[attr="class","skullbody"]The Magic Coat would repel the worst of the Blizzard's stinging chill, though it did nothing to prevent the physical force of all of that ice and snow. It was a strange, almost surreal feeling, more like being pelted with rocks and sand than anything else. Instead, the cold redirected to Duster, the sheer temperature tinging his body and icy blue and locking down his muscles. It was a fascinating exchange; against friendlier foes, it would be a sight to marvel at.[break][break]
But there was nothing friendly about this. It was ugliness all around. Pokemon attacking trainers. Trainers slaughtering Pokemon. Hellishly powerful blows being slung across battle lines. Disasters of immense power scarring the surface of a once sacred grave site. Fear and desperation and rage and hatred, pure hatred, carpeted the battlefield even more thickly than the fog did.[break][break]
None of that meant a thing to Isaac. The only thing that mattered was that he had the attention of the enemy's sniper.[break][break]
The first bullet cut through the padding of his pants. A warning shot. With how close the bullet came to touching flesh, Isaac knew it was intended as a fair more painful warning. He counted his lucky stars that his extra padding had fucked with his silhouette.[break][break]
If the first shot was sound, the second shot was fire. The bullet flew close enough to singe the hairs right off of Isaac's thigh. The shockwave of its travel left his skin red and singed. It was like holding his hand over a burning stove, and really, wasn't that exactly what he was doing? He was seeing how much he could get away with, because every second the sniper wasted on him was time he spent not focusing on Ash. He didn't know what Ash was doing. He didn't care. He just didn't want to see him die.[break][break]
The third shot was the grind. The bullet had now passed close enough to slide against his flesh, ripping and tearing it with every rotation. Without penetration, it was as if a layer of his skin had been scraped right off. This time, the pain was as direct as it was agonizing. Isaac fell to one knee, but head his held up high and glared defiantly into the incoming bullets.[break][break]
Four. Five. It was meticulous now. It was sadistic now. It was like his flesh was being scraped off meticulously by some sort of torturer. He remembered what
Julia Davis said about Rocket's torture, and wondered if she would find the League's any more tolerable. Nevertheless, the adrenaline made each shot hurt less than the last.[break][break]
For a moment, Isaac wondered if he would even mind dying here. The alternative, Ash dying, would be unthinkable. He couldn't allow it. He wouldn't. And that was why he roared a defiant, furious
"Do it!" towards the sniper. He begged internally for Ash to run. He did . . . in the other direction, right into the fray. The man was lost. Maybe Isaac would be too.[break][break]
Yet someone had other ideas.[break][break]
Seeing her trainer wounded, desperate, trying so hard to hold off against an insurmountable foe lit a fire under Kiryu. If she didn't do something, Isaac was going to die here. Each second between gunshots was punctuated by another heavy footstep, Kiryu charging towards Isaac in a one-Aggron stampede. She would protect him. Even if she had to bring this whole mountain down herself, she would protect him.[break][break]
A rainbow glow shined form Isaac's wrist, responding unconsciously to the strength of his bond and Kiryu's desire. The light of evolution cast her body in a blinding white silhouette. She needed to be stronger than stone. She needed to be stronger than herself. As she pushed herself to ascend, she could feel her body breaking down, reconstituting itself to be harder than steel.[break][break]
And then she collapsed, the light of Mega Evolution dispersing all too suddenly. Unable to release its payload of Infinity Energy safely, a rainbow-colored blaze spread up Isaac's arm. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.[break][break]
The world blurred around Isaac as two forms of agony caught him in their clutches. He couldn't hear the sound of Paxton's sniper rifle, or the fading beeps of his Magnezone. Instead, the only sound he could hear was Kiryu's rasping breaths. Each was heavier, slower, more labored than the last. The pain wasn't the first thing Isaac heard; it was confusion, as if Kiryu was wondering why she suddenly felt the world going dark around her. Yet the worst part was the horrid gurgling, as if breathing had become impossible for her.[break][break]
Ash and Penny's struggles with a switchblade were a blur to Isaac. He couldn't take his eyes off of the way Kiryu, who always stood so strong, was barely able to prop herself up with a single arm. Molten metal, ruined before it could be properly pressurized into the impenetrable hide of a Mega Aggron, dribbled from her chest like thick, viscous blood. Her entire body was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. Tears began to blind Isaac's vision, turning his beloved Pokemon's struggle into little more than a smear of grey and black.[break][break]
Safety was the least of his concerns. Not his own, as his arm burned in agony and his leg could barely support his weight. Not even Toto's, the Blastoise forced to fend for himself as his trainer went catatonic. He took the ungodly powerful Thunderbolt on the chin, pushing through the agony he felt in order to support his trainer. He tucked into his shell and slid towards Isaac, hooking an arm out to grab him on the way past.[break][break]
Immediately, everything snapped into focus. He was here. Kiryu was in agony. And he was being taken away from her.
"Stop! Bring me back!" he shouted, but it was to no avail. Toto slid into cover in a single, seamless motion, before shakily prying himself back out of his shell. He clamped a hand down on Isaac's shoulders to prevent him from running off. Truth is, he was in immense pain. But even as the unmistakable scent of ozone danced across his nostrils, he knew he had to hang in there.[break][break]
Kiryu knew this, too. Each breath was harder than the next. Each movement was harder than the next. But she refused to go out without a fight. She rose to her feet, revealing the fissure where Paxton had shot her, and bellowed a challenge to the heavens. It was desperate. It was fleeting. It was enough. Power thrummed in her iron plates, the pain she had taken turning into pure force.[break][break]
As she smashed her wrists together, the resulting
Metal Burst was bright enough to turn Mt. Pyre into a lighthouse.[break][break]
Toto flinched away from the light, and there Isaac saw his chance. He slipped away from the well-meaning Blastoise, running to Kiryu's side. The light would blind the sniper, push back the councilwoman's Pokemon. It was like she was calling him to her side. He knew he had to be there. Yet when he arrived, he did not see his Aggron standing tall in the face of all odds. Instead, he saw her near-motionless, the slightest hint of a smile on her face.[break][break]
He recalled her to her Pokeball. It was okay. She was hurt! People get hurt in battles all the time! Sometimes really, really badly! But she was a fighter! She'd had plenty of pain in her day! All she needed was a trip to a Pokemon Center, some medical attention, and she'd be right back on her feet! Just like she always was! Because she was Kiryu! She had to be! She . . . had to be . . . [break][break]
He wasn't the only one to see what had happened. But while he refused to understand, Duster had far more perspective. Kiryu was dead. If she still clung onto life, it was for Isaac's benefit, not her own. Her time had come, even if so unexpectedly, but she refused to let her spirit be snuffed out. Instead, she turned it into a literal beacon.[break][break]
The Cubone had always been in tune with spirits. Now was no exception. He could feel Kiryu's last thoughts, last hopes, last prayers, as they drifted away on the winds of Mt. Pyre. Yet they weren't drifting away into the void. They were drifting towards him.[break][break]
He could feel his bone mask meld tightly to his face, as solid of a fit as the Aggron's own. He could feel a burning urge to move, even as his frozen muscles left him little more than a statue. What else could he do but give in? The Cubone's body burst into flame, first red, then an eerie blue. He sprang forth like a phoenix from the ashes, and ashes stained his skin a dark violet in turn. He skidded to a halt by Ash's feet; larger, stronger, and better equipped to fill Kiryu's role as guardian than ever before.[break][break]
As Isaac saw the ascension of his Marowak, he was unsure whether to feel pride or deep shame. Yet all he could do was scurry back to cover like the cowardly rat he was.[break][break]
His retreat would not go uncovered. Toto may have been on his last legs, but he refused to let Kiryu's last stand go unanswered. As Isaac fell back, Toto channeled his grief and fear into an Aura Sphere of brilliant blues and yellows. Still tucked within cover, he hurled the Aura Sphere out like a desperate soldier's grenade. It zoomed past the Ampharos that had so grievously harmed him, past the litany of Steel types that blockaded his progress, past any Pokemon on the battlefield. Its destination? Paxton.[break][break]
Perhaps Paxton would find a way around the strike. He was crafty. Resourceful. Could handle anything he saw coming, and even the awesome power of Aura was no exception. Yet sometimes problems arose outside of the confines of known variables. Sometimes, things took a turn that nobody could have ever expected.[break][break]
Would Paxton see the second Aura Sphere coming, made of pure, blackened hatred?[break][break]
TEAL DEER;[break]
Magic Coat doesn't prevent Blizzard's damage, but the Freeze status effect is redirected at Duster (Cubone).[break]
Isaac is shot. A lot. And most of those shots really hurt![break]
Kiryu tries to intervene. An ill-fated Mega Evolution attempt softens her body enough for a shot to Isaac's head to become a shot right to her heart.[break]
Toto (Blastoise), despite taking a mega-powered, Terrain-enhanced Thunderbolt like a champ, bros up and drags Isaac behind cover.[break]
In her last moments, Kiryu channels all of that damage into a
Metal Burst of immense power.[break]
Isaac recalls her, desperate to save her. However, though he fails to realize it, he's too late.
Kiryu is dead.[break]
Duster evolves into an Alolan Marowak (cleared with Shiv!), Flare Blitzing out of his Freeze and standing by Ash's side.[break]
Toto launches an Aura Sphere from cover, not at a Pokemon but at Paxton himself . . .[break]
But where did that second Aura Sphere come from!?
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Like thick syrup, fear clung to the back of Penelope's throat, suffocating her from the inside out. After barely managing to force that woman away, she was now trudging back to which she came, hopeful that at least there, with 
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