WCC Team Mission 3 - All or Nothing! The Final Day!

[Cecile Silverstone]

"Ara...my new doll gets away." The Alcremie hybrid said a bit of anger in her tone. She then motioned her Pokemon to come back to her as it scurried back and jumped into the palm of her hands. "Why on earth would you do that...I would've taken her care of her so well." She said as she started putting little flowers and Dedenne's ears then also putting little buttons on it's small chest. "I guess we will just have to play with this one, right Dedenne?" She said as she noticed Stasy break out of her Pokeball.

Dedenne started getting pumped up as the little decorations she put on her partner started glowing pink giving Dedenne power. "This will be quick, Electro Ball!"  

[Requiem of Whyspers]

Odd would be caught off guard as his opponent suddenly decided to call a truce. Fortunately for her, he wasn't forced into the battle like Wren and Terashi had been so accepting was a matter of choice on his part. While he'd planned far worse than simply knocking her out of the tournament, this would suffice for now. He accepted the Wishing Star, though he wasn't sure who else on the team still needed one at this point. Come to think of it, he couldn't recall if he'd actually gotten a full star so far or not, either. Better to hang onto it for now, just in case.

"Fine. Don't think I'll go any easier on you if we end up facing off in the next round, though." He warned as he recalled his Pokemon, turning toward the northern edge of the Wild Area and heading that direction.

He'd encounter very little along his way beyond a great number of other trainers, both hybrids and channelers alongside them, all bum rushing Hammerlocke's Southern wall. He was mostly ignored, however, thanks to the majority of them vying for the chance to move on to the next round. That is... Until he spotted a rather beautiful rain of familiar feathers falling around him.

"Hello, Sister Strange." He greeted calmly as he ducked around the feathers, gripping his artifact in his hand tighter.

"Hello, Brother Odd. I hear you've been rather busy since you stole the Odd Keystone from the Church's catacombs." The heavenly Channeler greeted, her Oricorio sitting on her shoulder.

"I didn't steal it and you know it." Odd countered. He hadn't ever intended to tell anyone she'd had a hand in his acquisition of the stone but if she insisted on getting in his way here, he wouldn't hold back.

"Regardless of how you came to possess the stone, I felt I should let you know... The Church has named you their greatest foe here in the living world. You will likely find yourself encountering more and stronger hybrids and Channelers alike sent by the church to remove you from the living world. They have named you 'Anima Sola', denying you the dignity of a name to them." The woman warned. "I've come to learn that you and I are, in fact, distantly related and, for the sake of familial connection, I wanted to give you the chance to redeem yourself in their eyes, though I don't believe any method of doing so exists for you."

Odd paused for a moment. The sadness in Strange's eyes was clear. She was telling him the truth, he could feel it. There was no malice in her heart as she spoke. "I have no intention of 'redeeming' myself in the eyes of a religious collective, regardless of whether the method exists or not." He responded, returning his artifact to it's holster at his hip. "Lonely Soul, hmm? They seem to have a strong opinion of someone they don't want to get to know."

"I've come to understand that. You follow a path uniquely yours and while it makes no sense to me that one would willfully walk straight into the depths of Hell as you do, you seem to be holding yourself apart from the daemonic powers you are developing." Strange replied, walking around the Channeler. Neither noticed the Roto-Drone flying around them and broadcasting their conversation to the world. "Be careful, Brother Odd. You become a larger and more important target to those who lead the remnants of our shattered tribe the stronger you grow and the more independently you act."

Odd nodded silently as the feathers around the pair began to explode, cloaking the pair in holy light for a moment. When the explosions cleared, Odd could barely be seen reaching the special drones outside the city and thrusting his Wishing Piece against it, being Teleported away.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Wren recalled Manna and swapped Nutmeg back into battle as the Applin fell. "Trop Kick!" He called out. He and Terashi had managed to bring their opponents down to one last Pokemon and this should finish it off. Nutmeg nodded and, still newly evolved, she dashed toward her weakened foe, bringing her glowing leg down upon with her tiny foot slammed into it's back, driving it into the ground as she did. A moment later, the energy field created by the Trainer's Eyes faded and their opponents were teleported away by a pair of Roto Drones and their companion Pokemon.

"We need to hurry..." He told himself, looking down at the wilted artifact on his wrist. He still couldn't feel the connection he'd had with Nutmeg only a short moment before. "I don't think I can channel like this, though..."

Nutmeg dashed over and lifted Wren into her arms which, while small, were stronger they they looked. "Tsa reen!" She told him before leaning forward and, with her feet glowing, trails of green energy flowing upward into her thighs, she dashed forward with a speed Wren hadn't expected from her. The energy imbued into the ground seemed to have awakened a new ability within her, allowing her to use Grassy Glide to carry her trainer across the Wild Area.

She would find herself obstructed slightly, however, when a large green object blocked her path like an unnaturally thick tripwire which seemed to have a dark and imposing aura about it. A Brutal Swing, indeed. Thankfully for her, she was equipped to deal with the attacker, leaping directly into a High Jump Kick with Wren still held securely in her arms. Once in the air, she'd flip in place to face her saboteur. Faced with a hybrid cloaked in white down, wielding a massive green lance and an overly decorative shield, she'd glare at them before coming down with tremendous force, aided in part by Wren's extra weight.

Wren, however, could only react with one word. "... Eyebrows..." The hybrid in question had a prodigious pair of eyebrows, black as night and as thick as the desert cacti, angled sharply toward one another between their eyes.

Nutmeg's attack would be met by the hybrid's shield, glowing silver in the fading light. An Iron Defense executed in an interesting manner, for certain. Pulling out his SNAG as Nutmeg bounced off the defender's guard, he would scan the hybrid in hopes that his Pokedex could identify what kind of hybrid they were.

"Do you really think I'm that good? Even I can only tell so much just by looking at a hybrid. There are countless variations of genetic expression in a single species alone." GRAY snapped back at him. "If you don't know, you should use your words. Like an adult.

"You're very helpful. Thank you." Wren replied sarcastically as Nutmeg landed and set him on the ground. "We don't need to fight!" He insisted to the Fruit Pokemon. "We need to get out of here!" He reminded her, pointing to the Roto Drones near the city wall in the distance, noticing as he did that the "distance" wasn't as distant as he had been expecting. They were only a few hundred feet away compared to where they had begun. Nutmeg's speed must have been incredible when she first picked him up...

"Sorry tiny man but you and your little fruit cup aren't getting into Hammerlocke. I still need a Wishing Star to get into the next round and you're dropping yours or neither of us is getting out of here. None escapes the sight of Joan D'Aark!"

"Oh.. You're a woman. Sorry... I dunno why but I could have sworn..."

The hybrid became visibly angered by Wren's comment. "How could you possibly mistake me for anything less than the Mighty Balken?" The hybrid exclaimed.

"I'm sorry.. The mighty who?" Wren asked, confused. He'd never heard of this apparent man before. It was hard to tell through all those feathers, really, whether he was looking at a man, a woman, or an animate action figure, really, so he wasn't sure whether to even put much credit into what they were saying.

"The Mighty Balken! Leader of the Knights of the Verdant Blade!" The hybrid declared, their lance glowing softly as Wren took a step back. "I will not falter!" Balken declared before lunging forward with a Leaf Blade.

"Trop Kick!" Wren called out as he dove to the side to avoid being skewered. Nutmeg jumped into the attack's path and slammed her leg into the top of the pungent lance, sending it's tip digging into the ground. Balken responded by raising their shield skyward and releasing a burst of fiery energy above them via Sunny Day.

"Triple Axel!" Wren called out. Nutmeg nodded, lashing out with a series of kicks that sent blades of ice flying at the hybrid at close range. The shield would meet the blades, silver glow alight once more. The moment the blades had been stopped, however, the shield's glow would turn green and, in a flash, would transfer into the lance, whereupon Balken would give a mighty upward slash. As the lance was drawn through the air, a blade of solar energy would be released into the air via Solar Blade. "High Jump Kick!" Wren exclaimed, watching as Nutmeg darted backward, away from the Grass-type attack. She would land on a nearby rock and launch herself skyward. As she came down, she would use the Sunny Day orb to blind Balken to her presence until it was too late, slamming her land into their face as and punting the strange hybrid into the ground, skidding away from the force.

"Now! Run!" The pair would dash toward the city gates together, Nutmeg grabbing Wren's hand as she passed him and pulling him along with her until they reached the Roto Drones. Wren would tap his Wishing Star against the drone and turn to face the Wild Area with a salute with just enough time to witness their assailant flying at them with that massive lance surrounded by a meteor-like aura of Fighting energy pouring out from it's tip just before they were Teleported away.  

[Cecile Silverstone]

After some time, an air horn played over the intercom as Chairman Rose's face appeared on the monitors. "And that's it! We have our trainers that will be going on to the next part of our tournament. This concludes day three of the Wild Area challenge! Give a round of applause to all our contenders we participated today!" He paused as he let the fans watching cheer on for a moment. "Now you a probably wondering, what will our competitors be up to next? I'll give you a hint: they'll being going traditional battles, but with a twist. For now," He was handed a card with the championship emblem on the back. "Our competitors we'll be staying at our very own Budew Drop Inn at Motostoke! Come stay at the Budew Inn to experience the best! There will be a nurse at the Inn there to tend to the ones that are injured. The next challenge won't be for a couple days. One more thing, any competitors that were able to collect more than one Wishing Star or have extra Wishing Pieces, please distribute them amongst your team so we can know a total of how many competitors will enter the next challenge. So stay tuned for updates!"

He threw the card behind him as he got closer to the camera. "So which group were you cheering for?! Kanto? Unova? Snagem? Galllarr?" He emphasized Galar to get a big applause. "We will be showing the scores of each group later today, for now! We will be playing highlights that we caught with the help of our Roto-Drones! That's it for today! Everyone, have a great day!"