The icy arena had been turned into a miniature pool. Bad idea. There was a loud pop from overhead as Writhe emerged from her tunnel. Seeing the status of the battlefield, she decided to be a little bitch and play a cruel trick on the swimming contestants. 

Her wings bellowed, and once again a mighty Blizzard was cast over the arena. Those poor swimming pokemon would now have to contend with freezing temperatures and possible icing. Writhe let out an amused buzzing as she circled the arena, quickly flying back into her tunnel to escape retribution.



Meanwhile Nostra was making little progress on healing his wing. He would need to find some sort of nourishment to quicken the process which he wasn't going to find in this crevice he was hiding in. From his limited viewpoint Nostra observed his surroundings, looking up to find what seemed to be an outcropping near the ceiling. 

He gingerly crawled out of the crevice, climbing his way up the cave wall and then across the ceiling. As he neared the outcropping, he saw what seemed to be two woobat cuddling together for warmth. Nostra smiled, seeing a chance to heal. Once close enough he pounced upon them, quickly entrapping one of the woobat within his larger wings. The other woobat flew off, but that was fine. He got what he needed.

Nostra bit into his prey, sucking life force from it to quicken his healing (Leech Life). When he felt well enough, he tossed the now unconscious woobat aside. Bunkering down in the outcropping, Nostra patiently waited for his damaged wing to finish repairing itself. 


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Nobody had seen Chryssa since the cave had flooded with water and she'd ascended into the air like Marill Poppins (you would think it would be hard to miss, but considering the rest of the chaos, one umbrella-riding anomaly was easy to overlook.) She'd been blown around the cavern quite a lot during the warring Blizzards, but only after the shiny Drampa's Cloud 9 neutralized the storms did she feel safe to return.

And just in time!

"I've been thinking about something," Chryssa said, smoothly alighting down on dry land again next to the judge's table where everyone was taking a 20-minute tea break despite the steamy atmosphere. She snapped her umbrella closed neatly then raised one hand, beckoning a sandwich with one finger. When it failed to float towards her, she sighed and went to grab it herself. "You see, all that time I was floating around on my parasol gave me time to figure something out." 

Her eyes narrowed and she brought the bread to her lips. "Something very important. It has to do with... Jynx."

...Last we'd seen our heroine, she'd Heart Stamped herself to the ceiling like a Woobat and been attacked from every direction. The Air Cutter from the Crobat had threatened to sever her lips from her body, but fortunately she'd been rescued by a sweet prince who'd burrowed in from the ceiling above. Just as Oona was forced to unpucker herself from the ceiling, dropping like one of so many stalagmites, the strong and manly jaws of Bug Juice had caught her instead.

Her face ringed by giant mandibles like the sets of a vice, held at bay from crushing her only by sheer force of will, Oona squeezed her eyes shut and thrust her face forwards to thank him with her loveliest LOVELY KISS. It was a touching moment, broken only by the fact that Oona was a Psychic-type taking a direct hit from the world's biggest bug.

She fell, buffeted by shards of ice and hail, and splashed into the water. 

Some time later (20 minutes) a yellow wig would bob to the surface of the pool, floating like an empty banana peel upon the surface. Women would weep and cast flowers off the sides of the boat in memory of her sacrifice. A blockbuster movie would be made starring Oona, about herself as an old lady Jynx in 80 years remembering this day when she'd lost her white knight Bug Juice in the tragic Cave Biome Contest, and how he'd changed her life (complete with a soaring musical score and one nude scene improvised by the director.)

"--Next on our list of 'people who look like Jynx' is glitch maverick , followed by Kazimir Wynter and Laurence Anderson for also being blonde. You just have that aura, you know?" Chryssa's voice boomed over the speakers as she leaned into the microphone. She'd taken over Selena Desmarais 's unoccupied chair at the judges' table while everyone was distracted. "Least Jynxlike are kyle lopez and oscar clayton , who look nothing like Jynx and would never be mistaken for one at a Jynx Convention or even be able to catphish one on a Jynx dating website."

There was a long pause, as if someone was waiting. "Oh, that's all," Chryssa said, turning off her mic. She turned it back on after a second, leaning back in. "Ha! Just kidding. I know everyone wants to know who looks the most like Jynx, and I think you've already guessed, contestants."

She covered her mic with her hand for suspense. "In first place, the daughter of the seas herself... skyler dross ! The similarity is undeniable-- that long, beautiful blonde hair? Those kissable lips? Those rippling abdominal muscles?" Chryssa's eyes gleamed wickedly, observing that Skyler was currently wrestling with Kazimir in the water dangerously close to the yellow floating hairpiece. "Honestly, I think we can all see the resemblance."

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Jynx USED LOVELY KISS
JYNX FAINTED
NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED

just when it felt like they were all going to freeze to death things started to heat up, quite literally actually. which was a blessing for both himself and twizzler considering that both of them were starting to get sluggish with the whole thing. it wasn't exactly using the biome if you changed the weather after all. "thanks Zac Ramsay for heating it up!" especially since he felt like he was going to lose his fingers. but now they could focus on the task at hand. still winning. he watched as finally bug-juice got the kiss he had been waiting for. unfortunately it came at a cost as glitch could practically hear the giant bug snoring.

"wake up!" he shouted as bug-juice also tumbled from the ceiling and into the water below. luckily the water was a shock to the bug's system considering part of it still felt a little bit on the cold side in the deeper portions. the golisopod swam underneath the fainted jynx, pushing her up from the depths of the water with the top of his exoskeleton much like when he let glitch ride on top of him to push her back to the surface. he was a lot kinder than glitch. glitch would have let her drown. with the ice melting that also meant that glitch's platform was melting... oops.

but they could recover from that. after all with there being a nice pool of water at the bottom now there was no reason not to dive in. and dive in the pair did using water to cushion the fall that would have otherwise have been terrible. but glitch waved as they swam to the edge of the water and twizzler shook free of some of the water, with bug-juice using pin missile as the water was shook everywhere. making for a very wet firing at whoever was in range.

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"By the way," Chryssa said suddenly, "Sableye is in my umbrella."

The girl flounced clumsily up one of the rock outcroppings over the water, swirling her umbrella this way and that to show the (very dizzy) rock gremlin splayed with all four claws in the top of the frilly canopy.

"But his time in the ceiling was not for naught!" she declared triumphantly, spinning the umbrella faster. "We got exactly what we needed."

She flipped the umbrella over and set it in the water, the curved handle bobbing like the mast of a ship as she cast the Sableye out to sea.

Sitting up with a visible grimace, Zuill clutched the pole and balanced gingerly between the spokes. Steam collected on his faceted eyes, fogging up his vision, and he wiped at them impatiently as he tried to get his bearings.

Something was swimming up from beneath him.

A Sharpedo? A mermaid? The body of Chryssa's drowned Jynx?

No, it was Laurence Anderson 's Lucario. A ball of compressed aura blasted Zuill and his umbrella off the water, followed by a second punch that catapulted them towards the ceiling. The frame of the umbrella shattered from the hit, leaving only the webbing intact-- and a moment later that suddenly had holes in it as a rain of dripping PIN MISSILES from glitch maverick 's Golisopod lacerated the area as well. 

Scrambling to catch hold of the ceiling again with his claws, Zuill looked over his body, which was now peppered with swiss cheese holes. Ghostly ectoplasm was wafting from the holes like blood, evaporating into the air.

He sighed, then used some of the minerals he'd been feasting on to RECOVER and plug in the gaps. Cool, blue-gray stone budded from the holes like crystal sprouts, matching the rock surfaces around him. Body now whole, he clung to the roof of the cave, finally above the low-hanging humidity and able to clear the fog from his glassy eyes. 

It was clear most of the competition had moved from the rocks to the water, which wasn't exactly his element. Fortunately, he had other tools at his command.

Grinning unnervingly from above, the Sableye became wreathed in the shattered pieces of the umbrella, which formed a swirling, spinning stream of debris around him. But it wasn't enough-- he needed more.

Using POLTERGEIST to seize more items that hadn't already been tied down, the judge's table began to shake as pens and stray feedback sheets flew free from its surface. He tried to take Zac Ramsay 's Biome Badge and Eva Morales 's bandana too, but despite some tugging, both of them were too secure to be pilfered.

But he still needed more.

Zuill pulled out the other items he'd found while crawling through the cave walls-- a Hard Stone, an Ice Rock, and a Nugget. All three joined the living whip, and the Sableye clung to the cave by his feet as he raised both hands like he was casting a fishing line. The stream of items wound itself back, then cast themselves down in a bullet stream of rocks and junk.

"Ohoho! You thought I was the Marill Poppins, when 'twas truly a mere Poltergeist!" Chryssa gloated, enjoying the reveal of her umbrella-riding trick.

The needle of broken garbage slid into the water as easily as pulling thread, hunting through the liquid for his foes as Zuill lashed the line back and forth. Whether he tangled them, distracted them, or simply bombarded them with the mundane, surely Chryssa would be satisfied.

RoHWL|36

the umbrella is destroyed
sableye was hit by pin missile
sableye used recover
sableye used poltergeist