Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Morph Moth - Astil

" Oh dear Inafune! How is that p-possible?!"

Dragaron can't help but feel a tinge of anger, frustration and outright fear seeing Merlin's powers in action. Not only did her, Corrin, Yammers and Jeridan's actions save the army from this attack, helping out a lot of Nohrians and Hoshidans who already weren't evacuated, but her other method in blocking out the alternate selves worked very well, dispelling what he thought was going to be a good way to doom them all. If not intimidate them, which is at least working for Subaru.

And though the army isn't an issue to Garon bar its leaders, their ability to hold back the tides of the mudmen army allow the main group to plan ahead and launch attacks of their own unbothered, having to deal with far less mudmen. They even pause to stare at Merlin's move in awe, Corrin smiling at their good fortune in having someone as powerful as she show up to save the day.

   What is this?! She's too powerful! Why'd you let her in?!   

   She came to this place on her own. That power is hers to use.   

Whoah, so you held her back for that long because you didn't want us to feel superfluous, hm? Salazar asks Ban, although his tone is a "good fun!" one. Where Corrin, Beruka, the shepherds and Optimus are grimly silent, with Foxy being freaked out, Salazar and Wamuu are grinning. Haha, don't worry, it's fun to be the little guy in this battle! Look at me, going into battle with only my guns!

Between Jeridan's seemingly-endless abilities, Merlin's magical might and the reinforcements they keep having, more than capable of stalemating the other giant robot, Dragaron's inner confidence is truly being tested, his belief that he'll come out on top being shaken by their sheer resistance thus far. Thus, Dragaron decides he's had enough: he'll simply escape to another universe and will recover there while they all perish and die at the hands of this cosmic calamity going on above their head. With a wry smile, Dragaron grabs a discarded soldier's corpse and fling it on his back, with full intention to escape.

   Hahahaha, I still win!    But as he intends to depart, Garon is surprised to find his dimensional way-out blocked by an enormous cross of light, a force that D 4 C can't travel through for all its efforts. The encounter is brief, with Garon's departure not even occurring as far as the others are concerned, but he sees himself being denied the ability to use D 4 C to escape. Summoning others and plucking people from their home realities, sure. Cheaply escaping the consequences of his dickery?

   NO. YOU STAY AND FIGHT.    He hears. Garon's too shaken by any of this to pay heed, glancing at the approaching fighters nervously. As he sees Jeridan taking off with Pucci and Foxy though, Garon's head start twitching, with the Corpse King deciding to be silent as he simply create Fell Flames in his maw, condensing them into a man-sized black orb which he noms on... to better spit out as a huge black beam of a sort. Despite being initially very large, being a stream of pure black flames, Garon condense it into a thin beam with a white outline, attempting to use it to carve up the Knightmare Frame down like a turkey, being that the object was big enough to be noticed in a sky full of various kind of flying units.

Meanwhile, Salazar follows Mordecai's footsteps and leap into Optimus's Cargo Bed, at which point Prime floors it, running through the mudmen and leaving behind muddy mess, which does coalesce together... but is then shot to death by Salazar and Mordecai, the mud going back to being inert. And in the wake of Optimus's passing, the scattered mudmen, who would have gotten up anyway since Salazar and Mordecai can't shoot everywhere, are promptly killed by the rest of the group, which is enhanced by Se'arah's magic.

Optimus's job is made easier because of Nicole's blasts, scattering many of the mudmen and subsequently weakening them all and softening them up, allowing the group to very easily travel to Garon while he's still weakened. Optimus fashion himself as leading the charge, with the others having plenty of space to grab on him anyway, in case they worry about not making it in time. Fliers or speedsters are especially needed: while they smash their way through a lot of mudmen and kill almost all of them, more are coming out, albeit at a curiously smaller rate, some of them already looking half-eaten.

The culprit is Yammers, who is making her way more conventionally, biting her way underground until she can reach Garon. A smart decision, since he's too preoccupied by everything to "feel" her coming. On the way though, she'll make a pretty off-putting discovery.

The ground is mud. The ground is being turned into mud. Everything below the group's feet is being turned to mud. Garon is preparing something, and if it weren't for her smart decision to pack some Vallite magic for this, she could be having problems. Luckily, she'll be able to simply chew through the mud, stopping at least some of its propagatation and explaining the state of the mudmen.

Einherjar Leo and Corrin are the first to make it after Optimus, who barrels through a substential amount of Mudmen. Above them, the sky is torn apart by Garon's powerful black beam, which is razing the clouds in an attempt to get to Jeridan. Go! Optimus rolls over the mudmen on the way then turn right to keep rolling over them, and allowing Salazar and Mordecai to gun down those on the left. Of course, the group will need to account for the bullets, but luckily, the mudmen will be wiped out in short order. And Wamuu helps by cutting their legs off with his wind, telling the group to press on with a nod.

This allows the group to get their shot at Garon, with Einherjar Leo's magic impaling Dragaron's head with the golden tree, causing his jaw to clam up and eat its own energy blast. Dragaron's head contain the explosion but still swell, with small black "pillars" of light peering through its head as Corrin and Ban are able to land their hits. And Dragaron's body turn out to be a bit of a Paper Tiger, the Corpse King's mighty mud body falling apart with every blow. Ban especially fill half its body with craters, although Morgan beat his record by blasting a huge gaping smoking hole through it, prompting Garon to scream in pain.

   YOUUU WRETCHES!    Garon fire a grey beam, this one carrying different proprties: what it touch, it turns to solidified mud. Which Garon blast about everywhere to form huge walls. This will naturally force most people to back off, with Garon promptly creating several huge rows of messy walls of solid mud. Optimus himself has to back off, at least, although his trailer and truck doors open up for those who'd be too slow to flee in time. Despite being a huge truck, he'll be able to avoid hitting anyone important, so they can count on him if all else fails. Beruka does likewise swoop in to try to grab people.

And Garon attempts to swat away Leo, meaning to grab his grand prize: Einherjar Corrin, whom he attempts to hold in his claws.

The walls are solid. Very solid. But should Morgan will it, his Grima's Truth tome is able to melt through them at a solid rate, enough that he'd be able to punch through them all in about a minute and a half...

Which Prime make shorter by trying to blast at the exact spot with his beams, still in robot form. Fliers! Fly over these walls and keep the pressure on Garon! Samsara orders, watching as Corrin's dragon form swoop over her, causing her own hair to fly into her eyes. Understanding the order, Corrin swoop in and divebomb Dragaron, attempting to impale him in his red spot with his claws: Morgan didn't mis, mind you, but Garon shifted his core away at the last second. And he does it again, luring Corrin to the right position to be promptly snapped out of the air with his spiked tail, the prince gasping out in shock as he's brutally struck to the ground.

Prince Corrin! Beruka says, somewhat in shock. She attempts to fly over, as useless as she'd be in this fight.

Meanwhile, Garon brings his tail down on Corrin over and over again, with the melting D 4 C appearing for the sole purpose of literally kicking Corrin while he's down. However, Corrin doesn't yell through the abuse, simply gritting his teeth and/or grunting even as huge chunks of his body are either cracked or torn off entirely, dissipating into water in mid-air.

Dust kick up as the ground cracks, Garon's abuse of Corrin prompting a large crater to form around him. The ground shakes, even! And when the abuse stops, Corrin is left in the middle of the crater. Bleeding, bruised and battered, but calm, glaring at Garon even as his dragon-sized foe wrap his big meaty fingers around him once again and bring him up. Should he have caught female Einherjar Corrin, he hold them both together.

And Garon was about to make a speech about how he went through many universes and it was a constant that he and Corrin would always fight, but he's so exhausted and desperate to win by this point that he simply attempt to smash them together.    DIE   

And indeed, he'd be able to smash them together like a little kid with their action figures, but that's all he does. He violently smack them against each other, cheek to cheek, head to head or even simply ramming Corrin's head into his einherjar counterpart's side, but it doesn't work. D 4 C doesn't work. The Stand even shrugs next to Garon, not that he notices. What Garon does notice is Corrin's smug smile, which slowly grows into a Slasher Smile as Garon realizes his inability to kill them in the most surefire way possible, glaring at him with absolute bonanza hatred, his red eyes almost glowing in satisfaction and delight at the humiliation Garon's going through.

I think he want us to know each other better! Corrin laughs, glancing at his counterpart. Hi, I'm Corrin! Who are you? You're familiar to me, for some reason, is it... because of the collar on your armor? Corrin then simply glances at Garon, still smiling, but is somehow polite enough to wait for his einherjar counterpart's reponse before doing. Isn't it funny, Garon? You've more than discarded your humanity by now. You've killed thousands of innocents here and beyond. You've gained a whole new power unheard of before. You're a dragon on par with those of the myths... And you still can't kill me. You still can't kill me. The most powerful you grow, the more helpless and pathetic you only end up looking!

   I'LL BITE YOUR HEADS OFF!    But then Ms. Thingies come to the rescue, slapping Garon in the face, with Garon letting out an almost wimpy-sounding "ow". Being stuck, he's unable to free herself from her gloved hand, delaying the Corrin's executions. Being stuck, Garon also can't move to try to get rid of her or her glove.    EEEAAAAARRRGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DIE! DIEE! DIEEE! DIEEEEEEEE!    He start preparing another laser, with full intentions to blast Ms. Thingies with it.. and he's so intent that he ignores Beruka swooping in to slice his fingers off with her Vallite Brave Axe, using two quick swings to sever his fingers.

...

Albuquerque, ANOTHER UNIVERSE

The venerable Mike recoils all of a sudden, an hand to his chest as a cosmic wrongness of a sort hit him.

...

This frees Corrin and Einherjar female Corrin. Thanks, Ms.Thingies! And Beruka: Right on time!

Thank you, prince Corrin. Beruka says, frowning, as if confused about Corrin's enthusiasm. Corrin looks shocked but doesn't dwell on it, instead grabbing Yato and raising his new clawed hand before jumping up to Garon's head. But he won't make it in time before Garon shoot his beam! And neither will Beruka, who simply attempt to get out of the way

Elsewhere, the Knightmare Frame is getting closer to Dragaron, completely uninterrupted, but then a Null Beam attempt to smack into it out of nowhere. And then several more, which could be bad for it because it can shut off machinery, any machinery, at least. They're a courtesy of Starscream, who comes roaring down from the heaven as he attempts to shoot the machine up with more conventional beams. Yelping, Foxy crouch down in panic. He's too fragile for this or so he think.

Meanwhile, back in Merlin's spell, she'll be able to see, to her surprise, that an invisible force is causing the Puccis to resume out their falling, their arc going downwards for the Knightmare Frame. How? The barrier is holding up perfectly fine for the others, and since Garon isn't tossing any more of the priests, it's only a finite amount of them but still...

Oh, and just for fun, apparently Peppino somehow hit some other versions of himself on the way over, before she cast her spell. But this is good, because it results in a centipede-like Peppino with a long stretched out body and several pairs of arms, which he uses to punch mudmen efficiently. Within his eyeballs are smaller eyeballs. ALL MY OTHER SELVES ARE IN AGREEMENT-A TO DEFEAT THE PIZZA TOWER SO WE WORK IN SYNC

People close to Cardboard and Sawdust scream in terror but the battle is going smoothly. Mikoto, Xander, Camilla, Sumeragi and their siblings or children lead the charge. Mikoto especially is fighting efficiently, downing a lot of Mudmen at once. Which is why some mudmen emerge from the side or below the royals, trying to stab them there to bring them down!

Could this be a test from the heavens above?

Meanwhile, Subaru is left on her own. Everyone is too busy with the crater. And though the understand her plight, Optimus, Corrin and everyone else is too busy fighting.

But still, as she's left on her own, she'll be able to see a curious sight, next to her.

A small, black-haired girl with fluffy hair, in a green tunic, with thick black eyebrows, big green eyes and a friendly smile.

Hi! Why aren't you fighting?

Edited by Bolded1 on Jul 1st 2023 at 9:22:45 PM

Nohr Rescue Mission (Final Stretch)

Jeridan fully concentrated on piloting the Knightmare as he opened the armor plating concealing the Factsphere Sensor on its head to get a clear view on his surroundings and to avoid attacks. Swerving to the sides and downwards, he managed to avoid the concentrated beam of fell flame until Leo impaled Garon's mouth with Brynhildr, where he would then push the Sutherland's acceleration to fly right at the mud dragon with full speed.

Upon seeing how Garon is using walls to deter intruders, Jeridan initially wanted to break them for his allies using the Knightmare's assault rifle, but was forced to avoid the Null Beam when the Factsphere Sensor detected a strange signal flying right at it. However, the assault from Starscream and the falling Puccis gave him an idea.

While avoiding some attacks from the Decepticon scout leader, the Sutherland fired its two chest-mounted Slash Harkens at Garon, aiming to connect the machine to the mud dragon through a wire and pull it faster towards Garon as he opened his cockpit instead of ejecting, just before grabbing both Pucci and Foxy with his hands and borrowing the wings and hind legs of Valstrax.

Using how Pucci is attracting his copies, Jeridan flew close to the Knightmare and clamped down on it using the dragon's legs, guiding it to help it avoid Starscream's laser beams as it pulled itself towards Garon using its Harkens. As soon as the Pucci copies get closer, the honorary agent's propeller wings glowed a brighter red as he changed his direction and flew straight up, his feet go of the Sutherland. One of Starscream's attacks would smash right into the Sutherland, blowing up with both Garon and the Pucci copies, destroying some of the dry mud walls in the process.

Jeridan likely would not have pulled this off if the adrenaline hasn't kicked in, so he can't help but let out a sigh of relief as he flew right down to a spot near Garon as soon as the explosion makes the mud dragon more vulnerable and get rid of the Pucci copies, dropping off both the priest and the pirate boxer. "Foxy, slow him down! Pucci, grab his Stand!" Jeridan exclaimed as he stayed near the two to guard them from possible attacks, summoning more automatons using his E.G.O to protect them.

Edited by cyzja922 on Jul 1st 2023 at 12:54:48 PM

Nohr

Ew, ew, ew, ew. This is gross even on the standards of someone who's eaten a rotting corpse before (spiderlings get very hungry). Definitely going to wash this out with sake later. Yamame tries to push the disgust aside as she continues burrowing before popping out of the ground, away from where Garon is currently focusing.

Okay, she can do this. She takes aim at that big red "eye" of his and hurls her vallite spear with all her might at it. She uses the same silk trick she used on the wyvern riders a while ago, though if Garon grabs it or if it gets too stuck in him for her to pull it back she fully intends to cut the silk and retreat.

She's unsure if this will kill him even if it's a direct hit but it will at least hurt a hell of a lot and distract him for the others.

Nerf applied, things are back on track

"Well, also 'cause I didn't wanna risk Garon just killin' our pals because Merlin annihilates half of his castle or somethin' like that.", Ban says after his punches as he leaps back towards his allies (to prevent a counterattack from Dragaron). "Askin' Merlin for help at the wrong time woulda ruined everythin'."

He crosses his arms and looks serious for a moment.

"Didya think I wouldn't have asked for her help immediately if there hadn't been that kinda risk?"

He, as well as Morgan, Einherjar Leo, Einherjar F!Corrin, Einherjar Nyx and Einherjar Zola look briefly panicked when Dragaron is gonna attempt to escape (whereas Merlin looks bothered but not panicked per se). However, he proves physically incapable of doing so.

"Is that the same force that kept Lilith's castle in place?", Morgan ponders. He looks at the distant Merlin.

"Wait, miss, can you-", he begins to shout, but she sends him a telepathic message to interrupt him (partly so that Dragaron doesn't find out about this supposed castle).

"Do something about that? I highly doubt it, even if I was not already preoccupied.", she says. If Merlin doubts her own abilities for a situation, then that option is basically a no-go.

Regardless, with the mudmen all dealt with now, they all start heading towards Dragaron as well (with the exception of Merlin), needing to close the distance and get to him to prevent any newly entering duplicates from touching them. Merlin has to stay in that general area to keep Infinity and Chrono Coffin active, but at least she can float around her own duplicates to avoid them.

With Morgan's wyvern unable to fly, Ban leaps over Dragaron majestically, lands in front of him and picks both the kid and the freaking wyvern up, carrying Morgan on his back while holding onto the wyvern's claws with his hands, and then starts running back towards Dragaron rapidly, using his stolen strength on back and his leg muscles now to increase his running speed and allow his body to carry all this weight. Morgan has to hold on for dear life to not fall off.

Ban glances around as he runs just in case bullets come their way. Normally he could just tank those, but right now he's carrying passengers who cannot. So he'll have to dodge the bullets if they come his way.

Einherjar Nyx and Einherjar Zola hitch a ride on Optimus Prime, holding onto the passenger seats for dear life as well (as they weren't fast enough to actually get to them and sit in them). They're not as scared of the bullets, though they'd prefer not to get hit by them either.

And of course, Einherjar Leo and Einherjar F!Corrin are already right near Dragaron to begin with. Though none of them are aware of what Yammers will likely discover about the ground itself. Hopefully for them that won't become an issue...

Then the mud wall-creating beams come in, forcing Einherjar Leo and Einherjar F!Corrin back a bit. One of the gray beams surges towards Ban, Morgan and his wyvern, and Ban jumps over it just in time to avoid it. Had he not stolen enough strength from Garon earlier, the weight of the wyvern may have weighed him down enough to the point that he would not have been able to jump.

"Hey, that evil book of yours can melt through stuff, right?", Ban asks Morgan as they land.

"Uh, yeah, but-"

"Well then, use it. I'll keep you and your wyvern safe if he attacks us from over the walls. I can't exactly get over those damn walls anyway and Merlin can't help us right now."

Morgan is a bit hesitant due to the strange state the tome seems to be in. However, not only had Ban proven himself a capable and loyal ally multiple times now, he was also one of the few who, even after learning about Morgan's history with the Shepherds, didn't give him a hard time even though he had deserved it. That gives Morgan the motivation to put his full trust in Ban's plan.

"Try not to move in front of me, I don't wanna hit you by accident.", he says as he gets off of Ban's back and casts the now even more eerily glowing tome, sending the evil magic towards Dragaron's walls. If it hits, it'll start melting through it, but this is not an instant process, not even with all the buffs Morgan has from his various allies. Plus, there's multiple walls. This will take a little bit, though thanks to Optimus Prime's help it shouldn't be nearly as long as it normally would.

Einherjar Leo then does get slapped to the side, making Einherjar F!Corrin fall off and get snatched up by Dragaron. She glares at him defiantly.

"Annoyed at your failure at killing my counterpart, so now you're planning to give me a hard time?", she asks him almost mockingly. To mock someone like that isn't exactly in her nature, but the more anger-fueled tunnel vision Dragaron has towards her, the more of a chance her allies have at getting to him.

Unfortunately Dragaron is smarter than that given that he intercepts Corrin's attack on him. She attempts to slash at Dragaron's head with Yato in an attempt to stop him from his assault on her counterpart, but before she can try the attack she and her counterpart get smacked against each other... and she is honestly just as surprised as Dragaron is when this doesn't really accomplish anything. She does seem rather amused by her counterpart teasing Dragaron about it moments after, so she participates.

"What a coincidence, I'm also Corrin. How nice to meet you."

She then looks back at Dragaron now too. She'd like to add some words of her own to her counterpart's speech, but she can't really think of anything fast enough. Regardless, Ms. Thingies comes in just in time to prevent Dragaron from trying again and frees both Corrins.

"You have my gratitude!", she calls out to Ms. Thingies. She's about to act as well, but she too wouldn't be able to attack fast enough...

Which is when Einherjar Leo, having gotten back up when Dragaron was occupied with them, jumps in front of Corrin to take the beam instead. He gets annihilated by it and turns back into a card (thankfully after the beam attack), floating back to the ground for Einherjar F!Corrin to snatch up. And now Dragaron may finally realize what exactly is going on, and why some of his enemies did not have duplicates falling through: they were magically created warriors. They're not real in the normal sense.

Regardless, a now furious Einherjar F!Corrin jumps up and tries to stab Dragaron through his throat with Yato.

—

Einherjar Nyx and Einherjar Zola, having gotten off of Optimus Prime at this point, now see Starscream attempting to destroy the Knightframe and threatening Foxy's safety. The two immediately break off from the small group near Optimus and both launch Nosferatu up at Starscream. He may not have a life force to absorb, but the constricting darkness may at least stun him.

—

As for Merlin, she's indeed shocked that the Pucci duplicates are getting through. Touching them is not a risk for her specifically, but she can't afford to let them get to the real one. But she can't intervene without cancelling out Infinity either. Chrono Coffin would still be active, but not for very long. Nor can she do anything about the new mudmen popping up.

Is it worth it to dispel Infinity? Or should she trust that her allies can handle this? The only one she knows enough about to guess is Ban. As she ponders the situation over, she tries to call out to Pucci at least.

"Watch out! I can't contain your duplicates! Don't come anywhere near this location!"

Hopefully Pucci hears her warning. Merlin's not aware that Jeridan plans to use the Pucci duplicates to his advantage, but if her warning gets Pucci to move away from them it at least would give Jeridan a bit of extra time to prepare for his plan.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Jul 1st 2023 at 10:19:05 AM

Is this the best time, random girl? She's kind of in the middle of crying her lungs* out.

". . ."

"I. I just wanted to help someone."

"I-I thought I should..."
"Do something good while I was in that place, you know? Put what I did know to good use."

"..."

"This is too much."

"I'm just a girl. I'm not a hero, or a soldier, or an adventurer, or. Or."

More sobs wrack her chest as she holds herself.

"I wasn't ready! This is horrific! I was just a hobbyist martial artist, not a fucking merc! I shouldn't have gotten involved with this!"

"I should have stayed home. I should have stayed a NEET."

Having taken a good chunk out of Garon's horde, Nicole rockets straight into the fray and over the walls. Coating her free hand with Arcane Magic, she attempts to punch Siegfried straight towards Garon's ugly face and right through his goddamn skull.

Tropique

Ben◊ roars across the sea on his speeder bike, following the sound of distant battle as he races towards Tropqiue's mainland. Once he makes landfall, he strafes the sandy terrain and reaches out with the Force until he finally manages to sense Laxin's presence.

"I have you now," he mutters under his breath.

Once he pinpoints Laxin's position, Ben slams the brakes on his bike, using a combination of the ensuing momentum and the Force to launch himself across the raging battlefield like a proton torpedo. As he descends upon Laxin the way a nexu would pounce upon its unsuspecting prey, he attempts to throw him off-balance with a swift Force Push before drawing his lightsaber, thumbing the activation switch, and taking it in a reverse two-handed grip as he attempts to plunge the sapphire-blue blade deep into the Sith Lord's chest. Laxin was not about to just walk away this time; Ben was going to make certain that he wouldn't.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on Jul 1st 2023 at 2:39:37 AM

Se'arah slashes at a wall of mud and delivers an Eruption blast to try and blow it down, though failing that, she'll use her Sol and Luna combo to try and leap over/onto it. Either way, once through, she erupts with a flaming Battle Aura (not the Hyper Elixir one) as she stomps towards Dragaron.

"You talked a lotta shit. Only fair you're the one getting hit now."

She ONCE AGAIN readies a Patience parry.

—

Mordecai keeps shooting. Eventually Prime drives by RF!Anna, who quickly grabs on to the chassis and hops aboard as well, joining the gunners with her weapon in Bow Config.

Rumia-Refia cries out as she is summarily wrecked. Oof ouch owie.

And of course, with pain comes lack of clarity, and with lack of clarity comes violence.

Darkness erupts from both of her hands, forming chains that lash around the gargoyle's neck. She tries to wrap them around, fly over the automaton's head, then plant her legs against the base of its neck in an effort to decapitate it, pulling with her arms and pushing with her feet.

Edited by KiriK on Jul 1st 2023 at 4:47:35 AM

Fortunately for Rumia-Refia, its big beefy limbs while great for crushing things aren't so great at reaching its back. It flails and struggles but can't reach her until pop, its head comes off. It slumps, long enough she might think its dead and hop off.

Then it comes right back up and attempts to grab her again. Unfortunately golems aren't known for needing their heads to live. If she's still on its back it will then simply try to crush her by charging backwards at the wall.

Edited by shroobot3000 on Jul 1st 2023 at 12:54:12 PM

Rumia-Refia snaps out of her rage and slowly falls to the ground, letting out a sigh of exhaustion, only for the gargoyle to get up while she's still in the air and snatch her up.

Okay screw this. In a flash of hellfire, she teleports over to the panel with the buttons for the training bots and slams the 'heavy duty' button to try and shut off the gargoyle.

The golem stomps towards her, seemingly still hellbent on ripping her apart. Until it stops and retrieves its head, casually reattaches it then leaps back to its resting spot on the ceiling where it goes back to being as inert as a statue.

   "... Phew."   

Rumia-Refia slumps down against the wall to catch her breath for real. She checks her letter - still intact, thankfully.

   "I think... that's enough training for today."   

Edited by KiriK on Jul 1st 2023 at 6:29:23 AM

TROPICKE

it red

He's having a grand old time at the beach! With MissingNo.. And Pikachu. And some lemonade.

"...!"

Tropique

oh boy it's the goons

Hiding behind a much too large sandcastle is none other than Jessie, James and Meowth, spying on Red. Ever since the first time they met him they'd figured they had to try to steal his powerful Pokemon at some point. Heh, who would have thought they'd ever have to go after a Pikachu again?

While they hadn't initially planned on it, they had noticed him a while back and thus began to follow him around until he got here.

"Everybody ready?"

"Let's do this."

"On da count of three. One... two..."

"Wobbu-"

The three quickly put their hands over the newly emerged Wobbuffet's mouth to prevent him from making noise and alerting Red and his Pokemon. They slowly and slightly cartoonishly peak from behind the sandcastle to see if they were heard or not.

Edited by DevilPsyco on Jul 1st 2023 at 1:32:17 PM

lol. lmao. Team Rocket's plot armor is too strong. They escape notice for now.

"...?"

MissingNo. appears to schlorp up its glass of lemonade by completely absorbing it, then spitting it back out into the sand, sans drink.

Pikachu doesn't appear to like sand very much. It's staying on a beach towel.

Excellent. Time to spring the trap.

James suddenly leaps out from behind the sandcastle, now carrying what looks to be a freaking bazooka. Though in usual Team Rocket style, it's actually a weapon that'll shoot a net instead of a missile.

James shoots the net at Red's Pikachu. If it gets entangled in the net, it'll find that it's a shock-absorbent one.

Jessie then leaps out as well, shooting a regular but reinforced net at Missingno. instead.

And lastly, Meowth even has one too (though it's a device on his back) that lets him shoot a net towards Red, aiming to trap him so that he can't call on any of his other powerful Pokemon to get him out of this situation.

they all get trapped

?! "CHUUUUUUUUUU!"

Ah fack thunderbalt isn't warking.

!

They can just feel the "Team Rocket!" announcecusation that Red would be shouting if he. If he weren't mute.

MissingNo. doesn't appear to know what's going on.

Tropique - Below the Sith Academy

Angel!Pyra arrives with a literal hop, skip, and jump, embers forming at her feet with every step. Despite the spring in her step, she has a serious look on her face.

"I'm late, sorry. Hope we're not short on time."

It seems she isn't ready to join the fighting above quite yet.

Dear Arceus in heaven it actually worked. How nostalgic.

And of course, the Trio can't resist going with the usual flow.

Motto

"Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, that's right!"

"Wooooobbuffet!"

With their motto now complete they turn back to Red and his captured mons. Jessie and James laugh.

"Ah-hahahahahaha! With how different our operations have been the last few years I'd forgotten how easy things could be."

"We're sorry to burst the bubble on you after our last meetings had been so amicable, but we are still Team Rocket. Taking powerful Pokemon is just what we do. It's nothing personal."

Meowth is about to say something too but then hears what Red's Pikachu says and looks genuinely dumbfounded.

"What's wrong, Meowth?"

"Nothin', just... that kid's rat's got a pretty big potty mouth if I do say so myself.", he says, able to find some more amusement in it.

"Well, a potty mouth isn't gonna help it get away.", James says as he approaches Pikachu's net, aiming to pick it up. Jessie goes over to Missingno., but doesn't try to touch it yet, whipping out that glitch energy device they've been using first. She'd have to make sure touching this thing is actually safe.

Meowth walks up to Red and grins.

"Now how 'bout you gimme the Poke Balls of your other mons, then we can let ya out?", he taunts. "You can refuse of course, but then we'll have to leave ya here. There's a lotta big Legendary mons runnin' around, you wouldn't wanna be trapped when one of 'em comes here, would you?"

Kimairan may come to Red's mind. If that thing found him again while he's trapped...

Edited by DevilPsyco on Jul 1st 2023 at 1:56:14 PM

SDM

Daiakuma hums as she walks into the room.

   "Ah! Rumia. Did you have fun training today?"    she asks innocently. She notices the smashed knight on the ground.    "Oh I see you overdid it again huh? Well, Lady Flandre can't complain at least. She smashed the golem by accident last week. Had to spend all day mending it. Again."   

Facial expressions indicate that he greatly enjoyed the motto, even if the interruption is annoying in general.

"...!"

Red can't respond. He's a little tied up at the moment. ... Which means he can't use sign language.

He does shoot Pikachu a dirty look, though. I guess this is something they've been over before.

MissingNo. should be safe to touch. Weird, but safe.

Unlike uh. Pikachu.
"P*KACHU!"
Who only moments later basically spin-dashes using Iron Tail, and rips its way out of the net.

Rumia-Refia would like to express sincere condolences, but the little kid act demands that she not.

   "Well, that sucks."    She groans and picks herself up.    "Gonna sleep this off."   

She flies off to her room so she can place the letter on top of the drawings without Dai having the chance to read it, and only then does she let herself collapse.

Resolution Goddess Sealed in a Disk (Beach)

"I could, yeah... it's just not practical," the goddess explains. Kikuri goes on about how she ended up in her current form.

"So this took place ages ago. I was on one of my cycles between Yomi and Jigoku and Outer Makai. Demons - well, usually it was demons, a couple times it was different groups of youkai, oni and so on - but unless they're underneath some kind of authority stronger than them, proper demons just did not agree on anything at all, certainly back then. So I was often the one to sort out what passed for agreements between groups, among other duties, back then. Reconciliation, essentially."

"I won't get into the specifics of the particular dispute that led to the sealing and so on, it's not very interesting and I would be going on for about an hour delving into every tiny little detail."

"But what ended up happening was that one of the demon groups felt they had gotten the short end of the stick with the agreement I had assisted the groups' leaders in making. So they started chasing after me all over the place. Eventually they cornered me at a shrine deep in the depths of Yomi."

Kikuri sighed. "Unfortunately, the kami that would have been there had been turned by that fairly sizeable swarm of demons, and I was sealed in the kagami disk there for a long, long time."

She went on to explain how she was able to escape the disk, but only partially.

Long after those events, when Shikieiki allowed the oni (alongside the Komeiji sisters) to take over that sector of Yomi - the regions underneath what is now Gensokyo's Ancient City, Chireiden, and Former Hell - after Higan had no further use for the area, that sealing spell had already began to weaken. How or why this happened was unknown to the goddess, however.

Eventually, the spell had weakened to a point where the goddess could move again, though with that disk being bound to the resolution goddess for so long, what remained of the seal made it near-impossible to completely separate Kikuri from the disk.

"That's how I ended up like this. My full divine powers are still sealed away, unfortunately. I've been at a loss as to how to recover them, let alone escape the disk."

"Okay, so this one's stable.", Jessie says as he's about to grab Missingno.

"I'll assume that's a yes.", Meowth chuckles as he tries to hop onto Red and search for the Poke Balls on his belt.

But neither of those things would happen, as Pikachu suddenly breaks free. James lets out a shocked shriek while Jessie and Meowth look alarmed.

"Are you jokin'!? This one can use Iron Tail too! We shoulda just made two of the strong nets and worn rubber costumes!"

"Too late now! Mimikyu, attack!"

She calls forth Mimikyu which, upon spotting Red's Pikachu, immediately starts charging for it, ready to go for Shadow Claw.

"Even if you're out you're just one Pikachu!", James says as he sends out a Pokemon as well. He sends out Victreebel... which proceeds to nom on his head as per usual.

"OOF! Attack the Pikachu, not me!"

... well, at least for this turn Pikachu will have only one enemy to deal with.

Unfortunately, this Pikachu. Uh.

Is Level 100.

As such, it lets out a battle-squeak that honest to god sounds more like a roar, before counter-charging Mimikyu and trying to blast it off to the other side of the beach with a sweeping Iron Tail. Even if Disguise tanks the damage, that's. A lot of kinetic force.

"...!"