[attr="class","star2tsu"]You grasp ruin in your hand.[break][break]
Kuchinashi has brought back her spoils, black fragments in fine particulate almost like sand caught in her web. It rings hollow, devoid of its purpose, though you get the feeling it once carried the aura of a king. You slip off the bandana covering your face and fashion a small pouch to pour the fragments in, to inspect later. Frankly, for the fact that anyone else had coveted even the remains of something beautiful, it has worth.[break][break]
Though, you just think it's ugly. [break][break]
"Good girl," you coo, assuring her. [break][break]
The Ariados quivers with anticipation to your words. At first, you assume it's an eagerness to get involved more seriously, but as you gaze up and stare into the eyes of an Atrocious pokemon with mouth gaping wide, you realize that she's preparing to attack.[break][break]
Nothing can be done. You couldn't speak an order quick enough if you tried, you cannot switch to a more apt pokemon to contest it. And she, your Ariados companion, is not the type for a direct confrontation. You are weak and powerless against this, a Gyadaros in all its glory.[break][break]
All you can do is stand, and face death on your feet. [break][break]
You won't go out without even trying. You refuse to. Even as stones begin to tear through the skies, headed straight for you, you stand and stare that pokemon straight in its bloodshot eyes. You don't know who it belongs to. There's no way of knowing. Whoever it is, they're a terror, a menace. Someone who doesn't care for collateral. You can't blame them for that. [break][break]
Maybe this is all karma, coming back to get you in the end. You told
Navy before, people like you don't get happy endings. [break][break]
Not after the things you've done.[break][break]
You stare into its eyes til the last possible moment, as rocks fly toward you. Only at the last possible moment do you flinch, letting the fear in your heart take hold. It's like the world is split in two, the cataclysm that descends upon you. Everything goes black, and you feel your feet falling out from under you. [break][break]
This is the end of the world, the end of your world at least. And it's so startlingly quiet. [break][break]
In the dark abyss you still hear it as if it was calling for you all along, right beneath you. A single thing among the quiet at the end of eternity, a heartbeat, ever-familiar, that splits your psyche wide open.[break][break]
...
[break][break]
Cold air and the smell of smoke. [break][break]
You feel it sting your cheeks. [break][break]
You can't move, can't do anything but open your eyes. You fear what you'll see as you do.
It's so unlike you. That realization and that realization alone is provocation enough to defy your instincts, to open your eyes as if defying that voice in your head. [break][break]
A humongous stadium comes into view. Laid out below you, it's like those shots of sporting events from a Rotom drone, or a flying pokemon. But you're all the way up here, not moving, as if you're floating. And you can't move your limbs at all.[break][break]
Kchk-kchk.[break][break]
She clicks her mandibles to get your attention. Kuchinashi clings upside-down from the ceiling below you, looking down at you, suspended there. A fine thread wrapped around you, impossibly strong for how fine it is, keeps you suspended. [break][break]
"... Nice work."[break][break]
You give a deflated grunt of acknowledgement. [break][break]
"Fall woulda hurt lesser girls, y'know."[break][break]
You try to make light of the situation, but you're not sure what's even going on. You're getting used to slipping between dimensions when you sleep, but this is a new one.[break][break]
With a sigh, you simply accept it. That's all you can do. That, and appreciate your pokemon's quick thinking. She's a try-hard, always. You're thankful. But still, she's incapacitated you even while she's saved your life. You're really not sure how you're gonna get yourself free without falling.[break][break]
Glancing up at the ground, you can scarcely make out the figures out on the field. They seem scattered all over, wandering around aimlessly. Whoever they are, they don't seem like players or attendees of a game, so you can only figure that whatever reason you're up here, they got here the same way. [break][break]
As you watch helplessly, you hear a familiar croak. [break][break]
"Hattori?"[break][break]
It throws you for a loop. Only the clothes and pokeballs on your person slip through dimensions, which means, if he's here...[break][break]
"What're you--? No, no, nevermind. I don't care. You're just the frog I'm looking for, in fact! Hey, help me down." [break][break]
He seems eager to help. The threads are cut to ribbons easily, as he attacks the points where they're fixated. You feel queasy as you're jostled around, spin a bit, but it's over quick enough. He's made enough headway that he can pull you onto the edge of the roof, where he starts freeing your arms and legs. [break][break]
"If you're here, where's Navy?"[break][break]
Before you can even finish your question, he seems to know the first thing on your mind and points down to the green. You peer over the edge and adjust your glasses with your newly-freed hand. Next to him, you recognize that guy who was in the Rider suit, tossing his helmet aside.[break][break]
You're sure he's a Rocket. You wanna scream, and warn Navy that the guy next to him is a Rocket. But your voice won't carry that far, will it?[break][break]
"... Fuck..."[break][break]
You take in a sharp breath, and...[break][break]
LsFnr5pG
[break][break]
Hoenn:[break]
+Tsubaki slips off her bandana.[break]
+Tsubaki pockets some
Black Fragments, wrapped in the bandana.[break]
+Tsubaki stares down
FERNANDO SILPH 's
Gyarados before it stones the Ancient Tomb.[break]
+Tsubaki falls from her perch atop the tomb, hears
a familiar heartbeat before fade to black.[break][break]
Galar:[break]
+Tsubaki is saved from the fall by
Ariados's Sticky Web, suspended from the rafters.[break]
+Navy 's
Greninja gets her loose, pulls her onto the roof.[break]
+From the roof, she recognizes
Navy and
Shred , watching the latter shed his suit and take on a new disguise. Roll is how loud she screams.[break]