Destiny Village ~ Central Crossroads

[Namohysip]

Maple cautioned Icetales, "Be careful. He's... I think he's aware of himself. Just one moment, and..."

Joule was aiming his blast, but it wasn't toward Cibus, or anyone in particular. He was focused, his whole body flickering and fading. Blacklight sparks danced around the air.

"I refuse... to harm... any longer...!"

The air was alive with energy. Shockwaves turned the clouds into vapor; a strong wind blew out from Joule in all directions. Even Maple had to float backwards a little, covering her eyes with one arm.

And then, just like before, it became quiet. All the light disappeared from the sky, swirling and concentrating around Joule--and then, only a long second later, he fired, toward the sky. It deafened everyone, it rattled their bones and their cores, and it blinded anyone who tried to look at it despite its dark center. If anyone screamed, it wouldn't be heard over the sheer power of the blast. Windows shattered; the ground cracked; snow fell from distant mountains and all the trees shed away their white coats.

The beam slowly dissipated. Twilight returned to Destiny Village, as did the quiet winds of the cold winter.

Floating in the sky was a black, crystalline body. No light, no luminosity, only an empty shell that twitched weakly. Those of Team Spectrum would find it familiar--it was what Bahamut had once been, though Joule appeared to be much larger. In Joule's hand was another prism--Bahamut's prism, a little dim but certainly glowing, which he slowly handed off to Maple.

In silent awe, Maple took the prism. "Joule?" she asked in a breath.

The crystal creature seemed to nod... and then started to fall backward.

 

[Cresselia92]

Icetales’s ears rang as the shockwave hit the ground and he was knocked down to the floor, losing his focus as a result. The darkness around him popped like a bubble of negative energy, sending golden and black sparkles and mist around himself. Black and golden oozed from his fur, giving back his original silver pelt.

He moaned as he felt his darkness leaving his body. So cold, he felt so very cold for some reason… and tired. Knackered, even. With the adrenaline losing its effect, he felt the pulsating pain through his legs and tails.

“Ungh…”

“Daddy!” yelled Petram, hurrying by his father’s side. “H-hang in there! You’ll be fine, okay?”

Icetales coughed out a puff of radiant energy, too exhausted to even utter a word. His gaze drifted toward the sky and his eyes narrowed as he saw something… black falling toward the floor. He tried to say something, but nothing. Only silence.

‘Petram. Warn everyone about that falling star. Warn—’

And then, Icetales lost consciousness, his emotionally drained mind finally taking its toll.

Petram looked worriedly at the fox, but did as ordered and floated around the place, motioning toward the falling Joule with his paw. “Hey! Psychics! Flyers! Catch that black star, quick!”

 

[Ambyssin]

Amidst all the chaos, Esper floated listlessly in the air, watching as Joule shed precious light like... like a damn alien geyser. A chestburster of light. Enough to fix Bahamut and maybe make him not so much of a sourpuss. More like... a sourkitten? Yeah, sure.

But there was Bahamut's core. Even with the different-bodies thing, his stupid recklessness still couldn't do it in. Was Eternatus' taint just that strong.

Oh, gross, and now he was imagining building-sized sweat drops pelting people from above. Rrr. Wrong kind of taint. Yeesh.

Esper tilted his head and shook it. "What an absolute idiot."

 

[Namohysip]

They were, thankfully, quick. Karat grabbed Joule from the air with the help of Wheat and lowered him to the ground. He made a soft, groaning sound, but otherwise did not move. Maple descended with them, trembling with a strange and unbearable mixture of anxiety and relief.

Joule was... safe. Damaged, horribly damaged, but safe.

"We have a lot to talk about," Dialga said, looking to Giratina, then Palkia, still three heads on the same body. "We'll take Arceus to the infirmary for now. Joule, too. We might not be able to do anything, but--but it's a start. We also need to check on Diyem and... let him know about what happened." He winced a little. "Also... Since Team Spectrum has... pretty much proven themselves, there is something that Arceus wanted to show you all in Destiny Tower after this battle. I'm afraid that's all I can say, but it was the final part of his plan. For those of who you aren't going to be with Joule, Diyem, or Arceus, come with me. Everyone else... get some rest. It's been a long... long day."

 

[Fusion]

Whatever was at Destiny Tower was for the whole of Team Spectrum. Half of which weren't even going to be able to see it. Whatever reward it might have been didn't matter to Puddle in the slightest. If anyone deserved to see it, it was...

Puddle gritted its teeth and starting walking towards the infirmary. It felt a rather powerful need to tell that dragon bastard Joule off.

 

[Ambyssin]

Wet. Sloshing. Water?

Bahamut had gone with showers instead of baths while on Cibus. But this sensation of being submerged was familiar, if distant. There was dim lighting all around him. Distorted by the water. And yet, Bahamut could glide through it with ease. No currents or shifting waves. It was more like moving through heavy gravity.

The almost cavernous darkness fell off in the distance. As the only light source, Bahamut moved closer. Closer. He saw light. He saw... an orange room. A nondescript painting on the opposite wall of rolling green hills and blue skies. A small coffee table with a porcelain tea cup sitting atop a saucer, venting the smallest bit of steam.

And there, in a lavender lounge chair, sat a lunala. Her wings were at her sides, gingerly cradling a sleeping cosmog.

Bahamut slowed his pace. If he had eyes, they would've widened in disbelief. He reached an arm out. "Chiron?" he called.

The lunala looked up. She smiled. She regarded him.

"Chiron! Io!" Bahamut redoubled his progress. The room grew closer and closer.

Cosmog woke up. His pom-poms sparkled with dazzling blue light. "Pew!"

"Chiron! Chiron!" Faster, faster. He was almost there. Almost--

Bahamut slammed against something... membranous. A barrier? He pressed his hands against it. Ripples of water spread about. "Chiron!" he called again. "I... I see you. Please... please let me in!"

The lunala's expression fell. "I can't do that."

No. No, this was a bad dream. Not again. "Why not?"

"It's not time yet."

"What do you mean?"

Chiron offered him a warm smile and she whispered, "You still have work to do."

"Wha--"

An invisible hand took hold of Bahamut. He shot back through the water tunnel, the room getting steadily farther and farther away until it was just a speck in the distance.

"CHIRON!"

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​

Bahamut jerked awake. Destiny Village's market was passing underneath. He was being... carried? Still, the sudden awakening let to a moment of raw, instinctual panic. Bahamut squirmed and, in the process, plummet from the air. He tried to active psionics, but it did no good.

And so he crash-landed through a wooden structure. There were squelches and crunches.

"MY CABBAGES!"

Bahamut groaned and rolled over -- yup, he was a fucking big-ass cat again -- to find a scrafty on his knees, sobbing hysterically into his hands. "Err... put it on the guild's tab?"

"Hey, so you're finally awake!"

Bahamut grunted. Esper plopped down on the necrozma's metal belly. "No need to thank me for getting your core back in your big, dumb, stupid head. Hey, have I mentioned that was really stupid? Because if you looked up the definition in the dictionary, it'd be there."

"Enough." Bahamut exhaustingly exhaled. "Why are we back in this city?"

"Tl;dr version: Joule's been saved. But half the team -- the not dead half -- wants to bite his nonexistent head off." Esper swooped down to the ground and picked up some of the cabbage debris. "So, uh, if you want to stop that, then lettuce get a move on!"

Grinning cheekily, he held up two lettuce leaves. "See what I did there? It's wordplay!"

Bahamut's face twisted into a snarl.

"Aww, c'mon, gimme a smile! It was clever!"

Bahamut grabbed Esper by the head and ripped his Ultra Stone out of the center. Esper's body melted into a black-purple puddle. Bahamut shoved the stone in his bag and marched off, completely ignorant of the lettuce shards and tomato paste covering his prism armor.

 

[Negrek]

Well, at least that was over with. They'd managed to bring Joule back to his senses. Probably. That's what it looked like at a distance, anyway. Of course, fucking Giovanni could pop up at any second and zap him back into the master ball, but hopefully getting blasted into next Thursday would leave him out of commission for a little while.

Whatever. The important thing was the world was no longer in any imminent danger of getting blown to hell, probably. And it had only taken half the team fucking dying to get there.

Nate started dragging his bag towards Destiny Tower, only to stop when it twitched. The bag shuddered, bulged, and then tipped over on its side. A gelatinous wave of shadows poured from the top of it, Rocky's ultra stone sluicing out along with it.

"Ooogh..." the familiar groaned, his face and limbs still just half-formed. "That hurts."

"No shit. You got smacked by God. You're lucky you ain't fucking vaporized."

"I... what? What happened?" Rocky sat up, settling back into more or less his usual shape.

"Don't worry about it, Joule's saved and he didn't blow up the fucking planet and all that shit. And I guess Arceus is supposed to be okay, too. They're taking them both to the infirmary."

"Arceus!" Rocky jumped up. "I have to go see him. I have to see he's okay!"

Nate grabbed the familiar's tail before he could run off. "Hold it one fucking second. You remember what Diyem told us? The whole Overseer thing Arceus is in on?"

"Yes, but I'm sure it's not really--"

"No, you fucking don't, because Arceus can read fucking minds, and if he knows that you know about this, like Diyem's been spreading this shit, he might wipe you, and Diyem, and the whole rest of the team out."

"I'm sure he wouldn't do--"

"I ain't having this argument now. You go there, if it looks like Arceus is any state to be poking around in your head, you get the fuck out, you understand me?" Nate scowled. "Half this fucking town is goddamn mind readers. I'm gonna have to talk to Diyem later, see if he has any idea of any way to keep things under wraps, because otherwise I don't know how we can possibly keep it quiet without avoiding, like, half our fucking 'allies.' The guy probably shouldn't have told us in the first place."

Rocky narrowed his eyes, obviously struggling with the desire to argue back, but finally he grabbed the bag off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. "Fine. Where are you going?"

"Apparently Arceus left something for the team to see up in the tower. If we're really lucky, maybe it'll be spilling the beans on the Overseers and then we won't have to worry about that shit no more anyway."

Rocky nodded, already looking off in the direction of the Guild. "Can I go now?"

"If you ain't gonna do something fucking stupid," Nate said, like that had any chance of working. He glared after Rocky as he raced off to check on that asshole he'd become so fond of all of a sudden, then turned back towards the tower. Hopefully that guy had at least a tiny shred of self-preservation.

Whatever. At least Nate didn't have to carry the damn bag anymore.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Luz watched blankly as events unfolded on Cibus, almost as well as they possibly could, given the circumstances. Normally, she'd be thinking of what was most interesting, or how she might help someone out, or what Brisa might be feeling...

{Are ya there, darlin'?} she tried again, feeling stupid. As if being in Cibus would make a difference (what if being around Diyem would help?) or Brisa wouldn't already be sending to Luz if she could.

Brisa was gone.

...Talking to Diyem in the infirmary was the fastest way to find out whether there was anything to be doen about that, by the sounds of it. But being in a room with half the surviving posse and a grieving Starr and Astrid sounded so much less interesting than whatever Pop's secret was. Yeah. That made sense. Time to go see the interesting thing and not have to hear any bad news from Diyem or comfort anyone more miserable than her. Time and a place. She knew her strengths. They weren't that.

Luz paced to Destiny Tower, humming a quiet tune to herself. Everything was fine.

 

[IFBench]

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​

A Bayleef walked alone through the crossroads, clutching onto a pale white rose with a vine. A worried look was on their face.

 

[Persephone]

Coco wandered down the path. Momma was big now. She didn't need as much protecting. After a very enthusiastic hug and inspection she'd rushed on to see other things. Coco understood that. She wanted to be helpful to Momma.

Coco was also bored.

She came across something that she recognized from one of the moving rock shows that Momma had put on. Something in her instincts also screamed that it was a good opponent. Perfect playmate. Coco ran up and dropped the ball she was carrying in her jaws.

"Play?" She asked.

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv gave a glance towards the familiar. Did they want to play? But what if Cynthian's rose got damaged during this? Besides, after what had happened...they weren't really in the mood for games.

"Sorry, but I can't," Saltriv said.

 

[Persephone]

Lies. They were sad. Playing makes people not sad. They wanted to play.

Chase is a good game to play.

Coco started running after her playmate, jaws open and blood red teeth exposed.

 

[IFBench]

The Bayleef was already walking away, not noticing the hungry familiar chasing them.

 

[Persephone]

You're supposed to run when chased! Or at least chase back! Coco slowed down and let out a small roar to make sure that the other pokemon knew it was playtime.

 

[IFBench]

Saltriv hesitated for a moment, but soon continued walking away.

 

[Persephone]

Coco stomped her feet. This was unfair!

“Why won’t you play with me?”

 

[IFBench]

"Now's not the time," Saltriv said, leaving the plaza.

"Not after what happened."

 

[Persephone]

Coco paused. Now isn't the time for play? Now is always the time for play! Still, she didn't know how to get the plant to play without biting it. Biting things is almost always the answer, but Momma says not to bite strangers. Plants also taste gross. Usually.

"What happened?" she asked. Coco liked stories. This sounded like the lead in to a story.

 

[IFBench]

"...half the team is dead," Saltriv said, continuing to walk away.

 

[Persephone]

“I know! Fewer people to play with.” Momma was alive, so it didn’t really matter that some other things were dead. She was a predator in a world of prey, after all. “Play? It’s fun. Will make you feel better.”