[attr="class","minimal"]

"ah, ah, ah, careful now, draconid."[break][break]

Before her, Declan Walsh unsheathes himself from a spiraling spout of shadow. Darkrai is not present with him, but who can truly discern absence and presence in the dark?[break][break]

"we have matters to discuss." The Boss says, surveying the wretched configuration of freya morningstar's body. "i promise that afterward, your foul dragon heart will get what it wants. lamentably, i possess no power to untangle your fate from kyurem's prophecy."[break][break]

He gestures to her claws, her horrid fangs.[break][break]

"now put those away and act as councilwoman... if you can?"

[attr="class","ooc"] freya morningstar[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

"perhaps." the boss says of past avatar relations. "but is it not folly to view such consortiums through a human eye?"[break][break]

he scans the papers, eyes tabbing through one line to the next. the visuals, though rudimentary to the boss' eyes, still convey what they need to.[break][break]

"we are actively pursuing these pokemon when we can." the boss says. "yveltal," he points at its cute depiction, "being one of them, due to our current possession of xerneas."[break][break]

he removes his hand and stares across at the man.[break][break]

"pokemon who do not fall rank and file with us will be terminated. that much is known."[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Tempest Quinn[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

declan welcomes him. allows the brave return's first careful step. though the dark has been shed, his presence is a mauve cape that whorls around their bodies and ushers whispers of their past.[break][break]

cold fingers grab the man's chin. they yearn to be warm, but even nostalgia is powerless to thaw the glacial rivers drawn from his barely beating heart.[break][break]

the grip grows firm, almost crushing as declan dips his forehead against theo's.[break][break]

"let it be known that i will not caper about with you." walsh can't. the past is a weakness. the past threatens upheaval of steady, tended ground. "not until this war is done."[break][break]

he relinquishes theo's jaw.[break][break]

"it has been a pleasure to hold conference with you, underboss beckett."[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] THEO BECKETT[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

"we are not used as chess pieces, mayhaps. instead, together, we are the chess piece."[break][break]

the boss is quick to catch tempest's utterance. he stretches the idea with his teeth.[break][break]

"though it may be folly to presume both legendary and human are being 'used' at all. our beliefs are aligned in a consensual march."[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Tempest Quinn[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon darkrai"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

the boss matches MATIAS SILPH's stare.[break][break]

"still arrogant in spite of suspension."[break][break]

as annalise henderson's call soars through the sun and storm, the boss scrutinizes her one last time. she will grow to be a nuisance. she already is.[break][break]

"she calls for you, dog."[break][break]

walsh's body melts into smoke, which is swiftly taken by the sea winds. his nidoking too, dissolves into charcoal sands.[break][break]

when he emerges from his slumber before his DARKRAI, sootopolis quakes.

[attr="class","ooc"] annalise henderson MATIAS SILPH[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon nidoking"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

"unlike you, i revel in being my element." [break][break]

as the boss lunges for annalise, smoke billows from his fangs and streams across his diving face like melting ichor. [break][break]

"but you have never been in yours. you have always been a fish out of water. there is no place for you in this world save for a dingy, cramped cell."[break][break]

the punch slams into his teeth. pushes past his palate and through his neck. his head falls forward, held up by annalise's forearm, jaw unhinged like a seviper swallowing the smallest swablu.[break][break]

but the horrific vision falls into a cascade of smoke around her. a fount of smoke reappears by matias, spiralling into walsh's shape.[break][break]

"i gave her that tainted ruby." the boss says. "however, the gift was always meant for you." he does not smile, but his voice does. "i expected a thank you, not an insult when you arrived. after all, practicing gratitude during grief is healing, is it not?"

[attr="class","ooc"] annalise henderson MATIAS SILPH[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon nidoking"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

the dragon finally unsheathes itself from the spatial curtain. walsh bears witness to its work. ancient dust is blown apart, ribboned by fading pink scars.[break][break]

when she disappears, walsh does too. so does his gliscor. their shadows coalesce into the lowing winds, brine the slumbering sand embroidering their yielding currents.[break][break]

after illeana reyes's sanity crumbles, after MATIAS SILPH and annalise henderson leave his sight, walsh wakes.

[attr="class","ooc"] illeana reyes[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon gliscor"]

[attr="class","phone walsh"]
 
 
 

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[attr="class","minimal"]

the fumes are severed, shadowy banners plummeting limply into desiccated wisps. MATIAS SILPH's HITMONLEE would be able to scry the man's shape through the dissipating smoke.[break][break]

"fight you for real?" walsh says. "i am afraid that is not possible... if we are echelons apart."[break][break]

he manifests in full as fabric torn from the residual smoke. his hand, almost clawed, reaches for annalise henderson—but it contests MATIAS SILPH's HITMONLEE instead.[break][break]

like mt. chimney's smoldering scar, shadowy smoke billows from his palm as walsh attempts to strike and sleep the kicking pokemon.

[attr="class","ooc"] annalise henderson MATIAS SILPH[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon nidoking"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

"only an underboss now?" [break][break]

thundery waters lap against sootopolis, rising ever rising like lost souls scaling mount purgatory.[break][break]

he toys with the language. surely, the underboss could be contained within the dozens—but specifics will not play well with inspiring a rise out of another. only the vague sunken spaces of their parlance can be filled by her—and walsh depends on it.[break][break]

"if you operate in the light," the boss rises from his seat. he descends, footsteps silent despite the cold stone beneath them. "then know i will always exist as shadow. by the end of this war, you will be forever followed by me. any victory will be marred by your meddling, your callow collaborations."[break][break]

he points to the distance. kyogre's shape grows frighteningly large as the seconds go by. a faint song from Melody Miro and Aoki Hana's tussle could be heard.[break][break]

"you are compromised, illeana reyes. you always have been."

[attr="class","ooc"] illeana reyes[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon gliscor"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

"how comical coming from a man riddled with pop rocks."[break][break]

under harsh sun, the NIDOKING is overwhelmed by flame, pulse and psyche. the beast falls, toppling down several pillars of stone. crumbs of white break and clatter and salt the sea below.[break][break]

walsh narrowly avoids the MEW's attack. pink energy cuts through his cape, the fabric in a temporary tatter.[break][break]

"can you even catch me?"[break][break]

he expels shadows from his tattered cape, shrouding their battlefield in a sedative smoke. for lethargy, not slumber.[break][break]

briefly, his disembodied voice appears by annalise henderson's ear.[break][break]

"do not think for one moment that mew makes you more capable."

[attr="class","ooc"] annalise henderson MATIAS SILPH[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon nidoking"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

walsh ignores the poetics. he cares little for the cosmology of her storytelling. rather, he focuses on the logic. the brick and mortar of speech.[break][break]

"if dozens have fraternized with you," the boss says, "then you have fraternized with them."[break][break]

his body fades into the gasp of salt shadow before rematerializing on a white perch a few feet away.[break][break]

"does the league know? does dahlia know?"

[attr="class","ooc"] illeana reyes[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon gliscor"]

[attr="class","minimal"]

annalise's question is a pertinent one. where is walsh? where did he go? is he here? is he real—even as he stands before her and matias, having reemerged into view like a specter of salt and shadow.[break][break]

his NIDOKING roars in contest of the CHARIZARD as its master returns.[break][break]

"you kept me waiting." the boss says to the elite four. "i am disappointed that your groudon is nowhere to be seen. still in the dog house, i presume? or are you worried that you will cause her death as you did your champion's?" he steadies his haunting gaze on annalise like a murkrow augur.

[attr="class","ooc"] annalise henderson MATIAS SILPH[break]
[attr="class","pokesprite pokemon nidoking"]