[Part 1]
A small gust of wind howled through the air, carrying glimmering particles of ice, and creating simple patterns.
She sat on the floor, staring blankly at the performance in front of her, while feeling the remaining heat slowly but surely leaving her body. The Absol was slightly shaking in place a few steps away, also feeling the horrid cold of the auditorium, yet not huddling over for warmth. The two of them were in a very bad spot, and she saw several major issues with their situation.
The wind was steadily increasing in its strength, picking up more icy particles, and creating more and more complex patterns.
First issue - not all human popsicles in this room were created equal. Meaning not all at the same time OR place. The people in the seats were probably there from the start, true, but unlike those, the uneven rows of frozen corpses in the passageways did not align with the currently occupied stage being the epicentre of the incident. Most of these were probably moved over to this auditorium from other corridors and rooms, possibly by humans after the fact. Not all though - there were a handful of people in parkas and fur coats. These have clearly arrived later on, and were purposely frozen alive by this Glaceon, meaning regardless of wherever that first freezing was an accident or not, he was okay with killing people.
Suddenly, the wind crashed into a reflective pane of ice, disrupting the pattern, and shattering it into smaller pieces.
Second issue - the state in which some of the 'statues' were. A lot of them were caught in the middle of an action, often in a split moment, like pulling a Pokeball out of their pocket, or turning to run away. And the fact that there were only a couple of Pokemon statues in sight meant this Glaceon's reaction time was outrageously high. Probably not high enough to rival her with an active Realitybox, but turning the device on was an issue of itself, especially since due to its construction, it would've taken her a few hot seconds to press the relevant button. She could be frozen ten times over in the meantime.
The specks of disrupted wind patterns zapped across the stage as if trying to find a way out, crashing against ice mirrors appearing in front of them, and then turning to find another way, leaving a lingering trace of light behind.
Third issue - the nature of this Pokemon's power. Regular Glaceons controlled their body temperature to freeze water particles right in the air, and used their mastery of relatively close-range temperature control to produce a variety of elemental effects. This one, however? This one managed to create an entire wall of ice without either of them realising what happened before it was too late. This either suggested the entire cold area in and around the Contest Hall was akin to this Glaceon's 'cold domain' in which he had precise and nearly unlimited control, or he had some sort of a high-end cryokinesis that allowed him to rapidly control ice with literally no tell. The show that he put on for the two of them seemed to support both of these theories so far.
The final reflective suface appeared, sealing the wind specks in a prison of ice mirrors, which glowed from inside in cold, ominous light.
She needed more information on how this Glaceon's powers worked - and yet, she did not have much time. The cold of this place was bound to render them unable to act soon enough. Which meant she had to hope that if the talks with the Glaceon fell through, the contingency plans she and Honnoji discussed previously were good enough.
With a loud shattering noise, a massive glacier erupted from inside the mirror prison, swallowing the entire stage, before sinking into the floor in and disappearing without a trace, leaving the scene dead quiet and empty, save for the Glaceon in the center. The Glaceon who now looked at his only alive audience expectantly.
"I… Think I get it," she nodded. There were no icicles threatening to impale her. So far, at least, "This is your story, isn't it? You were working on yourself, slowly but surely getting better. But you were put under pressure to improve faster. Too much pressure, making you feel trapped. And this - all of this," she gestured vaguely at the rows of frozen statues, "Was you at the breaking point, wasn't it?"
The Ice Type looked at her as if she just said something utterly ridiculous.
[Part 2]
The not-human's guess was much better than Honnoji's - she thought it was just a series of pretty ice tricks. Still, at those words, the Glaceon looked at the two of them indignantly.
"Well… It was a very beautiful performance?.." Honnoji tried, "And that big chunk of ice at the end was very impressive"
The Ice Type stared at her flatly for a few moments, before dramatically rolling his eyes, and walking towards them in a graceful stride.
"Well, what do you know. Leave it to an uncouth human and her unkempt mutt to only see the simplest possible interpretation, and then miss their mark even on that one," he said disappointedly, as Honnoji felt the temperature dropping even lower somehow.
"Uh… She's not a human?.. Listen, we-"
"She might be a Machoke for all I care," the Glaceon chuckled mirthlessly, as a pair of icicles appeared in the air next to him, "I showed the two of you the most beautiful performance in your miserable lives, but it was clearly akin to throwing pearls before Swinu-"
"WOULD YOU JUST LISTEN TO US?!"
She acted before he could finish that thought. Yes, her entire body screamed in protest, muscles and joints nearly frozen over by sitting in this unearthly cold, but she still managed to quickly cover the distance between them, and ram into the Glaceon-
-or, rather, stumble through him and towards the ground, his figure disappearing into the thin air, like a ghost.
"Oh my, how utterly barbaric~" his voice sounded from somewhere nearby, though she could not pinpoint his location, "Well then, how about you amuse me instead?"
Suddenly, ice surged from the ground under not-human and encasing her up to the neck, just as she tried to reach into her pocket. A moment later, a giant hourglass made of pure ice appeared on the stage, tiny glimmering grains of cold slowly trickling down into the bottom half.
"Survive on your own until the time runs out," a bunch of icicles shot through the air, forcing her to quickly jump back to avoid being hit, "If you do, I'll grant you an opportunity to explain yourself. If you don't, well… You and your trainer will be mercifully reunited pretty soon~"
[Part 3]
Well, shit.
Whatever Honnoji said to this Glaceon did not work, and now she was neck-deep in ice, completely incapable of activating the Realitybox. And without that, she could only clatter her teeth, and maybe yell a tip or two for the Absol before the Ice Type decided to make her a tad more silent.
Which meant she had to make it count.
She did not understand the Pokespeech, but this situation was a bit easier to contextualise than that performance. Judging by that hourglass, and the fact that the Glaceon decided to put the only alive non-Pokemon in the room on ice, yet spared the Dark Type from that same fate, he was hosting some kind of a game. Since he was currently in the process of sending ice shards at Honnoji from different angles without ever showing himself, she probably had to either beat him, or survive. How much time was in that hourglass again?
Uhh… Around a hour? Maybe more?
Double shit.
This likely meant the objective was 'to survive'. And while Honnoji did claim that she felt better than before, she could not possibly have the stamina to rival that of a Pokemon who was living in relative freedom. Which meant she was bound to lose, unless helped.
The icicle barrage continued, and Honnoji ducked under a seat, only to quickly emerge on the other side, to escape a burst of ice shrapnel underneath it. The attacks came from practically everywhere, following Honnoji closely, and not allowing her to gain any kind of a cover. In fact, sometimes icicles formed at the opposite sides of the auditorium, meaning it was unlikely that the Glaceon followed her under the guise of invisibility. Rather, he was in a place where he could see the entire auditorium at the same time.
Without raising her head, she eyed the ceiling in search of any potential hiding places, until her gaze fell onto the stage itself. It was empty, but that gave her an idea - what about the catwalk?
"Hurry up and free me!" she shouted, hoping the Absol would understand the message.
The Dark Type stopped for a mere moment, as if surprised by this sudden command - which caused her to catch a sharp icicle with her shoulder. Still, a mere moment later, there was a shout of pain from the direction of the stage.
[Part 4]
It was during their little strategy meeting a few hours earlier that the not-human asked her something unexpected.
"Since telepathy is supposed to hurt those who don't possess it, can't it just used to attack?"
"CAN. BUT UNNATURAL"
"It… Doesn't feel right?"
"LIKE ATTACKING. WITH YOUR SHOULDER"
"Hm, yes, that doesn't sound all too comfortable… And pretty sure Pokemon have higher pain tolerance than humans"
"RIGHT."
"Still… In some cases, wouldn't ramming into someone with your shoulder make sense?"
Now, she began to see some merit in that line of thinking.
Telepathy was truly difficult to use for combat. Not only was SHE not that good at it, but it was also very unwieldy as a weapon, probably requiring more training than was reasonable to utilise in combat scenarios - all while not being even remotely effective against enemies who could use it themselves, Dark Types, or those with high pain tolerance.
Still, in this particular moment, it was useful to make a short and unexpected mental stab against the Glaceon hiding above the stage, causing him to yell in surprise and pain, as he stumbled down onto the floor.
Suppressing a pained hiss from a cold shard still embedded in her shoulder, she made a mad dash towards the Glaceon, tackling him into his gaudy hourglass, causing the entire thing to shatter and shower the two of them with ice shards and sparkling dust.
She was just about to slam his head into the floor to make sure he stays down when he… Laughed?..
"Oh my, you have truly outplayed me at my own game. Congratulations, you won this battle~" the Glaceon smiled - only for that smile to grow cruel as she felt the sting of frost slowly encasing her body and rendering it unresponsive and PAINFUL, causing her to fall down, "The war, on the other hand, might not end up that well for you~"
"Ghh… Wait, you promised-"
"That if you win by my rules, I'll listen to you. Did you?" he smirked, as the air above the stage was filled with hundreds, thousands of floating, sharp ice shards, "All is fair in love and war, you-"
"Tell him about the Apocalypse!" the not-human yelled, looking at the prepared attack in clear horror.
"The… What?.." the Glaceon looked at Honnoji quizzically.
The Dark Type took a deep breath. At least as much, as the ice casing allowed her.
"The end of the world. It will happen in less than a year. I saw it happen. The humans, the Pokemon - everyone will die. Nothing will remain, not even the ground under your feet. You will die among the rest, with no one to even remember you existing" at this, Glaceon visibly bristled. She was right to think THIS part was bound to hit too close to be comfortable, "We are trying to make sure it doesn't happen. And that is why we came here to recruit you"
"…" the Glaceon looked at her, at the not-human, and then sighed. The thousands of ice shards dissipated into thin air, "Fine, I'll allow you to explain further, mutt."