[ti]spawn[/ti]Girl's Night

"You know, every time I go somewhere, I wonder why it is you do that." She'd climb up overtop an old car, standing atop the roof. It was old and rusty, but enough to still hold her weight and give her a decent enough vantage point down the streets. "It's like, you don't know how to be yourself. Or, maybe you just really like me?"

"I don't know what the truth is, but I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually."The Nihilego says nothing, just floating right next to Laguna atop the car.

Laguna pauses to listen to her ears, hearing the sounds of noises in the distance. Unfortunately, with the amount of Players floating about getting into who knows what, there's no way to really know what is and isn't an Ultra Beast.Except if she hears a Pokemon Cry, that is. That was almost certainly not an Ultra Beast. Silent, she continues to focus before hearing a cracking sound fairly close by. Another Player or Ultra Beast, it didn't matter. It was better to be cautious, and wrong, than be caught unprepared.

She immediatly grabbed her wand from her waist, twirling it in front of her as the winds picked up. "Alright, where are y- What are you doing?"

Laguna glanced over at Omnia, who having no immediate analog for a wand, seemed to rip the car antenna off the wreck and wielded that.

"God, that is so adorable."

Electricty crackling drew her attention, but it seemed it was both an Ultra Beast nearby and-

"Orion!" Laguna shouted out his name, both happy to see him and worried that he was here as soon as threats seemed to rear their ugly head. He really had a habit of appearing at the best and worst times.

When he shouted to lookout, Laguna's eyes briefly glanced at the electricity crackling in the distance before pouncing back behind the vehicle. The crackle of energy was almost overwhelming, and it seemed she had another Ultra Beast to thank for coming to their rescue.

Omnia had also ducked behind the vehicle as well, but seeing Laguna tensing up had them seemingly reacting in kind. Their car anttena wand was wielded with grace, swinging about as Laguna flicked her own wrist. She really didn't want to fight, but judging by the wildly flailing Xurkitree, wires ripped up the road and yanking out of buildings as it confronted the Buzzwole, meant they had to do something.

But how would she get Omnia to fight?

"Omnia, we need to help."

The Nihilego didn't respond. Only twisting its head as Laguna turned to look at them.

An idea dawned on her, and suddenly a smirk formed on her face.

"Coming in!" She suddenly shouted, jumping over the car wreckage and kicking her feet, sliding straight towards the confrontation as snowflakes flew behind her. The Nihlego followed suit right beside her. "If you mimic everything, then I'd like to see what you do with this."

Stretching out her wand, she twirled it and fired forwards an ice spike.

Only for the Nihilego to equally twist their 'wand' after a second, and suddenly spray Acid from their tentacle at the Xurkitree.

The Xurkitree's sparks were intense, blasting the two of them in the face as they blasted back. Blinded, Laguna had step back frowning heavily. This was not going well. The wires were unpredictable, ripping up more from the ground as if it was much larger than it seemed.

She narrowed her eyes, heart pounding as she stared at the Xurkitree, watching the confrontation.

The longer she watched, the more her blood began to boil. Memories slowly coming back to the surface of the last time she had confronted one of these Ultra Beasts.

Anger rose up in her chest, muscles tensing, her grip on the wand tightened.

A Xurkitree had taken her baby. And now it was absolutely demolishing them, no doubt looking to take them as well. Perhaps it was a good thing they had Ultra Beasts themselves by their side.

The Nihilego seemed to mimic Laguna's anger, pumping up, tentacles twisting, as if to resemble muscles.

It was as if she completely didn't hear Orion's flirt, steam metaphorically coming out of her ears, as flame literally spilled out on her skin. Her legs tensed, waiting for the right second to pounce as flames burnt so hot around her they began to melt the tar beneath her feet.

The Nihilego, for once, seemed conflicted, no longer mimicking Laguna. They didn't have any analog for the flames, twisting about wildly as they tried to come up with something. Bits of poison were sprayed around them, but they couldn't upkeep it quite like Laguna was with her flames.

Unfortunately, Laguna was no longer paying attention. Her eyes were no longer on her new friend, but the enemy that reminded her of her personal failures.

With only silence as a response, and anger so visible on her face, she'd suddenly pounce forth with intense speed as soon as it slipped away from the pummeling it was receiving. Rocketing towards them like a meteor blazing from the sun, Laguna attempted to slam their entire body straight into the Xurkitree with a Sunsteel Strike. It was a dumb decision, reckless, fueled mostly by anger at her own self for allowing it to happen. She had to make it right... But this wasn't helping anyone.

The Nihlilego didn't even follow, all turned around and twisted on itself.

The Nihilego tossed and turned, almost uncontrollable. It seemed to still attempt to mimic Laguna even from a distance, but with the woman now tangled up in the wires of the Xurkitree, ripping and tugging hard against the wires, it didn't seem to know what to do.

It was a tangled mess, almost folding in on itself as if it had lost its shape, its identity, if it even had one of its own to begin with. Even as it was attempted to be untangled, it seemed to just continue twisting and folding in, over and over again.

The electricity crackled across Laguna's body as she attempted to combat the wires herself. She wasn't a fighter, she wasn't even trained in combat. But she was angry. Anger blinded, she couldn't see how badly she was hurting herself, her Pokemon, and even Orion.

A scream ripped from her lips as burning skin met sparking wires, attempting to grip and pull with all her might, but fighting an alien with such a fluid physical shape meant the battle wasn't in her favor. One wire slipped around her neck, and suddenly she was choking. The lack of oxygen immediately made the flames on her body die out as swiftly as they began, Laguna reaching up to her neck to try and grab the wire, only to find no grip. She choked and gasped, desperate for air that would not come as she was tossed and dragged across the ground like nothing more than a doll.

It wasn't until she was held upright into the air, dangling like a puppet with no strings, that she saw the Nihilego. It was mimicking her own suffering, dragging across the ground, and almost certainly in visible pain. And yet, it was so easy to tell that it was not a mockery, that pain was genuine, shared.

It was in that instant that she finally realized what she had done. Her eyes shot wide, even as her vision was fading fast. She had caused this. She didn't even try to pacify the Xurkitree, she just saw red. Her self-absorbed quest for vengeance got Orion hurt, his Pokémon friends hurt, and seemed to seriously twist up the Nihilego, who had been making such good progress.

What was she doing?

Laguna couldn't even find the breath to apologize, before she felt electricity suddenly flow through her veins, and like a ragdoll she was tossed down onto the road, slamming her head into the concrete.

Laguna couldn't even warn him, her neck still being squeezed so tightly it was as if her head was going to pop.

She watched helplessly he let loose a Moongeist Beam, which the Xurkitree seemed to take with absolutely no difficulty at all. It seemed to continue moving all the same, a terrifying threat to behold. It was as if this Ultra Beast moved with purpose, a violence she hadn't seen before. Not even-

This was still her fault.

It began using Laguna like a weapon, swinging and smacking the woman wildly against the remaining Pokemon who were trying hard to avoid hitting her, but it was too late.

She tried to scream as she watched Orion get knocked down by the remnants of her flames, but couldn't. All she could do is cry.

Tears dripped down her cheek, bruises covered her digital body, and electricity once again fried her nerves. Eventually, at some point, her eyes just shut, unable to take any more pain.

All the while, her own Nihilego seemed to finally stop moving.

"Oi."  Orion barked, grabbing her hand as she offered him a squeeze and holding her gaze for a moment.  "Three things hun, Firstly, this is a Tuesday for me.  I aint sufferin shit just yet, I'm helping the woman I love take care of business.  I'd march face first into hell hand and hand with you and you'd never catch me complaining.  Two, I don't accept apologies cause you aint ever got nothin to apologize to me for.  Just tell me how much you love my cute butt and give me a kiss and we're even, and Three."  His eyes narrowed.  "You don't ever gotta worry about me not having your back, we started this together, we're gonna finish it together?  Capiche mi amore?"

Stealing a quick kiss on her cheek, he'd march along with her, hunting down his ancient nemesis, tangled wires, hand in hand.

As she reached for him he was there, stalwart and ready.  "We don't know what you're going through, we've only ever been able to talk to your kind once but..."  Sparks flew and he joined Laguna at her side, keeping an eye out for errant danger.  "I can only imagine what it feels like, to be manipulated by whatever that voice is, to have your sovereignty stolen.  We can help you!  We're sorry we picked a fight, it wasn't right but..."

He'd offer an extended hand.  "Together maybe we can help the rest of your kind break free!"

Orion's hand gripped Laguna's tighter as the electronic snare coiled around the two, a twister of tangled wire that filled the air with the acrid scent of ozone and copper.  He kept his breathing measured, calm, forcing his heartbeat to stay as even as it could, forcing any and all fight or flight instincts to the bottom of his brain.  His knees desperately wanted to shake, his hands wanted to tremble, but he refused to let himself falter.  He was standing next to his partner, and together they were facing down the plasma chucking pokemon with the values of Plasma.  

He wondered if the professor would find this stunt stupid or impressive.

His muscles clenched, braced ready to act at any given moment, ready to jump into action should the beast choose violence.  He would not let an eye be taken for an eye, he would smash this beast into the concrete if it shunned their peace but still...

He wanted desperately to not have to fight, to live in a world in which the olive branch was met with olive branch, in which violence could be a thing of the past.

"We just want to help."  He mirrored, voice steeled with his resolve.  "You just have to let us."

Arcs of electricity leapt from the wires, scattering around the the two.  Nothing outright violent, but he did find himself pulling Laguna closer, wrapping his arms around her as he did his best to act as a bulwark between her and the danger.

"We're getting through to it."  He grunted, his legs and body trembling as errant sparks caught him.  "Just a little more babe."