[FIN] It Doesn't Get Better

[Suudonym]

As the ball's release was triggered, the Flareon reappeared, its teal fur darkened, its white ruff and tail stained black, and its usually gentle blue eyes burning crimson. The pokemon turned a circle to orient itself, its lips pulling back into a snarl as it found its proximity invaded by the human pair.

Kyle's laugh effectively dispelled Luke's state of stupor, replacing it with the scalding feeling of his heart being dragged into his throat. He reeled his arm back high, the cutting edge of the sword glinting in the warm sunlight as he fluidly shifted into a position to deliver a blow that by all rights would be intended to be lethal, green eyes savage and hot upon an expression that was otherwise frigid, devoid of hesitation.

Before the blade could fall, the fire-type, blinded by a preexisting aggression that was only pushed to the extreme by the dark ball's functions, produced a wild cry and bared its fangs against the encroaching human. It leapt at the lower of the two arms, sinking teeth spilling with flames into the skin and earning a startled shout and a recoiling step.

Luke's attention fell back to the Flareon - to his Flareon, to the precious companion that had been by his side like a brother since time immemorial. "Mieu--" Surely this wasn't Mieu, though. The eeveelution may have been hostile from time to time, but it was only his sense of loyalty that made him so. Mieu would never...  

[Blood_Goddess]

Though seemingly proud of himself for this turn of events, though his grin faltered a little as he looked up from the flareon that he released, to see that Luke was back on the attack.
Kyle's blood ran cold at the look on the man's face, and Kyle had no doubt that by the end of this encounter, someone was going to end up dead.
He pushed himself back, lifting his hands and bracing himself to either die, or by some miracle stop the trainer from killing him.

It was to Kyle's surprise though, that the attack was halted, and halted by the same Flareon that was attacking him was now latching himself onto its previous trainer.

Kyle blinked, staring at what was happening. sure he knew that the balls would turn the pokemon, but this wasn't quite what he expected it to do, Kyle hadn't even given it a command.
his hands lowering a little as he stared, glancing around to find where his pokemon had gone off to. Varian was assisting Cybil against a Lopunny who seemed to have beaten Cybil to near unconsciousness.
Thankfully the events with the Flareon were enough to draw the Lopunny's attention as well, and the two pokemon were able to return to Kyle's side.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This couldn't be happening, not again, and not to Mieu- No, he was too strong for this, he would be able to snap out of it! He had to!
Rosie stood, unable to move just watch in horror as the events unfolded, as Mieu attacked his best friend, his colors dark and his eyes filled with the endless anger that the ball polluted him with.

It was the same with Angel, when he was released he was no longer the same pokemon she had gotten to know.
No... no there had to be a way to fix this, there had to be a cure, or some day to snap them out of it.

"Luke!" She gasped, horrified when he was attacked with fang and fire  

[Suudonym]

He dropped the hilt, grabbing the Flareon's growling muzzle to pry its teeth from his arm, blood running from the areas of the wound that weren't cauterized by the flame. He eventually succeeded in tearing away the gnashing jaws, pushing the Flareon from him and stooping to scoop up his temporarily discarded sword. He held the blade defensively, the flat of it to the fire-type to shield from any consecutive attacks, breathless and bewildered.

Once he calmed down, surely... surely...

The Flareon's hackles raised as he spat an angry sound at the target he'd been shaking from, but as Luke didn't advance again, he turned his attention to the other nearby human, snarling a vicious threat, fire brewing in his throat.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Kyle's breath caught in his throat when the Flareon turned to him.
"What are you doing?" He snapped, holding up the dark back again, clenching it so hard that his knuckles were turning white.
"Don't look at me! I have your ball!" then pointed to Luke "After him! GO"  

[Suudonym]

The pokemon roared - insomuch as a Flareon was capable - and turned fangs reddened with the blood of his previous attack against the human, lunging at the hand that brandished the sphere that it seemed to think would control him.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Maybe the ball he got was a defective one, it was really the only think he could think of as to why the pokemon was freaking out like this.
It didn't want to take orders, so Kyle did the first thing he could think of, and thrust the hand out to return the Flareon back into the ball he had captured it in.

That plan didn't go over as well as he had hoped, as the fangs of the fire type soon found Kyle's hand, not just sending searing pain through his arm, but causing him to drop the ball.
This was bad, and it could only get worse if he didn't do something.
Balling his over fist he punched out at the Flareon's jaw. "GET OFF!"  

[Suudonym]

Dizzied by the events unfolding, Luke lowered his blade waveringly and watched as the black ball fell to the ground. He moved on an impulse to seize the pokeball for himself while Mieu kept the owner occupied. How to act, what to do - his mind was blank of anything palpable, but he knew, he knew that no matter how Mieu looked, he was surely Mieu. Sixteen years of companionship wouldn't be so easily destroyed; it couldn't be. And so Luke put himself on the Flareon's side despite the torn and seared flesh on his arm, and he moved quickly to put himself in position to add a thrown fist to the fire-type's stubborn assault.  

[Blood_Goddess]

A harsh CRACK would meet Luke's progress, and the defiant cry and a Sylveon who's ribbons snapped through the air and at the man's exposed flesh like gunshots.
The Absol, looking no fit shape to fight, was barely finding the energy to stand let alone ready any kind of attack to help her team.

Blood ran down Kyle's arm, soaking into the sleeve of the blue suit jacket he wore. but he didn't stop beating at the Flareon's face to try and get it to let go of him. This was getting completely out of hand. he didn't know what the ball had done to this pokemon, but it was more then he was willing to handle right now.  

[Suudonym]

Luke winced at the sharp snap of the Sylveon's ribbons, his original intent interrupted, and reacted in hopes of taking hold of the appendages and jerking the fairy-type off its feet.

The Flareon, increasingly irritated by the repeated blows, released his hold and stepped back, giving himself enough distance to breathe out a long jet of flame in a broad arc around himself. Any interaction Luke had with the enemy Sylveon stopped as he stumbled backwards to avoid the Flamethrower, understanding with a stab that his hopes of showing the fire-type that he was an ally had been to no effect.  

[Blood_Goddess]

The Sylveon narrowed his eyes when some of his ribbons were grabbed, utilizing the ones he had free to grab a hold of the humans and use him as leverage to dive in for another attack,
One that never hit his mark as he was uprooted and forced through the fury of the Flame thrower.

The Fairy let out a shill cry and the heat engulfed him, dropping to the ground with a solid impact.

Kyle took no wasted seconds the moment the Flareon let go, diving out of the Flame throwers way, grabbing his Absol as he did to drag her away from the flames.
"VARIAN! LETS GO!" Kyle yelled to the Sylveon, with a sharp growl as he saw the eeon recovering from a direct his from a flamethrower.

Two beams of red light shot out from the pokeballs he retrieved from his pocket. and both Kyle's pokemon were returned to their balls, and without a second to spare took off running from the chaos.  

[Suudonym]

Pursue, restrain - in his mind, his hand went to Rem's pokeball and released to Jolteon to hunt down the enemy and stun him with a Thunder Wave, but his body wouldn't move to follow through with the idea. As the Rocket retreated, it seemed that it should have felt that they were at least safe now, but the Flareon's angry growling intruded upon that feeling, leaving Luke uneasy and uncertain. His breath heavy and uneven from the altercation, he withdrew a few steps from the pokemon's vicinity to discourage another attack. He thought perhaps to look to Rosie, to ask if she knew some way to dispel the black pokeball's effects, but he reasonably knew better; if she knew, she surely would have mentioned it when speaking of the devices before.

Mieu showed no signs of lowering his guard or decreasing his hostility, eyeing the human cautiously with a snarl in his features. Luke bit his lip, swallowed harshly, and knelt down, laying his sword on the ground and extending his hand to the Flareon. He was answered with a threatening bark and withdrew the hand, clenching it tightly upon itself.  

[Blood_Goddess]

With the Rocket gone, the trainers left with a good friend, a close part of the family now twisted.
Rosie clung to the Legendary in her arms, taking a couple of steps forward, cautious, and just passing her Lopunny who stood as if to be a force a power, but who's eyes, wide and shocked showed just how lost she too was in a situation like this.

"Maybe... Maybe the Pokemon Center would know what to do?" She offered shakily, unable to take her eyes off of the Flareon. Though something in her told her that that wasn't going to provide much help.  

[Suudonym]

Lorelei hung back, feeling vulnerable when Rosie moved but unwilling to approach the Flareon with the way it was behaving. Mieu had always been supportive and kind, if not a bit strict about the Mew's unwillingness to battle; it was difficult to believe that that darkly-colored fire-type snarling at and attacking their human companion was really the same pokemon he had known.

Luke gave no response to the suggestion, thinking it likely futile, given that the League had only just learned about the black pokeballs not even a year ago. His eyes fell to the offending sphere on the ground in front of him, and he silently cursed its existence. Through his curses and his wishes came an idea, what well and truly seemed like the only hope he had of returning Mieu to his former self.

Unsteadily he took up the hilt of his sword and stood, placing the tip of the center of the pokeball, drawing a breath, and forcibly driving the sharpened metal through the device. It cracked and sparked but eventually collapsed, splitting into jagged shards and revealing its delicate internal workings, now damaged beyond repair. The deed done, Luke's eyes snapped back to the fire-type, almost expecting to find his original colors restored and his disposition as cheery and friendly as ever.

He was met with plain disappointment, the Flareon still growling and glaring with scarlet eyes, lowering himself into a posture of preparedness in case the human made any advances.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Wondering at first what he was doing, before she got the idea of the possibility he was running with. It would have been nice it that's all it was, but for whatever reason, It didn't change anything about Mieu's current state.
not willing to just give up yet, Rosie let out a wavering breath.
"What about returning him back into his own ball?" she offered hopefully  

[Suudonym]

Shakily he reached to the luxury ball on his belt, holding it up and triggering the return. There was no response from pokeball nor pokemon, the registration data of the Flareon's original ball destroyed by the dark ball's work. Unwilling to leave it at that, he took half a step back and threw the ball, thinking perhaps he could simply recapture the pokemon.

Mieu took the gesture as an act of aggression, batting the ball aside and lashing out suddenly. Surprised, Luke's reflexes took him out of the Flareon's path, but failing to reach his target did little to assuage his boiling ferocity, and he bared his fangs at Rosie, the next feasible enemy in his line of sight.