The Area Zero Incident

It’s as easy as a flick of the wrists.

Professor Sada’s, or rather, her AIs Pokémon aren't playing around. Alas, Bibi was all about fun and games. Even now with Paldeas' environment facing the threat of ruin, with Arven's closure for everything he and Mabostiff had been through at stake, she can't help but relish in the thrill of a good battle. Of course, this was a high stakes match so she was playing for keeps. Her movements are animated to compensate for the fact that her voice has been deafened, she’s practically bouncing in delight with each clap, whistle and snap. One paradox, two paradox, red paradox, blue paradox, ancient Pokémon with all the untamed fury of beasts whose fangs hadn't been dulled by centuries of domestication drop one by one. Even when Sada says that everything remains within her calculations Bibi knows her victory is all but secured, because expectations exist for her to subvert them.

A brief hand wave causes her bracelets to jingle, and she whistles in two notes. Moveslot two, focus on evading. Ribombees movements are practiced and graceful, battle after battle has him operating on muscle memory once he hears the cue. A quiver dance propels him upwards, bolstering his speed and attack power. Roaring Moon, despite its awe-inducing power, is reduced to nothing but a clumsy, skittering lizard before them. The jagged blades of rock jutting out from the ground claw their way into the sky to no avail, Ribombees already far beyond their grasp. He already knows what comes next from his position fluttering high in the sky, the moonblast he launches far eclipses him in size. It creates an almost sizzling sort of sound when it comes into contact with Roaring Moon, whizzing down from the air like a meteor. The force knocks the dragon Pokémon into the pillar the AI stands atop, peering down on them like insects, the impact kicks up clouds of dust and shakes dirt off the ceiling.

Bibi is almost disappointed it's over, half her team are practically untouched, she's itching for more. Clearly, some higher power is listening to her wishes, because alarms begin to sound and the panels that make up the walls and ceiling around them blaze ruby red. Even the AI is shocked initially, urging them to escape before a preprogrammed response overrides its will, forcing it to turn on them. All pokeballs not registered under Sada’s ID are rendered inoperable, leaving the children down to a single option to fend off the near feral Koraidon the Paradise Protection Protocol besets upon them. A mirror match, Bibi shakes in nervous excitement, she had never fought with Koraidon before, but their adventure had solidified an unshakeable bond, and her skills as a trainer were practically unparalleled.

There simply wasn’t a challenge she couldn’t surmount.

The two Koraidon begin to circle one another, it's a formality really, there’s no need to size each other up when they’re so deeply familiar with each other. When one understands the feeling of the other's teeth catching on its bones, of being brutalized with no hope of fighting back. The better can smell the lingering fear  and resentment on its prey and Taunts it, begging it to try and sate its fury, avenge its prior humiliation.

Despite the order to endure and gauge just what the opponent has up its sleeve, Bibi’s Koraidon takes the bait, swinging an almost human-like punch that carries its whole body weight behind it in its confusion. The attack is clumsy in form, highly telegraphed and overextending, there's plenty of opportunity for the alpha to slip out from under its raised fist. To play its own little games, the kind where the fun doesn’t start until somebody gets hurt.

The first thing Bibi hears is the sound of glass shattering, the first thing she feels isn’t pain, but the knockback.

It's as easy as the flick of a wrist. An almost searingly hot claw, intense and unforgiving as the desert sun shreds through Bibi’s side like a hot knife through butter. The force of the move hits like a car crash sending the hapless child rolling back. A saving grace perhaps, as the AI’s Koraidon fails to close the gap between them before its adversary closes its maw viciously around its tail, forcefully yanking it back into grappling distance. Bibi’s Koraidon manages to hold its foe in a full nelson for all of 5 seconds before it finds itself flung over shoulder, the force creating a crater in the floor. It barely has time to recover before a foot plants itself in its chest, repeatedly stomping it further into the dirt, bones creaking under the pressure, until it snags its oppressors' ankle in its grasp and yanks it off balance.

Bibi was left to gasp and sputter as her friends gathered around her crumpled body. She clutched at her side, scraps of cloth and skin (at least, that what she prayed it was) slipping between her fingers. A pair of arms held her sitting firm, another was struggling to hold the remains of her coat (at least she thinks that's what it is, everything is the same rusty red) to the wound as some sort of makeshift bandage. They crowd around her like little human shields and she wants to laugh.

Wasn’t she stronger than all of them? What was she doing sitting behind everyone like this, as a Pokémon she had never even fought with properly held off the most dangerous thing they ever faced.?

How? She just doesn't understand how it could've turned out like this.

She can't close her eyes. She doesn't want the last thing she sees to be this sterile nearly empty hole miles underground. Nor does she want to be carried into one of those little white rooms she'd been trapped in not so much as two years ago and reduced to a flatline. She focuses on all the things she hated growing up, of the smell of disinfectants, the pediatric tools and little distractions that never truly made her feel any less scared, because if she tries to calm down now she might close her eyes and never open them again.

Bibi never thought about death much since her treasure hunt began, in the way that children tend not to. After all she had pulled plenty of stupid stunts so far, ran headlong into danger, traversed difficult terrain for the thrill of it. Actions never truly felt like they had consequences, she was out of the hospital, no longer mandated to spend certain amounts of time in bed, free to do what she wanted whenever. Learning how to live left the thought of dying in the further corners of her mind. Said mind feels like it's full of cotton right now, the things being shouted at her are fuzzy, distant, her single focused thought contrasts with piercing clarity.

She made a mistake.
She made a mistake and it was going to cost her and her friends everything.

The thought of being meals for the same monster that killed the original Sada alone would make her heave if she wasn't already, ragged breaths escaping her and barely suppressed bile burning her throat. If it's the blood loss, tears, or simply the lack of glasses that's turning her vision blurry she doesnt know but she squints and trains her eyes on the fight, unable to look away. Mostly because she’s still vaguely aware that if she looks down to see all the rust colored stains on her and her friends she might just pass out.

She remembers the day she met Koraidon and the way it protected her from a pack of angry houndour and their leader. Now her Rairai seems to be the one outstripped in power, though it learns quickly. It adapts to the patterns of the opponent, meeting it blow for blow. The next time it rears back for a Collision Course though, the alpha Koraidon braces itself, stopping an attack with the weight of a freight train behind it in an high x-block. Bibi’s Koraidon bounces off of it, the only sign of the attack's connection being the shredding of a few arm scales. The AI’s Koraidon licks its wound, a mocking look in its slit-pupil eyes. With its momentum slowed Bibi’s partner has no choice but to fall to the ground, its arms are raised and poised for another attack, but immediately the alpha meets it with a hand clasp. The two push against each other with all their might, waiting on whose digits would give and break first.

It's as easy as a flick of the wrist……Until it isn't. Bibi sees the opportunity and she's desperate to make use of it. But it's like being trapped in one of those nightmares where you have to run but you’re stuck moving in slow motion. The pain makes even small movements incredibly difficult. She claws at the ground and desperately tries to lean forwards, to reach out and snap twice because even through the brain fog she knows if she can just order Koraidon to let loose even a fast, haphazard and weak flamethrower, it could generate some advantage. Sure, Koraidon had never seen combat until now, but Bibi knew the day would come and prepared accordingly. Her Rairai should have known just as well as any of her other companions what each signal meant.

But knowing something theoretically was far different than executing it in practice and even though Koraidon’s eyes widen in a flash of recognition, they narrow again shortly after as it doubles down on its shoving match, attempting to bite and snarl at its foe. It could only remember part of the command. With no follow up attack to accompany her orders Bibi understood that she had to call out the move’s name properly. She tries, her lips move the way she wants them to, F-L-A-M-E-T-H-R-O-W-E-R, but the rest of her body refuses to cooperate. The vocalization that comes up is guttural, wet, pathetic, and thoroughly un-Bibi like. She chokes on something. She doesn’t want to dwell on what it is.

She tries again, two snaps, and a strangled and quiet “flamethrower” gets out of her this time, but it’s faint, and for once Penny and Arven find themselves grateful for Nemona’s ability to project her voice as she vocalizes the command on Bibi’s behalf. Koraidon acts fast, letting flames billow from its mouth, despite the heat resistant properties of a dragon’s scales and the move not making use of the Pokémon’s vastly superior physical strength it gets the job done. With flames searing its face and licking at its eyes the Alpha Koraidon backs down and breaks its hold, drool drips from its shaking maw, if it was agitated before it’s pissed now. It comes bearing down on Bibi’s beloved dragon with all its might, pinning it, biting and ripping through armored scales and into the softer flesh below all with a horrible roar. Bibi starts panicking, all semblance of sport had long since been thrown out the window but this was raw animal violence she could barely process. What had she gotten them into?

She’s snapped out of her trance-like state by Penny, who through the tears and screaming, has retained her keen eye for detail. The faint glow emanating from Bibi’s pocket is indicative of the fact that her Koraidon has gathered enough energy to pull off a terastallization. Of what type Bibi’s not sure, but backed into the corner like this she knows she’ll have to take the gamble. She’s almost too weak at this point to even pull the tera orb from her pocket, much less handle the recoil of unleashing the energy. Penny’s trembling hands place the device in Bibi’s hands and she helps hold her arm steady.

Not the ideal scenario to hold hands for the first time, certainly not what Bibi envisioned, but she’d have to settle.

Crystallized energy begins to form around her darling Rairai and Bibi thanks her lucky stars when the unmistakable royal blue of the dragon type appears. The newfound strength gives Koraidon the energy to turn the tables, and as its assailant moves to tear out its throat they’re met with the shifting of muscles and a shove from a clawed hand. Dripping jaws lock around the tera Pokemon’s shoulder and it flinches in pain, but it still manages to gather the momentum needed to flip their positions. They roll and tumble, teeth gnashing and ripping through Bibi’s Koraidon all the while. There’s nowhere for its opponent to run anymore even if it means Koraidon must bear the crunching of bone that follows bites with a force of 4000 psi.

It’s now or never! Rairai had worked so hard to overcome its fears and push past its limits for her sake, Bibi knows she has to do the same. She’ll call out this move properly if it’s the last thing she ever does.

“TERA BLAST…!”

A scratchy and shrill cry escapes her, the strain of raising her voice rattles her busted ribcage and she immediately collapses back into Arven’s arms. She hears something, cries of Pokémon, gasps of her friends, but all she sees is the blood red ceiling panels. Uncool and anticlimactic, she can’t tell whether to be relieved or not. All she feels is tired, and pleasantly warm. She gave it her best shot didn’t she?

A little nap couldn’t hurt.