Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Posting Wayne early, after Kenta we just gotta wait on Jump.))

Big Stadium: South Entrance

Zack stepped forward, swinging the sword into Odin's, the force that Odin himself generated was enough to easily push Odin's sword back - creating a small explosion at the impact point added that bonus that if Odin didn't release the sword when this happened it'd snap his arm out of socket.

Zack's foot touched down at the same time when he stepped, creating another explosion under Odin's feet aimed to rocket him upward into the ceiling above. If it hit, it'd slam into Odin and he'd also lose his sword.

Zack has no intention of giving the sword back.

Big Stadium: Playing Field

The Tall Man was launched up by the change of the grass. When Circa began launching his needles The Tall Man fired his rifle. The large Bastiodon would block the assault altogether as The Tall Man dropped backward toward the edge of the stadium roof and down to the ground, knees bending as his feet effortlessly absorbed the impact.

Steelix, meanwhile, angled his head to slam into the ground, digging through it instead of hitting in the way that Salaca had intended.

Big Stadium:South Exit - Redux

Azucena reached the squad of police officers, stuck between watching both Odin and Zack's fight and Nicole and Viper's. "Hey!" she shouted as she approached. They were busy looking into injuries with McCoy sitting against the side of a patrol car, his arm being bandaged up.

Azucena told them of the bombs, and the officers - under Commissioner McCoy's orders, would head for the entrances. With the East and West entrances cleared they'd be able to enter to look for bombs.

McCoy stayed with the injured, as did Azucena who leaned against the side of a car as a fussy medic noticed her injuries and ordered her to stay down and receive some antibiotics.

"So, uh," Azucena looked over at McCoy.

"Yeah?" He popped his gum, bubble and pop.

"Wanna hear a joke?"

"Sure."

"So, you have a friend who only has one hand, how do you solve arguments?" Azucena asked.

McCoy turned to face her fully, raising his arm with a stub, showing her only had one hand. "How?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

Azucena hesitated. She stared at him and he stared back.

"Well?"

"M-majority vote," Azucena hesitantly said as she rose both of her own hands.

Big Stadium: Playing Field - Redux

Henrietta arrived at the playing field. The fighting was still going on, carnage every which direction. She'd detached Sintre's sword, which she'd trapped with crystals before, and held both swords now.

"Sal!" she shouted when she saw the girl and she ran over. "What's the plan?" she asked. She hadn't yet fought Pachi, she was in the dark.

Big Stadium: Center Stage

Thanks to Roast, Daphne's dance could continue in the sky, for a third round of bonuses.

Ronin's foot would likely hit an angle now to create an earthquake that would butcher the stadium. It's likely that an unstable angle would unsettle it, cause the entire stadium to creak.

Unless the portals could be broken from their opposite sides, then Pachi was out of room to do a single thing as Gyara had been stopped, and his foot would slam full force to destroy the stadium in one single go.

Eukayra was in no danger as soon as Spike was recalled. The portals moving around him weren't going to do a thing. He needed to focus, to be able to stop his allies between each of the spins of the portals.

[I got it me.]
[No, me, I got it.]

The two, of course, had the same strategy.

Calm Mind. With this, he would grow even stronger.

Wayne, meanwhile, watched as the shoddy teamwork began to come together. Through trial and error, the trainers were slowly becoming better as they worked together. What once seemed like a daunting task now had a light at the end of the tunnel.

"N, good work," Wayne said.

The fake Flamethrower form Zero was the cherry to top it all off. Even if it was an illusion, this all happened as it passed over Pachi. She wouldn't see a single part of their counter attack to even know to react to it, or how.

In other words, Pachi's arrogance just ended this.

Nimbasa City: Subway

The Mayor’s private subway car sped along the tracks on route for evacuation. Aside from The Mayor himself, his personal assistant Harmony, and the driver, the car was empty.

“Did you see that on the TV? Right before we left?” He leaned back in his seat, making the sweat stains on his suit apparent. “It’s getting bad out there.”

“Right you are, sir,” the pixie haired blonde in the opposite seat agreed as she checked her watch. “Signals are still jammed in the city.”
“How far do you think the jamming goes?”
She checked her watch again. “I’m not sure. We won’t know until we get reception again.”
The Mayor sighed. “Harm, why do you keep doing that?”
Her eyes didn’t move from the watch. “Doing what sir?”
“Checking your watch.”
“Oh. I’m waiting for the other train.”
“Other train?”

Harmony pointed past The Mayor. He turned and saw a train running the same direction next to them on a parallel track. The passengers inside wore assorted black masks and clothes, and were accompanied by various vicious looking pokemon.

The PA jumped out of her seat and jabbed at the back of The Mayor’s neck. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped over, knocked out. She hoisted the man onto her shoulder and kicked open the glass window.

In the other train, a Zangoose carved a large block out of the subway window. Harmony jumped out and switched trains. She handed the Mayor’s body to somebody else, who took him to get tied up.

“Get me a communicator,” she commanded. “And change our course to the Big Stadium.”

Big Stadium: South Entrance

The crescent slash that Odin had released carved through the small explosion, releasing enough shockwave backlash to even out the force on both sides. Odin was able to keep his grip on his sword and his arm at the same time.

He had previously analyzed the explosion stomp at the beginning of the battle when Zack used it to blow debris at his face. The grey haired boy knew what was coming this time around, and he sprang up and backwards to avoid the attack. Now he was back out on the lawn, out from under the archway with his remaining sword hovering at his side.

That’s when Steelix dove underground from the sky, Salaca landing after him followed by Goldberg. Salaca made his landing into an Earthquake attack, unleashing a tremor when he dropped. With Steelix underground, he knew this would be the most effective way of dealing damage.

On top of the roof, Circa’s continued to unleash his barrage of needles, bouncing them off of the Bastiodon’s tough hide but slowing down it’s momentum from being shot out at bullet speeds. It was like swimming upstream. The pokemon stopped moving forward entirely a couple of feet in front of Circa. He put his hands at his sides and bowed.

“My apologies,” he told the pokemon before jumping over it, high into the air before plummeting down into the lawn next to his Heracross. He looked over at the other fight in progress, and had trouble expressing his shock.

“Odin?”

Odin looked behind him, saw Circa, then looked up at Goldberg. “Let’s team up.”

Big Stadium: Playing Field

Salieri looked up at the stage, casually doing a butterfly kick to avoid being blasted by a stray Ice Beam. There wasn’t much she could assess from the situation except that Pachi was using their own attacks against them. Going in headstrong would be beyond reckless, it would endanger someone else.

“See the pylons holding up the stage?” she asked Henrietta, referring to the dozens upon dozens of wooden planks underneath the stage that gave it support and rose it a couple of feet above the ground. “If we smash them we can give the others an opening.”

The Battle Girl tapped the side of her head. “I have this sixth sense thing –don’t laugh, I’m serious-, and it tingled when Pachi made her portal. I guess it’s related to ghosts, but the point is I was able to feel where the portal would be right before it was there. It’s hard to explain.”

She whipped the meteor hammer right past Henrietta’s head to destroy a random shot of Rock Blast that was about to pelt the trainer. “After we make her lose her ground we’ll join the fight for real. I’ll guide you around the-- since when did you dual wield?”

Sal looked down at her meteor hammer, then at Henrietta’s two swords. She pouted a little. Now I REALLY wish this was a spike ball, she thought. “Just follow my lead, okay?”

She ran at the stage, pointing at the middle of it’s underside for Liuye Dao. While the swung the steel ball end of the meteor hammer into pylons at the stage’s western side, Liuye ran underneath with his hands outstretched. His knives sliced right through the pylons he passed by to the other side, and they would slide out of place just a moment after.

((I’ll post as Pachi after Henrietta))

((I've never killed anyone via suspense before, and I don't intend to))

Big Stadium: South Exit

“No.” Odin faced Circa, grabbing his hovering sword out of the air. “He’s never done with pleasantries.”

Salaca assumed that Steelix had been taken care of by the Earthquake, allowing him to focus on the incoming Onix. He braced himself, and as soon as the rock snake zoomed close enough he’d jump up to deliver a mighty Brick Break chop down atop the pokemon’s head to slam it into the ground.

Circa ran to the side, approaching Odin Goldberg and Zack. “I thought you were dead,” he told the grey haired boy.

Odin’s eyes twinkled. He tilted his head to the side. “So that’s why no one tried to save me,” he said matter-of-factly. It left Circa stunned. Odin narrowed his eyes.

He threw his sword at Circa and then used his other glove to force the blade Zack was still holding at the Interpol Agent as well. If Zack didn’t let go, he’d probably crash into Circa unless the agent did something about the blades.

Big Stadium: Center Stage

Robby’s experiment would yield results, but not the expected ones: the unused sides of the portals were solid. Once Grill’s Flamethrower put enough pressure on one of them, it shattered like glass and faded away.

Pachi had previously removed the portal Gregory was aiming for. However, since it was on the stage itself, the Gurdurr’s attack would strike the floor.

Bacon’s charge would end with him breaking through a portal and dragging Eukayra away, who had built up a Calm Mind boost in the process.

Aside from their teamwork finally starting to pull together, there was a key reason that the set ups had gone so smoothly: Zero’s fake Flamrthrower, which N had deemed a failure, had blinded Pachi to what was going on. Only for a few seconds, but that was just enough time.

“Cute, but no.” She rose up a hand, preparing to smash more of the pokemon together. Until the combined efforts of Ronin, Gregory, Frate, Liuye, Henrietta and Salieri destroyed the stage. It crumpled from underneath, cracking down the center before the whole thing gave way and dropped a few feet.

Everyone on the stage would fall to the exposed floor below, which the broken halves of the stages on either side of them. As Pachi and her chair started to slide into the crevasse, she opened a portal next to her that she fell into.

She came out the other side, chair and all, perfectly fine in the center of crevasse created by the ruined stage. The tactic hadn’t hurt her one bit. But it had forced her to warp herself. If N recalled correctly, Pachi switching dimensions may have bought The Bullet enough time to fire up the Damp Signal. He could only hope he was right.

There was still something else that could be done. N ran across the stage as it broke apart, careful not to slide down into the pit below as he rose up his palm and grit his teeth. A green spinning arrow on his palm glowed, and the portal Pachi had just used reformed, along with the one that connected right to her.

He threw a punch into the portal. His fist came out the other side at Pachi’s face. Before it connected, she rose an eyebrow. He restored my portal?

The woman was flung from her chair back into the wreckage. Instruments from the concert, including a drum kit and piano, fell on top of her and buried her underneath.

N slid down to the middle and onto the playing field ground. “Is everyone alright?” he asked. “I’m sorry I couldn’t discuss my ability before. I needed the element of surprise.”

“Whatever works,” Salieri said as she and Liuye emerged at the top of one of the broken stage halves. They slid down the ramped up side down to the playing field center below to join everyone else.

She paused when she got there. From somewhere on the stage, she could hear a faint buzzing. It came and went at intervals, but it was definitely there. “Does anybody else hear that buzzing?”

At where the back of the stage used to be, the timer had been compromised. The clock stopped at 2:20, blinking on those digital numbers.

And then it started again. Going three times as fast as before.

Timer Countdown: 2 Minutes