Far, far away, a helmeted June rode on the back of her beloved bird and yawned. She considered cracking her can of shitty aluminum coffee open, but decided against it. Better saved for a more useful time. That, and her stomach churned at the mere thought. Throwing up with cargo was the last thing she wanted.

Her thoughts were not of the dead, nor of the stakes present. Even with her numerous powerful Pokémon at her belt, she kept her head down and ignored the conflicts in the distance. Or not so distant. “Just get to the bunker, drop off the shit, and–”

The air grew cold. Too cold. Unnaturally cold. Not too many things could make that happen. By the time she looked up, it was almost too late. Her eyes widened, and she pulled on Matchsticks reigns.

“Dodge, dodge!” The bird relented, and they barely avoided the brunt of the icicles. Branches cracked, and trees groaned beneath the barrage. Higher they flew, until the green and bright blue were the size of her balled up fist. It gripped the leather tight while she whipped her head around.

“What the fuck are you doing, Howard…”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” June forced Matchstick down, back to the trees. A green serpent appeared from the clouds, and flames engulfed the icy golem. Things were bad. Really bad. Freya was there?

She couldn’t risk it. As soon as her feet hit the ground, her poke ball touched the ember feathers. “Sorry, girl.”

She disappeared in a haze of red. Then, another ball emerged from the same belt. It felt heavy in her hands, imagined responsibility. She could just run. It’d be easier. So much so. This wasn’t her fight. She was just a delivery girl. Her helmet hid her identity. No one would know.

But she would.

The ball clicked open, and out from it emerged a familiar purple-yellow living motorcycle. Violet raised an eyebrow as she mounted. “Go. Just… go. We’ll figure out what to do on the way.”

“Mirai!”

With a roar of a paradoxical engine, lighting streaks blazed through the forest. They raced fast and hard past the world around them. Howard, her boss. Freya, one of the few to try and help the people of Sootopolis. Her argument with annalise henderson sang its ugly song in her mind. Who demanded her respect more?

Which one would she have to help? Which would SHOULD she help?

---

howard slayte freya morningstar



10 MP for Post

Regice is not Kyurem. Yet trauma does not make the distinction. Cold is cold, and ice is xarzith.

It'd be easier if Howard could take that logic and apply it to the part of him that threatened to break whenever he saw a knife. Flashes of sight being torn away to the dirge of grinding stone and smiling faces proclaiming him as a king. The prophecies of yesterday are the histories of today.

"Shit. It's Freya." His heart wasn't going to be in this fight, and that was an issue when he was waging war against someone who would not be so generous. She was stronger. Rayquaza was stronger. The Hero of Sootopolis, they were calling her. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

He wondered what those who lost loved ones to the flood called her. Likely the same thing that the people of Petalburg called him. Murderer. Failure. Traitor. Oath-breaker. Yet she would not receive any criticism from him. She had fought. She had won. He had fought. He had won.

It was time to see if his star could even hope to catch hers.

Despite his cowardice, the admin did not balk as the Fire Blast engulfed him and sputtered against Regice. Dynergy Barriers protected him from any damage to his person, but that did not stop him from breathing a sigh of relief from beneath his helmet as he came out unscathed. The golem, meanwhile, reeled, before scooping up the admin in a giant hand to protect.

Regice could not melt, but it could feel pain. Such was a defect of the design. Yet Dynamax made the mightiest blows feel like a Sliggoo's toothless gnawing.

Much like sun or rain in the presence of the king of the skies, the hail ended.

"Any chance I can get you to back off!?" He questioned Freya as Regice threw a frozen javelin in the form of another Max Hailstorm. "I don't want this fight, Morningstar!"

The Dynamaxed Regice took a step forward, its massive foot blotting out the sky as it began to descend on June.

---

freya morningstar june sleigh

Many questions raced through June’s head as gods and divine weaponry clashed. How did one change the currently mild temperature into an unbearably hot one? Why did Howard fight back still, and not run like the coward he was? How did neither of them see her streak of yellow cut through the forest?

Could she dodge a gigantic icy-foot that threatened to crush her to a pulp?

“VIOLLEEEEEEEE–”

An engine roared, and the world became more of a blur than it already was. Brown and green blobs rushed past her, and so too did the shadow. It collapsed upon the earth moments where they once rode. But there wasn’t any time to process her near death– nor did she want to.

There were far worse things than death. Like having to get off the fence she barely clung to. With another stomach-churning rev, Violet spun on one wheel and swerved. Seconds after they completed the U-turn, they raced straight back towards the Regice. “What’re you doooooooiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!--”

The sky became the focus, and the ground disappeared beneath them. Only artificial cold held them steady. They were almost there. So long as they pushed past the cold that clashed with the heat, and anything else that came their way–

Her bones tingled. Oh no. Everything felt suddenly awful. Like she'd explode beneath the current. “No, no no no no–”

---

freya morningstar howard slayte



10 MP for post
Uhhhh idfk

June began the steady ascent up the frozen colossus, yet the admin was unaware. Regice didn't feel the need to inform its lord and foster brother, for its pattern remained blank. Yet it is a long climb up the Dynamaxed Pokemon. Ice was a slippery substance, and with the golem's constant movements, Violet's journey was not easy.

Yet it did not immediately fall. There was no higher compliment that the Boundless could receive in this precise moment.

"Thought not." His voice was a mere mumble in the cracking of a glacier and the roar of a firestorm, but it carried all the same. "I really don't want to fight you. Truly, I don't."

His cape flapped as one cohesive sheet, frozen into its current position by a freeze that the admin hardly felt anymore. Not that he felt much, anymore. Every movement felt mechanical, every directive felt automated. He was a tin soldier dancing to the beat of another's marching song, and it was one he questioned but did not defy.

There was no bigger tragedy than two giants belonging to such a weak-willed man. Yet if he was weak, the rest of Rocket was weaker still.

"You've done nothing wrong. The Pokémon League has erred, but that is not your fault. It is no individual's fault. Your birth wasn't a mistake. It was a blessing." The fire sputtered against Regice's barriers and frozen body, causing another flicker of pain. Through its Clear Body, a magenta heart began to glow with the intensity of a star. "A blessing for a cursed bloodline."

The Dynergy coursing through the admin's circuits reacted to the oncoming attack, and he found himself sweating despite Regice's comforting chill. Yet Rayquaza could not contest Dynamax. Regice was not Kyogre, nor was it Groudon. It was not some divine, selfish creature proclaiming itself king of the world to sate its own ego.

It was a machine.

And a machine would not lose to a messiah.

"But I'm rambling." Howard chuckled and shook his head, evidently dismayed. "Sorry. You and the sheriff are too similar for this fight to be fair. It's hard to justify what I'm doing when I'm fighting paragons who want exactly what I want, but..."

A flash of red, followed by an explosion.

"...I guess that means we just have to kill each other, right?"

Dynergy surged forth from the golem's core, flashes of a skeletal dragon appearing in infinite facets of ice as a Dynamax Cannon transformed into a Max Wyrmwind. Using Eternatus to kill Rayquaza was a betrayal of the admin's beliefs, but Petalburg had made a heart difficult to come across.

Maybe this body wasn't built for it.

---

june sleigh freya morningstar
Eata da Fire Blast, owie kazowie
Yapping
why is it hot wtf
Dynamax Cannon = Max Wyrmwind

Everyone else would’ve fallen a dozen different ways by now. The ice was too slick at times, and the angles were too steep. Things only grew harder when the titans, gods, powerful creatures, kept up their combat in earnest. Heat and flames danced in the air, alongside violent whimsical air and raw Dynergy.

Conditions not fit for normal humans– but yet again, since when had June been within that category? Let alone Howard and Freya. Neither of them could’ve pulled this stunt off. Paradoxes were required to, lest they fall to the standards of normal man.

None of this mattered to June, though. Her eyes bulged from her skull, and Violet only raced higher while her guts threatened to push past her esophagus. Finally, they reached the top, where machine and divinity battled.

There, lightning struck and someone screamed. “GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–!”

Once a thread, june is able to emit a LARGE ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE (EMP) that deactivates technology and saps the electricity from devices, while also disorienting people and Pokemon caught in its blast.

Both sides would find themselves removed from the technological world– that of the future. As Violet soon was dragged back down by gravity, June heaved. Arceus, that felt awful every time. Is this was the rest of them felt like? What misery.

But there was no time to lose. “Stand down, both of you!”

Who knew how the land faired when ice, storms, and intense heat threatened to engulf the forest? Perhaps that was the wrong question: did either of them care? Could they? While June considered the conundrum, the organic motorcycle revved its engines. It Charged up its potential, ready to ride at a moments notice.

“Won’t be anything left to fight over if you fuck it all up!” She screamed through the safety of a pitch-black motorcycle helmet. Freya wouldn’t know who she was. “Don’t make me do something you’ll regret!”

Howard, however, knew exactly who she was.

---

howard slayte freya morningstar



10 MP for Post

'We are faster.'

"Faster to die, maybe." Howard muttered to himself as the Max Wyrmwind was dispersed by a dragon's divine wingbeat. The admin scowled in frustration, annoyed by these developments. His type matchup was superior. Dynamax was superior. Yet Rayquaza squirmed and howled against the storm and Freya raged along with it.

She was strong. Dammit, she was likely stronger than him. It just meant he'd need to hammer on her before she bridged the gap with her superior skill. Dynamax was a sledgehammer, so he'd need to shatter the hollow bones of a dragon not meant for land before he could deal with Freya.

"Good at one thing?" The admin was sent several feet backwards by the Springtide Storm, almost falling off of Regice's slick surface as it corrected itself. If Regice had fallen, it would've been felt as far away as Rustboro. "On that..."

He stood shakily.

"...we can agree."

Dynergy swirled around the admin from the redirected attack. Flashes of memories from a garden nobody remembered, as well as a thousand memories of shedding a body of ice and stone to reach for true divinity gnawed at the recesses of his mind. Yet the admin was already saturated with Eternatus's leavings. There was only so much of a hold the Skeleton Gigantic could have on Howard Slayte.

One could say he was too human.

"GO FOR TH-"

ZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!

Regice went limp, and seven suns died at once as divine machinery was shut off by the power of a paradox. It made no sense for a machine with no electricity and no mechanism to misfire in the face of an avatar's power, but the Boundless was not a misnomer. Limits were meant to be breached by humanity. If not in yesterday, then in tomorrow.

Dynergy barriers flickered off for a moment.

"What...?" Howard had never felt more defenseless in his entire life. No barriers. No defenses. Nothing standing between him and the Ascendant. "YOU...! WHY!?"

Why was she here? Their agreement did not include deploying Miraidon on the battlefield. June delivered things on behalf of the admin, but all she was delivering to him was his defeat and skull on a silver platter.

---

june sleigh freya morningstar
REGICE DEADGA FOR UN MOMENTO
HOWARD YAPPING, NO ACTIONS

This was going… horribly!

June never should’ve shown up. Intervened. Probably better to let the kids destroy the city and just play hero to the few that dared remain in this neck of the woods. Instead, it was her neck now on the line. Fighting both one of the better forces of the League and her own damn boss. Way to go. She’d be lucky to be fired.

But there were always worse things than death. Like the ire of Howard Slayte as the Rayquaza readied to slam forward. “Fuck fuck fuck–”

“Get down, Fox!” Violet revved higher, louder. As the organic wheel touched down on the deactivated ice golem, friction built up on the icy golem. How did heat do such a thing with something that couldn’t physically melt? She wasn’t the physicist– but she bet they’d be stumped too. But she couldn't give any attention to the iron soldier. A more important threat raced forward.

“You asked for it!”

Electricity was sparked, empowered by its earlier Charge. Wings unfurled, and Violet rushed forward at dizzying speeds. Just as Rayquaza tried to decimate Regice, Miraidon would threaten the sky god. It would not be beholden to such higher powers. One that had no scripture to define its very own existence.

A shot of lighting, an Electro Drift, aimed to pierce the skull of Rayquaza, but would result in the creature gaining a hold on its long, slender body regardless if the move struck. Then it’d race forward and upward towards where Freya rested—a trail of yellow left upon green scales.

“It’s done, Freya! They won’t make it to Oldale now,” she tried to scream towards the dragoness, as soon as she was in theoretical earshot. “Stop, before you destroy everything!”

---

freya morningstar howard slayte

Yaps a little, realizes the bad thing that's going to happen
Charge boosts Electro Drift, aims to intercept Rayquaza at worst and make it miss at best
Either way, gets on the Rayquaza and races to Freya


10 MP for Post
50 MP for Regrettable decision (attacking Freya)

The admin watched the emerald star descend with a trail of yellow lightning.

"Regice." An eerie level of calm settled over him as he nudged the giant's body with an armored hand, gauntlets clinking with ice as he did so. His eye didn't leave the star as it descended, so he simply watched as Regice went through its reboot process. "If you don't move now, we're going to lose."

⠊ ⠁⠍ ⠁⠺⠁⠗⠑ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠗⠑⠃⠕⠕⠞⠊⠝⠛.

"Not enough time."

⠗⠕⠉⠅?

"Heading towards Rustboro."

⠓⠕⠺ ⠥⠝⠋⠕⠗⠞⠥⠝⠁⠞⠑.

"You're right." The admin chuckled. Strangely bemused at the ridiculousness of this fight, he smiled at the absurdity that had led him to this point. There had been a chance where victory had been his. It had been swept away by a random chance. "⠓⠕⠺ ⠥⠝⠋⠕⠗⠞⠥⠝⠁⠞⠑, ⠊⠝⠙⠑⠑⠙."

The Dragon Ascent hit.

An explosion sent the golem skidding backwards, crushing forests and streams and lakes as it did so. There was a series of hideous cracks that made the admin's skin crawl.

Howard actually felt glad that Regirock wasn't here. Rayquaza excelled at destroying large rocks, after all. No reason to make its conquest too easy. Though if he had it here, maybe it could actually turn the tide a bit more. Block an attack or ten, maybe. As for June, he should've expected it. She always got into situations that weren't his business.

Alas.

"The only complaint I have, Freya..." He told to everyone and nobody. "Is that you were born two thousand years too late."

Regice shrunk, and the admin fell.

---

june sleigh freya morningstar