Reno's Missions

[Reno Vantas]

Psychotic Disasters 4: A Futile Hope

“Reno, you have one choice now. You are going to get this fixed before I have make you do it.”

A loud crash would follow the plain statement, the sound of a glass vial that was empty for the moment shattering against the wall. The robotic arm that threw the container would quickly return to the job the rest of the person was hard at work at, an attempt to rewire his SNAG for some undefined purpose. “Look, I said we ain’t talkin’ about it. Now, will you p-p-piss off?” Reno shouted at his cohort, voice aimed at the other workbench set up in the room.

Reno stared at his own hands, trying to calm down from his outburst. He was losing it, but he certainly wasn’t going to admit it, but he was falling apart. He had been trying so hard these past few months to steady himself, to create a sense of normality. He had succeeded in getting things to work again, getting his powers functioning like they had before. But it was tearing him apart. He felt worse than he had fresh off the wagon of connected to a mind that died without warning. He could feel his own mind turning against him.

“Look, Reno, you need to get help. But you need to get this ball rolling. I can’t do anything for you.”

The flutter of wings would make Reno snap again, yanking one of the screwdrivers off his workbench and stabbing it into his SNAG. Breathing heavily as he stares at the now junked device, Reno felt his legs buckle underneath him. Slamming into the top of the workbench in an effort to gain support, the red haired psychic glanced over to where he knew the one speaking to him was.

“Already going now. I’m not waiting for you to just collapse and die before I try to get you going the right way.” Beau shouted from the hall, wings continuing to flap as he began to move further away.

It would take him a few breaths before Reno could manage anything that resembled movement, slowly shambling towards the door to follow his friend. He had to follow Beau, had to…get…information. All it would take was getting to the library, then he could find something. Anything. Just whatever would end the pain.

“There we go, movement. The most basic function your dumb a** should be able to accomplish.”

Exiting the door into the hallway, Reno could see the elevator and Beau just waiting there for him to join up. Beginning to stumble his way across the distance, the Co-Leader of Snagem would begin to feel the world sway and send him into the wall in an attempt to make his head feel level with what the world was doing. Dragging himself along the wall as he attempted to keep his shoulder against the wall, Reno managed to cover the last fifty feet and crash into the elevator. “Library. I need the restricted s-section. Right?”

Beau would fire back. “Yep. You need to solve this internally.”

Shakily nodding, Reno glanced up at the camera and gave a quick circle motion with his hand. ”Yes? You want to go down? Oh, I shall get onto that one at once, your lordship.” GRAY would sarcastically reply to Reno, allowing the elevator’s door to shut and move slightly before stopping it.

Beau and Reno would glare up at the camera in the elevator before waving at the camera shakily.

GRAY responded by dropping the elevator slightly again before letting it stop once more.

Reno sternly pointed his finger downward as a sign to GRAY, feeling the elevator drop down again and shudder to a stop.

This was not how this was supposed to work.

“G-GET ON WITH IT!!” Reno screamed at the AI, shuddering slightly before falling to the floor of the elevator.

With this declaration of his own inability to work right now, Reno would feel the elevator shudder back to life and quickly arrive on the floor, allowing Reno to crawl out.

Beau shot out of the elevator above Reno, quickly entering the hallway and looking around at all the doors. “Which door is it? I can’t read these from here.” The Vivillon hybrid shouted at Reno, continuing to flutter around madly.

Gesturing to one of the doors, Reno would struggle his way to the panel near the door and slam his hand down onto it. The mechanical door would slide open and allow Reno to shamble inside, the psychic and his hybrid friend scrambling to examine the shelves for anything about Psychic channeling.

In his efforts to speed up the searching, Reno began to feed chi into his senses, allowing his eyes to begin seeing the world in greater detail, at a much quicker focus than normal. Call it ‘seeing’ faster, call it his brain processing the images provided to it at an increased rate. Either way, this needed evil was burning away at him, making him grow a pronounced shake in his robotic arm.

“Got it!” Beau shouted, a few feet above Reno. Pointing at a leather-bound journal that sat just above Reno’s normal reaching length, the psychic channeler could feel a subtle energy around it. He needed it.

Tearing his robotic arm free from its holder with a twist and sharp yank, Reno began the process of reaching the limb up towards the journal, his entire body beginning to shake and quiver as the chi that had been powering the arm distributed itself throughout his entire body to force him into shakes.

It would take a few attempts and require the limb to twitch around a fair amount, but Reno managed to get the journal into the arm’s grasp. Giving a few huffs before attempting to reel the book off the shelf, a spasm would rip through Reno’s only attached arm. The journal and robotic arm would go scything across the shelves, sending the books and gathered materials crashing to the ground and on top of Reno.

Unable to stand up against the avalanching papyrus, Reno was quickly felled by them and buried underneath their leather bound covers. Well, at least it wasn’t the impossibly rare and breakable stuff. Beau would simply watch as Reno struggled with the books to unearth himself and finally emerge to stand and finally read the journal.

The simple leather book would open up and reveal a simple journal, with a few words inside. “The mind’s eye sees all.” Reno muttered to himself, eyes bleary from the scores of books hitting him. Tapping the page a few times as he laid on the ground motionless and stared at the wall with a glazed look in his eyes.

“Hey! Stop that! Remember what you’re doing!” Beau shouted, getting right up into Reno’s face with his shouting in an effort to get the psychic to focus on the task at hand.

Reno would slowly roll the pages of the journal, watching as images and phrases that seemed familiar coursed past his eyes. Words about Dragon Falls, Mirage Island, and a final test before one can commit to the cause. About the three layers of the mind that had been explored by the writer, one of unending greed and glutton, another of the pains of life. The third was when Reno began to refocus and figure out that this was something different. This was about where he needed to go.

Reading through the section again and again, the Co-Leader found that it seemed to explain the area generally. It would be abstractly created, the environment controlled by his own vices to form the plane. All he had to do was conquer this jungle and the lesser demons of his mind populating it before the major test by his true self to prove he was getting better. And then he would be whole again. No bullet to the brainpan.

squish

Reno snapped fully out of whatever stupor he had placed himself into, finding the environment had radically shifted. Instead of the expanse of older books populating the area, he was now inside a dense jungle. He could barely see himself in the lighting for the area, but knew he was on the ground at least. Solid ground. And he heard mud squish a second ago. The hell?

“Aw man. Those were my good shoes too.”

Turning to where he had heard the voice speaking, Reno and Rome would stare at each other for a second before screaming at each other and scrambling away from each other. Rome would back himself into a tree, while Reno would miss placing his left arm on the ground and fall onto his back.

Rome would calm down first, wiping his brow before letting out his breath. “Okay. The hell? I thought I was supposed to show up first and get set up before you showed?”

Reno would attempt to scramble to his feet, left arm reaching to give him leverage.

…Okay, left arm isn’t showing up. NOW, his left arm reached so he could get up.

…

Glancing at his left shoulder, Reno could only sigh at the sight of his left arm being missing again. Welp, this was interesting. “So…you ain’t gonna be opposin’ me?”

“I just showed up and landed in a mudhole. I’ve spent the last few months being your lookup system for your own brain and had to morph my image to get you to start moving your moronic brain to the library.”

Reno blinked a few times before realizing that his whole time following Beau, the Vivillon hybrid hadn’t really been flapping his wings. “So…where do we go from here?”

“Honestly? I help you find your inner self, you fight whatever we come across. Either you fix yourself or you end up scrambled enough for me to run the show. Either way, I win.”

Reno hauled himself onto his feet, managing to work with his one arm to rise to his feet in the muddy clearing. “Fine. Let’s see what the hell we have ta see around here.”

The pair would begin to walk into the jungle they had landed into, the foliage quickly parting to their attempts to push through it. While the darkness of the area would make it hard to determine whether they would have a long or short trek before them, but they would manage to at least push through without tripping over any of the twisted roots that poked out of the earth.

The only sound greeting the pair as they moved was the occasional snapping of a ranch they stepped on, the sound of their moving the brush in front of them, and the occasional grunt of effort to move surprisingly strong branches that sliced through their path. Their walk would lead them to scale up a steep incline, with the ground growing warmer to their feeling. As this walk continued, Reno would finally reach the point where he had to say something. “How are you still alive?”

“Excuse me?”

“I distinctly remember ya getting’ pretty well torn apart, twice actually. How did ya survive?”

“May I ask why exactly you decided NOW was the time to start poking holes in your own mental narrative?”

Hearing a strange rustling, Reno glanced around quickly before speaking up again. “Well, if I’m gonna die due ta my mind breakin’, I wanna know how you survived. Could be useful fer me.”

A small rumble would rock the ground as the idea of Reno’s mind’s current state processed, giving Rome a chance to gather his response. “Well, it ain’t gonna help you outside your mind, you idiot! You want an answer? Fine. I survived because you need three relative constants inside your mind. There’s me, The Beast, who is supposed to be your more primal and evil instincts. There is also the one we are hunting for right now, your true self. That pansy runs your more righteous instincts and is what makes you want to do certain good actions. Finally, we have you. The mediator, the executor, and the one who occasionally comes up with the third option we never considered. For example, your arm sacrifice to help your war effort. Managed to cover my need for you to fight violently, truthie’s need to keep those other people safer, and your own personal little desire to stop all this fighting pre-emptively. Sacrificing that part of your soul sounded insane, but it worked out better than I would have imagined.”

Rolling the now limbless shoulder, Reno glanced at Rome with questioning eyes. “Will it ever recover?”

“Maybe? It would probably take you actually putting yourself back together, but sure, why not. I really shoulda thought of that, especially since I’m likely to take over. Well, at least I have that planned out now.”

Another rustle would be heard by the pair, deep in their conversation. “Wait, now I’m helpin’ plot my own takeover? What the hell?”

“Hey! It’s not like I’m along for this ride of my own choice! So if I use your need to talk as a way to get my ideas better thought-out, I’ll do it!”

“No, but ya could wait till I can’t hear ta figure it out! I thought you made plans like this all the time based off what I saw every other time I came inta my mind!”

“I DO! But every time you show up, I forget half of what I had planned for after you showed up! Mainly because you do stuff so mind-numbingly dumb, I’m not even sure what to do with it!”

More rustling. “Ain’t my fault I’m a bit of a spanner in tha works! Ya should learn ta expect it by now!”

“Oh please! I can’t eve-Aggghhhhh!”

Reno quickly turned as his partner in arguing was yanked into the jungly forest, clawing at the ground for a brief second before slipping away. “What the hell!?” Reno screamed at the sudden abduction of Rome, crashing through the woodland without care to his predicament. He was only focused on what had captured Rome and what something like that was doing in this place.

He would barely make into an area that appeared to have been cleared by something crashing through it when the sound of a yelp and a blur of orange hair was sent flying the other direction, crashing through the woodland with many a pained yelp and screech.

Well, that was Rome. Now, what the hell was fast enough to catch him off guard like that? Maybe the quickly moving shadow that was on the ground could answer him?

…Oh hell.

Reno would attempt to dive away from the speeding shadow, managing to get his feet off the ground when a massive grey hand ripped out and snatched his ankle. Smashing Reno into the ground, the hand would begin to drag Reno towards the shadow. Scrambling to claw at the earth in efforts to keep himself away from whatever the hell this thing was, the Co-Leader would lash out with a flurry of panicked kicks in an effort to loosen the hand’s grip. The hand would eventually loosen its grip, releasing the leg to instead push off the ground and allow the owner of it out of the shadow.

It would only take the moment Reno took to scramble to his feet for the entity to pull itself out of the shadow along the ground, the trail of darkness slowly forming back into a regular sized shadow while the grey and brown figure rose into view. “Dusknoir.” The spirit muttered, its singular red orb locked onto Reno.

“Oh hell.” Reno cursed, slowly beginning to back away from the Ghost type Pokemon in hopes it would stay still while he escaped. He got halfway through his first step when he was proven horrifically wrong, mainly by one of the Dusknoir’s hands detaching and flying at him, while it was on fire. Diving away from the flaming weapon, Reno watched as the hand slammed into a tree and set it ablaze.

“OH Arceus! Please let me get some backup here! If only I could get some a my Pokemon here! I would sacrifice my other arm if I could just get Tsuki ta show up!” Reno pleaded, sprinting across the ground around the forest as more of the Dusknoir’s attacks flew past him. Not watching where he was going, Reno would soon find himself reacquainted with the ground as an exposed tree root tripped him and he was unable to catch himself.

Looking over at the Dusknoir, Reno could see it was now preparing a Shadow Ball, poised to take him out of providing any other trouble. Watching as the ball of ghostly energy was sent flying towards him, Reno only managed to scramble for ground before the attack slammed into him and sent him flying into the air. Smashing into one of the thicker trees of the forest, Reno slid down the sturdy piece of arbor until he felt himself resting on the ground again, facing the Dusknoir as it began to prepare a second Shadow Ball.

Dragging himself with his only arm in his continued efforts to escape the assault, the psychic felt a small tug in his mind as something seemed to shift in the world. Staring at the Dusknoir, he was able to see some strange dark purple colors swirling around the Dusknoir and its extended arms. Stopping for a moment to process what he was seeing now, he was unprepared for the strange energy to throw itself at him and slam into him again, sending his body flying around the tree he had ended up against and into the forest.

Sliding to a stop on the ground fifty feet away from where he had been before, Reno was once again facing the Dusknoir and able to see the Pokemon normally again. What the hell had that been? Well, whatever it was wasn’t gonna help him with fighting this thing. Finally managing to get onto his feet as the Dusknoir forced itself through the treeline it had thrown Reno through, the owner of this mind would take advantage of one space where the Dusknoir had to force itself to go ethereal partially to pass between two close trees. Rushing at the Ghost type, Reno went into a feet first leaping dive that sent slamming into the ghostie. For all of a millisecond, when the rest of the Pokemon went ethereal to allow Reno to pass through now.

Crashing to the ground behind the Dusknoir, Reno managed to land and roll back onto his feet, sprinting towards the opening in the trees. He could have gone for Rome, but it seemed like having an opening to maneuver around in was better than the possibility of backup. Oh Arceus, he really needed that backup he had been dreaming about right now!

And here came his best friend, big and gray. Why, oh why did that single red eye have to be so intimidating? Diving for cover behind one of the nearby rocks as a blast of Night Shade, the red haired man popped up over the piece of cover, waving a white flag at the Dusknoir.

The Dusknoir, to its credit, halted for a moment at the strangeness of the moment.

Oh, that was a mistake.

From the treetops, a slash of pure darkness would fly through the air, cutting deeply into the Dusknoir and sending it crashing into the ground. A shape would dart out of the canopy, the shape flying past the Ghost type and leaving deep gashes across the Pokemon’s side. Not one to lose his advantage, Reno dashed from his cover as the Dusknoir retaliated against its assailant, a flurry of shadows spreading off of its body into the trees before one of them solidified and the Dusknoir disappeared into it. A moment later, the shape from earlier was sent flying from its hiding place and into the clear light of the clearing.

“Tsuki?” Reno incredulously pondered, watching his Weavile as she cleaned herself off of the floor and wiped a small trail of blood that had dripped out of her mouth. The Dark type Pokemon would examine the area around her, attempting to determine where the Dusknoir was going to emerge. She was so focused on locating this opponent, that there was one result she had missed: the burning tree behind her and Reno.

The giant piece of flaming wood came crashing down with barely a sound, the flames and sudden increase in light being the only warning Reno received to evade. Rolling across the ground, Reno had enough time to watch the tree come down and crush Tsuki unceremoniously. Glancing over at the stump of the tree, he found the Dusknoir floating beside it with an almost gleeful look in its eye.

snap

That. That was the last damn straw.

Grabbing one of the broken off branches from the flaming tree, Reno charged towards the Dusknoir and swung with the flaming branch. The Dusknoir, rather predictably, made itself transparent to allow the branch to simply go scything through it. Which it did, at least for the non-flaming bits. It was when the flames came into contact with the Dusknoir’s edge that the branch impacted the ghost and sent it flying, the ghost type phasing between states as it smashed into and passed through trees. Reno gave a small smirk as the satisfaction of a plan coming together washed over him. Watching his eyes flash back to the weird energy vision, he looked to the fire and its flickering red energy. Good to know enough was left over from the Pokemon-created fire to let it still hit the ghost.

Feeling his vision shift back to its normal view again, Reno kept up his charge against the Dusknoir as the Pokemon struggled to right itself. Dodging around the trees in his path as he aimed to fight off the Dusknoir, he found the Pokemon still attempting to place itself right side up. Raising the flaming stick up to cleave down onto the Dusknoir, Reno was blindsided by the Dusknoir suddenly raising its hand and flashing a bright Confuse Ray directly into Reno’s eyes.

The Co-Leader would stumble back from the stunning flash, trying to keep his thoughts together in efforts to keep his weapon. He succeeded about as well as might be expected, managing to burn himself on the arm before the stick was smashed right out of his hands and sent…somewhere. He didn’t know, he was still half-blind.

In his moments between losing his weapon and regaining his sight, Reno felt a flurry of blows rain down upon him. Each time he was hit, he felt his senses scramble and his mind fray before it would recover in time for it to be scrambled again. Unable to take the mental strain of this repeated abuse of his psychic energy, Reno gave up his only defense in standing hunkered down and felt one final colossal blow hit, sending him flying a few feet back and into one of the trees. Finally having his vision fade into a usable state, he looked up at his opponent before waving at the ghost type and drunkenly kicking at the Dusknoir.

And the Dusknoir recoiled from the blow, a loud groan erupting from it.

What? Every time he had done that before, the thing had somehow evaded the attack.

Blinking a few times as his brains and vision managed to put itself back together enough to see that the Dusknoir had backed off and was swinging at….Tsuki?

Interesting, it looked like she had been crushed.

Watching as the Dusknoir and Tsuki began to clash again and the trees around them began to collapse and get thrown about as they went for each other, splashes of elements and darkness obliterating the trees that did not have the good sense to simply collapse.

Deciding this was an opportune moment for him to back away from this duel, Reno attempted to activate his telepathy and get an idea of where Rome had ended up. When his brain protested the action by creating a headache that almost made him collapse. Okay, no more of that. Time to rush pick the general direction he had come from and pray.

Charging through the forest while the sounds of battle raged behind him, with the occasional glance over his shoulder in efforts to evade any attacks that went careening his way, Reno soon came across a straight line of disturbed and smashed brush. What was interesting for this particular bit of it was the linear path to it and the fact that this trail was created about seven feet in the air. Good to know Rome had managed to make a nice path behind.

Keeping up his pace and weaving through the forest, Reno watched as the midair trail began to grow closer to the ground. Eager to find his reluctant ally and finally set themselves back onto their intended mission, Reno ran faster through the brush and watched as the trail went from a soft descent to a sharp drop. How did he know it was a sharp drop? Well, one minute he was running, the next he was tripping over the one he had tracked down.

“Oof! I know I decided to hold still for a minute, but really? Was that necessary?” Rome groaned from the forest floor, wearily getting up off the floor to look over where Reno was sprawled after his trip.

Reno would simply groan in response, staring at his legs that were now above him before moving his eyesight to Rome. “I just had to outrun one of my Pokemon who somehow entered my mind and that Dusknoir that hurled you through the forest duelling it out like a damn typhoon. So, back off man.”

Carefully walking over to where Reno was sitting and hauling the man up to his feet, Rome spoke up again. “So…should we watch them fight it out?”

Reno blinked a few times before replying. “That Dusknoir just tried killed us is in that fight. Do ya really wanna wait near that and see if it wins ta kill us?”

“Why? That Dusknoir seems pretty occupied.”

Another explosion of bombastic noise and shaking trees echoed out around the pair, sending leaves falling to the ground as a large, dark shadow hurtled over them. Falling to the ground near them, a single red eye would glare at the pair before it fizzled out. The rest of the Dusknoir’s body would fade away from their plane without any issues, leaving Reno and Rome puzzled over what had caused such damage to the Dusknoir.

Their answer would come in the form of a snarling black figure, with a feather headdress atop her head. Tsuki would glance between the two men she had found now before letting out another growl and raising her claws. “Um, Reno. Why is your Pokemon threatening us?” Rome questioned, a large fake smile spreading across his face as he began to slowly start walking backwards in an effort to get whatever distance he could from the posturing weasel.  

[Reno Vantas]

Part 2

Tsuki would notice the small amount of movement and let out another snarl, advancing towards Rome with her claws extended. Reno looked to his companion before he spoke up again. “We have one option: we run like hell the other way, weave through the forests, and pray ta Arceus that Tsuki ain’t tryin’ too hard ta kill us.”

Backing up again before hearing another snarl from Tsuki and her drawing closer, Rome glanced back over at Reno before motioning at Tsuki. “Good for you to say, but she looks like she wants to gut me. So, unless you wanna help me here, the plan is gonna be me and you fighting over who runs slower.”

Watching as Tsuki began to disregard their old pattern and simply began to walk up with her claws extended to hack into her new prey, Rome started backing away even quicker. “Reno, help!”

Tsuki would give another snarl and prepare to pounce, when one of the trees they were standing near began to fall down towards Tsuki and Rome. Watching as the Weavile attempted to dive out of the way, Rome gripped tightly onto her shoulders and dove out of the way himself as the tree drew close enough. Tsuki barely had time to start her escape attempt before the mass of lumber smashed into her and silenced the snarling Pokemon.

Looking up over the tree he had toppled, Reno nodded to his other half. “There we go.” He calmly stated, waving Rome over to where he was standing.

Rome didn’t argue and simply got to his feet, quickly walking past the shaking tree to get beside where Reno was standing. “Okay, so how do we keep Tsuki under there?”

Reno would quickly open his mouth before shutting it again as he realized what he was about to say was wrong. Trying to speak again, Reno managed, “Well…..we can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“She got out from underneath a flaming tree lookin’ pretty okay. So I dunno how this’ll work.”

Rome stood silently beside Reno for a minute before his hand snapped up and delivered a solid slap to the back of Reno’s head. “Mighta wanted to think about that earlier. Let’s bug outta here!” Rome commanded, grabbing Reno by the shirt collar and hauling him along with a good amount of protest resulting from it. Well, for the moment before the tree visibly exploded into small chunks of wood and branches as Tsuki stood up and looked at the two fleeing targets. Time to hunt.

The Weavile would fly up into the brush, quickly leaping between the branches presented to her and barely making any sound as she impacted the limbs of each tree. Taking glances through the gaps between the branches and her selected prey, the Weavile could barely hold back a scoff. As if this needless fleeing would keep them safe from her claws. They were simply delaying the inevitable at this rate and would only succeed in dying tired. Monitoring their path through the forest, the Weavile saw her opportunity to overtake them. Firing off a Dark Pulse atone of the further trees, a cascade of limbs fell out of it. Either they would turn away from it thinking it was her or it would force them to avoid that path due to the danger of it.

Reno and Rome watched as some of the branches ahead of them fell out of the tree, stumbling to the left to avoid the falling arbor and attempting to evade where they thought Tsuki might be. “Okay! Whats our plan if she pins us down?” Rome questioned, leaping over a fallen tree in their road.

“Fight her as best we can. Hope fer a break. She don’t seem ta be runnin’ offa anything’ I taught her!” Reno shouted in response as he struggled his way past the tree. Stupid lack of left arm was beginning to slow him down.

Rome would begin to notice the distance he was gaining on Reno and begrudgingly turned around, placing himself at Reno’s left side before wrapping his arm around the psychic and hauling him along over the rougher terrain. While it slowed Rome down, it sped up Reno enough for it to balance itself out.

This style of transport would get them a fair distance from where the branches had panicked them, when they ran into the solid cliff wall that loomed in front of them. “Hell!” Rome cursed, quickly backpedaling the pair to find another route through the forest. They would make it another couple feet when a dark blur burst out of the treeline and landed in front of them, snarling at the pair as it did. Looks like Tsuki had caught up.

“Split up!” Reno cried out, slipping out of Rome’s grip before taking off towards the brush on his right. Rome would follow suit with his own side of the path and ended up slamming into tangled branches and vines. The two would backpedal from their failed attempt to pierce the surrounding brush, ending up back to back as they both turned to stare at the rapidly approaching Tsuki. Ducking together as the Weavile went flying over their heads, Reno and Rome attempted to separate, but only succeeded in tripping each other over their feet and giving Tsuki an opening that she quickly took advantage of.
Raking her claws along their sides as she dove between the two struggling forms, she quickly reversed her direction and attempted to repeat her attack with less success as her targets managed to roll away from each other.

Looking between each other and the slowing down from of Tsuki, the pair nodded to each other before charging forward at the Weavile. Each of them would grab a limb with their right hands, lifting Tsuki off of the ground before charging and slamming her into a tree in front of them. Quickly releasing the arms they had grabbed, Reno and Rome nodded to each other before turning back around to face their opponent. She responded by making sure one of them bled for their insolence, slicing through Rome’s legs with a harsh Night Slash that sent him screaming to the ground in pain. Reno barely had time to cry out in shock before Tsuki was on him again, forcing him to dodge the slashes coming at him.

Barely maintaining his composure to avoid the attacks he struggled to keep up with, Reno soon found himself unable to avoid any longer without risking a major injury. Deciding to forgo any sense of safety, Reno threw himself to the right and left his limbs exposed for Tsuki to assault as he made his daring escape. The Weavile leaped at his left arm, digging deep into the limb and removing it from his shoulder.

Wait, what?

Looking to his left shoulder, Reno watched as Tsuki simply sailed on through. Watching her expression and motions, he could almost see her ripping into his old arm and removing the extraneous limb before continuing forward at almost the same pace. Taking in this information quickly, Reno rolled across the ground before stumbling to his feet and feeling a strange wetness at his side. Looking down to his right, He saw the injury from earlier had been torn open by the maneuver. Well, that was something to worry about later.

Tsuki quickly righted herself on the ground, swinging around to come flying at him once again. This time, she was going to take care of him.

Banking on a whim, Reno brought back his ‘left’ arm and threw it forward to punch the oncoming swarm of claws.

She watched as what she perceived as a real arm came swinging for her, incoherent of the fact she had ‘removed’ that limb not a few seconds ago and simply reacting to it by swiping for it. Spinning around as if the limb had been hit, Reno quickly sent his right arm flying forward and gripped Tsuki by her collar. Using his own spin and her momentum to supply some good force, Reno threw towards the cliff he and Rome had ran into and simply watched as the Dark type Pokemon went sailing into the rocky wall with a resounding thud.

Slowly walking over to where Rome had fallen, Reno was able to see that while he had been combatting his own Pokemon that his own mental demon had managed to patch up his injuries with makeshift tourniquets made from his now torn-up coat. Silently lifting him up, Snagem’s Co-Leader began to slowly walk over to where he had hurled Tsuki. “You know, she’s already gotten up and is probably running at us.” Rome told Reno, struggling to remain on his feet as the pair kept moving forward.

Reno was silent for a moment before he finally spoke up again. “Yeah. But I figured an extra pair of hands could help.” Looking ahead, he could already see the black streak was once again charging towards them. “Now. Tsuki is workin’ offa pure instinct. So, when I start my plan, you just roll with it.”

Before Rome had a chance to respond, Reno threw the invalid to the ground as he muttered a few select curses at the one who dropped him. Stepping forward a few feet, Reno set himself into a wide stance and waited, watching as his vision began to sharpen and let him process what was coming at him. Watching as Tsuki drew back her claws to slash at him, Reno looked over to where Rome was lying before letting out a loud roar to guarantee her attention.

Spinning himself counter clockwise as Tsuki swung her claws towards him. “Now!” Reno shouted, watching as Rome snapped up and grabbed onto the claws before they could bite into Reno’s side. Bringing up his right leg as he began to spin back to where Tsuki sat trapped, he slammed into the Weavile with a hard kneecap that sent her flying back into the cliff face.

Grabbing Rome off the ground and hauling forward as quickly as they both could move, Romeand Reno came up onto the cliff as Tsuki began to claw her way out of the rocks sitting on top of her to no avail. “Care ta do the honors?” Reno asked his companion, motioning over at the struggling Pokemon with his stump as Rome gave a smirk.

“Oh, definitely.” Was all the response Reno got before Rome shambled forward and gave a strong haymaker to the Weavile, punching it through the cliff face and sending it flying down into a cave that had been hidden behind it. Staring back at Reno confused, the Beast motioned to their newly unveiled cavern. “Well, this looks important. Think we should explore it?”

“Well, can’t hurt.” Reno muttered, shambling in the entrance after Rome.

The pair would quickly find the cave was more grandiose than it had appeared from the outside, with their small hole into it barely managing to cover halfway to the top of the tunnel. Giving a small kick to the pile of rubble they had originally known as Tsuki before beginning their walk into this place, Reno and Rome soon found themselves scaling high inclines, descending similarly steep declines, and generally covering a large amount of ground.

Eventually, the voluminous cavern narrowed down into a small cavern entrance, both sides of it flanked by burning torches with blue flames burning brightly inside of them. Quietly walking into the strange cavern, Reno and Rome looked and found only one thing inside of the place: a large, round rock that was about their size. “Well, this looks suitably impressive. I’m guessing we have found round three of your mental sparring, Reno.” Rome muttered to his ally, glancing over the smoothed walls around them and the rock in the middle.

Barely waiting a moment, he would shamble over to the rock and give it a smack, waiting for something impressive to happen from it. When nothing accomplished anything, he began to smack it around repeatedly in an effort to uncover something of worth from the thing. When after a couple dozen smacks and pokes nothing appeared, Rome turned and looked over at Reno. “Well, its safe. Better come help me move it so we can find whatever secret is hidden underneath it.”

Reno would take one step towards the strange rock when Rome was sent flying into the air, slamming the man into the wall with a ringing thud. “Holy Arceus!” he cried out, watching Rome slide down the wall with a pained groan.

The rock in the middle of the room would spin around to face the pair, revealing upon it a set of strange facial features and a few colored marks on its belly. “Hmm. I don’t need someone like you touching me, pretender.” The unmoving rock verbalized, startling Reno as it spun around to face him. Now able to see the whole thing without the bits of dust and decay disguising it, Reno recognized the figure as a Zen Mode Darmanitan. “Now then…Reno, was it? You have come all this way on some sort of quest to make yourself better than you were before, correct? That means you need confront some of the more pertinent issues in your mind and I mean besides your insanity. What you are confronting are decisions and feelings you have repressed from yourself and your friends.”

Reno grabbed and hauled Rome over to where he had been standing before when the Darmanitan had started speaking, checking over his worse half for a moment before he returned to facing the Pokemon. “So, you’re my inner self then? Alrighty then. Let’s see these issues I haven’t confronted yet.”

Rocking along the ground until he stood across the cave area from Reno, the Darmanitan looked at the ground and let a few beams of energy project out from him. “First, is the issue that caused some of your advancement that you still haven’t confronted. Leslie, come say hello.” The Darmanitan managed to vocalize as the energy coalesced into the form of a Mawile hybrid, one with an aggressive look in her eye and a snarl on her lip. With a barbarian yell of pure rage, the hybrid charged across the field with a visible glow to her secondary mouth.

Panicking as he came to the realization that he was equally in trouble from Leslie coming straight at him and that he had dragged Rome into the middle of this battle. He needed to keep Rome out of this. Gritting his teeth as he came to his only conclusion, Reno stepped over Rome’s unconscious body before charging forward at the Mawile hybrid he was facing down.

The Iron enhanced mouth came swinging for him with a sideways smack, aimed to crack ribs and knock the wind out of him. So, Reno chose to slide underneath the bludgeon, watching as Leslie over swung and stumbled. Quickly pushing off the ground to pounce onto her before she could start fighting again, one mistake was soon figured out: Leslie had some skills too. The hybrid quickly rolled to her side with the momentum of her swing and let Reno crash into the ground. Another quick sideways smack later, he found himself flipping through the air with a quickly growing bruise across his stomach.

Letting out a pained groan as he struggled to his feet, the psychic channeler turned to face Leslie. “What, what did I do wrong? I don’t understand.” He stammered out, watching as her face quickly shifted from simple aggression to pure undiluted outrage.

“What you did?! You abandoned me after you got revived! You never told anyone what happened to you! And you still haven’t spoken to me since you returned! Never once confronted what it is exactly that you did!” Leslie roared in response, her second mouth visibly snapping at the air with each screamed sentence. “Well, Now YOU get to face me down! And finally face something YOU’VE CREATED!” Finished with her ranting response, Leslie took off with a shroud of dark energy surrounding her. Fully prepared for her this time, Reno watched her second mouth come swinging around to slam into him. Diving past its reach, Reno found himself catching a heel to his head as the little girl slammed a Sucker Punch home.

Feeling himself being sent flying again, the red head fought for some sort of control in the air. Managing to somehow struggle his way to a landing that would let him get onto his feet, Reno looked at Leslie with befuddlement and shame. “But….I thought you wouldn’t want to see me…” He said, glancing down at the ground as he spoke.

“Like hell, you idiot! I’m supposed to accept some cheap line like that as an apology!? Guess what, I’m not and you’re dealing with it now!” Leslie raged, charging towards Reno again with her head visibly glowing this time.

Watching closely as she began to close the distance between them, Reno began to slide his feet apart. If he was going to make this work, he needed to be prepared for it.

Leslie pounced off of the ground, aiming to headbutt Reno in the stomach with her energy fuelled rage.

Reno scrambled to block her impact.

Crunch

Sliding back along the ground, Reno felt himself gripping strongly onto Leslie’s head, one arm braced to hold his robotic one as it gripped her head in its grasp. A few slivers of metal that had broken free from the impact tinkled as they hit the ground, breaking the silence between the pair as they did so. “Now then, I think I have a lesson ta teach ya.” He spoke, glancing over to where Rome was slowly stirring awake. “Something I like to call ‘the world doesn’t revolve around you’.”

Firing his kneecap square into her face, Reno kept a strong grip on Leslie’s head as he moved his right arm to grip her second mouth at the base of its stem. “You have attachment issues. I get it, but ya don’t need ta take it out on the world!” Punctuating his explanation with a solid punch from his left arm, he let Leslie go sliding back from the impact as he kept talking. “I didn’t explain myself, but I bloody well didn’t think I needed ta do that! I had no choice in what I did and neither did you, so take it like a man or shut up!”

Stalking over to where Leslie was slowly getting up, Reno brought back his arm and punched her again, sending her sprawling as her second mouth tried desperately to snap at him. “I ain’t messin’ around anymore. Let it go or its gonna eat you alive. Last warning.” Reno sternly barked, stomping his way across the cavern to where she was again trying to get up.

Slowly scrambling to her feet and beginning to skitter away from Reno, Leslie looked up at him for a moment before slowly turning her gaze to the ground. “Fine. I’ll settle it out like you want. But don’t think this makes us square on anything, ever again.” She shot at her father figure, a small growl echoing from her second mouth as she slowly began to fade away from view.

“Good work. You managed to reign in her senseless anger. But I wonder how you will deal with your final challenge?” The Darumaka rumbled, slowly building up the energy to summon the next challenge when Reno raised a hand. “Hmm. You wish for me to stop? Arrogant prat. You shall have only this opportunity, but do not take it as a sign of weakness.”

Nodding to the rock, Reno quietly walked across the cavern floor to where he found Rome slowly stirring back into the world. “C’mon, get up. Yer not dyin’ on em, ya damned fool. So…GET UP!” He barked at his downed fellow, giving him a soft kick in the ribs that got Rome groaning into consciousness.

Turning to look up at Reno, Rome’s face scrunched up into a look of pouty disgust. “Thanks for the empathy, moron. Don’t you have a challenge to face and die against so I can take over?”

Giving a harder kick to Rome’s ribs in response, Reno added to the statement, “Shut up and sit in the corner. I’m gonna show you what a real fight is.”

A quick pirouette on his heel as Rome struggled his way back against one of the nearby walls, Reno gave a nod to the stone guardian in the middle of the room. “If this is like the last one, I’ll be done in five minutes.” He boasted, puffing out his chest with a smirk.

The rock would give a slow motion as it gathered energy, replying with, “Hmm. Maybe this time you’ll need to bring something a little more substantial.”

A bright flash would illuminate the room, blinding all of its occupants as the energy coalesced into two basic human shapes. A wave of red hair would burst out of the head of one of them, a white shirt and black jacket growing over the torso. Red and white striped stockings covered the figure’s legs, while a pair of black combat boots encased its feet. A moment would pass before the figure gave off a flash and stopped glowing, revealing a pokeball joker and single blind eye as finishers to the now distinctly feminine figure.

The other form would grow tall and lanky, a ratty patch of black hair growing out of its head as a strange coat covered its upper torso. This figure would much more quickly after this, a pair of white gloves and a frock quickly emerging before the figure pulsed and became whole, glowing red eyes staring down at Reno now.

Standing still for a moment, Reno felt his bravado fracture as he saw who the figures were. “Kairi? Kain?” Reno stuttered out, stumbling back slightly at the sudden appearance of the pair.

A demonic smirk growing across his face as he noticed it was he was standing across from, Kain gave a deep chuckle before locking eyes with Reno. “Well, if it isn’t the one who I tricked and triumphed over. At least, for Kairi here. And I thought you would have gotten over that by now? But look at where we are.” Kain elegantly told, making sure that the announcement was as theatrical as he could muster.

To his left, Kairi looked to Reno with a mild amount of fear in her eyes. Quickly glancing between the pair, the girl quietly spoke up. “You didn’t really triumph over him. Maybe you’d care to prove you can now, right Kain?”

The trenchcoat-wearing man turned to his partner, giving a confident nod before brandishing a Pokeball in his hand. “One against one, Reno. Winner gets Kairi, loser gets whatever the winner thinks is fitting. Go, Ioch!” Kain announced, throwing the Pokeball onto the cave floor and letting a Honedge float into the room with a metallic snarl.

“Hmm. Bad choice, mate.” Reno threatened, thoughts quickly focusing on the one of his Pokemon he knew would take care of this poor attempt to get at him. Snapping his fingers and letting out a sharp whistle, Reno quietly placed his hand on the back of his Houndoom. “Ezekiel, terminate that Honedge.”

A loud bark would sound off in response as Ezekiel stared down the red-bladed Honedge before taking off down the battlefield with his paws ablaze. Quickly adapting to the sudden approach of the Houndoom, the Honedge flipped its sheath into the path of the flaming paws as his sword blade began to glow brown.

Ezekiel would claw at the sheath, the displaced Fire Fang sending flames leaping at the Steel type before Ioch’s Sacred Sword came cleaving in. It sent Ezekiel rolling across the floor, forcing Reno to brace himself so that the Houndoom’s body didn’t bowl him over. Giving a quick boost with his foot to Ezekiel, the Houndoom quickly returned to his feet and growled at the Honedge again.

“Hmm. A paltry effort. Well, lets see if we can get a better showdown going. Ioch, Autotomize.” Kain said condescendingly from his position on the battlefield. The Honedge would quickly begin to glow, shining a bright silver before the energy faded away. The Honedge would give a few test slashes in the air, the blade’s motion now making his previous attack look like it was in slow motion. “Better. Now then, round two.”

Reno spat at the ground with a snarl before shooting back, “There ain’t gonna be enough left ta make a teacup.”

Rome could sit and pinch the bridge of his nose at this. “Oh god, can you two just have it out, get bloodied and then go your separate ways? I get it, you have unresolved issues, you wanna fight and sound like a tough guy. Get on with it!”

Snorting at Rome’s outburst, Reno looked over at Ezekiel before nodding to the Houndoom. “Flamethrower!” He ordered, watching as a sudden torrent of flame burst out of the Pokemon’s jaw, aimed to roast the Honedge. The sword was quick to evade, using its greater speed to spin around the stream of flame and come flying towards Ezekiel. He was quick to react, snapping his jaw shut and leaping back as the Honedge attempted an overhead slash that landed itself on the cave floor. Taking advantage of the small opening, Ezekiel pounced forward with a Crunch that grazed the retreating Ioch.

“Ezekiel, annihilate! Inferno!”

“Ioch, Shadow Sneak!”

A controlled explosion would erupt from the Houndoom, a tunnel of flames heading straight for Ioch, while the Honedge ripped open a shadowy portal and disappeared from the path of destruction. Before either trainer or Pokemon could react, Ioch cleaved into Ezekiel with the second clean hit of the match.

“Hmm. Alas, you seem to be losing this match.” Kain taunted, watching as Reno’s Houndoom was sent flying by the Shadow Sneak, where the Pokemon was struggling to return to his feet.

“No! We still got more fight in us! Ezekiel, Mega Evolve!” Reno barked, looking fiercely at the Dark type that was barely able to move. When the response he received was for Ezekiel to weakly bark in response before continuing with his desperate attempt to return to his feet, Reno marched over to his Pokemon before hauling him to his feet. “C’mon, you lazy mutt! Get help and help!”

A chorus of laughter erupted from across the field, Kain and his Pokemon being the source of this sound. “Glad to see you’re completely in control right now, Reno. Applause for the great beacon ofemotional stability.” He added, continuing with his laughter as the pair watched Reno.

“SHUT UP! JUST.…shut up!” Reno responded with, visibly quivering as a flurry of emotions crossed his face. Looking to where Ezekiel was, Reno found the Houndoom had managed to struggle to his feet.

A shout rose up from the background. “Ezekiel, you can do it!” Rome roared out, finally shambling up to his own feet. Over with Reno, Ezekiel let out a piercing howl as a bright aurora of light surrounded him. Soon enough, the Houndoom now stood as tall as Reno with a massive bone crest adorning his chest.

Reno looked to his now Mega Evolved Houndoom, feeling a toothy grin crossing his face as things started looking up. “Hey. Kain. Round 3. FIG-Feint Attack!” Reno crowed, watching as his Houndoom took off with a wreath of dark energy surrounding him. The Honedge and Kain would have barely a moment to react as the Houndoom charged, pouncing onto Ioch and pinning it to the ground with a flurry of vicious swipes. Before the Honedge could manage an escape, Ezekiel went in with a Crunch attack, crunching down into Ioch’s sheath as the blade slipped away and applied a Sacred Sword to the side of the Houndoom’s head.

“Hmm. Thought that a simple Mega Evolution was going to overwhelm us? Ioch, Swords Dance then the special.” Kain smoothly told his opponent, watching as his Honedge swung around a few times before the blade grew slightly.

“Ezekiel, Flamethrower!” Reno ordered in response, watching as another gout of flame coursed towards the Steel type. The flames would quickly impact Ioch, forcing the Honedge back without any resistance. Focusing on the point of impact, Reno felt his vision swim before a variety of colors exploded into his vision. Squinting in pain at the shock of this event, Reno soon found himself able to see a strange blot of darker energy coursing towards the void-like area that seemed to be where Ezekiel was standing.

It took a second for it to process, allowing Ioch a chance to slip right to behind the Houndoom before Reno put together a cohesive order. “Ezekiel! 180!” Reno barked, gritting his teeth as he watched his Mega Pokemon quickly pivot on his heels, the flames now focused on the area that Ioch was supposed to be occupying. The sudden and intense glare of the firey energy he was now center stage to forced his eyes closed, his vision returning to normality again.

The Shadow Sneak hit Ezekiel in the belly, popping the poor canine into the air as Ioch emerged from his old position. “Too slow. Got any other bright ideas?” Kain taunted, watching as his Honedge shed off more scraps of metal to increase his speed again.

Shooting a glance to Kain as Ezekiel forced himself back to his feet, Reno narrowed his eyes as he grit his teeth again. That was when an idea he would normally have considered absurd or underhanded crossed his mind. Clenching his fist in order to restrain himself from taking action himself, Reno shouted his order. “Ezekiel! Overheat! Roast Kain alive!” Shaking and feeling his muscles constricting themselves, Reno found himself only able to thrust his fist forward to direct his Pokemon.  

[Reno Vantas]

Part 3

Unable to fight against his own pack instincts, Ezekiel turned his muzzle towards Kain as the man’s grin that he had been sporting the entire battle was slipping away like dust in a storm. “Reno. You don’t need to do this!” Kairi cried out from across the battlefield, attempting to fight her way through to a position she could stand between Ezekiel and Kain.

“Stop!” The Ghost user cried, “I made this request. It seems I shall have to face the consequences now. Just promise you’ll do what I know you will after this.”

“Of course.” She replied.

“Good.”

Kain turned back towards the Mega Houndoom, watching as the firestorm it had unleashed grew closer and more intense by the second. The attack was going to connect, when Ioch darted between Kain and the Overheat. The Honedge slapped Kain to the side with his sheath before the flames consumed him, leaving the Pokemon covered with scorched bits across his blade and his singular eye struggling to remain open for a moment before the eyelid snapped shut in finality.

Kain stared in shock, alternating between his Pokemon and Reno before releasing a small sigh. “If Ioch hadn’t survived, we’d be having a different conversation right now. But, as it stands, I am defeated even if it was by ludicrously underhanded means. You may have Kairi then. Anything else you wish for me to do?” He calmly uttered, staring at Reno with his crimson eyes.

Without pause, Reno roared in response, “Yeah! Die! Ezekiel, Flamethrower!”

The Houndoom would build up another gout of flame in his muzzle, allowing a moment for it to build up to full strength as he fought against the exhaustion brought on by his Overheat attack.

“Reno! Stop!” Kairi cried in response, Kain nodding his head in agreement as he attempted to back away from Ezekiel.

“No! He stole what wasn’t his ta take, so now he pays the thieves’ price!” Reno screamed, his eyes visibly jittering from the intensity of his emotions.

Ezekiel turned his head to the sky in a silent howl, the Flamethrower now sitting at his preferred strength. Turning back to face towards Kain, he unleashed the Fire attack and char-broiled the poor soul.

Or would have, if someone hadn’t decided to stand up at the plate.

From his position in the room, Rome was able to easily watch as Reno rapidly degraded throughout the battle. How a feasible attempt at tactics and strategy had devolved in Reno simply following whatever whim he felt strongest, consequences be damned. Where was the man who managed to outthink his plans twice? Fed up with letting this shadow of a once proud man continue running this show, Rome shouted the words that he knew would get Ezekiel. “Damn the Toxic, I’m gonna keep fighting!”

Ezekiel choked on the Flamethrower he had been preparing as the phrase processed through his brain, triggering deeply ingrained memories of what Reno could have done the last time he had been so feverish to win. While once, the Houndoom would have dismissed these long dismissed memories, it was with this reminder that Ezekiel found himself able to think and breathe in this strange land.

“Ezekiel! Don’t ya dare back down now! Flamethrower!” Reno desperately commanded, stomping towards his Pokemon as he prepared to grab the hound by his muzzle and force this to go forward.

“Zeke! Return!” Rome said in response, calmly watching as the Mega Houndoom padded away from Reno to Rome’s side, giving one final mournful howl to the heavens before slowly fading away from existence. “Reno, stop. You have no Pokemon now, so just give it up.” Making a slight downward motion with his hand as he noticeably slowed his breathing, Rome watched Reno closely in an effort to see what his response was.

Snapping his head over to stare at Rome with a glare that could start a fire, Reno quickly turned back to where Kain was being to slowly relax and rise to his feet. “I’ll take care a this myself,” Reno muttered, staring at the ground with his shoulders dropping as his muscles began to relax and allowed him to send himself flying forward quickly towards his target.

There was no chance for any of the parties in the area to react and stop Reno from his suicide rush towards Kain, allowing the psychic channeler an opportunity to land a heavy right cross that ended with Kain collapsed on the floor and the others staring on in shocked silence. Taking advantage of his opportunity, Reno moved to straddle Kain and pin the grandiose man to the floor while he continued with the beating that had started with the right cross.

Punctuating every one of his words with a punch that had Kain’s head bouncing off the floor and spattered the ground with spittle and blood, Reno screamed in his victim’s face. “Can’t take it!? Damned pup. Time fer ya ta learn some manners!”

“Reno, what the hell are you doing!?” Kairi cried out, unable to move as she watched her ex attempting to murder her current boyfriend. She ahd to stop him. She had been lenient with him since she thought he was perfectly fine with their breaking up, but this spoke volumes about something else. Throwing down a Pokeball, she ordered, “Nagini, Constrict!” The Ekans was quick to move, cinching itself around Reno’s neck in efforts to force him off of Kain.

Gasping for air as the Ekans proceeded with the efforts to crush his throat, Reno scrambled off of Kain and attempted to get his grip onto the Poison type Pokemon. His efforts to force the slippery Pokemon were in vain, the coils too taut for him to gain any purchase on the Pokemon’s body. Snapping his head down in desperation, Reno dug in with his teeth and felt the Ekans recoil from the sudden pain. Taking advantage of the recoil, Reno slipped his mechanical arm inside the coils and wrenched the Poison type free from his neck while grabbing the end of its tail with his hand. Giving a quick spin of the Ekans above his head to ensure its body was straight and elongated, Reno snapped the snake like a whip as he slammed the Pokemon into the ground with a sickening thud. “I always wanted an ekans-skin belt.” Reno hissed out, casually discarding the end of the Ekans he was still holding as he marched towards where Kain used to be.

“And where do you think you’re running off to?” Reno growled out, tracing along the blood trail on the ground. Eventually, he found himself staring where Kairi had ended up and found Kain supporting himself on her as he attempted to reorient himself from the beating his skull had taken. “Coward! Face me and die fer yer crimes!” Storming forward, breathing strained to the brink, Reno brought back his left hand and threw a wild haymaker, connecting squarely with…Kairi.

“Outta the way! I’m gonna make sure he remembers this and YOU can’t interrupt!” He roared at Kairi, ignorant of the gash he had caused across her face. Turning back towards Kain, Reno took one step before a solid impact to the side of his head sent him sprawling.

“SCREW YOU! I’m done with this sideline BS! I don’t care if I’m your dark half, you are NOT going to turn into some mindless violent thug after everything else you fought against!” Rome commanded, a shining metal bo-staff grasped firmly in his hands as he brought the weapon back from the massive swing he had taken at Reno.

“No! He needs ta learn this! I never got any closure, but he sure as hell is gonna get some closure!” Reno cried out, tearing himself up back to his feet before lunging at Rome.

Carefully using the staff to vault himself over the charging form of Reno, Rome continued. “No closure? YOU Told Kairi you were going to be fine with this! So try again! Try justifying this needless violence again!”

A quick sweep of Rome’s legs by Reno sent the orange haired man falling to the floor, with a desperate attempt to soften the landing. “After the pain they caused me, they deserve this! They need ta feel my pain!”

Rolling himself back onto his shoulder blades, Rome catapulted his legs up into the air and squarely into Reno’s jaw, sending the Snagem Co-Leader flying. “Really!? They might need to feel your pain, but you’ve done that already! Back down!”

Landing into a roll that ended with him back on his feet, Reno charged towards Rome with a guttural roar that shook the cave. Forced into another offensive, Rome was quick to bring his bo-staff to bear against the assault Reno led, blocking punches and using the limbs as points to get himself moving quickly enough to smack at Reno. But as many hits as he landed, Reno landed an equal number that slowly began to erode away at Rome.

Taking his chance on one final humongous attack, Rome allowed Reno to land a hard right jab before grabbing his arm and throwing the man clear into the wall of the room. “Look at yourself! Look at the blood on your hands! And remember, the blood on those hands belongs to people you called and still call friends! Snap out of it and see the truth!” Rome said, falling to one knee with a groan as their exchange of blows began to catch up with him.

A loud snarl erupted from Reno as he rose up again, charging forward to once again greet Rome in the manner that pleased him at this moment. But, with every sprinting step, he saw his hands and the blood on them. Something from his loved ones, something that he should have been keeping inside them if he was even half the man he claimed himself to be.

What had he done?

As the thoughts ran through his head, they weighed down on him. Slowed his movements until he was simply standing wordlessly, staring down at himself.

The Darmanitan in the center of the arena would finally move at this development, turning towards where Kairi and Kain were currently huddled together. A burst of pink energy erupted from the Pokemon, wiping away the pair from Reno’s mind before Reno’s true self began to speak up. “You failure. How are you supposed to become like me if you won’t even go through with this? You are supposed to destroy the male, and claim your female as your own as you were thinking before orange head did anything. Worthless fool.” A decidedly more aggressive voice erupted from the Darmanitan, the guttural growl shocking Reno back to attention.

Turning to face the Zen Mode Darmanitan, Reno blinked a few times before collecting himself enough to speak. “Wait….I thought Rome was supposed ta be the bad guy here.” He murmured, mind still attempting to recover from the animalistic episode Reno had just experienced.

The Darmanitan visibly rolled its eyes before speaking again. “And what, you never questioned the fact that every time he fought you with illusions and misdirection? Because until your little incident on the train, it was all he knew! He may have existed in your mind since before then, but he always fluctuated and seemed to learn and unlearn things almost by the minute. So I instilled a few set ideas into him to keep something together. I figured a false identity deserved to only know what I was using him for. Unfortunately, your little brush with death did something to him and he began to get all these ideas of his own free will and thoughts. Poor, stupid soul.”

Blinking again as he attempted to process this new information, Rome looked over towards Reno before he said, “As the ‘poor, stupid soul’ in question, why the hell am I getting free will and stuff now? And where the hell is Reno’s true self if not here?!”

“The better question is, what happened to Reno during this time you got free will? His brain damage, which effectively blocked him access to his higher thinking functions. Or, better put, the left hemisphere of his brain. So, you ended up with some room to finally work with inside his physical mind. And why you needed that hemisphere also neatly ties in with your other question. There is only room in a person’s mind for three major entities, at least in this case. Originally, it was me, Reno, and angel wings. Then Reno was forced to do something extreme in his past, extreme enough for him to repress a major portion of himself. In this case, he repressed an analytical mind in efforts to avoid any attempts to analyze his actions. This repression created you. So you two played tug of war over who was in control and who got what portions of the brain ever since.” The stone form of the Darmanitan would crackle and shift color, the fiery ape freeing itself from its self-made prison to stand up and stare down the pair in front of him.

“When the idiot decided that trying to experience death firsthand wasn’t enough and hooked up with the Mafioso before he died, his brain fractured. You fully received control of one part, Reno kept his, and I took the chance to shove angel wings out before he did anything crazy. That about elaborate it?” The Beast finished narrating, stretching his arms out before slamming them into the cave floor reflexively.

Rome stared up defiantly at the Bigfoot-esque creature before defiantly quipping, “So I’m supposed to be intimidated by your monologue?”

The Beast gave a broad grin before saying, “No. You are supposed to be distracted while my two favorites show up for back-up.”

Rome was quick to pivot on his heel, already expecting there to be two opponents waiting for him. What he didn’t expect was for his opponents to be a few meters back and one of them firing a forearm sized spike into his stomach as a response. “Damn. Well played.” Rome wheezed out in response, falling to his knees before simply going into a ragdoll on the floor.

With this, Reno would finally snap to attention as Rome fell to the ground. “Rome! Get up!” He shouted, his mind finally processing the world around him again. Glancing towards the two favorites that The Beast had brought in, Reno was greeted with the sight of Nova and Tesei close together and staring him down.

“Now then, Reno. You have lost the one who controlled the majority of your brain, I have your two strongest Pokémon wired directly in here and unless you someone get more control so you can actively call in assistance, you are doomed. So, whats your choice?” The Beast said, carefully walking towards Reno as Tesei and Nova did similar.

Looking between the three opponents that were now aiming to surround him, Reno raised a hand before telling them, “Just…gimme a minute here.”

The trio didn’t even stutter in response to Reno’s plea, continuing forward towards their target.

Giving a small sigh, Reno dove towards Tesei, swinging himself around the Cloyster’s shell before kicking him against the shell as he would normally. Instinct took over from that point, with Tesei now rapidly firing rocks towards the two Fire types now opposing Reno.

Nova was quick to respond, firing off a Fiery Dance from her wings as The Beast charged forward with his body ablaze from a Flare Blitz. Tesei would finally cease firing as the two Pokemon charged forward, the Cloyster quickly spinning in place to throw Reno off.

Attempting to avoid the flurry of attacks coming for him, Reno could only manage to limit his injuries from the attacks by attempting to go with the spin as he got thrown through the air by the Rapid Spin. He succeeded in having the scales swipe across his right arm and strip the jacket arm clear off of his arm from the pure heat and force they packed, while the Darmanitan slammed squarely into his left arm with the Flare Blitz with a blow that melted and twisted the metal at the impact site before the rest of the mechanical limb simply erupted into individual pieces from the force that hit it.

Sent flying into the wall by the Flare Blitz, Reno attempted to gain some purchase with his one remaining arm to keep himself on his feet. When he hit the first bit of purchase on the wall, he cried out in pain as the now developing burns on his arm were ground into by his small alcove. Collapsing to the floor, Reno grit his teeth and continued his efforts to get back up to his feet with similar effect as the blackened limb only succeeded in crackling and driving Reno into hysterics from the pain he was causing himself.

“Oh my. You look so pitiful right now, and I already have enough control now to assert myself. But you know what, I’ll put you out of your misery. After all, it’s better to put a rabid dog like you down. Sorry Old Yeller.” The Beast calmly informed Reno, igniting its fist with a Fire Punch before slowly pressing the limb into Reno. Watching as the owner of this mind screamed and thrashed against the fiery fist, The Beast simply watched for a moment before putting its full force behind the limb and putting Reno out of his misery.

Looking at his two allies, The Beast let out a satisfied growl before letting a dark energy visibly show itself in its hand. “If only this energy was able to keep as consistent in a human vessel as it does in your normal bodies, then I might have been able to run the show so much sooner. But thanks to you and this clueless imbecile, I have my opportunity now. But, get out.” The Beast waved its darkness shrouded hand, watching as the two Pokemon faded away.

“Now then. Let us test this body out. Time to see what being in control can do.” Stretching himself out before letting out a booming deep laugh, The Beast faded from the Animal realm.

---------

Reno’s eyes snapped open, looking around the strange new place he had landed himself in. He was in a library of some sort, with books collapsed on top of him. Shoving the pile of books off of his body, Reno carefully rose to his feet. What had he been doing before?

The sound of a deafening explosion connected the dots for him, telling him that Miror B. was still at large and had been the reason he had been so damaged just before his accident. Well, that man needed an adjustment then. Stretching himself out reflexively as he moved for the elevator, Reno felt a sadistic smirk crossing his face. It was time to experience the real world.  

[Reno Vantas]

Psychotic Disasters 5: The Mind Strikes Back

The pair awoke to the feeling of their body moving without their own input on what it was doing.

They did not bother questioning how they were both alive. They already knew that death was cheap within their own mind, but that did not prevent the experience from causing them an immeasurable amount of pain. And it seemed that their ‘death’ had caused something else to come about. The Beast was now the one in full control over their physical body.

Reno and Rome could only sit in the back of their own mind and watch, able to witness their bodily possession through their own senses without any ability to fight back against this bodily violation.

It was maddening to Reno.

Rome managed to keep himself more composed against what was occurring, but being unable to communicate meaningfully with each other was preventing him from being able to calm Reno down and get him to focus on getting them a way back into control.

“He is a lost cause at this moment. Leave him here and come with me. We have much work to get done.”

Rome mentally shot to attention as a mysterious voice echoed through his mind. Feeling out for Reno rewarded him with the realization that this voice had somehow been able to single him out. What this meant to him was that it was either an extremely skilled psychic or it was this true self that The Beast had replaced. Either way, getting their help was exactly what he and Reno needed to reassert their control.

“How do I get to wherever you are?” Rome asked, carefully monitoring his actions as he moved to examine the destruction that had been wrought after his little episode.

He sat back and watched for a moment as he, no, The Beast, stepped forward and began to protest at the actions of Sub’s sudden return. Why was this thing so bent on assuming control like this? Wasn’t there a better way for any of this to be playing out?

“This idiot is about to get you straight to me. Watch this.”

And indeed, it would only take a moment before the one piloting Reno’s body started towards Sub, intent to establish himself as the dominant one here. Watching as Sub drew a hand back, Reno and Rome were both treated to their vision spontaneously illuminating with the energy, or lack thereof, which the pair instinctively knew was Dark energy. All it took was one touch from this hand and it mixed with the psychic energy that their current pilot had been subtly outputting, forcing the energy into action and completely obliterating The Beast from control. Rome felt himself slipping away from the conscious area as a strange sensation pulled him along.

His senses shimmered from the realm of the physical to the realm of the mental with little stopgap, requiring Rome to hold himself back before the sudden restoration of movement made him end up physically hurling himself with the pent up strength from his vain efforts to combat The Beast’s piloting.

While he successfully kept his arms and legs from flailing about and sending him sprawling, he had forgotten one appendage that could throw him onto the ground: his head. Apparently he had been attempting to twist his head against his oppressor, as he suddenly found his head jerking to the right and his body following suit. Finding himself now face first in the ground, Rome decided to simply lay there for a minute in efforts to let his bruised ego recover. How had he been so stupid to forget that it wasn’t just arms and legs that could throw one off balance?

“Hmm. And here I expected that you would manage to keep some semblance of footing. That’s mildly disappointing.” The voice from earlier echoed in Rome’s mind, and his ears. Well, at least whatever had happened had managed to drag him to where he had been told to go.

Rolling over onto his back to stare at his unknown benefactor, the active leftovers of Reno’s mind shot back with, “Well, I’m here. Now what do you want done, strange voice?”

A Reuniclus would float above where Rome was currently lying, extending an arm down before yanking onto his feet without a word. The Pokemon would then float back a few feet before a response was heard. “Simple. I want this asinine conflict to end and for some semblance of peace to re-enter our mind. Is there any better purpose?” A slightly cold and distant voice would echo out of the Reuniclus, startling Rome with the jarring difference between the Pokémon and its voice.

Staring at Rome as the man held his hands up in a vaguely defensive posture, the Pokémon could be heard letting out a sigh before swinging one of its arms downward.

When his arms were ripped from their positon and sent him stumbling was the point where Rome decided that his current efforts at strong and silent were not going to work on a piece of his own mind that had telekinesis. Slowly returning to standing position, but this time with his arms hanging by his sides to maintain some semblance of dignity, the orange haired man sighed. “Fine. Yes, it’s a good purpose. But you better start explaining, because I’m more inclined to trust the Darmanitan right this second. At least him I know what he’ll do.”

The light of the space would shift slightly, moving away from where Rome was standing and tossing shadows across him. The Reuniclus’ expression while this happened was a simple threatening stare that said more than any dialogue could. Made it perfectly clear exactly how…poor that choice might be.

Growling in irritation at the mild tantrum the Reuniclus appeared to be having, Rome would move forward in an effort to get it to start communicating with him in a few more words and a few less implications. All he needed right now, his own mind getting temperamental. Reno did enough of that himself, The Beast did them no favors with it. Their Perfect Self also being so was just asking for trouble.

At around step four, the Reuniclus would thrust a hand out and lift Rome straight off the ground by his waist telekinetically.

Looking down at the ground that now dangled just out of the reach of his legs, Rome casually swung the appendages almost in efforts to egg on the Reuniclus. When no sudden response came from the mildly mocking motion, he looked up again. The Reuniclus was now passively watching Rome, waiting until he finally saw the man staring at him.

Once he had Rome’s attention fully, the Pokémon once again began to speak. “Sorry. Mentions of that…overly reactive ape tend to set me off.” It said, its arms relaxing as it let Rome drop back onto his feet. “Now then, to the subject at hand. As you have likely determined, I am your true self. Although that designation is not entirely true, I consider it good enough for the moment.”

Waving its hand around, a pink glow would quickly leap off the appendage before assembling itself into the shape of a circle that was cut across by a few lines. Clean lines would divide half of the circle in two, resulting in two quarter chunks. The other half of the circle would be split in half similarly, except the line bisecting it was jagged and almost looked inflamed. “And this, is the representation of your mind at the moment. As you can see, there is more assuredly something amiss with the half portion. Mainly, the fact that you and Reno ended up separating has led to this festering wound.”

Giving a strong gesture to the jagged line, True continued with his explanation. “Now, usually you compose half of the mind’s potential. This means you can move and operate the physical body without either me or…the other guy having to directly throw in our own input. It also guarantees that you keep control in the event that you end up killed in here. But, with this little division that has been created, you and Reno are on equal footing with me and The Beast control-wise.” As he continued explaining, the pie chart would morph to show the four inhabitants of Reno’s mind instead of simple slices. Small crowns would appear above The Beast and True, while a larger crown would impose itself above Reno and Rome’s heads before ripping apart into two small crowns to match the set the other pair possessed when the division was mentioned.

“So, given the opportunity to attain some semblance of control and set things to what he saw as the best method, The Beast had you two eliminated and granted himself control.” The crowns above Reno’s and Rome’s heads would fizzle out as The Beast’s crown grew slightly bigger, but still being smaller than the one Reno and Rome originally possessed. “He likely would have been able to keep the position a while longer, if not for the intervention of Sub that managed to frazzle Reno back into control.”

The two missing crowns would manifest again as a bolt of black electricity shot across the projection, cutting through The Beast’s crown and knocking the manifestation on its back. “Now, Reno may have control again, but it is only a matter of time before The Beast attempts to regain control again. So, instead, we must implement a counter strategy in order to halt that malignant ball of aggression at the pass.”

Raising his hand with a weary sigh, Rome shot back with, “Care to reach the point soon? I’m not sure it has enough of a head start.”

Looking indignantly at the impatience that Rome was displaying, the Reuniclus would float through the void for a moment before giving a small swirl of its hand. The small projection would animate itself once again, with Rome snatching the crown above Reno’s head and smashing it together with his own to recreate the large crown that they both had originally possessed. “You kill Reno. You assert your control. Simple enough?” The condescending tone from the Pokémon would almost sound odd, before another wave of its arm made the mental projection of the four fade away.

Standing there stunned for a moment, Rome found himself trying to process this. Kill Reno? Really? That was a level of extreme that seemed ludicrous, even if it would manage to keep things in control for a long while. All it would take was for them to talk this out and everything would work out. Right?

…..right?

“Okay then. Say I’m convinced. Say I agree with this plan to kill Reno.” Rome slowly began, subconsciously rubbing his left shoulder. “How do we start this?”

Letting a small smile cross its face, the True Self would give another wave with its arm and watch as the world in front of it slowly rippled from normal air into an incandescent orange portal, a familiar looking stretch of land standing before him. “The only way one can. From the beginning.” It said.

Moving himself in order to examine the location that the portal had opened to, Rome was confronted with an apocalyptic landscape. Decayed and desiccated buildings littered the dark landscape as their rubble and damage from countless battles marked whatever disasters had befallen this land. While there was no sunlight in this strange realm, a multitude of fires that seemed to rage across the barren landscape provided enough light to see the majority of what it contained. Turning his gaze skyward, Rome was soon confronted with a pair of eyes to meet his own that seemed to be staring right back into him. Staring deeply into the bright yellow eyes that this strange celestial body seemed to possess, the man also noticed many stars illuminating the sky that seemed to mirror the moon-like thing in their having what appeared to be eyes.

Something about this place struck a chord with Rome. Something about it was eerily familiar.

No.

“So then. You really want to go to where this began.” Rome said, continuing to stare into the realm in front of him.

“Of course. The Hell mental realm was where this divide truly started. Have to rid of this problem, so you start at the root of it.” The True Self explained, slowly floating behind Rome as he continued to examine the area.

“Yeah, but where is Reno in this mess? That would be helpful.”

“Oh, he should be easy to find. Just listen for the rampage towards you.”
“Wait. Why would it be towards me?”

And with that, the True Self would shove Rome through the portal with a shout of, “Enough questions! To action!”

Stumbling through into the mental realm, Rome spun on his heel and made an attempt to return to where the True Self was hiding out. Finding himself confronted with the solid wall of one of the collapsed buildings rather than a portal to another portion of their mind, Rome felt a little testy. Carefully picking up a long chunk of rebar from the ground, he set about curing this slight emotional malady.

-------

This was strange.

He had been dragged back into his own mind after struggling for control from The Beast, and now he was back at what was essentially step one. Reno gazed about the despotic cityscape he had once rampaged through, carefully noting the continued presence of the eerie Bronzors that coated the skies like stars and other celestial entities.

“Okay. All it took last time ta get out was takin’ care of Rome. And he abandoned me after all that mess with The Beast. Thought he had finally seen some bloody sense.” Reno said, absent-mindedly picking his way along the familiar trail he had followed so dutifully last time. His thoughts, however, were stuck on Rome and The Beast. There was no way that they couldn’t somehow be working together. Rome had shifted too easily to Reno’s side and if he had somehow succeeded against The Beast, it only made sense for Rome to take him out at that moment and gain full control.

A series of loud metal clangs and the sound of crumbling stone would pierce the air before he could go any deeper down this path of thinking, bringing him back into mind that he wasn’t alone in this realm. Cursing under his breath at his own stupid oversight, the psychic quickly dashed off to locate who he knew would be waiting where the noise had come from.

------

Huffing from the exertion of smashing into the wall he had been dumped unceremoniously out of, Rome stared at the score marks and broken chunks he had gouged out of the wall. So much for being the more logical and calm side of the mind.

Slowly breathing a little easier as the adrenaline and spite that had fueled the random destruction burnt out of his system, Rome barely had a chance to duck aside as a thrown rock smashed itself into the wall he had just finished mangling after narrowly missing his ear. Spinning on his heel and drawing his improvised weapon into what he hoped was something resembling a tentative fighting stance, he stared down the man he had been intending to find. “So Reno. Just want to jump straight to the action this time?”

“Yeah, somethin’ like that. Things tend ta end a lot quicker if I just take care of ya right off the bat.” Reno said, twirling the length of pipe around in his hand skillfully before snapping it to his right side as he met Rome’s glare.

It would only last a moment before a blast of energy would rattle Rome, giving Reno opportunity to draw in close and shoot off a quick elbow to Rome’s face. Rome stumbled as he threw up the metal rebar in some attempt to block.

Spinning around as he leveraged against the bar with his elbow, a much stronger left backhand with the force of the spin behind it would come around and send Rome crashing to the ground.

Cracking his knuckles as he advanced to the prone form of Rome, Reno felt a smirk cross his face. Things had never been this easy before.

At the exact moment Reno realized that having such a thought informed him to it being a trick, Rome thrust up with the hunk of rebar and caught Reno just below the neck. Giving a quick swing upwards, Rome sent his weapon crashing into Reno’s lower jaw and sent the psychic staggering backwards.

Rome needed an opening, needed a way to talk to Reno. Maybe this could be solved without beating each other to death?

Waiting as Reno slowly rose back to his feet, Rome would begin to speak. “Look. I think we can maybe talk this one out?”

“Talk it out? The hell do ya think this is!?” Reno shouted back, a slight pink glow illuminating him as he glared at his other half. “You dragged me here. You wanted ta throw down. So, we are bloody well gonna throw down!”

Charging forward towards Rome, Reno found his punches met with quick swings from the rebar that Rome now had grasped in both hands. The flurry of impacts and metallic scrapes as the weapon met both flesh and metal in a flurried defense rang through the decrepit city around them. When Reno came with a hook, Rome met with a jab. A thrust from Rome turned into Reno sending him spinning. Fist met flesh, metal met bone. But Rome found himself slowly losing ground as he attempted to fend off the pugilistic assault.

A sudden hardness at his back was all Rome felt before Reno came flying in with a kick that slammed him into the wall. Grunting in exertion, Rome thrust the rebar into the ground as he fell to one knee.

Backing up slightly from the kick, Reno stared down at Rome for a moment before preparing to slam his robotic fist home on Rome’s skull. “Looks like it’s my bloody time ta run the show again.” He snarled, throwing the punch.

Rome, however, was not so willing to surrender. Tightening his grip on the rebar, Rome pushed off the wall and sent himself swinging around the impromptu pole to avoid the punch, sweeping Reno’s legs out from under him before bracing against the wall again as he finished rounding the rebar. Pushing off the wall again, Reno sent himself flying over the collapsing Reno with the rebar in hand before heaving a deep sigh on landing.

Why couldn’t Reno just accept a peaceful solution? Maybe he was right. Maybe they needed to truly eliminate each other for this to work.  

[Reno Vantas]

Part 2

Taking advantage of the moment, not bothering with any witty one liner, Rome smashed the rebar into Reno’s head with a two handed swing. A deafening crack rang out through the ruined city as Rome collapsed to his knees. Looking up at Reno and what he had done to his other half, a look of shock crossed his face as he saw a metallic arm having been what the rebar impacted. “Not so fast.” Reno growled, hand tightening around the piece of metal before ripping it from Rome’s grasp.

Rome would scramble to his feet as Reno rose into a headfirst charge towards him, grasping at the ruble around him in some desperate act to gain some forward motion. Reno, however, was too fast, grabbing onto Rome’s leg before throwing him into one of the nearby buildings. “You ain’t takin’ what I won! Just cause you think you can do it better now doesn’t mean ya get control.” Reno shouted at Rome, the man laying crumpled against the fractured and broken wall of the building. “So why should I just roll over and let ya ruin what I’ve managed ta find in Snagem? Last time we both were runnin’ things, we got snatched by some mafia men and you never shown better than that.”

Rome’s brow would furrow slightly as he heard Reno. While he didn’t clearly remember them getting snatched, he knew they weren’t caught by some generic mafia goons. Looking over to where Reno was, outside of the decrepit building and taunting him with how he was superior, Rome felt his shoulders tighten reflexively. He didn’t need to take this. Especially from someone touting himself as superior who was the reason they lost their arm. Pushing himself up to his feet, he grunted in pain as he felt some of the rubble scratching at the knuckles on his left hand.

Wait, why did he have a flesh and blood arm?

Looking to his arm, Rome would block out Reno as he continued to rant and rave outside and instead focus on the limb. If he was trying to be the one in control, why did he look so foreign compared to Reno? Channeling a slight amount of chi through his body, Rome felt his vision snap into the vision of the energies of the world around him.

That was when he saw it. His left arm, despite the outward appearance of an actual limb, was in fact the same robotic appendage that Reno possessed. Releasing the technique, Rome watched as his arm shifted into the robotic limb that was on their real body. He felt it now, felt a greater connection to this world. Felt less like he was an invader in a foreign body and now like he was a contender; meant for what he was pursuing.

“…an’t even put yourself together enough ta say anything!” Reno kept shouting from outside, slowly stomping closer to where Rome had begun to rise to his feet. Without any care to notice the changes, Reno would throw a right hook that aimed to remove Rome from the equation.

Rome would take the blow without contest, rolling across the floor to his feet as he used the momentum from the blow. “Fine then. Want a response? I might not do better. But I deserve the chance to try.” Rome said, emphasizing the point by throwing a quick left jab that sent Reno reeling before following it up with a solid kick that sent the red haired man tumbling and crashing through the wall of building. As he marched forward to pursue, Rome noticed that the roof was beginning to…tilt. Realizing with a start just what was happening, he turned around and took off in a full sprint as he watched the roof and the rest of the building shifted towards where Reno had punched through the wall before collapsing entirely.

A massive dust cloud would kick up from the building collapse, rendering Rome unable to see what was happening and forcing him to shut his eyes as he waited for the blinding dust to clear. Eventually, a slight breeze would start up and he opened his eyes to see...something else entirely. Rather than the desiccated city that he had previously been in, Rome found himself now looking at what he could best describe as a muddy swamp-like area. Small glimmers of metal shone out from the mud, but it was simply an old, decay-smelling swamp. Wait, it did look familiar to him to some degree. Wasn’t this where he tried to keep Reno trapped in his own mind in his mind? Okay, thinking that idea out now really just exemplifies how idiotic it was to try.

Shaking his head as he focused, he began to examine the area. If he ended up here, then it was likely that Reno had ended up here too. Slowly turning around and attempting to locate any small disturbances that might alert him to where Reno was, Rome could already feel the headache that this was going to cause. As he completed his examination, the headache he could feel was becoming more predominant in his head. Suddenly, the headache would turn into an overwhelming pain that forced him to his knees, a small cry of pain ringing out as Rome felt his head was attempting to explode.

“There we go. Finally got that workin’.” A voice rang out in Rome’s head. All it took was the first word for him to determine who had managed to assault him from this distance.

“Reno. Stop please. We can do this together.” Rome groaned out. Rising from where he had collapsed on the ground, he found that all around him was nothing. It was a barren wasteland full of dust and stones without any sign that Reno had touched down anywhere close.

“No we can’t. Things ain’t gone well whenever it was both a us, so I need ta take control.” Reno growled back, another burst of pain and rage blossoming in Rome’s mind that sent the man collapsing back towards the ground. Struggling his way back up into a sitting position would leave Rome unable to defend against the next mental attack. But this one was not a spike of pain, it was a memory. Rome found himself reliving the events of their showdown against Sabrina. How they had been forced into a dead end surrender before Rome alone came up with and implanted the idea in Reno’s head of the berry. Forced to watch as Sabrina overwhelmed Ezekiel and sent the Houndoom against them.

“It was your idea that made him hate us for that time. Wasn’t fer you, we woulda just withdrawn and come back.” Reno said, his voice a dark whisper in Rome’s ear. “Wouldn’t have had ta fight our own Pokemon and we still woulda done the same things.”

“No. We….we were going to keep fighting anyway! Weren’t we?” Rome stammered out, eyes darting around the area again in an effort to pick out Reno. If he could only find where he was holed up, Rome felt confident he could convince him face-to-face.

“We weren’t throwin’ a friend’s life away like that.”

Rome’s scanning of the area would halt as Reno spoke. Reno was right about that. If it weren’t for the berry, everything would have stopped. So, all he did was draw out a lost cause, is that it?

But what about the shock on Sabrina’s face? That look of utter surprise as their plan came about. Without her being able to mess with a Dark type’s mind, they would have succeeded right then and there. “As sorry as I am about what it led to, the idea for the berry only went wrong due to the unpredictable. We made the right call and we worked through everything with Ezekiel. It doesn’t matter that we would have gotten that strength anyways. Seeing Sabrina have to react on the fly like that is all the proof needed that a good mind is as important as pure strength.”

A note of acceptance and anger would ring through the connection without any words. Before Rome could make any comments, another memory assaulted him. This time, he watched as they charged towards the fort in Kalos at the head of the army, bellowing and screaming to the sky. He knew what came next for them and shut his eyes as the Greninja’s descended and a wetness spread its way across his side after a splash hit him in the face.

“Is this what a good mind does? Charges the enemy raving like a lunatic? If it had just been me in charge without your influence, we might have seen them coming or we wouldn’t have been in the front in the first place.” The tone became threatening, more base as Reno’s speech went on.

It would take a moment for Rome to respond, but when he did the man felt prepared for what he was going to say and do.

“Someone needed to lead them. While I do know that we could have seen them and tried to save ourselves from what happened, would we have been able to live with ourselves if someone else had taken the blow?”

“……….no.”

Taking the initiative, Rome wouldn’t respond with words. He instead took Reno’s route and threw a memory at Reno. An image of them, meteorite in one hand and hoverboard in the other as they stood there threatening Sub would emerge into being. “So this is the sort of thing you would prefer us do? Threaten our friends for our own personal gain?”

“That wasn’t my fault! It was the bloody rock that made me do all of that!”

“Really? The rock made you decide to hold onto the thing before it even gained any influence over your mind?”

An animalistic growl would ring through the connection, with Reno screaming after it. “We didn’t need ta hand it over right away! We needed it ta try and figure out that Psychic stuff! We needed it…”

“To try and get strong like Sub and others were? That what you were going to say?” Rome interrupted, his presence managing to overwhelm Reno’s ravings in their exchange. “Admit it. You only held onto the rock for yourself, not for both of us.”

The response didn’t come from their connection, but from the very ground as it heaved and exploded with Psychic chi, ripping rocks and debris from beneath the surface that brought Reno up into the sky with them. “Shut up! I was doin’ us a service! But since you can’t see that, I’m just gonna have to show you!”

More debris would rip its way through the landscape, rocks and strange trinkets like coins and pokeballs coalescing around where Reno was hovering in the air. The debris would begin to form a humanoid shape before a field of pure Psychic chi enveloped the construct. It opened a gap in the physical shell for Reno that appeared level with a mountain, aimed to allow the pilot a view of the world. “Imagine the power we could have possessed! We wouldn’t fear anything, not like we once did!” Reno bellowed, the construct throwing a punch that tore through the ground before slamming into the motionless Rome and sending his body flying.

Scrambling for anything that might halt his motion, Rome cursed his own awe at the power Reno had displayed. If he hadn’t been so distracted, he might have been able to evade the massive punch. Watching as the ground continued to rush up towards him left him with few options. So Rome pooled as much chi as he could into the one thing he knew he could do and a bright pink flash would erupt across the land. Watching as his surroundings shifted rapidly around him, Rome found himself falling towards a much kinder environment for a fall as he crashed through the dense forest beneath him.

Falling through the branches and eventually finding solid ground again, Rome took a second to collect himself. He had just teleported himself into the next layer of their mind by some miracle. Before he was able to remark at his own skill within his head, a loud crash would grumble across the landscape as a large pink beacon now appeared. “Come back, ya coward. Can’t hide in my own mind from me.” Reno said, the trees of the forest fading away like an apparition as he did so. Locking eyes onto where Rome was standing, he smiled before continuing to speak.

“Why do ya instist on fleein’ and keepin’ this goin’ way beyond what it should have taken? If you were a real aspect a my head, we woulda ended this back at the top and not bothered with the rest of this. But no, you want ta try and change things when we’ve been workin’ well for so long. Why do ya want ta go and do that all of a sudden?”

Rome would stare up at the titan of Psychic chi standing before him before straightening his back and glaring directly at its pilot. “Because I’ve had enough of your selfishness.”

The goliath would halt in its motions as Rome spoke, a pair of blazing eyes burning a hole into his chest now. “Selfishness? Is that what you call doin’ the best thing for us?”  

[Reno Vantas]

Part 3

“At the expense of our friends, it is. Because I figured something out.”

“Oh yeah? What do ya think ya know this time, moron?”

“Every time I did something stupid, it was to help someone else or keep someone else from being hurt. When you did something stupid, it was to make yourself look better or get stronger.” Rome bit back with, marching towards the Psychic chi creation now. “So, what I’m about to do is real stupid but like I said, it’s for our friends. I’m going to stop you and I won’t do it by altering myself at all.”

The impact of a train car-sized fist was the only response from Reno, a blow that sent Rome slamming into one of the nearby mountains with a loud crack. The construct would follow this up with a flurry of blows that drove Rome deeper into the mountain. Each impact sounded like the impact of a bomb as they slammed into him and punched further through the mountain until he popped out the other side with an almighty cracking of the stone as it all collapsed from the massive hole that had been pummeled through it.

A loud cackle would erupt from the construct as Rome landed again, Reno letting a painfully wide grin cross his face. “So! How goes that stoppin’ me thing goin’?”

The construct would rip one of the chunks of mountain from the ground and hurl it at where Rome had landed and Reno laughed again as the stone fractured on impact. “C’mon! Stand up! Face me on this level. Make yerself a hypocrite and just do it. Ain’t no way you can compete otherwise.”

Watching as Rome tore free from the rubble of the chunk of mountain, Reno could only keep laughing as the man began to scale the mountain nearest him. He would walk the construct forward as Rome continued his ascent, having to look up as he approached the peak of the mountain. “What? Couldn’t stand me lookin’ down on you? Well, you’re standin’ on a big rock now. Congratulations. Here’s yer prize.”

Another punch would come from the construct, a few chunks of rock flying from the arm as it slammed into Rome and sent him crashing into the ground far beyond the mountain. He would bounce a few times off the ground before skidding to a halt, a massive dust cloud engulfing where he stopped. Clawing over the mountain and starting his march towards his opponent, Reno let out another chuckle.

“What is it, Rome? Rock got yer tongue? I thought I was supposed ta be stopped. Well, it ain’t happenin’!” He screamed from his pilot’s position, slowly closing the distance to the prone form. “Now then,” he continued, opening and closing the one hand of the construct before settling it into a fist as he loomed over Rome like a great oak. “Stop this.”

With that, a fist the size of a truck would come crashing down to drive Rome into the ground like a piledriver. The ground buckled as the fist came crashing into it, chunks sent flying from the force of the impact.

Reno had one problem though: he couldn’t draw back the arm that he had just punched with. With horror, he was forced to watch as the limb withered from some unknown force before a blast of Psychic chi sent the construct reeling backwards from the force of it. From the newly-formed crater, Reno could see the cause of this upsetting reversal. Laying in the crater was Rome with a Cheshire grin and in his outstretched arms was Harleen wearing a similar grin. Watching as the arm drew back in energy to return to normal size, Reno felt the construct shrinking slightly in order to allow this increase.

Glaring down at the prone Rome, Reno would settle on simply punting the man away and avoid hitting Harleen at all. There was no need to risk another Mirror Coat backfire. Surprisingly, the drop kick sent Rome hurtling into the air with ease but Reno felt another shudder from the construct as more debris fell free and he realized that the legs were now lopsided. “What?! First, ya have my partner, and now yer stealin’ my chi?! What happened to yer little boast about not changin’ ta beat me, ya wimp!” Reno bellowed to the sky and the slowly fading Rome.

A piece of debris had been sent flying alongside Rome when the kick had landed and the rock appeared to be moving in the air on its own, moving in front of Rome before both of them halted in midair. They would only stay stopped for a moment before they lurched forward at high speeds towards Reno. Preparing himself to defend his pilot’s seat, he was knocked off his feet when Rome slammed into the hip of the construct with a spike of Psychic chi and punched straight through the rock holding the limb together. Suddenly left without a leg to stand on, the construct would stumble for a moment before teetering over and slamming into the ground with a massive dust cloud thrown into the air.

Reno would be out of the rubble before the construct even finished collapsing, redirecting the chi that had previously embodied it into a pulsing wave to map his surroundings in the dust. Identifying the two moving forms coming towards him as Rome and Harleen, he would grab a piece of rubble before throwing it into the pair’s path and taking off after it.

Rome would be forced to backpedal slightly as he felt a chunk of rock go sailing past his face, leaving him open to the follow-up spinning kick from Reno. Switching his vision to energy, Rome would barely be able to teleport behind Reno before a wave of psychic force washed over the location he had previously been in. Swinging a double hammerfist into Reno’s side, Rome felt the blow impact a wall of chi before an elbow slammed into his nose.

Stumbling backwards as the dust finally settled enough for them both to see each other, Rome would hold his hands out in an inoffensive gesture. “Reno, it’s over. However broken-up our mind is, one of us has fixed it enough that Harleen is here. And given how angry you’ve been acting this whole time, it wasn’t you. So just let it go.”

“No! You ain’t gonna help at all! I’ve failed, but I ain’t done anything as stupid as you have!” Reno screamed in response, charging towards Rome with a madman’s look in his eyes.

“Don’t make me do this.” Rome would only say, morosely raising his right hand and watching as a ball of concentrated chi began to form within its grasp. Unlike the construct or any of their other uses of chi, this form would be dense, almost fluid-like when it was produced and brighter than a camera flash. But this ball didn’t stop at the palm-sized ball it emerged at, as it began to grow larger and brighter with time.

Reno would slowly come to a stop before backing up a step, watching as this ball of pure energy with mass continued to grow and slowly eclipse Rome’s upper body in size. “What the hell is that? We never knew anythin’ like that. How……how is this possible?”

A new voice would echo over the newly formed wasteland. “I am truly sorry, Reno. You are as much a part of this mind as Rome, The Beast, and the True Self are. But you have proven yourself malicious to the point of being a malignant splinter. So I gifted Rome greater access to my bond and he learned to use what I can do on his own. He absorbed the chi of every blow and that is all of it in one concentrated blast. Please just let us in and remain. You are not a bad splinter.” Harleen’s voice echoed through the air, solemn as the Wynaut began to toddle over to where Reno was standing and placing her head near his hand.

His hand would slowly open as she did so, scratching at her head with his right hand for a moment before a few tears fell down his face. “Alright. If that’s what ya want, girl. Just….make sure he doesn’t scratch the paint on this thing. Just got it redone.” Reno said, tears gushing down his face as his attempt to maintain composure completely failed. Giving the small Wynaut a hug, he began to sob before he finally looked into Harleen’s eyes again. “I’m so sorry. I never wanted it ta go this far. I just…I just didn’t want another intruder ruining everything that I’ve finally got. I wanted everyone ta be safe. But if you know this will keep us safe, then I trust ya.”

Getting from the ground in front of Harleen, Reno would quietly march over to Rome and the ever growing Bright Flash that he now knew it to be before helping him lift his arm into the air and release the massive buildup of chi into the air, creating a brilliant flash of light and noise in the air that had the pair of them staring with equal parts awe and relief. Meeting eyes with his equal half and still feeling the tears falling down his face, he would slowly find Rome’s hand and calmly hold it as they watched the display before them for what felt like forever.

----

Reno would find himself slowly awakening in his room in the Snagem Base on Mount Silver, feeling something strange for the first time. But it wasn’t until he started thinking about it that he realized what it was. It was the lack of noise in his head, the psychic background chatter of every mind in the base and the thoughts he had always had to keep since…..since…..something had happened. All those thoughts of panic, fear, and paranoia that had been his constant companions for years.

He was finally freed from their painful grasp.

Slowly rising to his feet and slicking on the TV, he watched as news reports came on about an invasion at the Mossdeep Space Center from Cipher. Slowly tapping at his SNAG, he would hear a cacophony of voices as he did so. “Reno! You alive finally?” Leslie blurted out, getting the first words as she always seemed to aim for.

“Looks like things have finally settled in that head of yours. Care to join the rest of us in stopping Cipher and looking like heroes on TV now?” Aria said, the wink and smirk almost palpable from her tone.

“Well, we either stop Cipher like awesome people or we get to watch a rocket launch go up in flames. Either way, things will look very pretty.” Beau sounded off next.

And while Dista would say nothing, a small text would appear and cause Reno to open the holographic display. “Get here. Your friends need you.”

Reno stared at the text for a moment, a smile slowly spreading across his face before he spoke up. “Alright guys. On my way. Time to show Cipher what I’m really like.” A pop of a Pokeball and a snap of his fingers would tell Kaiden exactly what was needed and the pair disappeared to gather his troupe and send them to help his people. His friends.  

[Reno Vantas]

Micromission: One Upload More (Vive La Revolucion)

Aria would begin to itch at her head slightly as she began to walk down the streets of Kalos once again, taking in the damage that had been caused by both her cohorts in Team Snagem and the offensive waged by Cipher throughout the city. And while she wasn’t entirely sure the woman she had been tasked to locate was still in city limits, it seemed most likely given the fact that Flare would’ve locked the gates the second anything like the legendary showdown in that tower or the massive running battle through their streets occurred. While she personally would’ve been relatively easy to identify, her blonde wig and the blue eye contacts that she was currently using had managed to prevent any easy recognition by people. Although her head still itched like hell after the hours she had been wearing the get-up.

Looking around the area for a moment, she would quietly let herself into one of the cafes in the area to sit down for a cup of coffee and to keep an eye on the street. “So...who am I here to meet again?” She whispered, giving the small earpiece she had a quick tap to make sure it was working.

“Well, you are in the area to locate Alexa Stewart, wherever she has holed herself up in since she videoed Snagem’s little running defense through the majority of Centrico Plaza and Lumiose in general.” Reno told her, sounding very grainy despite the strong connection that the SNAG’s usually possessed. What, was he hiding away in the mountains while everyone else did the heavy lifting? Whatever.

Reno continued, completely unaware of the criticism he was receiving from Aria. “Your best ebt after that to release the footage would be to connect everything up to whatever hardware is still in Snag-A-Cup. It may have been wrecked last time we were here, but unless they completely obliterated the above and underground sections, there should be enough working hardware to get the message out.”

Taking a sip of her coffee before responding, Aria said, “So I’m just here to search and distribute? Good. i thought I’d be tasked with doing yet another thing way beyond my capabilities.”

“Well, that's still possible if Flare has decided that this footage is priority one. But that seems unlikely given they are helping wage a war. Hope nothing goes too terribly wrong for you. Talk to you once you finish.” Reno shot back, his connection cutting out into a fuzz of static before silence reigned. Breathing a sigh at the abrupt end to the call, Aria would finish her cup of coffee before leaving back into the streets. Now then, she had a general image of who she was looking for but she felt prepared to...generously interpret. Given the fact that she had managed a good appearance change like she had, there was no doubt a skilled journalist on the run couldn’t manage something close.

Pulling a small list out of her pocket, she quickly noted that one of their target’s favored locations was the local salon. Well, if there was ever anywhere to start with locating someone who would want their appearance changed, it was there. Quickly moving between the side streets that connected the streets leading to Centrico Plaza, Aria would soon find herself moving along the inside track of South Boulevard towards where she knew Coiffure Clips was located.

Reaching the door, she would quickly enter into the saloon where she was quickly greeted. “Hello there, ma’am. Welcome to Coiffure Clips, best salon in all of Kalos. How may we help you this fine day?” A woman with a somewhat played up Kalosian accent said, a perpetual smile on her face as she did so. Well, at least she was well practiced at selling the place.

“Hi there. I was wondering about one of your customers. Alexa Stewart. Has she come in recently for any changes recently? She is a suspect in a case I’m working on and I'm just trying to make sure my image of her is accurate.” Aria stated, doing her best to be as cordial as possible, although her nerves made it come across more brusque than intended it would seem.

The woman at the counter’s expression would stiffen slightly in response to the inquiry before she said anything. “Well, I would be happy to help you but she hasn’t been in for weeks. Now then, if that is all, I am needing to get back to work. One can only let coloring sit so long before it turns from beauty to tragedy.” Turning quickly, she would attempt to leave the counter before Aria’s arm shot over the wooden barrier to grab her wrist.

“Please. I need to find her myself before the other people trying to track her down get to her. She has something that I can use to help out my friends and I would really want to see her not be harmed in the crossfire of this.” Aria said, doing her best to maintain a solid expression even as she felt her nerves creeping up. While this sort of thing wasn’t her wheelhouse, it was at least closer than the warfare that she had ended up in before.

The woman would turn at Aria’s plea, looking her over for a moment before levelling a piercing glare at the former musician. “Why should I trust you? For all I know, you are with those red wearing clowns trying to track her down. Now, unless you have a concrete way to prove you aren’t, get out of my salon before I throw you out of it.”

Swallowing reflexively, Aria would reach up and pull her wig up to show her real hair before speaking. “Apolline, please do it for me. I’d take out the eye contacts to guarantee it’s me but you know how hard it is to reset one of those things.” Aria stated, watching as the salon owner’s eyes softened.

“Ah, Aria! How have you been? It’s been so long since I’ve seen either you or that little pianist of yours. I hope you have committed to that woman, because I am not sure if any of your other dates could put up with you after the ego boost being that Snagem group’s preening eyecandy will have given you, no matter how nice you are on the eyes and other parts.” Apolline gushed, moving back over to the counter as she began to dig for something in one of the drawers. Aria would smile at the reaction she had gotten before the implications of what Apolline had said sank in. It would appear that even a few years after leaving town, she was still being called easy.

“Before you hand out another blow to my heart by calling me the town bicycle or something, can you please help me and get me something on Alexa Stewart.” Aria pleaded, watching Apolline as she eventually took a leatherbound book from the desk drawer.

“Town bicycle? That doesn’t sound like you at all. You’re usually the rider. But now, I do have something to help you, namely calling her here. She needed one last thing to guarantee she couldn’t be so easily recognized and I had finally just gotten the materials for it. So she will come to you, and you will be able to convince her yourself right here.” Apolline said, getting her Holo Caster out and turning away from Aria to place the call. Finding a nice seat in the salon, Aria would put it to good use as she waited for her source to come to her.

-----

Aria would jolt to attention as the door rang, shooting a look towards it as a very non-descript woman walked through. While she was doing her best to look as different as possible from her normal attire as possible, Aria recognized Alexa quickly. Not even waiting for Apolline to say anything, she walked up to the woman. “Hey there, Alexa. I’m part of Team Snagem. And we can help you out with your little footage problem.”

Getting a hard look, the woman reached to her bag as she looked over to Apolline. “I thought you said that no Flare flunkies would ever show up here?”

“Just because I let one of my best customers talk to you openly after knowing she has hated Flare for years means I broke that promise? Oh my, how ever shall I contend?” Appoline shot back, watching the disgruntled look that crossed the reporter’s face with a grin.

“Look, as much as I want to try and convince you, this is extremely time sensitive and the quicker we get this footage out, the less important you are to Flare.” Aria protested, quickly grabbing onto the woman’s wrist and pulling her toward the door. While she certainly got closer to the exit, Aria soon found herself looking over as a somewhat better dressed man in bright red stepped through the door with a grin wide on his face.

“Hmm. Looks like I did see who I thought I did. Hello there, Mrs Stewart. We are going to need that footage of yours before it does any more damage to our reputation than those ingrates who assailed our beautiful city did.” The man said, a cold and dead stare pointed towards the reporter that she returned with a spiteful snarl. Why couldn’t things ever go as planned for Aria? Quietly picking through Alexa’s bag as she and the Flare member began to get into a bitter exchange over how she had been discovered and how obvious her disguise was, Aria sound found the small drive and slotted the thing into her SNAG.

Waiting a moment after the device was plugged into the SNAG, the Flare member turned to Aria. “Oh right, you. Almost forgot. We managed to get a bead on your encrypted transmissions. Your friend who receives all your information can usually prevent such measures but it seems like there is a slight lack of computing power out here. Guess that means I can feel safe following Alexa alone since you’re alone as well. Shall we combat each other now or do you prefer us to have a fruitless chase throughout the town, where I will undoubtedly gather allies and out-number you two within minutes?”

Reaching to the annoying wig still on her head, Aria would rip the piece off before smacking it to release a Pokeball she had stashed inside. “Glad to. Wig was driving me nuts anyways.” She grumbled, watching her Pokeball open to reveal her Inkay floating next to her.

The Flare member would scoff at the squid that now slowly undulated before him. “Please. You were once a proud Kalosian. Can you at least develop a more refined taste in Pokemon like the rest of us?” Drawing a Pokeball, the Flare member would soon be standing beside a Meinshao. “Meinshao, please take care of this fashion travesty. Force Palm.”

The Meinshao would simply bow for a moment before it launched itself across the salon, arm glowing bright as it fired its palm to bash the poor little squid before it. “Reflect, Hastur!” aria cried out, watching as the Inkay gave a small wave with its arms before impact to throw up a wall of pure shimmering energy. It did not last long to palm that slammed into it, shattering into a rain of glass-like particles before the arm continued on its trajectory to send Hastur flying backwards.

Unfortunately, Aria knew she couldn’t win a battle like this by being on the defensive. She had to use her one advantage in Hastur’s typing and hoped it could contend with the more powerful Pokemon she was facing. “Oh my, how quaint. The fashion travesty and her plate of calamari think they can stand up to the might of a truly beautiful Pokemon. I guess we shall just have to prove them wrong, won’t we?” The Flare member narrated to his Meinshao, the Pokemon giving a very minimalistic nod before it turned back to the fight.

Aria wasn’t content to sit idle while this blazing red beacon of eyesore lectured at her. Turning towards Hastur, she ignored the majority of the man’s jibber jabber and instead commanded her Pokemon. “Hastur, Psycho Cut!” The brown haired woman watched as her Pokemon went streaking forward at the Meinshao, the glowing pink tentacle slashing into the Fighting type as it turned back to facing its combatant. The blow would send the Meinshao sliding backwards a few feet, although the move seemed to not be exactly making the Meinshao regret its decisions. Instead, it seemed to be turning back to its trainer again with a bit of a knowing look.

“Oh no. The fashion disaster has wounded my poor Pokemon with a super effective move. How ever shall I contend? Meinshao, please reverse the situation and show them how a real attack move hits before the poor darlings think their style is actually working.” The man, making an aggrandizing sweep with his arms, would watch as his Meinshao turned once again to the fight with a brown glow to its fists. This would only last for a moment as the Fighting type took off towards Hastur and slammed a double fisted smash straight into the poor Dark type’s face.

Watching her Pokemon as it was again sent flying through the salon, bashing into many of the fixtures in the room before it was able to once again right itself into a normal floating position. “What the heck? This should be working! Your Meinshao is a Fighting type. It should be getting beaten six ways from Sunday!” Aria protested, stepping towards the Flare member as he stared at her, mild amusement playing on his face.

“What, am I supposed to act like I’ve never contended with a Pokemon able to perform such moves? Your battle sense is even worse than your fashion sense in that case. Meinshao has trained to be an exceptional specimen of its species full of beauty and grace. Meanwhile, you have allied yourself with a floating pile of noodles whose only good talent is reversing things amd isn’t even fully evolved to take advantage of the few things it is capable of doing. Where in that description do you see a possibility of winning?” The Flare member explained, his Meinshao once again turning to listen to its trainer speak before nodding in agreement with his assessment of the situation as it returned focus to the trivial fight that this was turning into.

Looking behind her at her Inkay, Aria could already see the battle was taking its toll. Hastur was floating a little more sporadically and looked like a stiff breeze could take care of him. And there was still the chance this man had more Pokemon after this Meinshao, probably all as strong as this. She needed to flip the situation or else she was going to ruin this entire effort.

….wait, she didn’t need to flip her perspective. She needed to flip someone else’s.

“Inkay, Topsy Turvy! Lets flip this fashionista’s opinion!” Aria commanded, making sure she aimed her pointing hand towards the Meinshao. Giving a few flashes of light and dancing along with the beat that only it seemed able to listen to, Hastur would soon nod at Aria.

The Flare member would only stare before he bent in half with laughter, a harsh barking laugh that aimed as much to hurt Aria as it did to show the humor that the Flare member saw in the situation. The Meinshao would turn to its trainer to see what was wrong before it held position, waiting to see what words of wisdom its master said this time. “Bahahahah!! What?! Just because I mentioned that useless move doesn’t mean I want you to use it! What use is something like that even right now? There is nothing about my Meinshao you could possibly flip! Now then, Meinshao, please take care of these fashion disasters before their stupidity spreads.”

The Meinshao would nod once again, drawing back its leg before bursting into a High Jump Kick that landed itself squarely into the target that its master had indicated. Why its master wanted to be attacked wasn’t for him to question, but he said to take care of the fashion disaster in the area.

Watching as the Pokemon and Trainer began to get into a scrap, with much protesting from the Flare member as to why its Meinshao had gone nuts on him. Guess it was too much for the preening primadonna to reach the obvious conclusion through his narcissism. Snatching at Alexa’s wrist, Aria gestured for her and Hastur to follow along as all three of them dashed through the salon to escape out the rear entrance into the building.

Bursting out into the alley, the trio would run for a few dozen yards before ducking into an inlet to recover for a moment. “Well, thanks for the save there. But what's your plan from here on out? You heard him, any transmission to your friend is being jammed and I seriously doubt we can hit a big enough collection of people without that sort of aid.” Alexa questioned, eyes darting around the alley as she did her level best to guarantee that the area was clear and they could talk this freely.

Looking down at her SNAG, Aria realized that Alexa was right. Unless they hit a large enough collection of people, this whole thing could be swept under the rug. And while she might be able to figure out a way to get these files to GRAY indirectly, it could be days before any progress would be made. But there was one thing that Aria could try that would be guaranteed to get attention from a large number of people.

Turning towards Alexa, Aria gave a coy smile. “Well, thankfully, you are looking at a B lister internet celebrity. Time to let a rabid fanbase do the work for us.” She purred, tapping a few more buttons as she watched the footage from the raid on Lumiose by Cipher and the valiant defense of the area by Team Snagem be uploaded to her video page. While this would clash SEVERELY to her typical uploads of her covering songs and playing her own original works, this would be guaranteed to get some attention. And some attention is all you needed when a story on the Internet was juicy enough.

Closing the display on her SNAG with a flourish, Aria locked eyes with Alexa. “Now then, we will get out of here in a few days. Once the damage of this video is done, Flare should calm down on the hunting you thing and we’ll slip out, no problem.”

“As much as I want to argue that, I think it’s probably best we lie low for now anyways. So then, where do you propose we do this?”

“....damnit, Apolline. Ruined that perfect moment for me to say a thing with what you said earlier.” Aria muttered, Alexa giving a very unamused look to her until she straightened up and gave a legitimate answer. While it would take a moment, the impatience of the perfomer won out. “Fine! We hunker down wherever you were before. They haven’t found that place yet, and anything I can muster up will likely be searched once they realize who put up the footage.”

Sighing with resignation at this, Alexa pointed in a northernly direction. “Follow me. Apartment is this way.”  

[Reno Vantas]

Hit-Hybrid

Leslie grumbled to herself as she stumbled into Kiloude City, staring with disdain at the pleated pink skirt she was wearing. Why did she need to be wearing this thing again? Moving her vision up her outfit as she continued to walk through the streets of Kiloude City, she next began to mentally criticize her top. A plain white button-up top with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and an extremely long tie dangling at the front of the shirt. Because of course she needed to look like she stumbled out of the nearest boarding school with all her naivety intact. And of course she had the damn knee high socks. All she needed was a sign saying “Please stop by with vans full of free candy” at this rate. Shifting her hair a bit, she glared at the twin pigtails she was currently sporting. She needed it for the look, Aria said. She would argue her almost-naturally formed ponytail was enough but that was shot down long before she got revved up. The reminder of her ponytail led to Leslie finishing her condescending glare towards the bright pink backpack that was currently being used to store her second mouth, which was storing all the Pokeballs she needed.

Looking up from her musings, Leslie found herself staring up towards the Battle Maison. Well, at her self-criticism had let her get there quick. Looking around for a moment, she quietly walked into the lobby of the Battle Maison.

The place seemed to be an exceptionally refined place, gilded interior and white marble everywhere. Normally, she would take the time to call this overblown out loud but she had been told by Aria that such outbursts were, to be put kindly, ‘attention drawing messes of complete tactless nonsense’. While she had wanted to shoot back with that was what made them fun, the fact that Aria had been halfway through re-adjusting her hair into the pigtails with a variety of tools had cut that short.

As she passed close by the front desk, Leslie was quick to identify the basement door that sat somewhat behind the counter. Now all she needed was a way to get access to the thing. Quietly tapping on the desk and hoping her short height might sell any spots of bad acting, Leslie spoke. “Sorry, mistah. I lost my daddy in here and I need some help findin’ him. Do ya think ya could help me?” She asked, a lisp now attached to her voice in a desperate attempt to sell the idea that she might be a small child.

The man behind the counter would look over towards Leslie, an eyebrow quirked up at the sight of a small girl asking him to help her look around. “Uh....I don’t think I can really leave my post. But...I’ll let you look at the security monitors. Maybe you’ll see your dad on there?” The receptionist cautiously offered.

Smiling at the man’s ‘generosity’, Leslie scrambled around the counter to take a look at the monitors. While the majority of them concerned themselves with monitoring the battle area and the crowd, one camera was aimed at the front desk here. Well, that was unfortunate. Moving towards the chair, she went to take a seat when she stumbled forward slightly and bumped her head into the desk. “Oooowwwwwwwww!!!!” Leslie cried out, doing her best to be as loud as she could manage.

To the receptionist’s credit, he was quick enough to react to the now screaming ‘child’ in front of him. Unfortunately, his attention was solely focused on the part of her she had injured and making noise from. Which left her hands free to unzip her backpack and grab her Porygon’s Pokeball, which she cracked out quietly and watched as the small pixel Pokemon zipped by into the computer.

The sudden motion drew the receptionist’s attention, forcing him to turn towards his desk and computer. Where he now saw the cracked wood of the desk from where Leslie’s forehead had impacted the poor piece of furniture. “What the hell is..!” The man said, a sudden stop being caused by the minor impact of a ton of steel that was attached to Leslie’s head by a stem to the back of his head. Watching as the man collapsed into a ragdoll on the floor, Leslie set about grabbing the man’s ID card alongside his wallet and whatever other valuables she could find on his body. Turning towards the monitor again, she could see Church was hard at work making sure that the camera footage looked correct and normal for this time as her existence in the lobby was electronically erased.

Turning towards the basement door, Leslie quietly swiped the security guard’s ID card and set on her path down towards the mainframe area. A harrowing journey for most people. Although most people didn’t have a direct line to the security for the area and a good amount of warning when to hide, so Leslie found no issue with eventually finding her way to the servers she had been tasked with. Opening the Pokeball for the Snagem provided Porygon, she motioned for the Pokemon to dive into the servers. Staring at the good job she had done, Leslie just waited for the buzz from Church that she could go back on her way. While it took slightly longer than she had wanted, she was soon on ehr way back to the surface level.

Finally getting close to the door out of the basement, Leslie took a small look around and found herself drawn towards a door labeled ‘Coat Room’. Looking around for a moment, she quietly opened the door and began to look at the hangers full of nice coats and bags. “Well….I would hate to waste the opportunity.” Leslie said, beginning to throw the coats and bags onto the ground before rooting through them for whatever valuables she could find in the thing.

Unfortunately, her little closet raid was cut short by the sound of a door opening behind her and a shocked gasp erupting from someone. Turning around from the pile of now shredded fabric and destroyed bags, Leslie found herself looking towards the slightly agape expression of a guard who had opened the door to observe this carnage of the patrons’ stuff. Looking around for a moment, Leslie would simply say, “It’s not what it looks like. I swear I just chased a wild Furfrou out of here.”

The guard would begin to advance towards Leslie, who was standing openly in the middle of the room with her second mouth out and visibly having chunks of fabric between its teeth. “Sure. And I bet when that Furfrou comes back, it’ll be on two legs and yelling at you to run with it, right? How about I show you a real Pokemon, not….the thing you are.” The male guard growled out, a Pokeball popping into his hand before opening, a Furfrou pouncing onto the scene to stare down Leslie.

Staring down the large furry Pokemon that had appeared before her, Leslie just let her expression drop from the cheery girl she had been playing into the grumpy midget she was. Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out another Pokeball. “Let’s rumble, you cheap suit wearing moron.” Leslie said, snapping her Pokeball open to reveal her Bulbasaur. Nodding at Willow, she watched as the Bulbasaur unleashed a flurry of Razor Leaf right towards that weird furry thing that was gonna be fighting her.

While she had gotten the drop with that sudden move, Leslie would soon find herself staring as more of the leaves got tangled in the thing’s fur than actually went slicing across the Furfrou. The guard would smile at his opponent for a moment before saying, “Well, this fight is gonna suck for you. Furfrou, Bite!”

The Furfrou was much faster than its shaggy body hair would lead one to believe, thus Willow wasn’t even half prepared to dodge when the thing clamped its jaws around her bulb and began to shake her. Eventually after a few shakes, a pair of vines would snake out of the Bulbasuar’s bulb to swat at the Furfrou’s face and force it to fling Willow away from it. Once again, it seemed much heartier than it had any right to be with the flurry of blows it had just taken.

At least with this information, Leslie could plan a little better. Namely, she just needed to outspeed the thing rather than a straight up brawl. “Willow, Sunny Day!” She said, watching as the small Bulbasaur glowed slightly before a miniature sun burst into the room. Suddenly, Leslie could see Willow was beginning to dart rapidly around the room as she picked up the energy output by this sun.

However, as effective as putting out a new source for speed for her Pokemon was, there was the distinct disadvantage of the trainer and his Furfrou taking advantage of the pause to slam into Willow with a Headbutt. “C’mon! Lets see some damage out of that little seedling!” The guard taunted, his Furfrou barking coarsely to add to the jeering.

“Thats it! Seed Bo-!” Leslie started, watching Willow begin to fire the hail fo seeds into the sky to bombard the Furfrou. Which was now directly in Willow’s face. And kicking it. Damn Sucker Punch.

Watching as her Bulbasaur was sent scrambling backwards into the room, Leslie began trying to think of another strategy. The thing was faster, heartier, and would probably beat her down if she let it. So now was the time to do some more unorthodox stuff. “Willow! Vine Wh-!” Leslie started again, watching as the vines came out and the Furfrou once again arrived promptly on the scene to beat her poor Bulbasaur with another Sucker Punch. Which she let freely happen, the blow sending Willow flying into the air even as her vines trailed behind and attempted to smash the Furfrou. They only succeeded in looping themselves around the thing’s front legs after a few weak slaps but it was still something.

“So. Care to just come quietly now or do me and Furfrou need to keep this up?” The guard said, staring with a small smirk towards the battered Bulbasaur and angry hybrid in front of him.

“Nah. I got another plan. Pull!” Leslie shouted, Willow snapping to attention and yanking with all her might with her two vines. While for most Bulbasaurs, this might not have been much, Willow had been specially trained by having to swing Leslie around like a wrecking ball in her more reckless moments. So even the small amount of grip they had on the Furfrou’s legs was enough to send the Normal type sprawling and tangling it into a pile of destroyed purses and coats. “Now! Solar Beam!”

Willow was quick to obey, her vines rapidly receding as she began to glow with energy. Taking advantage of the Sunny Day that had been unleashed by herself, the Furfrou barely had time to reach its feet before a beam of pure solar energy blazed through the fabrics and sent the Furfrou flying out of the door of the room. Its trainer had enough time to dodge the projectile Furfrou, but while he scrambled for another Pokeball, there was another case of sudden blunt force trauma against a guard in this building as Leslie once again used Iron Defense and swinging her other mouth as a club.

Looking down at the unconcious guard, Leslie simply waved Willow over before she began sprinting up the stairs into the lobby. Stopping by the reception desk as she exited the door, Leslie let Church come out of the computer system and into her waiting Pokeball before gave a jab into the reception guard’s ribs to jar him closer to consciousness. Pawing through his pockets for any other valuables she could find, she stopped when she felt him beginning to stir again. And chose that moment to look exceptionally guilty as she yelped at the motion and charged out the front door, hoping any faux pas in her performance might be missed in the guard’s groggy state. Thankfully, she had remembered to tuck her second mouth back into the backpack as even that might not have been easily missed.

Hearing a tentative yell from behind her to stop as she exited the door, Leslie gave a small smirk before ducking down an alley. Ripping her hair out of the pigtails it had been forced into, Leslie began to shed her disguise of specific parts. She let her second mouth free of the backpack once again before throwing the bag behind a dumpster, hoping her mouth could hold everything easily without the backpack as a failsafe.Next, she pulled at the tie until it fell loose and pulled on her skirt until the fabric appeared to split at the waist to leave her in a plain black skirt.

Satisfied with her little changes, Leslie kept on her route down the alley even as she heard yelling go to the mouth of the alley and then past. Apparently, she had looked different enough from behind to pass. Good.

She had a hell of a walk ahead of her but Leslie would eventually be able to find her way back to the site she had been deployed from and Aria was sitting cross-legged beside the group Claydol waiting. “So. What part of it did you bungle?” Aria greeted her with.

“Why do you assume I ruined some part of it? You said go in dressed like a cute little prissy girl, club the guard after I did the dad bit, put Church in the system to run through the place easily, drop our Porygon off, ransack the coat room for stuff, and then get caught by the guard trying to steal his stuff. I did all of that.”

“Well, I got reports of a small beast that took out two guards, ransacked the coat room, and had a possible Furfrou hybrid accomplice. Y’know, a slightly more colorful police report than my plan would have resulted in.”

Leslie had no response to this besides to grumble under her breath about Aria and her demeanor in most situations.

“I’ll take that as, ‘Yes, Aria, I got carried away and got caught before I was supposed to show I was in the place.’ And I graciously accept your admittance of your own stupidity. Claydol, take us out.” Aria said, the pair warping out of the woods before the yelling of Leslie’s protest against what Aria said could alert her, the surrounding wildlife, and a few people who were listening carefully in Kiloude City that Aria should shut her slutty mouth or come on the break and enter next time.