Treasure Town ~ Marketplace

[Dragonfree]

Dave froze as the Garchomp charged at him, panic shooting through his body. The instinct that said run away pumped energy into his legs, prepared him to bolt out of there. And yet something stopped him anyway, rooted him to the spot, a curious sudden blazing conviction, something hot and bright and important.

(Owen was right there beside him; if he ran for it the Garchomp'd go for Owen)

"Yeah, come on!" he snarled at the Garchomp, lightheaded. "Over here, motherfucker!"

As the Garchomp lashed out, all claws and rows of glistening teeth, he braced himself and squeezed his eyes shut, and thought to himself this was dumb, this was the dumbest thing he'd ever done in his entire fucking life, what the fuck, what the fuck -

There was a strange, resonant clang, like the sound of a bell. Still nothing tearing into him at all. He opened one eye and saw... a bright golden dome like a bubble around him, and another around Owen. The Garchomp was shaking its head, disoriented - like it'd just smashed headfirst into the shield.

Dave's ears perked up, his head still swimming with a weird giddiness. Fuck yes. He'd just learned a move! Something like Protect? But that wouldn't protect Owen too...?

There was something familiar about this golden light, this electrified feeling, wasn't there? Oh. Oh. Fuck. This was Radiance.

 

[Namohysip]

Garchomp snarled once she was back to her senses, but then slashed at Owen, who had been a little too close, on reflex. That, too, bounced off of the golden shield that had bubbled around him.

"Dave?!" Owen said, looking back, but they did not have a whole lot of free time to think. "Dave! Get away from here!" he shouted. "Call for help! Uh--check that location tracker and see who's closest, call them! I--"

Garchomp was charging for Owen again and he crossed his arms. This barrier was a lot brighter, gold in color as well despite not being Radiant--must have been something he inherited from home--and then clanged the Garchomp's strikes away. The barrier remained.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave punched the badge ungainfully with his paw, selected the tracker, punched whichever dot was closest. "Hey! Little help in the marketplace? There's a Garchomp trying to fucking murder us, or an Arbok. Tell Diyem! Get everyone who can!"

He could go, like Owen was saying. But Owen probably couldn't keep up that barrier forever. He watched, tense. His fur was still buzzing with that staticky sensation of Radiance, glowing with energy, and it gave him the creeps. God fucking damn it. Maple had said this shit was dangerous if 'overused'. What the fuck was 'overuse'? He would be having words with her later, if they got out of this alive. He had not fucking agreed to this.

 

[Namohysip]

Another ethereal clang echoed across the marketplace, and by now several onlookers were watching what was happening, yet none of them knew how to interfere. A Bibarel wobbled toward Arbok and managed to get her to safety, but Garchomp was radiating such a menacing aura that nobody knew how to interfere.

Yet another clang, and Owen's shield was fading rapidly. He only had one more hit left.

Owen was moving somewhere--every strike left him sidestepping further away from the marketplace. Was he leading Garchomp away from the general public?

And one final clang shattered Owen's barrier, leaving golden shards of light to evaporate around him. With a startled cry, Owen went tumbling backward, and Garchomp pursued--with the barrier just shattered, a new one wouldn't be able to form in a timely manner from anyone.

Garchomp lifted her claw...

 

[Dragonfree]

"Hey!" Dave barked at the Garchomp, his fur fluffed to make him as big as possible, standing on end with static energy. "You know what? I saw your fight with that Arbok and you're a fucking disgrace. Can't win a normal fucking battle without cheating, huh? Nice work, jackass." The Taunt laced his words with power. Come on. His heart pounded hard in his chest.

 

[windskull]

It didn't take Nip long to find the scene once he'd reached the marketplace. He weaved his way through the onlookers, passing by like a quick gust of frigid air. At the center he found Owen (vulnerable on the ground), Dave (poised to fight or flee) and the Garchomp (racing towards Owen at alarming speed).

He'd arrived just in time to hear Dave's words of challenge and had mere heartbeats to react. As frost condensed in his fur, shards of ice formed around him, ready to launch them at the garchomp the instant Dave's taunt offered an opening.

 

[Namohysip]

Garchomp had too much momentum, but despite this, Dave's words still were enough to distract her enough to snarl in his direction.

But her attack didn't stop.

Shk!

Owen's eyes bugged out; the claw missed its intended mark, but it still jammed deep into the lower portion of the Charmander's shoulder, and then Garchomp stood upright and turned to Dave. Her shadow had a followup planned for Owen, but not anymore. Owen dangled off Garchomp's claw, eyes vacantly staring downward.

"Cheater?" Garchomp snarled.

Owen blinked once, lucid. He glanced at Dave, then Nip, and then realized where he was. No matter how much pain he was probably in, he then directed his gaze toward Garchomp.

I'll distract her, Owen thought, even though he had no means of projecting this to them. He hoped his gaze would be enough. Fire welled up in the back of his throat, little cinders dripping to the ground.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Nip, attack!" Dave yelled. Shit. What was Owen doing? Was he seriously going to try to attack, while already skewered on the Garchomp's claw? Dave glanced from him to the Garchomp now stalking towards him, took a deep breath, and tried to replicate whatever it was he'd done to make the Radiant move work again. The electrified feeling intensified; his fur was aglow with a strange light. Bright golden barriers appeared around him and Owen again, ready to repel a hit.

His heart felt weirdly light, unbothered despite the circumstances. The bare fact that they were facing down a fucking Garchomp was still there somewhere but seemed trivial, unimportant. This was the radiance too, wasn't it? Even that realization didn't carry the weight that it really should have. Fuck. What was this doing to him.

 

[windskull]

Shit!

Nip didn't have to be told twice. Even as the words escaped Dave's mouth, Nip was already launching the first volley of shards and preparing another one. An uncomfortable memory of a hunt gone wrong stirred somewhere in his mind, but he pushed it down. There was no time to think about memories in the middle of something like this, there was only time to react to commands, adapt to the situation, and fight.

He released another round of shards.

 

[Namohysip]

Garchomp smirked at this, shifting her stance for an easy dodge. Yet the moment she did, she was briefly blinded--orange cinders obstructed her view, and a small amount of it got into her eyes. It was just enough to stall her escape and the shards hit their mark. Garchomp flailed and swung blindly, throwing Owen off of her claw and then striking the barrier that protected Owen.

That was enough to send the Charmander somersaulting through the air and onto the ground. He struck hard, leaving a small patch of blood where he hit, and then, with his second bounce, landed on his feet, wobbling.

"Attack!" Owen shouted, lobbing another Ember toward Garchomp while she was blinded. Something brushed against Owen's side--felt furry--and then it was gone. Who was that? Oh, if only he had his Perceive--but Dave might catch the scent of a Zoroark circling around Garchomp.

 

[Dragonfree]

Soda? Soda was here. Why did the fucking God Squad have to intervene, of all people. Whatever.

He charged towards the Garchomp, hoping to get an Assurance in while the golden barrier was still protecting him.

 

[Namohysip]

That final attack was enough to stagger Garchomp backwards and onto her back, where she let out one final, defiant cry before huffing and whimpering into her claws. "I'm... I'm not a cheater, you... you... I won... fairly..."

Owen couldn't quite speak, but he did grunt and point at Garchomp's left shoulder, where a Shade was emerging and trying to escape.

 

[windskull]

Owen's gesture was enough to give Nip a general idea of where to aim. He dashed forward, lunging in an attempt to spear the shade on his claws to prevent it from escaping. Or to at least kill it and keep it from infecting someone else if he couldn't keep hold of it.

 

[Namohysip]

The Shade slipped out and made a break for it, but Nip was faster. His sharp claws skewered it, and the thing let out a squelching, gurgling cry of pain as it weakly tried to struggle away. Seconds later, its struggling started to slow...

Soda, watching quietly, remained in the shadows. Despite being the one to receive the call, he didn't seem keen on interfering if he didn't have to; the interlopers seemed to have a good enough handle of the situation.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave winced as he looked at the struggling Shade. "Hey, Soda, got any way to capture that thing? Or do we just...?"

 

[windskull]

Soda? Soda was here? Nip wondered if Dave had sensed him by some other means, or if he'd just been too focused on the garchomp to notice. He grunted and shook his head. No time to worry about that right now. Holding the shade away from his body slightly, he gave it a disdainful scowl before speaking up. "If we're going to keep this thing alive you best hurry and get something."

 

[Namohysip]

Owen winced, looking at the Shade with what could only be described as pained empathy. Soda then appeared, sighing. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "Hey, Torch. You got a bottle?"

"Mn," Owen confirmed, pulling out one, which Soda took and approached Nip. "Oh," Owen added, and then hobbled along--it looked like the fall might have messed with his left leg a little--and reached into his bag again. He produced an Oran, holding it toward Soda, who stared at him incredulously.

 

[windskull]

Nip quickly slid is claws against the edge of the jar's opening, sliding it inside where it plopped to the bottom. He turned his attention to Owen, giving him a quick look over. He tried not to wince at the nasty gash in his shoulder. "You might want to save that for yourself. This thing doesn't deserve your mercy. I don't know if it's worth using our resources on. Besides, we don't even know if an oran will work on it, do we?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Well--" Owen said, wincing when he tried to move his other arm. "It's still hurt, and... we can use it as a research opportunity, right?"

Soda looked at Owen like he was an idiot. He wasn't about to admit that they never tried using Orans on it, especially when one of their own was already hurt. "Eat the damn berry. It'll live," Soda said.

Owen frowned, disapproving, but he did so; the bleeding rapidly stopped, but the wound remained halfway there. It was another injury from that corrupting force--it was harder to heal away completely.

"You're gonna take it easy for the next few days," Soda stated as an order. "I'll wrap up scouting here, alright? It's way too dangerous for you guys to keep this up." He took the bottle, where the Shade was whimpering as its wounds slowly closed, though there was a noticeable pool of inky darkness around its body. It didn't look like it was going to make it without some sort of assistance, and Owen couldn't take his eyes off of it.

 

[Dragonfree]

Dave looked at the squirming Shade for a second, then glanced back at Owen before turning to Soda. “Hey,” he said. “I don’t know about your universe, but where I come from we think it’s bad to intentionally leave people to die, even if they’re shitty. Fancy that. Did Arceus ever figure out that one, or is he more the medieval barbarism type?”

He produced one of his own Oran Berries and thrust it towards Soda.