#blasts you with the mega blue beam attack

[kittypyuun]

Yall wanted dondon but TOO BAD!!!!!! SURPRISE LEON MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!

[spammooseubi]

x-men pokemon partners (1/?)

i really like pokemon and rather giving every character i love ever a full team of 6 i like to just give them a main partner pokemon. the pikachu to their ash if you will. In the anime, abilities are present as well as modern anime *usually* sticking to four moves a battle.

I just got into xmen and i am terribly fixated so uhhhh starting with my favorite guy ever lets go scott summers YAAAY

Scott Summers: Clawitzer

NOW NOW HEAR ME OUT DONT LEAVE DONT LEAVE. Besides mega blastoise, the clawitzer line is the only line with the ability mega launcher. Which gives pulse and aura moves a 50% boost. I know there's pokemon that are way better suited for his personality and fighting style BUT COME ON ITS LITERALLY A CREATURE THAT ATTACKS WITH BEAMS. LOOK AT THE COLOR SCHEME

Moveset:

Aura Sphere: Precision !!! it never misses.

Dragon Pulse: This was the closest thing I can relate to Scott's optic blast :0

Water Pulse: Probably the strongest move choice for Clawitzer. This was more for Clawitzer's sake rather than theming lol

Aqua Jet: So clawitzer doesn't really use physical moves, but in '97, Scott uses his beams as a way to quickly move around. Insane work. Clawitzer probably learns from him lol.

Ability:

Mega Launcher: I already kinda blabbed about it but yea. Beams and Pulses. OPTIC BLAST OPTIC BLAST OPTIC BL

No clue when Scott would stumble upon Clawtizer... I'm thinking for the longest time he wasn't really looking for a partner pokemon. It's not that he didn't want one, it's more like it wasn't ever a priority for him. But after maybe a beach day with the team he stays up on the sandy shore for a break from the water. That's when this blue and yellow lobster jumps out and blasts a dragon pulse at him, startled after Scott accidently backs into it. He optic blasts right back, and they just... stare at each other.

Anyways the team heads out of the water to find their leader chilling with this laser lobster.

"I think it likes me."

[mushroom-for-art]

More Rue!Au with May and @blues-sues Rue. I'm putting her in situations and I'm sorry this one is a lot darker than the previous one so if ya wanna skip that's valid.

And it all went wrong

Rue was worried, it'd been a good few months since the voltorb incident and she'd fully recovered but her friend and fellow Two May, she'd only seemed to slowly deteriorate. She looked over at her friend as they walked along beside her, there were bags forming under her eyes. She looked lethargic to say the least even as she carried heavy equipment without complaints. The thing that uneased her most was the large graying patch on her chest pump, it wasn't a bruise and May had told it it might have been some fusion genetics but she didn't have any other traits really and it seemed to grow each day.

"May, do you need any help with those?" Rue asked, floating over to her casually, concern on her face as May simply smiled at her with a "no thank you I'm fine Rue but thank you." It didn't make her feel better. She looked at her in worry remaining by her side as they trekked on.

It was another scouting mission, supposedly the trail cams had caught sight of a potentially rare powerful pokemon and in teams they were sweeping the area hoping to funnel it to where they wanted it for capture. They had one human grunt with them who walked ahead holding some scanning device and having access to the AEI's that May wore if necessary as Rue had still been unable to successfully mega it'd knocked her self esteem significantly. A one man craft flew slightly overhead as an aerial view.

May lightly nudged Rue as they walked, "hey, don't look so down, maybe a proper fight is all you need to get to mega stage and you'll blow the crowd away!" She spoke reassuringly knowing nothing of Rues true concerns just having seen her friends head hanging low slightly and being concerned the failure was coming back to eat away at her assurance.

Rue opened her mouth to correct her and explain she was worried for her but the Team Rocket grunt interrupted "Look lively, sensors are going crazy. It's close. Arceus it cold all of a sudden," May shifted uncomfortably glancing at Rue, "there's probably a blanket in this big old bag." She hadn't been quite right after they were stuck in that freezing cavern together constantly fretting over Rues comfort and temperature.

A blue blast crashed through the treeline colliding into a tree just short of Mays horn, the tree cracked violently snapping backwards at the force of the blast and rapidly froze over. Rue turned to the defensive as the grunt lay on the ground to the side having leapt out the way radioing in that the pokemon was in their sector. From the trees a large floating ice crystal like formation emerged. Regice. It beeped and chimed and whirled before another blast of energy shot from where presumably it's eyes were. Rue dives tackling May down to avoid them both getting frozen.

"Don't get hit," Rue quickly snapped though not meaning to as she glided smoothly around preparing to attack, rocks and pebbles swirled from the ground picked up in psychic energy as Rue used her agility to avoid getting struck by ice attacks from the regi, the rocks smashed together fusing merging becoming imbued with some mysterious energy before being sent hurtling into the Regice who let out a bleeping squeal of pain before beeping loudly in agitation and rage shooting beams of concentrated ice power at Rue trying to freeze her out the sky along with icicles flying out from it's own body attempting to skewer her. It was angry and it was aiming to hurt.

Rue struggled dodging attacks using trees to dive behind for shelter, she couldn't get a solid lock on it for weaving through the treeline and was unable to fly up into the sky as it made her an easy target for ice projectiles. A hard rock like object hit her back causing her to hit the ground and roll before quickly shooting off again as another ice beam froze the ground she'd just fallen to. A thud besides her, the sky had gone black, it had started to hail. Great. Now she had to dodge hailstones and ice attacks and trees and if she went into the open air she'd be battered and assaulted with even worse hail.

May on the ground had grabbed the grunt moving them away from danger and the fight, the Regi solely focused on Rue thankfully ignoring them. She took off the bag she was carrying as it thunked onto the floor quickly rooting around for any kind of ice heal sprays or storm removing items anything that'd help. The grunt harshly swatted her hands away.

"Get out of there you idiot. While Rue keeps that thing busy you're going to Mega evolve and pummel it with fighting type moves and when I say stop you will so I can catch it, you got that!?" They barked at her as she lamely nodded, stepping away, careful to not get hit with hailstones as the grunt pressed the button to activate the AEIs.

Electricity cruelly coursed through her body, sending all her pain receptors alight in panic as messages ran to her brain before the electrical power struck her right in the chest bump going right into her mewtwonite which vibrated and began to glow with power, but it hurt. She felt like her ribcage was being split and cracked on the inside and like she was being pierced under her flesh.

The electricity stopped. "Why aren't you mega evolving?!" The grunt snapped in anger and before May could tell them something was wrong they turned the power all the way up and pressed the button again.

"AHHH!" She couldn't help the scream, it was too much electricity running through her body, she'd never been shocked at this voltage before, it ran through her body like it was splitting her veins and muscles shooting up through her second neck directly into her brain, she couldn't see her vision was black and her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her skull. The worst feeling was in her chest it pulled in the electricity her mewtwonite vibrating glowing even brighter due to the energy it feasted on she couldn't breathe for screaming and the electricity paralyzing her lungs but had she breathed she would feel the stabbing of her lungs as something inside of her chest grew in jagged points inside her cracking through her sternum and splitting her rips horrible points crawling growing inside her just short of stabbing her heart.

One more the electricity stopped and May stumbled in agony, her breathing was short as she gasped for air and immediately fell to her knees grasping at her chest as each breath becoming more panicked sent new shocks of pain through her she couldn't breathe and yet she could only pant shortly in agony, her vision was blurry and as she leant over she saw faint red droplets appearing in the grass and dirt beneath her, falling from her mouth with her struggling exhales and dripping from her nose. The grunt did not care or notice, finally switching off the safety that stopped the AEIs burning themselves short and shocking her again.

Her body lurched backwards this time as her chest ripped open violently, a silent scream leaving her mouth as jagged yellow crystal formations grew out of her like an explosion, blood flying out and everything seemed to slow down, at least for May. She felt a presence, a heavy dark weighted feeling in her skull and brain, her vision darkening once more but this time caused by the graying darkness that spread creeping from her chest around her body with every heartbeat it spread and turned her body a deep gray. It crawled up her face and creeped into her eyes, as shots of yellow energy followed, traveling through her nerves and dancing across the whites of her eyes.

She could feel herself slipping, losing sensation in her limbs and fingers losing her sense of self her body she tried to grasp at anything but her body didn't move and in her mind she was lurched from control her mental personification thrown from the control panels by encroaching black, it swirled spreading corrupting and taking over and it molded forming into a shape that looked like her yellow energy glowed from them as May felt herself become bound, strangled in her own mind it smirked at her and said in a voice she'd heard before "It is my turn now I'm afraid." Her pupils shrank rapidly as the energy attacked swarming and swirling around her eyeball making her eyes glow as her body mega evolved before the blinding glow subsided into sharp yellow pupils and her mouth twisted into a grin and time began to move again.

Rue was in a panicked state as she tried to circle back to her group, she'd heard her friend screaming something must be wrong, but the Regice was relentless making it incredibly difficult to safely get back.

"Go away! I've got something more important to check on right now!!!" She threw a ball of concentrated aura that unfortunately missed crashing into a tree, it was hard fighting a moving target in a forest in a hailstorm.

The Regice stopped moving and Rue slowed to look back as it stood its eye light blinking rapidly bleeping before it turned and jumped into the sky to run, away? It leapt away quickly pursued by aerial units as it screamed in nonsensical beeps.

"..-. .-.. . . .-.-.- / ... .... .- -.. --- .-- / . -. - .. - -.-- / -.. . - . -.-. - . -.. .-.-.-"

Rue frowned not understanding, the hailstorm left with the Regice at least as she turned her body flying upwards over the treeline and beelining for her group ignoring some of the aerial units telling her to pursue the target.

She got back as 'May' slowly got to her feet, she was in her mega form, but it was clear something was very very wrong. Her skin had turned gray with her tail sporting an even darker shade and there was some kind of rock lodged in her chest. Rue cautiously floated down.

"May, what happened? We should get you to the medic for this, how badly does it hurt?" Rue reached to touch her friend to check the formation in her chest which now she was closer looked as though it had, burst out of her rather than being stabbed into her.. Her wrist was grabbed in a vice like grip before she could make contact with the strange glowing rock.

"Ah, ah, you shouldn't go touching things when you don't know what they do Ruey," it didn't sound like Mays voice, at least not fully like there was an overlap of someone else talking through her like when two people under a psychic control speak at the same time their voices echoing. Rue could feel panic running through her. Something was very very wrong as those dangerous yellow eyes pierced through her looking more maddened then usual.

An electric shock from the AEI's caused, whatever was controlling May to let Rue go as they slowly dangerously turned their head to look at the team rocket grunt who held the remote threateningly, "what the muk…" they breathed as they radiated fear.

"You're still our asset," they faked confidence, "you will do as you're told and you will obey!" They sent another shock through her body to emphasize their point, not realizing what they were doing was only annoying them more. Rue looked at them quickly doing a "stop it" motion quickly sensing the danger that the human could not.

'Mays' fingers flexed and wiggled before her arm shot out grabbing the grunt and also slamming them harshly into the tree a few feet behind them with an audible crunch and snap of tree bark before her arm rapidly pulled them in towards her. The tree was split and cracked from the hit as she held the grunt.

"Despite how idiotic you are, I should really thank you had it not been for your group's incompetence and reliance on these electrifying gizmos I may not have been able to gain the strength to emerge. I suppose since you let me out I'll…" she paused looking at the grunt who was limp, blood had trickled out their nose onto her wrist as their head lulled forward, she moved her thumb pushing the grunts chin their head flopped uncannily as crunching could be heard. Rue was frozen in place staring in horror as the thing that looked like her friend examined the limp grunt.

"Ah, it hadn't occurred to me how weak and flimsy humans were," she dropped the dead grunt who crumbled to the ground with a sickening thud and the sound of more broken bones crunching. Rues tail swished as she felt her hands shaking somewhere between pure terror and rage, whatever it was controlling her friend it hadn't even intended to completely break and kill the grunt and yet it had so easily and carelessly. The notion was terrifying and deeply upsetting while also anger inducing, they didn't care that they just took a life?

Whatever now puppeted her friend barely noticed her seething rage, "to think so easily they could have been dealt with and this body didn't. Such a fragile minded weakling." Rue rushed at them in pure outrage energy sparking and forming around her to collide into her target as they cracked off the AEIs from their wrists and neck.

Rue lurched. Her body was frozen. Psychic energy wrapped around her entire form holding her in place as the face of her friend turned to look at her, "now Rue dear, don't give me reason to harm you too." Its tone was mocking as she felt the psychic powers squeezing her body as it grinned at her with teeth. The energy of her attack shattered around her and the psychic energy ceased to squeeze her but still kept her firmly in place, she sneered and growled.

"You let me go! Whatever the muk you are! You better let me go and stop controlling my friend! Or you'll be sorry!" Rue tried to thrash tried to wiggle to throw off the psychic powers that held her in place and it just looked back at her, simply moving her to be upright rather than horizontally charging it tilted it's head observing her, eyes flickering in an unstable like way as it watched her attempts to get free which only enraged her further causing her to try to thrash harder.

"You're going to exhaust your mind and body long before you can escape this. My power surpasses yours afterall," they idly observed their fingers flexing and wiggling them glancing an eye over at Rue, "Though normally that still wouldn't stop me from destroying something like you, especially if you really do want to try and stand in my way."

Its hand grabbed Rues chin and muzzle despite her attempts to pull and lean her head away as it leant in closer, whispering almost, "but I'll tell you a secret, you're one of the lucky ones. Had you or I been any other being, well, I would've gladly slaughtered you the moment I sensed your breathing." Rue whimpered as their hand tightened slightly in emphasis, "this vessel I'm in, well, I won't tell you my woes but she cares about you a lot, it was very easy to manipulate her into triggering her own mega evolution purely because she was so stressed and desperate to help you, though you know this I'm sure. It was very useful for me to know this body can manage such a state without those little shock collars, it could have caused me problems. So since you helped me, I'll let you survive this encounter, just this once." they let go of her chin touching their finger to her nose in a mocking gesture.

"Besides, it'll keep your friend in check until I can figure out how to eradicate her. You should hear her screaming pleading begging me not to cause you harm, pathetic and headache inducing. But it stops her struggling against my control even if she'd be incapable of stopping me."

Rue made a motion to bite at the others hand the best she could growling, "Don't you dare talk badly about her like that. She's a lot stronger than you realize, you parasite! She'll muk-ing beat you! She'll muk-ing destroy you! She's my best friend and I know she'd do anything for me, so Arceus dammit May, fight back against this freak!!" It groaned, grabbing at its forehead at Rues inspiration rubbing its temple in frustration.

Before Rue could grin in triumph and offer more encouragement a grapple shot from an aerial unit missing the megas second neck attaching to it's upper back before a bright wavelength of energy shot through the wire straight into the megas body, who grunted slightly as the psychic energy released Rue dropping her to the ground where she landed on her feet ready to fight.

The mega turned its head to look at the aerial unit as they prepared and sent a second energy wave through her mimicking some kind of pokemon type, she barely flinched moving a hand lazily up open palm at the unit, a sinister grin spread on her face as her hand slowly curled into a fist. The sound of metal straining heaving and stretching could be heard audibly from the unit as the exterior started to fail and give way beginning to slowly cave in on itself, the emergency escape falling to safely release the pilot.

"Stop it! You're going to kill them!" Rue could only mentally apologize to May and hope the wound healed as she slashed at the megatwo with psystrikes and psycho cut her hands moving in swipe after swipe glowing with psychic energy as she tried to damage and distract this monster.

"You're really starting to annoy me here, Ruey." Her wrists were grabbed in one hand that lifted her off the ground as the other continued to slowly curl into a fist compressing the metal vehicle, Rue struggled and swinged opting instead to kick out her legs at the mega kicking at their leg their stomach the side of their chest and even swinging her legs up to kick her foot into the side of its face repeatedly, though it barely seemed to notice. She could hear the team rocket member panicking struggling to get out they started to scream and bang on the interior of the vehicle that was becoming their tomb screaming as it compressed and started to crush their body begging for help please anybody until they were silent and the vehicle was crushed ever tighter and smaller like a tin can, blood starting to ooze and seep out of any space it could before the crushed compacted aerial unit was dropped. Rue felt sick.

"You monster!" Rue kicked at their face repeatedly, "You horrible muk-ing creature! I hate you! I hate you!! Give me my friend back!! Give her back!!" her voice cracked as she sobbed, kicking them for emphasis as their eyes slowly rolled to look at her. It was too much for her to see what was her friend being controlled by someone else, it was wrong and sick that her gentle clumsy ever patient soft friend was being used and made to hurt and kill members of their team, it wasn't in her nature at all to be that way so what gave this horrible thing the right to do so?!

It looked at her for a long time before looking back to the sky hearing more units approaching, it let Rue go throwing her back slightly so she fell though Rue quickly pushed herself back up to stand and fight. "Don't you dare! I won't let you hurt more people!"

"Do you really think you can stop me? You can't mega evolve, your attacks do no damage to me and I could just immobilize you again and you'd be helpless to watch me eviscerate them." Rue faltered.

"I'll try to stop you anyway, it's what May would do, try even if she knows she'd fail." Rue glared at them in determination as it sighed at her.

"and fail you will. If you try I will kill them. If you stop and stay, I'll let them live."

Rues eyes narrowed, "why would you need to bargain or are you losing control? Huh? Nice try, you can't fool me."

When it laughed her certainty faltered, "oh no, nothing like that I'm just bored plus your little friend is begging me to leave without hurting anyone else. You don't want me to have to stay and hurt people do you? Stain little Mays hands and reputation with blood? Because they'll only punish her. Do you want them to do that? Punish her? Harm her in retaliation?"

"No-No of course not-!" Rue began.

"I think you do. You want them to send her away to another facility," it moved to close in on Rue, "you want to be the only Mewtwo on site again, you didn't like that she could mega on her own, I heard you, you were jealous. You hate that she succeeds where you fail so you want her to be tarnished and taken away so you can be the favorite. You think you deserve that, don't you? "

"Shut up! Stop screwing with my head!! You're just trying to trick me, mess me up!" Rue yelled as the tall dark mega stood over her leaning down close to box her in.

"Oh but little Rue, it's just what May thinks of you, she knows how down you've been since your failed experiment, she knows you're better than her and deserve more so maybe she should disappear forever. I mean after all when you were trapped together and sent her away, you know what she thought?" Rue shook her head as her body shook and eyes watered, "she thought you'd sensed someone, that help was coming, so you sent her away so you'd be found and so she would stay and freeze to death because you resent her." Tears rolled down Rues cheeks as it spoke.

"Now, save yourselves both more hurt and stay put." It stepped away from Rue floating up into the air, smirking when Rue didn't follow, it turned in the air before disappearing, the clouds in the air being split as it sped off. Rue slowly slumped down where she stood her hands coming up to her face as tears rolled down her cheeks as what just happened sinked in. She choked a sob as more tears fell.

She just lost her best friend and she couldn't stop it from happening.

[crystalelemental]

With the recent Japanese trailer, it’s confirmed that Champion Stadium tutorial mode gets us a pretty sweet deal, but those of you who know about this may be going “Which one is the best to pick?”  And that’s what we’ll be talking about here.  If you haven’t heard and want it to be a surprise, don’t keep reading.

This tutorial mode gets us a selection of a free copy of one of three units.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is, it’s the Sygna Suit Kanto trio, because Pokemon is nothing if not constantly bending over backwards to suck off gen 1, like some kind of horrific ouroboros.  It’s a pick of one of the three though, so you may be wondering, which one is actually optimal to get?  You know, if you’re not around the fandom in general and constantly hearing about how good SS Red is and just assume he’s the correct pick.  But maybe your assumption is wrong and you also need to take off nostalgia glasses you gen 1 loving fuck.

*ahem*  Anyway, as a single free pick, this is more to analyze the value of each at only 1/5.  What do they bring to the table, and why are they a good or bad pick given that limitation?  Obviously, faves over meta, but if you’re aiming for practicality, we’ll need to know the basics of what they do.

Sygna Suit Red Ah yes, The Best Unit In The Game (TM).  But is he truly though?  Can he, even at 1/5, truly beat this-yeah you know how I feel about him, SS Red is over-hyped to high hell.  I know, I know, I don’t have him at 3/5, so he’s better than I give him credit for etc etc, but look, the guy has one gimmick and it’s Blast Burn.  It’s the Hyper Beam strategy without Fire Shift, so it’s better than Hyper Beam, but still as direct.

SS Red’s playstyle is two tap Dire Hit, two tap Trainer move, Mega Evolve, Blast Burn.  Depending on your preference, one trainer move then mega evolve, then another, to get +3 to attack as well.  It doesn’t entirely matter.  Generally speaking, he wants some form of support to take a turn off, so anyone who can provide even a single buff of crit, or +3 to special attack, is appreciated.  His passives are Piercing Gaze, which is...really an odd choice.  It’s not terrible, but he doesn’t have the serious accuracy issues that, say, Leon or Champion Iris do with their main damage source.  He also got Propulsion 1 and MGR4.  So he’s decent at gauge control thanks to trainer move buffing speed to +6, and Propulsion has a 20% chance to get you another sync in before the foe’s first in Champion Stadium.  Inconsistent, but sure.

By grid, the main benefits to Red are Solar Flare and Haymaker to buff up his sync, but he has no multipliers on his basic attack.  So it’s fairly limited in that regard.  What he does have is an insane 571 special attack at max investment after Mega Evolution, which is, as we say in the business, pretty fucking huge.  SS Red is all about damage and effectively nothing else, but in the same way Lusamine is all about damage.  The only difference is his Blast Burn gets much higher Base Power than her moves, so it’s impressive.  But having referenced multipliers, you likely see where this is going.

At 1/5, he has nothing.  Not even the usual nothing, where it’s something but limited.  I mean he has absolutely nothing.  His only MPR is on trainer move, which you neither need nor want, and he gets one (1) power up to Blast Burn.  He didn’t even get a big power up to special attack, he got it instead for physical attack.  SS Red really just has that special attack stat going for him.  The sync isn’t even an inherent positive, because the need to mega evolve early prevents support EX benefits, as well as potential Solarize allies to keep Sun up without Sunny Day.  He works great with Blaine, but like...so does every Fire-type damage dealer, this isn’t unique.  And as established with the new Blue and Arcanine pair, we have plenty of options.  Hell, we have Blue and Arcanine, who are literally just a budget SS Red, complete with the emphasis on “does exactly one big attack after set up until something dies.”

Sygna Suit Blue And now it’s Mister Immortality himself.  When I picked up the game, I was told to aim for SS Blue when he came around, because he is an immortality button thanks to his toolkit, and...well, they’re half right.  SS Blue definitely has a ton of benefits, including passives that can buff special defense and both offenses, X Def All, accelerated move gauge, and crit buffing.  Perhaps best of all is Safety Net, which gives all allies the Endure effect after his sync.  As a Support EX, this means Endure and double damage.  Very good.

Unfortunately what he does not have is any form of healing, so while a great tank, he’s fairly limited at 1/5 due to having no healing potential at all.  Though frankly, even at 3/5, his healing options are probability-based.  Team Triage Tank and Team Fist Bump are only 30% chances to heal like 20% to the team.  It’s not exactly a big heal.  His passives also being probability-based means that SS Blue has a fantastic ceiling for supportive ability, but a painfully low floor.  He can do great work, or he can do terrible work, and it’s up to fortune how that’s going to go.  There’s also the fact that his trainer move can buff crit 1MP at a time, you don’t get MPR until 2/5, and the accelerated move gauge is really nice so do you want to waste all uses of it immediately for crit?

Basically, as strong as SS Blue can be, I feel he has serious limitations, and that’s made more true at 1/5.  No healing, and no MPR on trainer move for no max crit.  What he does keep is Quick Cure, Natural Remedy, MPR on X Def All, and Pep Rally on trainer move.  Not a terrible spread, but not a great one either, especially for a limited availability tank.  Plenty of other options can bring these qualities to the table and then some.  Most tanks get Quick Cure, and we have Jasmine and Dawn for X Def All buffs, the former with crit shield and stat drop shield, the latter with a complete full heal.  They can’t do quite as much as he can over time, but SS Blue is someone who’s just lacking the tools to perform consistently without at least 2/5, and ideally 3/5.  As a one-off copy, he’s mediocre at best.

Sygna Suit Leaf Oh, it’s the girl character.  Yeah, here at [insert fandom space], we don’t really acknowledge them as being good unless it’s to complain about waifu-ism, which we actively partake in when it’s the one we like.

SS Leaf gets overlooked, and it’s baffling to me.  I feel like, of the three, Red still gets hyped as one of the best damage dealers even though he’s fallen off and is outright worse than Leon at pure damage, and Blue gets heralded as a fantastic immortality support despite his inconsistencies.  But Leaf goes by the wayside, largely under-appreciated by comparison.  Which is weird because she has some fantastic tools.

Venomous 4 gives a 50% chance to inflict Toxic on a foe.  Razor Leaf makes it all foes, and if it activates at all it’s the whole team getting his.  Sundering 9 means she guaranteed drops defense or special defense, or both, of the foe per attack.  Again, Razor Leaf makes it the whole enemy team.  Lastly, she gets Adrenaline 2, which speeds up sync countdown by 2 after first sync, which is tremendous.  She gets Potion for pop heals, and Mega Healing to give the team gradual healing, and speed up sync cooldown by 1, 2 if she’s a mega.  Speaking of, after Mega Evolution, she increases the damage the foe takes from Toxic damage, and gets a pretty nice buff to special attack, which makes her deal some damage off of Frenzy Plant.

By grid, she has some solid options.  For offense, she gets Toxic Power 5, which is a nice and simple buff she can apply to her damage broadly, on top of the Accuracy +10 for Frenzy Plant to make it work.  She also gets HP Advantage 4, but...yeah.  Sync damage gets Relentless, which is inconsistent on her own and demands specific support to make it happen, and conflicts with her status as a special attacker.  Defensively, she gets Potent Toxin 2 again, and the usual MPRs and Master Healer.  Also healing under sun, which I find pretty neat.  She does nothing else under sun, but she can heal.  Okay.

Basically Leaf has a lot of tools and is a generalist, but she’s not exactly the best in any field.  One Potion MPR is going to mean she’s less consistent than Skyla, who is able to buff defenses and speed on top of it.  Gradual healing and sync cooldown is nice, but it’s 1MP and is unlikely to refresh, so she gets to do that once and is out of tricks.  As mentioned, her main sync multiplier is awkward and disconnected from her expected damage.  And as perhaps the biggest issue, she buffs none of her stats.  None.  She needs 100% support for offensive builds, and if you don’t have that support, god help you.  As a result, while damage is possible, it’s really team restrictive, and you ultimately want 3/5 for all those multipliers.  Her supportive abilities are more accessible, being natural to her passives, and her 1/5 grid offering Potion MPR and Frenzy Plant accuracy +10.

Final Thoughts We all knew where I’d go with this the moment it was brought up: my vote’s Leaf.  If you’re just looking for a quick 1/5 unit to do a consistent role, Leaf is the clear winner.  Red’s damage is going to disappoint without 3/5, and even with is still somewhat team reliant on Sun making him work due to lack of multipliers.  Blue is a fantastic tank, but all the things that give him his notorious immortality are 3/5 as well.  Red can maybe make it work, since Striker candies aren’t in high demand, but Blue’s support; a single copy of him can do some stuff but you’re using one candy minimum to make him function half the time.  Leaf is the only one that can consistently perform at 1/5.

As support, anyway.  Potion MPR is absolutely fantastic, especially for Legendary Gauntlet.  Frankly, same on her trainer move.  While one use, Gradual Healing has a much better return in Gauntlet than it does anywhere else.  While her debuffing is inconsistent and she won’t hit the stat you want every roll, it’s still something.  And having an easily applied status is huge.  In Gauntlet, half the known roster needs to be hit with status, so she’s got great value there.  In Champion Stadium, a turn 1 party-inflicted Toxic is about the best trait a stall team can ask for.  And if you do get duplicates, good news: MPR on trainer move is tremendous, and yes you can try out damage dealing on her as well.  But it’s not required.  Not like the other two.

So I definitely advocate SS Leaf as the free pick, if you have none of them.  If you do have them, or at least have her already, consider the following structure:

If you have Leaf at all, she is the least valuable to get a duplicate of.  If you have her at all, but the other two are anything less than 3/5, it is probably better to take the other two.

If you have neither of the others, SS Red is probably better than SS Blue at 1/5.  Blue is just too inconsistent and lacks too many of his critical abilities.

If Blue is 1/5, he desperately needs that 2/5 for some form of healing, and MPR on trainer move.  Take him over anything else, because 2/5 is life changing.

If Blue and Red are both 2/5, the decision should be made based on availability of Fire-type damage dealers in your roster.  If you have other Fire types doing just fine, Blue has far more value than Red.  But if you’re not hurting for support and need a Fire-type damage dealer, Red’s the way to go.  If you’re unsure, I lean in favor of Blue.

[glapplebloom]

Check the reading order to see how the other sides go as well as Credits.

Above the ring, a Soul Reaper faces a hybrid of a Ghost and a Hedgehog. Ichigo is dodging many of the ghost blasts done by Dimitri. Wanting to make an opening for himself, Ichigo decides to charge the beam heading his way and spin as if he was a buzz saw. Dimitri saw this coming and figured the best way to avoid such an attack would be to go intangible. He does so just in time to hopefully dodge the attack, but to his surprise he was still slashed by the blade as if he was still flesh and blood. Dimitri couldn't believe something like that could happen.

“How did you hit me?” Dimitri asked, shocked that this swordsman can hit ghosts. “I deal with spirits all the time. You're nothing new.” Ichigo decides to fire a Getsuga Tenshō towards his opponent. Dimitri, figuring that the attack can hit him like before, decided to try to counter the attack. So taking a big breath, Dimitir begins to shout. His Ghostly Wail slowed down the Energy Blade slash and dissipated it. The scream continued towards Ichigo who got caught in the effect and was knocked away. He stopped himself from falling towards the floor. “Guess you do have something new.”

Down below, a unicorn with a broken horn looks for an opponent to fight. Tempest Shadow just gave the rest of her ring energy to Apple Bloom and is back to the colors she wore under the allegiance of the Storm King. Despite her ring being empty, Tempest believe she can continue to provide support in the Royal War Infinite. But others saw this development and thought otherwise. Zool was the first to jump on the seemingly easy target. “You are no longer glowing. And with a broken horn, you should be no threat.” Tempest hears this and looks annoyed. “Is that so...”

As if it was an instant, Zool is being forcefully dragged to the edge of the arena by Tempest's Magic. Despite his best efforts to crawl out of her grasp, he was powerless to stop her. By the time she let him go, she immediately stomped him in the face a couple of times before picking him up and throwing him out of the stage. Tempest only smiled at her actions and thought to herself “And to think I thought the ring would make me go soft.” She proceeds to turn around to look for her next opponent. Everyone who thought she was going to be an easy target soon looked elsewhere.

After the blast that took him away from Cuda, Randy recovered and readied his Mega Buster towards the direction he was shot at. “I've noticed you while fighting Mecha Sonic,” said his would be opponent. It was Mega Man. “You have a Mega Buster like I do.” Randy gets back up as Rock continues to talk. “I also noticed you happen to have a whole bunch of Robot Masters powers. And since we're still in this competition, I can't just ask to copy your powers.” Mega Man aims his own buster towards Randy. “I got to admit, I always wondered how much I did match up to you.” The two readies their aim towards each other.

Elsewhere, a dark purple unicorn was dodging the attacks of a tall skeleton. The Darker Twilight was impressed. “Incredible! How are you able to create these bones out of a structure like this?” Papyrus laughed, happy to impress someone. “That's from the magic of the Great Papyrus!” This excited Twilight. “Magic?” She gets closer to Papyrus, curiosity getting the better of her. “I've been studying magic myself. What would this be considered? Summoning? Conjuring?” Thanks to her distraction, her SOUL turned blue and was soon flung towards the edge of the ring. It was Sans doing.

[treasure-mimic]

So, for those of you that are familiar with the formatting this may seem a bit strange. While normally, I like to pitch newcomer characters from whole cloth, in this case I want to make a moveset for a character that’s already in Smash. Specifically one of its oldest characters. Because characters in Smash Bros. tend to be highly, immutable, changes happen very slowly, a few in between years of development, and no character has ever gotten a true overhaul. It’s taken Ganondorf 15 years to get a few moves wholly distinct from Captain Falcon, and the inspiration is still entwined in the DNA of his kit.

So this is less, “here’s a character that I would like Smash to add, here’s how I think they would play”, it’s, “here’s a character that’s in Smash but I don’t think has a very authentic or accurate playstyle, here’s how I would change them”, or more accurately, “here’s how I think this character would, or at least could, play if they were added today”.

So, Samus Aran is a heavy, yet floaty and mobile, mid-ranger. She gets a lot of mileage out of her projectile game, but is not completely reliant on them like her easiest comparison Mega Man. She’s closer to a cross between him and Simon in true playstyle, as a lot of her moves contain narrow pathways that require good aim and spacing to get the most usage out of.

General Mobility and Mechanics

Most of Samus’ basic stats and base level animations should stay the same, I’m not out to change her idle pose, dash speed, weight or jump. However, one big difference between the real Samus and my Samus is that my Samus doesn’t crouch. Instead she goes into her morph ball form. This can work with the same number of frames that most crouch animations go into, or it could take a few frames more (no more than a few though), it shouldn’t impact things either way. What is important about the morph ball, however, is that it has a very, very low profile, one of the lowest of any crouch, and it also gives her access to a crawl, which is just her morph ball rolling around. This crawl is notable for having greater acceleration and top speed than her dash, only being slower at the start due to its lower burst speed. However, the morph ball should be more than an option, it is one of her default forms of movement.

Furthermore, her roll attacks should change to fit this, no longer seeing Samus enter her morph ball form, but simply flipping or dodging out of the way, similar to the dodge system from Other M, with frame data much closer to the average roll dodge. I would also give her a roll attack, similar to Terry, but with her rolls instead of her spot dodge. She would simply fire one small energy pellet forward, with a slight angle up, with similar damage and knockback to Mega Man’s jab. More about these types of attacks will be explained later.

Normals

Jab - Samus has a single hit jab, similar to Roy and Chrom. In it, she swings her arm cannon in a wide arc in front of her, representing the parry from Samus Returns. This move should have a very quick startup, 2-3 frames likely, and see Samus with partial intangibility while it’s active, making it a strong reversal option. Unlike Roy’s however, this attack sends opponents away, popping them far at low percents but not a whole lot farther at high percents. This makes it hard to follow up on, and furthermore, doesn’t do a whole lot of damage on its own, probably not more than the first hit of her jab already does. It is solely a tool for getting close ranged opponents off of you.

Forward Tilt - A reverse roundhouse, can be angled, basically the same thing that she already has.

Up Tilt - Samus swings the arm cannon above her head. Covers a wide area, but the animation should be a bit more reserved than the over the head splits kick she has. Pops the opponent up slightly and can be used to chain into itself at low percents with bad or no DI.

Down Tilt - While in the morph ball, Samus shoots forward a short distance, on par or even less than Cloud’s slide kick, with similar effects, popping the opponent up. The green accents on the morph ball can glow a little and leave a light trail to emphasize this as a reference to the Boost Ball from the Prime series.

Dash Attack - Identical to what it is now, I would maybe make the animation a bit more stiff to accentuate this as a Shinespark reference.

Neutral Aerial - Samus tucks in and spins, similar to her Screw Attack but without the blue electrical effects. Hits once and knocks opponents away.

Forward Aerial - Samus aims forward and shoots three uncharged shots, the first two naturally combo into the third. The third launches, though doesn’t kill until high percents.

Backwards Aerial - Samus aims behind her and a missile. It travels a short distance before exploding, kills at mid percent.

Up Aerial - Samus straightens her body out and fires an uncharged shot straight up, it doesn’t go far but it launches straight up, meaning in air-to-air fights it could KO off the top.

Down Aerial - Samus punches below her with her arm cannon. If the tip of the move connects, and only if, the end of the cannon explodes as Samus fires a point blank missile, and spikes (this does not count as a projectile). Otherwise, the move just sends out.

Throws

Grab - Samus retains her tether grab utilizing the grapple beam. The only thing I would change is that the grapple should come out of the gem on the back of her hand as opposed to the arm cannon, to emphasize the fact that these throws are now proper grapples instead of swinging people around with the grapple beam.

Pummel - Samus shoots the opponent with an uncharged shot from her arm cannon. These shots can be spammed very quickly, though do little damage.

Forward Throw - Samus spins the opponent around to put them in a headlock, then blasts them in the head with a charged shot, sending them flying.

Backwards Throw - Samus takes the opponent in her one hand and spins and hurls them backwards. This is a kill throw at mid-high percents.

Up Throw - Samus tosses the opponent up and shoots them out of the air with a charge shot.

Down Throw - Samus throws the opponent to the ground and steps on them, letting loose two uncharged shots and then a charged shot, doing by far the most damage of all her throws.

Smash Attacks

Forward Smash - Samus leaps and rolls back then fires a charged shot in the area in front of her. This charged shot travels fast, fast enough to be comparable to a melee smash attack, though in turn the projectile doesn’t go far, especially considering she jumps back before firing. The total range is about that of Olimar’s forward smash with a purple pikmin, from her starting position. Because she rolls back, this is capable of crossing up and hitting opponents behind her.

Up Smash - Samus leaps and rolls forward, firing a charged shot straight up as she moves. The charge shot moves just as fast as her fsmash, and stops just below the top platform on Battlefield.

Down Smash - The morph ball glows yellow and begins spinning on itself. When the button is released, Samus releases five bombs from the morph ball, which fly up slightly and then scatter on the ground around her. These bombs explode when they come in contact with an enemy, shielding or no, or after half a second of being released. On their own, these explosions don’t do much damage, but if the opponent is caught in three or more they will be launched like a normal smash attack.

Specials

Neutral B - Aim Stance - Samus widens her stance to firmly ground herself and stops moving. Pressing B again ends the stance immediately, upon which any action can immediately be performed. Jumping will also cancel the stance. While in the stance, the control stick can be used to aim Samus’ arm cannon in a complete 360 degree circle around herself. Pressing the A button will have Samus fire uncharged shots from her arm cannon, with a maximum charge time of a second. These uncharged shots do scratch damage and do little more than flinch the opponents, but can be rapid fired to fill the space between Samus and her aim and make approach harder. Holding and then releasing the A button will have Samus charge a shot, the longer a shot is charged, the more damage it does, the faster it travels, the further it knocks back, and the farther it goes. If the shield button is held, then Samus’ arm cannon opens up, and when the A button is pressed she instead fires missiles. Missiles can’t be fired as rapidly as uncharged shots, move slower than charged shots, and don’t go quite as far, though they do go farther than uncharged shots, but kill very early. If a missile is charged for the length that it would take to max charge a shot, Samus shoots a super missile, which has all the properties of a regular missile but can kill as early as 50% on midweights.

Side B - Plasma Beam - Samus aims and fires her plasma beam, which is shown as being a glowing green and having several wavy strands. The attack can be charged by holding the button, it can be shield cancelled but the charge cannot be stored. While charging, the shot can be aimed, but it’s limited to a 140 degree range, 70 up and 70 down, in the direction the attack was done in. The plasma beam passes through all objects on the stage as well as items and enemies, multi-hits and launches, capable of killing at high percents. It also travels the farthest of any of Samus’ projectiles. However, the move also has the most startup time of her projectiles, even for an uncharged shot.

Up B - Screw Attack - Not much change from the real version of this move, I would just want the attack to travel forward more and have more of an identifiable “arc” in its movement.

Down B - Bomb - Samus drops a bomb in her morph ball form. Unlike the real version of this move, this attack should have little to no startup or recovery, and the bombs also shouldn’t be affected by gravity. They explode when they come in contact with an enemy, or have been active for a second and a half. And if the explosion hits Samus, then she’ll be bumped up in the air slightly in her morph ball form. If the attack is performed in the air, then she enters her morph ball form where her aerial movement is replaced with the same mobility as she has while rolling on the ground, but in this form she cannot use her recovery, double jump, or fastfall. This mode can be exited before touching the ground by hitting up on the control stick whereupon these options are returned to her.

Final Smash - Queen’s Nest

Samus jumps back and fires a large plasma beam shot forward and slightly down. This covers a wide area in front of her, though doesn’t have much vertical coverage. All enemies that are hit are put in a cinematic where they’re knocked back into a dark, green cave filled with glowing eggs. The Queen Metroid appears behind them and chomps them all down. Samus runs in after, turning into her morph ball form and diving down the Queen’s throat before laying a Super Bomb in her stomach, which explodes, destroying the queen and launching all the characters hit.

[thebladeblaster]

Pokémon: the Vanguard Descends The Movie: Celebi Lost In Time (Part 6 the last one I promise 😂)

“Everything’s going to be alright Emi.”, Aichi assured.

Suddenly all the plant life reached out to attack Aichi.

“Aichi!”, they all called out reaching out towards him.

Kamui threw out his Pokémon, Misaki’s and Kourin’s Pokémon sent out their attacks to stop the plants before they could hit. Emi closed her eyes as the plants all collided. She hesitantly cracked her eyes open as she shook.

“Please no. I don’t want to lose you like this brother!”, Emi thought.

Suddenly, parts of the plants were cut up including the middle and there was a bright flash of blue and golden light. Where the plants had converged burst open revealing Aichi and Soul Saver. Aichi’s eyes had rainbow spirals. Soul Saver’s scales turned blue and it’s underbelly a glowing golden. It’s eyes glowed brightly. They were both surrounded in a blue aura. They all looked very relieved.

“Aichi you almost gave me a heart attack.”, Misaki said as she held her hand over her heart.

“You always gotta make a dramatic moment don’t you, bro?”, Kamui commented.

“Yeah, that always seems to happen with you.”, Kourin added.

“Hehe. Sorry about that it wasn’t intentional.”, Aichi chuckled sheepishly.

“Don’t hurt her too much.”, Emi said as she held onto Shuka’s staff tightly.

“I won’t. I promise.”, Aichi replied, giving Emi a smile before facing the corrupted Shuka with a serious expression.

“Go, Ahmes!”, Aichi called out.

He quickly activated his mega bracelet to mega evolve Ahmes. Ahmes had a blue aura like Aichi and Soul Saver.

“Gallade! Gallade! Gallade! (I’m with you, my vanguard!)”, Ahmes said as he dramatically whipped his cape.

“Ahmes use future sight then swords dance! Soul Saver use scale shot!”, Aichi ordered.

Misaki tried to look for the rare hunter with Assista Eevee. The goliath growled angrily as it tried to crush Aichi and his Pokémon. Ahmes easily dodged through the plants and slashed clean through some as they came close to striking the others. Aichi on Soul Saver rode up the plants up to the goliath itself. She furiously tried to hit him but either missed, cut by Soul Saver’s tusks or the plants were blown away by her scales.

“You!”, could vaguely be heard from the goliath as the area around Aichi shook.

Suddenly a bright pink light erupted from the goliath as Aichi started to get close.

“Soul Saver move!”, Aichi hastily ordered.

Soul Saver shot out a beam of golden energy propelling them up.

“Crap! I can’t get close! Wait...”, Aichi said.

Aichi warily pointed his finger at the goliath while they started to descend.

“Bind! Come on! Bind! I don’t want to hurt you Shuka!”, Aichi thought.

“Absolute lock!”, Aichi called out.

From inside the goliath Shuka glared daggers at Aichi as the image of the 003v of her world overlapped with him. She roared causing the goliath too as well as more fairy type energy was emitted causing a huge explosion.

“Die!!!”, erupted from the goliath.

Ahmes jumped in front of the others using his cape to block. After the light dispersed Ahmes caught Aichi and Soul Saver with his psychic energy and flew them back up to where they were on the goliath before. Tears fell from Emi’s face as she shakily held up the staff.

“I have to do something! I don’t want either of them to get hurt!”, Emi thought.

“Ahmes use solar blade! Soul Saver use scale shot!”, Aichi ordered.

Soul Saver let out a roar as she shot more scales at the goliath tearing bits of it apart. Ahmes slashed at the incoming attacks of the plants along with the other’s Pokémon. Aichi could vaguely make out the part where Shuka was inside through the damage and started to make his way there. Soul Saver cut through the close up plants with her tusks and shot scales at the further ones. Aichi could now clearly see Shuka and reached out for her.

“Shuka it’s me Aichi! You’ve gotta stop this! Emi’s worried about you! She wants you to come back with her!”, Aichi pleaded.

“Emi…”, Shuka whispered.

She suddenly imagined Emi and remembered how they had fought to liberate her world. How she met the Emi in this world and became friends with her.

“That’s right. I know you don’t want to hurt anybody. You’ve gotta fight that thing controlling you!”, Aichi continued.

Shuka then suddenly got another flashback…

She desperately struggled to get up as she looked over to her side. She heard two pairs of footsteps. They belonged to 003v and Imaginary Plane.

“Shuka!”, Emi quickly rushed to her side trying to help her up.

Emi grabbed Shuka’s staff holding it up to 003v who looked more amused than anything.

“Don’t get any closer!”, Emi said.

“Don’t do it Emi! Just run!”, Shuka pleaded.

“What are you going to do with a stick?”, 003v questioned, as he pointed at the staff.

“I’m gonna use it!”, Emi threatened, though it was hollow honestly she had no idea how to even use it.

003v raised his finger to Emi.

“Absolute lock!”, 003v called out as she was binded.

She desperately squirmed, but to no avail. 003v continued over to Shuka.

“Now, this is the end for you.”, 003v said with a more serious tone glaring down at Shuka.

She paled as 003v held out his hand about to send a wave of psychic energy.

“This is it. I’m going to die. I’m not going to save everyone. I failed Arceus. I’m sorry.”, Shuka thought as she closed her eyes.

“Hey you!”, a familiar shaded figure from the beginning yelled.

A Corviknight, Silvally, Dusknoir, Grimmsnarl, and Malamar all pouched at 003v. Imaginary Plane shit scales at the incoming Pokémon. Due to the Corviknight’s resistance it was able to just barely endure it. 003v then raised his hand up to the Corviknight blasting it away with an annoyed look. The shadowed figure and Suiko hastily grabbed Shuka getting her away.

“Emi!”, Shuka desperately called out.

Flashback end

Shuka glared at the two of them again especially as the image of her 003v and Imaginary Plane overlapped with their own again. The aura around her darkened and hissed. Aichi and Soul Saver sweated nervously, if looks could kill they’d be dead.

“You! Die!”, she growled.

Another massive outburst of fairy energy shot out from her point blank at the two. There was a loud explosion as the two were blown out of the goliath. Aichi and Soul Saver were upside down as they were blown out. Aichi shakily raised his finger again.

“Bind! Stop her! Come on!”, Aichi thought.

“A-absolute...l-lock!”, Aichi called out.

A blast shot out of Aichi’s finger different from before. It hit the exposed heart containing Shuka. She flinched growling as a light blue aura and two intersecting rings appeared around her, binding her in place. However unlike before the ring was a pristine white with the outer rim golden. There was a long trail of smoke which crashed into a tall building completely destroying it.

“Aichi!”, they called out worriedly.

Emi was in tears as she held up the staff. She desperately waved it trying to do something. She had absolutely no idea how it worked, but she had to do something.

“Please! Please! Work! Oh dear Arceus! I don’t want to lose Aichi and Shuka!”, Emi thought, closing her eyes tightly as she prayed.

“It’s glowing!”, Kamui gasped.

Emi’s eyes cracked open to see the staff glowing dimly emitting a very small wave of energy.

“What’s that thing supposed to do?”, Kourin asked.

“It can purify the corrupted Pokémon though... I don’t really know how it works.”, Emi answered.

“Well it’s doing something! Let the great Kamui help you goddess!”, Kamui said as he put his hands on the staff.

Kourin looked worriedly to where Aichi was then the staff.

“He’d try to do this. I’ll just have to hope he’s okay.”, Kourin thought as she put her hand on the staff.

They closed their eyes praying. The staff glowed a bit brighter. Some of the injured Pokémon closed their eyes praying as well as the orb glowed brighter. The wave got big and powerful enough for the goliath to recoil from it like hot water. They were almost there, but it wasn’t strong enough. Misaki desperately ran around, no rare hunters were in sight anymore. It seems that they have all scurried away leaving them to their deaths. The wave was getting a bit stronger causing a growl of pain to come from the goliath. Ahmes rushed quickly over to where Aichi fell.

“Come on! More!”, Emi said full of exhaustion as she sweated heavily pouring all of her power into the staff.

Misaki came back seeing what they were doing. She looked rather confused, but she noticed the others doing it and the wave of energy coming from the staff. She touched the staff and it glowed a bit more. Even still while they were close it still wasn’t enough. Ahmes suddenly came back with Aichi over his shoulder. He was a bit injured and his clothes were torn up. Soul Saver wasn’t in sight having been recalled into her Poké ball. Aichi made his way over to the others as much as Ahmes tried to get him to sit down and rest. Aichi still stubbornly struggled over to them.

“Aichi! I thought you were dead!”, Emi gasped, sounding relieved.

She looked over to Aichi as he approached them. He edged closer to the staff putting his hand on it and filling it with his power. They suddenly gasped in awe when the wave became over 1000x bigger, completely engulfing Shuka and what was left of the goliath. The beam didn’t stop, it didn’t physically damage anything but it continued on for miles. It even went beyond Kakusa itself to the ocean and even another region in that direction. A few shadowed figures with Kai and Overlord were surrounded by corrupted Pokémon. The light suddenly hit and they closed their eyes from the bright light. They opened their eyes to see the corrupted Pokémon were purified. Kai looked over to where the blast came from the direction where Kakusa was.

“What the heck was that?!”, one of the shadowed figures gasped.

“Heh. That was Aichi.”, Kai chuckled with a small smile.

“How do you know that?”, the figure questioned.

“Just a feeling.”, Kai replied.

In Kakusa…

“Gallade!(Aichi!)”, Ahmes called out exasperated as Aichi flew over to Shuka catching her hand with his own before she could fall.

“What is he made of?”, Hiroshi questioned.

“Hehe. Looks like Aichi’s still got some gas left.”, Gouki chuckled.

Shuka’s eyes cracked open and she looked up to see Aichi. He gave her a small tired smile. From the angle she was at she could see the sun clearly behind him. It made it look like he was glowing. The clouds behind him made it appear as if he had wings even though he didn’t need any to fly. Shuka had a small smile.

“You were right Arceus. All along. He is the messiah.”, Shuka thought.

They slowly descended down and everyone ran over to them. As soon as Aichi touched the ground he collapsed in exhaustion. Ahmes came over to him, sweat dropping, shaking his head and sighing. Emi rushed over to them and hugged Shuka.

“Even his Pokémon think he’s reckless.”, Misaki commented, sweat dropping.

“I’m glad you’re alright!”, Emi said as she hugged Shuka.

“Yeah, me too Emi. And Aichi too.”, Shuka replied.

Kourin sighed as she came over with Ashlei.

“Use heal pulse.”, Kourin ordered.

Ashlei channeled healing energy into Aichi.

“I have a feeling he does this a lot.”, Shuka said.

“You .Have. No. Idea.”, Emi and Misaki said in almost unison.

They then broke out into laughter and the others joined.

To be continued…

The CF Pokémon Au will continue in...Pokémon: The Dark Circuit!

[askkrenko]

Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Vulpix Line

Wook at da fwuffy widdle foxxy woxxy! Is so cuuuuuute! 

DESIGN: 

First, I want to talk about Trifox. Trifox was cut from the original game, presumably because they felt they didn’t need an early game version of Vulpix and that mechanically it’d be fine where it was...

But look at this little ball of fiery snuggles! Okay, this is the beta sprite from the original game, so it’s obviously not the best depiction, but you can imagine. 

Okay, moving on, Vulpix is adorable, Trifox would’ve been even more adorable, but considering I’ve ranted about Pichu and Cleffa already, I probably wouldn’t actually appreciate it being added in later. It would’ve probably had base stats in the 200 range and only be interesting if you could catch it before fighting Brock. But Brock’s a rock type and Misty’s water, so... yeah, by the time you’d want it, it’s time for Vulpix already.

Vulpix is adorable. It just is. It’s very clearly doing a Kitsune thing with its six tails, and while it really is just ‘a kitsune,’ the curls in its tail and on its head really set it apart from other depictions. 

Ninetails is more traditional Kitsune, and frankly, googling “Kitsune” finds a lot of pictures that just look like Ninetails with red stripes.  Having a Kitsune Pokemon is great, but I do wish they’d done something to its appearance to distinguish it as they did with Vulpix.  There’s a few pokemon that are just ‘it’s the mythical creature but a pokemon,’ and Ninetails is probably the worst offender here.

Alolan Vulpix is interesting in that its six tails sort of blend into one puffy one. Overall it just looks like a white Vulpix but, well, some foxes are Arctic Foxes and are white.  I don’t know why it lives in Alola (There are no Foxes in Hawaii) but it’s still cute, it’s still Vulpix, but it’s clearly a variant.  

Now, Alolan Ninetails is along the lines of what I wish Ninetails was. You can still clearly see the Kitsune influences, but it has this whispy, ethereal nature and a soft blue coloration suggesting its elemental affinity.  It’s just as beautiful and elegant, but looks even more mysterious, like something you’d see and then question if you actually saw it.

EVOLUTIONS: 

Well, without Trifox in the mix, Vulpix is a two-stage pokemon that evolves with the Fire or Ice stone, depending.  The door’s not really open for an evolved Ninetails, as that’d be too weird with it’s Kitsune theme, but Mega or G-Max Ninetails is on the table.   Here’s an idea: a Mega form that’s Fire/Ice type and can come from either Ninetails.

And Trifox could still show up in a later game. They’d probably do something stupid with incense, though, wheras what I’d like them to do is just drop Trifox down on Route 1 or whatever so it can Ember its way through all the bug catchers if you decided to start with the Grass Type. Then evolve early at like level 16.

TYPING: 

Being pure fire type is fine, with six resistances and only three weaknesses, but offensive coverage is only four types. Also, weakness to Ground and Rock can be problematic, as Earthquake and Stealth Rock are major players in tournaments. 

Alolan Ninetails, as a Fairy/Ice type, has four weaknesses (including a double weakness to Steel), three resistances, and an immunity to Dragon type. All in all, it’s fine. Offensively, it hits six types with super effective moves, though Fire and Steel resist both of its types.  STATS: 

Both Ninetails and Alolan Ninetails have 505 total stats, with their best stats being Speed and Special Defense.  Alolan Ninetails is the faster of the two, but Ninetails has a Physical attack comparable to its special attack, while Alolan Ninetails has a much weaker Physical Attack. Still... neither attack stat is very strong. 

ABILITIES: 

Ninetails and Alolan Ninetails have garbage regular abilities. Flash Fire changes Ninetails’ Fire Resistance into Fire Immunity and makes it do additional damage after being hit by a fire attack... But if something’s hitting you with a fire attack, there’s a reasonable chance its fire type and thus also resistant to your fire attacks.

Snow Cloak gives Alolan Ninetails 20% evasion during Hail, which requires something to set up hail, and even then only has a chance of working, and it’s an unreliable defensive ability on a pokemon that’s not exactly ‘tank’ material.

But their Hidden Abilities are Drought and Snow Warning.

Here’s the thing about Drought, Snow Warning, Drizzle, and Sand Stream: If you have them, you’re a good pokemon. Full stop.  It doesn’t matter what your other stats and abilities are, as long as they’re not complete garbage. If you can set the weather by switching in, you’re a valuable member of the team. 

Ninetails can set Sunny Day upon switching in. Alolan Ninetails can set Hail upon switching in. That’s it. That’s all they need. They’re both usable. MOVES:  In theory, Ninetails can be set up as a Physical attacker or a Special Attacker, but its only Physical attacks of note are Flare Blitz and Zen Headbutt. They’re not the worst, but its Special lineup is much stronger.

For special attacks, Ninetails gets Flamethrower, Fireblast, Overheat, Weather Ball, Dark Pulse, Extrasensory, Scorching Sands, and most importantly, Solar Beam. Ninetails is a fully self contained Sunny Beamer.  And what’s Solar Beam good against?  Ground, Rock, and Water, all THREE of Ninetails’ weaknesses! 

And if you have a moment to set up, Ninetails can learn Nasty Plot, too.  Despite a relatively mediocre Special Attack stat of 81, Ninetails can blast hard.

Unfortunately, that’s sort of where Ninetails’ ability ends.  Nasty Plot, Solar Beam, Weather Ball, and... maybe Scorching Sands because Fire types resist Grass and Fire.  If an enemy gets rid of the Drought, just switch out Ninetails and bring it back later. A Heat Rock is your friend here, but so is anything that just lets Ninetails do more damage.  Another option for a fourth move is Will-O-Wisp. It’ll allow Ninetails to damage things with huge special defense, and reduce the damage from an opponent’s physical moves, severely weakening a lot of pokemon.

Alolan Ninetails’ Snow Warning summons Hail rather than creating Sun, which makes for an entirely different style of moves.  Alolan Ninetails’ super special awesome move is called Aurora Veil, an ability that halves all incoming damage to your whole team, but only works when Hail is up. If Hail ends, Aurora Veil does not, so rather than worrying about the Icy Rock, Alolan Ninetails wants Light Clay to increase Aurora Veil’s duration.

Alolan Ninetails can learn Nasty Plot, if it’d like, and once Aurora Veil is up it might even have time to abuse it, but that would be a two-turn setup, giving the opponent ample time to switch in something with a Steel move.

Alolan Ninetails’ best Fairy attack is Moonblast, but that can be a bit difficult to get as it’s an Egg move, but Sword and Shield made that much easier to pull off.  Its best Ice attack is Blizzard. The normal drawback of Blizzard, low accuracy, is ignored during Hail.  Depending on your team, your Alolan Ninetails may want Freeze-Dry for coverage against Water pokemon. It’s another egg move which would be mutually exclusive with Moonblast if SwSh didn’t change how egg moves work.

OVERALL:  Kantonian Ninetails has Drought with Solar Beam and Fire Moves. Alolan Ninetails has Snow Warning with Aurora Veil and Blizzard. They’re full-package weather pokemon as long as you get the hidden ability.  Everything else is secondary. When a pokemon has a good ability and the moves and stats to work with it, it can be magic, and Ninetails has all the moves that Drought and Snow Warning could want.

[rubyspearsmegamanproject]

35. Leader Of The Pack

The episode begins with a view of the city. Some robot robbers are cutting through a crowd. Mega Man is chasing after the robot robbers. Mega Man fires at them. His shot hits one of their lower legs. The robotic robber stumbles. He falls down onto the ground. The other robot robber is still running away. Mega Man goes after him. He runs after him as fast as he can. A robot biker gang is watching the whole situation unfolding. The gang's leader tells them "We should help them!" "Let's get 'em!" the leader shouts out. The gang drives their motorcycles in front of the robot robber to block him. The robot robber is a bit intimidated by the biker gang. He ends up surrendering. Mega Man thanks the biker gang. The gang members all give Mega Man a thumbs up. The police bots and Mega Man manage to capture the robot robber. Some of the citizens congratulate the robot biker gang. Roll is interested in their leader. Roll walks up to the gang leader. She introduces herself to him. "Hello there! I'm Roll!" Roll says to him. The gang leader tells her "You're really pretty!" She is flattered by his complement. He asks her "Would you like for me to take you back home on my motorcycle?" Mega Man butts in and tells the gang leader "No thank you!" The gang leader says to Mega Man "I see you're her boyfriend..." Mega Man angrily cries out "Boyfriend!? I'm her brother!" The gang leader calmly says "I'm very sorry about the misunderstanding there..." Mega Man replies "Yeah...sure..." Mega Man tells Roll "Come on, Roll, let's go home..." Roll says her goodbyes to the gang. Mega Man barks out to Roll "Come on!" Roll waves to the gang leader, who waves back.

Back at Dr. Light's Lab, Mega Man chastises Roll for talking to the biker gang leader. He tells her "That guy could have been dangerous!" Roll tells her brother "He didn't look dangerous..." Dr. Light overhears their conversation. He comes into the room. He asks the two "What's wrong?" Mega Man tells Dr. Light "Roll here was conversing with a robot biker gang!" Roll tries to defend herself. "But they helped Mega Man catch those robot robbers!" she claims. Dr. Light is slightly distressed that she has spoken to a biker gang. He tells her "Mega Man is right! They could have been dangerous!" Mega Man says to Dr. Light "That's what I've told her!" Roll scowls a bit at Mega Man. Elsewhere that night, the robot biker gang has gathered in a wide alleyway. One of the gang members drives up to the gang leader. He tells the gang leader "Dr. Wily's robots have been spotted breaking into a warehouse!" He asks his leader "Should we keep a good eye on them?" The leader tells him "No! We must stay away from them! Trust me, they're a lot worse than those robot robbers!" The gang member nods. One of the other gang members asks the leader "What should we do about it, then?" The gang leader tells them "Call up Mega Man!" Back at Dr. Light's Lab, Mega Man has received the call, and he and Rush fly out of the lab. Roll and Eddie fly out in Roll's jetski.

At the warehouse, Dr. Wily's robots have just broken into it. Proto Man tells Guts Man, Concrete Man, and Hard Man "Get as much of those metal beams as humanly possible!" "Wily needs all that metal for his latest and greatest weapon!" Proto Man tells them. Guts Man responds "Ha! Yeah right!" Concrete Man does not like that Guts Man expressed criticism of Dr. Wily's handiwork. He tells Guts Man "Hey, you need to watch your mouth! Wily could punish you for talking trash about his unmatched genius!" Proto Man comments "That's right, Concrete Man! Dr. Wily could really punish him for talking bad about him!" Guts Man growls and grumbles under his breath as he gather up some metal beams. Proto Man crosses his arms and watches the strong robot masters gathering materials. Mega Man and Roll land near the warehouse. They see that Dr. Wily's robots have already broken into it. They run into the warehouse. The bad robots are about to walk out of the warehouse. They see that Mega Man and Roll are in their way. Mega Man tells them "You crooks aren't going anywhere!" Proto Man tells his brother "Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" Concrete Man hurls the metal beams in his arms at Mega Man and Roll. The beams pin them down. Concrete Man then uses his Concrete Shot on the beam to keep them pinned down. Hard Man comes over and says "Here's some more!" and is about to pile more beams onto Mega Man and Roll. Mega Man fires at the metal beams. They fly back towards Hard Man and knock him down. Mega Man then blasts apart the concrete. He tries to lift the beams off of himself, but he is unable to by himself. He yells to Roll "Help me, Roll! 1, 2..." Guts Man drops his beams and raises his fists up, preparing to smash Mega Man and Roll under the beams. Mega Man finishes with "3!" Both be and Roll push off the metal beams with their legs. Guts Man is pushed back by the metal beams. He grabs one of the beams and hits Mega Man with it. Mega Man gets knocked out and falls onto the ground hard. He hits the ground with an audible clang. Roll hears Mega Man fall and turns around. Roll sees that Mega Man has been knocked out. She yells at him "Mega! Get up! Come on! We're in big trouble!" Guts Man, Concrete Man, and Hard Man gang up on the two good robots. Fortunately, Mega Man regains consciousness and gets up but he is pretty weak from the attack. He gets a bit woozy and nearly falls down again. Roll sees that he needs Eddie, and runs quickly back to her jetski. Eddie sees that Roll needs him, so he quickly gets up and jumps off of the jetski. He runs quickly towards the warehouse, running past Roll. "Atta boy, Eddie!" Roll yells out to Eddie. Back at the warehouse, Hard Man fires his Hard Knuckles at Mega Man while he is still on the ground. Mega Man manages to dodge the Hard Knuckle. Mega Man tries to fire at the three burly robot masters, but can only shoot out a weak burst of light. The robot masters laugh at him. "What a weakling!" Concrete Man yells out. Eddie comes running in the warehouse. Guts Man sees Eddie and yells out "Hey! It's that little green toaster!" Eddie yells out "Toaster!?" Concrete Man fires his Concrete Shot at Eddie. Eddie gets covered in hardening concrete. Roll sees that Eddie has been encased in a concrete block. She cries out "Eddie!" and runs back into the warehouse to free Eddie from his concrete prison. Outside of the warehouse, the robot biker gang see that Mega Man and Roll are fighting the evil robots. The gang leader looks closely and sees that they are actually in distress. He tells the gang "They need our help again! But this time, they really need it! Let's ride!" The gang rides down to the warehouse.

Back in the warehouse, Proto Man tells the robot masters "Alright, play time's over now! We need to het those beams to Wily A.S.A.P.!" As they walk over to the remaining metal beams, they hear motorcycles approaching the warehouse. Guts Man turns around to see the biker gang entering the warehouse. Guts Man yells out "Did the blue dweeb send out reinforcements?" Concrete Man says "Whatever they are, they're keeping us from doing our jobs!" Hard Man and Concrete Man fire their weapons at the bikers. One of Hard Man's knuckles breaks open the concrete block that Eddie was trapped in. Eddie jumps up and down and shouts out "I'm free! I'm free!" He then runs over to Mega Man. Mega Man lifts up one of his hands, anticipating Eddie giving him an energy can. Fortunately, Dr. Wily's robots are too busy fighting the robot bikers to see that Eddie is healing Mega Man. Eddie shoots out two energy cans. Mega Man grabs one. He drinks the energy can. Some of his energy has been restored. He then picks up the other energy can and drinks its contents. His health has been fully restored. He gets up and does a flex as his body glows green. He thanks Eddie and pets him. He sees that the biker gang is having some trouble fighting the evil robots. Mega Man goes over and fires at the robot masters. The gang leader sees Mega Man and tells him "It's good to see you again, Mega Man!" Mega Man just says to him "Yeah, whatever..." Mega Man still does not trust the gang leader. Proto Man is getting upset that they cannot get the materials that they need. "Come on! Let's go!" Proto Man yells out at the robot masters. Proto Man and the other evil robots quickly gather up as many of the metal beams as they can and run out of the warehouse. They fly away in a Wily Machine. Everyone leaves the warehouse. They gather nearby it. The gang leader sees Roll. He greets her. "Hello again, Roll!" he says to her. Roll tells him "Watch out for Mega Man, he doesn't really trust you!" The gang leader suspects that the evil robots are up to no good again. "You don't say?" Roll says to him. The gang leader tells her "Believe it or not, I am actually familiar with them." Roll says to him "You've fought with them before!?" He tells her "Not really, but we used to be on the same-" Mega Man butts in and tells Roll "Everyone's leaving! We should leave too!" Mega Man looks at the gang leader with scorn. Roll sees that Mega Man is busy checking Rush for any repairs. She asks the leader "Would you like to meet my creator?" He responds "I would love to! I hear he's a real great guy!" Roll blushes and says "Yeah, he is!" They both get on Roll's jetski and fly away. The jetski flies over the biker gang. The gang leader yells down to them "Follow me and Roll!" Everyone except Mega Man and Rush heads to Dr. Light's lab. Mega Man and Rush look around to see where everyone went. They see that the gang leader has left his motorcycle behind. Mega Man clenches his fists and kicks the motorcycle over. He yells out "I told Roll he could be trouble!" Mega Man looks at Rush and says to him "She's taken him with her to the lab, hasn't she!?" Rush growls as he nods. Mega Man tells Rush "Let's jet there as fast as we can!" Rush barks and turns into his jet mode. Mega Man jumps on him and the fly away. As they fly away, Mega Man yells out "He's really going to get it this time!"

Back at the lab, Mega Man and Rush see that the whole biker gang is outside of the lab. Mega Man facepalms and goes "Oh no! He's even brought his whole gang with him!" The gang members greet Mega Man, but Mega Man and Rush simply scowl at them and head into the lab. Meanwhile, Roll and the gang leader walk up to Dr. Light. Roll introduces him to Mega Man and Dr. Light. Dr. Light doesn't trust him. Mega Man runs into the main lab and sees the gang leader talking to Dr. Light. This really upsets Mega Man. Mega Man is about to yell at the gang leader for getting close to Dr. Light, but the emergency alarm sounds. Dr. Light and Mega Man run up to the main screen. A man shows up on the main screen. He tells the two that some robots are breaking intto an energy rod manufacturing facility. The gang leader walks up between Mega Man and Dr. Light. "Excuse me!" Dr. Light angrily says to the gang leader "This is a private call!" Mega Man lets out "Yeah! Back off!" The gang leader lets out "Okay..." and slowly backs away from them. Dr. Light looks back to the screen and says to the man "Please continue..." The man tells Mega Man to get to the facility as quickly as he can. Mega Man tells the man "I'll be there faster than you can say 'automaton'!" The gang leader meanwhile runs out of the lab. He borrows one of the members motorcycles. He tells them to go back and get his motorcycle while he is assisting Mega Man. Mega Man flies to the facility on Rush while the gang leader uses his motorcycle to get there.

They see that the facility is being broken into. Mega Man tells him "Stay where you are!" He tells Mega Man "I can help you!" Mega Man doesn't believe him. He tells Mega Man "I have a weapon of my own!" This convinces Mega Man to let him help him. "Fair enough!" Mega Man says to him. Mega Man tells him "Now follow behind me!" Meanwhile, Guts Man and the other robot masters are carrying off long energy rods from where they are being stored. They are about to walk out of the facility when Mega Man and the gang leader stop them in their tracks. Cut Man says to the gang leader "You look familiar...do I know you?" The gang leader says "Maybe...but right now, Mega Man and I have to stop you guys!" Mega Man and the gang leader both fire at them. Cut Man throws his cutters at the gang leader. The cutters end up cutting through his jacket. "Hey! You owe me a new jacket, scissor head!" the gang leader yells out. The gang leader fires his weapon at Cut Man and knocks him out. Guts Man drops the energy rods he is carrying and charges at the gang leader. The gang leader attempts to fire his weapon at Guts Man, but Guts Man ends up knocking him out. Mega Man sees that he has been damaged and runs over to assist him. Elec Man fires his weapon at Mega Man. Mega Man narrowly avoids the Thunder Beam. Guts Man picks up the gang leader just as Mega Man is about to grab him. He lifts the gang leader above and says to Mega Man "Oh, you wanted him?" Mega Man tells Guts Man "I don't need your permission, Guts Man, I need your metal hide!" Mega Man shoots at Guts Man. Guts Man is knocked down by the plasma shot. Mega Man catches the gang leader in his arms as he falls out of Guts Man's clutches. The gang leader thanks him. Elec Man is about to fire a Thunder Beam at both of them, but Proto Man stops him. Proto Man tells Elec Man "Getting those energy rods to Wily is our first priority, remember?" Elec Man and Proto Man quickly grab as many energy rods as they can and run out of the facility. Mega Man feels bad for how he was to the gang leader previously. Mega Man tells him "Come on, let's get you fixed up!" Mega Man gets on Rush and they fly off back to the lab.  

Back at Skull Fortress, Cut Man is telling Dr. Wily about the gang leader as Dr. Wily is building a tower-like machine. Dr. Wily asks Cut Man "Does he have a weapon of his very own?" Cut Man replies "M-maybe." Proto Man tells Dr. Wily "He was helping Mega Man!" Elec Man tells his evil master "I think he's been with us before..." Dr. Wily tells his robots "Whether or not he used to work with us, he and Mega Man will never be able to get within five miles of my fortress thanks to this energy turret!" He steps back to admire his latest creation. The energy turret is rather tall. Dr. Wily laments "Even all of the military of the world will never be able to penetrate my fortress! Skull Fortress will be invincible from now on! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"

Back at Dr. Light's lab, Dr. Light is repairing the gang leader. Roll questions Mega Man "Mega, if you hate his circuits so much, then why did you save him from Guts Man's wrath?" Mega Man tells Roll "Because I realize now that he's actually a good bot." Roll scoffs and says "Yeah, right!" Dr. Light is done repairing the gang leader. Dr. Light asks the gang leader "Is that better now?" The gang leader replies "Much better! Thank you very much, Dr. Light!" The gang leader gets off the table. The gang leader sees that Dr. Light, Mega Man, Roll, and Rush are around him. He sighs. He addresses them all by name. He tells them that it's time that he tells them all the truth about himself. He was a former robot master. When he found out Dr. Wily's true intentions, he was disgusted that he had created him for his own personal gains. He left him and ended up roaming the streets. A robot biker gang took pity on him and let him join them. Mega Man comments "Didn't really surprise me there!" Roll blushes and is ashamed of herself. She says "I can't believe I've fallen in love with a robot master again! Guess I'm into bad bots..." Mega Man tells Roll "It wasn't really your fault, Roll, none of us knew..." The gang leader tells Roll "It's not that you're into bad bots, you're just into robots who treat you with kindness and respect!" Roll smiles with comfort. The gang leader then tells Dr. Light "I think Dr. Wily and his robots are planning something real nasty with the metal beams and energy rods!" Dr. Light replies "Go on..." The former robot master tells everyone "From my calculations, Dr. Wily is using those things to build some kind of weapon!" Mega Man shouts "Then we must stop him, together! Who knows what kind of weapon he's going to make out of those materials!" Mega Man, Rush, and the gang leader run out of the lab. Mega Man looks at Rush and says to him "You know what to do!" Rush reluctantly barks and turns into his jet mode. Mega Man hops on and says to the gang leader "Get on!" The gang leader does so. They fly off to Skull Fortress. "Next stop, Skull Fortress!" Mega Man cries out as they all fly away. They fly over the rugged desert terrain.

Meanwhile, at Skull Fortress, the energy turret is being moved into the middle of the fortress. Guts Man, Concrete Man, and Hard Man are moving it into place. Dr. Wily and Proto Man are watching the whole operation. "This is a great moment for me!" Dr. Wily gloats. Proto Man turns to Dr. Wily and says "That's the fifth time you've said that! You've said that when you made that dream machine, when you built that 'floating fortress of doom', when you took over the airport, when you found where that chest containing Lotos is, and when you created that dart that controls-" Dr. Wily yells at Proto Man "I get it!" Proto Man immediately shuts up. Elec Man and Cut Man immediately run over to Dr. Wily. Elec Man tells Dr. Wily "Mega Man and that gang leader are approaching the fortress!" Dr. Wily tells Elec Man "Let them, they will never stand a chance against my defense turret!" Elec Man says simply "Whatever you say!" Elec Man then returns to tending to the energy turret.

Back outside, Mega Man lands Rush onto the ground. Mega Man and the former robot master arrive at Skull Fortress. Mega Man asks him "Do you know the layout of this place or if it's changed since the last time you were there?" The gang leader replies "I haven't been in Skull Fortress in years! I don't even know what the bathrooms look like anymore!" Mega Man says "Well, let's just make some new memories then!" They both proceed to Skull Fortress. Back inside Skull Fortress, Dr. Wily has Elec Man and Proto Man insert the energy rods into the turret. "Excellent!" Dr. Wily says "My defense system is finally ready to go!" Dr. Wily commands Proto Man "Turn it on!" Proto Man says "Whatever turns you on, Wily! Ha ha ha!" Proto Man activates the machine. The energy rods are inserted into the energy core. The machine powers up. The roof of Skull Fortress opens up. The machine is raised.

Meanwhile, Mega Man and the gang leader run up to the entrance to Skull Fortress. "Looks like no one's guarding the entrance!" Mega Man comments. Guts Man and Concrete Man jump down in front of Mega Man and the gang leader and block them. "Think again!" Guts Man and Concrete Man both say in unison. Mega Man now knows that the gang leader has a weapon as well. He nods at the gang leader, who nods back at him. They both fire their weapons at the robot masters. Guts Man and Concrete Man are knocked back and crash against the fortress. The turret is charging up and is almost fully charged. Mega Man and the gang leader quickly make it past Guts Man and Concrete Man. Guts Man and Concrete Man get up and see that they have already gone past them. Guts Man yells out "Hey! They got past us!" Concrete Man tells Guts Man "Well let's go in there and hurl them out!" Unfortunately for Guts Man and Concrete Man, the defense turret is now armed and fires energy beams at them. Guts Man and Concrete Man are blown apart by the beams. Their parts scatter all around. Guts Man's head lands right next to Concrete Man's. Inside Skull Fortress, Mega Man, Rush, and the gang leader are trying to find where the turret is. The security bots have detected their presence and are alerting Dr. Wily. "Intruders detected!" the security bots say to Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily is upset that they have managed to avoid the turret. "How did they-" Dr. Wily says. Proto Man asks Dr. Wily "Want us to stop them?" Dr. Wily says to Proto Man "No! Let me surprise them instead!" Dr. Wily presses a square key on the control panel.

Meanwhile, Mega Man and the gang leader are running down a hall. A sliding metal door closes down behind them. They aren't really bothered by it. In front of them, a yellow puddle appears on the floor. An eye peers out from the puddle. "I don't like the looks of this!" Mega Man says. "You said it, Mega!" the gang leader replies. The Yellow Devil emerges from the puddle and begins shooting pieces of its body at the two protagonists. Mega Man shouts out "Evasive action!" He and the former robot master dodge the yellow globs. The Yellow Devil forms behind them. Mega Man says "It's behind us, isn't it?" They both turn around. The Yellow Devil looms over them with its arms out. It opens its eye. Mega Man and the former robot master fire at its eye. The Yellow Devil is damage significantly. It then fires its yellow globs at the heroes again. Mega Man says to the gang leader "Guess we will have to fire at it again!" As the Yellow Devil reforms, the gang leader cries out "Get ready, Mega Man!" The Yellow Devil opens its eye. Both of the robots fire at its eye. The Yellow Devil blows up and its blobs melt away into the floor. The blobs disappear. Mega Man and the gang leader shake hands. They then proceed to the main room. As they near a door, they hear a loud electronic hum. They both look at each other. "This must be the place!" Mega Man says to the gang leader. They both kick open the door. They run into the room. Dr. Wily sees that they have gotten past the turret. Dr. Wily looks at the gang leader and says "So you've been the one who was also giving my robots a hard time! Who might you be?" The gang leader replies "Someone who used to be on your side, but not anymore!" Dr. Wily scoffs and says to the gang leader "And who is that someone exactly?" He reveals himself to Dr. Wily to be the former robot master that left him. "Bit Man!" he cries out. Dr. Wily is greatly angered by this revelation. "You rust-bitten traitor!" Dr. Willy yells at him. He orders to his robots "Destroy him and bring to me his head on a silver platter!" The bad robots run up to destroy him. He uses his Bit Cannon weapon against them. The bad robots are hit, but are barely damaged. Dr. Wily presses a button on the control panel and calls up Hard Man. He tells Hard Man "I've got some robots for you to crush!"

Meanwhile, Proto Man is fighting the gang leader. Proto Man says to the gang leader "It's great to see you ahain, too bad you're on the wrong side!" The gang leader replies "Yeah, it's too bad you're on the wrong side, you and Mega Man would make a great team of heroes!" Proto Man replies "Really? A team of heroes? I don't think so!" The former robot master Bit Man says "So much for you then!" The gang leader then fires at Proto Man. Proto Man gets damaged by his Bit Cannon weapon. Mega Man is taking on Cut Man and Elec Man. He says to the evil robot masters "I can handle both of you!" Cut Man yells out to Mega Man "See if you can handle my cutters, blue dweeb!" Cut Man tries to slash Mega Man with the cutters on his head. Mega Man grabs the cutters and pushes him back. Elec Man fires his Thunder Beam at Mega Man, but ends up hitting Cut Man. Cut Man is knocked out by the electric beam. Mega Man quickly copies Cut Man's weapon. Elec Man fires his beam again. Mega Man dodges it and is about to fire a Rolling Cutter at Elec Man, when Hard Man comes up behind him and fires a Hard Knuckle at him. Mega Man's helmet is knocked off of his head. Mega Man then falls onto the floor. Proto Man sees that his younger brother is down. He smiles evilly and says to the gang leader "Excuse me for a moment!" He goes over to Mega Man and aims his cannon at him. The gang leader sees that Mega Man is down. He yells out to Mega Man "Mega Man! Get up!" Mega Man struggles to get up. Hard Man, Elec Man, and Proto Man walk up to Mega Man. Hard Man pounds his fist into his hand and says "Alright! Let's finish him!" The gang leader runs up to the evil robot masters and fires at them. Hard Man tries to punch him, but he grabs his fist. Mega Man gets up and puts his helmet back on. Proto Man and Elec Man fire their weapons at Mega Man. Mega Man dodges their attacks and kicks both of them in the chest. Elec Man and Proto Man are knocked back into the turret. The turret shocks them both. Elec Man and Proto Man lose all of their energy and fall onto the floor with a metallic thud. Hard Man pushes the gang leader back with his fist and prepares to fire a Hard Knuckle at him. "You're going down! Hard!" Hard Man says to him. The gang leader replies "At least my dialogue isn't themed around my namesake!" Hard Man is about to fire a Hard Knuckle at the gang leader, but a Rolling Cutter cuts off Hard Man's arm. Hard Man turns to see Mega Man with another Rolling Cutter in his hand. Hard Man charges at Mega Man. Mega Man throws the cutter at Hard Man. Hard Man is cut into parts. The gang leader picks up Hard Man's arm and hands it to Mega Man. "Here's his Hard Knuckle." the gang leader says to Mega Man. Mega Man copies the Hard Knuckle. The gang leader drops the arm and says to Mega Man "Now let's get rid of that turret!" Dr. Wily sees that all of his robots have been defeated. He yells out "Let's see you two destroy it at full power!" Dr. Wily turns up the dial to maximum power. The gang leader tells Mega Man "We gotta get out of here, Mega Man! That turret's gonna blow!" Mega Man tells the former robot master "That's good, isn't it? Why don't we push Wily just a little bit more!" The gang leader says reluctantly "Whatever you say, you're the real hero." Mega Man tells the gang leader "Alright! Fire at it!" Both Mega Man and the gang leader fire at the turret. Dr. Wily turns up the dial to maximum and says out loud "Two bots gonna fry tonight! Mwa ha ha ha ha!" The turret charges up with even more power. Mega Man fires a Hard Knuckle at the turret. The gang leader also fires at the turret. The turret gets damaged. It then overloads with power. Mega Man says to the gang leader "Now we can go!" He and the gang leader exit the room. Dr. Wily sees that his hubris has gone too far. He quickly leaves the room as well. The turret explodes, causing a column of smoke to burst out of Skull Fortress. Outside of the fortress, Mega Man and the gang leader reunite with Rush. Rush licks both Mega Man and the gang leader. They return to Dr. Light's lab.

Back at Dr. Light's Lab, Mega Man and Roll are thanking the gang leader and the gang members for their help. Mega Man tells him that he can join them. "We can make a great team and finally stop Dr. Wily once and for all! What do you say?" Mega Man says to him. The former robot master says to him "Thanks, but no thanks." He tells them "This is the only life that I've ever known, and no offense Mega Man, but I'd rather keep it that way." Mega Man and Roll look at each other with smiles on their faces. Mega Man looks back at him and says "That's great too! But if you ever change your mind, you are always welcome to join us!" The former robot master replies "Thank you very much for the offer, Mega Man. Wily was very wrong about you, you're not such a bad robot after all!" One of his gang members cries out to him "Are you done saying your goodbyes yet? We're waiting!" The former robot master tells him with a bit of a chuckle "I'm done with my goodbyes now! We can go now!" He and Mega Man exchange thumbs up. The former robot master walks away. Mega Man and his allies watch him get back on his motorcycle. He and his gang drive off. The episode ends with him and his gang riding off into the sunset.

[stratuscloudsurfer]

Champion Stadium Hard Level 1 Strategy Guide

Ok, since I had fits with the champion stadium (especially round 3), and I’m hard pressed to find any strategy for it yet, I’m going to share the exact teams and order I used to finally attain victory, in hopes of helping someone else do the same.

WARNING LONG POST UNDER THE CUT

Round 1: (Parameter: Use status conditions and other conditions against all opponents!) Lorelei

So, Leaf was basically tailor made for this battle against Lorelei. Use razor leaf turn 1, and all three opponents will most likely get badly poised. From there, I set up Mega Healing and used Dawn to buff defense, freeing Brendan up to do his thing. Lorelei’s team went down pretty quickly, mostly thanks to the massive amount of poison damage. 

I think other sync pairs that would work well during Round 1 are Koga, Lyra, or Rosa. In hindsight, I wish I had used Lyra or Rosa in lieu of Dawn, as the extra healing she provided was altogether unnecessary due to how fast my opponents went down to poison damage and Sceptile’s leaf storm. 

Also, I know that the game recommends you take out the two pokemon on the sides first, but I went into this round without reading the tips, and took out Lapras first. I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make to take out the other two first, but taking out the center mon first worked out for me in this round. 

Round 2: (Parameter: Use sync moves quickly against all opponents!) Bruno

Sygna suit Blue came in SUPER clutch this battle. His move “To the Top!” was super useful in accelerating the move gauge for Kris’s Mega Kick. I used one at the beginning, and the second one when the first one ran out. Hilbert, of course, is an ideal support for Kris. His attack and speed boosts get rid of the need for Kris to waste any turns using her attack boosts, freeing her up to straight up attack right off the bat. 

As for strategy, mine was basically to spam Mega Kick over and over again. Again, I focused on taking down the center mon first. One recommendation I have is to use Blue’s sync move on your first opportunity. This activates Force Field 4, which will give your team a Sp. Def buff, as well as the Safety Net. The fact that Blue and Hilbert could survive one more attack meant that the opponent’s pokemon had other targets to get through before they could take out Kris. I truly believe this ability got me the W in the end. 

I think other sync pairs that would work well for this parameter might be Siebold and Clawitzer paired with Winona and any other support that could boost special attack. If you don’t have Hilbert but do have Kris, Maylene would be a great support for her, as well. 

Round 3: (Make use of special damage reductions to battle opponents with high Sp. Atk!) Lance

Round three was, hands down, the hardest one for me. I spent AGES trying to take down Lance with all kinds of different combinations of sync pairs. It was especially frustrating because the opposing Lance’s Dragonite was practically indestructible with its Clearheaded ability, which prevented the confusion it otherwise would have hit itself in probably a thousand times due to spamming Outrage over and over. 

I tried for a long time to use Lyra in lieu of MC and Torchic, as I wanted to save her for Blue, but I had no other choice. MC’s “Blazing Hope!” was absolutely necessary to boost the power of Lance’s Hyper Beam. My strategy was to use both “Blazing Hope”s and Drake’s Special Defense boosts at the very beginning of the battle as quickly as possible, then fire off Hyper Beams at the pokemon on either sides. I at first tried to take out the center mon first like in the previous battles, but this time, it was impossible to win any other way than to take out the side mons first. 

I burned up MC’s two attack boosts to get down to my Lance’s first sync move, and used Drake’s “Hard to Starboard!” just before the opposing Lance could use his sync move, which is helpful because it had the additional effect of charging up the move gauge and allowing my Lance to fire off more Hyper Beams. I used Lance’s potions to heal up MC’s Torchic and keep it alive as long as possible. I saved both “Now or Never!”s until the very end of the battle, then used them both in between two Hyper Beams that delivered the final blow to the opposing Lance’s extremely infuriating Dragonite. 

All this being said, I think I probably battled Lance a good 50 times before I got the W. Other combinations I tried was swapping Zinnia for Lance and Maylene for MC, but neither of those worked very well, I think due to the lack of healing capability. I think Zinnia could be useful in this battle if you had the Clearheaded ability unlocked as a lucky skill and a support sync pair that had healing capability, such as Dawn or Skyla. Additionally, I had to fully unlock Drake’s type skills, and my MC’s potential was boosted up to 4 1/2 stars. 

Round 4: (Parameter: Use sync moves as much as possible against all opponents!) Agatha

I actually tried versing Agatha in Round 3 Acerola, Fantina, and Pheobe, but found it to be even more impossible than Lance on the 3rd round, which is why I decided to save her for last. 

Elesa was definitely the MVP of this battle. I took a look at her sync grid and unlocked it to the point that I could get the MP refresh for “Breathtaking!” and it was a game changer. I used up both of her Special Attack boosts and Acerola’s Defense boosts the beginning of the battle, then targeted the side mons first with Fantina’s Shadow Ball. I used up Acerola’s “Over Here!” right before Agatha’s Gengar could use it’s sync move, which would allow Elesa’s Rotom to stay alive and continue using “Breathtaking!” to get down to Fantina’s sync move continuously. I waited until Gengar was the only pokemon left to use Fantina’s two “Dance with Me!”s so that I could fire off the two Shadow Balls that delivered the death blow. 

If you don’t have Fantina, I think that Shauntal would be an excellent swap in for her. In place of Elesa, Rosa or Cheren would probably be good support mons, especially with Cheren’s full heal to get rid of the self-inflicted burn that would probably take Shauntal out fairly quickly otherwise. I’m sure Morty would be good as well, but I can’t speak for him because I don’t have him. I highly recommend Acerola as at least one of your allies for this team, though, as her type skills were super helpful fully unlocked. 

Round 5: (Parameters: Use physical attacks against opponents with low defense! / Use status conditions and other conditions against all opponents!) Blue

I hated to be so cliche as to use Red against Blue, but... well, he’s obscenely strong, so I had to do it to him. This was the exact team I used. I chose the status effects condition with Flannery in mind, and let me tell you, it was the right decision. I actually intended to level all of these guys up to max before I challenged Blue, but I ran completely out of level up materials, and so decided just to go ahead and challenge him to get a feel for how the battle would be. I didn’t expect to win on the first try, but this team brought me to a solid and swift victory. 

Skyla is an ideal partner for Red because her “Take Flight!”s negate the massive drop in both defenses that Charizard incurs after using “My Destiny!” My strategy in this battle was to use both “My Destiny!”s and “Take Flight!”s at the very beginning of the battle, then to burn Blue’s Exeggutor with Will-O-Wisp immediately after the status boosts. I unlocked Skyla’s sync grid enough to get the MP refresh for Potion, which was super duper helpful. I think it refreshed a good 5 times, allowing me to heal her up to survive all the attacks directed at her, as well as her two allies after Blue’s sync move had been used. With Red, I spammed Heat Wave before and after his sync move until both side mons went down, then used a couple of Blast Burns to take down Blue’s Exeggutor. 

Other sync pairs that I think have potential for this battle are Flint in lieu of Red and Blaine in lieu of Flannery. Of course, MC and Torchic would be a great support for this battle, as well. 

And there you have it! Now of course, I’m not a Pokemon Masters expert, or am in any way claiming to be. I just hoped that my struggle could perhaps help someone else out with this challenge. Also, if anyone else has beat the Champion Stadium with other sync pairs, I would love to hear what you used! 

[shari-berri]

Gems

Steven Stone x reader

Normal POV

Today was the day Steven was going to explore a cave for stones. He was determined to find all amazing stones the cave had to offer. What he didn't know was that he would run into Y/N L/N.

Your POV

I have been sitting here minding away at the cave walls for at least an hour. Looking over at my partner, I asked him what he thought.

"Sableye how long do you think we've been here for?" I asked.

"Sable!" He grunts, holding up almost two fingers. I nod and he goes back to "work".

There is a pile of precious gems behind me that he is guarding.

He sits back over them and begins to chew on one that I gave him.

With a heave, I manage to pull the crystal gem out of the wall. Getting a closer look at it, I realize that it is a thunder stone.

Hearing a crack, I whip my head up at the wall and see that the wall is starting to break. Grabbing my back and my Pokémon, I jump back away just as the top of the area I had been standing collapsed.

Coughing from the dust, I look sadly at the smashed remains of my gems I had worked hard to mine.

Sableye grunts unhappily but turns around and hugs me, telling me he is happy I am not injured.

I slide down the wall with my back, holding my head in my hands and weeping.

"Go get help please." I request, letting out my other Pokémon.

My Ninetales and Mawile pop out, ready to help.

"Stick together and find help. Bring them to me please. Be sure to not get lost. Ninetales, I am counting on you to track your way back to me." I command.

They all nod and head off.

As I wait, I look through my bag. In my bag I find a couple gems and stones. I pull out and lay down a fire stone, water stone, and leaf stone. Looking closer at one of my gems, I see that it is a mega stone.

Grabbing my pokedex, I look up which stone it is. I already have Mawilite and Sablenite, allowing both my Pokémon to mega evolve. I have a necklace and my Mawile has a ribbon containing her mega stone. Sableye has a bracelet containing his mega stone.

I examine the mega stone and see that it is Absolite. I smile from ear to ear. I left my Absol in its pokeball, not wanting the person to think that it meant disaster was coming and they wouldn't help me.

Grabbing a chipped great ball, I throw it into the air, releasing a bright blue white light.

My Absol appears standing tall and proud. He looks at me and churrs.

"Hey buddy, come look at this!" I beckon him over.

He walks over and looks at my hand, seeing the mega stone.

"This is Absolite! With this you can mega evolve like Mawile and Sableye!" I explain happily.

His face lights up and he dances around. As I am celebrating, I hear my Ninetales calling around along with a male voice.

"Ninetales! Over here girl!" I cry out.

Ninetales appears with Sableye riding her back. Mawile is walking beside her with a man with blue hair behind.

Taking a closer look, I gasp.

My Pokémon have brought Steven Stone the champion!

My Pokémon spot me and rush over, calling out happily. They then look at Absol and nuzzle him.

"Hey. I was wondering why there were Pokémon bringing me here. Do you need help?" Steven asks nicely.

"Y-yeah. I was mining for stones and got hurt. I was wondering if you knew the way out and would help me walk." I explain, blushing in embarrassment.

He laughs lightly and grabs my hand, pulling me up from my sitting position. I take my bag and gesture to my Pokémon to follow me closely.

Soon we see a bright light, the exit for the cave. Steven leads me out and once outside, brings me to the pokecenter. He wraps my ankle with bandages and then carries me to the park.

"I never got your name." I says expectantly.

"It's Y/N." I say.

"As payment for helping me, would you like to battle?" I ask, pumped up for the challenge.

He nods and leads me to a field.

Bringing Absol over to me, I grab his paw. Absol, this is a bracelet I made for you. I was hoping I would find you a mega stone. If you wear this, you can mega evolve. Steven doesn't know I can mega evolve my Pokémon yet, so we are going to surprise him during the battle." I exclaim, slipping the bracelet with the Absolite onto his wrist.

Going up, I ask if it is an all Pokémon battle. He nods and sends out his first Pokémon. I begin to have second doubts as he is the champion.

He sends out his Aggron.

I nod at Ninetales.

She steps up and crouches down ready for a right.

"Aggron use hyper beam!" He screams, Aggron growling and charging up, releasing a beam of light.

"Dodge it!" I yell.

Ninetales jumps swiftly to the side, missing the attack.

"Use dark pulse!" Ninetales opens her mouth and sends out a string of dark matter at Aggron. He gets hit and grunts before shaking it off and using hyper beam again. Ninetales gets hit and falls to the floor. She struggles to get up until she goes still. I then see that her eyes are swirls.

I call her back into her pokeball and call for Sableye.

Grabbing at my necklace, Sableye grabs his bracelet. Steven looks on confused.

"Sableye, connect our hearts and souls, reach into my love for you and mega evolve!" I scream out, light blasting from my necklace and his bracelet. Sableye is covered in bright lights until he is left with a giant red gem.

Steven suddenly opens his mouth and nods, realizing that he just mega evolved. Clenching his fist, He calls out a hyper beam.

Aggron's hyper beam shoots quickly at Sableye. I don't have time to call out a move so he takes it into his own tiny claws and tries to block with his gem. His gem gets a slight crack but is otherwise fine.

"Use low sweep!" I scream at Sableye.

He charges at Aggron, leg glowing, and kicks him. Aggron growls and falls to the ground.

"Again!" I cry

Aggron can't get up fast enough and gets hit, fainting.

Steven returns him and pulls out his last pokeball.

His shiny Metagross comes out, landing with a thud.

"Let's even out the playing field a little. Mega evolve!" He screams.

Metagross is covered in light and comes out in mega form.

"Use psychic!" Steven commands

Metagross nods and uses psychic, hitting Sableye.

"Foul play!"

Sableye nods and hits Metagross.

"Quickly! Use will-o-wisp!" I yell, pointing at Metagross.

Sableye launches wisps of fire, hitting Metagross and burning him severely.

Hurt by his burn, he lets out a weakened meteor mash.

Sableye is hit and faints.

I scowl and call out Mawile.

As she steps up, I grab my necklace and she grabs her ribbon. Steven's face is pure shock. He seems stunned that I have two Pokémon who can mega evolve. Well he is in for a surprise when he sees Absol mega evolve as well.

"Let's go Mawile! Mega evolve!" She gets the same treatment as Sableye and emerges with double jaws on the back of her head, now wearing maroon.

"Use bite!" I command, Mawile nodding and rushing at Metagross. Her two mouths glow and she launches at Metagross, latching onto him with them.

"Shake her off!" Steven commands, his Pokémon twisting to get mine off.

"Quickly use sucker punch!"

Mawile nods and her hand glows with darkness, punching Metagross directly.

She is then thrown off, hitting the ground hard.

"Metagross! Use flash cannon!" Steven says.

Metagross unleashed a flash of light at Mawile, hitting her in the face. She falls to the ground onto one knee, struggling to stand.

"Try! Please Mawile! Try to get up!" I beg, eyes tearing up.

She shakily stands up

"Dark pulse and shadow ball!" I cry out, my throat becoming hoarse.

She releases dark matter in a line and then a ball of dark matter immediately afterwards.

Metagross has no time to dodge and gets hit, roaring loudly.

Steven and his Metagross are equally stunned that my Mawile used a move directly after the first one.

Smirking, I challenge Steven, glaring at him.

"Psychic! Throw that Mawile into the ground!" Steven demands.

Mawile is lifted up with pink energy surrounding her. She is lifted into the air and then thrown harshly into the ground. Once he dust cloud clears up, Mawile is seen in her normal form, swirls dancing in her eyes.

Pulling out her pokeball, I return her.

Grabbing the chipped pokeball, I kiss it for luck.

Spinning around, I chuck it into the air, calling out my last pokemon.

Absol appears with a loud cry, taking a battle stance.

Steven looks at me, awaiting my next move.

Before grabbing my necklace, I reflect on this. Absol has never mega evolved before and I saw what Korrina's Lucario did. I just hoped my bond with Absol is stronger and he is able to reach my love and control his new power.

Clutching my necklace once again, I cry out for Absol.

"Absol, connect our hearts and souls for the first time! Let's do this! Mega evolve!"

Absol is surrounded in light like the others, emerging with white wings, more leg fur, a longer fringe, and a larger "horn."

If Steven's face when he saw Mawile evolve was shocked, his current face now would be S H O O K.

His jaw was dropped, scraping the floor. His Metagross mirrored the look, even in its beaten stage.

"No time for gawking! Control your power! Don't be like Korrina's Lucario. You can do this! Use shadow claw!" I scream, locking eyes with Absol.

"Sol!" He cries. His claws glow and he leaps at Metagross, slashing him violently.

He landed on the ground. Without my command, he used dark pulse.

The only thought in my head was about if he was going insane. What if he turned like Lucario?

Looking into his eyes, I saw his pupils slowly dilate.

"Listen to my voice Absol! Please listen! Use shadow ball!" I plead.

He goes to use shadow claw, shakes his head, and opens his mouth. From his throat launches a ball of black and purple, hurling towards Metagross. It makes a direct hit and he collapses onto the ground.

"Absol! You listened! Thank you! You can control it now! Use shadow ball with maximum power!" I screech, probably damaging anyone in five mile radius' ears.

Absol plants his feet firmly and roars his name, opening his mouth.

From his throat formed the largest shadow ball I have ever seen. It was growing bigger and bigger and did t seem to be stopping. When it was the size of his whole upper body, he launched it at Metagross. Metagross looked weakly at Steven and got hit, knocking him back. When looking, Metagross had fainted and turned back to his regular form.

Absol grinned wolfishly and trotted back to me.

He was covered in a bright light and returned back to his normal form.

I collapsed onto my knees, pulling Absol close to my chest and burying my face in his fur.

Hearing a cough, I looked up and saw Steven holding a hand out. Grabbing his hand, I was pulled up.

"Shall we proceed to the pokecenter?" He coos gently.

"We shall." I say simply.

We walk hand in hand, Absol trotting behind us.

Going into the pokecenter, I returned Absol and handed Nurse Joy my pokeballs.

She healed them and gave them back.

Steven decided to rent out a room and offered for me to stay with him.

Too tired to protest, I nodded.

Once in the room, I collapsed onto the king bed.

I immediately fell asleep.

(Y/N woke up with Steven's arm around her waist, her back to his chest)

[the-digimon-tamer]

Chapter 42 - Unexpected is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

“How’s our progress coming on the Juggernaut, team?” Yamaki asked, looking up from the machine parts he was helping to put back into place. 

Zhenyu poked his head up from what he was doing and shouted, “Are you seriously asking that question? We’ve barely started and there’s a lot of work to do before we can even think to test if it’s working! This isn’t going to be done quickly.”

“Well, make it happen. Those things want in here and it’ll be a slaughter if that weapons not ready before they do,” Yamaki barked back at the scientist.

As he said that, there was another loud bang outside that shook the building, rattling loose items off desks and onto the floor. One unfortunate engineer had his tool box fall of the table he’d left it and fall on his helmet.

“How long do you think those blast doors will hold?” Dolphin asked nervously. Shibumi answered with his usual informative and completely uninspiring tone, “It doesn’t matter. Right now, every second counts so let’s focus on our task and leave the fighting to our friends outside.”

“Your friends. We have no idea who those things are!” Curly pointed out.

“Those things are our partners! And right now, they’re putting their lives on the line to buy us time! And it’s not just them, our kids are out there,” Izumi’s wife scolded from across the room.

“Not my kid,” Mister Matsuda grunted angrily.

“Let it go. Anger will do us no good right now,” Guardromon mumbled.

“FUCK YOU!” Mister Matsuda made a point of growling while showing the digimon his middle finger.

“Don’t shout at him! He’s just trying to help!” Kazu yelled back.

“Trying to help? Kazu, Takato was your friend! If anyone else in this room is going to get how we feel, it should be you!” Mrs. Matsuda added.

This was getting out of hand and the last thing the team needed was needless bickeringYamaki put two fingers in his mouth and whistled as loud as he could to get their attention, “FOCUS! EVERY SECOND ARGUING IS A SECOND WASTED. AND WE DON’T KNOW HOW MANY SECONDS WE HAVE! SO LET’S USE THEM WISELY AND GET BACK TO WORK!”

With that everyone either quietly went back to what they were doing or went off in a corner to stay out of the way. Now it was back to what he was doing - helping repair some of the mechanical parts that were broken. He just hoped the blast shields help up long enough. Every moment that passed, another dent appeared in the metal and the building would shake. He just hoped everything worked.

…

Imperialdramon soared through the air of the Digital World, with Davis and Ken atop his back. They pointed their digivice at every digimon they passed and shouted the same message over and over, “Stay alive. We have a plan.”

The mere sight of them seemed to rally the digimon, mega level fighters who went from faltering on the retreat to pushing forward on the attack. And as they soared through the Digital World, trying to scan as many of the digimon as they could, they eventually caught the attention of a familiar sight - Azulongmon, the sovereign who’d helped them fight off BlackWarGreymon so long ago. The dragon soared alongside them asking, “Digidestined. It’s so good to see you after so long.”

“We wish we could say the same,” Ken answered quietly.

“Yeah, but no worries! Kari’s brother has a plan!” Davis added excitedly. 

“Who?” Azulongmon asked.

Ken sighed, “The Digimon Tamer. I should point out right now that it’s a horrible plan and I’m not entirely sure it’ll work.”

Azulongmon blinked at him, “And what is his plan? We’re hitting this thing with everything we have and nothing is working!”

“Sorry, we don’t have the time to tell you,” Ken answered, pointing his digivice at another digimon digimon they flew past to scan it. Then he pointed it at Azulongmon. The sovereign writhed a bit when the light hit him and his many eyes blinked in a daze, “What was that for? Were you just trying to blind me?”

“It’s part of Tamer’s plan,” Davis explained apologetically, “Sorry we can’t tell you more! Just try to stay alive a little longer! Hold on!”

“I…okay. Hurry, digidestined. We’ll fight for as long as we can,” Azulongmon answered, turning away from them to rejoin the fight. As he soared through the sky, pillars of light and blasts of lightning shot from his body and struck the red ocean beneath them. His attacks appeared to hurt the creature more than any of the attacks that had been thrown at it so far. But like all the other attacks, it wasn’t long before any damage was undone. The most powerful digimon either of these men knew could barely hurt this thing. They needed to get back to their work - continuing to scan as many digimon as they could.

…

Rika had to admit it was a different feeling to be fighting along side her parents’ partners. She swiped various cards through her digivice, trying to give Taomon the upgrades she would need to keep her on even footing. But without the power to be a mega like Rosemon or HerculesKabuterimon, she was just barely hanging on. 

“Digimodify! Speed Boost Activate!”

“Talisman of Light!”

“Thorn Whip!”

“Arctic Blizzard!”

The three attacks scattered the bird creatures, reducing their number for a moment until more appeared to reinforce their numbers. It really was like fighting an unending tide. Still, they were the only things keeping her parents safe inside. And she wasn’t going to surrender, no matter how many of them came. She and Taomon would fight back with everything they had.

“LOOK OUT!”

She turned around to see Hououmon and MetalGarurumon soar past over her head, his engines going at the full speed as Cyberdramon ripped off more of those bird creatures from him.

“Metal Wolf Claw!”

“Starlight Explosion!”

Both fired a barrage of missiles and fireballs from their bodies at the birds, punching another hole in the swarm that was quickly filled by more reinforcements. The creatures were wholeheartedly determined to over run this building at any cost it seemed. Thankfully, Hououmon and MetalGarurumon were still able to hold their own. But then another question came to mind? Where were her mom’s fashion designer friend and her husband? Sora and Matt, if she remembered correctly. They were supposed to be with their partners.

A screech overhead caught her attention as the large golden bird Hououmon landed atop the building. The two Ishidas climbed off the giant digimon, before it took off again to fight the oncoming horde of birds, joining Rosemon, Taomon, and HerculesKabuterimon in the desperate defense. Sora rjoined her first and asked, “What the hell is going on? They were going all over the city before and now they’re converging here on the Metropolitan Tower!”

“One of them overheard me telling my parents the plan and now they’re all coming here to stop it,” Rika admitted quietly. Matt raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Huh, never figured Izzy’s kid would be the one to screw things up for us. I always figured it’d be someone else…like that dopey looking kid with the hat.”

“Are you putting me on Kazu’s level?” Rika asked with a hand on her hips.

In return, he just raised an eyebrow at her, “Do you think I’m intimidated by a twelve year old girl?”

“Focus!” Sora said, taking a moment to survey the situation, “Matt, can you talk to your friends in the GSDF and get them here?”

“They’d probably shoot at me first if they saw me ride in on MetalGarurumon,” he countered quietly with crossed arms.

Sora groaned, “Then we’ll just have to keep holding them back as long as we can!”

The large golden bird screeched and went to rejoin the fight. Rika couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of so many megas at once, especially knowing they were the megas of the digidestined. The heroes from the books, tv show, and card game she’d been attracted to. If the world weren’t at stake, she would call this a dream come true, “How long have you guys all had Mega level digimon? I don’t remember the show or the books ending with all you guys getting Mega level digimon. It was just...Matt, Tai, Davis, and Ken, right?”

“You should know by now that my brother omitted lots of stuff from those books and didn’t tell the whole story. At least, not the way it happened,” Yamato stated matter of factly, “Speaking of...where the hell are they? I don’t see Takeru or MagnaAngemon anywhere!”

“Don’t forget that Ryo and Cyberdramon were with them. Same with the doctor and Gomamon! Or Kari, Gatomon, Henry, and Rapidmon. Where the hell are they?” Rika added. 

“Maybe they’re still trying to get to the others,” Sora said, scanning the city for some sign of them.  Her husband groaned, “Or worse.”

“You really are a ball of sunshine, y’know that?” Rika stated, turning to his wife, “What exactly did you see in him?”

“He acts tough but he’s a softie when he thinks no one is looking,” she answered teasingly. Rika felt herself gag and something try to crawl its way out of her stomach, “Gross.”

BOOM!

They turned their attention back towards the city to see large swathes of the bird creatures being destroyed with beams of blue light. They all turned to look but it was impossible to tell what it was from this far away. What they were certain of was that all the bird creatures were being blown apart as quickly as they could amass. And there was something in the middle of that flock - a lone figure that was blasting the birds away. 

“Who is that?” Rika asked. 

“I can’t tell. They’re too far away,” Sora said, squinting her eyes as close as she could, “Hououmon!”

“Little busy at the moment,” the bird roared over the battle going on all around her. She and MetalGarurumon soared overhead, trying their best to hold the oncoming swarm back as quickly as they could. 

“I’ll go,” Taomon announced, drawing another talisman and throwing it full force at her enemies, “It’s not like I’m able to do much good here anyway. I’ll scout ahead and hurry back if things look bad.”

“Be careful, Taomon,” Rika called out to her partner. The fox priest gave her a wave and hurried off towards whatever was now drawing the bird creatures’ attention away from them.

...

Hida slid the doors of his dojo open slightly to see more of those bird things waiting around outside. He took care to slide the door back shut so that it wouldn’t be too loud - annoyed with how things had played out. He’d meant to go out and meet up with the others at the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. Then these things showed up and people were scared. He couldn’t just ignore people in need and his sense of moral obligation kicked in. Instead of hurrying, he got as many people as he could to safety in his dojo. 

Things were quiet now, save for the sound of fighting outside. But this wasn’t the only problem before him. How was he supposed to protect them? Yes, he was a martial arts expert with knowledge of kendo, tai chi, aikido, karate, and tae kwon do. But that wasn’t going to do him any good against whatever those monsters were outside. They didn’t look like any digimon he had seen before and they certainly weren’t acting like any digimon that had accidentally gotten lost in another world. Those digimon tended to act out violently from confusion or alarm. But these creatures seemed content to just sit back and watch the world in complete and utter silence. They were observing…learning…gathering information…possible strategizing.

That made it all the more important for him to get to the others at Hypnos. But how could he get there when there were lives at stake right in front of him? But there was no way to do this on his own. He would need help! But how was he supposed to signal for help with alerting those things to all the people hiding inside?

“RAPID FIRE!”

A blaze of gunfire caught the attention of all the bird creatures and drew them away from the front of the dojo. He slid the door open just a crack  but couldn’t quite see what was going. All he could make out was that the creatures were gone now. Maybe this was their chance. He slid the door open just a little further and one of the people hiding with him gasped, “What are you doing? They’re going to find us!”

“They’ve all left. This could be our only chance to run,” he explained. He scanned the outside more carefully to be sure they were gone until he noticed something moving in the bushes. A boy rushed out and bolted for the dojo door.

Henry, his Tai Chi student. And with him was…

“Armadillomon,” he forced the door open and stepped out. Was it possible? Was this real? He hoped so. He didn’t care how. He’d thought about this moment so many times that he wasn’t sure he could handle if it wasn’t. He waved to get their attention and gestured to them to come his way, “Over here! Quick!”

“Sensei!” Henry said, running over. Armadillomon followed after him, turning his head in surprise, “Who’s that, Henry? I thought we were going to Cody!”

“Armadillomon! It’s me,” he said to his partner, the armadillomon stopping to look at him with a furrowed brow and a firm frown, “Pretty sure my pardner ain’t got a mustache.”

The insult cut deep and Hida had to muse at that. It was true, he didn’t have a mustache the last time he’d seen his partner. It was also ironic, that a small piece of facial hair was enough to throw off the digimon, “You’ve never been the serious type, Armadillomon.”

“That really is your partner, Armadillomon,” Henry insisted to the yellow digimon who turned his head in disbelief. Armadillomon circled him, sniffing at his feet and occasionally stopping to get a good look at him. As he did, Henry went on, “Sensei, I don’t have a lot of time. There’s no way Rapidmon can keep them all away forever. We need to get out of here.”

“I can’t go. There are people hiding in my dojo and I’m not going to leave them,” Hida explained to them. 

Armadillomon’s frown turned and he finally looked up, “Now that sounds like the partner I remember! Good to see ya, Cody.”

“It’s good to see you too, Armadillomon,” Hida kneeled down to take his partner’s raised hand. It was good to see him again, even if it was in these circumstances. They would have to catch up some other time. Now, they had to think of a way to hold this portion of the city and protect it from those birds. Armadillomon added, “Well if you’re not going, I’m not going either.”

“Sensei, are you sure?” Henry said, “We have a plan and we could use your help.”

“The people here could use my help,” he countered matter of factly. Armadillomon cheered, “Hard headed about always wanting to help people. You’re definitely my Cody.”

He wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not but he went on, “We can help by protecting the people in this area. Besides, every one of those things that comes here is one that’s not attacking you there.”

“That is the plan, actually,” Henry said with a raised eyebrow, “Distract these things until every one else is ready with their part of the plan. Which we don’t know how long that could be so really it’s just sitting tight...wait, are you volunteering these people for danger!?”

“What?” Hida blinked, surprised at his student’s accusation. 

Henry waved it off and shook his head apologetically, “Sorry, sorry. I think Terriermon has been rubbing off on me. Still, it’s funny that we’re on the same page.”

“Just do what comes natural and things work out, right?” he mused, realizing that the plan was a little too reminiscent of all the other plans - just sit tight and hang on. Henry shook his head, “Yeah, something like that. I need to get back to the others.”

“Okay, be safe,” he said. Henry nodded, waving before running off to rejoin his partner. Hida sighed, looking back at his dojo. It was a relief to know the others had a plan, even if he wasn’t entirely aware of it. That was one problem dealt with. Now there was another problem: how to convince the people in his dojo that Armadillomon wasn’t a danger to them and their safety?

…

Cyberdramon soared over the city, passing teams of soldiers firing at the bird creatures and crowds of people fleeing in a panic. It took everything in him to ignore his desire to fight the the creatures and instead focus on protecting Ryo and looking for the little white Calumon. He was the key to this whole operation after all. If they didn’t find him, it was all going down hill from here. It was just a question of where the little digimon was.

And Ryo was frustrated with having to look for such a small critter in all this mess. After all, the little guy was probably scared out of his mind with all the chaos going on out there and it wasn’t like finding him on a normal day when people weren’t shooting at them was easy. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack where the hay would hit you. It wasn’t easy. And it would help, it really would, if all those soldiers would stop trying to shoot at him. 

But what were they supposed to think? All they could see was a kid being carried off with a monster. It was hard to interpret that anyway that didn’t include the thought of that kid in danger.

“Ryo! Ryo! Are you there?” Tamer’s voice echoed from his digivice. Ryo looked at his digivice in surprise, examining it in his hands at the feature he didn’t know it had, “It’s a radio now?” 

“What do you mean now? It’s always been a radio,” Tamer responded with the sardonic wit that Ryo was used to hearing him use. It was weird - the current Tamer was usually apologetic and polite. This was like talking to the Tamer when he first met him - sarcastic, a little abrasive but helpful overall. Still, Ryo wasn’t in the mood for a conversation, “What do you want, Tamer? Shouldn’t you be in the Digital World helping out the others?”

“Never mind them. We have a serious problem over here! Here are the coordinates! Hurry! Ruki’s in trouble!” he said urgently. Ruki? She hated that name. The only reason he would use it would be to aggravate her. Or him. And it was working if that was his intention. He checked his digivice for the coordinates and tapped Cyberdramon on the head, “Come on, Cyberdramon. We need to go to-”

“-find Tamer, yeah. What’s up with him anyway? What’s he doing here?”

“I have no idea, but I’m going to deck him in a minute if I he doesn’t have a good explanation for any of this,” Ryo grunted, gesturing to the direction to his partner, “The signal leads that way to…that roof.”

He could see a short figure on a rooftop not too far away, wearing what looked like a white hooded robe and waving at them with one arm reaching so high that he had to stand on his tippy-toes. Tamer. Cyberdramon set down beside him and Ryo leapt off his partner, “Tamer, what’s so important? And where are the others? Ken and Davis? I thought you were with them in the Digital World?”

“Eh, more important stuff to deal with. You guys should’ve really gone mega by now,” Tamer remarked in his usual manner of pacing as he talked, “Bio-merging or whatever it’s called.”

“Bio-merging? You’re talking about the thing when Rika fused with Renamon or when Henry fused with his partner, right? What’s that got to do with anything? Weren’t we sticking to the plan?” Ryo raised an eyebrow, minding his distance from Tamer as he began circling with a familiar flair that fit his last face more than his present one. 

Tamer threw it off, “Ah, they’ll be fine. I figured out your problems! You guys aren’t in a Digital Field!”

“Digital…what?” Ryo groaned exasperated burying his face in his hands, “Look, why did you call me here? What’s going on with Rika? You said she was in danger!”

Tamer paused, looking back at him with that aggravating smile of his, “Oh, everyone’s in danger! Every world everywhere’s in danger somewhere. It’s just a question of figuring out who you’re gonna save and who’s gonna win! This battle is playing out across infinite realities with infinite possible outcomes! Speaking of which!”

He raised up his digivice and a flash of light seemed to tear open a floating window in front of them, through which they could see what looked like their city. Except this version of the city was over run by the D-Reaper and the screams of the dying could be heard echoing from in the distance. And for the briefest of moments, he saw Rika. Rika running for her life from the remaining D-Reaper creatures. And as quickly as she ran past the window, the D-reaper bird things were upon her - ripping her apart as their mechanical voice droned, “Scanning!”

“No!” she screamed. 

“Acquiring Information!”

“Get off me!” She cried out just as blood splashed past the screen. 

“RIKA!” he cried out - half panic and half anger as he watched her body be spread apart across different sections of the roof. Tamer pressed another button on his digivice and the window to the other world vanished, “Relax, lover boy! That’s another reality. Not this one. Your girlfriend’s alive and well! I think. Maybe?” 

“TAMER!” Ryo was on the boy, grabbing him by his stupid white robe and pulling him so close that their noses were practically touching, “THAT WAS STILL RIKA!”

“Well there’s no point crying about it,” Tamer swatted his hands away, “That Ruki’s dead. Your Ruki…our Ruki?”

Something about that phrasing made Ryo particularly angry, but he was snapped from his anger when he heard Cyberdramon start growling angrily. He needed to maintain control, otherwise Cyberdramon would lash out and get loose upon the city. And he wasn’t sure which would be worse: the D-Reaper or a rampaging Cyberdramon. Tamer shook his head, “The Ruki in this world is still alive and well. She’s out…there…somewhere.”

BOOM!

Ryo turned his head to see a beam of light shooting at the heart of the swarm of bird creatures. Something or someone was actually managing to pushing these things back. Tamer flicked a finger across the back of his head and added, “Don’t worry, Ruki’s not over there. Not yet anyway.”

What was he pulling? And why was he saying it that way? She hated that name! Was he trying to piss her off when she wasn’t even here? Or was he trying to piss him off to get a rise out of him? If that was the plan, it was working all too well. His fists tightened and he demanded, “Tamer! Why did you call us here? And what the hell is wrong with you!? I thought you said you were trying to be different! What the hell was different about that?”

Tamer’s smile widened in a way that made him sick, “Quit interrupting and I’ll tell you. Now, the reason your bio merging isn’t working is because you’re not in the Digital World anymore. Different rules apply! But we can fix that! We just need to expand the Digital Field! Good news: it’ll get you guys to mega. Bad news: I’m going to fry any computer you get too close to so I’d suggest staying away from the Hypnos Building!”

He raised up his digivice like he was about to use it to do something, only to then snap his fingers and bathe the world around them in yet another display of light. Once it passed, Tamer’s wicked smile remained, “There we go! Now you should be all good to save Ruki!”

Ryo had enough and decked Tamer as hard as he could across the face. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on but he was sure of one thing right now. Tamer was acting like an ass - so either this wasn’t Tamer or Tamer was back to his old ways. Either way, he wanted to punch the guy in the face. Tamer fell flat on his face and massaged his cheek, “Ow! What the hell Joe?”

“Who the hell is Joe? My name is Ryo!” he snapped. Tamer raised an eyebrow, his look unimpressed by Ryo’s punch as he pushed himself upwards, “Oopsie. Looks like I slipped. Charade is up I suppose.”

Ryo was so past being in the mood for one of Tamer’s games, and raised his fist to strike him again. However, Tamer caught his fist mid punch and stood himself back up, “Everyone only gets one, Joe.”

“Ryo!” he repeated.

“I don’t care,” Tamer shook his head, scratching at his chin with his fingers so deep that it looked like he was beginning to peel the skin off. It was actually disgusting to watch, his nails going deeper and deeper into his skin as he peeled more of his face off. The sound it made when it did was sickening and Ryo took a step back in disgust. And Tamer looked up and the face he saw was…not what he expected.

He expected some bloody skull to be staring back. To be fair, it would probably be the least insane thing he’d seen Tamer do. But instead, what he saw was a completely different face staring back. Ryo was perplexed, “What? You change your face again? Tell me that’s not how you do it.”

“Oh wow, you really are slow,” he responded, dropping the face he’d just peeled off and going over to flick him across the nose, “What does that idiot see in you lesser life forms? He goes through all that trouble to save you and all you do is be stupid. It’s like you’re all screaming ‘Kill me! Kill me!’. Bringing water to a person who insists on dying of thirst is less trouble than this. What’s the point? I’ll never understand what he’s thinking.”

Ryo was now at least beginning to follow this a little better, “Okay, I think I get it. You’re not Tamer. But then who are you and why are you wearing Guardian robes?”

“Guardian robes? Is that what he’s calling it now? Digital Agents! Agents! Not Ancient! Not Precursor! Not Fore-bearer! Not Guardian! Agent!” the not-Tamer stated angrily, waving his hands in the air as he spoke. Somehow, this kid was more annoying than Tamer had ever been. And Ryo was ready to deck him again if it weren’t for the fact he still had his fist in his hand. He pulled his fist out of his grip and stated, “That doesn’t really answer my question.”

The boy finally seemed to notice he was present and his tone shifted to boredom, “Hm? Oh, right. You’re still here. Hello! Name’s The Trickster. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m an Agent like Tamer. Only I’m not really invested in maintaining any kind of order. I’m just in this for the laughs and the giggles. And if I can screw with people’s lives while I’m at it then all the better!” 

“You’re...like Tamer,” Ryo repeated stupidly. 

“Look! It’s learned to mimic language!” Trickster mocked him, snapping his fingers in his face to get his attention. Ryo swatted his hand away and got his own hand slapped back in response, “Now pay attention because I’m not repeating! You can biomerge now! Congratulations! Go tell your friends Ruki and not-Ruki so you can all have a nice big party! Bad news! You can’t go near computers without breaking them so try to avoid the hypnosis people! Or hypnotize or whatever pretentious name they’re using. Other bad news! You need a strong emotional response to get the blood flowing in that regard so let’s get the blood flowing and trigger some emotions!”

He took a step back and reached into his robes to produce a little scared Calumon pleading and begging to be let go, “What’s happening? Where am I!? WHAT IS THIS PLACE!? HELP ME!”

Ryo tried to jump at him to get the little digimon but The Trickster side stepped him and stood along the edge of the rooftop, “Oh dear. Looks like this thing is very important to you.”

“Give him back!” Ryo snapped, making the Trickster cackle. 

The Trickster waved a finger at him like he were a misbehaving child and remarked, “It’s just a shame what I’m about to do next.”

“Help! Please let me go! I’m sorry for whatever I did! Please just let me go!” Calumon pleaded at the top of his voice. Now it was Cyberdramon’s turn to lunge forward, but Ryo threw his arm out, “Cyberdramon! Don’t! He’s going to hurt Calumon!”

...

“Juri, cease your traumatic state and continue to identify objects!” the mechanical voice droned on. It was her own voice again, used by this thing to control her. Manipulate her. Force her to do what it wanted, “Identify!”

All she could think about…all she could focus on was Beelzemon killing Leomon. How it had been Tamerkato who enticed him to do it. How all this was probably her own fault for being a horrible partner. She could feel this thing trying to block these thoughts out with more images of things it was finding…but every image, every thought kept coming back to one thing: Beelzemon.

Car. 

Beelzemon. 

Soldier. 

Beelzemon! 

Gun. 

BEELZEMON! 

Roof. 

BeElZeMoN! 

Calumon. 

Calumon? The sight of him calmed her for a moment - what was he doing? No, who was holding him? They were supposed to save Calumon. That was why they went to the Digital World. But who had him and why was he dangling Calumon over a roof? He needed to be saved! He needed to be protected! He was the Catalyst, the source of strength that gave digimon the power to digivolve. If anything happened to him, it was game over for everyone else. She had to save him. To protect him!

“Subject identified as Calumon. Digital Lifeform acknowledged. Power source. Acquiring target!”

“Wait...what? Uh oh,” was all Juri could manage to say as she realized she might have just set this thing after Calumon.

...

“Hurt the Catalyst? Well now I know you’re not paying attention,” the Trickster remarked, feigning being insulted while he still had that stupid evil smile on his face, “This thing is the source of digivolution! Why would I hurt it? That’d be stupid. Y’think I’d just sully the memory of the Agents like that? No, don’t be stupid! I’m not going to hurt him!”

“Then what are you doing?” Ryo demanded angrily, Cyberdramon roaring with his growing anger. The Trickster laughed, “Oh me? I’m doing this!”

He tossed Calumon into the air and the digimon promptly fell to the ground. From several stories up. He may not be trying to hurt him but he wasn’t above throwing the digimon to his death apparently. 

“NO!” Ryo cried out, leaping over the edge of the roof and reaching his hand out to the falling digimon. Then he heard his partner calling out from behind him, “RYO!”

He looked back up and could see Cyberdramon coming after him. It was a surprise to him. In all the time he’d been partnered with the digimon - it was strange to see him coming to his rescue. Normally, he had to restrain his partner from mauling someone or something. Not that it was unwelcome. It was just not what he was used to. Still, he had to save Calumon and he reached his arm out to the digimon, “Almost!”

Cyberdramon grabbed his arm, “Ryo! What are you doing!?”

“We need to save Calumon!” Ryo shouted.

“HE CAN FLY!” Cyberdramon countered. As soon as he said that, he saw the little digimon’s eyes widen in surprise and his ears expand out like wings - slowing his descent so that he glided slowly downward. Ryo’s mouth fell open, “You could do that the entire time!?”

“I forgot!” Calumon said innocently enough, his screams of terror turning to embarrassment as they reached the street below safely. For a moment, they stopped to catch their breath until one of the bird things appeared from nowhere and grabbed Calumon - flying away towards the D-Reaper. The little digimon started screaming again, this time for real as he tried to break free of the bird thing’s hold on him. Cybderamon immediately gave chase, spreading his wings so that he could fly as fast as his body could carry him after the bird.

For his part Ryo, tried reaching for his deck to start buffing his partner but the speed they were going made the cards scatter from his hands. He tried to grab them but they were gone with the wind now - he’d just lost their one advantage. He looked ahead again after the bird thing holding Calumon. His partner was on his own now and he was just dead weight. Sure he could use the digivice, but what good was that when he wasn’t a strong fighter? And these things - the birds were beginning to swarm around them to stop the pursuit. They couldn’t afford to be stopped now though - not when Calumon was right there. They had to save the little digimon! They had to!

“GRAGH!”

The bird things were slamming themselves into Cyberdramon now to slow down his pursuit. And Cyberdramon was doing everything he could to protect his partner. Ryo hated that. He didn’t like being useless. More than that, he never thought he’d see the day where he gave a crap about his partner’s well being. He wished he could help. He just…

“Cyberdramon! Biomerge to!”

Ryo felt a strange sensation bathe him in warmth and a soft glow of light over take his vision. Then he felt a strange compulsion to cry out, “JUSTIMON!”

Without really knowing why, he also felt a strong desire to punch and beat as many of these bird things out of his way as possible - hitting as many of them back as he could, “BACK OFF! OUT OF MY WAY! CALUMON!”

“HELP ME!” the little digimon cried out at the top of his lungs. He had to try harder to get as many of these things out of his way as possible to save Calumon! He was so close. He could almost reach the digimon when a blast of light cut off his path to the bird thing holding Calumon.

“OUTTA MY WAY! THIS CITY IS MY TURF!”

He looked off to the side to see Beelzemon making his way through the streets with his shotgun in one hand and was looked like a cannon in the other. He pointed it upwards and fired a beam of light straight at more of the birds, “BEAT IT YOU RATS WITH WINGS!”

What was he doing here? You got me. Whose voice was that? It’s mine! Ryo had never been more confused in his life, unsure why there was a voice echoing in his head that wasn’t his own. You think about that girl with the pineapple hair a lot. Just confess already! You know she probably likes you too. 

“Cyberdramon?” he asked no one in particular only to hear the voice confirm it. Unfortunately, Beelzemon heard him too and was looking up at him, “What are you supposed to be? Another one of those things? Well I got something just for you!”

“Wait! Don’t shoot! It’s me!” he called out to Beelzemon. Beelzemon paused, then pulled the trigger anyway. The beam of light that shout out of the cannon flew straight at him, missing him by a narrow inch. Ryo looked over his shoulder to see a bunch of the bird creatures scattering behind him. How had he missed that?

No time to focus on that. He descended to join Beelzemon, “Thanks for not shooting at me.”

“Don’t celebrate yet,” the digimon raised the cannon so that he found himself looking down the barrel at it, “Who are you and why shouldn’t I just pull the trigger?”

Great plan you had there Ryo, now we’re in serious trouble. Ryo threw up his hands and tried to explain, “It’s me...Ryo.”

“Who?”

“We...fought in the Digital World? My partner is...was...Cyberdramon!” he explained. Beelzemon turned his head, “You’re going to have to run all of that by me because I have no idea what you’re talking about. And keep it quick. These things are gathering around.”

Ryo gulped, realizing time was off the essence with these things gathering around quickly. And then he remembered that Calumon was in danger. But there was no rescuing him now that they were cut off from him.

[sailor-cresselia]

The Great Ex-Aid Rewatch: Ex-Aid & Ghost, part 04

Last time? My ears were grievously injured by way of four transformations running at once. This time?

FIGHT TIME.

The five riders and bugsters stand opposite from each other in the abandoned office, before Hatena – the only proper bugster here – warps the three scientists and legend riders off into game stages, leaving Ex-Aid, Ghost, Zaizen, and Hatena behind.

LETS DO THIS!

–––

At CR, Akari wakes up, and insists on going to see Takeru. To be fair, when she asked where he was, Onari said that ‘he’ll be back soon, don’t worry’, which… well. It’s Takeru. She knows that means he’s gone off to do something reckless. Again.

After a moment, Poppy gives in, and supports Akari as they head out. When the door opens, Makoto and Alain are standing there. How they knew where the CR basement was is beyond me, but whatever. I’m fairly certain that, given how poorly off they were last night, they are not supposed to have left their room.

Also, Makoto needs to wear that jacket less often, because the high collar doesn’t do him any favors. A plain black t-shirt is a much better look for him, if you ask me.

The entire group heads out.

––– –––

MAJI KA? MAJI DE! MAJIDA! SHOWTIME!

Kamen Rider Wizard faces off against a group of Dragon Knight Hunter mooks, cycling through his four base forms – Flame, Water, Hurricane, and Land.

The only form that gets to show off any of its elemental skills is Hurricane, though. Flame is basically just his gun, which he isn’t even using; Water requires the Liquid ring to show it’s power; and Land is a physical offensive/defensive boost. Hurricane, however, gives him cyclone-powered flight, which Haruto briefly uses here.

Once he’s taken out the mooks – albeit with no defeat explosions in sight – Doral steps forward, saying that it’s time they settle this. They trade punches, as the tv-size cut of “Life is SHOW TIME” ends, transitioning to

–––

DON’T SAY NO! JUST LIVE MORE!

Kamen Rider Gaim faces off against a group of Giri Giri Chambara mooks, cycling through his base-level power ups – Orange, Pineapple, Strawberry, and Banana. He gets to show off their special weapons – Orange’s sword, Pineapple’s flail, Strawberry’s kunai projections, and Banana’s spear.

Okay, so Banana is technically supposed to be KAITO’S base form, and Kouta used it literally twice before this – once in the show, and then once in the Gaim summer movie. But since Kouta actually uses the spear like a spear, and his other ‘base level’ form is the Watermelon mecha, I think we can allow this.

Once he’s taken out the mooks – with plenty of defeat explosions in sight – Giril steps forward. He sends out a banana-shaped energy attack (Gaim had very weird attacks) which she slices through while charging, as the tv-size cut of “JUST LIVE MORE” ends, transitioning to

–––

(kickass instrumentals) Ameagari Break Cloud sukima-kara

(Okay, yeah, Surprise Drive doesn’t quite fit the pattern of the openings starting off with strong lyrics, does it?)

Kamen Rider Drive faces off against a group of Gekitotsu Robot mooks, cycling through his first few forms – Type Speed with Max Flare, Type Technic with Rumble Dump, and Type Technic with Road Winter. The Steering Sword makes an appearance before Type Speed gets upgraded to have literal fire powers. Technic gets in a crushing shoulder-check to show off its physical strength before it gets upgraded with a drill. Technic gets to show off the sharpshooting abilities with the Door Gun before… hnnnnn… before he gets bascially a giant fan on his chest that freezes the enemies. Like, okay, Road Winter has a cool ability, but it looks so dumb in use.

Once he’s taken out the mooks – all of whom were frozen and shattered – Robol shows up, falling out of the sky to attack, as the tv-size cut of “SURPRISE DRIVE” ends.

––– –––

Ex-Aid versus Zaizen, and Ghost versus Hatena.

This fight is going to be… tricky to detail, to say the least. It switches between sides quite a bit, so I’m going to divide the details between them. If tumblr still let us use the horizontal divider, I’d have a lot less trouble, because I could have used that between full scenes, and the series of dashes here. But noooo. No, I’m using two sets of dashes between full sections, and single sets for this. (sigh.)

–––

Ex-Aid manages to get a few hits with his Gashacon Hammer, but they don’t really do much, before Zaizen (technically ‘Genomes’ right now, because he’s in full bugster mode, but I don’t really think it matters that much for him) delivers a painful kick that sends Ex-Aid backward.

–––

Ghost is up against Hatena. He is not doing well.

He gets pushed into a concrete wall – denting it – by Hatena using his staff as a blunt object, before getting flung through a corrugated steel wall some distance away. He leaps out of that, transitioning from base ‘Ore’ mode to Musashi, which lets him get a few slashes in. But those are deflected, and he’s sent flying through… hopefully the same concrete wall as before.

I say hopefully, because that would mean it was already weakened from the impact before, and that he didn’t whole-ass crash through an intact wall.

Being knocked out of Musashi, he switches to Edison, firing off an electrically charged attack from his gun… which gets basically deflected via the ‘slice the shot in two’ method, exploding off to either side of Hatena, but leaving the bugster unharmed.

Unharmed, and laughing.

–––

Ex-Aid grapples with Zaizen for a bit, before backflipping away to upgrade to Gekitotsu Robots. Aside from Drago Knight Hunter Z, which he can not use on his own, this is the only upgrade Emu has right now. Fortunately, it gives him a robot-powered fist, and his punches are enough to stagger Zaizen backwards. Using a Flash energy item lets him blind Zaizen long enough to launch a Critical Strike finisher. Since he’s using Gekitotsu Robots, this takes the form of a literal rocket fist.

I may not like the design for the Gekitotsu Robots armor, but damn if it doesn’t have a cool attack.

Zaizen is knocked back, but is far from down. “Now… time to complete the operation of death!” He charges some sort of power, and fires an array of blue lasers.

Ex-Aid is blasted to the ground, and Emu lies there, groaning in pain.

–––

Ghost has managed to switch into Boost, but it doesn’t seem to have helped at all. Not by how his punches and kicks are still being deflected away by the significantly bulkier Hatena, and Ghost doesn’t even get to fire a shot with his second gun.

Takeru has two sword-guns, and this one has sunglasses. Ghost is a trip, weapons-wise.

Hatena shoots first, and the resulting explosion launches Ghost forward, breaking his transformation as he falls. Takeru hits the ground, rolling and clutching his Eyecon Driver G. It’s a struggle for Takeru to push himself to his feet, but he manages, slams the driver to his waist, and transforms into Grateful.

Skipping the direct conflict, Ghost goes straight for the finisher, launching himself up for a ‘Mega Omega Formation’ rider kick. Hatena responds by firing blasts up at him. The main one – shaped like a question mark – collides directly with the kick…

And knocks him out of the air. Ghost’s transformation breaks very high in mid-air, and Takeru has a distance to fall to the ground.

He’s Takeru when he hits the ground, rolling backwards head over feet, and it’s an even greater struggle to push himself upright this time, as he holds the Infinite Eyecon. “Not yet…”

He stumbles as he pushes the button to activate the eyecon. This is a one handed activation, and he’s losing balance.

Every movement sounds like it hurts, with the little grunts of exertion when he activates his driver. When he steps forward as Ghost. When he activates the finisher.

As Hatena says, he is very persistent.

The Enjoyment Strike finisher is met with an attack of Hatena’s own, resulting in a beam-o-war. A very brief one, though. Hatena’s attack pushes through, possibly pushing Ghost’s finisher with it, and Kamen Rider Ghost has his Infinite transformation shattered.

Glaring daggers at the laughing Hatena, Takeru staggers forward, step by painful step. We see quick cuts of his friends as they make their way here while he speaks. “I’ll protect Akari…” (Akari being supported by Poppy) “and the human world…” (wider shot, with Akari and Poppy being joined by Alain with Onari and one of the monk trainees, and Makoto with Kanon and the other monk.) “I’ll fight to protect them all!”

There’s the sound of a heartbeat as Takeru clutches at his chest, in pain and determination.

Hatena fires an attack meant to finish the fight.

Right before it can connect with Takeru – there’s not enough time or distance for him to dodge – the Nobunaga eyecon pulls him inside.

Nobunaga – one of the legends that generally sticks with Makoto, mind you – says that Takerus resolve to keep fighting has inspired him, and it would be an honor to fight alongside him. The Nobunaga spirit sort of… merges with two others that are apparently also in there? Look, Ghost lore is weird, nobody really understands how these powers work, so this might as well happen.

He (they?!) release Takeru back into the wild, where he hurriedly grabs the upgraded eyecon as Hatenas attack connects.

Emu, watching – this has all clearly happened very quickly – yells for Takeru. As far as he can tell, Takeru’s just gone up in flames.

The fire and smoke clears, and Kamen Rider Ghost stands there, in his Tenkatoitsu Damashii form. This one draws power from Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

As he starts fighting back against Hatena – properly fighting back, finally – B.A.T.T.L.E G.A.M.E starts playing, and I switch to the RTA subtitle track, because that one actually includes the lyrics in the corner.

The first volley of attacks is from his own sword in it’s double-ended form, all of which connect. Then he pulls out Specter and Necroms guns, and it’s just nothing but explosions as far as Hatena can see.

––– –––

Kamen Rider Wizard, in his Flame Dragon form, is doing damn well against Doral. He pulls out the Drago Timer, and goes into All Dragon mode, which lets him dive bomb Doral. Haruto gets wings in that form, in addition to the claws, tail, and fire. Area donut-lover gets to fly.

After landing, he pulls out a silver and diamond ring.

Infinity, Please!

With one Shining Strike axe-blow –

Game Clear!

Doral is defeated.

–––

Kamen Rider Gaim, in his Lemon Energy form, fires a volley of arrows at Giril, before he goes into Kachidoki Arms. After pair of attacks from his battle flags (Gaim had very weird attacks) and the DJ Gun, he pulls out a ‘key’.

Kiwami Arms!

With an attack from the combination of his sword and gun –

Game Clear!

Giril is defeated.

–––

Kamen Rider Drive, in Type Deat Heat, delivers some devastating fire punches to Robol. (I hate Dead Heat’s helmet so much… it’s just bad, guys.) He goes into Type Formula, and zooms past Robol, presumably hitting him as he goes. Not like we can see, we’re lucky to get a blue and yellow motion blur before he fires the Formula Cannon. After firing, he pulls out a minature version of his car – and also summons his actual car.

Type Tridoron!

With a powerful Rider Kick – and I feel the need to point out that Shinnosuke is basically wearing his actual car as armor right now, so there’s no need for majorly flashy effects for this attack –

Game Clear!

Robol is defeated.

–––

B.A.T.T.L.E G.A.M.E comes to an end, and I mourn the ending of such an awesome song as I switch back to the Excite sub track.

––– –––

Back at the warehouse.

Zaizen drags Emu up by the back of his shirt, before punching him in the stomach and holding him up by his hair. “To think that the high schooler from back then would become a Kamen Rider…”

Emu, of course, has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.

Ghost – Takeru, now, since I don’t have to worry about form changing anymore – yells at Zaizen to stop, and rushes him. Zaizen responds by hurling Emu bodily away, so that he lands on his back after flying several meters. Takeru goes to fight Zaizen directly, and makes the mistake of grabbing his arm.

Tenkuji Takeru long since gained the ability to see into peoples souls, into their memories.

He did not, however, gain control over this ability.

–––

An operating room.

Zaizen, in medical scrubs, with decidedly non-standard equipment.

The subject of the ‘operation’, unconscious, with a helmet presumably monitoring his brain functions.

We can finally see his face.

Hojo Emu, age 18.

–––

“What – was the one you operated on six years ago – that was-?!”

If Zaizen had expressions in this form, he’d probably be smirking. “Oh, so you could read my memories, eh? That’s right. Hojo Emu was the first in the world to be infected with the bugster virus.” He turns to look at Emu, who’s lying on the ground, making pained noises, before turning back toward Takeru. “He’s Patient Zero for the game disease!”

Hatena knocks Takeru away, re-engaging him in battle, as Zaizen goes towards Emu, who is pushing himself to his feet. I’m not sure Emu even heard that last exchange between Takeru and Zaizen.

“I just don’t understand it… why go so far for one measly patient?” He keeps hitting Emu, tossing him back down to the ground.

“Because I know that when Tougo thinks about games…” Emu tackles Zaizen around the waist, but gets thrown back down again. He stands back up. “He smiles like he’s having the best time of his life!”

…I think Emu’s going to need to replace that coat. I don’t think that the dirt will come out, to say nothing of the bloodstains it keeps picking up whenever he gets thrown somewhere new.

But regardless of how trashed his outfit is, of how incredibly beaten up he is, Emu will do anything to make sure his patient can smile like that again.

Somehow, because who the hell knows how bugvisors are supposed to work, Tougo forces himself to at least semi appear from the one he’s trapped in, saying he’s sorry, he doesn’t deserve this kindness, he’ll do what he’s asked to from here on, but please, save him – he doesn’t want to be a monster!

Emu, who is far too nice, says that of course he will. Its his duty as a doctor, after all. Everything’s going to be fine.

Zaizen calls Tougo a disobedient rat, and pulls him fully back into the bugvisor.

He then proceeds to stalk over to Emu, and kick his legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground.

He stomps one foot onto Emu’s shoulder, and holds the other down with one hand, reaching into Emu’s coat pocket, taking out the Mighty Action X gashat.

“I’ll make you suffer… just as deeply as I have!” He activates the gashat, with Emu trying in vain to reach for it, before slamming it into Emu’s driver.

Then he pulls out the proto-gashat for Mighty Action X, activates it… and, laughing evilly, slams it into Emu’s driver.

A cloud of purple pixels appear from the belt, mostly off screen, but most of what we see is purple lines coursing along Emu’s face. (Wizard fans are not okay right now.) They look like circuitry, almost, flashing along him as he thrashes in pain.

“You can stay banished in the Game World for eternity!”

There’s more crying out in pain and thrashing, before Emu manages to glare at Zaizen, who’s been holding him down throughout this.

Emu’s voice takes on a dual tone – like there are two people speaking at once. One of them is decidedly not Emu… but it’s not who the ‘other option’ should be, either. I don’t think it is, anyway. “I’ll change Tougo’s fate…” The lines change from purple to orange on the right, and blue on the left. His voices take on a deep, growling tone, as his eyes glow. “…with my own hands!”

He blasts Zaizen off of him with a burst of orange and blue light, and sort of… pulls himself upright. Like a puppet, almost.

This is absolutely terrifying!

Knock knock, is there anyone home? BECAUSE EMU SURE ISN’T! Not with how he stares at the camera, his eyes glowing, lines etched into his face.

The two gashats rise up out of his driver, one glowing orange and the other glowing blue, before he snatches them out of the air as they fuse into one large gashat.

He triggers the button.

Mighty Brothers XX!

He smirks a little as the wind blows his hair back, but it’s gone when he actually transforms, just leaving his expression dull and vacant. His voice echos through the warehouse, toneless and ominous. “Transform.”

There’s no flair to the “level two” transformation, and he looks down as the single Pink Ex-Aid divides into two halves, and then reform into two Ex-Aids.

Zaizen’s reaction, “What just happened?!” pretty much matches that of everyone watching this for the first time, whether it be in theaters or even already having seen Mighty Brothers in show! THIS IS TERRIFYING!

“We’ll clear this with no continues.” Both Ex-Aids speak at once, still in an eerie monotone, moving in an exact mirror match to each other.

And I do mean mirror. This isn’t the ‘co-op play’ that Mighty Brothers will use in show. Every motion is one-to-one matched between them.

Takeru, back with Hatena, turns to see this, and basically decides that it must be fine, because at least Doctor Emu’s not screaming in pain anymore, and he’s… er, they’re kicking the bad guys ass. Not that he says that, of course, but you know. It’s the general sentiment.

Going back to his own personal battle, Takeru finally manages to get a proper, full finisher in on Hatena, using his Sunglasseslasher and Deep Specters Deep Slasher.

Game Clear!

The two Ex-Aids launch a finisher of their own, two charged Rider Kicks in their respective colors. Making and landing these kicks is the only time they don’t move simultaneously.

Zaizen is knocked down, finally, having dropped the bugvisor. Orange and blue arcs of electricity spark from him before he is engulfed in flames.

The Ex-Aid’s eyes are glowing as they pose in front of the explosion.

Game Clear!

–––

With Team Ghost (and special guest Poppy), Akari suddenly stops, and the bugster virus leaves her system.

–––

Tougo reforms out of being yellow specks of data (because this might as well happen), and Takeru goes to catch him as he falls, unconscious.

The two Ex-Aids… sort of nod, or make an affirming sound, before dissolving. LITERALLY disintegrating! Completely! Also, something interesting I never noticed before is that the orange one turns into orange dots of light, while the blue turns into squares – like, the border of a square, just the lines. There is no overlap in the shapes – both of them are exclusive. The lights spread out, before rapidly coalescing into pink boxes, that then become regular Ex-Aid.

Regular, pink, very definitely only one person in here Ex-Aid, who is very confused right now.

“Huh? What was I… just doing?”

“You don’t remember…? You just saved Tougo.”

Emu doesn’t remember the last part of this battle at all. I’m pretty sure he barely even remembers Takeru getting his new form. And Takeru’s not saying anything, because nope no nuh-uh, this is not his business, he’s not supposed to really interfere with the new guy, that was terrifying, and if he doesn’t remember, then that’s probably for the best!

–––

Ex-Aid and Ghost – both in their base forms now – set Tougo down outside the building as Drive, Gaim, and Wizard approach. They thank them, and the three Legend Riders say that it’s what they do – they’re all Kamen Riders. If they need help again, they’ll all be willing to fight together.

–––

Emu and Tougo are walking as Poppy catches up to them, and goes to support Tougo’s other side.

Uhhh… Poppy. I hate to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure that Tougo was actually the one helping Emu walk. Any limping there was being kind of tired on Tougo’s part, and Emu being barely able to stand without the armor. Yes, Tougo’s arm was on top of Emu’s shoulders, but he was decidedly more upright than Emu, and it’s not a height thing.

Team Ghost rushes past them to Takeru. Everyone is so glad to see that the others are alright.

The sounds of a heart beating can be heard as Takeru takes a step forward–

and cuts off as he drops in slow motion.

Someone at Toei just loves seeing Takeru suffer. Probably the same one who has them keep putting Emu in situations where he’s grievously injured. This movie has both.

As Emu desperately tries to revive Takeru, the others are stunned into near silence. Akari’s approaching an emotional breakdown, and Onari tries to tell Emu to stop. They can’t do this again, they can’t go through all of this again, it’s not working, so please, that’s enough.

Emu doesn’t stop, refuses to, and Takeru begins breathing again.

Emu says that he couldn’t let Takeru die again, he’s a doctor, after all. Takeru thanks him, saying that he’ll take care of his life.

–––

We enter the ending credits, with “Hikari” playing.

Haruto sits on a rooftop, having one of his trademark plain sugar donuts. (We do not find out if he actually got to finish it for once.)

Shinnosuke gets a surprise baby shower from his coworkers. Literally everything is blue, much to his protests. He and Kiriko haven’t actually found out if they’re having a boy or a girl yet, come on, it’s too soon! One of them points out that he’s already got a name chosen, and he can’t find a response for that.

Kouta and Mai, seen from the back, are enjoying the scenery on their Helheim planet, because keeping the forest around was totally not a mistake. Not like they shouldn’t have, I don’t know, at least tried to eliminate said forest with their god powers? (Gaim was weird and Kouta’s a moron.)

Tougo actually interacts with his classmates for once, showing off his game in action, instead of ignoring them to work on it.

Alain, Makoto, and Kanon head back to the Ganma World, waving goodbye to the rest of team Ghost. Takeru and Akari smile at each other.

Hiiro has a slice of cake – one with oranges on it.

Taiga looks up at the hospital, and walks away. (It was nice while he was able to be back there – no, stop it, Hanaya, you’re done, you don’t need them…)

Kiriya lounges on a random roof, leaning against a wall. He puts on his sunglasses and smirks.

Poppy has apparently installed an emulator on her arcade console, because it’s supposed to be her apartment and she’s currently playing Pac-Man on it.

Emu tries to do his job as a pediatric intern, but the small child he’s with has other ideas, and runs off. Emu tries to pursue him, but trips over his own feet and goes flying.

The credits end…

–––

And we see Dan Kuroto’s desk, the proto-gashats and bugvisor safely back where they belong. He got some very valuable data from Zaizens actions.

Parad, holding a Pac-Man gashat, smiles. They’re getting closer to the day that their puzzle’s finally finished.

They both turn to look at a monitor, which has the start screen for Perfect Puzzle. (Parad’s smile drops once Kuroto has his back to him.)

See you next game.

––– –––

And that’s the Ex-Aid & Ghost film complete!

Most of the analysis stuff I could say, I’m pretty sure I already have said in the previous three segments.

The elephant in the room, of course, with regards to the early appearance of Mighty Brothers XX is ‘Was Parad There?’

In-universe and in real life, when this movie came out, nobody knew who Emu’s Bugster was – this was the first confirmation that he was infected. That there was some sort of foul play at hand in his ability to be Ex-Aid. Before, there had only been suspicions and hints.

But that second voice, right before Emu shoved Zaizen off of him… there was Emu, yes. But I’ve been going back and forth between that scene and the stinger, and I can not, for the life of me, tell if that was just an echo effect or if they actually laid Parad’s voice over Emu’s.

It’s definitely just Emu when he’s transformed – “We’ll clear this with no continues” is two copies of his voice at the same time, with a slight echo in amidst the complete lack of emotion.

Parad might be here to help form the extra body, but… in practice, there’s nobody home right now.

Of course, to this day, we have no idea how Mighty Brothers usually works, since there was a point when Emu was using it against Parad regularly, so it couldn’t have been him forming the second half, but… it can also be used to split Para-DX from Perfect Knockout into two copies of himself, one each in Perfect Puzzle and Knock Out Fighter…

So! This! Is a good movie! I really like it! Raises a few questions, like how does the Mighty Brothers gashat work usually, and how do Eyecons work, but it’s not like those are new!

SEE YOU NEXT GAME!

(Or next Zi-O. Hopefully we get subs for 48 soon, I’d like to be able to actually go on tumblr…)

[blightarts]

POKÉMON AUTUMN VERSION

CHAPTER 5: Extreme Mode Engaged!

Previous Chapter: An Unexpected Outcome

Next Chapter: Let’s Rock n’ Roll!

Disclaimer:  Pokémon is a property of Game Freak and Nintendo, while Endless  Summer is a property of Pixelberry. I do not claim any rights here.

Author’s Note: If the “Keep reading” doesn’t work, go here for the full post.

@princesstopgun, @mechaspirit, @lovearyn, @kaitloyalist, @choicesmarvel, @sceptilemasterr, @hey-its-vy, @skyila, @choicesyouplayandmore, @mysteli, @helentwombly, @scgdoeswhat, @choicesaholic​, @jakemckenzietrash, @xo-endlessmayhem-xo, @abhirio, @diego-vii, @daniela2510, @izzycheeese, @brightpinkpeppercorn​

Recommended Music: From the Shadows (ILITW)

Taari and the gang are inside an underground facility where they have just encountered the man that was defeated by the Catalysts ten years ago, Everett Rourke.

Rourke: Welcome, children...

Reginald grits his teeth and speaks up.

Reginald: You were supposed to be in custody! How did you even get out of prison?!

Rourke: Reginald, my dear grandson... never underestimate the power of a man who can build something as amazing as this...

Rourke steps aside and shows everyone the second version of his creation, the Omega Mech 2.0.

Rourke: Magnificent, isn’t it? It’s smaller but much more efficient than the last one. And it also houses a very special power source.

Kaitlyn steps up.

Taari: The only thing that’s smaller and more efficient is the jail cell that the Catalysts are going to put you in!

Kaitlyn: Yeah! And you made your mechanical suit just like Iron Man’s! Papa’s right; you really are “Phony Stark”!

Rourke scoffs and activates something.

Rourke: I think that is enough chitchat...

Recommended Music: Fight or Flight (ILITW)

Suddenly, another set of alarms blast as red lights flood the room. A computer voice can be heard within the room.

Voice: FACILITY SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN MINUTES.

Mika’s Absol comes out of her pokéball and points at the computer.

Absol: Sol! (Disaster!)

Mika: Yes, we know that, Absol!

Absol proudly smiles at the group. Blight shouts at Rourke.

Blight: Are you crazy?! You’re gonna kill yourself too!

Rourke: That is why I have built a teleportation device on my remote to transport me and my schematics for my Omega Mech 2.0. This one is just a prototype that will keep anyone here from escaping...

Suddenly, the mechanical suit’s face activates showing the face of a Pokémon.

Vishakha: Is that a... Rotom?!

Elena: Rotom is your “special power source”?

Rourke: Yes. Rotom makes a great candidate for the Omega Mech 2.0, much greater than my two children, Aleister and Estela. Once the timer is left with thirty seconds, he will exit the Omega Mech 2.0 and the facility, leaving all of you here...

Everyone tries to rush towards Rourke but the Rotom gets in their way. Rourke activates his teleportation device and starts to fade.

Rourke: I will be seeing you all... or not...

Soon after, Rourke is completely gone, leaving everyone and Rotom trapped in the facility. Blight runs to the door but it’s sealed tight.

Blight: Damn it!

Elena: Can you get it opened?

Blight: Yeah. It’ll take five minutes. But I must not be interrupted.

Blight turns to the kids, trusting them in stalling the Omega Mech 2.0. The kids nod while Vishakha and Elena help Blight get the door open. The kids call out their Pokémon.

Taari: Come out, Grotle!

Reginald: I’m counting on you, Monferno!

Kaitlyn: I choose you, Prinplup!

Mika: Absol, let’s do this!

The kids and their Pokémon prepare to stop Rotom as best as they can.

Recommended Theme: Team Magma/Aqua Boss (Pokémon)

Rotom begins his assault with a Thunder Punch. He charges electricity throughout Omega Mech’s right arm and slams its fist on the ground. Arches of electricity make their way towards the kids and their Pokémon.

Taari: Use Sand Tomb, Grotle!

Grotle slams a foot on the ground and sinks a small portion of it, creating a quicksand. The arches of electricity come across the quicksand and quickly dissipates upon contact.

Reginald: Good thinking, Taari.

Mika: Our turn. Absol, use Megahorn!

Absol’s horn glows lime-green and grows as she charges forward towards Rotom. She then swings her head and the horn slashes the mech suit, leaving a scratch on it. Absol notices Rotom raising an arm and quickly backs away.

Kaitlyn: That plating is tough!

Mika: We barely did anything at all.

Taari: This is gonna be a difficult battle...

Reginald: Not for long. Monferno, use Flame Wheel!

Monferno breathes a stream of flames and starts spinning. He harnesses the flames and turns himself into a wheel of fire as he rolls his way towards Rotom.

Kaitlyn: We’re going too. Prinplup, use Aqua Jet then Ice Beam!

Prinplup surrounds himself with water and rockets himself towards Rotom. He then fires Ice Beam at the water surrounding him, turning Aqua Jet into an icicle. Rotom conjures Shadow Balls with his mechanical hands and fires a barrage of them towards Prinplup and Monferno. But with their light bodies and fast speed, the two Pokémon manage to evade Rotom’s attacks. They eventually hit Rotom with at the same time, making him flinch. Prinplup and Monferno return to their trainers as they celebrate in landing a successful hit.

Kaitlyn: Yeah!

Taari: Take that!

Rotom stands and the eyes in the Omega Mech glow yellow.

Rotom: Stage Two, ACTIVATE!

Reginald: “Stage Two”?

The Omega Mech’s arms, back and legs open up and thrusters start to come out of the openings.

Rotom: Valor Mode engaged. Resetting move set.

Mika: Is he... changing moves...?

Reginald: I think he is! Watch yourselves!

Not a second later, Rotom rockets his way towards Prinplup and clenches the Omega Mech’s fists. Cold air surrounds the fist as Rotom attempts to use Ice Punch. Prinplup tries to dodge but Rotom was too fast. Prinplup is hit by Ice Punch and gets slammed onto the wall as he becomes frozen.

Kaitlyn: Prinplup! NO!!

Before the others could retaliate, the Omega Mech’s head glows blue as Rotom attempts to use Zen Headbutt. He slams the Omega Mech’s head on the ground and a burst of psychic energy blows away Grotle, Monferno and Absol.

Taari: Damn it!

Mika: Absol!

Monferno and Absol lay on the ground in pain, while Grotle struggles to stay up. Rotom holds up one of the Omega Mech’s hand and charges an Aura Sphere attack. 

Reginald: Get up, you guys!!

Rotom quickly fires the Aura Sphere and upon contact, it explodes.

Mika: NO!!!

But as the explosion fades, it is revealed that not one of the Pokémon is injured. The kids stare at disbelief as the see Grotle using Wide Guard to protect his fellow Pokémon.

Taari: Grotle, you did it!

Grotle roars and starts to glow.

Reginald: He’s... evolving...

Meanwhile, the ice trapping Prinplup starts to form cracks as he begins to glow too.

Kaitlyn: Prinplup is evolving too!

Absol and Monferno stand up with the latter shouting and glowing as well.

Mika: Even Monferno?!

The three Starter Pokémon proceed with their evolution. Prinplup breaks from his ice prison and becomes Empoleon. Grotle stomps on the ground as he becomes Torterra. And Monferno’s flames grow more intense as he becomes Infernape.

The kids grin as they perform a countermeasure against Rotom.

Taari: Now it’s our turn. Torterra, use Stone Edge!

Reginald: Infernape, use Close Combat!

Kaitlyn: Use Steel Wing, Empoleon!

Torterra roars and large stone shards rise from the ground. A gigantic one strikes Rotom and sends him upwards. Infernape follows after him and barrages him with quick punches and kicks, launching him downwards. Empoleon stands on Rotom’s landing point as his flipper begins to glow and shape itself into a sword’s blade. He swings his flipper and slashes Rotom, leaving a scar on the Omega Mech. The kids celebrate as they were finally able to do damage towards the Omega Mech.

Mika: We did it!

Reginald: Now we just have to destroy it completely.

The Omega Mech stands up and this time, its eyes glow red.

Rotom: Stage Three, ACTIVATE!!

Taari: There’s another stage?!

Kaitlyn: Damn it. Can’t this thing die already?!

The Omega Mech’s chest splits and unveils a cannon, while repulsors appear from its hands. The glass on its face breaks, revealing Rotom in the form of a plasma coil. The Omega Mech then hovers above the ground.

Rotom: Extreme Mode engaged. Resetting move set.

Kaitlyn: Here it comes!

Rotom holds out one of the Omega Mech’s hands and uses Psychic. He grabs Torterra, Infernape and Empoleon using telekinesis and throws them onto a wall. The three Pokémon wince in pain before fainting.

Taari: Not again!

Kaitlyn: Empoleon!

Reginald: Damn it!

The three kids hurry to their fallen partners and comfort them. However, Rotom targets them and starts to charge Hyper Beam on the Omega Mech’s chest cannon. The kids notices this but Rotom as already fired it. Even though it is impossible, the kids still attempt to get themselves and their Pokémon out of the way. Suddenly, a slash cuts the Hyper Beam in half as it misses the children. In front of them stands Absol, roaring at Rotom and with Mika right behind her.

Mika: It’s bad enough that you hurt our Pokémon... but killing innocent kids? That’s going too far and you’ve pissed me off!

Mika clutches her crescent moon choker and taps her Mega Stone as she chants.

Mika: Spread your wings through the eternal darkness...Absol, MEGA EVOLVE!!

Absol roars again and begins to glow, undergoing Mega Evolution.

After the process, Absol grits her teeth and growls at Rotom.

Rotom: Warning!! Mega Pokémon detected. 

Mika: That’s right! You’re up against me and my Mega Absol!

Rotom: Unleashing Thunderbolt.

The plasma coil on the Omega Mech’s head fires Thunderbolt at Absol.

Mika: Use Psycho Cut, Absol!

Absol’s two horns glow pink and swings her head, sending two blades of psychic energy. The blades slice through the Thunderbolt and slices off the Omega Mech’s arms.

Rotom: Warning!! Taking multiple dismemberment! Retaliation commence; unleashing Hyper Beam.

Rotom charges another Hyper Beam and fires it towards Absol, who easily evades it.

Mika: Nice try. Our turn. Absol, use Shadow Ball!

Absol conjures a spectral sphere from her mouth and fires it at the Omega Mech’s chest cannon. The cannon blows up and breaks apart.

Rotom: Warning!! Multiple damage reports received... 

Mika: How about adding one more?! Use Night Slash!

Absol leaps off the ground while her horns glow purple. She then swings her head downwards and slices the Omega Mech in half.

Rotom: Abort! Abort! Abo--

Recommended Theme: Adventure (ES)

The Omega Mech explodes as Rotom gets out of it in time. He then retreats to a live wire and escapes above ground. The kids rush to Mika and cheer.

Taari: WOOHOO!!

Reginald: That was amazing!

Kaitlyn: You did it, Mika!

Mika: Thanks, guys.

Mika and Absol smile while her friends thank her.

Blight: Great work! Now, come on! We’ll celebrate later.

The kids turn to Blight who has finally unlocked and opened the door, thanks to Vishakha and Elena’s help. The group quickly escapes the facility and gets to a safe distance before it could self-destruct. After the explosion, the group takes a breather.

Vishakha: That was... stressful...

Elena: Can we NOT do that again...?!

Blight: I don’t think we can since that madman’s still out there...

Reginald: What matters right now is that we’re all safe. Let’s take a break for now and head for Ursidae Town later...

Everyone nods and rests. A few minutes later, the group gets up and continues their way to Ursidae Town. Once they reach the gates, they are greeted by an excited and familiar person.

Voice: CHYEEEAAAH!! You’re all here!

The group smile as they see Craig Hsiao jogging past them.

Taari: Mister Craig!

Taari runs up to Craig and hugs him tightly. The man chuckles as he ruffles the Vaanti boy’s hair.

Craig: Awesome to see you too, Taari.

Reginald and Kaitlyn join the hug. After pulling away, Craig walks ahead and waves at the group.

Craig: I’m off to the Gym. Meet ya guys there soon!

The kids nods as Craig walks away. 

Recommended Music: Kickback (ES)

A few minutes later, the group settles down in a hotel and are seated at the lobby. They discuss their plans.

Kaitlyn: So we’ll be on our way to the Contest Hall?

Mika: Yep. The contest is tonight and we need to get signed up.

Blight: Agreed.

Vishakha: I can’t wait to see what you guys thought up this time.

While the group discusses, Taari gets up to grab a drink and bumps onto someone.

Taari: Oh, I’m so--

Taari is surprised to see that it’s Zh’en.

Taari: Hey, Zh’en!

Zh’en: Taari? What are you doing here?

Taari: I’m gonna challenge the Ursidae Gym. What about you?

Zh’en: Well...

Zh’en looks away shyly and scratches the back of her head.

Zh’en: I was planning on joining the contest.

Taari: Oh, you are? That’s great! I’m rooting for you!

Zh’en looks at Taari and smiles.

Zh’en: Thank you, Taari...

Few more minutes have passed and the group makes their way to the Contest Hall. They are greeted by Katherine and a person that the kids don’t know.

Reginald: Who is that person beside Katherine?

Vishakha: It’s my sister, Samantha! (@jakemckenzietrash​)

Samantha and Katherine waves happily towards the group.

Samantha: Sista!!

Vishakha: Sista!!

The two Chu sisters rush towards each other and share a tight embrace. Meanwhile, Blight and Kath kiss each other hello.

Katherine: I’m glad that you’re finally here.

Blight: Well, I’m glad to see you.

Katherine turns to Vishakha.

Katherine: Oh yeah, V? Remember that deal we talked about?

Vishakha: Of course. But first... Uncle Blight’s gonna treat us pizza before tonight’s contest...

Blight startles, suddenly remembering the bet he lost. He thinks to himself.

Blight’s Thoughts: Shit... I forgot about that! Okay, calm down. If I run now, I can still--

Blight turns to Vishakha with a Pizza Delivery Boy. She is paying for the pizza she ordered while tossing his wallet around.

Vishakha: And look! The pizza’s here!

Blight: WHEN DID YOU STEAL MY WALLET?!?!

The group laughs while they enjoy the pizza. After a while, everyone enters the contest hall and the contestants begin to sign up.

Rourke is still out there somewhere, but with the Ursidae Contest starting in a few hours, the group try to get their minds off by enjoying themselves. Who will win this time? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OF POKÉMON AUTUMN VERSION!!

[wild-battlebond]

the gen 1 monotype teams I was talking about a little while ago:

Although these were made with Gen 1 in mind (specifically, the movesets are gen 1), these could also be used in FRLG or LGPE.

POISON:

Venusaur - Leech Seed - Toxic - Growth - Solarbeam

Gengar - Confuse Ray - Psychic - Thunderbolt - Toxic

Tentacruel - Surf - Ice Beam - Mega Drain - Toxic

Nidoking - Fire Blast - Body Slam - Earthquake - Toxic

Golbat - Confuse Ray - Double Team - Wing Attack - Toxic

Arbok - Glare - Acid - Body Slam - Toxic

*Note that every one of them knows Toxic (TM06) (achievable in-game through item duplication)

*Venusaur can alternatively have Growth replaced with Double Team and Solar Beam replaced with Rest, if you're feeling daring & want to try and survive off Toxic Leech Seed alone. (I'm actually probably going to do that instead)

*Just noticed I didn't build a lot of HM coverage into this team. Well Nidoking could probably have Body Slam replaced with Strength or something if necessary, but there's not much else that can be done with the rest.

*Because of Arbok, this team can only be made in-game in Red. If necessary, it could probably be swapped with Grimer or Koffing, though.

*This is also the team I actually started a playthrough with several months ago. Because it's epic.

WATER:

Blastoise - Surf - Earthquake - Ice Beam - Body Slam

Lapras - Confuse Ray - Body Slam - Ice Beam - Mist

Kingler - Crabhammer - Stomp - Strength - Body Slam

Kabutops

Starmie

Poliwrath

*Not a lot of these are available early-game, I think the thought process was that with a water monotype it's easy enough to catch temporary teammates to switch out overtime

*Kingler's moveset is actually kinda messed up... 3 normal-type moves. But if I remember right I set it up like that because the poor thing has higher attack than special (meaning water-type moves are not a good fit for it)

GROUND:

Nidoqueen

Dugtrio

Rhydon

Sandslash

Marowak

Golem

*Nidoqueen fills the role of the "starter" here since it can be caught very early.

*Overall it's a delightful team. I kinda wanna start a playthrough with this one too...

NORMAL:

Raticate

Snorlax

Dodrio

Porygon

Clefable

Persian

*Raticate fills the role of the "starter" here.

*This particular team is made for Blue, since Persian is a version-exclusive

*Like with the water-type team, the relative abundance of normal-types means more accessible teammates could be caught and then switched out with the later game ones over time.

PSYCHIC:

Alakazam

Hypno

Exeggcutor

Slowbro

Jynx

Mr. Mime

*To note is that this team would probably be better in LGPE, due to the fact that you can actually catch Jynx and Mr. Mime (They're only available through in-game trades in Gen 1) and that it would give Mr. Mime the Fairy-type.

*Jynx is there for more type coverage, except I'm realizing I'm not actually sure what ice is supposed to cover (I guess it would make fighting Lance easier?)

[secretkidcolor]

A Battle of Wits and Wills

“The following will be a three-on-three single Pokémon battle,” the referee explained to both of the Trainers and the spectators on each side of the battlefield. “Neither Trainer is allowed to switch Pokémon during battle, but both have the option to switch when a Pokémon is defeated. Items, both used and held, are prohibited. Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves are also not allowed.” The referee looked at each Trainer. “Do you each have only three Pokémon with you?”

“Ugh, obviously,” the girl on the red end of the battlefield scoffed. Tall with dark hair in a ponytail, a red crop top, and shorts, she radiated strength and confidence. “Let’s get on with it!”

“Didn’t realize you were that eager to lose, Heather,” taunted the girl on the blue end of the field. With her pale complexion, dark makeup, and teal-streaked hair, it was clear that she meant business.

“As if, weird goth girl,” Heather replied. “I thought maybe even someone like you would be above pre-game smack talk.”

“Yeah, you tell her Heather!” A random spectator on Heather’s side of the field shouted. There were definitely more spectators on Heather’s side, but it didn’t mean that her opponent, Gwen, didn’t have her supporters.

“Whatever,” Gwen said, turning to the referee. “Anything else?”

“I make the call on whether a Pokémon is unable to battle,” the referee continued. “My call is final. The battle will end when one of you is out of Pokémon. Understand?” The girls nodded. “Alright. Remind me again, who is the official Challenger?”

“Heather,” Gwen said. Heather nodded in agreement.

“Heather, you’ll send out your Pokémon first,” the referee said. “Gwen, you’ll send yours out after her, and then Heather gets the first move.” He took his spot on the side of the battlefield on an elevated platform. “Alright,” he said through his mic so that everyone could hear, “Heather is the challenger so she will send her Pokémon out first. Heather-”

“That’s enough out of you,” Heather interrupted, stepping forward. “Thank you all for coming to see me destroy Gwen. Bruiser, I choose you!” She tossed a fancy, decorated PokéBall into the air. It opened and released a Persian onto the battlefield. The Classy Cat Pokémon roared menacingly, his cunning manner mirroring his Trainer.

“Pretty bold starting with your ace,” Gwen muttered to herself. “If you’re trying to force my hand, I’m not going to let you.” She reached for a PokéBall on the back of her belt. “Crobat, go!” The double-winged bat Pokémon took to the air, flying about ten feet above the ground, staring down Bruiser.

“Heather will move first,” the referee announced. “Let the battle…begin!”

Heather wasted no time with her first move. “Fake Out!” Persian darted across the battlefield, leaping into the air at Crobat and lashing out with his right paw, before quickly drawing it back and scratching the Poison/Flying-type with his left paw instead. Bruiser landed safely back onto the ground while Crobat reeled backwards, but otherwise seemed fine.

Gwen grinned as Heather gasped. “Crobat, use Cross Poison!” Both sets of Crobat’s wings glowed bright purple as he flew at Bruiser, striking him in an X-shaped formation. Bruiser recoiled from the hit, shaking it off. He winced slightly, however, indicating he had been poisoned.

“Ugh, Inner Focus,” Heather growled. “I should have known someone like you wouldn’t be able to have Crobat’s Hidden Ability.”

“It worked out in my favor this time,” Gwen remarked. “Your move.”

“Power Gem,” Heather said, gritting her teeth. Bruiser snarled, the red gem on his forehead glowing with bright light. He fired multiple blasts of energy at Crobat, striking the purple bat fiercely. Crobat fell toward the ground but caught himself at the last second and remained flying.

“Acrobatics!” Gwen called out, thankful for the rule against no held items, which doubled the power of Crobat’s attack. Crobat was a blur of purple and teal as he spun through the air, striking at Bruiser with his wings.

“Dodge and use Slash!” Bruiser nodded and darted to the side, only just getting swiped by one of Crobat’s wings. As the Bat Pokémon steadied himself, Bruiser slashed him hard with his claws.

“Crobat are you okay?” Gwen called out. Crobat nodded, but definitely appeared to be struggling. Both Pokémon were breathing heavily, having taken large amounts of damage. “Okay, use Venoshock!” Crobat opened his mouth and fired a stream of bright purple liquid right at Bruiser. Heather called out for another dodge, but it was too late. The attack connected and dealt extra damage due to Bruiser being poisoned. The proud Persian collapsed onto the ground, fainted.

“No!” Heather screeched. “Bruiser!” She ran onto the field to check on her Pokémon, lifting him up gently. “Are you okay?” The Persian growled weakly.

“Hm, so you do have a soul, at least,” Gwen remarked. Heather glared at her as the referee declared that Bruiser was unable to battle.

“Heather, please return to your spot and send out your next Pokémon,” the referee said. “Your Pokémon will be healed afterwards. If you step onto the battlefield again, you will be disqualified.”

“Hmph,” Heather said, sticking up her nose and recalling Bruiser. “Whatever. That was just to make sure you didn’t lose on purpose.” She grabbed another PokéBall. “Now you’re finished.”

“Gwen, will you be switching out your Pokémon?” The referee asked.

“I’ll keep Crobat out,” Gwen said, wanting to make sure Heather didn’t see what else she had up her sleeve.

“Lapras, let’s go!” The gorgeous Water/Ice-type materialized on the field. She seemed out of place on a battlefield composed entirely of dry land, but Heather seemed to take it all in stride.

“It is once again Heather’s turn,” the referee announced. “Let the battle resume!”

“Lapras use Rain Dance,” Heather said. Lapras slapped her fins several times against the ground and sang a soft melody. Clouds began to form overhead and soon the battlefield was covered in a thin layer of water as rain began to fall.

“Waste of a move,” Gwen called out. “Crobat, use Air Slash!”

Heather smirked. “She has no idea what I’ve got planned,” she said to herself as Crobat fired a razor-thin blade of air right at Lapras. “Take the hit!” Lapras nodded and braced herself, the attack hurting, but not as much as it could have. “Hoping to get a critical hit? Lapras’ Shell Armor ability prevents critical hits.”

Gwen rolled her eyes. “I mean, I guess I wanted a critical hit, but Air Slash is a strong move regardless.”

“Ice Beam,” Heather ordered, “but remember that he’s fast, so short bursts.” Lapras nodded, and fired many small, rapid blasts of ice from her mouth instead of a singular freezing beam. Crobat already knew to dodge, but dodging multiple projectiles was more of a challenge than he had expected. It also didn’t help that each blast was cold enough to freeze the rain that was still falling, which meant that even if he avoided them, shards of ice would still get in his face, and that was how Crobat was unable to see the last blast coming until it was too late.

“Crobat is unable to battle,” the referee announced. “Gwen, please recall him and send out your next Pokémon. Heather, will you be switching out?” Heather shook her head.

“Good job out there,” Gwen said to Crobat as she recalled him. “You took down her favorite all on your own.” She grabbed another ball. “Gothitelle, you’re up!”

“Gothitelle,” the aloof Psychic-type said as she appeared outside of her PokéBall. The rain was still falling, but she could see her opponent clearly.

“It’s Gwen’s move, let the battle resume!”

“Use Psychic,” Gwen said. Gothitelle held out her hand as her eyes glowed with blue energy. Lapras was quickly seized by Gothitelle’s power and thrown straight backwards. Heather let out a surprised yelp and dove to the side as her Lapras almost crashed into her, but instead slammed into the wall of the building.

The referee blew a whistle. “Gwen, Gothitelle, do that again and you’ll be disqualified.”

“Sorry!” Gwen called out. She frowned at Gothitelle. “Be more careful, understand?” Gothitelle nodded, clearly unmoved by the chastisement.

“Lapras get up,” Heather said as her Pokémon shook off the pain from the attack and got back up. Heather checked to make sure that it was still raining steadily, and it was. “Get back over here and use Surf!” Lapras nodded, summoning a wave of water to carry her straight toward Gothitelle. Heather moved out of the way so her Pokémon could get through. Both girls now stood in ankle-high water as Lapras slammed right into Gothitelle, her power boosted by the rain. The spots in the floor where the girls stood began to rise into platforms that quickly dried themselves, so the girls weren’t in the water anymore. A similar platform was made for the referee.

Gothitelle stood back up, brushing some water off of herself. Her face stayed the same as it had when she was first sent out.

“Future Sight,” Gwen ordered. Gothitelle looked upward, her eyes glowing a mix of red and purple as she saw into the future and began to warp the events that would soon take place.

“Finish her off with Brine!” Heather ordered. Lapras began to fire a blast of salty seawater straight at Gothitelle.

“Counter with Thunderbolt!” Gwen said quickly. Gothitelle shot a beam of electricity right at Lapras’ attack. Due to the salt in the water, the electricity was conducted quickly and struck Lapras just as Gothitelle was hit. Steam filled the air, obscuring both Pokémon from view. The referee ordered that no moves be called out until the conditions of the Pokémon could be assessed.

The steam cleared quickly, and the rain subsided. Lapras lay on the ground, unconscious, while Gothitelle stood, very injured but still able to fight.

“Oh, come on!” Heather yelled, recalling Lapras. “That’s not fair!”

“Deal with it Heather,” Gwen said as she decided to keep Gothitelle out. She knew that her Pokémon would likely go down from the next hit, but she wanted to save her last Pokémon for as long as she could.

“You may have the numbers on me,” Heather said, “but I’m smarter and stronger than you’ll ever be! Sylveon go!”

“Sylveon!” The Fairy-type squealed, appearing on the battlefield. The water from earlier had been slowly draining out and was now mostly gone, allowing her to stay dry.

“Let’s see,” the referee said, “Gwen technically called out the last move, so Heather goes again. Let the battle resume!”

“Moonblast, obviously,” Heather ordered. Sylveon nodded and a glowing white orb appeared in front of her. She winked at Gothitelle and the orb turned into a beam of pure energy that quickly knocked out Gothitelle. “Yes! In your- huh?” A red and purple wave of energy emanated across the battlefield, damaging Sylveon. Heather clenched her fists. “Future Sight.”

“Gothitelle is unable to battle,” the referee announced. “Gwen, please recall her and send out your next Pokémon.”

Gwen returned Gothitelle to her PokéBall, pleased that Future Sight had come through for her. Now it was time for her last Pokémon. “Chandelure!” Her final PokéBall opened and the ghostly chandelier materialized in the air.

“It’s Gwen’s turn,” the referee said, resuming the battle.

“Will-O-Wisp,” Gwen said as Chandelure formed three ghostly orbs of flame and fired them at Sylveon.

“Counter with Safeguard,” Heather said smugly, until much to her dismay the flames passed through the energy shield that Sylveon had thrown up and burned her anyway. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me! What was that?!”

“Infiltrator,” Gwen explained. “Guess you weren’t expecting a Hidden Ability after all.” Sylveon whimpered as her burn reignited momentarily. “Chandelure, use Hex.” Chandelure fired several yellow orbs of energy at Sylveon, dealing extra damage due to her status condition.

“That doesn’t matter,” Heather said. “We’ll still beat you. Sylveon, use Draining Kiss!” Sylveon blew a kiss at Chandelure, draining some of his energy and restoring her own, before taking damage from her burn again.

“Let’s end this,” Gwen decided. “Overheat.” Chandelure nodded and floated in place, the pale purple of his body beginning to dark and turn orange. The temperature in the room began to rise. Chandelure stared right at Sylveon and fired a massive beam of pure heat right at the Fairy-type.

“Dodge!” Heather yelled. Sylveon ran, but Chandelure followed, finally hitting her with the searing blast. Sylveon cried out in pain before collapsing on the ground, badly burned and unable to get back up.

“Sylveon is unable to battle, which means the winner is Gwen!” The referee declared. Gwen’s side of the battlefield cheered while most of Heather’s side begrudgingly clapped. Heather just stared at Gwen in utter disbelief. How could she have lost? Heather quickly recalled her Pokémon and left to go heal her party as Gwen’s friends rushed her to congratulate her on her victory.

Later, after the battle, Heather sat in the Pokémon Center with Bruiser resting at her feet and Sylveon in her lap as she brushed the latter’s fur and checked to make sure those lowly lookalike Nurse Joy’s actually did a decent job of taking care of her precious Pokémon. Her battle with Gwen continued to replay in her mind as she tried to determine if the goth girl had cheated or if she had just been better than Heather…which wasn’t something Heather was going to admit easily, if at all.

Speaking of Gwen, the goth girl had just entered the Pokémon Center to get her own Pokémon healed up, as her friends had spent a lot of time with her after the battle and she was just now getting around to it.

“Come to gloat,” Heather asked as Gwen gave her Pokémon to the Nurse Joy.

“Actually, I’m just here to make sure everyone gets healed up,” Gwen said, rolling her eyes. She looked at Bruiser and Sylveon. “How are they?”

“None of your business,” Heather snapped, making Bruiser growl and Sylveon twitch. “But…they’re fine, I guess. Not that you really cared about that when you blasted my Sylveon with an Overheat.”

Gwen frowned, walking over to her. Bruiser continued to growl softly, but Heather nudged him with her foot. While she may be a sore loser, she wasn’t going to allow her Pokémon to be the ones making the scene.

“It was a battle, Heather,” Gwen said. “Pokémon get hurt in battles. That’s why we have Pokémon Centers. I wasn’t attacking them as any sort of personal vendetta, I was just trying to win.” She looked down at Sylveon. “Do you understand that?” Sylveon nodded but didn’t make any noise.

“Whatever,” Heather said. “You can heal your Pokémon and then leave. Go party with all your loser friends who came here to support you.”

“I plan to,” Gwen said, shrugging, “but I guess since I’m here, we should shake hands.” Heather just stared at her with a blank look, daring her to even try and touch her hand. “You know, to signal that the battle is over.” Gwen extended her hand. Heather sighed and took it, shaking it firmly.

“Congratulations,” Heather grumbled. “You…did…”

“You don’t have to compliment me,” Gwen said, waving it off. “All I wanted was the handshake. No need to pop a blood vessel.”

“Excuse me?!” Heather said. “Who do you think you are telling me whether I can or can’t compliment people? And I wasn’t going to compliment you anyways. I still think you have ugly hair.” Gwen just rolled her eyes. “All I was going to say was that out of all the losers you hang out with, you proved to me that you’re probably the least weak and pathetic out of all of them. So, like, good job or whatever.”

“Thanks…I guess,” Gwen said as the Nurse Joy arrived to give her back her Pokémon. “Anyways, I’ll see you around. I take it you’re going to the next city for the battle tournament.”

“Of course I am,” Heather scoffed. “And you better not even think about entering it unless you want me to beat you!” Gwen just shook her head with an amused smile before exiting the Pokémon Center, leaving Heather alone with her Pokémon and her thoughts.