The vessel's arcane mechanisms roar as the sounds of hundreds - if not thousands of invisible hands begin rowing the gargantuan ship, cutting through the solidified waters with its uncanny mass. It starts out slowly, the anchor slithering up into the ship and pulling away from the dock, but quickly starts to pick up speed even before it leaves the shore.
Lucario, now transformed into this raging beast, races across the boardwalk as Masters barely keeps pace. Lucario's claws tear the dock as he leaps to the stern of his ship, using his palms as climbing spikes to ascend onto the top deck, throwing down a chain for Masters.
As Masters grabs the chain it immediately becomes taught in his hand. The ship's speeding up. Masters barely gets it around his waist in time..
His body is yanked off the dock. Masters slams into the hard, slimy waters below and is dragged along it. Dense water hitting his face, he looks up to see Lucario's red eyes peering below. He grabs Masters' chain, and pulls.
The air flies straight out of him. Masters is reeled out of the waters onto the deck above, crashing into the steering wheel.
The impact of his ghostly body hitting it somehow does not cause the ship to go overboard, in fact, the whole vessel appears to be set on its course out of here. Lucario gives it a spin with his foot, but nothing about their direction changes, they are still on their way straight out the tunnel into The Sea's temporal depths.
Lucario looks down at him, then with one clawed hand, he cuts Masters loose. Masters looks at Lucario as he stands
Dark streaks run down his body, spikes protrude from his palms like sets of bladed gauntlets, but his eyes remain the same - dashed in the glow of a crimson aura.
Along the deck ropes, barrels, and rusted machinery are strewn. At the bow of the ship where Darkrai stands, bodies of armored ferals sit at her feet. She has one, a Manectric with a wound in its back. After stealing something from the body she drops it to the floor, turning towards.
"I could not imagine you'd become so desperate." She eyes the changed Lucario. "The gear is already in my possession. If you bear any wit, you will surrender. It is not too late to leave this ship and return, we aren't at sea quite yet."
She grips the badge sewn into her chest, the blue symbol at its center spinning out of control till it begins to snap between three distinct points.
"If you were trying to ambush me, you've failed. The rest of the gears are near, and they will give them to me."
They have played into her palm - as if they had any choice other than to. Coming here means facing their fates rather than drawing it out for years. They all are placing their bets on this one fight.
"You have proven yourselves truly and indeed worthy of these artefacts, but the gears belong to me. Turn back, tell the others and let us avoid this quarrel. As long as I have the body of one suffering from Dark Void, I can outlast you."
"And even with Mega Evolution, you're delaying the inevitable."
Mega Evolution may have restored his fighting spirit and given him power unimagined but Lucario was still hit by her void. The scar fresh on his arm still lingers, yet, the aura racing through him actively fights against it - keeping up a wall of aural fire.
Lucario's own Aura is slowly incinerating him from the inside out. Once his body can no longer take the burning, it is likely he will revert to his former self, and Darkrai's ability will claim him.
Until then he is immune. And though Lucario has been reduced to a snarling, sharp-clawed monstrosity, he too must know this. A deep roar bellows out of him and he leaps down onto the main deck, claws outstretched.
There is no time to waste.
Lucario leaps across the ship. Metal Claw rips through the air, missing Darkrai as he destroys the railing. She goes in for a Dark void which he simply embraces, in exchange, he rips into her with electrified talons.
The two locked into the heat of battle, Masters looks up. He may not have been on a ship himself but he knows the mechanisms of seafaring thanks in part to his sea-fearing friend. Up by the masts he can see many a sail, ready to be unfurled.
He turns his eyes away from the battle unfolding. Ripping his hat off his head, Masters bows, and points his head towards the masts. He closes his eyes, then lets the flame roar.
And instantly, a bellow of flame explodes from his head and back, shooting out infernal chunks of stone as Eruption rips through the masts. Ghostly balls of flame reign down, to which Darkrai, having wrestled herself free of the mad Lucario, extends her hand.
Thunderbolt grazes Masters. Lucario had barely managed to knock her hand aside.
Darkrai brings a hand towards Lucario's head as he brings his brass teeth down - straight onto the arm trying to stop him .
A howl leaves the dark being as metallic fangs sink deep into her arm. She tries to swipe him, to inflict him with more of her curse to no avail, but nothing can wrench him free. Lucario locks her other hand in a hold, and lightning crackles in his other. Lucario wrestles her towards Masters. The look Lucario gives him tells him everything.
Masters leaps down onto the deck, meeting Darkrai with his fists raised. She looks his way as the duo bring their fists down at once, squishing her skull between their thunder-infused knuckles.
One after another, punches ring out, striking her chest, completely reversing any and all healing she has gained from these unconscious creatures. Reducing her to a dark, smoldering mass
Lucario looks his way, and Master looks back. Their fists reeling back, then deliver a simultaneous strike, sending her to the heavens as they shout.
"ORA!"
An awful crunch sounds outwards as Darkrai spirals away from them, landing near the pool. Her eyes widen as she sees the thing clenched into Lucario's teeth.
Lucario spits out a dark lump on the floor. He tore off her arm.
Dark ichor gushes from her as she spends no time rushing to the bodies of these unconscious things. She gets her hand around one, an Electabuzz, barely managing to take something from it before two simultaneous red spheres fly from Lucario's hands - putting the Electabuzz to rest alongside the other. Her last sources of healing are gone.
Lucario, without a second to spare, races towards her with shining claws. She pulls a gear from behind the corpses just in time, and reappears to where she was being pummeled, right next to masters.
She swipes Dark Void at Masters relentlessly, forcing him into a corner near the captain's lounge. A glowing palm comes dangerously close as he leaps away, sinking up into the ceiling and pulling himself through the floor as a glow careens towards it. She scrapes the orb out of existence and prepares another as she goes for Lucario.
He ignores it, cutting through her attack with Iron Claws. A clean hit paints the deck black as she vanishes.. Appearing at the bow she points an electrified palm their way.
And then, a sudden sense of dread veers its visage from the depths of Masters' mind and pulls him back to a what he had seen:
There Lucario stands, utterly in the open, fuming with aura. His hands out, he races towards Darkrai as a Thunderbolt shatters him.
This is what the scream revealed to him. Fifteen years of wandering these Continents alone as a phantom of his former self, everything, it is all building up to this.
Fear wraps its long claws around Masters' heart. He has not told Lucario, he has not told anyone what he has seen through his Scream, and as all the pieces are beginning to fall into place there is only one possible thing Masters can do to prevent it.
Lucario already has his claws out, he's about to be on her. He needs to distract him, get himself in front of him.
Masters feels a chain by his feet, the same chain as before, having been wrested from its place by Lucario as he lifted him aboard. He takes it in his hands, and the whole world melts into a crawl.
Masters jumps down. He aims in front of Lucario, then, then throws.
The bundle of chain rattles across the surface. It barely reaches Lucario's foot when it splays out into worthless, broken links which are stomped over by the beast. The clattering sound gets his attention, slowing him down by just a split second.
Masters closes in. The Light ahead becomes brighter and brighter as he focuses on what the scream has shown him, then throws himself in front of Lucario just as a horrible sound rings out.
The entire back of the ship explodes.
Spears of flaming wood splinter out from the captain's quarters. An immense pressure pushes on his back as Masters lets out a scream, being lifted from the deck towards the deep, dark abyss surrounding the ship. Lucario leaps for him, embracing Masters into his arms as Darkrai seizes her opportunity and lets the thunderbolt grow.
A thunder bolt strikes true on Lucario. His metal body absorbs the lightning as they are beaten away chunks of this explosion - lifting him and the Typhlosion is his hand further and further off deck. He can see Lucario's eyes facing his, utterly free from any strife or anger, pleased in his totality to know his partner remains safe.
They soar, leaving the ship behind, and descend into the darkness below.
A bright, infernal flash rages behind them as Halcion breaches the surface. Chunks of wood and molten metal fly forwards in a scattershot, her partner - Dexys trips her up as they fall onto the deck. They hear a scream of three creatures - a Darkrai, and two others which fly away, casted to the depths of the Dungeon by the sheer force emerging from behind them.
Halcion feels her partner kick her, hard, the combined might of her partner and the force from behind her transforming Halcion into a dragon-sized bullet which sends her straight to the Darkrai.
Mid air, Halcion brandishes the spear.. Darkrai turns around, extends an electrified palm, and the spear pierces right through it.
A horrified scream erupts from the outsider. The spear goes through, pinning her hand to her chest. The gear, gripped in her one hand, flashes. The spear in Halcion's hand snaps into two pieces, and she appears right by her partner. Both pokemon finally get a look of her.
She is missing an arm, her gown is burnt away. Whoever was here did a number on her.
She turns in a vain attempt to try and inflict her partner with a curse, but the nail through her body buys enough time for the Zoroark lying on the floor to gather her breath and expel outwards.
Fire washes over her, forcing Darkrai back. Halcion reaches into her cowl as she taps the gear given to her by Louisa, and the spear in Darkrai's possession tears itself free of Darkrai's and straight back into Halcion's arms.
A tattered spike in one, the head of a much longer spear in the other hand, Halcion faces Darkrai.
Darkrai is on her last legs, the pinprick looking limbs barely manage to keep her upright as they slink back underneath her cowl-like body, forcing Darkrai to float instead of stand.
"Ignorant creatures, why do you resist?" Darkrai coughs, gripping her torn appendage. "I am giving you what your knight desires. I give you freedom from outside hands, yet you and your wretched friends defy me. I offer you peace, and you refuse it, for no other reason than you can!"
"The foolishness! I've no desire to control your world! Do you not realize what you're-"
"Shut up!" Dexys shouts, pushing herself off the deck upright. "If you actually cared, you wouldn't have threatened to kill me and my daughter for disobeying you! All you want is to feel like you're in control, because you're just as scared and as stupid as we are! The world having these gears is a fluke you're trying to take advantage of!"
Darkrai eyes flare with anger. Swerving back around for the split moment as Halcion throws the head of the spear, missing Darkrai, but ultimately leaving it to Dexys as she tears it from the deck and throws it forth. Darkrai swipes out of existence with her one hand.
And the spear disappears, at least for a second. Halcion has fought her before, knows it'll be back.
As Darkrai goes for another swipe, Halcion meets her. Darkrai blindly swings behind, narrowly grazing Halcion as this cold feeling spreads across her entire body, a feeling she has felt before, and something she knows she has time to rage against.
She just needs a moment; however long it takes for the spear to reappear. She will use her gear again to pierce her - the same trick Bisharp used and which Louisa has told her to use. If she can outlast this accursed clock, she will defeat her.
Halcion slashes down, a quick dual chop cutting into Darkrai as she starts an internal count.
One.
Darkrai is battered away from the quick chop. A ball of darkness builds in her hands then she throws it forth - a wave from Dark Pulse racing outwards. It misses the partner right behind her, but slams into Halcion like a powerful wind..
Two.
Darkrai turns around, she raises her hand then looks straight down. Dexys is still there, but an illusion conceals her, hiding her for the second it takes for Halcion to regain her distance.
Three.
Dragon Tail. Halcion spins as she comes into her range. A thunderbolt cracks overhead, hitting the ruined masts as Halcion's tail smashes her straight into the captain quarters' cross-shaped windows.
Four.
Halcion races up towards her. She grabs her cloth-like body and throws her behind her, Darkrai's dark body smashing against the closest mast, out of reach of her beloved partner hiding near the blown up deck..
Five.
A spear clatters in the distance. Halcion extends the torn off bit she is holding, then taps the gear. The head flies towards her and impales straight into Darkrai in the process.
Six
Halcion keeps her hand on the gear. Her eyes grow heavy, she resists the pull of her eyelids as long as she can. She keeps the broken half of her spear outwards, waiting for it to go straight through the Darkrai.
And then, she shuts her eyes. Halcion succumbs to Dark Void.
"A moment too late." She says.
The obnoxious chime of her racket band keeps her awake. It is too late to get up to stop Darkrai, and looking forwards, she can see her partner near the back of the ship - gripping her still fresh wound.
Halcion blinks.
The spear clatters to the ground beneath Darkrai as she approaches her partner, a Dark Void whirling in her palm. Dexys freezes in place, staring in utter horror as she hopes she remains unseen. Her partner's yellow eyes become wide, streaking with tears. Darkrai brings her hand down, and…
Crack, crack!
Two water bolts careen from the bowside, one missing, the other striking Darkrai's shoulder.
The Zoroark in hiding inhales, then billows out a geyser of flame, forcing the Darkrai away with furious gouts of flame. She backs away from Dexys, turning her attention to the source of the shot.
A ringing of bells keeps Halcion awake, watching as two more water bullets successfully carve perfect holes into Darkrai flesh. Halcion feels the curse pull her back, and for a split second, she can see the Inteleon's eyes peering from behind a sheet of distorted water.
Louisa fires off a bolt, Darkrai side steps it. And it's then Halcion reaches into her cowl and grips her gear.
The spear on the floor speeds towards her, striking into Darkrai's flesh, and before she can tear it out again - a light near Louisa's shine as he uses his own gear to freeze the spear in place.
She extends a hand in response. On his place on the floor, Louisa has nowhere to go. Thunderbolt strikes into him before he is able to throw aside the sheet water, his entire body becoming limp from the super effective attack.
Halcion blinks. An unknowable amount of time passes as Darkrai frees herself from the Spear. Wheezing, she shambles towards Louisa. Dexys is able to reach Halcion as she finds herself under the Zoroark's illusory veil.
Her eyes blink once more. Darkrai is above the wounded, barely breathing Louisa. A dark void forms in her only hand. Halcion can see the Sea ahead, shining bright, this impossible to describe mass of watery visuals shining its sinister light down upon the ship.
She hears a sound in the distance, like galloping, like warriors charging. Darkrai holds her hand above Louisa's barely conscious body, and swings down.
When suddenly, the whole ship falls apart.