Fires broke out across the capital buildings as two Alolan Sandslash with quills flaring in scarlet fire hopped from roof to roof, their cackles sailing across the night sky. The more they laughed, the stronger the flames burned across their backs.

They landed on the edge of a building, peering down for their missing prey. They couldn't go out too far from the ritual site, lest they leave Iris unattended. However, lost in the haze of their newfound euphoria, they lost track of the brothers and Weavile in the chase. They vanished without a trace, hiding somewhere deep in the stone jungle.

Jasper clenched his teeth. "Dammit. Iris is going to be peeved if we return emptyhanded."

Gasparo smirked. "Relax. We have the upper hand. Between us and Iris' joy fueling the flames, they won't even get close enough to the pyre without burning themselves alive. Why else would they be running? They know we've got them beat."

Jasper smirked back. "I suppose you're right. Let's patrol around the perimeter again." Nodding in unison, the brothers leapt on ahead, their laughter echoing across the burning city.

Unbeknownst to the brothers, their prey was much closer than they realized. Having narrowly avoided the fiery duo, the Good Brothers and Frediano secluded themselves inside an abandoned cheese shop they happened upon. However, it had been touched by the scarlet flames, leaving just about everything burnt to ash around them.

Avel had his eyes closed, listening to the brothers' cackling until they quieted. Once all went silent, he sighed. "Okay, we're alone…for now."

Frediano collapsed against the wall and covered his face. "I didn't rehearse for this at all. That heat is becoming unbearable." He pulled on his collar and groaned. "I shouldn't be baking in my own sweat! I have far too much class for that!"

Wyatt sat down and sighed. "Jason would've stopped her twenty times over before we threw the first punch. If we go back out there, she'll cook our hides, assuming her brothers don't get their claws into us first."

Frediano scoffed. "As if the Great Frediano could be scared off by some fireworks. The Great Frediano lives to bath in the colorful lights, as he must shine on stage for his adoring fans!" He shot up and struck a dramatic pose.

Avel glared. "As we currently stand, we don't have a chance of beating them. Ms. Iris is simply too powerful with those flames…" He closed his eyes for a moment. "Then again, if we found a way to disrupt the ritual, we'd have a shot at getting the advantage. Her brothers are an issue. If they even suspect we're ganging up on her, they'll come running, and we'll have to start over from scratch."

Frediano tilted his head. "They have impeccable teamwork. One focuses on close range fighting while the other specializes in long range. They cover each other's weaknesses."

"…" A mischievous glint twinkled in the Shellder's eye. "Fortunately for me, I know a thing or two about teamwork, and how to disrupt it."

Wyatt glanced up at his brother. "Do I smell a plan cooking in that noggin of yours?"

"We have one distinct advantage over those two: our apprenticeship with Altair."

Wyatt's eyes widened. "Wait, you don't mean—"

"I do."

"But we haven't got much practice done with our new combos."

"Then we'll have to learn fast." Avel pointed his tongue at Frediano. "Wyatt and I will take care of Iris. But first, we need to set you up to have a fighting chance against those fiery mischief makers. If we give you the opening you need, do you think you can handle the rest?"

Frediano chuckled, tapping on the center of his mask. "They haven't seen all my tricks yet. I think I can manage with a few stage directions."

Avel nodded. "Alright. As long as everyone follows my plan exactly, we might have a shot of ending this rain." He motioned Wyatt and Frediano to draw closer. "Alright, here's the plan…"

Some Weeks Ago, Fort Lucus…

Wyatt and Avel, both blindfolded, weaved through the onslaught of peck attacks being launched by their teacher. Sensing the vibrations in the air and the intent of each attack, they dodged all that were guaranteed to land their mark. While Avel subtly navigated Wyatt, the Lombre himself moved fluidly around the attacks with the grace of water.

Altair launched one last, mighty peck toward Wyatt's forehead. He stopped a mere inch from striking, and the Lombre didn't even flinch. Altair fluttered back and honked quietly. "Very good, very good. I say you two have gotten a handle of my technique."

The brothers removed their blindfolds before bowing to their teacher. "We've learned a great deal under your tutelage, Master Altair. Thank you," Avel praised.

Altair tilted his head. "I was teaching?"

The brothers collapsed over each other in exasperation. "Seriously?!"

The forgetful Cramorant looked out into the trees with his usual vacant stare. "Hmm…" He smacked his beak together, as if trying to formulate thoughts, before turning back to his two students. "You two have a beautiful dynamic."

Wyatt sat down and shot the bird a confused glare. "What do you mean?"

"It takes a special kind of bond to operate in sync with each other, especially with no words. You two understand how the other operates, and you have complete trust in each other's abilities. One does the fighting while the other commands. You two do not waver or question each other. That is a bond that makes a team."

Avel raised his brow. "Why are you bringing this up?"

"It has come to my attention you two don't have much in the way of techniques. A few interactions here and there, but nothing spectacular."

Wyatt frowned. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not really. Everyone fights one way or another. However, I bring up your cooperation because it gives you one unique advantage over most other Pokémon: an increased movepool."

The brothers blinked. "Eh?"

"Those who are completely in sync with a partner can share amongst their moves to grant effects the other couldn't before. Doubling the list of combos, and doubling your effectiveness in battle. Despite their childishness, Gold and Jewel possess incredible synergy with each other. Much in the same way you two do, you have that special connection as siblings. You know each other better than anyone."

Avel raised his brow. "But we already work together so well. How can we go further than that?"

Altair bent his head completely back until the top of his head was touching his back. "Creativity is a powerful tool. Push the boundaries of how your moves interact. Don't just go with freezing bubbles or creating ice platforms to skate on. Use your talents to their fullest. Make something of those skills."

Wyatt picked Avel off his head so they could both look at each other. Truth be told, despite how well they worked together, they never had to go further than the bare minimum. What kind of fighting style could they develop? Not a new one, but an improved version of them.

Altair smiled a bit. "Perhaps a good place to start…is broadening your moveset."

Jasper and Gasparo completed a full search around the ritual site's perimeter, leaping great distances and scanning the streets for their missing prey. No sign of them near the ritual or the general area surrounding it. At first, the brothers were relieved to think the trio retreated, but now a growing sense of dread overcame them the longer they searched.

"This is stupid. They really couldn't have retreated, right?" Gasparo growled.

Jasper clenched his teeth. "This is way too easy. They have to be plotting something."

They landed on a spacious rooftop and stood back-to-back, their flames merging and burning brighter. Jasper raised his claws in defesne while Gasparo aimed his in preparation to fire. They shifted about slowly, searching every inch of their surroundings. The flames rising in the distance coupled with the noise echoing across the city alerted them to every little movement and sound in their range.

"They're just a bunch of freaks," Jasper quietly assured. "S-Surely we're worried about nothing."

Gasparo forced a smile. "Y-Yeah. We've been blessed with our sister's power! There's nothing they can do to scare us—"

"DID SOMEBODY SAY—"

Their eyes widened. "What the—" Their eyes immediately shot up to the sky, and they screamed out in alarm as a sparkling Weavile in a tattered white suit and cape majestically backflipped several meters over their heads.

"—THE GREAT FREDIANO!"

Before either brother could launch a counterattack, the majestic Weavile broke into a spin and sent down a wall of spiraling water down on the roof. The brothers gasped as the water expanded and crashed down onto the edges of the roof, trapping them inside a dome-shaped vortex. Just as soon as it crashed down, the outer walls began to freeze to ice. Spreading like fire, the cold wrapped around the vortex, looping back over until the entire vortex became a solid, spiral-shaped dome.

"What the?!" the Sandslush brothers screamed.

Their eyes darted upward as Frediano, now trapped inside with them, ran across the walls. Removing his mask, he cast a dark glare before summoning up water around his arms. "Dark Typhoon Claws." He fired and extended his claws across the dome.

The brothers watched as Frediano's vortex claws launched across and stabbed into the other side before instantly freezing into spiral, vertical columns. He continued running across the walls, firing his vortex claws one after the other, forming several connecting branches of ice at varying heights, lengths, and positions. The once spacious dome had been gradually turned into a crystal jungle gym.

With his last branch made, he flipped through the air and landed on a higher column. He placed his mask back on and bellowed with joyous laughter. "Welcome, my captive audience, to my grand stage!"

Jasper and Gasparo growled. "What the hell is this?!" Jasper yelled.

Frediano bowed. "I just told you. An unwilling audience such as yourselves need to be captivated one way or another, and we figured forced captivation was the appropriate direction. I can't have my audience running off on me before the show begins."

The brothers shared a look before nodding and running in separate directions. Jasper went to the walls, scaling up to the higher columns, while Gasparo jumped up to the closest one and swung himself onto a perch.

"You idiot!" Gasparo yelled. "Haven't you forgotten who you're dealing with? You think a cage made of ice is going to hold us?!" He aimed his arms. "We'll melt through this inept trap of yours and bring the roof down on you! Scarlet Ice Cannon!" He fired a volley of reddened icicles.

Frediano backflipped as the icicles stabbed into the underside of the column and blew it apart. As it collapsed under him, he flipped into the air and gracefully landed on a higher column. Jasper, however, had already reached his position and charged him down from behind.

"Scarlet Toxic Burst!" Flames burst from his arm and propelled his poison-coated claws like an arrow.

"Dramatic Escape!" Frediano spun off his heel and majestically sidestepped the icy shrew's jab. "So unfair~. I wasn't given any notice for the stage directions~." He skipped back on his heels, then leapt up to a higher perch.

Jasper dug his claws down to turn himself around and stop. "You can't keep jumping around forever!"

Frediano reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of puffy cotton balls. "A play can't run smoothly without cooperation from all actors, my friends. While you prance around with your cooperation, you bully me out of my spotlight." He stuffed the cotton into his ears. "That is the key to a successful protection. Fortunately for me, I am a one-man act. I can make any disaster into a chilling performance."

Gasparo jumped up to Jasper's level and said, "He's talking nonsense again." He aimed and readied to fire another Scarlet Ice Cannon.

Frediano, after stuffing his ears, snapped his claws. "Now then! If my lovely stagehands can set the stage for us…!"

The brothers suddenly turned their eyes up and saw that they weren't the only ones in the dome. Hanging upside-down from the only opening, Wyatt molded a film of bubbles between his hands while Avel hung off the Lombre's arm.

"Here comes the boss music!" Wyatt yelled. "Avel!"

"Ready!" The Shellder inhaled and released a sonic wave into the bubble film. As pressure built up on the other side, a volley of bubbles fired out and descended upon the ice dome.

"Wy-Vel Echo Chamber!"

The Sandslush Brothers gawked as hundreds of vibrating bubbles floated around the ice dome, harmlessly bouncing off the walls and columns. A couple floated dangerously close to their faces. Despite the harmless appearance, they backed away slowly.

"What the…?" Jasper mumbled.

"H-Hey, what are you idiots…?" Gasparo stuttered.

Wyatt popped the bubble film and waved to Frediano. "We leave them in your capable hands, Fredster!"

"By the time you're done with them, we'll have smashed their little show!" Avel added before the brothers pulled themselves back up and sealed the hole with ice.

Frediano chuckled and turned his attention down to the nervous ice shrews. "Well then, it's just you and me."

Jasper grabbed his brother's arm and yelled, "Something's not right! We need to get out of here!"

"R-Right!" They turned and bolted for the ice walls.

Frediano lifted a claw to a passing bubble. "Now—"

Stabbing into the bubble, it popped and released the stored Supersonic. It blared across the ice dome, rattling and setting off the rest of the bubbles. In a manner of seconds, the hundreds of bubbles popped and filled the chamber in a high-pitched cacophony of noise.

The brothers couldn't reach the wall in time as the sounds passed over them. They staggered back, clutching at their heads and screaming as the noise scrambled their minds and focus. Trapped inside the ice, the noise didn't let up immediately, reflecting off the walls and hitting them back twice as hard.

"Can't…THINK!" Jasper screamed.

"Vision…BLURRING!" Gasparo yelled.

Frediano jumped down in-between them and performed a split kick across their faces, sending them flying down opposite ends of the column. Ice traveled up his arms and formed into his Dark Frostbite Claws.

Striking a dramatic pose, he whispered, "Let Act 3 commence."

Iris stood over her pyre, wafting her hands through the smoke and fanning the flames with each rise of her arms. They swayed and rose in accordance with her will. The Scarlet Flame, a relic of beauty, obeyed her command without fail. From her hands to the depths of her soul, she truly became one with its glorious color.

She stomped her feet in rhythm, spinning her flaming bone club, and praised to the burning pyre, "Great Flames of Scarlet, liberate these foolish mortals from their dull, insignificant lives! Show them the truth of jubilation! Free their sad souls from the shackles of mortality so that they may once more know the roots of true happiness!"

The geyser expelled heaps of her vaporized compound, spreading it faster into the storm clouds. She spun her club, beating it against the pit like a drum, and commanded the clouds to remain vigorous and unending. She closed her eyes, feeling the flames spreading across the city with each inch of land soaked in her alchemical compound. She could feel the city becoming one with her, soon to be enveloped in the flames of liberation.

"Oh, glorious Flames of Scarlet, I am blessed to be your priestess!" she cried, hugging herself and squirming with excitement. "You are the true god of this world!"

"You know, with all the different gods everyone worships—" The Alolan Marowak snapped out of her trance and whipped her head around at the Lombre and Shellder duo hanging off a windowsill. "I don't think I've heard of anyone worshipping a spooky flame," Wyatt said. "In fact, if you discount Yveltal, I don't think there's a whole of lot religions that celebrate killing someone."

Avel scoffed. "You give Yveltal worshippers no credit. They value death, not inflict it."

"Yeah, I suppose Zephora isn't murder happy."

Iris glared at the brothers and raised her club at them. "You dare show your faces here again? Have you not had enough of the Scarlet Flame's irresistible power?"

Wyatt jumped down from the windowsill and landed in the alleyway. "Lady, no offense, but I think someone needs to check you into the cuckoo house. This seems a bit excessive."

She growled. "I won't allow anyone to interrupt my dream!"

Avel glared. "Your dream? Funny, I assumed this was your ringmaster's will."

"It is his will, and it shall be mine!"

"Somehow, I don't believe you. Or rather, I don't think you believe yourself."

"Enough of your insolence! How did you get past Jasper and Gasparo?"

Wyatt pulled out his metal baton and twirled it in his hand. "Oh, perish the thought. We just left them to take part in a little show. We'll be glad to escort you back to them."

Iris scowled. "I won't allow you to ruin this for me! This is my performance! Mine, mine, mine, mine, MINE!" She lunged off the pit, rearing back her club as flame and darkness expelled around it. "Enshrouding Firework!"

Wyatt and Avel took their positions. As Iris brough the club down on them, the brothers moved it sync, dodging her swing. Right as she landed, Wyatt swung and clubbed her across the face before kicking her in the chest. She skidded back on her heels, but bounced back and swung again. He skipped back on his heels, dodging the flames by a hair.

"Flora Firework!" Iris leapt after them, spinning her baton and generating huge volumes of flame.

"Protect!" Avel cast the protective barrier around themselves and shielded against the vortex of fire. "Get her!"

Wyatt channeled electricity through his baton and thrusted it through the barrier. "Take this!" He struck Iris dead center and blasted her with electricity. "HA! Got her!"

For a moment, Iris seemed to be convulsing from the electricity, but the brothers soon found the ghostly Marowak laughing with no signs of damage or pain. She instead clutched the baton and grinned at them as the energy transferred into her bone club.

"Nice. Try," she hissed.

Avel's eyes widened. "Lightning Rod?!"

"Oh crap!" Wyatt gasped.

Iris swung her club and punched Wyatt in the chest with it. "Big Bang Firework!"

An explosive wave erupted from the end of her club, firing the brothers backwards and sending them crashing into the surrounding walls. They collapsed to the ground with Wyatt barely staying on one knee. The blast burned a hole through his uniform, leaving a sizable burn across his chest.

"Wyatt?!" Avel gasped.

The Lombre pushed himself up against the wall and stood. "I-I'll live."

Iris cackled madly, charging the brothers down with her Enshrouding Firework. "Disregard past and future! Embrace the present as the flames liberate your soul from flesh!"

Avel scowled. "Liberate this. Wyatt, now!"

Wyatt smirked and raised his hands, sparking with green energy. "Here's a little something for you!"

Iris lunged and swung her club down on the brothers. Avel yelled out, projecting his Protect around himself and Wyatt. However, before it was halfway complete, Wyatt stabbed his claws into the incomplete shielding and supercharged it. The barrier expanded and sparked wildly in vibrant green.

"Wy-Vel Draining Shield!"

The flaming club struck down, completely stalled by the impenetrable force. Iris' eyes widened as a green aura of the barrier coursed up her body and drew her own energy in, transferring through Wyatt and also into Avel. Wyatt's burn scar slowly healed itself as contact maintained.

"Shit!" Iris kicked off the barrier before more of her energy could be sapped.

Wyatt clutched his baton and dashed after the fleeing Marowak. "Got ya!" With renewed vigor, he sped past her and struck across her throat.

"GAH!" Iris collapsed onto her back and clutched her aching throat.

Wyatt dug his claws down, spinning himself around and bouncing back toward. Rearing his hand back, he channeled dark energy through it and struck Iris across the head right as she picked herself up. "Knock Off!"

He struck her so hard that her bone club flew out of her hand. She rolled forward on her face, but flipped back onto her feet. She growled, the flames surrounding her skull burning brighter. "You'll PAY for that!" She reached inside her satchels and pulled out a handful of vials.

Avel glared. "Now what?"

"Rainbow Firework!" Iris tossed the vials forward and hiccupped a mighty Fire Blast into them. The vial exploded and fused their contents with the flames, transforming them into a raging, multicolored fireball that melted the earth in its presence alone.

"Protect!" Avel cast the barrier and braced himself as the flames engulfed them. He hissed out in pain. "GAH!"

"Avel?!" Wyatt gasped.

"Th-These potions…!" he growled.

Wyatt looked around and noticed the flames burning through their barrier. "It's eating at our energy!"

"W-Wyatt! As soon as I drop the barrier, concentrate your Bubble Beam and blast a path open through the sides!"

"R-Right!"

Just as the barrier collapsed under the flames, Wyatt lunged toward the left side of the flames and fired a condensed stream of bubbles, barely cutting a path open for them. He leapt through with only his right left getting caught in the flames. He rolled and collapsed against a wall, screaming out over his burning flesh.

Iris had reclaimed her bone club and rushed down the fallen duo. She crushed a vial of purple liquid over it. "Enshrouding Firework: Graveyard Spectacle!" The flames and darkness erupted wildly out of her club, twisting into a vortex with skull-like patterns infused across the outside. "This potion will make it so the pain is everlasting!"

Avel tried to summon a barrier, but it fizzled out. "C-Crap! I can't concentrate!"

Iris lunged over the brothers and came down on them, swinging the club directly for Wyatt's face. In a flash, he raised his baton in both hands and stopped the club from striking him. He screamed through clenched teeth from the flames spreading onto his arms.

Iris smirked devilishly. "Yes. YES! Let their glory consume and free you from your suffering! Embrace the joys of liberation!"

Wyatt struggled to keep her attack at bay. She pressed her weight down on his baton, inching the flames closer to his face. "Y-You're one crazy lady, you know that?!"

Iris growled. "Crazy? CRAZY?! That's what all you lowlifes think of me! All I wanted was to appreciate the beauty of fire, but society sees my obsession as a danger! Fire Pokémon get to walk around all the time with their flames, but the second my flames get out of hand, I'm the danger! Scorned and silence! Only Ringmaster Itzal gave me hope to believe!"

Avel, hiding behind Wyatt's lily pad, yelled, "That freak of nature doesn't care about you! He only cares about what you can do for him!"

"SO WHAT?!" she screamed. "At least somebody cares about me!"

Wyatt grimaced. "Your brothers care about you! Isn't that enough?!"

"You just don't get it!" She increased her firepower and kept pushing down on the Lombre. "This is all I have! The Scarlet Flame chose me! Ringmaster Itzal made me into his image, and I shall serve his and the flame's will even if it costs me my life!"

Wyatt gritted his teeth. "Freddie was right. You really do need help."

Avel glared. "Enough talk. Wyatt, do the thing!"

"What are you two blathering ab—" Iris tried to say until Avel suddenly jumped out from cover and blasted her with Ice Beam. "GAH!" It served as enough of a distraction to push her off even as the ice melted from her eyes. "What was that supposed to—"

Right as she opened her eyes, Wyatt had already sprung to his feet and reared his baton back. Avel slashed his tongue across the surface, leaving behind sparkling red spots. Wyatt traced his claw along the baton and coated it in bluish-green energy.

"Take…THIS!" Wyatt thrusted his baton forward and struck Iris in the chest. A light ruptured from the very end of the rod and engulfed the surrounding area in a blinding green light.

Some Weeks Ago, Fort Lucus…

"Compressing our internal power?" Avel asked.

Altair took a deep breath and puffed out his chest. "I am known among my fellow Weald Rangers as Fort Lucus' most noisy and reliable alarm. Nothing escapes my notice on duty. That said, I know a thing or two about defending myself when in a fight. It is an art not readily taught, but one can manipulate the force of their internal energy for a variety of effects. Shingo can drastically weaken his Cut to create those lockpicks. Ursula can increase the density of her energy through her hands, creating her deadly chop attacks.

"As for me, I build up a variety of moves within the core of my being and release it all at once. This is why I specialize in expending as little energy as possible when evading. By focusing as little as possible on the attacks that won't kill me, I can spend more time building up the core of my attack."

Wyatt gasped. "You mean that big laser you fire?!"

"I call it…the Great Honkening!"

Avel grimaced. "The Great…Honkening?"

He nodded. "I was drinking stolen ale with my fellow rangers, and Enora jested about that being its name. I kept it. I found it quite suiting."

"Uh huh."

Altair nodded. "Everyone manipulates their internal energy in different ways. Jason himself uses it to increase his speed. Jet compresses all his power through that scalchop of his. Blitz focuses his power through his arrows. Be it body or weapon, finding a medium to compress your power through turns anything into a power attack."

Wyatt reached around his back and pulled out his metal baton. "So, if I were to compress my energy down to the end of this—"

"It'd make for a mighty attack."

Avel glared. "Not much reason for me to learn that, then. I'm only good for supporting Wyatt."

Altair raised a feather. "Not…necessarily."

"Hmm?"

"You don't just sit on Wyatt's head, bark orders, and throw out attacks here and there. You lend yourself to Wyatt as a secondary tool in his arsenal. You are both his commander and his shield. Even if you are not the strongest fighter, you can still contribute to Wyatt's power."

"How so?"

"Recall what I said before: two partners who are in complete sync with each other have more attack options than just one. You two share your energy and moves with each other. Wyatt fights to protect his commander. Doesn't that earn him the same respects?"

Avel narrowed his eyes. "Well, of course. He's my brother."

"Though you two have a wonderful dynamic that works for you, shifting the balance of command may lead to different results. Tell me, what do you suppose is your weak point?"

Avel thought back for a moment on all the major fights he and Wyatt endured. "Well, we've mostly fought speedier opponents and turned out just fine. I suppose we'd have trouble fighting more defensive opponents."

"So, why not come up with a strategy to circumvent that problem?"

"Like what?"

"…I don't know."

The brothers staggered. "Come on!"

Altair shook his head. "I am serious. I can teach you new ways to fight, but I can't force you to create a fighting style unsuited for you. Avel, if you wish to support Wyatt more in battle, you may have to consider putting yourself in harm's way more. Not as a sword, but as a combative shield."

Wyatt glanced at his brother. "What do you think?"

"…" Avel closed his eyes, mulling over the Cramorant's advice. "Compressing my energy as a combative shield, huh?"

"Wy-Vel Spear Wave!"

Energy released from the baton, sending forth a barrage of energy spears through Iris. She spat up blood as the energy passed through her body like lightning and sent her flying back. As the energy spears pierced through her, the untouched cluster rained down over the alleyway and pierced through the ground.

Iris crashed on her back and skidded back into the pyre pit. She coughed up blood again, struggling to pick herself up. Green, smoldering burns fizzled across her skin and withered clothes. Her vision blurred slightly as a nauseous wave passed over her mind.

"W-Wha…?" She straightened herself back onto her feet and wiped the blood off her mouth. She growled at the brothers. "What was…?"

Wyatt, having collapsed onto his back, panted from the close encounter. The end of his baton, still clutched tightly between his hands, smoked from coming into contact with the Marowak's flame aura. "Holy moly, that was…intense."

Avel chuckled. "Looks like it worked."

Iris ignited her bone club and charged at them. "You're going to pay for that, you little—"

Upon taking three steps forward, a green light erupted from under her foot and shot up a spear of green light that pierced through her leg and chest. She gasped out and collapsed onto her face, setting off another wave of spears infused within the ground. She jolted up from the shock, convulsing in pain.

"W-Whaaaaaa?!" she cried.

Wyatt raised his baton proudly and laughed. "How do you like our little combo? We combined my new Energy Ball with his Spikes. The entire alleyway is covered in those spikes. They'll go off the second you step on them."

Iris trembled in place, seething through clenched teeth. A passive Ground-Type move. Even with the Energy Ball, it still did heaps of damage to me. She smirked. What fools to tell me how it works, though.

She jumped into the air and pulled back her bone club. "Thanks for the tip! Aurora Firework!" She threw her club, spreading cold air over the ground that froze into a field of red ice.

Wyatt leapt over the ice and skated across it after it finished freezing. "Energy Ball!" He summoned up the blue-green energy sphere and threw it at her.

Iris, upon catching her returning club, dove through the Energy Ball and disrupted it. "Ha! You think that little spark's going to slow me down?! Enshrouding Firework!"

She landed and lunged forward, swinging her blazing club at them. Wyatt, at the last second, leapt into the air and dodged her attack. She dragged herself to a stop and looked up as Wyatt reared his baton back.

"Ready, Avel?" Wyatt yelled.

Avel hopped off his head and landed on the top end of the baton. Ice formed under his shell and stuck him to the metal. "Ready!" He twisted his body and generated enough force to spin himself and the baton in place. Icy mist flowed around him as he picked up speed.

Iris' eyes widened. "What in the—"

Wyatt let go of his baton. With its brief suspension in the air, he reared his open palm back with dark energy channeling through it and struck the bottom end of his weapon. Dark energy erupted through the metal, channeling through Avel, before launching the whole thing like a cannonball.

"Wy-Vel Land Breaker!"

Iris gasped and leapt out of the way just before the attack came crashing down. It smashed into the frozen ground and drilled its way through with such force that the surrounding ice began to shake and split. Once the spinning led Avel to solid ground, a shockwave echoed across the ice and shattered it in a single burst.

Iris staggered back in the shockwave with red ice floating around her and glowing brightly, having been prematurely detonated. "C-Crap—"

The ice exploded into geysers of steam, filling the alleyway in seconds and extinguishing the active flames burning within. Avel was spared from the blast with the timely activation of Protect.

Wyatt dove through the mist-covered alleyway and dragged himself down the walls. He flipped off and landed beside Avel as the ice melted off his shell. He tossed his brother back onto his head and laughed. "Nice! Looks like you got a handle on that Ice Spinner move!"

Avel groaned. "Still getting used to the spinning, actually…" He shook himself before looking around. "Where's the pyromaniac?"

Wyatt peered through the mist and spotted the flame aura in the distance. "There!"

Right as she was acknowledged, Iris burst out of the mist with her bone club alight in black and purple flames. "Enshrouding Firework: Performance of Death!" Rather than a close-range attack, she stopped on her heel and fired a volley of fireballs at them.

"Bubble Beam!" Wyatt inhaled deeply and fired a concentrated stream of bubbles. Though he couldn't take down all the fireballs, he blasted through and extinguished all the fireballs heading directly for them.

Iris tossed a vial into the air and reared her club back. "Big Bang Firework!" She swung and shattered the falling vial, releasing a tremendous fireball at the brothers.

Rather than defend, the brothers shared a knowing look with each other before launching their counterattack. Wyatt grabbed Avel, reared his back, and chucked him like a discus. Immediately after, he fired Bubble Beam into Avel, who used his spinning to generate ice via his Ice Spinner. The bubbles gravitated and revolved around him, generating thin ice shells overtop their surfaces as they began to spin, too.

"Wy-Vel Bubble Spinner!"

Avel crashed through the flames, assimilating them into his spinning. The individual bubbles and their own spinning reduced the intensity of the flames and gathered them into rings of fire flowing across their surfaces even as the ice melted off them. Piercing out through the other side of the massive fireball was a vortex of flame surrounded in miniature vortexes.

Iris' eyes nearly shot out from her skull. "What the actual WHAT?!" She ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding the flames as they flew over her. However, she realized as the attack curved where the flames were actually heading. "Wait, no—"

Avel, manipulating his own flight path, curved himself and the flames into the ice pit containing the ritual pyre. He crashed into its side, sawing through the ice with his flame cloak until a portion of the wall was melted through. Iris' compound oozed out from the bottom, and the smog tower rising from its greatly weakened.

"MY RITUAL!" she screamed.

"Yoohoo!" She turned around to Wyatt striking her across the face with Knock Off. "Nobody messes with the Good Brothers, ya dig?!"

Iris skidded back on her heels, seething through her teeth. "You…!"

Wyatt leapt over to Avel and picked him up. "Let's wreck this stupid ritual, bro!"

Avel glared. "We may have more pressing matters at the moment, Wyatt."

Pointing toward Iris, the brothers watched as the enraged Alolan Marowak exploded in a torrent of flames that rose high above the buildings surrounding them. Her clothes, which were originally treated to be fire resistant, were now slowly withering away by the sheer heat she was producing. Her sleeves were torched to ashes, as were half of her overalls, burning up to her knees.

A haunting red light exploded from her eyes as more cracks opened up across her skull, expelling even more tremendous amounts of heat. She clutched her bone club tightly and roared out to the sky in outrage. Dark scarlet flames jettisoned from the ends of her club, taking on the rough shapes of flaming skulls.

"Liberation." Her voice distorted, sounding over a chorus of ghostly echoes.

Wyatt winced. "She's mad."

Avel growled. "Her dedication to the Scarlet Flame is boosting her power. At those temperatures, she might actually kill us!"

Wyatt raised his arms, shielding himself from the heat hitting his face. "I can already feel it from here! How do we stop her?"

The Shellder looked around impatiently. "I don't know. Not even the rainwater is slowing her—" His eyes widened. "Wait a minute."

"Huh?"

"What if we tried Thunder Punch again?"

Wyatt frowned. "But she has Lightning Rod!"

"True, but she doesn't have an immunity to her own compound. And everything is drenched in it."

Wyatt's eyes widened. He looked back at Iris, noting that everything was catching fire at an alarming rate under her presence. Realizing what his brother had in mind, Wyatt smirked. "You crazy, crazy Shellder! Let's do it!"

Avel glared. "Follow my lead and get her into position. We're bringing an end to this storm."

Chaos reigned with the ice dome. With the endless chatter of disruptive soundwaves bouncing all over, the Sandslush Brothers lost all train of thought rushing down their flashy adversary.

"Scarlet Toxic Burst!" Jasper rushed down the ice column with flaming poison erupting from his claws.

Frediano spun on his heel and gracefully danced around the shrew's attack before swiping his leg across his shins and knocking him down. "Aha! Someone's gone off script, I see!"

"Crystal Target Field!" Frediano looked down and saw Gasparo firing flaming ice quills from his back, which soon disappeared as they spread amongst the airspace. "Scarlet Focus Barrage!" He aimed and fired red icicles into the air.

Frediano, with his arms tucked behind his waist, skated along a column as the icicles ricocheted off their invisible targets toward him. With the grace of a Milotic, he danced and weaved through the rain of ice even as they exploded behind him. The column came undone, but he leapt off and floated down to another one.

Gasparo staggered from a brief headache before firing another barrage. "Hold still!"

Frediano continued his mocking display of skating, performing a playful twirl as two icicles whizzed past him. "If you wish to captivate your audience, you don't just stand around like a statue. A true actor stays in motion! He becomes one with his scene!"

Jasper shook through his splitting headache and jumped down after the Weavile. "Advancing Drill Step!" He twisted himself into a drilling formation, plunging into the ice column and racing towards the obnoxious actor.

Frediano laughed. "Beautiful! Simply beautiful!" He skipped off the ice, leaping over Jasper's head, and forming his ice claws. "Flying Claws of Majesty!" Shaping them into jagged clusters, he rained down gunfire of icicles, blasting into Jasper and knocking him out of formation. The flaming shrew shot out from the column and went flying into the walls.

Gasparo jumped to a higher vantage point. "Double Team!" He created multiple flickering clones of himself along the ice columns and took aim. "Scarlet Ripper Cannon!" He fired reddened icicles once again, this time with each individual icicle spinning and sharpened like drills.

Frediano took notice and morphed his claws into a giant ice shield. The icicles struck, but didn't slow down. They drilled their way through the shield, narrowly hitting the Weavile had he not launched himself over his barrier.

Jasper pulled himself out of the wall, then screamed as stray shots from Gasparo's attack flew at him. He increased the flames from his quills and launched himself out of the way in time. Landing on a nearby column, he looked up and shouted, "Watch where you're aiming that, you idiot!"

Gasparo glared down at him. "Watch where you're laying your lazy ass, you lout!"

"Who are you calling a lout?!"

"Who are you calling an idiot?!"

Mocking laughter sounded above them as Frediano landed on a higher vantage point, kneeling over the rounded edge. "Sweet, sweet nostalgia. You remind me of a friend of mine. Nonstop bickering and merriment. Truly the staple of theatre. Tragedy and comedy intertwined."

Gasparo growled. "You stay out of this, clown!" He fired his Scarlet Ice Cannon, but Frediano backstepped and avoided the exploding ice. The column fell apart and collapsed down near the brothers, forcing them to dodge.

Frediano dashed and leapt across the vertical columns before jumping onto the walls and skating across them with his claws dug into the surface. He morphed his free hand into jagged ice. "Flying Claws of Majesty!" He fired down on the brothers.

Jasper pushed his brother away and turned his back. "Iron Defense!" His body hardened like steel and tanked the projectiles.

Gasparo picked himself up and aimed at the skating Weavile. "Scarlet Ice Cannon!" He fired streams of icicles, yet Frediano skated up and down the wall and avoided the explosions. Some of the shots flew way off the mark, flying either above Frediano or too far ahead.

Jasper growled. "What the hell are you doing?! Are you drunk or something?!"

Gasparo grabbed him by the collar. "Oh, I don't see you fairing any better! At least I'm not getting my ass kicked!"

"You got something to say?!"

"Do you got something to say?!"

Frediano backflipped off the wall and somersaulted through the air, landing with a graceful step on the frozen roof. "Now, now, now, we are actors. If you're going to start a fight, make sure you stay on script. We wouldn't want to confuse the audience."

The brothers' eyes widened, then they backed off from each other. "Th-That damn noise is messing us up," Jasper said. "He's making us lose our concentration!"

Gasparo growled and turned his arms toward Frediano. "We're not falling for your tricks, clown! We still got more firepower than you could ever produce!"

Frediano chuckled. "Such emotion. Such compassion. Pulling yourselves together despite the odds. It's the essence of theatre~!" He sighed and grabbed his mask. "Sadly, this performance nears the end of its climax. Like the great plays of old, what starts as a comedy filled with merriment and laughs…"

He removed his mask, stashing it behind his waist, and glared at the brothers as dark water took over his ice claws.

"…becomes a tragedy wrought with misery and loss."

"Scarlet Ice Cannon!" Gasparo fired on the bounty hunter while Jasper raced ahead.

"Advance Step Spin!" He skated along the ice with mist hissing from his soles. He spun and lunged into a kick.

Frediano scoffed with irritation. "Pointless." He ducked under Jasper's kick and uppercut him in the chin.

"GAH!"

He grabbed the ice shrew and extended his water claws, plowing him through his brother's icicle barrage. Gasparo gasped and jumped out of the way as the water claws smashed Jasper into the ice.

Retracting his claws, Frediano skated toward the brothers. "You're wasting my time. If you're so powerful, why are you two having so much trouble against a worthless stain like me? Then again, what kind of worthless stains doesn't protect their family?" He reared his claws back. "Insipid Dread." His vortex claws split apart and extended into a dozen water claws.

Jasper and Gasparo tried to dodge them, but their numbers were too great. Higher and higher they attempted to climb the ice, but the hands reached and snagged them in their clutches. They shook and trembled as the vortex arms merged together and trapped the brothers inside.

They slashed within the water as it began to boil from the flames on their backs. The water, having a degree of solidity, tightened around them and greatly impeded their struggling.

Frediano grunted. "If you truly loved your sister, you would've stopped her from joining a cult. You wanted her to be happy? Congratulations, you ruined whatever chance she had at a normal, productive life."

Jasper and Gasparo, though still struggling, could hear the actor's scolding. Their expressions fell, looking at each other in shared realization.

It only made the Weavile angrier. "Drawn in by the promise of true happiness? The flame will show the light of joy? Is that what he promised you? Here's a bit of advice—"

The brothers gasped as the water claws picked up speed, wrapping them in a tight spin as Frediano reared them high up into the air.

"If you don't know what it means to love yourself, then you don't know the meaning of the word happiness! Insipid COLLAPSE!"

Frediano leapt into the air and swung his spiraling vortex claws down. The tip of the vortex hardened in a cold shell of ice just before smashing down into the rock-hard surface. All the weight of the crushing waves struck down on the brothers, flattening them into the stone until it crushed under their weight and plowed them several floors down, crashing down onto their faces.

Frediano landed on the edge of the hole and knelt over the side, inspecting the damage. Gazing down at the very bottom of the building, he saw the brothers collapsed together over the debris. The flames, once burning brightly, flickered their last breath before extinguishing. Their quills had melted under the heat, leaving a small, jagged cluster remaining on their backs.

He glared down at them. "Tragedy begets comedy, and comedy begets tragedy. Don't go telling me…what it means to love yourself."

Enraged and burning even hotter, Iris let out an unearthly roar and charged down the brothers, rearing back her blazing club. "Death Shroud Firework!"

"Wy-Vel Draining Shield!" The brothers conjured the energy-sapping barrier and halted the Marowak's fiery attack. The flames burned across the surface, slowly chewing its way through. Wyatt skipped back and narrowly avoided the barrier's collapse, sending out an inferno of darkness across the ground. He leapt onto a nearby wall right as the flames overtook the alleyway.

"Ice Beam!" Avel blasted the wall and forged a path ahead, allowing Wyatt to skate over the flames.

Iris growled and threw her club at them, gathering a vortex of dark flames around it. "Scarlet Death Firework!"

The bone club easily smashed through the ice road, sending Wyatt and Avel flying over the flames. Acting fast, Avel shot out his tongue and stuck to the wall, pulling himself and Wyatt back over the ground. Iris' bone club arched back toward her, where she spun and threw it again at the brothers. Wyatt kicked off the wall and dodged the club as it smashed through the building.

Iris roared, her flame aura intensifying. "Liberation! Liberate…from your unearthly sorrows! Everything…must BURN!" The flames twisted around her into a cyclone, rising up over the buildings and expanding along the spacious alleyway.

Wyatt stuck to a wall and shielded his face from the heat. "She isn't making this easy!"

Avel glared at the tainted rain clouds. "It doesn't matter. We just need to get her into position over the pyre."

"Still waiting for an explanation on how we do that!"

Avel huffed. "Direct contact would be suicide at this point, but she's losing her grip on reality. We'll just guide her into position!"

Iris' bone club finally flew back to her hands, and she aimed at the stationary duo. "Big Bang Death Firework!" Without any assistance from a potion, she fired a massive dark fireball at the brothers.

"Jump!" Avel ordered.

Wyatt kicked off the wall and somersaulted over the fireball, wincing as the heat burned his skin. The concussive flames slammed into their previous perch and took down the wall in a fiery explosion.

"Now, we blast her from behind!" Avel yelled.

Iris spun around just as the brothers fell toward the ground. Wyatt and Avel fired Bubble Beam and Ice Beam simultaneously, combining the two moves to create speeding footballs of solid ice. Though they melted upon touching her flame aura, they flew with enough speed to land a sizable impact.

"Wy-Vel Hail Cannon!"

Iris roared as the stream of frozen ice spheres pounded into her, slowly pushing her back into her half-destroyed ritual pit. Her back pressed up against the ice, which was slowly melting from the surrounding flames and her own aura. Seeing her creation coming undone, she slammed her hands back and channeled red ice into the pit to keep it stabilized.

"You won't take this from me!" she screamed. "I'm nothing without the Scarlet Flame! This is what I was born to do!"

Avel growled. "This is for your own good, lady!" He and Wyatt blasted their separate moves into the flaming ground, creating a patch of scorched earth to stand on. "Alright, now!"

"Wy-Vel Spear Wave!" Combining Spikes and Energy Ball through Wyatt's baton, they fired the volley of energy spears at Iris.

She raised her guard, shielding against brutal onslaught of energy piercing through her body and wrecking havoc on her insides. She turned up the heat of her aura and burned through the remaining attacks as they struck into her. "You won't take my ritual away from me! I'll liberate this city from its own vices! I'm bringing true happiness!"

"Supersonic!" Avel fired on her with a disruptive sonic wave. Iris recoiled and covered her ears, shrieking in pain. "Ice Beam!" He fired the freezing beam into Iris, pushing her back and causing part of her flame cloak to extinguish into steam.

"Bubble Beam!" Wyatt followed up with his own attack, further knocking Iris back against the pit and cooling her flame aura.

She swatted and swiped at the air through her dizzying mind before summoning a massive fireball over her head. "Big Bang Death Firework!" She threw it straight toward the brothers, who narrowly avoided it. The explosion, however, did send them flying farther than intended.

They landed in the flaming earth, though Avel was able to cool the ground with a timely Ice Beam before the flames touched them. They weren't out of danger yet as Iris spun her club and fired a flurry of arching fireballs into the sky, raining down on the brothers. Avel created an ice path through the fire, and Wyatt skated along it as the fireballs crashed down behind them.

"Liberation! LIBERATION!" Iris screamed. Soon, her flame aura encompassed the ritual pit, transforming the steadily rising smog into a vortex of smoke and fire. As it reached the clouds above, the rain transformed into droplets of fire pounding down over the area.

"AH!" Wyatt covered his head as the fiery rain pelted and burned his skin. "Crap, crap, crap!"

Avel winced as the fire rain touched down on his shell. "K-Keep it together!"

"I-I'm trying my best!"

"LIBERATION!" Iris continued screaming, calling down fireballs from the rising vortex.

Wyatt swung his baton and batted the fireballs away from them. He lost his balance for a moment striking a stronger shot, but managed to keep on sliding along the ice. "Avel!"

The Shellder glared. "Grab something! Anything! We're knocking her into the pit!"

Wyatt scanned his surroundings and managed to find a flaming rock up ahead. Steeling himself, he swiped his hand across the active flames and secured the rock. He bit back against the pain and chucked the rock up. "Knock Off!" With a firm slap, he sent the rock sailing into the center of Iris' head, knocking her back.

"GAH!"

"Now! Wy-Vel Hail Cannon!" The brothers fired their frozen bubble stream into the off-balance Marowak and blasted her over the ice pit.

Iris extended her limbs and caught herself before her body touched the compound below. The vapors hitting her body caught fire and rose up with the flaming smog vortex. "W-What are you doing?!"

Avel crafted an ice ramp, sending Wyatt and himself shooting into the sky. "Stopping this ritual!"

Wyatt reared his baton back, holding it like a javelin, and channeled his Thunder Punch and Energy Ball through the metal. It erupted into a living, yellow and green thunderbolt crackling in the Lombre's hand. The sparks it gave off reacted to the rain, causing miniature explosions around them.

Iris gritted her teeth into an irritated smirk. "You idiots! I already told you! I can cancel out any Electric-Type move you throw at me!"

Avel glared. "That's what we're counting on!"

Her eyes widened. "What?!"

"That ritual of yours turns that compound into vapor that spreads through the clouds! So, what would happen if even one rogue spark went off in that pit?! Why else are you so desperately clinging to the top?!"

She gritted her teeth. "Don't you dare—"

Wyatt generated more power through the baton. "If tonight's the night of the liberation, then sound of the drums of freedom! Goodnight rain, hello sunshine!"

Iris carefully lifted her hand off the pit, hardening her position, and waved her bone club. "DIE! DIE, DIE, DIE! BIG BANG DEATH FIREWORK!" Mustering all of her flame aura into the end of her club, she fired the largest fireball she could, which easily overtook the width of the alleyway and raced up the airborne brothers.

Avel slashed the baton with his tongue, then shouted, "DO IT!"

"Wy-Vel…Thunder Lance!"

Wyatt whipped his arm and threw his baton straight toward the rising fireball. At first, a part of Iris believed her attack would prevail. After all, she had melted through myriad of their techniques with just the heat of the Scarlet Flame. One measly attack couldn't possibly disrupt her flames.

But she was so, so wrong.

Her eyes widened as the baton split off into dozens upon hundreds of identical thunderbolts, each tipped with a red arrow of light. The attack had been laced with Avel's Spikes, allowing it to dot the sky in hundreds of shooting stars.

"No…NNNNOOOOO!"

The Thunder Lances rained down on the fireball, pounding it with ruthless intent. Though some were disrupted in the collision, the sheer number of lances chipped away at the fireballs integrity until they broke through and continued on down to the alleyway. Due to the effects of Iris' Lightning Rod, the Thunder Lances naturally gravitated towards her.

"No! NO! That's way too much!" Steam hissed out from her eyes as she began to panic. "Please, stop! This is all I have left! THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT COMPLETES ME! I AM THE SCARLET PRIESTESS—"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as the thunderbolts landed their mark. Though her body absorbed a vast majority of them, it was the sparks she was unintentionally giving off that sealed her fate. Sparks ran into the red ice she created, causing the internal flames to react. Sparks traveled down the slick sides and into the pile of alchemical compound.

She was in the middle…of her own bomb.

Wyatt and Avel shielded themselves inside a Protect bubble as the explosion went off, eclipsing the entire alleyway in a blindingly bright light. They careened down into the explosion, feeling the vibrations shake the barrier, and crashed down into the ground while bearing the thunderous boom rattling their bodies.

They couldn't be sure how big the explosion was, but they guessed it could be heard across the entire city. The sheer power of alchemy used to create the terrible rain now showed its true horror in a greater quantity. Buildings collapsed under the shockwave, burnt and melted into molten rock in seconds, and flattening the terrain in scorched earth. It was truly the great horror of alchemy.

Eventually, the light pollution died down, and the rumbling ceased. Avel kept the barrier up as long as he could until he felt sure all was still. He and Wyatt fell out onto the hot ground, not a trace of fire around them. They gazed upon the blackened earth and the razed buildings that once stood around them. The air was filled in a dense smoke that couldn't be peered through farther than the immediate wreckage.

Wyatt coughed, pounding at his chest. "C-Crap. That was your plan?"

Avel grimaced. "I…underestimate the scale of the explosion, admittedly. I didn't think it would do this much."

Wyatt picked himself up, still shaking from the blast. "W-What about her?"

They raced over to where the pit once stood. They peered down into a blackened crater where they found the Scarlet Priestess herself. Her skin had been burned and scarred into the explosion. Her skull had cracked across the eyeholes and forehead with blood dripping out. Her potion bags and everything inside had been reduced to ash. Her clothes were in tatters, barely able to withstand the incendiary blast.

Wyatt frowned and knelt beside her, checking her neck for a pulse. Peering at her eyes, he noticed a clear liquid dripping out over the blood. Even though it was a terrible thing, she truly meant what she said about the Scarlet Flame being the only thing that gave her life meaning.

"…I feel bad for her."

Avel closed his eyes and sighed. "She went through a lot under the Lord of Shadow's influence."

"Do you…think she'll get better?"

"It wouldn't excuse her crimes, but…" He sighed. "One can only hope." He glared out at the sky, just noticing that the electric dome had finally cleared away. "The rain will eventually clear up. Hopefully Basil finds something on undoing the rest of the potion across the city."

Wyatt carefully picked Iris up in his arms. "We should probably bring her somewhere safe until we can turn her over to the authorities."

Avel closed his eyes and nodded. "Good idea." He glanced down at the wreckage and noticed the piece of twist and burnt metal jabbed into the ground. "Ooh. That…looks like your baton."

Wyatt laughed awkwardly. "Maybe Pandora can make me a better one." He carefully stepped out of the crater and walked along the ash-covered ground. "Heh."

"Hmm? What?"

"Nothing. It's just…" He grinned at his brother. "Look at how much stronger we've gotten."

Avel blinked in surprise before chuckling quietly. "Why are you so surprised? Stop stating the obvious."