(Open) A New Face in Town

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Grassveil Town was within sight! Opal had travelled a long way to get here, but the journey had been worth it! What the young Growlithe had heard about the place looked to be true. There were lots of Pokemon about, and there was presumably a lot to do here as well. Oh, if only her brothers and sisters were here as well. What a marvellous time they'd all have! Well, there was no point just standing there. Grassveil would never be reached then. Onward, to adventure!

Opal was wagging her tail with excitement as she trotted into the town center. She enthusiastically greeted passing Pokemon and asked several questions about the place. The shops she heard about sounded amazing. There were shops for berries, shops for gummies, even shops for blended drinks. That sounded amazing! Being a desert dweller, Opal had never had a blended drink. It simply wasn't a thing there. She made sure to memorise the location of these drink shops so she could come back when she'd saved up some money.

Alki was feeling pretty proud of herself, for once. She’d come up with a plan, all on her own, with no prodding at all from Darcy, or from anyone, not even the Vaporeon who had seemed to be taking the lead in this fight even before her and Darcy had shown up. She brought up the Hidden Power away from the shattered remnants of the Attention Orb and back towards herself. Now was one of the rare times that Alki was thankful for her less than flattering shape, if only because it offered her some form of usefulness. She shaped her hidden power into a cue stick and held it behind her, eyes focused on the Charizard. So when he charged towards her, all she had to do was knock herself out of the way, just like a cue ball!

A very fragile cue ball…

Still, despite the immediate danger she had just put herself in, the jigglypuff was feeling very proud of herself, perhaps even a bit competent , which was a feeling she sorely needed to experience after the events from earlier in the day. The Charizard froze, turned towards her and -- was he looking at her? He had to be. He was flying towards her now. Never mind that, she had to be ready, and as he approached, Alki brought the cue stick further away from herself, prepared herself to jump, get out of the way, not get killed or crushed or what have you and --

“What did you do?!”

Alki turned her head towards the voice, that was so clearly agitated and angry and directed at her and Alki cried out in equal parts anguish, despair, and sheer frustration. She threw her shadow-y cue stick at the Charizard like a very ineffective Javelin, and watched it miss, and dissolve on the ground.

Why didn’t that work? That was supposed to have worked!

“What the hell!?” She yelled out in response, trying to keep her wits about her and struggling to contain the string of expletives that were just begging to be let out. Someone had told her that the Attention Orb attracted enemies to the user. The damned user. She was never trusting that someone again.Now the Charizard was attacking the Vaporeon. The ‘mon who had been fighting it before she’d shown up. The one who seemed to be very good at fighting.

Alki had not meant to do that.

Was she capable of doing anything right? Clearly not.

Alki felt like crying again, but not only had she already spent a good portion of her morning crying, she wasn’t quite sure that crying in the middle of a battle was a good call. Especially one she’d already screwed up so much. She held back tears, and struggled to think of a good response.

Darcy, meanwhile, was similarly near tears, although not quite for the same reasons. Alki had decided that charging in with an attention orb was a good call. Against a Mega Charizard. She was a jigglypuff . Literally a balloon. What on Earth made her think that was a good idea? She bit her lip as she watched the Charizard target the Vaporeon instead. The last thing she wanted to see was anyone getting hurt. But frankly, better the ‘mon that had already shown some resilience than Alki. The balloon. The literal balloon.

Neither cat nor balloon saw the Earthquake coming. Fortunately, they weren’t too close to the Charizard, nor the poor Vaporeon. What looked to be a crash landing turned into one last attack by the Charizard, and both of them were caught off guard. Aside from a spirited, but ultimately futile attempt to block flying debris by Alki, both Pokemon went soaring, both falling back down with the shockwave, and both still semi-conscious but in (very) considerable pain.

After a few seconds (or minutes; how long?) of trying to stop the ringing in their heads, both members of Team Friendship Alliance stood up. Alki clearly favored one foot over the other. Darcy had fared better, and while certainly, she was still in pain, the saying that “Cats always land on their feet” had some merit to it, for she still felt well enough to fight. Then again, that lingering thought persisted with her: Why were they even trying to help? Alki had rushed in so haphazardly, and now she had dragged Darcy along with her. There was no backing out now. What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t exactly tackle a flying Pokemon. Fake out wouldn’t have much of an effect if it’s attention was elsewhere, and -- would it even pay attention to her voice, disarming or otherwise? Sing would work. What else would?

What would keep everyone alive the longest?

The Growlithe charged in against the Charizard, with about as much sense of self-preservation as Alki. Where had she come from?

“Sing.” She mumbled under her breath, breathing heavily as she tried to clear her eyes from the dust of debris.

The Charizard seemed to notice the Growlithe. That wasn’t good.

What to sing?

“Um...” She mumbled under her breath, before letting the words -- any words, come to her. “Fly me to the moon,” She began, the words coming of the first song that came out sounding raspy and weak and, worst of all, inconsistent. Who could blame her? She’d just been in an earthquake… She paused. Make it sound good. Take your time… Wait, no, don’t. Just make sure the move works. Make the Charizard fall asleep. She cleared her throat before continuing again. “Let me play among the stars - Let me see what spring is like on - Jupiter and Mars” The longer she kept singing, the more the dust cleared, the more naturally the words came out, and the more confident Darcy felt.

She sounded good. Not quite like Alki, but hey, she didn’t have the species advantage there, and Alki wasn’t usually singing in a battle.

She began to strut towards the Charizard while singing, almost as if she were dancing. Dancing probably didn’t have any added effect on top of Sing, but,  aside from the ache in her bruised legs it certainly made her feel confident. If she could only pretend that she wasn’t singing for a crazed, feral Charizard, maybe it would go away! Yeah… She’d much rather be on the moon than there, but she didn’t think there was anyone who’d be willing to fly her there right then.

Alki, for her part, was trying very hard to be useful. Not only had she successfully contained tears and curses, she had maintained consciousness after the Earthquake, although that certainly felt like an only just sort of situation. She had also noticed the Growlithe, and begun to do her part to help. Or try, anyways. Hidden Power took time for her to ‘recharge’, so to speak, especially after using it, and failing. Not to mention her arm hurt too. Sort of like it had around Cecil, but thankfully, a bit less. Cecil wasn’t around to help her though. So Hidden Power (and healing) was out of the question.

That left Flamethrower (On a Fire Type?), Water Gun (She didn’t exactly want to draw any more attention to herself. She was only barely hanging on as it was), and Disable.

Disable! The Charizard wouldn’t realize it if she did it right. Not until later, anyways. And then, how would he know it was her?

Alki focused on the Charizard, through the aching, broken pain in her arm and the bruising that had left her right foot almost unusable. From her sitting position, she squinted her eye, staring through the dust towards the figure that she could just make out to be the lizard.

Focus.

Darcy was singing. Focus. Don’t fall asleep.

She felt the familiar satisfaction that came with cancelling someone else’s move, and her eyes flashed brightly, momentarily, as she disabled the Charizard’s last move.

One less move to worry about She mumbled, as the jigglypuff lay down, helpless against any more danger that might arrive, doing her best to fend off the notes of song that her teammate was delivering.

Delivering well, too. Hopefully it’d work, was her last thought, before the jigglypuff gave in, and fell asleep.

With the first priority hopefully taken care of, Keith tried to decide what to do next.  Getting up seemed like a good place to start.  Alas, the throbbing pain coating his body was overwhelming.  He wasn't strong and certainly wasn't resilient, or half his problems would never have existed in the first place.  Skylar could probably do it, he figured, and Sova could literally ignore pain altogether from what he had seen, but he wasn't like either of them.  Had he at least helped, or was he simply a burden as usual?  He couldn't move his head, but he peeled his eyes open to see whatever he could... which wasn't much.

Aside from the dust filling the air, the only things in his view were Skylar and the charizard.  In specific, he saw one was standing and the other... not so much.  Of course, it was his luck that the one upright was the enemy, and of course there was nothing he could do; that seemed to be a theme with him.  He could barely even keep himself conscious to watch the charizard slowly strut over to his vulnerable teammate, let alone do anything to help.  His fur buzzed with static, but he couldn't muster up the energy for an attack.  He was already in bad shape and had just exhausted himself further by looking out for the civilian.  Fortunately, not everyone was quite as helpless as he was; when a wall of fire cut the charizard off from his target, Keith felt relieved.  He wondered if it was the growlithe or some other fire-type stepping in, but either way, Sky was safe for the moment.  She was still conscious but clearly exhausted, but what was he supposed to do to help?

He wasn't given much time to think before a soft melody caught his attention.  Someone was singing, and it didn't take long for him to realize its effect.  He was too exhausted already to fight the drowsiness and his body was too battered to lift his paws and cover his ears, which left him helpless.  He was pretty sure a charizard wouldn't have this move, so... well, it wasn't hard to put the pieces together.  He wasn't going to be of much more use regardless, and if it meant incapacitating the foe, he was more than willing to be put to sleep.  Still, what if it didn't work and Skylar was left with even less help?  In slipping consciousness, Keith wished once more, this time for his teammate's sake; the familiar glow surrounded him momentarily before fading along with his mind.  He was done here, but at least he'd given a few parting gifts to his allies.  Could he have stayed awake, maybe gotten up?  Perhaps if he had been more willful, more powerful... but he wasn't.

Skylar, on the other hand, was not interested in letting herself give up and drift away.  Aside from the fragile pride she strove to protect, she didn't trust the others not to die on their own, which left her with only one option.  The big ugly lizard was staring right at her, leisurely making his way over to her, giving her more time than she could have had but less time than she would have wanted.  She struggled and stumbled up onto shaky legs before falling once more, mind racing for a solution to the problem at hand.  She needed some way to stop him fast, but she didn't have the power to do such a thing and she was pretty sure no one else here did.  He was destroying town square, putting lives at risk, and apparently trying to murder puppies.  Who even does that?  Speaking of the puppy, though, when a twisting funnel of fire suddenly burst forth from the ground between the charizard and herself, she could only think of one pokémon to thank.  Less on the fortunate side, however, was his attention suddenly shifting as he presumably searched for the source of this fire.  Was the orb no longer attracting him to her, or...?

Regardless, this distraction gave more than enough time for Skylar to more carefully stand up and find her footing.  She was also granted a moment's pause to finally think, and it didn't take long for her to plan out her course of action... then she noticed the singing.  She almost collapsed within seconds of hearing the calming voice, but she persisted in keeping herself up.  Her eyelids grew heavy while gravity pulled her toward the ground, beckoning her to sleep.  It became harder and harder to keep track of the plans forming in her head with this haze surrounding her thoughts... then, almost as quickly as it had arrived, it faded.  She felt the rain pouring down on her, hydrating her, keeping her awake.  She hadn't summoned the storm just to weaken the fire-type opponent, but also to protect her from his burning flames.  With the restorative properties of rain on her water-like body, she may as well have been given an adrenaline shot to combat the drowsiness.  She hadn't exactly brought the rain in to protect her from an ally's singing, but the protection was by no means unwelcome in this situation.

She dug into her bag once more and pulled out another two iron thorns, then rushed to the right to get around the fire before flinging the thorns at the charizard's turned back.  This attack was immediately followed by another jet of water from her mouth, though the pressure was significantly lower than the that of ones she'd fired off before.  She doubted any of this would do much to the dragon, but it was just supposed to put his attention back on her so he wouldn't hurt anyone else.  She figured he was suddenly distracted from her due to the fire obscuring his view, which meant he would probably lock back onto her as soon as she was in his line of sight again; if she had to deal with the attention-drawing orb's effect on her, she was going to use it.  Based on his attack pattern, it seemed the fire blast she'd disabled was his only ranged option, meaning he would have to come close if he wanted to hit her.  Whether he tried to dive-bomb again or just run straight at her, she was ready for it.

In fact, she wanted him to come at her.

The pup's courage failed as the Charizard began glaring daggers at her tiny frame. He'd been threatening enough before his dramatic moment of evolution, but now he was downright terrifying. She knew she'd be in a whole new world of trouble and hurt if the nasty lizard got his claws on her. That mustn't be allowed to happen! In a state of panic, the Growlithe let off another Fire Spin in her enemy's general direction. At the Charizard, near the Charizard, it didn't matter. She just wanted to obscure his view again so she could hide.

Opal felt like yawning for a moment as the sound of a gentle song reached her ears. The moment passed quickly, however, as fear and the need to survive pushed out any urge to fall asleep. Now, somewhere to hide? The mountain of wood she was standing on and had previously been buried under was looking mighty tempting right now. The Growlithe stuck a paw in, then pulled it back out as she thought of something-what if the Charizard found her in there? She'd be a sitting target!

Instead, the pup jumped down from the pile and curled up behind it, trying to retain some warmth in this downpour. There was no way any bystanders would still be around, but she wondered if any of them had thought to alert the police or the guild. Opal would have made a run for it if she knew where either of their buildings were. As it was, all she could to was wait and hope that everything would turn out alright.

((Great choice of song for Darcy! I actually laughed at that!))

The growlithe. That growlithe! His eyes locked onto the mutt with an insatiable hunger in his eyes. He took a step towards the fire type with the full intent to tear it limb from limb. The shadow that clouded his thoughts encouraged him almost as a rush of pleasure rewarded him for his wicked thoughts. The charizard struggled against the restraints around his snout once more but to no success. He failed to notice the dim glow of the threads now as they seemed to falter at his strength. The mega pokemon's tail lashed about as it either crushed or smacked aside the debris around it with ease.

Still unable to catch sight of the vaporeon in order for his attention to be focused again, he noticed the song. Far too enraged and inflamed to be affected by slumber at that moment, he merely glared at the kitten as she idiot literally waltzed closer to him. The charizard glared down at the kitten as his blood roared in his ears. He heard no song, but pathetic mewls of someone that begged him to hit them. He rushed towards the skitty, but stopped short of bearing down on top of her. He turned last minute as his tail gave a glow of silver. The momentum of the tail slammed into the unfortunate feline and put a stop to her pitiful mewls as she was sent flying into the remains of what was once a hard-working shopkeep's stand.

He struggled again with the constraints, his snout managed to part an inch before it was sealed back together. The charizard's flames erupted with energy as he witnessed that freedom was near. He had had not even noticed that he lost the use of Earthquake by the work of the Jigglypuff. His wounded wings flared out as he threw his head from side to side in order to rid himself of the effects of the silence orb. While he was distracted with this, two thorns impaled his back along with a sloppy collection of water that doused him. The charizard's neck twisted as his eyes returned their focus onto the vaporeon.

The growlithe's second fire spin was hardly even needed as he was no longer focused on the small creature. The rushed nature of the attack made it easy for him to dodge, but his eyesight did not leave Skylar this time around. He had absolutely no intention of allowing her to leave it as well. The dragon type's heavy footsteps made themselves loud and clear on the weakened ground. He charged straight towards the vaporeon his claw reached back with a glow to them as the extended outward. A brilliant white light coated them as he focused his frustrations on that precise area.

The speed of the quick orb allowed the vaporeon time to use another orb, however. A bright white temporarily blinded him as the small sphere was smashed. He was forced to stop his charge in order to defend his eyes with a look away. When the light faded, he looked back to see the vaporeon just...standing there. It would have been smart to learn from the earlier mistake of assuming nothing happened, but the thought came nowhere near to crossing his mind. Another step forward to continue his charge and the ground beneath him began to crack and crumble into nothingness. His eyes widened as his wings struggled to lift him into the air. The pain was too great on top of the lack of proper movement, so he fell. The ground he landed upon collapsed as if a cave were under it. He attempted to scream but only muffled noises sounded from the infuriating restraint.

All around the spot he fell into the ground began to crack and crumble with an amazing speed. Within seconds a large and almost perfectly circular area crumbled into a deep abyss of a pit. Nobody looked close enough to fall with him, well, save for one pokemon that was swallowed along with his bag from earlier. Garnet watched the opening of the abyss grow farther and farther away before he landed at the bottom of the pitfall trap. The charizard landed on his two feet thanks to the guidance of his wounded wings.

The monster looked up at the distant opening. He looked almost as if he were in disbelief as he stared up at the dark and gloomy sky above them. Rain continued to pour down upon them with no sign of relenting. This moment of peace allowed him to notice something he found to be quite important. His eyes narrowed as his teeth ground against each other. His talons curled into fists once again and dug into his palms. He smelled blood. It was not that alone that caused his frenzy to start afresh, but the fact that it was only his blood that he smelled. He could finally register the fact that despite his strength, prowess, and blatant superiority, he was in the midst of losing.

A fat balloon, a singing pussie, a literal bitch, a speedy battery, and an item-abusing fish. He was about to lose to all of them without a single drop out of them. Whether it was because this fact was true or the rain suppressed their smell, he did not know. The charizard raised his head high and fought against the restraints once more. He took in a deep breath and unleashed a horrid wretched bellow that only increased in volume as each chord of the Silence Orb snapped and fully unleashed the dragon's maw. A plume of flames erupted from his throat at long last as the built-up energy was expelled from his body once again.

As his lungs ran out of breath, his eyes caught the sight of the faint glow of the attention orb once more. Starved eyes gazed at the creature that had fallen with him. A low growl rumbled from his throat as pure hatred attempted to bore down onto the frilled pokemon. It seemed as if Skylar was about to have a very bad time.

((Collaborations are fun, they get things moving. If anybody wants anything changed just lemme know!))

Neither Alki nor Darcy had possessed any preconceived expectations of the fight. Not of how well they should perform, nor of how much assistance they should be. It had simply been what seemed right to the both of them. Sure, they didn’t have the most impressive movesets, nor were they particularly well trained or practiced, but they had to help. If everyone made excuses like that, then no one would help anyone at all! Sometimes, you just had to try!

That had been Darcy’s line of thinking, anyways. Was it naive? Perhaps, unreasonably altruistic? Maybe. Maybe. But it was still what she believed, and while she couldn’t speak for Alki, she’d rushed in for some reason, right? She’d spent enough time around Alki, and she truly believed the jigglypuff was a good ‘Mon. That day in particular, however, Darcy found herself wishing she could trade in a good heart for good moves.

Was this out of character for her? Usually, she would say yes. However, priorities and values tend to change a bit when one is… what, ten? Twenty? Feet up into the sky, which came as a direct result of dancing in front of a feral Charizard while singing a song titled ‘Fly Me to the Moon.’ Perhaps if she had more impressive moves, she wouldn’t have to resort to such pathetic attacks.

She was at the peak.

Darcy’s mind was filled first with pain, and then these thoughts. Now, wasn’t that funny? Darcy realized distantly that maybe she should attempt to land right-side-up, instead of the other way around.

Her head felt light. Wasn’t it pretty big, though?

What had the Charizard even hit her with?

Darcy landed, and was more confused than in pain. Wasn’t she supposed to go to the moon? The kitten pokemon bounced back up, before landing again on her side,  and this time, remaining still, too dazed and pained to move. The fact that it had been a song and not reality entered her mind first.

The fact that the Charizard had tried his damnedest to send her there anyways entered her mind second.

The fact that she didn’t know where Alki was entered her mind third.

Darcy forced herself to her feet, struggling to keep herself steady, and trying her best to forget the shame and embarrassment that had come with her sad little display. Alki came first. Forget the pain and the fact that it felt like little shards of iron were embedded in her side, and as she looked down she realized that something was bleeding, although nothing felt broken, which was good enough for her.

“Alki!” She yelled out, her eyes finally settling on the small, pink balloon, sitting still in the middle of dust and debris. The Skitty pushed herself to run faster, towards her, towards her sister who was lying still and she felt her eyes widen in fear and her breathing began to feel shallow and she was worried she’d pass out herself, and before she knew it she was there. Next to her. Next to her friend.

“A-Alki?” She stammered, gently nuzzling her hurt friend, afraid of what she might feel.

Movement. She felt movement. A rise and fall, constant. Steady.

Alki was sleeping. Darcy let out a shuddering gasp of relief as the fact that the jigglypuff was alive finally entered her mind. Hurt, certainly. One of her arms was twisted very awkwardly, as was her foot, but she was alive. Right now, that was most important. Not the Charizard. Not the Vaporeon, not even herself. Behind her, she heard a loud crumbling sound, as if the ground itself were giving in.

Darcy gently bit down on Alki’s ear and ran away. She’d come back, certainly. The Growlithe, in particular, needed help. But not only was she already next to Alki, but Alki was her sister. If Darcy had remember the Jolteon existed, she would’ve called out to him. As it was, she could only run away, drop Alki off somewhere that she probably wouldn’t be in any danger, then run back towards the scene of the fight.

What was the Growlithe’s name? Darcy began to feel another splitting pain in her head, as well as a dull, constant pain in her side. She’d been somewhere around here too, before she’d put on her little show. “Um… Growlithe?” She called out, hoping that the Pokemon in danger wouldn’t hold it against her. “W-Where are you?” It seemed the Charizard had gone into the pit. And the Vaporeon?

That wasn’t her problem… “Growlithe?” She called out again, limping as she looked around the clearing the Charizard’s attacks had created, hoping the fire-type would show herself sooner rather than later. Maybe Alki could take care of her?

(( Time for the post order to bonkers, apparently ))

Opal thought she heard someone calling out, which caught her attention. She lifted her head to look in the direction of the voice. There was something about it that sounded familiar. As she curiously listened, she realised the voice had been calling for a Growlithe. Did they mean her? Had the police arrived?

Fear and doubt kept the canine rooted to the spot. After all, she hadn't seen what just happened. For all she knew, the beast was still out there looking for her. Opal wasn't going to risk her neck for an unknown voice. She could be seen by the creature she didn't want seeing her. It just seemed like a rather dangerous idea. Best to play it safe. Yes, that was what she would do. She would remain hidden until it became established that all danger had passed.

If Opal knew why this mysterious figure wanted to talk to her, she might have considered coming out. Without that solid knowledge, however, she had nothing to go on, and thus stayed put.

With the focus off her for a moment as she awaited the charizard's blind charge, Skylar took in the environment.  The great deal of property damage in the area was the first thing to really set in; the road wasn't too bad apart from the crater left where the dragon had landed, but the shock wave and violent shaking had dealt varying degrees of damage to surrounding stalls, completely tearing some to the ground.  Thankfully, she was pretty sure everyone in the area had already run off, meaning there were no civilians to worry about except the hiding growlithe.  She was pretty sure the pup was still safe since she hadn't seen them get hurt, but everyone else... well...  Darcy was the first one she noticed, and it was hard not to since the skitty was being assaulted by the charizard as Sky loosed her peppering of spikes and water.  The poor little pink marshmallow was sent flying through the air by the force of the much bigger and stronger pokémon's painful-looking attack, and from that point, it was safe to assume she was about out of commission.

It was easier to accept the skitty's condition, perhaps because she had been very clearly awake and alive when Sky had laid eyes on her, but the others...  The jigglypuff was the next one to be noticed, laying unconscious and helpless on the ground, presumably from the earthquake or singing, or perhaps both.  Then there was Keith, who looked to be in about as bad a condition as the aforementioned jigglypuff.  Despite Skylar's sour mood and harsh attitude, despite the odd numbness, this made her feel something.  She wasn't exactly sad and still wasn't scared, but she was...  What was she?  This feeling wasn't something she had too much experience with, and now didn't seem like the best time to sit around thinking about it.  She had one trick left, and if that didn't work... she had no idea what she was supposed to do.  She wanted to be the hero for once, maybe get a little respect from someone other than a child too kind for his own good.  She didn't want to lose, but this foe was so much stronger than her, her every attack seemed to do nothing.

One thing she was certain of, however, was that she had no idea what her next orb would do and wanted to use it far away from the beaten and defenseless idiots who'd tried to help.  She turned to run and lead the scaly candle away a bit, and that was when she noticed what felt to her like the holy grail: his bag.  On instinct, she made a dash for what she hoped would be something she could use to help win this fight, listening for the sounds of the charizard's pursuit all the while.  She stopped short of her goal and ducked into her own bag to retrieve another orb, gripping it between her teeth before spinning and dropping it on the ground.  She lifted her left leg and stamped her paw down on the orb, shattering it and releasing a vibrant light that paused the beast's approach.  She broke back into her sprint in an attempt to clear the small remaining distance to the other bag, but just as she neared, the very ground began to decay beneath her.  She gasped in shock as the earth she was standing on gave way; she couldn't run like this, and the slice of ground around her was caving through faster than the rest, but she was so close.

She lunged for the bag, leaping to the forming ledge in front of her.  She managed only to get the front half of her body safely onto the ground, but she held on and clawed her way up, pulling herself closer to the bag.  Then the destruction spread and the growing hole crept further outward, and suddenly, her lifeline was under threat of being buried... along with her.  As the crumbling landscape caved in around her, and as the bag finally fell in along with her, she finally managed to latch onto one of the broken straps and pull it in close to her.  She could feel her body begin to liquefy once more, this time on instinct, quickly followed by the feeling of slamming into hard ground.  Her eyes shut in pain and she exhaled sharply from the impact, but thanks to the added resilience from the strange capability of her species, she was able to get back up.  The charizard was almost exactly opposite to her, and the bag was on the ground at her side to the right.  She was in a hole; the orb had made a hole, and now she was stuck in here with an enemy far stronger than her.  At least he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else from in here, but... what about her?

She found that she cared more about the others; the three allies from the guild who'd tried to help, and the innocent growlithe.  It seemed safe to assume they would all be helpless at this point, and if this charizard beat her and managed to get out of the hole her trapper orb had apparently created... what would he do?  He would probably continue attacking them long past the point of "winning."  Skylar could finally put a label on what it was she felt: anger.  She had been mad plenty before, but this felt so different.  He was attacking her... not friends, but comrades, and they didn't deserve the abuse they had suffered when they were only trying to help.  She was annoyed with every one of them for refusing to just leave, but she hadn't wished such harm on them.  She wanted to protect them now more than she wanted to sate her ego, and she wanted to ruin this psycho's day on their behalf.

The light binding the charizard's maw shut finally snapped, freeing him to loose another display of billowing flames.  While he was busy performing this incredibly pointless and unproductive task, Skylar took a quick look into his bag and was immediately met with what she saw as a small arsenal.  He had quite a few powerful orbs and... a violent seed?  No... not quite, but still very useful  Now she had what she needed to hurt him, and she was done playing on the defensive.  Her body returned to a fully solid state with the earlier panic fading.

"Stand down," she spoke as the opposition locked eyes with her, "This is the only warning I'll give you."  Her voice was commanding and unfaltering, but if anything, that only enraged the charizard more.  She didn't expect him to actually surrender in the first place, so it was unsurprising when he lifted his chin and inhaled.  Sky calmly scooped an orb out of the bag with her paw and dropped it on the ground in front of her, holding it under her leg.  The white glow still afflicting her suddenly brightened as the dragon launched a ball of blue fire at her; she felt a surge of energy that she could only assume was from Keith's wish, which she took to mean he had prioritized her over himself.  For all the attention the mass of fire hurdling toward her should have demanded, she found herself more focused on Keith, reminded once more that he and the members of Friendship Alliance had been brutalized for doing their job.  It wasn't helping that she had been met with constant stress in recent times, and that stress was eating away at her.

Staring into the brilliant light of the fire, images flashed through her mind.  Her on the ground, helplessly pinned under an enemy after trying to help; a bloodied glaceon, dying after protecting her.  She had been trying so hard to lose these memories, but what was happening right now reminded her of it.  Once again, her allies had been incapacitated and she was left alone to fight something she had no business going up against.  She remembered fragmented bits of fear, confusion, and her paws practically covered in someone else's blood.  Her heart began to beat almost painfully fast.  This was all coming on so suddenly that she felt paralyzed, tears welling up in her eyes.  She didn't understand where it was coming from, but she wanted it to go away.  All she could think about was the pain and the terror and...

The blue flames grew closer.

Then why did everything seem so dark?

MOOD SHIFT:

She pressed down on the orb; it shattered and released a blast of force, tearing the fireball apart mere inches from her.  She didn't even flinch at the lingering flames blowing past her, nor did she back away from the heat.  The shock wave continued forward into the charizard, catching him by surprise and launching him into the wall behind him.  Unstable from prior earthquake, the soil at his back collapsed on him, burying him in a pile of dirt and stone.  Skylar looked down at the bag to her right, leaning against her her leg, before swooping her paw in and pulling out yet another orb.  She tossed the item down on the ground and caught it under her left leg, then dug her head into the bag and bit onto a seed, being careful not to swallow it.  It was at that moment that the pile of rubble on the other side of the arena quite literally exploded, erupting in a violent inferno and freeing the charizard.  She figured he wouldn't try to attack from a distance again with how well it had worked last time, so she prepared for him to rush her.

The vaporeon was right in her assumption that her aggressive foe would run right at her.  She could have simply repeated her last attack and knocked him right back into the wall with another blowback orb, but she had a better idea.  She kicked the orb back and allowed it to roll behind her as the dragon dashed wildly at her, then stepped back herself when he finally got close enough to hit her.  He swiped at her with the claws of his left hand, but he was sloppy and she was ready for it, making it laughably easy to duck under.  The second strike in rapid succession from his right hand, however, was more difficult to avoid; he was still the faster of the two, and the quick orb was wearing off.  She yanked her head back and stumbled away, narrowly avoiding the sharp claws and putting a bit of distance on.  The charizard opened his maw, probably to roar or try his fire again, which was just what Sky had been waiting for.  She may have had the slower movement of the two, but she could still react faster, and that she did.

The second the charizard's flame-filled maw opened, Sky released the breath she had been holding for a water gun... but that was not what came out.  Rather than the puny jet she had become so accustomed to, a larger blast of water erupted from her mouth, quite literally exploding into a shock wave and soaking the dragon.  Much of the water was forced down his throat, carrying the seed along with it and making the lizard gag.  He hesitated for a moment before lunging forward, at which point Skylar stomped her left leg down on the orb below her, blasting him away and into the air.  With more distance between himself and the wall, the charizard was able to slow his speed by spreading his wings for resistance against the air.  He fell back to the ground but was unable to completely overcome the force pushing him away, forcing him to dig his claws into the ground to stop himself, but the second he did, he immediately ran straight back toward the vaporeon.  She moved to dig into the bag, but the charizard cut her off by spitting flames at her, forcing her to step away in order to avoid it.  This ball of fire wasn't nearly as big as what he had previously proven himself capable of, but he had also prepared it much faster, leaving no time to grab another item to use against it.

Skylar realized he hadn't been aiming for her when she noticed the bag was now on fire.  He was willing to destroy all his supplies to stop her from using them, and now he was probably confident in his imminent victory.  As he neared, he swung in a wide arc with his right arm, taking advantage of Skylar being forced to move to the left to avoid the previous attack.  She was literally leaning right into his claws, and she hadn't yet steadied herself to move out of the way again.  She couldn't keep up with his speed well enough to confidently dodge repeated attacks, but she didn't plan to do much more of that anyway.  The great and mighty dragon seemed to think he was still the aggressor.  He was very mistaken.

Rather than even try to move out of the way, Skylar instead spun and slammed her tail into the charizard's arm.  Suddenly hard as iron and giving off a metallic sheen, her fin smacked the sharp claws away without taking so much as a scratch.  The foe, on the other hand, let out a feral-sounding growl as he reached his other hand over to cradle the injured arm.  What she'd given him was not a violent seed, but a vile seed, and now they were suddenly on an even playing field.  While the beast recovered, Sky shot another pulse of water at the bag to douse the flames, but she didn't get a chance to retrieve it before having to deal with another attack.  The charizard opted to take a page from her book this time, turning in a clockwise motion and swinging his tail into her.  She spun in the opposite direction and slammed her own tail against his, and despite what should have been an overwhelming strength difference, they were both sent staggering back from the exchange.  The flaming lunatic was still far stronger than Skylar, especially physically, but he was now brittle enough to be hurt by her weak attacks.

The downpour of rain began to lighten as if in reflection of the fading negative atmosphere.  The charizard let out a feral roar that suggested he was upset before springing forth, trying once more to claw at her, this time swinging down from above.  It looked like his right arm was hurting too badly to use, which made it much easier to avoid being hit; it helped that he was growing increasingly sloppy, probably due to a mix of exhaustion and rage.  Sky simply stepped to the left as the deadly claws came down over her, then spun and smacked her tail into the right side of his face as he stumbled forward, knocking him to his knees.  His maw gaped open as he inhaled, fire building in his throat, but the second his head snapped back to ward the vaporeon, he was met another pulsing blast of water.  He collapsed before being enveloped in a bright light, forcing Sky to look away.

When she gazed upon him once more, the the ominous black and blue colors of the charizard were gone; the fire seeping from his mouth, gone.  All that was left was an incredibly normal-looking charizard, drenched in water and struggling to get up.  It was a very underwhelming sight; almost worth pity after how fearsome powerful he had been.  Still, Skylar didn't want to wait for him to get up and presumably keep trying to fight.  Without hesitation or mercy, and without bothering to wait and see if he was ready to give up, she took a sharp breath and loosed another shock wave-propelled blast of water right at him.  From barely a few feet away, it knocked the fallen dragon flat on his belly with ease.

After a brief silence, Skylar's legs began to shake.  She fell to a sitting position, nearly collapsing in the process.  Her breaths were both heavy and weak at the same time.  She was exhausted... and the haunting images were still in her head.

Why?

(Lazlo and I figured it'd be better to finish the fight in one post so you guys don't have to sit there with nothing to react to.)

He sure thought he was about to make this vaporeon miserable if he could not remove her ability to feel at all, but quite the opposite happened. The vixen spoke, but the noise only antagonized him. He could not make any sense of what she said, almost as if he had forgotten how to speak. This was not the case, but it felt close to it with how limited his thoughts became. He took in a deep breath as the fire collected inside of him this time around. With a quick movement, a fiery ball of flames was blasted towards the water type.

A part of him hoped that the fireball wouldn't knock out the vaporeon. A small part of him that rooted for her victory was quickly pushed down and replaced by the hope that she would prove to be a strong opponent for him to conquer. It was one on one, without the interference of the pesky brats above he could properly make sushi out of her. A blast of winds tore his attack apart and smashed into him almost as if he was struck by the tail of a steelix. The Mega Charizard X was blasted into the wall and buried beneath the soil. A rush of energy surged over him once again as the thrill switched to anger on a dime. His flames erupted into a fiery fury that unleashed him from his prison. Bits of the fire crackled on the ground but disappeared quickly with nothing to feed it.

Seeing as how the blast from before failed, he rushed straight for the water type with little thought put into his action beyond one simple trick. One claw threatened to strike her but failed. Immediately the other would come around to strike. Almost, so close, he could feel it. His jaws parted as reactionary measures were taken. He wanted to bite her. He wanted to tear those fins off and show her how it felt to be slammed into a wall with great force. He was met with a blast of water in his maw that caused him to choke. He did not even back away from her as he coughed and gagged. When he recovered enough, he gave the vaporeon another death-promising glare before he would attack once more. To his frustrations, another blast of winds carried him away. He fought for resistance up until the force ended, but began his charge straight back towards the water type.

That damned bag! He needed to get rid of it. It was the reason why he could not touch her. He failed to recognize that it belonged to him as another blast of flames was let loose. This time, it was aimed at the bag. Skylar was right to assume that he was now assured victory. A smirk crossed his expression as he rushed towards her for the attack. He was punished for his rushed and careless attacks by an iron strike against one of his arms. He growled in agony as he held the painful appendage. He found that he could hardly move it. He was shocked by this development quite frankly, as he was not even aware that he had consumed an item that had weakened him so greatly. The energy of mega evolution masked the weakened feeling of the seed, so all he felt was the idea that he was an unstoppable beast.

In order to avenge his arm, he decided to allow his tail to speak for him. Iron clashed against iron as both attackers were thrown off by the equal strike. A roar echoed from him as frustration began to build even further. He lashed out to attack again, ready for his talons to finally strike the annoying water type and bring her to her end. He fell right into a combo of attacks as he was forced to his knees after a powerful smack into his jaw. Desperate to get one last hit in, fire collected in his jaws only to be interrupted by a blast of water.

Darkness began to crowd his mind in a whole new way this time around. He struggled as his vision blurred. He was close to being knocked out, he could feel it. His strength suddenly seemed to drain away from him, as his body failed to meet the standards needed for the powerful evolution. He hardly even noticed that he was knocked down before he tried to get up. His mind was clouded as he struggled just to cling to consciousness. The stream of energy he felt before vanished, all that was left was the pain. The dangerous thoughts that shrouded his mind left him as one last blast of water knocked him onto his stomach and allowed him to finally rest.

---

Everything. Hurt. He did not know how long he was out for, but he could hear what was going on around him. All he could hear was silence. He struggled to breathe as he tried to force his eyes open, but they refused. He was still alive, but he felt like he was dead. Immediately, he wanted to know why. What happened? He searched his memory, but he could find nothing. He could cry into the darkness of his mind all he liked, but nothing would respond. All he could feel was the desperate pleas of his body to his mind to fix everything.

Suddenly, he could feel something...walking on him. He tried to growl at this strange thing, but nothing on his body would respond. The flame of his tail flickered lowly, but nowhere near being extinguished completely. It provided enough light for the creature that crawled all over him to see what they were doing. The paws of the creature crawled up onto his back before it touched something. That something sent a whole new wave of pain that jostled his body into action. His head snapped up towards the creature and latched onto its neck and tore it off of his back. Teeth pierced through into the creature as he clamped down as much as he could with his weakened body. His neck failed to support carrying both his head and the weight of the creature as he fell to the ground, the victim still in his jaws.

Just as quickly as he reacted, he began to recognize what he was doing. He released the pokemon and forced his body to move it. His wings flared out in a pathetic attempt to fly, but he could not even bring himself to his two feet. Instead, their function was switched to balancing himself as he crawled to the nearest wall. As he moved, he whispered, "No, no-no-no, no...don't do that, please," it seemed as if he spoke to the vaporeon he just snapped onto, but he more so spoke to himself. He did not understand where he was or what happened, but violence was not going to help him here. His right mind was returned to him, but he recalled nothing of what happened or where he even was.

"I'm sorry," he wheezed to the stranger as his eyesight struggled to focus. He collapsed just short of the comforting looking wall. He forced himself to look back at the pokemon before he would repeat again, "I'm sorry..."

Confusion muddled his mind, but instead of rage and frustration, fear began to take hold of him. His sight focused just enough for him to gather accurate details of his surroundings. He was in...some sort of pit with the vaporeon. How did he get here? If he could remember any amount before the fight, he would have also would have felt different, but he could only assume that this was the norm for him. He looked back to the only other soul that was with him, hoping she would move again after his instinctive attack. He could taste the blood.

Alki woke up in a very strange corner of the world indeed. Her head was pounding, for one, and she could feel neither her feet nor her arms. In all honesty, she could barely feel anything at all. Anywhere. Not only that, but the world seemed to be tilted sideways, and from her position on the rough, dusty road everything seemed nauseating and wrong. To her, everything seemed to be growing and shrinking in size, colors seemed painfully supersaturated and vibrant, and her ears continued to ring with what she imagined were the after effects of sing. In short, everything was painful.

   Recollection flooded her, as Alki remembered why she'd fallen asleep, and why her everything hurt. The Charizard, the scary, huge, black and blue Charizard that had treated her; everyone, actually, like his playthings. But it was the Vaporeon he had been most attracted to, and it was her who had mostly been fighting him. Because of the attention orb. The one she'd used.

  The Jigglypuff’s eyes widened as she pushed herself up off the ground. The broken arm and foot, unfortunately, ensured she only made it halfway up before falling over backwards, crying out in pain. The attention orb. The Vaporeon. Where was she, and what had happened? She pushed herself back up into a sitting position, at least, as she fought back the urge to throw up.

  Things hadn't been going well when she'd fallen asleep. Was it over? And where was everyone else? The Vaporeon, the Jolteon? Darcy?

   Alki pulled herself to an unsteady standing position, her left foot burning with pain, as if there were a bunch of needles stuck in it. The sun seemed to beat down on the jigglypuff as she began to wobble off towards where she thought the fight had taken place. She could still only hear the strange ringing noise in her ears, and that worried her. If there was no sound of fighting, then that meant it was over. And there had been a pretty clear favorite to win last time she saw…

  A couple of tumbles into the dusty, rocky streets of Grassveil, a few sessions of silent crying both from pain in her foot and her arm, a lot of calls for Darcy, and Alki was finally back where she'd started. Leveled stalls, a thin layer of dust remained both from the collapsed buildings and the following attacks from the Charizard that had inflicted such damage upon her weak, stupid self.

   The Charizard wasn't there, for one. That much was obvious. It was also silent, and a mix of tears and dust prevented her from seeing much else. The girl rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear them of debris to see who, if anyone, had emerged victorious.

   Darcy, however, had neither noticed Alki, nor did she want to think too much about her little sister. Hurt and sleeping alone somewhere, in the back alley of some random street that had seemed reasonably safe, but she still had no idea how long sing would last, nor who would find her in that time…

“Growlithe!” Darcy called out. It’d be better to just leave those thoughts alone for now. There wasn’t anything she could do for Alki right then… “Growlithe, please come out...” Darcy limped towards the pit, the one that Skylar… yes, that was her name, wasn’t it? The one that Skylar had fallen into. With the Charizard. It was dark, and the only light came from the crazy pokemon himself, and even then, Darcy could hardly see what was going on in there. But what she heard was enough. Or what she didn’t hear, anyways.

“Growlithe, I think… I think the fight is over. Can you come out, please? Just… are you safe? It’s over. I don’t think anyone’s fighting anymore...” That much seemed to be true, anyways. Who had won? She had no clue… she could only hope that it was the Vaporeon. Things seemed awfully quiet down there, and as much as Darcy strained herself, she couldn’t hear anything. But the Charizard hadn’t been able to fly, could he? So no matter who won, the Growlithe would be safe…

Skylar had won though, right? That only made sense...Otherwise the half crazed Charizard would’ve been… doing something. Some noise. The Vaporeon, from what few interactions Darcy had had with her, didn’t seem too talkative. ‘

She should just get the Growlithe to safety. She called out for him again, casting another fearful eye into the pit. She barely even knew this Vaporeon, yet she felt just as worried about her as Alki. Why? Who knew… she just had a strange feeling that something about whatever fight had gone on down there had also gone wrong.

The noise was terrifying. So, so terrifying. All the young Growlithe wanted to do was curl up and forgot about everything. To disappear. She wished she had never come to Grassveil Town in the first place. None of this would have happened. No crazed Charizard, no threatening battle, no awful weather. She yearned for the comfort and protection her mother had provided, for the watchful eye of her father, for the warmth of her siblings.

That voice, there it was again! Still calling for her! Was the fight really over? Opal hesitated and listened before deciding... yes, it was. Everything was quiet now. Quiet at long last. It wasn't raining any more, either. Unfortunately, the pup was still bedraggled and looked quite pathetic as she warily emerged from hiding. Now she could see the aftermath for herself. The sight that beheld her was quite shocking. Most notable among everything was the giant hole that had appeared. Opal refused to go anywhere near there. Instead, she focused on pinpointing the voice who so wanted her attention.

Some extra scanning of the area revealed the pink cat she'd seen earlier as the one who had likely spoken. The Jigglypuff was nowhere to be seen, however. Neither was the blue pokemon. This was very worrying to the little dog. Where were they? Were they okay? They had to be! It wasn't fair for something to happen to them! She was wide-eyed and distressed. Not just for herself, but for everyone who had been in the area. Except that Charizard. That lizard was insane and not at the front of her mind when it came to who she worried about the state of.

Why was she even bothering to stay upright? She had won, right? She had earned the right to collapse, but she it felt as if it would somehow be a defeat. She had barely been hit, but the few blows she had received were still hurting her, and she was absolutely exhausted. She could only think about her history of weakness, comparing herself to her leader who was capable of withstanding things that should have killed him. Really, how does someone stand up after being impaled? If he could do that, then Skylar had to believe she could do this much; she had to, for her own sake. And... she was right. She could feel her muscles shaking, but she was able to stand. The images and scattered thoughts in her head began to fade as she crawled back to reality; to what should have been a celebration of her victory. Now with the adrenaline fading, dust settling, threat neutralized... she felt relieved. It had taken her far too long to realize that the fight was over and she had actually succeeded in protecting the others. Right?

Sky could feel the release of tension as she sighed in relief, finally able to truly rest in the aftermath of the violent encounter. She was actually beginning to realize a feeling of pride, foreign but not unwelcome. No one would be able to deny what she had done here; no one would be able to look at her as a victim who had to be saved. Maybe Sova would actually start respecting her, or at the very least, maybe she'd get a little attention from someone who wasn't a naive child or womanizing narcissist. This had happened right in the middle of town and there were multiple guild members who could attest to her use in the situation. She had sort of made a giant hole in the middle of the road too, but she figured that would be forgiven, considering the circumstances. She was actually excited to see the reactions on the others' faces when they saw she had beaten this monstrous charizard.

...Were they okay? She had forgotten the bad condition they had all been in; ironic, since it was her primary motivation for trying so hard to win. She wanted to check on them, which drew her attention to the issue of getting out of the hole she had quite literally dug herself into. She looked up at the walls of the pit around her, to the dusty air above, and wondered how she was supposed to get out. Climbing seemed like the only way unless someone could somehow help her, and she certainly wasn't going to ask if the dragon wanted to try and fly her out. She had never done much intensive climbing before, so she wasn't looking forward to such a task. It didn't take long for her focus to fall on something more immediate that she knew she could do: gathering her stuff. She still had her own bag and wasn't really interested in stealing more junk from the charizard's, but he did have some of her thorns stuck in him. Her blossoming fondness for these spiky projectiles led her to cautiously approach him, creeping closer at a slow pace, ready to blast him in the face at the slightest twitch. She reached her left paw out and quickly tapped his wing with no response, then repeated the action on his shoulder, again with no signs of consciousness from him. After waiting a few seconds to see if there would be a delayed reaction, she carefully stepped up onto his back and sought out her trusty thorns.

They were still there, two lodged in the charizard's back and one in his wing, waiting to be plucked out of him. The lack of caution Skylar demonstrated in bending her head down to retrieve them was uncharacteristic; a result of the sudden flood of self-confidence from her victory. She really liked those thorns and felt nigh-invincible, so there was obviously no reason to be careful. She learned her lesson the second she bit onto the first thorn as the dragon's head suddenly sprang to life and snapped up on her neck. She was in too poor a position to come anywhere close to avoiding this attack, though she managed to tame the initial fear upon the realization that... well, it didn't really hurt that much. Yes, it was very painful, but it didn't quite feel like a life-threatening bite, presumably because the foe was too exhausted to give her much more than a glorified nibble. Still, his teeth were sharp enough to pierce her skin, and it had happened too fast for her to liquefy before being hit. She tried to pull away but was brought to the ground under the weight of the charizard's head as he suddenly went limp again.

Of course, her body was already degrading to a slimy, semi-liquid state as she strove to free herself. She knew she would be able to get out of his grip with this natural defense of hers, and then she'd give him a reason not to try this again... but this didn't happen. Instead, she felt the the fangs in her flesh suddenly release, and the assault was over almost as soon as it had begun. With the sudden lack of anything to struggle against, she threw herself away before falling back to the ground in a very ungraceful display. She was suddenly very glad she was in a hole where, hopefully, no one was watching what she presumed was an embarrassing display. It didn't take long for her to scramble to her paws, prepared for round two since the charizard clearly had some fight left in him. To her surprise, however, he seemed almost... scared? He flapped his wings in apparent attempt to fly before resorting to crawling away, apologizing and pleading for... something. It was probably pretty obvious that he had lost the fight, but this change in personality still didn't fit; something wasn't right.

The vaporeon's first instinct was to demand her thorns be returned to her, but she found herself more interested in questioning the sudden change of behavior from a raging monster to... this. Was it an "outrage" or something of the sort? Were charizard even capable of that attack? She wanted to know. "For which part? Trying to kill some kid, leveling town square, or mauling me just now?" she questioned antagonistically, words drowned in the distinct bite of sass. The dragon clearly couldn't get up and had just been so kind as to put distance between the two of them, which meant Skylar could now say whatever she wanted without fear of retaliation. If he tried to do anything about it, she was pretty sure she still had energy left for another water gun... Actually, she didn't remember her water gun ever feeling like what she had just done. It was more powerful than that, and it wasn't exactly a "jet" so much as just a forceful blast... or pulse.

A stinging feeling in her neck interrupted her pondering over this new attack, taking her attention away from the charizard as well. She looked down at the white frill that somewhat obscured her chest; her eyes trailed along to her left side as she lifted a paw to move the ruff out of the way. The wounds didn't seem too bad, but she was definitely bleeding. Her body's water-like composition seemed to be making her blood... runnier? Maybe it was just from liquefying herself so much, but regardless, it seemed like a good idea to try and stop it. She poked her head into the bag hanging from her neck, thankful that the charizard hadn't cut the strap, and retrieved what she hoped to be the last item she would need today: a simple, dull grey strip of cloth resembling a scarf. It was something of Sova's that probably did something useful, but she just wanted it to cover her wounds. She tossed the cloth up and draped it over her neck, then laid down, keeping some of her attention devoted to the charizard just in case he decided to try something.

As she fiddled with the makeshift bandaging in an attempt to tie it around herself, she continued, "Or are you just hoping I won't hit you again?"

Above and beyond the giant hole in the ground, Keith was still unconscious and unmoved. He was weak and had used all the energy he could on helping others. The one attack from the charizard alone should have been enough to knock him out, so he really had no business giving away energy he didn't have in the first place. It was no surprise that he was now out cold after such a decision, and he certainly didn't look to be in very good condition. He was covered in scrapes and bruises, fur darkened with the stains of dust and dirt, but at least he hadn't run away. He had been brave and selfless for the first time in a while... and this was his reward. Granted, it wasn't as if he was particularly worse off than anyone else, but even so, he would be feeling consequences of trying to be a hero before long.

The nature of the charizard's actions was a drastic change from what he presented himself as just moments ago. What was once terrifying was now terrified himself. He could not understand where he was, nor why. At the very least he felt relieved when the water type stood herself back up-though in a rather strange manner. Her response would bring more questions to him. She wanted to know why he apologized, but he felt it was quite obvious. He would have clarified, but her words brought forth a concern that trumped getting his apology cleared up in his priorities.

Kill some kid? Levelling town square? The venom behind her words stung. It antagonized him, but he lacked the energy to become angry. It rose briefly but quickly extinguished itself with an exhausted huff. Fear and concern buried the anger just as quickly as it rose. "What?" he asked in a quiet voice to the vaporeon, "What do you mean?"

Hit him again? Had this vaporeon done this to him? His expression fell as he struggled with himself to put together an explanation for what happened. He allowed himself to fall onto his stomach again and gave up on his attempt to reach the safety of the wall. His arm could hardly move without a new fresh wave of agony. A wing curled around his side and shielded it from the outside world while he laid on his good arm. He supposed it would make sense for the vaporeon to have done this to him, seeing as he was nearly completely doused in water.

He would have been impressed if the circumstances were different, but unfortunately, Skylar would not receive such recognition for her strength from him at this moment. He was instead focused on what she meant by her words and tone. He could draw a conclusion easily that he quite possibly did the exact things she mentioned, it was almost impossible to think of anything else. He did not want to believe it, however, especially when he could not remember a single detail about it.

"Wh-What happened?" he asked with a voice of dread.

Darcy had exhausted her voice quite thoroughly. Between the dust that still filled the air around her, that seemed to enter her mouth and nose whenever she spoke, as well as the constant aching in her side that had, fortunately, ceased to bleed, her voice began to fade into a raspy distortion of itself. Still, she continued to call for the Growlithe, over and over, her voice rapidly dissipating. She turned around, and it almost looked as if she was chasing her tail, but this type of play could not have been any further from her mind. Where, among all the rubble and destruction that the Charizard had caused, was the Growlithe?

She opened her mouth to call out again, but found that the sound would, simply, not come out. Darcy lifted a paw to her mouth and felt her eyes widen ever so slightly. That quickly? Darcy tried again, with the same result. It was gone. She hobbled towards the rubble, intending to continue her search for the growlithe. Fortunately, both for her tired limbs, and for the worry that had been washing over her mind like the ocean washes over sand, desperately advancing, and then retreating ever so slightly before continuing the attack, over and over, the Growlithe peeked her head out a few meters away.

A bright smile overtook the Skitty’s face, as she limped as fast as possible towards the Growlithe. Forgetting momentarily that she had lost her voice, the Skitty cried out words of glee that were understood only by herself. She mouthed the words ‘Are you Ok?’ Unable to say anything, she only hoped that the Growlithe would read her mouth, or at least that her smile would communicate for her.

Meanwhile, it had taken quite a bit of internal poking and prodding to finally force Alki to move towards the hole that had filled her with such a sense of dread. She heavily favored one side of her body, which might have looked humorous to an outside observer, but Alki had a feeling that no one was in the mood to laugh at the offset gait of the little pink ball.

Finally, she had arrived at the rim of the hole. It wasn’t quite as deep as she thought it had been at first, but it didn’t seem any less sinister. It didn’t belong there. Not in the middle of Grassveil town, not among the stalls where so many made their living. It just wasn’t right.

Peering into it, she could make out the figures of the Vaporeon and the Charizard, and (Thank Arceus), the Vaporeon seemed to be in much better shape than the Charizard. She could make out the faintest hints of a conversation in the hole. As to why they’d be talking? She had no idea.

“Do you...” She began, her voice barely a whisper. Speak up! She’d caused so much trouble for the Vaporeon… the least she could do was offer her help! “Do you need help?” She called out into the hole. Hopefully, the Vaporeon wasn’t too angry at her, even though she had every right to be. That’d be nice. Although she wasn’t holding her breath for it… She suddenly wanted to be anywhere but there. That’d be even nicer. But she had already played her cards, offered her help, and it wouldn’t exactly be wise to leave right after such an offering, would it?

All of Opal's attention was now on the pink cat who had called for her. They looked happy, but the Growlithe's keen senses told her something was wrong. She rushed to the other pokemon and began sniffing all over. The dust caused her to sneeze. "Sorry! I'm fine... Oh my goodness, you're injured! Here, climb on my back and I'll carry you to... Wait, where's the Jigglypuff that was with you? Do you know the blue pokemon who was here? Are they okay?" the pup blurted out, feeling very concerned for everyone. They were weakened and needed medical attention. Opal wanted to protect them until they could get it. What has just happened was very scary, but the immediate threat was gone, and instinct couldn't be shaken.

Opal looked around frantically, trying to spot any of the group who had come to rescue her. A little way along the road, she saw a yellow form lying motionless. Someone else had been on the scene, and she hadn't noticed! "Hey," she called out, "There's another pokemon here! This one's too big to carry, though. What should we do?" Was Opal the only uninjured one around? Who had used the glowing effect that made her feel better? She wanted to find out and thank them. Because of their efforts, she was in a position to help after having been helped.

Of course, Keith was still unconscious, though almost sleepless.  There were no dreams in his mind, likely as punishment for his lack of use and general cowardly behavior.  He wouldn't have expected one good deed, one moment of bravery to warrant such a reward as the embrace of a pleasant dream.  Of course, an opposing view could also be taken: there were no dreams, and so, no nightmares.  There was also no pain.  Regardless, he would have preferred this peaceful sleep over having to be awake for any more of the miserable, terrifying situation he had decided to involve himself in.  However, while he was in a thoughtless state, his teammate's situation was quite the opposite.

Confusion overcame Skylar's spiteful, sassy attitude at the sight of the charizard's genuine confusion.  He seemed scared, but his words reflected something different, as if he flat-out didn't remember what had just happened.  He looked so lost and so very different from how he had just been, almost as if he were now someone entirely different.  He didn't seem particularly scared of anything in specific, which bothered Sky a bit since it took away the ego boost she'd received from thinking she had intimidated him.  Had she just hit him in the head too hard, or was it some side-effect of the seed she'd force-fed him?  She wanted an answer, but with how the charizard was clearly having memory problems, she doubted she would be able to get one out of him.  She knew the seed had weakened him, but she doubted her attacks would have given him a concussion or anything of the sort, which ruled out injuries.  She had heard about mega evolution and how it supposedly had some unpleasant effects, but the beast had been irrational long before even becoming a charizard, and he didn't seem to remember anything at all of the fight.

He was behaving very differently and couldn't possibly have been hurt badly enough to warrant it.  The only rational explanation was some kind of disorder, but what?  And if this was the case, could she even be mad at him?  Could he be blamed for his own actions?  It appeared he had completely blacked out during the fight; he didn't remember any of what had happened and his personality was totally different.  Skylar didn't know much about mental illness, but...  "What's wrong with you?" she questioned, now taking on a very sincere tone that showed she wasn't trying to insult him this time.  If anything, despite all the stress she had just gone through because of him, she was actually worried for his well-being.  It was in her nature.  Finished tying the cloth over her wounds, she started off toward the dragon, intent on continuing this conversation while looking at his injuries.  She stopped.

She felt cold.  She knew at least one thing that could cause this.  She heard the voice of the jigglypuff calling to her, but the words seemed so distant as her gaze was slowly pulled down to the makeshift bandage wrapped around her.  She looked up to the sky above.  The clouds were darker than usual, and suddenly, they offended her.  She wanted them to go away.  It was her fault for summoning a storm, but it felt like the world was to blame.  Without thinking, she suddenly bowed her head and shut her eyes.  A ball of light took form in front of her chest as she wished for the darkness to go away.  Why was there so much darkness?  Maybe she had made it worse, but it wasn't her fault that the clouds were there in the first place.  The darkness wasn't her fault, even if she was making it worse than it had to be.  She could make it go away.  It wasn't a problem.  She could pretend it was gone and just ignore it; she could let everyone pretend it was gone.

She lifted her head back to the clouds above, and as if on command, the little ball of light shot upward.  She watched as it flew upward, ignoring all but its luminescence and the clouds it sought to drown out.  Nothing else mattered.  The short wait felt like an eternity.  The dark taunted her with its presence, demonstrating how she couldn't get rid of it.  The ball finally slowed to a stop and silenced the clouds, flashing in a bright and dazzling display of mock-sunlight.  The light intensified until it truly replicated the sun, beating down below with an immediate wave of heat.  It wasn't too hot, at least to her.  In a world so dark, it felt nice.  The dark clouds were gone.  The light masked them, and so they weren't there.

"I'm fine.  Everything's fine," she finally responded to the jigglypuff as if she had actually been paying attention to the question.  She was calming down.  It was only now that she noticed her body shaking, but it was already going away.  For once, she had escaped from the painful rush of panic.  Everything was fine.  She was fine.  She stared at the jigglypuff and gave what she felt to be a genuine smile.

The darkness was gone.  She would be fine.  Surely, she would be fine.