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 Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 5:46 pm
”SubonicXP” "So, then, Crystal and Darts, what is your answer? We have all the time in existence but we'd like an answer now." Phyco asked. "Do we have a deal?" Darts sighs, looking between Crystal’s indignant expression as she holds the collar in one of her hands, and the watch being proffered from Phyco. He glances back at Ogerpon, who had switched away from her Hearthflame mask to the liquidity of the Wellspring, diamond eyes shining with tears as she watched her trainer. He knew her well enough to know she wasn’t sad or crying but rather just very uncertain, the fluidity of the blue mask reflecting her internal turmoil. As usual, the question was going to fall to him. He knew the Solgaleo hybrid well enough to know that her pride was going to get in the way of answering this question appropriately, because funnily enough the him from a few years ago would have probably balked in a similar fashion. He presents his arm wrist-first, letting the Recon Squad member cinch up and clasp the golden-black timepiece equivalent into place as he gives Crystal a look over his head saying something like: ‘Come on now, be reasonable here.’ The device gives a little ‘bwoop’ as it’s installed and the screen lights up light blue for an instant, showing off the makeup of their reality as two separate bands, almost like a heartbeat in stereo. One band moving to the top of the screen labeled ‘chronology’ seemed to be showing off the status of the timeline with healthy sweeps. The other, jittering in a questionable pattern by comparison to the bottom labeled ‘fidelity’ seemed to be tracking the state of reality. Whatever damage they had done when they had leapt out to try and fight Dialga had clearly wounded something, as the pattern was a bit wobbly. It seemed to hit something near the bottom of the watch and stabilize, coming back to midpoint in an even sweep. The quarantine effect, Darts surmised, looking at the thing as it kept time and space on his wrist. Darksol88 "Unfortunately for you lot, Cyrus was pretty intent on killing the lot of us before those two," he remarked, gesturing at Crystal and Darts, "Managed to save all our hides. So I'm not sure working with him's exactly an option. And Dark... I don't recall meeting him before today, even if my memories want to claim otherwise. And if he's at all related to Dull, nearly none of us could so much as touch him." “Yes, well,” A gruff-sounding annoyed voice comes from near the entrance to the headquarters. It would be one that was very familiar to the Snagems who had just had to listen to it proselytize as they were trapped in a bubble of time. “That countenance isn’t exactly mine.” Cyrus would emerge, the very spitting image of the man they had just faced down with a Dialga on his leash. The same shock of spiky blueish-gray hair, the same grey uniform with a golden ‘G’ emblazoned on the chest. “Please, spare me.” He grunts, the Galactic leader raising a hand towards the handful of Snagems that had no doubt jumped to their feet to defend themselves. “If I was me... or rather, him, and I had Dialga ready to go, you all would be dead already. Keep in mind, you should all count your blessings that his Dialga, also, came here with him from a foreign dimension. If it was the genuine article, surely all of you would be able to see that it would have been child’s play to freeze you in time and let entropy have its way with all of you.” Unlike his counterpart from earlier, this Cyrus seemed more like the genuine article. Cold, controlled, the only time a waver of emotion would enter his countenance would be when he mentioned the ‘other’ him, a sharp penetrating anger that filled his dark eyes but didn’t spread to the rest of his face. He turns to Sub, who was supporting Blizzard on his shoulders. “I want to make an exchange.” Cyrus says, matter-of-factly as he addresses the Snagem leader, and completely ignoring the Recon Squad. It seemed the group’s holier-than-thou attitude was contagious, as the Galactic boss didn’t spare a single glance in the technologically-clad group’s direction. It was hard to tell if it was business-like or intended to be insulting. “I have information that you all need. I, similarly, require something from all of you.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 7:00 pm
I couldn’t help but to utterly balk at the entire thing as Phyco explained to Amaranth about me. It was almost as if I wasn’t even here. I don’t know if I should be proud of myself or truly and utterly insulted. I could only recall Miles telling me before that in spite of my apparent power bestowed by Celcius, I wholly limited myself, only because I was too straightforward in what I did, if not utterly counterintuitively to a detriment. And honestly? Short of trying to push myself in the means that I had available to me, I hadn’t really changed much habits from when I met him. And yet, this guy, outsider looking in coming in to say that I had the capabilities of freezing this whole reality many times over? Is he honestly off his gourd? I wasn’t Dialga, Palkia, or Arceus themselves. I was a mere mortal trying to do what he could. To achieve that kind of power would take longer than I have time on this world for. I couldn’t even imagine actual Articunos, being capable of doing that in any capacity. But yet…they have a kill on sight? On me? And any of those that were me in other realities? Even if my counterparts did achieve this level of power somehow in their lifetimes, just…how? Why was there never a stopping point for them? Then again, I knew why deep down…if they were anything like me, here, now, then they never had an opportunity to stop either. But finding themselves to the point where they lost control in some, grown insane in others? That I was ‘uniquely broken’ by chance just as they were?
Everything around me started to drown out just then as I remained on the floor, still paralyzed…a moment of comprehension that settled wrong, no longer trying to get feeling or movement back through the grip of electrical paralysis. A feeling I thought many years ago that I had buried away, never to return. That anger, doubt, and denial that I had over those claims since the day that blasted hunter came after me in Galar started to give way to it…a deep-seeded fear sprouting like a weed to choke the life out of the garden that were my convictions and resolutions. I looked down at my own two hands, still numb and trembling from the paralysis…and I couldn’t help but to wonder…
That thought stopped suddenly as Sub came over, trying to pick me up off the ground as the others, the Snagems and the Recon Squad, talked amongst themselves, getting more details as to what they were dealing with. The Snagem leader, apparently sympathetic to me, trying to lift me up off the ground. As he tried to leverage himself, the paralysis was still doing its vile work. My legs refused to move and stay in place. Overly numb as if the circulation had been cut off, everything being seized up. Standing was problematic. But as he spoke, it came as a whisper, something he didn’t want to share. He had something in mind, clearly. Making these Recon Squad guys useful? That I needed to calm down? Whatever it was, he was at least one that still had faith in me…for some reason. He still needed me, indicated by him holding out a Lum Berry for me to take. I sighed for a second and took the Lum Berry straight to my beak, giving it a hard few chews, wincing. A berry, known to be overall bland, but to be the perfect trick to many ailments. After giving it a swallow, I had to wait for a minute until I started to feel everything start to loosen up in me. “Thanks, Sub…” I said, whispering back, trying to wait for the Lum Berry trying to do its thing. Be calm right now? He got a bit more than that…I was utterly somber right now.
If one at this point could wonder if the day could get any worse, it would utterly seem like it honestly would. Freth went wide-eyed, quickly snapping out every last Pokeball she had on her, having them float in the air, at the ready, all at once she heard the new voice coming into the panic headquarters. Tristen seized up himself for only a second, getting at the ready himself. The fight looked as if it was coming to us once again, and with us no where near ready to fight this. As he spoke, he ended up pointing out something that made everyone realize…this was this reality’s Cyrus. Not the one that came at us at the trial. But I couldn’t help but to start wonder just who all else knew we were here. These other worldly idiots, sure. But Cyrus? Never mind this world’s Cyrus? “As much as I want to say I can’t bring myself to care anymore given what happened today alone, I got the feeling that we’re going to want to hear this rather we want to or not.” I said, managing to get my footing back. I still wasn’t any fighting shape, but at least I wasn’t writhing in paralysis anymore.
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