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[attr="class","itemcolname"]arceus event

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[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]1000 HANDS 1

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]You find yourselves on an advanced space ship. Around you stars and space debris sprawl out in incredible kaleidoscopic vistas. Upon investigation, the ship's notes and instruments seem to be seeking the "ascended hall of origin".[break][break]

Eventually, your out of world experience is interrupted by a violent rocking of your vessel and blaring alarms. A large hand-like being crushes a part of your ship as if in search of you and your friends.[break][break]

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac thought Zev was a monster, once. Now he knew he was something far worse.[break][break]

His little probe actually paid off dividends. Not only did Zev tell him where Caleb was, but he flat out invited him to see for himself. Every instinct Isaac had screamed at him that this was a trap. Yet with no other leads, emotions running high, and Caleb Harcourt's life hanging in the balance (Arceus, Isaac did not want to think what Zev meant), what else could he do?[break][break]

Zev was haughty. Isaac was reckless. Every chance the universe gave them to change was a chance they took to double down. It was only fitting that those final steps would be taken in opposite directions.[break][break]

Who better to deliver their judgment than the original one itself? Again, a spaceship, hurtling towards the hall of origin. Again, that white and gold hand, tearing into their craft with reckless abandon. Again, knowledge that their fate was sealed; even were they to succeed, as he and Naomi Sato had, the void would claim them.[break][break]

He felt none of the warmth and camaraderie Nomi had given off on their adventure. The hand wasn't a trial to overcome. It was a ticking time bomb. The ship wasn't a source of wonder and adventure. It was a dark, cramped prison.[break][break]

A chill forced itself down Isaac's spine, and he had the sinking suspicion that he knew why.

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Zev took in their new surroundings, unfamiliar with the sights and sounds. He had not run through this scenario before, and every sense of his was on high alert for the strange and dangerous.[break][break]

It came as a hand, wrenching apart the hull of the spaceship. He stumbled, losing his balance as the vessel rocked. Thankfully, he caught himself on a panel bolted to the ground. Alarms blared, and flashing lights bathed the scene in red.[break][break]

The hand reached deeper inside the ship, clawed fingers grabbing. Zev realized with a start that it was likely seeking him and Isaac, as it did seemed to disregard every inanimate object in its wake.[break][break]

Without hesitation, Zev grabbed Isaac by the collar and lifted him to his feet. If the hand wanted a life, Zev would give it a life.[break][break]

A life he had no use for anymore.[break][break]

He started to drag Isaac toward the raking claw, prepared to push him into its grasp once they were near enough.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]Isaac didn't say a word as Zev's fingers clawed around the collar of his shirt.[break][break]

The stinging material dug into the friction burns on his neck as he was yanked onto his feet. Each step came with a rougher tug than the last, Zev pulling Isaac onward like a disobedient dog. The ship had settled into an eerie calm, punctuated only by the sound of freshly polished shoes on freshly polished floor.[break][break]

The hand loomed, larger than life. As they approached, Isaac realized he couldn't even see all of it anymore. There was always some parr of it just outside of his field of view, forcing him to crane his already-strained neck just to see it. Was this what it was like to be in the presence of something well and truly beyond him?[break][break]

Even in the shadow of the inevitable, Isaac did not struggle. He did not disobey. He did not fight. Not now. Not yet.[break][break]

Not until the last possible moment.[break][break]

Isaac's movements were as quick as they were desperate. The second Zev realized what was going on, his crystals would spring to life and seal Isaac's fate. His only chance would be to strike back in one breath and send him into the hand's grip in the next. Anything more, even but the blink of an eye, and this little rebellion would end where it stood.[break][break]

His wrist would slam towards the weakest connection of Zev's own, and attempt to break the hold on his collar. His knee would drive into the back of Zev's knee, an attempt to buckle his stance and ruin his balance. If both of those attempts were successful, he would throw his body against Zev's with all his might, aiming to push Zev for the hand in a final, heedless rush.[breaj][break]

If they weren't? May Arceus have mercy on him, for Zev would not.

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If this encounter had happened a year ago, Isaac would not have been able to break Zev's hold, would not have been able to stumble the larger man. But it was not a year ago, and Isaac had grown, his body filled in with countless hours of physical training.[break][break]

Everything Zev had taught Isaac since the first day in the sparring ring culminated in this moment. Isaac's strikes were lightning-quick, a double combo that sent a flash of alarm through Zev.[break][break]

But a year of training did not stack up to two decades.[break][break]

Zev felt Isaac's weight against his body and purposefully dropped to the ground, his fingers twisted into Isaac's clothes. The two rolled.[break][break]

It was all the time Zev needed to summon his armor.[break][break]

Whatever Isaac's next strike, the Beast blocked it with a palm layered with dark crystal. Jagged points ripped into skin, drawing blood. In the flashing red light of the ship's alarms, Zev's silhouette was like a void cut out of space, a raw wound in reality itself.[break][break]

Digging his other hand into Isaac's flesh, he dragged the younger man toward the monstrous claw that awaited a sacrifice and pushed Isaac into its grasp.

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[attr="class","itemcolname"]arceus event

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[attr="class","itemcoltexttit"]1000 HANDS 1-B

[attr="class","itemcoltext"]One of you allows yourself to be taken— or perhaps, you were simply unlucky. The hand grasps you tight and does not let go as it retreats from the spaceship. There is no telling where you'll be taken, but it is clear that you will face certain judgement.[break][break]

The spaceship is still functional. Before the next shift, you may attempt to pursue the hand or flee to safer spaces.

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[attr="class","skulltitle"]導通抵抗

[attr="class","skullbody"]9 times out of 10, dropping to the ground in the middle of a fight was a bad idea. When your opponent was trying to push you into the abyss on a strict time limit, it becane a frustratingly effective one.[break][break]

To his credit, Isaac knew all the right follow ups. To Zev's credit, he'd been the one to teach him all of them. The two rolled like judoka, master and apprentice, teetering back and forth on the edge of annihilation.[break][break]

At this point, Isaac didn't care if it meant having to drag dead weight. In a rare moment of being on top, he surged forward to try and score a quick knockout with an elbow to the temple.[break][break]

The explosive pain shooting through his elbow, followed by the hollow thud of bone on stone, was all the warning he needed to know he missed his window.[break][break]

Crystal spread out from his stony palm, sinking into Isaac's elbow like the spikes of an iron maiden. His other hand, equally crystalline, stabbed into Isaac directly. No more was he dragging Isaac like an unruly pet. Now he was dragging Isaac like a carcass to his cave. Blood trailed behind him with each footstep, marks of where he'd fallen on the spaceship's floor.[break][break]

"Guess I should be proud," Isaac mused as he stared up at the spaceship's lights. It was all he could do to avoid beholding the overwhelming shine of the hand of god and the endless black void of his captor's carapace. "I made you have to try."[break][break]

He'd accepted his fate. That didn't mean he'd let it come quietly. As they reached their destination, Isaac wheeled around with what looked to be another punch to the gut. However, at the last moment, his hand shot up and his fingers shot out. He remembered well what Zev had taught him; every square inch of him was impervious to harm, bar his eyes.[break][break]

There was nothing he could do from here. The rest of Zev was invincible. With his claw buried into Isaac, he couldn't make a break for it. He was far too heavy like this to try reversing their positions, and the smooth crystalline growth gave him nothing to hook his fingers around. Tactically, it was a meaningless gesture.[break][break]

Yet Isaac let himself indulge in his one last gasp of defiance before his gilded cage slammed itself shut.

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In the last moment before Zev released Isaac to the enormous hand's grasp, Isaac's own hand shot out in a final act of defiance. Two fingers to the eyes. Zev ducked his head automatically to dodge the strike. At the same time, he closed his eyes and took a risk, one he hadn't tried yet.[break][break]

He let the crystals cover his eyelids.[break][break]

Everything went black. Isaac's fingers slid uselessly against Zev's head.[break][break]

Zev ripped his hand out of Isaac and shoved him away. He lifted the armor over his eyes and opened them just in time to see the giant claws close around Isaac's body and retreat into the vast blackness of space.[break][break]

Silence fell upon the ship's interior. Then, as if exhaling the scenario crumbled, revealing the interior of the machine and a single door leading out. Zev stood in the center of the room facing Isaac.[break][break]

No blood slicked his crystalline hands or smeared across the floor. Isaac himself bore no wounds, not even a bruise on his cheek from being backhanded.[break][break]

But the hate remained, filling the space between both men like a storm about to unleash its fury.[break][break]

Saying nothing, Zev turned on his heel and stalked toward the exit.

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