“Yeah.” Navy tries very, very hard not to think about this girl in a bikini. He’s older than her. He’s her guardian. He’s exhausted from fighting. He has almost no energy left. But he has to keep pushing onward. If they’re going to get out of here alive, they need something to hold onto.[break][break]

If she wants to go to the beach together, he’ll make a trip out of it. They’ll gather up some friends. Have fun. They live in Slateport. Summer is just around the corner. He’ll let her enjoy the summer of her youth.[break][break]

“I’ll take you.”[break][break]

But they’ve work to do before that. They’re perched above the Rockets. Two of them, heading for the cave entrance. More nobodies. Foot soldiers. The sort of men that probably killed Gabe. His hands tighten around Ironsides’s reins.[break][break]

They took his life, so he’ll take theirs, too. He’ll ride his bird and he’ll run them through. Nodding to Tsubaki, he pulls Ironsides. Urges him into a swooping flight. The proverbial horn sounds, the charge begins.[break][break]

But on this battlefield, no one wins. There’s an acrid smell, his Pokemon’s breath. It’s odd, the things you notice charging into certain death.[break][break]

Ironsides is less a bird and more a flying blade. A missile, aimed directly at the Rockets below. They’re smart enough to notice him. They shout and they toss out a Golbat. Navy is forced to give Tsubaki a painful lesson in what war is like, as Ironsides plunges through the Golbat. He is reduced to a fine red mist as the bird comes skidding to a halt on the other side of the two. They toss more Pokemon out.[break][break]

“Look alive, kid! They’re comin’ for us!”


[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki 10 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Ironsides flaps his wings. It sends out a spray of iron feathers and rocks. They fall into place amidst the stones. Their colors shift at once. The stealth rocks and spikes make this terrain impassable for these grunts. They’re trapped. Two soldiers in this war, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.[break][break]
Under their caps, he sees the faces of kids. These people could have been him. They could have been Tsubaki. They scramble to toss out more Pokemon onto the field. One manages to free an Ivysaur from a ball. The other throws out a Pyroar.[break][break]
Both of them scream as their feet dig into the ground beneath them. They feel the jagged feathers. They fall prey to the tricks that Navy sets for them. Both Pokemon scream.[break][break]
This is inhuman. It’s not right. But it’s a battlefield. They’re meant to kill each other. That’s how this goes.[break][break]
No quarter was given to Gabe. No quarter was given to the other children he saw in the Sootopolis morgue on that fateful day. No mercy or gentle hand is given to the citizens of Sootopolis, who live under the thumb of a corrupted sea god.[break][break]
So, it’s hard to want to give them quarter. Navy shudders at that part of himself, denies it. Shuts it off. At the eleventh hour, makes a contradiction.[break][break]
“We have to take them alive!” He orders, knowing that Tsubaki is as likely to listen to that as the sleeping dragon at his waist. “We have to be better than them!” The grunts have no response to such words. That’s alright. They don’t have to talk.[break][break]
Ironsides whips up, flies at them on a mad collision course. Slams into the Pyroar, digging his blades into the lion’s skin. He sends up a gout of flame after the iron bird that scorches his wings and cooks him within his metal. Ironsides flies up, out of reach.[break][break]
It’s up to Tsubaki whether or not she complies. It’s her decision at the end of the day.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki 20 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Kicking up into the air, over the killing field of steel and stone, he listens. He sees the despair in her ruby eyes. He knows what is coming. It is a darkness he has lost himself in before. Navy resolves that it will not claim her.[break][break]
Even as the dragon under her shrieks its loud cry, he swears that to himself. The sound collapses the walls. Rocks come loose. They fall. Every human and Pokemon that can covers their ears. That ear splitting cry rings out. Navy cracks his knuckles. He’s too insane for his own good. His body’s already battered and broken by the rift that seems to delight in his torment. What’s a burst eardrum on top of everything else.[break][break]
Ironsides careens towards Tsubaki and her mount. He beats his wings, flapping about, spreading them wide. He soars over the traps he has spread. He tackles the Noivern. Navy jumps off at the precise moment that his bird connects with the girl. Grabbing her, he once more holds her like a knight might hold a maiden. He goes into a controlled roll, cradling her head and neck so nothing snaps.[break][break]
Ever the good big brother, that’s Navy in a nutshell.[break][break]
Ironsides turns and crosses his wings in a defensive stance, like he’s holding up two shields to protect his body. The Rockets are recoiling. Maybe they’ll even think to cut and run. But for now, they’re recovering. It’s the Noivern that may or may not be the issue.[break][break]
“You’re better than them.” Navy says to her. “You have to be better than them, Baki. Come on. You wanna go to the beach, yeah? Just think about that. Focus on it…” It’s the only thing he can think of to take her mind off of the horror lurking here, far beneath the civilized lands above.


[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

After a long day of fighting these fights, it feels nice to hold someone. Hell, after years of fighting, it feels nice to hold someone. Truly be close to someone. But he fights that thought down as he watches Ironsides and the great wyvern do battle. Well, it’s one-sided. The steel bird is on the defensive, raising his shield-wings, flying away. Trying to evade the coming blows. He’s good at speeding away from trouble. It’s a talent he perfected when he was a chick fresh from the egg.[break][break]
“We’re still walkin’ on the road.” He says. “This isn’t where we die. Either of us. Not while this sea’s in control.” They’re all puppets on the strings of this dream sea. He’s fighting to cut these strings, to give himself a real choice. The longest day of his life can’t end soon enough.[break][break]
“You can make your choice. I can’t stop you. Even if I want to…” He remembers denying Gabe his chance to jump in and swim with the Gyarados or stay on Kohryu. He can’t catch all the children from falling off and tumbling into adulthood.[break][break]
“But I can believe that you’ll make the right decision.” He releases her, lets her go and decide for herself what it is she wants to do.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki 40 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

She’s wreathed in light. Beautiful as a siren tempting sailors to drown in the sea. Violent as the waves in which they die. Ironsides is under Navy in a heartbeat, scooping him into the saddle like a concerned parent. Ironsides looks up at her and covers both Navy and himself. The winds blow all. Encompass all. They shatter the walls of the cave like glass and send both Navy and the girl tumbling once more into the rift.[break][break]
The Rocket grunts are lost. No more. Nothing. Fleeing for their lives. Horrified of what they have seen. Nothing within these caves is worth their lives. This is a lesson that the leadership of these gangs would do well to heed. Navy is terrified of what he sees, this terrible goddess of the formless sea. Wreathed in all its unknowable depths. Something chews bones in the distance. Strange shapes fly through the darkness. Neither man nor Pokemon was meant for this place. They are within a foreign land. Trapped here, now.[break][break]
Yet still, Navy is resolute. Yet still, while the winds howl, Ironsides’s defenses hold steady. He flaps his wings, rides the wind, surges upwards. It’s a dazzling twirl. Something that even the famed skyriders of legend would be impressed by.[break][break]
It can’t end like this.[break][break]
“You’re not dying on my watch.” He says in a stubborn voice. He’ll get up no matter how many times he’s kicked down. He won’t hit a woman. Can’t bring himself to hurt one, but the Pokemon under her is fair game. Ironsides rushes in, streaking across the Noivern’s body, his wings trying to cut into its form.[break][break]
“Come to your senses, kid! It’s somethin’ in the sea that’s doing this to you. You looked like you’d been stung when I first found you! We’ve gotta get you to a doctor!”


[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki 50 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Men are utterly idiotic creatures. They act from the heart, and do so dumbly. This man sees a wounded girl. A girl with venom dripping from her lips. He cannot fathom that there is malice in her. He denies his own truth, that a person is ultimately killed by their own decisions, however small. Her decisions brought her here.[break][break
Even the rift cannot truly be blamed. She chose to accompany him here of her own volition, to the town nearby. That she slipped and fell into this place is merely a consequence of that decision. She could have chosen to stay in Slateport and in so doing, avoided this place. But she chose to join the dance. She stepped up to the plate.[break][break]
And this sea adores her for her actions. As they hate the man rushing in to save her. Ironsides turns in mid-air so quick that Navy’s neck almost snaps. He’ll feel that in the morning, but for now, he has larger concerns. The way she’s looking at him. The red hell of a smile in her eyes.[break][break]
Navy brings Ironsides in close..[break][break]
And he jumps. Right onto the back of her Noivern. He grips her close. He does not let go. He does not think about how close they are. He holds her, knowing that the beast beneath them will not buck off her own rider.[break][break]
“You’re not biting anything, Baki. I’ve got you. I’m not gonna let go again. Not until you’re better. Hate me all you want later. Right now, right here, I’m putting everything I’ve got into keeping you alive!” He digs his boots into the side of the Pokemon beneath him, expecting resistance.


[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

The sight of them drains the color from his face. A rocky outcropping that would make sense, down in the depths of the sea. Why is that growing on her? She’s human. Humans are creatures who can’t sit still for more than a day without going a little crazy. It’s why prison is such a harsh punishment. It forces them to sit and stay in place and never advance. Yet what’s growing on her should only be possible if she stayed in one place under this sea for months. Years, maybe.[break][break]
“…shit, kid.” That’s all he can bring himself to say as he fights to stay on the Noivern Tsubaki calls Tsutsuji. There’s probably a pun in there, but he’s not digging for gold in that mine.[break][break]
His hand grips the barnacle. It’s stupid, but…[break][break]
Maybe it’ll get better if he can rip that growth out of her. So, he holds her close and he does that. He does what any good guardian would do in that situation. He does everything that he can to protect this girl. Symbolically, he’s denying this place’s right to her. He will not allow it to grow on her body. He will not let whatever god holds court in this place have Tsubaki. Not now, not ever.[break][break]
“Sorry if this hurts.” He says and pulls at the barnacles, like he’s ripping a band-aid off her neck.


[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]