So I made a thing when trying to make another, entirely different, thing… my muse has taken ques from L33T's… I guess its time for the baseball bat treatment again.

Taylor Hebert: Pokemon Master

- -Prologue: Everything Changes... Again- -

September 28th-2004

United States, Wisconsin, Madison

My eyes flicked up toward the embattled form of the Simurgh for precisely half a second as I weaved around the quick jabs of my foe.

Ziz, The Smurf; The False Angel considered the most dangerous Endbringer beside its sibling, the first of the Endbrigers, the Hero Killer Behemoth.

That meant nothing though. For the slight it had made against me, intentionally or no, precognitive abilities or not, I would kill it.

I whipped my halberd about in a flurry, knocking away strikes from the Pink Abomination that had separated me from my squad before leaping away in an attempt to get some breathing room and dodged a sweeping kick.

Snarling under my breath, I deftly shifted the positioning of my hands along my halberds shaft and swept the blade toward the Pink Abomination's neck and it dodged to the side. Its mouth then spread into an impossibly wide grin before it stuck its tongue out at me.

Gritting my teeth I lunged forward and made several wild stabs at the Pink Abomination, several of which nearly struck home but were evaded at the last instance.

Oh yes, I would kill the Simurgh. The False Angel that corrupted the hopes of dreamers and trampled upon humanity's future would die by my hand if it was the last thing I did.

I would tear it from its lofty heights and bring it crashing to the surface of the earth and I would sunder it limb from limb before firing it into the sun to erase every trace of its very existence from reality!

But that goal would have to wait; I had to first deal with this abomination that had the nerve to mock me so, shame me in such a way—!

I ducked under a quick flurry of punches and elbow jabs, narrowly evading its strikes as my peripheral attention was drawn to how smoothly the Pink Abomination moved.

How efficiently it struck out with blows that would inflict the maximum amount of damage while utilizing the most efficient use of its forward momentum, the pieces clicked into place; the damned Abomination was using my most practiced moves against me!

Truly hoping that master Hiro wasn't watching from wherever he now rested, I spun on my heel and used the one move he had forbidden me from ever using in actual combat.

My foot connected with the Pink Abomination's imitation of my face in a near perfect replication of Bruce Lee's infamous spin kick from Return of the Dragon.

The Pink Abomination hit the ground hard but rose before I could capitalize on this momentary weakness and lunged towards me again. I dodged a few retaliatory jabs and grudgingly noted that the Pink Abomination was certainly durable.

'It'd probably qualify for some sort of Brute rating.' That is, of course, if it survived this fight; and that wasn't a certainty yet. Especially not when I had more important matters to deal with and didn't need the delay this thing was causing. 'Perhaps… maybe if I could disengage from it...'

Acting on the thought, I deftly spun my halberd so the butt end faced the Pink Abomination and fired off a grappling hook.

It missed by mere inches and the Pink Abomination stuck its tongue out at me again, just in time for my armored knee to slam into its face as the cable retracted, pulling me forward.

The Pink Abomination collapsed onto the asphalt again as I was pulled atop a nearby building.

It was one of the few buildings that had appeared with the pink, blob-like creature that had transformed into a pink clone of myself.

The building itself was a simple, squat structure with a blue and white color scheme. It had 'MART' spanning over the doorway, directly beneath a blue awning. Just what I needed.

Disengaging the grappling hook I let the momentum carry me forward until i was rolling across the rooftop in an uncontrolled tumble.

I threw out my open arm for something to grab a hold of and managing to snag an exhaust vent, fortunately stopping myself just inches away from crashing into one of a pair of skylights that spanned the length of the building.

"Ugh," Pushing my myself into a crouch, I made a brief mental note not to do such a thing again without more practice.

Gritting my teeth I collapsed my halberd, clamping it to the back of my armor, and crept back toward the edge of the building. Keeping low and hidden, I was soon pressing up against the back of the building's sign and I retrieved my Peeking Wand, deftly uncoiling it as I twitched my eyes back and forth to activate the appropriate programs.

I bent the flexi-wand the camera was mounted at a 90 degree angle and poked it over the top of the sign and,with a quick eye twitch, opened the feed it was transmitting to my HUD. I smiled thinly as the picture from the Peeking Wand crystallized into a clear picture showing the Pink Abomination.

It was slow to rise, shaking it head vigorously from side to side as it rose to its bare feet unsteadily, clearly dazed.

Suddenly, something... changed, in its stance and in a split second the Pink Abomination stood tall, recovering far faster than should have been possible.

I sighed, sagging against the sign and let my sore muscles voice their complaints. I probably got a moment , maybe, of rest before an echoing clang-boom rang out overhead.

I fumbled at my back for my halberd for a moment before I realized it was simply the Simurgh telekinetically throwing a post office at its opponent, the Pink Cat, that had appeared to engage the Endbringer soon after it had activated the Device.

The cat, which simply raised a glittering force field and deflected the building back at the Simurgh. The end result of the attack was akin to that of a little kid throwing a wad of paper at a much, much, bigger big kid; distracting, and ultimately useless.

The blinding beam of yellow energy that was fired off immediately afterwards however?

That wasn't. That, the Simurgh was quick to dodge; and did so at full speed. Zigzagging away from the following beam as it smashed through the orbiting shield of debris from the post office that Endbringer quickly put forward into its path as she evaded.

'Strange,' The Simurgh's normal modus-operandi was to counter an attack before it was even launched, to kill the aggressor before it could become a threat. It was what made the Endbringer so difficult to deal with when it attacked.

With the Pink Cat however... it wasn't doing that at all, it was simply trading shots back and forth.

'Is it diversionary tactic, to keep the Pink Cat from helping the Parahumans with the Device perhaps? Or was it something else,' I wondered, a quick twitch of my eyes confirmed that my HUD was recording.

Then they were off again, dancing through the skies above the city in a maelstrom, launching useless attacks at each other that just tore apart more and more of the city as they were either deflected, blocked, or countered in a myriad of ways.

I sank back against the sign and pulled a single frame from footage of the brief, but intense, bit of the battle I had glimpsed with a flurry of eye twitches.

The Pink Cat, or whatever it was, had been a godsend. Somehow, as soon as it had appeared it had began canceling out the Simurgh scream, and had continued doing such since it had first engaged the Endbringer.

Thanks to it, this day would probably go down as the most successful operation against an Endbringer to date.

And also thanks to it, the city had been fully evacuated, and the assembled capes that had shown had been able concentrate their attention on the Device that the Simurgh had forged from the cannibalized remains of Professor Haywire's creations.

I shifted my gaze up to the Device high up in the sky, its somewhat spherical shape indistinct behind the shield that enclosed and protected it from the capes attacking it as well as from the technicolor waves pulsating and radiating off of it.

The device, all that remained now from the endeavors of the man that had been one of the few hopes of Humanity.

'Such a waste.'

I shook my head, dispelling all thought of the Device, the Simurgh and the Pink Cat from my head and, though hard as it was, the simple motion worked. Though just thinking about the shield the Endbringer had crafted gave me tinkering ideas-

I shook my head again, more vigorously this time to push down the subtle urge to input notes, although thinking about that made me think of integrating a vocal activated note recorder to avoid such a situation where I couldn't-

Grimacing I took a moment to clear my mind as Master Hiro had instructed me to do.

I pushed myself to my feet and crab walked to the short distance to the skylights of the shop. No, what I needed to do was to try and find the rest of the squad I had been assigned to.

I needed to find Mouse Protector and the others, not think about tinkering. With any luck they would still be either close by or have already pulled out, hopefully.

I clenched a fist and knocked against the clear glass-like substance that the skylight was made of. Judging from the vibration of the material and the resonating sound it didn't seem too be too strong.

I pulled my fist back, activated the glass breakers/knucklebusters in my armored gloves with a few eye twitches and smashed it into the skylight, shattering it into thousands of pieces with the blow.

I dropped down into the building, landing in a crouch between two rows of shelving and, after taking in the odd merchandise scattered about, I snatched up a few, slipping them into pouches on my utility belt for later examination.

I crept forward, stepping carefully around the debris that littered the floor, and made my way to the end of the shelves when a crash rang out from right behind me. My heart jumping into my throat at the sudden noise.

I spun about, fists raised at the ready, prepared to deal with the Pink Abomination but it wasn't there.

Just a Red and White sphere with a black band around its middle rolling toward the edge of a shelf- I snatched it out of the air before it could fall to the floor and make even more noise.

I slowly let out a tense breath that hitched in my throat when I heard a crunch of glass behind me.

I spun around again and saw the PInk Abomination lunging at me. Reflexively I threw the sphere at it as a distraction and raised my fists; ready to reign blows down on it.

It didn't come to that, however; the sphere struck the Pink Abomination full in the chest, bouncing off before it sprung open. In the next moment, the Pink Abomination disappeared in a flash of ruby red light.

I held at the ready, waiting for whatever surprise was in store from the sphere that must have been some sort of tinker tech.

'A containment vessel of some kind,' I thought and, for a moment, considered the possibilities of such a device and how effective it could be against criminals before I put the thoughts of tinkering out of my mind.

Instead, I kept my eyes locked on the wobbling sphere and kept vigilant for a few moments more, just in case my hypothesis was incorrect.

All the sphere did, however, was wobble back and forth for another moment before going still.

I took a few snap glances about the building, checking for any more surprises. Finding none, I crouched down and snatched up the sphere, depositing it in the last empty spot on my utility belt. Then, staying low to the ground, I made my way to the exit as fast as I could. The double doors sliding open on my approach.

I flattened myself against the wall and peeked out into the street, looking up and down its length, keeping an eye open for any sort of motion.

Finding none, my attention drifted upward, to the battle raging in the skies.

That was another situation altogether. With an eye twitch I zoomed in the focus on my HUD just in time for the Pink Cat to punch the Simurgh through the air and send her slamming into the shield of the Device.

The capes that had been hammering away at it scattered and fled rather than to be in such close proximity to the fight between the Endbringer and her Foe.

The Pink Cat struck out again, its paw coated in a glimmering light as it punched the Simurgh's chest.

The barrier around the Device barely flickered; however, and continually sent out wave after wave of its strange technicolor energy over the city and possibly beyond.

Continuously, ceaselessly.

The shield surrounding the Device faltered for a moment, and In that moment, that single moment, the Pink Cat struck.

Punching at the Simurgh with a blow that knocked her into the shield around the Device.

The protective barrier held for barely a second before yet another blow from the Pink Cat collapsed it.

I glimpsed the Device beyond clearly for a mere instant before the Simurgh crashed into and through it.

And with that, the last testament to Professor Haywire's dream, bastardized and corrupted by the Endbringer though it was, detonated, exploding in a distorted wash of technicolor energy that rippled through the air like an Aurora Borealis.

The Simurgh flew skyward just a moment later, heading back into the stratosphere and a heavy weight lifted from my shoulders, heart and mind at the sight of it. It didn't last for more than a few seconds though as the muffled sound of shattering glass and crashing furniture rang out from my immediate vicinity.

I snapped my eyes away from the retreating Endbringer and back down to street level in time to see Mouse Protector crash through the front display window of a liquor store and into the street. Shattered glass falling about her as she was tackled mid air by what looked like a baby panda.

I unlatched my halberd from my back, unfolding it in a single swift motion, and moved to assist one of the few people that I called 'friend'.

Special thanks go out to Coshiua and aldriankyrrith for helping me with the final edits.

Featured / Mentioned Pokemon

-Ditto: As the Pink Abomination

-Mew: As the Pink Cat

-Pancham: As the Baby Panda