slowly chilling in her veins. ”Please tell me that was an accident,” she begged. Please.

Charity shook her head grimly, expression hardening as she stared over the top of the crowd. “Terrorists,” she growled.

Oh crap. Ohcrapohcrapohcrap. There were far too many people here, far too many people - they’d all be fish in a barrel. If someone wanted to hurt civilians, there was no way they could possibly miss. ”What can we do?” she shouted hysterically. ”There’s no way we can protect everyone, there’s thousands of people here, there are children here - “

“Delegate.” Charity’s voice was hard and composed, level as a blade. “You take front. I take the back. Let the other avatars handle the rest.”

”But…”

At that precise moment, Tantalus shot through the air in a silver-white blur, impaling a offending Golem with his spear.

“They’re competent. Don’t worry about the others - face forwards, guard my back and protect the people here. I can look after myself.” For a brief moment, Charity closed her eyes. Then her entire body began shining bright blue with the power of a fully-charged Calm Mind.

Seras turned back to her cosplayers, panic tempered by a wafer-thin thread of determination. Rather than running, her cosplayers had huddled together behind her, obviously too terrified to flee on their own. Thank Arceus that none of them heard that. She pulled together a feeble smile, echoing some of Charity’s confidence. “You don’t have to worry,” she reassured them. “All of us avatars will fight to protect you, and none of us are leaving until the danger has passed.” It wasn’t much, but it was the best she could offer.

Casting her distractions aside, she conjured several fist-sized gemstones from the air - her pebble-sized diamonds were fantastic as a distraction, but there was no way they could hit hard enough in a fight. Nobody had directly attacked them yet, but a Koffing was heading directly for Yveltal’s float, otherwise unnoticed as it spewed toxic smog across the street. Oh no you don’t. Gathering an orb of silver-white energy in one palm, Seras hurled an Ancient Power at the Koffing. Blindsided by the sudden assault, the orb struck the Pokemon cleanly and detonated, sending Koffing cartwheeling through the air.

Recovering mid-spin, the Koffing spun towards her. Seras fired a pair of gemstones after it with the force of a bowling ball, planning to force it away from Yveltal’s float. Instead, the Koffing simply face-tanked both diamond - snarling in pain, it flew directly towards her instead. Oh crap. The Koffing accelerated furiously as gas spewed from its rear-facing vents - Seras hurled another silver orb at it, but it swerved effortlessly to one side with another flare of gas. From roughly ten feet away, the Koffing opened its mouth and belched as it flew, hurling toxic sludge in a wide cone towards both her and the cosplayers.

Don’t you even dare.

Physically aching with the effort, Seras threw up an enormous planar shield of amber light - seven feet tall and wide enough to shelter the entire float. But while the sludge splattered feebly against her barrier, the Koffing simply flew over it, looping back down towards her. Rather than attack immediately, the Koffing began glowing white-hot, allowing its momentum to carry it directly between Seras and her cosplayers as it prepared to explode. position itself directly between Seras and her cosplayers. Seras froze in panic. I can’t seal it in. I can’t hit it fast enough. I can’t protect everyone, they’re all too spread ap-

A pebble-sized diamond lanced straight between Koffing’s eyes and out the other side of its body, fast enough to leave a solid blue streak and a plume of red mist in its wake.

From on top of the float, Charity gazed down coldly at the Koffing’s corpse, eyes blazing with light.

”Not my daughter, you bitch.”

A flurry of razor-sharp leaves from behind the float interrupted the moment, whistling dangerously past Charity’s ear. Cursing telepathically, Charity whipped around to resume her fight with a colossal Gourgeist closing in from the rear. Tearing her eyes from the oozing corpse, Seras began charging another Ancient Power, but Charity cut her off. "Get the civilians out of here first. Once there’s no more lives in danger, we can afford to play nice.” As she spoke, the nearest foot of pavement began glowing blue as Charity seized the diamond fragments strewn across the street from their display. With a dainty flick of her wrist, she sent a maelstrom of razor-sharp gemstones hurtling towards the Gourgiest. The Gourgeist dived desperately behind Hoopa’s float as the buckshot shredded the surrounding air, carving hundreds of deep grooves into the float’s painted woodwork.

Later. Deal with it later.

Seras scanned their surroundings. Most of the crowd had already fled their immediate area - Alain seemed to be holding his own and Tantalus had found sufficient time to gloat, so the immediate situation was under control. Her cosplayers were all ashen-faced - some were weeping openly, while others stared numbly at the Koffing’s corpse. She finished charging her Ancient Power and hurled it at the portable barricades separating the floats from the sidewalk, blowing a clear path wide enough for fit several people abreast.

“On my count, we all run for the barricades together,” she commanded. “I’ll deflect anything coming our way while my Gardevoir covers us. Head down the alley, get off this street and find your way to an evac point - once you’re all safe, I’ll loop around and rejoin the fight.”

None of them argued.

As Alain hurled his Dark Pulse, the cosplayers ran head-down towards the barricades, apparently unnoticed by any assailants as the battle raged on around them. One of them attempted to thank her as she slipped down the alley, but Seras shooed her away without paying attention - there were bigger things to deal with. She swivelled around in time to see Charity teleporting onto the crown of the Diancie float, neck craning as she scoured the street for her opponent. The Gourgeist appeared to be completely missing from both their viewpoints - where the heck did it go?

Then a cloud of pitch-black mist materialised behind Charity. The Gourgeist condensed silently from the mist, grinning wickedly as its entire body radiating malevolent purple energy. Seras tried to shout, do anything, but barely had time to think before the Gourgeist body-slammed into Charity. The wooden statue splintered beneath them as the pair of them crashed straight through Diancie’s crown - Charity screamed in agony as she was crushed against the floor of the float. The Gourgeist immediately began constricting Charity in its arms, ignoring Seras entirely.

Fuck it.

Charging up her Dazzling Gleam, Seras fired a narrow cone of searing cherry-pink light that clipped the Gourgeist across the flank of its lower body. The Gourgeist snarled in pain as it recoiled from the hit, shooting Seras a venomous glare before dissolving back into pitch-black mist that quickly faded from sight.

Rebeca was deeply unhappy. Surveying the area had revealed at least two individuals who were responsible for disturbing the parade, a man and a woman. That was just the initial count, to do something this colossally stupid, there were probably more. Both people that she knew of each used four Pokemon to make their attacks: three to go on the offensive, one to stay on defense. That meant that, despite their apparent stupidity, they actually did have an idea of what they were doing. This wasn’t a spur of the moment idea, it was planned.

Waves of heat started billowing off of Rebeca’s body, causing the crowd to part around her. One of the things that she didn’t like was the sheer number of people still around. At first things had been very panicked, pushing and shoving in their desperation to escape. Then a sweet smell had descended, and Rebeca could hear Tantalus shouting. Oh good, he decided to be helpful. Maybe he would be one less thing that she would have to worry about in this situation, but there were still too many people around.

As the crowd began to thin, Rebeca took another look around to locate her target, and made a very interesting discovery. Unlike much of the crowd, there was one white-haired girl who was not running away, the opposite in fact, with a Ninetales keeping pace with her. It was hard to tell at this distance, but she couldn’t have been much older than Rebeca herself.

Grinding her teeth, Rebeca changed directions and moved to intercept the girl. Dammit girl. Just because you have Pokemon with you doesn’t mean you should try to play the-

Then the girl sprouted wings, and a bright fireball formed between her hands.

Rebeca blinked. What the… fire? Wings? Who the fuck is she? A small grin crossed her face. Well alright then, Marble. You and I are going to have to talk later.

The crowd was now thin enough that Rebeca could get a more or less clear view of the area, and her eyes locked onto a single target. Standing several dozen feet away was a man in white clothes, standing with his arms folded as he watched the attack. Standing beside him was a Golem who looked severely overdue for a molt, based on the sheer number of cracks and scars in its shell.

Rotating her wrists, emitting small cracks from the joints, she took slow steps towards the pair. Okay big guy, why don’t you tell me what your dimwit trainer is trying to pull here, huh?

For a few moments, the Golem looked startled to hear a voice in his head. Then he gave the avatar a cruel grin.

Ya really think ya can stop our master plan? the Pokemon communicated with a growl. We are Alliance! We are destiny! We are--

At that moment, the trainer’s Gourgeist snuck up and attacked Rebeca from behind with a Razor Leaf. The Golem let out a roaring laugh and charged forward at reckless speed, preparing a Heavy Slam.

Rebeca winced when she felt the sharp leaves slice across her shoulders and spine. Turning her head, she looked over her shoulder at the Pumpkin Pokemon. “Ow.” Electricity crackled around her fist, and she swung around, striking it in the head in a back-handed blow that sent it flying several feet. “You are annoying.” Actually, it hurt quite a bit. Been a while since I had to deal with a Grass type. At least, I think that’s what this thing is.

She turned her attention towards the rampaging Golem, and the black markings across her body began to glow a dull red. The temperature in the air began rising rapidly, and in the sky above the sun began to shimmer and waver slightly through the heat waves. Rebeca held out her hand, her eyes narrowing. Hilarious, buddy. But it doesn’t answer my question.

As the Golem got closer, the ground in front of it trembled slightly. It was the only warning the Megaton Pokemon had, and by the time it would have realized the impending attack, it would have been too late to avoid it.

As it stepped on the trembling spot, the pavement split open in a geyser of rock, magma and steam, the impact knocking it off balance and even lifting it into the air.

Rebeca blinked. Steam? Oh, yeah, right. City. That means pipes, doesn’t it. Whoops.

When the Golem crashed to the ground, its own momentum sending it rolling forward, Rebeca rushed to meet it. Sliding to a stop, she crouched low and allowed it to impact with her, her fingers digging into the joins between the bedrock plates of its shell. Grunting, she lifted, the muscles in her arms and legs straining and cording with the effort. A short, harsh growl ripped from her throat as she heaved, twisting about to slam the Golem onto its back, embedding it into the ground. You guys are a lot easier to handle when you’re stuck on your back, and you in particular are a pain in my ass. Now, if you’re not going to be nice and explain what’s going on, She glared down at its clearly surprised face. Stay. Put. Or I will boil you inside your shell.

She turned her gaze upon the now lone trainer, and a deep, low growl rumbled in her throat.

"Fool..." came Lucas's muttered reply as the Mayor walked away, dismissing him with all the well practised poise of a politician. The man leaned against the support for the canopy of the viewing platform and turned his gaze to the parade, idly playing with the Shell Bell at his waist.

In a short amount of time, the parade has begun and the crowd erupted into cheers and appluause as the first of the floats, and with them, the avatars, came into view.

The floats came and went, but Lucas had little appreciation for them. Though he tried to stay neutral, he couldn't help but feel the corners of his mouth tighten as he caught the familiar tug of power from each of his brethren as they his way. If there was a Lugia float, he had either missed it or it had yet to come.

'Such waste...' Lucas thought to himself as Latios and Latias passed by, encassed in a box of glass on their float as they performed for the crowd. He did not approve; while it might have been a better than the blatant abuse of his kins' abilities, it still painted a target on their backs.

Though when he gazed upon the Lati twins, their avatars' faces full of joy and laughter, he felt the barest twinge of emptiness. His gaze settled for the longest time on the next float, that which carried Suicune. "...where are you?" Lucas found himself whispering, the heaviness in his chest growing heavier as he stared at the red-eyed boy.

Lucas blinked as he caught sight of a certain bespeckled, and for the briefest of moments their eyes met. He saw that she stll had the Silver Wing, woven delicately into her hair like an orament. Lucas felt the briefest of smiles stretch across his face and his lowered his eyes, bowing his ever ever so slightly in acknowledgement of her before his eyes once again were cast across the parade.

"Brothers and sisters in humanity!" an amplified voice rang out from the crowd. "I urge you to think twice about who you're cheering for!"
Lucas's head snapped forward to the sound of the amplified voice and for the first time since his creation, anger crossed the avatar of Lugia's face as the speaker continued. He immedietly knew the type: any group that had the gall to show up dressed like that could only be here for one thing.

Rocket. Galactic. Plasma. Flare. It mattered not which name they chose, which uniform they donned, it was the same poison that continued to resurface.

His expression quickly morphed into one of pure shock as the Koffing was thrown forwad in a Kamikaze gambit, destroying everything in its radius with an explosion of fire and smoke.

'I hate being right ALL the time,' came the unbidden, bitter thought as he unclasped his token from his waist, casting it behind him. A running leap took him off the observation platform and onto a nearby float, his Shell Bell abadoned on the stage.

A Guardian was not needed.

But a Beast was.

He glanced at the sky, and a fiery hot Weatherball shattered the arching skylights, sending glass fragments cascading down into the crowds below.

A curtain of cloud crept in from the horizon and mades its way across the sky, concealing the sun and eventually blotting out every trace of sunlight. The air began to pick up above him, blowing in a harsh wind through the shattered that howled in his ears. Up above, the veil of white darkened, and jagged bolts of light danced through the clouds, creating echoing bangs as they arc through the sky.

Then the Heavens opened.

Even admist the chaos, Lucas had time for one tranquil breath as the rain kissed his face.

He threw himself into the fray.

The avatar blitzed though the crowd of panicked people with unnatural grace; eyes everywhere at once as he assessed the situation through the pouring rain. Groudon and Xerneas were holding their own. Diancie was helping the people in the crowd flee, having already dealt with her own foe. Lucas struck like a fish, sudden and always moving, incapacitating or weakening, harrying the white robed trainers and their pokemon alike when he ccould, or dodging if it became too much.

To his dismay, he found the later to be more.

'Time,' Lucas thought as he deftly avoided a punch by one of the robed men who had appeared before him. The avatar thrusted both palms into the man's ribcage and felt something crack under the blow, before sweeping his legs out from under him with his knee.
'They all need more time.'

A Gourgeist moved to Leech Seed him, and Lucas slid under the ghost pokemon, the water under his feet turning into a sheet of ice as he channeled an Icebeam into his legs.

'So give it to them.'

The pokemon trainer's face splashed in the rapidly forming puddles and Lucas tumbled over his unmoving form, eyes already on his next target: the man who had grabbed the avatar of Suicune, the young boy he had recongized from the dinner the night previous. Before he could pry the man off, a Helioptile tasered the man into submission.

That left only the trainer's pokemon.

As Kaze caught his breath, looking to Lucas's eyes to be shellshocked, he caught a Tackle from an eranged, and soaking Baltoy. His fingers closed tightly around the relic's throat, and he slammed the pokemon to the floor, at least stunning it for a few moments.
Lucas went to stand beside Kaze, his attention now focused slowly on the Gourgest who floated hauntingly across from them. "I offer this once; leave," came the stern reply.

The response given was the dark energy being pulled for a Shadow Ball.

"So I guess that's how its going to go down, is it?" the avatar of Lugia asked with a frown. "Very well..." He slid a foot back and stretched his arm out infront of Kaze's line of vision, his voluminous white sleeve blocking the boy's view. It would not do for him to see the act, and this would end now.

"Forgive me," Lucas whispered quietly, as he thrust out his other hand, faster on the draw. Cerulean power dances along his finger tips as the pouring rain froze to hail from the subtle Ice Beam. A Gust only a fraction of a second later sent the frozen buckshot piercing into the Gourgeist, tearing ether and plant matter from its form. Other pellets chewed into the floor and walls around it, cracking up tile and cement. A few strays struck the returning Pineco, staggering it as they rebounded off of its armor.

When it was over, the inner light of the Gourgeist had been extinguished.

"I'm sorry I did not come sooner," Lucas apologized after a few moments, still keeping the boy's gazed shielded from the remains of the Gourgeist. He kept his eyes on the Pineco which eyed him warily, its gaze darting between its downed trainer, the avatars, and its fallen comrade. "I trust you are unha-"

It was at that moment that Lucas decided to take his eyes off their oponents and glance down at his charge. It was not the eyes of a young boy who stared back. Lucas dropped his sleeve turned his gaze back to the Pineco who appeared ready to unleash holy hell.

"I was wondering when I would see you again," Lugia dropped back into a stance, body poised for the counter attack. "Spirit of the North Wind..."

Suicune savored the feeling of the rain pelting against Kaze. The water was calming and empowering. Enough to do away with these ignorant foes. The Avatar of Lugia stood over him and had begun one sentence, only to change thought midway. "I was wondering when I would see you again, Spirit of the North Wind . . . "

Through his host, Suicune offered a smile to Lucas. "The host of the Beast of the Sea. I am graced to have you at my side," Suicune said, his own deep voice intermingling with that of the soft-spoken Kaze. Rising to his feet, he noted the Baltoy--which appeared angry as a Houndoom--regaining its balance. Flanked between two Pokemon who appeared ready to Self-Destruct at any moment, Suicune had to land his next attack swiftly and precisely.

The power of the surrounding rain filling Suicune and the mighty Tailwind yet blowing, the tide, as it were, was in their favor. Suicune launched a Hydro Pump out of Kaze's outstretched hands, arcing it in a large circle that struck the white-hot Baltoy in its blindspot, and continuing to douse it with the power as it was rapidly forced to collide with the Pineco. The massive torrent they had suffered, while not instantly causing the two to faint, did enough to delay their exploding for Suicune to unleash a barrage of Bubblebeam that sent the two sailing into the abandoned remains of Suicune's own float.

Moments after burying the two within the melting papier mache mound, it burst into a colorful show of pyrotechnics. While loud, it was perhaps the least dangerous way to end the terror that might otherwise be caused.

Summoning the power of the winds, Suicune created a Gust attack that lifted the slowly recuperating trainer of the quartet of terror that had just been defeated. "You have failed in your mission," Suicune boomed through the rain, the light around Kaze's body now amplified and shaped as if it were Suicune himself. "Cease your foolish games! Take your comrades and return to whence you came. Should you defy the embodiment of the North Wind, I shall find you and strike you down where you stand. Begone from me!" he declared, using the Gust to slam the man into the wall.

As the attack finished, the wind surrounding Kaze calmed, and the glow slowly died out. Then, Kaze collapsed to the ground, unconscious from exhaustion, but otherwise almost completely unharmed.

After Rebeca and Germaine made it to the festival the pair separated; it had been a strange time and an even stranger conversation, despite the fact that he was close at one or two points to actually start lashing out in anger, he had learned a lot, especially in some lessons that he sorely needed.

Kirlia seemed to be enjoying spectacle that laid before her eyes, Germaine was impressed as well at how colourful and well displayed the entire event was, a pallette of colours; vibrant and bright, cosplayers depicting various legendary pokemon as far as the eye could see.
The cosplayers were dressed incredibly well, it put to shame all of the others he had seen as well as this the floats depicting each legendary he was currently looking at the one for Rayquaza, noting the lack of its occupant.
”Hmm, at least he can’t screw anything up today.”

Germaine made his way down the awaiting floats until he came to his, it was magnificently crafted and oddly enough it didn’t look overly intimidating or scary - if anything it looked cool.
Something that Germaine was quite pleased about, it was tough for him in his real form because he looked like a creature from the darkest nightmares, oddly enough Darkrai; the Pokémon responsible for nightmares was less intimidating than himself.
After giving an exasperated sigh Germaine stood by his float whereupon a group of cosplayers, all dressed in a form of himself, it was the form that he took upon in this world - in essence most people in this world had no idea what his real forme looked like, so it only made sense.
Still, they were well crafted, something that was a familiar theme in this event, everything was done with precision and care - no doubt the events organiser was the responsible party to that effect.
The cosplayers at first looked slightly confused when he approached them with Kirlia in tow, however; before he could even open his mouth to state who he was they worked out that he was the avatar of Germaine - their sudden bout of clairvoyance followed with a burst of emotion almost made Germaine jump in surprise.
Clearly they were all fans of his legend and upon speaking with them for while they were all from Sinnoh, odd that his name over there was fairly well known now, at least in the region that he surfaced in.

It wasn’t long before Germaine took his place on the float and the festival really took off, the entirety of it was really quite amazing the music, the cheering, the display of fireworks that proceeded to occur somewhere behind him.
Kirlia was enjoying herself, and for once, in the past couple of days, today seemed to be going very well.
That. Quickly changed.

The procession quickly fell into chaos, the cause was down to a group who seemingly appeared out of the crowd and released several Pokémon, what happened next truly took Germaine by surprise - they in essence declared war on the Legendary Pokémon, which caused him to laugh at first - they probably were some pissed trainers who thought they couldn't catch Legendaries anymore, to think that any human contraption could catch a Pokémon of legend within of itself was absurd.
Germaine was about to turn his head from them before something truly unanticipated occurred, a Koffing was flung into the woman named Justine; whom had stepped up to call them out on their bull, upon which blew up using Self-destruct.
A sudden surge of heat blistered the area and the air was seemingly sucked out of the area before being blasted outwards, but this time superheated; it sent people in the vicinity off their feet; knocking down several cosplayers and rocking the float he was upon violently.

Germaine was shocked - his ears pounded and his eyes watered from the sudden burst of heat- one thing was for certain - these people meant business, and Germaine would not allow them to claim any further lives.

As it stood he couldn’t go into the entire group head first - not unless he wanted to end his life in a short span of time.
After collecting himself and grabbing a somewhat distressed Kirlia by the waist, he jumped off the float and stood behind it; the cosplayers had either scattered or followed his example - much to his dismay, now he had collateral to protect.
”You guys just stay out of trouble okay? I’m going to try and deal with these lunatics, and I don’t want any of you to do anything stupid - these people mean business and they will kill anyone who gets in their way.
Got it!?
After a short pause a few of them gave a small nod of the head to show their understanding, clearly they were traumatised, but not to the point where they couldn’t think rationally.

Kirlia gave a tug on Germaine’s sleeve and as he looked at her she gave a determined nod, her face almost calm and expressionless - she was ready to do what she needed to in order to save lives and fight those who would aim to take them.
Looks can be deceiving - but this little Pokémon had the heart and resolve of steel, fearsome in her own right.

Things were deteriorating faster now - chaos reigned in this once joyous festival as the other avatars started attacking the various aggressors, Tantalus effectively demolished the float of Yvetal in a move that removed one of the Golems from the fight- based on the warped piece of wood that was lodged in the Pokémons cracked carapace it’s fair to say that it was dead - fitting that the Pokemon of life chooses when it comes to an end.

Alain and Vuduin were both performing moves in order to subdue and incapacitate more Pokémon - it was then, just as Germaine made his way further down the float procession, close to the float that belonged to Xerneas closer to the majority of the avatars that he seen Seras and Charity fighting a Gourgeist, the odds seemed to be in their favour for the moment - it was simply trying to find the right moment to strike against the enemy, he could appear behind them thanks to Kirlia’s teleport, but it would potentially be very dangerous if he didn’t have any back up.
Germaine gave his head a shake - now was not the time to be constantly analysing the situation, for once this was a time to act; not just watch.

At that moment when Germaine stood and prepared to aid his fellow avatars he seen a discouraging sight, Charity was hit hard by an attack from the enemy Gourgeist, she was out for the count by the looks of it - hopefully nothing too serious.
Germaine looked down to Kirlia and gave a nod as she began to channel her psychic energy and teleported the pair next the injured Charity.

Thankfully Charity was only wounded - it looked pretty bad, but nothing potentially life threatening, assuming that nothing else bad happened to her.
”Kirlia, keep an eye on Charity and protect her from any further harm.” Kirlia looked solemn but nevertheless gave a determined nod as her reply.
Germaine jumped down from the float and stood beside Seras, whom had several clumps of rock floating around her hand, he stance was battle ready and with a taxed voice she told him that this Pokémon that was their foe could materialise from thin air. ”From thin air you say? That will make the fight much more difficult, but, there will be a pattern to its attacks, if we can discover that we can preempt it before it lands a crippling blow again.”
A foe that could disappear and reappear all the while landing a critical blow against an opponent… it’s very reminiscent of a move his real forme is known to have.
But how could such a odd looking Pokémon have something that is of Legendary proportions - the foes that they faced were no ordinary ones, that's for sure.

Germaine wasn’t overly knowledgable on the Pokémon Gourgeist- he knew its typing and that was roughly it -however he wasn’t in the position to wait around and watch its moves and patterns- this situation could deteriorate very fast and time is of the essence.
The reappearance of the Gourgeist served only to reaffirm the need for action - the grinning Pokémon had returned a bit closer to its respective owner - opposite Germaine and Seras. ”Well - time to do the job we were here for in the first place.”
The Gourgeist gave a malicious smile before emitting an eerie cry, clearly it was anticipating its next “fight”, giving his signal to Kirlia which was the the preparation of his Dragon claw, she channeled her energy once again and teleported Germaine in a suitable position to strike at his foe.
The Gourgeist hadn’t anticipated a direct assault and its face contorted into one of both disgust and surprise when Germaine materialised next to it, following with a strike filled with raw power of a dragon.
It was, as to be expected a heavy blow against the enemy, the Gourgeist took a short amount of time to recover from the surprise and its immediate injury before vanishing in a plume of dark smoke.
This must be the move that seriously hurt Charity.

Trying to focus on an unseen threat as the chaos continued to unfold around him was an incredibly taxing process, beyond that something had caused a blistering heat to envelope the city - things were simply going to get worse the longer this battle went on.

Germaine was brought out of his thoughts once again as he sensed something appear behind him - too late to act upon it the attack that followed was incredibly powerful, knocking and lifting him off his feet, sending Germaine through the air, his body giving a few rolls before coming to a stop behind the float to Xerneas- no amount of healing would come from this thing, that's for sure.

Kirlia gave a worried look and teleported him back near the relative safety of Seras and herself.

“Kirlia, could you heal Charity for us?” she asked. “Either she’ll be able to help or we’ll force Gourgeist to fight on our terms.”

Germaine picked himself up after grunting in pain ”I’m surprised Charity isn’t a worse state after that move…

Seras, appeared to be using a move as he looked towards her, she had done something with the sea of gemstones scattered around the area, focusing them into the area around them, together they clumped in masses of pointy shards and their colour and glow changed to a deep amber, they looked deadly.
And, both their purpose and threat became evident as the enemy re-materialised and one of the nearby crystals gave a threatening glow, turning from amber to a deep crimson before shattering in with explosive force, sending a hail of red-hot crystalline shards in an arc towards the Gourgeist - the Pokémon gave a distressed cry and its face contorted with anger, it itself began to give an ominous glowing before screaming towards the four of them, it was flying straight towards them all, and clearly it’s intent was that of mutual destruction, it was using Self-destruct like the Weezing did earlier, all of these Pokémon had been wired into tools of destruction.... it was clear that overall their intent was to kill as many who were against them as possible.

Germaine had to do something -in theory Kirlia could teleport them all away from the blast radius, but that wouldn’t resolve the fact that it would kill many nearby…
Some further rule breaking would be called for, much to Germaine's dismay, it would also unveil his real forme to any who watched.

Standing up and running head first towards the threat before him he channeled his energy into the Distortion world and opened a pitch black portal beneath his feet and underneath his intended target, the Gourgeist slowed momentarily at the creation beneath it, but did little to deters it malicious intent.
In this moment Germaine wrapped himself around the Pokémon and allowed his body and his captive to sink into the portal, his shape and body distorting in the process.
The pitch blackness of the portal had disappeared and one could see the other side with surprising clarity.
Giratina's prison, the Distortion world, a world opposite to the real one where physics and the laws of nature applied all the wrong rules and invented new ones on whims.
Giratina had resumed his normal forme, a massive colossal being that was snake like in nature, with the exception to the six tentacle like tendrils that came through his upper back; it was the Gourgeist that was gripped in these tendrils, held close to his chest as if the Pokémon was a treasured item
The pokémon was unsure what had just happened but it continued its last act of desperation none the less, desperate to take at least one being with it.
A powerful shockwave rippled through the Distortion world and transmitted with a lesser effect into the real world, inside one could watch as a plume of fire spread in almost every direction, as if in slow motion before a brief distortion in time allowed it to resume at full pace and the full effect took place as it had done in once before, through the smoke a completely unaffected Giratina remained, the move had done nothing to his body and in a brief lapse of judgement at his happiness of vanquishing the foe without so much as a scratch in his forme he let loose a triumphant cry - the noise was reminiscent of his introduction in the event, a harrowing scream pierced into the real world and echoed through the chaos.
Giratina gave a look back into the real world and his pupils contracted at the sight of Seras gazing silently into the portal towards him; no doubt she was not the only person who could see his terrifying forme.

Emry's screams mingled with hundreds of others after the living bomb exploded over Porytech's float. She ran away from the street and was soon tossed about in the roiling sea that was the panicked crowd. The girl suddenly found herself smacking the pavement, air whooshing from her lungs in a grunt. For a few terrifying seconds, Emry tried to scramble up and hoped nobody would trample her. A strong grip on her shoulder made her yelp. Solomon lifted the blonde onto his back with ease and weaved through the crowd. For a second, Emry glanced back and frowned as she watched the avatars battle the attackers. Then she tore her gaze away while the Lucario carried her out of sight.

There weren't many guards in the area. Many had been discreetly dispatched to confront a rowdy trainer near the end of the parade route; it was unknown whether or not this disturbance was linked to the Alliance. The remaining officers occupied themselves with helping evacuate the crowd and protecting the defenseless humans.

One guard rushed toward the demolished Porytech float. He shoved aside chunks of debris, coughing on lungfuls of foul smoke. The officer expected the worst. What he did not expect was the blue blur that leapt out of the wreckage. A Greninja hopped up the tail of the nearby Azelf float, surveying the battle from above.

Soon later, the smoke cleared up enough to let the guard see Ms. Huang. The sight astonished him. Several bruises and burns covered Justine, and a stray hunk of splintered wood protruded from a bleeding and spasming forearm. She looked remarkably well, though, considering she should probably be dead. Porygon-Z also sported some dents and scorch marks, but it still had some fighting energy. The pink Pokemon narrowed its eyes and hovered forward but stopped when Justine shook her head.

"Greninja," she barked hoarsely, "Water Shuriken the Pinecos!"

"Ma'am," the guard firmly told Justine, "you can't stay here in this condition. If you can walk, I'll escort you to medical aid."

Ms. Huang stared numbly at the man, dazed and deafened by the explosion. Eventually she understood the gist of his message. Justine gave him a defiant frown at first; however, a wave of sickening pain in her arm convinced her to follow his lead.

"Stay put and keep an eye on Greninja," Justine grunted to Porygon-Z while the officer helped her to her feet. "Try to make sure he doesn't kill anything this time." Then the guard supported her while she slowly shuffled away from the battle.

Greninja unleashed a shrill battle cry as it leapt off the float, did a double front flip just because it could, and didn't even flinch when it landed twenty feet below. He leapt toward the leader's Pineco and blistering speed. At nearly point-blank range, the frog Pokemon formed two spiked weapons made of water in its hands and fired them at the bug type. The whirling shurikens dug deep into the Pineco's tough shell. The weapons melted back into regular water after they hit, but the damage had already been done.

"Pineco!" the middle trainer ordered. "Bug Bite!" The Pineco shook off its pain and lunged forward with surprising speed, latching its jaws onto Greninja's arm.

For a few seconds, Greninja simply stared as the cocoon Pokemon drooled on his arm. Its ability to endure two Water Shurikens had mildly impressed him, but then its counter-attack was too pathetic to be even halfway exciting. How... disappointing. Greninja audibly sighed as he lifted the Pineco off the ground and, with his free hand, shot a Water Shuriken directly into the Pokemon's eye. The Pineco didn't even have time to scream in agony before it dropped like a rock, spurting blood from what used to be an eye. Greninja fired one more shuriken into its torso for good measure and then hopped back to defend Porygon-Z. Watching the mayhem and violence, the poor normal type looked distressed enough to blow a gasket or something.

Near the back of the parade, the female member's face turned red at the sight of her Golem's death and her shaking hands clenched. She didn't really look grieved or angry; the closest way to describe her expression would be frustration over losing. Things continued to get worse from there. Pineco fainted from two fire moves before it could even launch a counter-attack. Koffing tried to Self-Destruct near the wrong Gardevoir. Now her Baltoy was asleep merely ten feet from her, and two of the avatars themselves threatened to do the same to her... or worse.

The female trainer swayed a little, drowsiness muddling her thoughts for a second. Then she quickly reached for something on her belt. A flash of light, a glimpse of golden brown skin, and the next moment, she was gone. The trainer Teleported moments before certain doom.

Over on the other end, a Koffing sneakily hovered between floats. Somehow it had gone unnoticed among the mayhem. The poison type waited for the perfect moment to strike, and that moment came when the blue-haired avatar collapsed. Koffing emerged from behind the head of the Raikou float, hovered directly over Lucas, and coughed up a foul and toxic spew of Sludge.

The front trainer gritted his teeth in pain, gulping in small breaths that still tortured his bruised backbone. He quickly assessed his situation. His Pokemon had managed to blow Suicune to smithereens... well, the float. But he didn't have to mention that little detail when he told his story, right? Other than that, this fight was a wash. The best he could do now was live to fight another day. A flash of white light, a glimpse of golden brown skin, and then the front trainer was gone, too.

Lucas had left the middle trainer unconscious after a display of martial arts. Or, so the avatar thought. A few seconds after Lucas ran off, the man groaned and pulled himself up to a sitting position.

"Heh, stupid Pokemon," the leader rasped defiantly, wiping a trickle of blood from his lips. "Think they're so tough. Well, it's gonna take more than one measly hit to take ME down!"

Right on cue, Alain's Dark Pulse hammered the man's side. He tumbled a few yards and landed in yet another puddle. The leader lay bleeding, definitely knocked out, and possibly breathing.

After the mysterious assailants disappeared in a flash of light, Fluke ran towards the one remaining. He could quickly feel a the small current of a beating heart, and thought of sending a small shock through the stranger - until he felt the blood beneath one of his paws. He shouted with excitement, hoping to communicate that the man he was standing by was still alive. Then he started walking towards Wells' hotel, as he wanted to inform him about the chaos that erupted. He was supposed to wake him up briefly before the tournament, but decided to inform him that it would almost certainly be delayed instead. A pair of police officers patrolling took a quick look at Fluke, before finishing their rounds. Fluke quickly ran up the stairs to Wells' room. He knocked on the door, although he heard no response. He awkwardly jumped up to the doorbell, and heard the sound of someone falling to the floor.

Wells rushed to the door, surprised to see Fluke.

"Did they move the time forward?"

Fluke shook his head.

"Then it must have been cancelled."

After Wells said that, Fluke started running back towards the floats. Wells followed him, knowing Fluke's intent. It didn't take long before he reached the scene of carnage, being particularly surprised at the traces of what had to be Porytech's float. He could also a stranger dressed in white, which Helioptile quickly pointed at. He would point at someone important I didn't know about... someone responsible! There was no crowd to adore him, which was why Wells casually walked towards the floats of the avatars he recognized. Although he could see how exhausted everyone happened to be, his sense of humor possessed him again.

"Looks like someone was a bit too inspired by me. They should probably have toned down their entrance."

Wells managed to suppress a tasteless smile, as he commanded Fluke to watch the man dressed in white as he surveyed the scene.

Rebeca had been about to charge down the trainer when she felt something. It was hard to describe, little more than an odd feeling that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, that something was different, something had changed.

Then one of the many skylights that dotted the ceiling shattered, and a figure dropped through the hole. She saw the sky, once bright and clear, rapidly cloud over, then rain began to pelt against the glass, painting a circular puddle on the ground. Ookay. That’s something. Based on the fancy white clothing he was wearing (impractical for fighting as it was), she had to guess it was the same guy from the previous night; the one she had gut-punched after he had broken a door and nearly ruined her meal. Seeing him didn’t do much to improve her mood, but at the moment she had bigger concerns. He and that Kaze kid (which was rather surprising, she didn’t think the kid had it in him) dispatched their Pokemon with relative ease, and had turned their attention to the trainer. She wanted a crack at him as well.

Several feet away, the Gourgeist picked itself up and shook its head, slightly stunned from the hit. It had thought that its leaves would do more damage than they had, but the Groudon woman had proved to be tougher than expected. As it looked around, it spied a newcomer; a red-haired male. Before its astonished eyes, great wings unfurled from its back, and dark energy began collecting in his hand. Another one of the Avatars, the death flyer if the wings were any indication.

A wicked smile formed on the Gourgeist’s face, and it began collecting a Shadow Ball between its hands. Its mission had just become that much easier. Rushing forward, it launched the roiling mass forward, the orb rocketing towards the Avatar’s hands.

With the Pineco dealt with quite swiftly by both herself and Scarlet - whether it was dead or not, she wasn't sure. Either way, it hadn't gotten back up from the double fire-type attack it had been hit with - and Mia's attention was brought to one of her allies. A brown-haired girl, who looked younger than herself... and clearly a fellow Avatar.

From the heat emanating from the girl, it was obvious she was the host body of a fire-type Legendary, like herself. But which one?

"Hmm... I like this one, Mia. She get's things done." Scarlet chuckled as the pair watched on - a great eruption of steam coming from the ground.

"Well, if you like her, perhaps we should lend a hand? Two lots of fire can never hurt-" Mia's sentence faltered as a small drop of rain landed on the tip of her nose. And it was swiftly followed by more - much to the ire of herself and her Ninetales.

Now, Mia enjoyed the rain. It was pleasant to listen to it, or even enjoy it's refreshing feel every now and then. But in a battle, where one was dependent on fire-type moves?

Rain was hardly doing much to aid her in that.

Pouting at the sky - and the Avatar who had obviously opened the heavens on them all - Mia momentarily forgot herself until Scarlet hit her in the face with her many tails; alerting her back to the fight, where two Pokemon still lay in wait to be attacked... and one of them just had.

Although too late to stop the Gourgeist from letting loose it's Shadow Ball at another Avatar, who was radiating so much darkness that it was obvious it was at least one of his types, Mia did have the chance to intercept it.

"Scarlet! Use Feint Attack, then Fire Spin!" Mia gave the order, and as her dearest Ninetales watched on incredulously, Mia flew right at the Shadow Ball, allowing it to hit herself rather than the other Avatar head on.

"Oh, Mia, you bloody fool." Scarlet sighed before turning her eyes to the Gourgeist, letting loose with her first attack, and then rounding off again to perform her second. Of course, she knew the reasoning behind it - Mia was quite up to date on her types of Pokemon and moves; after recieving Scarlet at the age of 14, she'd pored for hours over books, researching the different effectiveness of moves and whatnot. Entirely pointless, at the time, as battling was banned in the hospital for good reason. But, it appeared in the heat of the battle, Mia had briefly forgotten her knowledge, having obviously mixed up her Dark and Ghost types. The Avatar before her was obviously been a Dark type, and the Shadow Ball was a ghost type move - obviously, Mia was under the impression it would have been Super-Effective, when in reality, it wouldn't have done all that much to him.

It had, in fact, hurt her more.

"Fool..." Scarlet sighed again.

After firing his shot, Alain whirled around, watching a Avatar intercept a shadow ball aimed straight for him. He didnt know this one. Crouching to the ground, he eyeballed the shooter. A Gourgeist. A small one, but that would just make it harder to hit. Even so, at least that speed came with a trade off of less power...

He looked down at the Avatar who had taken the shot for him. She didn't look like she had taken it very well. He couldn't tell what avatar she was, but hazarded a guess at a psychic one, by her appearance and white wings. He couldn't remember which legendary had those, and with the state he was in, didnt really care. He crouched next to her, looking up at the Gourgeist.

"Er....um....p.....please....don't do that....again." He stuttered, going straight back to his normal personality as he spoke. "Y...ou should stay...down. I...wi...will finish this one." As he said this, he got up, and unfurled his wings to their maximum span. "I...like your wings, by the way. T...thanks for taking that for me. Please be careful."

Holding his hands out, they began to glow as he chopped through the air with them both, sending a blade of air at the Gourgeist.

Gourgeist hissed in annoyance when a Ninetales slammed into its side, purple energy crackling slightly over its creamy fur. The attack had hurt, and now it had another enemy to deal with. Its hissed turned to pain as the Fox Pokemon released a stream of flames that curled around its body. It tried to see if its attack had landed, and became perplexed to see another winged Avatar lying on the ground, a sizable black burn visible on her side through her torn dress. Another target had made itself available? Fate truly was shining on it this day.

Unfortunately, it didn’t have time to celebrate. The black-winged Avatar released a shining blade of air from its hands, something that clipped the Gourgeist in its feet as it tried to evade, hampered by the ring of flames. Turning, it hissed towards the Ninetales. “(Do not interfere, Ninetales. This must be done!)”

A cracking sound split the air, and a barrage of rocks slammed into the Gourgeist from behind. Hissing again, it whirled itself about, only to come face to face with the Groudon girl from before, scowling darkly as silver claws extended from her fingers. “You really are annoying, aren’t you.” The light from her markings had dimmed, but her eyes still glowed with a fierce light as she advanced.

Another foe? Four were certainly much to handle, but it had its orders. Glowering at its new target, it faded into purple smoke that dispersed in the heat waves of the Fire Spin.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. I fucked up." Mia thought to herself as the Shadow Ball hit her; at which point, she had correctly remembered her stats on Pokemon. Dark and Ghost mixed up she did that literally all the damn time.

"First of all, watch your language! Secondly, I know. Serves you right for playing the Hero!" Scarlet snapped, outraged that her second attack hadn't worked due to the cowardly Gourgeist fading away. Mia - who was currently curled in on herself, wincing at the black burn on her side - stuck out her tongue at her Pokemon.

"I'm an Avatar! Of course I'm playing a Hero!" She retorted in a somewhat sulky tone - although her eyes darted straight to the Avatar who she'd (Incorrectly) saved from the Shadow Ball as he spoke. His tone was strangely... different to his appearance. Stuttering, almost as if he were nervous? Anyhow, he thanked her - seemed pretty anxious to make sure she wasn't going to get hurt again. Heck, the guy even complimented her wings, at which she offered up a somewhat pained grin.

"Stupid Pokemon ruined my dress..." She muttered, considering the dress a better thing to focus on rather than pain. However, her focus was swiftly directed back to the fire-type Legendary... as she changed into something absolutely Godlike. Her eyes were glowing, alongside markings on her skin and wickedly sharp talons sprouting from her fingernails. The markings looked similar, but she couldn't exactly recall from what Legendary...

"Scar - when he becomes visible, use Feint Attack again..." Mia directed towards her Pokemon, who was still looking rather aggressively at the place where the Gourgeist had disappeared from.

"Oh, hush. Keep low, or I'll be forced to knock you out myself." She growled in a stern, almost motherly tone, her hackles raised.

A few feet above the trio, a shadowy shape emerged in the air, vaguely shaped like the Gourgeist. Smiling wickedly, it spread its arms as Ghost energy crackled around its fists and dove. Spying the descending shape, Rebeca roared "Move! Now!"

Alain watched carefully as the gourgeist dodged his attack by scarce inches, and proceeded to disappear in the fire spin. For half a second, Alain wondered if the fire had finished it off, before dashing those thoughts. It was a ghost type. He wouldn't relax his guard until he had drained it almost dry.

"Move! Now!"

He saw a shadowy wisp in the corner of his eye, whirling around to meet it. It appeared in the air, and dropped straight towards the white avatar. Alain launched himself foward, his wings turning from feathers into flexible steel, Crouching over the white avatar, he placed a steel wing to shield her, before aiming carefully and firing another dark pulse straight towards the descending gourgeist.

Hissing in irritation, the Gourgeist swerved, dodging the Dark Pulse before slamming its fists into the glowing wing, then swooping away to put some distance between itself and its attackers. A rumbling sound made it look down, and the ground exploded in a fountain of magma, forcing it to move yet again.

Rebeca growled harshly as she ran over to the trio. "Slippery little fucker, isn't it."

Scarlet let rip a growl as she saw Gourgeist hovering over her Mia; fear spiking in both the Ninetales and Mia herself. However, Mia was both pleased - and relieved - to see the Avatar she had protected, had now returned the favour by shielding her. Scarlet, seeing Mia safely, now launched herself at the Gourgeist, using Feint Attack once again... although this one definitely had more fury behind it.

"You will pay for harming her! She snarled at the ghost-type before her. Meanwhile Mia, managing to sit up, gave Alain a grateful smile.

"Thanks! And cool wings, by the way." Echoing his words from earlier with a mischevious smile, glancing at the other Avatar who had made her way to them.

"I doubt it'll last much longer with the four of us." She said, then paused, glancing at her wound. "Well... three of us, and your perky injured cheerleader." She added with a grin in afterthought.

The Gourgeist raised its arms, sending a flurry of razor sharp leaves flying towards the group. "(Your threats do not intimidate me,)" it hissed, bringing its hands together and firing a trio of small Shadow Balls in their direction. Its frustration mounted as the Ninetales disappeared, and it twisted, but still felt sharp fangs tear at its side. Reaching out, it seized the Ninetales by the scruff of its neck, and crackling purple energy sparked between the two.

Rebeca snorted as she thrust out her hand, and another column of magma broke through the pavement, incinerating the leaves. "Just don't be stupid and get hit, kid. These things mean business." Her eyes widened as the Shadow Balls broke through, and she twisted about, covering the girl and snarling as two of the balls struck her back. "Or at least leave the "taking hits" part to those of us who can actually take them."

"T...thanks!" Alain answered, pulling his wing back and returning it to its normal feathered state, blushing a little as he did so. He watched the Gourgeist carefully, not attacking again, simply observing its movements. He moved to the side, disappearing from the view of the others for a moment, before leaping up and launching himself towards the Gourgeist, hardening his wings again to slash at it.

Hissing in displeasure, the Gourgeist vanished, reappearing above the black-winged Avatar and slamming its fists into his back. He thought that he was being clever. It would not be so easily fooled.

Rebeca growled, crouching low as pressure built up in the ground beneath her. "Keep close to your furry friend, alright? Hopefully I can catch this thing." Silver light rippled in a circle around her feet, and the ground exploded, launching her on a small platform of rock.

The Gourgeist struck Alain squarely in the back...and passed clean through him. For the split second that the Gourgeist was disorientated, Alain jumped back up onto the float, clapped his hands together, and took a deep breath.

"OBLIVION WIIIIIIIING!!!"

Mia pursed her lips somewhat at Rebeca's words - "kid"? She was probably older than the other Avatar! And as for keeping herself to herself... well. Some fight remained in her still, and she raised her palms, directly at the offending Pokemon. Fire manifested and built up in her hands, before releasing in one steady stream of white hot flames directly towards the Gourgeist. If the other Avatar was singed slightly, she doubted she'd mind - from what Mia had gathered, the fellow fire-type wouldn't mind a bit of heat.

As for Scarlet, she appeared slightly hurt, but not too much. Still angry at the actions of the Gourgeist, she remained by Mia for now, growling and ready to defend her wounded trainer.

Hissing in surprise, the Gourgeist twisted around in an attempt to face its true foe. He was cleverer than it had thought. Summoning another Shadow Ball, it flung it upwards, but the crimson beam that the Avatar had released shattered it, sending the Pumpkin Pokemon plowing into the ground. It hurt. When it opened its eyes, it saw the Groudon girl flying towards it, electricity crackling around her fists, surrounded by a halo of flames.

Flames that had come from the weaker Avatar. With that, it vanished again.

Rebeca slammed into the ground, snarling. Damn it! She scrambled to her feet, casting her eyes about. Where the hell did it go?

Alain took a deep breath as the energy from his opponent flowed into him. It wasn't as effective as a direct drain, but it would do. Looking at the Gourgeist, he witnessed it vanish, again. Keeping his eyes open, he watched, waiting for the slightest flicker of movement that would betray his opponent's location.

The Gourgeist's shadowy shape formed behind Mia, and it wrapped its arms around her, shocking her with Ghost energy.

Alain charged another dark pulse, and raised his arm to throw...then slowly lowered his arm. With the other avatar in its grip, it was too risky to shoot. He was confident he could hit the Gourgeist, but there were those arms to think about...and the shocking.

He lowered his arm slightly.

At that point, Exo exploded out of a nearby window, launching itself at the Gourgeist with his blades slicing through the air.

Despite Mia's pain, anger ripped through the barrier of her agony, and her eyes began glowing a bright blue once again. With the Gourgeist's arms still wrapped around her, her body erupted into flames, swallowing both herself and the Gourgeist for a moment; she was attempting to focus the flames moreso on the Pokemon, and not so much herself. Still, her dress was being singed to Hell - there was no way she'd get it fixed now. So focused, she didn't even hear the sound of broken glass, nor notice the Scyther heading straight towards them.

When the white-winged Avatar burst into flames, the Gourgeist hissed in pain and threw her aside. Of course she would do that, very little about this battle was going the way it had wanted. Things only got worse when a blade pierced its side, attached to a Scyther who had apparently been lying in wait. Furious, the Gourgeist formed a Shadow Ball in its hand and smashed it into the Scyther’s face, then vanished. It needed another angle of attack.

It found that angle by emerging beside the black-winged Avatar, striking him directly across the face, then vanished again and reappeared behind the Groudon girl, shocking her as well.

Rebeca growled when she felt the Gourgeist's arms wrap around hers. "Oh, you do NOT get to try that same trick twice," she snarled. The markings across her body began glowing again, and bright shafts of sunlight pierced through the cloud cover in the sky. The Gourgeist flinched backwards slightly as her body temperature suddenly spiked, and Rebeca twisted about in its grasp, electricity crackling around her hands as she grabbed its head. "Hey, Death Boy! Hit me!"

Exo twisted in the air, managing to avoid the shadow ball, but sacrificing his ability to steer in the air, something he noticed as he planted straight into one of the floats. Alain threw his dark pulse, but was worried about hitting the white avatar and completely missed.

He turned, and saw the gourgeist attack the groudon avatar, who began to give off electricity in her hands. Realizing what she was about to do, Alain began to spin around, flapping his wings to aid in his speed. After a few seconds, he launched the hurricane he created straight at the avatar and the Gourgeist.

The windstorm enveloped the pair, obscuring them in a wall of dust. Then a red glow could faintly be seen within, and suddenly the entire storm burst into a whirlwind of flames, intense heat radiating off as the pavement started to bubble and char.

The storm didn't last too long, and when it dispersed Rebeca could be seen still holding the Gourgeist's head in her hands, her feet enveloped in stone as she stood in a glowing circle. A faint silver light shone across her body, and all that garbed her were flecks of ash; what remained of her clothing. She swayed slightly, releasing the Pumpkin Pokemon and stumbling backwards, gasping for breath, coughing as she fell to her knees. The Gourgeist itself simply fell to the ground, twitching as electricity coursed through its brain, shattering any semblance of concentration. After a couple moments, it slowly rose up, struggling to keep control over its body as a Shadow Ball formed in one hand. The firestorm had taken much out of it, it didn't have the strength to fulfill its orders. But at least it could finish this one.

Alain watched with an impressed gesture as the groudon avatar turned his hurricane into a fiery whirlwind of...burning things. The heat was so intense, he held a wing up to protect his face from it.

As the heat died down, Alain spotted the gourgeist and the avatar, both looking the worse for wear from the hurricane. He opened his mouth to ask her if she was alright, only to see the Gourgeist form a shadow ball in one hand.

"Oh..."

Alain barely even thought about it, but by the time the shadow ball had fully formed, he moved, forming his own attack in his hand. He aimed carefully, and fired the most powerful dark pulse he could muster. If he missed...

Rebeca shuddered as she took massive breaths. It had been a long time since she had done something that stupid. She looked up, seeing the Gourgeist rise again, a Shadow Ball forming in its hand. Dammit, what the hell is it going to take to kill this thing?

Abruptly, a stream of purple energy slammed into the Pumpkin Pokemon's head, knocking it over and launching it several feet. This time, it did not rise again. Rebeca blinked, coughed, and glanced about, her eyes falling on Alain. She smiled weakly, managing to rise to one knee. "Not bad *cough*, not bad at all kid."

Mia blinked in surprise to see the Gourgeist finally hit the deck - it didn't fade, nor did it move. Was it dead? Huh. She'd never seen a dead thing before. Mia felt thoroughly tempted to poke it with a stick, but instead, she looked back at the other two Avatars, smiling cheerily. Scarlet was sat beside her, her huge tails laid around Mia's shoulders protectively.

"About time we finished him off." She said with a grin. "My name's Mia Vantas, by the way. Avatar of Reshiram." She added, finally introducing herself.

Alain was breathing heavily as he slowly lowered his hand. His attacks had taken a lot out of him, thanks to his life orb. He probably should have risked an oblivion wing, rather than a dark pulse...

Oh well. His opponent was gone. And no one was dead, as far as he could tell. Now, where was...

He stopped, and remembered. He was fighting alongside two...girls. They might want to talk. People like that often did want to talk. But what about? Why did so many people want to talk to him? He never had anything interesting to say...

He turned, and completely failed to hide his shock when he realized that the two other avatars had taken quite a lot of clothing damage.

As in, a lot lot.

He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He proceeded to close his eyes and tried to turn, but only succeeded in overbalancing over the side of the float, causing him to hit the pavement with a dull thud.

"Umm...erm..." he rubbed the top of his head, and tried not to look at either of them as he spoke. As if on cue, Exo walked up to him, and threw Alain's jacket back at him. It was that this point, Alain realized he wasn't wearing much either, and covered himself with his wings almost instantly.

"Erm...y...you can both...er....i only have one jacket...i could cover the other with my wings...No, wait! Ignore that last bit! T...that would be...weird!"

The stuttering was amusing to Mia, up until she realized what he was talking about as she looked at Rebeca properly. And wow... girl was naked. A bubble of laughter built up in Mia's throat, but she kept her mouth shut for now - only just.

"Really Mia? You're hardly one to laugh, with that dress reduced to naught but rags." Scarlet snapped at her trainer, still obviously annoyed at her mistaken actions earlier. True - her dress was pretty much falling to pieces. Her underwear underneath were pretty much intact, barring one burnt away bra strap, but most of her was covered. Especially with Scarlet's tails in the way.

"Eheehee... Scarlet, maybe you should help our... pfft clothe-less friend out?" Mia suggested aloud, sniggering ever so slightly. Her wings would cover up what Scarlet's tails were doing for her anyway.

Watching the poor kid trip over himself caused Rebeca to chuckle, shaking her head. She stood up, brushing off the flecks of ash from her skin. "Don't know what you're getting so worked up about, it's just me." Teasing him was just too hard to resist, and she chuckled again.

It took a moment to realize that not all the laughter in her head was hers. Frowning, she glanced around, her eyes settling on the Golem embedded in the ground not far away. It had been observing the entire time, and now its fangs were bared, a deep rumbling sound growing louder. A scowl emerged on Rebeca's face, and she started to approach it. "Alright, what's so funny?"

Alain slowly moved closer to the golem in the ground, whom he had barely noticed until that point. Covering his face with his hand, he managed to get close to the golem without falling over again, or seeing anything he shouldn't see. Somehow.

Watching on curiously as Rebeca's attention was diverted, Mia struggled to her feet - glad to see that her legs were pretty much unharmed. Looking over, it appeared that there was still another Pokemon to deal with... although it was quite comically stuck in the ground, stubby legs sticking out.

"What's it saying?" She asked Rebeca as she followed, assuming the girl could converse with the Pokemon as she was talking to it. Scarlet remained in front on Mia; displeased that she was walking towards the foe, but still relieved that the girl could at least walk without much bother.

Heh heh heh heh. The Golem glared up at Rebeca, its arms reaching for the pavement but not quite managing to reach. Ya think this is a win for ya? Ya think we're beaten? It gave a toothy snarl. This ain't nothin'. We ain't even close to beaten, we're just gettin' started.

Rebeca narrowed her eyes, and she bent over slightly. Is that right. Well then, how about you tell me what it is you really are up to, and maybe I'll take back that boiling comment I made earlier.

The Golem simply chuckled in response. Sure, I could do that. It snarled, and its body began to glow with a faint white light. But you ain't gonna live to see it!

Rebeca's eyes widened, and she acted on the first thought that came to her mind. Straightening, she seized Mia by what was left of her shirt and Alain by one wing, spun around, and slung them with as much strength as she could muster. She would apologize later; a few bruises were better than being blown up, especially after the fight they had just been in. "Cover her! NOW!" she roared, then turned around again. She had managed to send them several dozen feet, but if her gut was right, that wasn't going to be enough. Very funny, big guy. But not while I'm around.

She concentrated, and the faint silver light around her body glowed slightly brighter. A cracking and grinding sound could be heard, and then the Golem abruptly dropped farther into the ground, almost out of sight from where Mia and Alain had landed. As the Golem became obscured by its glow, Rebeca brought her arms up to cover her face. Sorry bro.

When the Explosion went off, it shook the ground for almost half the length of the parade, and left a sizable crater in the ground. Rebeca crashed into the ground a short distance away from where Mia and Alain lay, plowing a small crater of her own in the pavement, burns covering her legs, stomach and forearms.

Oh, I just had to go and look at that damn Golem. Was Mia's first thought as she realized what was happening - thankfully, with Rebeca's quick thinking, both herself and Alain were cleared from the blast. Scarlet followed swiftly behind - skidding to a stop right beside an even more bruised up Mia as the blast rocked the surrounding area.

Once the dust cleared, it was eerily quiet, barring various alarms going off from the cars, which had been knocked onto their roof's and sides in the impact of Rebeca's move.

"Well... that killed it." Mia eventually said, just to break the silence. A bit of overkill, considering it was going to blow anyway, but she couldn't really complain - all of them were alive.

Well... possibly. Rebeca had just landed like a meteor right in front of them, carving out a furrow in the concrete as she went. She looked even more injured than Mia, with those burns. "Ouchie." She thought to herself, wincing on Rebeca's behalf. "Um... are you alive?" She questioned from where she was sat, one hand somewhat nervously petting Scarlet's creamy fur... which was looking slightly singed.

For the third time that day, Alain pulled his face from the floor, feeling it to make sure he hadn't broken his nose. He hadn't, surprisingly. At least that was something to take out of this day.

Slowly, he pulled himself up, working out a pain in his back that had resulted from all the falling over, getting thrown and such.

"Um...are you alive?"

He turned around, remembering to put his hand over his eyes just in time. He ran over to where the voice was coming from, keeping his hand over his eyes and desperately hoping that he wouldn't fall off anything again.

"Erm...we should...er...find some help or something! C...can i help at all? I hope its not too bad..."

For a moment, Rebeca laid limp. The her face twitched, and she groaned, her eyes cracking open as she coughed. "Ugh... you... guys alright?"

"I feel better than that Golem, that's for sure." Mia replied with a grin, earning a somewhat steely look from Scarlet.

"Perhaps wait until we've found medical attention, before we begin celebrating." She sighed dryly.

Alain nodded, still with his hand over his eyes. "How h...hurt are yo...you? Can y...y...ou walk? I....if you...can't...e...either of you..." He turned bright red. "I guess...I could carry one of you." He turned redder, tightening his wings around himself.

"Smooth." Said Exo, who had just reached them.

Rebeca let her head drop, a small smile crossing her lips. "That's good." She winced. "Do me... a favour. Don't... tell my brother I did that. Don't really need him pissed at me right now." Her eyes closed as she coughed hoarsely, her body convulsing as flecks of blood painted her teeth and lips. "Stupid idea, wasn't it. Think I'm gonna... sleep for a bit. Wake me up... when it stops hurting."

Shortly after making the first move, everything had gone downhill with spectacular rapidity.

Darkrai’s avatar, Vuduin, had appeared rather suddenly, next to the trainer directly opposite of Tantalus. As her Baltoy was lulled to sleep - and her looking as though she would soon follow - the Avatar allowed himself to take stock of the situation. Yveltal’s dark power - not Alain’s - had flared up from somewhere along the way, causing his skin to crawl violently. A Koffing floated over towards the direction of Seras, using the gas expulsions it emitted to dodge incoming fire. It rose into the air, and then exploded. Blue light flared from the Pokemon’s body as the air was filled with a streak of fine red mist. The Gardevoir, Charity, stood atop Diancie’s float, her complexion positively glowing. Smiling, Tantalus found himself enthralled by her sheer ferocity. A yell of pain could be heard as she vanished from sight, a murky black mist fading by the time Tantalus had turned back around from seeing what was occurring at the other end of the parade line.

A girl wearing a white dress was flying around throwing fireballs. From this distance, it was hard to tell if it was someone from last night through the heat waves, although it certainly didn’t look that way. Resounding through the air, a single incredibly loud crack of rock came from her direction. Steam began to fire from the ground in a super-heated jet. Soaring above that, went a Golem in considerably better shape than the one underneath his foot. Clearly protecting people wasn’t going to be high on Rebeca’s to-do list today. Brilliant-white, a ball of light crashed through the skylights somewhere above her. The rolling grumble of thunder could be heard, before rain began pouring down over that general area, accompanying a storm of glass shards. From the rain, that must have been Lucas.

Hypocrisy. Playing at a peacekeeper while bringing chaos with him. Tantalus chuckled, realising not a single Avatar here actually seemed to care about protecting people, over dealing with the attackers. Something which was genuinely surprising.

The trainer before him vanished in a flicker of light, just as the power of Geomancy faded. Giving a victorious smile, the Avatar began to plan his next move.

Glancing down at the dead Golem again, his stomach did a few flips. Bile burned the back of his throat, as breakfast threatened to reappear. Despite never admitting it to anyone, the event was positively horrifying. Being unable to determine whether the attack was to defend Apate, or just to kill the Golem, was not comfortable. For this one singular day, the man would put aside his ego to help people in an attempt to figure out exactly how much influence Xerneas could muster over him. Several people were injured that he could see from the float. Tantalus would heal their wounds. Focusing on that, he thought about how happy their families would be, being grateful simply to be alive. How much they would owe hi-

He winced. This was going to be harder than expected.

Another detonation came from somewhere in the middle of the parade, prompting a sigh from the man. Hopping down off from the float, he gave Vuduin a respectful nod for his - however unnecessary - assistance.

Turning to face Apate, he reached out telepathically. Let’s go see what is going on further up. It’s useless staying down here now. Nodding enthusiastically, the Mawile followed behind. At several points, Tantalus stopped in over to crouch over injured people, extending his power outwards to heal them. Receiving some very suspect looks as he approached them, spattered with blood and holding a buckled spear recently wrenched from the body of a Golem, they nonetheless seemed thankful for the aid.

Are you having a good day, or something? Apate chimed in. I can’t recall ever seeing you using that power for free.

I have done it before, albeit rarely. Besides, what happened here was no fault of theirs.The Avatar chuckled. The Mayor might get a bill for my services later, I’ve not decided.

Smiling, the Mawile replied with her typical jaunty nature. That’s more like it. You had me worried for a second.

Face settling into a hard expression, Tantalus gazed at the ground. You aren’t the only one, dear friend.

---

Just ahead was a group of people, three stood over a fourth who was lying on the ground. Various Pokemon were present also, a Ninetails, Scyther and Charity the Gardevoir. A large concrete trench was cut into the ground around the prone figure. The property damage was substantial. Groudon had certainly done a number on this place. He walked over to the group, planning to offer a healing hand to the injured person on the ground, providing they yet lived. Approaching, Tantalus realised it was a girl.

“May I be of assista-”Laying down the spear and outstretching a hand in her direction, he paused about a foot from her, becoming aware of several very important facts.

To one side, it was Alain who stood, shirtless, wrapping a pair of black wings around himself. They mimicked clothes well enough that Tantalus had completely overlooked them at first. It was a testament to just how lost in thought the Avatar was. A second figure, standing close beside the Ninetails, was the figure seen earlier from the float. She had been soaring above the crowd, then. Now, the girl stood in a tattered white dress which showed a lot more skin than Tantalus figured it was designed to. Seras was, thankfully, normal. The piece de resistance, without a doubt, was the final woman lying on the floor. Her name was Rebeca.

And she was stark naked.

Tantalus tried. He really, really tried.

Dark emotions stirred from the death of the Golem, which then mixed with the wordless shock at the scene around him, and coupled with an strange and sudden cheerfulness. The result was that something inside the man short circuited, and he was struck down with an almighty fit of the giggles.

It started as a very quiet, guttural sound. Rapidly rising in both pitch and intensity, Tantalus stumbled off to the side, hunching over the nearby remains of a shattered float before completely losing all pretense of sanity. Clutching his head in both hands, he sounded like a tittering schoolgirl, laugher filled by that giddy cheeriness which had welled up from nowhere. It took quite a few moments before Tantalus managed to get slightly under control, beginning to walk back to the group, straightening his jacket, slicking back his hair and wiping genuine tears from his eyes.

Arceus only knows what the poor girls made of a man spattered with blood, armed with a spear, laughing maniacally off to the side.

“The primitive act is getting a little extreme, don’t you think? Even the cavemen wore some clothes.” Stifling another laugh, he continued. “I hope you know there are so many jokes to be made here. Count yourself lucky that I am above such things.” No reply came from Rebeca, which didn’t bode well. Maybe she was, actually, dead. Something deep inside him seemed happy about that.

“Nice to see you too, Miss Bancroft.” A giant smile beamed across his face. “Gracious in defeat, I see! How very becoming of you.”

Seras stared at the man for several seconds, trying to understand how anyone could make jokes giving what had just happened. It was a disgrace to those unfortunate enough to have been hurt - or worse. Her tone was scornful. “It’s easy to be gracious when you’re the only one competing.”

"How quaint. At least you keep better company than you make. Do try to be less sour, in future." He turned to the girl in the white dress, the annoyed frown disappearing. “Hello, my dear. I do not believe we have met.” Outstretching a hand, he offered a warm smile in stark contrast to his current appearance. “My name is Tantalus. May I ask yours?”

Although somewhat put off by the amount of blood stained onto the man before her, Mia figured she was hardly one to talk, with her burnt up, scuffed and dirty state. Unfolding her wings slightly to let out an arm, she shook his hand with a bright smile.

"Mia Vantas - nice to meet you!" She said cheerily, not even wondering why he had been laughing so maniacally earlier. Suppose growing up in a mental hospital will make one not question those kind of things. At least he was happy over something. If Scarlet had shared a type with this bloody newcomer, she would have growled some kind of threat, should he ever find himself laughing maniacally over Mia. However, she made do with just narrowing her eyes at Tantalus.

“A pleasure.” Surprised by the general lack of interest in his appearance, Tantalus had to swallow another bout of laughter. Well, it isn't the strangest thing to happen today. And it's not even lunchtime. Walking over to Rebeca, she looked scuffed up badly. “So. The million-dollar question.” Crouching down, he stretched out a hand once more. “What is wrong with her?”

Mia politely answered the question. "Well, she blew herself up." A pause. "Actually, the Golem went to blow up, but she then... blew it up more? I don't know why. Anyhoo, she did it, made a big ol' crater, and then landed face down in the concrete. Skidded a bit too." She added, pointing out the fissure in the ground, that ended with the knocked-out Rebeca.

Tantalus whistled. "That explains the extent of her internal injuries.” Placing a hand lightly on her head, the view Tantalus had of the woman changed into seeing her less as a person and more of a mass of cells. Hidden inside was quite a number of injuries, mainly structural in nature. Broken bones threatened to pierce organs if left untreated. Seeing this, the man prepared to use his power to heal those problems.

A loud, bellowing roar shook the air, and the numerous small peoples that were scattered across the ground began to tremble and bounce into the air. Down the street, a small grey figure could seen, and was rapidly getting closer. It did not stop for anything; debris, pieces of pavement, a burnt out shell of a car, all was violently knocked out of the way. Behind it, three other figures could be seen in pursuit, resolving into three teenagers, two boys and a girl.

The lead figure was Mihkail, and such a look of fury was rarely seen on a Pokemon. Again he roared, his short legs pounding the pavement and digging tiny furrows in its surface with his claws. As he grew closer, the small, brown shape of Maya could be seen on his back, clinging for dear life.

Rainbow light began to shimmer around the man, still intently focused on Rebeca’s injuries. Watching his healing power work was fascinating. So much so, that Tantalus completely failed to notice the charging Rhyhorn until the last second. Seras watched, trying to form words to warn the man, but found it impossible. Her Gardevoir was about to shout a telekinetic message to her fellow fairy, but found herself holding off, watching with morbid curiosity.

Seconds before Mihkail blindsided the Avatar, he was met by a Mawile, determined to protect her trainer from harm. Dropping into a defensive stance, her massive jaws moving to interrupt the attack. Apate went flying back, tumbling through the air and landing with a thump nearby. The sound of her yelping in pain finally broke Tantalus out of the trance before he had even begun to heal Rebeca’s wounds, with no idea what was going on, until the sight of a Rhyhorn baring down snapped him back to reality.

With mere seconds before the Pokemon ran him down, Tantalus threw himself back. A horn came crashing into his lower leg, causing him to topple off-balance upon landing, due to the pain.

Looking up from the ground, the man began to yell. “What in Arceus’s name was that for?”

As he rampaged past, Mihkail immediately began skidding to a stop, the pavement grating beneath his feet. Once he had slowed, Maya took the opportunity and leaped from his back, shaking herself and scuttling towards Rebeca. After managing to get himself turned around, Mihkail turned his baleful gaze upon Tantalus once again and roared. YOU! STAY AWAY FROM HER!

Getting into a dominance contest with a Rhyhorn was not how Tantalus had envisioned spending his afternoon, but there was a lot of that going around today. Rising off the ground, he looked towards Mihkail. “Very well. I’ll concede I know exactly what it was for, but i’m afraid your anger is misplaced. What happened last night, believe it or not, wasn’t anything to do with me.”

A flicker of rainbowed light burst out of his injured leg, ribbons of it seeping through the fabric of his trousers. His voice grew slightly more gravelly. “But even so. Apate had nothing to do with this. Prevent me from helping her and I swear you’ll force my hand. There has been enough violence today. Stop this. Please.”

Mihkail snarled, and charged forward again. I have NO reason to trust anything you say!

The Avatar ran to the side, sliding past the rampaging Rhyhorn and praying his turning circle was as bad as it looked. “Shall I take that as a no?”

Tantalus tried to be angry. This was getting ridiculous. Apate was hurt, Rebeca was hurt, and this damn Pokemon kept getting in the way. Anger wouldn’t well up inside him, though. It definitely wasn’t cheeriness anymore, but a fuzzy warmth still clouded his mind.

So it wasn’t anger in his voice, but defeat. “Look. We both know what I said last night. Do you honestly think if that was me i’d have given you this many chances already? If you want me to let Rebeca die, then by all means i’ll oblige.”

“But I am not leaving here without my Mawile.” Tantalus gathered energy around himself, glowing various colours. For the second time today, the Avatar charged himself up with Geomany. “This is the last chance I will give you. Make. Your. Choice.”

Mihkail snarled again, firing off a Smack Down that clipped Tantalus in the shoulder.

Pain flared through the man’s shoulder, as he grasped it. Staring hard at the Rhyhorn, voice warped and distorted from the rippling energy of Geomancy, he spoke. “I have offered you ample chances.” White and silver light danced around the hand of his injured arm, it was tinged with the violet purple of a Life Orb. “Consider this a gift from Apate, you thick-skulled swine.”

Light bursting forth from his outstretched hand, it sailed through the air towards the Rhyhorn.

Powerful as Mihkail was, mobile he was not. The stream of light slammed into him head on, driving him backwards several feet and down into the pavement.

Sighing, Tantalus relaxed again. Well, at least it’s finally got the message.

Ignoring the questionable looks of the bystanders wonder why the fight had broken out in the first place, the man found his Mawile slumped against a ruined float off to the side of the street. She was alive, but beat up, and not conscious. Apparently, the landing hadn’t been the best. Kneeling down beside her, Tantalus lightly placed a hand on her head, and did the same thing as earlier with Rebeca. As suspected, it was nothing life threatening, but taking the brunt of a Rhyhorn moving at great speed had done a number on her.

The cuts and scraps began to disappear one-by-one, turning into ribbons of rainbow light which drifted off into the air. It hadn’t been a great outcome, having to subdue Mihkail in such a fashion - especially when his fears had been somewhat justified - but despite the offer to leave Rebeca after all, it didn’t help diffuse the situation. So the outcome was inevitable. Well, maybe he would accept healing her as a sort of apology. Then perhaps she could talk some sense into the stubborn fool.

Lights shimmering softer by the second, the healing power began to ebb, and Tantalus was about to remove his hand from the Pokemon’s head. Something wasn’t quite right, though. There was definitely something present that hadn’t been before, although trying to find out what was proving difficult for one reason or another. Like looking for a specific cloud in a storm. One blotch of murky gray in a sea of it.

The man froze. Something was very wrong. Apate had a mass of tissue on the inside of her body, which appeared to be self-replicating. It was the new cells being produced, albeit only a small amount, that became highlighted. However, the mass itself was not classified as a problem by his power. With each passing second without an answer, the feeling of uneasy got steadily worse. An ice-cold hand felt as though it was sliding up his spine. Nothing about the situation made any sense.

Oh, but it did. Eyes flying wide open, the Avatar recalled what Xerneas had said on the float. How he was a processor for the power. Presumably how it worked, then, was down to him. Which meant one terrifying thing.

Xerneas had just given Apate cancer.

And used Tantalus to do it.

A death sentence had been delivered to her, one that would ensure a slow and painful passing. Activating the power again, it reverted her system to the ‘save state’ it had been in moments prior, after the first burst of healing. Which meant he was utterly powerless to stop it.

Throat dry, Tantalus staggered back to his feet, narrowly avoiding falling over. Reeling from the new turn of events, the Avatar didn’t have the slightest idea what to do. He had given his one constant since long before he became a host for Xerneas an incurable disease. If this had been revealed earlier, then taking her to a Pokemon center could have completely avoided this. If he had healed Rebeca firs-

If he had healed Rebeca first, he would have known.

That single thought bounced around inside his mind, the crushing weight of the implication too much to bear. Raw and dark, fury took over his very soul. In that moment, he wished that Rebeca was in the Mawile’s place, and resented her for not being the one to suffer in her place. But one thing was clear in Tantalus’s mind.

She would.

The Avatar spun on his heel, and began storming over to Mihkail, intent to kill. Halfway, over, he threw a scornful glance in Rebeca’s direction and noticed movement. Immediately stopping in his tracks, preparing to fire at her instead, he assumed she was waking up. However, it wasn’t Rebeca twitching, but the small Kabuto she carried with her. Her name had been mentioned at the dinner the previous night, but through the red mist, Tantalus couldn’t remember it. He didn’t need to. Energy gathered around his hand once more, the same silvery-white shine to it.

You got in my way, Mihkail. A hard sneer crossed his face. Ashes to ashes.

“Dust to dust.”

The light screamed at the Kabuto cowering beside her trainer, to the collective horror of most everyone present, the venom dripping from Tantalus’s voice. It struck the baby Pokemon with a sickening crack, as it sailed into the air. Time seemed to slow to a standstill. Maya landed with a clatter just to the side of Rebeca.

Emotions tangled up inside the man, making it impossible to think or speak. Becoming very aware of the people all around him, staring daggers, as lost for words as he. With a small glance to the still-unconscious Mawile, he formed a simple two-word telepathic message for her.

I’m sorry.

As the word drifted over, she stirred slightly, looking up in time to see the Avatar take off at blistering speed leaving a trail of multicoloured light in his wake. Rising, Apate looked around at a bewildered crowd. The Rhyhorn who attacked her lay, unmoving, in the middle of the street. Rebeca was still unconscious. She had far more questions than answers. What had happened, after Mihkail’s attack? Where was Tantalus going at such speed? What was he running from?

The Pokemon wandered over to Seras, hoping she could provide answers.

---

Running into a narrow alleyway, rage boiled over at the Pokemon inside. He slammed a fist into the wall hard enough to burst a knuckle. Several tears ran down his cheeks, as the gravity of unfolding events really hit home. Control over his own actions was becoming less and less with each passing second. Slowly sliding down the wall, he curled into a ball, completely lost. It wasn’t very becoming for someone like him, but at least it was fairly dark.

A resounding scoff came from inside his head, the voice itself a mocking whisper. “The superior entity indeed. Tell me, how does it feel to know your entire being will soon slip away? To know you will be nothing more than a memory, one in my name? You wanted them to remember you, and I will guarantee you they will by the time i’m done.”

Hissing, Tantalus was unable to respond with anything more constructive.

Xerneas chuckled. “Get up you pathetic fool. You don’t have long left. Make the most of it.”

Lying on the floor, he knew staying here was going to get people hurt. More than had been already, at least. They had walked away from the Alliance's attack, but would they be able to if Xerneas broke free and went on a rampage? Arceus, maybe the hooded white assailants actually had a point. Unsteadily, the man rose, running like the wind straight out of Mauville City, needing time to think. Time to piece together some semblance of a plan. Turning to speak to Apate on instinct, he would likely never see her again, leaving him entirely isolated. Tantalus could only hope she was in good hands.

Because he couldn’t trust his own any longer.

Lying in the lush green grass, a the light breeze tickled his nose as it fluttered on by. The sky was a vibrant blue, the dark clouds summoned by Lucas earlier had dispersed, leaving only the white, fluffy kind in it’s place. Those were the reason he was here, on a hill a ways from Mauville City, staring up at the boundless azure. An old trick from his father. When times got rough, and particularly stressful, take some time to stare at the clouds. Find one that looks like a Pokemon, and latch onto it. Watch as it floats across the sky, free from all cares. The act was soothing. Uplifting, even, and the weather was perfect for it. Just enough breeze to keep the heat away, just enough heat to be warm enough. His eyes grew heavy, and they shut seemingly of their own accord. How he wished to wake up suddenly. For all of this to have been a horrible nightmare.

Alas, no such luck.

Eyes creeping open, Tantalus stood up. No plan in mind, but calmer and more focused. His iconic jacket lay a distance away over a stone wall, having been cleaned up using a nearby river. Somehow, the glass shards had simultaneously pierced the skin but avoided ripping the fabric. It was fine craftsmanship, without a doubt. The blood had come out well enough, and the water had served to wash up the cuts dotted around his back. It would have been far easier for his healing aura, but without any idea if the thing with Mawile was a one-time thing, or permanent, it was a huge risk. The temptation was there, regardless.

It was nothing less than he deserved.

Returning to Mauville City was the last thing he wanted to do, but despite being too cowardly to stay, he was also too cowardly to leave. Picking up on anything and everything, the Avatar tried to shun the events, as though ignoring them would make them less real. He began to walk back in the direction of the city. A relaxing walk through the woods waited between the two. Marvelous places. So full of sentient life, with none of the hassles that come with it. Approaching the treeline, Tantalus suddenly felt very faint. Attempting to forge on, regardless, his left leg gave way completely, causing the man to topple. Sweet darkness swallowed him whole, allowing sleep at last. A quiet whisper robbed the last shreds of energy within.

“I told you to make the most of it.”

Chaos. That was what the whole thing was, unbridled chaos. Vuduin turned around from the trainer who's almost fell under his spell to see madness. Every avatar in the city and then some appeared to be battling against the surprise attack. By the time Vuduin finished realizing what was going on it was practically over. Pokemon, floats, and Avatars were scattered across the area in various states of destruction and clothedness. Vuduin's face flushed slightly at what little he could make and he shook his head, so much trouble caused by a few overzealous people. It could've been avoided so easily.

Vuduin glanced at the leader of the group, laying on the ground unconscious from one of the many attacks. Silently he stalked over to the man and grabbed him by his shirt, easily lifting the man from the ground. Vuduin closed his eyes for a moment and felt for the man's mind. He was defiantly out, not even dreams right now. Of course it wouldn't be difficult to change that but Vuduin felt no need to torture the man. A brief surge of willpower and the man was shoved even deeper into unconsciousness. At this point he'd be asleep for days unless Vuduin awakened him, so Vuduin lay the man back on the ground.Unsure of what to do at this point Vuduin began wandering through the floats, searching for any survivors. He could sense several unconscious people in various states of disarray and phased through obstacles, removing them from the wreckage and placing them safely laid out on the ground. He briefly checked them using what knowledge of first aid he had but none of them seemed to be in particular danger, just cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

He glanced at the assembled Avatars again, the situation was much the same- but Rebeccas's pokemon were both on the ground and Tantulus had vanished. What to do now? Vuduin slowly walked to the rest of the assembled avatars and took off his voluminous black robes and lay them over Rebecca. She probably didn't care about clothes, he had a feeling she wouldn't bother with them if she had a choice, but other people did, himself one of them. Another quick scan showed a girl he didn't know barely covered by her pokemon's tails, Alain in much the same state, covered by his wings.

Somewhat embarrassed now, but still feeling it was necessary, Vuduin took off his dark gray shirt, revealing pale skin that was surprisingly muscled from years of manual labor, and tossed it to the girl he didn't know. It was big enough that it should reach to about her knees. Two covered, he couldn't do much for Alain however. "I'll be back with more clothes in a moment." Vuduin said quietly and quickly began moving away again. Perhaps if he found a hospital he could ask them to come, assuming they hadn't gotten a call already, and get some gowns from them.

While Tantalus and Vuduin were occupied, a figure winked into existence near the back of the parade route. In a few seconds, the Kadabra had located and teleported to the sleeping Baltoy's side. The next moment, both Pokemon were gone.

Greninja and Porygon-Z had been hit by the outer edge of the Golem's Self-Destruct. They both stood by awkwardly after that, not entirely sure what to do without their trainer's guidance. When Tantalus- clearly tormented by something or other- assaulted a young Kabuto and ran off, Porygon-Z let out a sad gasp and tried to hover after him. But Greninja reached out and held the Virtual Pokemon back. Porygon-Z was pretty beat up, and Greninja didn't want to be held accountable for any more social faux-pas it committed in front of the avatars. After arguing for a bit, Porygon-Z relented and followed Greninja in the direction Justine had gone.

The Alliance leader had also been caught in the massive Self-Destruct. Though he clung to life through what must be sheer stubbornness, even that would not be enough to prevent his bleeding out in a couple minutes.

Almost no one noticed the Koffing that hovered out from behind the head of Raikou’s float. Almost. However, just as it puffed itself up to release its Sludge attack, Jingle caught a glimpse of it. Look out! she shouted to Lucas, launching a Confusion attack that intercepted the rocketing Sludge. Though her psychic powers would not suffice to stop the Sludge completely, they could at least slow its progress and grant the precious needed moments for Lucas to avoid the sneak attack.

The avatar of Lugia whirled around as the voice rang in his mind, his fingers suddenly splayed for an ice beam that never came. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw what exactly was headed for him and the avatar flung himself to the ground all too late: the bottom length of his hair became drenched in the purple sludge. Almost immediately the bile rose in the back of his throat, as the overwhelming stench of the Koffing’s sludge infused itself around him.

With a quivering breath, Lucas tried to still his mind as he rose on trembling legs. While he found his balance, Jingle flew forward, using Wrap to bind the Koffing, then plummeting toward the ground as if to slam it. Unfortunately, the Koffing saw through her plan and began to spin violently.

Jingle’s grip was far from strong enough, and she unwound from around the Poison-Type, being flung high into the air. Continuing to whirl around like a top, the Koffing bowled toward Lucas with an unorthodox form of Tackle.

Cerulean eyes narrowed in cold fury at the approaching attack, and Lucas’s mind found the Koffing’s own. Lucas waited until the last possible moment to step away, hands extended to take the blow of the Tackle. He grunted as the Koffing slammed into him, but his hand found purchase on the pokemon’s form: it was all the time Lucas needed for an Extrasensory to pierce the Koffing’s mental barrier. The pokemon recoiled as if struck, and Lugia’s avatar raised the Koffing above his head and slammed it into the concrete.

Lucas spared a glance for the still shaken Chimeco as she drifted down, and took his eyes off of the bouncing Koffing for a fatal few seconds. “Are you alright, little one?” He asked, through their connection.

“A little uneasy after that, but I’ll--KAZE!!!” she shouted as the purple kickball of a pokemon bounced toward the unconscious avatar, glowing with the same light as the others that had self-destructed.

Lucas’s eyes snapped back to his quarry, his face the color of ash as he realized what would occur.

‘Stupid…’ the man swore to himself as he attempted to sprint forward, the blue aether of Dragon Rush springing his step. The Koffing’s glow grew brighter. [i]Bounce]/i]. Another few feet towards the unconscious boy.

‘I am so stupid… forgive me, oh Arceus forgive me…’ Lucas pleaded as each second ticked by as an eternity. His feet pounded the concrete, fissures erupting with each step as he sought to gain the lead.

Now time to kick it away. Another bounce. The glow’s crescendo.

‘...give me this…’

In the moment before her vision was clouded by smoke and fire, Jingle could have sworn she saw a pair of great silver wings wrap around Kaze’s still form as Lucas, the avatar of Lugia, threw himself upon the boy.

And then he knew no more.

Seras/Mia Collab Post

Seras gazed in slack-jawed horror as Germaine tackled the Gourgeist, dragging it bodily through a pitch-black rift in the floor. For the briefest of moments - having witnessed the earlier explosion in the distance - fear for his wellbeing left her paralysed.

Then he transformed.

Germaine's true form was colossal - at least three times longer than here, covered in chitin and with a monstrous insectoid head devoid of the faintest trace of humanity. All of that was shocking enough in its own right. But worst of all was the eyes. They were the same blood-red, utterly inhuman eyes thad had blazed in the darkness yesterday. And in short order, the same otherwordly screech. It wasn't quite bloodlust. Nothing so human. It was predatory. She already knew that Germaine stood apart from the other avatars, estranged by untold millenia in captivity. Enough to drive lesser beings mad. But she'd never truly considered how alien Giratina must have been to start with - as removed from humanity as a Gyarados - and why such a being may have been imprisoned in the first place.

Has any other Legendary ever been sealed away like that?

An explosion tore through the street in the distance, rattling her teeth and sending a shockwave through her bones. Tearing her eyes from the portal, Seras rased her guard in anticipation of another hostile Pokemon. But none arrived. For the first time in what felt like forever, the street was silent. Thank Arceus.

She immediately rushed over to Charity, who was groggily pulling herself into a kneeling position on the floor of the float. Bruises and splintered wood covered her torso, while blood oozed from a long gash across her forehead.

You holding in, Charity?"

Charity nodded woozily. "Give me a moment."

Closing her eyes, Charity clasped her hands together as though in prayer. Beneath her knees, the floor in a wide circle around her turned pitch-black, with thousands of moats of lights glimmering in the dark like miniature stars. After a few moments, the stars erupted like supernovas and silver-white light surged across Charity's body. Each of her surface wounds closed over within several seconds of healing - apparently content, she opened her eyes and the Wish faded away.

Charity rose to her full height. She still looked as though she'd been on the wrong end of a runaway cart, but she stood tall without wavering and met Seras' gaze with resolute eyes.

"Are the terrorists gone?"

Yes, Charity, I'm absolutely fine. Only mildly traumatised. Thanks for asking. Seras bit her tongue as she spoke telepathically."So far as I can tell. The fighting's stopped and nobody else has attacked us, so I assume that any others must have been dealt with by the avatars."

As if on cue, another explosion thundered out from a distance away. Then again... Seras turned to Charity, voice laced with concern. "We should probably see if they need any help up there. Charity nodded grimly.

---

Seras quietly inspected the bombed-out street, grimly content at what appeared to be a narrow, hard-fought victory. Granted, the street had been practically annihilated - strewn with blast craters, shattered pipes and no small amount of rubble - but the assault had broken against them and the avatars were still standing.

Mostly.

Alain was just about holding himself upright - despite being scorched extensively and quite frankly battered, he was still healthy enough to care about modesty. That boded well. Another unfaimilar avatar semeed to be managing better - mostly swaddled in a pair of gorgeous ethereal wings that covered her body, but far too bubbly and lively to be seriously hurt. But Rebecca...

Seras cheeks flushed as she averted her gaze. Oh. Okay. Wow.

Those burns were a serious problem, though.

Grinning at Alain as he burst into another bout of stutters, Mia got her feet once again - the throw hadn't really done much to hurt her anymore, thanks to her wings acting as a nice soft cushion for her. Other than a few added extra scrapes, and a slight wobble to her balance, she was all good!

Well, barring the burn on her side, but... meh.

While looking down, Mia sighed as she looked at the ruined, singed remains of her dress. It had been so pretty too. Now what was left was barely covering her up - specifically her "lady parts".

"I'm okay, but look at the state of this dress! I bought this in Unova too, so I won't be able to get a replacement." She complained, wrapping her wings back around her body to cover herself up somewhat.

"Mia, darling, I'm sure we can get you another dress. Another torso however, is harder to find. Perhaps get some help?" Scarlet looked at her impatiently, wondering why on earth her trainer was so difficult at the most awkward of times. The girl would complain about blood on her skirt if she'd been stabbed in the heart.

"Oh, it's not that bad! Besides, I'm sure there are people that need help more than me - like her, for instance." She replied silently to her Ninetales, noticing a fairly disturbed looking girl trudging towards them, an absolutely stunning Gardevoir in tow. After a moment, Mia recognised her as the Diancie Avatar who had let forth the gorgeous fireworks from before... except she had looked far happier on her float.

A bright smile lit up on Mia's face, in the hopes of making this girl feel better. "Hey there! I'm so glad to finally meet you - I thought your fireworks were awesome!" Mia announced herself cheerfully - she would have walked over, but standing still was somewhat of a chore at the moment, let alone tripping over her feet while attempting to take steps. "Of course, with such a talented Pokemon, it would be hard for them to have fallen short." She added with a laugh, offering up a smile to the Gardevoir. Scarlet regarded the pair quite primly, sizing them up as they approached.

Seras offered a weary smile in return, her mood softening at the excited praise. "That's lovely to hear, especially from another avatar," she replied softly. She briefly gestured at Charity, whose face was etched with concern as she stared at Rebecca. "That was our first time performing together outside of trial-runs. It's a shame that we were cut short, but I'm sure you would have shone similarly if we hadn't all been interrupted."

Charity knelt anxiously beside Rebecca, eyes closed as she conjured another Wish. As the celestial light flared across her body, each of her recent wounds begun to heal - while her older scars merely took on a slightly lighter tinge, her burns faded into smooth patches of unblemished skin. Charity's scowl remained fixed.

"I can mend the surface damage easily enough, but there's much deeper injuries - maybe broken bones, maybe organ failure, maybe both and more. She won't bleed out or hemorrhage, but that's the best I can promise. She needs medical attention."

Seras nodded in response. "At worst, we can teleport medical personnel here without needing to move her. She's an avatar - she won't die on us without a fight."

Content for the time being, she returned her attention to the new avatar. "My name's Seras - avatar of Diancie, as you might have guessed. Does anyone else need urgent medical attention, or should we work our way through the crowd?"

Shrugging her shoulders at Seras' question - wincing ever so slightly at the movement - Mia considered her options. She would have liked to go back to her hotel to get a change of clothes, maybe get some food... but obviously, as Seras said, there were many out here that needed attention more than herself.

"Oh... I'm not sure. Maybe go through the crowd? I'm sure there's plenty of people we can help - or, at the very least, try to." She suggested; at this point, Scarlet rolled her eyes, turning her gaze towards Charity as Mia talked.

"Mia is injured herself. The foolish girl prefers to keep these matters quiet, but she can't help others without taking some herself." She mentioned quietly to Charity - not wanting Mia to hear. Otherwise she'd just whine.

Meanwhile, Mia was introducing herself with a bright smile. "I'm Mia Vantas - Avatar of Reshiram. It's a pleasure to meet you!" At this, the air around her suddenly lifted. Almost as if they weren't standing amid chaos, explosion craters, dead bodies and the cries of the injured - the air grew warmer and even lighter, and an aura spread an affectionate, loving glow around the immediate area. Even a contented smile was seen to drift lazily across the unconscious trainer's face.

Seras felt the woman's aura pass through her like a balm. The sensation reminded her of Charity - a comforting embrance from all directions, full of warmth and reassurance. Her shoulders slumped as the day's tension melted away, welcoming the aura's effects without resistance. Heaven knows, we all need it today. Charity visibly slumped in relief too, like a taught spring being released. She rose from Rebecca's side, glancing over at Seras with a strange expression - smiling gently, but with a sombre note in her eye.

"What's the matter?"

Charity paused, as though searching for words. "I'm just glad you're safe, that's all."

"You too. No fainting on me again, you hear?"

She offered a grateful beam towards Mia. [color=f6989d]"Much appreciated," she smiled fondly."I'm sure that you'll be just as welcome as Charity after a disaster like this."

Charity offered a quiet nod towards Scalet before extending one hand, casting Wish on a patch of ground next to Mia. Although Mia could choose whether to step into the healing circle or not, the stern maternal glare that Charity offered her was enough to convey her expectations of Mia in full.

"Well, it's the least I can do." Mia replied quiet modestly - and honestly. She didn't have any particularly positive powers other than her innocent little flames, and her aura. Which, as it happened, occured subconsciously most of the time. As the days and weeks would go on, anyone in her presence would just feel content for most of the time, unless extremely extenuating circumstances were going on. Or, if she was feeling under the weather - although these days were few and far between, she did have them occasionally. Whether they were lingering symptoms from her illness or not, she didn't know.

But she didn't enjoy those days.

Mia was shook from her less than positive thoughts as Charity cast some sort of move on the floor, motioning for Mia to step in it. From what Mia could remember of Gardevoir's moves, it was most likely a healing circle... which meant that she was showing her pain more than she thoughts. Or...

"Scarlet's been telling on me again, hasn't she?" She sighed, shaking her head at her Ninetales - who just so happened to be licking her paws, staring off innocently into the distance.

Seras grinned at Mia's exasperation. [color=f6989d]"I'm afraid that I'm not at liberty to say."/color]

Stepping into the circle, Mia sighed with relief as a balm washed over her. Stronger than hers - it wasn't just a lift in mood, but in spirit and body. The pain from her side vanished, and upon looking, her body was free from all of her scrapes, and the burn had pretty much vanished, leaving behind pink, fresh skin.

The light around her from the circle vanished as it had finished it's job, Mia took another quick look at her newly healed side, and then directed a sweet smile towards Charity.

"Thanks sweetie. I needed that more than I wanted to say." She said with a grateful chuckle.

Scarlet had now stopped acting all innocent and was nuzzling Mia's hand quite softly, glad to see her all healed up. She would have a rant about her foolish acts later, but things had to be done first - and she was now looking certainly more favourably on Seras and Charity, sending a quiet "thank-you" to the latter.

From there, things got a little... hairy. Following the entrance of the very cheerful Tantalus, and his examination of Rebeca, a Rhyhorn appeared out of nowhere, wanting to cause trouble.

Scarlet sighed wearily as she stepped before Mia, stopping her from moving forwards.
"We'll stay out of this one, Mia dear. I'm sure your new... friend, can handle the situation." Although the word "friend" was said distastefully, Scarlet's glare and tone was quite final; Mia would be in plenty of trouble if she decided to step in now.

Figuring Scarlet was right - although not appreciating the order - Mia moved out of the way of everything that occured. And as it happened fairly fast, there wasn't much to do anyway.
"Wow... he looked super angry." Mia mumbled to Seras and Scarlet as he attacked the Kabuto, and then left the scene. His Mawhile hung around their little group, seemingly quite confused at the whole thing.

"Well then... shall we follow him? Or maybe get some clothes?" Mia asked Seras, a happily oblivious smile resting on her face. The girl didn't find sorrow or discomfort in much, that was for sure. Scarlet rolled her eyes with irritation at Mia's naivety, only for her red robs to land on another newcomer...

As for Mia's wardrobe malfunction, that was happily seen to by the new man... an extremely curious dark individual. Naturally, this piqued Mia's attention as he arrived, first draping his coat over the very naked Rebeca, and then turning his attention to herself - taking his shirt off and throwing it to her.

"My Scarlet... he's not bothered about being topless nearly half as much as Alain... She sent the thought quite silently to her Pokemon, but even the Ninetales could notice the way Mia's gaze lingered on the man. Whether it was due to her simply odd infatuation with the darkness, or if the male's body aroused something in her, Scarlet - and perhaps even Mia - did not know. As the man stalked off once again, Mia slipped on the shirt (Quite thankful for it - her dress was ready to give way at any moment), and her wings faded from existence. Now, she looked somewhat normal, if one were to disregard the soot and various marks on her skin, and the shirt that hung well to her knees and completely covered her hands.

First glancing at the unconscious Rebeca, and then back to the carnage surrounding them, Mia turned to look at Seras.

"Well, we can't help Rebeca, but we can still stop people from getting hurt even more. Let's go and see if anyone needs a sample of our super powers - and then perhaps find a hotel or something. I'm starving!" Mia said with a cheerful laugh, and beckoning towards Seras, Charity, and Apate, Mia took off running away from the crater. Scarlet's eyes narrowed in exasperation, and with a quick, impatient yap to the three that remained, followed her childish trainer. She did enjoy wandering off...

Sitting in a small cafe on an upper floor of Mauville City, an Avatar sat drinking a cup of tea which was at least 50% sugar, as well as nursing several cakes. Other customers threw suspect glances at the man, as he frequently lit up with ribbons of rainbow-coloured light sparking from the top of his head. It certainly wasn’t subtle, yet despite that, he didn’t seem to notice the attention he commanded, continuing to drink the tea with the occasional small sip. Something seemed off about the way he looked, however. It was too perfect.

Xerneas didn’t care about the stares of the other people around him, nor the subtle whispers of the staff considering asking for him to leave. The current task was far too important to devote anything less than complete focus. Since waking up, a little way outside of the city, he had been working hard giving Tantalus’s body a renovation. After two years of being stuck in the recluses of the human’s mind, a great understanding of exactly what made him tick had developed. Even without that, the desire to test this newfound freedom was enough to start experimenting.

So, the Pokemon had began to alter the structural template of his new body. Cosmetic changes, for the most part. Tantalus’s blue eyes had become a vibrant pink. His cheekbones were raised, adding a much sharper look to his face, and a little melanin had been removed resulting in skin a couple of shades paler than it had been. Xerneas even added a small height increase, for no other reason than he could.

Shortly after re-entering the city, his power highlighted several mental imperfections within. It was those now being ironed out, at the cafe. The sugar within the tea was working wonders in terms of providing raw energy to use, especially when coupled with a power enabling the optimal rate of conversion. Congestion points and inefficiencies when responding to external stimuli were slowly being corrected over the course of what was proving to be a rather satisfying meal. His first in a long time. More and more issues were being detected and fixed, and at a faster rate with each passing alteration. It was an extremely fulfilling task, ever so slowly moulding the body into that worth of the Embodiment of Life.

With the latest neural adaptation - the restructuring of a few synapses allowing for sharper vision - a wave of power washed over his entire being. Taking the Pokemon slightly off guard, he directed it down into his right hand. There it flowered into a bright ball of swirling pink energy. Everyone in the cafe turned their heads as the glow spread across the small room. With a sparkling grin, Xerneas allowed himself a small chuckle.

How wonderful. What an unexpected bonus this is. With that thought, his hand smacked closed, crushing the ball which flared white before vanishing. Not before blinding some nearby customers, however. Brain whizzing at a tremendous speed, hundreds of ways to evolve beyond current limitations stormed through his mind like a shoal of fish. Denser bone structures, stronger muscles, heightened senses, larger blood vessels. All minor changes, in themselves, but when gathered together changed the entire dynamic of what it means to be human. By continuing down this road, the end result was clear.

Godhood.

That thought drew another, almost delirious, chuckle from the man. What better way to spend life everlasting than by moving to abandon the frailties of mankind? Finishing the tea in a single swig, and polishing off the last cake, Xerneas left the cafe, using the sugars from them to start work on the first two improvements on the steadily expanding list. Without a plan of action, nor any idea of what to do next, he began to wander the city. Paying no heed to anything and moving on autopilot, he guided the power as it toiled away. Afterwards, perhaps it would be wise to sign up for the tournament providing the Alliance’s appearance had not spoiled it. Watching and fighting the Avatars would supply more data for analysis. Alternatively, hunting down Rebeca was also tempting. It was possible the girl had bled out, after Tantalus left without healing her, but he prayed that wasn’t the case. Her death would ruin the fun. Plus, if that little Kabuto had been turned into a glorified bowl of clam chowder, their next encounter would be nothing short of riveting.

---

Germaine gazed up to the world above him for a while, watching from the all too familiar window, the sight was unique this time though, and it was also one that he - personally, had no intention to observe any longer than he needed to.
His body moved in a similar fashion as to what one would imagine a Mermaid would swim through the waters, there was almost no resistance when moving about in the Distortion world, but one still needed a form of propulsion to get about in it.
Giratina “flew” for want of a better term towards the portal back and back into the fray - or rather, that's what he would have done, moments before he tried to pass through it, it abruptly shut, sending out waves of energy in an arc around it, akin to what an explosion would be like but it had no effect on the master of this realm.
This. This was worrying.
Immediately a wave of panic flew across Giratina's mind - if a portal was to close without his action in the doing so, then maybe - just maybe, he would be trapped here once again.

In a incredibly violent turn Giratina swivelled his huge frame around in a circle demolishing a small island near by- he quickly shot off into a direction he knew held a focal point.
A would be wind was at his back and a fervour in his movement - he would not be trapped here again, not ever again would this place be his prison!
The mere thought made his movement increase with an almost delirious amount of will, another small island got destroyed as he plowed through it.
As he drew close to his would be freedom a sigh of relief escaped his lungs - the focal point still held a door for him to cross worlds, maybe it would be wise not to create portals whenever he felt like - or at the very least unless it was an absolute emergency.
He quickly made his way to it and almost threw his body through it in a mix of relief and fear.
His massive frame dissolved into shadows as he came through the portal and his body resumed the uncomfortable body of a human.
There was a few yelps of surprise from the nearby pedestrians, but given that most of them had already seen his original entrance to the event they quickly realised that it was Giratina, a few of them gave awkward smiles to him, and others hurried away in a different direction.
Clearly the avatars were already earning a cautious reputation - but what really struck Giratina odd is that this area was relatively calm, they must not of heard or seen the terrorist attack - “Ignorance is bliss...” he thought with a shake of the head.

Despite being lost in his own little world, the portal was impossible to ignore. The short glance into the Distortion World revealed a hulking figure, but it was too shrouded to pick out details. Except for one. Burning red eyes. Much to the surprise of Xerneas, no great beast appeared, but the Avatar of Giratina. Without being sure of why the man had suddenly shown up, he decided to approach him for a chat.

“From what I can gather, Germaine, your appearance here has gone a slight better than your first. It seems people are getting rather accustomed to you, now.” He said, with a smile. At the dinner, Germaine had told everyone that he was entirely Pokemon, without all of that pathetic human baggage. Perhaps he held some kind of secret which would ensure Tantalus never returns.

Giratina heard a rather familiar, and a rather surprising voice beat at the back of his head, he turned on his heels to confirm his doubts as to whether or not it was actually the man he thought it was.
And, it was.
“Tantalus?” Germaine stated genuinely surprised.
“Why aren’t you at the fight? Is it over?” Another thought crossed Germaine's mind - time flowed oddly in the distortion world, some areas ran faster or slower - what could be a few minutes in that world could be hours or seconds here.

Fighting down a tiny bit of annoyance at being referred to by that fool’s name, he spoke, careful to keep the displeasure hidden. “Xerneas, actually. My host - although I suppose that is not longer the right word - has decided to take a holiday of indeterminate length.” Grinning, a lighter tone took over. “As for the fight, I was led to believe it is wrapped up, but i’m afraid Tantalus dealt with that.” Cocking his head, curiously, it occurred that was a odd question. “Come to think of it, I thought you were there. What happened?”

The words that came out of Tantalus’ mouth; in their overly elaborate fashion -something, despite Xerneas now being the new master of the body -was a common feature between the pair, were nothing short of surprising, but Giratina's surprise was quickly replaced with a laughter.
“Xerneas huh? I remember Tantalus claiming you to be dead, heh, turns out the braggart was wrong on that front.” Now that he realised it, Tan… Xerneas did look different, or rather the vessel for the Pokémon of life did, small subtle differences, but nevertheless, he looked a different man.
“I was there, but a Gourgeist tried to self-destruct, so I dragged it into the Distortion world to nullify the explosion. Turns out I couldn’t go back through the same portal I used to enter on that occasion.”
It was a relief that the fight was over at the very least, but finally there was another actual Legendary here with him, not just hosts with powers of their perspective legends.
“I must say, it’s a relief to finally be with one of my kin.”

The grin spread from ear to ear, now. “Oh, that imbecile was wrong about a lot of things. Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Besides, I am Life.” Thinking back to the parade, he had seen a Gourgeist. Or at the very least, what he assumed had to be one. It dealt a strong blow to Charity. If Giratina had dragged into the Distortion World, it must have met a nasty end. “The feeling is mutual, truly. It is nice to talk directly to an equal, as opposed to an emissary.” Scanning the area, one that was blatantly clear. “You would think that a terrorist attack hadn’t just taken place, from the atmosphere here. I wonder if it’s the weather. Humans are very susceptible to heatstroke.”

Giratina laughed once again, but he had to admit - he disliked this city for its design, you had to actually GO outside, your job was never to leave a building and through the streets in the sunlight - it was truly disgusting how anyone could easily throw aside such a beauty as if it were a hinderance.
“You’re right on that front, speaking of would you care to go outside? I’m growing sick of seeing a ceiling that is nought but a few feet away, I don’t know how you could take the fresh air away from people and make it a selling point.”
One of many things that Giratina disliked about the race -they cared little for nature.

“Definitely. The city is an impressive architectural feat, but just because something can be constructed, does not mean that it should.” Xerneas took a few minutes to think. “Maybe it goes without saying, but I much prefer forests over the cities, any day.”

Together, the two men - or Pokemon - walked up the stairs of the sweltering interior of Mauville City bound for the roof. As they arrived onto the expansive garden which topped the otherwise cold and lifeless city like an organic crown, the air was suddenly much cooler. A light breeze caused the various species of flowers to sway back and forth, and their scent filled the air. Of course, the entire city could have been like this. Xerneas almost felt sorry for the poor bastards underground. Stopping at the railings marking the edge of the roof, the view was spectacular. It overlooked a long and winding valley, and you could see streams of cool blue water running through it. Several herds of Pokemon wandered around merrily, various breeds and sizes. Xerneas stopped, leaning back against the black metal, watching them run around without a care in the world.

The pair of them walked to the roof in relative silence but it wasn’t forced or awkward, which was a relief in of itself.
The outside hit him like a wall, it was a wall of relief mind, but nevertheless the stuffiness and artificial condensed air of the underground was no longer there - the air was fresh, cool with an underlying warmth to it.
Truly a blessing after the fight they had been in a while ago - the pair stopped at the railing over to the east, the sight was breathtaking, truly, such a folly for living underground when you had sights like these on your doorstep.
After a short while of just taking in the cool air and the beautiful sight Giratina finally spoke “You know, the worst part of being in the Distortion world wasn’t the time, it wasn't the context nor the loneliness, it was never feeling a cool breeze, the warmth of the sun - the serenity of a starry night the things humans take for granted.”

Wind flicked the man’s shoulder-length blue hair lightly. “I’m not entirely convinced my sanity would have remained after that length of time with simply nothing, if you truly were trapped as long as they say.” The irony wasn’t lost on the Pokemon. An entire new worldview had been constructed after a mere two years of that kind of torture. Likewise, it was clear Giratina was the Avatar the rumours spoke of. Which begged the question, exactly what he did to be imprisoned by none other than Arceus himself. “I’m no stranger to being trapped, but there are worse things in life than being a tree.”

Giratina offered a weak smile back to Xerneas - “That is true, so long as you don’t get cut down a tree wouldn’t be too bad.”
Odd, that he actually liked Xerneas much more than the Tantalus fellow, this one is actually respectable.
“What do the rumours say, I wonder? I was trapped for well over 1,000 years. I didn’t count but I watched humanity grow into what it is today; from mere cave dwellers who barely knew how to communicate, it’s oddly surprising that they didn’t go extinct in their early years.”

“Well, the rumours painted it at a substantial amount of time. Far in excess of 1,000 years, certainly. As for the humans, I wouldn’t put it past them yet. Some are insufferably stupid.” Watching over a pack of Poochyena, led by a Mightyena alpha, hunting by the looks of things, it dawned on him just how much more intelligent Pokemon really were. They tended not to fight over stupid grievances, acknowledged how useless emotional ties can be. Or they could, until humans started capturing them to use for combat or tools. “So. How does one wind up banished to a completely separate plane of existence by Arceus himself? It had to have a great deal of weight behind it to warrant a punishment like that.” Realising the question was incredibly blunt, he attempted to soften it by tacking on an addendum. “Providing you don’t mind my asking, of course.”

There was a brief moment where a fluffy cloud blocked out the sun, the temperature dropped slightly and the wind turned cold, the moment was fleeting but enough to make the body involuntarily shiver.
Appropriate given the nature of the question, but he had answered it in detail once today, and Giratina was not overly keen in giving a full account once again - “In short, I got into a fight with Dialga and Palkia, whom were equal to blame as I, the result of the fight almost left a continent uninhabitable and as a result, I was banished to the Distortion realm by Arceus, whilst the other two got away with little more than a slapped wrist.”
He hated telling this story, and it had only be done twice; he just hoped that would be the last one...

Xerneas was about to ask who Dialga and Palkia was, but realised an explanation wouldn’t give any more of an answer than simply not asking the question. You either knew these names, or you didn’t. It was clear that Giratina was rash in his decisions, while those two were not, and that led to the entire blame falling on a singular entity. “Well, it sounds like you were outplayed. Everyone has done something substantially wrong, in the past. The key is to manipulating the events in your favour far enough that no-one can claim it was you.” As much as he hated to admit it, Tantalus had a point on that front. The lessons learned from watching him outwit his lessers would be invaluable. “My host understood that. I must admit that i’m surprised you didn’t.”

Germaine was taken aback at this statement, just like Rebecca, both of them failed to understand!
In that respect they were identical! Their sheer ignorance of what he suffered, and the reasoning for it!
Germaine looked truly affronted when he spoke- “Excuse me?! You weren’t there, so how can you truly understand the gravity of what was at stake! The God of Time, and the God of Space, they made an unquestionable affront against me! And they got away with it!”
Giratina looked Xerneas straight in the eyes and accompanied his next sentence with an accusing finger.
“You can’t manipulate events when the God of time is present - and the end result was enough to warrant attention from Arceus himself!
Tell me, master manipulator, just how does one such as yourself outwit the Alpha Pokémon, when a human so easily outwitted yourself!”

He blinked several times at the verbal assault from Giratina, blood boiling more with each passing word. Before long, it congealed into a raw mass, which could not be tempered any longer. “Do not take that tone with me. I am unclear on where you source information from, Giratina, but you are sorely mistaken. If I have been beaten by a human, then why do I stand before you?” It took a significant effort to swallow the power of Fairy Aura attempting to materialise around him. Xerneas met Giratina’s stare. “If you wish to take my statement to heart, feel free. However, that does not make the point any less relevant. I have observed Tantalus carve a name for himself wielding trickery and deception, a mere human walking among Gods. Yet you are unable to grasp even the basics.”

“Dialga and Palkia outwitted you. Maybe your punishment was deserved.”

Why….
Why was this so reminiscent of earlier?
Rebecca barely escaped him actually dragging her into the Distortion world just so SHE could find out for herself - but this, this was different, Xerneas truly thought that what he had done was because of his own fault, his own actions…
This pathetic excuse for a being, lecturing a Pokémon that had endured the wrath of the strongest Pokémon in existence, and HE was lecturing him!
It was almost beyond belief, Giratina actually had to take a few moments to swallow what he had just heard.

After a the red mist cleared from his eyes, barely enough to form a clear image of Xerneas - next what followed was a mixture of a lapse in judgement, and pure bliss.
If it put this arrogant wastrel in his place, then it would be beyond worth it- Giratina with both hands grabbed the collar of this man's extravagant clothing and hoisted him slightly above the ground, and pulling him closer, face to face, whereupon he could feel his hot breath against his face Germaine spoke, in part glee and inpart hate.
“Tell me, you’ve never had the experience fighting a Legend have you? I sincerely doubt it, but no manner of guile or glibe tongue will save your sorry hide from the wrath that is a GOD, the God of life?! Pah! You’d only witness the very thing you embody expire!”

Dangling an inch or two above the ground, as Giratina spat venom, Xerneas felt the blood within him pump in a way it hadn’t in some time. Glancing at the floor, with a hint of disdain, he gave a dead-level stare to the Pokemon holding him aloft. “Do you know the traits of a sore loser? Really, Giratina. Resorting to violence only proves my point in it’s entirety. After explaining what you did wrong, I really expected better from a ‘God’.”

This man?! Even as he dangles like a child in his grasp, he continues to act in his idiotic way, calling him a sore loser? What does he hope to gain?!
“You expected better from a God?! This is what Gods do, what happened to me is more than enough proof to that, these past few days prove the point further! A god is handed a problem - what can it do to resolve it? It deals with it in as permanent a nature as it can, because IT can - it's a God!
Call me a sore loser all you want Xerneas, but when your body lies broken and the last wisp of life leaves your corpse, where does your “victory” leave you?”
This fool, he is determined to learn the hard way, he is absolutely dead set on receiving the harshest lesson of life, and if he continued, by Arceus, he’d give him it.

A grin spread across his face. “When did I call you a sore loser?” Turning into a chuckle, the humour tainted every word. “You make it too easy. I understand why they used you as the scapegoat.” His expression grew much harder, more intense. “I’ll give you one warning. Put me down.”

This fool was close to finishing his game, good.
“The intent of what you meant was more than clear to me, but then again, your words intent are ever so clear.
I’ll put you down.”
Giritana with a small curl of the lips gave the impression of lowering his foe to the ground, before giving an almighty hoist and flung his body over the edge of the railing.

As Xerneas felt Giratina’s weight shift after his last statement, the realisation of what was about to happen dawned on him. The wind rustled past, as he began to float over the edge of Mauville City. Luckily, the mental augments included in the ‘software’ update earlier meant the Pokemon boasted vastly increased reaction times, and was already preparing for it. Gathering silver-white energy around both hands, he released them in a downwards stream, causing him to rocket skyward. Giving a frontflip - for added flair, of course - he landed, dropping onto a knee. Rising to stand with his back to Giratina, he spoke, somewhat irritated despite the gradual smirk that appeared. “Alright, I’ll concede that point to you. Well played. One small tip though. When attempting to get the drop on someone, it’s a good idea to ensure it works.” Another glow gathered around his hand, as Xerneas gracefully spun round, throwing the hand forward and clicking his fingers. A concentrated stream of light smashed into the floor underneath Giratina, which promptly caved in, and the man began to vanish into the floor below.

Giratina was honestly surprised to see his foe in effect do a pirouette over his head using one of his moves, he landed on one knee and offered a witty remark, hardly surprising given his nature.
He braced himself for the retaliatory attack, but ultimately he wasn’t the target - the ground beneath his feet was.
Giratina felt his heart go into his mouth as gravity grabbed him and dragged him below into the building below.
He had to be quick, he had no way of stopping himself mid fall, and as time seemed to slow he heard the distressed screams of those below him, making desperate attempts to escape the collapsing rubble and its occupant.
They were dulled though, the prominent noise in his ears at the minute was blood thumping at his ear drums.

The.
Sheer.
Bloody.
Audacity.

All at once, he knew what to do.
Time seemed to resume its normal path and as the first few bits of ceiling landed against the ground, cracking and shattering into pieces - Giratina opened another portal into his Distortion world, and as such he resumed his normal forme.
This forme would easily dispatch his foe, but he knew fine well Xerneas wouldn't be a fool enough to try and fight him in his home turf -despite his ego.
So.
He would take his forme to him.
He could do it, it would not be easy -it would take an exceptional toll on his mind without the Griseous orb, but he would do it.
He would teach this insolent worm a lesson in futility.
He would be the unhappy ending to his deity.

Giratina ceased his falling the second he entered the world and assumed his real forme, and then he pierced through the barrier, head first - the shadows wanting - willing his forme to revert, but he cast them back, his golden mandible like jaws formed first, then the rest followed with increasing ease.
And he shot skyward, to his foe, whereupon he would teach this fool a lesson in what it meant to be a God!

Walking over to the hole, he peered down at the falling form of Germaine. Gravity was a beautiful thing, and so he left it to work it’s magic. Xerneas decided it was high-time to go and see how to sign up for the tournament later today - and find out if it was still running. A few people had arrived to view the hole in the roof, looking bewildered as to what caused it. How everyone relaxing up here had missed the event was beyond him. It wasn’t exactly subtle. Nevertheless, unwanted attention would prove to be a burden. Taking in the stunning vistas, he cut a path in the direction of the stairs. Around halfway between the starting point and his destination, however, things took a dramatic turn.

An inky black and purple vortex opened above the garden area, which seemed to rob the very light from the sky. It tainted the colour of the sun, causing it to appear a burnished red. From the center of the swirling mass, a pair of blistering scarlet eyes sliced through the darkness. Unfeeling and alien, they fell upon the man with a physical intensity. Descending from what seemed to be the heavens themselves, a beast of unfathomable size materialised from the shadows. Blood red claws, black leathery hide, white chitin and golden adornments, including a mock-crown. The almighty creature fell a good 20 feet from the sky, crashing onto the roof only a short distance from Xerneas.

Watching with a mix of awe and horror, his legs began to shake. The mocking voice of his host’s Mawile resonated from within. How many times do I have to tell you not to poke the Beedrill’s nest? It would seem the situation had certainly gone a little further than anticipated, and he made a serious mental note to do homework on any Legendary before berating them, in future. Xerneas shared several traits with Tantalus, which had been built-in to his very brain. One of these was responding to life or death situations with further snark.

Roaring out into the wind, for better or worse, his voice travelled across the once-tranquil gardens. “Hey, Giratina! Anyone would think you were compensating for something.”

Giratina felt his mind tear slightly as he fully materialised in the real world, his eyes Burned towards his target, nothing - no force in existence would take away his Need to put this whelp in his place, his mind was bordering feral where pure instinct drove his actions.
Giratina spoke, offering a rebuttal, no doubt his foe would have wished he never heard this voice as long as he lived, it sounded guttural, as if the word hate derived from the sound of Giratina’s origin forme voice, despite this there was an underlying sophistication, this was no beast speaking, this was a God.
“It appears that the human has influenced you, Xerneas, such a human defence mechanism to offer a quip in the face of death - today, you will meet your counterpart; the day when Life itself is extinguished - somehow I doubt you will be missed.”
Giratina began to amass dark energy and thoughts for Dark pulse, he wouldn't use it just yet, but it would be ready for his foe depending on his actions.

He laughed, somewhat hysterically. “You might be right Giratina, perhaps he has influenced me, somewhat. However, if you allow Germaine more of a say, it might help you fare better against your peers in future.” Generating a ball of light around his left hand - about the size of a football - he extended it towards the unleashed form of Giratina. “Let’s see if your power can back-up your arrogance.”

Giratinas beastial eyes narrowed with hate. - ”The arrogance is your own, but enough words - it’s time to end this farce!
Giratina opened his maw and unleashed a thick viscous energy at his foe, it spanned a large cone towards Xerneas - it was a thick swirling mist, a miasma of dark energy and hateful thoughts - Dark pulse.

Watching the oncoming swirl, Xerneas’s lips curled up in a slight smirk, before he fired the orb of light as a counterattack. The two masses, one bright pink, the other a fierce purple, slammed into one another. Sparks flew as the very air distorted around the focal point, before the Dark Pulse ultimately swallowed the ball, and continued onward. It was still large enough to engulf the man as it reached him. Howling winds burst out in every direction as the energy obscured all vision for a few moments. When it subsided, Xerneas stood behind a hastily erected Light Screen, the slight smirk now a full-blown grin. “Come on. You can surely do better than that!”

”You’re a glutton for punishment aren’t you? Do not fear - I’m more than happy to oblige! Giratina offered what could never be deciphered into a grin, his face was far too alien to comprehend as to what emotion; barring hate, it was showing.
He prepared his next move - he felt in his own mind that it may do nothing against this particular foe - but it should, at the very least wipe his grin off for the time being.
Giratina unleashed another purple ball of energy at his foe, although this one was not like it’s predecessor, it looked liquid almost as if he had spat at Xerneas.
The move was Toxic, a heavy poison that would deteriorate the foes health down violently over time if left to fester, its virulence would be enough alone to make him feel bad.

As the attack sailed through the air, for several seconds he did nothing, confident that Light Screen would stop it. Only a brief moment before it hit, however, it became apparent that the move was different. The lack of light caused by the Distortion Portal above had dire repercussions, it would seem. Passing through the screen as though it wasn’t even there, the glob of liquid-esque material exploded around Xerneas in a cloud of thick smoke. Coughing harshly, it began to burn his throat and eyes. Poison. The cloud dissipated, and he stood grasping his throat. Despite the pain, he laughed, the sound very coarse and strained. “Poison. You infect the healer with poison.” A second cloud washed out from the man’s hands, smelling of a cocktail of wondrous things. It counteracted the biting toxin spreading throughout his system. What it had done, however, was seriously mess up his hair, which had been battered by the blast of wind. Attempting to smooth it down, he spoke again. “Well, you messed my hair up at least. I’m sure hairdressers everywhere are quaking in their boots, now.”

Figured that it wouldn’t do much, but at least he knew now - he wasn’t sure how his powers worked, did his healing cost him in some way? If so then at least he was weaker in one respect - but this fight was getting boring, he wanted to crush this fool, not play around with him.

Giratina gave a shrill cry before vanishing from the air.

Xerneas watched the giant creature vanish into thin air. No Distortion warping, so he couldn’t have gone far. Keeping up the defensive stance, he yelled out into the empty space. “Don’t tell me that’s it. You can’t just throw a few half-baked moves my way then disappear. Get back here!”

“The poor fool.” Giratina thought
Giratina was still here, he had already reshaped from the shadows behind him, Shadow sneak, given that the sun was practically blotted out meant that shadows weren’t hard to come by, the only down side to the move nullified.
He was a massive creature, but he had mobility in the open space, Xerneas’ defensive stature would do little to remedy the move coming for him.
What must have felt like being plowed like a truck, or rather being charged into by a Rhyhorn, Giratina smashed the three tendril like tentacles that came from the upper right of his back, into his targets unsuspecting body - it sent his foe from one side of the rooftop, to the other in a spectacular display of flying.
Giratina offered a harrowing laugh and stated ”How was that one? A bit over done? Or was it cooked to perfection?”

Pain flared across his entire body, as the ground went flying by below. Mid-flight, he crashed through an atrium, holding various exotic plants before smashing into the ground quite a ways from his starting point. Glass had sliced deep into various points, causing cuts to be dotted around all over him. On landing - if one could call it that - Xerneas felt the muscle at the top of his right leg twist inside, rendering it essentially useless. Throwing a glance to the hulking monstrosity from across the distance between them, it was clear running away wasn’t going to be an option.

Of course, neither was losing. Summoning up an immense resolve, the man fired another of the orbs of light directly at his foe.

This man, he truly underestimated his opponent - Giratina couldn’t believe the naivety of him, he used an attack that was both telegraphed and foolish - if anything he should be using the time to heal up, he looked like he needed it.
Instead he used the same attack as last time - he clearly had something up his sleeve, not that he’d get the chance to use it.
Giratina unleashed the thick miasma once again, blotting out the light and swallowing it entirely, ending it as he had done previously.
He then flew himself up high in the air, his opponent still lying on the roof of the building. He looked like an ant, and he would soon meet the same fate as one when it met the boot of something bigger than it.
Giratina gave a howl as he dived down at his foe, taking both of them straight through the roof of the building and down on the first floor, leaving a large gaping hole where the roof used to be, wires, insulation, pipes and all other manner of materials were sent exploding down with the monster and his prey.
What Giratina didn’t know is that they had once again made their back to the festival area, the pair of them landed on top of the float to Lugia, crushing it in the process.

Going through the wooden float underneath the weight of the infernal beast, the pain was unbearable. A sickening crack of a bone breaking sounded from somewhere around his ribcage. Choking for breath, he coughed and spluttered uncontrollably. Giratina jumped back, off from the man, as debris from the ceiling came crashing down. By a stroke of luck, none hit him, a large chunk of concrete missing by a mere inch. The tattered form of Lugia, which had once taken pride of place atop the float, landed in various scattered pieces across the road. Lying on a heap of wood, with the entire bottom half of the float broken into little more than sawdust, blood began to pool around the man. Cuts from splinter of both wood and glass ran deep and many. The whirling dark portal above the city cast vicious shadows into every alcove, broken only by those blazing red eyes. Xerneas needed to heal, soon, or he was going to die. The second his power fired up, though, Giratina would end him.

Thinking was hard, as thoughts were polluted by a headache pounding hard enough to shake the ground. Or maybe that was just his vision swimming. Looking up at the beast again, he rose his hand and fired another ball of light at him. A plan formed inside, but it was a long shot. Literally. It swirled past, not even making contact. Instead, it collided with a construct on the roof, the leg of one of four great metal containers. The gems of Mauville’s crown. It sheared the metal clean through, unbalancing the weight. Lurching, the small squeal of strained iron filtered out. He allowed himself to smile, slightly.

“I have underestimated you, it would seem.” Xerneas said, stopping to cough midway. “Have mercy, beast. You have won.”

T’was a pitiful sight, the one that was before Giratinas eyes, the foe that was So sure of himself, so clever and arrogant, and there he lay, in a pool of his own blood.
So close to death, and yet despite this the man turned to begging for his life, even though he tried to land another one of those pathetic balls of light - that didn’t even hit!
He was 18ft long, and he failed to hit that target? Truly pathetic, such a being was undeserving of life, it would be better to put this creature out of its misery.
”Pathetic, after all you have said and done, you resort to cowardice… I will savour ending your feeble existence.
Without a moment's delay Giratina lunged at the broken body of Tantalus.

Even now, he had learned nothing. By stopping to have the last word, Giratina sprung the trap perfectly, as metal snapped. Now no longer held in place, the large container toppled silently through the air, and caught his charging form. It flattened him to the floor, the impact sounding out accompanied by a shockwave of air blowing up a cloud of various debris. A hysterical laugh escaped his lips, unbidden. Xerneas used the energy from that impact to flip himself over the float, gritting his teeth against the pain, building up enough distance between the two Pokemon to counteract the vulnerability he felt. Stumbling, he collapsed again around 15 feet from his enemy. It would have to do. A shrill roar rose up, as Giratina’s alien eyes fell on him once more.

Rising to his feet, shimmering rainbow threads began bursting from every cut and scrape, a large cluster emanating through the skin from his broken rib and more from the twisted muscle in his leg. As the injuries simply turned to light, the agony dulled sharply. “Even when painfully simple, you still fail the challenge. Remember this well. I do not beg.” Wounds repaired, an altogether different light washed over him, fierce, and slowly building. It exploded forth, whipping up a wind strong enough to clear a square foot around him of all debris. Eyes glimmering, voice distorting, he chose every word with extreme care. “Despite only possessing half of the power you once did, every shred of it has been used in these last few moments. So allow me to match you in kind.” Two more orbs of light formed, more than double the size of before. Rather than being pure pink, their core flickered the colours of the rainbow, seemingly all at once. A pressure flowed out, causing an audible thrum in the air. Darkness was dispelled around the condensed light from the moon itself. “I have only recently won back my freedom. Giving that up is not a possibility. Therefore, I will brook no such threat to my existence, especially from an oversized worm without even the slightest hint of tactical grace and decorum. Know that I will not go down so easy a second time.”

From the fusion with humans, each Pokemon had lost a substantial chunk of power. One could no longer grant the fabled immortality which he had been written in song and story for, luckily for Giratina. One found bringing all of his strength to bear was difficult, borderline impossible, luckily for Xerneas. The power radiating from the two was enough to cause the stone around to crack and split. Every corner of Mauville shook with the sound of the roof collapsing down into the city proper. People wondered what the source of the racket could possible be.

As the Lord of Shadows and the King of Fairies locked horns.

How long she swam in darkness, Rebeca didn’t know. It was pleasant, for once. No dreams or memories intruded upon her mind, no pains or irritations threatened to rouse her. For the first time in two years, she could just… be. It was nice, and she was sorely tempted to just stay there.

And then it changed. No longer was she alone in the dark. Something tugged at her, trying to draw her out. A warmth, a fire, a desire that burned, roiled and yearned, lighting up the darkness. She reached for it, but found her way blocked. A barrier, intangible but impassable, kept her from reaching that warmth. She tried to get around it, but could find no purchase in the cage. She could feel the warmth trying to get out, seeking her, but something told her that it was beyond her reach. Frustrated, she lashed out, trying to break it free, but there was nothing there to resist her. The only answer was a burning brand.

A shift occurred again. Another warmth pulled at her, weaker, but somehow more familiar and insistent, calling her back, demanding that she leave the darkness. She could feel pain and memory on the other side of it, things that she had hoped she could put aside. Yet, somehow she knew she could not. It was her pain, her memory, her burden. She turned back to the first warmth. It was patient, it would wait. Nodding, she turned back and left.

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More than anything, she felt that she was awake. Pain wracked her body, though it was not as bad as she was expecting it to be. Everything was stiff and screamed in protest when she moved. The worst pain was in her head, a constant drumbeat that hammered against her skull, causing her to groan and press a palm against her forehead. That in itself turned out to be a mistake; a lance of pain shot through her side, and her body spasmed, which in itself only made things worse, coughing and whimpering as tears gathered in her eyes. Ow, dammit. Okay, that was dumb Rebeca. Easy, easy, remember last time.

Taking slow breaths, she winced as she wrapped her arms around herself as she sat up. When she felt something slide down from her chest, she opened her eyes. Someone had apparently laid a coat over her while she was out. That was… nice? I guess? Wonder who did tha-

She froze, her eyes widening, mouth gaping. Several feet away, embedded into the pavement, lay Mihkail. A large crack ran the length of his face, from which thin streams of blood weakly flowed. “…Mihkail?”

By this time, a team of medics began to pour into ground zero. For a minute, they seemed uncertain what to do. Did avatars need human doctors or Pokemon doctors?

Noticing the Avatar of Lugia close to suffocation with a punctured lung, a Chansey decided it had to try something. A beam of warm, pink light emanated from the Pokemon's gentle hands. Lucas gasped and coughed up blood as the lung steadily grew stronger. The Heal Pulse worked, to the relief of everyone on the medical team, but there was still much more work to be done. The team made sure Lucas was stable enough to survive the trip to the Pokemon Center. As they worked on him, one of the medics noticed a Focus Sash near the fainted avatar. Assuming it belonged to him, she wrapped it around Lucas's wrist as they quickly loaded him into an ambulance.

Kaze was loaded into the same ambulance. While he didn't take as much damage as Lucas, the boy seemed to be suffering from exhaustion, and would also need a brief stay at the Pokemon Center.

Another group of medics addressed the avatars and Pokemon near the middle of the parade. While they were respectful of patient consent, they strongly recommended both human and Pokemon treatments and worked quickly to implement whatever treatments the conscious victims allowed.

As grim-faced medics checked on Maya and Mikhail, another approached Rebeca.

"Your injuries require more attention than we can give on the field, miss," the doctor said calmly but firmly. The naked avatar didn't faze him at all; his profession required him to get used to seeing naked strangers. As he spoke, a Ralts used a Heal Pulse to ease some of Rebeca's pain. "We're going to take you to the Pokemon Center. We will take your Pokemon there, too. You will all be in the same ambulance."

At first Rebeca didn't hear the man's words; her injuries were irrelevant compared to Mihkail's anyway. It had been a very long time since she had seen her brother injured in such a way, since the stone-like hides and not inconsiderable physical power of his species meant very few Pokemon were stupid enough to hunt them in the wild. And while the two of them did tussle from time to time, since she easily take whatever he threw at her, those sessions were always in good fun, neither really trying to win, much less harm. Still, something did manage to get through, and she nodded numbly as she started to rise. Until her eyes fell on Maya, cradled in the arms of another medic.

If her reaction to Mihkail's injury was dismay, then this one could be classified as abject anguish.

"Maya? MAYA!" In an instant, she was on her feet and rushing over, nearly throwing people out of her way and outright ignoring the stabs of pain that tried to bring her down as she seized the Shellfish Pokemon. The Kabuto's shell had been nearly cracked in two, with vicious burns lining the slightly melted edges of the fissure. "No no no! Baby, please, wake up! I'm here, Mommy's here, please wake up!" Rebeca fell to her knees, her shoulders shaking with sobs as clutched the infant Pokemon to her chest. "Not again. Not again," she whispered.

After a moment, the markings across her body flared to life, and she spoke in a cold, vicious voice. "Who. Did. This."

Kaze awoke to the blaring of an ambulance's siren. His eyes opening slowly, he found himself actually within such a vehicle with emergency workers buzzing around inside. However, their focus was not him. He was sore, and thought one of his cheeks felt tender as if perhaps burned, but very little damage had been done otherwise.

Instead, the workers focused on a man lying next to Kaze. One who looked familiar, but for all the damage done to him, it took a moment to truly recognize. The man was the Avatar of Lugia. "Lucas!" he whispered, his voice hoarse.

Shushing him, one of the workers explained, "He should be ok. He took a lot of damage out there, but his vitals are ok for now. Maybe not guaranteed stable, but he'll at least make it until we can get him more attention."

The ride to the Pokemon Center wasn't long after that. Lucas was unloaded first, being the subject of greatest concern, and carted somewhere Kaze knew not. Meanwhile, they brought Kaze to the front waiting room, and a nurse explained everything there. "We need to check you for internal injuries with x-rays, and we'll see how to treat you from there."

Kaze nodded. He wasn't sure what else to do. Then they brought him to a room with machines unlike any he had seen before. He protested when they removed his Soothe Bell, but they explained that it could interfere with the x-ray, and he could have it back after. When that was over, he was told his only injuries were external. Brought to a smaller room, he was placed in a capsule which seemed to scan him over a number of times, with each scan seeming to ease his aches and pains further. When at last it was finished, he was brought in a wheelchair out to the waiting room again, and the same nurse from before approached him.

Handing him his Soothe Bell, she said, "Here. This belongs to you."

"Thanks. So . . . they didn't tell me, what was that last machine they put me in?"

"It's one we use for healing Pokemon about your size, the ones that don't like Pokeballs. When it was discovered Chancey's Heal Pulse worked on Avatars, the decision was made to bring you here where we could treat your injuries as Pokemon rather than humans, since we can heal Pokemon much more quickly than humans can be healed."

"What about Lucas; is he ok?"

"He will be. He's taking a little more than you to heal, but he should be perfectly fine in a few hours. For now, there's someone who I think would like to see you." Stepping aside, the nurse revealed a worried, yet healthy, Chimecho whose expression melted into joy at the sight of Kaze.

"Jingle!" he shouted, and the Pokemon flew to his arms, nestling in with such passion as it had never done before. "I'm so glad you're safe," he told it, keeping it close to his chest. Looking back up at the nurse, he asked, "May I go see Lucas?"

"I'd imagine he's stable enough. Might be asleep, though, so we'll have to keep it down." Taking the handles of the wheelchair, she moved Kaze to another room, where Lucas lay on a standard white hospital cot. Though it went without saying, his hair had definitely seen better days. And as the nurse had predicted, he was currently sound asleep. Not that anyone could blame him.

"Lucas, you've got a visitor," Jingle projected to the sleeping avatar's mind, seeing if the thought would stir him.