The strange shadows that lift from the spatial rends blow by him, and even as Fern instructs his dragapult to follow, the auras that they kick off settle with him. Like cold dread, negativity seeps under his skin in a way that makes him shiver. It's foreboding, it's disheartening. But it's still interesting. So he can't bring himself to fall back just yet - not until it's clear that the effort is futile.[break][break]

As everything breaks up, Fern finds himself chasing nothing at all. The shadows that he had such a clear image of just moments before are unreachable. They dart away as quickly as the v-shaped flames, and no matter how fast Ceci or Morty are, there is no catching up to them. A pang of disappointment follows when the shard in his hand doesn't draw him to what he was chasing, but as the shadows dissipate, so to do the ugly emotions that swirled around them.[break][break]

Sighing, he pockets the primal shard and pats Cecilia on the the top of her wide, flat head. Silently, he makes the promise to himself that he will follow up on this. Chasing shadows sounds like a fruitless endeavor, but it's like he's been bitten by a bug and instantly has an itch that won't go away. He'll even do so without the shard, if he has to. Something else he tells himself as he hears Amor Rose's voice in his earpiece. The commms connecting them all had sputtered back to life, but Fern had largely tuned anything said out until Amor said his name, and insisted protection of himself and the shard were essential.[break][break]

So someone had seen his catch. Huh.[break][break]

Fern isn't keen to turn the primal shard over, but he's sure it will come up in reports now that it's been announced. Like a little gremlin, though, he'll hold onto it until he can't seem to avoid it any longer. Still, he appreciates the back-up. "I'm on my way out, the support is much appreciated." he chirps back over the communication line in response to his fellow Rocket. His eyes scan the mount, though, and he lingers. Only for a moment longer until he spots who he's looking for."Just gotta make a quick pit stop first!"[break][break]

Swooping back down, he finds Marza Volchitsa on the ground in bad state. Kuru stands sentinel beside her, and cocks his head at Fern as they descend. "Marza, you don't look too hot." No shit, Sherlock. Sliding off of his dragapult's back, he stoops beside her. "Gonna get you out of here, okay? Hang onto Ceci. I'll explain later." Once she does so, Cecilia opens a PHANTOM FORCE portal to his home, and drops in, letting the opening close up behind him. Fern then turns to her corviknight and scratches the underside of his beak. "Alright Kuru, let's get back to Sootopolis."[break][break]

They take off moments later, shuttling away from the mount, shrouded by the lingering fog and smoke.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] mask[break]
+ is disappointed the shard doesn't draw him to anything[break]
+ feeling some major bad feels tho. y i k e s.[break]
+ makes a personal note to go in pursuit of those shadows later, with shard or not[break]
+ acknowledges Amor Rose's message of prioritizing his safety thanks bestie!![break]
+ he's not ditching Marza Volchitsa tho so doubles back and finds her and her corviknight[break]
+ phantom force teleports marza home, and then flies off with kuru. fern out!![break]
[attr="class","poke-sprite pokemon dragapult"]

[attr="class","illeana"]

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

[attr="class","illeana i"]chains begin to decay beneath a volley of attacks. each one hits with desparation, with furor, with defiance.

and as they finally break apart, palkia is free.

she heaves out a shaky sigh of immediate relief. her expression relaxes away from anger and morphs into something different, something more. her devotion holds strong despite the chaos mt pyre dissolves into once the spatial god is released from it’s prison.

for a moment, she feels a sense of pride: she had predicted this correctly to Remiel Calcifet in mossdeep city and she had followed up on the promise she uttered to him. and isn’t that the point? proving herself correct, proving herself devoted?

perhaps… but what has it cost her?

everything.

the world spins as father winter is promptly cut in half. she stares, for a mere moment, at the carnage before her feet are slipping out from under her and she’s crumbling into hallowed ground.

her golurk catches her injured body with a large clay hand and turns them away from the halved corpse. the automaton looks for a friend, for an ally. it finds the fallen Gunner Graves in its endeavor and picks his unconscious body up gingerly, bringing him and illeana both toward league personnel for medical attention.

when the golurk finds either paxton concordas, PENELOPE LIVY, annalise henderson, ollie morales, Melody Miro, or even Katherine Fairburne, it offers an exhausted yet friendly coo and two full hands for further medical assistance.

paaa: mt pyre.

tl;dr |
- pp head palkia is free yay!
- illie passes out from exhaustion/blood loss
- golurk picks up illeana to bring her to league personnel
- golurk also picks up Gunner Graves and brings him to league personnel as well
- we need medical attention pls friendos!

Spell of the unown, teravolt turnabout, the unown chain, father winter, the border -- it would take wide scope camera to capture it all. Back-and-forth attacks fired off from both sides of the field, causing Penelope's head to spin as her eyes flicked back and forth with them, doing their best to follow each arc that cut the sky.
[break][break]
Once the dust began to settle and the end of their story flowed into its final arc, Penelope's eyes franticly began to sweep her surroundings, caring more for the men that stood by her side than a conflict that spanned far beyond her tenure. "Is everyone okay?" Voice hoarse, she first looked toward Gunner Graves -- down on the ground, head struck by a rock. Fuck fuck fuck. Then, to her right, where Illeana now lay, limp in the hands of her golurk.
[break][break]
"annalise henderson --"
[break][break]
Before she could finish her sentence, the ranger had already sprung to life, readied to drag the bodies back to the hospital. Good, great, amazing. Her thumb sought the trigger of her radio.
[break][break]

"Everyone, we're done here. Make sure everyone leaves here safe -- if you need assistance, call for it."

[break][break]
She stowed away the radio in her pocket, tapped her metagross, then looked toward ollie morales , who was still close by.
[break][break]
"You good," she called out weakly, "We--" But, as she attempted to slip down from her metagross, the world faded to black, crashing her to the ground.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] [break]
- calls for the league to BACK UP!!!!![break]
- faints next to ollie morales

"Just shoot them. They might come back to life." Paxton answered over the comms, as he heard Gwyar Wledig speak up. Jpules gave him a look, having returned to float aprund its trainer looking the new man over. With Palkia freed and DRK Triad murdered, he was left woth the devastation of battle. Mainly, he turned an eye to his own corpse, this. [break][break]

He felt something gurgle up inside him. A sickness within- something gross and disgusting. His body- the one that held him upright- felt weird. Less stiff. Old pains are and sores gone and replaced with whatever the aftermath had left in him. He felt strange, and a touch of his neck revealed no scar tissue from his almost demise in Kanto. It's just gone. All of it is. Scars healed, tattoos gone, piercings missing. He lets the sickness take over, turning his head to the side without a thought and retching, dry heaving sick beside himself. "I need a fire type for body disposal." He announced after wiping his mouth. "Please." He added as Joules floated between the pair to block the sight of it. [break][break]

He's more than happy to see illeana reyes 's golurk, laughing slightly at the unorthodox transport. "Good work." He murmured to the ghost type, noting it carrying Gunner Graves , another casualty in the fight. He nodded at annalise henderson as she approached. "I'm just scuffed up, I'll help-" he said moving around the field. He gives a glance at PENELOPE LIVY , moving in when he saw her dropping. Though thankfully ollie morales is with her. "You ok?" Its a general question, he's already looking for easy fixes he can provide.

JP0KI7jn

[break][break]

+ AIIIIYAIYAIYAAAAAAAAAI [break][break]
- tired

[attr="class","pokeclass"]