[player]https://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_qf8pbq6uFl1yrg70yo1.mp3[/player]

[break][break]

"i think i know who you're talking about." [break][break]

the megalopolan takes a sharp nail to her teeth, sliding it in between her fangs like a toothpick.[break][break]

"yeah, we saw one of them on our way to hoenn." she says, still picking away. "mega weird looking. wore glasses and crazy hair. they said we shouldn't be here but they'd let us through because they were curious."[break][break]

smohke taps her teeth in thought.[break][break]

"every time we try to find another place to go, they try to stop us. sooooo very mega annoying!!"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH

[player]https://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_qf8pbq6uFl1yrg70yo1.mp3[/player]

[break][break]

"hunger has been handled." smohke says. "however the fear will never be. it'll always exist for as long as we live."[break][break]

she sucks in spit. [break][break]

"but as you kind of said, that goes the same for humans and pokemon? pokemon can wipe you out within a mega millisecond but you coexist."[break][break]

smohke sets the newspaper down, the pages dipping low where her leg once was.[break][break]

"anything else you want to say big man?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
hehe

"all i'm hearing is that you're a disobedient little brat." the lady activates another pokeball.[break][break]

from the red curtain of release, a kadabra manifests. its white claws grasp a silver spoon tight. [break][break]

she shakes her head, hand pressed against her cheek as a pitying pout graces her face. [break][break]

"we can't stop the riff-raff from making their dumb decisions. that eris kid? you?" she scoffs. "probably heard a million warnings and yet here you are anyway. i'll give you one last warning, as a parting gift."[break][break]

her kadabra spins its spoon.[break][break]

"in my experience, kids who meddle don't get hurt. it's their friends and family who try to save them who do."[break][break]

and with that, she and her pokemon TELEPORT, leaving behind cold cave air.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Aaron Toral [break][break]

she flees.[break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-seviper"][attr="class","pkspr pkmn-kadabra"]

"listen to yourself. you think any sane organization would enlist a kid?"[break][break]

the lady's seviper is thrown from cracking stone. a psycho cut is able to down it before gravity claims it.[break][break]

the seviper never hits the ground. it is recalled in mid-air, a red bolt snatching it like a witches' claw.[break][break]

"if your goal is to hurt us, then you'll be sad to know," she pockets the ball, "that your interference is only helping us."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Aaron Toral [break][break]

SEVIPER FAINTS.[break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-seviper"]

the lady and her unown do not move. crystalline spikes surge toward her—but she has faced so much already. has seen so much. lived through so much. what is this but another assassination attempt?[break][break]

the fist of spikes converges onto her breast, but they do not pierce her skin. black crystal careens around her body, like bejeweled winds streaming past an aeroplane.[break][break]

they return to zev and a blue energy pulses once before fading.[break][break]

"you truly are a monster. you play your part well." she adjusts her hat, pulls a white curl behind her ear. "our forum is but a fixed point in time. you can not destroy me."[break][break]

again, the lady gestures to the city.[break][break]

"but you can destroy this origin point, zev. you can solve this universe's fermi paradox." she says. "you ought to. or necrozma may sustain injuries so grave, it must rest for eons again. your choice."[break][break]

the necrozma begins to stir, its energy returning.[break][break]

"you have taken so much, you greedy beast. look at it. so much of it is inside you now." her unown-a reconstructs the panel of teleportation. "look, it grants you another gift."[break][break]

[break]
zev has been conferred another portion of necrozma's power.

[break]

Zev Harcourt's newest power:

• Once per thread, Zev can fire a powerful laser beam that burns everything in its path.

fragments crawl from necrozma's obsidian shape. they encroach zev's form, gracing his hard muscle like royal gems before sinking in.[break][break]

"you'll have chances to kill me again. but to do so, requires patronage of this beast though it appears that is currently underway." she smiles. "do me a favour and please send the visionary my regards. good bye."[break][break]

and she slips away as necrozma assumes its frightening strength once more.

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break]

"then our interests are one and the same."[break][break]

the lady says, hushed once more. one may wonder if she remains quiet in reverence of the black knight before her—but zev would be able to taste the perpetual madness racking necrozma's monolithic body. how it deafens the monster, its body a solid cage, forever echoing its anguish.[break][break]

"necrozma is not here out of coincidence." she says. "it is all part of the plan."[break][break]

her gloved hand is raised toward the megalopolan city: what is left of it, what remains.[break][break]

"megalopolans should not have graced our world. statistically speaking, as maldacena would say." she takes a step forward, her heels clicking on a slab of megalopolan metal. "but your hoenn is different. it is destined for destruction much like this city."[break][break]

her unown-a glides around her, but makes no aggressive motion.[break][break]

"the great filter. that is why you are here for me." she raises a hand. "and as such, i will not intervene nor harm you tonight."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break]

Suddenly, a sleek black panel manifests within Zev Harcourt's domain. It unfolds, its initial rectangular shape inset upon the view of the tower in the distance.[break][break]

From the panel's sharp origami-edges, a woman emerges, looking as if she comes from the tower itself. White-haired, pale, broad black hat casting darker shadows across her wizened face.[break][break]

She looks upon Necrozma's gigantic and barbaric form, but she is more concerned with the man standing before her. The woman clasps her white-gloved hands together as an UNOWN-A hovers above her shoulder.[break][break]

"how kind of you to grant our dialogue sanctuary." it is almost a whisper, her voice. "i ask you this, zev harcourt. do you know why you're here?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt[break]

"tracking necrozma?" velmos' voice skitters into a laugh. "you don't track necrozma. necrozma tracks you."[break][break]

under the sterilized light of the laboratory, velmos' blue tones fall into pallid grays. he crosses his arms tight. he fights the urge to hunt, veins of blue blood rising as a ridge across the back of his hands.[break][break]

"think about it. the blinding one comes when it smells an abundance of energy." he says. "remember the crystablooms? how he sucked them all dry? it hunts for itself. hunts the memory of what it once was."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt soyeon kwan [break]
ty for your patience!

[player]https://a.tumblr.com/tumblr_qf8pbq6uFl1yrg70yo1.mp3[/player]

[break][break]

"yippee!!" smohke giggles and smiles all fangs. "mega-good!"[break][break]

her greedy hands crumple the newspaper where ever they land, distorting headline and date with wrinkles and drool. smohke remains seated on the ground, limbs flailing about with glee—though one is a stump: a leg absorbed by a deoxys now owned by Amor Rose.[break][break]

"megalopolans like to return gifts with offerings of their own." the general pouts and shakes her head. "it's mega-sad i can't really give you anything in return."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] FERNANDO SILPH [break]
hehe

the PSYSHOCK brightens the cave again. it's a purple firework, the brisance of light sharp and punching.[break][break]

"COIL." she says.[break][break]

the seviper tightens its form, serpentine shape hardening its scales to take the hit. like a red carpet for fools, its forked tongue lashes out from its pillar of scales to SWAGGER the FLUTTER MANE.[break][break]

"so you think it's okay? for kids to be on the front lines?" she says. "the league truly is insane."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Aaron Toral [break][break]

SEVIPER uses COIL to raise its DEFENSES AGAINST PSYSHOCK.[break]
SEVIPER uses SWAGGER.[break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-seviper"]

the MYSTICAL FIRE spreads across the cave, painting dull stone and stalagmite with haunting mauve. each flame lingers long enough to illuminate aaron's enemy: a long-haired rocket in uniform, eyes are piercing as her seviper's fangs.[break][break]

"aren't you too young to be fighting this war?" she asks.[break][break]

from her legs, the seviper uncoils and bares its fangs. between that acuate gate, its forked tongue slithers outward.[break][break]

"if you surrender your flutter mane to me, i'll let you go safe and sound. how does that sound, kid?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Aaron Toral [break][break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-seviper"]

velmos responds. the timbre is biting. rankled and serrated by ceaseless hunger.[break][break]

it has been awhile since has fed.[break][break]

appetite stirs impatience. he answers both questions in one:[break][break]

"we call it the blinding one. centuries ago, it provided our people with power. it was our sun." velmos hisses. "but even suns do not know eternity. stories speak of its sudden disappearance... and its maddened, lightless return."[break][break]

the megalopolan swallows drool.[break][break]

"our people require a sun. nothing else can suffice."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Zev Harcourt soyeon kwan [break]
ty for your patience!

"because of me?" [break][break]

a thick white smoke spills out from the torkoal's nostrils. under the cover of this plume, several kindler-rangers rush in to recover johanna.[break][break]

"i don't pretend to understand it." farhan says. "but it is no fault of mine."[break][break]

behind him, a red head emerges from the smoke. his torkoal finds farhan's eyes.[break][break]

"i won't contest you." farhan says. "my job here is done. i will take my leave."

[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] Tempest Quinn [break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-torkoal"][attr="class","pokesprite pokemon coalossal"]