Blizz felt triumphant as he stepped out the doors of the police station. For the first time in ages the sun was shining down on him, and the injuries Mudsdale inflicted could heal much faster.
A part of him wanted to just stay there and take in the sun, but the excitement at making an actual breakthrough in this case managed to motivate him enough to keep moving.
The eight explorers passed through Tenea City, sticking to the outskirts just in case someone else would recognize them. Before long, they made it out of the city, where they took a break to look over the map and talk strategy.
"Rusthill Cavern looks to be south of Tenea," Kibo reported, looking through Apex's wonder map.
"That's right," Ride confirmed, using Terrae's map. "It's a little over a two hour walk... I think."
"Then we better get going!" Angel declared, pumping a fist to the sky. "Gotta make Hydreigon pay!"
"Justice will be enacted," the Prince added. "However, are we truly prepared? I refuse to believe I am the only one sensing the parallels between this and our previous mission to Roguepoint."
"True, however, that time we were sold out by Zar," the Duke argued. "It would make no sense for them to anticipate us breaking out of prison and prepare a second ambush. We should have the element of surprise."
"...Very well," the Prince conceded. "However, we should still be prepared for any eventuality. I doubt Hydreigon would willingly come with us, and if he can fight at Lucario's level, it will prove to be a challenge."
"I don't know how much preparation we can do though," Mira pointed out. "We'll have to fight no matter what, and the longer we wait, the more Pokemon will get turned into husks..."
"...I suppose." The Prince stepped over to Kibo, looking over the map. "We should depart then."
The eight explorers repacked their things and set out.
A determined silence filled the walk to Rusthill Cavern. While Kibo and Angel hung back to talk to each other, everyone else stayed quiet. Occasionally it'd be broken by Kibo giving directions, but otherwise they remained focused.
They had no delusions that what was to come would be easy.
As they climbed over the final switchback, the entrance to the mystery dungeon came into sight. An opening at the top of a hill, covered in red dust.
Blizz ran ahead, peeking inside the cave to make sure it was their destination. "I think we're here."
The explorers all sat down, distributing items and making their final preparations before taking on the dungeon. Mira and Blizz sat a short distance away from the others, discussing tactics.
"Are we going to split up again?" the Zorua asked, looking back over their group. They had done an eight person dungeon expedition back at Breach Mountain, but that was a while ago and in a much easier mystery dungeon.
"Not sure," Blizz responded. "If we're all together then someone can hit us with those fuck-everyone orbs again."
"But if we separate, we could run into Hydreigon without support," Mira finished.
"Yea... Hmm... What if we did two squads, and meet up at the staircase?"
"What do you mean?"
"Our badges update the floor map for our teammates, so if we have one Apex and one Terrae member in each group, we could find the staircase way faster. Then we meet up before we go onto the next floor, that way we'll probably be together if and when we find something."
"That... sounds like a good idea," Mira agreed. "What should the teams be though?"
"Well I'll lead one and you take the other. No objections to keeping the Prince and the Duke separate, right?"
Mira immediately nodded.
"So that leaves Kibo, Rune, Angel, and Ride."
Mira mentally debated who on Apex she felt most comfortable leading. "...How about I lead the Duke, Ride, and Rune; while you take the Prince, Kibo, and Angel?"
Blizz nodded. "Hell yea, that lineup sounds awesome." He stood up, walking towards the rest of the team to explain the plan to them.
Rusthill Cavern was an odd mystery dungeon. It didn't have the aggressive terrain that Burning Rapids did, or the cool semi-translucent walls of Amber Canyon.
Instead, it was an agonizing, tranquil silence.
It felt wrong. Each step that Mira's team took reverberated across the rusted-over metal flooring. Even the ferals were like statues until the explorers got close enough for them to activate. Their only consolation was that when did wake up, they acted like normal ferals. No husk issues so far.
Still, something about the dungeon made Mira's skin crawl. She supposed a part of it could be attributed to her team— none of them were particularly great conversationalists. Even the Duke was finding it hard to explain how amazing he was when the closest thing he got to a reaction was muffled "mm-hm"s.
In light of this, hearing the yelling from the other team was equal parts a relief and concerning.
"Let's go dragon dude!"
Angel's voice was the closest thing to a warning Mira got before a loud thud echoed through the dungeon, followed by a Jangmo-o flying through the air with a glowing tail in the room ahead of her.
Mira ran forward to see the rest of the room, watching two Aggron standing across from her fellow explorers.
Kibo landed on the closer Aggron before his head began glowing white, bashing it in with a Headbutt.
Before either steel type even had the chance to react to the dragon type, Blizz came flying in, slamming into the second Aggron with Quick Attack.
The two melee hits were followed up by a Shadow Ball and Dragon Breath from the Prince and Angel, respectively.
The two Aggron's weren't content to just take the hits, however. The ground began to vibrate as dozens of rocks descended upon Blizz and Kibo, both of whom were more or less helpless during the onslaught.
Mira wouldn't be having it. She rushed in with Night Daze, distorting the entire room with a twisted purple hue and interrupting the two Aggron's attacks.
The rest of her squad filed in right behind her, ready to help out.
It turned out that despite Aggron's immense strength, it was somewhat difficult to win a two versus eight. The explorers made short work of the ferals, burning off a bit of the anxious energy the upcoming battle was giving them.
Once the Aggrons were lying on the ground, unconscious, Blizz approached Mira. "So uh, thanks for the help there."
"Of course," Mira responded. "We were coming by this way, and saw Kibo flying..."
"Yea, he can launch himself around with Dragon Tail, looks awesome whenever he does that."
"You think I can do something like that?" Angel shouted from behind the two.
"Please do not attempt it," the Duke warned. "We worry about the amount of concussions you already incur."
Angel pouted, but seemed to understand the decision. "Fine…"
There weren't many more difficult battles after the two Aggrons. Both groups made good pace through the dungeon, able to alert each other as soon as they found the staircase. Not having to fight unnecessary ferals helped keep their energy up as well.
They went through floor after floor, anticipation building each time they descended. By floor 15, the atmosphere shifted. No ferals roamed the halls, and the dungeon's silence felt all the more ominous.
The two groups broke from their initial plan without speaking so much as a word, sticking together as they passed through.
At last, they found the final staircase. All eight explorers gathered in a ring around it. It was entirely possible that there was no one on the last floor and the info Flygon had was wrong, but the pits in their stomachs seemed to disagree.
Blizz took one last look over everyone, an oddly contemplative expression on his face. This lasted for all of a few moments, before being swapped with a half grin.
"Alright, who's ready to fucking get this!"
Without waiting on a response, he threw himself down the staircase. The other explorers followed behind with varying levels of enthusiasm.
The final floor was a large circular clearing. The roof seemed to be abnormally high for a cave dungeon, covered in rusted-over iron. Small drops of water descended from the ceiling, thundering as they hit the ground of the dead-silent dungeon.
Though the environment was slightly interesting, everyone's attention immediately shifted to the far end, where they could make out two shapes.
The first was undoubtedly Hydreigon. Even without the species' very distinctive silhouette, all four members of Team Terrae could practically feel his aura from the other side of the room.
The other appeared to be an antennae, more or less the height of Hydreigon himself. The dragon type appeared to be examining it, floating around it.
This wouldn't last for long, as a green Energy Ball whizzed by and slammed into the wall right behind Hydreigon.
"Fucking finally! We got you now!" Blizz shouted as the rest of his team began taking a battle stance.
Hydreigon pivoted around, watching the eight explorers enter the room. "OH IF IT ISN'T LUCARIO'S BITCHES! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?"
"How could you do this?" Mira growled as light began to distort around her. "All those Pokemon… You basically killed them!"
"THE HELL DO YOU MEAN I-"
Hydreigon's shout was cut off as the antennae next to him flared to life, different colors flashing all over the device.
"What's he doing?" Kibo shouted, tail glowing royal blue.
A green aura began to surround Hydreigon. All six of his eyes rolled backwards as his body went limp.
"What's going on?" Angel asked, shifting from a combat stance to just standing.
"I am not sure, but I doubt it is beneficial," the Prince answered, charging up a Shadow Ball.
They would get an answer soon enough. Hydreigon's eyes refocused, though they looked glazed over, kinda like a feral.
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!"
The green aura faded away as Hydreigon began glowing a different, equally concerning color. His body lit up a harsh red, temporarily blinding the explorers. Blizz's goggles protected him somewhat, allowing him to view what was going on.
The red light appeared to converge into a Y-shape next to Hydreigon, slowly growing bigger. Said shape took on a more complex form; talons emerged at the ends, and a head popped out of the top.
The glow began to fade, as the explorers now faced down two dark types.
Hydreigon wasted no time after the summoning to give a command. "YVELTAL, KILL!"
"Not concerning in the slightest," the Duke said as twin spirals of fire shot out from him.
"Guys, do you know who that is?" Mira's voice was shaking.
"Looks like some oversized bird," Blizz responded, his body lighting up gray as he sprinted towards Hydreigon with Quick Attack.
Mira was still glued to where she stood. "That's Yveltal... it's this world's god of death..."
"Then I'm sure he ain't gonna mind what we're gonna do to him." Kibo smiled at Mira before slamming a Dragon Tail on the floor, launching himself in the air towards Yveltal.
The death bird was not going to just take it, however. Its wings converged on itself as it fired a sinister red beam at the airborne Kibo. The attack was far larger than the Jangmo-o, launching him into the back of the room.
"What the fu-" Blizz was looking at what happened to Kibo, and proceeded to not notice Hydreigon stepping to the side. Instead of crashing into the hydra, he instead ran into the antennae and broke it into three different pieces. Hydreigon proceeded to blast the stationary Treecko with a Dragon Pulse, causing an explosion that launched him into the roof.
He stuck there for a few seconds, before falling back to the ground head first, unconscious.
"Dragon dude!" Angel ran up to Kibo's completely limp body. "Mira, need a reviver!"
"R...Right." Mira fumbled through her bag, tossing Angel one of their revivers. She also threw another one to Rune, who was evading Dragon Pulses and Air Slashes to get to Blizz.
"We need a plan of attack," the Prince reported, scattering a few Shadow Balls between both of their assailants. "They are stronger than we anticipated."
When he evaded another barrage, the Prince slowed down to catch his breath. Hydreigon and Yveltal hadn't even moved from their starting positions, only firing ranged attacks. And if one was enough to knock out both Blizz and Kibo-
His train of thought was interrupted by Angel's desperate shout. "GUYS HE'S NOT WAKING UP!"
The Duke shot off another Fire Spin towards Yveltal, hoping to grant them some cover while they figured out what was going on. "What do you mean?"
"He-He's not taking the reviver!"
Mira stared at Kibo, before whispering something under her breath.
The Prince was not in the mood for this behavior, leaping to Mira's side. "If you have any theories about what is happening, I feel this is not the time to keep them to yourself."
Mira's voice was still irritatingly quiet, but at least audible this time. "...Yveltal is the god of death... So Kibo could have been..."
"Are you implying that Kibo is dead?" He made sure to project his voice across the chaos of the battlefield so all his teammates could hear.
Said declaration caused everyone to freeze. Because she suddenly froze, a Hyper Beam whizzed past Rune half a meter in front of her.
"He's... what?" Angel's voice was cracking. "He... just one attack did that?"
"Evacuate," the Prince commanded, crouching down. "I shall draw their attention while the rest of you retreat to the previous floor. Get out of the dungeon."
In spite of Hydreigon's glazed over eyes, he appeared to be listening to the Prince, since he proceeded to use Hyper Beam on the ceiling above the staircase. A layer of debris crashed over it, walling off the only exit to the room with piles of stone and iron.
The Prince looked back at the obstruction in horror. "…Shit."
The distraction allowed Yveltal to charge up another Oblivion Wing. The Prince managed to notice at the last second, leaping to the side as the chill of the red and black beam barely grazed him.
"What do we do now?" Rune cried, dragging Blizz back to the explorer's line. He was slowly waking up, but would need time before he could rejoin the fight, which was not something they had in particular abundance here.
To accentuate this point, the wind in the dungeon began to intensify as Yveltal began using Hurricane.
All the conscious explorers could do was dive for cover as it tore over them, slamming Mira, Rune, and Ride into various walls and ceilings multiple times.
"They're not even moving," the Duke snarled. "We are being soundly defeated while they expend no energy."
"Regroup at the staircase!" the Prince shouted. "The debris is the closest thing to cover in this battle zone."
The six conscious explorers made their way to the back of the room under a heavy barrage of Air Slashes taking a few hits in the process. Angel and the Prince got Kibo and Blizz, though only one of the two was currently breathing.
Now that the explorers were outside of Yveltal or Hydreigon's sightlines, they seemed to stop their attack for now. No one knew how long that would last.
"What do we do?!" Angel practically screamed. "Kibo's not breathing!" She put a finger on the Jangmo-o's neck, feeling for a heartbeat. "He still has a pulse though…"
"A living god and a combatant of Lucario's caliber," the Prince concluded. "Our odds are not favorable."
Mira administered oran berries to herself and Blizz, who was waking back up. She stopped at Kibo, and let out a sigh.
"Our badges will not allow an exit warp until the foes have been defeated," the Duke reminded. "Either we clear out the debris, or defeat Hydreigon and Yveltal."
The Prince looked back to his teammates. "Rune, do you believe you can administer two Sheer Colds?"
"I… I usually feel like I'm going to pass out if I do one…"
As she said that, their barrier began to crumble as a Hyper Beam flew into it. They were running out of time.
The Prince did not appear to be phased by this however, continuing his discussion with Rune. "Taking out Yveltal would be our first priority. If you can only use it once, direct your attack towards him."
"Okay, but… How can I get in close enough to use it? Even with Snow Cloak, they can still hit me…"
"Just gotta draw their attention." Blizz rose back to his feet. "We get up in their face, their ranged attacks become a lot harder to hit. Throw in Rune's hail and she might be able to get close enough."
The Duke raised an eyebrow. "Might?"
"If you have a better idea then this would be a fucking wonderful time to throw it out there," Blizz said, making no effort to mask the irritation in his voice. "But if we can't get out, then we have to fight, and right now Sheer Cold's our best shot."
Rune looked back to Kibo, who still hadn't moved despite the reviver seed sticking out of his mouth and Angel's desperate CPR. Blizz was right, they didn't have any other options.
"I'll try it."
Blizz nodded, peeking back over their barricade. He was able to confirm that the two dark-types hadn't moved from their initial positions, but a Dragon Pulse and Focus Blast flying over his head forced him to dive back behind cover.
"They're still there," Blizz reported, catching his breath. "We'll all charge out at the same time, alright?"
Ride, Mira, the Duke, the Prince, and Rune looked between each other, before nodding.
"I'll… get the Hail up then." Rune shut her eyes and concentrated. It didn't take long for a hailstorm to pick up, making the Vulpix look just a bit more intangible than normal.
"On my call," Blizz said, crouching down. He concentrated, getting ready to channel his next move. Soon, 10 copies of Blizz appeared to his left and right, all of them sprinting towards Yveltal and Hydreigon. "LET'S GO!"
Explosions immediately rocked the chamber, throwing Blizz off his route. Still, he held firm, weaving around various Oblivion Wings and Hyper Voices as he rapidly closed the distance.
During his sprint, he felt a wave of heat surge above him, seeing a familiar twin spiral of flames overhead. They converged on Hydreigon, locking him into a Fire Spin. The attack also reduced the effect of the hail in the vicinity of the fire vortex, which caused Rune's silhouette to be much more obvious as it approached Yveltal.
That just meant the rest of them had to pull their own weight even more.
Ride flew directly above Yveltal, lashing out with Aerial Ace. The beast flipped around, trying to counter the airborne threat with a point-blank Focus Blast. Said attack was severely weakened by a Shadow Ball, courtesy of the Prince, and Ride was able to slip out of Yveltal's reach.
Between the fire and the hail, Hydreigon had no visibility, so he opted to randomly shoot out Dragon Breaths in whatever direction he thought he heard noise coming from.
Blizz, being the closest Pokemon strictly confined to the ground, was the target of the majority of these blasts. He felt the scales on his tale get singed by the dragon energy, but remained focused as he bridged the final gap between himself and Yveltal.
He leaped forward, narrowly evading another Dragon Breath before clinging onto Yveltal's tail wing.
Staring the god of death right in the eyes in the middle of a hailstorm with a vortex of fire swirling to his right, it occurred to Blizz that he didn't really have much in the way of a plan once he got to this point.
Time to improvise then.
As the Prince and the Duke laid down a barrage of Shadow Balls and Flamethrowers, Blizz slowly climbed up the death bird. Rune's shadow was right behind Yveltal too; he just had to keep him busy a bit longer.
It seemed to take notice by the time Blizz got to the chest area. A black and red orb formed at the beast's mouth. He saw Rune charging up Sheer Cold though, and if he wanted it to hit he needed to make sure Yveltal stayed in this exact position.
There was one way he could guarantee that. He shut his eyes and resigned himself to his fate— Yveltal used Oblivion Wing on Blizz.
He very quickly discovered what Kibo went through when he got hit. The first thing that stuck out to him was the burning sensation— it felt like every inch of his body was on fire as the beam of black and red overtook him. Unlike a real fire, the pain here didn't let up, seeping deeper and deeper into the Treecko. At some point, it stopped being a physical pain altogether, rooting itself down deeper and deeper, like it was trying to burn away his very soul.
He couldn't tell what happened to him after the attack. When he was able to open his eyes again, he was on the opposite side of the room of the two attackers.
The only comfort he had among the crippling pain was watching the ice slowly spread across the tips of Yveltal's wings. His energy was fading fast, but he forced his eyes to remain open out of sheer spite towards the beast.
Said bird began thrashing around as the ice continued to spread across its body. The Fire Spin Hydreigon was trapped in had faded, but by that point there was nothing he could do for Yveltal. The ice fully enclosed him as he fell to the ground, incapable of flying.
With Yveltal out of the fight, Blizz allowed his eyes to begin to droop shut. He wasn't very confident he'd ever open them again, but trading himself for Yveltal was more than worth it.
The last thing he heard before he blacked out was the sound of ice shattering and a shrill yell from Rune.
"He's still up!"
With Blizz and Kibo out of the picture, the two dark types took aim at the remainder of Team Apex. Yveltal shattered through the layers of ice, and now had a much more menacing dark aura surrounding him than before.
"Oh God, what do we do…" Mira could only watch as it used yet another Oblivion Wing, just barely missing the Prince.
She ran to Blizz's side, checking him. Just like Kibo, he had a faint pulse but wasn't breathing.
Kibo and Blizz were dying, Rune was out of energy, and Yveltal just got back up. How the hell could they deal with this?
A rumbling from the ground would give her an answer.
A small trail of cracked dirt spread from the staircase up to Hydreigon. It lingered there for just a moment, before a very familiar shiny Treecko emerged, decking Hydreigon with a Dig.
Hydreigon fell backwards as Zar jumped out in the center of the battlefield.
She turned back to the remaining explorers, smiling. "Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to find you, but we're here now!"
The Prince's voice was just above a growl. "We're?"
As if on cue, a blast blew the debris covering the staircase into pieces. "LET'S FUCKING GET IT- OH SHIT YOU'RE FIGHTING YVELTAL!"
The Duke stared in shock as their reinforcements entered the chamber. Lucario and Scizor, two of the strongest explorers in the world, had come to their aid. It took him a moment to collect his thoughts. "Blizz and Kibo have been hit by an unknown attack," he eventually managed to report. "They are presently not breathing."
Scizor's eyes widened as he looked at the battle zone. "I… see. Guildmaster, you may need to-"
"Already on it." Similar to what Hydreigon did earlier, Lucario began glowing a sharp blue color, temporarily blinding the explorers once again.
This time when it faded, a Xerneas was standing directly next to him.
"Xerneas, stop Treecko and Jangmo-o from dying," Lucario commanded. "Scizor, get the seeds."
The remnants of Apex and Terrae regrouped behind their new reinforcements. Yveltal tried to fire another Hurricane, but Zar countered it with a Leaf Storm, canceling the attack out.
"Hey, that's mean," she taunted.
The newly-summoned Xerneas turned to face Kibo, its horns glowing a brilliant white. Rainbow colored beams began to shoot out from Xerneas into the Jangmo-o, as he started to levitate off the ground. After a moment of being suspended in the air, his eyes began to blink open.
"…Huh?"
"Dragon dude!" Angel immediately charged in, sweeping up Kibo in a hug. "I thought you were…"
While Xerneas was at work reviving the downed explorers, Scizor took out two identical seeds from his bag, both featuring a DNA shaped indentation. He passed one to Lucario, and crumpled the other in his claws.
Both steel types became encased in a glowing white sphere. Hydreigon tried to interrupt this transformation with a Hyper Beam, but once again Zar intercepted it with Leaf Storm.
When the spheres vanished, the two looked different. For Lucario, the scruff of his fur became longer, while his paws took on a red tint. Scizor's claws became even longer, and a black face plate appeared to have formed over his head.
"OH I HAVEN'T DONE THIS IN AGES! LET'S FUCK THEM UP!"
The Mega Lucario charged forward with a speed none of the guild members had ever seen before. His entire body glowed red as he went for an immediate Close Combat on Hydreigon.
Yveltal tried to use Oblivion Wing on Lucario, now that he was too close for Zar to intercept the attack. Unfortunately, Scizor was not particularly keen on allowing that. Both his oversized claws opened up, firing two different Hyper Beams at Yveltal.
Unlike every attack the apprentices tried, Scizor's attack caused Yveltal to flinch, visibly hurt by the impact.
Blizz finally woke up thanks to Xerneas and quickly looked over the battlefield.
"…Oh hey, Lucario's here."
"Yes, so do not do anything more reckless," the Prince warned, approaching his team leader. "Let them address the battle."
Lucario continued his assault on Hydreigon, not letting up blow after blow. Despite this, Hydreigon wasn't on the backfoot yet. He suddenly charged forward, cloaked in blue energy. The Dragon Rush wasn't very effective, but Lucario, having already been weakened by the repeated Close Combats, was caught by surprise. The two slammed into the wall of the chamber.
Blizz tried to leap in to help Lucario, but was held back by the Prince. "I literally just told you to not do something like that."
"But Scizor can't move, and Yveltal…"
Blizz's sentence trailed off as Yveltal flew over to the Lucario/Hydreigon bundle. It charged up another Oblivion Wing, one that would definitely hit.
Of course, leaving Zar unattended for any length of time is a bad idea. She jumped after Yveltal, slashing her arm over its back with Leaf Blade.
While that was enough to cause Yveltal to flinch, it didn't interrupt the attack. Blizz decided if the Prince wouldn't let him run into the battle again, he'd have to settle with ranged attacks.
An Energy Ball exploded at Yveltal's head. Blizz could make out a distinctly British-sounding sigh coming from his friend, before a Shadow Ball, Night Daze, Flamethrower, Dragon Breath, and Aurora Beam all nailed Yveltal.
While that did stop Yveltal from using the Oblivion Wing on Lucario, it decided to change its target and turn towards the explorers.
Scizor finally recovered from the Hyper Beam. He flew forward and crashed into Yveltal with X-Scissor, as the apprentices scattered out of its way.
"YOU'RE NOT BEATING ME HERE ASSHOLE!" Lucario was still engaged in a brutal melee fight against Hydreigon. Even with Lucario mega evolved, Hydreigon's form was perfect— It was like the guildmaster was just punching a wall.
Halfway through another round of Close Combat, Hydreigon abruptly stopped keeping up. Still being pummeled, he slowly rotated to face Yveltal, who had recovered from the X-Scissor.
Scizor immediately recognized what was to come. "Everyone, get down immediately!"
Yveltal turned to Hydreigon as well. The two slowly floated towards each other.
"The hell are they doing?" Blizz asked.
"The guildmaster and I have one ability, Hydreigon has a different one," Scizor explained. "The coming attack will be devastating."
"But what is it?" Zar asked.
A stream of aura began to flow between Yveltal and Hydreigon, steadily intensifying. A black and red aura overtook Yveltal yet again, far larger than anything they've seen before.
Everyone with the exception of Zar took Scizor's advice, lowering to the ground. Even Lucario backed off, crouching down in a corner of the room and shielding his face with his eyes.
At last, Yveltal's attack was ready. A brief flash of a Z emblem appeared in front of the bird, before the red and black aura shot out across the entire chamber.
Yveltal used Black Hole Eclipse.
The first thing Blizz noticed was that he suddenly couldn't see. So far pretty typical for an ultra-powerful dark type move.
The second was slightly more abnormal, as he found himself getting pressed into the ground, hard. Gravity seemed to magnify in the chamber, causing his legs to give out almost immediately. Of course, lying down would be no relief as the gravity increased further, slowly crushing him.
Then, while he was pinned down and couldn't do anything, the actual attack happened. Red spheres of energy rapidly expanded around the pitch black room, each one feeling like a fresh wave of daggers digging into his skin. He made it through four before the fifth blast knocked him out.
When the attack ended, Hydreigon and Yveltal were the only ones left standing. Lucario and Scizor had reverted to their normal forms, both unconscious. Even Xerneas, who had just moments ago stood proudly, had collapsed.
Somewhat abnormally, in the place where a shiny Treecko once stood, was now an unconscious pink cat.
Hydreigon and Yveltal paused. Supposedly, the fight had been won, yet even in their pseudo-feral state, it didn't quite feel like that. Did they miss someone?
From the shadows on the staircase to the next floor, the final two ex-humans lurked.
One of them was a Piplup, armed with what almost looked like a T-shirt cannon loaded with Reviver Seeds.
The other was a Misdreavus, simply looking on at her unconscious friends with a mischievous grin on her face.
Fanita laughed as she noticed the unconscious Mew. She finally figured out Zar's secret. But the full weight of that revelation could wait for later, this was far more urgent. "Earplugs in?"
Leaf gave her a blank stare, not able to hear what she said through the ear plugs he was wearing.
"Perfect. Begin firing in three… two… one…" She gave a signal with her cloth.
The two dived out of their cover. Leaf shot Revivers at everyone he could as Fanita began humming a twisted song.
Hydreigon broke out of his frozen state and tried to shoot a Dragon Pulse out, but Leaf saw it coming well before the attack formed, readily dodging.
Lucario and Scizor were the first to wake up. They immediately set back to work beating the shit out of the dark types. The other explorers took a bit longer as the rejuvenating effects of the Reviver Seeds worked their magic.
Notably, the Mew in the center of the room had not yet received a Reviver as Fanita floated up to her.
Blizz was the first to notice both Fanita and the Mew. A smile appeared on his face, looking at Fanita wearing her guild badge on her bag. "See? I knew you were a good person deep down."
Fanita simply looked over to him with a smirk. "Don't you have some Pokemon to beat up right now?"
Blizz shook his head. "Pretty sure Lucario and Scizor got it." As if to confirm this sentiment, Hydreigon got launched over their heads, slamming into the opposite wall. Lucario chased him down immediately after, continuing the beat down.
"I see. Well then, would you like to do the honors here?" She floated out a Reviver Seed to Blizz, looking towards the Mew on the ground.
He solemnly approached the seed as Yveltal fired another Oblivion Wing in the background.
"And this is-"
"That's Zar," Fanita confirmed. "She'll have plenty to explain once we're done here."
"Right." Blizz decided not to press how Fanita found out about Zar as he took the seed. He slowly cracked it over the Mew, studying her to see how she would react.
Her eyes slowly opened, much more blue than the yellow-Treecko thing Blizz was used to seeing from her.
"Zar, you alright?" He offered out a hand to her.
"Huh? Yea, I think so…" She reached out to take it, before realizing her arms were a lot shorter and more pink than they were supposed to be. She looked at it a moment, then back to Blizz.
Then she began panicking.
"Wait I swear this isn't me this is-"
Fanita decided to cut her off. "We can discuss this later, but we could really use the help finishing this battle here."
Zar looked at her two friends, then back to herself, and sighed. "…Alright."
Remaining in her Mew form, she flew right up to Yveltal while Scizor was recovering from another melee barrage. Yveltal looked on in horror as her body began to spark blue.
Later on, Scizor would explain that the attack was called Fusion Bolt, but none of the explorers knew that at the time.
The entire cavern lit up an electric blue before Yveltal fell over, unconscious.
Hydreigon gave in soon after. Lucario dragged his body over his shoulder, slamming it on top of Yveltal.
"That… motherfuckers… is a battle…" With the fight over, Lucario finally let himself collapse.
A/N: So... big chapter here. Let me know what you guys think about everything.
This pretty much marks the end of the first big story arc. That, combined with the fact that my buffer is gone and it's a lot harder for me to write over the summer, means I'll be slowing down updates for a while. The next chapter release date is likely but might move around a bit.
Ch 26: Switchin' to Glide - 7/23/22