Alexandria Beneath the Red Star

[Jackie Cat]

On the western edge of the Hesperic Ocean, a crowd of pokémon gathered on a beach. Pale sand turned pink from the red light up above, while the ocean turned dark, save for flecks of foam atop its waves. Short grasses swayed in the sea breeze. The air was warm, and smelt of salt, burnt sugar, and ozone.

At the edge of vision, a Shadow flickered. A boundary between the rest of the world and a sphere of spacetime centred on the anomaly that burned the sky. Invisible head-on, but possible to perceive indirectly. Powehi's barrier.

Laura counted heads, checking everyone was definitely present. Everyone that was ready to fight.

"Powehi?" she called, softly. Was he in that fiery rift right now, holding it closed?

 

[Namohysip]

"Are we fighting out in the open, or will this be a more private affair?" Mhynt wondered to herself, arms crossed. "Hm. I suppose in a place like this, there isn't a big difference in the grand scheme of things... We won't be here much longer to suffer any attention if this all goes well."

"I hope we don't strain him, or Betel, too much from all this," Owen said. Despite this, his body seemed to fizzle and flare with the eagerness to fight, as usual.

"Powehi is a god, is he not?" Zena asked. "...Assuming he's among the more responsible ones... I'd like to hope he knows his limits. Especially a pessimistic god."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

It was hard to say whether the appearance of Powehi's barrier made the overall effect of the red start more or less creepy. Gladion felt better under the protection of Powehi's shadows. Lillian found the effect offputting. Powehi hadn't even shown yet, and she already had a hand on the hilt of her rapier.

"You nervous at all?" Gladion asked, despite being easily able to intuit the answer.

"I practised. I'm fine. Are you?"

"Nah." This was a lie. It came out his mouth without a second thought given to the fact that Lillian would know it to be one before it ever even crossed his lips. It was never meant to be anything more than a polite fiction. "You know what they say about battles. Win or lose, the most important thing is to have fun. It'll be fine, just let me..."

With a subtle roll of her eyes subtle enough to go unnoticed, Lillian cut him off.

"...take the hits. We've had this conversation before, stop fretting."

Gladion smirked, and a bit of emotional warmth crept into his deadpan. There was a passing thought he'd had a while back, a distraction that seemed welcome and easy to deliver from this position in the conversation.

"As your older brother, I'm afraid it's my solemn duty to fret."

Lillian disagreed with that assessment. She could retain information that she had been told before. Couching it in a joke that'd gotten old before their ages had hit double digits didn't make it any less patronizing. "You still haven't moved on from that dumb joke?"

"Hey, it's actually meaningfully true now that I've got seven months here. And it's relevant: See, back when I was your age I was fighting Pawniard. This is a whole different grade of learning curve."

It hadn't yet occurred to her to think about the amount of time Gladion had spent here while, based on the fact that their final days in their world lined up, nothing was happening for her. She groaned. The odds of Gladion letting the older twin joke go before whatever sliver of this adventure they got to share in ended felt slim. She pushed back that it still didn't count because they were still just twins, knowingly giving into the distractions of those well-wrought old battle lines. They could easily keep going at this subject until Powehi arrived. (It was better than the nerves, at least.)

 

[canisaries]

Andre had seen plenty of awe-inspiring views on his time on Forlas, and each time he'd remembered he would forget it all once he left. He'd attempted to enjoy what he could while it lasted, but multiple times the situation had been too dire for him to feel comfortable 'enjoying' anything. This was one of those times.

He glanced at Ben. The newly-evolved ursaring no longer seemed to be as bothered by him as he'd been before. While that talk on the outskirts of Frontier Town had been... painful, in more ways than one, it seemed to have been for the better. For Ben, for the Wayfarers, maybe even Andre himself. He didn't know.

He sighed and turned his gaze back to the red star, squinting his eyes. He foresaw a lot of fire in the near future, which wasn't great for a grass type, but maybe he could still pull his weight as support. He'd packed his saddlebags full of healing items for that exact purpose.

 

[Butterfree]

Dave compulsively kept looking back at Jean, so strange in her new Ninetales form. But at least she said she felt good in the Ninetales form. She wanted to help. And as cold as Powehi was, this was a battle to test them. She wouldn't be in serious danger.

So fine. Here they were, father and daughter. Mightyena and Ninetales. Going to fight together. What the fuck.

This whole place was fucking unnerving, but he stayed close to her and waited for Powehi to show himself.