As an upstart author, I feel a lot of stress on how I am writing as a person and how it appeals to my viewers. And I'll be honest, my writing career hasn't been starting off on the right foot. For one, I really screwed up with the warnings at the beginning of the story, which may have talked about some things I would rather not cover in a fanfic that is meant to emulate the same feeling as a fanfic as light-hearted and shonen like as Guiding Light, and some readers have pointed that out already, so yeah, yikes. Then there is also the fact that I am starting to get worried if my quality will be up to the standards that many may have for a fanfic like this. I've only recently passed a mere penance of 10k words, and compared to the goliath door stoppers like Guiding Light with 1 million words, or heaven forbid the behemoths that are Latias' Journey and Brave New World, with a total of I believe over 3 million words, I have a very, very large mountain to climb, and I've barely even taken the first step. Part of me is worried that I'm moving the story along way too fast which could mean that I may run out of ideas to lengthen the story before I even reach 500k words, much less 250k words. I'm going to try to start pacing out the story, lengthening small scenes into what I may have considered entire chapters, but knowing myself, that is by far no easy feat. Honestly, I am more scared than anything that anyone reading this may hate it, or may see me as some kind of corny writer who can't seem to let go of stories they love to read. I think that's a fear most writers, if not all artists have when they start their careers: the fear of inadequacy, the fear of failure, the fear of having wasted their time on a piece just for it to be labeled as a piece of cowpat that barely qualifies as a paperweight.

Ever since I was young, maybe about 10 years old(which, granted, at the time of writing this, was only about 9 years ago), whenever I've read a story, I've always tried to put my own take or my own reimagining on the events. Sometimes I would think about how I might react to events if I was the protagonist instead, sometimes I would think about how a character handled a situation poorly, and would think about how I might've handled the situation in a way that didn't create so many unnecessary problems. Other times I would try to tie in stories into other stories in comprehensive ways, such as when I felt the Kane Chronicles, the trilogy of Rick Riordan books that focused on Egyptian gods, tied it into the Percy Jackson series in a single short afterthought story, then they almost never talked about the Egyptian Gods again after the short trilogy was finished. I still think about how it was a waste to basically never try to tie in that trilogy into the main series, especially after Magnus Chase and the Norse mythology was constantly tied to the main series. And why just the Norse and Egyptians, there are so many other interesting mythologies around the world that would make amazing trilogies, like how in Japanese Mythology, when Amaterasu hid in a cave, the goddess of mirth Uzume did a strip-tease to lure her out. Or what about Buddhist mythology and the story of Journey to the West, which literally was the main inspiration for Goku, aka the chad Sun Wukong with his fourfold immortality, laser eyes, and being such an absolute chad that Buddha himself had to come and fix things.

A lot of missed potential Rick. For shame.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the reason I'm writing this. Basically, what I'm trying to explain is that there is a lot of creative potential energy that has been building up inside me over the years, and part of me feels that if I don't release it soon, my head will become so energetic, that it'll collapse into an ultramassive black hole and destroy all of existence. Hence why I'm writing this. This is what I hope will be my Magnum Opus, my own Iliad. I see this having two outcomes, neither exclusive to the other: I'll either become a part of a fanfic pantheon, or I'll be like Icarus, become too confident, and come crashing to the earth due to making a mistake in my maiden flight in an way similar in nature and just as stupid as trying to fly a plane in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

So with all that rambling out of the way, time for my first attempt at writing a fight scene.

Hope you enjoy it.

-Your local, cautiously hopeful creator, Apollyon

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon

Guiding Light

Dreaming Liminal Catharsis

Episode 3: Wrath of a Warped Warship

Shane had been through a lot of things throughout his life.

In his previous human life, he'd dealt with school, with the loss of his poor friend Nicky, with the evils that are social pressure, and with his autism.

But when he became a Vulpix, a lot more had happened from then on.

First he got punched after trying to introduce himself to Tessa, then there was when he and Tessa almost both drowned in a 3 foot deep river. On one of his first big missions with Nero and Tessa transporting an elderly Oranguru through a swamp, he got really upset with Tessa, fought her, and almost got torn to shreds by Nero. Then there was when he dealt with Selene and her brother Umbra while they were still corrupted, which was when he first used a Z-Move. The aftermath of that fight was a whole barrel of fun, too, with Tessa emotionally breaking down after having just seen the closest thing she had to family at the time, Sylveon and Eevee, get absolutely obliterated out of existence. Then there was when Tessa evolved and she needed urgent medical care, which involved Totem Salazzle jabbing her with a needle in a way Shane still couldn't scrub from his mind even years later. He had sung at a concert against a energy crazed Tidus, He'd fought an ultra beast Megazord piloted by an insane Lycanroc, he'd been put into a nightmare where his adventure had been a coma, but it really wasn't, he had fought a god-like version of his friend, then had to get vored by him to fight a giant ball of goo in the disgusting bowels of said god, and then blew himself up to revive everyone, then somehow survived blowing himself up.

All of that in about that order, in literally the span of his first 4 months on this planet.

He had thought he was prepared for anything by this point.

Keyword, "had".

He was not in the slightest prepared for fighting against a ginormous, living, semi-aquatic, six legged battleship demon.

KOROK INANI LOVAL LOVAL

As the nightmare with legs and teeth charged, Shane almost teleported onto his two feet. In a newly invigorated rush of adrenaline at the prospect of unwillingly being promoted to the illustrious and all important role of robo-shark chow, Shane and Tessa rushed into combat as if they were running late to their 9 to 5 job at the Marketplace with a whiny manager who would slap them in the face if either of them were a second late, and booked it faster than a professional librarian, quite literally flying.

Shane was about to shoot towards the shore towards Aeon town, when he had the most intelligent train of thought right before committing to his original plan of getting help from everyone in the village: by doing this, he would most likely be leading their pursuer into what was basically a Las Vegas style all you can eat buffet for it, where it would proceed to gorge itself not on the cavity causing candy, but on the defenseless and delicious denizens.

Shane then made the seemingly reasonable conclusion that he was not willing to bring that much collateral damage. Shane instead decided to make another noble sacrifice by trying to lead it away from the town by flying towards the ocean where it came from, ducking underneath the beast and praying it wouldn't catch him as he flew beneath its underside. Realizing that it might go towards the town anyway, Shane lit up his entire body as he unleashed a Dazzling Gleam on the monster, causing its underside to burn just enough for it to turn towards the annoyance. "Catch us if you can, Lard Barge!" Shane taunted, doing a celestial raspberry before rocketing off.

Tessa, not willing to be outdone in terms of heroics, quickly cocooned themselves in a rainbow dyed light, transforming a matter of microseconds into their Ultra Burst form, which highly resembled the normal mega evolved form of her kind. She chased after Shane, jumping on top of the beast's head, running along it, before jumping onto the water and running on top of it like a certain blue hedgehog. "You idiot, we could've gotten help from everyone in town!"

The ship, now fully incited into unending anger, screamed and gave chase, turning 180 degrees in seconds, tucking its spindly legs into its body and transforming them into oar-like fins, before it began speeding after them at speeds one would think impossible for something its size and weight.

RUNER UMPANU NOPON

As Shane flew as fast as he could, at about 80 miles an hour and counting, the now ultra bursted Tessa was screaming something in what was most likely vehement rage as she ran close behind using Extreme Speed; at the moment, however, Shane really did not have the free time or the space in terms of mental focus to make out any of the words she was seemingly trying to drill into his dense skull. At that point, the syllables were reduced to an unintelligible white noise drowned out by his lack of aerodynamics blasting wind into his face, the roars of an eldritch tongue behind them growing worryingly closer as Shane fled with all the might of a Dragonite, and the deafening noise of his own racing thoughts on how to avoid becoming the next dish on this hungry hunk of metal's menu.

Desperately hoping that there was enough space in between himself and the freak straight from Gyo by Junji Ito, Shane whipped around while flying above the water, his chest pointed skyward, coming face to face with the Hell Ship. The beast was speeding across the water faster than a Sharpedo in even the quickest sea currents, barreling towards them like an oncoming train, it's mouth agape and filled with far too many teeth and tentacles to comfortably count.

HORUSOH UMPANU NOPON GEOG REASER YEARTY

Shane decided to take advice from an old video game about a green capped kid trying to get some wish granting triangles, deciding to test if this ravenous wreck had any strong feelings about smoke. Shane began gathering light in his mouth, concentrating the waves into a ball of dense photonic energy, the sphere crackling and pulsing with ethereal Z Energy. He had used this move many times before, enough that he knew its name by heart, which he desperately shouted as he proceeded to fire the prismatic cannonball into the metallic flesh drawer of their would be consumer.

"Eat this, Metal Mouth! Photon Geyser!"

As the bullet of hard light hit the gaping gullet of the beast, the energy shell around the exterior of the attack split, causing the spicy meatball to explode in a tower of light, nearly blinding everyone in the vicinity for a few seconds as it acted as if it were a miniature atomic bomb. The attack was naturally quite effective, the energy flame grilling the inside of the iron rich filet, eliciting a high pitched, metallic screech in return, covering the area around the two former explorers in strangely colored smoke as well as steam from the sea being boiled from the heat.

Shane slightly relaxed for a second, looking over to Tessa, who had been obviously throwing as many Aura Spheres, blasts of Psychic, and Flash Cannons as she could, as could be seen by how winded she was, in the sense that she was both exhausted from the strain, and that she was rocking a new hairdo from the frizz of being zipped along at Mach 2.

Pant pant pant… "Did… Did we.. get em?" Shane said, picking up Tessa as she raced by, stopping her from falling into the water.

"I Don't care! We need to get back to the town, we need to get all hands on deck, now!"

Tessa shouted with exhaustion from running, all the while remaining in her ultra burst form. She was still slightly deaf from wind pressure. Shane started to prepare to head back towards the shore, making sure to keep an eye on where their adversary had last been.

For those paying attention, the word of the day was apparently "had".

You see, while the steel sushi did seem to very much dislike smoke, this ferocious fish was nowhere near close to being sunk. It also unfortunately had more than just one strategy in its repertoire; and now, it knew its feast required tactics much more complex than just simply giving chase.

Shane barely had enough time to turn his head in the other direction as he heard a ginormous splash from behind them, before his eyes became the size of supermassive giants as he saw in slow motion the Steel Spider Shark leaping towards them in a surprise attack, its now greatly mangled mouth wide open, ready to chew them to bloody bits with its cracked and charred chompers, even as a huge hole had been blasted in it. As Shane stared into the mouth of their destroyer, he suddenly realized a very, very, disturbing fact.

Inside those serrated and thouroughly wrecked jaws, there was now visable a large, shimmering gem where the thing's throat would be. The gem shimmered in the sunlight, the gem black with small glints of various colors.

It had what looked to be a prism core.

Just like Shane's.

Shane's shock from the revelation almost proved deadly, nearly allowing their attacker to eat the two of them whole. It was only with quick thinking and the help of his greatest ally, the amygdala, that Shane was able to duck under the ravenous behemoth, with almost their entire body floundering flat against the surface of the water as the monster attempted to do its best Jaws impression. Its countless teeth almost completely missed the two of them, but managed to catch Shane's stupidly long and rebellious tail on one of the fangs. As Shane felt his tail painfully get tugged against the metallic fangs, he felt a nearly paralyzing spasm spread across his entire body as he was overwhelmed with agony and the sound of something tearing and his own screams of pain. It took all of his willpower to inspect the wound. It wasn't a pretty sight.

The tip of his tail, all the way down to his first tail fin, was torn clean off, the stub oozing golden ichor. While his tail could be healed by Celeste, with possibly a week on a cast, a few seconds too late and it would've been his entire upper torso that went instead, Tessa included.

Those kinds of flesh wounds would not allow such luxuries as being repairable. Or survivable, for that matter.

At that moment, the chase started anew, Shane using this head start to begin to fly in the opposite direction to possibly put some difference between him and those literal jaws of death, trailing his tail's ichor behind him the whole time. Meanwhile Tessa, being the good samaritan she was, sent their foe a thoughtful parting gift as a thanks for giving her hubby a makeover in the form of their claws extending out and hardening before violently scratching the underbelly as Shane passed underneath. As her Metal Claw tore through the beast's belly, the scraping metal let out the most unpleasant sound one could imagine, a sound so awful that the sound of nails on a chalkboard would have sounded like a Wigglytuff's lullaby in comparison. The vicious counter attack left deep gashes in the beast's hull, the wounds spraying out a chromatic sludge that soaked Tessa, which made her look like she had fallen into a barrel of assorted rotten berries.

"Oh god, what is this stuff?!" Tessa shrieked, almost perfectly replicating Shane's reaction to getting dirty.

"That thing has a Necrozma core, Tessa! Its somehow got a core!" Shane explained, updating Tessa on his recent discovery.

"What?! Well, whatever this thing is, it certainly isn't any Lightless Black! Sure, it may have a similar color scheme, but I don't remember Gallian or Ephemeris saying anything about them being giant Wailord monsters!"

The abomination was quick to react to Tessa's surprise strike, screeching as it rapidly flipped itself over; it's change of direction flinging its life force all across the ocean, splattering the seas as if it were a painter cleaning their paintbrush. It landed behind them as they talked, already facing in their direction, so that it could continue to give chase to its quarry without any further forms of delay. The smokestacks on its back belched out pitch black clouds of smog as it began to once again thunder along the waves, its roar filled with the unyielding rage of the stormy seas themselves. The monster was barely deterred by its grievous wound, the determined death machine showing no signs of exhaustion. To say that this complicated matters greatly for Shane and Tessa would be a statement worthy of being elected as the understatement to end all other understatements.

The beast had just gotten a taste of its prey, and now, it was out for blood.

"Okay, how do we kill this thing, because right now, I'm running short on ideas!" Tessa screamed over the salty seas rushing past them, riding on Shane's back like he was a wild Tauros, still covered in slime in some places, her fur seemingly starting to burn as if it were acid.

"I don't know, just keep attacking it and hope that it dies before we do!" Shane shouted, materializing small beads of ice around his body, the beads swelling before firing off as Ice Beams, the chilling lasers shattering against the steely surface of their predatory chaser, causing one of the eyes to crack as one of the chilling beams managed to hit a bullseye. Tessa followed these attacks up by gathering light in one of her palms, concentrating it into a tiny ball before firing off an exceptionally strong Flash Cannon, the silvery beam of light exploding on one of the patches of rust that covered its upper body, sending chunks of flaking steel and eldritch blood into the air as it blasted a large gash in it's body.

Shane had hoped that these would be weak points; however, it was seemingly a hope in vain. While the gashes and wounds did send horrid ichor into the air, the beast soon began to slowly regenerate this damage, the blood seemingly covering up the wounds like scabs; even worse, this damage seemed to merely further upset their pursuer, who roared and screeched in a noticeably annoyed and aggressive tone.

EABOROE ALCHIPHA TERAT

EABOROE ALCHIPHA TERAT

EABOROE ALCHIPHA TERAT

Shane was about to try firing another Photon Geyser, when he was rudely interrupted by a sound his mind screamed red alert at the mention of: hundreds of distinct clicks and kachunks that followed portholes opening all across the mechanical monstrosity.

That was the distinct sound of a beast that was tired of playing Delcatty and Dedenne, and was now ready to bring its entire artillery to bear against the tantalizing snacks just out of reach, prepared to burn them to crispy, hole covered chunks of barbeque.

DORADO INANI EABOROE

It was about to turn Shane into a Grilled Swiss Cheese sandwich, and Shane hated Swiss Cheese.

"What's it doing?!" Tessa screamed.

Not wanting him and Tessa to become alpine dairy with a small side of canine waffle fries, Shane screamed towards the confused Tessa as a warning, "Hold on, it's about to get really rough!" making sure to ensure that he could feel her grabbing on hard to his elvish ear protrusions, before he engaged evasive maneuvers, taking off from the water surface and beginning an ascent into the skies.

What followed can only be described as pure, absolute bedlam.

Pellets made of an unidentifiable energy began firing in random directions, hammering the seas and clouds. The shots that struck the ocean in the beast's mindless spray sending bursts of water into the air like high velocity raindrops, meanwhile the high speed shells that connected with Shane's wings punched deep holes into the surface, causing jolts of pain. The beast's throat gem suddenly heated up, before it fired off incendiary Lasers, coating the sea's surface with burning liquid hate which scorched Tessa and Shane's exposed skin with even the thinnest touches. However, it was the countless fat arrow shaped chunks of power that flew into the air that were the most dangerous. They were next to impossible to strike out of the air, ducking and diving like that weird faller Tessa had seen once, it was some sort of draconic specter, the name of which escaped her right now when survival was taking precedence. These homing projectiles took precious seconds from the two intrepid champions to shoot down with a combination of Shane's wide, sweeping Heat Waves, and Tessa's Force Palm which was able to slightly deflect the missiles with a wave of force. The missiles violently exploded whenever an attack connected, the explosions so close they burnt Tessa's hair and eyes.

"How are these things following us?!'' Tessa screamed as she blasted one of the bombs out of the air with a well timed Aura Sphere, the explosion stinging her eyes, and her ears starting to feel wet. She hoped that it was just sweat from the heat, she really didn't want to be deaf the rest of her life.

"Just shoot them down and fly faster! I'm trying to think of a way to win here!" Shane responded, desperately trying to concentrate on dodging and strategizing at the same time, his train of thought almost constantly interrupted by the discordant uproar that strained his sensitive ears.

Right now, the tides were not currently on Shane and Tessa's side. If they didn't find a way to win this fight soon, they'd be pulled under into a dark, watery grave.

While Shane ducked and dived like a Zubat out of Hell, he tried to concentrate on coming up with some form of a winning strategy. A Z-Move would probably be able to do the trick, the problem was that Z-Moves required the user to remain stationary for a small moment so that they could gather the energy needed, and it was next to impossible to move once you unleashed a Z-Move, not to mention the winded state they would be in after expending that much energy. All this meant that using a Z-Move in combat, even for Pokemon as strong as Shane and Tessa, required at least 10 seconds of being prone to attacks, if not more. And right now, they could not afford the luxury of having that kind of time to stay still for that long. If they tried to use a Z-Move right now, their aggressor would either blow them to burnt, bullet-filled bits, or gobble them up faster than even their Zeraora friend Seraph could ever hope to react. All of this without even mentioning the danger this fight posed to their bodies if they overheated them; Shane might fall into a coma and start draining the light from the planet, and Tessa ran the risk of overheating and exploding due to extended use of her ultra burst.

There was the other option of trying to hit the beast up close, which had been working wonders, right up until their foe decided to stop playing with its food and get serious. While that strategy might have worked while its guard was down, if they tried to engage in close quarters with it now, they'd be shredded to pieces, then the remaining pieces would be burnt to cinders. They were already under heavy fire this far away from their aggressor, going any closer would simply just give it a bigger target.

They were in between a rock and a hard place, and both options that were currently laid out would almost certainly end in their ultimate demise.

But what if there was a third option?

Shane suddenly remembered something his mom told him as a kid, "If you can't go left, and you can't go right, just charge straight through the crossroads instead."

Granted, this was when she had been working on the plumbing when she had smelt something weird coming from the sink, and the following gas leak took weeks to fully repair, but the advice was still useful, since he now had an idea. What they needed was a new path, an opening in this thing's defenses that could be exploited.

As Tessa hit another one of the rockets with an Aura Sphere he absentmindedly noticed how the others following behind it veered a bit off course.

Almost like…

It was at that exact moment that he had an epiphany.

"Tessa, I have an idea, do you trust me?" Shane was pretty sure this would either be the coolest idea he's ever had, or would immediately result in a very painful death.

"Shane, please don't tell me you're about to do something stupid…" This was not the time for being a idiot, not when their lives were on the line. Tessa knew Shane's idiotic strategies almost always worked, but she was always uncertain whether or not each one would be the one that sent her to reunite with her father.

"Trust me, this should 100% work, just get ready to use a Z-Move okay?!"

"Fine, but if this kills us, I will find a way to kill you again in the afterlife!" Tessa grunted, already considering how she would have a few choice words with Nero if she woke up as a spirit inside of him, such as how he should have better time management, or how she could strangle Shane's spirit from the inside of Nero's body. Either way, Tessa still had enough trust in Shane to follow along. She began gathering energy, preparing to unleash a literal All-Out Pummeling upon this Sharpedo sucker.

Without someone to help take out the missiles, they began catching up to the combat capable couple, their propulsion seemingly cackling as they slowly edged closer to to their intended targets.

However, this was exactly what Shane wanted.

As they closed in, Shane began a sharp nosedive at about a 165 degree angle, swooping into a downward spiral while he dedicated his two lower wings to grabbing on to Tessa's feet to keep her both steady and ready for phase 2 of his 3 part plan. The centripetal forces from the downward spiral acted as a counter balance to the air pressure trying to send Tessa flying upward, as well as the pesky mistress that was gravity from sending her tumbling down towards a sea that would act more like solid stone from their current altitude. As he descended, the explosives followed, spiraling and dancing around each other like synchronized figure skaters.

As Shane pulled himself up so that he would glide level with the seas slightly underneath them, he began aiming himself towards the horrid hunter, the beast seemingly accepting the challenge to a jousting match by charging towards them, its mouth ablaze and its teeth rotating like chainsaws at the prospect of its food flying straight into its mouth.

Perfect.

"Shane, are you sure about this?"

Not yet…

Shane unleashed the occasional Heat Wave to melt any bullets that flew towards them, the metallic pellets becoming gaseous before they even had a chance to land a lucky head shot.

Tessa grew more and more panicked, covering her fear with absolute annoyance.

"Shane?"

Almost…

The Beast was soon nearly on top of them, their mangled, molten maw mere seconds away from tearing them apart, the missiles right on the remains of Shane's tail.

"SHANE!"

"NOW! HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

In a single second, Shane dived underneath the waves, momentarily allowing his body to be cooled by the cold waves. The heat seeking missile, temporarily blinded by the sudden change of heat, were unable to distinguish friend from foe, seeing the source of right in front of them as the same target.

The source being the flaming mouth of the very being that launched them.

The beast's mouth exploded, the beast reeling back in agony, betrayed by its own explosives.

SARASS HORUSOH INANI TERAT

Its hesitation proved lethal, as Shane leaded out of the water on the other side, flipping themselves so they could directly face their foe's flank.

And to give a now fully charged Tessa a clean shot.

Tessa finally was able to let loose, her rage channeled into punch after punch, the flaming fists punching ginormous holes into the beast's hull. All the while, she screamed like a Gourgeist set ablaze.

"THIS IS FOR THE POKEMON YOU ATTACKED ON THE SHORE,"

Each fist made craters along its hull, the beast giving off a horrific death rattle.

"THIS IS FOR RUINING THE FESTIVAL,"

Its smokestacks were caved in by the blows, the pressure from the clogged up smog causing its entire body to pour out smoke as it was brutalized.

"THIS IS FOR SCREWING UP SHANE'S GOOD LOOKS,"

As its body began melting down, the blows spread cracks across the core in its mouth…

"AND THIS IS FOR RUINING MY DATE NIGHT!"

Before the core finally shattered.

The shockwave created from the death of the beast was enough to send the two of them flying, blowing them away like Jumpluffs in a typhoon. While this did knock Tessa temporarily unconscious and forced Shane to catch her before blazing away almost as if time was stopped, this was a much better outcome than both of them being immolated in the energetic fireball that followed. The blast, if human scientists were still around to measure it, would have measured it to be at least 25 Tones of TNT, the explosion visible from miles away.

As Shane desperately tried to stay lucid, he exhaustedly sputtered towards the shore, contemplating what on Earth just happened. Questions raced through his mind, some of the questions having no discernable answers.

Who or what was that thing?

Where did it come from?

Why did it have what looked like a Blinding One's Core?

Why was it so angry?

Was it a different kind of Blinding One?

Were there any more of them?

As Shane started to lose consciousness, he thought he heard screams and a blazing fire.

The last thing he saw were the white arms of an angel wrapping around him,

Before it all

Went

Dark.

End of Scene