-Equus, Airship Mauled, The Witch’s Fare, Evening, Spitfire-
“Okay where’s your annoying wife and why hasn’t she bugged me to chase her in a while?” I couldn’t believe I was actually asking about or even worried about Jaded ‘Freaking’ La Perm, something was wrong with my head I know it!
What beings that Jaded bugged constantly would be worried about her of all Abyssinians?! She was annoying as all get out and even Rainbow Dash, who was one of her friends, was easily annoyed by the smarmy smiling rogue.
“Ah, a crazy cat lady is driving you insane by not being around, classic.” I believe that was the Abyssinian named Capper Dapperpaws, sitting across from him was Rarity Belle, nothing unusual about that.
“Yes, well, what do you expect when Jaded isn’t around raising havoc as much as Pinkie Pie on a bad day?” Apparently Rarity knew what Jaded was up to at the moment.
“She’s in Saddle Arabia again isn’t she?” I said dully.
“If she is, then I’m literally building a doghouse just for her to sleep in. If she sends Snickers to do something, then I’ll just be upset with her and chide her about being a bad influence on her sweet little familiar.” Ah, leader of the guard and Storm Queen herself, Fizzlepop ‘Tempest’ Berrytwist La Perm. The unicorn that was insane enough to marry a really charming chimera and the world’s most annoyingly cheeky Abyssinian.
“Baaa-~!” A tiny ewe barely managed to climb up onto the table and was smiling at Fizzle.
“You’re familiar explains so much about you…” Everyone knows what having a tiny ewe as a familiar meant.
“I still don’t understand how having a tiny ewe as a familiar makes me a pervert.” As she said this she held up a cherry tomato to the smiling ewe and it ate it in an adorable manner. “Also is Jaded like a highlight of your month or something, you really need to get out more and make some friends if Jaded is managing to worm her way into being your number one adversary when she’s already got the entirety of Saddle Arabia for that.”
“Isn’t that rather ironic advice coming from you?” My dull tone was met with an even duller look from Fizzlepop.
“Yes, it is, but I’m quite over the issues I’ve caused in the past.” Said the hard flanked mare who managed to take all of Canterlot with barely less than a quarter of the forces she brought to bear against it. Heck she only needed twenty Storm Creatures to take Canterlot, she needed thirty to hold it. “Also if my cuddle kitty is anywhere other than Meadow Hills right now, she knows that I’ll be waiting right here for her to try and explain herself.”
-Meadow Hills, Jaded La Perm-
A spine chill, aching left shoulder, right ear twitch, heart clench, the taste of purple…
“Oh come on Fizzy, I’m not nearly that bad!” I then went back to drawing a plan in crayon on how I was going to affect Saddle Arabia from here without actually going there.
Let’s see… I needed a golf ball, five gallons of nacho cheese, some lederhosen, a magical wind flute…
I stopped for a moment to take a look at the lambkin ram that was looking at me.
I shrugged and they shrugged too, we both went about our businesses.
Sure I was dressed like a ninja, but apparently I was being so low key about spying on the lambkin that they wouldn’t freak out or panic like crazy.
I’m pretty sure Twilight Sparkle would completely freak out to learn that I figured out my own version of Pinkie sense, however, it was incredibly and very specific to the people I love and care about.
-Pokémon Realm, Ransei Region, Illusio, Cerebrum City, Upper Tier, Within the Prison Compound walls, Pom-
I barely had two minutes left of ‘haste’ and I’ve already taken down sixty Pokémon, there were at least one hundred more within the prison walls and a few of them were going into the prison itself while ignoring my rampage.
With one of my jumps to kick off a wall and an overhead punch of my left hoof into the eye of a Sigilyph I saw many more Pokémon outside the prison walls. I was never going to be able to deal with them all before ‘haste’ wears out.
I’ve been hit twice and my muscles were quickly wearing down from constant Dancing Flame and my wool boosting my abilities. Even when I was pacing myself, my wool does not protect from purely energy based attacks that psychic types are known for. Does help that I nearly had my bones crunched earlier by the two Meowstics.
I rode the Sigilyph to the ground and then kicked off into the nearest wobbuffet, it would be dumb of me to attack them with an energy based attack. I just had to knock them out in one hit, if I hit them with an energy attack then they’d reflect a ranged attack with more power back at me.
To no one’s wonder, I was being exceptionally careful around the Wobbuffet, at least Destiny Bond didn’t work. My bond with Dolly apparently superseded the effects of the Destiny Bond move, though Dolly did mentally say she needed to act to block it.
I turned away from the Wobbuffet and started to back away a bit while glaring down the approaching Drowzee.
I growled, but tried not to let this increased aggression go to my head, even then I had to keep mauling Pokémon until people could get out of the prison.
One of the six Drowzee on approaching was suddenly struck by a glowing metallic shine coming from Mundo’s wing and it was followed by Shine erupted out of the shadows and sending three of them flying before she dove back down.
“Go stop anymore from getting into the prison building!” I pointed out the entrance that several Pokémon were attempting to go through and were struck with a ball of exploding shadows, launched by an angry looking Cleffa. “Is this really a place she should be right now? GROUND UPPER!”
Sure Cleffa was really knocking out a number with those shadowy spheres of energy, but she couldn’t have too much energy to help in the fight in the long run.
As I asked my question as I dodged around glowing fist from a Drowzee and placed the back of my hoof on the ground and then raised it straight up while shifting the wool around my hoof to stop being mostly frictionless. My hoof ignited and blasted the Drowzee into the air, I quickly reapplied the frictionless feeling to my wooly wolf shaped muscle enhancements around my right hoof.
“No, but where else would we put her?” Shine stated with a smile as she started to run towards the entrance.
“We shall watch after her to the best of my abilities.” Lucha Mundo quickly scooped up Cleffa with his wing cape and followed after Cleffa. “You continue letting loose you’re frustrations on everyone out here, I’m fairly sure this is a sign of you bottling up your problems!”
It was just the ‘haste’ haze that I was acting like a mauling beast… right? I didn’t really have time to stop and think as I had used the ‘Ground Upper’ to get onto my hind legs. I had a Drowzee behind me and in front of me, this prison yard was certainly getting crowded by all the Pokémon coming in.
I held out my front legs to both my sides and spun counterclockwise in a tight circle letting loose a powerful sweeping pair of magical claw attacks as I did so. The spinning double magical claw lariat took down the Drowzee and a Woobat I hadn’t seen sneaking up on me.
I had about one minute of haste left, I better make it worthwhile.
-Between Dark Cellblock and Reception, close to Reception, Shanty-
“I am surprised that we even be getting you up the stairs.” I stated to Espurr and he nodded to me, the guards noticed and pretty much stated they didn’t be wanting this guy to be being anywhere near the Sleeper Cellblock.
“I’m still surprised… that I’m actually out of my cell.” He responded as well, we heard a blast of water from behind us spraying out, apparently the Araquanid be watching our backs. His wide purple seemed to be staring off into the distance. “The Sleepers Cellblock… need to get to the sleepers.”
As we continued forward we be hearing fighting ahead from the other Araquanid as it slammed its head forward and its heavy water bubble bashed a Wobbuffet into a wall a wall out of the hallway we were exiting. It then be spraying a powerful scalding hot stream of water and several Woobat shrieks were heard.
Dazzle, Quetal and the Morpeko quickly hurried forward and started firing off attacks towards the entrance. I be peeking around the corner of the hallway entrance to the room and saw a lot more Pokémon coming in.
“We’ll help the Araquanid hold them here!” Quetal be saying before spraying a massive amount of stars out of his mouth at some Hypno.
“The Sleeper Cellblock warden? Stop them!” Several Hypno pointed out as Favela and I be escorting the warden through the room.
The Hypno that shouted this was hit by an explosion of shadows knocking them to the floor, a second later and two flashes bashed two of the Hypnos into the walls revealing the two Leavanny had blindsided them.
Following their appearance three small wheels covered in darkness rammed into the Drowzee and be bowling them all over.
The Woobat that were about to launch attacks from close to the ceiling were soon blasted into the floor when a figured exploded from the ceiling spinning and smashing the nearby Woobat with their pink fist.
With a flip Shine landed on the floor and be striking a dynamic pose. She just took out five of the nine encroaching Woobat.
“Flying Press!” The other Woobat were slammed into the wall from my left, so that would be being… the right side. This was followed up by Lucha Mundo flipping after rebounding off the wall and then he be slamming down on top of the four of them and pinning them to the floor painfully. “Hello friends fancy meeting you here!”
I be shaking my head and turning to see the Purrloin helping the limping form of the warden Espurr towards the Sleepers Cellblock.
“Come on Favela!” I motioned with my hoof to get Favela’s attention as I started down the hallway after them.
-Quetal-
Shanty and Favela were going to keep an eye on the warden, I turned back to the rest of our friends. Dolly was sitting on her board and calmly petting Lit and the little bug seemed to be enjoying the attention.
“We’ll hold position here, what’s it like out there? There’s a bit of a riot going on in here.” Kind of an understatement.
“Its pure chaos out there Quetal, hundreds of Pokémon… maybe a third of Gilgamesh’s forces are surrounding the prison. We wouldn’t have been able to sneak in if Kenshin hadn’t drawn a lot of attention to himself and Pom is trying to keep them away from this Prison building, she is really pushing herself hard out there.” Okay so Pom was here and she was doing fine, thanks for the knowledge Shine. I would say I’ve taken a Shine to her, but we both know that would be a bit out of character for me. “What’s going on in here?”
“Pom’s infiltration team successfully started a prison break.” I quickly got Shine up to speed on what I knew, which wasn’t much, but it was enough with Dazzle to corroborate her side of things with Dodo eating his way through the walls in the Sleepless Cellblocks.
-Sleeper Cellblock, Shanty-
“Ocellus!” I was so glad to see she was okay, but she looked to be concentrating on something so hard she hadn’t heard me.
“Hrm… she’s a novice, but she’s not doing too horrible. Wait a moment and set me down guys.” Espurr be moved into a sitting position and he looked to be concentrating as the Purrloin backed away from him. “We Espurr and Meowstic don’t specialize in putting Pokémon to sleep, but in particular I’m quite good at waking up those who are sleeping, my specialty is in manipulating the dream realm. I just have to wait for her to finish.”
Gasping Ocellus finally be backing up and rubbing at her head next to her horn with her right hoof and then she paused and turned to us, I be waving merrily to her and she waved back with a weak smile. Behind her the Araquanid be standing up and looking around in distress, it soon be creating a bubble of water around its head and be looking to us.
“Hey you, get moving down that way, be helping our friends would you?” Without saying much of anything aside from nodding to me, the Araquanid made for the exit. This Cellblock had a lot of unmoving, but still breathing bodies lying around.
“You’re a novice potential, but you’ve been quite decent at waking the few that you have. Let me take care of waking the rest of them for you.” Espurr be closing his eyes and looked to be concentrating quite a bit. “Give me a minute to do so…”
“Hey Ocellus, are you alright, you don’t be looking too happy.” I walked up and gave her an affectionate hug and then I realized that I didn’t see someone. “Wait… where’s Smolder?”
“She was taken…” As much as a frown is being seen on her face, a frown be forming on mine at hearing this news.
That was not being good, I can already be telling how Pom is going to react to hearing this.
-Outside the Prison Compound, Kenshin Himura: Rebel Leader-
My Fury Cutter slashed through a Hypno, despite the power of my Fury cutter increasing with every successful hit, I still have yet to kill anyone. I have been controlling the angles of my slashes expertly and only cutting what I wanted to cut.
My kindness will let them continue living after the current combat, provided they survive the issues that are coming to Cerebrum City. I’ve taken out seventy five of their number, my arms a blow of motion as I slashed and cut my through entire units by myself.
Never slowing down, never giving them time to attack me and using all my skill to draw their ire away from the one I could sense was fighting on the other side of the wall with all of her might. I could feel her potential and the damage she was doing to herself as she pushed beyond her limits with every breath and it was having a negative effect on her body.
I had to keep up the pace and make sure to defeat every adversary I can if I wanted to acquire the help of the rescue team leader, the Wobbuffet were the tricky ones I was trying to avoid until I’ve dealt with the other surrounding enemies.
-Reception room, Dolly-
Man this day was getting to me, I also felt several attempts to mess with our bond, but I stopped those attacks with Dormarch’s help.
As I sat here watching the guys hold the front next to the cocooned upside down Meow Wow thing, I tried to gain some of my energy back. Things were quite hectic around here.
Suddenly the world shook and I felt a pulse coming from the direction of… what was it again? The Sleepy Block?
“What was that?” I saw Quetal turn and look as some more enemies started coming through the entrance, I hopped up and threw my bone.
I bounced off a whiffle bats nose and came back to my paw.
“Can we worry about it later, we’re kind of in the middle of a siege here!” Dazzle looked behind her and noticed a third Araquanid. “We’re getting a trickle of help, so we should be able to hold out until we’re ready to leave.”
“Dazzle, didn’t you say the cellblock you came from has people that need to be freed? We need to work on that then!” Wrestler bird was immediately dragging the two leavies and little cleft with him.
“Ugh…” Flinching, I felt another attack on our bond, but I dealt with it easily. Pom must find those blue guys as annoying as I currently do.
-Sleeper Cellblock, Ocellus-
“Wow…” All the sleeping bodies, all the dreaming emotions suddenly became livelier as a lot of Pokémon start to wake up all around us. I turned to the grey furred cat with the purple eyes they brought in here and he looked quite weak.
“Wow, boss sure did what he said he would.” One of the two purple felines cradling him stated with a sad tone. “He needs medical help after exerting himself like that.”
“Give us some time and we can find someone to help him with whatever is wrong.” I responded and then heard the sound of a familiar set of wings flapping.
“Where are we Ocellus?” Ninjask flew up to me, having been the first to fully regain his senses among those who were put into a deep sleep that was hard to wake up from.
“We’re in the Upper Tier of Cerebrum City, eastern side at the prison.” I went on to explain what just happened and why he was surrounded by well rested Pokémon that probably needed something to eat or drink after having been asleep for so long.
“I take it we need to get ourselves in gear, okay listen up everyone!” Ninjask landed on the last Araquanid here. “We need those of you who can fight to get up and start moving, we have to break out of here and get most of you that can’t to safety.”
“Why should we listen to you?” Said a strange grey pig head creature with a pearl on it, with a spring tail that started bouncing in place and two little arms.
“I’m part of a Chrysalia investigation team, from what I’m seeing here, things have gone downhill quite gravely here from what I’ve seen.” Ninjask pointed at the bouncing pig thing. “Also do you know how long you’ve actually been in this place? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to stick around.”
“… Okay, we’ll listen to you!” Said the bouncing pig with a suddenly smiling face.
“That’s what I thought, okay give us a rundown of our situation and we’ll see what we can do from there.” Ninjask turned to Shanty, Favela and I, Shanty moved forward to explain, after he heard what was happening he looked at the Espurr. “We’ll get him medical attention ASAP, I’m sure there’s a Pokémon or some supplies around here that can help him.”
-About this time, Pom-
There was a crack, I was in the middle of the air when I felt it and new what it meant.
I immediately inflated my wool, slowed down and flipped to slam into the ground on my back as the red haze from the aggression fell away as did the incredible speed boost of Dolly’s ‘Haste’ spell wore out on me.
I quickly rolled to the side and was on my hooves as the ground erupted with a psychic blast where I was, I quickly had to come to a decision as I took one last inhale and exhaled harshly. After this I was dropping my Dancing Flame, because I could no longer sustain it and I trusted my wool shifting ability to enhance me enough to avoid the Psychic Type attacks as I retreated past the numerous bodies, I left out cold or in agony on the ground, with a single backwards bound.
I hopped back several more times at a tenth the speed I had been moving and avoided several blasts from several batches of what looked like several groups of six eggs with faces as they fired several blasts my way.
Woobat, Hypno, Drowzee, what I assume to be the evolved form of Woobat, those eggs in unusual batches of six, A few Wobbuffet and even a few Meowstic were showing up and flooding the inner prison yard through the open entrance. I could even see a Golduck or two.
I backed away while frowning, my muscles were on fire and my body had handled worse than this, but I had to pace myself now or else I’ll never get to face Gilgamesh.
My mind was so very tired of having to put up with stuff like this, I couldn’t go out fighting or win this fight alone.
“Help…” I weakly called out, my voice was a bit hoarse from one too many bark blasts and busters spat out at a rapid pace.
My opponent’s eyes started glowing and they were preparing their psychic attacks for a heavy bombardment. I tried to firm up a resolve I didn’t have and looked behind me at the entryway to processing and reception in the prison, I had to hold on.
-Cotton-
Looks like I wasn’t needed here after all, I had to plan some moves again. Things here were going to be fine here thanks to the rebel leader.
“Gyeh-heh-heh… if hadn’t been for me Illusio would have been long destroyed you see, but what can I say, what would they know, nobody needs to currently hear from good old Cotton Murkrow~.” I dipped back into the shadows with a grin on my beak, what more could I do though?
-Pom-
“Exeggcute!” The six eggs at the front said in unison and they all started to fire off their attacks at the same time.
“Ryumeisen!” An explosion of noise made me wince as something broke the sound barrier, but I kept my eyes open as a figure stood in the middle of the now various disoriented Psychic Types.
Said figure jumped and landed in front of me on two legs, I looked up at him and he looked to the left and down at me with blazing red eyes. The lower half of his body was white, the upper half was green, there was some kind of red spike in the center of his body, his head had a damaged blue crest sticking up from it and an X-shaped scar on his face.
I glanced at the Psychic Types which seemed paralyzed or stunned by what he just did, he had his blade pulled out and he slammed it into his sheathe. He didn’t even attack anyone with it, he just stunned them with the explosive force.
“…” I continued to look into his eyes and then at the sword with a bit of scrutiny. “You’re kind.”
He flinched, shivered and seemed a bit upset by what I said.
“You’ve quite the intuition my new friend. I’m Kenshin Himura… leader of the rebels.” He smiled weakly at me and I could tell a lot of things in that smile.
“I’m sorry for asking this, but… how many have you killed?” There was a solemn expression on his face when I asked this.
“Today? Thankfully none. I’d rather move forward with my life and not be held down by a pitch black past.” Kenshin answered and he turned his gaze forward.
“I’m Pom Lambchop, nice to meet you, wish it were under better circumstances.” I sighed audibly.
“I too wish it were under better circumstances.” He too sighed audibly like I did, I felt something of a kinship with this guy. I felt that life had kicked him around as much as it has me. “It’s a pleasure to make you’re acquaintance then Ms. Lambchop.”
“Actually I’m a ‘Mrs.’, I’m married to someone I hope to speak to after retrieving what was stolen from me by Gilgamesh… it is currently the only way to contact my significant other.” Hearing what I just said, Kenshin frowned. I quietly mumbled to myself. “I really should make sure my marital status isn’t forgotten.”
What I was afraid of was what Tianhuo would think when she found out about my life expectancy, especially at the rate things were going.
Seeing a familiar glow start to travel up my leg, I gripped my right leg with my left hoof and gritted my teeth. The golden glow slowly crawling up my right leg died out and was pushed back down. I had to keep that completely under control through sheer force of will.
“Gilgamesh much to answer for.” Kenshin brought up his curve blade edged arms with extended elbows and they started glowing green once all the Psychic Types started getting their bearings to start targeting us. “Whatever that golden glow was seemed to be causing you immense emotional pain and stress, I hope you can fight even if it intends to get in the way since it seems detrimental despite looking so beautiful.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ve still got plenty of kick in me. It’s… just something I’ll have to deal with eventually in one way or another. If you think the golden glow is beautiful, then it’s probably best that I don’t tell you what having it entails.” The process felt like it couldn’t be stopped once ignited, I didn’t know for sure if I could stop it forever. It could be controlled and I was going to keep it under control, my life kind of depended on it. “Also I might need some professional healing and a long talk with my spiritual therapist that we probably don’t have time for when it comes to dealing with Gilgamesh’s forces and Gilgamesh himself.”
“We’ll have to survive here first… I intend to make that happen.” As he said this Kenshin took up a stance and I prepared one myself.
I had run myself a bit a ragged already and needed some rest, at last count I’ve dealt with and taken down approximately one hundred and forty seven Pokémon in the five minutes I was under the effects of ‘Haste’. Still had numerous more to go and I had to rely on my normal ability and wool boosted enhancements of speed and some strength.
My throat was a bit hoarse and my body was in pain from the few hits I did take, mind you my endurance couldn’t match my stamina. Said stamina was slightly better than my ability to take pain. So I was in trouble… I felt the flow of the world change around me, Dolly was lending me her Flowing Motion ability, which is going to be quite helpful.
At this point all the Psychic Types fully recovered from whatever ‘Ryumeisen’ was and didn’t seem too damaged by it, now they were starting towards us together while charging their attacks.
I started to run forward and Kenshin started moving as well then attacks started flying our way, however they were horribly innacurate, I wondered what was wrong with the Sigilyph… they had Miracle Eye right?
A ball of shadows flew past me and explode into a few Woobat and what I assumed to be a Dark Type wolf directly applied itself to the Sigilyph’s eye and started gnawing on it viciously. Blasts of scalding hot water bombarded the Pokémon in front of us.
I win into a slide utilizing my left hip and my wools near frictionless nature and slammed my rear hooves up into the chin of a Drowzee as I popped up and then lashed out a swirling powerful right hook into the face of a Hypno behind them.
A whip of fire slapped into the six egg shaped monster group about to attack me and they were taken out immediately.
“Exeggcute, grass psychic types, don’t worry about them, I’ve got them handled!” Dazzle said as she showed up. So wait, those eggs were actually seeds? Huh, neat. Also my friends were showing up and turning the tide.
“Freedom from the nightmare!” Roared out a Pokémon who, was coming from our side, looked like a floating wind chime with a yellow antenna, a small white body with two limbs and a long flat tail like tassel sticking out below them.
The shockwaves from its shouting that slammed into the crowd of Woobat, the damage was good, but the effect didn’t seem to bother them as much because they were more nose than ears.
“Don’t stand there in a daze Pom!” Called out Quetal as he suddenly launched himself into a Drowzee from out of nowhere taking it down in several leaping claw swipes with Aerial Ace, he also blasted a few Woobat with Swift star blasts.
I quickly darted forward and saw Kenshin mash his way through several Pokémon with a particular shade of glowing green encompassing his arms that reminded me of Bug Types.
Turning to the nearest Pokémon I planted my left hind hoof and swung out with my right hind leg to kick a Woobat into a Wobbuffet, the end result was the Wobbuffet countering the Woobat and not me.
Having seen this several of the people and my friends that came to help me gained devious looks as they stared down the remaining Wobbuffet. They started doing their best to knock the other Pokémon into them and stop the Shadow Tag effect they were trying to use to pin someone down.
I was one of the ones that got pinned for a few seconds before Shine blasted out of some shadows and knocked some Pokémon into the Wobbuffet that got me and broke the Shadow Tag that locked me into having to be near it.
I immediately leapt and slashed a few Woobat out of the air with my magical claw swipes, with a combined effort and ever increasing help coming from within the prison, we started to gain ground against the hundreds of Pokémon still left.
The numerous Pokémon still looking for a fight were getting wiped out under the building forces trying to completely take over the prison and Kenshin was taking them down incredibly fast with every attack and I was falling back. I’m somewhat spent and I was soon joined by Dolly who set herself up in front of me with her board held up defensively.
“How are you feeling Pom?” You know you could just feel how bad off I was Dolly. “Yeah, but I want to hear you actually tell me.”
“I’m tired, exhausted, I wish could relax and not have to follow through with actually having to kill someone… but with the way things are going and how things are run under him considering what’s been happening in this prison, Gilgamesh is really asking for a dethroning.” It felt awful to be me at the moment, then again I’ve been on the wrong end of a trauma congo line for quite a while and I’m still surprisingly able to maintain the idea of who I am versus who I’m being force to be.
“Let’s go take a break Pom, you need it…” After saying this Dolly threw the bone and knocked an evolved Woobat out of the air and caught the bone in her right paw when it rebounded back. “Sounding so much like Dylan right now, do you think I’m responsible or being too uptight?”
“Dolly you’re fine the way you are… as for me, I wish I was fine with what I’m becoming.” I felt the itch of that golden anti-magic glow and pressed down on it harshly trying to crush my heritage out of existence. It didn’t succeed in the slightest, I was still a Lambkin Chrysomallus and I don’t think all the well-wishing would stop it as I back away towards the processing hallway towards reception with Dolly stay in front of me defensively.
“Is she being okay?” Shanty asked as she and Favela showed up to protect us.
Dolly shook her head no when I went to open my mouth and respond, I sighed as we retreated inside. I slowly shifted my wool back to armor mode, as useful as that was around here when most attacks were energy based and not magical…
Shanty and Favela followed while several more Pokémon surged out and joined the battle at the gate, I should be out there giving it my all too… but… I was here hiding and not helping. I felt kind of awful about it and leaving it to others, but I’m relieved that I didn’t have to fight for a while.
“Misery loves company Pom and Gilgamesh already made his next move to really get your dander up, I’ve already figured out what his plan is.” Ocellus looked fairly miserable.
“Why? What is Gilgamesh going to do?” I felt something clench in my heart, there’s Ocellus, Shanty… Dodo was reported to be nearby… where’s Smolder?! Oh no… he wouldn’t… he couldn’t… he probably did and I honestly started feeling a somewhat boundless cold fury about it.
“Well…” Ocellus started, but I held up a hoof.
I already had an idea what he had planned.
“He has Smolder right?” My question as met with a nod from Ocellus and looked at those present. “Given how susceptible Smolder is to psychic energy… how long could you say Smolder has left to live with a case of malnourishment via lack of a major diet of gems and jewels provided she’s forcefully been turned into a giant dragon? I also need to know how fast I would I have to beat her into submission to save her life, if you can even calculate such a thing Ocellus.”
“… less than twenty four hours, sixteen if we’re talking minimal time Smolder might have if it’s as bad as I think it is…” Yeah, that… Ocellus…
“So I have to fight Smolder, save her, fight whatever other plans Gilgamesh has in the way before we can get up to the Castle of Illusion and then fight him in what has to be an impossible struggle to fight a ungodly powerful enemy who could have killed us all if he starts actively taking us seriously as a threat.” When I put it like that everyone around me winced. “Not only that, but Gilgamesh expects us to succeed or die trying, because he wants to make or force heroes to be forged from the fires of adversity to save the day…”
“Pom…” Ocellus wilted, looking lost without Smolder here to be sarcastic or protective.
“We’re going expecting a full sized dragon problem… once that we have to deal with in less than a day and then get to medical help.” I said in response while nodding with my eyes closed. “We’re going to need eight of those hours to rest and get some sleep, then the next few upon waking to work out a plan…”
“Pom?” Shanty seemed worried, she should be.
-???-
Pom opened her eyes and a red sparkle appeared in them and gold ringed her eyes for a few seconds, one made of madness from an enraged fighting spirit awakening. She slowly raised her hoof and a gold glow started building on it.
“Pom you don’t have to…” Ocellus tried to say as she moved up to her.
“So… Gilgamesh wants heroes?” Pom said with an air of finality as she mentally snapped. “Instead I’ll give him a true monster that he’ll have to try hard to even begin to stop… one that would sacrifice almost anything for those she cares about without limitation.”
A beast was going to fight a beast, she just needed eight hours of sleep, a reviver seed and a lot of Sitrus Berries to be ready for the coming conflict.
Dolly sat there staring at Pom with fear in her eyes as Pom just mentally decided that, when the moment came, she would embrace her canine nature and Chrysomallus nature at the same time and not care about her sanity any further.
Pom was going to sacrifice whatever remained of her ‘functional sanity’ to save Smolder.
Ocellus calmly, pulled out the ribbon Smolder left in her care and tied it around her horn and stared at Pom as she went to sit in a corner facing away from everyone and looked to be taking a meditative position. Dolly dutifully taking a seat at her side with a notably worried expression.
The changeling noted that she could no longer feel Pom's anxiety and something was very wrong with her.
-Origin Space, Bahamut-
“…” I sat there wide eyed wondering if the Chrysomallus could really fight dragon on equal ground, the situation with Lu Bu growing within Moon Cell was a horror show and things were proceeding apace as we sat here and watched.
Sure Smolder wasn’t a conceptual dragon like the ones that Moon Cell has seen before, but it was still going to be a horribly one sided fight.