Fingers find their way into the wrinkles of his shirt, pulling her closer to him as winds continued to whip around them. They were as ferocious as the natural bite of Hoenn's tenacious nature.
[break][break]

Through hagged breaths, she barely managed to respond.
[break][break]

"I'm sorry. I-I don't know what happened--"
[break][break]

One second she was reassuring Moltres, and the next, she was here, barely surviving against the harrowing pits of Mt. Chimney's churning stomach. The drawls of envy allowed little evidence to remain in her memory; only fragments of its yearning. Of the promises it offered.
[break][break]
"I get it okay?! I fucking get it."
[break][break]

It was at this moment that the black tendrils lunged out from the magma. Streaks of green marked its explosive journey to each of its targets; from them, only Charizard and Golem were claimed. For those within its web, the tendrils of spiteful ruination began to engulf, coiling around their body with an overwhelming sensation of blistering ENVY. As it did so, small fingers poked out from its ends and began digging into their newfound meal. While, outwardly, one would only notice the suffocation of black energy, the internal unravelings of the mind extended far beyond the anguished cries that rang. Piece by piece, RUINATION would pick skin from flesh, muscle from bones, until one's own mind crumbled.
[break][break]
Penny looked to follow instructions; reaching into her pocket, she sent forth her Blaziken and Whimiscott.
[break][break]
Their arrival came just in time. Slowly, from the depths of the magma, the small lick of flames grew in size. A fin took shape, then a pairs of eyes. They stared back at them, lifeless in a way that struck unease.
[break][break]
"Blaziken go-"
[break][break]
Brittle words broke in her mouth. She couldn't speak. Couldn't walk. Only stare back at its silent calling.
[break][break]
"because i fought for it. i did what no one else could do and found it. brought it back from another world."
[break][break]
Matias' words rang back to her, not as memories, but as scripture engraved into the forefront of her mind. Bolded by the ENVY that swelled from it. It never did quite go away.
[break][break]
"Matias-- you still have that jade bead right?"

Life returned to her bones as she snapped her head back toward him. The gold of her eyes now gleamed with a new radiance.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

The combined efforts of DRAGON PULSE and SURGING STRIKES both hit, but not without the pains of loss.
[break][break]

The jade beads flashed, inflicting all of those around it with the implications of tearing ENVY. It tore away at their defenses, until only vulnerabilities laid in wake. Like exposed wounds awaiting the final blow.
[break][break]

Then, right as Charizard attempted to fish the ruinous beast from it's cage, a LAVA PLUME shot out from the depths of mt chimney. It looked to bathe those that attacked it in a tsunami of molten magma.
[break][break]

"Hand it to me," Penny's words came out with rushing urgency. She stepped forward, reaching out a hand. "Trust me."
[break][break]

During this, Whimiscott threw out whips of howling winds. A HURRICANE acted as their layer of defense, redirecting the bits of LAVA back toward the volcano's pits.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

Her gaze darkened at his response.
[break][break]

"Matias," the name repeated itself, forged in the ENVY that burned deep inside. Its festering growth became more apparent and Penelope, for the first time, welcomed its arrival. "Give me the jade bead, so we can stop this. Please."
[break][break]

Again, she stepped forward, but this time she didn't just reach out her hand. She reached for his.
[break][break]
"Don't you trust me?" [break][break]


In the background, winds began to rage, forcing ember to sputter out from the volcano's lip. The fish had been caught. But the black liquid of its blank expression offered no repentance for what it had taken.
[break][break]

Eerie wisps of dark matter began to collect around moltres' head. It forced the weight of ENVY onto the avian, looking to shackle its spirit of ultimate freedom and rebirth, as ENVY had shackled the fish for centuries. (DARK PULSE)
[break][break]

Behind her back, Penelope made a signal toward her Whimiscott, urging the Pokemon to prepare a STUN SPORE. If Matias failed to retrieve the gem again, she'd take more drastic measures.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

"Fine."
[Break][break]
Her concealed hand flicked a finger upward and a wave of stun spore shuddered off from the Whimiscott, coagulating onto Matias like moths flocking to a flame.
[Break][break]
Betrayal came from the zaps of electricity flashing out in short bursts.
[Break][break]
"I'm sorry - really, I am."
[Break][break]
Hurried footsteps ate the gap between them. Despite the cruelty of her actions, genuine pain smeared her face as she approached. her fingers slowly reached up to his forcibly stilled face. They hovered along his jawline, hesitant in their touch. As if they'd lost every right to his warmth.
[Break][break]
"But I have to do this. I don't know why, but," she leaned forward and slowly pecked his cheek, "I just know that I have to. You know how that feels, right?"
[Break][break]
Her hand then dropped, sliding into one pocket, then the other. A thumb smoothed over its burnished face.
[Break][break]
"I love you, Matias"
[Break][break]
She then cupped the bead in the center of her palm and fished it back out, pocketing it for herself.
[Break][break]
During this, violence flared behind them. Blaziken entered the fight, joining the resentful fish in its battle against its antithesis. STONE EDGE erupted from the ground, looking to block the incoming SKY ATTACK with its wall of defense. This allowed enough time for the fish to return its attack, striking back with another attempt of DARK PULSE.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break]


[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-ditto"]

[attr="class","header"]THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE, AND IN ITSELF

[attr="class","setting"]

heat pulsated in the air around her. rapidly expanding, there was no escaping its sweeping suffocation. there was only embracing it for the hidden gifts that sprung from between its arms.
[break][break]
penelope maintained a slow, steadied walk toward the crusted edge of rock waterfalling down into the dug pits of magma. violence still blossomed all around, but within her nook of safety, contemplations were still briefly allowed.
[BREAK][BREAK]
"whimsicott use helping hand. blaziken, stone edge."
[break][break]

the words came out in hollowed syllables, lifeless in the way that contrasted her bleeding heart.
[BREAK][BREAK]
the pokemon obeyed without complaints, whimiscott shuddering out its welcomed assistance, and blaziken utilizing the speed boost alongside its own natural abilities.
[break][break]

the already protruding wall of stone edge bent, expanding outward. it looked to not only entrap the charizard, but reduce his sputter of flames into cinders.
[break][break]

at the edge of the volcano's lip, penelope took to a pause. slowly, she glanced back over her shoulder, just barely catching wind of the stilled elite four member.
[break][break]

MATIAS SILPH had been diminished down to candlelight; brought down to a knee and face contorted into one of pain. for all that it did to pierce her, the look of his withered stature brought along something far more primal.
[BREAK][BREAK]
vindication. not only for all that was sacrificed but for all that was left to give.
[break][break]

"it means you're on the right path," she could hear Matias' ghost say.
[break][break]

eyes kept trained onto him, penelope's thumb smoothed over the small gemstone one last time. the warmness had faded. as though it'd been absorbed into the touch of her skin.


[break][break]

with one toss, the final jade bead was thrown. it plummeted down into the bubbling lava, swallowed up without a sound.
[break][break]

the reaction was almost immediate.
[break][break]
moltres' sky attack struck down the malicious fish, forcing it back. it stumbled into the pool of magma, shackled by its own inability to withstand the glimmer of valor before it.
[break][break]
at least, not until it felt the drop of the jade bead.
[break][break]

[break][break]
the entirety of mt. chimney began to quake. in comparison to its earlier eruption, this one held a much fiercer tone, with lava already boiling up to its lip. luckily it flowed out over the brim in places around the two trainers, never straying too far into their peripherals.
[break][break]
rocks began to shoot out from the volcano's jutted jaws, and lightning struck the grounds surrounding its ascent up.
[break][break]
the ruination had begun its unholy corruption.
[break][break]
again, dark tendrils lunged out from the wisps of darkness curling around the fish's fins. its targets had consolidated onto one: moltres.
[break][break]

[break][break]
it was as penelope bared witness to the gods' eternal struggle that her own natural connection to the fish began to unravel itself.
[break][break]
the familiarity of its warmth; the allure of its hushes promises; since the beginning, these pangs of raw envy devolved from this fundamental yearning for what was forever lost within themselves: power.
[break][break]
forever ago, penelope had believed in the notions prescribed to her. that power was reserved for those who were born strong. born with the innate gifts to secure what was inherently theirs from the beginning.
[break][break]
only now, in the whips of flames and jaws of ruination, this trainer and legendary had found solace in truth birthed from their conflict; that true power only comes to those who are prepared to do anything to achieve it.
[break][break]

[attr="class","header"]CAN MAKE HEAVEN OF HELL, A HELL OF HEAVEN.

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

[attr="class","header"]THE MIND IS ITS OWN PLACE, AND IN ITSELF

[attr="class","setting"]

"shortcut to power? Are you kidding me?"
[Break][break]
The paralytic spores were healing themselves. Pouring oil onto rust. Just as his bones regained the vibrance of movement, so did hers. Slowly, she turned herself to face him.
[Break][break]
"This is the furthest thing from a shortcut."
[Break][break]
She'd given up her entire world to stand here, in the vortex of swelling opportunity. And he wanted to reduce those efforts to ashes?
[Break][break]
No, not again. She wouldn't allow herself to be burnt by that same flame again.
[Break][break]
Her PokeBall clicked to life, swapping out the whimsicott for her own Charizard. She wrapped one arm around its neck and allowed flight to take hold of them both.
[Break][break]
"Back then, you told me to stop the self-pity and do something. I'm just taking your advice."
[Break][break]
Charizard's right wing sliced downward, sending a series of AIR SLASHES toward his URSHIFU, while Blaziken and the fish continued their assault on Moltres.
[Break][break]
MEGA EVOLUTION bathed the fighting type in a capsule of crusted energy, only to release a new figure from its cracks. The Pokemon then sprung forth and sought to strike down on the moltres. While it went in with a SHADOW CLAW, the god of lava and ENVY gazed upon it with the ferocity of a harrowing MEAN LOOK.


[Break][break]

[attr="class","header"]CAN MAKE HEAVEN OF HELL, A HELL OF HEAVEN.

[attr="class","oocnotes"] + MATIAS SILPH

[attr="class","pokeclass"]