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.

Sova froze as the strange-looking creature fired a beam from what appeared to be a cannon on its back.  It was aimed at Mirage, but the zoroark managed to get out of the way in time.  However, the creature seemed very fixated on Mirage....  This needed to change immediately.  "Yeah," he responded to his light source, feeling fairly certain that this thing was what he was here for.
And it was clearly aggressive and not interested in speaking.  He knew he couldn't underestimate it, whatever it was, so if it wasn't willing to go about this peacefully.... he needed to take it out as fast as possible.

The glaceon darted toward the purple creature at near-teleportation speed, leaving behind an afterimage as he did so.  Just as he reached the creature, he noticed its gaze shift to him, its body beginning to glow.  His fur flash-froze into quills and he slammed his tail into the leg of the creature, hoping to knock it off balance.  However, it felt almost as if he'd hit a rock, and rather than the purple bug-like creature being moved, he found that he had moved himself; his entire body was forced into a spin-out, almost causing him to fall to the ground.  Before he could even pick his momentum up and start off running again, the cannon atop the creature's back fired once more, this time aimed at him.

Sova just barely managed to pull himself out of the way of the attack, feeling.... heat as it came within inches of him.  Was it a fire attack?  Rather than sitting still and worrying about that, he rushed right into the purple bug-thing, leaving behind another afterimage.  He leaped off the ground and propelled his body into a cartwheel-spin as he neared it, planning on slamming his tail into its head.  The creature's arms were pulled in toward it to make an X-shape, and it suddenly flung both arms outward just as the fox came into range, shattering his quills where it touched and sending him flying backward into the ground with a very loud thud.

The creature's red eyes stared at the glaceon as its cannon began charging once more.  He couldn't get up fast enough, he was in pain, his body burned where the creature had hit him and he felt as if he couldn't move.  What was this thing?  Never before had he felt such debilitating pain from one simple blow.

(37 energy)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Rift :

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The glaceon had attacked the weird thing just after confirming that it was indeed the thing they were looking for. The charmander moved to be near the zoroark, considering she was more powerful than he. Garnet however opened his mouth as the genesect was about to attack the glaceon after he horribly failed to do any decent damage against this thing. The charmander fired off a fiery ball of energy at the bug's canon, smashing into its skull and causing the canon to miss the glaceon by a mere inch. It was likely that the blast of the attack still caused the glaceon to take some damage and be blasted back a few feet, but at least he had not taken the attack head on. The charmander did not stick around to check to see if the glaceon had been moved by the force of the attack or not, instead beginning to glow a purple aura once more as he prepped another Fire Blast, though this one seemed much weaker than the previous ones he had sent at the dusknoir. The powerful attack was beginning to dwindle with such usage, and it would likely only get weaker from here on out.

The charmander fired the attack at the genesect again, though it seemed to be completely unaffected by the attack other than slight scorch marks on the top of the creature's head. The bug and steel type pointed the gun towards the charmander and prepared another attack just for the little pest, but the charmander was quickly swept out of the way by a certain Zoroark.

She picked up the charmander and ran with him a few feet before setting him back down. She did not know what was going on, but these two were friendly it seemed and the purple thing was the opposite of friendly. She needed to fight, a way to help. What was she going to do, think! Think!

Tears began rolling down her cheeks. The genesect stared at her as she began to cry...Fake Tears...really? Why the hell did she have this? The monster aimed its canon towards her once more, though she successfully leaped away and into the darkness in order to avoid the attack.
Mirage *eats another apple*

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Obsidian Rift :

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Garnet

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Obsidian Rift :

60

Sova's Roll

This dice is not existing.

The glaceon's body was certainly hurting right now.  He wasn't entirely sure if he could get back up from the pain he'd just endured, and he could feel his consciousness slipping away.  Was he passing out or losing control?  He couldn't tell, but both were considerably bad, so he didn't want to let either happen.  He held onto his consciousness as tightly as he could.... then there was a very loud noise near him and he was forced off the ground and away from the source like a rag-doll.  He felt himself drift through the air, pain surging through his body.  Then there was the feeling of the ground and another wave of pain.  He felt himself tumble and bounce off the ground slightly, then for just a moment.... everything went dark.

When Sova opened his eyes, he was standing.  He didn't remember getting up.  Whatever had happened earlier was happening again.  He was standing, but he couldn't move.  It felt almost like he was watching through someone else's eyes, like he had no control, like it wasn't his own body.  He heard the sounds of the purple creature's cannon firing yet another beam and his head turned toward the direction of the noise, but it wasn't him doing the turning.  He could feel his fur beginning to stand, the icy quills repairing themselves in the process.  The enemy had aimed at Mirage, but she'd avoided the attack.  Its cannon was charging again, trying to get a lock on the zoroark.

Then he shifted.  It felt like he'd suddenly been pushed back into his own body.... and the sudden feeling of being in control and having to keep himself standing nearly dragged him down to the ground.  He just barely managed to keep himself standing, stumbling forward a bit as he tried to move.  What was he going to do?  What was there to do?  What solution was there?

The creature continued to fire away at the Zoroark, she pushed her body to move as quickly as she could despite the pain. The searing heat from the beam barely missing her once more as she ducked. On the opposite side of the steel type, she could spot the charmander charging up yet another one of his fire typed attacks. It did nothing, why did he persist? The zoroark needed to do something else, the Fake Tears being quickly dried as the heat in the crevice suddenly increased from the intense usage of fire typed moves. She needed to throw something at it, try to keep a distance from this thing. Taking that kind of attack point-blank did not seem all that fun. The zoroark focused her energy into a small sphere, the sphere steadily grew larger and larger as it gathered in her claws. The genesect was charging its canon again, she tossed the ball of negative energy at the genesect, but it also fired its laser and tore a hole right through the attack. The zoroark hopped out of the way again, the shadow ball proving to be useless.

Garnet focused his energy into the fire blast, his eyes wide as flames erupted from his throat and gathered into a sphere in front of him. The flames had taken on a purple hue, as well as his tail as his body began to glow a bright red as Blaze took effect. He was still on his last legs from the previous fight, but he had to try to do something against the creature! It was only sheer luck that the genesect was intelligent enough to focus on the actual threat of Mirage rather than him, seeing as Sova was seemingly down and out.
Garnet

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Obsidian Rift :

Garnet's Post

This dice is not existing.

Sova just stood helplessly, barely able to keep himself up, let alone move. All he could do was watch his allies futilely attempt to harm the creature he'd dragged them both down to. If anything happened to Mirage or this charmander, it was entirely his fault. He'd chosen to put their lives in danger along with his own, and he had been fully aware of the consequences. It was a bad idea, one that should never have even been considered.... but here they were. He just wasn't able to tolerate the idea of coming down here alone, and now.... would Mirage pay the price for it? Could Mirage beat this thing alone if he couldn't?

His vision seemed to darken a bit, accompanied by a lightheaded feeling as one of his legs lifted to take a step forward. He caught the movement and forced himself to stop. Why was he fighting movements that would potentially help? Why was he stopping himself from helping his allies? Why was he trying to prevent himself from getting back into the fight? The answer was simple: it wasn't him. He didn't trust whatever was happening with his body; he didn't trust it not to harm his friend. He would just have to pull himself together and force himself to move on his own.

"Why are you fighting it? You want to save them, to.... kill it, don't you?" a voice rang through his head.
His voice.... No, not his voice. By now, it wasn't even surprising to hear this voice, and he recognized it instantly. It wasn't him, so there was no reason to think of how similar it sounded to him. This voice.... S.S.... was the reason he'd been having so much trouble controlling himself?

"Don't blame me, you're doing that to yourself. I'm just saving you, now stop fighting me," the thoughts communicated.
Of course, they shared a mind, so they could hear each other's thoughts like their own. It wasn't just one-way; S.S. could hear him too.

"You don't care about saving them, or even me. You just care about preserving yourself and killing anything else you can touch," he thought back at the voice in his head.

"Does that matter? The result is the same here."

That was a good point. There was no difference between the two intentions in this situation. The result was himself and his allies being saved, or at least having a better chance at surviving. Selfish or selfless, it really did seem like the maniac was needed. But.... he would hurt Mirage. He wouldn't try to protect Mirage, he would end up getting her hurt!

...Why was he alive? No, really. By all odds, he was supposed to be the first to die. Yet here he was, alive and doing fairly good despite facing a beast that even Sova could not put a dent in. His attacks did nothing, but still they had to be doing something. He was not quite wishing for death, simply confused as to how he was not a pile of gore splashed against a wall. The charmander had ceased firing the fire blast at the genesect, breathing harshly as if out of breath. He glanced to the glaceon to see it begin to step forward, only to stop himself. Again!? Really!?

The charmander hurried over to the glaceon's side, "Hey!" he called out to him. No response. Garnet growled his tail waving angrily about as the purple and red light intensified around him. He opened his jaws and fired a blast of flames directly into the side of the glaceon's face. That got his attention. He grabbed one of the dangly bits to the glaceon's head-thing and pulled the glaceon down to look at him eye to eye.

"I am not about to put up with your chicken-*ss BULLSH*T again," the charmander snarled bravely to the significantly stronger glaceon, "If you just sit there and do nothing again, she's definitely going to die this time. If you don't want her to, then I suggest you decide whether or not you're going to do something instead of chickening out like a little p*ssy. That THING is significantly stronger than the hydreigon, and I'm not just going to be forced to sit idly by again as someone gets hurt!" the charmander hissed at the glaceon.

With that the charmander did not wait for a response, deciding to jump back into helping the zoroark with the problem child. The charmander moved swiftly behind the genesect, leaping onto the creature and latching onto its abdomen. The charmander's purple glow began lighten as a white tint infected it and he began to bite and tear at what was usually the weak spot of most bug types. The little charmander bit at the tough skin, trying to sink his fangs into it and cause as much damage or even discomfort to it as possible.

She was nearly struck again, this time the blast being interrupted by the distraction of a certain lizard on the bug's butt. The genesect turn its head to glance down at the charmander, before moving a long arm as it glowed green to attack the charmander. She took this opportunity to attempt a Night Slash, her claws glowing with a dark light as they extended. She pushed her body to leap towards the bug type and attempted to smash the claws into the canon as hard as she could. She had hoped that she would break the canon, but her claws felt as if she were punching a brick wall, and only attracted the attention of the genesect once more...

"You don't have much-" the voice began, but a sudden flash of light surrounding the glaceon suddenly voided his mind of all activity.
Shock had snapped his mind out of the daze he was currently in.... and the one who'd been pulled to reality? Sova. However, he was a bit dazed in a different way now, having just been surrounded by the light of fire. The heat didn't really feel good, but it wasn't particularly painful either, which told him it wasn't the cannon-bug. It was soon revealed what the source was as the charmander rushed over to him, pulling his head down by one of his.... ribbon.... things. He didn't fight it and instead just went where the force was taking him, which was down to the Fire-type's level.

Then the lizard started yelling at him, acting as if he WANTED to be like this, like he just didn't want to fight or something! He could barely move and his body wasn't responding. He was trying to stop his own body from being used to potentially hurt Mirage. There was no winning here, so what exactly was he supposed to do!? The charmander finished yelling at him, then left to go try and harm the purple creature more. Mirage was attacking it too. Neither of them seemed to really be capable of doing much to it. Then again, he hadn't been able to do anything either. He'd brought these two with him to this place to die, hadn't he?

The purple creature stared at the zoroark, focusing in on her, locking on. Its cannon began to charge once more, but this time, it was preparing a more powerful beam. This time, it was a Hyper Beam. It seemed to be getting sick of pointlessly attacking just to be avoided every time. Sova just barely recognized how the creature's gaze seemed to follow Mirage exactly, unnaturally so, and he guessed it was due to a move. He got the feeling Mirage wouldn't find this very easy to avoid. Moving hurt, but he pulled his body up into a straightened position, almost falling over backward in the process. He needed to force himself to move right this second.

The glaceon darted forward, starting off relatively slow, but building into his teleportation speed quickly and leaving an afterimage behind as he reached the appropriate speed. The purple creature was so focused on Mirage, it didn't manage to notice him in the split second of reaction time it had. Rather than trying to directly attack it like last time, he jumped off the ground and bit onto one of its arms as he flew by it. His hope was to attempt to drag it off its feet if he couldn't easily hurt it directly. Maybe.... maybe at least he could buy time for the others to get away! Maybe he could fix his mistake!

The genesect's attack was interrupted by the sudden bite of the glaceon, the flickering collection of energy disappearing as its flat head looked to the glaceon that clung to its arm and failed to knock it over with the attack. The bug type stared for a good second before suddenly moving, raising the arm with the glaceon in the air before moving as if punching the ground, stopping before it touched it and slamming the glaceon into the ground.

Garnet gnawed on the abdomen as hard as he could, his teeth actually beginning to ache and complain about his failure. The genesect finally turned back to the charmander once more, the creature lifting its arm and attempting to slam the charmander off once more. He noticed it this time, however, and released the creature. He hopped off the abdomen and narrowly avoided getting struck with the creature's long strong arm. He landed on the ground and attempted another Fire Blast. The fire gathered in his mouth for a brief second before sputtering out. He was out of uses for Fire Blast!

The charmander looked up at the tall pokemon as it turned towards him, the creature stared down at him as the charmander stared right back at it from his position. He glared right at the creature, and it stared back at him with its seemingly lifeless red bug-eyes. The charmander was still glowing purple from the effects of the outrage attack, along with the red effects from the blaze. His tail was still blazing strong as he refused to flee in the face of the enemy. Sudden movement, and Garnet leaped to the side. The steel type punched a hole right into the spot where the little lizard had been.

To his luck, it seemed that the bug type had gotten stuck. The charmander took the opportunity to scratch his glowing claws against the creature's eyes. Unfortunately, it was as if the very eyes of the creature were impenetrable. He was helpless. It was sheer luck that he had made it this far, but damn it he was going to do SOMETHING! He was not going to allow himself to be tossed about like a certain ragdoll! The charmander took the opportunity to retreat as the genesect dislodged itself from the ground, seeing that his attacks were futile now that he was unable to use a type advantage against it.

She tried again, this time smashing into the genesect with her good arm. A bright red pulse emanated from the impact, disappearing after a brief outburst as she kicked off of the creature with another bright red pulse marking the area of impact as she utilized Night Daze. The creature's eyesight began following her again, watching her every movement as she attempted to get out of the creature's line of sight.

Garnet doubted the glaceon would be up so soon from that kind of throw down. He threw himself onto the genesect's abdomen once more, however the bug reacted much more quickly this time. The gaze quickly shifted to behind it as its arm swatted the charmander off harshly. Garnet was tossed to the side and the bug type's cannon pointed to him. The charmander initiated yet another stare down with the legendary, a white sphere collecting energy near the end of its cannon once more. He got to moving, running as quickly as he could. He had gotten on all four legs, proving to be faster than running on a mere two legs.

To his surprise, the genesect suddenly appeared in front of him as he teleported, and fired the cannon. The charmander cried out in surprise, and figured that it was the end of him. A thin fine white beam shot forth, and stuck his body...there was no force or impact to it however. The lizard blinked, having covered his face in hopes of preventing any impacts to his head. He looked to where the beam had struck him, rubbing the spot and checking to make sure there wasn't just some whole in his stomach "I'm okay?" he questioned just as the red light of the blaze began to disappear as his ability was changed to Simple.

Just as he spoke, the genesect lifted its arm above its head and slammed its hand into the ground once more. This time, something good actually came of it. Too quick for any to react, spires shot up from the ground and increased in size and area as the attack spread towards the charmander. The dull spires struck the charmander and forcefully slammed him against the harsh side of the crevice. He was sandwhiched between the permanent wave of rocks and the crevice of the wall. The light of the outrage attack could still be seen briefly before it flickered out. His tail hung off to the side, visible, but barely alight.

She watched as the charmander amazingly managed his own against the genesect, only to be wiped out in one move. Her jaw dropped in horror as their one and only nightlight was suddenly smashed into a wall. She looked to the genesect as it turned to her. Its eyes following her movements. She didn't know if she even wanted to continue fighting at this rate. She did not understand what was going on, why this was even happening, or who these people even were. Why should she keep fighting though? To find out? Was that really worth it? She stared at the genesect with a horrified expression, frozen in fear as the genesect prepared yet another blast of energy just for her that was guaranteed to hit the deer in headlights.

Sova had hoped to drag the creature to the ground, but nothing of the sort happened.  Rather, it was just as statue-like as the first time he'd attempted to attack it.  It then lifted him like a feather as he gripped its arm, before slamming him into the ground.  The force of the impact caused severe damage to his quill-armor and went straight through to his body like the armor didn't even exist.  It was painful, but he'd felt worse before.  He wasn't unconscious yet, so he had clearly felt worse before.  He struggled to keep his eyes open, holding onto the hope that came from knowing he was still conscious, but it was difficult.

He just wanted this to stop.  He followed the purple beast with his eyes, watching it handle the other two with about as much ease as it'd done with him.  Actually, if anything, they were doing better.  The little charmander was doing better than hi-

Suddenly, the charmander who'd been doing such a good job of not dying was caught by a single attack and it was all over.  The poor lizard was pinned to the wall by the very ground, and it looked like it hurt considerably.  His fault.  That was his fault.  He'd dragged the charmander down here.  The bug then focused its attention on Mirage, and what would come next was also his fault.  Would this thing kill them once it won?  Was he going to die?  More importantly, was Mirage going to die?  Mirage....

The glaceon forced himself to his paws, just barely lifting himself off the ground and shaking from strain and exhaustion.  It hurt to move.  He took in a quick breath and blew at the enemy as forcefully as he could, sending a cloud of freezing mist in its direction.  He didn't expect this to do much, but what happened next was something he didn't expect at all.  The creature's body suddenly lit on fire, causing his Frost Breath to simply melt away upon nearing it and do absolutely nothing.  The metallic bug's attention had shifted once more and it charged at him, still on fire and gradually speeding up over the course of its movement.

Sova just barely managed to force his body to move to the right as the creature neared him.  It wasn't elegant.  In fact, it was a stretch to even call it "moving."  He dropped to the ground upon trying to get out of the way, forcing himself to roll to clear a path for the flaming monster.  It pointed its cannon at him as the fire covering its body died down.  The fox tried to get up, to move, but he just couldn't.  The cannon was aimed directly at him, charging, and he couldn't do anything to stop it or get out of the way.  So, instead he did the only thing he could think of.

"Mirage, just run!" he used what little energy he still had to shout at the zoroark.
There was no reason for Mirage to be punished for his foolishness.  If anyone needed to die here, it was him.  This was all his idea, all his fault, and he alone deserved to face the consequences.  He wished he could go back and just fix his mistake.  He wished he could stop himself from going down here.  At that, he wished he could stop himself from ever waking Darkrai up.  He wished he could stop himself from hurting his friends so many times!  He wished he could.... save his parents.  There were a lot of things he wished he could go back and fix.  Normally, someone would focus on the future to get through distress such as this.

He doubted he had a future ahead of him. With that in mind, the least he could do was try to spare Mirage.

She didn't know what to do, the glaceon had drawn the attention away from her. Why were they protecting her? Why was she fighting so hard for them? She could hear the glaceon's cry in the air as he begged for a "Mirage" to run. She found herself responding, "Who's "Mirage"?" out of sheer frustration of the situation. They were doomed. She couldn't remember anything, she couldn't even do any decent damage against this weird thing that was going to kill them! Was she Mirage? Was the charmander Mirage?

Her claws reached up and grabbed onto the roots of her hair, shrinking back against the wall before suddenly bursting forth on all fours. Which direction was she heading? The opposite of the monster that had decimated the charmander and was now in the process of demolishing the glaceon. She forced herself to run as quickly as she could despite the harsh bite that continued to throb in pain and beg for her to stop. She couldn't hear anything, her eyes tunneling in on the path ahead as she panicked. She did not hear the genesect fire its cannon at the glaceon. She did not hear the cry of pain the glaceon emitted. She did not see the genesect gaze upon its work on the glaceon. She did not see the genesect slowly turn its head to stare at her fleeing form. What she did see, was the genesect suddenly appearing before her in a flash of movement.

Her eyes widened in fear, trying to cry out but getting choked up in her own fear. The cannon glowed brightly before shooting at the Zoroark. Her body was struck point blank, blasting the zoroark back her entire distance she had put between her and the field plus a few good meters. Her form rolled against the ground as the dust cleared from the attack, and she lay limp on the ground. She struggled to get up once more, barely hanging onto consciousness from the attack. She had difficulty breathing, gasping desperately and even pathetically for breath as the genesect advanced one more, taking its dear sweet time as it recharged from the Hyper Beam.

Sova laid on the ground, content with what was about to happen to him as long as Mirage got away.  Then something just had to happen to ruin that little bit of solace.  Mirage asked who Mirage was, implying she....  Had she....  Thoughts raced through his head as he realized it was possible his closest friend's memory had been damaged.  Did this mean she'd forgotten who he was?  He hadn't gotten much of a chance to speak to her since the hydreigon, so that had to have been when it happened.  That meant it was his fault, like everything else.  On second thought, there was still something he could take solace in.

In dying, he would be doing the world a favor.  Everyone else was better off without him.

He closed his eyes with that thought in mind as the shot from the cannon enveloped him, burning what little armor he had left away in an instant.  He screamed in pain from the attack, and he could feel his consciousness slipping away.  Right, there was still one option left.  As he drifted out of consciousness, he decided to sell his soul away one last time in the hopes of buying Mirage more time to flee.  It didn't matter whether or not she remembered him.  It didn't matter whether or not he lived.  Nothing really mattered.

"It's about time."

The glaceon's eyes opened, and this time they were wider than normal.  His pupils were shrunken as well, and a twisted grin slowly crept onto his face.  The zoroark was definitely not succeeding in running away.  Well, the primary objective here was to kill robo-Barney the big purple thing, not-

"Help her," a voice rang through his mind, shocking him.
Sova was still around?  S.S. was now in control, but Sova was still.... conscious.  He'd never had Sova talk to him while he was in control, so this was an odd experience.  He lifted himself to his paws and burst forth toward the purple thing as fast as he could, leaving an afterimage in his wake.  He spun around as he reached the creature and attempted to slam his tail into it, but it managed to block the attack rather easily with a single arm, seeming unfazed.  A quick search through Sova's memories revealed that the thing had increased its physical durability prior, which was probably helping.  Then he'd have to try a different approach.

The temperature around the glaceon dropped drastically as he leaped back from the metal bug.  A red orb of negative energy formed in front of his face and fired at the creature, and it just stood there and took.... it....  The orb passed right through the creature.  He only had a moment to feel confused before he felt one of the arms of the being slam into his back, forcing him to the ground.  He was suppressing all of the pain, but he couldn't suppress the overwhelming force.  It had used Double Team?  How many different moves could this thing perform??  He pulled himself to his paws and jumped away as quickly as he could, stumbling back to the ground a few feet away just before the creature slammed its grey-glowing arm into the ground.

That.... would that have killed him?  He frantically pulled himself back up to his paws, suddenly feeling a bit fearful.  More importantly than his life, though, his ego was in danger.  The temperature around him had already reached freezing and was continuing to drop, creating ice crystals in the air around him as wind whipped up.  Within moments, vision in the area was being restricted by snow.  He was trying to keep it away from Mirage, but he couldn't make any promises, especially under this kind of pressure.  The bug lit on fire again as the snowstorm began to whip up, allowing it to nearly completely ignore the cold and ice.  The wind was still blowing, but it seemed the creature was strong enough to simply fight against that without aid.

The glaceon created two more Shadow Balls, one in front of him and one behind him with his tail curled around it.  He took care to make it difficult if not impossible to see the latter as he fired the prior, and of course, the bug seemingly just stood there and waited for the attack to come.  But this time, he could see that it was an afterimage.  He spun around and released the second Shadow Ball behind him, sending it flying into the enemy and exploding in its face.  The silly creature had tried to use the same trick on him twice, getting behind him without him noticing due to Double Team.

The cloud of smoke from the attack seemed to at least daze the creature.  Or perhaps it just didn't care and was taking its sweet time, but either way, S.S. would take advantage of it.  He darted past the purple creature, scraping his quills against its armored body as he did so in an attempt to damage it.  However, it felt as if he'd cut right through its leg, which was odd considering how it'd previously felt more like hitting a wall.  It took him a moment too long to realize he'd hit another afterimage, though it really didn't matter how fast he realized it, or if he did at all.  Before he even stopped running, there was a blur of purple in front of him.

His smile faded.

The fox just barely managed to pull his body to the side to avoid a direct hit, but it wasn't enough.  One of the arms of the creature was glowing the silvery-gray color that indicated it was using Metal Claw. He wasn't quite fast enough to get completely out of the way and the claw tore through the side of his neck. He could feel more force being put behind the attack as it dug into his neck and up to his shoulder before finally releasing him to tumble to the ground. Stains of red were left in his wake and he came to a stop on his right side, with the decimated left side of his body being fully visible. The blizzard began to fade away as streams of red trickled down his body from the wound.

He wasn't sure what would happen next, but he couldn't get up to face it. It wasn't due to pain, or to weakness. It wasn't for lack of trying, or lack of desire. His body had legitimately reached its limit. He coughed as he lay on the ground, staining the ground with specks of red that had found their way into his throat. His ears flattened.

"N.... never.... mind," he muttered to himself, though it was honestly more for Sova.

"Sorry.... I.... can't...." he tried to get out a warning that he could feel himself slipping, which meant Sova would have to be the one to endure this.

But he just couldn't hold out for long enough. The glaceon's pupils widened back to their normal state, but his eyes stayed exactly how they were otherwise. He tried to scream in utter agony, but found that he couldn't. Was he too weak to? Was it the shock? Maybe his vocal cords had been damaged? Regardless, where he'd tried to scream, he only managed to make a pathetic moaning noise: "Ghhaaaah...."

The glaceon had distracted the genesect again. She struggled up, coughing and holding both of her arms crossed to her stomach as she stood before leaning against a wall with her good arm to support her. The glaceon was taking a severe beating again. Why was he helping her? She who did not even remember her name. Did he know her? Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as the genesect dealt a rather fatal looking blow with its claw. She should run, but there was no running.

She was incapable of running, there was no chance in hell this thing was going to decide to leave them alone and go away. She had to fight. The genesect was staring down at the mess he had made of the glaceon, likely deciding what to do with the body. She grit her teeth for a moment before she finally barked, "Hey!" she called. The genesect glanced to her, likely wondering how she was still alive. The zoroark's eyes began to glow a bright red as a mist crept and crawled around her figure. The image of the zoroark shimmered for a moment before suddenly there was no longer a Zoroark, but another genesect.

The two genesects stared at each other, glaring. The true genesect disappeared, leaving an afterimage in its stead as it appeared next to the other genesect. Just as it came by, the cannon on the fake glowed with a dark energy as a Night Daze was fired at the bug type at point blank range. The genesect did not attack her however, appearing to be interested by the image of itself enough to not kill her. She reared back her claws and attempted to smash into the shield of its eyes with a Night Slash, however her claws swiped through the creature as she was suddenly surrounded by five of them. Six genesect now appeared to be on the field, four illusions, one fake, and one true genesect.

The image suddenly erupted into a red mist and acted almost like a smokescreen as the zoroark rose her arms and slammed them into the ground as a bright red shock wave burst forth and slammed into all of the genesects. However the true genesect merely shot forth and ignored the attack with glowing green arms and slammed them into the back of the Zoroark. She cried out in pain as gashes were left into her back and more of her blood spilled into the crevice. The steel type's cannon pointed to the zoroark once more as it leaped back, electric currents coursing around the creature as it shot a Zap Cannon at the zoroark. Instead of being blasted by an impact, she found herself crying out in pain as her body was electrocuted. She fell forward, catching herself on foot in attempt to keep herself up.

The genesect walked behind the struggling zoroark calmly with one of the points on its arms glowing a bright green. Once he was near, he jabbed the hand into one of the existing wounds on the immobile zoroark's back as it utilized Fell Stinger. The zoroark tried to cry out in pain, but her throat was hoarse and it was as if she had done nothing but scream all day. She collapsed.

Now that he had nothing to do but stare as he struggled to keep his eyes open, the glaceon could truly see how dark the world was.  Or at least, he could see how dark this place was without the light of his new friend to guide him.  Somehow, S.S. had managed in this darkness, but Sova had nowhere near the level of focus and attentiveness required to navigate in such circumstances.  Besides, it didn't matter now.  Both of them had failed to beat the creature, and this time, it was a fair fight.  There were no tricks, no unfair advantages, no excuses.  They'd both been too weak.

When Sova's eyes finally drifted shut, there really wasn't much difference in what he saw.  It was black.  Everything was black, just as it had been.  When would the creature finish him off?  He couldn't hear anything, but he was pretty sure his ears had literally stopped working correctly due to shock.  If only he were able to just turn his pain off like S.S, then at least he could handle the immense pain and die in a somewhat peaceful manner.  He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, but he could feel and that was all that mattered!  All that was important was that he was miserable right up until the very end!!

"So it's come to this...."

........?

"I'm sorry.  I really thought you'd do better, too."

A voice was speaking to him, and this one wasn't in his head.  He knew it wasn't!  It was too.... too real!  It sounded just like....

"I mean, better than me.  And you were doing so good at avoiding it...."

His eyes shot open to see a leafeon standing in front of him.  The black abyss was now a white void, save for himself and the other eeveelution, who was giving him a warm smile.

"But on the bright side, you'll get to be with me!" the leafeon spoke.
Her expression seemed forced.  It seemed.... so real, the emotion appeared so genuine.

"I-I...." he tried to speak, but his throat just burned and stopped him from getting any further.
Tears were welling up in his eyes.

The leafeon's smile faded.  "I don't want to see this happen to you.  You're going to die if you don't get up.  That girl.... she'll die too.  The cute little lizard?  Him too.  So, you need to get up.  You need to stand and push."

"I don't.... want....  Fighting.... is what got me here...." he responded with tears now streaming down his face.
He couldn't believe he was talking to his mother, but he wasn't interested in questioning it at the moment, nor was he in the state of mind to even try to.

"Do you think you're evil?  That you deserve this?  You're not perfect, but neither was I.  What is important is that you do what's right when it counts, so you need to do what's right!  Get up!" the leafeon continued, seeming so very calm despite clearly being upset over the situation.

"I can't move.  And even if I could, I can't beat that thing and I can't run from it.  If S.S. couldn't beat it, I-" he tried to defend his lack of getting up, but the leafeon suddenly cut him off.

"Don't bring him up like he's some kind of tool!  Like without him, you're nothing!  It's the other way around....  You're the important one, you're the strong one, you're the one who chooses to do right because it is right, and you're the only one who can pull your body up right now!"

"I CAN'T!" he shouted at the leafeon.
She merely gave a faint, relieved smile in response.

"Really?  Then what do you call that?" the leafy fox questioned.

Sova looked down at himself to find that he was standing, with his legs shaking from the stress.  He'd jumped up in sync with his shout without even noticing it.  Esprit.... his mother always was good at getting her way.  She was manipulative, but in a kind way.  It always seemed like she could get anyone to do what was best for themselves.  He looked back at his mother, astounded that he was able to stand.  "I still can't fi-" he tried to argue, but the leafeon suddenly lifted her left paw and pressed it against his mouth, silencing him.

"You couldn't speak, you couldn't stand.... now you can't fight?  No, you just can't fight in the barbaric manner you've grown so accustomed to.  Where's my son, who could solve any problem?" the leafeon pushed and pushed, then finally took her paw off the glaceon's mouth, giving him permission to speak again.

He didn't know what to say.  He'd grown up to be someone he didn't like.  "I can't hurt it.  It doesn't matter what I-"

"Do you remember when you were a little ball of fluff?  I do.  You were absolutely harmless, could barely hurt anything.  I'd go so far as to say you were weak even for an eevee.  Yet you got into fights, a lot, and you didn't lose.  You didn't come home crying and covered in scratches.  You figured out ways to win," Esprit explained, circling the glaceon as she did so.
She paused until she completed her circle, then looked the blue fox in the eyes, giving a questioning look.  "You're not weak anymore, so you think you're invincible.  You're spoiled.  You've forgotten what it's like to be weak."

The leafeon hopped back a few feet, flicked her tail from one side to the other, and raised a paw into the air, pointing off into the void.  As she did so, it suddenly turned back to the black rift in a flash.  Only this time, he could just barely see.  The tan fox was pointing to.... Mirage, who seemed to be collapsed on the ground.  "Remember how to be weak, or you'll die, and so will they."

He looked down.  He was still standing.

She was on the ground, it was hopeless. They couldn't run. They couldn't fight. They could only sit here and serve as play toys for the beast. She couldn't move, her back stung. She was barely clinging to consciousness as was. Her body was practically numb at this point, she couldn't even lift a finger. She could only watch the genesect stand above her as it prepared another Fell Stinger. She couldn't move as it struck her limp body once more, punching her in a upper-cut manner and causing her body to move with the force. She felt a whine of pain escape her as the genesect repeated the action. Why was it doing this? Was it enjoying torturing her? Beating her while she was down?

The steel type stopped suddenly, turning to see that the glaceon was standing. She found herself relieved that the genesect had stopped, but she was also horrified that the stranger was now getting up yet again. The steel type turned once more to face the ice type, the cannon on its back readying itself once more as it pointed at the icy fox. She noticed a object that reflected the faint light of the charmander ever so slightly, her eyes were drawn towards it. It was the necklace that she had woken up with. It was on the genesect's arm, caught between its shoulder and the fore arm's protrustion. It must have slipped off her own arm and onto the genesect's at some point in the battle. Was it important? She hoped not. The genesect didn't seem to care about it.

The vixen wanted to say something, but she could not move. What was she going to say anyways? Run? Play dead? There was nothing. They had no hope. She could only watch the glaceon struggle for life, and wait for either the genesect to finish her off or for unconsciousness to claim her.

Sova stared at the enemy as it turned to face him.  Through the darkness, he could clearly see Mirage and his necklace, both of which were at the mercy of the vile creature.  Upon seeing his necklace dangling helplessly on the enemy, his heart began to race.

"Calm down.  You'll get the necklace back if you win.  And if you lose, you won't need to worry about things like that anymore," the leafeon spoke, seeming to instantly notice his distress.
It actually calmed him down.

"I can barely move.  How would you suggest I avoid dying?" he questioned, curious as to what the solution to this problem would be.
The creature's cannon was charging, preparing for an attack.  If he wasn't capable of avoiding it, he was likely just going to end up back on the ground.  Maybe he wouldn't even be able to get back up.

"Move," the leafeon simply responded, shrugging with her left paw.

"I-" he started up, planning on making more excuses, but the leafeon cut him off once more.
"You have the power to move.  Only you can do it; there's no-one here to help you with that."

The beam fired at the glaceon and he moved just in time to avoid it, feeling the heat as it passed by him.  It was a fire-based attack, and it wasn't one he recognized.  It was also extremely painful, as he'd learned from experience being directly hit by it.  The giant bug simply responded by preparing another beam.  This wasn't going to get him anywhere.  "Fight," the leafeon suggested.
It was like her words were healing him, giving him energy to keep going. The commands were helping him to focus, helping him to push himself, to force himself to keep going.

The glaceon darted to the side just as the beam was fired, leaving an afterimage. He then charged straight at the armored bug, his fur freezing into quills as he neared it. The creature began to move, but he wasn't quite registering what it would do.

Esprit was now standing beside the purple creature, looking up and down at it as if to size it up. "It's going to hit you because you're rushing it like an idiot," she stated rather bluntly.

Almost as if out of instinct, Sova stopped just before reaching the beast. Sure enough, one of its arms slammed down right in front of him, as it had perfectly accounted for where he would have been had he kept moving. The arm stuck into the ground and he just knew from that display that it would have hurt. It probably would have been the end of him. He took in a deep breath and a wave of pain pulsated from his lungs throughout his body, but he persevered. He blew a cloud of freezing mist over the enemy as he jumped away from it, but it merely lit on fire once more. The icy air all just heated up and burned away before it could do anything.

What was he supposed to do!? He couldn't beat it, and Esprit just.... just didn't get it!

"Your attacks really can't hurt it, huh?" the leafeon acknowledged.

Sova was actually a bit unhappy to hear this. He didn't want to hear that he couldn't hurt this thing!

"And it definitely hits a lot harder than you.... How do you deal with something like this? If your own attacks don't do anything, and the enemy's attacks do...."

Suddenly, Sova knew what it was he had to do to win thanks to the help of Esprit. If his attacks couldn't harm this thing.... He jumped back even further and dug into his bag, pulling a shining orb out with his mouth. He bolted toward the purple bug as it charged another beam, and rather than running away, it met his challenge. The creature's two claws began glowing a silvery color as it attempted to swipe at him with one, but he merely jumped over it.... then used it as a step for his back paws. The enemy attacked with the other arm, but he merely used this one as a step for his front paws. He lifted himself over the creature's head and quickly spat the orb into the cannon just before it fired. He allowed himself to free-fall in order to immediately get out of range of the cannon, but if this didn't work, he would be completely vulnerable to its arms while he fell to the ground.