Surprise Quartet

[Whatevr89532]

Lavarro takes the opportunity to improve his own defenses, visibly concentrating a bit and, with a slight whitish glow, seemingly growing even thicker fur than before at will.

Destin, meanwhile, floats along the back side of the ring to where he's next to his teammate and waves, using vaguely ghostly powers to speak privately in her ear: "Aurora! Three. Stages. Let me!"

((Cotton Guard))

[AmbushCat]

*Aurora nods after a moment, climbing back over the ropes and lightly tagging Destin's shoulder on the way out. She's still irritably trying to get fur out of her eyes.*

*Seeing this, Callista sidles over as close as she can to Lavarro and hisses at him.*

[Whatevr89532]

Destin's image fades out from off-ring and reappears on-ring, lying on his side with his cheek leaning on a fist in midair. Lavarro takes the hint and jumps over the ropes behind him, giving Callista a tag.

[AmbushCat]

*Callista wastes little time clambering inside the ring, nor in making her first move. She concentrates for a few seconds, immersing herself in a dim blue glittering of star-like energy.*

((Safeguard))

[Whatevr89532]

Destin spreads his hands apart as if laying out a map. The ring floor glows faintly, turning blue and gaining some gridlines along it, and the nature of the space changes strangely, making the slow fast and the fast slow. He takes advantage of this almost immediately, his eyes glowing purplish as he gives a mean glare.

((Trick Room --> Mean Look
In terms of turn order, both switches happened on the same turn, then safeguard and trick room on the next turn, so in theory Mean Look would fall on the first part of the following turn after that unless Callista picks some low-priority move to do. Destin's speed stat is pretty low, and he knows it.))

[AmbushCat]

Callista: *shudders violently as Mean Look's effects settle in* Thanks, Kaoru, I did not need to hear that. *out loud* Come on, ghost boy, is that really all you have? *takes a fig bar out of her pocket* See this? This is you by the time we're done here. *tosses the fig bar into her mouth, swallowing it without chewing*

((Taunt))

[Whatevr89532]

Destin's image rotates so his hand is close to the floor, and he quotes The Princess Bride. "As you wish..." Touching it to the floor causes ripples of pitch black energy to race outward from the point of contact, along with some equally dark bits of energy floating out across the air from his apparent body at about the same speed. Contact with any of these effects is sure to hurt.

((Dark Pulse))

[AmbushCat]

*Callista charges towards the Dark Pulse, deliberately tanking the hit. For a few moments she looks fairly nauseous (not to mention visibly hurt), but she stubbornly keeps going and fires off a black-tinged uppercut at Destin.*

Callista: *quotes right back* "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to beat you!"

((Payback))

[Whatevr89532]

Destin takes the hit pretty hard, flying back a ways along the ring before stopping right-side up, holding up his left hand as if about to pitch a baseball. "Ow." His humanoid image doesn't look injured per se, but it looks very unstable and flickery. "You seem a decent, uh...I hate to...faint." He makes a throwing motion, causing about a volleyball-sized clump of purple toxic acidic sludge gunk to appear in front of his hand with a decent amount of momentum toward his opponent.

((Sludge Bomb))

[AmbushCat]

Callista: *rolls her eyes* "Truly you have a dizzying intellect."

*Callista tries to evade, but her speed is thrown off balance by the presence of Trick Room, allowing the Sludge Bomb to nail her in the side and make her stumble sideways. She's looking fairly hurt by this point.*

Callista: *sighs* Alright, girl. Get a hold of yourself. No need to be nauseous. Just simmer down, keep your temper under control, everything will be fine...

*Looking a bit more relaxed and sure of herself, the hybrid straightens and prepares herself for Destin's next move. On first glance, she seems a bit stronger than before.*

((Calm Mind))

[Whatevr89532]

Destin's image stabilizes slightly, not because he's less hurt but because he's trying a little harder at it. He gives an arms-up shrug. "Well, at least I have dazzling looks." His image brightens and suddenly the whole thing turns into a magical, blinding flash of light throughout the ring (some standard magic wards keeping its more damaging effects from leaking out onto the audience) before reforming the humanoid appearance again in a spot a little closer to the center of the ring.

((Dazzling Gleam))

[AmbushCat]

*Callista snarls in surprise and she stumbles backwards while rubbing her eyes furiously, stopping a few steps away from the ropes. She almost looks ready to fall over, but something seems to be keeping her standing upright. Willpower, probably.*

Callista: "I am Callista Metallium. You bruised my ego. Prepare to fly!"

*With that said, Callista... does something entirely unexpected. Instead of attacking directly, she blinks once---and her eyes become more akin to something from a shoujo manga. When she smiles sweetly, every fiber of her being radiates pure, unadulterated cuteness, the sort that would charm... or in this case, Captivate... any unattached male (and more than a few that are attached).*

[Whatevr89532]

The blue glow and gridlines fade from view. Destin takes a second of staring before shaking himself out of it and trying to prepare another move of some sort, but it's taking him a moment.

((By my count, Dazzling Gleam/Captivate was the 5th turn including the one Trick Room was used on, so its effect and Safeguard's are both off. Taunt is still on, and Destin doesn't know any high-priority move so he almost certainly goes second this turn.))

[AmbushCat]

Callista: *blinks, then smiles* Whew! Much better.

*Growling under her breath as she focuses, Callista shoots off a bolt of bluish energy from her brain that flies off in an arc. It's only about as strong as the average Psybeam, but against the part-Poison Destin that's not going to matter much.*

((Stored Power))

[Whatevr89532]

Destin takes the hit right through the center of his humanoid image, which has an effect like disrupting it from that point outward. It fuzzes out and Destin's true form, a normal-looking Haunter, appears a bit to the side of where the image was, letting out a weak cry before visibly fainting. An official gathers him offstage quickly to heal him up and so the match can continue.