Mothra/Butterfree's appearance and subsequent actions caused the whole scene to freeze. The absurdness of a little bug/Butterfree uppercutting a Gyarados like that to such an effect, inside water of all things, caused both the Milotic and other Gyarados to stop dead in incredulity. Even the victim, who should have been furious and retaliated, stared in shock at Mothra, who was doing the come at me hand motion.
I had to admit that it honestly looked a bit surreal and funny, though I was sure that Mothra being in her chibi form did not help. Still, I expected Gyarados to snap out of its slightly confused/concussed state at any moment, so I decided to tell Mothra to stop baiting Gyarados and to attack while it was still out of it. That idea died in the cradle when a sudden sneak attack from below targeted at Gyarados' upper belly preempted me.
The sneak attack not only interrupted me, but it broke the daze that had blanketed the Milotic and Gyarados for a moment as well. Either way, the surprise Giga Impact flung Gyarados back, and I noted that it even coughed a bit of blood, proving that the sneak attack must have hurt. I did not let that distract me for more than a moment, so I quickly glanced back to the place Gyarados had been, which revealed that it was a Whiscash that delivered the sneak attack.
Feeling the Stage 6 undulations that the temporarily immobilized Whiscash was releasing, I inferred that this had to be the final overlord mentioned in the alliance exploration report I read, though I had no idea why it chose to get involved in the current conflict. Even though Whiscash's ambush was in the Milotic's favor, there was a not-so-inconsiderable chance that both sides would attack Whiscash to prevent any further interferences/ambushes from this wildcard while they fought.
Unless, of course, Whiscash and the Milotic had some kind of mutual assistance alliance or something along those lines to offset the numerical disadvantage they had separately. That assumption was the only reason I immediately utilized our mental link to tell Mothra telepathically not to attack Whiscash the moment it appeared, or rather the moment after its attack. I was not yet sure if it was a good thing or not, but my quick reaction did stop Mothra who had been about to fire an Energy Drill at the interloper.
Instead of doing that, she Teleported back to my side to prevent any mishaps. My decision to order that Teleport proved to be right when Whiscash, who by all rights should have still been immobilized due to the Giaga Impact it used, fired a Water Gun at Mothra's previous position. At least, the fact that it stopped immediately after one of the Milotic released a melodic cry showed that I was to some degree likely right with my previous alliance assumption.
Either way, Whiscash's appearance, snapped the Gyarados and Milotic out of their Mothra-induced funk. Instead of resuming their battle, the Gyarados rushed towards their fellow who had been sneak-attacked. Meanwhile, the Milotic swam closer to Whiscash, though seeing how they only moved closer and not directly to its side, made me think that whatever alliance or agreement they had appeared rather tenuous.
Considering the fact that the other party was a Whiscash, I could understand why that was the case; Or rather, now, after my visit to the Meteor Falls and my personal experience with hostile Whiscash, I could understand why. Unless this Whiscash happened to be one of the chill ones, there was a good chance that it might act against them as well if it felt it could afford to do so.
A furious roar coming from the poor Gyarados that got sneak-attacked twice in a row shifted my focus. The insults targeting Whiscash that followed amused me, and my group, quite a bit. Well, until the Gyarados began to include Mothra in its insults. That quickly wiped off any mirth we felt, and I could feel through our bond that Mothra definitely did not like the things Gyarados was spouting in its rage.
I certainly did not appreciate Mothra being called a tiny shit-eating bug upstart, or how it would crush her like a bug, as well as some other unpleasant stuff involving her current size and/or her bug type. The other Gyarados joined in as well, showing that they did not seem to plan to retreat, (…..) yet. Even though they added the Milotic into their insults, I knew that Mothra had reached critical mass after being called a reluctant shit-tasting morsel, so I told her to go ahead.
The Gyarados went quiet rather quickly when they saw the small bug they were insulting growing bigger and bigger. Mothra returned to her usual size within a second but did not stop there and began to expand beyond even her usual already large queen size. She only stopped after she surpassed the Gyarados in size, and at this point, it was not only the Gyarados that were gaping at her. Whiscash and the Milotic stared at her as well.
Funnily enough, Whiscash was the first to react in a way that went beyond staring. Whiscash burrowed into the rock/riverbed and swam/fled away. I guess any possible alliances did not matter to it at this moment. Nonetheless, once again, Whiscash snapped the Milotic as well as Gyarados out of their funk, and Mothra chose to glare at the Gyarados at that exact moment.
I saw even the Milotic flinch back, even though they were not the target of Mothra's ire, so it was not surprising that the gyarados flinched back as well, though saying that they reacted well to their instinctive reaction would be a massive lie. Probably mortified by their momentary fear the Gyarados roared at Mothra before all three let loose a Hyper Beam at her.
Mothra, fully in her queen mode, did not flinch at the incoming beams and first set up a Protect, which blocked the three Hyper Beams for a few moments before cracking under their combined pressure/might. Still, it bought Mothra enough time to charge up a massive Aerostream. The process took a bit longer than usual because we were underwater. Still, seeing a gigantic Mothra charge up and release a massive Aerostream was definitely awe-inspiring. I made sure to record the whole thing using my phone so that I could show it off later.
Seeing the three "thin" Hyper Beams clashing with one "thick" beam/Aerostream before being slowly overwhelmed was pure cinema, though seeing how easily the Gyarados managed to dodge the big beam coming their way was made for a somewhat disappointing ending. If their Hyper Beams had not been fired impromptu and prematurely due to anger, the Gyarados would not have been able to move, though in that case, Mothra's beam would have likely failed to beat the combined might of their three beams.
Anyway, the Milotic reminded everyone that they were still there, so while Mothra was dealing with the aftereffects of her enormous Aerostream, the Milotic shot Ice Beams at the Gyarados, keeping them occupied and unable to capitalize on Mothra's momentary need to literally catch a breath through a small portal I opened to Utopia. Not that we would have let them do that even if the Milotic had not acted, but still, they did, and their actions seemed to push the Gyarados to a surprising decision.
In a surprising, at least to me, turn of events, the Gyarados actually began to pull back and retreat once they saw that Mothra had quickly recovered. I honestly would have expected them to stubbornly keep fighting until they were pushed in a desperate situation before they attempted to escape, but contarary to th eimage I had in mind, all three platinum stage Gyarados were swimming/running away, though the one that got sucker punched by Mothra and Whiscash did not forget to cuss at all of us while doing so.
Frankly, I felt a bit discontent with how quickly the whole thing ended. This was nothing like the epic confrontation between Stage 6 Overlords/Pokémon that I had envisioned. I imagined the two sides fighting for hours if not a day or two before one side either won or a reluctant draw took place. Either way, I expected at least some serious injuries before anything resembling a conclusion happened.
Yet, I was left with a somewhat brief clash that became quite a bit less interesting after we interfered, leading to a mildly disappointing end. I guess it was us getting involved that caused my anticipated vision to fail since the fight had that kind of tone before we got involed, and even the addition of Whiscash would have likely failed to impact the overall trend as much as our interference did, though as much as I belived that it would have been a blockbuster worthy confrontation, I admittedly did not want to waste a day watching them clash.
Anyway, with the Gyarawuss gone, the Milotic split their attention between us and Mothra. Even the newbie Milotic beside us, who had interacted with us/Mothra, gave Mothra slightly wary but respectful looks. Mothra returning to her chibi form and giving them a happy wave before settling back down on my head did not change the way the Milotic looked at her.
In fact, they seemed to be even more in awe of Mothra, but that did not stop the two Boss-Level Milotic from calling/urging the Newlotic to come to their side while also asking us what we wanted. The Newlotic appeared a bit reluctant to rush over to their side, and I could tell/feel that it was due to not wanting to appear ungrateful or cowardly, which was understandable. Milotic was the one who asked us to interfere and help the Platinum Milotic after all.
Nonetheless, the fact that Milotic did hesitate to follow the orders from the local bosses was gratifying enough so I told Newlotic to go ahead through telepathy before addressing the two waiting Milotic. I told them exactly what happened, including Newlotic's request to help them when it looked a bit bad on their side, which Newlotic corroborated. A flash of embarrassment flickered through the two overlords at that, but they finally relaxed to a more comfortable state after that.
They did not act as if they had everything under control and candidly thanked us for the support before inquiring whether our arrival at the waterfall and the witnessing of the subsequent events was a coincidence, or if we had other reasons for coming over. Seeing them being straightforward like that, I did not bother quibbling and frankly told them that I came over to investigate the area around the waterfall. I revealed that witnessing Feebas/Newlotic's struggle as well as his subsequent triumph and evolution was a fortunate coincidence.
I could feel both Milotic's appreciation upon hearing my candid reply. They inquired if I was planning to fully enter the water channel and if that was the case, how long I was planning to spend there as well as how far I was planning to go. They directly followed up by clarifying that they had no problem with us going in, but that the Gyarados, Whiscash, and other channel dwellers might not appreciate our stay, which was a nicer way to say that they might attack us.
In fact, they hesitated for a moment before amending that the Gyarados would definitely attack us due to our interference in their fight, though their attack would likely be in the form of ambushes instead of straightforward attacks since the Gyarados had seen what we/Mothra could do. I appreciated the warning, and I told them as much. After considering the issue for a moment, I followed up that I was planning to head into the channel, which the Milotic accepted with a "if you're sure".
Seeing that I was resolute in my decision, they told us that we could safely hang around and rest in their parts of the channel as much as we liked, but that our safety was up to us once we left their territory. I was quite happy to hear that since it meant that at least part of the documented Overlords would not bother our exploration. Having a place to rest/retreat to outside of Utopia was obviously nice as well.
Anyway, with that clarified, I asked them what they were planning to do with the Newlotic and Gyarados situation since I seriously doubted that this would be the only attempt at getting rid of Milotic by the Gyarados. I told them that I would be more than happy to relocate Milotic to a new habitat with ideal living conditions if they wanted me to, and the two Bosslotic actually seemed to consider it for a moment.
It was Newlotic who seemed less pleased with the idea, which he expressed by saying that he finally managed to reach the channel he had been dreaming of reaching since he could remember, and that he did not want to live anywhere else. Hearing that the two Milotic thanked me for the offer but refused, mentioning that they would deal with the situation on their own.
Seeing how I was not really desperate for a wild Milotic thanks to the many Feebas I already had and the ones I was planning to procure in the near future, I just shrugged. I told them that it was fine, though I did wish them the best with the Gyarados issue. Following that we switched to some small talk before the Bosslotic swam further into the channel together with the Newlotic. Meanwhile, we began checking out the area at the mouth of the (under)water channel.
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