[attr="class","bgtk-post"]
They emerged from underground.[break][break]
Aggron, Steelix, and Kommo-o turned their heads to the direction of the power plant, where the explosion had detonated and rattled the ground from where they had stood. Wakes of disturbed water thrashed against the coastline... and the three departed across the water, knowing that their
trainer was at the other side.[break][break]
[break]
She was too hardy.[break][break]
Bailey felt her body thrash against the ground. The repeated impacts registered like white noise; each slam, each tousle, each impact lost in a collective pain that could not be pulled apart. Instead, her entire body seemed to shut down, accepting its fate in the wild contortion.[break][break]
She spun, finally dragging to a stop with her limbs weakly clutching the blades of grass.[break][break]
But where was Tink?[break][break]
Her head spun, ears ringing, as the Champion tried to raise her head; tired gaze able to register the weak, collapsed shape of her
first pokemon as it struggled to breathe.[break][break]
Shock came cold as it came over her mind, wrecking her body with something frantic as her throat restricted.
“Tink—” No. Not this one. If there was a God, not this one. Not her. Not Tink. Not Tink. Not
Tink—[break][break]
It should have been her, not the Togekiss.[break][break]
Bailey crawled, then stumbled to her knees, as she scooped the pokemon into her arms.[break][break]
Blood flushed down the sides of her face, red and sticky as goblets dotted the white, marshmallow fluff that she had known since she was a child; she was choking, like hands wound tighter around her throat, constricting noise until only a single sob managed to break through.[break][break]
Then, the waterworks; eyes clouded by tears as she struggled to piece together what could be done to save the weak pokemon in her arms. Get help? This far out?[break][break]
She was bound to protect the region; she knew it would come at a price.[break][break]
And her pokemon were there to protect
her.[break][break]
Ground rendered asunder, trembling from the splitting cables as the true threat revealed itself in all its magnificent height; Xerkitree, marching forward, could not draw Bailey's attention away from her gasping pokemon.[break][break]
“I'm here. I'm right here. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,” and the sobs wracked her chest, inflicting wounds that rattled deep enough to summon pain from old nightmares.[break][break]
What could she do?[break][break]
Nothing.[break][break]
All this time, and she could
still do nothing, like all progress was lost and she was left to be worthless like the cadet she had once been; the loser, still unable to scrape by without someone there to pull her along. The anguish was so strong, it felt like it would finally be the last push.[break][break]
Her tears
sizzled.[break][break]
Her chest inflamed, glowing with a magnitude of hatred and heat that threatened to overfill; the volatile ready to be engulfed by a flame of her own making, one that would glow so bright it'd render the eyes of those that had ever reached a hand to harm her—[break][break]
Steam spilled from her mouth, condensed like a breath to a winter landscape, betraying how something primal was ready to overtake her.[break][break]
Then, a hand. A voice.[break][break]
She looked up, catching a strange visage of a man donning attire from what felt like a different landscape; like, from a video game, and shock made her stumble from her hell-path that her mind would have pursued.
Thomas Benoit to the rescue.[break][break]
“Thomas? Is that you? What the fuck are you wearing?”[break][break]
And that was when help came, that was when she would extend her gasping Togekiss, letting the magic of
heal pulse take its hold. She feared it would not be sufficient in healing the fairy completely, but maybe it could be enough to stabilize the pokemon inside her pokeball.[break][break]
And more came. With their arrival, her sense of
desolation leaving her.[break][break]
[break]
They crossed by the rubble, leaping from one jagged fragment to another.[break][break]
Aggron had been in the lead, driven by something poisonous that made him eager to reunite with his trainer; with her, there would be new orders, new challenges.[break][break]
New fights.[break][break]
It meant he was the first to let his eyes stray upward, catching sight of
Remiel Calcifet 's descending Druddigon; his eyes following the trajectory, following how the pokemon was trainer-less and bound for his own. A creation from these invaders, bound to attack?[break][break]
It does not matter. It was by fate that the remainder of Bailey's pokemon had been crossing the waters at the very same time it was.[break][break]
Alpha had never been as crafty as the others, but he knew when to detect hostility; knew when he could throw himself at what was coming next, because he had too much anger to vent that Bailey had never fully addressed.[break][break]
The inherited steel-type jumped with a similar force that had propelled the shadow dragon; except, something rang different with his power.[break][break]
It was not artificial. It was true. The
first shadow pokemon was more than eager to showcase his strength.[break][break]
Hit me, his eyes challenged as he approached; his massive weight quick to try and curb the apex of his leap, eager to pull him back to the earth.[break][break]
So, he would have to reach with his tail, spinning at the hip to extend the full length of the limb to slam it into the side of the Druddigon;
iron tail.[break][break]
With his fall, with the full effects of gravity bringing him back down, his head would turn just in time to catch something bronze as it leaped past him.[break][break]
Kommo-o. Kapow. The punching dragon had a clenched fist, teeth barred, as it accelerated with a hasty jump that had been empowered by his previous
dragon dance; his clenched fist aimed to clock the Druddigon right in the side of the face with his
outrage.[break][break]
Then, the final arrival.[break][break]
Steelix. Not quite able to leap like the others, he opted for the length of his tail as he swung it down with an axe-like curve; aiming for the dead center of the druddigon's back to fully inturrupt its momentum and jump with a single strike;
smack down, to render its wings unable to gain lift and to drive it down to the poisoned waters that they were trying to navigate across.[break][break]
[break]
She eyed
dominic sinclair , not aware of the conduct of her pokemon behind her; she was far too focused on Tink's condition.[break][break]
“I know what my job is,” but her voice came without the usual aggression, if only because the man had his Togekiss come to her aide.[break][break]
Tink, on the other hand, was openly looking over the Champion's shoulder to see the Druddigon being assaulted in the background... and it would have groaned, if that would not have required a painful breath in its current condition.[break][break]
Like an older sister choosing to overlook the conduct of her wild brothers, Tink raised a weak wingtip over Bailey's shoulder, manifesting a weak, fading
aura sphere that was launched with a hard snap.[break][break]
Bailey, who's hearing was still ringing from the prior explosion, missed this detail as she withdrew the fairy-type back to its capsule.
“And Tink's a girl.”[break][break]
This wasn't the time.[break][break]
She picked herself up, looking at their newest problem and the black dragon that was preparing to engage with it.[break][break]
"I don't know what that fucking pokemon is," she directed to the Zekrom.
"But, I don't fuckin' care."[break][break]
“I know what to do, but... I'm gonna have to get closer. I gotta wait for the perfect moment,” and she fished for her fifth capsule, feeling her heart race as she held it in her hand.[break][break]
Then, a thought.[break][break]
“Where's Kyle?”[break][break]
[attr="class","bgtk-lyric2"]ROLL FOR THE ROUND
