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"This is bloody ridiculous." these words even muffled by been spoken in a mumble shown Darkrai's inflection, thus revealing his naked bewilderment over the current situation. Elliot, Runt, Jasper, Paul, Kate, Melenia, Runt's father -whose birth name was Chase- and Jerome all nodded in agreement. This situation of course was an intense staredown between an Ursaring, Pangoro, and the Tasmanian Devil. The previously mentioned three were facing each other as they stood a few yards apart in a triangle formation. All of them glaring as if they were about to have a duel to the death. In all actuality they were only playing a game that had a very silly reward.

The stakes are as follows. If Rose manages to grab and keep hold of Taz for five full seconds: then Taz would spend the whole next day in his Pancham form unless a combat situation arises. If Kai manages to remove Taz's hood: then Taz had to spend the whole next day in his Teddiursa form. If Taz manages to keep away from the two bears for a full two minutes then he'll be able to spend the whole next day in combat form unless a low-profile happenstance calls for something different.

Runt sighs in exasperation "Both acting like pups fighting over meal and poor Taz is trapped in the middle! Need turn system like us. I tried telling them as such. About had my lights punched out. " Runt sighs again but this time it was to express his relief after succeeding in removing a bothersome flea from his midnight black hindquarters; long canine tongue lolling out from his orange snout due to the combination of the effort performing the action and the surprisingly high humidity.

"They're suffocating him" declares Darkrai and the two Houndoom parents with disapproving shakes of the head.

Elliot squints his eyes into slits. Glancing first at the long black skinny arm underneath his bottom whose almost permanent job nowadays was to keep his -technically- five year old physical body (at least when he was transformed anyway) from touching the ground and to be securely pressed against Darkrai's chest. Elliot's gaze then shifts onto the astral projection of the long skinny tail with a triangular tip; whose icy grip was already dulled from being a permanent fixture to his ankle. Elliot tries to wiggling himself free from both holds and that effort is rewarded with warning growls. Continuous struggles are met with a bump on the noggin and his clawed fingers nipped at hard enough to deter further efforts.

A glance in Runt's direction would undoubtedly reward Elliot with the sight of the Houndour in a similar predicament with his own father. However that astral projection was pretty much lying on top of Runt's squirming body. Most likely to make up for the fact that his tail was still semi-held captive in the Houndoominite hanging like a dog tag from one loop of the metal chain collar lying adjacent to the hounds feet. Not being worn because the object was way too big and had much slack to be worn securely by the way too tiny pup that it was supposedly to belong to.

"Hypocrites." Elliot and Runt both mutter simultaneously. Both are punished just as simultaneously. In response Elliot considers thinking someone in the back of the head with the Shadow Ball mimicry hovering beside his own head; but wisely decides against it.

This act was apparently the starting pistol shot to begin the main event since this was the moment Kai and Rose chose to shove forward.

Taz didn't seem to be at all worried about the odds stacked against him. Probably because Taz long ago found out he could adjust the size of originally abnormally massive feet and hands while in this form and had shifted to a comfortable size before this contest. This meant that Taz was way more agile than his slow moving massive parents. A fact that Taz often manipulated. For example: the way the cub didn't move a muscle until his parents were almost right on top of him. Only at this exact moment did Taz chose to make a short leap, swiftly dodging grabby paws, and cleverly using said arms as spring boards and shields.

Just like his parents manipulated the fact that they were older and far wiser than their cub; making this little free-for-all rather even. A fact they demonstrated by suddenly ceasing their assault and withdrawing. Taz blinks, wide-eyed when the realization that he was now left to his opponent's mercy the moment before said mercy slaps him hard in the face...literally.

While Taz's unconscious form makes a rather large sounding crack as it crashes straight through a nearby tree's bark. The remaining two bears find themselves locked in a tense boxing match as they slowly maneuver their way to the downed cub. Both Pokemon's expressions were dangerously intense.

Kai demonstrates his agility and extensive combat knowledge advantage by easily dodging Rose's every swing. Sadly due to the difference in power: Kai's retaliation swings and swips just bounce off harmlessly as if he's punching an armored tank instead of just a wall of muscle. Kai makes the mistake of believing a feint and gets punished by a quick one-two-three punches in the gut before he can correct the mistake by disengaging! Kai stumbles and falls backward onto his back.

Rose sees that victory is within reach and leaps forward to deal the game winning blow!

Kai however sees and jumps upon the chance to turn his opponents large weight against her by seizing the Pangoro's neck and was about to use his species's naturally immensely powerful legs and heavy body weight to throw her away from Taz. However Rose has enough common sense to know that if nothing is done to stop Kai's efforts: she will lose the contest. So Rose did what any desperate soul would do while facing the same predicament: she played dirty.

Was already far too late for Rose to halt Kai's toss. However it wasn't too late to offer just a single passing flick to one of the Ursaring's golf-ball sized testicles. The next moment Kai was curled into the fetal position, screaming in apparent agony. Rose had to bite back a snicker as she landed,going along with her momentum in a head-over-heels roll maneuver instead of pointlessly fighting it. Now that Rose's competition was taken care of it was time to-.

The timer on Kai's phone chooses this precise moment to go off.

Taz wakes up from unconsciousness with a groan. At first Taz is confused as to why that he isn't a cuddly teddy bear in someone's arms. Gradually the realization that he has finally won a match hits like a sledge hammer. Now more than ever is it apparent that the eighteen year old mind locked in the body of a Pokemon actually did have the psyche of an eight year old that his combat body only hints at. This is evident by loud childish whooping as the boy expresses his joy by pretty much flipping, dancing,and somersaulting circles around the losers; rubbing salt into their wounded prides for good measure.

Something about Rose's uncaring shrug and small smirk was off-putting enough for Taz to stop and reconsider his behavior. Now that Taz thought about it: he was being very stupid right now.

"I NEED FOOD!" Taz screams full volume as he makes a beeline for the treeline that surrounded the prairie the group was currently situated in.

"Tch. Oh no you don't!" Rose bounds over to the still very much incapacitated Kai, picks up the nearly three hundred pound still whining and cursing Ursaring as if he were a mere sack of flour. After only a split second of calculation Rose tosses Kai across the forty or so yards so that he fell right on top of the troublemaking brat.

Taz eventually succeeds in escape out from under the Ursaring body weight with no help whatsoever. Too bad Kai had enough common sense to seize the cub before he got very far. Kai was still cupping himself as he slowly waddled back towards the rest of the group. Taz was being his typical self: struggling uselessly while screaming every filthy, colorful insult he knew. When Kai had enough he slapped the brat on the ass pretty much as hard as he could. That sure as heck shut the cub up right quick...almost.

Tears of pain were pooling in Taz's eyes as he sniffed and muttered "Why don't you both crawl back into whatever graves you came out of and leave me the hell alone."

Taz might as well have kicked Kai and Rose where the sun didn't shine as hard he could. The pain from that metaphor in comparison to the pain the words brought the ursine would have been easier to endure. Taz took advantage of the situation. Managing to wiggle himself free from Kai's loose grip to make another break for it. No one stopped him this time.

Elliot's anger created distortions that caused the surrounding air to pop and crackle from the sudden onset of intense heat. A heat so intense and so filled with latent negative energy that those holding onto the boy had no choice but to let go. "Oh hell no! I'm not going to let him get away with saying something that stupid just because you won't let him do what he wants!"

Before anyone could stop the boy he was literally flying off in the same direction as Taz went; shouting over his shoulder as he went: "Zil! Nil! It's playtime!"

There had been a backpack relatively close to Runt's and Chase's location. The reason why it wasn't with the boy was revealed when two blue astral fireballs flew out of the bag. Swiftly dodging each Houndoom that snapped their jaws at them and Darkrai's barrage of Shadow Balls. When the spirits got close enough to Elliot: the boy slowed down to a stop as he stretched his arms outward while at the same time giving the spirits the silent order to manifest.

The spirits obeyed and Elliot successfully caught the two small twin scythes. One scythe was made entirely out of white light and the other out of black light. These two sythe were linked together by a thin grey chain; other than that there were no noteworthy design features.

Elliot was already gone by the time his guardians could make up their mind to pursue.

Before Melina and Darkrai could even make it halfway across the prairie: Rose and Kai intercept them. Both were stone-faced as Kai leaps for Melina and Rose leaps for Darkrai. Both not even offering even a token effort of an explanation.

---

"Just up ahead Master"

Thanks to Zil and Nil's help: Elliot eventually tracks Taz down. Taz was perched in a lone apple tree in the field; back facing Elliot. As Elliot cautiously approaches: another apple core joins the many others below Taz's feet. Taz starts to giggle childishly when he finally senses Elliot. Slowly turning to finally take his first real good look at his fraternal twin of another dimension.

What Taz was looking at of course was a mirroration to Darkrai in all but several small differences. The red appendage that was on Darkrai's neck was a red scarf for Elliot; this scarf hid the bottom half of his ghostly pale dead human face. Guess being pseudo-dead didn't give you a tan. The last was Darkrai's white hair color was Elliot's normal blonde. Darkrai's blue eyes were Elliot's normal green. Wasn't a wonder why Darkrai now called the boy his son.

Sizing up complete; Taz finally says to the visually uncomfortable, squirming boy "That was way too damn easy."

Elliot's eyes grow wide as they spark with revelation while he mumbles "You manipulated me into separating myself from my parents so you could have a go at me... I honestly should've saw that coming."

Taz grins grows wider. "But you didn't."

Taz suddenly becomes stone-faced as he leaps out the tree and falls into a perfect display of the most commonly seen boxing fighting stance; his right hand being raised higher than the other since it was his dominate. Taz then starts to advance.

"This is stupid" Elliot mutters, matching Taz's footsteps; only going backward instead of forward.

Taz stops suddenly, distortions now also beginning to warp the air around him. Unlike Elliot's though: Taz's intimidating aura doesn't radiate heat. "Why did you chase me if you were just gonna back down!? Has the past couple weeks really turned you into that much of a sissy?"

Elliot shakes his head "As usual I didn't think before I reacted. Now that I have...I now realize that your early game is way better then mine. If we were to fight as we are now... it would just be you bullying me."

Taz cackles loudly "I'll just take that as a yes." Taz suddenly frown "Damn dude... your mommy and daddies must actually be getting to you." Taz becomes stone-faced as he begins advancing again. Elliot retreats "Reports say we should be evenly matched. Let's test the data shall we? Come at me with everything... or you won't survive."

Elliot shrugs and responds "Or you know. I could just do this"

Elliot spins about 180 degrees and flies back the way he'd come. Taz is actually stunned over the actions of what should've been a mirror to himself but strangely wasn't. The boy's recent action was proof enough of that fact.

Did Darkrai seizing control of the guillotine the date of that Elliot's rebirth really have so much of an impact? Or was there something else that Taz wasn't privy to? Perhaps there was more to this Butterfly Effect than meets the eye.

Anywho; after the extended moment's pause: Taz managed to snap himself out of his funk and begin the chase.

---

Elliot tries to take down Taz with various hit-and-run maneuvers like Darkrai had taught him. But nor scythe nor claw seems to work on this adversary. Every attempt is swatted away as if it'd been anticipated even though Elliot has already mastered the art of flying silently. What's worse is that after one such useless attempt: Elliot was successfully disarmed as if the tight grip he'd previously had on his weapon had been non-existent. That was to be expected considering since it'd been a contest of strength between a mage and a being who was literally made to be a physical brawler. Thing was...well...thanks to a certain embarrassing factor: all of that above shouldn't have been possible.

Elliot succeeds in making it back to the prairie where the rest of his allies are...only problem is every single one of them have already been taken down by the Ursaring and Pangoro. The Ursaring appears down for the count. But the Pangoro female seems only slightly winded. Meaning Elliot was now stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Elliot turns slowly to glare hatefully at the Pancham who was currently smirking triumphantly while playing jump rope with the dark mage's scythes. Elliot says nothing. Only scratches the already maddening itches all over his body while trying to telekinetically yank the scythes back into his control. Zil and Nil also are fighting hard to get themselves free of the Pancham's grasp but to no avail. Had the tools been feed with blood before this moment it might've been possible...but they hadn't managed to inflict a single scratch on this panda no matter hard they and Elliot tried.

"Use your magic boy! Bodyguards need to see the limits of whomever it is they're guarding before a job. That's what all this melodrama is about and it will end once you do so! " Darkrai orders as he himself tries to get up. These efforts are thwarted by Rose who only has gently kick him in the gut to thwart any heroic plans.

Elliot says something unintelligible as a slow trickle of tears slowly start to fall from his eyes.

Taz rolls his own eyes and speaks for his twin "Loudmouth says that he can't risk falling asleep now."

Darkrai's answering growl is so angry and bestial that any lesser mortals than the ones in attendance would've surely fled in terror as he says "I swear to every god there is: if you don't learn how to use it, I will throttle you myself!"

In response the tears trailing down Elliot's face turn into a steady flow. To make matters worse Zil and Nil turn back into simple balls of astral flame; meaning that the necromancy part of Elliot's powers had automatically timed out in order to stop the slow decomposition from killing him. Elliot literally had no other option now but to use his magic...

Rose's voice somehow reaches Elliot's ears over his sobs. "Just so you know... We already know about all the costs to to your powers. Just in case you forgot I'll remind you. A side effect of watching your world blown into bits right in front of you has made your mental health very unstable and fragile. Because of this: the next tiniest push will likely push you into your next mental break. Something you're not strong enough to handle quite yet. Hence why you are here."

Kai speaks next "Your most crippling cost is the fact become comatose if you stop moving or channeling magic for a single moment after a couple of weeks of only blinks of sleep." A snort is heard coming from Kai's direction, a gesture that communicates his dark amusement. "All thanks for that little issue goes to the Lightlings and your well meaning undead minions for jumping your bones at their specified times."

Taz's voice comes next "Which brings us to the tiny issue that has you shaking in your booties: you also become comatose when you use too much magic. However with the slight twist that is your spirit being pulled into the doll so Darkrai can safely recharge your batteries without killing your physical body. During that time: all the muscles in your physical body relax at once as if you've just become a fully certified dead person instead of just a halfling. Hence the need of a diaper."

The moment Elliot's biggest shame is finally put out into open his sobs grew just a bit louder; almost but not quite in the wailing territory,

Taz enjoys this pleasant sight for a moment before continuing forward with a half-heartedly masked snicker "That isn't what makes you weak though. What makes you weak is the fact you're letting the terror over that stupid little weakness rule over you like a evil dictator. That last part is what pisses me off!"

A tiny fist slamming into Elliot's jaw sends him staggering. Before the boy could recover however the Pancham gave him another. And another. and another. Until finally a small foot slams into Elliot's stomach with enough force put behind it that the small sort-of human boy is launched at least twenty yards.

When the action becomes possible: Elliot stands back up. Ignoring the pain. Ignoring the fact that breathing was now an impossibility. The young dark mage surrenders to his ugly fate.

The dark mage finally taps into the reserve of dark matter and flame at his disposal. The boy tries to gather as much of the energy as he possibly could at once without the payload becoming unstable. The effort rewarded him with a small snowball sized Shadow Ball in one hand and a fireball of equal size in the other.

At this point it seems that Taz has finally decided to retrieve his combat form from his mother's fist. Taz smiles a pleased smile "Now that's a good Sheep."

Elliot's glare is hot and intense as he growls "Can't really argue if beating up on me is your idea of encouragement"

Taz shrugs "For that you can blame Darkr-" Kai growls lowly but savagely; forcing Taz to backpedal and correct himself "-you can blame Papa for that one" Taz has the appearance of biting into something bitter, but Kai now seems pleased.

Darkrai can't help but snicker with amusement at this exchange.

Taz's expression becomes stone-faced again as he suddenly starts sprinting towards Elliot again. The look of murder in the boy's eyes clearly revealing his intentions for all to see. Was actually quite surprising how fast the chubby boy could actually move when he wanted to; eating through the distance as if were nothing but a short jog.

Elliot too began to move. Sideways in a strafing fashion instead of forward or backward however as he began belting the asshole that forced him into this mess with dark matter and fire. Taz however took it all like a champ. In fact the Shadow Balls might as well have been snowballs since they would've done the same amount of damage.

The fireballs however did seem to hurt Taz pretty badly though. Only problem was each one burned through Elliot's fuel as if his reserves were nothing even at max capacity. However as Taz drew nearer and nearer no matter how much effort Elliot put into maintaining the distance: this problem began to mean less and less. To make matter worse: Taz was getting harder and harder to hit the closer he got to Elliot. Was if the lure of success was making Taz perform better...that or fear was just making Elliot's shaky aim worse. Or both. Doesn't matter in the end I suppose.

Meanwhile desperation was rapidly taking the dark mage over. At this point Elliot was spitting nothing but fireballs. Observers would note that the fireballs would subtly get smaller and smaller with each conjuring.

Eventually Elliot paused channeling magic so that he could tackle the problem rationally with all his concentration focused on it. The result of this pondering? No matter what angle Elliot looked at it: he was screwed. Either he was going to be punched/kicked out like a bitch or the taps were going to come out dry and he was going to go down like a bitch anyway.

One of those choices however had only a miniscule amount of physical pain involved. So Elliot swallowed his pride and went with it. Elliot channeled all his remaining reserves into his right hand...then let the unholy wave of flame fly.

Elliot wasn't conscious long enough to see the result.

---

Against all odds Taz escapes with his life and was currently thrashing in his savior's grasp as he tries to get at the unconscious eighteen year old boy lying on the ground at least a football field away. "Let me go! That fucker tried to kill me! I won't kill him I promise! I just need to rip off at least one of his testicles pleeease! Just one! He won't even miss it!"

Dark amusement forces Darkrai to chuckle despite himself. An odd occurrence considering the usual bomb of rage that normally explodes in his chest when someone even makes a casual joking threat towards his offspring was all but absent. To Kai the spectre says as he passes the boy off to him. "Why do I get the feeling Taz isn't joking?"

"Because he isn't." Kai replies blandly as he pulls the hood away. Consequently this meant the boy's shirt came away as well since it was an attached piece. As Kai thought the Teddiursa was much easier to hold onto.

The group separate into their dimensional clicks to prepare for the approaching night.