[attr="class","mareep-post"]
the cry rings out through the forest; persephone recognises it as a herald of the ungodly creature from mossdeep. it's the scream that rises above all others when she relives the minutes (hours?) in fitful nightmares. her head snaps to bailey, and she's reaching for her pokemon's capsules with nothing on her mind other than the need to run. [break][break]

three bursts of white light drown out the red glimmer of three pokemon being replaced with a sole drifblim as a TAILWIND whips up around them to add to the one set up prior. [break][break]

persephone's not thinking so much as her instincts are screaming at her to flee. perhaps the drifblim senses as much, because she can only really force out a single "go!" from her throat, feeling as though it's lodged with ice shards. [break][break]

flying ahead at an almost atypical speed for the ghost-type, they follow the sparking trail left by kyle's manectric. rising to a slightly greater height but still shielded from the approaching beast's eyes by the leaves and branches, persephone scans the forest floor for anything helpful to their predicament. [break][break]


» perse withdraws swampert, kingdra and dragalge[break]
» perse releases drifblim[break]
» drifblim uses TAILWIND to gain speed[break]
» perse holds on to drifblim and ig they fly now[break]
» they try to get enough height to be able to assess their surroundings


[break]

[attr="class","mareep-lyrics"]
There are still things unseen: the lonely sea, the sky

[attr="class","leaguecardinner"]

[attr="class","mareep-post"]
so they slightly overdid it. persephone watches the cascade of flames swallow the trees and lick at the sky with a fervent hunger. this is fine, mainly because they don't answer to anyone here and there is no council member who will be calling them into their office to chastise them. [break][break]

persephone inclines her head to see how her colleagues react because, quite frankly, turning and heading in the opposite direction seemed like a very solid option. when the others opt for pokemon more equipped to dealing with fire, persephone semi-reluctantly follows suit, switching her three for a new trio in a fluid motion of tossed capsules. [break][break]

with kyle pressing forward, persephone and her three pokemon position themselves around him so that he and his pokemon can concentrate on tracking, intending to cover him from either flank and the front. [break][break]

while the swampert's MUDDY WATER sloshes ahead in a dirty, barely controlled wave, the kingdra's HYDRO PUMP blasts ahead with the pinpoint accuracy of a ]SNIPER to the group's left. [break][break]

the dragalge flops on to the ground like a pile of seaweed just washed ashore, and seems to contemplate its predicament for a moment. its brown fins darken and its body takes on a uniform, mottled hue as its CAMOUFLAGE interacts with the moistened dirt underfoot (thanks, swampert) and turns it ground-type. seemingly reassured, the dragalge straightens itself and bursts out its own HYDRO PUMP at the fires. [break][break]


» perse withdraws dusknoir, sigilyph and frosmoth[break]
» perse releases swampert, kingdra and dragalge[break]
» swampert uses MUDDY WATER to extinguish the flames[break]
» kingdra uses HYDRO PUMP to extinguish the flames[break]
» dragalge uses CAMOUFLAGE to turn ground-type, and then uses HYDRO PUMP to extinguish the flames


[break]

[attr="class","mareep-lyrics"]
There are still things unseen: the lonely sea, the sky

[attr="class","mareep-post"]
persephone hears the same sound bailey does; steel yielding against fire. there's nothing to be satisfied about really, but she flashes stormy a quick smile anyway. persephone herself never particularly used fire-types and had none with her, but at least they have a specialist among them. [break][break]

"got it!" she calls out to bailey, quirking her brow in thought before addressing her pokemon as she draws a third capsule from a pocket, her fingers searching for the specific combination of protruding dots while she spoke. [break][break]

"repeat what you just did, but i want to see more flames!" persephone says, addressing her ghost-type. [break][break]

dusknoir does as instructed, seemingly pleased for a moment as he regards the interaction between the fire licking at his fists and the potent sunlight. he puts up his two fists, FIRE PUNCHES ready, and starts swinging at the lethal origami creatures. [break][break]

[break]

she releases a third pokemon, a frosmoth, onto the field, tossing the pokeball high up so it joins bailey's togekiss as its winged, pale shadow. [break][break]

"dull those blades for us, and help out, uh-" persephone interrupts herself to look around and finds herself drawn to bailey's darmanitan, and she points to him as he prepares to surge forward to perform his attack. [break][break]

"help the big guy." [break][break]

the frosmoth identifies the threat and focuses on the largest of the kartana, and then begins to quickly spin together a fluffy, down-like in a FEATHER DANCE that envelopes the kartana whole that aims to bind and cover its blade-appendages. as the frosmoth dips down to deposit its handiwork on the kartana, it cheers on bailey's darmanitan and offers him a HELPING HAND to boost up his attack. [break][break]

[break]

persephone waits for another heartbeat to see what unfolds around her, and her gaze settles on kyle's smeargle unleashing a potent, flame-based attack. it's another one that she had never seen before, and she feels her lips part in awed wonder. she'll really have to ask him about that later. [break][break]

"can you do whatever that was, please?" she says to the sigilyph. [break][break]

finally the sigilyph turns to the enemies and unleashes an echo of what kyle's smeargle had done; a cascading of intense flame of a strange hue. [break][break]

[break]


» dusknoir readies its 2 fists and uses FIRE PUNCH x2[break]
» perse releases frosmoth[break]
» frosmoth uses FEATHER DANCE to cover the kartana in down and HELPING HAND to buff up bailey's darmanitan[break]
» sigilyph uses MIRROR MOVE to repeat kyle's smeargle's SACRED FIRE


[break]

[attr="class","mareep-lyrics"]
There are still things unseen: the lonely sea, the sky

[attr="class","mareep-post"]
she's the last to be deposited out of the portal, flopping against the pile of others' limbs like a discarded doll. persephone murmurs a sorry, but her gaze is on anywhere but her companions. [break][break]

if this is the area "beyond" the portals they had encountered time and time before, it managed to look remarkably normal. the forest superficially looked like any one that could be found in hoenn, and she would be forgiven for thinking the wormhole had simply placed them somewhere in the vicinity of fortree. [break][break]

the illusion of normality is quickly shattered by eerie whistling and an onslaught of creatures on a distant figure. [break][break]

kyle and bailey spring into action - and persephone knows she would have done the same if they had not. [break][break]

she doesn't recognise the move kyle's smeargle performs but it looks almost familiar in the same way dreams you try to remember gnaw at you. [break][break]

persephone takes a moment to reach for her own pokemon's capsules, her fingers tracing the engraved braille on the surfaces identifying them, until she picked out the two she wanted; a sigilyph and dusknoir take their places at the ready. [break][break]

as stormy's aegislash and turtonator set their defenses, the sigilyph does the same in tandem, performing its own REFLECT and LIGHT SCREEN. [break][break]

the dusknoir holds on for a moment, waiting for the outcome of the initial onslaught of attacks, its two fists ready to punch: FIRE PUNCH in one hand and SHADOW PUNCH in the other. [break][break]


» perse thinks everything is normal for a second but it really isn't [break]
» sigilyph uses REFLECT and LIGHT SCREEN [break]
» dusknoir will be going in to punch with FIRE PUNCH and SHADOW PUNCH if the kartana are sleeping, or will wait until they come closer before punching if they do not sleep

[break]

[attr="class","mareep-lyrics"]
There are still things unseen: the lonely sea, the sky

not even the pillars of light from above can reach these depths. they left the sun behind long ago.

the ancient script stares back at her; each dot just another pupil of an eye that isn't there. persephone can decipher it at a distance through the seawater pressing around her, through the steel and glass, but she knows this is not the natural way of reading the text. that requires tactical contact; the words ask for touch to reaffirm they still have meaning, to reaffirm that the writer can still reach the reader.

she unpacks the words, lays them out in front of her, going over them again and again long after their meaning crystallised into three points.

glanth; the old name for relicanth. aura; the esoteric way some pokemon can reach out into the unknown and extract information. the pokemon of origin; a terror. sometimes, things are locked away for a reason. she looks away.

persephone takes out two pokemon capsules, her oldest ones. she places the first into a small chute designed to release pokemon outside the sub into the water. out there, the relicanth looks more at home than she had ever seen it. persephone unlocks the second capsule at her side, waiting a heartbeat for the lucario to materialise into his form and take in their surroundings.

when she speaks into a megaphone to direct her relicanth, persephone is taken aback to hear her voice. she asks for an ANCIENT POWER and watches the water churn with bubbles and rising stone shards. the sub's lights are obscured when persephone turns to the lucario, eyes resting momentarily on the mega accessory at her wrist.

the lucario has done this before, and she wonders if its ethical of her to keep asking him for this. he searched for regirock in those caverns so long ago, he scoured the ultra beast in mossdeep for weakness and fought with a borrowed power. and she'll ask him to do it again and again.

the remnants of the relicanth's ANCIENT POWER press against the window, obscuring what light there is from the external beams.

"search for me, please. is something trapped inside?"

the lucario isn't in the habit of questioning orders. he focuses on the rock face, on what's beyond it, eyes wide open and looking far ahead to things his partner cannot see and cannot fathom. at his limbs an azure pulse flickers, like the forming of an AURA SPHERE, and persephone holds her breath.

[attr="class","mareep-post"]
she felt like a scolded child standing outside Olivia Abbiati's office with Bailey Cooper, and it all was thoroughly unfair. she was mostly schooled by her mother, but in the brief semesters she had attended school, persephone was predictably a teacher's pet. therefore being called on like this was unsettling at best and agitating at worst. [break][break]

her phone vibrates in her pocket, and she and bailey scan the message from kyle lopez in unison. they're moving toward the exit at a matched pace, speeding up the closer they get to the doors. [break][break]

and, why, yes, she did have a pokemon with teleport; the exhausted claydol from the events in slateport blinked that the pair with its multiple eyes. assuring it that it can rest soon, the claydol emitted a high-pitched uncanny sound and teleported them in increments; from the league headquarters, to a pokemon center in verdanturf. [break][break]

at the iconic red and white doors, persephone returns the claydol to its capsule and catches bailey before she can leave to kyle's parent's home. [break][break]

"i promised i'd let it rest," she says almost apologetically. "you should get a fresh team too." [break][break]

the detour to the pokemon center is frantic; persephone sees bailey withdrawing handfuls of pokemon capsules and does the same because if there's anything she's learned - from all of this, from FERNANDO SILPH - is that it's better to be safe than sorry. she quickly tucks the minimised spheres into various pockets of her coat and of her bag, taking care to very deliberately not make eye contact with the workers. [break][break]

as they speed through verdanturf's streets, atop their respective pokemon of choice, persephone prays to every deity she knows that they're overreacting to kyle's cryptic message. but again, again, she's right but in the worst way possible. [break][break]

the portal yawns at them from just inside the doorway of the lopez home like a gaping, hungry maw. [break][break]

persephone levels bailey with a sober, sombre final glance. [break][break]

"ultra beasts is a fucking dumb name," she screams against the rush of wind. [break][break]

and then the portal swallows them whole.

[break]

[attr="class","mareep-lyrics"]
There are still things unseen: the lonely sea, the sky

persephone watches in awe as the two bulbous, rock-encrusted pokemon move with such grace through the tepid reef. who knew queen and rigel had it in them? is this what true love does? does it smooth out the crusty exterior to show the polished gemstone of the heart?

she turns to her fellow trainer and wipes a tear from her eye. persephone is so overcome with emotion that she is unable to utter words, and all she can do is clutch a fist to her chest and nod slowly and deliberately.

uniting this pair is more momentous than any of their other shared achievements.

Lucas Lane