Welcome to Gaia! ::

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Veronica came by again for their some times daily training. She sent out her specially tiny Mudkip and Zorua.
"Hi!" Cosmo jumped to his friend. "I ate this square and I can talk now!" he snickered. "It was a square with many colors! All colors! Must have all colors! Maybe there's more somewhere."
"Mud? Mud...! Mudkip!" Pisces acknowledge what Cosmo was saying.
A-are you kidding me? Aren't you basically telling him to steal a pokeblock? Veronica shook her head. "Okay, enough." She crossed her arms and thought about what kind of training to give them. "I suppose we can do something simple like your aim." She used the panel to set things up, too lazy to do it manually. "You see the targets, go for it." She said, expecting of all her pokemon to have a sense of how to battle on their own for the worst of situations. For these two, it would take some training.
Cosmo took the lead, he started to practice his Shadow Ball on the targets. Each time, he varied between focusing on getting a fuller Shadow Ball and getting a better shot. Then Pisces followed his lead and used Water Gun to shoot at the targets. Pisces wasn't so good at throwing a powerful shot from so far away but he had good aim and balance. Meanwhile Cosmo was going at it like a mad man.
"Well done, well done." Veronica called on them to stop and get their attention once more.
"Well done, well done." Cosmo mimicked and snickered. Veronica didn't really mind but she was wary of this habit.
"How about now, I introduce you to a mentor? Well, Pisces you already met 'em." She sent out her Jellicent and Absol. She carefully petted the Absol. "Cherry here is suffering a bit from a shadow virus so she won't be able to get too close to you. But she can still teach you a couple of cool, dark stuff." She said to Cosmo.
"Hi Cherry, I'm Cosmo. I can talk!" He said cheerfully. Cherry nodded and looked to Veronica for 'help'.
"Just show them a few moves." Veronica said.
Cherry went ahead first and used Dark Pulse. "Wow!" It impressed Cosmo. Then, Cosmo used his Night Daze. Although it was weaker and smaller, it's appearance was more menacing and it left a chill in the air. Cosmo proudly chuckled.
Then Pisces stepped up and used his water gun to rain on Cosmo's parade. "Hey, hey!" Cosmo retaliated.
Pisces smiled, "Mud!"
Then the Jellicent floated forward with curiousity and used Hydro Pump on Cherry. Veronica was taken aback. "Oh, Spirit!" She laughed as the poor Absol was drenched but stood her ground.
The Pisces was absolutely dazzled by the power of the Jellicent - and so was Veronica. She had no idea Spirit was capable of using Hydro Pump. Usually, she just ordered him to use Surf. "Nice." she said. "Niiiiceee." Cosmo repeated. Meanwhile, the Mudkip threw multiple Water Guns in different directions. Cosmo decided to do the same, but with Shadow Ball. Soon enough, it turned into a show of throwing whatever in every direction, even Cherry joined in with Psycho Cuts and Razor Wind.
Veronica had to dodge a few times.
Eventually, they tired out of the game. Cosmo kept running around them though. Pisces followed. "Thanks, return." She returned Spirit and Cherry. "I think Spirit is gonna be of big help down the road." She smiled.
"Yea, big help!" Cosmo stopped running.
"Mud mud!" Pisces said.
"You guys wanna run so bad? Let's race back to the room." Veronica said as she opened the door. The little critters dashed out.

(1/25 Purification Point.) Absol.
(3/25 Evo Points.) Mudkip
(2/25 Evo Points.) Zorua

"Go ahead and let Lucario enter first," I told Ulla. "I'll have to close the door once Rala's out. It's easier if Lucario's already in there."

Once Ulla let Lucario in, I let Rala out into the training room and closed the door immediately, separating Ulla and myself from Lucario and Rala, the latter of whom immediately slammed against the door and roared at me through the window in the door. As before, her body was black and white with glowing blood-red eyes. This tainted Gardevoir was vastly different physically from the Rala I knew, but I knew she was in there. The way she fought proved that last time. "She keeps trying to attack me when her HP is full, so I have to take precautions until she's calmed down or has been worn down. Lykas's Dewott had to take her to near fainting before I could get close enough to feed her the vaccine last time."

"She actually hasn't hit Hyper Mode yet," I told Ulla. "But something about the virus is driving her to attack me. Maybe the virus is twisting her natural desire to protect me," I explained, knowing that Gardevoir were known for instinctually protecting their trainers.

Rala ignored Lucario until he struck her with Bone Rush. She was knocked back, but all the move did was draw her ire until she saw his Mega-Evolved form. The infected Gardevoir hesitated for a moment before blasting Lucario with Psychic, hoping to push him aside so she could focus on her most hated enemy - me.

[Rala: 11/30 Purification]
[4/10 Hyper]

"Shadow Pokemon aren't weak to any kind of moves. Except maybe moves designed specifically for use by Shadow Pokemon," I explained, remembering when Rala and Chinami exchanged such moves while fighting.

Sure enough, while Rala felt Lucario's attacks and was pushed around by them, they didn't do near as much damage as they normally would. Getting annoyed, Rala put more effort into her Psychic, trying to push Lucario back even more. "The fact that Rala hasn't realized moves meant for Shadow Pokemon are super-effective against all other uninfected Pokemon and is trying to focus on his normal weaknesses is why I think she's still in there somewhere," I added.

"Alright, just keep Lucario close by when you do," I sighed. "If Rala found out she hurt you when she was like this, she'd never forgive herself."

Rala found herself being pushed even farther back by the invading Mega-Lucario. His attacks even began to hurt, but that just pushed the infected Gardevoir into an even greater rage, and getting knocked off her feet didn't help matters. Without bothering to stand up on her own, she would grab Lucario by his Bone Rush and use it to stand back up before rushing at him with Fire Punch, looking to do damage this time. She was tired of other Pokemon stopping her from her primary goal.

"You may want to do that anyway," I said as I noticed Lucario starting to wind down. "Chinami had about the same endurance as Rala, but Lucario may not be able to keep up," I said as the fight raged on. "I tried that already," I told Lucario. "I can't get through to her. She's too far gone."

So far, nothing Rala tried has worked, and she continued to get beat down by the blue two-legged wolf Pokemon. Her patience finally wearing out, she decided to overpower him by rushing at him with Shadow Blitz, looking to wipe the rest of his stamina in one blow.

[Rala: 14/30 Purification]
[8/10 Hyper]

"Be careful, you two!' I shouted. Rala noticed Ulla immediately upon the Fairy Channeler entering the training room. Upon recovering from Lucario's Aura Sphere, the infected Psychic-type lunged at Ulla with Thunder Punch. "Rala, STOP!" I shouted, but of course, she ignored me. I could only hope Lucario protected Ulla before something terrible happened.

Rala: [15/30 Purification]
[8/10 Hyper]

To my surprise, it turned out that Rala was actually worn out at this point. While Mega Lucario didn't have Shadow Chinami's endurance, he was a good deal stronger, and wore Rala out easier. Because of this, Rala almost didn't react at all when Ulla approached her, wrapping her hands around the Gardevoir's infected heart. Rala merely looked up at the child as she did this.

Seeing the opportunity,I entered the training room and, to my surprise, noticed the dark color of Rala's body lightening. She didn't revert to her altered colors completely, the blacked part of her body lightening to a medium grey. Her eyes stopped glowing as well, but maintained their blood-red hue.

"I think we should let Rala rest," I told Ulla before kneeling down and hugging her. "Thank you, though. Maybe we can come closer to purifying her if she's like this." With that, I recalled Rala, who was too tired to resist her ball's beam.