Sunward Atop Sunrest Mesa

[Chibi Pika]

Jade knew that her long-range attacking wouldn't go unpunished for long. She'd just finished firing off the last Shadow Ball when Zaffre regained herself, and then all of a sudden the world shifted as a searing wave of psychic energy bombarding her body and mind alike. Her train of thought burned away, the mesa flickered in and out of view. Scattered bits of half-remembered images flitted in and out of her mind's eye from a time long past. Hers? No, not hers, someone else's past, one that felt like it'd evaporate if she looked at it too long.

She saw herself (not herself) standing in a battlefield, pointing a hand forward, a human hand. At her side, a cobalt dragon, pointed wings, so familiar, her partner (not her partner), the same burning psychic light. The rush of remembered adrenaline, the thrill of a hundred battles across a sea of time and space. Battling not to prove herself, but to test others, to see if they deserved the status of victory, that golden symbol recognizing their triumph.

She was... a Gym Leader? No, that wasn't quite right, didn't feel right. Something higher.

"...You still stand. Then, you have me now,"

It took her a few moments to snap back into reality. The endless sunset of the mesa crept back into her vision, along with a delayed numbness filling her limbs, an echo of the psychic barrage. She was here, now, and those battles (not her battles) were a world away. She could hear Leaf calling her name, her name, not the name that'd flashed through her mind for an instant.

"Your name is... Anabel?" Jade said, without knowing why.

Her head was ringing, vision still refusing to focus right, still swimming with psychic distortion. One last attack. She could collapse after that.

Spoiler: Jade Turn 4

Jade (205 STM, 15 TMP, +0 SPD, +6 ACC, 0 SHD, 30 RAD)
- Receive (Call) (+3 TMP, -10 SHD, -10 RAD)
- **Act:** RADIANT Focus (+5 TMP)
- CRITICAL RADIANT Thunderbolt @ Aster (ACTIVATE: effect, Hex Maniac) (-21 STM, -22 TMP, +7 TMP, +18 RAD)
- AGILE Shadow Ball @ Zaffre (-27 STM, +8 TMP)
- Soul's Adversity (-30 STM, +2 TMP)
- CRITICAL Shadow Ball @ Zaffre (-18 STM, -18 TMP, +8 TMP) [+50 BP]
Net change: -96 STM, -7 TMP, +0 SHD, +8 RAD
Net totals: 109 STM (172 after regen), 8 TMP, 0 SHD, 38 RAD
(TAKE COVER)

 

[Jackie Cat]

Turn 4
Player Phase​

Leaf called out to Jade!
Leaf used Bulk Up!
Leaf's Quick Attack dealt 16 damage to Aster!
Leaf's Quick Attack dealt 14 damage to Aster!
Leaf's AGILE Tenacious Soul dealt a CRITICAL 45 damage to Aster! It's super effective!
Leaf's Tenacious Soul dealt a CRITICAL 61 damage to Aster! It's super effective!
Leaf took cover!

Jade received a Call!

"Your name is... Anabel?"

The Meowstic froze, hardly breathing. Something dawned on her face, even as the mesa-top winds beat at her.

"Yes," said Anabel. "Yes. I was... I was a Frontier Brain. And I was a... a detective. At Interpol."

She dropped her sword, closed her eyes, and waited for Jade's final attack.

"Of course. It makes... perfect sense..."

Jade's RADIANT Thunderbolt dealt a CRITICAL 134 damage to Aster! It's super effective!
Jade's AGILE Shadow Ball dealt 36 damage to Anabel! It's super effective!
Jade used Soul's Adversity!
Jade's Shadow Ball dealt a CRITICAL 169 damage to Anabel! It's super effective! KO!!
Jade took 49 damage in recoil! KO!!

The Flygon knight spared a sideways glance at the two cats knocking each other out, then turned back to the unicorn giving her such a relentless bludgeoning.

"Whatever you did back home, whatever you did to become a knight here, I bet you didn't do it by worrying about whether the 'main character' was someone else. So, c'mon! Show me how bad you want this and gimme everything you got!"

'Aster' forced a feral grin, and nodded.

"Fine!" she barked, in a half-laugh. "I'll make you work for your win. No, I'll do better than that. I'll show you what it takes for me to win!"

Aster breathed in...

 

[Jackie Cat]

Turn 4
Enemy Phase​

The Flygon knight opened her eyes, and seemed to size up Leaf for the first time. She'd believed in her own strength so much she'd taken it for granted – just as she'd taken her destiny for granted before. But past all that bluster was someone who knew how to fight. Aster lifted off the ground, and shivered as she built up strength – strength she'd yet to truly reach for.

Aster Focused...
Aster used Dragon Dance!

She darted forwards, juking and feinting to get Leaf off her balance...

Aster's Quick Attack missed!
Aster's Quick Attack missed!

...and roared with effort as she called on a power she'd always believed was hers by right, somewhere deep in her heart. She shot up with a downblast of air and dust, to rise high, her scales glowing an emerald green...

Zinnia used Dragon Ascent!

...and crashed back to earth like a meteor to impact her opponent.

Zinnia's STRONG Dragon Ascent dealt a CRITICAL 150 damage to Leaf!
Zinnia's defenses fell!
The sandstorm raged! Leaf toughed it out at 1 HP!

The Flygon pushed herself to her feet, her jaw clenched, and looked up to see Leaf still standing.

She began to laugh, too consumed with the triumph of outdoing herself for once, with remembering something buried deep in her soul, with sheer adrenaline pumping in her veins to feel any exhaustion or despair. She took up a defensive stance and beckoned with one outstretched claw to Leaf.

Come on, then. Bring it!

[ ] Objective: Bring it.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Everything went brilliant, emerald green, and then for a second everything went black. Leaf groaned, made to peel herself out of the crater she'd probably been plastered into, wobbled a little with surprise when she it turned out she was still on her feet. Somehow. Well, why not? Not like she woulda missed the end of a battle like this for anything.

Aster(?) was laughing. So was she, she realized. "Hell yeah," she panted. "That's what I'm talking about." That was the stuff a really good battle was supposed to let you understand: the conviction, the burning need to prove she could reach as high as possible, higher than anyone else, for... Leaf wasn't sure exactly what for. Eh, she could ask later. After this was over.

Wow everything hurt, though. (She could push through it anyway.) Had to make this quick, make it count, before she keeled over and got buried in a pile of sand. Radiant lightning flared to life around her as she steadied herself, got her eye in, and bolted.

"My turn now."

Leaf shot across the mesa in a flash, lance leveled right at that confident grin. Heroes and stories she didn't know so much about—didn't matter anyway, all of the Wayfarers had come here to give solving this problem everything they had, and so had they—but never let it be said that she didn't put in the work when she wanted to win.

Spoiler: Leaf, Turn 5

Leaf (164 STM, 20 TMP, +1 SPD, +5 ACC, 0 SHD, 36 RAD)
- Quick Attack @ Aster (-6 STM, +6 TMP)
- Quick Attack @ Aster (-9 STM, +6 TMP)
- CRITICAL Psycho Cut @ Aster (-13 STM, -11 TMP, +6 TMP)
- AGILE CRITICAL Tenacious Soul @ Aster (-45 STM, -11 TMP, +6 TMP)
- CRITICAL Tenacious Soul @ Aster (-30 STM, -11 TMP, +6 TMP)
- CRITICAL Shining Stormlance @ Aster (-40 STM, -11 TMP, +6 TMP, +36 RAD)
- Walk to Sunset Cliffs
Net change: -135 STM, -10 TMP, +0 SHD, +36 RAD
Net totals: 29 STM (29 after regen), 10 TMP, 0 SHD, 72 RAD

 

[Jackie Cat]

Turn 5
Player Phase​

Leaf's Quick Attack dealt 16 damage to Aster!
Leaf's Quick Attack dealt 16 damage to Aster!
Leaf's Psycho Cut dealt a CRITICAL 41 damage to Aster!
Leaf's AGILE Tenacious Soul dealt a CRITICAL 39 damage to Aster! It's super effective!
Leaf's Tenacious Soul dealt a CRITICAL 62 damage to Aster! It's super effective!
Leaf's Shining Stormlance dealt a CRITICAL 83 damage to Aster! It's super effective! KO!!

Wayfarers WIN!​

Leaf's Radiance pierced Aster's aura, and with that final strike, she collapsed to the ground in a daze.

"Are you quite alright, Ser?" asked Zaffre-Anabel, from where she and Jade were coming to their senses.

In response, the winded Flygon just put up a claw in a rough approximation of a thumbs-up. Good enough. The Meowstic smiled thinly, and turned to the exhausted – but triumphant – Rapidash.

"You have won the day," she said, her tone a satisfied one. Pleased, even. "And what's more, the fierceness of our battle has taught us not only something about your own character, but about ours. Perhaps we can credit that to your strength of arms... or perhaps to the lingering Radiance suffusing this battlefield. Have you noticed it?"

It was true – while it was hardly enough to affect the relative brightness of their auras, the mesatop did have a certain liminal quality to it, even with Amida's dungeon ostensibly dispelled.

"I must make another introduction, I feel," continued the feline knight. "I am Special Agent Anabel of Interpol... and in another life, erstwhile master of the Battle Tower." She gestured to her winded comrade. "And this is Loremaster Zinnia of the Draconid Clan. She is decidedly not my sister, or even my friend – although I suppose she has become just that – but rather, she is a suspect I was pursuing before we fell together into this world. Quite an absurd situation, wouldn't you say?"

Despite her tone, the cat was smiling to herself.

 

[Phoenixsong]

The light was still blazing in Leaf's eyes and thunder roaring in her ears as she forced herself to slow to a canter, then a walk, then a stop. Part of her felt like she could still keep going, keep charging forward forever, this was amazing and she was invincible. Part of her felt like if she didn't keep running her legs would just give out entirely. But she did stop, took a slow, steadying breath to focus, it's over, and very heroically managed to stay standing so she could help Jade up if she needed it.

"You guys are nuts," she said, exhausted but still laughing. "That was great! Anabel and... Zinnia? Well, 's nice to meet you. Again. Uh, for real. You know." She shook her head. "Don't remember if I said back at the party, but I'm Leaf. This is Jade." "Anabel" did sound kinda familiar, now she thought about it. An Anabel, anyway, no telling exactly where from with Forlas. Something she'd heard about that Battle Frontier thing they'd built in Hoenn? No wonder she was good, damn. "Zinnia" wasn't ringing any bells, but "loremaster" seemed plenty interesting enough. As did...

"A suspect? What'd you do?" (That was probably a rude question, wasn't it. Although somehow, maybe, just a hunch, she figured the flygon wouldn't actually care.)

She looked around, past the knights and the piles of crap, at the sunset view that lingered around the mesa. Still hard to take your eyes off the red and gold watercolor sky, even if it wasn't as intense as when Amida's radiance had been fueling it.

"You know what used to be here? What the Wardens were protecting?" Leaf asked, turning back to Anabel. "The Living Sun. A hero from thousands of years ago who helped save Forlas. Her radiance was powerful enough to replace the sun when it got blocked out." She prodded at a weird lamp thing and didn't particularly care when her hoof crunched through the glass. "But the Coven guys who did this, they were trying to drag her out of her dungeon and use all that power to find her partner, the Saint of Victory. Professor Sada—uh, Mesoza? Dunno if you know her, big orange lizard, uhhh, lady—she just wanted to rescue him. Not clear what the rest of 'em wanted him for, though. Not specifically. But probably it's not good." Leaf glanced at Jade; that was the part she'd know more about, most likely.

 

[Jackie Cat]

"A pleasure," replied Anabel, as she returned her rapier to its scabbard, and fixed her hair. "It's strange – I don't feel any different, and yet the memories that have returned to me... it feels as if my priorities have changed once again. That's simply the effect that expanding your perspective can have, I suppose."

Zinnia rolled over and staggered to her feet, coughing. "Okay, that was the hardest-core, most badass battle I've ever had. For real. I'll be honest, my big showdown in my old life? I, uh, kinda just got rolled. Plus it just hits different to be the one fighting, no matter how in sync you are with your pokémon." She glanced at Leaf, processing what she'd said. "Oh, right. Yeah, I, uh. I probably stole some shit, I guess? That was kinda my M.O. – nicking shit that was in the wrong hands."

Anabel frowned. "You make it sound like you were some sort of noble folk hero. As I recall, you put everyone in danger by destroying a device that held the fate of the world, and... stealing..."

"I stole a key stone from an eco-terrorist. And that 'device' would have destroyed another world. I like my track record just fine, thank you."

Anabel put a paw to her temple. "Just— Let's not get into this again. It's not like it matters right now." She turned to Leaf. "You were asking about the Saint of Victory. He means different things to different Covenant members... but there's a prevailing belief in the organisation that bringing him back is the best way to solve the problems of the world. They see him as a messianic figure, even one we should try any means to summon back to us."

"That's rich," Zinnia scoffed. "If he's so great, why's everything so fucked up to begin with? He's just another ancient hero. He's just a guy."

"Be as that may, people want hope. They don't wish to accept that the world is imperfect... or that improving on it might take generations of hard work and complicated solutions to sophisticated problems. They want a saviour who will spare them from their fears."

 

[Chibi Pika]

The psychic ringing in her ears had finally faded. Jade had managed to pick herself up from the sandstone and reach for her dungeon bag, biting into an oran and feeling relief in her aching limbs. She flashed a grin at Leaf, still standing at the battle's end like she'd figured. Hell yeah, they'd pulled it off.

The buzzing light, too, was fading, but the confidence remained. Jade wasn't sure what it was about the post-battle high, but it felt easier to speak freely now. Like there wasn't any point in hiding anything.

"It's good to meet you both. For real this time," Jade replied, still grinning. Battle Frontier, huh. (But then... had she seen Latios there...?)

That was a lot to unpack about the Living Sun and the Saint of Victory, but Zinnia's words had caught in her brain. Just another ancient hero. Just a guy. All these grand tales and thousand-year myths about the ancient hero who saved the world, the strongest summoned human of all time. It was hard to break through all that and realize that he'd been no different than any other human, once. Maybe even no different than her.

"That's how we ended up here, I think," Jade said, idly rolling a dusty bolt with her foot. "Just a long chain of stuff happening because they wanted a Saint who'd fixed the world to do it again. Everyone thought he was gone from the world, so they got Mesoza to build a Voice of Life to summon him back, and that Voice of Life summoned us. But... just 'cause he was strong enough to blow up a meteor, I don't think that kind of power would... help here."

 

[Jackie Cat]

Anabel nodded. "Yes... Your summoning was possibly only because of the project you describe. It was rumoured in the Covenant, but I never believed it was completed and operational, much less responsible for the Wayfarers' arrival. It's... honestly a little embarrassing that I didn't take it more seriously."

Zinnia shrugged. "I totally believed it was real. Fuckin' everyone over at R&D is down horrendous for ancient human heroes. And we already know you can, like, schlorp humans from other worlds in the first place. Not even just summoned ones! 'Cause of Fallers like us, right?"

"Uniquely-put, as always."

"Thanks!"

"Anyway." The Meowstic brushed dust from her sides and straightened out her dress shirt. "Jade is, in my opinion, quite right. For one, strength in battle is not the same as strength of character, or good judgment, or any other virtue... And further to that, not all problems are best-solved by powerful, heroic individuals. Large organisations are one answer to that, but even then..."

She shook her head, obviously still processing a flood of recently-recovered memories. Anabel-Zaffre had been many things, including a member of multiple 'righteous' organisations that used force to (ostensibly) do good. She might have a lot to say about the topic of Victini Lorrel, if prompted properly...

"What is it with giant meteors, anyway," muttered Zinnia, crossing her arms.