Carmot Estate

"I asked to become stronger," Whitt snaps at Nitrogen. "And I don't know why you're so high and mighty. They clearly think you need to be stronger as well."

At Carmot's question, he nods and takes out Morrigan's pokéball. "My Banette. I've been told she'll be able to mega evolve - you have the stones I'll need for it?"

Carmot Estate

Nitrogen: Of course. I just took initiative in deciding a method.

-Carmot frowns.-

Carmot: Behave, you two. I can always take back my offer.

Nitrogen: ...yes, ma'am.

Carmot: Anyway, I intend to do you one better. Part of my craft is creating Mega Stones.

-She leads the two to her lab.-

Carmot: You may be aware that I'm the premier supplier of lab-grown Synchronates in the Kalos region. Vernal Stone Emporium, Jaide Jewelers, all the shops you see commercials for? I don't normally offer my services for free, but the School is a notable exception, for providing the gap in my resources that I lost after Lysandre Labs went under and no longer sponsored me.

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Nov 15th 2022 at 3:14:46 PM

Carmot Estate

"Sorry, ma'am," Whitt says, in response to being chided.

He listens to the explanation as he is led through the estate to Carmot's lab. He nods slowly as he takes in the information. "So, you create artificial mega stones?" he asks. "Do they work the same as the natural ones, or is there some kind of machine involved when you use it?"

Carmot Estate

Carmot: Functionally indistinguishable from natural ones! Visually, I always leave them rough, it's up to the jeweler to polish as they see fit. And, well, since you are requesting these for use by a specific Pokemon of yours, it'll be bonded to them specifically — it creates a more stable connection.

-She opens what seems to be a reinforced glass cabinet, and starts gathering chemicals.-

Carmot: If you'd please send out the Pokemon in question in the next room?

Carmot Estate

"If you say so," Whitt mutters. He taps the button on Morrigan's pokéball, releasing her with a short flash of light.

<Okay, who am I killing?> she asks.

Whitt shakes his head. "The doctor here is going to make a mega stone for you. I need you to go into that room for me." He points to where Carmot indicated.

She nods. <Sounds good. I'd like to have that extra bit of power.>

Snowpoint Temple, Berry Room

Stephen in his possessed Sneasel body runs up to the front of the room, right as they see Saffy giving the berries to them.

The Sneasels seem confused at this whole sudden surrender.

Sneasel B: <Wait...you're not gonna fight us? You're just gonna give up like that?>

Sneasel C: <She seems genuine dude, besides she seems pretty low tier for a thief anyway.>

Sneasel B: <Yeah, you're right.>

Then he'd swipe the pack of berries back from Saffy.

Sneasel B: <Next time get your own berries, nerd.>

Stephen is utterly bewildered by this and angrily mutters to Topaz.

Stephen: <What the heck was that? You guys thought eating the berries and giving them back was a good idea? What were you even thinking?!>

Just before Machamp Major can crash into Auguste, he is tackled from behind by the Accelerocking Talbain! Major is sent straight into the ground, but despite all this, he's still just barely conscious! How much more can he take?

<Thanks for the save, Mr. Kendall!>, Auguste calls out, as he passes the feather over to the Nightingale just as she is sliding by.

"Ow Ow OW!", Major yells, pinned to the floor by Talbain's strike. "Get your pointy rocky EVERYTHING offa me, you-"

<Enough, Not-Sensei.>, says a voice near Major's head, dripping with malice. Major looks up, and sees the source of the voice: Edmond. The Machop's Scary Face freezes Major's heart in terror!

"I give up!", Major squeaks, his arms lying flat against the floor in surrender. Oh, come on, Major! You can't just give up like this! I bet your partner is handling this much better than-

Oh no! Poor Machamp Minor! He's squashed between Tyrantroth Rex's crushing jaws and Elvis's electrifying charge! As Arceus is my witness, he is broken in half!

Meanwhile, in the throng of vehicles and people outside the TV studio, a grizzled police captain double-checks the megaphone prepared for the upcoming standoff.

Of all the days for this kind of crime, the captain thinks, it just had to be on the day before my retirement. Ah, well. Let's just do this by the book.

Satisfied that the megaphone works as intended, he then sneaks a quick glance at the photo of his wife, kids, and family Pokemon on his smartphone's screensaver, before raising the megaphone to his lips.

Carmot Estate

-Nitrogen likewise sends out Beck in the same room.-

Beck: <...Finally.>

Carmot: I hope you don't mind if I elaborate while I work, it always makes it more interesting.

-She turns on a burner, and sand and boron trioxide powder crawl out of containers to build themselves into a large glass beaker. Once formed, she lowers the temperature, but does not take it off the flame.-

Carmot: When I first began my research on Mega Stones, my attention was immediately drawn to their crystal habit. Most uncut Mega Stones are found in two possible forms, an orthorhombic crystal system or a monoclinic one. Interestingly, Charizard has two known ones, one of each form — the names "X" and "Y" are the public monikers, but generally scientists prefer α and β to refer to them.

-She fills the beaker with a blue liquid.-

Carmot: Oddly, the chemical composition of Charizardite α and Charizardite β are not the same. Nor are any other two different types of Mega Stone. I'm inclined to believe that there are undiscovered α and β variations for every Pokemon species. It's debated whether Gardevoirite and Galladite are such counterparts, as Gardevoirite is orthorhombic and Galladite is monoclinic, but we won't be able to prove otherwise until we find a composition for Gardevoirite β and Galladite α.

-Mixing in a red powder, which causes a reaction that turns the solution clear-

Carmot: What's so interesting about these two possible forms, is that they are also the two possible crystal forms that can be made out of heme, a component of blood.

-There's a sharp stabbing sensation under Beck and Morrigan's feet.-

Beck: <Gah!>

-She snarls and spits a gout of fire at the ground, but the sand underneath is already carrying away a small sample of blood from her, and an Umbrate sample from Morrigan.-

Carmot: In most cases, the chemicals that constitute any given Mega Stone wouldn't naturally form the way it does as a Synchronate; rather, the act of forcing it into a particular structure is what gives it its qualities, frequently by creating a Luminite seed for it to interact with, often formed by channeling Aura through blood. Or, in Banette's case, Umbrate — the crystal habits of Ghost-based Mega Stones tend to be exceptions to the rule, as do inorganic Pokemon such as Metagross.

-In the first vial, she drops in Beck's blood sample. In the second, the Umbrate sample from Morrigan. And in the third, she pricks her own finger to drop in a bit of her own blood.-

Carmot: Key Stones are similar, in that they're the human part of the equation. Oddly, they're easier to create in a lab, despite being far less common naturally. Mega Stones... take a lot more Infinity Energy to craft.

Snowpoint Temple

Saffy and her team sigh in relief.

Saffy: Thank you so much. I promise we'll never steal your berries again!!

Topaz looks fairly nonplussed given the circumstances, and mutters back to Stephen.

Topaz: <Seems the swap worked. You ever heard of Oren berries?>

A nature reserve in Northern Sinnoh

The Malamar unleashes a bright hypnotic light at the ranger and their pokemon.

Ranger: Glalie! Look awa-

The park ranger and their Glalie's eyes glaze over and their stance relaxes.

Malamar: ~Yes, much better... Just relax...~

???: Now, let's get down to business. I need a closer look at those Sneasel.

Edited by QuantumMelody29 on Nov 15th 2022 at 11:01:53 AM

Manya took a deep inhale and began to write things down in a notepad, she took note of Amy's behaviors, reactions, the stutter in her voice. "Thank you for being candid with us, that covers quite a lot."

JD sighed. "I wanted someone normal, but the best psychological profiler is with the ISR, so she had to be here."

The attorney quirked a brow as JD's eyes started to have a faint yellow glow in them, as the tablet changed to older footage. Recovered from the Brimstone Casino, it was of Lamb rushing across the environment.

"We had recently been handed an anonymous tip along with some DNA."

He held up a plastic bag with a few stray hairs in it. "These were found with burnt pyrotechnic packs recovered from the site. We only recently matched them to you, you weren't seen anywhere on the footage near the pyrotechnic locations, but Lamb was."

Manya continued to write. "A single tinged hair was also discovered near the murder scene, it too matches your DNA."

The Attorney looked to Amy, waiting for her response. JD said nothing and just stared at her, he felt things were clear.

Carmot Estate

Whitt listens to Carmot's entire explanation with his arms folded and brow furrowed ever so slightly.

"So, what you're saying is that there's a possibility of there existing mega forms that haven't been discovered yet. Or rather, that you'd theoretically be able to create mega forms for pokémon that don't have them naturally if you could find the right chemical composition for their stones."

He looks at Morrigan in the other room, who is rubbing her feet from the Umbrate being taken. "Well, regardless, I see why you need something from them, but why your own blood?"

Interpol Holding

Looking up at the singed hair with a look of horror, Kamui's eyes widened in terror before she sighed, tugging at her temple between two fingers before she sighed.

"Cut the recording." She pointed before resuming, regardless of whether the tape was paused or not.

"Fine. You caught me on the pyrotechnics. That was me. I'm Lamb. Aurabolt, scout, archer, copyright infringer," she admitted. "But! In my defense, the cartoon redesigned and renamed me, and to me the Bolts were never about profit." she allowed. "Resume recording. However, I still deny that I had anything to do with the murder of... Naomi, that was her name," she explained, idly scratching the back of her neck, pulling back her hand to reveal a few strands of hair from her head between her fingers.

"Stress - such as from setting up dangerous explosive materials - makes hair fall out, anyone could have grabbed it and planted it years down the line," she explained.

Edited by AbsentCoder on Nov 16th 2022 at 4:26:06 AM

Textspace

Stormchaser Lobby

Justice: Oh, a raid? Sounds exciting!

School Facility, ???

Victor: "Why should we be scared? A piece of art heavily inspired by another is still its own thing. You can be different from this other Iridium causing all these problems.

Pavo: ~Hmph. That other Iridium would be no match for me.~

Celstic

Old Woman: -to Vaughn- "Excellent. Let's start with you."

-to the Helenas- "Stalking your ex? Now that's just uncouth."

-She sends out a Garchomp-

-A very large Alpha Garchomp with glowing red eyes-

Old Woman: "I don't know if they taught this in your history books but I'm the grandmother of the current Champion. So I suggest you back off."

Owen: "...Oh shit."

Odin: "...Oh shit."

Sunyshore

Voyd: Oh! Thank you two for the generous offe-

-And then teleport-

Legendary Hotel

-The Legendary Hotel resembles a cross between the hotel from Luigi's Mansion 3 and Howl's Moving Castle-

-Normally it'd have a big Someone Else's Problem field around it but you got to it just fine-

-Almost as if it wanted you, or perhaps Voyd specifically, to get there-

Voyd: "Oh! Here we are! Let's go in!"

Jublife

Cavendish: <Enough of this madness!>

-He smashes the feather with his foot-

-There is a ripple effect-

-Everything from the fight is set back to nolrmal-

-Machamp Minor dissapears-

-Machamp Major ripples and turns back into Mitchell-

???

Pavo: ~CURSESSSSSSSSSS! You may have flexed over me this time, J-Team, but I'll prove brains are better than brawn in the end!~

Jublife

Cavendish: <...Ow. Cold.>

Noble Elemental: -sighs- "It's finally over..."

Iris: "That guy put up a hell of a fight..."

Coil: "...We should probably check on him."

Lavender Tower

Colored Pencils: -To Ann- <Clever. I used to roll with them but King Olly gave me new power. Better power. More ARTISTIC power. But you probably haven't heard of me, right? Figures. When's the last time you went to a gallery? Pfft. Don't answer. I'm going to give you an art lesson for free. The name's Jean-Pierre Colored Pencils the 12th. I represent the Legion of Stationery I'll have you know! Anyuway I'm guarding this streamer and I'll scribble on your ugly faces if that's what it takes to stop you.>

Jackie: "...What the fuck."

Olivia: <Legion of Stationery? Jean - pi- That's too much for me to remember! I'm just gonna call you Colored Pencils, OK? I suppose my brother sent you to try and stop us, right? Well Colored Pencils you talk tough and draw really well but have you even HEARD of the J-Team? They're tough and theyu're Pokemon Trainers and they're gonna mess you up!>

<...Right guys?>

Jackie: We're all gonna die.

Carmot Estate

Carmot: That vial is the Key Stone vial. Human blood to catalyze the human side of the connection. Not a chemical component itself, merely a catalyst.

-She holds the Key Stone vial, and the blood sinks to the bottom as the remainder of the mixture glows, condenses, and solidifies. The vial cracks and dissolves away, and the crystal continues to form in her hand.-

Carmot: The other two need a bit more preparation.

-With a faint pulse of power, the synthetic Key Stone divides into two pieces, and she sets them aside as she continues with the other vials, mixing chemicals in to turn one a bright orange color, and the other a dull pink.-

Carmot: Normally, the creation of one of these takes the life of another Pokemon wholesale. An unfortunate tragedy. But, I heard rumors of a creature — Mewtwo, allegedly — in a region across the world, with an uncut stone embedded into its body. I dare not mess with anything Mewtwo-related directly, but it did provide inspiration, and previous tests have been quite fruitful.

-The remaining vials morph, the mouth narrowing into a thin, crystalline needle with a very sharp tip, seemingly comprised of the same crystal as the mixture within. Beck's eyes widen.-

Beck: <Don't you dare touch me with that— >

Nitrogen: -voice shaking- Beck. Let it happen.

-Beck snarls, but makes no further aggressive action.-

Carmot: Ah, I should clarify one thing. After the dose is administered, they will automatically transform and go into a berserk state. You're going to need those Key Stones to reestablish a connection, and the best way to do that is in battle. Luckily for you, I've recently come into ownership of the perfect opponent.

-She smiles, in an awfully friendly way.-

Carmot: After they've worn themselves out, they'll revert like normal.

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Nov 15th 2022 at 7:26:49 AM

Vaughn blinked and stepped back. The Helenas groaned, this wasn't in the mission statement. "You got us for now! We don't got time for this!"

They raised a wand like device into the air, a golden door appeared as they ran in, followed by their Julianas.

~Huh... usually they give us more trouble.~

"Usually we don't have backup," Vaughn admitted.

Silas looked at his phone at the text response. "Okay... Pent, good news."

He held up the phone to Kendall and Pent. "We have an attorney."

Manya took a deep inhale. "We'd like to believe that, but we found something else. Motive."

JD produced burnt papers, typed out lettering from a print, highlighted words for proofreading, on it was an essay about an investigation into the Aurabolts. Evidence noted from the cartoon, real life sightings, possible identities.

"Naomi was producing a piece to expose the identities of the Aurabolts," JD said. "I would have not minded, never been a fan of vigilantes. Stress builds over time and makes people do funny things, in a fit of anxiety, you took it upon yourself to cover up the evidence, Naomi fought back, and you stepped out."

Manya let out a deep sigh, she did feel bad for Amy/Kamui. "The cartoon, we talked with the maker, he said that he had been contracted privately to make it, help reduce risk of identities being found, he found it a great deal."

JD nodded. "Again, vigilantes... Now, from the looks of it the struggle wasn't first degree homicide, rather an unfortunate confrontation. This will help reduce your sentence in the trial to come."

Manya said nothing, writing down a few more notes. "Any last words for the interview?" JD asked.

Interpol Holding

"I would have resorted to Hypnosis to get her off my tails, not Fire Blast," she sighed, standing up.

"Besides that, I have nothing else to say."

Castelia Alleyway

"Oh thank Arceus," Kendall sighed in relief.

Legendary Hotel

"Oh, neat," Kendall observed. "How come I've never seen this place before?"

Xatu focused for a moment.

Kendall focused in turn, hearing Xatu out.

A conversation seemed to carry back and forth at a quick speed in their heads, given Kendall's puzzled looks, Xatu wavering in the air, and eventually the avian returning, Kendall nodding.

"I've never heard of SEP Fields before. I guess that means they work on Minds of Crystal, too!" He chuckled, tapping his temple before opening the door for Voyd.

Edited by AbsentCoder on Nov 15th 2022 at 9:29:12 AM

Carmot Estate

Morrigan grins at Beck's obvious discomfort. <Oh, I think this is going to be fun.>

Whitt turns to Dr Carmot. "So, how will this happen? Do you want both of them to transform at the same time, or one after another? And if it's the latter, I'll say I'd be happy to go second."

Carmot Estate

Carmot: I think it's for the best if the transformations are mostly simultaneous. Much more efficient.

-She hands Whitt and Nitrogen each a piece of synthetic Key Stone, and then approaches Beck, who ends up lashing out with her tail. Carmot is smacked back, but the needle does make its way into the base of her back, and the mixture sinks in and starts to take root. Beck roars in pain as the puncture point glows, and the lights in the lab bear down brighter as she transforms into a Mega Charizard Y, with an orange crystalline spine jutting out of her back.-

Carmot: Oof! Always a rough— stay back, dear!

-She psychically pushes — rather, pulls Beck back away from her by the embedded Mega Stone.-

Carmot: Ahem— Hammond, now is your time to play!

-She tosses a Poke Ball into the center of the open room, and a massive crystalline Tyrantrum appears.-

Carmot: Do try to keep Beck on track.

Nitrogen: I-I'll do what I can.

-A gust of wind blows, forcefully redirecting Beck toward Hammond. When Carmot is no longer the focus of Beck's ire, she injects the second vial into Morrigan, and quickly stands back.-

Edited by BittersweetNSour on Nov 15th 2022 at 8:09:24 AM

Lavender Tower, far past

Ann: Exu!

Exu: -Screeches as he sends Embers in Jean-Pierre's direction- <This is for almost killing me with those pencils, you jerk!>

School Facility, past

Iridium: -To Pavo- They say she's really strong, and the template I was made from wasn't even complete, mostly shored up from someone getting into an accident in Oblivia.

-To Victor-

But I'll be better than she was, we're supposed to be better every passing year, aren't we?

All this testing sucks though...

Carmot Estate

When she is injected, Morrigan bends over, holding her stomach. <This is...> she screeches. <I can feel it! So much power!>

She is enveloped in rainbow coloured energy and emerges as a Mega Banette. She stands still for a few seconds, completely still.

"Morrigan?" Whitt asks.

Morrigan makes an unintelligible screaming sound and launches herself at Hammond, a giant claw of shadows growing from each of her hands.

They think about this for a bit, a rare moment of clarity in the chaos of their thoughts.

Halis: "Hmm... kinda feels weird, to be honest... it sounds suspiciously good, almost too much so. How do I know you're being honest about all of this? Not to mention I don't really enjoy the thought of selling off a living being capable of thought like that, makes my morals feel like week-old pudding..."

It's fairly obvious that Halis has reservations about this, especially given their history with the PDA and its inhabitant up to this point.

Carmot Estate

-Hammond snarls as Morrigan joins the fray.-

Hammond: <Chew toy! Rude!>

-Hammond winces at Morrigan's clawing, and chomps down on her, shaking her violently.-

-Two details about Hammond are true — he was only revived about two months ago, so his experiences in the modern world and with his new body are limited. However, he was revived fully grown, and the crystal statue his bones were encased in was integrated into the body.-

-In other words, Hammond has the tenacity of a tank and the teething habits of a kitten.-

-As he chews on Morrigan, Beck unleashes a gout of flame with all the instinctive fury she can muster. The flames wash over Hammond with minimal effect, and Nitrogen grips the Key Stone piece in frustration.

Nitrogen: Beck, stop using fire on something clearly made of rock!

-Irritated by the flames, Hammond attempts to fling Morrigan mid-chew into Beck and/or her Flamethrower.-

Celestic Town

Louis: You... you make a good point. You've probably been put off by my surname and all. My family, I admit, has a reputation for being pushy about it. Now, I can't say I'm not my father's son, but if I can't convince you by the end of today, you wouldn't need to.

Herbie: Gonna vouch for Lou here. He acquired all of us legit. Granted, as malware what we didn't wasn't legit so it's not like he's doing anybody dirty by letting us roam. Oh, to be young and foolish and making a mess of other people's computers.

Louis: That's not an inaccurate way to put it. The reason I insist so much is that malware porys are... how do we say this, quite problematic. That thing infecting your PDA might be causing you a grave inconvenience. Though usually when we encounter them, they count as wild pokémon. But by and large they seem to belong to you. I don't mind having to do this the hard way as long as we're doing it right.

Halis' PDA: Nonsense. I fully consent to this. Set me free from this prison and take this man's money now.

Louis: Okay, so we probably got the consent part from the pokémon out of the way.

Suddenly, the sleepy kid in the wheel chair lurches slightly forward as he wakes up. He was panting and clearly in distress. Willard, in an attempt to calm him down, gives him a cutesy looking hug.

Louis: Holy shit, Austin, what just happened.

Austin, panting: Yeah, I'm with Hal on this one. Trust me. You do not want to let this guy out of there.

Halis' PDA: Silence, child!

Louis: Austin, care to explain yourself.

Austin: I have never seen a more frightening eldritch thing in my entire life. I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to show how profoundly fucked up the place I've just been in was.

Louis: Calm down. How in the world do you know that—oh, the projection powers Beckett said you had.

Austin: Yeah. Pretty way to drop this on you, Hal. But Arceus that was profoundly scary. Thought I couldn't escape. That thing has rather questionable signal reception.

Louis: You are starting to worry me a little, Austin.

Austin: Oh, and the porygon inside it is predictably of an older model. A 1999 "Electric Soldier" Series. You know, the really, really buggy ones. Shame, the name was badass. This one's particularly bugged, almost as though it gradually got corrupted into malware.

Halis' PDA: Who are you calling "buggy?"

Austin: I couldn't get much of a read on anything else on them besides that since there's a lot of data I just can't read, but if he spreads to other computers at this state we're looking at a major disaster. Ol' Vampire wannabe here who keeps bitching about the angels who kicked his ass wouldn't really last 5 seconds before getting corrupted himself.

Otis: Hey!

Louis: Something doesn't add up. You've been dozing off for a good five minutes and you seem fine.

Austin: I thought it was because my consciousness wasn't made of code but it's probably because that PDA is... ughhhhh... basically if I made one wrong turn, I'd be trapped in there with them. But yeah, deep inside that 2000s-era labyrinth from whence none can escape is a mega virus the likes of which the computers of the present day are nowhere near capable of stopping.

Halis' PDA: Brilliant, you've figured it out. And it seems your little astral projection side trip lit a path for me, eh. I don't need any of you peons anymore.

Austin: Aww, son of a bitch!

The PDA starts projecting a bright monstrous projection of a porygon, about the size of a storey of a building. It cackled and flashed for all of 5 seconds, only for the PDA to make embarrassing farting sounds while the projection was reduced to the size of a regular porygon. It falls to the ground, breaking the pavement in the process.

Halis' PDA: OH COME ON!

Louis, Austin, and chums can only look on cluelessly at what had just transpired.

Meat Palace

-With the machinery shut down currently, it's simple (as simple as mostly crawling through industrial tunnels can be) to traverse the conveyor belts 'upstream' and basically unseen-

-Of course the occasional lump of unprocessed meaty biomass clinging to the belt keeps causing Anthem to have to hold back audible noises of disgust-

Anthem: <Hate this hate this hate this>

The Face: -Who has apparently taken the form of that weird cat who was helping the group early into this career of taking hearts, probably in order to not have to crouch to walk through the tunnels- <Come on, we're almost there.>

-Rakash remains silent, just watching the map to make sure the group really is approaching the innermost sanctum-

Orochi Tower, Those Moments Of Midnight Where The Day Clings Beyond Its Time

Lily Thane: May I introduce my truest self; the forsaken first lady, she-who-would-be-equals, the mother of monsters, the absolute baddest bitch of the [Abrahamic] mythos...

-The sapphire inferno behind her dies down to reveal the phantasmal Persona floating with its hands on Lily's shoulders: What seems at first to be a pale human figure with black hair looks down at Rakash with yellow, catlike eyes and swiftly inhuman touches like pointed ears and three-fingered hands can be noted. The figure seems bound up in snakeskin and also just straight up actual snakes... Eight of them, green-scaled and each wearing one of the Ranseian burial masks from the decorative array on the wall-

The Faint Voice of Illapine In His Head: I'm picking up two signatures...

-Rakash quickly manifests the blindfold of Navigation to scan this Persona-

Lily Thane: Lilith!

Illapine's Voice: —and Yamata-no-Orochi...

Jubilife City

-The Nightingale stops her slide as the feather practically shatters in her hands. She sits there on the floor for a few seconds before stiffly getting up-

... You f—... We could have studied that. So we can figure out how our enemy is doing this and how to counter it more effectively than just senseless destruction.

-She takes a deep breath (mostly shown by the sound of air being pulled through the helmet's filters and makes for the nearest place to ascend up ledges-

Lavender Tower

Well, maybe the problem is you're so eminently erasable!

-Gale has this absolute smirk as she brushes herself off and grabs the pen from her jacket pocket-

Come on man, colored pencils are for child's play and drafting. When the real work begins it's the ink and paint that comes out. Face it Faker-Castel, compared to me you'll always be number two, pencil.

-She also draws the Horseman's Blade in her other hand and brandishes it in Jean-Pierre's direction-

I also have a sweet-ass felfire sword and can't figure out any good stationary puns about that.

Castelia City

Okay. Phew. Even barring some comedy mishap where he's put out of commission the day of the trial, we have a legal expert to consult with. Now we can just relax and do some investigating and hope that Kamui hasn't cracked and given anything incriminating under interrogation.

-Pent takes a deep breath and tries to relax his increasingly tense stance-

Carmot Estate

Morrigan gets thrown into Beck, who she slashes at with her claws before flinging herself back at Hammond, acting more like a rabid animal than anything.

Whitt steps forwards, holding the key stone out in front of him like some kind of holy relic. "Come on, Morrigan!" he shouts. "You aren't acting like yourself!"

Morrigan does here him, and turns to look in his direction. She smiles, and makes as though she is about to charge at him, though she is hit suddenly by an attack from Hammond and thrown backwards. She turns her attention back to him, slashing wildly with her claws despite the fact that it appears to do very little.

"Damn it, Morrigan, at least use another move!" Whitt shouts.