Body and Mind.... are Fragile Things

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Sova struggled to hush his own laughter, ending up collapsing to the ground as the pain from the attacks he'd taken suddenly hit him.  On the bright side, this made it difficult to laugh, so it was easier to stop himself from doing so now.  He just sat there, catching his breath and laying in his own pain and misery....  The burning feeling inside of him.... had been toned down.  He could now think.... almost straight.  He stared at his work as he tried to gather his thoughts; what was he supposed to do now?  ....Right, Mirage.  MIRAGE, was she alive!?

Then he heard the voice of the charmander, stating to have found Mirage.  He pushed to lift himself off the ground, no longer caring about his exhaustion, and jumped off the ledge he was on without even looking down to see how far it was.  He landed on his paws rather ungracefully with a bit of a stumble just as the lizard spoke once more, stating Mirage was breathing, and it relieved him to no end.  Suddenly, the intense burning was gone and he felt clear and sane.... and the pain felt a bit more.... vivid.  But that last part wasn't important right now!

"Oh, sh-she's alri-!?" he frantically questioned as he rushed over to see the zoroark.
....No, she was definitely not alright.  Not alright, but alive.  He frantically looked over his friend, immediately spotting a pretty severe-looking bite wound on one of her arms.  He reached his paw up to his neck and between the two ribbons he wore, pulling off the outer one, which was a light blue Guild ribbon.  He liked covering up the girly Joy ribbon with it, but Mirage's safety was far more important than his own fashion.

Suddenly, he was actually focused, and he no longer seemed like a depressed drone nor a psychotic monster.  "Lift her arm for me," he spoke clearly, expecting the lizard to help him.
However, he wasn't calm and this was something he wasn't trying to hide.  His voice was audibly shaky, but rather than a mixture of sadness and mania, this time.... it was just out of fear.  Mirage seemed pretty badly hurt....  He didn't want to lose her.  If given the option, he'd be willing to give up his own life for Mirage, and he doubted said life would even be worth living without her around.  He would feel like a complete failure in every possible way and he doubted he'd ever really feel joy again.

The charmander frowned as the glaceon responded to his final question. He said nothing. The stubborn ass was doing what stubborn asses do best. The lizard decided it was best to worry about cover at the moment. He was about to just squirm in some crevice, while the ghost types hid underground, when the duskull spoke up, "I got this, you guys can count on me!" As the Duskull spoke a green protective field surrounded him as he used Protect.

"Dumbass that only works on you..." Garnet huffed before slipping under a large set of boulders he was just barely big enough to fit in. The dusknoir retreated into the ground, sinking into the floor as if the ground beneath him did not exist. The duskull allows his hands to drop to his side as his single large eye widened in realization.

"Oh..." he spoke.

Mirage was a bit surprised that the glaceon had asked her to be with him in the center of the storm. She said nothing and merely nodded as the others left. "Ready when you are," she spoke. She remained close to him, awaiting the bright flash the orbs would bring along with the massive number of pokemon that would be brought to their little hell that was the Obsidian Rift.

Theme Music:

Sova waited for everyone to get into their positions before setting his sights on the orbs the dusknoir had left on the ground.  The flash would signal the point of no return.  He took in a deep breath and held it for a moment, hesitant to go through with this now that he had the chance to.  Perhaps one could say he was getting cold feet - or paws - but that would be an awful pun.  The hesitance finally faded away and he exhaled, blowing a freezing-cold mist over the orbs.  Within seconds, the sounds of cracking could be heard from within the cloud of mist that was now surrounding the orbs.  In mere moments, there was a flash of light, one that just got brighter and brighter as the orbs audibly shattered one by one.

The light seemed to last an eternity, one that could never have been long enough.  It was actually peaceful, at least to the glaceon.  When his vision was finally returned to him, he saw a small army had been summoned.  And in the middle of it all, there stood a large, purple creature with spear-like claws and red, piercing eyes.  He kept direct eye contact with the creature as he spoke: "Sorry to drag you all here.  Any who don't wish to fight.... leave."
He stared at the creature, his question being meant for it as well.  He knew it wouldn't happen, but he couldn't go through with this without first making sure peace wasn't an option.

Some of the pokemon who'd been dragged into the area began to flee; mostly the smaller, weaker ones.  Yamask, duskull, shuppet, dunsparce, dusclops, and sableye.  Some of the latter two decided to stay, and one of the sableye even felt so bold as to immediately rush straight into the fox as if it were going to hurt him.  "It's gonna get cold, but I'm pretty sure you can handle that," he forewarned Mirage as his body temperature spiked.
The water in the air froze, the ground began to coat with frost, and the sableye immediately and noticeably slowed down upon walking into the ever-growing area of freezing temperature.  The ice crystals accumulated and swirled around in circles, quickly lowering visibility in the area as they formed a blizzard.

The sableye collapsed within moments of the freezing temperatures.  The cold was, of course, worst right next to Sova, but this area was also spared the painful snow and wind.  He pushed the blizzard, making it larger with every bit of energy he could muster, and all who'd decided to stay were engulfed in moments.  Some tried to attack him and a few even attempted to attack each other, but the blizzard made it difficult to see and even more difficult to strike, so nothing came of the attempts.  The snowstorm suppressed all but the beast, dragging some of the potential enemies to the ground within moments.  Of course, it lit on fire just like the last time, completely ignoring the cold-based attack.  Through the fog of snow, he could see the glow of the cannon on the stubborn creature's back and knew exactly what it meant.

"Move," he said simply as he sidestepped to the right in order to avoid the incoming blast.
He trusted Mirage to do what he said, and to his relief, the zoroark followed him out of the way of the attack.  He could feel the heat cut through the cold atmosphere he'd created and reach him.  A black ball of energy formed in front of his face before being shot straight through the blizzard, but of course, the creature easily avoided it.  Not all of the obstacles were unconscious yet, but the blizzard would have to stop soon.  The glaceon could feel his energy diminishing with every passing moment.

The wind began to die down as Sova was quickly bound by exhaustion.  "Can't hold it up...." he muttered.
And just like that, the wind suddenly stopped.  The snow that'd accumulated all began to fall to the ground, which would have been a pretty sight if not for the soul-crushing darkness and despair.  Most of the hostile denizens who'd chosen to stay were still up and about: durant, dusknoir, cofagrigus, and.... even the few dusclops who'd chosen to stay.  Surely, he had to have hurt them, but the fact that so many were still conscious worried him.  He adjusted the spike in his mouth to get a good grip on it and bit down; he got into a fighting stance with his legs spread apart a bit.  Some of the remaining enemies were beginning to move, preparing to attack.

There was a problem.

The blizzard had taken quite a lot out of the glaceon.  He wasn't S.S, he couldn't just-

Suddenly, he felt a rush in his body.  His fur all froze into needle-armor and without even consciously thinking, he bolted forward, leaving behind an afterimage.  He ended up behind a cofagrigus and a dusknoir who happened to be near each other, neither of them realizing he was there fast enough.  A Shadow Ball formed in front of him and fired at the coffin-like creature, causing it just fall over awkwardly, but this caught the attention of the dusknoir.... and most of the other enemies.  He very much hoped his allies were planning on helping.

The attack brought the temperature down, way down. It was already a bit cold in the rift, but the Blizzard had made it immensely worse. They were incredibly lucky that their only allies were either in the ground, protected, a fire type, and covered in fur, otherwise they likely would have suffered the harsh temperature the attack brought upon them by simply existing. The zoroark watched in wonder as the attack was performed. She was in the eye of a storm, the attack swirled around them and rained upon the opponents. Even though some still stood, including the red eyed beast who had simply set itself ablaze to excuse the attack, it was still obviously very powerful.

The cold bit into her fur, attempting to get through it and bite into her fur. The zoroark froze. Not from cold, not from fear, but from something else entirely. She stared at the winds of the blizzard as it blew, an image coming to her mind. Not a single image, oh no. A flurry of images. They ripped into her mind like the wind did to their enemies and froze her in place like it did with those that were unable to resist the storm. A dark mountain, a snowstorm, an eevee, a leafeon and an absol encapsulated in ice, a froslass, a glaceon, and her. Except, she was not her. She was much smaller, shorter, fluffier all around rather than her hair and chest. Her eyes widened as a realization hit her like a slap in the face.

"Move."

Her eyes shot towards the genesect quick enough to see that it was powering up an attack. She avoided the attack along with the glaceon. The glaceon mumbled about being unable to keep it up before releasing the storm and moving to attack one of the cofagrigus that was near a dusknoir. The Zoroark's eyes glowed a bright red along with her claws as she cried out in attempt to intimidate those that were near. Her claws slammed into the ground before she seemed to grab something and rip upwards. A dark force of red energy expanded from the spot as if she had ripped the very energy from the chasm itself rather than create it herself.

The Night Daze expanded swiftly and more precisely, much less clunky and more like she was used to using the move. The expanding semi-sphere of energy rushed outward and slammed into the Dusknoir and the Cofagrigus, the wall of energy failing to reach Sova as the cofagrigus shielded him from the attack. The Cofagrigus remained where it was, its body smoking from both its front and back as if it had been burned before it simply blinked and fell forward on its face. It was a bit overkill for the cofagrigus, but it was worth it to be able to strike the Dusknoir as well with an all-out attack without harming Sova.

Mirage swiftly turned as she noticed the tendrils of yet another cofagrigus attempting to wrap around her. She placed her paws together before seeming to rip them apart as a dark purple and black sphere of energy formed at her claw's tips. She slammed the Shadow Ball directly into the gaping casket as it was attempting to consume her whole. HADOUUKEN

"Hey Sova," she called out to the glaceon with a lot more certainty to her voice and a mischievous and triumphant smirk, "How about we go get some Golden Apple Pies after this?"

--

The storm had subsided, and the fight was on. Garnet freed himself from his hiding spot to find himself face to face with three little durants that did not take pleasure in the fact that they were pulled away from their territory only be slapped in the face with a blizzard. He could see their antennae twitch angrily and violently, which only prompted a growl from him as he allowed gravity to bring him to four legs. His tail waved viciously behind him, advertising the fire behind him in order to intimidate the bug and steel types to not mess with him.

It seemed that they did not fear the type disadvantage, for years of dealing with pokemon like heatmor was the very reason they had developed such hard shells. One of the bug types grew impatient with the stand-off and charged forward. The bug attempted to clamp around the charmander's hand in a Vice Grip, however he had already easily moved out of the way. Garnet had hopped into the air with a fiery ball of flames in his mouth that held a purple tint. He would waste no time in activating Outrage in this scenario, as it was definitely needed in order to make the playing field even against these damned bugs.

The fiery ball blasted down upon the ant, and slammed right into its abdomen. A large dent was created in the ant's armor, and the ant began to flee as it cried out in terror and fear from the flames that now smarted its ass. Once the charmander was done smiting one of them, his glare turned to the others. They did not seem to be intimidated by him as much as the previous been, though. His claws extended outwards on both hands and stretched out a good two inches as they glowed a purple tint. The charmander gave a small roar as he charged forward and attempt to slash at the two with a Scratch Attack that contained the power of Outrage.

While one had been struck by the vicious attack and successfully had one of its antennae cut off, the other and avoided the attack. His claws swung downward violently as the one lacking an antennae seemed to back off a bit to gauge the situation better. He would not allow that. The charmander flung himself in the direction of that bug with another outrage-powered scratch. A sudden and sharp pain ripped through his body as something clamped down on his tail, he turned to see that it was the other Durant!

The charmander used this close proximity in order to successfully hit it with a Fire Blast and forced it to release him. This left time for the other one to leap forward in an attack. The pincers aimed for the lizard's neck, however it was intercepted by a glowing green field of energy that it simply slammed face-first into.

"Hee hee, I helped!" the duskull giggled proudly with its arms behind its back and its chest puffed out proudly.

--

The dusknoir did not arise from the ground.

The others were being useful, doing their part. Sova just barely managed to step back enough to avoid a Shadow Ball whizzing by him due to having his focus on his allies. He needed to focus more on himself and just trust the others to be able to manage on their own. A dusknoir suddenly appeared out of the ground in front of him with a black aura around its fists, but as it tried to land a punch, he merely stepped back away from it. Did it really think it could his him so easily? He took in a breath as he prepared to counterattack, but the sudden voice of a certain zoroark made him pause.

Mirage said something that nearly instantly clicked to the glaceon. It'd been a reference to the past.... which could only mean she had, at the very least, partially regained her memories. This made Sova so very happy.... so happy that he completely zoned out. He failed to notice the shadowy spikes shooting out of the ground all around him until it was too late. Suddenly, the joy was replaced with a feeling of being impaled. The spikes were having trouble piercing his armor, but the pain was still very present. For a moment, he drifted off; he would have collapsed if not for the fact that the spikes of darkness were holding his body up. Then.... he felt the air in his lungs being released.

The spikes all faded and the dusknoir was now pulling itself off the ground with a white mist around it. "Just this once," he could hear in his own head.
The dusknoir pointed its hand forward, sending a flurry of blue flames toward the glaceon, but all they hit was an afterimage. The large ghost only got a moment to search for its target before having a spike stuck in its back. Sova pulled his weapon out of the enemy as it tried to slam a fist into his chest, just barely stepping out of the way in time. Another enemy was approaching from behind, and for some reason, he could hear such a detail. He turned to see a fist inches from his face, but instead of attempting to get away from it, he just moved slightly to the side. The fist of a dusclops went right past him, and his spike was able to carve a painful wound from the wrist up to the shoulder as the creature stumbled by him.

As the dusclops stumbled to its knees and held its injured arm, black hands rose up from the ground around the glaceon. One attempted to grab onto him but was smacked away by his tail. Then, all four of the hands attacked at once, wrapping themselves around the pincushion despite how it must have hurt. He tried to pull himself away, but not fast enough to avoid the coffin that suddenly came out of the ground under him. The shadowy hands pulled him down and the lid slammed shut, trapping him. He struggled to kick at the inside of the coffin as he felt himself being.... mummified? Mummified. He was being mummified.

There was a silence, then an explosion; he'd attacked the inside of the cofagrigus with a Shadow Ball. Sure, it had hurt him as well, but that didn't matter. He pushed the lid open with his paws before pulling himself out and trying to shake some of the mummy-bandages off. It'd barely even started wrapping, so it wasn't too hard to get the ugly stuff off. Just as soon as he was given a moment to breathe, a sudden fist slammed into his side and sent him stumbling backward. The dusknoir was still up and able to move fast enough to catch him off-guard. He groaned and started off walking toward the ghost, to which it responded by immediately throwing another punch. However, he easily avoided this one by ducking, followed by stabbing the underarm of the attacker with his spike. The dusknoir recoiled from the hit, but it wasn't over yet.

A Shadow Ball formed in front of Sova as he prepared to finish the dusknoir off, but a sudden and painful blast struck him just before he could, sending him flying backward and tumbling across the ground. He recognized the searing pain of the beast's signature attack. This hit would have kept him on the ground longer if not for the adrenaline rushing through his body. Aside from that, his body seemed to just rise without him even giving the command for it to. It'd taken him a minute, but he was finally beginning to understand that it wasn't just him fighting right now.

Distracting thoughts overcame Sova, and the purple creature intended to punish him for it. The cannon charged and fired once more, only for the glaceon to step out of the way despite being thoroughly distracted. Sova was distracted, yet his body had moved on his behalf. The fox faced the creature without even the slightest bit of hesitation, waiting for its next move. If it was a fight this thing wanted so damn bad, it was high-time someone delivered. It didn't matter what the reason was, why it was fighting, if it had a choice in the matter, or if this would fix anything. Now that the fight had started, it needed to be finished, because the creature certainly wasn't going to just let them walk away.

To her disappointment she did not hear any response from the glaceon. This concerned her, she turned to the direction she had last seen the glaceon, "Sova?" she asked wondering why he wasn't responding. While she had been turned around, a dark hand reached out from the ground and slammed into her body similar to that of a Karate-Chop. The Brick Break attack slammed into her chest and successfully making it a bit difficult to breathe. The hand attempted to retreat into the ground, however she had grabbed onto the hand and pulled out with one fist as the other reared back. A rather surprised looking dusclops was ripped out of the ground below as a Shadow Ball was slammed directly into its one eye. The ghost type was launched back into the ground from the force of the attack, leaving a small crater where the Shadow Ball also made contact with the ground.

The Zoroark rushed forward as she could have sworn she felt something tug on her hair behind her. When she looked, there was nothing. Huh? She looked back in front of her to see the fist of a dusknoir rushing towards her. The zoroark managed to avoid the attack with a duck before she ripped at the ground in an upper-cut punch that was also accompanied with a powerful Night Daze. The red pulse of energy struck the ghost type, and made it collapse into the floor as well.

Mirage's surveyed the battlefield once more, spotting the charmander before her eyes found Sova and the big-boss having a show-down. She needed to help. The zoroark cried out as she was suddenly picked up by her hair and thrown at the two. She collided with the wall behind the genesect just to the left, this would work! She reacted swiftly and used this opportunity to leap at the steel type just as it seemed to be charging yet another attack from its cannon that pointed directly at Sova. She collided with the back of the genesect, her weight throwing it off immensely as it was completely unprepared for the sudden weight.

She gripped the cannon of the steel type and forced it to aim upward and away from Sova with all of her strength. She could feel the claws of the creature rake at her fur and attempt to pull her off. Her fur flew off and floated down to the rocks below, "Do something!" she called to Sova as she tried to forcefully disallow the genesect from turning its cannon. The creature's arms were flailing about, trying to reach behind itself so that it could drag her off. She proved to be a bit more stubborn about clinging to it than the charmander had.

--

Meanwhile the charmander and the duskull were combating the remaining two durant together. Despite his annoyances with the kid, it seemed to be fairly good in combat at the least. One of the durants had fallen to one more Outraged Scratch before he turned to finish off the other, only for it to dodged to the side. The durant launched itself towards them once more. The duskull smirked and merely threw up another green force field of energy. Unfortunately, the green shield deteriorated immediately.

"Uh-oh..." the duskull's one eye widened as he had no time to run from the oncoming Durant, well...he had plenty, he was just too terrified to move.

Garnet was a bit of a distance away, having just finished off the other durant. Shit! He fell to all fours and attempted to haul ass towards the duskull in attempt to save him, he was too slow! He stopped only as the ground all around the war ground began to shake. There was a deep metallic roar as the ground underneath the durant suddenly caved in. A large metallic voice sung out, "I HEARD SOME LITTLE SHITS WERE MESSIN WITH MY BOY'S FRIENDS!?!?" a large steelix looked down on the group from his gopher hole as he towered above them all with a strangely psychotic smile.

The ground continued to rumble, and several more onix appeared out of the walls of the rift with their own groans and whoops and shouts. There was one onix that popped up next to the steelix that caught Garnet's attention, the onix leaned in towards him, and dropped a slobbery Technical Machine before giving a gleeful bark.

Garnet was speechless for a moment as he looked up at all of the massive pokemon. He heard the distinct sound of the Durant from earlier suddenly splatting into the ground with a sharp klang as its own armor was smashed along with it, "Hi..." he waved with a small wave, still in shock a bit.

The cannon was charging once more, but Sova was ready. He had to stop getting hit if he wanted to win; he could feel his body becoming heavy already. However, instead of having an absurdly powerful attack to avoid, he had Mirage to back him up. The zoroark leaped onto the enemy, taking its attention off of him as it tried to get the vixen off. Before he could jump in, however, he heard the sounds of something approaching. His tail curled around the right side of his body and he placed a paw against it, all without any active thought on his part. Just as he did so, the fist of the persistent dusknoir slammed into his tail, only to immediately recoil from hitting the tough spikes. Instead of finishing it off, he ignored it and bolted straight for the purple beast.

The dusknoir attempted to attack the afterimage left behind, merely going through it and ending up very confused. The glaceon reached his target within a split second, pushing Double Team to its limit. He immediately aimed his spike right up under the plated armor on the creature's left leg, but it reacted just in time to step back and avoid being stabbed in the knee. He then spun around and swung his tail at it, hoping it wouldn't bother to avoid such a weak attack since it would still remember the last time he'd tried it. He was right. The creature just put its full focus back on getting the thing off of it, not caring for the weak attack.

It probably started caring a little more when its leg exploded, knocking it off its feet and to the ground on its chest. The glaceon had made a Shadow Ball at his tail just as it made contact with the leg of the creature. Some of his armor broke from the impact, but it was worth it. He didn't take any time to rest as he took in a deep breath, planning on beating this thing until it died. Mirage would hopefully understand to move or at least keep hitting it as well. However, the creature began glowing brightly, and before the glaceon could do anything, a huge explosion erupted from it.

Sova was flung off his legs and catapulted backward; he could feel the burning force behind the explosion; his ears were ringing and he couldn't hear anything. When he slammed into the ground, he realized from the pain of the impact that his armor had been obliterated. He immediately tried to pull himself up onto his feet and force his eyes open.... Everything was blurry, he could seemingly hear his heartbeat, his legs were shaking, and he was only halfway off the ground when he realized....

There was a blurry, purple image coming straight toward him. He tried to step back to avoid its attack, only to stumble backward and fall to the ground. The creature swiped at him with one of its claws, barely missing from his accidental dodge. It then brought the other arm down on him and he managed to stop it with his paws on either side of the dangerous limb. The sharp claw was mere inches from his face and he was heavily weakened from the explosion, yet he was still able to hold it back. The reason for this was simple: the creature had literally exploded, so it was feeling exhausted as well. However, just as soon as the glaceon was able to feel relief, he noticed a green glow around the arm of the creature and began to feel increasingly more weak.

The arm inched closer and closer to his face as his energy was sapped away. It seemed as if the being was gaining energy from this as well, which meant it had to be a life-draining attack. He didn't know what this thing was capable of doing, but if he had to guess, it was Giga or Mega drain. He took in a deep breath and blew freezing mist on the creature in desperation, but it merely lit itself on fire in response. Not only did this nullify his attack, but it was now burning his front paws as well. "Aaaahk.... kkhhh...." the glaceon made a sound that was somewhere between a growl and a short-breathed whine as he tried to hold off the attack.
Was this how he died? Pinned on his back until his body gave out and allowed for him to be impaled?

He wanted to die with pride, but he also wasn't quite sure he was ready to die. Sure, earlier, he'd talked an awful lot about wanting to die, but now that he was faced with the option, it just wasn't quite as appealing. "It.... doesn't have to be like this. You don't have to fight...." he tried to convince the creature, pleading for his life in a way.
He'd decided his pride meant nothing if he was dead, and on the off-chance something good for others came of his words, that was far more important than his ego.

Luckily for the zoroark, the glaceon moved and did not stand there like a dumb idiot. She wrestled with the cannon of the genesect, attempting to tear it off if she could but failed. The genesect suddenly fell forward, the zoroark going down with her on top to pin it down. The zoroark avoided her ally's attacks as she decided to try and blind the thing. She attempted to smash a clawed fist into the creature's eye. As her fist rushed towards the red glassy eyes of the steel type, it began to glow a bright white. An extremely strong force slammed into her as she felt her entire front body begin to burn as her fur began to singe. She was blasted straight into the air, going up a rather dangerous distance as her body escaped the cloud of dust the genesect had kicked up from the attack.

She began to fall, it was too high of a drop, shit! She could do nothing, still dazed from the attack. Luckily for the zoroark, her fall was cut short by one of the onix as they caught her before she could crash into the ground. It was still a rough time, but it was better than having every bone in her body be smashed in. The zoroark was allowed back to the ground as the onix set her down and returned to its fight against a dusclops.

The zoroark did not even thank the onix, no time for thanks. She looked around frantically as the dust began to settle, searching for the purple beast and Sova. To her shock, the purple dinosaur had the blue fox pinned. It was not a good situation for the glaceon, that much was obvious. She dropped to her four legs and launched herself forward to charge into the genesect, however she was intercepted by an Onix collapsing as it lost its match.

She launched herself over the onix, but to her surprise the cofagrigrus she had struck with a shadow ball earlier had returned! The ghost type did not seem too happy as its hands flailed around and attempted to grab the Zoroark. She dodged the grabbing hands of the ghost type, preparing another Shadow Ball, "Get. Out. Of. My. Way!" she snarled as she charged forward with a Shadowy Sphere in her palm to be delivered straight to the ghost type's face.

--

The genesect stared down at the glaceon. It spoke, "I...will not...join you!" The genesect seemed to try even harder to impale the glaceon now that it had spoken. The flames intensified as the genesect regained its own energy thanks to the energy sapping move. Then suddenly, it was gone. Something slammed into the side of the genesect, throwing it completely off of the glaceon from the unexpected attack as the legendary was completely focused on ending Sova's life.

--

Ok, so George was back...with friends. The onix the friend had gathered began to attack the opposing pokemon. The steelix gave a whoop of a joy as he sunk back into the ground before shooting itself up into the air. The steel type landed directly on top of a Dusknoir as its body twisted and turned to dig away at the ground. The dusknoir was slammed into the ground as it was guided by the steelix, going down...down...down...Garnet stopped paying attention.

His attention was elsewhere now, more specifically the fact that the genesect had just EXPLODED. For a brief moment, he believed that they had won. Had one of the two hit some kind of self destruct switch or something? The answer was no as the debris cleared, and Sova was being pinned. The charmander moved before he could think, rushing to help the glaceon who seemed to be seconds away from dying. No. This was not allowed! The charmander's bright purple glow intensified as each leg moved and each movement propelled him forward.

The purple glow began to mix with a whiter glow. One would have thought he was combining Frustration with Outrage if they looked at him, but they would immediately be proven wrong as the glow grew brighter and brighter. His limbs grew longer, his body grew taller, a horn like structure protruded from the back of his head as his teeth grew sharper and more plentiful. The blinding light suddenly cracked as if it were glass and shattered to reveal a much larger version of a charmander. Garnet's eyes were wide as he continued to glow a purple coloring, his jaws agape as he launched himself into the genesect. He put everything he could into scratching and tearing at the genesect, not quite thinking but attacking in a blind rage. The fire of the genesect hurt a bit, but it was ignored as it was not quite effective against the fire type.

The charmeleon bit and scratched at the steel plating, his body obscuring the vision of the genesect. This did not seem to sit well with the steel type. The genesect flailed as it tried to get the much larger lizard off of its face. The talons seemed to actually be harming the armor a bit now, leaving small gashes in the steel plating as the teeth latched onto the side of the cannon so he could not be blasted with it. Garnet whipped his head to and fro in attempt to rip the cannon off just as Mirage had attempted to do, but failed. Still in his blind rage, he did not see the genesect's eyes begin to glow purple.

The charmeleon was suddenly ripped away from the genesect, leaving a creature with quite a few dents behind as he was slammed into the wall. The charmeleon was then pinned to the wall with the psychic power. His tail thrashed about as he hissed at the genesect with wide wild eyes. The genesect had now had enough with the annoying reptile, as the bug turned towards the pinned Charmeleon and aimed the cannon at the fire type. Electricity collected itself around the nozzle of the cannon before suddenly firing forward with enough force that the genesect itself was forced back a few inches.

The Thunder attack collided with the charmeleon who was unable to move, and the form of Garnet was last seen just before the Thunder attack collided with him before he was obscured by a cloud of dirt and boulders.

Everything was getting hazy, Sova's body was weakening and nearing giving out on him.  His energy was continuously being drained out of him, his paws were being burned, and he was staring at what felt like his death in the form of a sharp claw.  His breathing was getting shaky as he continued struggling to keep the flaming spear away from him.  His hearing had returned enough for him to barely hear the creature as it responded to him, but the words were muffled and confusing.  He didn't want it to join him, he just wanted it to stop trying to kill everyone!  His goal here was to make sure the world didn't end, not to befriend some random thing he'd never even heard of before a few days prior!

He tried to take in enough breath to speak, but it was difficult with the pressure being put on his body.  The creature was raising its other arm to attack him while he was incapable of blocking.  He could feel the heat of the fire on his face, his eyes were stinging from the heat.... then it was all over.  He wasn't dead, though.  The creature had been swatted off of him by.... a charmeleon?  His body rolled to the side as he noticed a steelix.  When did these things show up?  They hadn't been brought in by the orbs.  He then began noticing the multiple onix assisting them and fighting against some of the enemies, one of which had an oddly familiar.... derp aura to it.  He was getting a good idea of what was going on, but it was still a bit confusing.  The entire situation was just getting more and more confusing as time went on.

The glaceon struggled to roll upright and attempted to pull himself up off the ground, the latter of which failed.  He looked around for the creature and spotted what was indeed a charmeleon fighting the beast.  Wait, a charmeleon?  "Garnet?" he muttered in between his shaky, heavy breaths.
The lizard whom he assumed was Garnet seemed to actually be hurting the beast, but that quickly changed.  He watched helplessly as the lizard was thrown into a wall by psychic energy and engulfed in electricity.  He stared silently as the limp body fell through the resulting cloud of debris and to the ground.

Garnet wasn't getting up. The tail-flame was out.

He could still hear his heartbeat.  It was speeding up.  His fur bristled and froze instinctively and his body rose off the ground despite the exhaustion.  The bug looked right at him and its eyes began to glow, but he got moving before it could focus on him to do what it'd done to Garnet.  He darted straight for the creature, catching it off-guard with how capable of moving he still was and forcing it to put its arms out in front of it in an "X" to block.  He rammed into the arms and immediately pulled himself back as they began to glow green, just before the two arms separated in an attempt to slash at him.  He took in a deep breath and blew more of the icy mist, which was just met with the fire once more.  Always the fire.  He couldn't do anything when this enemy was able to simply light itself on fire and ignore all of his ice attacks.

In the blink of an eye, the glaceon was behind the beast, too fast for it to turn in time to follow with its injured leg.  He lifted himself onto his front paws and cartwheeled forward, just barely missing the creature as it jumped back in time.  That didn't matter, though.  Before the enemy even landed on the ground, a vicious blast of freezing wind erupted from where Sova had swiped the air with his tail.  The attack slammed into the flaming beast, blowing the flames out instantly and knocking it off-balance.  He then darted forward and leaped off the ground, ramming into the thing's chest in the blink of an eye.  As it fell to the ground, he took in a deep breath and started blowing right on its face, and for the first time, the Frost Breath managed to hit it without being ignored by fire-armor.

One of the spike-handed arms was jabbed at the glaceon, forcing him to step back and off of the creature.  The arm just barely managed to scratch his chest as he moved away, though it wasn't anything major.  The beast got off the ground and rushed him, trying to jab the claw of its left arm at him as it took on a metallic sheen.  He merely stepped out of the way and pushed the arm down from the elbow as it passed by, causing it to stab into the ground and become stuck.  He held his front paws against the arm to keep it pinned in the ground while the other one came for him.  If he'd had the spike, perhaps he could have gotten a good hit in with it, but the explosion had caused him to drop it somewhere.

Instead of backing away, he moved his head back and just barely avoided the claw of the arm.... then bit onto it.  The creature tried to pull away, but he wasn't going to let it go that easily.  The cannon on its back began to charge, aimed right at him from near point-blank.  However, the glaceon made no effort to move.  He was going to hold it in place until the very last second and hope someone took advantage of the immobility.  If only he'd had the spike, he could have poked this thing full of holes, but he had to settle for just keeping it in one place.

The zoroark had succeeded in finishing the cofagrigus off just in time to see the small lizard be electrified by the genesect. The debris cleared once more, and the glaceon was attacking the genesect yet again. The zoroark moved to join the fray again. She noticed that the glaceon did not seem to have his stick. There was no way he was going to find his weapon in the darkness! She glanced around, getting a good view of the battle field as Sova faced off against the genesect. They could not do much against the bug and steel type without that stick!

She looked around enough to see that there was two dusknoir and a dusclops left from
the pokemon that had been brought in by the house orbs. There were three onix left excluding George, and the steelix had risen up once more with a loud whoop. The steelix dropped his body down to the ground before its eyes locked onto the genesect. The steel type gave a loud roar as he rose his body into the air. Mirage's eyes widened as she pieced two and two together. She rushed towards the genesect and the glaceon once more,
her hands latching onto the glaceon and ripping him away from the genesect despite the glaceon's protests.

Just as she pulled the glaceon away in time the steelix smashed itself into the genesect face-first. The genesect's feet were forced into the ground from the impact as it threw up its arms in order to stop the large steel snake. The genesect seemed to be struggling to stop the steelix as it glared down at the genesect and attempted to throw all of its weight into making this thing go splat. Sova would have surely been crushed by the steelix along with the genesect. The genesect had a plan though. The cannon pointed towards the steelix as the genesect planned to deliver a burn drive Techno Blast point-blank right between the steelix's eyes.

"Fucking bring it," the steelix sneered down at the Genesect with a crazed look to his eye. As soon as he finished the scentence, the genesect unleashed the powerful attack. There was a problem though for the genesect. The attack was pure white rather than a fiery red. The genesect seemed confused for a second, before it dawned to him what had happened. He quickly glanced over to the reptile that had attacked him earlier to see a red disc in its jaws. Garnet had ripped out the burn drive in his attack!

The steelix pressured the genesect even more, taking barely any damage from the ever-so powerful attack. The genesect was beginning to panic, not thinking to set itself on fire or to just use Flamethrower. This was the steelix's plan, make him squirm, freak out, be unable to think.

Mirage released Sova and spotted the stick out of the corner of her eye. Without a word to Sova she darted towards the stick and latched onto it with her claws, "Sova! Catch!" She shouted before tossing the stick in Sova's direction for him to use against the pressured genesect.

Rather than having someone attack the enemy while it was immobilized, Sova only had one of his allies pull him away from the fight. "What're you-" he began, but his question was quickly answered as the steelix slammed itself into the other metal-coated creature. He could barely see at all in the darkness, but the giant rock-snake-thing was pretty hard to miss. He was hesitant to assist, feeling he would likely only get in the way of the massive steelix. Besides, he could barely even hurt the all-powerful bug, so what good would putting himself in harm's way do? However, to his surprise, it.... stopped the steelix, and it even managed to counterattack. The cannon's flash was fairly easy to see and made it easy to see exactly where the creature was, but there was something different about the beam. It was a different color. Perhaps a different attack?

Then he heard Mirage telling him to "catch." What was he supposed to catch? He gave the zoroark a confused look before realizing his spike was coming straight at his face. A bit surprised, the glaceon moved to the side to allow it to pass by him and caught it in his mouth as it flew by. He was a bit worried about putting himself in danger when he didn't even know if he could do anything, but as far as he knew, this would be the only chance he'd get. He bolted straight for the bug, leaving an afterimage in his wake, and jabbed the spike right under the armor of its right leg. The injury forced it onto one knee, but it still persisted.

Sova immediately pulled the spike out of the creature's leg and moved around behind it. He was met with no resistance, as the bug's full attention had to be put on stopping the steelix that was right in front of it. The glaceon jumped up and stabbed the spike into the right arm of the creature, pulling the weapon out once more as he landed back on the ground. The bug tried to keep its arm against the steelix, but that arm was clearly no longer capable of helping much. However, somehow, it still managed to hold the steelix off. What a stubborn creature.... it just didn't want to die, did it?

Sova leaped back and as he landed, a sudden wave of exhaustion and pain hit him. It was so sudden, he almost fell over from it. His body was hurting, he was pushing himself too far, but he just needed to go a little longer! He took in a deep, shaky breath and spun in a circle, whipping his tail at the armored insect. He was much too far away to do anything with a melee attack, but the resulting wind-slash was a different story. The freezing wind slammed into the purple dinosaur, finally weakening it enough for it to be mowed down by the steelix. The massive rock-snake then tore into the ground, dragging the enemy along with it.... and there was silence.

"I.... I think we...." Sova spoke after a moment.
However, instead of finishing the short sentence, he instead was forced to stop as his legs nearly gave out under him. He was forced to kneel on one of his front legs as his breathing grew increasingly more deep. Every movement he made at this point was damaging his body, but it was all worth it. They'd finally won, so he could relax and stop pushing himself so hard. "I think we won," he finally finished what he'd intended to say.
Just as he did so, a very loud explosion erupted from under the ground. Moments later, a rather small disc flew up out of the hole the two metal beasts had gone down. It was impossible to see clearly through the dark, but the disk suddenly transformed to reveal itself as the still-living and still-standing enemy, falling to the ground as it did so.

Without any form of light, Sova still couldn't really tell any of this, but the glow of the cannon made it all clear. He rolled to the side to avoid the beam, surprised to find no burning heat to meet him this time. "Just stop! Why do you want to fight so bad!? Do you WANT the world to end!?" he shouted, figuring he might as well since the creature had answered him once already.

"I will not fall for your tricks!" the creature responded.

The more he got to speak to this thing, the more it seemed like this was a misunderstanding. He couldn't just let it go, though. Regardless of its reason for fighting, they had no choice but to fight if it wasn't going to stop willingly. "Mirage," he looked to the zoroark and tossed the spike over to her.
"I'm gonna try to talk to it. Don't do anything unless it attacks."
With that, he forced his legs to cooperate and began slowly walking toward the bug.

"I'm a guild member. I came here to stop you from joining Giratina and Darkrai," he explained as simply as he could.
If this thing wasn't actually his enemy, he didn't want to fight it, and that was starting to seem like the case from its confusing responses so far. He couldn't see that the creature was having about as much trouble standing as he was, so he kept his guard up and prepared to back off if it decided it was done talking.

The zoroark was hesitant to stay back, considering the glaceon seemed to be in pretty bad shape. She failed to follow the glaceon's orders, and followed him with silent footsteps as she picked up the spike. Her eyes were trained on the genesect, it was stumbling, but it was still standing. The glaceon was speaking to the bug type now to her surprise, she looked to the genesect, watching for any signs of hostility.

The genesect stared down at the glaceon with a cold glare, "As if, I'm not falling for your tricks. You're with the rest of them, evil vile creatures who-"

"Heeeeeey!" a familiar voice piped up that caught the genesect's attention. The genesect turned to see a duskull floating towards him with its arms flailing over its head. The steel type recoiled at the sight with his cannon powering up as the duskull halted in its tracks. It seemed to be hurt that the genesect would react such a way, "Wh-what? Why are you being so mean!"

The genesect glared at the little duskull before speaking up once more, "Why wont you LEAVE me alone? Right when I thought you were gone too! It's too dangerous for you to be here, around me even. Get the hell out of here before I MAKE you!"

The duskull's cloth-like hands raised to its mask as if it was covering a mouth as a sad expression came over him, "B-But these are my friends. Th-they said you wanted to destroy the world...you started acting all weird after Mr. Spooky came by and-"

"YOU WERE AROUND THEN!?" the genesect seemed to be a lot more talkative now, albeit very furious with everything that seemed to be happening, "Nevermind, just...get out of here! They're lying, they have to be! What kind of idiot comes down here after me to do something other than to get me to join that accursed army of theirs'!?"

The duskull crossed its arms, "They were nice to me! They're not bad like those other guys!"

Mirage was quite shocked to see that the genesect was actually talking, and upholding an argument with the duskull. From what she knew, the genesect was more likely to just blast the little duskull on the spot rather than get into an argument with it. She was quite speechless at the moment...

--

A very faint light flickered from the direction of Garnet. The tail setting itself ablaze once more. His whole body felt numb. He could feel something in his teeth, hell, what just happened? He tried to force his eyes open, but every movement felt like pins and needles as his body seemed to refuse to feel anything else. He could hear things, faint due to distance, but it was still there. Who's voices? Sova's...he was still alive. What was that other one? It was one he had not heard of before. The duskull's, how the hell could he forget that one?

He could not move. He felt something close down on his tail like a clamp, sending more pins and needles of pain down his spine and eventually his entire body. He gave a sharp gasp of pain as he was lifted, hanging limply from the mouth of George as the onix picked up the immobile Charmeleon. His mouth was still latched onto the burn drive, not willing to let it go. He was unsure of what was in his mouth, but it had to be important. He was not letting go.

This poor purple dinosaur was truly misinformed. It was also oddly talkative considering how it'd just been the edgy, silent type mere moments prior. He couldn't help but sympathize on the topic of the duskull, as he too had gotten stuck with the somewhat-annoying little ghost, worried it would end up hurting itself. He didn't say this, of course, as it likely wouldn't help the situation, but it was noteworthy to him. Not only did he agree, but this also told him the creature was most certainly not "evil." This meant he couldn't kill it unless he was forced to, yet it seemed very hesitant to believe what he was trying to tell it.

"Tch.... This idiot came here to kill you, not to recruit you. I was under the impression you were the villain here. If you aren't, I have no interest in fighting you," he spoke up, referencing himself in the third person.
He was a bit annoyed at being called an idiot and having his intentions doubted at the same time, especially since he was trying to be diplomatic and end this peacefully. Just hitting things until they stopped talking was so much easier, but that didn't seem "right" to do here.

The light of the charmander's tail suddenly reappeared, and while it was weak, it did provide just a bit of light. The glaceon was relieved to know his new friend was still alive, but perhaps more urgently, he could now make out the condition of his foe. He didn't need to be particularly afraid; sure, he was beat up too, but this thing clearly wasn't immortal. "And you have no reason not to believe me. Keep in mind you're the one who attacked first, and if I really wanted to force you to join me, I wouldn't stop to chat," he continued.
It was clear that he was a bit agitated and he wasn't trying to hide this fact. He'd been through all this trouble under the assumption this creature was evil, he'd practically torn his body apart, and all because this thing had just assumed he was here to recruit it for Giratina!?

Despite all that, the hesitance to believe what he was saying was just ridiculous! If he really were with Giratina, what good would saying he wasn't do? How would that possibly help him recruit the thing? And why would he stop to talk if he just wanted to force it to come with him? What about his story was so damn hard to believe!? What, did he have to flash his badge? Did he need to drag the antisocial giant bug to the guild and get Faye herself to vouch for him? He much preferred the situation when the creature refused to speak.

All things considered, though, this wasn't bad at all. Garnet wasn't dead, Mirage at least seemed to have regained her memories, the beast had stopped fighting, it looked like the situation could be resolved without any killing, and.... There was something missing. He took a glance around; some of the onix and random things that'd been summoned were still fighting. However, he didn't see the friendly dusknoir anywhere. Sure, it was kind of hard to pick that one in particular out since it looked like the rest of them, but all the ones he could see appeared to be enemies. Sova said nothing on this matter, at least for the time-being, as there were currently more important things to worry about.

The genesect glared down at Sova with its bright red eyes, "You try having everything that isn't a native in this place attack after Arceus knows how long. If you honestly thought you could kill me, let alone beat me, though, then i don't know whether to call you brave or stupid. I-" The genesect's words were cut off by a deep and deafening roar that echoed throughout the rift. The steel type looked up before looking all about him as if looking for something.

"Where is it?" he looked to the pokemon he had once been fighting, his voice intense with rage, "Where's my drive?!" he said more urgently. The roar echoed throughout the rift once more, this time sounding more like a cackle. The steel type spotted the onix that was carrying George and spotted the drive. His cannon pointed at the onix as it shouted, "Drop it!" The onix, however, merely growled at the genesect and refused to release the charmeleon.

It was around then when a sudden purple light seemed to draw itself on the ground around the genesect. The bug quickly collapsed into its more compact form and shot forward just as a flaming boulder dropped down into the ground from directly above as it avoided the attack. The impact formed a rather large crater. The shock wave of the attack blasted forth and ended all battles that may have been occurring. The duskull quickly threw up a green protective shield against itself, but the shield was shattered as the shockwave collided with the attack and the little duskull was blasted into the walls.

Mirage was blasted back by the attack as well as it happened too quickly for her to react since she and sova were relatively close to the genesect. She felt her body be flung backwards and slammed into the side of the crevice. She cried out in pain as she tasted her own blood in her mouth, she certainly hoped that she just bit her tongue or something. The wind of the attack whipped and lashed at all in the area as the genesect landed on the ground while still in its compact form. The genesect was still for a moment before it became fairly obvious that the genesect was...sleeping.

Suddenly, the genesect rose in its sleep. All wounds it had previously had been healed, and all damage and handicaps Sova had given the genesect were now gone. The creature was back to perfect health. She was horrified by the fact that it could have done that the whole time, and it seemed to be moving in its sleep. The genesect's cannon aimed upwards as a beam of ice shot forward into the darkness, it went on miles, and it seemed to hit nothing. There was a sinister chuckle as something rose from the ground and wrapped its great arms around the sleeping genesect.

"Ready to join the team now?" the disembodied voice spoke as its voice echoed off the walls of the chasm. The genesect easily knocked the dusknoir off, the same dusknoir from before who was said to have the monferno relative. The bug and steel type shot forward with immense speed to the collapsed body of George and ripped the burn drive from the charmeleon's teeth before utilizing Psychic to place it back into the cannon. Genesect then aimed the cannon at the Dusknoir as it rushed towards the genesect once more with an ominous glare to its eyes. The genesect pointed the cannon at the dusknoir and fired a Techno Blast. It instantly regretted it.

As the dusknoir was blasted with the cannon, a purple ring drew itself around the genesect once more. This time spikes shot from the ring forward and dug into the genesect as a Destiny Bond took effect. There was screaming of both the dusknoir and the genesect for few brief seconds, before both collapsed.

"Welcome to the team," the voice spoke before a dark energy overcame the genesect. The genesect seemed to sink into the ground, before disappearing along with the dusknoir.

Perhaps they could just knock the creature out then leave.  Even if they couldn't kill it, maybe they could just shut it up?  Sova was slowly growing more and more agitated with the creature as the conversation continued.  He was offering peace and all the thing could think to do was respond with hostility.  Perhaps he would just give it the fight it so clearly wanted, then!  As soon as it finished talking about how he couldn't beat it, he planned to step up, but then.... the roar came, and it made such petty things seem much less important.

Bugthing wanted its.... drive?  He was confused as to what this meant, but the answer became apparent when he noticed what it was shouting at.  The onix.... who was holding Garnet.... who was holding a small device.  After that, everything happened so fast that it was kind of hard to keep up with.  He could gather that the thing that'd previously been his enemy was now worried about fighting something else, something it seemed to actually be intimidated by, but he couldn't really see what.  Of course, it was obviously whatever had made the roar, but that still didn't really explain much.

Before he could think much more about it, a meteor suddenly came crashing into the ground considerably close to him.  His eyes widened and he turned to flee, but he didn't get far before the meteor made contact with the ground and sent out a devastating shockwave.  He felt a wave of pain from just the impact of the shockwave.  His paws lifted off the ground, and for what seemed like an eternity, he was airborne.  Then the ground came; another wave of pain; tumbling violently across the ground....

....Then the wall.  The tumbling suddenly stopped as he felt the left side of his body slam into the side of the crevice.  He gritted his teeth and made no sounds despite the pain, as it was the most he could do.  He fell limply to the ground, eyes barely open, and watched what happened next through blurry vision.  It was all so hazy, so hard to understand, yet he managed to get the gist of it.  Everything that could have possibly gone wrong suddenly did, all in a matter of moments.

First, the creature demonstrated an ability to heal itself back to perfect condition and just keep fighting.  He hadn't beaten it, he hadn't even come close.  Then the dusknoir from earlier finally showed up, only to to apparently have switched sides.  Lastly.... the very thing he'd come to prevent....  It seemed he'd caused it, in the end.  The creature was quickly defeated and taken away, all while he sat by helplessly and watched.  A voice spoke and seemed to confirm that in the end, he'd lost.  It made him miserable, but he couldn't say anything to vocalize how he felt.  He couldn't speak due to the shock and pain.  He couldn't get up and fight.  He couldn't do anything right.

Then the glaceon realized that with the former enemy gone, that obviously meant he was next.  It meant his friends were next.  That was the obvious conclusion.  If he didn't get up, he'd die!  If he didn't get up, those who had come with him would die!  He leaned against the wall and took a deep breath before forcing himself up onto his paws.  His eyes nearly shut completely under the pressure, but he kept them open to see.  Then.... for a moment, there was silence.  He just leaned against the wall, forcing himself to stay standing and waiting for something to happen.  He was going to die, surely, but he would make whoever or whatever the attacker was have to work for it.  Maybe death would be good; it was what he wanted, it was probably what was best for the world if he died.  He'd already failed too many times, caused too many problems, so what good would staying alive do?

It didn't take long for Sova to realize nothing was going to happen.  Despite the fact that it meant he would get to live, and more importantly, that his allies would get to live, it only upset him.  He opened his mouth, but rather than making any noise, it just caused him pain.  The pain just infuriated him more.  He took in a deep, burning breath as dizziness began to cloud his mind.  Then,  he screamed.  He just screamed as loud as he could, not out of pain or fear and not at anyone or anything in particular.  It echoed throughout the rift and lasted until it was physically impossible for him to keep going before finally tapering out into a sort of pitiful, quiet pouting.

It was then that he willingly gave up for the first time.... and collapsed.

((To anyone reading Sova's post is a great place to pretend everything faded to black as like the end of the thing, but due to our own selfish greed for pages here's an extra post.))

Mirage could hear Sova's pained cry from where she lay. She wanted to say something, but she could not bring herself to move nor find the words to say anything. Everything hurt too much, there seemed like there was no hope. The whole reason they had come here to was to prevent what had just happened, and they had failed. She wanted oblivion. Oblivion that would sweep her off her feet and just allow her to not feel anything. She could feel it creeping up on her. She closed her eyes, and allowed the darkness of a dreamless sleep to swallow her.

Garnet was still unconscious, his tail barely alight as the Charmeleon lay limp on the rocky ground. Behind him lay George, who had tried to protect him. Both were still alive, but both were hurt. Behind George, was a crack in the wall. Within that crack, after a good few moments of silence, emerged yellow slug like creatures. The yellow winged and even useless looking creatures crawled onto the exhausted bodies one by one, glowing a bright purple as they did so before occasionally slipping into what seemed to be a deep self-induced slumber.