Luna and Thief
The Orange Isle's Chapter Twelve: Rainwater

It's what had pelted down his fur that annoyed him the most – the temperature did nothing for the Pikachu as he held onto the little balloon of a Pokemon underneath him.
“I still don't get it!"
“The balloons?" He had to look again with a fluster of red across his lips from the humiliation. The Pikachu glanced to their hip and the yarn around it as Marill treaded in the rocky water below them. “They make static! Remember Slateport? It was one of the first times we all met together!" The Pikachu hugged closer onto the Marill's back and let his claws press into its near thin-oily fur. “I remember a little! You touched a child's balloon!"
“Yeah, and remember, it shocked me!"
“Right! I do remember you blamed me for a bit…"
“…" Marill shook his head as he near floated against a rock of a wave. “Right…"
“I certainly don't dislike you if that's what you believe I mean. I think everyone's just lost sight of a little, worried too much about what's around them!" The Marill laughed and nodded in reply.
“Right! If I hear Thief mutter, another scared thing… I swear I'll spend my time drowning him in the Pokeball until that Autumn shows! Luna is just as annoying unless she's sleeps walking." The Marill commented with a laugh. “Then she's absolutely awesome! She's open and playful." The Marill yelled throughout the water as he'd curl and strafe along the lowered sections of the tide. Scarf only held on for dear life, even though Marill kept a playful unstressed smile on his face. “This isn't too hard, Scarf! I can barely sink; for a big rainstorm, I'm surprised the waves feel this tame! It really is from a Pokemon!" Marill expressed with his happier tone, “It's actually pretty cool! My father showed it to me once, knew how to make berry bushes grow really large!" Scarf nodded with a near squeeze in his stomach
“Marill, slow it down a little; my stomach…" Marill nearly treaded to a halt.
“Hey, you better not die on my back." It left the Pikachu to calm and breathe.
“I think it's just… just the muscles – it's not a burn it just…"
“We can't go back."
“Moonlight is there. I bet he even knows we're coming now." Scarf said. “Keep going. I'll be fine." The Pikachu expressed and sharply winced.

In truth, I'm doing all I can just to hold on. It hurts so much I could scream, bear it chap…

His teeth clenched firmly together as he stifled a small squeamish whine from his shorter muzzle; his grip tightened on that lousy shoulder – it took him a while before he could unclench it. Marill had been more attentive with him until the blue balloon of a mouse squeaked and began to swim faster.
Why speed up…? The Pikachu blinked. “Am I hu"
“Hardly!" He called back. “I just remember… remember a funny thing; that's all." He expressed again, “I'm also worried about Esi too."
“Esi?" Scarf hushed his voice. “What's wrong?"
“I just haven't talked to her in a while – I think she gets lonely, loves to sing." Marill expressed once again.
“Sing?" I didn't hear any singing…
“I don't know what she sings. I don't understand it – but her voice is… is amazing. I actually wonder." It left the Pikachu to blink gently.
You… really…? “Now, you better not be thinking some…" Marill nearly went bright red.
“I honestly am." It left the Pikachu nearly breathless as Marill rode down another more enormous wave of ocean water.

There was a silhouette of an island in a harrowed distance.

“You haven't any clue of what Esi is like!"
“I know she's a field type. I am too." The Marill explained back and stuck out his tongue. “I mean, I have gotten to know her a lot! She said when she was young, she lived in a forest without green! She'd say that the wood would stretch to the sky – a murky, purple-black sky." The Marill called out to be heard over the ocean around them. “She planted a tree there, a seed that a large Vulpix left her! Eventually, something scary came along."
“Chesshira?"
“Worse from what she says! They eat everything and drink any water they find! They're larger or smarter or more agile than the Chesshira. She said they make odd sounds." He called out again. “So she has no water at night when she sings, I've been giving her some of mine; Luna helped me with that the first time around. Ever since that weird crack in the Pokeball, I was adding water for her – but I heal ball for now… It's odd like she's charging herself or doing something strange!"
“You miss her?" Scarf laughed lightly “I remember you had a thing for every female you saw, and you always said, 'This is different!'" The Marill hadn't said a word after that, not for a good long while – it left Scarf in a fit of small laughs.
“Yeah… I know." He replied back, “I just want to spend my time with all of you. Honestly, I just hate cities and all this craziness!"
“I've known that from the start, Marill, you didn't just grow an attitude – I know. It's why I've tried to chat, but you get… grumpy." The Pikachu said in turn and stared at the closing silhouette. Marill went a little quiet. “I know we bump heads sometimes…"
“Another… five hundred meters; I think I see a beachhead!"
“Do you think that officer is out here too?" The Pikachu shrugged his head back a little from the Marill's sharp interruption.
“For Human boats, that be dangerous – I don't know if they're allowed to be when the water is like this. It's not the worse… It was worse months ago on the TV thing. Remember? The storm here was terrible!"
“Right… that was before we made it to LavaRidge, I think… It's hard to-"
“That's fine! I can't expect you to remember it all!" The Pikachu puffed out his chest a little.
“What do you mean by that?" He replied as Marill giggled in return.
“Nothing, nothing. I just miss chatting with you too – I heard you say that or… Thief said it. I couldn't hear it entirely."
“You should've come out."
“…" The Marill idly paddled and rode through the water as Scarf held on tight. “It's just…"

“Yes?" Scarf asked softly when he trailed off.

“I can't, I mean; I can talk to all of you sure, but… there's too many Pokemon in the city for me to feel comfortable with." The Pikachu felt a sharp tinge run down his back and shoulder. “Scarf?"
“I'm fine. Keep going; it's just my shoulder – Moonlight could aid it." The Pikachu commented back in his usual calm tone of voice.
That soft, grass tone. “I'm holding on with both. It's why it hurts. Feels like I'm stretching it endlessly, but I'm not moving it an inch." The Pikachu commented back. “It's worse too; it hurts the bicep – but nothing is broken; Thank Arceus for that." The Marill softly groaned.
“Please don't begin stories on it." It left the Pikachu to twitch an ear as a look grew across his face, skeptical and stubborn.
“It's important for all Pokemon to know their own history." The Pikachu commented back to him. It made Marill give this glance, which left Scarf to second guess his next words and stuttered. “That's how we're remembered by." He continued to say with a gentle sharp inhale. It left his eyes to narrow. You certainly don't make it easy, but why of all things…
Why did it have to be balloons? I don't touch them, because I HATE balloons. They aren't made the same all the time. Give Pokemon seeds to throw; why don't you.
It made the Pikachu laugh gingerly for a moment before an empty memory brought him to the sandy – rocky shore of Valencia Island, Marills' words from Lavaridge still ran in his skull as the familiar thought played.

“Hardly, it's Pokemon that create their own history; no different the humans do – how we agree on remembering is up to all of us."

Scarf swore that Marill, just the look he gave him, told him that.

An Island with a significant habitat had just made a shape on their black and rain-drenched voyage across the sea. Pokemon, which are rarely disturbed by humans, lived on that island. Scarf could tell by the whole tree ahead of him, untouched for decades. A creepy drone of a drum touched the back of his ear; it made him tremble for a moment as his stomach filled slowly with air to calm him down. There wasn't that terrible, vomit-inducing burn. He had been thankful for that. Why is there a faint… faint… drum? On cue, it's so slow. Like a distant heartbeat, like a footprint in the snow? It makes this odd satisfying crunch or thump of a sound, but there's nothing else but it – it makes my fur stand on edge. It made the Pikachu quake once more as his eyes softly dilated.

A Chesshira here? there's no doubt about that from the sound; why do I think of that sound as a heartbeat…?

His back softly shook as he drearily looked at the sand below him, Marill softly nuzzled beside him, wary of Scarf's crippled yet useful cheeks.
“I'll help. I did that for mine." He mentioned in reply. “You're getting old Scarf, you know that. Just for anything, be safe. Please." Scarf froze on the dot after a moment. The thump rather than being distant had been louder now that his little feet tread against the dry sand line where the waves couldn't touch.
“Marill… Don't think. Nothing. Nothing." The Pikachu frantically muttered and stared at the shadowed trees ahead of them.

“Nothing… Nothing… No, there's something. It's not a rock, shock rock, sparkly lantern rock? Many… many sparks so far in the wood." It appeared in front, a silhouette of a prickly bush; the near feline slit eyes stared through their very being - stared at the sounds they both had made. “Pretty lights…? Red lights? They blink, alright – why do they blink so bright? Overwater, over the air, here and there?"
The strange beak left them both still and frozen. Pikachu's jaw dropped as the shadow of a bush quietly cracked and rustled before it faded into a small feathery shape – one which left Scarf's eye to sharpen and dilate with fright.
“S – Spearow…?" It instinctively shot out of his mouth as Marill stared at it intensely, frozen in a fit of shock… Like he couldn't look away.
“T – The bugs all just scurried in fright." Marill had that mutter out as his fur pushed in like a deflated balloon, any more and Scarf swore that Marill would look like the ones that had still been tied around his waist.
“I know… Calm, don't think." The Pikachu replied as the Spearow had glanced at them both.

Its eyes had filled with all shades and colors – a gemstone that regularly added a new ring over time.

“Female… Where'd you go? Can't eat rock, talking rock. Why can't I eat them? It stops. I can't even nibble. Nibble and Soil, Nibble, and Soil. Eat what you need – stop at the thoughts." The Pikachu softly quivered.
It's speech…? His eyes dilated in an instant.
“I know you. Old… too old. Why good thoughts? Good thoughts…" That's when Scarf's eyes went crystalline from the sheer pressure around them; he broke his gaze with it and jolted back on his two legs – aware of his swelled shoulder from the stings just by his backstep. The blood caught his attention the most, how it had already been coagulated – a near sickly black which left his old body to shudder from the fright as it stepped further into the moonlight.
It was also covered in fresh blood, as though an explosion of small splinters fragmented into the Spearow-skinned Chesshira from center mass to skull. Small pebbles pushed out of the skin, plates to replace them.
That obsidian-purple sheen left the creature to jostle and tilt its skull at the Pikachu – the Spearow had simply glanced at him as though to ask a question.
“Full. They fly, but they don't like the ground - not if they… they fall up high. Why do they fly?"
Scarf swallowed hastily from Chesshira's eerie words. The eyes hadn't appeared to blink – stable and wide open without the need as it stared him down like some demonic monster.
“Because they grew wings." Its tails, the three tails that could twist and bend into a foray of angles, had shot out into a frightful rune of its metallic color from the Spearow's tail feathers. The transformation in front of them left Pikachu stunned. It appeared as though the body itself could change shape… Or devour itself, like some twisted reversible body. The form had returned to that strange feral, quilled legs – it's near Lucario-Esque forepaws and the tails that sprung from the Spearow's tail-feathers. It hadn't been all too much taller than he was.

“Wind, so high… rain; sky – why do wings make you fly?"

“Without wings, there'd be no space for us all on land or water." The Pikachu expressed in return cautiously; it just tilted its head at Scarf as though to read the blank slate of thoughts in his forefront before it twitched and glanced at Marill – he went pale in a moment.
“Marill… Marill? I know it's you, I've seen many tiny of you, and Pichu too – they talk, teach, play…? Trainer…? Where'd you go? In rock? Big rock… Too full to eat. Lanterns don't hurt me. It killed him; I couldn't eat him. Shame."
It continued to say and glanced up at the base of a nearby mountain aimlessly.

“I-“
“Sh." It twitched an ear and then it's head had flipped all the way back and glared at its tails. The quills seemed to bend or creak – scratch itself; Scarf caught onto the detail and curiously tilted his head. Scarf pulled further back; he could see this strange crumple of soil from its fur; it just washed over it.
His breath froze as Scarf looked away – yet Marill curiously tilted his head and softly opened his mouth.
“Water? You ask if I drink water…? Why? It's salt. All salt, it doesn't taste good."
“The ocean? Marill, make water; I don't think it understands that it can't drink ocean water…?" Marill just stared back at Pikachu in utter shock after a second. This sharp line of coughs came from his fuzzy white chest.
“Water…?"
“Make water, you can." The Marill stared down at the ground for a moment before he made water to drink for himself. The Chesshira nearly stepped away from it while the Pikachu just stared back blank. The fit of coughs came from Marill's mouth for a moment. “Yeah… Ow… T – That… my chest…?"

“Ill? Who's Ill" It began to twitch its skull all around the rock – the tails had gone mad, creaked, and bent into all sorts of distorted symbols. “Food, lots of food; too much food. Rocks…?" Pikachu went wide-eyed as the Chesshira tilted his skull in Marill's direction. “You had ill Den…? Happy thoughts? Too full, happy thoughts… bad… Good thoughts bad." The Chesshira held his head together for a moment. “…? Female? Where is that? I see you. Female… Are you trapped? Cloudy one helped? Marill helped…?" The Chesshira stared Marill down as Scarf slowly put his paws up – the sting left one arm to lag down. He couldn't lift it. “Marill and Cloudy, one hurt…?"
“N – no. Please. I know… Stories!" Marill went dull as Pikachu softly pushed his paw. “There are many good rocks."
“Good…?" It tilted its head once again. “Air and sound, it goes round and round. Windy night, pitter-patter. Is there a latter?" It softly stilled as Scarf felt this odd arrival of deafness or a ring in his ear. There hadn't been a thought that entered his head. The sound had come from that. “… No thought? Dead… Dead…? Talking Rocks… collect dead? Old and dead…?" The Chesshira began to quiver all over as it quilled out its spikes at the mountain wall nearby them. Every sound would grind a lowly shrilled sound. “Who… are you?" Scarf just stayed frozen and silent as the strange creature continued to chirp out questions. “Name…? Name…? What's a name?"
“I have a trainer; his name is Griffin. The talking rocks all have names. We do too. What's your name?" The strange half-feral felid only narrowed down to the ground as more soil had flooded out of every section of its quilled pelt as though to willingly bury itself.
“Name… Name, the concept is new. New… What's new?" The Pikachu swallowed bitterly as he watched those eyes surround themselves with sand – it felt as though not a single grain had touched the gemstones in his sockets.
“My friend must tell the talking rocks that I'm here." Its head twitched awkwardly and madly at them for a moment, Scarf had drawn in another breath and held his words for a moment. “May I let the young one ahead, and I can tell you as many answers as I can before the rocks collect me."

“I'm not hungry. You can go." It replied to him as the Marill softly bounced by without a thought. “Dumb Marill, stupid Marill… little thought. Little thought of mother. Female… Where'd you go? Marill doesn't seem to know, ill den – happy family…? Family…? Arcanine said, Family." Marill simply hustled after that, utterly silent in his quickened pace; Scarf just glanced at the Blue white mouse scurry by before he narrowed into the outer quills on the Chesshira.
“Can you leave your shell?" The Chesshira tilted its head curiously as it glanced at its paws; soil continued to seep out of every inch of it – just enough that it covered the creature yet still showed the tips of its quills when outreached.
“Pain, pain… I know why; I don't like them. I don't like them; hurt… pain" Another tremble ran up Scarf's back as it tilted it's skull back at him as though to stare him down with all predatorial intent. “Grown in, grown in... hunger isn't often now. Pain; soil nulls the pain. Pitter Patter, is there a latter? When does a lantern turn away that matter?"
Scarf knew the best battles were fought with words, but it felt at any given second – within a split second; the monster that accepted a role or place would massacre him for the wrong ones.

Absol:

Pressure under her joints – the wavy floor; it all made sense when the force slammed past her skull.
Like any knight, she posed her would-be sword in the initial few seconds; it used Rollout like any other creature would. Every blow is going to limit my movement; of course, they'd recognize me – the Teleport and divide. The silence from Team Rocket – this push from Team Underworld. They want to force a hand to kill Team Rocket and other members; The Chesshira is leading them or influencing them directly. Talk about a pedestal to put your little ass on. Killing Griffin's team is the icing – I have a feeling we've done more damage then we understand. Her eyes went crystalline as she forced her tail – the stillness of her breath…
A headache from hell came over her skull as she jumped INTO her opponent.

The water buffeted enough of the blow as she'd push into a rough-crude cushion and used that surface to deflect herself with the rotation of her opponents; A beast half-sword technique – using the pillow against her upper side with her tail curved above that side for accuracy and defense – rested on the shoulder to make its accurate Spearhead.

She hazed her opponent; used Psychic and Water to compress it violently as a voice began to creep into her head.
That terrible, terrible voice – but it left her to grin as she had shot towards the center side of the condensed ring.
That's right. I'll go through whatever I need to; I'll let Bandit know the name by the end of this.
Even if I die seconds after. She will hear that name.
The haze crossed her as that massive boulder had crossed towards the Safety glass. It left everyone in a lapse of shock – a crowd that panicked to move. The wind jostled under her feet as the roll came down her shoulders with that satisfying painful crack. Absol even had her peripherals focused on her opponent the entire time.
This is what you give me? This is all you've got?
“I know who bloody well trained me and brittle as I am now – you all don't stand a chance, regardless of the 'hell' you claim you've been through." She grinned softly as a shadow crossed overhead. The swift jump left her in another lapse of youth-like movement as Golem had used his legs mid-spin from the roof above him.

Minor details, smaller. I should've noticed the scratch marks, what a strange game to play…

Or are you telling me that they're all safe until you break it? These games.

The Golem had pushed its legs and head out from it.
“Impressive. You really barely moved."
“I know a Sandslash that led with that." The Golem twitched and froze in place. “He wouldn't back down, fresh paint too." The Absol explained as a slow grin painted on her smokey face, one which showed off her fangs; the twitch down her body, neck to tail, shocked her. The slow inhale, the thin air, cut into her lungs.
The blasted poison, it's delayed. She inhaled firmly as the Golem twitched his head.
“You're poisoned? That's too easy. Is it wavy? Well, I think we made one hell of an introduction." Absol snarled in reply as her pelt stung out on ends.
Water is light, Psychic is strenuous in age. I'm forced to switch from my dark type – I'm past my single rule.
It is just a personal rule, after all.
“Whoever trained you never taught you a thing about poison, have they?" The voice slithered into her ear as the world became a sickly array of swirls as she tsked. “Boulder-brain."
“Original…"
“You're a ground type. I'm a Water-Psychic type currently." The Absol softly twitched her neck, cracked the two spots in her shoulder that cursed her for that haze. Another sharp breath and her vision tediously cleared.
Nice try, I'm not that stupid. The moment I saw the shotgun – I knew I'd get hit.

I have the rule because I tend to get hit the second time around.

The Golemn made a laugh and spread his shoulders apart while Absol stared down at the ground. Rain Dance had still been in effect as Absol slowed down her breath again – the water had begun to nearly flood the bottom of the battlefield faster then she believed Water couldn't escape that easily even with the grooves in the wall; the sweet grin came over her. Keep my back to the cleaver, or I lose the water.

I love it. They forced me into a corner; it's the worst place for them to be.

She parted her four paws; dug her claws into the ground as a screech ripped into the air - Waterpulse had used ultrasonic waves to vibrate in water viciously… yet Psychic only put a cap on the bottle and shook it violently. That end result.
Her claws had literally dug into the solid steel ground below them – where every Pokemon had been trapped. The screech left Golem to hesitate. The chitters got around – it was hard to miss the sound at all. She pressurized water to a degree unsurpassable by any jet cutter, a parlor trick for many Water Types to pull and hell for any other.
You want lethality, then I'll end it.
The Snowy-grey gleam crossed over the run of her paws as Absol dug her claws into the steel below her, that constant screech came into the air – one who left the Beedrill wide-eyed; yet Clarke had only given a small smile and fiddled idly with his tie. Golem had gently winced his ears when he heard that sound grind into the air around them.

Bandit was right… I remember it. When I first met her in that strange Pokeball alone, I fought her for the lead.
I'm the lead now. Why even go after Bandit? It left her frozen for a moment. It nearly took her breath away when the thought went through her mind. The boulder of a Pokemon grinned in response to her stunned or sour look
“What? Too old to know where you are?" The Golem mentioned back to her and grinned; the world had been a haze of swirls, purples – sickly colors that had every drunken effect on her. “Or are you just talking a game? Because it looks like that Poison has already killed you! A Water Psychic-type!?" The Golem gave a sheer, sadistic grin in return to her own. “I'll simply use SteamRoller." He retorted, “You killed Sandslash. I'd say the environment worked for you then; how in sweet Arceus's name will you make it work for you now?" The Golem expressed and glanced at the water below his feet; it only made her grin in return.

“Because Seo-Yun loved to surf." She softly giggled out as the Golem tilted its skull at her, confused by the change of emotion in her voice. “A Human cub taught her how to."
“Oh… That's dreadful. I know you. I was curious about the patch on your shoulder and the mark on your ass." The Golem stalled as he held his grin. Her ear twitched wildly. “You belong here."

The rest of his words hadn't touched her ears as she snapped her jaws by reflex to them and cautiously focused on the Beedrill.
It's a feign, had Mr. Clarke taken Bandit; it could've been stolen much earlier, but the bottom line is if Seviper is as truthful as he is obtusely intrusive… Her eyes held that gaze.
“Seviper, Beedrill is feigning – it's a setup; they want to see if Griffin is willing to throw his team away. They're testing the trainers they want." The Golem twitched its scalp and snorted back at her viciously. “They want Logan, and they're willing to control him through Griffin."
“Heh, not quite. But you'll be dead if you aren't already – that Snake isn't better off." The Absol simply felt that smokey gleam of fur dragged her paws downward.
There had been at least enough water in that condescend battlefield that the Houndour could nearly swim in it. “Let's say it's something much better than that. It'll piss off the trainer with the Sandslash to know."
“I don't know if you entirely realize something, Golem." Absol replied. “Don't you feel it? Because I cut through your boulder when I hazed you." The Golem laughed in his firm, deep voice – a pride-filled one.
“With a little pressurized jet? That's doubtful, Boastful even!" He began to say, yet Absol knew why there had been the chatter – that was obvious.

The more time wasted, the more the poison circulated. That was a fate only as natural as dying from a boulder.

Her legs, paws… neck; it all became a haze of numbness.
Pain as her entire body fell asleep.
The Golem stared as the Houndour watched her first step stumble against the surface of the water as the world slowly faded into a pitch-black cloud, nothing like the sickly static grey.
 
Nice try, but I made my choice; I dare to say the name now. It won't pass my lips. I'll get you alone Bandit if it's the final act I can do.

She'd solely bring her paw upward and pressed onto the surface of the water, surrounded. A 'Core.'
Her own core, Psychic, could easily control her movements unconsciously. Even Moonlight had done such feats in his sleep.
The hydraulics below her would be useless unless it dropped significantly. She solely placed a line of rounded purple discs underneath her paw pads, a similar trick she had done with him.

Literally, she walked or ran on raindrops. A calm place – an inner sanctum for her to defend when all else had failed.

Golem solely watched her float on the surface of the water.
“That sting is from a Beedrill! How the hell are you conscious? The amount here alone should…" His voice trailed off for a moment as she leaned her body lower. I chose water for a reason, BoulderBrain. Water Pulse? Psychic, put it together idiot. It's a state of meditation. I'm willing myself to a state of mind and attempting to devour the poison through Bind. She simply took in her breath, the slow – deep recovery breath; her body gently rolled against the waves. What I like about Mei was the story he told.

Every Absol can defend against a natural disaster. My god damn nature IS altering nature. Hit me with all of it because of that through and through the slash in your gut – the one you've barely noticed…

“It's my opening to cut you clean in bloody half with my 'miniature' pressure jet."

The water below her feet had shifted and like any large boulder rolling out to sea – that Golem had shot past her, the distance only being seventy-five meters from end to end…
This time, she had plenty of water to work with, and as long as she stayed in that trance – trusted her pain in the curled horn on her cheek; a natural disaster waited to happen.

It skimmed on the thin layer of water like any bullet – yet this time - it had this mossy green hue; Absol adjusted her paws to match the angle of the wave and use the height to get a compelling haze. Like an all too familiar web of sound, she knew of. A trick she picked up from a paranoid fox, the Absol literally controlled her movements consciously. Her body, half-sword once more, had blocked and parried herself from her opponent; used that rotation and force against him to move against the surface of the water. Now, she could move easier; after another steady breath, the grin slowly teased her elderly cheek.
“You really don't have my level of experience." She replied and tilted her head at the Golem – again, it scraped against that oddly domed glass around them. Her world had simply been surrounded by a field, a wide-open area.
Her place; the one in her own core had been a field in the countryside with the human cub she'd soon adopt – the first day she met them in the open. That 'strange Pokemon friend' his concerned parents never saw.

The dome is fitted to him – I don't think the pink mist is poison... I think it's enough to drug a Pokemon like that sparky thing; the answers are in front of us. Obscured through lies.
Swifter patters of her paws shot toward the curve of the arena – avoided the center lest it crushed her with a single jump from the roof. The thought of Golem underneath her left Absol in spite of vindications that proved her otherwise.
She didn't enjoy breaking her own rules, a slight error now, and her stomach could be wide open – let alone the number of muscles she could shred if timed wrong.
The half-sword tail rested past her shoulder – a lighter, narrow aura had begun to build around it to extend her reach further; narrowed to an array of points as though her tail went from her usual armor-splitting blade to
The sickle she usually had when using dark elements.
Rotating the water to grind through is a pain in the ass. But slashing with layered, spaced blades – that's plausible if I have the speed I had with Esi. Especially since my body is unconscious from pain – Bind is going to devour the poison quickly in this trance. Nerve and organ damage, however… Golem slammed the ground with a push at Absol; the snap of her tail came through as she hazed her opponent from the unexpected cannonball of a launch. It pushed her back into the center.

“A plan would be GOOD about now!" The Seviper's voice touched her ear for a moment. He had scuttled across the ground as Beedril solely tried to slam its spikes onto the poor snakes' skull. His dagger barely chipped back at it – yet the Beedrill grew weary of the acidic venom it's tail produced.
“Again." Clarke's voice touched her head, and as the Absol hazed past – she deflected an array of quills on her recovery
“Oh no, you don't!" Seviper's voice again yelled out at something – a splash; a tumble rolled in her head as she'd pant feverishly; the needles slammed out of her fuzzy shoulder as sickly yellow-green spikes.
It keeps getting better and better. The cubs are behind me… he just shot me again with Twi-needle.
The Golem had skidded, shot out a paw, and used his claws to tear down a section of water – hoping to disrupt her extensively thin, vibrant tri-sickle. Her body forced to move from the incoming blow. Whatever had been in her stomach had been gone now thanks to the rough movement. She couldn't care.

But by then – her world would've felt and looked like a mirror of twelve. Talk about that human term, blacked out drunk? Sounds right.
She brought in another gentle shock of wind before she bit her lip. “Hey, Rock." She said as the Golem grinned courteously. He knew the poison must kill her eventually.
“What? Realize you're utterly screwed? I'm going to pin you into a corner and turn you into red paste and meat mulch." He expressed. “Glad you could give me the entertainment for the last minute, but I have a problem to deal with." His laughter touched her ears from across the way. “You better want that poison to kill you before I do – but that's fine; you killed Sandslash. Dead or not, you'll be a skid mark when I'm finished. You haven't a clue." The words ran through her skull as the vibration picked up around her. “Neither does your trainer."
Her eyes went crystalline as her posture slumped; the nerve-wracked pain shot through her as a gingerly sharper gaze crossed her fangs.
“No… Not that. All because I'm poisoned with something that… screws with circulation… Doesn't mean my nerves and organs bloody matter." The Golem tilted his head as her body began to numbly sting and shock all over.
I know my shot and the end of it? Every Pokemon beneath my feet will kill the rest of you.
The pain shot down every tendon and ligament, instead than hold a posture – she moved no different then she had a decade younger.

Even the obviously numb time bomb situation between them and within her screeched in protest – It gave an explosive chance she needed.

Her lower back was hell – tail, however delightfully complacent with the movements as though the fluidity in her joints there long returned to spite her, had not hurt. The blue-white and a rather unstable sickle began to pop and crackle into the air – the temperature for it…

It became a near negative five Celsius

A curved blade of freezing rain, a threshold between ice and water, to beat back friction and heat.

The boulder shot at her, and with any quick snap –  Absol had rotated mid-air to change her pace and slashed down against the spun Golem. She only angled her tail and matched its rotation as her curved horn had been used to glide her spacing. A skim of water between them…
Like a flat stone tossed on the ocean when the tide was calm, she used her tail – the bone being the guideline to follow.

The Absol hadn't the need to move her makeshift water-like weapon of a tail; not when the Golem had slid into the nestling of the curved Scythe – baited him into it. She hazed it again and used her shoulder to cushion her evasion along the side that rotated into her. Simply let the ball roll down the run of Golem as that horrific screech vibrated around the walls; the friction of super-cooled and profoundly troubled - pressurized water against the massive boulder of a Pokemon. It cut into stone; even if she had to rapid-fire expel the move to 'skim' across the length of its body, waste the energy in it.

The screeches were from the literal friction of the pressurized water and snapshot of temperature. The yell came from Absol slashing through a layer of Golemn's stone body. Left mossy brown-blue marks and grooved down the rock.

The Golem had felt a spin out of its control when she hazed, and that nearly shot him towards the stone wall behind her; Absol's eyes had remained closed the whole fight. She simply opened her eyes and found herself in a field with a pure white sky. A sunny grassy meadow.
The ground shifted below, and it left Absol to bolt; a rock of fire shot down her entire body. Another haze shot by, and once again – she toyed with the Golem, added another deeply cut groove through his shell.

Literally through one side to another on the chance and prayer that the boulder wouldn't roll and crack her under two tons of debris.

He's grooved, I can feel the texture strongly in my tail – a major weak point for them,  match the depth and lines. Cut him to ribbons.
Another sharp lighted jolt touched in the air around her - the safety glass rocked bit by bit; Absol hazed her opponent once more when Golem shot another SteamRoller pushed a wave near her. Even with the splitting headache – one numb from the Poison and only her nerves in dismay over her 'offensive' stance compared to her 'defensive' the Absol solely bolted about as though it had been the only true nature she knew of. Underworld's got some interesting balls – a death battle, sure; they vote on Pokemon to throw in, Variables. These humans voted on the Houndour being here; Team Rocket is testing Underworld like Team Underworld is testing Griffin. She kept her grin as the Golem stuck his head back out. Something buzzed at him. Either that or they just figure time, I can feel the human's itching to start a spree.
“Shut it. I know her eyes are closed! Are you mocking me, you blank minded Elder!?" Golem slammed his heavy feet into the earth – the waves shimmered once more as Absol rolled her shoulders. Moonlight, you got the right idea, charging and holding a move – but do that during the fight. Her sadist grin came back as the Golem let out a massive snort. You're training your stamina the wrong way. I think Bandit has perfected it. I didn't know I could lethally attack moves and parries. The damage feels more natural.
“How the hell is she surviving your sting? You peppered her!" Golem remarked they didn't seem to know one another.
“Hey, bozo! Forget me?" It was Seviper's voice that made her ear twitch while this odd sizzle shocked something – anything.

All she knew was that it buzzed ferociously as this odd stench filled the air. “If this is a dirty fight, then you're damn right. I'm going to blind you with this! I'm your opponent, Beedrill, and I'm plenty able to handle you." The Seviper hissed sharply as though to taunt his acidic tail about, then she felt that pressure from him stare her direction. “I hope you don't mind Golem, but the smoke is ticking me off."
“Smoke?"
“Yeah, I still see the Smoulders that Mightyena left behind – bugging my lungs; we don't have filters see?" He replied with what Absol assumed was a grin; it left the Golem to snarl back at him. “Think you can cut out the SteamRoller? It smells like seaweed wrapped-gecko; the fried kind and I'm more into that then grubs."
“Shut it. I'm fine with showing you what a snakeskin really looks like."
“Don't belong to anyone. That's curious." The Seviper called out again, the Beedrill had been splashing about desperately – maimed him from what Absol gathered from sound and the Psychic skate below her paw pad. “You always seem to move to protect the cubs! I see it! Beedrill is the only threat – That man is the only threat!" Seviper commented. “It tried to use Twineedle when Absol landed there – that's your true number!" The snake expressed sharply, “Why strike at us, we have a trainer to return to, and clearly, I think we have a plan to get everyone out!" The Golem went rigid – Absol could tell as the waves slowed; her move had held firm throughout the fight – if she let them go too early, the expulsion would slice through Golem. “Why settle this through fighting? Sandslash hadn't given us a choice – it tried to kill our trainer."
“Our…? You're both…?" The Golem went wide-eyed and quiet for a moment. Absol held her posture on the surface of the water.
It could still be a ploy… but why hasn't Beedrill… gotten back up again? Seviper could have killed him if he hit him dead center in the eyes – that Acid corroded through the stone; an Exoskeleton is nothing to that.
It left her head to throb as her legs trembled – the soft shock of nerve pain numbed after a moment from it.
I'm getting dehydrated already curse this age; my liver could go – I'll be fucked before this all really starts.
It left her to wretch and dry heave for a moment; Golem simply blinked again and again.
“I think…" Golem sounded wide-eyed with realization. “The Electric cub – the water."
“A clever ploy, you said? It took me a moment to remember, I do. It was their most stable way of getting Pokemon, but they scrapped the project from what I heard. Seviper the cubs, now – swallow Houndour if you have to!" The Seviper jolted and slithered through the water. He muttered something foul about it as Houndour looked frantically at the waves around her. She hadn't been aware that Seviper could swim a little. “Ground yourself Golem, we'll climb on your back; that little thing is going to shock all of us."
“I won't trust you!" He expressed, worryingly, and took his stance; a pant had come from him.
Her charged tail wasted his energy – it's what she chipped at with all lethality.
“A cub, Golem – trust the cub!" She remarked back with a snarl. “Unless that so be the trainer that you don't belong to truly taught you ill, then your priority should be elsewhere. This clearly isn't it – I can tell from the bravado crap you spew." Absol said again as the Golem made this ferocious noise angled his back a little. Absol had placed the most slices there.
“Excuse me?"
“It's a show. A real threat would've already gone in for the kill, rather than boast about pointless achievements and threats." She explained in return as she jolted her legs upward – the force on her head nearly made her vomit, let alone the dehydration that chapped her mouth.
To compensate for a move with Psychic alone – she'd exact the amount of force to lift her and the same effect to still her and hold her mid-air.

I guess the spark dog heard what I said. What's with all these electric types as of late? Good to know you can bolt around quickly; the smart ones could change their element to fire. Whoop dee doo.
“Quite the trick Gran." The Golem expressed as he held out his arms to her closed eyes. “Talk about eyes in the back of your skull." She tilted her head at him as his ears flicked or flashed. As though there had been another boast, from Absol's light hover from mid-air, her charged scythe still behind her.
Every nerve and even her skull had racked with a dull pain – one that would feel crippling if Bind hadn't been in effect. Her stamina had made a stronger recovery – the Potions Griffin applied ensured that.
“Where the hell did she go?" Seviper blinked on the double-take. He had partially latched onto the Golem with his acidic dagger – the cub's nap had been in his single fanged jaw, like a clamp that held the cub feet away from a painful demise – faced towards the meat-cleaver of a wall. The tooth had been retracted entirely.
“I'm here." Absol mentioned softly and held the strange electric dog in her jaws by the nape – stood on this platform which the water hadn't touched. Even the current that ran through her; held her ground and tried not to kill the thing. “Golem has a number printed on his arms, the backside – every time we saw them, he flexed, correct?" The Seviper looked over. Absol only heard the shuffle of his reptilian skin cross over stone; the Houndour had whined in the sense of fright – yet Seviper still muffled out his words. “It looks like one!"
“Yeah." The Golem grinned deviously, froze for a split second when he was about to move. “What did you do? Retreat? I d-" Absol quietly listened to the voice falter after a hastened moment confused.

“I've asked you if you could feel it." The Absol passed a somber smile and softly cast her muzzle down – the ball of beige, green, and gold had clung frozen in her maw. As though all sense of fright ran through it. Her mind crossed a moment of wonder to the strange Galarian creature; her breath left her head to spin thanks to the sickly poison which coursed through her veins. The Psychic had forced itself to dispel the unfortunate thing; it made her fur stand on edge. Absol mentally pushed the poison out of her skin. It left the sicky ink like surface to stain her white pelt like paint. She expressed with a softer tone after the fact, her change of pace…

Seo's change of pace.

Seo:

“Every cut I put on your boulder – the ones that dispelled dug through your natural armor." He stood there flinched while his paws went into his boulder to let them run through the inside.
“Defense Curl and Steam roller, you used one move to leech the energy to another. It's why I had to change my tail, I chipped at one move, and when you leeched to the next – I struck when you were vulnerable with the followed scythe." She explained after a moment wait, the softer voice held in her throat as she stared the large boulder over. “As basic of a move as that is, every time you stalled, you charged it like second nature. Defense Curl increases weight. Since I hit you with your first few strikes at me, I dispelled the Water Pulse I hit you with countered your defense more when I needed to." She mentioned with a face-full of fur and fluff. “In other words, I played my luck of chance and timing… By charging the move by six and holding it. Tapered it to break your defense curl down a level by being behind it." The Absol mentioned once more as the Golem voraciously stared her down in return; his whole body had stayed rigid for a time, hesitant to move. “You can't move or expel the force you have… to… crush the Houndour and Seviper because if you try, it fades into grey – right? Like silent static." She happened to say as the Golem snarled back.
“What are you on about!?" He spat in return as she only twitched an ear in reply and began to say
“May I sing you to rest?" The enormous boulder only glared her down ferociously. “You'll drift standing as he did. My only desire would be of pleasant dreams; it always has been – but you're in the way of me. Fighting has never been my desire, but when that starts, it doesn't stop."

Golem stayed silent in reply, eager to hold his ground – regardless of the slowly built greys of his peripheral vision.

Then the Golem had solely frozen in place as Seo's light blue-purple tail dispelled in a flash of white. The sigh slipped as she stared down at the Pokemon in her mouth – the pure line submissiveness left her back to tremble from the thought of their abuse. “You know of me; do you know of another?" Golem went quiet and stilled a little; its eyes had been a bloodshot red.
“Who…?" the voice sounded strained. The first shock of pain touched his side.
“Researcher Bretton, Susanne. Kalos." She replied after a moment of thought, silence, or hesitation.
“A big name! Alive, doing quite well these days." The Golem commented back with his sneer, but there had been a lackluster flush in his face. It appeared that he came at peace with the thought and knowledge that if he died – she surely would shortly after.

Seo struck at her opponent held the pressure of the move by using Poison as the base of its power. She let her Psychic feed from that sickly fluid of TwiNeedle; the talent of what decades of Bind could naturally do – divert blows and pain into energy. The moment her tail fully dispersed in a color of richly blue ember, The Golem froze in place as it roared into the air. The Golem's rock itself had cracked loud enough to deafen everything in the room and beyond the glass around them. She cut the foundation in a perfect five-figure direction; all of them had only enough length to strike the center of her opponent with the tip of her scythe.

In all actuality, it had been no different than playing a game of Lacrosse, except the point had been to use the stick to cut the ball into irregular connected pieces – slicing the same spot or spots if need be.

Seo only stared at the Golem before her as it fell or crumbled like any other rock grazed by the ocean over decades. Water pressure was all she needed to cut the foundation down. The loud splashes hit the little pond as Seo simply twitched an ear and fumbled her whip of a tail to resemble that of the classic spear-like blade she had been most proficient with.
“H – Hey, the floor is moving down!" Seviper's ragged or shaken voice had echoed into Seo's skull – the vibration of it all made her stomach churn and spin.
“It's the… weight from..." She trailed off for a moment, dazed – dehydrated...

With a headache that Moonlight would purposely lobotomize himself if it were to rid him of it.

“No, it's going DOWN" Absol twitched her ear while this drain touched her ear – the water had trickled down and past the side of the field. She continued to flicker them before a softer laugh came to her lips.
“I get it – they threw in Golem and you to speed things up," Seo mentioned with a near thought of dismay. “In other words, Seviper – we finished last. Not first." The ragged breath touched her lips – a shuddered breath.  “I've gotten too old for this, and I know what's waiting for us below is a Royale. That was a preliminary fight."
Seviper passed a ginger hiss as something swallowed out by the waterline. “Seviper!?"
“I swallowed the stone he had!" The Seviper expressed in the full offense, defense? Seo couldn't tell, but it seemed recorded for him. “Beedrill, he's got a Mega Stone sure – but this fellow has Normalium! The Golem, I guess if their trainer was here." The Snake hissed and vibrated – it made Seo laugh louder then she thought she would even with her muzzle full of fluff.
“Thanks for reminding me. Now I'm mortified of what they're doing to Bandit. Things are going too well for us." Seo explained, “If it's a kill count… then the cubs are a prime target; it makes me wonder if the most get's the Pokemon in question." She mentioned again. “I haven't a clue what this thing is in my muzzle – but it's too young for this crap if I had been younger – most of these humans would be gone by now." Seviper hissed softly after a moment.

“We all are too young for any of this."

His reply made her tilt her head down to her feet – still surrounded in a trance. In her core, all she could do was listen to a web of sound. An outline of strangers and dared to rip apart anything that could dare come near that soul. No different then Moonlight, Bandit, Griffin, and Thief; they all had a soul to protect.

“Quiet with the moping, what's done is done – he would've launched to the roof head-first and flatten you both. I didn't see it; first, the poison had screwed with me." She expressed and shook her head. “Being around Griffin has some downsides." The Seviper hissed back in reply, rearing for an argument about the trainer.
“I haven't met a trainer quite like him. There's no confidence behind him – no drive. I'm astonished that a trainer of his caliber is out here at all; I can't even really call him one. I just get this feeling that maybe… He might be something trainers didn't think they need." The Seviper gave a laugh. “Anyways – if we get Bandit back, he'll treat us both like royalty! Since that damned hospital stinge, I'd like to be!" The Seviper giggled after a while as Seo only stared – eyes closed at her feet. The vibrations underneath her – they had been lowered down in this odd, slow freefall of a manner. The meat cleaver of a wall had ground and groaned as the entire platform had begun to lower down into a depth unknown to them.
“No, Griffin treats us all fairly – Even when we don't always see it. He spends time with Marill. I can smell Lycanroc, Vibrava - Haxorus around him as of late." Seo returned. “I think I get it, however."
“Get what?" Seviper asked
“The constant wrap around. We're expendable – I think I get it." Seo continued to say. “Either the trainer with me has posed as a member of Underworld or is one; it's his choice to return me now or not." She expressed with a ginger swallow, “If that's true, then just as Seok said…"
“They'd wait until you're weakened and then throw more in; or kill me than you."

“It's a Battle Royale alright if it's like that 'wonder trade' then the trade-off is the lives of 'weaker' Pokemon for 'stronger' ones," Seo mentioned in par. “We may not have even hit the semi-finals." Seviper twitched his tail after a moment as he stared her down.
“You're serious? Then why are… are you still out? They said…"
“Because we took the longest, Seviper." Seo returned to him. “It's that simple. The humans are punishing us over speed." Her voice came over the screeched sound from the hydraulic platform they had been on, one that made her small reluctant smile come across her aged lips. “I'm willing to show them what a little quality has over that."

“We must neutralize your poison first – I'd attempt a counter but… I can't now; my stomach even hurts."
“I needn't that," Seo said back to him as she rolled her nerve-inflamed shoulders. “Just hit me with your acid when I tell you to." She mentioned back and nodded.  “I'll show you the talent that comes from decades of dexterity and element bending." She referred back with a grown grin the second time around…

Lost in her already unconscious world and sleep talked to the voices which whispered in her ear.

The tremble seared at her feet – each nerve and cluster of feeling in her paw had sent ripples of horrid pain. Enough that she leaned a little.
They're just nerves and tendons. You believe a two-ton boulder is going to put me down? Hit me all you bloody like, but I can't break now. You got it half right Sandslash.

I'll still my own heart for it, that is, anyone would.

The faux earth rumbled underneath her paw pads and like any rough ended cushion – the ground locked to the earth below her feet; her smoky white fur had vibrated on all ends as she felt her pelt rise on edge.

There wasn't a Battle Royale. Only a bloodbath waited on that bottom floor where a single Pokemon had stood to greet them among countless dead others.

Luna:

It annoyed her beyond belief by then; the narrow, sharp pain in her teeth and jaws from every single tug she pulled at the steel cage. The Police station's cage had been warm for one. Here it froze. She stared cautiously at her reflection in a smaller basin of water and drearily stuck her paw in it to clean off the bite she put there. I figured something out with the fuzzy water. That's what I call it, I guess… It makes my cuts numb when I rub in it – I'm done with strange human's poisoning my water; I'll check them all like this if I must.

The smaller Vulpix shivered and gazed into that pitch-black room. A softer inhale touched her chest and made her glance at Granbull's silhouette – exhausted out of her mind as she stared at his otherwise weary and sightless glances. He hadn't made a word since they were tossed in there.
Luna tried to burn the metal and melt a hole, yet she had been drained to do much aside dehydration.
I can't change my type again, either… I don't know why, but I can't. It doesn't matter how hot or cold my tails get; open or closed. I can't do much of anything. I'm spewing out a cold fire on top of it all, the ones I get feel like the one when I hit Griffin in Vermillion.

Just… nap even? Do even that, maybe when you wake up, they'll have Bandit back.

The silence had gotten to her as the last few hours had been in pure frozen darkness. It had been like an all too particular snake, and that memory ran through her head until she dryly retched. Her chest pounded, the intention to rack her own ribs against the cage until either it broke, or she did, crept. But her ankle had been swollen and inflamed from the blow she took with Abra; Luna could barely put pressure on that hind leg - the Litwick's had only made the physical pain worse to boot. The tired blink crossed her eyes while her nose huffed the steel floor below her… the wall. Luna's pelt rose on end when she felt it; that odd icy chill crossed around her muzzle when her nostrils took in the air. I don't smell any salt-water. I haven't a clue of it… of anyone, all these scents are foreign. I better not be back where I started - wherever the hell that is.

Her vision got blurry from that thought as she stared at Granbull's cage… I can't move from here; the bars don't melt… the sound – no Pokemon. The air is so… so cold that I can see my breath. I'm not in the Orange Isles anymore. It feels nothing like that… Luna went soft and froze as the scent swirled around her nostrils. Every hair stood on her pelt. Bandit…? I caught onto a whiff. I just smelled her – it's fresh? She's somewhere, but it's too freaking cold for me to detect much of anything. I'm stuffed up to all sin - I think that's the point.

I'm getting colder. I don't know if I could last even bundled like this. A Vulpix flame never goes out, but if mine flickers, will I freeze to death?
“Bandit?" The Granbull made a little grunt of a sound or a sneeze. Luna's hairy chest had pounded and throbbed from the rush of shock that ran down her pelt. She didn't even know the Granbull had been in there with her.
I can't see, regardless of how hard I squint. There's no light here – it's just utterly frigid to the wall behind me; I think outside might be cold too. “Bandit?" Luna stayed silent as she drew in air. I can smell her; I know I can… stupid nose; a little cold weather and an injury, and I don't know. Zoroark, is your trainer, okay? Are you alright Bandit…?

Why can't I just know…?

“Bandit!" Luna called out the name with a firmer tone, yipped into the dark, silent room where only her voice broke the silence. Granbull hardly made a huff in return to Luna's little shout and only stared at anything else.
Luna felt like Granbull stared at the roof – but with only a blended silhouette to see, her uncertainty got the better of her. The plume from her throat came up no different than the alleyway. It scorched her lungs this time

A sickly drag from roll-up burned through her lips and down her stomach lining, that had been the pain. The massive ill churn of her belly left that small Vulpix queasy – the ripple hit her chest and lungs too. A state of constant stomach pain.
“Granbull, I can't… I haven't drunk the water… I can't…" Her words fluttered into the room with every sense of fright. “Granbull? Can you hear me?" She called out, “Is Bandit beside you? Can you see!?" She called out into the frozen, dairy locker of a room. The kind of one where it hadn't been the worst dry snap she had felt… an odd tinge of precipitation clung to the walls as though to keep it all in an eerie frosty glimmer. Frozen goods to start, they both had been shoved in there. Granbull still hadn't replied a word to Luna's frantic tone and strange accent. He only stared at the roof above her… until she realized that the fan no longer made a sound.

Something began to warm up somewhere, but she couldn't hear a thing in the darkness. Granbull's soft huffs started to fade into the quiet haze around her.
Like the Alleyway, she went deaf. Deaf to the point in which she hadn't known if she screamed or not.
All she could do was repeat the words that she couldn't hear. Even with Arcanine and the Growlithes explanation, none of it had made sense to her.
“Do you remember…?" The words crisscrossed her thoughts for a moment, her voice or not – she couldn't tell through the cold. “The Wingulls used to tell stories about that place, the one where all those lanterns come from? The good stories I mean. That there are Pokemon all over, there wasn't some scary territory battle – not with those 'demons' they call them." Lumine's voice touched her ears. She could hear that in her thoughts. “It all happened after that elder passed in his sleep. I think it strange. I don't think the land across the sea is as bad as we hear it to be. I don't believe any of it is as bad as it's made out to be. I believe the elders are afraid and don't have a real reason."

In the frost and noise that racked at her head like some off-tuned hearing aid, Luna found herself in focus with the roof. There had been a vent…?
A vent? Any fridge would have one on the inside – ventilation fans, yet this vent had been immense, and the flow of air seemed…
Strange. Like the blades hadn't been turned on.
Granbull had been directly underneath it too. The frost had clung to the edges of her fur from the time spent.
“A vent? You've been looking at a vent? You think it's a way out?" Granbull's silhouette had groggily moved to point at it. “No… a Pokemon. A Pokemon…?" Luna gave a half-parted nod before she yelled out – how loud hadn't occurred to her…

She simply barked, yipped, and rang at the vent for hours to come.