Third move
Piercing the heavens
Unknown place
Weiss’ location
Weiss never had reasons to distrust his tactical commander, not that the Metagross ever lied but he was very professional and serious about certain things, and this one qualified as such “How do you know?” finally asked Weiss, unable to keep his curiosity and anxiety away.
With a deep voice, Xavier answered “First is the sky.” His entire body pointed up. “There are no man made satellites.” Weiss knew at least a thousand reasons for that, many involving the legendary, evil teams and evil teams using a legendary, but he let Xavier continue. “Next is the air.” Now Xavier motioned one of its massive legs around them. “It is unnaturally clean, with no trace of artificial CO2 in it at all.”
It was common sense that pollution hadn’t been a problem for decades thanks to the development of cleaner energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines, but to go from that to having absolutely no smog or pollution in the blink of an eye was simply unthinkable. But again, Weiss figured it might have been something the legendary Pokemon had done, mainly Legendaries like Celebi and Shaymin. “Finally, there is this.” Linking his mind with Weiss, Xavier showed him what appeared to be a starry sky at a very high altitude. ‘No wonder you fell so hard,’ Weiss thought. “The stars are different, not as in different alignment caused by the flow of time, but as in they ‘are’ different celestial bodies. And the only explanation I can think of is that… ” the image disappeared and Xavier pointed his ‘angry’ eyes at Weiss.
Weiss knew the answer already.
“We aren’t in Kalos anymore.”
“… uhm…” The now Bisharp remained silent for a minute, only to spring back up. “Well we can’t whimper over this forever! I am a Pokemon and we are in a different word, but that isn’t important!” exclaimed Checkmate’s leader, his attitude back in place.
“You mean the whereabouts of the rest of the team?” finished Xavier while Weiss smiled, amongst all the members of Checkmate, the shiny always understood him the most.
‘It must be those four brains’ he thought. “You know it! We need to regroup first, then we see what to do from there, it’s not like it is going to be that hard, right?” added Weiss with a triumphant smirk.
Xavier, however, didn’t share his enthusiasm. “About that...” –he pointed up again– “No satellites, remember?”
It took a few seconds for the information to kick into Weiss’ brain, but once it did... “Well fuck!”
“Normally I would prefer more proper ways to exclaim our current predicament, but yeah, those two words do explain our situation quite accurately,” the Psychic-type calmly acknowledged. “I can still feel them, though at a certain distance”
“Well this isn’t that bad then,” said the former human with a brighter look. “How far is your range now?”
“About a mile,” deadpanned Xavier
~sigh~ “… still better than nothing,” admitted Weiss as he jumped over the Metagross’ huge head, which was most of his body actually, and comfortably sat on it “So, where to?”
“You may want to wait,” pointed the shiny, not seeming to mind his new passenger, “I can sense some of them close by.”
“Already!” exclaimed Weiss in surprise. “How did they find us so quickly?”
“I am a silver flying saucer with a golden ‘X’ on the middle of my face. I am not precisely hard to miss,” retorted the shiny with dry sarcasm.
“Oh…yeah, right, dumb from my part –ahem– so when will they arrive?”
“They are at the edge of the forest” At this mention, Weiss looked up and noticed the meadow they were in which was surrounded by a thick forest, which also surrounded a huge mountain range in the distance. Weiss focused back on the forest.
“Huh, and where are they…? Oh wait, there they are!” As soon Weiss placed his eyes at the forest, three shadows leapt out the trees, rushing towards them. “Wait…” Then the Bisharp noticed something a bit odd. “Xavier…? By any chance have you made contact with them yet?” they weren’t running towards them, but charging.
“Negative” said back Xavier.
“Because I think they think I’m attacking you.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Well, there are a couple of reasons, but mainly one.” The three pokemon were closing the distance quickly. “That being the killer intent they aren’t even trying to hide,” deadpanned the leader. “So I would really thank you if you could fill them in ASAP!”
Not losing time, Xavier’s mind connected with the others and told them as much of the situation as fast as possible.
The three pokemon stopped mere moments of reaching them, their gazes fixated at the Bisharp with confusion and disbelief. After a few seconds of silence a thickly accented female voice exclaimed, “QUÉ PASO QUE!?”
Griffin Ruins
Daring’s location
Daring Do and Shredder had been running inside the ruins nonstop while looking for an exit for the last couple of minutes. Avoiding a few traps along the way, Daring noticed how the Dogs had been diligently working on removing them. This was beneficial for them as it made their running easier. And to Do’s surprise, the metallic creature turned out to be able to keep up with her.
“So, may I incur what is the general situation right now?” asked Shredder, “besides the whole ‘I’ve somehow awoken in an unknown region’.”
“Empire,” Daring corrected. “This is the Griffin Empire, and right now I am just here to retrieve and return something these puppies stole from a friend’s museum.” Here, the mare patted her hat. “The retrieving part is already done, but it’s the return that is having a bit of a delay”
Shredder knew of these kinds of situations thanks to previous missions, so there was little to ask about the item itself. “Stolen good huh, an ancient artifact of sorts?” ventured the pokemon
“You bet.”
“Seems mystical?”
“It even shines.”
“And they want to use it in order to activate/revive/open/summon yet another complicated thing or being?”
“You sure know this game.”
“I think the expression ‘comes with the job’ fits better,” replied Shredder as they ran into a door being guarded by what Shredder could only call two small, hairless Pangoros wearing armor on the other side. “I see a path past them,” noted the Bisharp. “What do we do?”
Daring thought about their choices. “There may be another way around but it could take us too long.” Time wasn’t something they wanted to lose in an unknown territory filled with enemies, and though she could take care of one of the guards, the other would either take care of her or bring more dogs into the fight. But then she remembered she had a new companion and asked, “Say, you can properly handle yourself in a fight, right?” The smile she got back was all she needed to know as she readied the weapon under her wing.
What happened next lasted a couple of instants. Daring used her whip to distract the guardians. The two bulky diamond dogs, hearing a sudden whiplash right between them, turned their heads in fright. And before they could face them, both girls projected themselves through the archway and toward the Dogs, Daring bucking one unconscious and the other being restrained by Shredder’s right arm while her left one pulled a big blade out of it and would have sliced the dog’s neck if it weren’t for Daring’s intervention.
“WHAT THE HAY DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!” exclaimed the explorer with of horror.
Shredder simply replied, “Taking care of the guard…?” a bit of confusion in her voice as she kept the dog under her grip so he was unable to move or whimper, let alone scream.
“And why would you do that?” inquired back Do, not letting go of Shredder’s arm.
“So we have less to worry about… but I presume you incur this act as…” the Bisharp doubted for a second and then ventured, “bad…right?”
“OF COURSE IT’S BAD!” screamed Daring Do again, muffling herself as soon as she finished and hoping she wasn’t heard.
“Okay then, if this is how you do things, I will follow your ways.” The sword blade Pokemon then retrieved her ‘appendage’ calming the Diamond Dog and Daring who in turn let go of her arm. Yet as soon Shredder was free she slammed her elbow right into the canine’s jaw, rendering it unconscious in the act, and in the need of an immobilizer collar for a year.
“… I guess that is better,” said Daring dryly, a bit surprised of Shredder’s level of aggression, but happy that she also knew how to behave, or at least to follow orders.
“This is strange,” said Shredder adamantly.
“What? Not wanting you to kill someone?” Daring snapped, “Well excuse me you crazy psycho!”
“Not that,” replied Shredder, not seeming to care. “You should have alarmed the rest of the guards with your screams a second ago, yet no one has reported as of yet.”
“Oh… now that you mention it.” Daring listened carefully at the many noises the Diamond Dogs were making all over the ruins. They sounded more active than before, but they no longer seemed to be looking for her. In fact, they sound confused and scared. “It sounds as though they are fending against something else, friends of yours maybe?” asked Do to the Pokemon.
“I would like to hope so, but my team isn’t this noisy.” She did know her team after all, especially the kind of noise they could make. “And if they were all loud, we would be hearing them clearly, not this faintly.”
“Still, we can use this chance and look for a way out without being too cautious, let’s go!” And so they continued running, Shredder still beside her.
As the pair ran through the hallways, Daring noticed something strange. The ruins seemed to suddenly have new fauna that she hadn’t seen before: there were flocks of blind blue bats annoyingly flying all over, some sort of bug with mushrooms clinging on their backs, a kind of mole running-ehm-digging? around alone or in groups of three and what appeared to be “A moving blue rock?!”
This earned her a frown and a step away from Shredder as if she had just seen a pastel colored Ponyta with wings “Yeah, it is a Roggenrola,” she said as simply as explaining that light came from the sun.
“Wait, you know what that is? What all of these are?” again a frown came from the Bisharp followed close by a more comprehensive expression.
“Oh… right, you’re ignorant of what we Pokemon are.” It was still a foreign concept for Shredder as she pointed at the blind bats “Those are Zubats, the bug there is a Paras and the digging creatures are Diglett and Dugtrio, all of these creatures are Pokemon as well.”
“You are related to them?” ask Do, a more confused expression on the explorer’s face.
“No we are not, well… so I think…. But at the same time we aren’t… I mean…” Shredder’s head started to steam because of the excessive thinking. “… every living creature with special powers and a definable typing is what is commonly known as a Pokemon. There are various species all over the globe,” she finally got out, repeating what she read once in a thin book.
“You have no idea, do you?” deadpanned Daring Do.
“No, I do not,” the Pokemon deadpanned back.
“But I don’t understand,” continued the explorer, leaving that discussion for later. “Why are these creatures, ehm, why are you Pokemon suddenly appearing all over?”
Shredder could only give her an expression of ‘Do you really think I would know after quoting a dictionary?’ and simply kept running. “My comrades surely may be able to answer your questions, if we find them, then we can discuss it with you at your heart’s content.”
Daring smiled at the proposition “It’s a deal then.”
They suddenly reached a wide open section within the ruins, apparently the center of them. The room seemed to be an auditorium with terraces all over and what appeared to be a pedestal in the middle, which in turn held a sort of artifact aiming to the ceiling, an entrance right in the middle of it with a form Daring recognized.
“Drats!” exclaimed Do, “we are right where this thing goes. This is a trap!!” as she placed a hoof over her hat defensively.
“If that is the case then we must haste for the exit before–” before Shredder could end her line, the sound of an incoming horde could be heard from every hallway “–before the ones guarding it comes back…”
“A simple ‘this happens’ could have been enough you know?” replied Daring, a bit annoyed by Shredder’s overuse of words. Meanwhile, a horde of grayish bulky Dogs dashed into the room in a chaotic fashion, some placing shields and whatever they could find against the few doorways. The writer mare waited for enough quorum and then asked with a sonorous voice “Okay then, who is the boss here? I wanna know who the bright guy is so I know who I can talk to”
Shredder could hear the cockyness on Do’s words, but she could also feel the seriousness emanating from them ‘So this is her battle cry huh?’ wondered the Pokemon as she let her do the talking, trusting her new companion.
The dogs remained silent for a second, almost as if they were confused, until one of them exclaimed “MORE INTRUDERS!” havoc seemed to break loose within the Dog’s ranks.
To which another voice replied “Someone bring tha boss!” to both the females’ surprise. It appeared none of the Diamond Dogs had noticed them until now.
“So this wasn’t a trap?!” exclaimed Daring with disbelief, while Shredder’s newfound trust suddenly vanished.
The same Dog from before barked an order as a response, “Someone tie those two before they have time for anything!” this was done immediately with neither of them making much of a fight; they were greatly surpassed with numbers and lost the element of surprise. Oblige was their only option for now as they were restrained, Daring losing her hat to them in the process.
Ropes were placed over Shredder’s hands and Daring’s hooves and wings, and then were taken to a side of the room where another prisoner laid against the wall, ropes over its hands as well. Shredder did not care for the other as she could only glare at her captors
“What a way to blunder it. I wonder how can I fix this to look more dramatic.” Daring wondered about her upcoming book–it helped to distract her from the actual danger of their situation. When she finally noticed the other prisoner, she, without turning to see him, casually asked, “So… what did you do?” The response she get however forced her head to turn to the prisoner.
“Bish, Bi–Bisharp”
Unknown place
Weiss’ location
“… my hands are heavy, like literally heavy!” explained Weiss to the ninja pokemon, who wisely retorted.
“…”
Weiss was sitting on the ground with his arms in the air, waiting for his team to end its debating while a water blade pointed at him, the water construct been held by a large bipedal frog-like creature wearing dark blue skin on a tuxedo pattern with cream yellow front, bubbles-like protuberances on its joints and a ridiculously long tongue wrapped around his face like a scarf, the tip of which weaved to the wind. Since Greninja never talked, he was put in charge of looking after the Bisharp, and obliged diligently. The rest of the team, Pancha and Rouge, discussed a few steps away of them with Xavier.
All Weiss could do was wait and keep his tired arms up for the time being.
“So you are sure the world just changed like that? That’s just loco,” exclaimed a small creature with a thick accent, red feathers and cape-like wings covering her muscular body, a mask-like pattern over her beaked face and a big pair of yellow eyes looking at the tactician.
“The world didn’t just change Pancha,” a bipedal white rose as tall as Pancha retorted at the Hawlucha with a calm and elegant tone while wearing what looked like a mask, bouquets of red and blue flowers for hands and a long cape-like leaf covering her back in elegant fashion. “We are the ones in a different world.”
“Eso, but that still doesn’t explain how the hell we got here to begin with,” pointed out Pancha while thanking Rouge, a Roserade, for the explanation.
“That is something we can leave for latter girls, for now reuniting the team is our priority,” replied Xavier with its deep mechanical voice.
“Then why don’t you just look for them with our ‘gepe-ese’ stuff and get it over with?” asked the exasperated Hawlucha.
“I’m afraid I can’t use the GPS’ tracking as before, since I used the satellites to increase my range.” Pancha looked confused at the words Xavier used.
“That only leaves the old fashioned way of walking doesn’t it?” Pointed out the Grass-type elegantly. Pancha seemed to understand these words better.
“That seems the case. As long there is nothing covering the signal I shall be able to sense the others when in proximity”
“Then it’s a pilgrim’s life for us,” added Rouge with little excitement.
“Manta, it really sounds boring when you use those words, how about ‘a road trip’?” retorted Pancha with an energetic movement of her clawed wings.
Here another voice join the discussion. “How about you guys make up your mind about me!?” Weiss’ arms were now shaking from fatigue, a water blade poking him every time he tried to lower them.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
There was a general silence.
which Weiss broke with, “… what?”
“Darling…” Rouge started, “we knew it was you from the start.”
“It’s hard to deny the truth when it’s projected on your head like a ‘Pokewood’ movie,” continued Pancha.
“They did not kill you,” finished Xavier.
Greninja nodded.
“…then I must ask: WHY THE FUCK AM I STILL BEING HELD?!” snapped the leader, causing an innocent look to emanate from the team.
“But why else: fun!” topped off Rouge.
“… you fucking people…” was all Weiss mumbled to himself as he simply stood up while ignoring Greninja’s blade, which turn into dew as soon he pressed it hard enough “… ‘et tu Greninja?’” It is one thing being mocked by two of the prankster trio, something to be expected, but it was a different story to be mocked by the silent one. The water-type, however, simply shrugged it off.
“Before our leader deems us all mutineers,” started Xavier in a monotone, “I would suggest we head for our first clue,” and then pointed its body toward one of nearby mountains in the range. “I had a reading a few minutes ago.”
“Then we should hurry” said Weiss. He didn’t seem bothered any more. In fact, he seemed to be smiling, but from then on was serious time. “We need to get there fast so…” again he jumped into Xavier’s body and continued “I’m afraid you will have to take us there.”
“Acknowledged” said the iron leg Pokemon as he rose from the ground, folding his limbs over his body as he started to levitate. The rest of Checkmate jumped right after him, each of them riding one of Xavier’s legs. “I would suggest you not to fall.” Not waiting for a remark, the enormous pokemon used his rear legs as engines as he said, “Hyper Beam,” causing a mass of pure energy to accumulate between his limbs and suddenly erupt, slowly propelling them at an increasing speed. It wasn’t as fast as ‘fly’ but it would be faster than walking.
As they left, Weiss suddenly had the strange feeling that he was forgetting something, something very important.
Somewhere else
Yet close by
A lone Frogadier with purplish skin rose from the ground for a second time; her initial shock finally allowing her to, as she slowly looked at her now webbed feet and hands, “…” and fainted once more.
Outside a mountain
Weiss’ group
The Hyper Beam was enough to get the team to the mountain in minutes, and there they noticed (they being Xavier) what appeared to be a horde of creatures scattered around one side of the mountain, as well some holes leading inside of it.
“I count four caves...” started Xavier, “...and I can feel more minds inside of the mountain as well, and they definitely seem aggressive.” So far they had thrown five spears –plink– six spears at them.
Weiss looked at the situation, deciding it was nothing his team couldn’t handle, but the problem was they didn’t know how his other teammate was or if she has been held hostage or just fled the Pangoro-like creatures. However, Xavier also explained how he was unable to look deep into the mountain, leaving them with one option.
“Okay, we need get inside and find out who is in there.”
“We may also want to keep an eye on the doors,” added Rouge. “They may want to run away with our comrade.”
“Good point. There are four entrances and there are five of us. One of us is going to have to enter the cave and look around, so who wants to keep our hosts entertained?”
As Weiss finished his plan, Pancha abruptly suggested, “Doors for those who know how to fight!” while raising her claw.
“You know I can properly fight right?” Asked the leader, a bit hurt.
Pancha simply repeated herself “Doors for those ‘Pokemon’ who know how to fight ‘in their bodies’!!” The group seemed to agree with her, to the Bisharp’s annoyance.
“Fine, just don’t hog all the fun for yourselves, okay?” Weiss started but quickly added “Who am I kidding? Those things would be lucky to make it out the mountain.” Acknowledging Weiss, Xavier slowly passed by each cave, quickly dropping a member and then moving towards the next one; first was Greninja, then Pancha and finally Rouge. The last cave was for Xavier to watch, his mere presence scaring all the armored Pangoros into the cave.
“All clear,” said the Psychic-type as Weiss landed beside him. “Go!”
And so Weiss dashed into the mountain, barks and screams of confusion guiding him. Before the thick rock severed his mental-link, Xavier mentioned “If you take too long, we are going in after you”
Static rose on the communication at each step Weiss took, and right after a colossal doorframe, the communication was dead and the now pokemon was on its own.
Making use of his speed was apparently useless as the Pangoro-like creatures seemed to be quite fast despite their bulky bodies and heavy armors. “They are going to lock themselves up before I can get to the rest of the ruins.” The rocky walls had changed to bricks with a foundation, which made Weiss realize the temple within the mountain he was in. “I need to find a way to know if they have captured someone yet, but I can’t just run around aimlessly, I have to get into their lair... but how…”
As Weiss was considering this, he heard something coming his way–a couple of what seemed to be furry Sableye riding the hairless Pangoros.
“Good timing!” Weiss exclaimed to himself as the creatures corner him against the wall, the hairy Sableyes pointing spears at him.
“Hold it where you stand shiny one” exclaimed one of the Sableye in a surprisingly fitting voice, however it seemed to be at the edge of flinching, its companion and their rides didn’t seem to be doing better. “W-what do you seek in our lands, you and your monstrous friends?!”
As all response Weiss simply did the same thing he was doing a few minutes ago: raised his hands into the air. “I surrender!”
The Sableyes seemed confused at his words, wondering what was he saying and why was he repeating the same word over and over. Weiss didn’t take notice of this though, as he was used to being ignored by Pokemon, however, they did understand his gesture, as they quickly tied his hands up and guided him within the hallways, finally reaching an enormous room filled with more of the furless Pangoros and hairy Sableyes.
~Phew~ whistled Weiss at the amount of creatures. “Anyone would say you guys are planning something big here,” pointed the now prisoner. His captors didn’t seem to care about his words now as they pushed him around, haughty expressions over their snouts as they showed off their prey to the other Dogs, calling the rest of their own kind things like ‘weaklings’ and ‘poppers’ while loathing on their captured prey. This of course caused the rest of the dogs to venture out once more and charge towards the intruders. “Oh this can only end so well,” Weiss muttered to himself.
“Silence!” exclaimed the hairy Sableye while pushing him to one side of the room to the care of yet another furless Pangoro wearing the same armor as the rest–apparently a guard–and then left to chase more trespassers.
Weiss sat beside his guard, taking the chance to properly look at these creatures; the body was still similar to that of the daunting pokemon, but it also made him think on more canine pokemons like Growlithe and Granbull, specially on the snoring.
“Brave guard you are,” Weiss commented sarcastically to the sleeping guard.
His observations ended abruptly with the entrance of two new creatures on the room, one seeming to be a rather familiar Bisharp–although there was something missing–the other on the other hand was more impressive: a yellow Ponyta with wings!
“I didn’t know Ponyta could evolve a third time!” Before he could look closely, the room was again flooded by the canine creatures. All seemed dead tired as if they were running for their hides, this caused a smile to appear on Weiss’ face. “That’s my team alright”
Some words were exchanged between the canines and the other two Pokemon were thrown beside him, ropes over their limbs as well. A general discussion started, however it was filled of so many barks, growls and whimpers that Weiss was unable to listen to their words; however, he could sense a certain ‘deception’ on their tones, as if something wasn’t part of a deal.
Weiss thoughts were cut once more as he heard the Ponyta talking to him “So… what did you do?”
He coolly replied, “Nothing, for now,” a lot of expectation in his tone as he waited for the right moment to act. However, he received an unexpected reply.
“Okay… what is that supposed to mean?” the Ponyta’s tone was similar to that of someone seeing a couple of Electrodes mating, not sure if it’s obscene or just odd.
“What do you mean?” Weiss turned to see the Ponyta more properly, noticing she was different to the Fire Horse pokemon, even if she were a third evolution.
“That! Why do you keep repeating the same word?” the winged Ponyta asked exasperated while playing with Weiss’ face with her tied hooves.
“Let me get this straight,” pointed Weiss as he removed the hooves off his face “You don’t understand what I say?” the Ponyta made the same confused expression, although she now seemed to at least understand he was trying to say something “This is just a Tauros pile of…!”
The Ponyta only heard variants and repetitions of the same word, luckily, so she turned to the other Bisharp that was brought with her, which Weiss considered to be just another Bisharp “Hey, I have a cousin of yours here. Think you can make head or tails of what he is trying to say?”
Broken out of her glaring towards their captors, the other Bisharp turned her gaze to Weiss, the latter finally recognizing his second in command in that instant, but before he could say something she asked “So? It’s not like he can be of much help,” to the yellow Ponyta.
Weiss could feel his eye twitching on the moment his friend looked down upon himself so bluntly. “I know I may look out of shape but isn’t that a bit too rude?” Although, he recognized that tactlessness was Shred’s trademark.
At the familiar voice, Shredder turned to focus on the other Bisharp, staring deeply into his eyes. “… Is this some joke…?” was all she could ask.
“How could I joke in a moment like this?” Weiss shaked his tied arms to her.
“…” Shredder didn’t seem to be convinced, though. “Is that you, Ganger?”
“Ah! For the love of the legendary, how can you be so thick headed?” exclaimed the leader with a little tantrum.
After a moment of formal privacy, Daring decided to get back into the conversation, mostly since it seemed to be going nowhere “So I understand you can understand him, right?”
“Indeed” admitted Shredder “I think this is one of my teammates, although I don’t understand why he is using this voice.” At these words, Weiss erupted in more violent variants of his race’s name.
“Voice?” asked Do while ignorant of the profanities said in a foreign language. “What do you mean?”
“Well, he is using the voice of our team’s boss, that itself isn’t that odd though, Ganger loves to mock the boss from time to time.” Now the male Bisharp was curled on the ground in depression, “But for him to even copy his mannerism...it’s strange.”
“So this friend of yours is a Changeling?” asked the explorer while patting the depressed leader.
“I do not know what a Changeling is, but if they can transform into other beings then yes, he is something like that. It’s quite useful for our team.”
Daring noticed the word Shredder has been using until now–“team”– and the other stuff she had noticed so far. “You haven’t mentioned what kind of team this is. At first I thought you were some sort of security team, then some sort of military, but now I think you may be the mafia,” finally Daring dared to ask, tired of been ignorant for so long. “Just what the hay are you guys?”
“We are mercenaries” replied both members of Checkmate at unison, although Daring only hear ‘Bish–Bi–Bisharp’ from Weiss, not that that mattered since Daring seemed to be in shock. Normally, mercenaries worked for the bad guys; Callaberon and his henchponies had been the more notorious, and made her work so much harder and difficult, yet here she just happened to be not at the hooves but at the same circumstances with a couple of ‘mercs’, of which one was definitely violent, and for a change Daring wanted to know how did having some battle muscle under her command feel like, a curious wish that started developing after her adventure with the rings of destiny.
After a few seconds processing the information and adding a new exciting option to her escape, Daring asked “… so you guys are free right now?”
The Bisharp replied and Shredder translated, “Not exactly. The team is not yet fully reunited,” only to turn back and ask, “What do you mean the team is incomplete?! What did you do while I was gone?” the Bisharp seemed to respond something but Daring didn’t get a translation of it.
“Well, is not like you guys have many options, right?” pressed Do.
Again the male Bisharp, which she knew as Ganger, responded and Shredder translated “‘No offence ma’am, but we have another itinerary, and now we can proceed to get out of here knowing that our ally is safe’ so he says.” At these words ‘Ganger’ sat up properly, about to do something, but Daring stopped him.
“Wait! Can you guys at least help me get my friend’s item back? I can’t return without which I came for!”
“Well…” he started again, Shredder translating, “ ‘We weren’t planning to take you with us to begin with, so I’m afraid there is no deal…’ that is what he says,” clarified Shredder, feeling a bit bad about her leader’s decision.
“Gee, thank you, Suuuuch a gentlecolt you are,” scolded Daring while feeling a bit hurt.
“He says ‘you are welcome’,” added again Shredder while ‘Ganger’ seemed to not give a damn.
Daring was about to say something else, but there was a sudden general silence in the room. “It seems the big cheese is about to make its entrance.” Both Bisharps turned to face what Daring was talking about and decided to stay once the Diamond Dog’s boss appeared, not because they wanted to hear what he had to say, but because of how strange he was.
If the Dogs were ground and dark types for Checkmate, the boss was the complete opposite; a creature standing as tall as a Pyroar, in fact his rear looked identical to the royal pokemon, with the difference being that the front was a Talonflame–even the coloration was identical. He wore a long crimson cape as his only accessory.
“Can I know why you stupid dogs suddenly stopped working?” demanded the creature angrily, which for the Bisharps seemed as an unknown Pokemon, while Daring Do saw a simple but not that common griffin. One of the Diamond Dogs headed to their boss and seemed to explain to him the situation; the griffin didn’t take the news kindly. “And why should I care about some weird creatures invading?”
By the mere pompous tone it used, Daring got to a simple conclusion: “A royal member all right, I wonder what someone as ‘elegant’ as himself could possibly gain with the dogs?” As she said this, the griffin continued to scream orders to the Dogs.
“ ‘You would be impressed by the teams greed can breed’ says my partner” answered ‘Ganger’ through Shredder’s lips. The other Bisharp said something else but again Shredder didn’t translate; she did, however, reply “True, we have nothing to win anymore. I guess it is better for us to take our leave”
Daring turned to look at the Pokemon, which seemed to be ready to act, and again she stopped them. “Hey! Can’t you guys wait just a bit longer? Big pecks here is about to give its long monologue about his plan, I can really use that!” Daring cursed herself since the last part wasn’t supposed to be said out loud, but to her luck the others didn’t seem to care.
Shredder simply stated, “This is not our fight, and if what you say is right and this creature is part of some sort of royalty, then we would be interfering with foreign affairs, legal or not” ‘Ganger’ added something, “ ‘And we haven’t been contracted for that’ says my partner here.” Shredder then gave a deep and sincere bow to Daring Do. “I know I said we could exchange information once we were out of this situation, but mixing ourselves any further would only make things more complicated for us, so I am afraid to tell you our alliance ends here… I hope you can forgive us one da–!”
The farewell was cut off as the griffin gave a new order, “Bring them to me!” And so a hundred of pawns dragged the trio before the griffin, an arrogant look on his face as one of the Dogs exclaimed.
“Here you have them your excellency Terrowin!”
Master Terrowin the Blazing looked at them with disdain from up on the platform at the center of the room “Well, well, but if isn’t the famous Daring Do, just as you said”
At this mention, the trio noticed a hooded creature behind Terrowin about Daring’s size. The insides of its cloth were pitch black which made it impossible to see it’s wearer’s face, but the garments over it and golden jewelry around its neck, was all Daring needed to identify the creature.
“Tlaloque! What a nice surprise. Isn’t your boss with you today?” taunted the adventurer with a sarcastic friendly tone. Tlaloque in turn didn’t say a word, in fact–and despite not having any eyes to be seen–it was more focused on the other two creatures beside Daring Do: Shredder and ‘Ganger’.
The male Bisharp said some lines which the female translated “My partner says ‘This is getting awkward’ and I have to agree..”
Terrowin seemed to dislike the sudden lack of attention over his presence, so with a dramatic flap of his wings he retook the center of attention. “So, Miss Do, you are here to stop– no! –meddle with my glorious ascension then?” An overplayed pose and tone accompanied his words.
Daring simply replied, “Yeah, you see: besides you being part of royalty, I have no idea what you are doing here or what you are after, so I can’t take part on whatever great speech you had in store, buddy.” Daring’s voice sounded apologetic.
Terrowin stood flabbergasted in his glorious pose, ignorant of what to say, until he finally accepted defeat and returned to his regular pose, which wasn’t exactly less pompous. “Very well then, can’t entirely blame your ignorance. These creatures–” he gave a quick look at both Pokemon, “–have made this glorious of days into utter chaos, but regardless! I shall achieve my rightful place as ruler of my kind, burning down that pitiful throne of twigs and from its ashes raise a glorious one of iron and steel” At each pause Terrowin gave, his feathers and wings puffed more and more, adding more impact to its pose, or at least that’s the effect he wanted to achieve–none of those present seemed to give a damn.
“So, this is all a hostile takeover then?” asked Shredder in confusion, to which ‘Ganger’ simply shrugged. Daring was more interested in Tlaloque and how the Diamond Dogs seemed to be hungry.
“… let’s just get this over with, okay?” the griffin finally spat as he took the item from one of the Dogs while of course he continued to boost his ego by explaining each part of his ‘master plan’ in dramatic fashion. “Do you know what this Item does, Miss Do?” He placed the item on the artifact at the center of the room. “This is nothing more than an overly complex and tedious key for a certain chamber in Nesting Hold.” one of the metallic creatures was about to ask something when Terrowin deadpanned “That’s the griffin castle’s name” and continued to boast. “Said room is in fact the treasure chamber.” These words were accompanied with him dramatically throwing one of his claws towards the ceiling. The Diamond Dogs finally seemed to react this time. “And once we deplete its contents, I shall have the path clean for my glorious ascension!” finished the red griffin with yet another dramatic pose followed closely by evil laughter.
“So, what you are saying is…” a voice started, causing Terrowin to have a small cerebral twitch as he looked upon the one interrupting him yet again: The male Bisharp “...That you plan to rob your own country? I guess this is where these furless Pangoros gain something, but causing a sort of power shift within the Empire and thus causing its inhabitants to remove the actual ruler and somehow give the crown to you, that is your master plan? For real?” at each word, Weiss gave, he walked slowly towards the griffin until he was standing directly beneath him. “I have literally fought evil teams who vowed to take over or destroy the world with the power of legends, and you come up with this? Either you are so full of yourself that you think this plan can possibly work or you’re just one impressive idiot who came up with the most complicated plan he could imagine in ten minutes!”
The whole auditorium was dead silent, most because of awe, others by pure confusion, but a certain Bisharp and mare were nodding in agreement. Terrowin’s eyes twitched at the rage this creature caused him in just a few seconds. “This great plan wasn’t made in ten mere minutes, it was a full hour of hard work what gave birth of this idea, and you are in no position to change its glorious outcome!”
Weiss was a mercenary who liked to keep himself away from political troubles unless hired to be involved, and even then he was very picky about what political contracts Checkmate would take in order to avoid being crossed in the end. In short: he wasn’t the heroic type, however what he was was someone who detested ignorance and stupidity in every way; either it be Pokephilia haters, anarchistic encouragers or downright idiots–master Terrowin the Blazing just happened to fill two of those three criteria and Weiss was already fed up of him, despite knowing him for less than an hour. “Let us change that, shall we?” Releasing the blades on his wrists, Weiss cut the ropes as if they were nothing, Shredder following short after and releasing Daring Do as well before jumping into the tribune where the griffin was, making him flock away in shock. Needless to say, the congregation of Diamond Dogs made a ruckus at the scene.
It took Terrowin a second to regain his ‘proper’ elegance as he exclaimed in a less proper tone, “And what can you monsters do?” Still he walked away a step for each one Weiss took “you and what army?”
Weiss stopped, a smile slowly appearing on his lips. “This ar–!” Before Weiss could finish his one-liner, one of the barricades created by the dogs suddenly exploded, causing an even greater commotion in the room as other four creatures stormed into it, dispatching Terrowin’s ‘army’ at each step they took.
“What the feathers is going on now?!” exclaimed the griffin as he took for the sky, leaving a confused Bisharp on the ground, “this was supposed to be my perfect day!”
“Xavier!” exclaimed Weiss, “couldn’t you just of waited for a few more seconds? I was about to look so damn awesome!” As the leader complained to his tactician, some dogs jumped toward him. His first reaction was to test his new weapons on them, but he was quickly stopped by the mental shout which made only one statement:
“Don’t kill them!”
This of course took the team off guard, having to change their regular methods of attack for more ‘passive’ ones. Of course ‘letting them live’ didn’t mean ‘letting them leave’, so most of the cannon fodder ended with broken bones and minor poisoning as the ‘high kicks’, ‘hammer arms’, ‘venoshocks’, water pulses’ and ‘feint attacks’ rained over them. Daring Do, who was doing her part on the fight as well, couldn’t stop feeling sorry for the brute creatures.
Despite the numerical superiority of the Diamond Dogs over the mercenaries, the sudden assault combined with the strange magic and techniques the newcomers possessed made their numbers crumble in seconds, yet the Blazing griffin wasn’t going to give up just yet. “Wizard!” he shouted, “if I lose here you won’t get your part of the deal!” However, Terrowin’s voice wasn’t cocky like before, rather it was submissive since he was pleading for help from Tlaloque.
The hooded creature, which somehow remained unscratched by the fight, remained silent. He took a single clay staff out of his robes and tapped the ground with it, causing all the dirt on the room to erupt from the ground and the walls, creating a dense veil that obscured Checkmate’s vision, but not the Diamond Dogs’.
With that simple act, the tides were changed in an instant and the mercenaries were subdued quickly. With another tap of his staff, Tlaloque made the dust disappear, showing each mercenary under a small mountain of Dogs, save Xavier who was under a large mountain of Dogs. With the threat now dog piled, Terrowin returned to the ground with a victorious grin on his beak.
“You see now you horrid creatures?” boasted the griffin for the third time, or was it fourth? “This is my day and nothing you can do can possibly stop it from happening. Soon, everyone will be bowing to my great–why the claw are you whispering?!” Terrowin shot a glare at the mercenaries, but they didn’t seemed to care, in fact they were happily talking to each other.
“I got 33! Bet you guys can’t beat that!” boasted, for a change, Pancha with a happy grin, “just one more and I could have made a pyramid out of them.”
“Well I don’t see the merit of such brutish body count, because if we were actually having one I would be winning with 42,” replied Rouge with her elegant but mocking tone.
A ‘55’ was drawn on the dirt by Greninja.
“I got 15, think that will count?” asked the leader with an unsure tone.
Shredder seemed angry as she too wanted to give her own to the conversation. “I can’t believe we were taken in such cowardly way. I should have expected they knew ‘sandstorm’, and just when I was about to break my personal record.”
“No way! You almost beat your record? That makes our numbers look so depressing,” replied again Pancha with a defeated tone.
“…” Daring decided to stay silent, not out of confusion, though she was very much so, but rather out of shame, as she only managed to get 2 or 3 dogs unconscious.
“Come on dear, it is not that bad,” comforted Rouge, “You know you can’t beat the queen of queens just like that, or Roll, or anyone on the knight group, or…” before she could continue to point out the members Pancha was behind, a very angry individual intervened.
“WILL YOU SHUT YOUR BEAKS ALREADY!? This is my day. MY. DAY! And neither of you insolent simpletons will take that from me!” Terrowin’s color was turning redder as air violently left his lungs. “You at least know how to behave!” he faced Xavier, “or do you have anything ‘smart’ to say?”
The whole time, the psychic-type seemed to be in deep meditation, yet he gave a few lines to answer the griffin. “Apologies sir, but properly guiding a creature capable of drilling through the ground at high speeds accurately and listening to your ‘glorious’ voice while thinking of a response is quite difficult, if not annoying”
“… and what does that even means?!” asked again Terrowin with a mix of anger and confusion.
Weiss answered, “What my comrade wants to say is that bringing a friend here across a mountain while hearing your babbling is tiresome,” and ended with a smile.
“And who could you people possibly be guiding here?”
Weiss’ smile turn into a cocky grin as he prepared to shock the griffin for a second time “ju–!” only to be interrupted by something that came out of one of the walls spinning and landing right before Checkmate with a sonorous clash and a cloud of dust. “Damn it Simon, you too!?”
From the cloud came yet another creature unknown to Terrowin. It was barely taller than a small Diamond Dog but looked way bulkier and wore dark brown skin all over save his cream white face and pinky rose nose, some scratch-like markings decorating his chest and back. A set of gigantic claws made out of metal stood on each arm while a helmet like horn festooned upon his head, a pair of blazingly serious eyes burning beneath it.
“Simon the driller!” the Excadrill shouted out as loudly as he could while he too took a dramatic, but somehow manlier, pose as he finished “has arrived!”
Griffin ruins
Checkmate’s location
~Right before the assault~
After waiting the standard amount time, Xavier and the others entered the caves in search for Weiss, forcing the Diamond Dogs to retreat once more into the hallways. The ruins were a maze; however, because they all communicated their positions, the group quickly arrived at the outside of the blocked auditorium.
“What can you see?” asked Rouge faintly as she tried to peek through a hole on one of the barricaded doors.
Meanwhile, Xavier looked around the minds of those inside. “I can see our ‘brave leader’ and Shredder being held before some flying-type. The rest of the ground-types are keeping guard”
Once the report was finished, Pancha made an attempt to burst through the door, but was quickly stopped by Greninja. “What is your problema? Don’t you see they need our help?”
“…”
Greninja kept silent, so Xavier had to translate. “We first need to evaluate the situation.” The ninja pokemon nodded.
“But what if we wait too long,” pressed Pancha, “we don’t know what those creatures can do to them!”
“Apparently they plan to boast them to death” mentioned Rouge as she managed to see the center of the room where a flying-type seemed to be posing for them in an exotic fashion.
“En serio?” deadpanned the Hawlucha in return. “This is just another ego trip?” These kind of events weren’t rare for the team, but each time they found an egomaniac boasting in detail their ‘evilly-evil-plan’ was a sad and boring sight. “I almost feel sorry for el jefe, but that is even more of a reason to go and save them!”
“…” However, it was now Xavier who had gone silent, much to the hyperactive Fighting-type’s annoyance.
“So can we go or no?”
“… We will, but I just happened to of discover something.”
“What is it, dear?” asked Rouge without moving from her spying spot.
“It wasn’t Shredder who I sensed on the way here,” said the shiny, “The rock is too thick for that; I must have sensed someone else before.”
“WHO?” asked Pancha abruptly, Rouge and Greninja interested as well. It was another member of the team they could reunite with, after all.
“I am trying to focus on the signal but it moves around too quickly and all over the place,” explained Xavier.
“Then is it another ‘Bishop’?” asked Pancha.
“I can’t know for sure. The movements are too erratic and bold for me to…!” The team seemed to arrive the same conclusion once the words ‘erratic’ and ‘bold’ were used together.
A general “It’s him!” came from them all, even Greninja, although it was said in a whisper no one heard.
“We need to regain control over the situation before he arrives or we are doomed!” Exclaimed Rouge, no longer watching the auditorium through the hole in the barricade.
“But how can we do it in time? We are talking about him!” retorted Pancha with anguish.
“I can delay him a few minutes if I can manage to make contact with him” said Xavier as he focused harder.
Greninja motioned toward the auditorium, Rouge seeming to understand what he wanted to say. “But what about the rest? they need to know as well”
“I just established a link with them” answered Xavier while causing Weiss to be understood in the room unintentionally. Meanwhile, the Metagross continued to focus on contacting their elusive ally for a few more seconds until “There! I made contact, and I will keep him away for as long as I can!” he exclaimed with a monotonic rush.
“Then we have no time to lose!” exclaimed Rouge while charging a large amount of life energy within her bouquet-like hands. She screamed “Energy Ball” and threw her arms at the barricade, slinging a ball of light at it and blowing it into smithereens as the team stormed in.
As soon as they barged into the auditorium Xavier explained both Bisharp the situation, Shredder took the chance to give the order, ‘don’t kill them’.
They needed to have it all in order for the hot-blooded member of Checkmate to make his appearance, or else the situations could turn completely into chaos–not the kind of chaos that made their job easier, but the chaos that ended with blood and tears. That was the situation the very presence of Simon the Excadrill was able to cause on his team, perhaps Arceus would give mercy to those he called ‘foes’.
Abandoned Auditorium
Beneath Nesting Hold
~Present time~
Terrowin looked in awe at the spectacle before him. A large mole had suddenly appeared out of one of the walls and was now posing before him in a rather ‘dashingly fashion’ a part of him admitted. he looked to his prisoners.
“You, newcomer!” started the griffin, “What deal do you have with my prey?”
There was no response.
This of course ticked Terrowin off. “I am getting tired of you monsters ignoring my great–gre…” yet he was put to a hold mid sentence when a pair of blazing and piercing eyes turned at him. Despite the distance between them–about 16 feet–the griffin could sense an overwhelming presence coming from the mole’s gaze, a clear message coming from it
‘Shut up!’
With the annoying Flying-type dealt with for now, Simon turned to the Dogs piled over his team.
“Pups…” started the subterrene Pokemon with a strong tone, causing the Diamond Dogs to flinch and sweat as he ordered “off!”
The Dogs obliged immediately while whimpering in an apologetic tone almost as if there did something wrong, but they slowly realized in confusion what they just did; none wanted to protest, though. Meanwhile, Simon walked toward his friends, eyeing them with the same serious eyes, first the one on the far left: Rouge.
“Number?” Demanded Simon as soon as he was before the Roserade.
Rouge replied in an instant “42!” Simon seemed pleased and moved forward the next member, Daring Do.
“… ehm… hi?” ventured the writer with a shy tone. The mole simply passed by her, Daring in turn didn’t knew if she should feel offended or relieved.
The Hawlucha was next, and she was sweating heavily as Simon stood before her, a look of ‘you know what I want to know’ on his face. “3–3–33 señor!” screamed loudly Pancha with what seemed to be fear.
Simon nodded again and moved to the next one, leaving Pancha to breath and relax. He simply gave a respectful bow to Shredder (which she returned) as he passed by her and then arrived to Weiss, who in turn wasn’t sure if he was going to count because of his current predicament.
“…” Simon’s expectant silence seemed to say otherwise. “… number!”
For a second, Weiss looked like he was about to cry, yet he pokemanned up and exclaimed “15 sir!” only to be hit by a claw the size of his torso.
“YOU FOOL!” exclaimed back Simon the second Weiss finished his line, sending him flying to a wall and scattering any unlucky Diamond Dog not fast enough to move out the way.
Again, Daring looked at the scene with disbelieve while forgetting the situation they were in. “Sh–shouldn’t we help him?” asked the explorer.
The gigantic psychic-type responded with a deadpanned tone, “I want to live, so…” the rest of the team simply raised their appendage in agreement.
Terrowin on his own end was still in shock. Tlaloque didn’t say a thing as well, but was still keeping his gaze fixated on the pokemon.
Simon started to shout “WHAT ARE THOSE PATHETIC NUMBERS!?” while moving towards Weiss. “I understand you have been turned into a pokemon, but what excuse does that gives you to not give your absolute best?”
With surprising care, Simon picked up Weiss off the ground and against the wall with his body sized claws. “You are the leader of this group! As such you have the DUTY to outperform us. Who will respect us if our leader doesn’t?!”
“I…” started Weiss, just to be interrupted by the Excadrill’s shouting.
“Do you think I like to do this?” -tears started to form on the pokemon’s eyes- “to hit my own comrades? I know this hurts, but It hurts me more to have to recourse to this when you leave me no other choice. If I don’t ask for your utmost best then who will? I do this because I care for you -for all of us!”
Despite the ridiculousness of it, no one, Dog, pokemon or Pony dared to stop the scene before them. In fact a certain air of greatness started to surround the mole as it continued to cry out.
“I know this may be hard from me to say it, but we trust you. You are the one that should guide us into the bright sunset with a proud chest! So tell me: will you undo your mistakes?!”
To top the scene even more, the leader of the mercenaries started to sniffle at Simon’s words, then to sob until he was downright crying alongside his comrade, but it was okay, because those weren’t the tears of a weakness, no; those were the tears of a man!
“Yes sir! I will prove myself to be worthy of your trust!”
At these words, Simon embraced the crying Bisharp in a manly hug while saying, “that’s right, that’s how it’s supposed to be”
The moment was then followed by pure emotive silence, only slightly disturbed by the sobbing of a Dog or two, but still keeping the moment undisturbed. At least that was until a certain griffin snapped.
“ARE YOU ALL KIDDING ME!? This must be some sort of sad dream because I don’t see this amusing anymore!” The red on Terrowin’s eyes was similar in color to that of his feathers at this point “You filthy creatures have insulted me on my special day one time too many already! Now you shall regret this. Dogs ,do your job! Wizard…!”
Before the griffin could order something else from the hooded bring, Simon turned to face the one shouting high in the sky. “Why should we care for what you want? You are just another crying boy demanding others to get you what you want. You should instead act like a good boy and keep silent on the ground while we grown ups talk!” The serious glare was back in his eyes.
This time however, they didn’t freeze Terrowin, in fact this ticked him off furthermore. “You pathetic beast! You dare to call me to the ground? Me! A mighty griffin of the royal house of Aguilon!” something seemed to catch the mighty one’s attention as he boarded a wide smile “I see the envy which corrodes you, ground dueler. I bet you can only dream to reach the mighty heights we can.”
Despite the fact that what came out of Terrowin’s beak was complete nonsense, the look on Simon’s face indicated he had somehow touched a delicate topic.
“You Flying-types sure are full of yourselves, aren’t you?” started the armored mole in a tone so low that the griffin couldn’t hear it.
“eh?”
“So mighty standing on your sky throne. Well let me tell you something!” exclaimed the Excadrill with a sonorous voice while defiantly pointing at Terrowin. “You just watch me slap you in the face as I reach you right where you are.”
Diamond Dogs and pokemon, plus a Pegasus, took their respective places amongst the sides of their leaders (Simon in the Pokemons’ case) as the verbal fight continued, both sides waiting for the signal to resume where they had stopped, yet no one daring to act before it.
“And what will you do then? Drill your way here? You may be the strongest monster among you, but that doesn’t changes the fact that you are forever bound to the ground!”
At this point Daring Do didn’t know what else was happening anymore and simply decided to ask, “Is he always like this?”
“Yup” replied Checkmate in unison. Weiss was still wiping away his tears.
“Oh, you can be damn right about that!” shouted back Simon. “I will drill over earth, rock, metal and even air if I have to,” again he pointed up, yet not at the griffin, but to the sky (or at least the ceiling). “ ‘If you are going to reach big then reach for the stars, and if you happen to fail and fall, rise again and again until you have the power to make your wishes come true’ that is the way I roll!”
To Terrowin, this strange mole creature was spewing nothing but nonsense, and to such an extent he was momentarily at a loss for words. “… hmph! Not that any of your babbling matters; you monsters will be stopped, and that is final!” With that said and a tap of Tlaloque’s cane, the dirt exploded again, the Diamond Dogs again hiding within the sandstorm.
However, the mercenaries were calm–waiting.
“Guys…” whispered Simon again, every member turning to him with a knowing smirk on their faces, “let’s use that.”
“That?” repeated the team at the same time, although they all knew perfectly what ‘that’ was.
“Isn’t it obvious…!?” In a second, Xavier linked all of their minds with his and Simon’s, every member feeling as an extension of the Excadrill’s body, and so he exclaimed, “WE ARE COMBINING!”
With a powerful jump, Simon leaped into the dust followed by his six ‘extensions’ close behind, all of them sharing his senses and boiling blood as the Dogs flew out of their way. “Assault formation!” the members of Checkmate roared in unison as the dirt started to part in their wake due to their massive speed. “CHECKMATE SPECIAL!” And with that final scream the dirt disappeared to reveal all of the Diamond Dogs scattered in defeat all over the room.
The mere sight was enough to remove any bit of assurance Terrowin had left. “But–how… what the flock are you?” He turned to the mage–who once again somehow managed to get out unscatched–and pleaded for assistance.
Tlaloque, however, had a different idea. “This can no longer be accomplished. The deal is off,” And with those words, the hooded mage's dark cloak faded from a silky gleam in the torchlight to an almost ‘crystally’ matter that tumbled off of him in bits and chunks until the figure collapsed into a pile of black soil. As the creature escaped, its hollow voice echoing as it faded. “Godspeed and good luck, usurper,” he said, though at this point it may as well have been mocking him.
Daring noticed this and tried to dash toward Tlaloque before he managed to escape, but she was still a bit dizzy due to the sudden mental takeover, and tired from the incredible physical display as she too was part of the last charge.
Meanwhile ,Terrowin looked in disbelief at his current situation: his troops were all defeated, his wizard had abandoned him and he never got to properly give his final speech–not that the Pokemon wanted to hear it anyway. “aaaaaAAAHAHAHAHAHHH!!!” The griffin screamed madly as he flew towards the door, trying to escape the mess that was the shambles of his ill-thought plan.
However, before anyone could react, one of the members of Checkmate disappeared under the ground, only to reappear between Terrowin and the exit. When the griffin noticed him, it was was already too late.
The same dead serious shine on Simon's eyes were present before he began to say, “Certain kill...” With a couple of flashing pounces, he sent Terrowin back into the room, yet the Pokemon was far from finished. “Giga...!” started Simon as he took his drilling stance, but instead of aiming to the ground, “DRILL…!” He launched himself at the falling aristocrat “–RUUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!–” hitting the griffin right in the chest–and defying all laws of physics–continued to move upwards until they hit the ceiling yet that wasn’t enough to stop the Excadrill’s burning passion “JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?” they continued to move across the stone, breaking the whole mechanism that Terrowin had so madly wanted to open and made it into the chambers above them.
Somewhere else.
In a whole different plane of existence.
A single lone galactic volcano erupted with explosive passion due to the pure amount of sheer awesomeness someone achieved somewhere out there in the multiverse.
From the ceiling, bricks and pieces of foundation started to fall, followed by a VERY badly beaten bird, who by some miracle, was still alive and breathing as he made contact with the ground, yet that wasn’t all. The hole he just created started to shine blindly into the cave-like auditorium, within it Simon could be seen standing while looking down on Terrowin.
“See? I reached the stars!”