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Darts had his tunnel vision on, after the successful Astonish he was on cloud nine. But he was about to come crashing back to earth. "Gimmighoul! Let's try it again! Astonish!"

"Gim!" Sprinting forwards, the Gimmighoul ran to retrieve its coin... crossing right in front of the path of the Flame Charging Demon Wing. It looks up as it retrieves the money, seeing the shadow of the massive Charizard growing bigger and bigger, dwarfing the tiny Ghost-type. Its golden eyes widen slightly, clutching the coin to itself as the fiery ball of 'Zard came hurtling towards it. Gimmighoul was Tormented... so it failed. "Gimmiiii....!" It shrieked, cowering underneath its favorite piece of currency.... and becoming a perfect spot for the larger Pokemon to stub its foot on. The mint would stab into Demon Wing's foot like an errant Lego, sending the dragon off balance and while its attack would launch forward still, sending a still very effective Flame Charge up and onwards into the Grimmsnarl with the shiny Pokemon very much along for the ride as opposed to controlling its momentum. If anything, it might be more effective if you were charitable. But...

Darts feels a deep chill run down his neck and down through his jacket, the entire thing snapping and bristling like a Meowth doused in water as he tries very hard to not look at Crystal directly again.

"Gimmi!" The little ghost squeaks out in the battlefield, waving at him happily from beneath its protective barrier. He raises one hand slowly, waving back, not wanting to damper the little Pokemon's enthusiasm as he stares pointedly out into the battlefield.

"Welcome. Please, come in." The old man inside of the tent called out to Aile, the glow of the Rabsca in the middle of the room beckoning her to the low table which it floated above. The table would require Aile to sit on the floor, on top of the provided pillow and once she was seated the old fortune teller would...do nothing. Instead the elder sat in silence, Aile unable to see his inside the darkness of the hood but she could feel his gaze as he stared at her, the Rabsca's orb lazily blinking a few times. The extended silence would be broken after almost a minute, the old man suddenly saying; "Misfortune has been brought upon you." He simply declared, a statement said in such a matter-of-fact way, like one pointing out the sky was blue. He wasn't wrong, but what misfortune was he talking about specifically.

"You have come for answers to many questions. Tell me, what is the most pressing question you would like to present?" He asked as his Rabsca letting out a cry.

Aile nodded and sat down on the pillow, crossing her legs and folding her hands in her lap. She felt mildly uncomfortable as she felt herself getting stared at by this man, though she sat up slightly taller for a moment when he declared that misfortune had been brought upon her. “I…” The woman slouched down again as she gave a small, bitter laugh. “I mean… You’re talking like I haven’t been dealing with it for… Oh screw me, before I grabbed a certain staff, at least. Might want to be more specific.” She would look down at her left arm for a moment before returning her attention back to the fortune teller. He was right, she had a bunch of questions. What was that woman’s name, who should she go to to find a mentor, what she should be trying to protect. Those were the biggest three. How to order them… Her fingers drummed rhythmically as she thought, occasionally glancing up at the Rabsca providing the light. Finally, Aile would speak up. “Let’s start with… Where should I go to find a mentor?” At the very least, this fortune teller was putting up quite the show. Granted, it was always easy to say someone had been met with misfortune. A terrible fate, one might say.

Amaranth had braced herself for another roar that was about to boom around the area and assault her ears, her body tense until the roar never came. The coin from earlier had ended up going right into Grimmsnarl's mouth and started choking them, dropping her guard instantly as concern took over. "Wait, something's wrong, Gale, stop the attack-" She spoke up in an effort to address the unexpected outcome before anything worse could happen. Mid attack was well too late to stop the Hurricane's winds, but the next best was after it started hurtling the terastallized Pokemon in the air. As the winds stopped, so did Grimmsnarl's airy adventure and- by a stroke of luck- its choking as the coin came out.

With Gale looking at her with an apologetic look, wishing she could've stopped sooner, Amaranth gave a sigh of relief. The show could go on, hopefully without further incident-

Wait why was the Gimmighoul in Demon Wing's path? There wasn't any time to redirect or avoid figurative or literal friendly fire, and she picked up on the tail flame burning much hotter than usual too after semingly stepping on the coin. The turbulence became impossible to ignore too, Crystal joining in the now-furious winds. Certainly things could be going better, surely Darts would have a more level head and the winds would calm a little-

Nope, that callout was deeply barbed and Darts was also starting to add more heat to the winds. That fight was happening now, come hell, high water, or tribute battles meant to honor a region's history and offer thanks. There was a lot of context she was missing beyond the broader strokes, and she was otherwise stunned silent, unable to find any words that might help matters. A hurricane was very much in the air, and it wasn't the one she hastily put a stop to as she sheepishly looked at Grimmsnarl as if offering her own apology at the display before them.

Finally, she looked at Gale again, her Pidgeot giving a stressed chirp as her mind gave in to Torment. The fighting on the verge of breaking out didn't help with the stress either, leaving the remnanats of a gentle breeze to either stand firm and weather the storm or be torn asunder trying. After a couple more seconds, the two shared a nod and looked back towards Grimmsnarl. The least they could do was keep the fight going, even if it was liable to be a solo act flooring the pedal. "Sorry, I think we're ready now. Gale, Brave Bird!"

With a loud chirp, Gale flew further into the air to give herself more height, an eye kept on Grimmsnarl as her ascent slowed. Wings tucking in as wind swirled around, Flying energy kicking up to bolster what came next, she'd dive down with a burst of speed, the bird turning herself into a large, very speedy missile aimed straight at the terastallized ogre.

It started to look like he didn’t have too much more to go on. And in the grand scheme, it wasn’t a whole lot to begin with. It seemed that he was going to have to go find that person Perrin told him about after all. But at least there was something. And to up and leave without making some sort of token gesture in return, even though his face wouldn’t be able to wear them all too well, he might as well grab something. This mask salesman after all was here to make a couple of bucks, not to spill information really. He took a look around at the various weird masks about, and one caught his attention. “What about that one?” he then asked, pointing towards a white fox like mask. He wasn’t really sure what it was. It favored a Zoroark, apparently, but he didn’t know them to be white.

There would be a slight recoil as Darts’ finger was pointed in her face, but her face would remain unchanged as she was berated and run down by Darts. And at least to that starting bit, she couldn’t refute much, if any of that. She really was on the sidelines most of the time then. There was no defence for her at that point.

But then he just breezed past the Ziton event back in Galar like it was a walk in the part, just one more event. It’s not like she nearly ceased to exist in any sort of standard sense, or anything like that. Oh, wait. That exact thing happened. But as long as she did something useful, though, right? Forget that old Espeon body she watched die right in front of her, she got to become a Solgaleo hybrid in the end! Don’t worry about the trauma induced memory loss, that’s nothing! Crystal would slam her eyes shut and grind her teeth when she finally got an answer to the question that started this whole issue, just waaay too late. That’s all he needed to say. Instead of running away like he did, because he thought it would be funny, he just needed to say he couldn’t. Instead, here they were, throwing barbs at each other of varying effectiveness at each other.

Her eyes would snap back open when she was accused of being a coward, though, with her own golden nails digging into the palms of her hands hard. A coward? Really? Maybe he shouldn't be a coward when it comes to being upfront with things! Seriously, would he want to fight if he was ferrying three people through Ultra Space and he was the only way they could get out and go home?! She’d like to see him try! A few deep(albeit shaky) breaths would be taken while she attempted to figure out how she’d retort, not noticing(or caring; jury was currently out on that) that the white on her fingers was getting colored in that galactic blue-purple of whatever stood in for her blood now.

“So. We’re a coward,” she’d snarl, grabbing his hand with her own and twisting it away, hard. “We’re a coward for not wanting to fight while we had three fallers with us that were going to be sent back to a dead reality to die if anything happened to us, one of said fallers being a Snagem themselves? We’re a coward for THAT?! Feel free to take our spot then and fight someone when you’re the only way home for three people! Please, teach me how to do that without risking them getting lost in another reality! Wait, you’d have to actually be around for that. When’s the last time you’ve hung out with other members of the team for more than a day or two, before disappearing for whatever reason? When’s the last time you’ve spoken to anyone without getting them caught up in whatever asinine shenanigans you wind up in? All the times we’ve tried to ask you something, whether it be in some way to help and be a friend to you, or just ask a Light blinded question that you could have gotten away with an honest ‘no, we can’t tell you’, by the way, you instead find some sort of way to deflect and avoid answering the question. Which, also, by the way, we guarantee that dress you found probably wouldn’t have fit us well or looked any good on us.

“Oh, let’s go to bodies next, now that we’re on that subject. You think it’s a good thing that you now have the genetics of a god themselves, a violent one at that? Because certainly being that must be completely better than being just a plain old human. And you didn’t even have to get ripped from your body and watch it get obliterated by your friends in order to become that! Oh wonderful day! Light bless it all!” A bitter laugh would come out of Crystal’s mouth as she began to pace slightly, continuing to work herself up more. “Oh, oh! Let’s not even mention the fact that you didn’t have to take nearly half a millennium to get back home after becoming your current form. Because Light forbid we not remember where we’re located in Ultra Space after gaining a humanoid form of the baby version of Solgaleo, as well as dealing with trauma induced memory loss from before we got a new body, so we wind up going through hundreds of realities, encountering hundreds of different Team Snagems, all to get back to the one where we have to put up with one of the most arrogant and jackass versions of you!” There would be another violent point in the Giratina hybrid’s direction for a moment, before the pacing began again.

“Light, maybe consider that not every version of you is the exact same, so it gets hard to read people after meeting hundreds of them! Maybe consider someone might want something said bluntly for themselves! Maybe...” She paused in her pacing facing away from Darts, her frustration built up enough to bring her to a crossroads. She could just break down, run away, and mimic the act of crying. Not that she actually could, lacking the eye sockets and tear ducts to properly cry now, and potentially proving Darts right. Or, she could lash out at the jackass that accused her of being a coward and running away with her tail between her legs.

A quiet, metallic click could be heard as her giant shawl fell from her shoulders, the bow keeping her skirt on being pulled out at the same time by an unseen hand, the skirt unraveling and landing on the ground around her. Right after the click, a more plasticy snap would be heard as her strap across backpack would also fall to the ground, on top of her other clothes. What would be left on her rather broad frame was a very close fitting ensemble, just a cropped orange tank top and short orange workout shorts, both with golden detailing. She’d stay still for only a second after that, though, as she balled up a fist again and ran forward to shove it into Darts’ gut, doing her damnedest to lift him off the ground. Notably, though, her whole body wouldn’t be glowing, just her eyes glowing brighter than before, as she poured as much energy otherwise into that punch to lift him off the ground. “You jackass!”

[Loyal Three Battle Tribute]

Unfortunately for Demon Wing the Pokemon would come crashing into Grimmsnarl in the most unseemly manner, unleashing all that built up Fire energy on impact as both Charizard and Grimmsnarl tumbled to the ground in a fiery burst. The crowd watched as Demon Wing stepped on the coin and, stumbled, and crashed into the ogre stand in and thus broke out with uproarious laughter as Demon Wing laid sprawled out on top of Grimmsnarl, the ogre groaning beneath it in pain before scurrying to get the dragon off of it as it burned beneath it.

"Snarl!" It shouted as it summoned forth a surge of strength, jumping to its feet empowered by Fairy energy. After pushing Demon Wing up to its own feet and relying on the dragon being dazed the ogre would grab Demon Wing by the throat with one hand, wrapping its arm hair around the Charizard's neck to hold it in place better, and then proceed to use the free hand to slap the lizard in the face repeatedly and comically with Play Rough. All this did was inspire the crowd to laugh further, the battle quickly becoming something of a cartoon.

At that same moment Amaranth made her move as she commanded Gale to go in, the Pidgeot taking to the skies before dive bombing towards the Tera Grass Grimmsnarl, rushing towards it in a suicidal charge. Grimmsnarl would be alerted by the sound of whistling, registering the incoming Pidgeot with a panicked scream, eyes popping out, and having just enough time to spin Demon Wing around to use as a Pokemon shield. Gale would have no time to stop or slow down and thus slammed right into Demon Wing who was pushed into Grimmsnarl, the force of the Brave Bird sending both Pokemon up into the air with the Pidgeot who would release its gather Flying energy in an explosive manner sending both Charizard and Grimmsnarl flying and eventually crashing back down to the ground.

The crowd would break out into cheers as Grimmsnarl the ground, comments going around how great the battle was this year and the like as well as comments that they enjoyed the bit of humor they worked in. Crystal no doubt wouldn't enjoy some of the comments as they were a bit off color in picking fun at her Pokemon, as well as some comments about whether or not the Gimmighoul and its owner was 'working for the ogre'. Why else would anyone use such a weak Pokemon in a battle like this if not for sabotage?

The crowd's interest in the battle would begin to die down however as the sound of Crystal and Darts arguing became more and more clear over the sounds of the gather crowd as people went quiet to focus on the two hybrids arguing. The silence would be broken though when Crystal delivered a punch upon Darts' gut, many in the crowd gasping as she hit the man. Comments were made about the glow in her eyes as well as some noting the temperature in the general area rising as the living sun got angry. If anyone thought she was just wearing a costume before they definitely didn't now, that was a hybrid.

Grimmsnarl would stagger back on its feet, just barely hanging in there. The Terastalized Pokemon would look around confuse as it noticed no one was really watching the battle anymore and instead were facing two of the three trainers it was suppose to be battling. "G-grimm...snarl?" It said, confused as to whether or not it should keep battling.