Create everlasting stories? Be a hero? Do deeds worthy of song? Hitoshi blinks. He'd say dogs can't be heroes, but heroic dogs sparked this whole conflict.[break]

It's terrible, what happens next. Calyrex is killed. Killed in such a cruel way. He begs to be killed and they all tear him apart. This is a death without dignity. A death without honor or compassion or any of the things humans are supposed to feel. Gripping his katana with one hand, he almost wishes...[break]

His own wishes don't matter. He is a sword. A tool handed to Cillian Quinn for this mission. Nodding to the rest, he starts walking towards the portal alongside the blonde.[break]

But then, he feels an urge. A human urge. Stopping in his tracks, he turns. Looks on the ground. Eventually, he finds a suitable stone. Large. Round. One on which he can write.[break]

Pulling out a tanto, he pierces the tip of his finger. In the absence of ink, blood will do. He paints words in the language spoken in his youth. Makes a vow. This king, with all his dignity, asked a command of him.[break]

He walks to the king's body. He places a stone at his feet. On it, written in blood, are these words:

休んだ王

血の約束が

俺の剣が明け

With that done, he turns and walks through the portal behind Blondie without a word. There's work to do.

rrD05GEd

Rusted Shield

Goodbye Galar

He should've been used to death by now, but the way Calyrex went out was just obscene.

It was a massacre.

Their attempts at protecting it were completely useless, and his attempts at healing did not work any better. Even kyle lopez's own efforts bore little fruit, against all odds.

He couldn't even blame this entirely on rocket. Several of their own numbers had bore down viciously upon Calyrex.

Vengeful or merciful. The reasons didn't matter— he felt sick to his stomach. Even as most began to disperse, the mission the king had lain at their feet fresh on everyone's minds, he stood by, silent and despondent. Slowly, he approached.

Near the corpse was his Porygon-Z. His phone was cracked, and the pokemon inside unresponsive. But not dead, at least. As he picked it up his hand glowed like neon, healing scales pooling between the cracks... until the screen flashed to light, a familiar face popping over it.

"You did your best, Zeke. Good job." He said, slowly pocketing the phone back. Without another word, he released his Orbeetle instead, the radar beetle keeping an eye out for him as he focused entirely on what was before him.

Staring at the corpse was difficult. It always was, even when they weren't as brutalized and horribly disfigured by damage as Calyrex's was.

Bless luka chêne's heart for being so kind.

"Wait." He says to her without delay, his feet raising to slowly approach the eviscerated corpse, before sinking to his knees besides it. "First, just... just let me..."

He fought back every urge to shy away or wretch, gazing into the works of League and Rocket alike with an unblinking gaze. This was their fault— arguably the league's even more than Rocket.

"I'm sorry." He muttered as he raised his hands, staring at them for a moment before taking off his gloves and holding them towards the body. Pressing them against the gore, a neon glow came alive in his palms.

His healing scales flowed into the body. Even if he couldn't raise the dead... Surely he could at least try to make it pristine, his palms gently fleeting over the damage in a careful massage.

Every scratch and hole and burn made him shiver and wish to wrench away. But he refused to so much as blink... until the work was done.

"That's... that's all I can do." Doug said to Luka, rising to his feet with hands covered in blood. "... For now."

His gaze rose to the skies, to Eva Morales. He needed more of her and illeana reyes's help. There had to be more he could do. Something he was missing.

Seeing Luka struggle with the statue, he shoved his hands back into their gloves before helping the woman with the weight, struggling alongside her until the Musharna's brought life to the icy snowscape.

"... Yer very kind, Ms. Chene." Doug muttered to Luka as he stared at her handywork. He gathered his hands briefly, just as cait alfric had taught him. He didn't believe in prayer, but sometimes it made him feel better about things.

"I'm not much of a hero, but... I'll shine brightly so ya can rest in peace." He promised before the tomb.

After a long moment, the youth finally pried himself away from his prayer, walking away a respectful distance before directing his gaze to his Orbeetle.

"... Omega. Report."

A brief summary of some of the things that had transpired occurred. The maneuver from kyle lopez in particular was noted. Smart and quick as ever, the champion— Matias was a big target.

"Did you track 'im well?"

Of course. Only one of the 3 signatures carried Matias Silph, after all.

"Brilliant as ever." He muttered, before raising a hand to his ear.

League Comms

Sullivan here.

There's four locations. We're outnumbered, 22 to 31.

I would like to suggest we spread ourselves out evenly between 2, maximum 3 cities, just to prevent ourselves from being vastly outnumbered.

kyle lopez and MATIAS SILPH have gone to Hammerlocke. I'm going to Balloonlea. If anyone else wants to follow my suggestion, These two locations would be ideal.

...

Do your best, but don't die. We're all making it back home.

Lt. Collonel Sullivan, Over and out.

His message delivered, the youth turned towards the portal leading to Balloonlea, where Omega had informed him Hideo Kino had gone to... with an unknown rocket (mint frost) in tow.

His lip curled down as he raised his hand, tugging firmly onto his gloves as blood dripped down his forearm.

"No one else is dying on my watch." He swore under his breath, steeling himself before marching into Balloonlea.

tDzw4f14

TL;DR:
-Recovers and heals his Porygon-Z. Summons his Orbeetle.
-horrified at the level of violence with which Calyrex is murdered.
-Mourns.
-Decides to help luka chêne.
-Heals the body of Calyrex so it can be interred hopefully immaculate.
-prays besides Luka at the King's tomb.
-Listens to Orbeetle's report on what's going on, specifically, kyle lopez, MATIAS SILPH and Hideo Kino's choices.
-Informs of his opinion to to all the leaguers over the comms, as well as Kyle and Matias' location.
-Informs his own location: Balloonlea.
-Let's fucking go lads.

Questions were given, some of them were even answered.

Gerald’s weren’t. All he was given was a blast of ice aimed straight for his Iron Moth. It fell to the ground and was knocked out, weak beeps tried to assure Gerald that it was not his fault. But Gerald did not notice, instead he merely focused on retrieving his machine back into its Pokéball.


By the time his attention returned to Calyrex, it was at its end. He heard its final words, it’s plea of going to the final standing settlements, and creating stories for Galar. His mask hid the bewilderment. He didn’t know what to do, what to say. This was clearly not a simple task and honestly even if he wanted to approach the matter he didn’t know HOW.

And so he watched as the Regicide commenced.

He took a couple of deep breathes, gathered his composure and turned his attention to the small beams of teleportation. Before he makes a decision his rocket comms blare out into his ears. He recognizes the voice of one of the underbosses, informing them that they are going to CIRCHESTER.

Gerald promptly decides to follow and so quickly jumps into the portal leading there.

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TLDR:
- Iron Moth is knocked out
- Gerald can't really do much but watch it all unfold.
- Gerald decides to go to Circhester.