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"Heroes are not what you'll have brought to you!" A voice rang from the sky behind Dull, its source suddenly swooping down to land behind him as the air grew unbearably hot. "Perhaps this will help you rethink your comments," it continued as fiery slash after fiery slash began its efforts to try and strike Dull in what was now a surprise attack gone completely and utterly awry. Flames danced all around as the onslaught continued, going below Dull as it ended and following up with a prompt toss of a blade onto the ground as the attacker moved back. The ground threatened to erupt only seconds later, an immense pillar of flames shooting out and lighting the skies themselves, hopefully leaving any causalities as minimal as possible.

"I presume I'm not too late, am I?"


Thankfully, Aden hadn't quite made to Dull before everything happened, the flames obscuring any vision on his target. The chi, however, was all too recognizable to him. "Forget that, dad, we don't have the time to talk here if you haven't noticed!" He shouted, still unsure if there was even enough firepower, literally or otherwise, to handle Dull at this point. Not with the kind of power he was exhibiting.


"Reflect!" Amaranth spoke up at once, already planning to try and get more than just a single Light Screen. Though another wall would show itself from her Carbink to keep on the damage mitigation, she had her doubts that it'd be enough depending on what the heck Wonder Room even did. Even so, the sheer force of a legendary Pokemon meant the wall was likely to shatter without much trouble.


Cera wouldn't be able to feel S-22 in the least, but she could feel someone suddenly moving a hell of a lot faster that what might've been considered normal. "...uh oh." The utterance would be the most anyone on the rocket heard, the Mew moving to keep an eye out to avoid being blindsided with any hope while she and Isaac continued their efforts.

Leaving the line of vials, the first couple of virus vials ulocked and removed, Isaac ducked around the back side of the dispersion machine, taking a moment to ensure that it's bulk was between him and the murder monster who just pimp slapped Sub across the room. As he reached to flip the switch Cozmo spoke of, another idea formed. "Cozmo? Cozmo!" He interrupted the rambling professor, "If it's possible to jam the machine, how should I go about doing that? I need to make sure they can't deploy this, even if they manage to bypass the switch." Isaac was trying to keep Cozmo on task, and off the subject of Bulder. News of his condition was likely to distract the team, and he needed them focused right bow.

Aria looked at the next Pokemon that Zera had brought out, staring down the Reuniclus as she slowly plotted her way through how exactly this thing was going to keep their troubles going. "Round three. Vibrato, Bite!" She commanded, ripping a piece of cloth out of her bag to wrap around her nose and mouth to hold off the sandstorm. Watching as her Flying/Dragon dove out of the sky towards the Reuniclus, the woman charged straight towards Zera with her hands balled up in fists. She was going to try and make sure Zera stopped this personally this time.

Dista was finally finishing her attempts to evacuate the building when Dull and the twins began their clash over top Mossdeep. Giving a quick snap of her fingers to get Phemes to coast over to where she was standing, Dista and her two Pokemon quickly hopped on and began to slowly float up towards their target. They weren't going to go sprinting in without any idea of whats going on.

Beau dove towards Dull, entirely focused on his target over the rest of the Snagems at the moment. He had his plan for Dull, and this wasn't something he could try twice. Leaping off of his Fletchinder's back as he felt them both gaining an immense amount of speed, the Vivillon hybrid would unleash a stream of Powder from both of his wrists and leave twin trails of the gunpowder behind him as he dove, most likely, through Dull and left the explosive residue to be detonated by his Fletchinder's Ember attack or Aden's flurry of fire attacks.

Halting his efforts to swap the cures and disease as he heard S-22 and the commotion from the Snagems who had risen to meet the hybrid, Reno spun on his heel and pushed past Kain as he continued to prattle on in efforts to intimidate the Sharpedo hybrid. "This thing does not feel emotions as one might normally consider them. Your efforts are wasted trying to make him sloppy, since he is nothing more than a wind-up toy. Let us break him, shall we?" Reno intoned, calmly staring down the strange hybrid as his two Pokemon sprang into action. A flurry of spikes would be unleashed from Tesei, aiming to damage the legs that propelled him so quickly, efforts to halt the creation's immense power. Gruff would leap through the air with his traditional bone and a Thick Club in his hands, committing to a flurry of blows at the upper part of the hybrid in an attempt to keep the hybrid from evading at least part of the assault. And throughout all this, Reno attempted to initiate some mental contact with what remained of humanity in this machine in an effort to understand something, ANYthing about it.

"At the risk of sounding like GRAY, can we, um, not be so brazen as to attack something that's literally capable of destroying a small army in seconds?" Cera asked as loud as she could, currently finding Reno and Kain both either completely insane or absolutely idiotic for thinking that attacking S-22 was a good idea. "We'll be doing good to do little more than slow him down, so unless you really want to start a new graveyard for us, you'll back off and find a way of doing things WITHOUT what looks like actively trying to commit suicide by crazy hybrid!" Normally, Cera wasn't quite as verbose, but even she couldn't ignore what was going on. No wonder GRAY was so sarcastic to everyone.

Sub didn't have a chance to avoid the assault, despite having stared down S-22 for a good few seconds. The man was swept off his feet and sent flying back, hitting the ground hard, his body sprawling out as he came to a stop. The Snagem leader laid there for awhile as he stared up at the ceiling, trying to will his body into moving again. As he laid there he heard the sounds of his teammates launching an assault against S-22, the thought of such a concept mustering the needed willpower needed to get himself back on his feet.

"Good idea, Kain." Sub said with a groan as he took out a Pokeball and released Nevermore the Murkrow "Gardy, broadcast my thoughts." Sub called out to his Gardevoir, who discovered that she was unable to teleport, the ship's high altitude and movement making it difficult, if not impossible, to get a mental lock on a location. That said she didn't leave Bulder's side, instead closed her eyes and focused on Sub from a distance as her trainer left down his mental guard.

"Listen up, all of you, we're going to send S-22 out into orbit but we need to work together. Cera, you're with me. Kain, Silver, join Reno and hit S-22 with everything you got, try and distract him as long as possible." He spoke to their minds through Gardy. Once Cera came near he placed a hand on her and spoke one word. "Listen." He said, pointing to his head, implying that he wanted her to listen to his thoughts.

"Got it?" He asked her after several seconds of silence, apparently the two had a private mental exchange. "Nevermore, hold him with Quash!" Sub ordered the bird, he knew there was no way Nevermore could really restrain him but maybe she could inconvenience it, they just need to buy time.

The bird would focus with all her might on S-22, an aura of darkness attempting to wrap its self around the beast and apply pressure to it in an attempt to restrict the beast's movement.

With people safe from the buildings Dull had destroyed, Odd recalled his Pokemon, all except for Cadenza. The Shedinja remained at his side at this point and he walked slowly towards Dull, trying to analyze his power. He needed a better feel for the hybrid's energy reserves if he was going to drain it any more. In this form, it was far too chaotic to get a good reading but it felt massive. Except for one small problem. Even pure blooded Pokemon couldn't maintain a Mega form indefinitely and were usually drained after reverting to their normal forms, from what he had seen of it. If he could stall Dull long enough, he might be able to hit him when he reverted to normal and sap all of his remaining strength in one go.

Kaya, unable just now to try another attempted Fairy Lock, did the only thing he could. "Sora! Afreda! Double Reflect!" He called as he released his Klefki and shiny Carbink, the duo of defenders summoning their energies to conjured a double-thick layer of hardened chi to protect Regirock for the moment.

Inside the rocket, Lykas would move to catch Sub, failing miserably as he was launched right past him with more speed than he was capable of producing for himself. He could barely muster the necessary energy to turn to face the behemoth at this point, trapped in a transfixed stare at the point where Sub had stopped sliding at last, waiting with bated breath for the Snagem leader to move once more. He couldn't possibly have been done in by that, could he? It was several moments before Sub began to move again but by then, he had heard the conversations between the others and come to realize his own role here. There was a door in this ship. How many others could safely open and close it without getting sucked out of the ship? Sub needn't communicate that to him. He would simply have to wait for the time to come.

Odd's analysis of the situation, clarity granted by his Shedinja, was very spot on. Just before Sol's sudden and dramatic reappearance, he would catch an enormous flare-up of Fire Chi, as the Sacred Fire began burning, and Dull's Mega Evolution would run out at almost the same instant, the enormous phoenix pyre wrapping around the jacketed psychopath in a pillar of destruction, a fire formed from Chi so dense it was eliminating atoms from sheer heat. However, as hot as the fire was Odd also got an up close and personal look at Dull's built-in defense mechanism so to speak with help of the Shedinja's analysis. As the fire touched the Gengar hybrid's body or clothes, it wasn't actually glitching through it was actually being displaced in time and warped through his body, creating the severe damage negation effect seen earlier. Even though the inferno burned enormously, Dull's chi barely a whisper in the middle of it following his depowerment, the very atoms of the timeline Dull was from and our universe are completely incompatible, like matter and antimatter. This was best demonstrated at the subatomic level, something Shedinja's insight enhanced as the jacket slowly begins to slough away from the fire, particle by particle, the bottom fringes of it crumbling as the fire ate away at it. No matter Dull's power, his defenses were always going to be at the maximum. And one other thing was quickly made clear to Odd as he observed the transfers of matter before him. If Odd wanted to absorb Dull, it was going to end in total annihilation from the both of them. The energy he had tasted before had been foul enough to make him recoil, but to suck up an entire spirit's worth was surely death. He needed to measure his options carefully here.

As for Dull himself, caught in the middle of the inferno as his jacket and hair begins to burn, the psychopath laughs. "Haw! That's more like it! Is it getting warm in here, or is it just me?!" Suddenly, he cocks his head slightly to the side, as if hearing something no one else could. And then, without warning, he was off and running as fast as he could in what seemed to be a random direction across the island, leaping out of the Sacred Fire. His entire jacket turns to ash, and his face is scorched from the heat of the attack, but whether or not the madman cared to take heed of any damage was another thing entirely. He was hurt, make no mistake, but how hurt was another question entirely. His resistance to damage was enormous.

The Gym Leaders don't seem to be taking that as answer enough for his crimes, so they give chase, Lunatone and Solrock in tow as they do so, even though Dull was much faster than them even post-mega.


Kess had no choice but to let go of the kid's throat with a strangled yelp as the teeth sank into her wrist, shaking the hand free just in time for the Shadow Rush to connect directly in her midsection, knocking her backwards and down onto her back, enough force that she slid a little bit. With a groan half exasperated, half real, the Zapdos hybrid sits up, her blade retracted for the moment. She chuckles, not hurt all that terribly by the Shadow Rush but the bite to her wrist had been rather effective. "Gotta give it to you kid, you have sharper teeth than I'da given you credit for." Kess gets to her feet, her arm even more pinned to her side than before with the noticeable teeth marks near the injured break. Outnumbered and without access to any of her Electric arsenal, she was still planning to go down fighting. That much was clear as her sword repowers, the blade double the length as before. Clearly without the transistors her well of chi was fully accessable now and she was intending to use it.

Suddenly, without warning, a couple of rain drops fall from the sky, first a little at a time, then all at once a torrential downpour, a torrential deluge of rain that could only be unleashed to the tune of one song...

Miror B. steps forwards from the rain grimly, his eyes bloodshot underneath his signature red and white afro, a grim Shadow Ludicolo dances into view next to him with a wild gesture, the customary smile on the happy pineapple's face replaced with a sickened grimace from exposure to the virus. The dancer's customarily snappy garb was ripped and torn asunder, clearly signs of him having been busy pulling survivors free from the wreckage. "Kess!" Miror shouts, over the raging howls of the Rain Dance he had just summoned. "Both of us know that you can't win this fight. Your arm is messed up and they have a trump to you, something you never even saw coming. You're beaten, let me clean this up."

"Huh, some kind of big fish got out of its little pond." Kess replies coldly, the sword spinning defensively in her one good hand. "Why are you doing this? Aren't you supposed to be onboard the rocket?"

"Well, I got to thinking about what we talked about... and you're right." Miror B. says grimly, gesturing to the cast on his leg and pointing at the look of horror permanently etched on his Ludicolo's face. "If we're not near him, more things like this are gonna happen. But I ain't like you. I ain't as strong as you are. And if you think you can do it, then make it happen. But that ain't going to happen if you get caught here." He limps his way in front of the trio of Snagems, separating Kess from them, his Ludicolo primed for battle. "Ain't like I've never done time before... An' I guess... He was going to get me one way or another, even if I stayed... I was always the expendible pawn, even in the end."

"..." Kess doesn't respond to a single thing the crook is saying, merely giving a deferential nod of her sharp beak to him before running off, using Agility as she scampers off in a seemingly random direction across the island.

"Now we can do this the easy way, Snagems, or the hard way..." Miror B. grunts, pulling two more Pokeballs out as his Ludicolo spins and whirls around in a dance, ready to fight.




Inside the heated confines of the Regi battle, the new entrant into the competition would leap into the fray with a flaming fist that struck home into the monolith's glacial face, lopping off a good bit of Regice's face with one swing, even though the slush quickly began reforming again. The golem responded in kind with a punch of its own, an Ice Punch again homing for home but this time on the partial Ground-type, leaving an opening for Regirock to probably do its thing.

As for the Reuniclus, the Signal Beam zoomed towards the malleable Psychic-type only to be met by a foreign Light Screen of the Psychic-type's making, brunting the majority of the blow. "Reun..." it groans sleepily, rubbing one of its smaller eyes with its massive gel hand, clearly not in a fighting sort of mood. That would change as the Bite hits it, teeth inflicting immense pain as the Dragon-type squeezes.

"St... Stay back!" Zera shouts, backing up towards her Regice, as Aria charges her. "I mean it!" she inhales, but does not exhale, puffing up slightly as she continues to retreat.


The spines fired at S-22's legs and the impacts from the club were not even dodged, they were just ignored, the spines crumpling and blunting themselves against whatever form of energy the creature used well before they hit him, and the thick club having no effect against his musculature. He moves again, more blur than movement as he dodges the Cacnea's Brick Break and angles to send a solid punch into Kain's head, the force of which would have easily decapitated him, when Darts who had been on the rocket silently this entire time intervenes, azure energy flowing through his arm muscles as he uses an enormous flare of Outrage to get both of his golden hands in the way and just barely stop the half-assed punch from S-22, and even then only with the assistance of Nevermore's quash. "Kain..." Darts growls, pouring more and more Dragon energy into his arms as he holds the fist in place. "Move it... or lose it..." he grunts, every ounce of his strength being used to keep the massive blue hand from moving forwards another inch. S-22's jaw begins to unhinge, rows upon rows of razor diamond teeth on display as the Sharpedo hybrid begins its threat analysis over again, looking in Darts and Reno's direction.

Right behind Kain, next to Silver, there was a console that seemed to have something to do with navigation and guidance. It beeps forlornly, as if the rocket had been taken off course somehow. If the Snagems were planning on ejecting S-22 to avoid a fight, it was probably going to be better to be at a higher altitude.

Reno's psychic probe would slam into an enormous mental blocker of some kind. If infiltrating a mind was like walking into a house, S-22's mental state was like Fort Knox at high alert. Walls upon walls of defenses, and an overwhelmingly disturbing sense of... bloodlust would permeate Reno's senses, filling every ounce of his mental state with the desire for blood. The gates to the place were chained tight, clear evidence here and there on the mental plane of Ein's handiwork scarring the hybrid's psyche.





"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Cozmo tsks, leaning against the receiver. "It took Bulder six months just to get that prototype together from scratch, if anything were to happen to it... why I shudder to think of the progress we'd be set back. He'd be furious to have to build another one from the ground up and get another working model..."