Genetics

First topic message reminder :

(Sova's Energy - 83)
(Skylar's Energy - 13, it's funny because Sova's the one with the cursed ribbon)


"..."

Dark.  Not quite too dark to see, but nonetheless, this was the first thing the glaceon noticed.  He was already deep within the cave, so why was he only just now noticing his dim environment?  He couldn't seem to recall why it was so foreign.  In fact, he wasn't even sure where he was, or why he'd come.  Was this another dream... or... nightmare?  It certainly felt like it; he had a familiar fogginess in his head that was reminiscent of the atrocities sleep typically put him through.  So, then, when was the nightmare going to start?  When would the bloodthirsty being in the back of his mind come out to play?

As he waited, his gaze slowly trailed up his legs until he noticed something odd.  At first, he thought he was wounded, but they were not wounds.  His body appeared to be covered in red markings.  He lifted his left paw to touch a large, L-shaped mark on his chest, when a sudden jolt of needle-like pain through his body that caused him to freeze.  Was he hurt?  He didn't want to risk moving and worsening an injury, especially if it was something internal.  The pain wasn't anything too extreme, so he figured it probably wasn't a serious injury and decided to just ignore it.

He had to feel the markings, and so he did.  He pressed his paw against the large brand on his chest just to verify what he could already see: it was a part of him.  His very fur and skin held the color, and it seemed to glow with an eerie aura.  As he moved his paw back toward the ground, he noticed another marking on its pad.  However, this one seemed... different.  He lifted his paw up to his face to get a good look at what appeared to be a healing wound.  He was hurt?  It looked like it'd been there for a while and wouldn't be a problem, but he had no clue how he'd received this injury.  He gave himself another look over and began to notice numerous healing wounds amidst the red markings.

What had happened to him?  How could he not remember whatever had riven his body, or the source of the strange markings?  He could feel his heartbeat speeding up as he began to panic, his breathing becoming shaky.  "This must be a dream," he found himself speaking aloud, hoping - borderline-praying - that someone or something would confirm his suspicion.

"Then wake up."

He recognized this voice, and the fact that it was coming from behind him rather than in his head confirmed what he'd already guessed: this was a dream.  He slowly, hesitantly turned around to face the mirror-image of himself, every step eliciting pain as if his body were full of stone shards.  His body seemed to move on its own, rushing toward the doppelganger with as much force as he could muster.  His body almost immediately began to pulse with agony, causing him to stumble and fall forward, going straight through the other glaceon.  He wanted to scream at the other glaceon, or to get up and attempt to attack once more, but all he could do was moan in agony as he lay on the ground, his eyes shut tight in pain.

"A for effort, now get up.  You aren't dreaming," S.S. spoke from behind him, sitting patiently and waiting for him to pull himself together.

Sova feared the very idea that this was his reality.  This meant he was truly insane, which he did not want to believe.  He tried to push himself up, but the slightest strain on his body sent another fresh wave of metaphorical needles piercing into his body, ensuring he stayed down on the ground.  "I..." he muttered, his voice strained from the pain.  He could hear S.S. sigh, as if disappointed in him.

"What's the matter, can't do it?  The pain's too much for ya?  Wasn't that bad for me," S.S. taunted, knowing that the vulnerable child soul-shackled to him would want nothing less than to fall short to him.  

Sure enough, with the threat of paling in comparison to the demon driving him, Sova found the will to pull himself up despite the pain.  Despite trying to move with caution, he still managed to stumble as he faced the bane of his life.  "What's going on?  Y... you're not..."

"Real?  I'm as real as you are," S.S. decided to cut his little friend off before allowing him to say something stupid.  "But I know what you mean.  The gist is that you're going insane.  You're finally breaking."

The sound of a rock falling to the floor of the cavern caused Sova to jump, nearly falling over in his delirious state.  His head swiveled in the direction of the noise to find nothing, and when he turned back, S.S. was gone.  In fact... that wasn't the only difference.

He was in an entirely different area of the cave.

"...What's happening to me?"


Skylar hadn't known Sova for all too long, but she still knew him well enough to recognize when something wasn't right.  He was always antisocial, irritable and insensitive, but lately, he was just... different.  He seemed to have a certain air of bloodlust to him, at least, at times...  Then sometimes he appeared to simply be absent from his own mind; his body would be functioning, but he would seem hollow, so to speak.  But not matter which side he was on, he'd been acting very ominously, saying and doing concerning things.  The vaporeon hadn't gotten to see much of him since he'd been around the guild - and Grassveil in general - even less than usual, but she'd seen more than enough.

In one particularly concerning case, she'd found him in their room, sitting.  Not laying down, or looking for anything.  Just... sitting.  His back was turned to the doorway, so she spoke up with a greeting to get his attention.  Upon receiving no reaction, she began to worry that something was wrong, so she approached and placed a paw on his back as she what was wrong with the hope of comforting him.

She could still remember his exact words.

"He's dead."

After that, he got up and left the room.  By the time Skylar had gotten over the shock of what she'd heard and went to pursue him, he was nowhere to be found.  He'd already left the guild.  When the message came about the death of Linus, a honchkrow who was on the team of one of Sova's friends, the vaporeon began to piece it all together in her mind.  It was difficult to suppress fearful thoughts of the worst-case scenario.

Skylar and her teammate, Keith, had worked tirelessly to cover for their leader's odd behavior from that point onward.  They made sure one of them was there whenever he was in the guild to ensure he didn't creep anyone out, or... hurt anyone.  They felt bad talking and acting on his behalf while he acted like either a husk or a psychopath, but they didn't really know what else to do other than tell someone and risk getting him in trouble.  After all, he'd saved both their lives, so they both felt like they owed it to him to at least give him some time to sort himself out, and to help in any way they could.

And so here she was.  The two had taken to following Sova around outside of the guild, partially to watch out for him and partly to see if they could figure out what was wrong.  Skylar had followed him into Serene Cave while Keith went back to the guild so no one would question all three of them being gone for an extended period of time without taking any missions.  Besides, she figured one of them would be able to move around undetected easier than both of them, and she'd already been through caves before, so she felt she was the better choice.  But now that she was actually faced with the task of keeping up with Sova while making sure not to be noticed, she was beginning to doubt herself.

She had completely lost him, and it'd been a while since she'd seen any trace of him.  He was too fast for her, moving unlike any living thing she'd ever seen.  He didn't run, yet his movements were swift.  He never hesitated, never stopped, and never took even a moment to contemplate which path to take.  Through the low light and maze-like structure of the cave, Skylar had lost sight of her leader, and her own sense of direction followed soon after.

She had no idea where she was going.

The piplup was quite shocked by the sudden change in tone made by the glaceon. She slowed her pace once more as the glaceon's mannerisms seemed to change once more. Had she hit some kind of piss off button or something?

Either way, she was offered two choices. Stop coddling her ego or shut up and keep walking. She chose neither, "God damn take a chill pill or something fluffy or whatever the fuck you are," she spoke, "You're acting like it's some tough shit, it's not. Seriously." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, "Honestly, it must have been weak as shit, the last monster i came across when i saw it was taking it on easy as pie."

That was a lie, but she had believed it to be the truth. The piplup had abandoned Mirage before she could see just how the fight was going. The piplup had no idea what the mewtwo's strength was. She had just assumed it was weak since the zoroark had prevented the mewtwo from following her and the balloon.


Aw crud now she was asking questions about. Luckily, Skylar had given her a key piece of information that helped her with this question.

There was more than just her and Sova. She knew exploration teams usually came in fours, it was rare that there were solo teams. She shook her head as she continued to weave her lie, "Don't remember. I don't remember much about what had happened really, just that badge. I was really weak at the time..." She cut herself off as if she were stopping herself from saying more.

The role of a prideful Mightyena that disliked admitting to weakness, that was what she played. The zoroark kept the illusion on as they spoke. She really hoped they found her friend soon.

Was the other team member the one they were looking for? She hoped that there were four instead of three, as that would leave even more possibilities for her to have been 'saved' from. If not, well then she was going to have to skedaddle as soon as possible else risk the vaporeon suggesting they go meet Sova.

Mirage:

Kat carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

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Namataki:

Kat carried out 1 launched of one Serene Cave :

"Heh," came the simple response of the glaceon.  In truth, he didn't plan to forbid the piplup from following him even if it was her resolve to keep being a pest.  He didn't mind enough to waste his energy doing anything about it.  Or at least... this was true until the bird decided to call him... fluffy.  His shallow laugh was not truly one of humor, but of... relief, perhaps?  While he was not exactly wracked with sadness over being called "fluffy," insults were not something he was accustomed to tolerating.  "Look..." he began, suddenly ceasing his movement.

"Don't," Sova tried to quell the darker personality from within his own mind.  He could sense S.S.' emotions, and he knew the piplup was pushing her luck.  However, it seemed he was being ignored, and he had absolutely no control over his body.  His willpower was truly drained.  There was nothing he could do but watch his own life from the sidelines.  Perhaps worse was the fact that he wasn't sure if he even wanted control back.  He didn't want an innocent to be harmed, but... he did not have the will to make his desire a reality.  He did not have the will to fight S.S.

S.S. did not intend to simply let the insult go.  "Whatever you want to tell yourself, I don't care.  On some level, you clearly understand the risks and don't want to die, or else you'd have left.  So, I'll let you stay..." he went silent for a moment, as if he were conceding and ceasing his attempts to intimidate the egotistical little penguin into behaving.

Sova felt relieved at what appeared to be S.S. making the decision to let the little bird's attitude go without punishment.  This relief did not persist through what came next.

"But..." he continued, "Abuse the privilege of speech to call me fluffy again... and I will rip out your vocal cords.  Respect my presence or the darkness of this cavern will be the last thing you see."  He did not particularly enjoy being so serious, but he was really not in the mood to deal with a pest.  This time, he did not start walking again, instead choosing to wait for the piplup's response.  If her behavior persisted, he was going to demonstrate the worth of his word.

Sova was becoming concerned.  He couldn't tell how serious the threats were, but he could feel enough of his counterpart's emotions to know the situation was dangerous.  "Calm down," he tried to push through the haze in his mind to quell S.S., but to no avail.  He wasn't sure if he was being ignored or simply couldn't be heard, but he had a feeling it was the prior.  Why was "fluffy" the one thing that was such a big deal?  S.S. had taken plenty of worse insults before, so why was this so important to acknowledge?  It wasn't even clear if it was really an insult.


The vaporeon sighed in disappointment at the immediate dead end her search for information had come to.  Whether this mightyena really didn't remember or was just lying, it seemed fairly clear that she would not be made to give the vaporeon what she wanted.  Be it due to incapability or unwillingness, it mattered not.  Sky wanted desperately to understand Sova, but it seemed impossible.  "That's... disappointing," she responded, having decided to give up if she wasn't going to get anywhere in persisting.  Besides, it seemed like a touchy subject she didn't want to push, based on the canine's behavior.  She didn't really want to keep quiet about her own troubles, though, if she had nothing apparent to gain from it.

She just wanted someone to talk to at this point.  "My friend...  I was hoping you knew him; figured maybe you could tell me something about him.  He doesn't tell anyone anything, though, so I guess that's a stupid thought.  I just wanna know he's okay... but I don't think he is," she began rambling, barely even realizing she was speaking out loud.  She didn't think that perhaps she was annoying her companion or making things awkward.  All she could think about was Sova and his state of being.  Sure, he didn't tell her much, but it was clear that he was getting worse, slowly but surely.  Even if he was a violent pyschopath, he was still her friend, and she didn't want anything to happen to him.

But there was something else bothering Sky.  "...And I don't know if I can trust him," she muttered, her voice having become substantially quieter.  "I don't know why I'm even trying..." her voice continued to become less audible as she spoke.  The thought of something bad happening to a friend was upsetting her, as was the possibility that he couldn't be trusted.  She wanted to have faith, but it was becoming difficult to put blind trust in someone so unstable and secretive.  At this point, she wasn't entirely sure why she was trying so hard to save him when he clearly didn't want her help.  She didn't even know what she was trying to save him from.

Skylar could feel her body wanting to break down again, but she suppressed it.  It was difficult through her stress and it demanded focus.  It wasn't exactly the most pressing issue, though, so she found herself uncaring in regards to her natural curse, which made it easier to suppress.  She still needed to find Sova, even if she wasn't sure why she was trying.

(Sova - 70 energy)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

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(Skylar - 5 energy time 4 rek)

Lord E V carried out 5 launched of one Serene Cave :

, , , ,

She hardly paid any attention to whatever threat the glaceon had tossed her way this time around as she instead stared off into the darkness with her mind in another realm of thought. What was this realm of thought? An eternal list of complaints she had with her current situation. It was a miracle she had not decided to voice these displeasures aloud, though in a sense it was fortunate as well. Namataki was usually the type to just continue with her rambles and ignore what the other pokemon had to say, only her voice was the most important....besides Garnet of course!

Since she had stopped paying attention, she had not noticed that the glaceon had stopped himself. It was as if she had walked directly into a moderately fluffy wall. The piplup backed away from the glaceon with mild irritation, "Alright, alright I get it! Let's just...keep moving," she requested. Honestly, she had not paid any attention to what he had said, but she did not like the idea of stopping. She waited impatiently for the glaceon to get a move on already.

"So...what'd you say your name was again?" she had asked before she really thought about what she had said. She had merely voiced her thoughts which had dictated that she had completely forgotten whether or not Sova had introduced himself.


What did she look like, a counselor? The zoroark wanted the conversation to continue, but it seemed as if this topic disturbed her acquaintance. Unfortunately, the description of the "friend" the water type was in search of only continued to match Sova. Didn't tell anyone anything? Seemed like something Sova would do...except her...right? Did Sova really talk to her about anything?

The topic disturbed her, the form of the mightyena shifted as her thoughts were disturbed, but she held the illusion steady. The vaporeon was not looking, so she couldn't have noticed, right? The zoroark was unsure of what to do. Shoud she be supportive of the vaporeon? Should she change the subject? Yeah, changing the subject seemed like a good idea.

"Well, if anything goes wrong...I'll be there to help. What about your other team members though? How are they?" she asked. Nice and subtle, Mirage.

The piplup seemed to have taken the hint that she was to behave, or at the very least, she was no longer being intolerably obnoxious.  Shortly after giving a clearly halfhearted agreement to the terms of her continued safety, she asked for a name, which S.S. decided to give his own... personal flare to.  "Giratina," he spoke nonchalantly, not expecting the bird to actually believe that this was his name if she even knew what it meant.  It was supposed to be a hint that he wasn't interested in giving out his name, especially to some obnoxious plucked chicken.  He didn't have any particular interest in talking to this annoyance, and he was really just tolerating her for Sova's sake, which was only because he had to care about his weak little shadow's desires for now.  He did not like thinking about his situation any more than he had to and, had he thought there were any other way, he would have gladly taken it over having to tolerate such an annoying creature.

The situation was delicate and it was important to treat it as such, even for someone like S.S.  There weren't many things he was willing to give such a luxury to, but this was one of them.  After all, his own safety was of great concern in this, and of course, Sova was at risk as well.  However, he was more immediately concerned for himself, or at least... he felt like he was.  He had originally thought that nothing scared him, as his purpose was to be fearless, but lately he was learning that he did, in fact, have the capacity to feel fear.  It annoyed him, of course, but what was even worse was that he had no one to speak with about it.  After all, he had no friends; some of Sova's friends tolerated him, but that was about it.  He liked it this way, but still, this meant he had no one to turn to if he actually needed help with something.  He wanted to talk to Sova about it, but that worthless, fragile being simply couldn't be counted on for anything.  Thus, he was

Growing increasingly agitated at the situation he was in, he decided to take it out on the creature following him as he started up walking forward again.  "And try not to ask any more stupid questions unless-" he prepared to give the pest another rule to follow, when suddenly, an explosion wracked the cave.  The disturbance sounded close, and it appeared to be quite powerful, judging by how it shook the very foundation of the cave.  Suddenly, the glaceon's mind went blank and his eyes widened, causing him to simply freeze and stare off at nothing in particular.  Then, without warning, his body became animate again as he turned to pick the piplup up with the intent of running directly toward the danger with her.  The thought process behind this was that she would probably try to find him anyway and it was better to have her with him than to leave her alone, even if he was probably going directly toward the thing he had come here for in the first place.


Skylar glanced over to the mightyena as she was asked about her other teammates.  She couldn't exactly give a straightforward answer since the question itself didn't have an answer; she did not have multiple teammates aside from Sova.  The only other one was Keith, and he was doing... relatively bad, as he was just as worried about Sova as she was.  The only difference between the two was that Sky had enough conviction - and perhaps enough stupidity - to chase after her leader while he was clearly not in a healthy state of mind.  Sure, Keith had claimed to want to go as well, but she knew he really just wanted to keep himself out of harm's way, and besides, they couldn't both leave.  Surely, someone would have gotten suspicious at all three members of a noteworthy team just leaving without telling anyone.

Beyond that, she had no idea if the fluffy marshmallow of a jolteon was managing the situation alright, and she couldn't worry about him since Sova obviously took precedence with how he was acting.  Only one of them urgently needed help, and besides, she wouldn't have even known where to begin with trying to help Keith.  Most of his problems stemmed from himself, which was something he would have to face eventually.  Sure, he was being stressed out by Sova's behavior, but that was just all the more reason to try and help Sova.  "Member. Just one.  He's... by himself right now, which probably isn't a good thing, but I think he's doing alright.  Or at least, no worse than-," she started up, clearly lacking confidence in her own words.  However, the sudden appearance of a sphere of vibrant, blue light coming straight at her from the path ahead made her fall silent as she was forced to move.

Fortunately, the vaporeon had reacted quickly enough to dodge the sphere of aura, and since it wasn't aimed for her companion, there was nothing to worry about.  She faced ahead in an attempt to see into the darkness and find out what was attacking them, but before she had even regained her footing from avoiding the attack, the sphere suddenly detonated in midair, creating a large explosion behind her.  Having already had to avoid the attack once, she wasn't in a position to move, so there was no hope of her managing to get out of the way a second time.

(Welcome to house orb, courtesy of Kat)

Lord E V carried out 10 launched of one Serene Cave :

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The piplup was quite shocked when the ice-fox had responded to the request for a name. She wasn't sure if she had heard the weirdo's name before, but this...this name...only matched the amount of weird he was.

"Giratina? Really?" she had started to speak almost immediately after the glaceon had said his name, "What kind of stupid name is that? Were your parents cultists or somethin'? That's pretty f*ckin stupid of them, honestly, though, that's like BEGGING for others to pick on you-woah what was that-HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" the piplup had rambled on without any regard for whether the glaceon had spoken or not. In fact, she had even continued to talk despite loud explosion within the cave. Nothing would stop this mouth once it started running. Her sentences had instead continued with a completely different topic before she was interrupted yet again as she was suddenly picked up.

The piplup was not lifted very high off the ground due to the height of the Glaceon, but she was a bit shocked that he could lift her at all. Despite it being more intelligent to sit still, she had proceeded to flail about and yell in an attempt to free herself, "HEY LET ME GO! YOU DON'T JUST PICK SOMEONE UP WITHOUT ASKING! DID YOUR PARENTS NOT TEACH YOU MANNERS EITHER!?"

Then she realized where they were headed.

They had been in a beeline straight TOWARDS the explosion.

"Are you f*cking INSANE? Wait, why am I asking, OF COURSE, YOU ARE! Don't drag me towards the danger you idiot you're supposed to take me AWAY from it, turn around or put me doooooown!" she cried as she kicked her legs and waved her arms like a small child throwing a tantrum.

---

Mirage had stopped looking forward when it happened. She had looked at the ground below her as she walked, her guard lowered briefly. She would come to regret that decision as a blue sphere of energy suddenly shot from the pitch black. She had caught the glow of the ball just as it approached and moved to get out of the way. The explosion was big, the shockwave had knocked her into the side of the wall and completely ruined the illusion.

Dust and dirt floated about the air still as the aftermath of the explosion took effect. The zoroark picked herself up with a slight struggle, her shoulder ached from the blow as she quickly put up the illusion once more. She needed to keep her cover until the Vaporeon got out of here.

"Skylar," she called out to the vaporeon before she approached with a disdainful glare into the darkness. She could see the shape of the creature in the distance now that she had actually focused her eyes in the darkness. It was quite obvious that the vaporeon was in no shape to move, but she HAD to move. It was either stay and die, or move and have a chance to continue life, "Go find your teammate and get the hell out of here." The tone was demanding as if she had issued an order to the vaporeon where she was the one in charge rather than the explorer of the two.

The vaporeon seemed as if she were about to protest, but Mirage interrupted her, "This is not a suggestion. I gave you the condition to run if I said so and I'm saying so. Therefor, Get. The. Fuck. Out. NOW!" she snarled before she turned to face the monster of Serene Cave.

The glaceon rushed through the cavern toward the source of the noise, having little trouble navigating despite his poor vision in the area.  He had already gone through much of the cave, so he remembered it just fine!  Even without being able to see particularly well, he could still make his way toward where he needed to go in good time.  However, his passenger was being a bit difficult, making him eventually decide to stop and simply drop her.  However, he had no intention of simply leaving her behind, even if she was a bit... much.  He gave a worried frown as he stared down at the little bird, trying to think of a way to explain the situation to her and make her understand that it was safest if she came with him.  This was particularly difficult only because the piplup was clearly of a particularly defiant nature.

"Please, calm down.  It's more dangerous to leave you alone in here than to take you with me.  I'll set you aside from the danger and you may simply run if anything goes wrong," he tried his best to coax the bird into listening to him with a very calm and - hopefully - reassuring tone, with a light and friendly voice.  He also gave a confident, content smile as he spoke, in stark contrast to the frown he had held on his face mere moments prior.  However, despite all his attempts to convince the little deviant, he didn't really intend to give her a choice in the first place.  She needed to come with him for her own safety regardless of what she wanted, and that was all there was to it.  So, before even waiting for her response, he bit onto the scruff of her neck and lifted her off the ground once more before continuing in the direction of the danger.

The physical exertion made the red markings on his body seem to... pulse with energy, causing shooting pains through him at the same time.  This made him stumble and slow his stride for a moment, but after adjusting to the increased pain, he continued running.  His pain tolerance wasn't very high, but he didn't intend to let that stop him.  He needed to get to the source of the noise so as to help anyone who may have been harmed.  And, equally importantly, he needed to find the beast wreaking havoc in the cave, which he assumed may have been the source of the commotion.  He needed to do anything in his power to hinder Giratina, but aside from that, he also wanted to stop the creature from hurting any random innocents.


The explosion caught the vaporeon and threw her off her paws, sending her her flying into the wall opposite from her ally.  "Ahk," a pathetic noise escaped her mouth along with her breath due to the blow against the wall.  Instantly, she was paralyzed by pain, unable to stop herself from simply collapsing to the ground.  The force of the blast was incredible, and certainly not anything she was equipped to handle.  She hoped this was the creature Sova had come to fight, because if it wasn't, that would mean there were still stronger things in the cave.  She initially simply groaned from her position on the ground, but when the mightyena spoke and directed her to run, she forced herself to lean against the wall so she could stand if only a little bit.  She intended to respond and express her interest in working together rather than splitting up, but before she could, she received a more... demanding repetition of the prior command.

Instead of running, however, Skylar stood her ground and looked up toward the ceiling, a glowing ball of light forming in front of her face as she did so.  The light then floated up toward the ceiling before instantly growing nearly blindingly bright, easily illuminating the cave.  Now, she could clearly see what the attacker was... and it was nothing she recognized.  The creature was bipedal with a light purple shade of color covering all but its tail, which was darker.  It had hands with three fingers and feet with three toes, but aside from that, there were few defining traits on its body.  Its face didn't seem to be particularly upset or agitated, which begged the question of why it was attacking.  Regardless, it was, and Sky's moral compass simply wouldn't let her do as she was told and run.

"I-I..." she muttered with a clear lack of commitment to her own decision.  She was admittedly afraid, and she didn't know what she could do to help against a foe that had already been made apparent as far stronger than herself.  The situation reminded her of how Sova didn't trust her with anything and refused to allow her to help him with anything.  It was because she was practically useless, and she allowed herself to be.  "I'm a guild member.  It's supposed to be my job to protect YOU!" she spoke with newfound conviction in a desire to prove she could be useful.  She almost immediately regretted her words, however, as the large purple creature outstretched an arm and pointed it at her.  For a moment, it seemed to be doing nothing, then a light began to form in its palm.  Skylar didn't recognize many moves by memory alone, but Sova had made sure she remembered a few that were particularly dangerous to her.

It was a solar beam, and with the sunlight she had just put up, the foe would be able to gather enough energy to attack practically instantly.  Thinking quickly, Sky directed her attention back up once more and spat a blob of water up toward the glowing light above, putting it out and instantly creating clouds.  The glow in the purple creature's hand dimmed as droplets of rain began to fall.  She could see that it seemed a bit annoyed, even without the extra light to help her vision.  "Hit it while it's charging!" she directed, hoping her ally wasn't too upset with her to let her attempt to strategize.  She wasn't nearly as good at it as Keith or even Sova, but she liked to think she at least knew the basics.

Dragged along for the ride, Namataki flailed and objected as much as she could until at long last the ride straight into hell had stopped. She was dropped, though she immediately got to her feet and turned to face the glaceon as she took a few steps back away from the crazy pokemon that had dragged her straight towards the danger. The icy fox had been given time to explain himself luckily as she was politely requested to calm down.

She listened to his words thankfully. Oh, sure well that made a ton of sense-WAIT A SECOND.

"But if something goes wrong, that means you're deadified. I wouldn't be able TO run you dingus! There's no way I could outrun that thing, I'd just have to hope it decided to play around with your CORPSE a bit!!" Her voice had begun to rise once more as she was suddenly being carried against her will once more, "Also, who are you and what have you done with Giratina?!" she flailed about again as she only continued to protest

Her motivations had sounded entirely selfish...but it was true. She didn't want to go there to die! She needed to live on in the memory of her one true hero, Garnet the Charmander!

...

And Jade, she guessed.

Her flippers only continued to flail as she was carried along. One minute the glaceon had been an absolute prick and now he was being nice to her while bringing her straight into the line of fire? Arceus! This glaceon was putting her in MORE danger than he was preventing!!

-----

The Vaporeon had given the room light, but the sudden brightness had only assaulted Mirage's eyes that had been tuned perfectly to see in the darkness. The zoroark gave a yelp as she was temporarily blinded, her claws raised to rub her eyes while the illusion looked as if the paws attempted to cover her eyes. She blinked a few times, but the warmth of light had already faded into a light rain. The blast of light had completely ruined her vision and now she had to give time for her eyes to adjust in the darkness yet again.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as the Vaporeon insisted upon staying. She gave an irritated growl. It was like trying to argue with Sova...but weaker Sova that seemed less confident about his answer. At least with this one, she could force her to leave, but the current situation did not allow for that. Hm, or did it?

An idea spawned in her head, while it was most certainly a bad idea, it would HAVE to force the vaporeon to leave right?

She had launched herself forward to attack while the monster had charged its attack. The Zoroark's body glowed with a strange red as she struck the Mewtwo with a Night Daze. She rammed herself into the beast with all she could as a very small shockwave was created from the impact of the dark energy on to the psychic type's body as Night Daze made its mark.

The mewtwo had been knocked back only slightly, but it had picked itself up with its psychic energy before it could fall to the cavern floor. The Mewtwo changed its target to attack the creature that had struck it as the blast of the Solar Beam tore into the walls of the cavern carelessly and created a wake of destruction. Mirage hurried to avoid it as the leftover energy of the dark mist from her attack assisted her in hindering the Mewtwo's ability to see her form in the darkness.

While it would have been wise to remain silent, as tricks of the eyes could not affect the ears, she spoke, "If you don't go, I'll start attacking you until you do!" she threatened, "You're a liability right now, like it or not, I've survived against this thing TWICE, I'm pretty damn sure I can do it again!"

It was an empty threat, not one she'd entirely follow through with. If she had to, she would purposely miss her attacks until she could get the water type to be too terrified to remain. She didn't care if she had to become the enemy if the vaporeon stayed then they would both die. She wasn't REALLY sure if she'd be able to withstand this battle with the mewtwo as well as she did with the last two, for he surely must have been tired of her, but she was going to try.

"So, GO!" she snarled.

The mewtwo looked directly at her.

"Shit..." she exhaled in a quieter voice.

Skylar had not considered that perhaps introducing light into a dark environment would cause trouble for a dark-type, though after realizing her mistake, she could understand the agitation she was receiving.  However, despite this, she still refused to leave even in the face of the sudden threat of assault if she didn't.  She hoped this new ally wouldn't so easily turn on her, but even if she was wrong, she simply couldn't leave.  She had a moral obligation to stay and assist the mightyena, even if Sidonia wanted the opposite.  Perhaps it was a bit selfish, but she needed to prove to herself that she could be useful, and more importantly, when and if she ever found Sova, she didn't want it to be with her fleeing.  She knew she was weak, but she simply had to think of a way to be useful despite this, even if it killed her.  Well, being killed by her own desire was less-than-preferable, but still...

Despite how she had replaced her own light with clouds and rain, she could still see the foe, partly due to the light show it was causing.  Its attacks were clearly powerful, which made a clear testament to its power and how stupid it was to attempt to fight it, yet she was going to do just that anyway.  For a moment, she had thought that perhaps her ally was just as strong with quite an impressive-looking attack, but it seemed to have done nothing more than agitate the purple entity.  It was now glaring at Sidonia, clearly intending to make her its new target, and from her reaction, it seemed like this was going to be troublesome for her.

Skylar only saw one way to help, and while she didn't like it, the situation called for her to suppress such things.  She closed her eyes and felt her lungs fill up with water, preparing for an attack that was relatively simple for most pokemon of her type, yet quite the task for her.  She knew she was in no danger of drowning, but the feeling still sent shivers through her body, making her mind beg for her to believe otherwise and cease the activity.  She could feel her body's structure turning to water as fear crept into her soul, but she forced herself to act through it.  Her eyes opened and she expelled the water from within her, firing it like a jet toward the foe.  The water gun sprayed through the air at a high speed, making it look like a competent enough attack, but that changed when it hit.  The purple creature simply stood in the blast of water, not moving in the slightest and clearly entirely unfazed.  But at least it had been distracted, if only for a moment.

This hope that at least the water gun had been of some minimal use comforted Sky just a bit until she realized it was entirely false.  The foe seemed to have grown more focused in its resolve to inflict harm, with the attack having done nothing to slow it down at all.  If anything, it had been the equivalent of throwing a rock at a combee hive.  Its arms raised up, one pointed at each of its chosen opponents as two orbs of energy similar to the one from earlier formed in its hands.  Then, suddenly, a voice made it drop its attacking stance and turn around.


The glaceon wanted only to protect the feisty little creature he was carrying, but alas, she seemed to disagree with his methods.  He sighed through the penguin gripped in his mouth as he listened to her continued complaints.  Truthfully, she did make a decent point in that if he died, she would be in trouble.  However, if he were to die, he figured this one piplup wouldn't be the only one in trouble, and he had no intention of dying!  Besides, he intended to alert her as soon as he could in the event that the situation actually did take a bad turn, which would hopefully give her a head start to flee.  However, he wasn't interested in arguing the topic any further at the moment, so he simply kept silent about this.  If the bird wished so badly to be right, he would simply let her.

However, the second statement from the piplup was something that seemed worth responding to.  But, at the same time, the fox had no desire to stop once more just to speak, and he didn't fancy the idea of trying to talk with something in his mouth.  With this in mind, he tossed the piplup into the air and allowed her to fall on his back in what may have seemed like a careless motion.  Really, though, he was being careful not to harm the feathery little critter.  "Okay, now please hang on... and don't jump off and make me go get you," he requested, hoping that this choice on his part would not cause any more setbacks.  "Oh, and don't you worry about Giratina.  If all goes well, he'll be one step closer to defeat by the end of today," he finally acknowledged the statement about Giratina, assuming that it had been in reference to the actual deity.

As he spoke, he passed under a group of assorted bats clinging to the cave ceiling.  He was nearing the source of the prior commotion, which made him wonder why these pokemon were still nested so contently, seeming relatively unconcerned.  Perhaps it was an indication that this kind of thing was simply commonplace in the area since the arrival of Mewtwo.  As the glaceon neared a corner, having passed by the bats, he stopped and grabbed the piplup off his back before finally setting her down.  Clouds seemed to be spreading out from around the corner, though he figured this was simply the darkness playing tricks on his eyes... until his ears picked up the sound of rain.  "Stay here and I will tell you when it's safe to come out... or if you should run.  I suppose I can't stop you from leaving, though," he gave a final word of advice before bolting around the corner, not waiting for a response.

Despite the lack of proper lighting in the cave, he could immediately make out a distinct image of what he assumed was the creature he had come for.  Picking it out was made easy by the glow emanating from in front of its hands, which made it hard to miss in the darkness.  "Hello!" he shouted, hoping to get the creature's attention away from whatever the glowing orbs in its hands were intended for.  Its arms dropped to its sides, though the orbs of energy remained, perhaps as a deterrent to whatever it had been fighting moments prior.  It then turned around to face the glaceon, yet it remained silent.  But, it wasn't attacking, so at least that was a good sign!  Probably!



Warmth.  The first sensation he felt was warmth, though despite his nature as a glaceon, it was not uncomfortable as it should have been.  It was reminiscent of the way warmth used to feel in his days as an eevee, when he would nap in the sunlight, blissfully lazing days away.  He had always been a bit lazy as a child, preferring to spend any free time he had simply doing nothing.  He wasn't sure why, but he wanted simply to relax again; he could recall no particular memories to tell him why, but he felt as if he hadn't been afforded such an opportunity in a very long time.  Despite this, the slightest bit of curiosity nagged him, convincing him to open his eyes if only slightly so as to see what could possibly be bringing him such a feeling.  Immediately, he found himself assaulted with what should have been blinding light from all angles, but it seemed oddly tolerable.  Given a moment to adjust, he took a look around the area, only to find all-encompassing white in all directions.

"Sova."

Instantly, the pleasant atmosphere was drained away, with even the expanse of white light seemingly dulling.  He knew this voice, and this name, but both brought him nothing but pain.  Was this but a dream?  He assumed so, as this situation was becoming reminiscent of his nightmares.  He had thought that the odd environment seemed familiar from somewhere, and now, he assumed he had a reason as to why.  He simply stared up into the blank sky above in the hope that the demon plaguing his mind would just leave him alone for once, but alas, it seemed he was not so fortunate.

"Look at me."

The dark, scratchy voice was the same as always, making him wish he were deaf so he would not be burdened with it.  Yet, even then, he knew this would be the one thing he would hear, as it was outside the boundaries of reality.  He could not avoid S.S.  He knew this.  If he didn't look willingly, he assumed control of the situation would simply be taken from him and he would be forced to look.  So, he slowly rolled toward the source of the voice, not bothering to get up off the ground as he saw no reason to.  His eyes slowly opened once more to gaze upon the familiar sight of the creature lurking within his own mind, bringing him an instant and deep feeling of misery.

However, something seemed... off.  S.S. looked like a completely normal glaceon, with none of the usual theatrics he liked to toy with while in dreams.  Aside from that, he seemed to be... sulking?  His body was hunched over with his head hanging toward the ground.  He had a dark shadow cast over him with no apparent source, shrouding his face from view.  "I hope you're happy," the voice rang out once more, though there was a new, distinct and unfamiliar sound to it.

Sova could hear a distinct shakiness in the voice of his opposition, akin to someone who was scared... or sad.  "What are you talking about?" he questioned, unable to find any of his own memories in order to answer this question for himself.  The shadow apparently emanating from S.S. seemed to grow darker, beginning to shroud the bright ground around him in darkness.

"I tried, believe it or not.  I tried to play my part.  And when I became obsolete, I even tried to improve, but it seems like that was just a bit too late," S.S. spoke in nearly a whisper, the wavering in his voice increasing along with seemingly random, restrained giggles.  This was a way in which he had never before behaved.

Sova was having trouble understanding what this was supposed to be, and even more trouble grasping why it was happening.  He was so confused and so very tired, he just wanted to close his eyes... and go to sleep.  He knew he was supposed to feel a desire to argue against the claims S.S. was making, but he felt no will to do so.  He decided still to respond, but with very little commitment: "You are my demons given form.  I know you are.  You don't want to help me.  Don't act like you-"

"Care?" the darkness began to spread outward along the ground under S.S., his body becoming increasingly shrouded from view.  He gave a light chuckle, his head still hanging low and staring at the corrupted light below him.  "I call this place Paradise, if you're curious.  It's an ironic joke of sorts, since it's my prison.  It's where I stay when I'm not in control.  This isn't the first time you've been here, but I bet you don't remember.  You don't remember anything nowadays, though," the restrained laughter ceased, though the wavering was retained in his voice as he spoke.

Sova took another look around at the void, though he remained on the ground still as the desire to rest clung to his mind.  S.S. claimed this was a prison, which told Sova that it was, in fact, inside his own mind.  To him, this obviously meant it was just another horrible dream, though this one was especially cruel for giving him such a feeling of peace before replacing it with confusion... and, of course, it would inevitably end in horror, as always.

The glaceon had given up on arguing any further, but Namataki had carried on with the argument in an entirely one-sided manner with a fresh onslaught of complaints and swears. The piplup continued her monolog until the glaceon finally gave her a toss. She had wanted to be free, BUT NOT LIKE THIS! The piplup's voice box showed no signs of silence as she cried out while she was being thrown.

"WHAT THE HEELLLLL" he cried before she landed on the glaceon's back. Finally, silence reached her as she rode her noble steed into the glory of battle. She blinked in confusion for a brief second before she realized that she probably should have held on long before the glaceon had requested it. Too fast, too fast!

"Oh, trust me I won't!" She responded to the request before the glaceon continued. She was quite shocked to learn what the ice type had to say as he stated that "Giratina" would be one step closer to being beaten if "all went well."

"Are you just...suicidal and you don't know it somehow?" the piplup ceased all complaints to try and figure out the fox's logic, still not quite piecing together the sarcasm in the answer, "Did you inherit their stupidity as well?!" She had begun speaking when she had been finally allowed down, but as soon as she turned the glaceon had spoken and was gone.

Wonderful.

She was then faced with a decision, listen to the suicidal glaceon or leave. The piplup remained in the dark in utter shock with her situation as she contemplated the difficult life-or-death dilemma she had been presented with at that moment in time...

She looked back at the corner the glaceon had turned around. He had gone off to fight the monster in the caverns, a powerful opponent that would most certainly require teamwork and strength. It was the kind of monster someone could not possibly fight alone. Garnet most certainly would have followed the glaceon into battle as with all that he could and fight the monster until his last breath for the sake of saving whoever was in danger from the vicious beast. She never did see that Zoroark again after the encounter with that pink balloon, so she could only assume that the glaceon would meet the same fate if he went alone.

She took in a deep breath...and bolted back the way they had come as fast as her stubby little legs could take her.

-----------------------------------------

The bipedal pokemon had focused its attention on her. A good thing she supposed, but also a bad thing. A very bad thing. The mewtwo lifted its arms to attack the both of them at the same time, something she could not help the Vaporeon with due to the distance placed between the two. Was this it? Was it finally going to kill her this time? She gritted her teeth as she glared at the creature, her talons curled into a slight fist as a dark energy gathered around it. If she was going to die, then she was going to die trying to make the world a better place. Sova could take care of the loose ends she would have left behind, he was more than capable of protecting them and helping them grow.

He would not know of them at first, but it was inevitable that he would find them-"Hello!"

Her heart sank. Her ears pivoted towards the source of the voice with wide eyes as time seemed to slow down. In the darkness, she saw him.

"Sova?" she called out to the glaceon as she felt her chest begin to grow heavy. No, he wasn't supposed to be here. He SHOULDN'T be here! What were those markings on him? It was quite obviously him, but there was most definitely something different. The shock of seeing the glaceon had interrupted her planned attack as the energy of the dark matter scattered and disappeared. It really should not have been a surprise to her considering Skylar had practically given bright neon signs surrounding the glaceon that said: "Hi, I'm Sova." She had not wanted to believe it, but she knew now that she was stupid in not seeing it and denying it.

"S-Sova, you have to leave!" she cried despite the knowledge that he would most certainly NOT leave. She knew full well he would do the opposite of leaving and try to fight the mewtwo that endangered both her and the vaporeon...who was his teammate. Suddenly not-dying became a much higher priority, let alone merely being hit with one attack.

Unfortunately for her, the mewtwo seemed to scoff and raise its arms once more to execute the attack. The psychic type had not even looked in her direction as the blue sphere suddenly shot forward at an alarmingly high speed. The zoroark's attention was brought back to the threat at hand as she moved to try and avoid the attack.

Any attempts to avoid the attack proved to be futile as the sphere merely picked up speed towards the last few feet and followed her. She attempted to have it smash into a wall and fizzle out, but instead, it had merely exploded in a radius just like before on a much closer impact. The zoroark could not help but give a shriek as she was blasted off of her feet. The cry was cut short as she landed on the cavern floor.

Her head spun as she clung to consciousness. She wanted to force herself to get up and get moving, but her body would not respond.

(Oh look two more house orbs)

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Serene Cave :

, , , , , , , , ,

Kat carried out 10 launched of one Serene Cave :

, , , , , , , , ,

It took a moment for Skylar to register the voice as Sova's, but it seemed her companion had recognized him first.  She took this as confirmation that Sova was the one who had saved this mightyena, not thinking much more on the topic.  "Sov-" she began, but fell silent as the foe suddenly became hostile once more, firing at Sidonia.  The glowing orb in its other hand disappeared as it raised and waved its arm toward the wall the vaporeon happened to be leaning against.  Before she could react, immense pressure came upon her, driving her body into the wall and creating a vaporeon-sized indentation.  Despite her partially liquefied state, she was still instantly knocked unconscious by this powerful attack.  This was fortunate for her, as she would have felt nothing but pain otherwise.  Had she somehow managed to withstand the attack, she most certainly would not have been able to be useful to anyone.  Her body returned to a fully solid state as she collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.  The rain would have helped with her situation if only she were a "water absorber," but she had not been so fortunate as to have acquired such an ability.


Sova?  The glaceon looked behind him as this name was called out, assuming someone else was being called.  Was this supposed to be him?  He couldn't clearly see who was trying to communicate, but he knew they weren't talking to the edgy purple thing, as its name was Mewtwo.  Speaking of whom, it didn't seem to enjoy hearing the other voices; it instantly silenced them whilst barely lifting a finger, all without even turning to face them.  It was definitely powerful, which was all the more reason to end its rampage as soon as possible.  He slowly stepped forward, assuming he was being granted the right to speak since he had yet to be attacked.  He wasn't entirely sure what to say, but if Mewtwo was interested in listening, then...

"I haven't come to fight you.  I've come to ask you to join Arceus.  If you do, you'll have far stronger opponents than anyone you could find here.  That's what you want, isn't it?  To be entertained?" he spoke, giving what he hoped would be an appealing proposal.  From what he understood, this powerful entity desired to be "entertained" through a good fight, at least from what he knew of Arceus' directions.  The glaceon didn't like having to allow innocents to be hurt by this creature, but it didn't seem interested in killing them, and if he could recruit it without violence, then those who had been... inconvenienced in the process would surely understand.  He awaited a response, but none came, which unnerved him a bit.  Was Mewtwo considering his words, or was it simply waiting for him to act?

After a moment more of the silence, he decided to speak yet again, assuming he had yet to do enough convincing.  "I can assure you, they would be more entertaining than myself.  I'm not much of a-" he tried to explain himself further, but it seemed Mewtwo was not entertained.  It slowly raised its left arm as the fox spoke, then blasted a vibrant ball of aura in his direction.  Its aim was perfect and its speed was practically impossible to react to, making the attack a direct hit to his chest.  This sent him flying off his paws through the air at a rather concerning speed, but more importantly, it was extremely painful.  He gritted his teeth as a fierce, freezing wind suddenly whipped up behind him, stopping his airborne body nearly instantly and allowing him to land safely on the ground.

Not even a moment after his paws touched the ground, he saw the purple creature charging toward him through the darkness.  He gathered that him withstanding an attack must have made it interested in him, in all the wrong ways.  Was he now supposed to simply entertain it and hope he put up a good enough show?  "Wait, ple-" he tried to plead, only to be silenced as he was forced to duck under a beam of pink, psychic energy.  He didn't want to know what it would do to his body if it hit him, so simply not being hit seemed like a good option.


The two simply stared at each other for a period of time that was hard to discern.  From Sova's perspective, it was hard to tell the time since there was nothing in this... space to use as an indicator.  He figured S.S. probably knew better, as with everything involving his... or rather, their mind.  He simply stared at the dark reflection of himself, having no response for what he had just heard.  He didn't want to believe a single word S.S. said, but at the same time, he had no idea what was going on and there was no way for him to form his own opinion on the matter.  His only source of information was someone he didn't trust to give him the time of day, and that alone bothered him.

S.S. was beginning to grow a bit agitated, clearly aware of the lack of cooperation from his counterpart.  "Remember Genesect?  We didn't know that was its name at the time, but...  Well, anyway, do you remember when it almost killed us?," he spoke with a bitter tone, though the hostility wasn't directed at Sova, or at least, not entirely.  It was more about the memory of the situation.

Sova stared for a moment with his blank expression, struggling to recall what S.S. was referring to.  He could barely feel himself, as if everything about him was simply... locked away.  Perhaps it was from being disconnected from his actual body, but he wasn't interested in trying to find an explanation.  He could barely feel, let alone think, and it was difficult to find any will to do so when his capacity to care was so strangled.  "I can't remember," he admitted after a momentary attempt.

"What, don't wanna think about mommy?" S.S. questioned in an increasingly agitated, mocking tone, yet he also held a distinct sense of hopelessness in his voice.  His every word shook, showing that the situation was difficult to him.

Suddenly, a faint, warm memory came to Sova's mind.  He tried his best to recollect it before it slipped away, and while it was difficult, he managed to keep himself focused on this one bit of information.  It was just an image, but it was a nice one.  It was a still memory of himself talking to his mother, but...  "I talked to Esprit here.  The white... void..." he began, still trying to understand this memory.  He recalled the setting of the memory being whatever this place was, but that confused him since from what he previously understood, this place was within his own mind.  Did this mean the memory was nothing but a fabriaction; that it was a dream?

S.S. was silent for a moment, contemplating what to say next.  "It wasn't her.  It was just a cruel lie used to motivate you," he explained, a bit of his intensity having dwindled away now that the blind fool was beginning to see.

Upon hearing this, Sova's mind instantly jumped to a conclusion.  If this memory was a lie used to motivate him, and it had taken place here in S.S.' prison, then...  "You-" he began with the intention of making an accusation toward the other personality, assuming it to have been him who had fabricated this event.

"I WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" the shadowed glaceon cut his idiotic reflection off, finally looking up at him.  S.S.' face held an intense scowl, but more surprising were the tears.  He was crying.  "Not everyone is as cruel as you are!" he continued, screaming every word.

The sudden, unexpected shift in behavior was enough to shock Sova, causing him to instinctively lean away and fall over in surprise.  He stared up at the other glaceon, eyes wide, speechless.  How was he now the villain?  He was having trouble recalling any specific memories, but he knew himself to be the victim!  "I'm the one who's been tormented by you all this time!" he retaliated after a moment's delay, suddenly feeling the slightest bit of fire within him.

"Oh, so your selective memory can recall how much you hate me just fine!" S.S. shouted back, the white void dimming at the same time as if on cue.  The shadow around him began to stretch outward once more, creeping closer to Sova.

Sova couldn't help but feel afraid of the darkness as it neared him, but he stood his ground and got back up to his paws as he continued to defend himself: "I didn't ask for this!  I didn't ask for any of-"

"YES YOU DID!!"

The void fell silent as the two stared at each other.  In the end, only one was allowed to keep the hatred in their eyes: Sova conceded as the brief will to act faded, his expression going neutral once more.  He looked down toward his paws, away from the teary face and the glare that insisted on piercing him.  He didn't know why, but he felt shame.  It felt appropriate.

The dark cave sure was....dark. She wasn't sure how far the glaceon had brought her, but she had taken about enough of his bull at this point. Like hell, she was going to follow some nut job into suicide! The piplup huffed and grumbled to herself as she moved along with her waddle. Her flippers stretched a bit outward in order to keep her balance as she tried to see through the darkness and search ahead of her.

Ugh, the air still felt so chilly! It was as if she were still with the popsicle of an eeveelution. The small flightless bird struggled in vain as she could only blindly fumble about in the darkness. One step, two step, three step...maybe she should have taken that glaceon's light as a 'safety precaution' before he left.

The silence was eerie, but luckily enough fate had decided to "bless" her with a sound. It was a sharp and pitched screech that lasted only a second. The piplup froze to the stop, her eyes would have looked as if they had bulged as they grew wide in terror.

"What's this~?" a voice rang out.

"It's the little flea that passed by earlier..." another voice spoke up.

Namataki swallowed as she slowly began to back away. She could hear creatures stir in the darkness as a distinct glow of eyes began to appear in the darkness. There were more creatures, but only a few had eyes.

"B-B-B..." she began to stammer in an attempt to name the enemy in front of her, though her fear had paralyzed her.

"Oh don't be afraid, we just want a small...snack is all."

"BAAAAAAAAATS!" the water type screeched before she turned tail and fled the way she had come. She could hear laughs and snickers behind her as she moved as quickly as her little legs could take her. Luckily, she at the very least knew where she had been and what spots were clear...if only she had the mind to use that knowledge.

"GIRATINA, GIRATINA, GIRATINAAAA!" she cried out for the glaceon, who's true name she still did not know.

The piplup was unaware, but the bats were merely toying with her. Whether or not they intended on snacking on her, but they seemed to have found her terror amusing as they slowed whenever she fell and gave her time to pick herself back up and continue the "chase".

The piplup's heart pounded as she returned to the spot that she had been told to wait...and proceeded to round the corner and dash right into the midst of the fight all the while yelling her head off in terror. Right into the heart of the field she had run, quickly running out of breath with a mess of various pokemon among the bat variety just behind her. They had stopped, however, as the monsters realized where they had been led to as they beheld the glaceon and the strange purple monster before them. Their expressions obviously realized one thing...they were in trouble.

Meanwhile, Namataki had exhausted herself already from the flight. The small penguin gasped for air as she slowed down. The piplup had not even noticed that she had rushed right into the middle of the danger she had been desperate to avoid earlier as she promptly tripped on a rock. With heavy exaggerated breathing, she did not bother to get up as she instead flopped onto her back and attempted to regain her breath, believing herself to have lost the bats that were in pursuit...

--

The lump of fur that had temporarily been rendered useless needed to move. She felt as if she needed to move and quickly. Sova had not responded to her, hell he had even looked as if he didn't know it was he who called her. Was it a guise for being in front of Skylar? No, that would have been useless. Her mind was not in the condition to think further beyond that as she was easily distracted by the strange appearance of a familiar face.

Wasn't that the penguin she had told to get out of here last time?

Why was she back here? Was the igglybuff here too?

She HAD to get up. The Zoroark demanded that her muscles be put to work as she strained herself to stand. She had recovered, slightly, but she wasn't exactly in a good place to be doing things right now. The fruits of her effort had resulted in only slightly moving her arm as she tried to lift herself. An arm on each side, she tried to push herself up. She managed to get an inch off the ground before her arms began to quiver and pain fought to force her to give up.

She grit her teeth together and forced herself up after a rather long and slow process, but she was unable to say anything nor really even think of anything to say before the scene before her decided not to pause and instead continue.

It was certainly fortunate that Skylar's body had still been liquefied upon collision with the wall, as it had still been enough to rip her away from consciousness even with this added defense.  Had she been fully solid, it would have been much more painful and damaging, but she thankfully hadn't sustained any severe injuries.  Despite this, she was still lingering on the edge of unconsciousness in far too much pain to rest peacefully.  She had no life-threatening injuries, but her body had still been slammed into the wall incredibly hard, and she was certainly feeling it.  Thankfully, she did not yet have to be awake to feel this pain, and it didn't matter much that she was unconscious since she wasn't in any condition to help anyway.  Even if she had been awake, she would simply have been laying on the ground just as she was doing, except having to feel the consequences of her choice to stay.  Pain wouldn't make her regret such a choice, but it was still better not to have to deal with the pain.


The glaceon sighed and hanged his head in defeat, glancing up with a woeful frown.  He was beginning to visibly shake from a mixture of regret and fear that was... foreign to his body, but not so much to himself.  The last thing he wanted was to fight, and he had previously held high hopes that the situation could be resolved without violence, but alas, he was being proven wrong.  The failure upset him, but he was upset most of all for the foe he would now have to hurt.  He leapt back as Mewtwo came rushing toward him once more, just narrowly avoiding one of its hands as it came down above him and slammed into the ground.  The force of the blow sent cracks rippling throughout the ground in a spiderweb pattern, a testament to the being's power.  It still didn't even seem to be trying, though with its stoic demeanor, it was hard to tell.  The glaceon didn't wait even a moment after landing before spinning around, whipping up a gust of freezing wind in the direction of the foe in an attempt to gain some ground.

Mewtwo simply raised an arm up in front of it and summoned a white dome of energy around itself, completely blocking out the blizzard.  As soon as the wind passed, the barrier fell and the being rushed forward, pink-hued energy surrounding its hands and forming claws at the ends of its fingers.  The glaceon took in a deep, calming breath in an attempt to steady his nerves, his fur bristling and freezing into armor as he did so.  His legs spread apart and his body lowered toward the ground in a more defensive stance; a half-mask of ice formed around his face, wrapping up to the ornament on his head and leaving only his eyes visible.  The red markings around his body seemed to stain their way through the ice and creep to the surface, pulsing with an eerie glow.  His tail curled around his left side as Mewtwo neared, its right arm swinging in a crescent arc.  He positioned his tail to block the claws, then spun the second they made contact, deflecting the foe's arm harmlessly away.  The creature then reeled its other arm back and jabbed its hand straight at him, attempting to impale him.

The glaceon slid to the left across the ground, which was freezing under his paws and creating a slippery environment.  This allowed him to avoid the strike with ease before lunging up toward the beast's exposed belly, ramming head-first into it.  Mewtwo was taken for a moment in a mixture of surprise and pain, giving the glaceon time to drift back to the ground on his paws.  He pushed away, allowing himself to slide along the freezing ground to gain distance, with the psychic juggernaut slipping and falling to its knees as it attempted to reach out and strike him with its claws.  "I'm sorry, but you've picked the wrong-" he began, only to be cut off by the distant sound of screaming.  Both combatants ceased all action and the cavern itself seemed to follow suit, leaving the panicky voice as the only thing reverberating throughout its walls.  Both turned their attention in the direction the glaceon had come from as the noise neared.  It soon revealed itself to be a familiar piplup, with... new friends.

The fox's body tensed up as he prepared to deal with the array of bats, only to have all of them suddenly halt.  For a moment, he wondered if they weren't as aggressive as it had initially appeared, but he then noticed that they were all staring at the purple creature.  They were scared, and this fear proved rational when the creature's left hand waved upward, suddenly sending all of the bats flying up and slamming into the ceiling with enough force to knock every one of them unconscious.  As the creature's hand fell back to its side, the pests were released from the ceiling and allowed to rain down to the ground.  The glaceon was admittedly intimidated by this display, but he remained calm and collected as he mentally prepared himself for Mewtwo's next attack.  To his surprise, it wasn't him the next attack seemed to be aimed for; rather, it calmly raised its left arm toward the little flightless bird, not even blessing her with its gaze as it did so.

The blue fox bolted in the direction of the bird before Mewtwo's attack had even been aimed.  He reached her just in time, grabbing onto one of her wings and tossing her out of the way before ducking and rolling in the opposite direction to avoid a sudden bolt of electricity.  Mewtwo didn't even wait to see the result of its attack before turning its attention to the zoroark who had only just gotten back up, pointing a hand toward the ceiling and violently motioning downward.  The glaceon took off in the direction of the endangered, weakened vixen as the ceiling began to give way.  As he neared, a sudden gust of powerful, freezing wind blasted the majority of the rubble away, giving it no chance to harm the zoroark.  He then stopped in front of her, hoping to put himself between Mewtwo and its target so as to protect her.  "Are you alright?" he spoke, glancing back.  His eyes then widened slightly, and before even giving her a chance to respond, he spoke once more.

"Wait, I know you.  You're from the crevi-" he fell silent as the light of another attack forced his attention back to the opponent.  Mewtwo's arms were both pulled back behind it, glowing aura spheres forming in its palms.  It then flung both of its arms forward, sending the two orbs of energy flying straight for its target.  The glaceon stood his ground, ice rapidly forming in the air and along the ground in front of him as he attempted to flash-freeze a barrier to protect the both of them.  The two spheres exploded in collision with the ice, the resulting shock wave being enough to send the barrier's creator off his paws and flying back toward the zoroark.


The two stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity, making apparent to Sova that his perception of time here wasn't exactly normal.  Perhaps it was because of the lack of stimulus, or maybe it had something to do with being in his own mind, but every moment of silence felt much longer than it actually was.  When his counterpart finally decided to speak again, he was actually a bit relieved.

"I didn't do that.  It was the other one," came the less benevolent of the two's voice, still holding a tinge of bitterness despite having calmed down.  This caused Sova's head to jerk back up and stare right at him, eyes widened in confusion, making it clear he had no clue what the statement was even supposed to mean.  S.S. sighed in a mixture of disappointment and relief; he was relieved that he had gotten the stubborn idiot's attention, yet disappointed that he would have to explain further.  "Well, I guess there's no point in secrets now...  You could never handle your life, so you made me to handle all the bad parts for you.  You'd just drift away and let the violent monster make all your problems go away.  Best part was: you got to blame me for everything too.  For a while, I made you feel useful, and I gave you something to blame for everything still wrong in your life."  His tone was lacking the general antagonistic vibe he tended to give off, while his expression was a look more of pain and spite than pure rage.

Sova wanted to argue against everything he was hearing, but he found himself feeling that it was right.  Still, he could call forth no specific memories to explain this feeling, but it felt like the truth.  However, he wasn't sure what any of this had to do with the prior statement.  Something about some... "other one," a vague statement which he wanted to know the meaning behind.  "What does that have to do with-" he started up, only to have the other glaceon simply raise his left paw in a gesture that said to fall silent.  Sova heeded this clear command, though he wasn't sure why he was suddenly being so cooperative.

S.S. was silent for a moment before responding.  "But, I guess I'm not enough anymore.  Your flimsy little mind's been thinking up the perfect hero to come rescue you from your life for a while now.  I didn't say anything when it... motivated you against Genesect.  I didn't like its method, but it seemed harmless.  I just figured it'd... go away," he explained, trying to drip-feed the situation to his weak-minded other half to avoid overwhelming him.

Despite how much of a shock the situation was starting to become, Sova managed to keep himself calm.  However, he was struggling still to understand what S.S. was trying to explain to him.  "What are you talking about?" he questioned, hoping to have his confusion eased by a bit more clarity.

"Another personality," S.S. stated bluntly, "One who doesn't even understand what it is.  It's driven completely by a desire to somehow just magically make everything okay, and unlike me, it doesn't do it for you!"  He slowly raised his voice as he spoke, showing growing agitation in regards to the topic of this other personality.  He waited for a moment, and when there was no response from Sova, he continued.  "It just does it because that's what it was made to do.  It's dangerous.  It doesn't understand the concept of failure.  It was made from your traumas, specifically to avoid reliving them.  It remembers what you don't..." he trailed off, still hesitant to say too much out of concern that it would break Sova's already-weak grip on reality.

Sova was started by the revelation that yet another personality had joined his mind, and he was confused as well, though the latter was in part due to the claim that this new personality was somehow dangerous.  From the description S.S. had given, it sounded like exactly what he needed.  "That doesn't sound particularly bad.  Sounds like it could live my life a lot better than me, so I may as well just let it," he voiced his thoughts despite knowing it made no difference with the connection he shared with S.S.  It was mostly one-way, but still, the shaded glaceon was pretty much in his head at all times, picking up on his thoughts and emotions.

S.S. showed his teeth with a growl, his fur bristling as the shadow around him extended further outward.  "You already have.  You've trapped both of us in here forever, all because YOU can't handle your own life!" he lashed out, beginning to lose his concern for the mental state of the poor little spineless fool.

"I don't deserve a life!" Sova retorted, but immediately regretted it as S.S. suddenly stood up.

"And how do you know that?  You don't remember anything, right?" the malevolent glaceon spoke, slowly creeping forward along the black ground, the darkness seemingly following him.  He began encircling Sova as he spoke once more, an eerie hatred in his gaze and tears still streaming from his eyes.  "Oh, but some part of you does.  You just wanna pretend that part doesn't exist and sit in Lala Land while someone else lives our life!  Have you ever stopped for just a moment to think about ME!?  No, of course not, because I'm just a tool for you to use and blame when things go wrong!!  And after all that, the thanks I get for going through this Hellscape of a life with you is being caged up because YOU don't want to live anymore!!" his voice shook as he screamed his frustrations, the darkness around him coating his circular path and effectively trapping the other glaceon.

Sova listened in silent horror, falling over as he attempted to back away from the encroaching shadows.
He felt truly guilty, but it seemed there was nothing he could do to make amends for this.  Besides, knowing himself, he figured he would have simply failed anyway.  After all, his whole life was nothing but failure.  His memories were sealed away, but he still knew this much to be true. "...I'm sorry," he spoke after a bit of hesitance, his eyes watering up as his gaze fell downward once more.  Tears began to fall upon his paws, his breathing audible and tremulous.

"..."

S.S. froze and stared for a moment, overcome with disbelief.  His expression revealed shock, but it soon faded, leaving behind a hopeless, dull look.  "...Too little, too late.  It's done."  He sat down and looked away, the entire white void beginning to grow closer to the shade of black that surrounded him.  He felt completely defeated, and he was no longer trying to hide it.  Then, a surprising question made his ears perk up ever-so-slightly.

"What happened?  Why did I do this?"

Her breath heaved in and our as she stared at the ceiling with wide and teary eyes. She had been frightened for her life! Where were her friends when she needed them, oh right, they're probably DEAD. The piplup gave a sigh, still unaware of the danger around her as she finally sat up. Just when she was about to survey her surrounding area, something had approached her. Before she could even react, she had been lifted by the wing and tossed aside by something.

She cried out in fear and terror in an annoyingly pitched scream before she landed not too far off from Skylar. The piplup forced herself up more quickly this time with quite a few words to say about the situation, "What's the big idea throwing me around like that, do I look like a toy to you!?" the piplup's wing had curled into a little fist as if she had been even remotely threatening. Fortunately, she had been given the chance to finally look at the situation presented before her.

It was the monster.

Her beak's jaw dropped in absolute terror as she noticed that "Giratina" seemed to be locked in some sort of combat with the monster. There also seemed to be something else in the darkness, but her attention was more focused on the fact that A FREAKING MONSTER WAS TRYING TO KILL THEM ALL!

Panic set in as she turned to flee, however, there was another shape in the darkness that she had not noticed. Her webbed feet tripped over a large blue tail as she was sent face first into the ground once more. She pulled herself up with a rather exaggerated cry of pain before she turned and looked towards what she had tripped over her. It was a vaporeon!

Wait...she knew this vaporeon.

It had taken her a moment, but she had finally identified the eeveelution as Skylar, someone she had seen at Coral Forest. The piplup gasped as even more panic began to set in, the fear of the danger she had just experienced now gone from her mind once more as she became more focused on the fact that someone she knew appeared to be hurt.

How could she help? Well, she could have tried one of the items she had on her, but that was not what had crossed her mind. Instead, she had decided to put what she had thought to be the vaporeon's ability to good use. "Skylar! Hold on, I'll help you!" The penguin inhaled as the memory of Water Absorb came to mind before a blast of water emitted from her beak to hopefully be absorbed by the vaporeon.

What kind of vaporeon wouldn't have Water Absorb after all?

---

The zoroark had stood up, but she found that she could not do much else. She could hear the battle go on around her as the flock of bats was neutralized in a matter of seconds. The zoroark had no time to move as the mewtwo made its attack. She could only mentally brace herself for being crushed by the boulders above, but luckily that would not be the case.

The zoroark had prepared herself for the hit that would never come, closed her eyes even. When she opened them, Sova was right there in front of her. He had questioned if she was alright, but he sounded...different. What he said after that was even more..."different".

It seemed as if Sova had only just recognized her. What? Was this a ploy for the other pokemon? She could not tell! She opened her mouth to speak, but the mewtwo had moved with a speed she could not react to. The glaceon's body suddenly collided with her own as she was crushed between the glaceon and the wall of rocks that had built up behind them. The zoroark cried out from the attack as she took more damage that she really did not need at that moment in time.

"I-I have...questions for you," the zoroark focused her energy on communication with the glaceon, "B-but they can wait until we're not being demolished by a purple f***wad." Her voice was weak, but she had assumed the glaceon to be okay, especially since she had cushioned the impact.

She could not bring herself to do much of anything else as she had to start all over again in merely tring to stand straight up again.

Skylar's peaceful bliss of sleep ended as soon as it began when her mind began to dream.  Normally, she was quite the peaceful dreamer, but there was something about her body aching all over that brought about an unpleasant scenario in her dreamscape.  She was in a dark, unfamiliar place, seemingly stuck to the ground by some unseen force.  Attempting to move elicited pain and seemed only to make the force pull down harder on her.  Her vision was restricted to a few feet in front of her, with all-encompassing darkness wherever she looked.  This alone was more than enough of a nightmare, but to make maters worse, she then felt something cold and wet seeping up from the ground below.  The empty space was filling with water from some unknown source.  She tried to keep calm, reminding herself that water could no longer endanger her.  However, when the water reached her mouth and began filling her lungs... she couldn't breathe.  At this point, she began to struggle, pulling her shivering body against the phantom force keeping her glued to the ground.

Her vision blurred as the water rose above her eyes, her heart pounding in fear.  She then awoke with a start, practically throwing herself off the ground and scrambling to her paws to get away from the sensation of water.  Her ears were tuning out pretty much everything and her vision was unfocused, but after a moment to calm down a bit, she spotted a nearby and familiar piplup.  From that point, it wasn't hard to gather what had happened, and her response was... aggressive, to say the least.  She had just been woken in terror, so she wasn't thinking particularly rationally.  She took in a deep breath and allowed her lungs to fill up with water, trying to suppress the shivering of her body as she did so, then released the fluid in a compressed jet toward the little bird.  Sure, a water gun wasn't as impressive as a hydro pump, but she felt it would get the point across.

However, the vaporeon's assault was cut short when she remembered where she was.  Her perception of the environment around her was returning, and she now realized that there was an ongoing fight.  A light in the darkness grabbed her attention, the source being the purple creature that had previously knocked her out.  It no longer seemed interested in her, and she followed its gaze to see... a familiar glaceon.  "Sova..." she muttered to herself, choosing not to shout his name out for fear of distracting him and hindering him in the fight.  His body was still covered in the odd, red markings, and they now seemed to be... pulsing?  She ignored the markings for the time being, instead focusing on the fact that she had found Sova... sort of.  She needed to help him, but how?  The creature had already made it quite clear that it had an overwhelming advantage over her in strength.

"Stay out of the way," she commanded to the piplup as her mind instantly switched to "Help Sova" mode.  She directed her gaze upward, opened her mouth and exhaled yet again, this time blowing freezing mist up toward the ceiling.  The mist spread throughout the dark clouds as it made contact with them, quickly turning the rain to hail.  She knew it wouldn't be particularly pleasant for anyone but Sova, but they would just have to get over it.  She needed to make sure to give Sova all the support she could so as to show him that she wasn't completely useless.  Plus, this foe was clearly dangerous, and she wasn't sure the glaceon could handle it alone.  Maybe he could, but if this assumption was wrong, she didn't want to have to find out the hard way.  Besides, even if he could handle it alone, he surely wouldn't mind having it made a bit easier on himself, right?


Taking any direct damage had been avoided, but that didn't mean the attack was entirely ineffective.  However, the glaceon hadn't been the one to receive the worst of the damage; rather, the zoroark he'd been trying so hard to protect ended up being thrown backward along with him, the force being enough to send the two of them straight into a wall.  The glaceon wasn't too much worse for wear thanks to having something - or someone - to cushion the impact for him, landing on his paws with relative ease.  He took a few steps away from the zoroark, paying minimal attention to her words with his focus directed instead toward Mewtwo.  "If you wanna help, cover me from as far back as you can get.  Don't worry about hitting me," he spoke, keeping his gaze trained on the beast as it glared back at him.  The creature then raised its left arm in a mechanical motion, white energy collecting in front of the palm in a similar manner to the aura spheres.  However, there was something distinctly different about this one: the orb was growing much larger.

The glaceon's armor began to repair itself as he darted further away from the zoroark, drawing the foe's attention along with him.  The creature's focus was trained on him as the orb continued to grow in size, emanating vibrant light that made it difficult to stare directly into.  Then, with a flick of its wrist, Mewtwo sent the ball of light hurdling toward its target.  However, this focused blast of energy was slower and more telegraphed than the smaller orbs, making it far easier to avoid.  The fox rushed forward and dropped to the ground just as the orb neared, allowing it to pass harmlessly over him as he slid across the ice.  He then rolled and pulled himself back up to his paws, but before he could make any further movements, a massive shock wave sent him flying forward, shattering the ice under him.  The mass of energy had collided with the wall not far behind him, the resulting explosion easily sending him flying in the opposite direction as well as blasting a large crater in the wall and shattering the icy coating over the ground in the area.

Mewtwo rushed toward the glaceon, catching him out of midair by his tail and grasping the appendage with both arms before spinning and slamming him into the ground.  Once more, his armor was shattered, sending bits of ice flying everywhere in a spectacle that was as beautiful as it was violent.  Before the creature could continue flailing him around like a rag doll, the fur on his tail bristled and froze yet again, cutting into the beast's hand and forcing it to release him.  It was then that he noticed the rain seemed to have turned to hail, and he chose not to question who or what the source was.  He rolled in the opposite direction of the foe as it leaped into the air, coming down on his prior location and slamming both its arms in to the ground.  The sheer amount of force behind this blow caused the very ground to seemingly shatter under the pressure, sending cracks stretching outward in zigzagging patterns in all directions as the cavern began to quake in reverberation.

The glaceon stumbled and struggled to keep his footing through the violent shaking, his attention split between the foe and a newfound fear that the entire cave could collapse.  His body pulsed with pain as the continued strain aggravated his curse, but he wasn't given even a moment to rest and allow it to fade before Mewtwo's assault continued.  The purple beast's hands stretched outward to either side and lit ablaze before being drawn together in a clapping motion, sending a large ball of flames soaring through the air in the direction of the glaceon.  He leapt out of the way as the inferno neared, the heat quickly melting what was left of his armor as it passed by him.  Before his paws were even allowed to touch back down on the ground, he felt a piercing pain in his side opposite to the flames, sending him flying in to the light.  He screamed in pain as the fire seared his body; time seemed to slow down in the moment of agony before he was released from the clutches of the fire as it passed by.

His attention had been taken by the ball of fire, and he hadn't noticed Mewtwo rushing to the opposite side until it was too late.  With a chopping motion from its arm, it had thrown him into the ball of fire he had just narrowly avoided.  He tumbled to the ground and struggled to get up, his body now weighing him down.  The markings on his body pulsed with energy as a sudden sensation of thorns piercing his body caused him to collapse back to the floor.  Mewtwo strutted calmly toward him while he struggled with himself.  Despite all his effort to get up, he could barely lift his belly off the ground without the pain forcing his body to give out.  Mewtwo ceased its approach as it neared, pulling a leg back in preparation to kick him.  Its legs began to glow with pink energy, glowing claws form around its toes as it readied its next attack.


The question hung in the air momentarily, as if it were difficult to answer.  In truth, S.S. was simply surprised to have heard such a thing.  He had gotten so used to Sova being self-centered that he had just assumed the same weak, spineless fool he'd come to know would rather sit in blissful ignorance than know his own actions.  The darkness around him began to fade into the white background, the two colors growing closer to each other as they transitioned through shade after shade of gray.  "Well," he chuckled, "Everything."  Of course, this wasn't much of an answer and he knew as much, but it seemed as good a place to start as any.  The truth behind the words was depressing even to him.  "I know it bothers you more than it does me.  After all, you made me to protect you..." he spoke in a hushed tone, still clearly showing his own emotions.  This was not something he was accustomed to, but he saw no point in hiding himself now that it was all over.

After waiting for a moment to see if Sova had any input, the darker glaceon decided to continue.  "You just wanted to be appreciated.  You wanted to matter.  You didn't have many friends, so I guess that was all that gave meaning to your life.  But you never could," he explained, choosing to start with the basics.  After waiting and receiving no response yet again, he moved along with his explanation.  "Then our... your parents died.  They had probably been dead for a while, but when you found out...  Tch... the only one there for you was a criminal.  That's when you made me to start solving your problems for you.  Following so far?" he finally addressed his other half directly, wanting to be sure he wasn't wasting his time explaining all this to someone who wasn't listening.  It was proving difficult to feel Sova's state of mind at the moment, so he wasn't entirely sure.  For once, he actually had to ask to know something.  He knew this was how Sova felt around him all the time.

Sova lay on the featureless ground as he listened intently to what was apparently his life.  It all seemed somehow correct despite how little he could remember.  The more he heard, the thicker the haze in his mind became, as if some part of him was actively trying to stop him from remembering.  He quickly forgot where he was as he drifted into his own thoughts, listening to the story of himself.  Then, this trance was broken as he was asked a question, and for a moment, he simply stared in response.  "Y-...  Yeah..." he drew his gaze away toward the floor, finding it difficult to even look at the other glaceon.  So far, his life sounded depressing, like something he didn't want to go back to.  He was beginning to understand why he was here.

S.S. sighed and continued speaking.  At this point, it was just as much for himself as it was for the other one.  "Your life didn't really get much better.  You got stronger, thanks in part to me.  But, turns out, power doesn't automatically make you useful... or happy.  You've let others down a lot when it mattered.  They don't blame you, but that doesn't matter, I guess.  Not that I can blame you.  It's hard to forgive yourself when someone dies on your watch.  You've had more than your fair share of that," he spoke with a distinct lack of emotion, giving a very hopeless vibe to his words.  Again, he paused for a moment, though this time it was mostly to give his opposition some time to think about everything he was saying.  He figured it was probably a lot to take.

"Some-" he noticeably hesitated in his speech, "Somewhere along the way, you decided you didn't wanna live anymore.  You decided you were a burden to the world.  So, you made someone to take your place... and you just... let go.  I tried to stop it, but..." he trailed off, his voice beginning to waver once more.  Sova wasn't the only one who didn't like this story.  Even a twisted, sadistic, manic entity such as S.S. was capable of feeling emotion.  In fact, he felt far too much of it.

He sighed, his ears flattening as he stared up into the void above.  "I just wish you would have realized... no one can take your place."

Sova's heart began to race as he listened.  It all sounded so familiar, but he knew he didn't want to remember any of it.  He knew he had actively, willingly chosen this outcome, and this was what he wanted.  He knew his life was a miserable experience he did not want to remember, and yet... he wanted to remember anyway.  He wanted to be "good," and in fact, he had always wanted this.
What was good about allowing someone else to live his life for him while he gave up and wasted his existence away, hidden within his own mind?  What was good about dragging someone else into such a situation alongside him?  What was so good about him?  How could he have disgraced his parents in such a way, giving up on his life and willingly choosing to be weak?

...He remembered his parents.  "My mother always had a way of making me feel better.  She made me feel happy.  And my father... made me feel safe.  I had no one else.  I don't have them anymore.  I don't have anyone..." he spoke between his own shaky breaths, trying his best to stop himself from crying as the memories of Esprit and Alma came back to him.  He remembered the leafeon's warm smile, and the absol's soothing voice, and... the froslass.  He remembered their deaths, and he remembered...

...Mirage.  "No..." he muttered in disagreement with his prior statement.  Mirage: a thieving, lying zorua with an attitude and no sense of self.  Mirage: a damaged, loyal, and surprisingly caring zoroark who had been with him for a good portion of his life.  They had stuck together through everything.  She was always there for him, even when he failed her over and over again...  Even after he had almost let her die, Mirage had still stayed with him.  She had ceased her criminal activity and vowed to turn her life around or at least try to.  She had done that all for him... perhaps a bit for herself, but also for him, and all because he had asked.  In hindsight, she was always there for him, and he hadn't really done much to repay this.  He had no right to throw his life away and leave her all alone.

And then there was Varda, a swablu he'd watched grow into an altaria, and a ray of light on his gloomy world.  The bird knew the darkest parts of him and accepted him anyway, always knowing the right thing to say to make him feel better. Varda's attitude reminded him a bit of his mother's, albeit more naive and childlike.  Still, Varda was perhaps his closest friend, and someone who certainly wouldn't be okay with his choice to remove himself from his own life.  He had still done nothing to repay the altaria's unconditional kindness toward him, and yet he was discarding his own existence just because his life was hard.  Wasn't everyone's?

He had teammates, too: Keith and Skylar, both eevee-kin like himself.  They both listened to his every word, did everything he said and practically worshiped him... and in return, he abused them.  Sure, perhaps not from a physical perspective, but he did nothing but yell at them and shun them constantly.  He knew all either of them wanted was his approval of them, but he couldn't manage to show even the slightest bit of kindness.  Was he afraid they would get themselves hurt if he encouraged them, or was he just afraid that doing something genuinely kind would make him weak?  He knew other guild members, like a pikachu named Nate whom he had absolutely humiliated and demeaned into submission.  There was another pikachu, Joey, whom he had probably traumatized by provoking his friend into a rage.  He had done this for practically no reason, all because he'd just felt like it!

That wasn't the last time he had targeted Joey's friend, either.  Sure, the second time technically wasn't him, but it was still his body that had been used to beat Jak for no good reason.  Then there was Dusk, some poor eevee he'd taken it upon himself to practically kidnap.  Despite this, she liked him for whatever reason, and he had repaid her for her loyalty by nearly caving her rib cage in.  Even back in his early days, there were always those who looked out for him and cared about him.  There was William, a gengar and a fellow guild member whom he had grown quite acquainted with in his early days in the guild.  The gengar was truly irritating, but in hindsight, he was always looking out for young Sova.  Sure, he liked to criticize and wasn't the cheeriest guy around, but he did have a good heart, even if Sova didn't see eye-to-eye with him on everything.  In hindsight, this gengar had been burdened quite a bit by having to look out for a young, stupid, borderline-suicidal eevee... and then, one day, he'd just disappeared.

Then there was Acro, another individual Sova had met quite early on.  In fact, he had met this archeops before William, and before even joining the guild!  Acro was a member of Aileron's guild, so at first they never really saw much of each other, but their first interaction had still been quite some time ago.  He had almost gotten Acro killed with his own spiteful, violent attitude, and yet he was rewarded with another loyal friend; a damaged friend who didn't deserve to be abandoned again, and yet here he was, willing to do just that all for his own selfish reasons.  He was willing to leave them all behind when they'd all done so much for him and he had done nothing, no, LESS than nothing in return!  He was willing to abandon everything he had worked for, and why?  Why was he willing to do such a selfish thing despite how many friends he had who all deserved so much more from him?

The death, of course.  The failure, of course.  The misery, of course.  Even with all his friends, all his power and all his success, he was a lonely, spiteful, miserable failure.  At times it seemed like he was a bad omen, with death following him and inflicting itself upon innocents.  All the death flashed through his mind, the memories of so many lost lives...  He didn't want to remember, and he felt like he could stop it at any moment, but he wanted to know.

He wanted to know how he could have turned into someone he hated so much.

"...Linus."

He remembered a honchkrow, the most recent death along his path of misery and destruction.  A very bitter, disobedient, disrespectful individual, but not quite evil and certainly not one who deserved such a grisly end.  Linus was Acro's teammate, and Sova had caused his death by putting together the trip that had doomed him in the first place.

"Yep, he was the tipping point," S.S. nodded in acknowledgement, though he continued staring off into the blank canvas that was the sky.  He had realized that Sova's memory seemed to be returning, and thus, he'd waited patiently.  Still, even with that gap now bridged, he wasn't sure what else to say.  Now Sova remembered why he was an asshole, hooray!  That didn't really change much about their situation.

Sova fell silent, and it seemed S.S. had a similar course of action - or lack thereof - in mind.
 Then, however, Sova remembered one more individual he had wronged over the course of his life.
 On the long list of those he had treated horribly, been inconsiderate toward, lashed out at and grown distant from, there was one last name he had forgotten to acknowledge for so very long.
 This was a wrong that, perhaps, he could make some effort to right.  He knew it wouldn't do much,
but it was the one choice he had left to make, and there was no way he was going to make the wrong choice yet again.  "I have another question.  Something I should have asked a long time ago," he slowly stood up and faced S.S. as he spoke.  A look of shame adorned his face, his ears flat and his tail drooping.  He could now clearly see all the things he had done wrong in his life, and there was but one that he could still fix.

S.S. met Sova's gaze, and for a moment, the two simply stared into each other's eyes.  By now, the entire abyss had turned a dull gray, the light and dark colors of the environment having entirely meshed together.  "What?" he spoke, his tone bitter, hopeless and defeated.  He felt that he had answered everything to best of his ability, but apparently, Sova still needed something from him.  Apparently, Sova still wanted to use him for something.  The very thought made him grit his teeth and shiver with rage, feeling as if he would break down or lash out at any moment.  Was he nothing more than a tool till the very end?

To her absolute and utter shock that had struck her to the core, the vaporeon had retaliated against her! The piplup cried out as she was attacked with a move that honestly did not do too much damage to her. Sure Skylar was a higher level, but she had been weakened. Not to mention that the attack matched her element and was rendered ineffective at best. The piplup was pushed off of her feet by the attack, whether it be through force of the attack or a more exaggerated reaction that was never uncommon for her.

The water type was outraged! Smoke would have drifted out of her nose if she held the biological structure more akin to a fire type, but instead her beak merely grinded together as she hoisted herself back up onto her feet. If there was one thing this piplup was...somewhat decent at, it was resiliency...at least for someone of her strength.

"What the hell was that for!? I was trying to help!" The piplup snapped back without regard for whatever the fellow water type had to say in response. The piplup had been about to say more, but she cut herself off as she noticed that Skylar was actually in the middle of doing something. The way she moved seemed to be with purpose. What was she about to do? Was this piplup about to witness something truly extraordinary about the power of this vaporeon?

The penguin fell still as she followed the vaporeon's gaze to the cieling. At first, she had thought she got the idea. Bring down some rocks on top of the mewtwo! That was a great idea that TOTALLY wouldn't likely end up causing the cave to collapse in on itself and crush all of them. The monster could not possibly hold up big boulders, right? A spark of excitement expressed itself in her bitter eyes as she waited for the vaporeon to carry out her awesome plan.

An attack had been launched. Hmm...it seemed a bit lacking in power...ah, it was probably to keep it unnoticed!

Nope.

The puff of energy had reached the ceiling and while Taki had braced herself, wings over her face, for a possible explosion of energy, instead the room seemed to drop in temperature. The penguin blinked and pulled back her flippers and looked up just in time for a rather large chunk of ice to smack her right between the eyes.

"OW!" she cried out as she turned away from her upward gaze to nurse the bridge between her eyes, "The fuck was that!? You could have done better than that, that was freaking worthless! Just what the hell would that accomplish? NOTHING!" she demanded of the vaporeon, a bit upset that she had been disappointed by a rather weak attack that had only served to harm her further.

Then the cavern began to shake, "What theeeee fuuuuuuuuuuck?!" she cried out in terror. Did that vaporeon actually do something else?? Perhaps it would help if she actually paid attention to what was going on...

---

Something was not right. Her stomach felt ill, though she knew not whether it was from the enigma that was Sova or if perhaps she had more internal damage that likely should have been inspected. She was going to assume the former for the sake of the moment. "Sova" had given instructions to her that had ordered her to stay back and not to fear the possibility of striking him in her attacks. Easier said than done. While she knew her attacks would not do much to Sova, that did not make it feel any less wrong to just disregard his safety.

As much as she wanted to fight alongside him close up, it was a risk that would only burden him. She was sluggish, weak, and vulnerable. Odds were he would use himself as a shield if she were to get into danger. The zoroark had no choice but to obey.

It seemed as if it would be easier to move now that she was stood up than it had seemed when she was down. Sova had charged away from her, likely to divert attention from her. It was successful as the mewtwo kept his full attention on him rather than her. Her teeth ground against each other as her body felt tense and unable to relax.

What to do? What to do?

She needed to think of a plan, but what?

Sova screamed. Her ears pointed forward in attention as her eyes widened. The mewtwo had unleashed a fury of flames that had landed against the glaceon. Her lips curled back to reveal her pointed teeth with narrowed eyes. Dark energy began to crackle around her arms almost akin to electricity. Her claws curled into a fist as she pushed her body into action.

Her muscles complained, but her adrenaline suppressed it. The mewtwo had taken a more casual approach to the downed Glaceon, but she had quickly begun to approach from the behind. Fortunately, the loud mouthed piplup had a use as her movements in the crumbling cavern were drowned out by the annoying penguin's voice. A stream of dark energy and collected around the zoroark. A toothy trap might as well have opened wide as the zoroark's Night Daze prepared itself. Synchronized with her movements, the "trap" clamped shut just as she latched her arms around the mewtwo in an attempt to interrupt its kick while the glaceon was down. Darkness swallowed the both of them whole a foot in front of the glaceon.

The zoroark was unable to struggle against the strength of the mewtwo for very long, however, as the physical contact made it very easy for the psychic type to discern where she was in the sphere of some sort of dark mist she had created through the illusions. She was essentially hugging the mewtwo at that moment, but she needed to do as much as she could to buy Sova time. The dark type's attack began its assault on the Mewtwo while she used the shock of her ambush to pull him a bit away from the glaceon.

A success, but not by much. The mewtwo broke free of her grasp easily as it reared back a fist that glowed with a dynamic energy. The zoroark ducked and dodged the attack just in time to not get the lights knocked out of her before she quickly retreated with the hopes that she had bought Sova enough time.

Shit, shit, think Mirage!

The Night Daze was beginning to dissipate. The psychic type must have assumed that she would not have left the cover of the attack's aftermath. She had been told to stay back, but she had disobeyed Sova already even though she had agreed to with the terms.

She took a brief moment to study Sova, before her image began to change. She ignored the strikes of the hail against her fur as there now seemed to be two glaceons on the field just as the lasting effects of the Night Daze began to dissipate.

Hopefully, Sova wouldn't mind...