Member
BlazingBark
Izurich
Xaltwind
karishin42
Guardian Angel Haruki
rush99999
Half Pint
Fetzen
GubGarIt’s About Time
Location: Aether Resort - Edinburgh MagicaPolis
Ace Cadet’s @Yankee, Red’s @TruthHurts22, Mewtwo’s @Double, Big Band
Word Count: 7,193
Exp: +8
While they were dealing with the Aether Foundation trainers, Mewtwo was able to spot a lucky find. One of them had an ether among their meager supply of Pokémon medicine, and Mewtwo quickly grabbed it and sprayed the medicine on himself. It wasn't a full restore of any kind, but that at least gave him a good bit of his PP back, which he knew he would need for the upcoming confrontation.
Once he and the Seekers had entered the museum-like room, they began overhearing snippets of a conversation between L and someone else. They didn't sound like they were in agreement, and the stranger mentioned something about a "Flame Clock", whatever that meant.
But Mewtwo began to slowly realize that what he thought were statues or wax figures of Pokémon, weren't actually that at all. They were real as if frozen in place somehow. And Mewtwo's blood began to boil. Right about then was when their presence was noticed.
<Did you really think I wouldn't follow you here, Consul?> He asked, projecting thoughts to L for the first time since he met her. Mewtwo generally preferred not to communicate except with Pokémon or humans that he trusted. But for this vile human, he would make an exception.
Wonder Red stayed back, letting Mewtwo take the frontline for the encounter. This was all more personal for him, it seemed. Not that Red had spent much time with Pokémon, but seeing your kind put up as display would shake anybody, certainly.
”Head of the Aether foundation, Consul L,” Red began in a lull between Mewtwo and herself, ”before we come to blows, please elucidate for us what your Consulate has against our organization. Enough to declare war and siege on our headquarters?”
“Do you not intend to dethrone Galeem?” N raised an eyebrow, though it lay hidden beneath his helmet. “Your merry little band’s been killing Guardians, after all. Which means you intend to destroy the world. Our world. Our ‘endless now’.” He spoke those last three words in little more than a reverent whisper. “So naturally we will fight to protect it.”
"Why?" the Cadet asked in confusion. The very fact that they could mention Galeem meant they weren't under its spell. They had to know that the world they were all living in now wasn't natural or normal. "What are you all getting out of this? Whatever it is, it can't justify keeping the whole rest of the world hostage!"
N snickered in a most smarmy fashion. “Getting? Why, just everything we could ever want. That’s the beauty of total domination: an entire universe of secrets to unravel and master. Not to mention infinite test subjects. Like your little friend, what was her name? Hmhmhmhmhm.” He let out some sadistic laughter through his nose. “Either way. A pretty sweet deal, wouldn’t you agree?”
“So gauche,” L sniffed. “You may think of me as a curator, if you wish,” she told the Seekers with an air of nonchalance. “There is so much ugliness out there, and lives are worth so little. Here one day, gone the next. My role is one of passionate archival.” She looked around at the room, a proud light in her eyes. “What you see here is merely the…tip of the iceberg, so to speak.”
The hunter was stunned. Such a blasé outlook on other people's lives already told him that they'd probably never see eye to eye with the Consuls if their goals were truly so selfish. When the Seekers had to take the lives of people in their way it was for a greater purpose, and most still struggled with it. Reducing people to experiments and art pieces was beyond the pale.
“Psychos,” Band muttered. He readied himself to step forward, only to be struck by the sheer anger radiating from one of his allies. After a glance at Mewtwo, he gave the Consuls a knowing side-eye. “Y’all done funked up now.”
<How dare you…? These were innocent Pokémon! Trainers who treat their Pokémon like this… deserve no mercy!> And then he started attacking. Mewtwo used Psychic to start grabbing anything and everything around him and hurling it all straight at L. The only things he didn't throw were the frozen Pokémon.
The Consul didn’t move an inch. Before the thrown objects could hit her, they came to a dead stop in the grip in the brawny arms of a brolic Ultra Beast. After absorbing the force it gently set L’s furniture down by her sofa, careful not to tarnish the expensive items. “All trainers treat their Pokemon like this,” L deadpanned. “Much worse, in fact. Insatiable, they collect more Pokemon than they could ever need or want. Some even strive to ‘catch them all’. Do you know how many there are? Over one thousand! And what becomes of all those Pokemon, save a half-dozen favorites?” She shook her head sadly. “Left to rot in their balls and boxes, never again to feel a human touch, or see the light of day. Then favorites and prisoners die, and turn to ash, and precious memories fade away.” She cast her hands around the room. “But not my precious pets. Rather than suffer in isolation, I preserve them in all their beauty, never to crumble and fade away, safe in my loving arms…”
Her eyes drifted proudly to the statues that flanked the room’s entrance on either side, unnoticed by the Seekers as they came in. There stood the frozen bodies of a young girl and boy, both blonde with green eyes. They weren’t alone, either; there seemed to be at least a half-dozen of each, no two quite the same. Though L’s face was hidden, from her voice one could get a sense she was smiling. “...Forever.”
Now that Mewtwo had begun an assault, and realizing that debating these Consul was going nowhere for them, Wonder Red braced his knees, raised his fists, and stepped ahead of the rest. ”Team, diplomacy has failed,” he stated, keeping his eyes on the two Consul. ”We’ve come this far, and we can’t let them continue this reign of frozen terror! Stick together!”
It had been pretty wishful thinking that diplomacy would have worked in the first place. Both Consuls gave the Ace Cadet the creeps. And those statues - were they really people? Such villainy had to be brought to justice. His ship’s rigging was already unfolding from his armor faulds in preparation to take the two armored Consuls on.
“Yeah, I think we’ve heard enough.” Band took a ready stance, his brows lowered and his eyes cold. “I seen some bad apples in my day, but none half as a rotten as these. I’ll see you two prosecuted…” He deployed both Brass Knuckles and slammed one fist into the other’s palm, releasing a hard, flat burst of sound. “To the full extent of the jam.”
Resting her head in her hand, L closed her eyes. “Maybe once I’ve touched myself up with the Flame Clock. For now, you’ll have to satisfy yourselves N.” She set her wine glass down, and as she stood, her Ultra Beast disappeared into a wormhole. “Try not to break anything.” The next moment she teleported away in a burst of purple energy.
With an amused smile, N turned his attention to the Seekers. “Well then. Shall we take this outside?” Then he teleported, too.
Mewtwo lagged behind a moment. L’s disappearance really only served to infuriate him further. He used Psychic to grab ahold of some furniture and flung them at the walls in his anger. Without L’s Ultra Beasts here, nothing was going to stop them from exploding into splinters up on impact. He wanted to tear apart the entire resort in an effort to search for L. But that was when something else caught his eye.
These human children, could they be…? If he was right about them then the entire premise of this room really only disgusted him further. Doing this to one’s Pokemon was bad enough. But to their own children? It was sickening, but this did give Mewtwo an idea.
Band gave an annoyed grunt and turned around to head back the way he came, through L’s mansion and away from her frozen collection. Out front, standing smack dab in the center of the bridge back to the Aether Resort proper, he and the others found N waiting for them. “About time we got down to brass tacks,” he called at the Consul. “You ready to get beat?”
“I’m afraid that if anyone’s on the clock, it’s you,” N told the team. “Once you have a taste of my latent power over time, you won’t be back for seconds!” He raised his staff and upended it, facing its tines toward the ground. When he struck them against the path beneath him, a white, omnidirectional pulse emanated from his position. Ping. The ring expanded across the whole area in no time, but its only discernible effect seemed to be a returning, lower-pitched pulse from the four Seekers a moment after the first wave touched them. Po-po-po-pong. “Connection established,” N snickered, turning his fork to grasp in both hands. “Let us begin.”
N wasn’t the only one prepping for the fight. Wonder Red’s Striker appeared beside him, twitching in place, though Red held off on making it scream. ”Control over time?” He asked while readying his newly-acquired gun. Call it professional curiosity. ”Are you responsible for the statues in there, then?”
<Namely, these statues?> Came the telepathic projection from Mewtwo. Just then, he appeared among the Seekers via a teleportation, but he wasn’t alone. Levitating on either side of him were the statues of the two children, held aloft by Mewtwo’s physic powers. Mewtwo narrowed an icy glare at the Consul before them. <I’m curious, Consul, how willing you are to go through with this confrontation at the risk of harm coming to these two human children. Are you willing to risk incurring the wrath of your partner?>
Beneath his helmet, N’s lip curled. Even after that dramatic intro, perfect to start a fight with, these fools just couldn’t find it in them to get down to business. The topic of their whinging didn’t concern him in the slightest, but the idea that he was beholden to L in the slightest incensed him. “I don’t give a damn about that batty old woman’s frozen ash,” he sneered, holding up his staff. Its ends began to glow with pearlescent blue energy. “Allow me to demonstrate.” Whirling his weapon, he began to hurl orbs through the air two at a time. Though not fast, they automatically homed in on the nearest targets. Several dozen flew out before he started thrusting his staff instead, sending beams of the same roiling plasma across the ground as columns and through the air horizontal bars.
Band grunted and began to move. “Maybe y’all weren’t payin’ attention back there,” he huffed as he charged into the storm of projectiles. “These two clearly ain’t on the best of terms! So put a sock in it, and focus on sockin’ this clocksucker instead!”
The closer he got as he approached, however, the more he got a sense that something was off. While not the most agile, he could slide fast enough to dodge the first few orbs by a decent margin, yet somehow he felt their heat -and heard their ominous crackling- as if they just barely missed. Them being crazy strong would make up for that laughable speed, he thought. Still, before getting close enough to N he got cornered by a handful of orbs and beams. As he went to jump over a horizontal beam sweeping across the road, something happened–a slight, sudden snap, barely noticeable, and through no physical motion of his own. To his surprise the beam clipped him, knocking him to the ground in a fresh surge of burning pain. “Nngh!” he grunted, gritting his teeth. “What!?” That should’ve more than high enough. Taken by surprise and left hurting, he faced a pair of incoming orbs, and hopped to the side in a last-second attempt to evade them. For a split second he thought he cleared them, but to his surprise both hit him head-on, staggering him. “The hell’s goin’ on?” he growled as he deployed his cymbals to block. Forced into full defense mode and pinned down in blockstun by constant projectiles, he could no longer move forward.
“Whatever’s the matter?” N laughed. “Lagging behind all of a sudden? I thought you were going to hit me!”
Mewtwo didn’t show much of a reaction - either to the Consul’s response or his opening attacks. Two of his orbs homed in on him, but Mewtwo was able to continuously keep them away from him by using Teleport. First he teleported a safe distance away from the Consul - both of the statue’d children in tow - and placed them on the ground in a spot he was hoping was far enough away to not be caught in the crossfire. He used his power to fly around, wanting to get those pair of orbs to lock onto him again. When flying though, he sensed something strange. Like his body was… heavier than normal. But he paid it no mind for now. Even if he flew a bit slower, for the time being his Teleport was roughly unaffected so he could just use that if he felt he couldn’t outrun the orbs.
But then he got an idea. He teleported himself directly in front of N, then used Disable to attack with psychic flash-bang before immediately teleporting away again hoping to “trick” those orbs into hitting the Consul should he be successfully stunned by the Disable. That was when he noticed Band in a spot of trouble, as well, and he went to teleport again.
However, he did not account for the Disable failing. “There you are!” Immune to petty status effects, N raised his staff, surrounding it in a pillar of plasma. Ever since the Pokemon played this card, the Consul had been waiting to see if he’d use it to get in past the storm of projectiles. Though not quite fast enough to strike Mewtwo before the Disable, he would happily punish him afterward, especially since his orbs didn’t track nearly well enough for Mewtwo’s complicated gambit. When the Pokemon teleported to Band, he watched the energy bash physically miss. And yet his position seemed to adjust, a subtle snap, and the pillar struck Mewtwo instead. As if reality had been instantly amended in the Consul’s favor. Mewtwo gave out a cry of pain upon being struck. It wasn’t apparent to him what had gone wrong with the teleport just yet. But he still had enough wherewithal to complete his teleport.
The Pokemon teleported to Band, then used the same move again to teleport them both out of that rough spot.
<He’s done something to us. I’m still able to teleport for the most part, but my levitation feels… heavier somehow. Disable did nothing to him, so it sounds as though strategies like that will prove meaningless against him.> he telepathically projected to Band and to Red. One advantage to his form of communication was that he could pick and choose who to project thoughts to, so anything communicated to his allies would remain unheard by their enemies.
Up until this point the Cadet had initially hesitated to go on the offensive. Whatever that "connection" had been at the start of battle gave the hunter a bad feeling. In the back line he dealt with the barrage of energy beams sent their way either by shield or evasion and watched the fight unfold in front of him. It was clear that something weird was going on, but the Cadet didn't understand what it was yet. Attacks that by all rights should have missed their targets were instead direct hits on the Seekers in the front line. Did this Consul really have control over time itself, and was that what he was using to alter the battle?
The answers wouldn't come from standing around speculating about it. Might as well throw himself at the problem and see what information he could get, or what diversion he could cause. It was then that the Cadet made his approach, heading toward N with the mini cannons of his rigging firing, testing the range of N's abilities even as he got closer. The location N had chosen had no cover for the projectiles, but undeterred by how Band's charge had ended up the Cadet relied on his shield and shelling to break through.
With N’s focus on shooting at Mewtwo and Big Band, the Monster Hunter’s approach caught him somewhat off guard. His first few on-target shells burst against the Consul’s armor like cherry bombs, instantly getting N’s attention. So the red-haired warrior joined the fight, did he? It would take more than a couple seconds’ observation to see through this. “Hmph.” The next moment the barrage stopped hitting him, and though ostensibly due to moving laterally to avoid them, the first few actually passed straight through him like he wasn’t there. Then went on to blow up against the side of the Aether Resort’s main building, shattering a window or two in the process. N struck the butt of his staff against the ground, then held it laterally. Spark orbs appeared in the air around him, bolts of electricity connected them, and the lightning links began to move. In a matter of seconds, a constantly-shifting labyrinth of lightning surrounded him.
The maze slowed the Ace Cadet's advance, nearly putting a stop to it altogether. Its sudden appearance first saw the hunter run right into the electric chain that formed its walls, the shock paralyzing the hunter just long enough for one of the energy shots flitting around to smash right into him. The Cadet shook off the hit, but whatever advantage he'd initially had evaporated. Maneuvering around the shock orbs and the lightning bolts connecting them all while blocking the rest of N's attacks was an uphill battle.
"You think we won't fulgur this out and take you down?" The Cadet called out, trying to pick his way through the shocking, shifting paths in one piece.
Given a moment to breathe, Band stepped up to lend a hand. So far, N had been fighting defensively, polluting the air with different projectiles and hazards to wear the Seekers down as they fought to get in on him. It was a kind of fight the detective knew well, as much as he hated it. Nimble, trigger-happy opponents just loved big, slow targets like him. But that had given him plenty of experience. Band deployed his enormous kick pedal. “Impression!” he shouted out as he unleashed his Giant Step. Rather than knock N down, however, the tremor passed harmlessly beneath him. Bug-eyed for a moment, Band noticed for the first time that the Consul seemed to be floating barely inches off the ground. No shortcuts then. He groaned and got a move on, sliding over the ground in stream of sound.
As he worked his way in, avoiding and blocking the orbs, beams, and lightning links that turned the battlefield into one big, agonizing obstacle course, he considered what he’d seen so far. Mewtwo had mentioned a strange heaviness, but that didn’t explain everything that had happened. Somehow N was hitting his attacks when they should’ve missed, and dodging the Seekers’ when they should’ve hit. It wasn’t perfect, though. When he didn’t see Ace’s shots coming, a handful of them struck home. And how did all this relate to time, which N said he could control? Band’s mind buzzed with questions. If only he had the time to answer them.
On the dangerous road to melee range, Band took shock after shock, and more than one errant orb flying in from out of sight. “I’m too old for this crap!” Just as Band was finally getting close, N turned his attention the big man’s way. “Tsk, tsk.” The Consul used his staff to create a square of lightning links and sent it straight at Band, who narrowed his eyes in anticipation. No way over, and with more links and plasma pillars to either side, no way around. If he blocked this he could easily get locked down again, though, so he knew he had to push through. “...Lay back!” At the last moment, Band jumped and pulled off a massive drop kick, turning himself horizontally so he could fit through the gap.
He landed heavily on his back the next moment, but forward-teched with a blast of sound from the instrumentation on his back to fly back to his feet. Without a second’s hesitation he launched himself at N, his huge Brass Knuckle extended to pound the smarmy projectile enthusiast right in his smug face. He armored through a whole bevy of last-second shots, then punched straight through N’s head, though not in the way he would have liked. His fist sheared through without resistance, like N wasn’t even there, and N slid off to the side a second later. “Too late!” he chuckled. Forming a beam of plasma around his staff, he struck Band like a baseball and sent him flying. The detective felt the impact a brief moment before it actually hit him. “You just missed me!” A flurry of orbs flew after Band to chase him down.
For a time, Wonder Red stayed back along with Ace Cadet, seeing the frontliner’s methods and effectiveness while avoiding the slow onslaught of projectiles. Unlike the brutish angel that N sent after them the previous day, Wonder Red wasn’t taking too many chances against him, being a Consul with control over time, or so he claimed. Seeing it in action, however, was certainly helping to back the statement up. Attacks that the team would have perfectly cleared any other time suddenly hit, as if Band or Mewtwo never made moves to avoid them to begin with. Not to mention the matter of actually striking N, as that appeared to be the inverse problem, where their attacks went right through him as though he wasn’t there.
All these were things the others were well aware of by now, but it always helped to take a peek into a person’s mind, right?
Having managed to avoid most of the space-shifting shenanigans N was causing (due to not being engaged), Red had his Striker shriek, piercing the battlefield with its shrill, dazing cry, summoning a handful of Hollow from the stonework beneath them. Red wasted no time in constructing Unite Sword, slashing it ahead of himself as he made his advance. With the projectiles being static and lightning, they would be absorbed by the Morph’s unique conductive properties.
”Mewtwo!” Wonder Red called to the Pokemon, pointing to his own head when it looked at him. Hopefully its telepathic powers worked both ways, since Red was strategizing in a way N couldn’t trace: with his thoughts. ”On me - if we can strike in tandem, we might be able to beat out Consul N’s method of dodging!”
With the tactic (assumedly) passed along, Red pushed ahead with renewed aggression, swinging and stabbing his Sword to clear a path, and to hit N with.
Mewtwo offered a silent nod in response, but he mentally projected a reply to his ally. <Worth a try.> But rather than immediately move, Mewtwo kept his distance and began charging a Shadow Ball. He’d hang on to it until he saw Red make his move. Only then would Mewtwo use Teleport to put himself right behind N to try and hurl that Shadow Ball at point blank range.
With Band dispatched for the time being, N returned his focus to the others. Though both a juggernaut and a powerhouse in his own right, Ace had run into trouble when faced with the electrifying array of lightning links and plasma beams. His lateral movement was being blocked at every turn, and he couldn't go up and over it with nothing to grapple to nor a way to pole vault. While he could take quite a high voltage, the repeated shocks due to dodging projectiles and ending up too close to the electric chain was wearing on him. Instead of risking sudden movement he blocked as much as he could, but a shield couldn’t block projectiles that hit him from behind. The bevy of damage he’d taken while trying to weave his way in forced him to disengage and focus instead on stopping the pain train bearing down on Band. That left Red and Mewtwo. While the former charged straight at him, the latter stayed far away, building up power in a projectile that couldn’t conceivably hit from such a distance. N wasn’t stupid. He took his staff in both hands, projected a huge, bat-like pillar of plasma from it, and took Red’s challenge head-on. Their almost comically large weapons slammed together again and again in a colossal sword fight, every impact a reverberating burst of energy particles. As he fought N rose higher into the air, giving himself a positional advantage as he waited for his chance.
There! An instant before Mewtwo even seemingly disappeared, the Consul turned off his beam, allowing Red’s mighty swing to hurtle by unimpeded and send him off balance, hopefully into some nearby lightning links. He transitioned his own swing into a backward thrust using the blade on the end of his tuning fork’s shaft. From his perspective, the Psychic Pokemon would appear behind N and unleash the Shadow Ball, unaware that what he was seeing did not represent reality. In truth, N had all the time he needed. A split second after Mewtwo thought he blasted N in the back, he found himself stabbed in the middle instead, his Shadow Ball never released. At the sight of him reeling in shock and pain, N couldn’t help but gloat. “So predictable!” he laughed. “You should’ve said ‘nothing personal’, just for good measure. At least that cliché won’t be the last thing…” Power built up between the forks as he aimed his staff at Mewtwo’s noggin. “...to run through your head!”
N’s confidence, while earned, was more than a little misplaced, thinking that a simple missed swing would stagger Wonder Red for long. A moment’s distraction to diffuse the lightning barriers nearing him, Red turned to see Mewtwo at N’s mercy, though the Consul’s back was facing him. Seizing the opportunity, Wonder Red de-morphed, letting his Strikers touch the ground as he leapt forward, through the air so he didn’t make a noise on approach, and the moment he was close enough to N…
”Wondeeerrrrrrrr PUNCH!”
Mewtwo was pulled from N’s clutches, safely within one of Red’s Unite Morphs, and in the very same nanosecond the hardened knuckles of Unite Hand slammed into N’s back with all the force Wonder Red could muster.
Just as a massive barrage of plasma orbs, at least forty strong, burst forth in the mother of all scattershots, N’s target got whisked away. Before he could ponder what happened, N took a gigantic wallop to his back, and with a guttural exclamation of surprise he was sent flying. He hit the ground once, tumbling, but managed to buoy himself up with his levitation before another impact. By the time he slowed himself completely he floated only a few meters from the edge of the Aether Paradise building. With narrowed eyes he straightened up and turned to face the heroes. “Thought I’d let you have that one. A nice little confidence boost,” he sneered as he descended. “After all, it’s no fun if you lose hope too quick-!”
“GIANT STEP!” The moment N touched the ground, so too did Band’s enormous pedal. Ever since the Consul unknowingly avoided the first, the detective had been biding his time until he could use it properly, and now his moment had come. Knocked off his feet by the shockwave, N landed on his front, the wind punched from his lungs. “Spread out now, and all at once–get ‘em, boys!” Without a second to spare, Band began to slide forward, quickly closing the distance. As unbeatable as N’s ‘adjustment’ power felt, the team had taken him by surprise so far, and the extent of his ability seemed limited to that of his focus.
Growling, N got to his feet and floated into the air, his staff tucked under his arm like the butt of a rifle. He let loose a torrent of tracking orbs to wash away the incoming heroes. Band couldn’t dodge them and continue to advance, but he could do something. He deployed his cymbal, betting everything on it, and to his delight was able to parry the first projectile to hit him. “Uh-huh,” he snickered, parrying orb after orb as he closed in. Each one moved him a little bit forward, keeping up the momentum.
With Mewtwo safe from N’s assault, Wonder Red freed him from the Unite Morph. ”Are you okay, Mew Two?” He wanted to be sure the Pokemon was in well enough form to continue fighting. Before advancing on N, Wonder Red took out Artemis, and fired it off sporadically on approach, hoping to keep N’s attention divided with staggered shots.
Weakened and in pain, Mewtwo could only think of one way to deal with the storm of projectiles. He used Psychic to tear off a large section of the floor in front of him and erected it vertically to serve as a makeshift wall. Then he slowly pushed forward, letting the wall absorb the projectiles and shield him from any further damage.
Any homing shot that got by Band or Mewtwo's shield would be deflected by the Cadet's as the hunter moved up close with the others, making it all around easier to defend against the orb assault. The Cadet was singed by taking dozens of hits already, but he was still eager to get up close and personal to give this enemy of justice the comeuppance he deserved - the mini-cannons of the Cadet's rigging were swiveling forward already, ready to deliver it.
With the Seekers perilously close, N gritted his teeth. He whirled his staff overhead, then slammed the ground, letting loose a huge wave of white energy. The effort left him doubled over and hyperventilating from fatigue, however. Reacting quickly, Band and the others leaped into the air once more utilizing Red’s Wonder Jump, soaring right over the pressure wave. Ready to seal the deal, the detective deployed his cymbals once more for a deafening clash.
With the incoming energy wave, there was really only one strategy Mewtwo could employ. He started charging up his Shadow Ball, while still being obscured from view behind the makeshift wall he’d erected. Just before the energy could crash into him or his makeshift barricade, he put the attack on hold long enough to thrust his hands forward in a motion to hurl his erected wall straight at N. Then he Teleported.
Mid-air from the jump, Wonder Red aimed Artemis again, this time charging it to full, unleashing its full, delayed blast. ”Uniiiiiiite SWORD!” Uniting his Strikers into Unite Sword, Red rushed down N, spinning through the air like a sawblade - running right through the Consul and touching down behind him, just as the Artemis shot homed in.
As for the monster hunter, he kept things simple. The blade of the Master Bang hadn't gotten a chance to leave so much as a scratch on the Consul's armor, but he was looking to change that. He was almost in range, a little more and he could use his Crush Shot and start a Sword Dance and put the pressure on N. So close to closing in, the Cadet didn't stop to think about using a lifepowder or anything of the sort, just going in for what he hoped would be the kill.
"Try getting out of this one!" he taunted, bravado reignited.
If this all worked out, then the consul would be unaware of Mewtwo’s charged up attack. And furthermore he should in theory be too distracted with dealing with the section of floor being flung at him to notice Mewtwo’s teleportation and subsequent reappearance near his flank in an attempt to unleash another fully charged Shadow Ball at point blank range.
A cymbal, a slab of metal, a shot, and a supersized swordblade, all descending toward N like judgment from on high–the situation looked grim.
Unacceptable.
As the heroes closed in, a bubble of power welled up around the Consul, crimson and unstable. “BEHOLD!”
The pulse struck the heroes, and a bizarre phenomenon took place. Each stopped as if frozen in place. In their individual perspectives, everyone else began repeating actions on a split-second loop. Band’s cymbals swung together, but never met, instead jittering back to their original positions to swing towards one another again. Red’s swordblade jerked back and forth as if he couldn’t decide whether or not to swing; the shot from Artemis didn’t move through the air, but its energy continued to fluctuate and stream as if still in flight. Ace ran furiously in place, the metal on his person and in his hands glinting as they moved back and forth. Mewtwo’s torn-out chunk hung in the air, and the Pokemon himself fluctuated in the startup of releasing his charged Shadow Ball. Worse still, the sounds were stuck, too.
“SWORD-SWORD-SWORD-SWORD-SWORD-SWORD-SWORD-!”
“-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD-HOLD!”
Band struggled, trying to deploy instruments, swing his arms around, anything at all, but he seemed completely stuck. Of course, it looked like N was too. This had to be his doing, but what was he doing? His mind raced, trying to figure out what was going on and how it benefited the Consul, but in a state of confusion and panic he couldn’t determine anything. The seconds ticked by. Five, six, seven, eight, nine…
Ten.
Suddenly, everything changed. A cacophony of unintelligible sound slammed into him like a freight train, but the next instant it was gone. In a blink, Band found himself standing on the ground. His Brass Knuckles were out as if he’d been punching with them like he planned, but he never got that chance…did he? Red stood ahead of him, his sword embedded in the wall of the Aether Paradise building. When did he get there? Way behind Band, Mewtwo’s Shadow Ball violently exploded against the front of L’s mansion in a burst of ghostly power. That was the last thing he noticed before pillars of plasma blazed across the battlefield, and a lightning storm swallowed him up. Everything else gave way to a horrible maelstrom of searing, electrocuting, agonizing pain.
After a few seconds the punishment subsided, and with a groan Band fell to his knees, then slammed down on his stomach. Everything hurt, and his mechanisms weren’t responding, though he could scarcely find the strength to call upon them anyway. He couldn’t look around very well, but the gasps and moans told him the others all fared much the same.
“Hehehehe.” N’s laugh was slow, sinister, and drawn-out with relish. He was standing in the middle of the group of fallen heroes. Band wanted nothing more than to punch the smug sonuvagun’s lights out, but all the fight had drained from his body. “Well? What do you think? Or are you too awestruck by Amy power…no, my mastery…ohh, my unbeatable dominion over time?”
For once even Wonder Red’s energy was sapped. In the figurative, physical sense, as well as the energy of his suit’s battery, inexplicably run dry. It was clear that N wasn’t a Consul to be taken lightly. So why humor them for the fight? In between breaths Wonder Red tossed out a question. ”What… what did you do to us…?”
“Oh? Curious, are you?” N was clearly loving this. “Since you’ve got only a few seconds left, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to clue you in.” Snickering, he planted the butt of his staff and leaned on it. “I’m a scientist, you see. I love unraveling new things, and twisting them to suit my own ends. A little mad science here, a demonic ritual there, I’m always finding ways to keep myself…hmhmhm, busy.” The Consul waved his hand dismissively. “But nothing tickles me quite as much as the one power that I can truly call ‘mine’. The power to manipulate one of this world’s most erudite, underpinning phenomenons. Once I’ve established a connection…” He reached out a hand toward Red. “I can delay incoming actions. In the end, the reality you’re experiencing…” With an unseen grin, he closed his fist, as if crushing the superhero in his hand. “Lags just a little bit behind.” He then placed his hand on his chest. “Of course, as the host I enjoy certain privileges. Keeping me one step ahead. And it doesn’t stop there, oh no.” His shoulders shook from his mirth. “What you saw and experienced just now? Nothing more, and nothing less, than the complete and utter obliteration of time, and all memories formed therein. Your intentions are laid bare, locked in, and erased–all that remains are the consequences. And I alone may act upon them!” Suddenly serious, he took his staff in both hands, preparing to cast. “This is the power of Latency. The power of Consul N!”
"Pompous pain in the Astalos..." the Cadet hissed, starting to pull himself together to stand again. The 'connection'... so from the start none of them had a chance? That couldn't be true, he'd seen some of their attacks land. There was no way the Consul had let it happen, not this kind of jerk who seemed more likely to want to rub in their faces that he hadn't taken a hit.
It had to be possible to beat him, even with such a disadvantage. It looked like everyone was just about down for the count, and the Cadet regretted not trying to mitigate the damage done earlier. He could do it now if they stopped whatever the Consul was about to unleash. But the question was how? The echoes of pain from the N's bombardment made the Cadet's mind sluggish, he struggled to think of something. Blocking the Consul's sight might work, but there was no telling if a paintball would do the trick if he even managed to throw it accurately after the damage he'd taken. The only other option he could come up with was to strike fast enough that the man wouldn't see it coming, which would also be asking a lot due to the state he, and the others, were in. However the Ace Cadet was overcome with the feeling of needing to do something once more, and so with his hand wrapped tight around the hilt of his sword he lashed out with his fading strength. It was an attack of defiance if nothing else.
As enjoyable as overdone theatrics were, they did confer one important drawback: a tendency to focus on the wrong thing. In the moment before N, flourishing and waving his staff as he erected pillar after pillar of plasma in preparation for his climactic finishing move, the Monster Hunter somehow found it within himself to make a last-ditch attempt. “What!?” N, taken by surprise at the height of confidence in his imminent victory, stumbled backward with a hand clamped down over the fresh gash on his chest. There stood Ace, an almost gleeful look on his face as he fought to stay standing, full of hope that he’d managed to stop the big bad’s all-out attack just in the nick of time.
If only N had been one hit away from defeat.
“You heroes. So stubborn.” He gave a wry laugh, more annoyed with himself than anything. “You never know when to QUIT!” With a snarl he swung his staff, enveloped in a beam of energy. His baseball swing sent Ace flying, tumbling him along the ground until he came to a stop against the side of the Aether Paradise building, farther away than the others. Then N span his staff one final time. “Hmph. It’s been fun killing time with you, but I’m on the clock, so enough tocking. It’s high time we bring this little sideshow to a close.” He swung his staff, and the pillars of plasma blazed forward, raking across the ground without barely any space between them. They bore down on the Seekers like satellite lasers, promising to be the last thing that any of them ever saw. “Time to die!”
Gritting his teeth, Band squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t move or fight back–this was the end. But death never reached him. When he lost consciousness, a mysterious Felyne rescue crew whisked him away on their crude wooden cart, disappearing with him into the ether as they bore him back to base. The same went for Red and Mewtwo, saved from certain destruction and spirited away to safety. That just left Ace, with no charges for his Rescue power remaining and only a couple seconds until the pillars swallowed him up too.
He pushed himself up onto his elbows, eyes wide. They'd been thoroughly beaten due to N's insane ability, but at least the Seekers would live to fight another day - he'd seen the Felynes cart the other three off. And that just leaves me, the hunter realized with a start as the beams of energy closed in. Spurred by incoming death he searched through his satchel of tricks, looking for anything that would save his life. His hand wrapped around something that had sat there for a few days now, and when his harried grip closed around it the bone splintered. Light enveloped the hunter, surprising even himself, just before he completely vanished from the area.
When the light died down and the energy faded, they left melted furrows in the surface of the Aether Resort, but try as he might N couldn’t find any trace of ash. Could he have annihilated the poor fools so utterly that not even the faintest traces remained? No…whether spirits, or the itemized leftovers of destroyed spirits, something would’ve surely been left behind. He wrinkled his nose, a frown spreading across his masked face. Somehow, during the time he’d been blocking his own vision with his needlessly large laser array, the heroes had escaped.
Disappointing. After a moment, though, N gave a hmph and banished his staff. He couldn’t see his adversaries anywhere, nor any sign of them, but such a trivial thing wasn’t about to stop a good monologue. “Run all you like, weaklings. You can grasp for power, amass more lambs for the slaughter. The power of Latency renders all resistance futile. Sooner or later, you’ll wind up in my clutches again, and this time I won’t let you go. It’s just a matter…of time.”
