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[attr="class","ptower-choice"]RETURN TO HQ

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Of the many individuals that filled their lowest ranks, there were many types. Even as much as Jayden and the other admins did their best to weed out the weak, there was only so much they could do to strengthen the mettle that undoubtedly existed amongst even the most casual member of Rocket.

[break][break] And for every weak link, there was also another circe crowley.

[break][break] Tension filled the room as everyone passed their answers around the room, all no doubt in efforts to appease either the Rocket Brass that were present in the room. Jayden did not even have to look at Zev Harcourt to know their answers were identical.

[break][break] Loyalty or death.

[break][break] There was no other option, lest they want to risk Isaac Merlo to be bred again.

[break][break] Thankfully, Circe knew better.

[break][break] Jayden steps forward, handing a blade of Aurelie Lefevre's own-making, into the woman's hand.

[break][break] "Good choice. Now, fulfill it."

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There were many things he wanted to say to Grigori Sokolov, some of which would have been better left for an environment more peaceful than this. Perhaps one to initiate the same conversations that they'd held in that uneven dreamscape, back on that Megalopolan ship.

[break][break] But that was a different time.

[break][break] A different place.

[break][break] For now, he had a duty to prepare Grigori Sokolov, as well as all those beneath him, for the days that were to come.

[break][break] So, naturally, Jayden chooses the other man as the first of many battles that he has planned for that day. After all, who better than to show the others a way to test their mettle than a veteran of Kanto?

[break][break] "I should not need to tell you," he said, as he gestures for two of his Gothitelle to bring forth carts of weaponry. There were lances, swords, and armored shields besides. "I will not be holding back."

[break][break] "Choose your weapon and fight me, Grigori."

[break][break] For his choice of weapon, Jayden chooses nothing but the skin and flesh. The freezing cold air that whips naturally around his ankles and elbows, as if guiding him like one of BARNABY FINCH's whips of darkness.

[break][break] He does not need anything else.

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Was the fact that they had been meeting up a matter of coincidence? Of fate?

[break][break] Of intention?

[break][break] Perhaps they would never know.

[break][break] "Mossdeep it is."

[break][break] The admin walks briskly past her to join the group headed towards the water-borne city, as if there was no future in which he didn't follow Victoria Beckett into the depths of hell. After all, he had abandoned her once. He had no intention of doing it again.

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Moments later, they arrive on the salty shores of Mossdeep City. His SHADOW DRAGAPULT lends him and the rest of their group through a secret passageway made by the TERA TUNNELS underpass, by way of it's PHANTOM FORCE.

[break][break] The hustle-bustle of the city calls to them, but the glowing expanse of the science observatory is just as compelling.

[break][break] To the group, Jayden tilts his head.

[break][break] "Any preferences?"

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[attr="class","ptower-choice"]LEAGUE PRESS CONFERENCE

[attr="class","ptower-choice"]BREAK INTO OBSERVATORY

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'I will not make the same mistake twice.'

[break][break] His expression shifts towards her, a sharp nod in her direction.

[break][break] He expected no less from one of their own, after all. @jill was not raised within simple — or for that matter, easy — means.

[break][break] "Good. That's what I like to see."

[break][break] @jill calls out a different pokemon and the three of them fight BARNABY FINCH's beast with all the proficiency such a task can demand. However, of course, in the end they all fell to the weight of the creature of darkness.

[break][break] "Fine work," he says to the grunt, before nodding towards BARNABY FINCH. "As for Admin Bee — " A slight bow of acknowledgement is given to the Admin. "Thank you for such a fine battle. Jillian will have learned much today."

[break][break] "Practice with Beast Conrad is already added to her training schedule."

[break][break] But there is something bright — nearly bloodthirsty — that exudes off the admin in waves, as if the ruinous beast beside him is causing such rapid waves of HATE to leak off of him. Shards of ice replace whatever wounds that the Galarian Moltres has made —

[break][break] After all, there is something to be said about the eagerness of being on the cusp of absolute war.

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[attr="class","ptower-choice"]FINISH TRAINING

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"... Tori."

[break][break] If Jayden is surprised by the other's attendance, he doesn't show it. In fact, his expression is all work and no play.

[break][break] His head turns, however, at the voice that speaks suddenly — a slight nod of acknowledgement given to ameena abadi.

[break][break] "Yes. Which group will you go with?"

[break][break] Both groups are interesting enough. And Jayden had known, of course, what their plans are from the beginning. But he is more than curious to know which Tori will find the most rewarding, considering their recent conversations surrounding power and growth.

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[attr="class","ptower-choice"]MAUVILLE

[attr="class","ptower-choice"]MOSSDEEP

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Somehow, against all odds, they survive.

[break][break] Jayden gets out of the car, with the very same expression he had when he entered it. After all, even with all the rumors regarding his avatarship, he was still most well known for his apathetic expression.

[break][break] But his hair was at odds with that expression, frayed and wind-swept as it was. He looked ridiculous. Not, of course, that he was aware of it.

[break][break] "Good job, Tori."

[break][break] "Excellent handiwork."

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[attr="class","ptower-choice"]FINISH UP FOR THE DAY

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'we won't die,' he promised, hands gripped around the edge of his blade. a time when his hair bleeds inky-black instead of frosted-white. there are bags underneath his eyes from nightmares everlasting, but the smile that touches his lips is genuine and true. the sound of giggling children and dragon hatchlings echo in the distance as he steps forward, touching the tips of his glowing blades against her sword-bow.

[break][break] 'we can't die. because we must go home.'

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and home was the thing that they would return to — no matter the cost. even if it was the cost of their lives.

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he had no choice.

[break][break] he sees the golden flames that rise in the depths of her eyes, sees the same hatred and flickering fire that he'd seen in the molten lava of PENELOPE LIVY's gaze, and just like before —

[break][break] he dives right in.

[break][break] plunges headlong into the jaws of peril.

[break][break] CAN YOU DO IT?

[break][break] the rocket admin fearlessly catapulted himself across the scorching blue sky, heart bleeding with nothing but passionate HATRED — for her, for the circumstances that had brought them to this moment, for the chains of promise that forced him to surrender to his darkest urges. the cold storm raged furiously around him as he clawed like a feral beast against the councilwoman's sygna suit, blistered fingers sinking into the crevice of her shoulder blades.

[break][break] ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH?

[break][break] teeth sunk into precious skin, looking for the artery that pulsed beneath her human skin. for the lifeblood that he knew that had existed there, when he had felt it thrum beneath his fingertips as they sat together in their graveyard, staving off the end of the world.

[break][break] YOU'RE GOING TO DIE HERE, AND NO ONE'S GOING TO CARE

[break][break] but the strength of such draconic energy knows no bounds. the power of one destined legacy to another. there is more at stake than just a willingness to return to their roots — freya morningstar's strength and passion burns just as bright, just as violently, as the icy hatred that laces through his own veins.

[break][break] and just like he told her back then, in that graveyard of souls, power is pain.

[break][break] a scream is ripped from his throat as agony throws his head back with a sickening crack, making him lose grip on her and her dragon's scales as verdant green floods through his body. it screams and claws and screeches against the monster that lives within him, burning, burning, burning —

[break][break] YOUR LIFE IS FORFEIT

[break][break] jayden cross plummets towards the water's edge in the same heartbeat that BARNABY FINCH and his patron devour the charred metal beast in violent flame.

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[break] ice wreathes around the water serpent as she thrashes against the touch of human skin against her. HATRED bleeds into the crevices where her scales thin with hurt from ana fell's touch, listening to the bits of metal splash beneath the roar of the waves.

[break][break] rai wants it over. rai wants it gone.

[break][break] the world is too cold, and it is why his two masters cannot be together. it is why they sleep in separate beds on most days, or not at all. it is why everything is wrong and ruinous and bleeds cold when things should be warm and gold and beautiful.

[break][break] if he can kill this stupid human then maybe he can kill the hate-thing that grows like a blackened flower in his master's heart, perhaps he can end —

[break][break] the world cannot end unless it goes down in flames.

[break][break] a screech of rage is ripped from the water serpant's throat as it's gaze pins upon that human in the water crawling atop that dead, floating carcass, as burnt metal and steam curdles off the edge of the waves.

[break][break] entwining with the frosted storm that rages above, a furious light glows around the milotic as it summons a HAIL. slipping through the raging sea, the milotic careens it's body towards the human and attempts to wrap his body around her, to squeeze the life out of her. if he can end her, perhaps he can end all of this.

[break][break] finally, his crown illuminates in furiously frosted light and the blinding glow of a a TERA BLAST is aimed down at her, attempting to blast a crater through her leftover human flesh.

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GO, SISTER. YOU DON'T BELONG HERE.

[break][break] dragons are beasts. they are feral creatures, not meant for love, only for hate, only for war. but their own chains sank into them from the moment that they were born, from the moment they were hatchlings raised by a single mother, racing through life's barren fields.

[break][break] time had torn them apart. history had sought to destroy what bonds that they had built.

[break][break] but fate had brought them together, in either this world or the next.

[break][break] stubbornness raises high on her face as she defies him in the sky, and he snarls back in reply, beating back powerful wings as she lunges for his throat.

GO, SISTER. GO, HOME.

[break][break] but it's not enough. it's never enough.

[break][break] blood and fire burn as her claws rake his sides, blood spilling down his scales. he lets out another roar of complaint, of warning, before a sudden blast from above has the dragon looking towards it, watching his master fall down from the heavens like a shooting star.

[break][break] ice crackles in the water as the waves abruptly freeze under divine frost, and a mighty creatures races across the frozen glaciers to seize the falling human by the scruff of his shirt. blue energy arcs around jayden's limp form, bringing energy to him as the hateful storm rages on with even more ferocity. winds howl with the anguished cries of the fallen, their tormented spirits whipping through the air in an unyielding barrage.

[break][break] under his patron's touch, the admin's body begins to stir. he steadies himself atop the ruinous creature, the b lood seeping through his tattered armor transforming into protective ice. fatal wounds heal beneath the relentless surge of blue energy that envelops him, pulsing with palpable animosity and tension, as swift and steady as a heartbeat.

[break][break] all the while, the BERZERK STORM intensifies around the battlefield with unrelenting ferocity, hatred and fury rising to their peak as the storm rages on, more powerful than before.

[break][break] it lashes out with unrelenting ferocity, unyielding and indiscriminate, as it expands in a vicious arc — spanning both seas and open sky, at rocket and league alike, and threatening anyone who dares to stand in it's devastating path.

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unbearable loathing and hatred screams through the air, cutting even towards the raging roaring moon in the sky. whatever sentiment that he felt for his sister's ailment is replaced with a vicious wrath as her fangs scorch into his neck, aiming to rip his throat out. energy swells around the dragon, verdant green wreathing as vicious and brutally as a torrent of flame.

[break][break] but no fire splits from his jaws.

[break][break] no, it's the sky that rips open in all it's rightious fury as a sudden DRACO METEOR is called from the heavens, plunging all who stand in it's path back into the depths of hell.

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and just like this, the world is brought to ruin.






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[player]https://file.garden/ZYU948Fgsgr29bBw/music/CasualtySong.mp3[/player] [break][break]

i'm always tired, he thinks but doesn't mention. i'm always tired, ever since -

[break][break] but it had gotten easier. with each passing day.

[break][break] "you will be better than ok. soon."

[break][break] a pause.

[break][break] it isn't like him, and it isn't asked for. but it is mint, and he is jayden, and he knows better than anyone what his best friend may want.

[break][break] "let me know if this hurts."

[break][break] with that, the admin crawls into bed alongside his friend, gingerly trying to settle his head against his chest.

[break][break] "i'm sorry if it's cold."

[break][break] he couldn't help that.

[break][break] but the affection he feels for mint frost permeates through his chest, nearly warm enough to keep the worst of the frost at bay, as he strokes cold-bitten fingers through the other's damp locks.

[break][break] "but i'm proud of you, mint."

[break][break] "micha."

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