Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Main Lobby

[Namohysip]

"Is there... a reason we're here?" Diyem said with an irritable hum. He had returned to his Charizard form for the time being. "What is the purpose of this?"

"Well! I just decided that we would have a little... Voice get-together, is all," Buffet explained with a cheerful lilt to his voice. The Hydreigon looked next to Maple--who, in the recent days, had managed to return to her Smeargle form again.

"And we called those who could attend from the team as well," Diyem murmured. "Why?"

"As a welcoming party!" Buffet replied.

"...I'm skeptical," Maple stated. "You're stalling."

Buffet fidgeted. "Well, er... you see, I... well..." He glanced at the hallway. "If you'd just be one second," he said sweetly, and then hastily flew into one of the rooms. There was a high-pitched voice coming from inside.

"No! No! I refuse!" said the tiny voice. "This is degrading, and wrong, and you should have done nothing like this! I'm... never talked to you again!"

"Please, I'm trying to make this as painless as possible, and give you a warm welcome back, but--"

"To be fair," said another, only slightly deeper voice, "I do feel... vulnerable like this. Really, I do appreciate the efforts, but..."

"Well, it seemed wrong to simply announce it as a grand message, so... oh, I must have made a mistake..."

"You certainly did!"

Diyem and Maple glanced at one another, looking mildly worried. "Should we leave?" Maple asked.

"Mm. Let's wait this out. I'm morbidly curious." He glanced at the others in the room.

 

[Namohysip]

More crowded than ever, the Guild lobby had a new, cautiously triumphant energy to it. Diyem's Charizard form was not present; instead, he was a dark, shelled sphere that drifted near Eien, never leaving her side, while he presumably recovered his strength after so much strain to rescue her. Joule's armor was shattered and chipped in several places, but he assured the others not to worry, and that he would recover the pieces to regrow and reattach them later. Pop had left for Destiny Tower, more confident in their security, to recover his strength and reattach his divine ring fragments with Cola.

After a quick check, Giovanni was in the infirmary again, almost completely immobile due to an intense migraine. Apparently, Cresselia had suffered a similar condition, though for both, the feeling was fading. They suspect it had to do with their natural attunement with the moon.

"Eien," Maple said. "It is... good to see you in a proper state of mind."

"And it is good to see you!" Eien greeted, curled up outside the Guild building, peering in through the doorway. She was simply too large to fit inside in any possible way. "I'm... very sorry. Truly. I cannot explain what came over me... I, I will do my best effort to repairing the damage for the next few centuries, I promise."

 

[Ambyssin]

While Nero was tempted to try and follow Bahamut, the Colosseum fight and left him drained. It was tempting to dismiss that, since all he'd done was eat a few hits before getting literally firebombed to death. But in the back of his head he was just happy that Cibus was happy with the outcome... as was some of Team Spectrum. Nero imagined the others didn't want to be there in the first place, like Bahamut.

On the way back to his lodgings, however, he had discovered Bahamut had chosen to... rest on the guild's roof. Sprawled out like some sort of distorted, gray satellite. Nero could've talked to the necrozma then and there, but it wasn't worth it. He need ammunition. He would comeback later...

... later meaning the next day, as Nero had fallen asleep. And by the time he was up, it was morning. Nero first looked around his bed for the newspapers clippings he'd collected, only for his figurative heart to sink when he found no traces of them. The window next to the bed was open and there was a considerable draft in the room that prompted his fire-typing to switch on while he was sleeping. I guess a gust of wind carried them all away. Great.

It was going to be much harder to convince Bahamut of anything without his evidence. But Nero wasn't one to quit without trying. So, off he trotted along the city streets, covered in bits of frost and morning dew. One of the Owens had said things were getting toward the end of spring, but Destiny Village was a naturally cold place. When was the last time he'd gone on a walk through cold air like this? The climate controlled domes and metallic rooms of the Ultra Recon Squad base were so boring. Nero would have to savor his little vacation.

He found Bahamut still on the roof. Had the guy even moved since yesterday? Outside his tail limply dangling off the side of the building, Nero wasn't sure. The silvally walked closer to the tail.

"Y'know, as nice as sunlight is, I don't think it's a solid cure for the blues, buddy," he called. The reds of his body turned jet black when Bahamut picked his large head up and glared at Nero.

"What do you want?"

"To talk."

"I have nothing to say to you, you overgrown child." Bahamut lowered his head back onto the ceiling. "Go romp around with that other mismatched mutt. Blow up a building or something. I don't care."

Nero frowned. "Well, I care. How much longer are you going to pretend like you're not in pain, huh?" He tilted his head. "Like you're not spending every drop of energy suppressing those shadows to avoid doing something the others will see as awful?"

No response. Then, without warning, Bahamut rolled away from Nero, falling off the building with a resounding thud.

The hard way, then. Sighing, Nero started around the building, not even bothering to look and see if he'd been followed.