Lex stalked through the shadows, blissfully unaware of the blip on his screen clueing him in on her presence. She hadn’t quite figured out this new-school technology thing – that was Lulu Flint’s department. Lex was an old-school kind of gal that stubbornly refused to adapt to the times. She was learning the hard way she would have to adapt. First it was Genesect, now it was here in the cave. Shadows didn’t quite hide her anymore like they used to.

A fragment?

The scientist had her attention now. A fragment was something she could steal, not some massless force of power. Amber eye narrowed beneath the hood that covered her red hair. A silent command meant for the Shadow Gardevoir was made with her right hand. The movements were precise, well-practiced, a clear command.

Lex expected to see the apparition appear alongside zenji jabami and his Porygon, executing the flawless takedown like they had practiced so many times. A few beats too long had the thief frowning. The hand signal came again. Still nothing. Her stomach curled. A rush of discomfort manifested in a cold sweat starting to bead across her brow. The possibilities here endless. Where was she?

---

Gardevoir was face to face with her male counterpart. In a grand climax of irony, they both seemed to have the same idea. Dueling HYPNOSIS radiated from each of the psychic-types. Hers was more overpowering than his. The combination of Primal Energy and the inherent increase in power of the shadowfication made for a powerfully suggestive force.

However, she was not entirely immune to his HYPNOSIS either. The Gallade’s own psychic onslaught pressed down hard upon her. The Gardevoir’s own eyelids began to grow heavy, the HYPNOSIS fizzling out as she diverted her energy to fighting off the sleep.

Her form falter, as if the ghostly apparition was waving delicately in the wind. A set of empty eyes locked on to the sleepy Gallade. A hand reached out towards him at an attempt to ground herself in reality. Long fingers grasped for whatever mass they may meet, a cold, lifeless touch.

Naturally, she recognized his energy, his aura. A proud, strong, stubborn, untapped source. Her own psychic-typing hungrily reached out for it, attempting to anchor herself into it with a metaphorical set of mighty fangs. She was hungry, famished. The Shadow Gardevoir greedily pulled at it, attempting to suck it into her like how a vampire drained life from a victim (DREAM EATER).

tl;dr: Lex attempts to send the S!Gardevoir to incapacitate zenji jabami so she can steal the fragment (he’s a good actor) but, as we can see, the Gardevoir is otherwise occupied. S!Gardevoir starts to fall asleep along with the Gallade. She attempts to keep herself awake by using DREAM EATER (Gwyar Wledig).

Gwyar listened to the other man intently, getting a grasp for the type he was dealing with... as well as committing his voice to memory.

He was called slugger, but the man seemed far more fitting for the title, looking eager to exchange naked blows with one of Gwyar's size.

Terribly confident in his fighting prowess, this one. Probably a young one. Well, Gwyar couldn't point fingers on that front; he had been as well at that age.

"I'll try and not disappoint then, young man." The blonde said, smiling back several notches more gently as he raised his own fists, before making a 'come'ere' gesture with his hand.

And come he did, fist flying towards Gwyar's face. But he wasn't looking at the fist; he was looking at the rest of the (rather nice) body. From the shift in his footwork to the twist of his hips, to the coiling of his chest and shoulders- A bodysuit could be rather telling.

Unfortunately, a problem arose as he tried to punish the feint.

He could not move.

In a fist fight, that was a rather unfortunate state of affairs.

Perhaps he had left too much up to the scar guy. His own mistake, he would accept later on in retrospective.

The man's fist slammed into his stomach, Gwyar's teeth gritting hard as he felt himself almost be winded- if nothing else, the psychic paralysis didn't let him fold over.

Would have preferred not to get punched at all, though.

Just then, water began to freeze around them, and a bizarre pokemon Gwyar had never seen was sent out, blasting around them with a fiery blaze.

This was... very not good.

And he was not the only one who thought so.

His shadow seemed to gain a mind of its own as it suddenly, a body steel figure suddenly shooting out of it. The Aegislash's steel body released a sharp glare of light before a sudden barrier was extended all around Gwyar and itself, stopping ice, fire and psychic short with its King's Shield.

Gwyar folded a moment later, his foot stomping the floor to stop him from falling as his body suddenly regained its faculties, a gasp leaving his lungs.

After a moment, he shook it off, popping his neck before looking over his shoulder at the child behind. Would he have to deal with both of them? No- the scarred man was there for a reason.

"Cover my back." Gwyar said to Raziel Beckett on the comms.

---

He felt her digits grasp at him, but only barely, his consciousness fast slipping.

If he survived this, that bloody sword would never let him hear the end of it. Damn it.

Lust. The most problematic of human emotions. One of the most difficult to tune out even when shared by two relatively cold individuals.

The two crazies inside that bedroom were anything but, and the waves coming off from that bedroom had the blue Gallade curled in a ball on the floor, trying his damndest to tune them out, to no avail. He should not have offered to stand guard 'just in case'. He should have just let Blade do everything. He wanted back in his pokeball, Oh God, Why.

An excited, delighted scream filled the apartment, and Gawain began banging his head on the floor in response, the lust rippling through him like an explosion's shockwave, and out-

---

-Gwyar is... paralyzed, gets nailed in the stomach, then the song of ice and fire starts playing.
-Enough is enough.jpg, Aegislash comes out from Gwyar's shadow, King's Shield.
-Gwyar asks Raziel Beckett to deal with Rowan.
-Gallade has fallen asleep. Gallade's nightmaresdreams are being eaten. Gardevoir has eaten Gallade's nightmares.
-Psyche Damage.jpg?

Tags: @rowan oscar clayton Laurence Anderson zenji jabami Alexandra Briarwood

Dark tendrils twisted into the Gallade’s subconscious. They hungrily wrapped around the closest nightmare and pulled it free of the Gallade’s grip. Energy crept through the roots that ensnared the dream and into the Gardevoir’s mind. The nightmare was ripe with human Lust. A bitter taste, one the Gardevoir didn’t particularly enjoy. Lust may have been an emotion she was familiar with before her transition into the corrupted being she was now. Emotion was a distant memory, for better or for worse. She could sense it, but not feel it. Was the return of her emotions what she was constantly searching for?

Regardless, the energy the DREAM EATER provided was enough to perk her up and release the grip of sleep. Raziel Beckett did not go unnoticed. Her psychic attention shifted from the Gallade, withdrawing from his subconscious, and moved towards the boy creeping past. The Gardevoir remained still, allowing the Ranger to pass. She may be emotionless, but she wasn’t stupid. The ghost melted into the floor of the cave, dissolving into a shadow that was lost within the cave’s others.

Raziel Beckett’s approach was not lost on Lex. When you spent your life sneaking around, you knew when someone was sneaking up on you. She was stuck in a narrow passage, zenji jabami in front of her and Raziel Beckett behind her. As she ventured further into the cave, she found the weight of the Dark Bubble’s viscous residue growing harder to ignore. The Primal Energy fueled its effects, making her more sluggish. The combination of the factors gave Razz the upper hand.

Jaw clench and teeth grit against one another as the butt of a baton pressed against her shoulder, “The hard way?” her voice purred in a teasing fashion, emphasis on the hard, “Is that what I feel in my back?” she couldn’t help herself, Razz set himself up for that one.

The Shadow Gardevoir’s SHADOW SNEAK raced across the cavern floor behind Razz. Her objective was obey and protect her master. The pokemon burst forth from the shadows that Razz used to camouflage his presence. A terrifyingly eerie scream pierced the air as the dark powers pushed at him, a rush of shadows attempting to send him flying backwards and away from his contact with Lex.

tl;dr: Gardevoir senses Razz. She cuts her DREAM EATER short. Lex knows Razz is sneaking up behind her, but there is only so much she can do about it as the weight of the previous Dark Bubble grows heavier and heavier as she moves deeper into the cave, really putting a damper on her normally impressive speed and agility. She makes a snarky comment before S!Gardevoir uses SHADOW SNEAK to try and slam Razz into the wall of the cave and break his contact with Lex.

Oh for fuck’s sake. She couldn’t have fun with this one. A heavy sighed shifted the shoulders beneath the baton as she shook her head. Were all League members this dense? “I’m talking about your-“ the explanation was lost in the scream of the Gardevoir as she sent Razz flying in the opposite direction, “Good girl!” she praised, spinning around to face the Ranger, Gardevoir defensively floating between the two.

It seemed the boy had another trick up his sleeve. Another corrupted pokemon took the field. The Gardevoir immediately recognized her kin, Currant’ dark energy pulsing with the same power boosts she felt from the Primal Energy. Electricity crackled, casting the dark cave in its eerie light. The web shot forward, Gardevoir faded, the PHANTOM FORCE pulling her corporal form away from this plane.

Unfortunately, that meant there was nothing to stop the ELECTRO WEB.

“GAH!” Lex raised her hands as a useless defense. The dark electricity tangled her in the electrifying web. Her body slammed into the cavern floor with a loud thud.

Electricity coursed through her body, every muscle bending to its whim in a series of excruciating convulsions. It felt like every cell in her body burning. Her mind fought against the pressure, but her body wouldn’t listen. Each snap of electricity reset the nerves in an unpredictable manner. The pain and the way her heart raced uncontrollably wasn’t compatible with consciousness for long.

“Get

Them

Out.

Find

Ian (Killian Decker).”

Lex managed to choke the words out, a hope the Gardevoir was close enough to hear. Lex was a lost cause now. Even if she managed to get free of the electric prison, she couldn’t run.

She’d die before she let the League get their filthy hands on her Shadow Gardevoir, Rowan Wrynn, or oscar clayton.

---

A new objective.

Shadow Gardevoir abandoned her PHANTOM FORCE. She materialized behind Razz, letting Lex catch a glimpse before she TELEPORTED back to the front of the cave to rejoin oscar clayton and Rowan Wrynn.

tl;dr: Gardevoir disappeared in a PHANTOM FORCE which is bad news for Lex cause she was standing right behind her. Lex is hit with the ELECTRO WEB and is now trapped against the cavern floor underneath it. RIP Lex

"Language." Gwyar chastised his opponent as the man clutched his arm and screamed up a storm, the Aegislash' nodding as it gave the potty mouth of a man a judgmental look.

Her eye then shifted from the cursing man to the much more pressing matter at hand- the bloody abomination hovering over his shoulder, blasting fire.

She had seen a couple of those during the 3 day war; it wouldn't surprise if the Rockets had been working along the Megalopolans the entire time.

Whatever; just another dragon to slay.

As the warrior began to dissipate, the fire surged towards them, threatening to consume them in a fiery blaze.

But Shadow Sneak was nothing if not fast.

The Aegislash' shadow stretched back underneath it, swallowing her trainer's whole before they were both yanked underneath the earth, blazing fire consuming the space they had held moments later.

---

About ten seconds before this...

His eyes snapped open when the power that seemed to permeate the very atmosphere within the caverns achieved an apex. With a booming shockwave, the Gallade burst out of a glowing sphere of energy, primal energy overflowing out of every inch of his body in such quantitious amounts his cape was flowing without a lick of breeze.

Awesome. Now where was his opponent?

Reaching out over the caverns with his psychic senses, he quickly detected the one presence that chilled him to the bone with its uncanniness...

Ah, there she w- No, there she went.

Phoom.

---

Many things had happened, in the meanwhile. Aegislash and Gwyar had emerged somewhere around Gareth's side- The pokemon left by his companion had seen fit to try and wash away the Rockets- unfortunately, that left them all in the crossfire.

Gareth had disappeared.

Reappeared with Gardevoir and trainer in tow.

Waterbending had happened.

Gareth then asked Galatine to switch opponents, to which the only answer the Aegislash had given was to give a taunting look at King the Bisharp before making a come hither motion with her scarf hand.

A ghostly Gardevoir had then popped up right out of nowhere-

Phoom.

And Gawain followed right in tow, arms encased with a violet glow as the psychic energy visibly poured through them like open veins, the knight pokemon moving with blinding speed as he went to smash the ghostly Gardevoir as far away as possible.

---

Tags: Rowan Wrynn oscar clayton Laurence Anderson zenji jabami Alexandra Briarwood Raziel Beckett

-Dodge with Shadow Sneak.
-Gallade Mega Evolves.
-Phoom.
-Psycho-Cut energy to cover arms + Close Combat punch Gardevoir far away. More focused on getting her out of the fight than really harming her.