Closed RP with @thegirlinnacrenecity
Flare Holdings had been standing their ground for several days now. Lumiose City was a warzone, with civilians forced to choose sides or flee the area. Barricades had been constructed, roughly splitting the city into Flare territory or Scintiller territory.
Rae had grown a bit content sticking around if Bleu was around, after all yes she was a little strange having two unknown pokemon (she was surprised no one had ever seen a Lopunny in person! She found out it was a pokemon not found in this region) and also having two said unknown pokemon out at...all times, she didn't know why herself but she preferred to keep them out in the open. It seems the two preferred this as well, Goldie the Infernape didn't show it but just like the Lopunny the two tended to stick to her like glue.
She wishes she could better understand the two, they always seemed to want to lead her away, but at Bleu's words, she did better to stand her ground in leading her pokemon. After all this was..this was a war! She had to be helpful to the cause-
She jumped when the doors were slammed open, clutching the strap of her side bag (a nervous tic she discovered) as the Flare member explained what was happening, watching Bleu's face change in various emotions.
'Princess of rocks..' she wondered what that meant, a pokemon most likely, her two pokemon wouldn't fare well against it if that name was anything to go by but..
...she told that old man she would face him with everything she had..she wasn't the best fighter..she wasn't..
Rae shook her head, determined.
She adjusted her sleeves, fixing the rolled up bits and fixing her goggles over her eyes. She looked to her pokemon pals "alright you guys..we got this right? Let's show them what we got"
She didn't notice the way the two pokemon looked at each other, how Lopunny looked nervous, how Infernape looked conflicted, but the two promised the team if anyone found Rae they would protect her until the others could come together again. No matter the cost.
The group emerged onto the streets. Lady Bleu expected they'd be walking for a few minutes to reach the other side of town- but the moment they emerged, it was plain to see what was going on.
An army of Carbink had swarmed the town, like a rising tidal wave. And at the helm, a Pokemon none of them recognized, like a Carbink but clad in pink jewel regalia. This must be the Princess of Diamonds.
At its side, untouched by the mob, was an old man Rae swore she recognized. Though his face was ragged, his hair unkempt and his clothes torn, he had all the power in this moment, his feet firmly planted upon a platform of solid diamond. From his platform he stared down upon them, his eyes hard as rock. For a moment, his gaze lingered on Rae, then he looked away, staring over their heads.
"You will surrender now." He said. "Lumiose City cannot bear the weight of this turmoil much longer. If you will not stand down... then I will fight you with all I am able."
"Never!" Lady Bleu spat. "I will not bow the knee to an upstart Scintiller brat such as you. You do not belong here, and you never will! Flare Holdings, I order you to destroy him!"
Lyonel released his Pyroar and assumed a battle stance. Lady Bleu sent out her Dragalge.
And the strange, hard-eyed man sighed, and swept a hand out towards the group.
"Rhinestone. Ancient Power."
Rae had learned very important things when she joined team Flare, and faced..war..
One: keep your expressions down-low, even with the things you see and hear, the last thing you need is the opponent seeing your emotions (she hated this lesson, and she didn't like to call them enemies, enemies met she would hate someone. Rae..doesn't recall hating people)
Two: your gonna do things that suck, it's not about what you like or dislike. You do what your told (this..rubbed her the wrong way too, it felt very strange to her to follow the rules)
When she met the eyes of the strange man, she SWORE it was a color she knew..but..the thought faded just as quickly as it came.
Lopunny and Goldie looked distraught, watching the strange man, why was that? Were they scared to battle? There wasn't any reason to be..
"L-Lop!! Lo Lopunny!!" The normal type pokemon yanked on Rae's arm to pull her. Why? Going forward would be dangerous, she knows Lopunny can be speedy pokemon if they wanted to be, but she doesn't think-
'I order you to destroy him!!!'
...destroy?
Rae..didn't like that, she said she would defend against the man, when she spoke to him, but to destroy? That sounded..
'Rhinestone. Ancient power.'
Oh shit-
The woman yanked her arm away from the rabbit pokemon, taking a step back.
"L-Lopunny! Dodge and use acrobatics! Goldie! Use Heat wave!!"
They hesitated..why are they..
"Do it NOW!!"
Snapped out of it, Lopunny tumbled forward and sprinted to attempt using her move, Goldie the Infernape also rushed forward a bit so he could take a deep breath and exhale his move.
The Princess of Diamonds- Rhinestone, Darrin had called them- chirped and sent forth a barrage of rocks, though Rae's Lopunny was able to avoid them without much trouble. They took the Heat Wave without flinching, and issued some kind of order to their Carbink army, who began to close in.
"Pyroar, Fire Blast!" Lyonel screeches, holding off the little Rock-types for now with the scorching heat of his partner's attack.
"Dragalge, Gunk Shot." Lady Bleu commanded, setting her sights on Darrin himself. She wasn't aiming to incapacitate, she was trying to end him.
The man noticed in time, however, and his voice cracked in panic as he issued an order.
"DIAMOND STORM!"
From the Princess's body came a whirlwind of gleaming rock, battering every Pokemon in the vicinity. Some of the diamonds lingered, forming a kind of armor on the Pokemon's body.
Lady Bleu grimaced. Her Gunk Shot had failed and her Dragalge was struggling to stay conscious.
"Rae!" She shouted to the woman. "Get in there and finish this! You're our last hope!"
Crap-
Rae put up her arms as the diamond storm picked and chipped at every pokemon in range, lucky for pokemon like Lopunny and Infernape they didn't have a disadvantage to rock based power, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Watching as Lopunny did well to avoid the first move, but took a bit of damage from the second. Goldie brought his arms up to block just like Rae did, but faced damage as well.
Ok, this was..not great, not bad, but not ok..
She watched as well as Bleu and the others attacked, but it just barely made a dent in the rock type defenses.
'Get in there and finish this! Your our last hope!'
Last hope..? She..HOPES they don't mean for her to cause fatal harm to the other side, in her own mind, she just wanted them to go away and to protect her team..her..her friends..
...friends..
Taking a deep breath, Rae shot her arm out to point "Lopunny! Use baby-doll eyes on the princess! Goldie! Rush and use close combat! Tag team it you two!"
"Rhinestone!" Darrin cried out, sounding genuinely afraid for his Pokemon. It could only float there, enraptured by Lopunny's adorable expression, as Goldie darted in for the attack-
"DREEEAVE DREAVE!"
"CROBAT!"
Two flashes of light. Darrin's other Pokemon popped out of their Poke Balls, a Crobat and that strange Misdreavus looking creature. The latter blocked Goldie's Close Combat, which phased through their spectral body. No effect!
"Ridiculous! Dragalge, take them down with Dragon Pulse!" Lady Bleu commanded, but her partner's strength finally gave out, and it collapsed to the ground, unconscious. "N-no! It cannot end this way!"
Darrin simply stood there, open-mouthed. He shook himself, raising an arm to the skies.
"Phantasm, Dazzling Gleam! Fang, Air Slash! Rhinestone, Smack Down!"
The Misdreavus creature screeched and let out a burst of glittery energy, hitting Goldie super effectively. The Crobat sent blades of compressed air towards Lopunny. And the Princess of Diamonds picked up a large boulder in her hands and threw it right towards Rae.
She curses, watching as Goldie's attack went ineffective against his new opponent, her brain racked for a new plan of action, if a ghost type was the new play, it'd be better to switch up Lopunny and Goldie. But if Rae remembers right Lady doesn't-
...Lady?
Who..who is Lady?
It's Lopunny and Goldie, Rae is here, fighting with team Flare, fighting against greedy people, fighting for what's right-
...right...?
Her head was beginning to hurt..
"I-I..what..what was I doing..?"
Goldie was barely standing now from the Dazzling Gleam.
Lopunny(Lady) took on the Air Slash.
Rae..stared with a clouded gaze, as the giant rock barreled towards her.
'GARDIVOUR!!!!!!'
A piercing call BOOMED through the minds of the dozens of people and pokemon. Why did Rae.. recognize..
Her head..it hurt..
A shrill shriek took over after mysterious ringing in everyone's heads.
The rush of air breezed past, as an attack was launched against the boulder, another Close Combat, and the flashes of green, white, and pink.
The boulder shattered. Diancie stumbled, its Carbink attendants swarming to defend their princess.
"Rhinestone, one more Diamond Storm!" Darrin commanded, a rush of precious stones battering Rae's Pokemon. "Fang, Supersonic!" The Crobat let out a chittering sound, aiming to confuse Lady. "And Phantasm-" He paused, looking around wildly. Where had Phantasm gone? No matter, he could figure that out later.
"W..wha?"
"Gallade!!"
A humanoid looking pokemon, green and white in pattern, with a pink shape sticking from it's chest ran into view. A..no, no it's a Gallade, Rae remembers that at the very least (not that the creature just cried out it's name) a Gallade..and a..Gardevoir..
Ok. Rae's head was starting to hurt again. She doesn't wanna be part of this battle anymore, she doesn't know why these two are here, or why they are fighting against the carbink army and the guy. But she's done.
Digging out the two pokeballs from her bag (she knew they were going to hate this..) "Goldie! Lopunny! Return!!"
Two red beams shot out, bringing back the two pokemon to their capture devices.
"What?" Lady Bleu exclaimed in shock. "Rae, you cannot be serious. I order you to-" "Enough." Darrin commanded. His voice seemed more resonant now, booming around the square. The strange Misdreavus reappeared from the shadows, striking the Gardevoir from behind with Phantom Force. Diancie prepared another attack, but Darrin put up a hand to stop them. "This battle is over. You and your organization will leave the citizens of Lumiose City alone."
Lady Bleu's eyes burned with hatred, but looking around, she could tell they were hopelessly outnumbered. There was no way they could continue fighting, especially with Rae apparently giving up.
"Fine." She spat. "But this is not over, Scintiller. Flare Holdings will rise again, like a Talonflame, from the ashes. You will never put out our fire."
She turned and walked away, the other Flare members following behind, as the wall of Carbink parted to allow them exit.
Where they would go, she was not sure, but she knew she could not bear this place any longer.
"I don't mind helping you because you guys helped me! B-but right now..everything is fuzzy as..I can't continue like this! And besides!"
Pushing her arm out forward, as if to show the scene in front of her, the Gardevoir took the damage and fell to her knees, just as the Gallade rushed once more to protect his counterpart to use shadow sneak on her attacker.
"I-I don't know if those two are even on our side or not but they have it handled!"
Darrin's words did not register with the woman, instead, she immediately went to rush ahead of her peers. She had to get away from here, everything was making her head spin like crazy..
The Gallade and Gardevoir remind, the Gardevoir staring down Darrin as if she had something to say to him. It seems the pair were not going to leave, maybe this meant they weren't on team Flare's side? However it seems they are not happy with this attack..
Darrin grimaced as he saw the Gallade and Gardevoir keep fighting.
"Must we continue? I... do not want to fight."
The Diancie, on the other hand, looked very eager to battle them. Almost disturbingly so.
It takes a minute, as the two pause to stare at the army, to stare at Darrin.
Darrin could feel the tap tap tap in his head, almost as if someone was knocking before coming in.
'We WOULD like to understand what is going on. My brother and I have been searching this whole time for Rae, FOR YOU even, and yet we see this? All this rampage and damage? I could not speak to Rae, not as I usually do. I couldn't connect us..so now, I will give you the benefit of the doubt once more and connect with you.'
"You have my apologies." Darrin said. "I... did not mean for this to happen. Foolishly, I hoped that Flare Holdings would surrender peacefully. Rhinestone, kindly order your servants to retreat, would you?"
"Dianc!" The Fairy-type chirped, signalling to her Carbink soldiers, who began to disperse, forming orderly rows behind their princess.
"Now then." Darrin said, looking around the remains of Lumiose City. He knew it would be rebuilt in time... but the damage was unmistakable. "Do you have any conception of what's happened to Rae? She appears to have lost her memory, and... if you'll excuse my tasteless words, her mind as well."
Another voice intruded, unlike Princess's it gave no warning.
'tasteless sounds about right..'
'hush brother.' Princess was in no mood for Prince's grumpy state it seemed 'It involves what happened some time ago, the happenings in the sky that contorted memories such as yours. It affected us all the same but Rae has..always had a fragile mind, to be shown a past and future she could not have messed with her more severely than we had anticipated. I assume that is why I cannot enter her mind normally, she has essentially shut down and shut out everything and anything involving to protect herself. She ran away, and I was hoping once we found her we could find a way to fix this but..it seems my brother and I are not exactly on time for that.'
'We have not come across others of our team either, though it seems Lady and Goldie have found her..they are troubled by her behavior as well..'
'As partner pokemon. We have no choice but to listen to commands, however mister Darrin, seeing as she does not remember us right now..we wish to ask for your help, given what we have seen.'
'Attack my sister again and I will take action.' that was clearly directed at the Misdreavus, seems he did not care if the match up wouldn't be in his favor if that happened.
'You will do no such thing brother.' the humanoid pokemon took on a softer look as she continued to stare at the human man, as if just now taking in the state he was in 'if you help us..we will help you.'
