Author's note: You know what, I'm just gonna go ahead and put a content warning up here. There's some talk later on in this chapter that can be considered gruesome, so if you're sensitive to that kind of thing, once the scene switches to Shar and Adnea's group, you'll probably want to tread carefully or skip Adnea's dialogue chunks.
Ama practically screeched in wrath, her stubby little arms twitching as though she were beating the life out of some unfortunate creature, and the Beasts weren't too far off from the same reaction. Fourteen-Five's fists clenched up so tightly that his fluid-filled arms were rippling under the surface, and if looks could kill, Sixty-O-Three's would've wiped the expeditioners out in an instant.
"Oh, you're in for it now," the Pheromosa growled.
An icy glow took form at the tip of her claws, and a rumbling could be felt again courtesy of Fourteen-Five, but at the same time, the ground glowed and what looked like glowing walls went up around the entire bunch of them. The attacks might've done some serious damage in any other context, but all at once, the expeditioners found avoiding them to be quite a lot easier, especially Ama in particular.
"W-was that Trick Room?!" Sixty-O-Three cried, looking panicked at the thought. "The same damn move that non-guard Stakatakas use?!"
"You've gotta be joking!" Fourteen-Five hollered.
Ravi laughed. "It sure was!" he called back, stomping his hooves much quicker than he would've been able to before. "Hope you enjoyed your speed, 'cause now it's ours!" He glanced about his comrades, grinning. "Say, once I get Worked Up again, who wants a Power Swap this time?!"
"Me!" Lazuli cried excitedly.
"You got it!" the Girafarig affirmed.
Ama started to get a smirk that no one would've expected on her face had she not been ranting about teaching their foes a lesson mere moments prior. Still patting her egg, she giggled, "Oh, you Team Charade darlings are the best at throwing wrenches into our enemies' plans, and I, for one, am all for it.~"
Xeno, on the other hand, was smirking too as his form glowed white and Transformed again into a much prettier, graceful one- a Hatterene. Rather quickly, he became the fastest-moving creature in the vicinity and was taking full advantage of such when he started to glow with a Dazzling Gleam that fired off almost as quickly as the literal lightning-fast Discharge he'd used before. Sixty-O-Three outright screamed and dropped down onto the ground, and Fourteen-Five wasn't too far behind in trying to avoid it. It was a narrow dodge, but either way, the two Beasts were hissing in pain when the fairy energy pulses faintly brushed against them and left singe marks on their bodies, especially the Pheromosa.
"We barely ever see this strategy, but every single time, I hate it even more," Sixty-O-Three hissed.
Riven and Cinder weren't wasting time either, embers welling up in the Fletchinder's beak as he took flight and the Honchkrow too taking to the skies. Ravi stomped and snorted in place, working himself up into a fit again, but Lazuli went for an Ice Beam against Sixty-O-Three while her damaging boosts were in the works. Pure terror was visible on the Pheromosa's face as she put every ounce of her energy into dodging, but even as hard as she tried, the icy crystals elicited another shriek from her as some caught one of her feet and made her fall onto the ground yet again. A Flamethrower from Cinder was close behind, but by then, she was able to muster up an Ice Beam of her own to shoot back at the fiery avian. She would've been knocked out for sure if Cinder's attack hit, but the way the icy crystals absorbed the heat of the flames before turning to water and evaporating saved the Pheromosa from joining her Nihilego comrade in being unresponsive.
"DAMN IT!" Sixty-O-Three fussed at the top of her lungs.
Fourteen-Five, on the other hand, seemed to accept the fact that he was being outmaneuvered when Riven dive-bombed him with outstretched wings. He held his arms up in what looked like a vain attempt to guard himself… but his intentions became fairly clear nonetheless whenever his fists clenched around Riven's wing when the Honchkrow tried to land a Wing Attack.
"Keh?!" Riven squawked, noticing his flying appendage wasn't working like he'd wanted it to.
Fourteen-Five didn't say a word, but Riven sure started squawking again when a metallic proboscis jabbed straight into his chest.
"Gwaaaaaah!" the Honchkrow cried, eyes going huge.
"Riven!" Seth hollered.
A bit of blood trickled onto the ground, but most of it that the black-feathered avian lost was leaving through the Buzzwole's Leech Life. Riven tried to fuss, tried to break loose, but Fourteen-Five's grip was simply too strong and the proboscis stabbing through him made maneuvering far more difficult than it otherwise would've been. A blindingly quick Bullet Punch from Seth caused Fourteen-Five to release, but by that time, the Buzzwole could afford to take a few hits from the draining rejuvenation.
"It's getting a lot more obvious why Ama was so unhappy to see you!" the Scizor exclaimed.
The Buzzwole balled his fists up again, holding them up in front of him as if to shield himself from whatever attack may have followed. "Your attacks are far from the strongest I've taken."
Seth, however, didn't attack again and instead swooped his avian comrade up as carefully as he could, and the both of them were fleeing together when the ground started to rumble with the beginnings of a Stone Edge. The Honchkrow coughed, and the surface of one of Seth's pincers was an even darker shade of red when he choked out more blood. The sparkly sands were similarly coated with a trail of crimson splotches from the avian's wound.
"Get him to me!" Ama cried, looking even more enraged at the Buzzwole while scurrying her comrades' way on her own.
The Scizor did exactly that, rushing over and dropping into a kneel in front of the Blissey with Riven tucked in his arms. Ama got straight to work, her cracked egg glowing and her gentle touch straightening out a few of the Honchkrow's ruffled feathers. Riven squawked a bit in pain and his eyes twitched in discomfort, but the moment he felt her Soft-Boiled glow, he eased up.
"Oh, I'll still love these crazy Beast darlings, but by the gods, am I upset," the Blissey said through clenched teeth.
"I am too, and I don't even have Team Sweetheart's history with them," Seth acknowledged.
The Blissey's gaze turned up to the steely bug with a very sweet smile, and she said in her usual sweet voice while gently touching Riven, "Seth, my love, can I ask you for a favor~?"
The Scizor was slightly caught off guard by her sudden change in tone, but nonetheless replied, "I'm listening."
Her eyes were still sweet and angelic, but they burned with wrath like a raging inferno. "This Trick Room isn't permanent, and when it ends, you get me close to that other big red guy.~ You're strong- you could throw me fairly far, right~?"
Seth blinked for a second, then said, "… Captain, you're as crazy as these Beasts are, but alright."
"Good.~ You're a real darling- gnarly, but a darling.~" She giggled like nothing was wrong, then turned her attention back to Riven while slipping off her ruffled pink bandana. "Don't mind the cutesiness, my love- I have to bandage you up with something.~"
The Honchkrow wore an expression as though the Blissey before him had just sprouted three heads and six tentacles, but he nonetheless didn't protest whenever she tightly wrapped the bandana around him to put pressure on the wound. It still trickled blood and pained him, but it wasn't going to kill him straight away.
Cinder, however, was intent on the fighting and darted high up into the air, Flying as high as he could get before the figures on the ground looked more like little specks of dirt on a greenish and pale brown sparkling quilt. "You poisoned motherfuckers sure do cause a lot of trouble," he growled, mostly to himself. "So don't go crying to your higher-ups when I knock your asses out."
On the ground, however, while it wasn't an effective move at all, Sixty-O-Three frantically aimed an Ice Beam at Lazuli in an attempt to (literally) freeze her up and get in her way when the Azumarill started to take a pinkish fairy glow. Lazuli Playing Rough with her definitely would've taken her out, and though she carried plenty of power, the Pheromosa simply carried more- the Azumarill couldn't fully smash through the mound of icy crystals that surrounded her in time to land a hit on Sixty-O-Three. The stick-thin Beast hardly pulled it off as it was, but nonetheless, Lazuli tackled the air that her target had been occupying moments before.
"Dammit!" Lazuli fussed.
"Fuck you all!" Sixty-O-Three shrieked in distress, spitting more poison onto one set of claws. "And fuck Trick Room!"
Sixty-O-Three Poison Jabbed at the aquatic fairy, but with their speeds swapped around, Lazuli was still quick to outmaneuver her while spraying a Bubble Beam everywhere to mess with Sixty-O-Three's visibility.
In the air above them, Cinder's eyes narrowed in concentration on the foes down below- specifically on the Pheromosa getting on his friend's nerves. If what Astrid, Arashi, and Raijin had said was true, then she posed the most challenge of the remaining Beasts with her prowess in hitting exorbitantly hard while being impossible to strike, and if she was the most hindered from the Trick Room, he wasn't going to waste the opportunity. He tucked his wings in, diving down quickly with the force of gravity giving him plenty of acceleration… She was done. A single serious attack would do her in, and though Lazuli's bubbles would feel like little jabbing pins, it was well worth it.
Whatever attack followed, there was no way the Pheromosa would be able to avoid it.
"FOURTEEN-FIVE! HELP ME!" the stick-thin Beast screeched.
Their downed Nihilego comrade certainly would've been able to provide some better help with screens and smog clouds to throw the expeditioners off, but that was obviously not an option. Either way, Sixty-O-Three turned to dash away while Lazuli aimed an Ice Beam at her, seeing as whatever 'help' the Buzzwole could give likely involved him using himself as a shield… or at least, it seemed that way for only a moment.
The ground below Lazuli and Sixty-O-Three started rumbling, but even more concerning, the walls and floors of the Trick Room glowed again and faded away. The Azumarill had already abandoned her attempts at attacking the moment she felt it and jumped back, but even so, she could feel the tip of one crystalline shard scrape against the surface of her face. Cinder, however…
*DODGE, Cinder!* came the frantic telepathic voice of Ravi.
"What do you mean-" the Fletchinder started to say, but quickly went dead silent.
He couldn't possibly hope to dodge. He was accelerating so fast, fixed on one point, with gravity behind him in the same direction… but when he saw the crystal shards of the Stone Edge break the ground's surface, he tried as hard as he possibly could. He pulled his form up, spread his wings out, tried to flap, but it was no good. He simply wasn't fast enough, and the screech of pain that followed was akin to an Exploud's Hyper Voice for how painful it was to hear… albeit for completely different reasons.
"Cinder!" Lazuli exclaimed.
Her friend didn't respond. One of the shards shot up straight underneath him, jabbing into his underside with a crack. His beak fell open and his eyes turned into little pinpricks, for surely, taking a doubly super effective move had to hurt on its own, but the way the crystalline piece seemed to bend his form in ways that clearly weren't natural made it even more worrying. He had feathers that padded the outside of his body, but to anyone looking, the shard was jabbed too far in to only be buried in his feathers. The way his belly bent slightly inwards only made it even more obvious.
"F-fuck," the Fletchinder choked out for only a second before going limp.
He tumbled to the ground, unresponsive with wings sprawled haplessly beside him and his eyes drifting shut. Lazuli paused for a moment, blinking in shock at her friend in his less-than-stellar state. Some red trickles started to peek through the white feathers on his underside, then dripped onto the sparkling sand.
"Ohhhh, that darling needs healing too," Ama said nonchalantly, albeit with a slightly wavering voice.
"Worry about that in a second," Xeno piped up, his form shifting again to a Gallade.
Sixty-O-Three turned on Lazuli as the nearest target again with poison coating one set of claws, practically dancing around the remnants of her team lead's attack in one swift move, but her attack didn't land as she intended it to. Rather, a Wide Guard courtesy of Xeno shielded all of the expeditioners, and while the field of energy did crack a bit, Lazuli was perfectly safe.
"That damned creature with a dozen forms," she hissed, jumping back with furrowed eyelids and a frowning mouth.
Xeno giggled. "I have way more than that~!"
The Pheromosa glared at him, albeit wearing a look of concentration, then fired off a Focus Blast. It was clearly more out of frustration than knowing it would hit, for the shield blocked out her efforts at downing an expeditioner yet again. She hissed in frustration. Nonetheless, the Wide Guard still dropped, and the moment it started to fade, Sixty-O-Three turned into a blur as she rushed the Ditto-eyed Gallade.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you!" she shouted, Lunging out at him.
Xeno got wide eyes and his form started to shift again, getting noticeably smaller… but that was no matter, for the claws on the Pheromosa's feet staked straight through him anyways. He finished Transforming at the same time her attack landed, and rather quickly she was looking down at a smallish, smiling purple blob of slime staring back up at her.
Xeno blinked, an utterly stupid smile plastered to his face, then said in a completely cheerful, unfazed voice, "Sheesh, I don't use this one often! Hah, that tickles~"
Sixty-O-Three's mouth dropped open in pure stupor, and several of the expeditioners couldn't help but to be dumbfounded too (save for Ravi, who was not surprised in the slightest and kept working himself up).
The Pheromosa screeched in rage, taking her claws out and stabbing them through again… and again, and again, and again. "WHAT! THE FUCK! ARE YOU?!" she thundered, delivering a flurry of kicks.
Xeno was still smiling as his form jiggled and reformed like a blob of jelly, saying nonchalantly between kicks, "I'm! A! Ditto!"
Seth looked as though he wanted to Bullet Punch the Pheromosa while she was attacking, but Ama gave him a little nudge that stopped him.
"Seth, darling, remember~?!" she pressed, eyes rather intense.
The Scizor blinked, but nonetheless crouched down to grab the Blissey by her stubby little arms. "You're crazy, Captain, but I believe in you!"
"He broke my egg, so yes, I'm crazy!" she easily replied.
He carefully grasped her arms in his pincers, just firm enough to pick her up but not with enough force to cause her physically fragile body any pain. She smiled all the while, her grin taking on a devilish look as the Scizor swayed her back and forth a few times to get some force going. He quickly spun around once just to rev up for the throw, then spun again while taking a step in the direction she needed to go, then spun again and released the moment he laid direct eyes on Fourteen-Five. Ama went flying like a projectile, grin still plastered on her face and arms outstretched without a care.
"INCOMING~!" she chirped.
The Buzzwole perked up instantly, his gaze jerking up to see her. With her arms out to the side coupled with her soft pastel fur, she truly did look like an angelic creature flying through the air… at least, to anyone but Fourteen-Five.
"What?!" the swollen figure exclaimed.
He took a stance as though he were bracing himself, but he pulled one arm back in a clear striking position. Ama still grinned as she fell towards him, grinned as he took a swing at her, grinned as his Hammer Arm made her feel like her entire body would shatter… and grinned as she went to Counter him. Her fluffy form was mere centimeters away from his, so even if she was slammed with the force of his attack, she still managed to give his chest a poke with one of her arms that nonetheless returned his own force and then some.
"What-" the Beast began to exclaim, but was quickly silenced.
WHAM!
Ama went skidding backwards in the sand from her own hit, but Fourteen-Five, on the other hand, shot back into the crystalline cliffs. His form cratered the sandstone faces, and when the ripples from the force bounced around through his swollen body, a few spurts of fluid sprayed out of the membranes containing it like a crushed water balloon. If the Beast had possessed the kind of eyes that could go wide, they would've been huge at the pain, but instead, he simply went limp while his immediate surroundings became damper. He slumped down unmoving, his body still large but less bulging than it had been moments prior.
"Now THAT is gnarly!" Riven cried, albeit having to cough up a bit of blood after the words left his beak.
The Blissey's eyelids fluttered too, but despite the agony she was in, she choked out, "That.~ Was for.~ My egg…~"
At the sound of the impact, though, Sixty-O-Three perked up again and turned to look at the source… and immediately wore a look of horror. "FOURTEEN-FIVE?!" she shrieked in dismay.
At having her attention taken off of him, Xeno switched forms again to a Ninjask, but before he could attack the stick-thin Beast, she was already darting off to her team lead.
"Don't worry, boss, the tides'll probably do a better job," Ravi piped up, ceasing to stomp and snort. "Have fun, Lazuli!"
A glow surrounded the Girafarig and then the Azumarill, the latter of which immediately started to grin. The effects of the Power Swap were pretty easily felt, and true to the name of the move, she felt… powerful. Almost absurdly so.
"Oh, she won't outrun this wave," Lazuli laughed.
"Why is it always me left?!" the Pheromosa hollered in frustration, an Ice Beam forming at the tip of her claws. "I'm not a fucking guard! I'm asking Void to switch teams, dammit!"
Lazuli giggled, water condensing into a gigantic wave about her, much bigger than the last. Xeno Transformed yet again back into a Gallade, throwing up one more Wide Guard around himself and his comrades.
"I know you're from the desert, but you don't have to be so scared of water!" the Azumarill exclaimed, clearly more sarcastic than anything.
Sixty-O-Three yet again got a horrified look, turning to dart along the cliffs and sprinting almost too fast to see… but Lazuli's wave was simply too big. She couldn't outrun it, and when it came crashing down, a cry of fright escaped the Pheromosa as it swallowed her. She couldn't possibly hope to take it with her pitiful defensive capabilities as it was, but with Ravi's handed off boosts, her eyes rolled back in her head from the force with her face stuck in a frightened expression. She clearly wouldn't be waking up any time soon.
The expeditioners were silent for a second, eyeing their defeated foes, but Xeno was quickly jumping into action and zipping over to Cinder's side before Transforming into a Luxray.
"Lazuli!" he shouted.
The Azumarill didn't waste any time in darting over to his side too, slipping off her near-bursting bag as she did so. She quickly retrieved a golden Reviver Seed, which started to glow immediately when she held it over her friend's body. Xeno, on the other hand, had narrowed eyes as he stared at the Fletchinder's chest, not daring to move him but tilting his head to get some good looks with his X-ray vision nonetheless.
"By the gods, Cinder, I am worried about you," Lazuli panted, chucking the seed aside as it lost its shine.
The Fletchinder's eyes started to flutter open, but the second he tried to move, he squawked again and stopped. "D-damn…"
"Don't move," Xeno instructed. "Your sternum is busted."
"'Busted?!'" Cinder exclaimed. "Are you fucking kidding me?! How am I supposed to fly now?! I can't move my wings without it hurting! Damn you to hell, Fourteen-Five…!"
Lazuli too looked startled at the news. "Alright, Xeno, what do you mean 'busted?' Like, literally busted?"
"Literally busted," was the answer. "I'm looking at it, and it's in several pieces where that rock hit."
A squawk of wrath escaped the Fletchinder. "Damn it! These jackasses really are something else!"
"Damn, Cinder, and you were totally about to take her out too," Lazuli lamented.
"I know! Fuck this!"
The Ditto Transformed again into an Aromatisse, hitting him with a Heal Pulse while Lazuli gently stroked her friend's head. He growled with rage, but it clearly wasn't directed at his comrades and their support.
Ravi, on the other hand, darted over to Ama, who was already healing herself with her Soft-Boiled glow. Her egg, though, was spilling more yolk while she was slumped on the ground, and the Girafarig very carefully retrieved it from her pouch with a telepathic touch to set it upright. She giggled happily, looking more vibrant and slowly getting up from her slumped position.
"Thank you, my lovely~" she chirped.
"Everyone knows you Blisseys and Chanseys are really protective of your eggs," Ravi replied.
"I sure am.~ That's the embodiment of my love and joy.~"
At that moment, though, something else caught their attention- a voice gentle like Ama's but clearly in distress and… metallic, like a chime instead of an actual voice. "M-mmm…"
Both the Blissey and Girafarig perked up, giving each other a shocked look before slowly turning their gaze to Seven Thousand's shattered, poison-dripping body. Ama blinked in stupor, and Ravi's mouth started to hang open. No one else sounded like that, definitely not any of the expeditioners, so it had to be her… but the fact that she was making those sounds in the first place meant that she either had the best biological auto-pilot system they'd ever seen, or she was alive. They weren't sure which possibility was more disturbing.
"Is… she…?" the Blissey's voice trailed off.
The Girafarig trotted over to her, eyes practically bulging out of his head.
"Mmmm…! A-ah…!"
Her form twitched ever-so-slightly, more like a vibration than anything.
Ama's mouth dropped open too, more in horror than surprise. "Ravi, can you get a read on her?!"
"I can," the Girafarig replied, monotone in shock. "And yes. She… She's alive."
"What?!" came the stupefied voice of Seth, who came darting over with Riven perched carefully on his head. "How?! That was my form Xeno used, and I know I hit pretty hard! That was super effective and she's supposed to suck at taking physical hits!"
"… I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse on her end," Riven said, blinking and eyeing the shuddering, broken form uncertainly. "Holy fuck."
"Mmmm…!"
"What's she saying?!" Ama hurriedly but hesitantly inquired of the psychic.
Ravi blinked a few times too, but shortly verbalized, "It hurts. She's saying it hurts a lot. It's the worst pain she's ever felt and she's wishing she had a 'little nebula' to warp her to a safe place where she could get some healing or at least a comrade to comfort her, but those and healing items are being monitored very closely right now. No one but Void's emissaries are allowed to carry Cosmogs or Cosmoems unless they are immediately being sent to other worlds or further reaches of Ultra Space, and healing items are a no-go too because the intruders- us- could get ahold of them. She's terrified that she's going to die and it'll be a pitiful, painful death."
The ones gathered around got more and more uncomfortable looks as he went on. Xeno and Lazuli too perked up at their commotion and darted over, the Ditto switching form to an Altaria to cradle Cinder on his back in his very soft down.
"Hold on, she actually lived through that?!" Lazuli exclaimed. "That's…!"
"Impressive," Xeno said, nonchalant but stunned nonetheless. "Impressive and… concerning."
"Well, if she's scared and in pain, let's ease the process and get it over with," Seth remarked, clicking one pincer open and shut.
Ama, however, clearly had different ideas. "No!" she shrieked, diving in front of the Nihilego.
Yet again, they were all taken aback.
"Ama, ignore those Blissey instincts for once in your life," Cinder choked out, sounding a bit frustrated. "She's an enemy."
"For real!" Lazuli corroborated. "She's screwed right now anyway!"
"No!" Ama reiterated, not moving an inch. "You all heard what Ravi said! Void is already using her underlings as pawns, and now she's literally willing to strand them and let them die! That's good for us, yes, but this dear has been manipulated by Void and Salem into being okay with that! This is not her fault!"
"Does that even matter, though?!" Lazuli retorted. "It's not her fault, but we have to do what we have to do! Look at her- being alive in that state as it is must be pure torture, never mind that she could totally rat us out if any of her other comrades wind up over here!"
"Darling, they'll know it was us who did this regardless!" Ama still wasn't fazed. "Let's just give her a fighting chance, okay?! She's in absolutely no position to be fighting or causing trouble whether I get her with a Soft-Boiled or not, so we don't have to worry about her getting in our way!"
"M-mmm…!" the Nihilego struggled the sounds out again.
"She's still terrified of dying but she's even more upset by what you're saying about Void," Ravi chimed in again. "And not because she thinks it's true, but because she sees her as a goddess regardless. She doesn't appreciate you bad-mouthing her."
They were silent for a moment, everyone shooting around some glances amongst themselves. Ama smiled, but her expression was rather pointed as she still blocked anyone off from getting near the Nihilego.
"Ama, just what are you saying?" Riven inquired, eyeing her a bit uncertainly.
"I'm not going to heal her," the Blissey replied. However, much to everyone else's surprise, she gently removed her egg from her pouch, still cradling it carefully as though there were an actual baby inside. "I'm not so blinded by my raging Blissey instincts to think that healing her like I would heal one of you would be a good idea. But she's a parasite that absorbs energy from external sources, right? I'll leave my egg here, and she can absorb its nutrients herself. After this is all over, after we don't have to worry about Void anymore, if this dear can hold out that long… then I'll give her some proper healing. She won't cause us any trouble, but she's got a fighting chance."
More glances travelled around.
"I think that's fair too," Xeno piped up. "Either way, she's not going to bother us. I'd feel guilty afterwards if I killed her, hahaha…!"
"Captain, I wonder about you sometimes," Seth piped up, eyeing the Ditto incredulously, still clearly not opposed to dealing a killing blow.
"I do too!" Cinder piped up. "Xeno, you whimsy bastard…!"
"I think it's fair too," Ravi also chimed in to the contrary.
The Scizor looked at him too like he was crazy, and though Cinder didn't particularly move much, he too got a surprised look.
"Keh! If she's not gonna get in our way, then do whatever the hell ya want!" Riven corroborated.
"I think this is nuts, but okay, I can get behind it when you break it down like that," Lazuli acquiesced.
"Then majority wins and that settles it," Ama declared, skittering over to the Nihilego's side. She set her egg down just out of Seven Thousand's reach so that she could grab hold of it, but it'd take some effort. "Hold out for me, lovely, okay…? Void won't take care of you, but I will."
"Nnnn…! Ah…!"
"She's still scared and suspicious of us," Ravi translated the unspoken words.
"Well, we can't fix that, but our diligence is done," Ama acknowledged. She turned back to the source of the blinding rays of light acting like the sun, albeit while shielding her eyes carefully. "Now c'mon! We have worlds to save! I'll heal you darlings up while we're on the move!"
Xeno, on the other hand, transformed into a Blissey himself (to which Cinder instead was positioned on his fur curls), patting the egg in his pouch and nonchalantly piping up, "Hey, Ama, perhaps you'd rather fill your pouch up again first?"
Her eyes sparkled. "Oh, Xeno, my darling, I love youuuuuuu~"
She happily retrieved the egg from his pouch and placed it in her own, to which the Ditto carefully allowed Seth to retrieve Cinder before Transforming back into a Mudsdale. Shortly, the Scizor was perched on Xeno's back with Riven perched on his head and Cinder in his arms, while Ama took up next to him and set to work on both avians. Lazuli perched on Ravi's back, making faces at his tail-head when she wasn't giving concerned glances to her busted-up comrades. They couldn't see it, but the moment they were a bit further away, Seven Thousand reached up with one shuddering tentacle and shakily, slowly started dragging herself closer to the egg, calming down just a bit when she touched some of the spilled yolk dripping down the sides.
The expeditioners hoped that the next Beast squad they'd run into wouldn't cause them so much trouble and they'd be able to pull off their original plan, or if it came down to it, that Delphi's team could take care of the guards easily once they reached the tower…
… And for just a little while, it looked like that might actually have been the case.
. . . . .
The sky still crackled and rumbled and the ground still buzzed, but at the very least, that looming tower in the distance looked closer… closer but still intimidating even from afar. Every now and then, a bolt from above would strike uncomfortably close to the expeditioners in Ultra Plant and make the two of them with fur fluff out just a bit (by no will of their own and not out of fear, either), but most of the time, it was the rocks and the flora that took the lightning strikes. Chira kept eyeing the larger plants uncomfortably as if they'd start moving, and indeed, had Adnea not been there to monitor, it would've been a reasonable fear to have… but luckily, the Orbeetle had yet to apprise them of any company in the vicinity.
Gradually, the shiny black rocks started to get interspersed with more organic-looking ones with little glowing bits of green and blue embedded, a fairly stark contrast to the plain black and white of the rest of Ultra Plant… Surely, it had to be a consequence of merging terrains with Void's natural territory. Those blinding rays from Megalo Tower got a little brighter and pierced through some of the thunderclouds, and large glassy patches of ground peeked through the metallic soil, looking akin to the top of a lake reflecting sunlight overhead.
Nonetheless, when Shar and Adnea's bunch got the run-down of Ama and Xeno's encounters courtesy of the Orbeetle, they definitely had some thoughts of their own.
"They did what?!" Shar exclaimed. "By the gods! Nothing's gnarlier than a Blissey with a broken egg! Those poor bitches and that bastard didn't know what they were gettin' into!"
"By the gods! Squad Fourteen-Five?! And they won?!" Jingle exclaimed.
Millicent pumped her fist in the air triumphantly, and both Chira and Jingle breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"Good," Chira said, looking tired at the mere thought of facing that team again. "I'm glad it was them and not us. That Buzzwole's punches are something I'll be happy to never experience again. Worse than an angry Machamp with a Violent Seed."
Millicent was as silent as ever, but she nonetheless made some spirited hand gestures to say, *And that Nihilego's poison is the hardest thing I've ever had to cure! My Aromatherapy still didn't save us!*
Azra perked up and gave them a cautious but inquisitive look. "Hey, you sweethearts," he said, "if I can ask… What was it like? This entire world is full of creatures that went crazy like the lot of you, and it has to be, well… gnarly."
"You know how the dungeon-dwellers react whenever they see a new face that doesn't belong?" Chira tried to explain. "That's what it feels like, except you enjoy it."
*I've never made so many threatening gestures before in my life,* Millicent mimed her words.
"It's not like being mad at anyone in particular, you're just destructive because you have to be," Jingle added. "And it's fun, but… so, so horrific."
"It felt good at the time, but in retrospect, it was dreadful," Chira said, shaking her head haplessly. "You completely forget who you are and what you stand for."
"Gnarly," Shar mused. "Hell, I guess me an' my mateys can relate with the whole havin'-fun-bein'-destructive part, but we got some sense that these poisoned mateys don't!"
"I was about to say the same thing, Captain," Azra chuckled.
The Garchomp and the Aggron both exchanged a knowing grin, which got some eye-rolls from Chira and Adnea.
Shar, though, turned her attention to the Orbeetle, studying her a bit. "Say, Adnea."
"Yes?" the floating bug flatly replied without missing a beat.
"That's the same kind o' thing Raijin was sayin', wasn't it?" the Garchomp asked. "From what I've heard, anyway. I know you comb everybody's memories, so those ones must be gnarly as hell."
The Orbeetle blinked, going silent for a second. "… Let's just say, Shar, there's a reason he doesn't talk about them."
"Like what? You ain't gotta tell me and I wouldn't say anything, I'm just wondering."
Adnea sighed just a little. "… Do you want to know what happens to a human when they get hit by an extremely powerful bolt of lightning?"
The others perked up a bit too at the inquisition.
"I'd be lyin' if I said I wasn't a little curious," Shar replied. "I ain't even seen one in the flesh to know."
Adnea had no trouble explaining it. "First of all, you all know that water and electricity don't mix that well. The humans that are still living outside of our own world are made up of a large percentage of water, so there's that aspect to consider."
They perked up even more, albeit with a shred of hesitance. Maybe being a human and being a Water-type weren't the same thing, but Adnea definitely gave them an idea of how miserable it could be.
"Add to that the fact that humans are not durable creatures. They went extinct on our own world and according to what Raijin knows, only survived here because the Light Trio took pity on them and they purposely kept themselves in the most easy-going environments that wouldn't kill them from exposure alone. Arashi took a Discharge and lived to tell about it, but even then, he was in critical condition and it took some serious intervention on Rozen's part. For a human, it would be worse."
That unsettled them even more.
"That being said, from the old research books that I have, humans' bodies function by little gates in their cells that relay messages from stimuli, and those little gates happen to open and shut from electrical impulses. Of course, there's a variety of Pokémon cells that do this also, but given what I just explained, I think you can see where this is going."
Shar and Azra looked at each other, and the members of Team Sweetheart all started getting very uncomfortable looks.
"So all that being said… when they take that absurdly strong bolt, their bodies are overloaded to a ridiculous degree. Their muscles may violently contract and rip their skin open, and their hearts may beat erratically until they abruptly stop. Since their bodies are mostly water and since lightning is very hot, we all know water boils at high temperatures, so the fluid making up most of their eyes or other fluid-filled structures can become volatile. The rest of their outer layers also burn and char, especially where the current enters and exits. It also can travel along their blood stream's path, which causes scars with an almost tree branch-like pattern all over them. If, by some miracle, those effects don't kill them, their internal workings will shut down sooner or later either way. It might be relatively fast in killing them, but any way you look it, it's a horrific death."
The rest of them were silent for a good few moments, blinking as they processed that information.
"… Wow, matey," Shar broke the silence. "That is gnarly."
*Those poor things…* Millicent mimed.
"Don't you ever speak of this to anyone else," Adnea said firmly. "Definitely not to Raijin, and definitely not when Team Starstorm is together, either. It's absolutely immaterial to Astrid and Arashi what their comrade did under Void's influence, and that Xurkitree definitely wants to leave it all in the past, but you add in the fact that one of his best friends, the creature he's most concerned with, used to be a human that might've met that same fate had things gone differently somewhere along the lines… I don't think I need to explain why some things are just better left unspoken."
It took the others a few more moments to break the silence.
"I won't say a word," Jingle quickly affirmed.
"Neither will I," Azra agreed.
"No worries, matey," Shar concurred.
"Oh, I get the picture, alright," Chira said, nodding.
Millicent made a few gestures of affirmation, nodding fervently.
"Good," Adnea said pointedly. "I trust you all, but that's the kind of information I don't repeat."
They all nodded.
CRACK!
And very shortly, they jumped just a bit when a stray lightning bolt rained down onto the ground next to them. Jingle's fur stood on end in a ridiculous fashion and Chira's fur fluffed out a bit too at the resulting static in the air. Shar and Azra couldn't help giggling a bit at them, and Millicent smirked just a little at the dragon she rode on.
"… Gnarly," Azra chuckled.
*I see why this place can be so hazardous…* Millicent conveyed with her hands.
"If Raijin moves back home here, then he's takin' me too," Shar declared with a smirk.
Chira eyed the Garchomp incredulously, piping up, "But what if the rest of your comrades aren't up for it? You've got two birds, after all!"
"Heh! Polly an' Riven wouldn't care- my little Chatot went and played pretend with Void's higher-ups, and I guarantee you Riven would be all over the eerie backdrop, bolts be damned!" Shar said to the contrary.
"Seth would be on board, and I am too," Azra corroborated with a grin.
"Besides," the Garchomp kept on, "you know this place is gonna need some serious intervention once we kick Void's reign in the ass! There ain't nothin' gnarlier than goin' to raise otherworldly hell with a bunch of otherworldly super-creatures if some of 'em decide to make life harder for everyone else!"
"That's right!" Azra concurred.
A cry of "HUZZAH!" would've erupted from the two gnarly ones, but a piercing gaze from Adnea shut them up before it could even start.
"We're getting close," the Orbeetle chimed in, going back to her normal flat countenance. "This air is getting thicker and the ground is becoming more glass-like than soil. I'm surprised we made it this far without getting intercepted given the logistics we laid out beforehand, but… given how our other comrades have fared, we can count it a blessing."
Everyone turned to the Orbeetle.
"I've been noticing that too," Chira noted. "The air, I mean. It feels heavier than when we started."
"Me too, actually," Azra agreed. "I'm not gonna complain, but I'm not a fan of water, and that's what this feels like."
"Hey, speakin' of interceptions," Shar piped up again, looking to their psychic. "Adnea, if we get company, you've got us covered, right? Somethin' tells me you're the best one of us to talk."
"Yes," the Orbeetle replied. "Leave it to me."
*I think we've been leaving it to you this whole time,* Millicent mimed.
However, something evidently graced the Orbeetle's senses that no one else could perceive, for she froze rather quickly. Her comrades noticed and paused too, studying her almost hesitantly.
"You okay there?" Shar asked.
Adnea blinked. "… I'm picking up on a presence, but this can't be right," she mused.
That certainly got everyone's attention- Adnea admitting something was seemingly miscalculated or unaccounted for was definitely something they didn't expect.
The Orbeetle gestured at the air directly in front of them. "It's a completely sudden onset and it's coming from here," she noted. "It's very strong, like someone was standing in front of-!"
She cut herself off when the air cracked in front of them, and everyone behind her gave a little jolt. Shar immediately held her claws up to rip into someone, but the Orbeetle, on the other hand, quickly floated backwards.
"PROTECT US, AZRA!" Adnea hollered.
She didn't have to tell the Aggron twice, for he reached out and yanked both Shar and Jingle closer in while Protecting everyone with an energy shield. Millicent almost fell off of the furry dragon's back, but she was quick to catch herself, and Chira hunched down amid all the much larger creatures. Rather quickly, they were all seeing why Adnea had so fervently yelled for Azra to shield them all.
THUD!
The hulking, heavy figure of a Stakataka dropped first, making the ground rumble akin to an earthquake and cracking the glassy parts in at least a ten meter radius. Several sets of eyes looked at them from the conglomerate of bricks, but it was still easy to deduce exactly who they were looking at from 'UB08A-2301' marked on one in the front. The elegant figure of a Pheromosa sat atop his walls, legs kicking playfully off the side while 'UB02B-0001' was on full display on one of their arms.
Adnea shifted her attention behind them just as fast, for another wormhole opened up and dropped two more figures- a Golisopod with claws extending as fast as lightning, and a wildly smirking Charizard with a Mega Stone glinting around her neck and embers glowing in her maw.
The stick-thin Beast quickly jumped off of their stony ride and onto the energy shield, the surface slightly cracking akin to the glassy ground when their claws made contact. All of the Pokémon underneath it gave Remi a look as they stared down at the expeditioners like an excited burglar staring through an open window, eyes wild and grin bloodthirsty.
Their voice had the same qualities as their expression, albeit still with their usual flippancy. "Hello there, intruders.~ What brings you to this fine section of Ultra Space, hm~?"
Adnea, though, had different ideas, broadcasting to anyone who would hear, *There are some VERY problematic foes over here.*
