Warning! Some parts of this chapter were directly lifted from the web novel Worm. I do not own any of the parts lifted. Enjoy the show.
May 15th, 2011. Sunday.
Eon gave a jaw-cracking yawn as he shook himself out, then began working his way through the boxes in the base.
"Hey Eon." Shadow greeted, still curled up in a half asleep ball. "Whatta ya doing?"
"Just looking over everything, Shadow." He told her, glancing back. "Do you think we should move some of this somewhere else?"
"Taylor's already got some of it." Shadow reminded him. "So it's not like we're keeping all of our money in one place. Plus, well, I think our base's more secure that Taylor's house, since no-one knows we're here."
"True, true. I was just thinking in case."
"Just drop one of those stone thingies on it and make a cloak." The Vulpix sighed, curling up further. "Who cares? We're pretty hidden here. Unless we bring someone here, they aren't gonna find it. Not with all the stuff you've put here." Eon opened his mouth, going to speak again, when a distant sound hit his ears.
The sound of a siren, loud and howling despite the distance.
Both vulpine Pokemon stiffened, listening closely.
"What is that?" Eon asked instead. "It sounds like a siren. Police or something?"
"It'd have to be a lot of them to be that loud." Shadow said, standing and tilting her head. "And they don't really sound quite right either."
The burner phone sitting on the side of the den rang urgently, and Eon snatched it up with Extrasensory and answered it, turning the speaker on as he did.
"What's up, Taylor?" Eon questioned. The sole word sent a chill down both their spines, and caused Shadow to bolt completely awake.
"Endbringer." There was the sounds of frantic scrambling on the other end of the phone, and Shadow quickly began running around, grabbing the emergency bag that the two of them had set up for Shadow to take when she was healing, along with a number of other things.
Letting her fix his scarf around his neck- one Taylor had made for him to pin his badge to rather than his fur- he continued talking. "Any more information on it at all? Who it is, where?"
"Nothing, Eon." Taylor responded. "I'm getting into costume now and Dad's looking on the PRT website for me, hopefully we'll find out something then. I've got a bunch of bugs looking over his shoulder-" Taylor cut out for a moment. "Shit. Shitshitshit-"
"Taylor!" Eon barked. "What's wrong?"
"It's Leviathan. And he's coming here." She whispered.
"Fuck." Eon stared at Shadow, surprised at the swear. "Taylor, send your dad to those shelter things, we'll meet you at the PRT building asap. Think you can get there?"
"From here? Yeah." Taylor's voice was shaking, and Eon frowned.
"Good. Shadow'll meet you at your house, I'll make my way directly there to gather information." He commanded, straightening. "Look after yourself, and make sure your dad's safe. He know's where to go, right?"
"It's on the PRT website." She confirmed. "I... I'll see you later, Eon."
"Stay safe, Swarm." The call cut out, and Eon fixed Shadow with a stare. "Go to her, now. She's going to need it. Find her, make sure she's ok, and bring her to the building safely. I'll handle everything there before you arrive."
"Sure thing, Eon." The somewhat playful kit he'd come to adore over the year and a half had vanished, replaced completely by his prepared and experienced second-in-command, ready for battle.
"And please, please be careful. Don't let yourself get too hurt, get Panacea to heal you if you do, because you won't get teleported to safety. And don't lose too much power on your Moves. Heal Pulse and Heal Bell might save a lot of lives, but if you get too exhausted using them then it'll be no help."
"I know, Eon." Shadow replied. "But the same to you, especially. If you're going to be on the front lines... make sure you get to safety if you're too hurt, and call someone to fly you to the medical bay or something. I can't lose you here."
"And you won't, little pix." The Ninetales told her. "You won't lose me, or Swarm, and we won't lose you. Ok?"
"Ok." The Vulpix stretched her back, rolling her shoulders, then began boosting. "I'll get Taylor, and see you there."
"Good luck." Shadow nodded once, then vanished in a blur of movement, the large-ish bag on her back, and left him alone in the den.
For a moment he just stood there, taking the wooden building in, and realising the monumental risks to this undertaking.
It wouldn't be like fighting in a dungeon, even a Legendary. There, they had safety barriers. The badges would teleport them out if they took too much damage, while the strangeness of the dungeon did the same thing to whatever enemies they were facing on the way. Legendaries were powerful, but none of them were actively trying to destroy everything and kill you- at least, the ones that sent challenges weren't. From the stories, some of them were quite different. Even then, though, too much damage would warp you out of the dungeon and into a safe place where you could recover before going back in to try again.
This… this would be nothing like that. The only safe place would be the medical bay, and there was no guarantee that even that would be safe from Leviathan's hydrokinesis. There wouldn't be much recovery time for anyone who was hurt in this battle, whether hero or villain. They'd go back, be patched up, and head back out again as soon as they were able to try and stop this creature.
And many of them would die trying.
Not for the first time since hearing about the Endbringers from Tattletale, Eon cursed the fact of this world. Superpowers could've made this world an incredible place, and instead what it got was a mess of monsters that seemed hell bent on destroying it. They could've had wonderful things, and maybe started communicating with other worlds- from what he'd been told they already had some with a place called Aleph- and instead they were isolated and dealing with these enormous problems alone.
Not so alone anymore, Eon thought, straightening completely and setting his expression. And there's no way I'm giving up here. Ignoring the fact that Shadow would never forgive me for leaving this place to the fate it's on track towards, Hoopa came to us with an offer. I have no idea if he meant for us to save this place, or if there was some other motive to him opening a portal here, but I will not give up on this world. For Taylor and Danny, if no-one else.
The vulpine had gotten surprisingly close to the father of his newest team mate over the past month, with the two Pokemon having spent a number of nights in the Hebert household coming after patrols, mostly on days where they'd come in late enough that they might as well just leave in the morning, but also on occasions where they'd come back hurt and needed a closer safe place to recover, even after Shadow healed them, than the den. Either way, Eon had ended up spending quite a bit of time talking to Danny, learning a lot about the new world they'd ended up on- the man was quite a fountain of knowledge on the city alone, which was good for the team of criminal chasers- and naturally this had eventually moved on to talking about their own lives.
Danny was now one of the only people who knew anything about his life on the Pokemon world, as they'd taken to calling it; the other two being Tattletale and Taylor. They'd talked about the amnesia and the fact that there were other humans who'd become Pokemon, speculating that maybe the Case 53 phenomena was something that occurred elsewhere as well, even in worlds without powers as obvious as this one and without any of the marking, or perhaps Eon was someone who had been sent to the Pokemon world to do something important, like the others seemed to have been from what the Ninetales had heard. They'd chatted about the dungeons and what might cause them to appear, and Eon had told a few of the myths and legends he knew from his world, from the normal to the bizarre. Eventually the talk had turned to Shadow; his meeting with her, the missions they'd been on, all the times on of them had had to pull the other out of trouble…
Danny had talked about Taylor a lot, too, and about Annette, the woman who'd died in a car crash almost two years previously and had led to the depression that had made him miss the bullying. The stories other than that had been quite amusing, though Eon was mildly suspicious of the stories about the animals he'd been told, but in the end both of them had bonded over the mutual wish to protect their two girls from everything they could.
Eon had promised to keep Taylor out of trouble as best as he could, on and off of patrol, while Danny helped to keep Shadow well occupied when they weren't patrolling so she didn't go and burn down Winslow any time soon.
It annoyed the human-turned-Ninetales far more than he'd ever thought possible that he'd have to break that promise to Danny and lead Taylor straight into a practical warzone, but it was her choice. She'd already told all three of them that she'd be going to the next Endbringer attack no matter what, because Eon and Shadow were going and she refused to be left behind wondering what was happening to her friends. It had been a long argument, but Taylor had won in the end, so he wouldn't stifle her.
Especially not when the attack was on her home city. If the roles were reversed, he doubted anyone would've been able to stop him either.
Eon sighed, a long and angry noise, then closed up the den, hoping it would be safe, and layered over the illusions once more in the hopes of dissuading Leviathan from getting to close. Then he looked up at the still-dark skies, sensing rainclouds gathering on the horizon.
"Despite the fact that I'm fairly sure any god that watched over this world abandoned it a number of years ago, I might as well dare to hope anyway. Keep an eye on Shadow and Swarm for me, if you would? I'd rather not find myself mourning over a corpse at the end of this fight."
Turning away again, Eon gave a low growl and loped off, boosting slightly with Agility and heading for the PRT building to start gathering information on the upcoming battle.
Behind him, the wind rushed through the trees, phantom wind chimes following his steps and the hollow tears of something sobbing echoing in the distance for a moment.
He looked on alone, tears in his eyes, sad yet proud, terrified yet hopeful.
This was unexpected, he mused, and yet it somehow made sense to him. They'd never give up, he'd known that- it was why they were picked, in the end, over the hundreds and thousands of potential others who were more powerful. They had a talent for continuing on, for pushing past the points of breaking carefully yet carelessly, and it was a talent that he'd known would mix so well with her own that they'd had to be picked, in the end.
But even still… it was one thing to know what they would do. He'd discovered that it was entirely another to have to watch it, to see those three walk to what would be certain death for so many of the 'Capes' heading into that same fight, and know that there was nothing he could do.
Manipulating the events manually was impossible; all of the power to do so had been used sending their picked ones into the battle in the first place. There was no way he could reach out and ensure that they survived this fight, not anymore. Trying, from what he knew, would only make it worse, sapping the energy they had left over, doing nothing significant in any way other than disastrous. All he could do was sit and watch, hoping beyond anything that all of them survived this- they had to, without one the others would tumble and fall, they needed each other, and not just to win- and pray that it would go right.
Something sang to him, a familiar voice that drew his attention away, looking elsewhere to see what it was, and why they, of everyone, would want him now-
And a mild grin crept onto his face, the terror slightly receding.
No, he thought, he couldn't affect this battle directly without losing everything they had gained…
But the energy they had would be perfect for this.
Reaching over, into that elsewhere, he took what was being offered, twisting and turning them in the light.
And this would be perfect, he decided. One by one, they were sent elsewhere, carefully left where the instructions indicated they would be found when it was right.
He could not save them this battle.
But he could make the aftermath easier for them.
If they all survived.
"Eon."
The Ninetales, now just outside of the PRT building, paused and turned, looking towards the voice.
"Assault." He greeted, nodding. "A pleasure."
"Not really, but in this situation I'll take what I can get." The red costumed Cape, normally enthusiastic and fun to trade words with, was deadly serious in this moment, and Eon hated it. "Where's your team? Everyone's expecting you to arrive together."
"Swarm was elsewhere. I sent Shadow to fetch her for me, and make sure she got here safely." Eon sighed, shaking his head. "I'm here to gather information for them both."
"Fair enough. Come on, everyone's getting set up inside." Assault led him inside, the two of them carefully navigating their way through the crowded room towards a desk. "Magic armbands here, they'll give you status updates on stuff and give a good way to communicate things. If someone spots something, or figures something out that might be useful, they broadcast it out for everyone." Eon nodded, remembering that from the storm of reading he'd done on the subject.
There wasn't much information about Endbringer battles, not many were willing to share, but Panacea had been quite open about it in the PHO message thread she'd opened, first with Shadow and later with him, about his pix attending as a healer.
He took the offered band with a slight pang, looking at it for a moment curiously. "It'll adjust, even to you." Assault told him, taking one himself. "They have special ones for Case 53's or people with total Changer abilities." Nodding, Eon slipped it over his wrist and pushed it up his foreleg, watching it adjust.
State name.
"Eon." The display shifted, and Eon moved to confirm it, before scanning the room again.
In the corner, he spotted the Wards- all the children he'd interacted with over the previous month- with another group or two, probably from out of town, and the New Wave group. They were talking, and even over the distance and din he could hear the jokes Clockblocker was forcing out, the laughter being pushed past panic and terror.
"They're far too young for this." Eon mumbled, shaking his head a little. Shoving the thought away, he looked back up at the energy manipulator still standing at his side. "Shadow's still being set up as a healer, and I'm putting Swarm on search and rescue. I'd rather she were in the back lines near the medbay, but she refused to be helpless in this. I'm going as close to the front line as I'm allowed."
"Aren't you mainly a Blaster and Shaker?" Eon, now thoroughly familiar with the power classifications of Earth Bet, nodded.
"I am, but in this case closer is better. Leviathan's fast, I understand, so the closer I can get the more hits I can get off. And I have some reasonably heavy close range options too."
"Fair enough. Think your illusions will work?" Assault questioned. Eon noticed a number of the nearby Capes were listening too, and realised that this was just a way of distracting them from what was coming next, from the incoming slaughter that was approaching from the water. He shook his head.
"I doubt it. I'm pretty sure the thing's blind, so my illusions won't work at all. It probably senses targets through the movement of water, and they won't do that since they aren't solid. It's less of a waste of power to just focus on trying to blow the damn thing up, or even just test it to see if Shadow's heavier stuff would work at all." He shrugged, a rippling motion, and unconsciously curled his tails tighter to avoid cursing someone. "Annoyingly most of my attacks are fire based or have a charge time measured in… probably a few minutes, given the rain, and I'm irritatingly vulnerable during that time, but that still leaves a few heavy things for me." And, if I can get the damn thing to workthis time, I might get off a Freeze-Dry. Eon mused to himself. If the ice-form Ninetales can do it, and that mountain Ninetales learned to given enough time in the cold, then I damn well will too. I'm not that far off, after all.
"You seem pretty knowledgeable." A nearby Cape, one with a strange and unfamiliar accent, put in. "Thought you were new?"
"I am, as is my team." Eon agreed. "But Swarm's been here a long time even so, and it's surprising how much information you can gather from looking at videos, even shaky, poor quality ones. It's hydrokinetic and a major tactic is to flood the battlefield, it's about 60-40 odds that it uses that to sense around it, even if it isn't blind, to keep a watch for attacks from behind. I've known people who do it." Eon shrugged again as the Capes looked at him. Admittedly chance-dancing from an Absol is a far superior method, but oh well.
"Huh. Impressive." One of the others, probably American but also from elsewhere, nodded at him. "Sure you shouldn't be back seating, doing analysis?" Eon snorted.
"I work better in battle. I had friends who were better than me by far. They just aren't available." Discussion with him stalled for a moment at that, and Eon quickly made his way outside as he heard his friends approaching.
"Hey Eon." Swarm greeted.
"Swarm, Shadow. How'd you get here so quickly?"
"I vaguely remembered enough of the tutorials with the psychic Raichu to be able to use Speed Swap, so I gave Swarm my Agility boosts then boosted myself again." The Vulpix explained. "It'll wear off in about a minute."
"Smart." He nodded. "Come on, inside. We get you an arm band, Shadow, and I'm handing you off to Panacea as soon as I can. Swarm, you're staying near me until I have to leave. You're on search and rescue, as agreed, but you'll probably have to go onto that officially in a bit."
"I can help with that." A soft, gently accented voice said from their side. All three of them looked over and up.
Green, reptilian themed power armour looked back at them, a massive sentry nearly ten feet tall and with missile launchers taller than Swarm was attacked. It was walking on four legs, all of which looked far too delicate to be able to hold the thing up, but they did.
Eon recognised it at once.
"Dragon." He greeted lowly, stepping slightly forwards. "A pleasure to meet the world's greatest Tinker face to face. An honour, too."
"And a pleasure to meet you too, Eon." The Canadian Tinker inclined her head to him. "A pity it isn't better circumstances."
"Quite." He agreed. "You offered help?"
"If Swarm goes and gets her armband now, I can have it set up for search and rescue before the battle even begins." She offered. Eon thought for a moment, then nodded, looking back at them.
"Go inside, it's the desk right in front of the door. They'll resize, even for us, so just state your name and confirm it." He instructed. The two females nodded back, Shadow leading Swarm inside like a good second-in-command, and again Eon's heart ached at the fact that they would be in this battle at all, before he turned back to Dragon.
There was something about her that set his instincts off singing, and he hadn't gotten to where he was now- as a human turned into a Pokemon with amnesia doing mystery dungeons- by ignoring those instincts. Especially since they often led to a Scream.
"Thank you for that offer, Dragon." He began. "You must be rather busy, I suspect."
"A lot of the system's automated, it's not much extra effort to slot one more name in a little bit earlier than it should be." She replied, with a half movement rather like a shrug. "I've been quite interested in your team's career, and especially your abilities, I'd quite like to speak to you about it sometime. Especially your higher senses. I've read the report about you being able to smell the unusual scent on Bakuda, for example, and I have to admit I'm curious about it."
Eon nodded. Bakuda had been sent to the Birdcage during the month after her capture. The exact date was unknown to just about everyone in the public, apparently because the PRT and Protectorate had been worried about Lung attempting to break her out like he'd been broken out during the attack the bomber had launched.
Why that meant they were keeping it quiet after the attack was something Eon still had no idea about, but he didn't really care. She was in a secure prison where she belonged, and that was enough for him.
Eon had known that the report Inari had given to Assault, Battery and Miss Militia would've ended up in the database for them, but he hadn't realised that Dragon- a member of Canada's Guild- would also have access to it. Presumably that just meant that she was in the PRT systems as well, but it made him wonder just how many other people now knew about their abilities…
Mentally, he shrugged. It's not like it matters, he mused, we don't exactly go to great lengths to hide our abilities from the public, and Shadow basically runs our online presence anyway, so half the world knows tons about us even with her being discreet.
Aloud, his ruminations only having taken a moment, he continued from the nod, "Of course, I can see why that would be interesting. I believe the scent is Tinkertech, or something relating to that; back home we have some objects with odd smells as well, and normally they create strange effects on those holding them."
"I see…" Dragon said. "The report said Bakuda's scent had… what was it… 'sparkles, tin and grey?' Is my armour the same, or does Tinkertech have different scents?"
"From what I can tell, Tinker's have different scents, though I've only met three of them. You got Bakuda's right, Armsmaster is… blue, glitter, and silver- the metal, that is, and Kid Win's is… weird." Eon explained. "It's normally orange, lemony and glitter, but the orange sometimes is red and the lemon is sometimes orange, like it's being swapped out for other parts."
"Intriguing…" The far taller form commented. "What about me?" Eon took a moment to sniff the air between them, blocking out the scents of hundreds of people moving and the heavy rain that was coming in from the ocean, signalling Leviathan's approach.
"Like green, lightning, and Porygon." He replied, almost automatically.
"Sorry?" Eon paused, thinking over what he'd just said, and chuckled.
"Ah, right. You wouldn't know… a Porygon is something from back home. They're a machine species, or an artificial one, that mostly live in computers but can project themselves into the real world if they wish to." Looking up at the rain, he almost missed the fact that Dragon had frozen beside him, and continued, "I assume that's probably because you're known to be a Tinker who works with computers, as well as other Tinker's technology, and some Porygon are known to work with others as a sort of weapon they can use."
"Perhaps." Dragon responded, sounding a little strangled and stunned. Eon contemplated this for a moment, wondering why that had sent his instincts ringing louder, when he heard a sound from inside and Shadow poked her head out of the doorway.
"That Legend guy's talking to all the Capes in a minute, Eon. You might want to come in."
"Thanks, Shadow." The Ninetales glanced up at the armoured Cape next to him. "Are you coming as well, Dragon?"
"No, I'm staying out here, the rest of my suits are coming in a minute and I need to remote them down properly." She shook her head, apparently coming out of whatever thoughts she was in. "It was a pleasure talking to you, Eon. I hope we get the chance to work together in the future."
"As do I." He lowered himself for a moment in a half bow, then straightened. Turning back to the doorway, he saw Shadow staring at something and glanced around again.
A huge form was walking towards them, making the few Capes still outside in the just-falling rain scatter from his path and stare in awe, tattoos shifting on his shirtless form as a metal mask glinted in the slight light of dawn, bravely peaking through the clouds brought by the Endbringer.
The bulking shape of Lung halted for a moment at the doorway to the building, looking down at the pair of Pokemon- Shadow moving to flank Eon as the leader shifted to defend his second if the Parahuman decided he wanted to turn hostile for her takedown of him over a month ago.
The two group leaders examined each other for a moment, Dragon still on the side and seeming tense, along with many of the other Capes in the area, then Lung inclined his head to Eon. "Greetings, Kyuubi." He said gruffly. "It is good to know that my informants were correct, and that you and yours would be here in this fight."
"Greetings to yourself, Lung." Eon acknowledged, with another slight bow. "I was unaware that you would attend this battle. Swarm has informed me you have had… previous relations, as it were, with Leviathan." The leader of the ABB snorted.
"I have, before. Since, I abstained from fighting these beasts. But this bay is my home, and what dragon would I be to not defend my horde." He paused, thinking, then added, "Of course, the ability to settle old scores with the island-sinker is appreciated, and upon learning that your own team would be willing to put themselves on the line for this fight honour demanded that I do no less."
"Understandable, I suppose." Eon decided. "I assume there are no hard feelings between our groups?" Lung snorted.
"Of course. At the battle of an Endbringer, there are no grudges. And even so, I had ordered my gang away from you. It would be remiss of me to begin a conflict where there is no need of one." He looked at Eon for a second longer, getting a nod of acceptance, before his gaze shifted to Shadow, now firmly back in second position. "Little kitsune." He greeted her calmly. "You are to fight as well, I presume?"
"I'll be healing." She replied, shaking her head. "I'm ok in combat, but I have no idea how many of my abilities will work on this thing, so I'm helping Panacea."
"Ah, yes. I recall reports of your gift in that." Lung remarked, still looking down at her. "Yes, healing. Putting together those Capes injured in this event. Perhaps a more noble goal than fighting it, in the end." Under his mask, the two Pokemon could feel a slight smile directed at her. "Yes… a noble duty indeed. Work well, kitsune. And fight well, Kyuubi." The dragon Changer made his way fully inside, leaving the rest of the group somewhat stunned in the rain.
"Interesting…" Eon muttered to himself, as everyone began to relax. Some of the Capes- likely newer ones- descended into chatter before they were silenced by the more experienced ones, while Eon just turned away again and walked inside with Shadow, following her through the now-silent building and over to Swarm. "He seemed… oddly more polite than I expected. He ordered his gang away from us?"
"I guess." Reaching their third team mate, the bug user knelt down to listen in.
"Lung just showed up, is it safe for us to be here?"
"Yeah. We just spoke to him outside." Eon muttered back. "He's following the Truce, and apparently he ordered his gang away from us. Part of his reason for even being here was because someone overheard that we'd be fighting, and at that point it became a matter of honour for him to show up and help as well."
"Huh." Swarm grumbled. "Sounds… strange, but it kind of makes sense too. It sounds like something he'd do. I wonder why he's called the ABB away from us, though?"
"No idea." Eon shrugged, curling his tails close again. Shadow was silent for a moment, and seemed thoughtful.
"Hey Swarm," she said, after a moment, "Is there any guess on what nationality Lung is?"
"Most people guess he's either Chinese or Japanese, from the looks and his gang." She told her. "Why?" Shadow glanced around carefully, then flicked her tails.
The familiar feeling of an illusion settled for a moment, and she spoke even more lowly, "What are the chances that he knows the Inari legends?"
For a split second, Eon felt confused, then the light clicked and he snorted. "Probably quite likely, pix." A slight commotion made him cancel out her illusions, giving Swarm a look that promised to explain later, and the three straightened and looked forwards, seeing the figure of Legend vaguely through the crowded room.
"Welcome, all of you. We owe thanks to Dragon and Armsmaster for their early alert. We've had time to gather, and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for Leviathan's arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive. With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days. However, even so, you should all know your chances in this fight. From our previous encounters with this beast, and its fellows, the statistics show that even on a good day, one in every four of the people in the room will be dead by the end of that day."
With only the slightest shudder, Eon looked at his team mates. Not them.
"I'm saying this because you all deserve to know, and because it's rare that we have the time to say this to those individuals like you who step up to fight these battles. I do not want you to underestimate Leviathan; too many good heroes- and villains, to- have died to this monster because they let their guards down for just a fraction of a second- and that fraction was too long."
Legend went on to speak about Leviathan, the 'middle child' of the Endbringers; neither the strength of Behemoth nor the smarts of the Simurgh, but a lesser version of both at once. A hydrokinetic with incredible speed and power backing him up, hydrokinesis on a macro scale.
Eon was hardly hearing this, though. Instead he was focused on the Wards and New Wave, a group he could barely see but could still smell, even over the terror that was flooding the room like bitter fruit. They're too young for this, he muttered to himself again, all far, far too young.
"Newfoundland."
The name snapped Eon's attention back forward again, his regrets still dwelling in the back of his mind, memories of articles springing forth to take their place.
"May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level. Kyushu, the night of November second and the morning of the third, 1999. His sixth appearance. Nine and a half million killed when the region was swamped with tidal waves from every direction while Leviathan disrupted prearranged evacuation attempts. Nearly three million evacuees rendered homeless, a nation sundered.
"These were errors, grave mistakes from defending heroes. We had but one strategy at the time- to hem him in, minimizing the effects of growing waves and casualties until Leviathan was beaten into a retreat or Scion arrived. These areas, however, were too vulnerable. Waiting let Leviathan build up the strength of his attacks, and we lost."
Legend began speaking about the difference between 'hard' and 'soft' targets- the Bay was one of the latter- but Eon was again thinking elsewhere.
So many deaths. A pair of attacks so devastating, ten million killed between them- at least. Two whole islands sunk in a matter of hours, gone beneath the waves.
If it weren't for that huge death toll ringing like a bell, Eon thought that Kyogre would've been impressed.
He wished Kyogre was here to help fight this. Or perhaps Rayquaza, with his ability to cancel out the weather on a whim. He had experience fighting Kyogre when he got into a spat with Groudon, surely he'd be able to help against another hydrokinetic.
Hell, any Legendary at all would be a huge help here. Not even the major ones, like Lugia and Ho-oh. Even the Beasts or the Birds, or one of the smaller Mythicals like Shaymin and Manaphy, would be a boon to this fight. They were powerful, often incredibly so, and they could save so many people.
But all they had was him and Shadow. A Ninetales and a Vulpix, in a fight against something that was basically Kyogre on an epic number of boosters.
"We are splitting you into groups based on your abilities! If you are confident you can take a hit from Leviathan and get up afterwards, or if you have the ability to produce expendable combatants, we need you on the front line! You will be directed by Alexandria and Dragon!"
Eon refocused again on the front, but didn't move to join anyone. Instead, he kept his ears open and turned to his friends.
"Stay here until everything begins. Shadow, with Panacea as soon as you can. Swarm, I want you near me until I leave to go fight. For now, I'm staying back to gather information, see if I can guess what sort of damage our abilities can deal to this thing."
"Armsmaster and Chevalier will be leading the hand to hand combatants who do not fit in Alexandria's group! Anyone who thinks they can harm or hamper Leviathan in close quarters, you'll be assisting and reinforcing the front line!"
"I'd've thought you'd go with them, Eon." Swarm questioned. Shadow had just nodded and settled back a little."
"I could, yes. But for the start, until I throw on a few boosts, I'm better playing observer."
"-forcefields, telekinesis, whatever your power, if you can interrupt Leviathan's movements or help reduce the impacts of the waves, you're the backup defence! Bastion will direct you! Movers! We need fliers, teleporters, runners! You'll be responding to pings! Rescue the fallen, get them to emergency care, assist any others where needed! Myrddin will give you your orders! Long ranged attackers, with me! If you fall in more than one category, go with the group where you think you'll be the greatest assistance!" Legend was still shouting at the front, and the group of people staying where they were was dwindling, but Eon kept his team from moving until he spotted Panacea, still with Glory Girl, and the brunette spotted him in turn.
The two began to make their way over when both Pokemon heard it, turning sharply towards the wall closest to the ocean.
"Everyone out of the building!" Eon barked instantaneously. "He's trying to bring it down on top of us!" As if to confirm his statement, the walls began creaking ominously. Forcefields began going up, trying to stop the water, and over the din Eon vaguely heard Legend calling for someone named Strider.
Thunder seemed to roll, and for a moment the entire world went black and smelled of purple qumquat, then the feeling disappeared and he was in a river, Swarm falling next to him and Shadow swaying.
A number of other Capes in the area were also dropping to the ground, unbalanced, and then Eon's world was taken up by a sharp shock of curse.
