with one arm covering his face, eyes strained, greyson waits out the supernova. when it subsides and with it, the oppressive darkness, he blinks away the few spots of light that plague his vision. the soothing presence of the comfey around his wrist keeps him calm and a quick glance around him confirms the presence of kyle lopez , illeana reyes and MATIAS SILPH .
[break][break]
watching MATIAS SILPH fire a barrage of attacks in the direction of — was that rocket? — sends ice through greyson's veins. it felt as if he were standing in the trenches and mere feet away from mortar fire. the feeling haunted him.
[break][break]
with morbid curiosity he pays attention to the SOLARBEAM that was fired from MATIAS SILPH's pokemon. it races across the battlefield, clashes against a blue punching-bag shaped creature, and is then redirected. greyson's eyes flash wide and his hand moves before he can stop it, a shiny dewspider finding it's place among this carnage. its form shimmers in carbon copy of oscar clayton's own pokemon, then it MIRROR MOVES the attack right back! now nearly 4X as large, it cuts across the battle field and back towards the intended targets.
[break][break]
he all too suddenly becomes aware of a sensation of warmth that spreads through him as kyle lopez's avatar abilities take hold, but his attention is wrenched free from that thought as kyle lopez's smeargle begins to charge GEOMANCY. the comfey around the champion's wrist extends it's own power to the mix as it gives him a HELPING HAND, meanwhile a flurry of petals (PETAL BLIZZARD) rips from the comfey around greyson's wrist, aiming directly for the tree of life.
[break][break]
greyson's heart thumps as all these things seem to happen at once, aware of just how dangerous this situation was. now more than ever, he needed to be on his A-game.

[attr="class","notes"]@dd[break]
shiny dewspider MIRROR COATS the SOLARBEAM that was MIRROR COATED by oscar clayton to them. is this 4x damage? idk[break]
kyle lopez's comfey uses HELPING HAND to add its own power to the GEOMANCY of his smeargle.[break]
Greyson Connors's comfey uses PETAL BLIZZARD to send a torrent of petals at the TREE OF LIFE.[break]
illeana reyes's comfey's action is UP TO HER.[break]
UPDATED MAP.

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

For a solitary moment, there was a marginal inroad against the chaos emanating from around the Tree of Life. PIDOVE, despite his small stature, was able to blow back the dark spores surrounding Barnaby and his group. An unfortunate consequence of this, though, was that the chubby bird was now riddled in the ominous pollen-like substance. Almost immediately after instigating the DEFOG, it fell from the sky, unable to muster the energy to fly any longer.

An ill-timed omen, under which Barnaby was feeling similar effects. His body felt at war with itself; adrenaline sparked at every nerve, heightening his senses to fight against the chaos around him, while simultaneously he could feel his stamina being sapped from within. His legs trembled, his hands shook. Sweat beaded at his neck and fell like small rivulets along his back and chest. It was the spores. It had to be, given PIDOVE’s sudden condition.

Hurriedly, he began batting at his sleeves and pants, his shoulders and shirt, anywhere where he could brush the spores away. PIDOVE, with it’s last ounce of strength, even attempted to flap it’s wings and blow away the spores that it’s trainer could not reach.

Suddenly, flashes of light pervaded the inky darkness, goading Barnaby’s attention toward the Tree of Life once again. In the momentary brightness he could see bryan delarosa with a large, deer-like Pokemon that appeared to be doing something significant to the Tree, although Barnaby could not even hazard a guess at the mechanics of these effects. Whatever was happening, it seemed to be driving away the artificial darkness - only to reveal a grim battlefield.

Sight and sound restored, Barnaby was confronted with the horrendous realities of battle all around him. Pokemon lay maimed beside their trainers, panicked civilians shrieked in the distance, and worst of all the crystallized human figure in front of the Tree had somehow skewered a BLASTOISE and some sort of mechanized insect on elongated talons. It was an awful sight to behold, and yet more crazed things followed without reprieve.

Odd, circular patterns began to crisscross the open space before them, illuminated by the starlight above and the various attacks being levied at the Tree of Life. What was happening? Involuntarily, Barnaby’s own voice cut through his roiling thoughts, muted and monotone as it recited:

DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE FUTURE.
A CHOICE WILL COME THAT ONLY YOU CAN MAKE.
THINK, FEEL, ACT.
MAKE THE CORRECT CHOICE.

Something like static pressed at the corners of Barnaby’s conscience, unbelieving of this grave intrusion. What omnipotent force had invaded the sanctity of his mind? What did these words mean? “You heard it too?!” Yelled above the din, he pointed the question toward Elisabeth Fiorelli as she relayed the mantra to Martín del Mar.

There was no time to speculate on its meaning, however, not when - BOOM! A flash of energy spanned the field, leaving only seconds for Barnaby to call on another of his Pokemon. “PROTECT!” He screamed as he released the SNORUNT, which erected the barrier just in time to mitigate the force of the blast. Still, it sent the weakened ROCKET to his knees… where, in the aftermath of the explosion, the bodies of his two Pokemon lay as well, bloodied and barely recognizable.

The killing blast had come from some gigantic, otherworldly beast, now poised against those gathered and not the Tree of Life or even Chu-e Choi, as those around him had addressed the crystalline husk of a man.

Despite the terrible ringing in his ears, and the gnawing fear that was beginning to swell in his gut, Barnaby rose unsteadily to his feet, spurred on by Mars’ insistent orders to head west. He followed without hesitation, leaving the bodies of his Pokemon where they fell.

“I KNOW THIS SYMBOL. IT… It appeared when the Guardians did.”

Flashes of that dreadful night involving Martín del Mar sprang to mind - namely, his talk of Legendary Pokemon and prophecies. The Lake Guardians… perhaps the words that had invaded his mind minutes earlier were connected to these odd symbols marring the earth around them?

It was a fleeting thought, one that was quickly ushered away as Mars continued to issue commands. Barnaby watched as Alexandra Briarwood leapt after Hideo Kino, leaving him with the task of defending their position on the Western Point. Again he withdrew another of his Poke Balls, this time calling on GURDURR to erect a Wide Guard around their small group to protect from oncoming attacks.

• hidden identity (masked)
• standing beside mars & elisa at the western point
• pressure from first DE event
• attempts to remove dark spores from self (PIDOVE helps); feeling the stamina effects
• asks elisa if she heard the prophecy too
• SNORUNT used PROTECT against the explosion
• SNORUNT & PIDOVE die
• GURDURR used WIDE GUARD to defend group

☉

[attr="class","illeana"]

[attr="class","illeana b"]

[attr="class","illeana i"]well... this is shitty.

the sky illuminates with an explosion. and then, a supernova follows. she winces, a hand rising to cover her eyes from the light. when it clears... there's more going wrong than she had initially thought.

clusters of people and pokemon are spread out around the tree. the group is farther away but quickly approaching as kyle lopez's sivally takes the lead. her gallade holds firm on her approach with kyle and Greyson Connors, wide guard holding strong for now...

behind them, MATIAS SILPH fires off a solar beam and she's glancing back as it flies overhead. of course, that's when she sees it: the odd terrain.

her pink psychic terrain is gone but this? it's different, off putting in a way she despises. it creeps and crawls along behind them with a life of its own. and when it touches the comfey on her wrist, the little flower creature wiggles uncomfortably. she tucks it a little closer to her body as if she'll be able to keep the comfey out of harms way for now.

she can't but it's a nice thought.

her flygon joins kyle's sivally in its endeavor of attacking the tree, flying ahead of the group. with a helping hand from the loaned comfey, her flygon musters up a powerful boomburst and sends it flying toward the tree's trunk. and she tries to watch to see if the attack connets but her eyes continue to drift back to the corrupted terrain, to the way it laps at the ground.

the closer they get, the dread becomes worse.

zUKIpqUF
Greyson Connors MATIAS SILPH kyle lopez

tl;dr:
- let's goooo boys + illeana
- weird corrupted terrain follows them
- gallade holds wide guard as they approach
- flygon uses boomburst to attack the tree in tandem with kyle's sivally
- this is wild
- the loaned comfey uses helping hand on flygon's boomburst
- map

dark spores stung and tore at her skin. though the abra could sustain her, it did not make sense to stay here—and darkrai seemed to know this, eyeing over at her expectantly, silent despite her question. typical.[break][break]
through the darkness then, suddenly, fire was incoming. though the jester’s demise came from too far off to discern its origin, she reacted in time to save herself. [break][break]
”PROTECT!” [break][break]
a magnezone appeared out of its ball, shield stopping the flames and shockwaves—before it dropped to the ground, lights dimming. lulu loomed over it briefly, not needing to stare long to know it was dead. she kicked the metal side of it. [break][break]
”junk.” [break][break]
similarly, somewhere in the distance, swoobat also perished, though its death was much stranger and went, presumably, without a witness. [break][break]
darkrai was done waiting around. it ascended, white plume growing dimmer before it all but disappeared into the darkness ahead. lulu remained, momentarily stunned by the abandonment.[break][break]
”what the fuck?” [break][break]
quickly deciding, she held out a pokéball to return the illumina abra, and hurry into the shadows to follow her patron into battle. [break][break]
”we’ll be okay in the darkness. we are the darkness,” she breathed to herself. then, she called up, louder, ”wait! fine! i’m right behind you!”[break][break]
she squinted for the faint glow of streetlamps and other illumina pokémon in the thick of the dark zone, unknowingly getting closer to where Cillian Quinn was positioned. as she covered ground almost blindly, she eventually noticed the pattern beneath her feet. [break][break]
”that doesn’t bode well.” [break][break]
still trying to keep up, she pulled out another couple of pokéballs. this time, a noctowl which flew at pace beside her, and her single unown. when it appeared, she quickly snatched it out of the air and held it close to her chest, carrying it along as she ran.[break][break]
”L, if we need a portal out of here, i'm counting on you. i know passwords. nightmare. wormhole. ultraspace…” fuck, she had too many things to remember. ”oh! i can introduce you to Adrian Malcolm . he's dating my brother, actually...”
just up ahead, darkrai arrived on the scene to join Cillian Quinn ’s familiar shadow lugia in defense of rocket. a SHADOW BALL swirled between its wizard sleeves and launched at the tree.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]DfQQifSZ[break][break]

tldr:[break]
• magnezone uses protect against jester's demise, dies[break]
• swoobat dies from dark spores / seeds[break]
• illumina abra is returned[break]
• darkrai goes ahead of party en route to help rocket[break]
• lulu releases noctowl and unown[break]
• darkrai arrives near Cillian Quinn 's shadow lugia, uses shadow ball on tree[break]
• lulu attempts to appeal to her unown jic she needs a portal, noctowl follows closeby

[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-darkrai"]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-unown"]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-noctowl"]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-magnezone"]