Chapter 39- Threat, analysis, and beginning
- Location
- England, Smugsville.
"Behemoth," Eon said slowly, breathing deeply. It wasn't the first time he'd had to fill in a team member on a threat- he'd has to do it plenty as the leader of the team back in Alma, after all- but it was the first time he was ever going to be doing it for two Legendary Pokemon, both incredibly powerful and both totally, absolutely unaware of the sort of threat they were facing. "Behemoth is a dynakinetic. He manipulates energy. That makes countering him extremely difficult, because it's paired with incredibly high defences and a kill aura. It means he can ignore what the Parahumans here call the Manton Limit- basically internal powers only work internally, and external powers only work externally. He can bypass that and use his powers both ways within around thirty feet, letting him kill people incredibly easily. Suggested that you keep about a hundred foot distance from him because of that so you can dodge. Also projects radiation, glows white when he does it, that's got a range of about a hundred feet as well so staying back means you're hitting two Taillow with one Rock Throw. The radiation poisoning also causes a lot of trouble from it, and that'll get you fairly well even if you're pretty far away. Because of that the only people that get close are people with an extremely high defensiveness ability- what humans here call a 'Brute' rating- or are otherwise invulnerable. Most people with shield abilities don't like to risk it, though, at least from what I understand."
'I'm a Steel type.' Jirachi asked, tilting his head a little from where he was sitting on the opposite couch, Deoxys' arm curled around him slightly defensively. 'Wouldn't I be immune to the radiation poisoning, if it's a type of Poison?'
"Perhaps." He acknowledged. "But it's very different to how Poison types work in our world, so I wouldn't want to risk it, to be honest. For all we know it'll be just as harmful to you as it is to anyone else, and I'd rather not have you die from that."
'Fair point.'
"Anyway, that makes short range a pain, but long range is also an issue depending on what sort of thing you use for that. Since he can manipulate different types of energy, it's a bit hard to actually hit him. Plus he shoots lightning, which is pretty powerful when he wants it to be, and also he's pyrokinetic which will put us at a bit of a disadvantage because we don't know if he can use our flames."
"Fortunately for us, we have one advantage." Shadow butted in. "From what we've been able to tell in our fight against Leviathan, they're particularly weak to our Moves in some way. We're uncertain as to why, but we're pretty sure that it's something to do with our Aura. Since Aura is mostly an unknown force here- we've recently discovered that human's have it, but they can't manipulate it in any way- we figure that the Endbringers also have no idea what it is, and thus are more seriously affected by it, since they don't have any defences specifically for it."
'Query; would assistance be more beneficial on the attacking team? '
"Probably, though you'd be good anywhere." Eon told them. "Attack Forme is fragile but powerful, from what I understand, so you could likely do some good damage, assuming you have the right sort of moves to be able to do so. Defence Forme would be useful to try and control Behemoth's movements; maybe you could use your shields to keep him from going to certain areas. Plus you can shield others from Behemoth's attacks- perhaps even from the effects of the kill aura, though that would require experimentation that we don't really have time for, so we should probably avoid that for now. Speed Forme is less useful directly, since it's extremely frail from what I know, but indirectly you'd likely be able to handle search and rescue very well, which would let you get a lot more Parahumans back to the safe zone that we have for healing."
"The faster they get there, the more likely that it is that we can help them." Shadow added. "So that's also a really good thing in the end, because we can use that to be able to keep people from dying in the fight."
'Understanding; Unit will assist as directed.'
"Ok, so you're alternating, but focusing on search and rescue efforts at first. Good, that's probably for the best. Just make sure you use-" Eon paused. "Actually, you won't be able to use the bands, given that you can't speak aloud. Ok, you'll have to alert someone else to change the mode of your band so that you can help when you change what you're doing."
'Band?'
"Everyone participating in an Endbringer fight gets a band. These help keep track of who's where, what status they're in- they announce if they're down or deceased- and for people on search and rescue it helps point them towards other bands so that they can try and get to people faster than if they'd need to search themselves."
'Oh, I see.' Jirachi nodded. 'What about me?'
"In a way you're more and less complicated." Eon admitted. "Less, because you're powerful, so naturally you're on the attacking force, but also more, because you might be able to help more elsewhere. For example, you could help with search and rescue, being able to move a large number of people- can you teleport?"
'I can.'
"So that's an option, as is helping with healing if you were able."
'I can't do healing, no. Not without a wish, but then I'd need to do a Challenge first, and it wouldn't last long.'
"That's fine." Shadow promised. "Panacea and I can handle it ok, and there's probably gonna be other Capes there that'll have healing powers in some form that can help. Plus there's the normal humans that volunteer to stay and form medical teams as well, handling the less serious stuff and keeping people alive up until we can get to them. We managed Leviathan fine, though we did have more setup time then, hopefully we'll be ok here too." Shadow paused, looking up from the phone at Eon. "Swarm's on the move, she's picked up her own emergency kit and was heading to get ours, I told her no need, and she'll be heading out in a minute. She's planning to send a message to try and meet up with whoever in New Wave is heading out, and she's going to stick with Amy as best she can."
"Alright, good." Eon smiled, then refocused. "So Deoxys is switching around as they feel they're needed, and Jirachi is...?"
'I'll... I'll focus on attacking.' He told them, sounding nervous. 'I don't know how much I can do... I'm powerful, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep my power restrained enough to avoid hurting anyone else...'
"Just aim at the big bad, and we should be fine in the end." Eon suggested. "Other than that, there's not much to say, I think."
'Query; would multiplication be appreciated for rescue?'
Eon blinked. "Multiplication?"
'Deoxys can split themselves.' Jirachi elaborated. 'It's kinda difficult, and those guys are limited to Normal Forme only, but they can do a lot even so. They're not as powerful either, and they're pretty fragile...'
"That would be incredibly good for search and rescue." Eon agreed, after a moment to gather himself. "We'll have to pass that along up the chain, give a warning, but as long as they aren't about to get destroyed and end up hurting someone even more because they got dropped or something..."
'That isn't too likely to happen, but they can work in groups or something to keep that down as well.' Jirachi suggested, getting into the spirit of things amazingly well for someone so out of their depths. 'Sets of three, having two of them focus on defending and the other on moving? Sure the defences won't be as powerful as Defence Forme, or even just a normal Normal Forme's shields, but they should be good enough that they'd be able to keep things from getting through and hurting anyone on the other side.'
"That could work, yes." Eon hummed, turning towards the camera in the room. "Dragon, do you have a moment?"
"Certainly." The woman's voice was somewhat harried, likely from trying to coordinate things going on, so he kept it short.
"First, do we have any better confirmation on where it's going to be?"
"New Delhi, India. Scary, pretty populated, difficult to evacuate in a hurry, but there's already first responders on the scene working on it and we're trying our best to get our people there to help out as well. Hopefully we'll make it in time."
"Good. Second, Deoxys has the ability to duplicate themselves. The clones will appear only in their Normal Forme, will be unable to shift, and are rather weaker than the main body. They've suggested using them as disposables for search and rescue, allowing them to spread out further than we could otherwise and hopefully save more people, working in teams to minimise the chances that they'd be destroyed in a way that might hurt someone."
Dragon was silent for a long moment. "What exactly do you mean by duplication?"
"Clones, essentially, or perhaps something more similar to projections?" Eon shrugged. "I'm not totally sure, to be honest."
'Query; demonstration required?'
Eon looked at them. "Would you be able to do that in here?"
Deoxys nodded, before promptly doing so. The clone that appeared was purple rather than orange, with a duller blue, and the eyes looked blank and lifeless. The lilac crystal in its chest was dull as well, and it took the expected shape of Deoxys' Normal Forme.
Dragon made a soft, startled noise from the cockpit, while Eon fluidly removed himself from the couch to walk around the clone. "Impressive, though it might be a little... worrying, to some people. Then again the options are accepting its help or possibly ending up dead, so..." He shrugged. "How many can you make?"
'Admittance; upper limit unknown.'
'Usually doing more than about fifty leaves them drained, though.' Jirachi put in.
"Sets of five, ten groups? Have all of them searching, three on defence, two on removal, moving that around as needed?" Eon suggested.
'That... that should work.' Jirachi nodded, rocking a little with the movement. 'Deoxys?'
'Agreement; suggested grouping is likely to be a viable tactic.'
"Alright, that's good." Eon hummed. "Dragon, did you get that?"
"I did, yes." She agreed. "I'm sending a message ahead of us now, so that people are properly warned. You should probably get back to your seats, we're coming in for a landing soon."
"No problem." The clone faded into lilac light as Eon jumped back to the chair, wrapping his tails around Shadow again. "How's Swarm?"
"Fine but worried." She replied lowly. "She's a bit unsure how much help she's going to be in a fight with Behemoth, but she's got what she needs and she'll be doing search and rescue as well."
"Remind her to stay as far out as she can-"
"Already done that, and she's aware. Swarm's not stupid, Eon, just because she's a bit uncertain doesn't mean that she's helpless." Shadow gave him a glare. "I know she's weaker and more limited than both of us but that doesn't mean we need to coddle her."
'Swarm?' Jirachi asked.
"The third member of our team. She's a Parahuman, native to this world, and controls insects." Shadow smiled. "It's actually a pretty cool power, all things considered."
'That sounds...'
"It's more useful than you'd think." Eon promised. "She's mainly our scout, since she can see and hear a lot further away using them, but they're not too bad for combat either. Mainly as a distraction, but also as actual weapons. Bites and stings tend to hurt humans pretty badly, especially if they're not expecting it."
'Interesting.' Jirachi raised an eyebrow. 'I'm looking forward to meeting her, I think.'
'Query; other notable figures?'
Eon blinked, then shook his head. "Yeah, filling you in on that might be good. Main one is Strider, he's going to be teleporting us." The craft shuddered to a stop, and as one the group hurried towards the already-opening doors, where a crowd of people were waiting for the teleport. "He'll get us where we need to go. Grab an armband, put it on, state your name and what you're planning- Deoxys come here and I'll do it for you-"
"No need, I'm on it."
"Thanks, Dragon." He nodded. "Alexandria, Brute, mostly invulnerable, probably gonna be up close. Legend, Blaster, long range, he'll be coordinating that team. Eidolon, Trump, mixed bag, no idea where he'll be until the point the fight starts." Eon flicked his tail in time with his words, creating illusions of each of the Parahumans he was talking about to show who they were. "Swarm looks like this, and this one is Panacea, she'll be working with Shadow and the other healers. She's one of the most powerful, so she desperately needs to be kept safe. We'll figure out where the medical bay is as soon as we can and point it out to you so you know where to take people, and hopefully Behemoth won't go anywhere near it. If he does we're gonna need all the help we can get forcing them back."
"From what you said the clones are pretty weak, so if you can keep them on search and rescue. Since they can't shift formes they're not going to be able to go into Attack Forme and act as some kinda canon fodder to distract Behemoth, or use Defence Forme to keep him away from things, so just keep them running around finding and saving as many people as they can before they get broken." Shadow added. "Do you feel them break?"
'Agreement; limited knowledge of when duplicates are removed from field.'
"Then keep an eye on that and make sure not to let too many of them break. Refresh them as often as you can when you need to, they're gonna be really helpful in this fight. Oh, and start boosting now, we're not going to have a lot of time once we get there cause we're gonna be going straight into the thick of things and I'm not certain where it's going to be starting, so you're gonna want to be as powerful as you can be before you head in."
Putting actions to words, Eon focused, breathing deeply for Calm Minds while bringing in Agilitys at the same time. "I'm staying on search and rescue, I think." Eon said quietly. "At least until we know what sort of effects our Moves have."
"Get close, blast it with a Flamethrower, and if it doesn't do anything start helping find people?" Shadow suggested. "I'd offer a Thunder, but there's no clouds, so unless one of you two knows Rain Dance, I'm no help there."
'We don't.' Jirachi looked worried. 'I have a few Moves. What happens if I'm no help?'
"Can you sense minds?"
'Sorta.'
"Sorta's good enough, you can move onto search and rescue as well and try to help find people. Look for minds and use your Psychic powers to lift them out of danger, either hand them over to Deoxys or bring them to the healing zones yourself." Shadow told him.
'Right.' Jirachi straightened. 'You know, this is a lot more serious than I expected rescue work to be...'
"This isn't normal rescue work." Eon corrected. "There's a lot more chance that people die here. While some missions might have that chance, it's far lower. Though we still put about this much work into planning the things to make sure that number stays as close to a zero chance as possible."
'Oh. I see.'
"Next group, go!"
"Eon, Blaster."
"Shadow, Healing."
"Jirachi, Blaster."
The four of them moved closer together, heading further into the room. Deoxys curled a tendril around Jirachi protectively and stared around, half-glaring at the people staring back.
"Don't worry about them, it's because you're new." Eon advised. "They'll get used to you in time, especially since you're with us. These people get used to weird things really quickly."
"Hold on!" Strider shouted, appearing. "Teleport going now!"
Eon held his breath.
The world shifted, taking his focus with it for a moment, fading out into a whirl of colours utterly unlike any long-range teleport he'd ever been in. It was subtly different from the last time they'd been teleported by Strider as well, probably due to the longer distance, and when the group was deposited they swayed lightly. Eon automatically curled his tails as far under him as he could, trying to keep them from being stepped on again, and both of the Legendaries made unhappy noises.
'That was... uncomfortable.'
"It was a lot worse than last time." Eon admitted, steadying himself. He started to look around, trying to see who was nearby, and herded the group of them out of the way of the teleport point. "Swarm should be around here somewhere, Deoxys, you can join with her on the search and rescue front for a little while. Shadow, since Panacea's gonna be with her, go ahead with them."
'I'll stay with you?' Jirachi requested, floating out of Deoxys' hold and down to the Ninetales' level instead.
"Works for me."
"Eon!"
The sound of the Endbringer alarm was as loud as ever, making everyone in the street freeze in place. A number of people clasped their hands over their ears, crying out.
Swarm pushed her reaction into her bugs, making them buzz a little more loudly, and started working to gather them closer to her. "I'm sorry." She said to the group she'd been talking to. "I need to go."
"Stay safe!"
"Good luck!"
"Be careful!"
She slipped out of the way and into the nearest alleyway as fast as she could, using her spiders to lift her phone out of her backpack.
Be careful. We've got the situation handled, on our way out now. Have emergency bags already, will meet you there?
Sure. Stay safe. She replied, before swapping over to a different number and hitting dial.
"Swarm?"
"Panacea. I'm heading to the PRT building, currently I'm on... fourth street, near the Boardwalk." She told her. "Shadow says that she'll meet us on the other side, they headed out for some stuff earlier this morning."
"New Wave's mobilising and on our way out too." The healer said, over the faint rush of wind. "Hang on, I'll get- Crystal! Swarm's over by the Boardwalk, think you can grab her?"
Swarm didn't hear a reply, and quickly moved some bugs to make a symbol pointing over to her. A few minutes later, Crystal- Lazerdream- flew down and landed next to her.
"Need a lift?" She asked, trying for cheerful. The fear of the situation seeped through, though, making it hard to take the attempt seriously, so Swarm just nodded.
"It'd be handy, yeah. Hope you don't mind the bugs." She returned, letting the older girl lift her up and start flying.
Like this, they made much better time towards the PRT building, the rest of New Wave flying in escort around them, but aside from nodding in acknowledgement to them, no-one said anything until they landed.
"I'll stay with you two." Swarm told Amy, while Vicky floated nearby. "Eon and Shadow are probably going to be looking for me, so it'll be easier to pass you over to them if we're all together."
"Sounds good to me." Amy said nervously, pulling at her costume. "We should get some armbands and get into groups for the teleports."
"Good plan." Vicky floated away, coming back a few moments later with three bands. "I take it you'll be on search and rescue too, Glory Girl?"
"Yeah. I don't really think I could do much to Behemoth up close, even with my invulnerability." She shrugged. "I'm better placed trying to help people out in this one."
"Makes sense to me."
"Do you know what Eon's doing?"
"No clue." Swarm grimaced slightly. "We've been talking about it a lot the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what we could do against the other Endbringers. The Simurgh was considered as fairly safe, though it'd be annoying and Shadow would probably end up coming off of healing to start using her Moves out in the field instead, and Behemoth was one we were having a lot of trouble with. Don't have a way to resist the kill aura, after all, and we've got no idea if he's able to manipulate the energy they use."
"That's a good point."
"Possibly Eon's going to go into rescue as well, at least until he's got a chance to see what his Moves can do against Behemoth in a... well, not a controlled environment since nothing about an Endbringer fight is controlled, but a place that's less likely to have things go wrong?" She shrugged. "Then again, they also got called out by the PRT this morning over something. They said they're on their way, but I've got no idea what's going on."
"They didn't tell you?"
"I wasn't involved, they probably didn't think it was important." She shrugged again, waving it off. "Annoying, yeah, but what can you do? Besides, might be secret."
Both other girls looked unsure, but the entire group of them brushed it off in favour of moving closer to the teleport spot, where Strider flashed in a few moments later.
"Get ready, we're moving out!" He called. "New Delhi, Behemoth!"
Swarm inhaled sharply. "Great, probably the worst one." Not all that much time to evacuate, and a decent possibility that they wouldn't be able to do all that much to it. Fucking wonderful.
The teleport felt a lot worse than the last time, Swarm swaying heavily on the spot and needing Vicky to stabilise her. "I'm fine." She said to the concerned look. "Just a bit disorienting."
"If you say so." She replied. "Where're your team?"
They moved out of the teleport point to keep it clear, letting themselves get swept up in the flow of other volunteers, and Swarm stretched out her range, looking around for the Pokemon on her team. It took a lot less time than she'd expected, given how much smaller than all of the humans around them they were, but it was helped along in part by the new additions to the group.
"What the hell...?" Swarm muttered.
"Swarm?"
"I think I figured out what they were called out for this morning." She told them, starting to move towards them. She started moving her bugs into the expected attack zone as she did so, no longer needing them to track her friends down- it was easy enough to tell where they were from the glance she'd had, and her familiarity of needing to hunt them down helped out as well. It was easy to find people when you were used to needing to find them. Plus the much taller orange addition made it even more simple to see them. "Eon!" She shouted, making them all look sharply over.
"Swarm!" Shadow greeted. "Amy, Vicky, hi." The Vulpix hurried over, bumping against her team mate's legs as she walked past, then looped once around Amy's and stopped at her side. "Ready?"
"Are we ever?" She laughed bitterly, leaning down to pat her on the head. "Good to see you here at least."
"We'll manage."
"What's the situation?" Swarm cut in.
"This is Jirachi, that's Deoxys. He's on the attacking team helping us figure out what our Moves can do, they're on search and rescue until we get that information. Hopefully it turns out we can do something, cause they're both pretty powerful. I'm staying the same as Deoxys for at least a little while but I'm aiming for a good shot as early as I can manage to so that we can try and run a repeat of Leviathan and get Behemoth out of here as soon as possible. There's no guarantee that Behemoth will be able to turn any of my fire against us, but if he can we should at least still have Jirachi and Deoxys, plus anything else I can use." Eon listed quickly. "Deoxys, best to get your duplicates ready soon-"
"Incoming!"
"-Because things are starting now!" Eon finished. "Get going, stay safe, seeya later, go!"
"Going!" Swarm nodded, running away. Her bugs showed that behind her Amy was lifting Shadow into her arms before being carried away by Vicky in turn, likely using the bands to figure out where the medical area was. Eon was already running into the fight, dodging around people as the ground started shaking from the force of Behemoth's arrival- Swarm had to take a moment to steady herself as well, nearly tripping over into one of the other Capes nearby before she did- while the new pair, Jirachi and Deoxys, floated slightly off the ground to avoid dealing with it.
Jirachi almost immediately started following Eon, going over the top of everyone in the way instead, while Deoxys glowed a sharp lilac colour from a crystal in their chest. The colour warped around their body, flashed once, and then seeped away from them into the air, forming blobs- she counted about fifty in total.
They flashed again, and her eyes widened behind her mask as they formed into copies of the original. Now I see what Eon meant by duplicates, she chuckled weakly, examining them. They looked similar to the original in shape, just differently coloured, and she couldn't help but wonder if they were going to make people panic more, or if they would link it to Team Inari fast enough to avoid that. They started flying off, moving in sets of five; Swarm assumed that this was part of whatever strategy that Eon had managed to lay out with them while on the way over to the fight, probably to be as widespread as possible on the helping side of things.
Behemoth smashed out of the ground, roaring and causing a much larger quake than the ones before, and Swarm promptly disregarded her examination of the other Pokemon- and probable new team mates, given how Inari worked- in favour of using her bugs to start looking for any nearby civilians that hadn't been evacuated in time.
Epicycle down, B-6. Geared deceased, B-6. Wilderbeast down, B-6. Omnigal deceased, B-6. Vehemence deceased, B-6.
Amy looked down at the kitsune in her arms. "So, new friends?" She tried, lifting an arm to shield herself against the wind.
"Yeah, kinda." Shadow sighed. "It's a bit of a mess, and we didn't really get any sort of details before the alarm went off, but... well, we're on the same side for now, and that's enough for me."
"Enough for anyone when it comes to the Endbringers, really."
"Hopefully they'll be able to help out- we do actually know of them, or at least of the type of spirit that they are. They're really powerful." Shadow grinned. "If it turns out that we can use our abilities again Behemoth? This fight might actually end up finishing faster than Leviathan did."
"Oh." Amy didn't know what to say to that.
"Course it helps that we'll know pretty quick what sort of an effect we'll have." She continued, apparently oblivious. "With Leviathan we just knew that the Endbringers were super hard to hurt. Here? We know we did a lot of damage to Leviathan in one go with our abilities, so it stands a chance that it'll be the same sort of thing with Behemoth. We manage to land an attack, we'll hopefully be able to destroy him."
"Literally?"
"Probably not." Shadow admitted. "We have no real way to tell whether or not we're strong enough to do that. Plus Behemoth's pretty defensive, from what I remember. Even with our boosts, we might not be anywhere near powerful enough by ourselves." She paused. "Then again, both Jirachi and Deoxys are really strong, so maybe they could? I don't know."
They landed at the healing tents before Amy could figure out another answer to that, so she let Vicky place her down and lowered Shadow to the ground, disregarding the conversation to hurry into the building and start looking around. There wasn't anyone there yet, given that the attack had only just started, so instead she busied herself washing her hands and checking with the people nearby that everything was set up.
"Stay safe, take care of yourself." Shadow said quietly.
"You too." She murmured in reply, as her companion ran over to the other side of the divide that had been set up to act as her healing room.
Duress deceased, B-6. Stoplight down, B-6. Gorge deceased, B-6.
'I'm a Steel type.' Jirachi asked, tilting his head a little from where he was sitting on the opposite couch, Deoxys' arm curled around him slightly defensively. 'Wouldn't I be immune to the radiation poisoning, if it's a type of Poison?'
"Perhaps." He acknowledged. "But it's very different to how Poison types work in our world, so I wouldn't want to risk it, to be honest. For all we know it'll be just as harmful to you as it is to anyone else, and I'd rather not have you die from that."
'Fair point.'
"Anyway, that makes short range a pain, but long range is also an issue depending on what sort of thing you use for that. Since he can manipulate different types of energy, it's a bit hard to actually hit him. Plus he shoots lightning, which is pretty powerful when he wants it to be, and also he's pyrokinetic which will put us at a bit of a disadvantage because we don't know if he can use our flames."
"Fortunately for us, we have one advantage." Shadow butted in. "From what we've been able to tell in our fight against Leviathan, they're particularly weak to our Moves in some way. We're uncertain as to why, but we're pretty sure that it's something to do with our Aura. Since Aura is mostly an unknown force here- we've recently discovered that human's have it, but they can't manipulate it in any way- we figure that the Endbringers also have no idea what it is, and thus are more seriously affected by it, since they don't have any defences specifically for it."
'Query; would assistance be more beneficial on the attacking team? '
"Probably, though you'd be good anywhere." Eon told them. "Attack Forme is fragile but powerful, from what I understand, so you could likely do some good damage, assuming you have the right sort of moves to be able to do so. Defence Forme would be useful to try and control Behemoth's movements; maybe you could use your shields to keep him from going to certain areas. Plus you can shield others from Behemoth's attacks- perhaps even from the effects of the kill aura, though that would require experimentation that we don't really have time for, so we should probably avoid that for now. Speed Forme is less useful directly, since it's extremely frail from what I know, but indirectly you'd likely be able to handle search and rescue very well, which would let you get a lot more Parahumans back to the safe zone that we have for healing."
"The faster they get there, the more likely that it is that we can help them." Shadow added. "So that's also a really good thing in the end, because we can use that to be able to keep people from dying in the fight."
'Understanding; Unit will assist as directed.'
"Ok, so you're alternating, but focusing on search and rescue efforts at first. Good, that's probably for the best. Just make sure you use-" Eon paused. "Actually, you won't be able to use the bands, given that you can't speak aloud. Ok, you'll have to alert someone else to change the mode of your band so that you can help when you change what you're doing."
'Band?'
"Everyone participating in an Endbringer fight gets a band. These help keep track of who's where, what status they're in- they announce if they're down or deceased- and for people on search and rescue it helps point them towards other bands so that they can try and get to people faster than if they'd need to search themselves."
'Oh, I see.' Jirachi nodded. 'What about me?'
"In a way you're more and less complicated." Eon admitted. "Less, because you're powerful, so naturally you're on the attacking force, but also more, because you might be able to help more elsewhere. For example, you could help with search and rescue, being able to move a large number of people- can you teleport?"
'I can.'
"So that's an option, as is helping with healing if you were able."
'I can't do healing, no. Not without a wish, but then I'd need to do a Challenge first, and it wouldn't last long.'
"That's fine." Shadow promised. "Panacea and I can handle it ok, and there's probably gonna be other Capes there that'll have healing powers in some form that can help. Plus there's the normal humans that volunteer to stay and form medical teams as well, handling the less serious stuff and keeping people alive up until we can get to them. We managed Leviathan fine, though we did have more setup time then, hopefully we'll be ok here too." Shadow paused, looking up from the phone at Eon. "Swarm's on the move, she's picked up her own emergency kit and was heading to get ours, I told her no need, and she'll be heading out in a minute. She's planning to send a message to try and meet up with whoever in New Wave is heading out, and she's going to stick with Amy as best she can."
"Alright, good." Eon smiled, then refocused. "So Deoxys is switching around as they feel they're needed, and Jirachi is...?"
'I'll... I'll focus on attacking.' He told them, sounding nervous. 'I don't know how much I can do... I'm powerful, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep my power restrained enough to avoid hurting anyone else...'
"Just aim at the big bad, and we should be fine in the end." Eon suggested. "Other than that, there's not much to say, I think."
'Query; would multiplication be appreciated for rescue?'
Eon blinked. "Multiplication?"
'Deoxys can split themselves.' Jirachi elaborated. 'It's kinda difficult, and those guys are limited to Normal Forme only, but they can do a lot even so. They're not as powerful either, and they're pretty fragile...'
"That would be incredibly good for search and rescue." Eon agreed, after a moment to gather himself. "We'll have to pass that along up the chain, give a warning, but as long as they aren't about to get destroyed and end up hurting someone even more because they got dropped or something..."
'That isn't too likely to happen, but they can work in groups or something to keep that down as well.' Jirachi suggested, getting into the spirit of things amazingly well for someone so out of their depths. 'Sets of three, having two of them focus on defending and the other on moving? Sure the defences won't be as powerful as Defence Forme, or even just a normal Normal Forme's shields, but they should be good enough that they'd be able to keep things from getting through and hurting anyone on the other side.'
"That could work, yes." Eon hummed, turning towards the camera in the room. "Dragon, do you have a moment?"
"Certainly." The woman's voice was somewhat harried, likely from trying to coordinate things going on, so he kept it short.
"First, do we have any better confirmation on where it's going to be?"
"New Delhi, India. Scary, pretty populated, difficult to evacuate in a hurry, but there's already first responders on the scene working on it and we're trying our best to get our people there to help out as well. Hopefully we'll make it in time."
"Good. Second, Deoxys has the ability to duplicate themselves. The clones will appear only in their Normal Forme, will be unable to shift, and are rather weaker than the main body. They've suggested using them as disposables for search and rescue, allowing them to spread out further than we could otherwise and hopefully save more people, working in teams to minimise the chances that they'd be destroyed in a way that might hurt someone."
Dragon was silent for a long moment. "What exactly do you mean by duplication?"
"Clones, essentially, or perhaps something more similar to projections?" Eon shrugged. "I'm not totally sure, to be honest."
'Query; demonstration required?'
Eon looked at them. "Would you be able to do that in here?"
Deoxys nodded, before promptly doing so. The clone that appeared was purple rather than orange, with a duller blue, and the eyes looked blank and lifeless. The lilac crystal in its chest was dull as well, and it took the expected shape of Deoxys' Normal Forme.
Dragon made a soft, startled noise from the cockpit, while Eon fluidly removed himself from the couch to walk around the clone. "Impressive, though it might be a little... worrying, to some people. Then again the options are accepting its help or possibly ending up dead, so..." He shrugged. "How many can you make?"
'Admittance; upper limit unknown.'
'Usually doing more than about fifty leaves them drained, though.' Jirachi put in.
"Sets of five, ten groups? Have all of them searching, three on defence, two on removal, moving that around as needed?" Eon suggested.
'That... that should work.' Jirachi nodded, rocking a little with the movement. 'Deoxys?'
'Agreement; suggested grouping is likely to be a viable tactic.'
"Alright, that's good." Eon hummed. "Dragon, did you get that?"
"I did, yes." She agreed. "I'm sending a message ahead of us now, so that people are properly warned. You should probably get back to your seats, we're coming in for a landing soon."
"No problem." The clone faded into lilac light as Eon jumped back to the chair, wrapping his tails around Shadow again. "How's Swarm?"
"Fine but worried." She replied lowly. "She's a bit unsure how much help she's going to be in a fight with Behemoth, but she's got what she needs and she'll be doing search and rescue as well."
"Remind her to stay as far out as she can-"
"Already done that, and she's aware. Swarm's not stupid, Eon, just because she's a bit uncertain doesn't mean that she's helpless." Shadow gave him a glare. "I know she's weaker and more limited than both of us but that doesn't mean we need to coddle her."
'Swarm?' Jirachi asked.
"The third member of our team. She's a Parahuman, native to this world, and controls insects." Shadow smiled. "It's actually a pretty cool power, all things considered."
'That sounds...'
"It's more useful than you'd think." Eon promised. "She's mainly our scout, since she can see and hear a lot further away using them, but they're not too bad for combat either. Mainly as a distraction, but also as actual weapons. Bites and stings tend to hurt humans pretty badly, especially if they're not expecting it."
'Interesting.' Jirachi raised an eyebrow. 'I'm looking forward to meeting her, I think.'
'Query; other notable figures?'
Eon blinked, then shook his head. "Yeah, filling you in on that might be good. Main one is Strider, he's going to be teleporting us." The craft shuddered to a stop, and as one the group hurried towards the already-opening doors, where a crowd of people were waiting for the teleport. "He'll get us where we need to go. Grab an armband, put it on, state your name and what you're planning- Deoxys come here and I'll do it for you-"
"No need, I'm on it."
"Thanks, Dragon." He nodded. "Alexandria, Brute, mostly invulnerable, probably gonna be up close. Legend, Blaster, long range, he'll be coordinating that team. Eidolon, Trump, mixed bag, no idea where he'll be until the point the fight starts." Eon flicked his tail in time with his words, creating illusions of each of the Parahumans he was talking about to show who they were. "Swarm looks like this, and this one is Panacea, she'll be working with Shadow and the other healers. She's one of the most powerful, so she desperately needs to be kept safe. We'll figure out where the medical bay is as soon as we can and point it out to you so you know where to take people, and hopefully Behemoth won't go anywhere near it. If he does we're gonna need all the help we can get forcing them back."
"From what you said the clones are pretty weak, so if you can keep them on search and rescue. Since they can't shift formes they're not going to be able to go into Attack Forme and act as some kinda canon fodder to distract Behemoth, or use Defence Forme to keep him away from things, so just keep them running around finding and saving as many people as they can before they get broken." Shadow added. "Do you feel them break?"
'Agreement; limited knowledge of when duplicates are removed from field.'
"Then keep an eye on that and make sure not to let too many of them break. Refresh them as often as you can when you need to, they're gonna be really helpful in this fight. Oh, and start boosting now, we're not going to have a lot of time once we get there cause we're gonna be going straight into the thick of things and I'm not certain where it's going to be starting, so you're gonna want to be as powerful as you can be before you head in."
Putting actions to words, Eon focused, breathing deeply for Calm Minds while bringing in Agilitys at the same time. "I'm staying on search and rescue, I think." Eon said quietly. "At least until we know what sort of effects our Moves have."
"Get close, blast it with a Flamethrower, and if it doesn't do anything start helping find people?" Shadow suggested. "I'd offer a Thunder, but there's no clouds, so unless one of you two knows Rain Dance, I'm no help there."
'We don't.' Jirachi looked worried. 'I have a few Moves. What happens if I'm no help?'
"Can you sense minds?"
'Sorta.'
"Sorta's good enough, you can move onto search and rescue as well and try to help find people. Look for minds and use your Psychic powers to lift them out of danger, either hand them over to Deoxys or bring them to the healing zones yourself." Shadow told him.
'Right.' Jirachi straightened. 'You know, this is a lot more serious than I expected rescue work to be...'
"This isn't normal rescue work." Eon corrected. "There's a lot more chance that people die here. While some missions might have that chance, it's far lower. Though we still put about this much work into planning the things to make sure that number stays as close to a zero chance as possible."
'Oh. I see.'
"Next group, go!"
"Eon, Blaster."
"Shadow, Healing."
"Jirachi, Blaster."
The four of them moved closer together, heading further into the room. Deoxys curled a tendril around Jirachi protectively and stared around, half-glaring at the people staring back.
"Don't worry about them, it's because you're new." Eon advised. "They'll get used to you in time, especially since you're with us. These people get used to weird things really quickly."
"Hold on!" Strider shouted, appearing. "Teleport going now!"
Eon held his breath.
The world shifted, taking his focus with it for a moment, fading out into a whirl of colours utterly unlike any long-range teleport he'd ever been in. It was subtly different from the last time they'd been teleported by Strider as well, probably due to the longer distance, and when the group was deposited they swayed lightly. Eon automatically curled his tails as far under him as he could, trying to keep them from being stepped on again, and both of the Legendaries made unhappy noises.
'That was... uncomfortable.'
"It was a lot worse than last time." Eon admitted, steadying himself. He started to look around, trying to see who was nearby, and herded the group of them out of the way of the teleport point. "Swarm should be around here somewhere, Deoxys, you can join with her on the search and rescue front for a little while. Shadow, since Panacea's gonna be with her, go ahead with them."
'I'll stay with you?' Jirachi requested, floating out of Deoxys' hold and down to the Ninetales' level instead.
"Works for me."
"Eon!"
The sound of the Endbringer alarm was as loud as ever, making everyone in the street freeze in place. A number of people clasped their hands over their ears, crying out.
Swarm pushed her reaction into her bugs, making them buzz a little more loudly, and started working to gather them closer to her. "I'm sorry." She said to the group she'd been talking to. "I need to go."
"Stay safe!"
"Good luck!"
"Be careful!"
She slipped out of the way and into the nearest alleyway as fast as she could, using her spiders to lift her phone out of her backpack.
Be careful. We've got the situation handled, on our way out now. Have emergency bags already, will meet you there?
Sure. Stay safe. She replied, before swapping over to a different number and hitting dial.
"Swarm?"
"Panacea. I'm heading to the PRT building, currently I'm on... fourth street, near the Boardwalk." She told her. "Shadow says that she'll meet us on the other side, they headed out for some stuff earlier this morning."
"New Wave's mobilising and on our way out too." The healer said, over the faint rush of wind. "Hang on, I'll get- Crystal! Swarm's over by the Boardwalk, think you can grab her?"
Swarm didn't hear a reply, and quickly moved some bugs to make a symbol pointing over to her. A few minutes later, Crystal- Lazerdream- flew down and landed next to her.
"Need a lift?" She asked, trying for cheerful. The fear of the situation seeped through, though, making it hard to take the attempt seriously, so Swarm just nodded.
"It'd be handy, yeah. Hope you don't mind the bugs." She returned, letting the older girl lift her up and start flying.
Like this, they made much better time towards the PRT building, the rest of New Wave flying in escort around them, but aside from nodding in acknowledgement to them, no-one said anything until they landed.
"I'll stay with you two." Swarm told Amy, while Vicky floated nearby. "Eon and Shadow are probably going to be looking for me, so it'll be easier to pass you over to them if we're all together."
"Sounds good to me." Amy said nervously, pulling at her costume. "We should get some armbands and get into groups for the teleports."
"Good plan." Vicky floated away, coming back a few moments later with three bands. "I take it you'll be on search and rescue too, Glory Girl?"
"Yeah. I don't really think I could do much to Behemoth up close, even with my invulnerability." She shrugged. "I'm better placed trying to help people out in this one."
"Makes sense to me."
"Do you know what Eon's doing?"
"No clue." Swarm grimaced slightly. "We've been talking about it a lot the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what we could do against the other Endbringers. The Simurgh was considered as fairly safe, though it'd be annoying and Shadow would probably end up coming off of healing to start using her Moves out in the field instead, and Behemoth was one we were having a lot of trouble with. Don't have a way to resist the kill aura, after all, and we've got no idea if he's able to manipulate the energy they use."
"That's a good point."
"Possibly Eon's going to go into rescue as well, at least until he's got a chance to see what his Moves can do against Behemoth in a... well, not a controlled environment since nothing about an Endbringer fight is controlled, but a place that's less likely to have things go wrong?" She shrugged. "Then again, they also got called out by the PRT this morning over something. They said they're on their way, but I've got no idea what's going on."
"They didn't tell you?"
"I wasn't involved, they probably didn't think it was important." She shrugged again, waving it off. "Annoying, yeah, but what can you do? Besides, might be secret."
Both other girls looked unsure, but the entire group of them brushed it off in favour of moving closer to the teleport spot, where Strider flashed in a few moments later.
"Get ready, we're moving out!" He called. "New Delhi, Behemoth!"
Swarm inhaled sharply. "Great, probably the worst one." Not all that much time to evacuate, and a decent possibility that they wouldn't be able to do all that much to it. Fucking wonderful.
The teleport felt a lot worse than the last time, Swarm swaying heavily on the spot and needing Vicky to stabilise her. "I'm fine." She said to the concerned look. "Just a bit disorienting."
"If you say so." She replied. "Where're your team?"
They moved out of the teleport point to keep it clear, letting themselves get swept up in the flow of other volunteers, and Swarm stretched out her range, looking around for the Pokemon on her team. It took a lot less time than she'd expected, given how much smaller than all of the humans around them they were, but it was helped along in part by the new additions to the group.
"What the hell...?" Swarm muttered.
"Swarm?"
"I think I figured out what they were called out for this morning." She told them, starting to move towards them. She started moving her bugs into the expected attack zone as she did so, no longer needing them to track her friends down- it was easy enough to tell where they were from the glance she'd had, and her familiarity of needing to hunt them down helped out as well. It was easy to find people when you were used to needing to find them. Plus the much taller orange addition made it even more simple to see them. "Eon!" She shouted, making them all look sharply over.
"Swarm!" Shadow greeted. "Amy, Vicky, hi." The Vulpix hurried over, bumping against her team mate's legs as she walked past, then looped once around Amy's and stopped at her side. "Ready?"
"Are we ever?" She laughed bitterly, leaning down to pat her on the head. "Good to see you here at least."
"We'll manage."
"What's the situation?" Swarm cut in.
"This is Jirachi, that's Deoxys. He's on the attacking team helping us figure out what our Moves can do, they're on search and rescue until we get that information. Hopefully it turns out we can do something, cause they're both pretty powerful. I'm staying the same as Deoxys for at least a little while but I'm aiming for a good shot as early as I can manage to so that we can try and run a repeat of Leviathan and get Behemoth out of here as soon as possible. There's no guarantee that Behemoth will be able to turn any of my fire against us, but if he can we should at least still have Jirachi and Deoxys, plus anything else I can use." Eon listed quickly. "Deoxys, best to get your duplicates ready soon-"
"Incoming!"
"-Because things are starting now!" Eon finished. "Get going, stay safe, seeya later, go!"
"Going!" Swarm nodded, running away. Her bugs showed that behind her Amy was lifting Shadow into her arms before being carried away by Vicky in turn, likely using the bands to figure out where the medical area was. Eon was already running into the fight, dodging around people as the ground started shaking from the force of Behemoth's arrival- Swarm had to take a moment to steady herself as well, nearly tripping over into one of the other Capes nearby before she did- while the new pair, Jirachi and Deoxys, floated slightly off the ground to avoid dealing with it.
Jirachi almost immediately started following Eon, going over the top of everyone in the way instead, while Deoxys glowed a sharp lilac colour from a crystal in their chest. The colour warped around their body, flashed once, and then seeped away from them into the air, forming blobs- she counted about fifty in total.
They flashed again, and her eyes widened behind her mask as they formed into copies of the original. Now I see what Eon meant by duplicates, she chuckled weakly, examining them. They looked similar to the original in shape, just differently coloured, and she couldn't help but wonder if they were going to make people panic more, or if they would link it to Team Inari fast enough to avoid that. They started flying off, moving in sets of five; Swarm assumed that this was part of whatever strategy that Eon had managed to lay out with them while on the way over to the fight, probably to be as widespread as possible on the helping side of things.
Behemoth smashed out of the ground, roaring and causing a much larger quake than the ones before, and Swarm promptly disregarded her examination of the other Pokemon- and probable new team mates, given how Inari worked- in favour of using her bugs to start looking for any nearby civilians that hadn't been evacuated in time.
Epicycle down, B-6. Geared deceased, B-6. Wilderbeast down, B-6. Omnigal deceased, B-6. Vehemence deceased, B-6.
Amy looked down at the kitsune in her arms. "So, new friends?" She tried, lifting an arm to shield herself against the wind.
"Yeah, kinda." Shadow sighed. "It's a bit of a mess, and we didn't really get any sort of details before the alarm went off, but... well, we're on the same side for now, and that's enough for me."
"Enough for anyone when it comes to the Endbringers, really."
"Hopefully they'll be able to help out- we do actually know of them, or at least of the type of spirit that they are. They're really powerful." Shadow grinned. "If it turns out that we can use our abilities again Behemoth? This fight might actually end up finishing faster than Leviathan did."
"Oh." Amy didn't know what to say to that.
"Course it helps that we'll know pretty quick what sort of an effect we'll have." She continued, apparently oblivious. "With Leviathan we just knew that the Endbringers were super hard to hurt. Here? We know we did a lot of damage to Leviathan in one go with our abilities, so it stands a chance that it'll be the same sort of thing with Behemoth. We manage to land an attack, we'll hopefully be able to destroy him."
"Literally?"
"Probably not." Shadow admitted. "We have no real way to tell whether or not we're strong enough to do that. Plus Behemoth's pretty defensive, from what I remember. Even with our boosts, we might not be anywhere near powerful enough by ourselves." She paused. "Then again, both Jirachi and Deoxys are really strong, so maybe they could? I don't know."
They landed at the healing tents before Amy could figure out another answer to that, so she let Vicky place her down and lowered Shadow to the ground, disregarding the conversation to hurry into the building and start looking around. There wasn't anyone there yet, given that the attack had only just started, so instead she busied herself washing her hands and checking with the people nearby that everything was set up.
"Stay safe, take care of yourself." Shadow said quietly.
"You too." She murmured in reply, as her companion ran over to the other side of the divide that had been set up to act as her healing room.
Duress deceased, B-6. Stoplight down, B-6. Gorge deceased, B-6.
