They watch the sun set together, a melancholic peace settling.

I don't want him to die.

Gavin's eyes close, but he does not sleep. He laments, in the prison of his mind, and thinks of cheating death. It's Chu-e Choi's voice that pulls him from the abyss, amber eyes opening to slowly focus on the other's face.

And he smiles, steel and shadow and pride.

Lugia's silhouette takes shape on the slope of a hill, red eyes burning like they've stolen fire from the dying sun. With Gavin, it waits, until Chu-e returns with a challenge. Lugia rumbles, its spiked tail twitching. Gavin feels its weariness from their recent exertion, but what dominates is a bloodthirst borne of its corruption.

"I do hope you mean your Pokémon."

Gavin opens one of the beers. He's never liked beer. He drinks.

A beer is plucked from the table and opened. Chu-e's never liked beer either, especially this stuff that's basically swill, but the taste is nostalgic. He tips it back and picks up a piece of sushi with his fingers, pops the whole thing in his mouth. Lugia's stare is like looking those explosions in the face. A pokeball is taken from his hip and tossed out. An Aromatisse stands there for a moment, confused, but then balks under Lugia's shadow.

"First few are real. Last one, I just want to test something. Sprite, you're our smoke machine." The Aromatisse looks between his trainer and the legend then takes a deep breath. A pink smoke coils out, thick, rolling over the grass until it coats a wide area.

A second pokeball is taken out, a Gardevoir yawning before taking in the area. For her part, Princess is less fearful than the Aromatisse, better trained and also more experienced with gods. She trails forward for now.

"Sprite isn't battling. I'm just forcing field advantage." Chu-e knew he wasn't winning this, anyway, so he may as well give himself what advantages he could. "Princess? Survive."

He tips the bottle back. The Gardevoir, before apathetic, opens her mouth and shrieks out a battle cry. Her body glows, Tracing Lugia, until some fragment of coiling smoke echoes off her body in a ghostly mirror of it's own Ability. She surges forward, body shifting and warping, until multiple of herself is shown running at the Lugia, her Double Team giving herself six copies to chew through. It might also buy her a bit of time.

---

- chu-e has set up a permeant Misty Terrain with Aromatisse. The pokemon will otherwise not be battling
- princess is sent out. she TRACED lugia's Poison Immunity
- princess used DOUBLE TEAM

For Gavin, too, the taste rings of the past. His arm itches, and he scratches lazily at faded scars beneath faded ink.

"Understood." He nods, curt.

Don't hold back. As pink fog rolls out across their makeshift battlefield, it's joined by swirling darkness that leaks too eagerly from Gavin's fingertips, from the push of breath that leaves his lungs. It curls possessively around its patron, swirls beneath Lugia's wings as they spread wide against the night sky. It begins to rain.

The corrupt god takes to the skies, a fierce gale from the thrum of its wings ruffling Gavin and Chu-e's hair.

---

Lugia uses Rain Dance!

All six of the Gardevoir move in sync, arms raised as electricity crackles off of them. Power surges, the now-damp air starting to smell of ozone. Lightning strikes once, twice, then finally Princess screams again as the electricity surges off of her body, connects with a stray bolt from the sky, the Gigavolt Havoc she unleashes powerful and deadly. Or, at least, it would be for something less than Lugia.

"Huh. Go big or go home, I guess." His bottle is placed on the table with a clink before Chu-e leans back to watch the show. This isn't so much a proper battle, not yet, as he doesn't feel the need to command. These pokemon he'll be sending out are some of the cream of his crop, what he's managed to scratch back into his palms after losing his prized pokemon twice. They aren't at the level he wants them to be but he trusts their judgment for now.

"I don't know if a god would ever weigh my soul and find it worthy." Is started, eyes still on the two pokemon. "But if it happens- I want another battle."

---

Princess uses Z-Move on Thunderbolt to make it Gigavolt Havoc

It's a terrifying sight that makes Gavin's muscles tense, even if he knows Lugia has been through worse. Six Gardevoir conduct their deadly dance in perfect unison, the night sky lit by a brilliant surge of lightning.

Princess screams, and Lugia shrieks.

Dark wings spread as if to welcome the surge, though a ruby glare reflects Lugia's pain. Electricity surges over twitching limbs, but as the attack itself fades, the lightning's light remains — or so it seems.

Droplets from the violent downpour soak into the legend's skin as it recovers from the devastating attack. Its spiked tail lashes through the air, cutting an arc through the sheets of rain. Gavin watches in awe as the restorative glow dims.

"We would welcome it," Gavin says, means it. His eyes don't leave his dark patron. "Honestly, Chu-e, I'm surprised they haven't already."

He takes a sip of beer, wrinkling his nose.

---

It continues to rain. [2/5]
Lugia uses Recover!

Princess pants. The Z-moves always take a lot out of her to do, body still not as accustomed to using them.

She snarls, vicious, eyes glowing a misty purple. Should it land, Lugia would find a vile and unnatural twist in it's stomach, predicting ominous effects. The Grudge was heavy. How dare it shrug off her attack like it was nothing? When it was almost all she had?

"What do you mean?" Another piece of sushi is plucked up with his fingers, a few grains of rice crumbling or sticking to his fingers. Being an Avatar, chosen by another seemed like something... other. Something not meant for him, in some strange way. He wasn't religious and didn't have the same streak or craving for power like Cillian Quinn or even Lulu Flint did. He just was and was nothing more.

"What do you think would look on me and pick me?" It was curiosity as well as a genuine question. Once before, cait alfric had told him it seemed like darker pokemon would pick him. Giratina. Darkrai. Marshadow. Those dark and often misunderstood things that squirmed in the shadows. Would they? What would Gavin see him worthy of?

He thought back to years ago, Articuno's unnatural weight in his chest, the ice filling his lungs before it passed him over. Terrifying.

Lugia seems to sense the Gardevoir's grudge... but it doesn't care. The legend's sharp-toothed maw opens in a twisted mockery of a grin as it calls to the storm overhead. As the sky continues to weep, a single bolt of lightning follows a crash of THUNDER.

Gavin blinks, shielding his eyes from the light.

"They look for something, in people," he explains, sipping lazily at his beer. "A while back, Articuno was looking to replace its avatar. It — I was drawn to Shoal Cave by the allure of its power, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one."

Had that been when Laurence Anderson was chosen?

"It spoke to me. Said I was too aggressive," and his lip quirks, as if the thought amuses him, "but that there might be others to whom I was more suited." He shifts his gaze from Chu-e Choi to Lugia, something fond in his eyes. It looks back, a piercing red glare that sends a shiver down his spine. "Guess it was right. I don't know what kind of Pokemon would be drawn to you, Chu-e, but I can't imagine there isn't one."

---

It continues to rain. [3/5]
Lugia uses Thunder!

The Thunder drops and Princess shrieks as her skin sizzles. Even with all her doubles, how could an attack like that miss? They fade as she falls to her knees, panting, electricity crackling on her body.

Chu-e moves away from the conversation, a pause, to call her back into her pokeball. She's done enough for now. A handful more of fished from his pocket. He carefully nudges them around, searching, before one catches his interest.

Another Fairy and Psychic, a Hatterene stands stands before Lugia, her body quickly soaking from the torrent overhead. She glances between Lugia, Chu-e, Cillian Quinn, her gaze haughty. This isn't one that Chu-e has used around his fellow Underboss yet. Hatterene tended to be a little wilder to deal with than their Gardevoir counterparts.

A wave of dark energy gathers around her body before shooting outwards, wavering in the air and towards Lugia like ink moves in water. The Dark Pulse would try to sink into the legend.

"You too?" That catches his interest. Not too many people he's met knows what it's like to have Articuno, of all pokemon, brushing over your mind. "I met Articuno at a ball a few years ago. It crashed the party. It judged me, but I was too angry. It was a horrible feeling." Maybe it had been the same one.

His eyes, too, find Lugia. He wondered for the titan. Wondered if it was happier as it was now.

"I don't know that I would want to be one."

Once again, he thinks of the crystals blossoming under his skin, inside of him. Eating him.

As its target falls, Lugia lets out a soft croon of satisfaction not dissimilar to a Wailmer's song. Corruption warps the sound, and it echoes eerily over the storm's din.

It eyes its next opponent cautiously, assessing. When the dark pulse of energy sears toward it, Lugia draws in Gavin's swirling miasma and ascends with a sudden burst of speed, evading the attack. Two heavy flaps of its wings sees winds form the shape of a small HURRICANE, and Gavin has to place his hand on the nearly-empty can of beer to stop it from rattling off the table.

"I remember hearing about that," he muses. "That's when Senri was chosen, right?"

He didn't know much about Articuno's former Avatar, only name and reputation.

"It didn't feel horrible to me." He frowns, brow furrowed. "But — I wanted it. I've always wanted it. Power, worthiness — the best feeling in the world."

There's no shame as he admits his ambition.

---

It continues to rain. [4/5]
Lugia uses Hurricane!

Dutchess is bowled over by the attack, the wind and rain stinging her skin raw. She's slid back in the mud, tries to keep her balance, ends up leaning forward so her hand can grasp and scrape the mud. It hurts but unlike Princess she doesn't fall to her anger. She keeps her calm and forces herself back up, stares down the shadowed god. Mud if flicked off her fingers before she spreads them out- a ball of black and condensed energy gathers there before she launches it as hard as she can at the passing shadow.

"Yeah." Chu-e, too, didn't know the guy. Couldn't have picked him out of a crowd before and only knew his name thanks to that event. "It felt like I was going to be frozen from the inside out." His beer was tipped back to finish it off, crushed in his hand before he just threw it inside with the rest of the mess; something to pick up later.

"Eh, power's overrated." And worthiness you could only get from yourself. Chu-e knew, having spent years chasing the thrills of getting praise from people like THEO BECKETT. He curls a little more into his seat. "I think I would want a cat."

Shame the thing growing inside of him wasn't a cat.

Cillian Quinn

Shadows are hurled toward the airborne legend, but this time it does not flinch away.

Instead, the whirling winds of the dying hurricane seem to drawn in the SHADOWS, turning the STORM dark and volatile. Cyclones split and tear across the battlefield, cutting tracks in the earth as they advance toward their prey.

"I remember feeling cold, I think." His brow furrows as he parses distant memory. "But it wasn't — bad. Not for me."

It had been frightening in the way a rollercoaster was, the anticipation of power like the anticipation of a long fall. He'd craved it, chased it... and ultimately, been passed up as Chu-e was. It had disappointed him, but he'd also been thrilled to be acknowledged at all.

"Are there any cats?" He chuckles. "I guess Solgaleo's kind of like a giant cat."

---

It continues to rain. [5/5]
Lugia uses Shadow Storm!

After the Hurricane, Dutchess is almost swept away by the powerful Shadow attack. She is blasted back by the force, ends up bodily rolling to a stop in a heap. Chu-e sighs and calls her back. Another ball plucked, tossed, after a few moments. An Audino is what takes her place, a scowl on the face of what is normally such a kind and timid pokemon. Much like Princess did, Malche glowers at Lugia, more resentment and anger in his gaze than hers had held. Chu-e taps the daith piercing, which he had been doing so frequently lately with Miles Sharp, and the pink pokemon bursts in white light.

The now Mega doesn't waste time, the last pulses of energy shimmering on his new form as he gathers energy around his body. It's aided by the pink mist, even if it had been thinned and flung around by Lugai's attacks and storm. A stream pink crystallized energy are shot at Lugia.

It's all watched almost impassive from Chu-e's seat.

"Mew is kind of a cat." A pause. "If the old drawings of it are anything to go by, anyway." He wondered if it was as small and cute in real life as it looked in story books.

---

- Called out Malche the Audino
- Malche Mega Evolved [1/3]
- Malche used Dazzling Gleam (boosted by Misty Terrain)

Though Gavin is surprised by the anger exuded by a Pokemon known by most to be sweet, docile, Lugia seems eternally indifferent to the foes sent against it. Audino's boosted strength in combination with the pink fog sees its attack hurt more than those previous, but the shadowed legend only seems angered by its pain.

Rain that had slowed to an ineffective drizzle begins to pour with renewed force when Lugia beats its wings, swooping in low circles over its prey. The winds born of its flight path howl in Gavin's ears.

"Mew," Gavin echoes. "Don't know that one."

---

Lugia uses Rain Dance!
It started to rain! (1/5)