she had to get a leg up on them. on him. had to know that the next time she faced him, he wouldn’t be expecting what she had in store. and most of all, as hoenn and the world seemed to be moving toward a major catastrophe, she could not defend her own with anything but the best weapons.

supposedly, some had managed to bring strange new pokémon out of the distortions. she was determined to be one of those people.

thunder cracked explosively, and she rode through blinding colors through it all. a mask and goggles kept debris and sharp wind out of her face, so the chaos was in full view. they broke through, and on the other side, without any effort, she had come upon a creature she had never seen before.

”stop,” she commanded sharply, curling fingers in dark fur, and sliding off her zarude’s back.

something stared at them from beneath the wave of its floating, wispy red mane. a ghost? sage was mesmerized. she stayed where she was and did nothing for a long moment. then, she took a step. when she did, it was deathly cold. it gripped her soul. she felt the prickling of frostbite. she gasped, choked by BITTER MALICE.

”zarude!”

from the monkey’s fist hurled a powerful ENERGY BALL at the ghost fox. immediately, they devolved into fantastic battle. when zarude prevailed, sage approached the strange pokémon and held out a ball. would this even work?

using: x1 evo type one, x1 level tutor
zorua evolves into hisuian zoroark
hisuian zoroark forgets foul play, learns bitter malice

fifer wasn’t wild about being investigated in the face quite so closely, but he sat still as a stump. watchful, even as the ghost drifted off and wound up to makato’s neck. sage also regarded it, as it reminded her of her drakloak.

makoto’s attempt to ease the tension would only work so well. sagira was by nature quietly intense, and mostly unsmiling these days. ”thank you,” she nodded, a ghost of friendliness passing across her face.

‘a lot of folks’ might’ve known about his galarian legend, but not her. ”the darkest day?” she repeated, curious; but they were interrupted by the bagon. she looked up, towards the trouble it was causing the ranger’s mudsdale. makoto seemed to have it quickly handled.

she turned back to the subject.

”what happened? what did they survive?”

passing

@makoto