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For a moment, he thinks he’s been far too cringe for this teenager to bear. He watches her, expression cajoling in hopes that he’ll earn a laugh. The smile she actually lets slip is good enough for him. He points with a triumphant “HaHA!” Only further intensified by her own input. “Nat 20s allllll the way, for sure!” He insists, laughing as they turn to take control of the situation totally.[break][break]
Unable to help herself, Lam’s hisuian decidueye turns back to the melee just long enough to draw back and fire a spray of TRIPLE ARROWS as Jon and Judy attack as well–the former’s sludge bomb accompanied by the latter’s wave of MAX OOZE.[break][break]
“HELL YEAH!” Lam’s own enthusiasm echoes hers, and he pumps a fist as the collaborative attack lands. The last of the barriers that surrounded the wigglytuff shatter in a bright burst of red, and as it collapses, it rapidly shrinks back down to normal size. Luckily before it tips over and knocks over any of the treeline.[break][break]
He looks around frantically, but all Lam can see are dazed and confused pokemon and a few stragglers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because of their pokemon, however, they managed to avoid being squished from grapes into jelly.[break][break]
With the danger averted, Judith begins to revert back to her proper size at a fast pace—once again swathed in a reddish glow. Her descent is quick enough to put air between herself and Jon with the sudden drop of his platform, but her arms extend to net the little trubbish safely, and she rumbles happily as she holds him up. Between the two of them in their strange language, it’s clear that she is praising him for a job well done before she offers him back to his trainer as she chatters at Cass happily.[break][break]
“That was great! Really knocked it out of the park there.” Jogging over, Lam gives the garbodor a congratulatory pat. From all corners, his scattered pokemon continue clearing the area before they too follow suit. His two decidueye preen, cleaning their feathers while other small, wild birds flock around them. Virizion sweeps the area once more before gravitating back toward Lam, failing to find the source of the chaos. Now that the sun had returned to view, Lam shields his eyes with one hand as he regards Cass–lifting the other to offer a high five to the girl.[break][break]
“Looks like they hightailed it during the aftermath, but that was a helluva good job!” Best they could do now was continue any damage control and report the incident to any Leaguers in the area. With luck someone further down the route would be able to catch out the culprit.[break][break]
They, however, had earned a well-deserved breather.[break][break]
Puffing out a breath, he shoots another look over at her. "You did well teaming up. If you're ever in Lilycove, you should swing by the gym some time." A shameless plug, but hey - if it works, it works.

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Lam between Robin and the maimed Rocket, obvious in his incredulity. “Robin, they’re bleeding out on the ground. Not to mention Dandelion had them locked in his spotlight. I don’t think they’re going anywhere or doing anything fast.” There was no need for a verbal surrender when they were already caught. Locked in the struggle they are, he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. Had she always been so cut and dry about this?[break][break]
“Because they’re still a living person, Robin–how is that the most difficult concept to grasp here?” His face twisted up as she raged at him, and he told himself that this wasn’t about him, it wasn’t. It was just the aftershocks of what she’d been going through, and she was just lashing out at him, but there was no reason to think that–[break][break]
His gaze snapped to hers as everything inside of him went cold. Like being dunked in an ice bath. “What?” His voice was small–piteous before the anger flooded back in. “The fuck did you just say to me, Robin?” His hands moved to shove at her, but Tornadus’ interception prevented him from making contact. “You don’t get to dictate things like that, just because you have some sort of gift.” His hands rose again, that time to curl air quotes around the word.[break][break]
Not because he refused to believe in her ability, but because he wasn’t sure whether it was a gift or a curse. If it made her act like this, he began to believe it was the latter. Virizion, battered back from being ganged up on, staggered in place, but remained resolved abandoned their plight against the toxitricty. Head held in austere authority, they came to stand behind Lam as they eyed Robin coolly. Where Tornadus had sought to separate, they absolved to be the sword in their knight’s hand in the face of obvious threat.[break][break]
"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"[break][break]
It shut him up quickly. The tension in his shoulders went slack as his lips parted, but no cruel words rose up to roll off his tongue.[break][break]
“You don’t mean that,” he replied as his face fell, voice carrying the sort of note as though he’d been slapped. Lam paid no mind to the duskull as it crept free. Not until it swallowed her up and spirited her away to leave him with the silence that neither confirmed nor denied.[break][break]
“FUCK.” He howled it to the open air, and the empty space she left behind. Blood beat loud in his ears, his heart thumping as the heat of anger slowly bled from his system. It wasn’t long before regret slipped in to settle over his shoulders, “Shit,” he cursed again as he let out a long breath, a hand pushing through his hair out of anxious habit. Without the immediate pushback of her rage present and tangible for Lam to retaliate against, he was left with the sudden drop of exhaustion.[break][break]
He didn’t regret preventing Robin from causing more damage in a situation that could’ve been handled a lot easier than it had been. But he was still left with the distinct feeling of guilt. It turned over in his stomach as he shifted to look up at Tornadus. The djinn eyed him, and he could almost sense the aura of disappointment. He was probably imagining it. But whether he was or not, it didn’t lessen the feeling any.[break][break]
“Yeah. I know,” he said aloud, looking back down at the empty path ahead. He should’ve handled this better. He should have been better. Maybe if he hadn’t waltzed out here with her, or if he’d been more disapproving of her participation, then... If he hadn’t snapped, if he’d shielded her from the destruction breaking apart everything around them, it wouldn’t have culminated in this outburst. Or the one in Dewford.[break][break]
The inward blame turned to a cement block that sat heavy in his gut.[break][break]
He should have seen it sooner. He should have known it was bigger than one moment in her childhood home. This was on him.[break][break]
There was an impulse to cave to the anxiety that itched to take over. It crawled under his skin, jumping through his nerves like an electrical current. He should’ve been a better brother. “take care of the Dugtrio,” he said then to Virizion, who seemed equally as eager to have the situation settled and through. “Make sure the Rocket doesn’t make any sudden moves.” They obviously weren’t. Lam looked up at Tornadus again as he issued the request, reluctantly so, as he fished out his radio to call back up to bring the culprit in.[break][break]
Even then his mind rang with the chorus of his little sister’s scorn, and the wild oscillation between she didn’t mean it, and what if i had done more?



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Something crosses Cassandra Kubrick’s expression as they speak about the Ralts that hovers close by. His head tilts, and he considers asking what exactly she means by that—after all, it’s just a little ralts, right? But he brushes it off and lets it rest. They’ve got bigger problems to contend with, after all. “Yeah, no problem.” It won’t be until much later, when he’s home and settled in that his mind scrolls back to the gym leader summit and the ralts with Hideo Kino that revealed itself as Uxie.[break][break]
But even then, he won’t be sure the situation is the same.[break][break]
“I think you’re right. There must be an artificial spot somewhere. Maybe if we can shrink it back down, it’ll be…a little more obvious where exactly it’s set up.” Kinda hard to scout it out when there’s a gargantuan pink puffball blocking everything from view. “It makes a better door than a window.” Is he cringe? He’s probably cringe…[break][break]
But it doesn’t stop the laugh that follows. Or the amusement the comes when he notes Cass’ obvious delight at the prospect of Judy’s embiggening. He shields his eyes as he looks up as she rockets upward, Jon becoming no more than a blip atop her head. “He’s up there alright!” The girl has the right idea too—sending out more of her team. Lam follows suit, and Poppy flutters after them as Arichoke and Rutabaga, a pair of deciueye, join the fray to herd more of the escapees away. “Sorry Ruthie, you can get a dig in later!” he consoles the Hisuian variant, who seems far more keen to get in on the action than play rescue. With a low hoot, she relents and follows the older deciueye.[break][break]
Assisting Jon’s efforts, Virizion turns from their task in clearing away smaller pokemon. As the trubbish’s belch whittles away at the first barrier, a swirl of leaves glowing with z-energy disappears the Sword of Justice as they bounds up into the verdant flurry. When they reappear, the VIRIDESCENT VENERER slams into the Wigglytuff’s side—a cracking sound emanating from around it as the red glow flickers and shatters a piece of the shield the rest of the way.[break][break]
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Reeling, the wigglytuff lets out a cry that would normally be shrill, deepened by the sheer size of its current stature. It rears back, and targets the first thing it spies, which is of course the only target that matches its current state. Judy lets out a rumbling bellow that shakes the ground beneath her as the MAX KNUCKLE connects with the first layer of her own dynergy barrier.[break][break]
It shatters and she shakes with the force of it, but she’s not down for the count. Carefully, she tries to steady herself to keep from sending the tiny trubbish on her head from going flying.[break][break]
“Alright, Judith—that’s your cue!!” Lam cups his hands around his mouth to howl up to the garbodor, though he’s not quite sure if she actually hears him or is just acting on instinct. An absolutely wretched smell emanates from her body, and Lam’s eyes sting as a wave of green sludge shoots forward to shatter another piece of the Wigglytuff’s shield. Who knew G-MAX MALODOR would be so rank??[break][break]
“Just one more segment!” he calls over to Cass, though his voice is slightly muffled by his shirt collar, which he’s pulled up over his nose. “Maybe everyone, altogether?” This was a far cry from the registeel that had appeared out in the desert, but the combined attacks from smaller creatures had been effective then, so why not now?[break][break]
Virizion continues to circle the width of the Wigglytuff, seeming to leave the task of rescue from to the teams of the trainers they assist.

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“Was that a chance?” Lam called back toward Madeline McKenna. “Let’s be real here–whether we agreed to retreat or not, there was never going to be any peaceful passing about it.” It was obvious in the woman’s posturing, in the tone of her voice and the trap she so quickly sprang around them. Under the bravado, there was only guilt. This wasn’t what he’d been counting on when he and Rook had departed to evacuate civilians and wayward pokemon.[break][break]
But of course, he should’ve known better.[break][break]
The zoroark that flickers into view reminds him of Rook’s, but all wrong. There is something feral in its posture before it disappears–only to return behind his garbodor. The collision causes Judith to bellow in pain, but she swings wildly. Toxic waste hurls itself from her body toward the shifty creature, a GUNK SHOT aimed at slowing it with poison.[break][break]
Time's up. And she isn't lying - she moves fast.[break][break]
Twisting out of the way, Lam expected the blade to follow through. To maybe clip him if he hadn’t shifted just far enough out of reach. But when he looked again, she had changed direction entirely. Fear clawed its way up his throat, green eyes wide as the scythe arced through the air toward Rook. “R–” He was turning, feet nearly tangling as he tried to stumble closer. To push Rook out of the way, to grab him, Lam wasn’t sure.[break][break]
Anything just to prevent the curved blade from slicing at any piece of his partner. But before he could even finish calling his name, Lam watched as a sudden, gusty wind hurtled from the opposite angle and bowled into the man’s narrow frame. He was lifted slightly off his feet and then sent tumbling across dirt and grass as both Lam and Jinx watched. [break][break]
Though the landing looked rough, he felt a weighty sort of relief crash through his system. It might cause some soreness or bruising later, but it was far better than any sort of damage those swinging scythes could have done. “Rook!” he managed that time, the distress in his voice obvious as he shifted to sprint toward him and away from Victoria Beckett.[break][break]
The aftershocks of the air slash rustled through Lam’s hair and clothing as it died out. He glanced up at the crobat, and then at the masked woman. His brows creased, and he wondered if she had maybe–no. That didn’t make any sense. He shook off the idea of misplaced altruism and looked up toward Tornadus. “Cover him!” he pleaded with the stormbringer, and it was a request granted.[break][break]
Tornadus swept through the air, darting up out of the garchomp’s reach as he drifted toward Rook. Sturdy arms scooped the man up like he was no more than a limp meowth. While Rook’s zoroark barrelled toward Madeline McKenna in defense, the long curl of Tornadus’ tail lashed and he conjured a greater wind to rip through the lingering rains.[break][break]
The air turned colder, rain solidifying and powderizing as z-energy coalesced around Tornadus. The squall was unseasonable–frigid, icy snow whipped around the field, directed at Victoria Beckett and her zeraora. Or anything in its path.[break][break]

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His arms lifts to shield his face from the oncoming storm. If he can just get to them, maybe they can make it out of there sooner rather than later. The garbodor thuds behind him, eyes trying to remain on the zoroark before it disappears again.

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A visible flinch rippled across Lam’s features as she spit back at him, words steeped in vitriol. It would have been easy to fold, to step away and agree with him, but Lam didn’t want to let Robin have her way when it was…overkill. “I didn’t say help. He’s already incapacitated It’s better to just apprehend him and bring him in to Oldale’s PD for detainment.”[break][break]
The added firepower for the Rocket wasn’t necessary.[break][break]
“You’re not even listening to what I’m saying,” he countered. He pointed at the Dugtrio, and then at the hapless man peeking out from behind Dandelion’s wings. “It’s a shadow pokemon, does he look like he sent it our way? It probably acted of its own accord. That should be what we take out.”[break][break]
His eyes skirted to the pokemon, taking his attention off of Robin at the wrong moment to ensure that it was still held securely by Klefki.[break][break]
Expecting her to pull away, he let out a quiet oof as she turned inward instead. His limbs went rigid, locking in place as he tried to wrestle her back and push her away. “Robin, what’re you doing?” Have you lost your mind? The second question didn’t fall from his mouth, but it was likely obvious in his face as he grit his teeth and locked arms with her. Her anger was a palpable thing, and he could practically feel it stoking his own ire. The long fuse of his patience suddenly burning up at a rapid pace. “Back off, now.”[break][break]
Virizion watched, head held high as Lam grappled with her, and then turned to the Toxitricity. Weathering the loud clap of its boomburst, they sprang forward as the sound flared out and leveled both the grunt and the altaria. Dandelion let out a keening sound, head shaking on his serpentine neck. The glow of his feathers dimming as he collapsed into unconsciousness.[break][break]
But Virizion persisted as they surged toward Tox. Head swinging low with a steely glow as their sacred sword battered him back.[break][break]
His fingers itched to reach for the shadowed ball at his own belt as his ears rang from their own proximity to the attack. To let out the dark-feathered psyduck contained there. To let it reflect his own burgeoning anger as it countered its likeness in Tox. He felt one of the balls at his belt shake, and he thought that maybe it was about to break loose of its own accord, sensing that fury like blood in the water.[break][break]
Instead, Tornadus loomed over them. Arms folded as he sized up the two humans with piercing gold eyes. Then, one darted out with swinging force— the ARM THRUST aimed at pushing them apart. “You’re being childish,” he said then, “it’s like you’re going out of your way to make me regret covering for you in Dewford.”

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He nods in understanding, eyes drifting to the Ralts in question. “That makes sense…but if it trusts you, when it comes down to it, surely it’ll listen if it feels your concern.” One could only hope, anyway. He liked to think that was the nature of his connection with his Pidove. Stubborn as she was, Poppy did know how to accept his worry when it was warranted.[break][break]
The moment is forced to end, though, and that gungho is needed sooner rather than later as they close the distance on the chaos unfolding.[break][break]
“Sure looks like it. Is that…a wigglytuff?” It’s hard to tell, but Lam’s fairly certain that the rotund shape makes up the fairy-type. If it’s not that, maybe a clefable? Or one of their smaller evolutions. Whatever it is, its large feet stomp forward slowly, causing the ground to shake underfoot. “Someone’s gotta be controlling it.” Surely it isn’t a wild pokemon in the wrong place, right?[break][break]
That would be good luck if so, though. Or at least better luck, if it doesn’t destroy the route in its confusion over the sudden size change.[break][break]
He nods to Virizion. “Help round up any fleeing pokemon, and we’ll regroup.” The Sword of Justice takes the instruction with a toss of their head. They bound away, nimbling ducking around the contours of the wigglytuff. The pink fluff of its round body begins to shake and the rubble of shimmerng MAX STARFALL begins to fall with pelting force toward the fleeing creatures. Virizion tosses their head again, and Umlaut would find the flare of PROTECTION encasing him as they carry on their task.[break][break]
Lam’s brows furrow for a moment as he weighs the option. He doesn’t miss the tremble in her hands. “We’ve got this. It might be risky, but…” He brandishes the ball containing his garbodor again. “Told ya this wouldn’t be the last you’re seeing of Judy.” Hurling it outward, the release activates to send her out again. Judith rumbles, the compost rustling as she shakes her head.
“If Jon want’s to help, he might find a bird’s eye view useful.” He points to the top of his head, but he mean’s Judith’s of course. But there’s only so much time for the trubbish to take a seat on the flat expanse of her head as the pink glow of dynergy concentrated from Lam’s dynaband begins to engulf her and she begins to expand in size at a rapid pace to gigantamax proportions.[break][break]
Reaching out, he tugs on the Cass’s sleeve and starts taking rapid backward steps. “Woah—look out! Keep an eye on any civs in the way!” He was busy trying to pin point the Rockets wielding the overgrown wigglytuff. Which was more than a little difficult to do with now two gargantuan pokemon facing off.

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Preoccupied by the threat directly in front of them, the second rocket slipped through the underbrush undetected by Lam—no doubt also further obscured by the downpour. He should’ve thought to bring Peaches along. The psyduck’s natural abilities would’ve cleared the skies up easily, but there was no point in hemming and hawing over that now.[break][break]
As the rock tomb began to drop around them, he inched closer to Rook, hand curling around his defensively. Arms still folded, Tornadus swerved around the falling rock, wincing as one glanced off of his shoulder. He rotated in the air, fixing the masked Rocket with a pinned glare.[break][break]
Her remark was interesting, though. “Not all rockets? Not sure teaming up with this one really helps your case.” He tipped his head back toward Victoria Beckett in reference. Poppy fluttered up, drawn up to send an attack at the zeraora, but its rising voltage traveled too fast for the air to her beat. she took the heat of the electricity - lightning rolling up her feathers and stunning her body. Lam scrambled to catch her on the way down.[break][break]
If that other one wasn’t so gung-ho, though, could they use that to their advantage? Maybe?[break][break]
“Think you can convince your buddy to back off?” he called out to Madeline McKenna, his thumb jerking back toward the other woman. “She keeps saying she'll let us go, and that she’s being nice, but we all know that’s not happening.” He shrugged, “But if its not all Rockets, then maybe you will?”[break][break]
He was doubtful.[break][break]
Despite her stubborn grit, his Pidove wasn’t the right choice for this tangle. He could hear Poppy chirping in outrage as she was pulled back into her nest ball, but she was far too weak after the zeraora's attack. Lam’s garbodor quickly replaced his recalled pidove, but it wasn’t the amorphous rubbish pile who took the first strides. The rotund features of Rook’s lickilicky barreled forward without much hesitation at all.[break][break]
As the lickilicky gunned for Victoria Beckett’s side, Tornadus followed suit. He’d fixed his eyes on the masked rocket, and now he surged into action. The Storm Bringer rose in the air, and the long club of his tail uncurled as his arms drew outward and then pulled back, poised as a baseball pitcher.[break][break]
The weather ball that formed in his grasp hurtled outward at rapid speed toward the garchomp—amplified by the rain that continued to fall as it took on the consistency of the element.[break][break]
He tossed a look back toward Rook, and grinned. “Beat me to the punch,” he remarked, “and I’m supposed to be the gym leader.” He was impressed with his partner’s forward move into action, to be sure. Given the fact that they both knew a fight wasn’t his preference. Still, he eyed the twirl of her scythes warily. “If they don’t back off, Lumi will teleport you back to Oldale, okay?” He had the xatu with him, after all.

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Lam frowned down at the dugtrio as it seemed to glower at them, but his focus shifted unsteadily toward Robin at the hard edge in her voice.[break][break]
That frown only deepened as she sent out her toxitricity. The shadowy aura wasn’t wholly unfamiliar to him, but it wasn’t the reliance on this pokemon that had his head snapping back toward her. “Hey,” his hand shot out toward her to grip her arm. “What’d you mean you know what we do?” His own tone grew clipped, but there was a harsher edge there to match hers.[break][break]
There was something wildly familiar about the moment. His mind flashed back to a particular trip to the border, well over a year ago now. MATIAS SILPH goading him into an unprovoked attack on an unassuming group of rocket operatives. Down to the aggression of a shadow pokemon and all.[break][break]
But he wasn’t quite the same as he was back then. As Tox charged the Rocket, who was both too stunned and injured to move, Lam lifted a hand to his mouth and whistled. Virizion, who had been circling them at a distance bounded toward them in graceful leaps, but it was Dandelion who interceded first.[break][break]
The altaria, with his feathers aglow, descended—his cottony down SAFEGUARDING the effects of the toxitricity’s poison.[break][break]
Though the feeling it provoked was uncanny. Doubt cast a pallor in his expression as he regarded his little sister, the same as when he’d looked at Matias with new eyes in that moment. The concern he’d felt before for her frame of mind only intensified.[break][break]
“Robin.” He set a firm look on her, lips pressed in a thin line. “We aren’t out here to fight. If anything, we need to bring them in. We’re here to find civs, not make unprovoked attacks.” For all they knew, that dugtrio had acted of its own accord. Shadow pokemon were unpredictable in that regard.[break][break]
Absentmindedly, his hand found a particular pokeball attached to his belt. An unassuming net ball, but one that emitted a faint aura of darkness. He didn’t carry it often, and he wasn’t sure why he’d brought it today. But if he needed to fight fire with fire, he could do that.


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His head tilts, and his eyes dart to the Ralts again. “Worried? Why is that?” It certainly seems repelled by the lingering stench, but is it in great danger? “I think I have an antidote somewhere in my bag, if you think it’d be helpful.” The offer comes easily, without second thought. He doesn’t note the safeguard, his attention is too scattered as it drifts across the stretch of the route they’re on. Just in case any more trouble might be nearby.[break][break]
Judith is, admittedly, a bit of a lazy companion—so it comes as little surprise that she’s eager to return to her ball. But she’s come in clutch each and every time it counts, so he supposes that’s what matters in the long run. Still, he can’t help but give the trubbish a small smile. There’ll be more time for him to bond with the bigger garbodor. Of that, Lam’s certain. “Of course,” he relents, shrugging again as she thanks him. It doesn’t need saying, because of course he wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing, but he accepts the gratitude all the same. Only to grin when her enthusiasm kicks in. “Be as much of a bother as you want,” he replies with a quiet laugh, “Better to be gung ho than not.”[break][break]
Especially in a situation like this, when the tables could turn at any moment.[break][break]
Lam eyes her carefully, noting the shift in her expression, but he doesn’t remark upon it. It’s not his place to drag any information out of her unless she’s putting herself at risk recklessly. Which…he sort of found her doing, but again, she held her own just fine. If anything worse unfolded, he’d intercede a bit more firmly.[break][break]
“I’m sure you’re right!” he quips, and though the words are chipper, they’re edged in bitterness too. Everything out here was dangerous at the moment. It didn’t take much to find people solidly where they shouldn’t be. And as they start down the Route again, the sound of distant shouting rises to greet them.[break][break]
Along with the growing shadow stretched out over them as something grows to unnaturally large proportions. That could only mean one thing, right? The dynamax band is snug on his wrist—there if he needs it. But will it come to that? He supposes they’ll find out sooner rather than later.[break][break]
“Looks like trouble came to us.” He shoots her a look before taking off toward the source of the panic at a run. Virizion bounds ahead, all of their serene grace amplifying their natural agility.

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He casts a weary glance toward robin coello as she speaks in triumphant declarations. She sure is confident in their odds, and yeah, Althus Rex speaks with high enthusiasm as well, but…the cadence of her words ring a bit differently than the zeal that bolsters the other trainer’s steps and keeps his head held high. We will be Victorious. It’s almost ominous. Maybe it’s just what he knows has been going on with her coloring things. Yeah. Maybe Lam’s just imagining what he hears, combined with the unnerving vibe saturated in every piece of the scenery around them.[break][break]
And she knows this place better than he does. [break][break]
“Do you think it is separate from the spirit you thought, then?” he asks, “or maybe it’s guarding the actual wisp..?” He’s thinking out loud more than putting down any concrete beliefs.[break][break]
illeana reyes’s admission earns a nod of understanding from him. It makes sense, he supposes, if the orb was in someone’s possession until recently, not many have had the chance to witness how it works. But before he can open his mouth to say as much, the shadow tag curls up to lock them all in place. It’s cold like dread seeping up his ankles to his legs, an icy shiver darting up his spine.[break][break]
The shinx in his arms presses closer into that hold–small body tense and amber eyes wide as he looks for the source of the disturbance. A feline awareness of the supernatural makes his fur fluff, and Lam can feel his claws flexing and hooking into the fabric of his sleeve. As if he could bat at a spirit and make contact.[break][break]
An impending sense of doom only swells out around them with greater intensity as they’re quickly surrounded and the real fight breaks out.[break][break]
He doesn’t have any solution for the bind keeping them in place, but as Illeana plucks herself free, he lets his shinx jump free to assist. “Back her up!” Noodle shakes his fur and sparks crackle around him as he darts forward between the head scientist and her umbral doppelganger. As she works to untangle the rest of them, he leaps up to tackle the mimic with a WILD CHARGE that leaves its imitated body wracked with electricity.[break][break]
So if there was a shadowy counterpart for each of them, then there was one for him, right? He scans the fog, but what appears isn’t the creepy manifestation of himself that he expects. A spectre from the back of his mind stalks forward through the mist with disjointed, uncoordinated steps on flat, taloned feet, and despite being freed from the shadow snare, the sight of his dead quaquaval locks Lam in place.[break][break]
Tattered feathers poorly conceal the gore of her eviscerated abdomen as it unspools from the downy fluff, and the long plumage of her tail feathers hang limp behind her as her beak clicks and the grating coo that scratches up her throat sounds in accusation.[break][break]
Lam blanches and the din of their fighting fades to muted static in his ears. He hadn’t had a choice, but he’d left the mangled remains of the bird to rot in the murky depths of the Deep Sea. And he’d never ventured out that far again to find her. Abandoned. That’s what the croak of her cry seems to say, and she is right. He can’t tear his eyes away, but realizes a beat too late that the eerie, clunky pattern of her walk is the beginnings of AQUA STEP.[break][break]
He feels his pulse spike, the flush of adrenaline through his system as fight or flight kicks in. But he does neither. It is Tornadus who intercedes, snapping Lam out of the daze as he descends into the fray–slamming a HAMMER ARM into the soft, rotted melon of Ginger’s head.[break][break]
“What—“ Only then does he let out a shaky breath, and look around. “—the fuck?” He searches the space for Robin reflexively. Protective instinct, though his earlier wariness doesn’t diminish.

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
robin coello Althus Rex illeana reyes [break]
I use the opportunity to resurrect cursed quaquaval from this thread ty

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