Abandoned Laboratory

[Namohysip]

Brisa's Shadow Maul attacked the Machine, Mewtwo, and Giovanni!
Machine: 542
Mewtwo: 599
Giovanni: 1575

Astrid, Starr, and Brisa had focused their efforts on Giovanni, with Cynthian ready to perform a backup strike. But for now, their efforts were entirely focused on Giovanni, the Machine could wait. Because this was the one behind everything that they had to go through, right? And now he was right there--waiting to be defeated...

"End him," Diyem ordered, no matter how redundant the command had been. He could feel their hatred.

The Stored Power struck Giovanni from below, sending him skyward before he was spiked down--just in time, Starr raised the three fiery pillars in Giovanni's flight path. Saltriv's Grass Pledge only fed the flames, and he went flying into the inferno...

Astrid and Starr's Pledge Against Power dealt a total of 12,553 damage! (Astrid 6603, Starr 5950)
The Fire Field dealt massive damage to Giovanni and Blacklight Mewtwo!

Cynthian's double Solar Beam dealt 850 damage to the Radiant Machine!
Astrid's extra Stored Power dealt 2772 damage to the Radiant Machine!

Giovanni didn't have a way to dodge, so he only braced himself He countered with a Psychic, but it wasn't strong enough. The propulsion sent him back and into the lab's walls. A Giovanni-shaped imprint was left in the concrete as he fell to the floor, kneeling on one knee. "Gnkh..." He shook his head, standing again. He shrugged, smirking, despite putting most of his weight on one leg. That smirk was odd. It didn't look right... "It would be... foolish of me to go all-out against kids like you."

Diyem rolled his eyes. "Cute." But he also saw Blacklight Mewtwo making some moves and had to make a split-second decision on what to do. Because he knew something from Owen before the Charmeleon even shouted it:

"Giovanni gave his bag away! It's--on Mewtwo!"

Shattered Deoxys used Abyssal Sniper on Vix and Shiron!
Vix: CRITICAL 459
Shiron: CRITICAL 272

Blacklight Mewtwo used Psychic on Astrid, Saltriv, and Starr!
Astrid: 99
Saltriv: 76
Starr: Protected!

Blacklight Mewtwo tossed three Poke Balls at Team Drumstick!
All three were captured!

"Wasted effort." Diyem already knew what to do. He'd been hypothesizing about this for a while. He didn't have anything better to do, after all. He glanced at Nate, who would feel an odd tingling feeling on the back of his chest. Diyem's flame intensified, and a faded silhouette of a Mudkip appeared within the fire.

Diyem used Abyssal Draw on Nate! Diyem used Shadow Isolation on Team Drumstick!
Blacklight Mewtwo couldn't get to them!

Diyem slashed at Blacklight Mewtwo, but he jumped out of the way and disappeared, touching Giovanni on the shoulder. The latter looked like he was going to say some kind of parting words, but before he could speak his first word, they disappeared.

Blacklight Mewtwo used Teleport with himself and Giovanni...

The Radiant Machine used Blinding Mistblast, dealing massive damage to all non-Radiant fighters in the lab!

The Radiant Machine used Blinding Awakening on Astrid, Saltriv, and Icetales!
Astrid: Dodged!
Saltriv: Gained 50 Radiance!
Icetales: Dodged!

"Um--a little help here!" Owen shouted for Shiron and the others outside. They were still battling the Deoxys horde, and it seemed like Blacklight Mewtwo forgot to take him away. Karat was back on his feet, trying to plead with him.

"Oh, give me a break..." Diyem winced a little, taking a struggling few steps forward. That initial momentum when he'd first escaped was fading fast...

"We still need to escape," Owen said. "Once that machine's down, how do we take out Deoxys? We--we need to stagger it or something! We can't take many more of those hits!"

"Without Giovanni guiding him, I don't think he will last much longer." Diyem was using his Shadow weapon to lean on, and even that was fading.

"But--but Deoxys!" Karat shouted, barely able to walk.

Deoxys is preparing another Abyssal Sniper...

Radiant Machine:
HP: 6072

Shattered Deoxys:
48,603

 

[TheGOAT]

When she exploded again, the last thing that went through Astrid’s mind was how oddly comfortable it felt. It didn’t make sense to her, but she would dwell on it later. It had been only an instant, and she was back on her feet, lungs full of air.

"Starr! This is it! Hit him, hit him now!"

Astrid skidded to a halt, and turned—instantly, her throat clenched. Giovanni! It’s him!

He was advancing quickly on the group, having just teleported inside. Starr was closing in behind him, but he was not slow either. Several red capsules levitated in front of him, ready to throw—

“No!” Radiance flared across her fur at once. “No, you—you put those down, now!”

She leaped, first off of stray human technology, then off the wall, leaving behind blasts of Radiance behind to boost herself. And there was Starr, racing forward.

In perfect position.

The surge of power came almost instantly this time, with hardly an uncomfortable grace period to speak of. The Inspiration cast foreign thoughts across Astrid’s mind, but one stuck out among them all: one that Astrid herself did not understand, but pulled at her heart nonetheless.

“You’re a lousy father…” she muttered.

The energy released at the whim of a bated breath, surprising even herself. Briefly, she could not see, could not hear—and then she was fine, peacefully flying through the air in the strike’s aftermath.

Of course, Astrid was reunited with the ground in painful fashion seconds later. But the view had been worth it. Upside down, flying through the air, she’d gotten a mere glimpse of the swirling Radiance and fire that sucked the air out of the room.

 

[Negrek]

Prove it? Nate smirked. Gladly.

He hurled the pokéball at the poochyena's stupid fucking face, ready for it to bounce off the same way the ball bounced off Giovanni earlier, already anticipating the bastard's angry response despite the fact that he'd literally asked for it.

Instead the ball bounced off and opened, drawing the poochyena inside in a cloud of red energy. It landed with a distinct clatter, easy to pick out even over the sounds of combat in every direction. Nate stared at it while it wobbled. What the fuck. How the fuck could it even do that? It shouldn't have any power left. Did Giovanni modify it somehow? Fuck, they were probably only lucky he hadn't added mind control or some shit... Had he added mind control and they just hadn't realized yet? Fuck.

The pokéball fell still, the light fading from its button. Fuck. That wasn't--oh, fuck. Nate dashed forward and jabbed the pokéball's button again, this time to release the poochyena.

 

[Dragonfree]

A nasty smirk broke out on the Mudkip's face, and suddenly the ball was flying at him. Dave had only room to flinch before it hit him in the face and...

Oh. Oh, fuck. His body was dissolving with a curiously lightheaded feeling of weightlessness. That little shit.

A force was pushing in on him from all directions, the world darkening. He struggled against it, flailing limbs he no longer had, but the dark wouldn't budge, enveloped him, compressed him, wouldn't let him breathe. Instinctual, claustrophobic panic flared up within him as everything dissolved into a haze--

--and then there was a bright light, and the world was back. The Mudkip stood there with the ball, looking weirdly flustered; Mia was watching intently, scythes at the ready.

Dave's heart was hammering, his fur standing on end; he took a deep breath. "Fine. Point taken, asshole," he said. He was about to demand now he hand over the goddamn ball, except he still didn't actually know how you deactivated a fucking Pokéball. He gritted his teeth. "Deactivate that right fucking now."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Blacklight Mewtwo used Teleport with himself nd Giovanni...

Starr watched the two Mewtwo--too many goddamn Mewtwo in this place--blink out of sight. She lifted a paw and thrust the middle digit upward.

"get fuuuuuucked."

And then the Torracat faceplanted into the tile floor.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

They'd pulled it off. Together. Starr had reached her limit, but... they'd done it. They'd fucking humiliated Giovanni, the smug shitbag that he was, and they'd even, somehow, done it with Astrid still standing... Brisa shot a look of ardent admiration the way of her ninetales friend, and rushed to Starr's side to heave her onto her own back, all other priorities forgotten in the face of the need to get her to safety.

She'd have to lash out at the fucking horde of deoxys drones to get clear, but... she could do that. They were through the thick of it, and victory was well in sight. They'd even saved Diyem, in defiance of her worst fears. All they had to worry about now was dismantling that fucking golden orb and escaping the lab.

"I... think I know what to do."

"Everyone, get clear!" she roared. "Cabot will trash that fuckin' oversized lamp, the rest of us gotta scarper!"

 

[Fusion]

Despite how chaotic everything got, Vix stayed entirely still. She stared at Puddle's form for what felt like an eternity, some part of her still waiting for it to snap at her for what happened. Still, nothing. Vix shut her eyes, reaching for her bag. Puddle would have want to be there, Vix thought.

Shoveling her familiar into her bag was even more painful than losing it in the first place. Puddle didn't deserve this, but there wasn't anything else Vix could do. How... pathetic.

As Vix finished, she noticed the Pokeball that had trapped her nearby. She saw her reflection in it and grimaced, shutting her eyes as she placed it in her bag. If there was a reason to keep it, Vix didn't have one.

"The others... should I even try?" she asked herself, watching Team Spectrum blast Giovanni out of the sky, and assault the machine. It certainly looked like they were fine. It wouldn't be much longer until the battle was over, Vix thought. "I should get ready to leave, and stay out of their way..." Vix sighed, reaching into her bag for a sitrus berry.

Just as she put the fruit inside her head, a beam of shadow shot right through her glass body, and Vix dropped to the ground. Hard. She tried to call out for help, but choked on her words. Nobody was around to help anyway. No one was there to save her this time.

 

[Negrek]

"They don't do that in my world, okay?" Nate snapped. "It shoulda been dead. Nothing was supposed to happen." He reached inside the open ball and deactivated the switch, again. "It's done now, okay? I didn't want to catch you. I don't want to see your fucking ugly face ever again! So just stay the fuck away from me, okay! And her!" He pointed at Mia. "Or else!" He waved the pokéball meaningfully. "So don't try any funny shit!" He shuffled back, awkward on two legs. "I'm fucking watching you, understand?" And with that he turned and took off into the battle, pokéball shoved into his mouth. He didn't stop until he'd managed to put a crumbled bit of wall and several skirmishing Team Spectrum members between himself and the poochyena.

Now he could actually turn and look. Nobody was following him, right? Good.

Rocky was hurrying over. God, hopefully he hadn't seen anything. "Were you bothering those two again?" he asked sternly.

"No. Now come on," Nate said, without slowing down. "You got the rest of those balls? Good. Now we need to just..." Just put a few thousand miles between him and the poochyena. Find a nice hole in the ground he could live in for the rest of his goddamn life. Maybe he could go back to Destiny Tower and see if Arceus would actually erase him from existence this time. Why the fuck did this pokéball have to be all fucky? Why did that have to happen with that bastard of all people? "We need to just... Look, let's fucking go outside, okay?"

"Huh? But all the fighting's happening in here? Giovanni's in here!" Rocky said, tail lashing with excitement. But Nate was already on the move. Rocky grumbled to himself as he watched the mudkip dodge through the battle. "Maybe you could not be weird for two minutes..."

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave quirked an eyebrow as the Mudkip awkwardly yelled at him in a way that might have been meant to be threatening but was really just comical, all the while frantically backing away. He'd disappeared with the ball, and Dave technically couldn't tell if he'd been deactivating it or not, but given Nate's sheer apparent level of embarrassment, Dave couldn't actually imagine it was any kind of ploy.

Well, that was oddly satisfying.

"I would have released you if he didn't," Mia said.

"Thanks, Mia."

 

[windskull]

The two strange pokemon were gone now. Nip panted with exhaustion, but the fight wasn't over yet. The radiant machine still crackled with energy, and that other weird pokemon, Deoxys, was outside.

Nearby, he caught sight of the exhausted Diyem. Without even thinking about it and despite his exhaustion, he pointed glowing claws at the charizard and shot a beam of healing energy at him.

In a hunt, no mon gets left behind. And he wasn't willing to lose track of Diyem, not right after they found him.

Speaking of which...

"Everyone, get clear!" she roared. "Cabot will trash that fuckin' oversized lamp, the rest of us gotta scarper!"

The sound of Brisa's order snapped him to attention. To his side, he saw the unconscious form of Starr laying in a heap.

No mon left behind.

"Somebody grab Starr!" he called out before focusing, making his claws glow with energy again. "Tempest, help them get her out!" With a flash, he and three of the pokemon nearest to him — Cynthian, Brisa, and Astrid — disappeared from the room. Reappearing outside. There, he bent over with his paws on his knees, panting as he tried to reorient himself.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Giovanni and the other Mewtwo had escaped, and Deoxys was preparing a powerful attack against them. Cynthian cursed under his breath and wondered just how they should deal with him before he could strike. A solar beam wouldn't work. It wasn't strong enough, but what if...

Cynthian stood in one spot and took in a deep breath. He wasn't a Roserade yet, nor could he use his mother's Petal Avalanche, but thanks to the blacklight, he had created a close imitation.

Cynthian's leaves fluttered around him even in the absence of wind, and the ground around him rippled with light. The move required a dance, and so Cynthian began to move in swaying motions to draw up shining petals from the rippling circles around his feet. More and more petals sprung up and moved along with his motions. After he'd gathered enough, he swung his flower down and shot a stream of freezing petals at Deoxys.

The radiance suppressed his inhibitions with each strike and Cynthian's mind felt like it was drowned in another realm by the third strike. Everything around him looked hot and bright and his eyes glowed intensely. Cynthian was no longer in a laboratory, and instead he was in a void of light away from everyone.

A visage of his mother, Roserade Rosa appeared in front of him. She had her back facing him, and Cynthian's heart clenched just looking at her. "Where are you, Mama? I'm sorry for what happened. I risked everything just to..."

Cynthian's life flashed before his eyes. Recalled his rough childhood at the kindergarten, the day he heard the news about the heroes that triumphed against Dark Matter and how he wished he could be like them, the time he went on his first expedition and how nervous he had been, and many more. His life hadn't been the happiest one, nor had it been the worst one imaginable. However, there had always been a void in his life, in his heart. A part of his identity missing, one he pretended wasn't there but wasn't truly gone.

"Even now, I still want to be..." Cynthian let go of his final strike against Deoxys. A blinding light engulfed his senses and vision. Then, the world turned dark once more.

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

The battle had gone by in much a chaotic blur for Kate. Between weaving and bobbing around attacks, the pompous Mewtwo hectoring the team every now and then, some of the team members getting sucked into what seemed to be some manner of strange apricorns, and her ear feather getting mussed it was hard to make sense of what was going on at times.

Kate crouched panting as a stray beam zipped overhead when she looked off at the machine, which was still crackling and lit up in spite of sporting some noticeable dents and scuffs.

"Oh for crying out loud, is that stupid machine still working?!"

The Sneasel thought of darting up to take a swing at it, but with how thick the hail of attacks had been, she'd been lucky just to throw in a few blows supporting Team Spectrum's efforts from the sidelines. Clearly she'd need something that'd work from a distance. Her mind turned to her bag when she felt a few seeds inside and pulled them out to see that among them were two Vile Seed. The machine had been buffeted from their attacks well enough, so then, maybe...

"Take this, you hunk of junk!"

The Sneasel pulled her arm back and whigged the pair of Vile Seeds at the Radiant Machine, the missiles sailing up in a clean arc towards the infernal contraption.

 

[Negrek]

"How long are you going to be hiding out here?" Rocky asked, leaning against the side of the building while Nate spat hydro pumps up into the deoxys swarm.

"I ain't fucking hiding! This ain't what hiding looks like. Look at all these fuckers." Nate gestured at the congregation of shadowy deoxys, for the moment drifting like a placid school of oversized fish through the air outside the old lab. Any second now, though, they'd form up for another attack, and then it would not be the slightest bit calm out here.

"Everybody else is having fun inside. Look, don't you want to see Giovanni lose? They're totally gonna get him."

Okay, yes. Yes, he definitely did want to see that. Nate peeked cautiously around the edge of a hole in the lab's outer wall. Finally it looked like the team's coordinated attacks were having an effect--especially from that torracat, damn. That had to be pretty satisfying.

A strange tingling feeling passed over him, and Nate shook his head a moment, trying to clear it. Where had that--?

There was a flash of dark fire near the center of the lab, and for a second Nate caught sight of a shadowy mudkip there. That was... fucking Diyem? So he had been here, same as Nate had thought in the first place. Finding the marowak had led them to him after all. Not only that, but he was up and fighting... using Nate's own attack? He grinned, watching the shadows descend over the unconscious marowak and her team, shielding them from Giovanni's last-minute capture attempt. Imagine that. Piece of shit move actually came in handy for once.

"Like I said, we're missing all the good stuff," Rocky said pointedly.

"Yeah. Sure," Nate said, distracted. Giovanni was out of there, the machine was about to go bust... they'd need to get out of here, fast, but the circling Deoxys weren't letting up. The last Mewtwo standing was pleading with them, but with them corrupted all to hell, it looked like it was doing jack and shit.

Nate motioned Rocky closer, and the familiar stepped up, confused by the contemplative look on his face. "Are we leaving? I think people are getting ready to leave."

"Yeah, get ready to run if we're gonna," Nate said. But that funky pokéball--were they all like that? If the one he'd used on the poochyena, then at least a couple of these other ones should, too. A regular pokéball was a risky bet against a fucking legend, but whatever. It was worth a shot, at least, if they didn't have time to take the whole swarm down. Nate backed towards the lab's fallen-down doorway but kept one of the balls at the ready, prepared to throw if it looked like they might need to leave the deoxys behind.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

A fevered series of barked exchanges and one last shadowy assault against the machine, and Brisa, with Starr on her back and some allies still standing, was outside with the Deoxys swarm in a flash of light.

"But--but Deoxys!" Karat shouted, barely able to walk.

Nah, fuck this. She wasn't gonna stand by and watch that sorry prick see his partner get obliterated. Brisa yowled, as she summoned countless radiant tethers, reaching out to connect to as many drones as she possibly could. Perhaps if she could show her heart to every fragment of Deoxys, it would make a difference...

She screamed as her body surged with radiance, pulsing into the swarm with all the strength she had.

Brisa used Shining Whiplash! It hit multiple targets!

Whatever that bastard did to yer mind, whatever control he has on ya, you gotta get free of it! Karat is here, beggin' fer you to hear his voice! Let go of the darkness, remember how much you care fer him! Please!

 

[Namohysip]

Cabot's Shadow Iron Tail dealt 2030 damage to the Radiant Machine!
Cabot's Shadow Head Smash dealt 3039 damage to the Radiant Machine! He took 452 damage in recoil, but endured it!

Brisa's double Shadow Maul dealt 845 damage to the Radiant Machine, twice! The Machine was dismantled!

"Good, good!" Owen said hopefully, spinning around now that Cabot and Brisa had properly taken care of the machine. He shouted out to the others, "The machine's down! We can--guys?"

Vix's triple Hex dealt 10,491 damage to Deoxys!
Shiron's Radiant Raindrops dealt 3429 damage to Deoxys!
Brisa's Wide Shining Whiplash dealt 13,593 damage to Deoxys!
Cynthian's four Shining Belladonnas dealt a total of 14,125 damage to the Deoxys horde! His Blinding Meltdown dealt an additional 17,640 damage! Nip and Icetales dodged the blast!

"Damn overachievers," Soda muttered, looking like he had been ready to flee with Maple even as the last of the Deoxys copies seemed to fade away. All but one--who collapsed to the ground, Shadows still coursing through his corrupted form. He looked like he was about to get up again, no matter how tired he may have seemed, to keep fighting. He encircled his arms, ready to charge one last attack.

"Stop!" Karat shouted, floating with what little energy he had left to block Deoxys, to get his attention, anything.

But Deoxys was wordless, showing no signs of stopping. But he hesitated. Some small thing of the battle must have been holding him back for only a few seconds...

Owen and Diyem both turned to Nate. "NOW!" they shouted, surprising each other at the same command.

 

[Cresselia92]

On the far side of the outside of the lab, Icetales moaned as he stretched his creaky limbs and tried to shake off the ringing headache out of his mind. He hissed and stood back up, before shaking the dust and Radiance off of his body.

What happened?

He turned around to see his comrades. Debris and glowing leaves and petals were scattered across the battlefield, and everyone was busy tending to the hurt battlers.

Glowing leaves and petals…

Then, Icetales gasped. He remembered sharing his power with his comrades, and he remembered Cynthian shooting that spectacular display of freezing petals. And then… Cynthian started glowing, with the same intensity he had seen many times with Astrid.

He ran toward his comrade, trying to stop him… but it was too late. The shockwave blew him away, far from the others, and that’s where he was now.

“No…”

Worry gripping at his heart, Icetales ignored the mild aching that was still lingering in his mind and body and ran toward the others. His eyes darted in every direction, scouring through the battlefield.

He found Cynthian.

“Sir Cynthian…”

The Ninetales laid down by his side and produced his Reviver Seed from his bag with a tail, before slipping it into his friend’s mouth.

“Please, let this work…”

 

[Adamhuarts]

Cynthian's head rumbled with a powerful headache as he opened his eyes. His body hurt all over from head to toe, and he found himself drifting in and out of consciousness repeatedly.

Through his eyes, he saw a vague blur of someone's face in front of him. He soon learned who it was when his vision cleared.

Cynthian heaved and groaned, then asked, "Icetales... am I... dead?"

 

[Cresselia92]

Cynthian heaved and groaned, then asked, "Icetales... am I... dead?"

Icetales cocked an imaginary eyebrow, then glanced around and motioned toward the damaged lab. “Well, if this is truly the twilight, then it is a remarkably degraded place…”

He shook his head and stared again at Cynthian. “But no, thou art still among the living souls. Thy last attack, well… shall we say that thou went down with a glorious light, and also proved that even Grass-types can detonate when pressured.

Anyway, how art thee feeling? That explosion must have been beyond wracking.”

 

[Adamhuarts]

He shook his head and stared again at Cynthian. “But no, thou art still among the living souls. Thy last attack, well… shall we say that thou went down with a glorious light, and also proved that even Grass-types can detonate when pressured.

Anyway, how art thee feeling? That explosion must have been beyond wracking.”

Cynthian gave a tired chuckle at Icetales' remark. When he was asked how he was feeling, Cynthian tried to move. However, his body might as well have been the weight of a mamoswine.

"Everything hurts... I can't even move a muscle. Can you carry me?" Cynthian asked. He closed his eyes and focused only on breathing, because doing anything else sent waves of pain all over his small body.

 

[TheGOAT]

Astrid's Inspired Gamma Burst dealt 90852 damage to the Deoxys horde!