literature

Paladins Playing Poker

Deviation Actions

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"I wish you would take this seriously," Ben complained.

"I fail to see how I'm not taking this seriously," Jack replied, swinging a lumpy sock like a mace to dispel another antibody that was trying to form. "Esrever asked me to take this seriously so I'm taking it seriously."

"By setting up a table to play cards," Ben added sardonically.

Jack tied his improvised flail to his belt and resumed stacking bits of rubble and hacking some of the scattered pillars into roughly chair-like shapes. There were now five "chairs" around a table made of a good sized chunk of wall held up by, as far as Ben could tell, a random area of space where gravity chose not to be a thing. Jack looked fairly satisfied by his work as he took a seat next to Charity who had promptly seated herself as soon as her chair was to her liking.

"What would you rather we do to kill time?"

"Well, you could go look for the shattered bits of Adamas and Perle's burst hearts."

Jack jiggled he lumpy looking sock at Ben. "Already did that, remember? Grabbed a whole bunch of those shards while we were clearing people out of the darkened station a while ago. Better for the team searching to have a central point to return to and deliver anything they find."

"And you're the best person for that..."

"Considering that this Mega Gallade apparently fancies itself a paladin and knows a healing move? Between me and Charity we have any heals needed covered. Don't ask me how any mon of mine got such a strange mindset," Jack stopped to pick up a rock and whip it through the space where another antibody was trying to form, "We haven't met yet." He finished.

"I didn't think Gallade could learn rock throw," Charity chimed in.

"As far as I know they can't," Jack agreed, sitting down and starting to shuffle a deck of cards, "But Jack learned 'throw a thing at a thing' a long time ago."

"Would it kill you to at least use proper moves?" Ben complained joining the other two at the table. "Who are we playing with anyway, our usual friends are kind of distracted." Ben gestured at the grand melee of legends going on in the dome a short distance away.

"Wait for it."

"Huh?"

"Wait for it."

Time seemed to drag on for a moment, and in response space seemed to fold itself out to deposit a new pair of players into existence. The new people had some design commonalities with the two legendaries raging around the dome. In some ways they appeared to be bad copies of Adamas and Perle.

"Yo," Jack's voice said as the new Perle waved. "Are we late?"

"Oh damn, what is that... Is that like, temporal noise? Damn that's annoying." Jack's voice complained, from the Adamas this time.

"Tell me about it," Charity grumbled crumpled over the table and nursing a glass

Ben took this in for a moment before collapsing his face into his hands. "No one mentioned this to me. Please tell me you aren't your universe's version of Adamas and Perle. Please tell me that."

"How would that even work? Like one guy is somehow two people?" Perle Jack asked.

"Leave him alone he's obviously having a bad day," Jackamas scolded the other. "Though Idid contemplate doing that for a bit."

---

"Wouldn't it make your job easier to have an extra set of you guys around?" Perle Jack wheedled.

Palkia and Dialga glowered at the burst warriors while Giratina made an annoyed sounding noise.

"I planned to bring a third guy but either the person he planned to copy the powers from managed to get away or I just couldn't find him," Jackamas explained to the annoyed ghost dragon. "In our defense, the reverse world is REALLY big and while I have infinite time I didn't have quite that much patience."

The Giratina grumbled with annoyance again and fell back into line with  its siblings in keeping the pair of men from entering the universe at what seemed to be a universal customs station.

"So... about that place in the reality bending pantheon?"

Time and space twisted and a new quadrupedal legendary joined the creation trio. Arceus looked down at the Jacks and they flinched appropriately.

"Okay, okay god. A simple no would of sufficed. We'll just go drop off our stuff. No messing with you and yours' stuff."

---

"That didn't really pan out," Jackamas finished weakly.

"What's going on here anyway?" Perle Jack asked, pulling up a seat and looking at the pile of chips Gallade Jack had laid out for everyone.

"Impromptu poker game," Gallade Jack replied. "Standard buy in."

The creation Jacks blinked before shrugging their acceptance. Perle Jack threw a small stack of cash on the pile Gallade Jack had started to which Ben and Charity were contributing. A tiny portal with a blue hand reached through to pick up the portion Perle had put down.

"Ow!" Jackamas pulled his hand up from under the table shaking it a bit. A moment later Charity put down her drink to lean over and slap the hand feeling at the pile of money.

"No cheating on your buy in a**," Charity growled at Jackamas who relented and produced his own cash to throw on the pile.

"Is there anyway to get rid of the existential fuzziness around here?" Jackamas asked the tiny time legendary.

"There are a couple things you could try," Charity nodded, picking her glass back up and sipping from it. "You could fix it yourself."

"Wouldn't know where to start."

"You could go force Jacka** Adama* to fix it."

"Ask myself?"

"No the other jacka**."

"Ah, no I think he's got a bit more mojo right now then he had when I stole his mojo."

"Or you could just go ask him politely to stop," Charity finished.

"Does that work?"

Charity shrugged and downed the rest of her drink. "No one's tried yet."

The Adamas flavored Jack considered that for a moment. Light flared around him and Jack was replaced by the same Jack holding a bag of ice to the part of the mask covering his cheek. "He said no."

"No s***."

Gallade Jack coughed and the group fell into the easy rhythm of the poker game. A poker game punctuated with brief stops to swing crystal filled sock flails at forming antibodies and the occasional sniping contest versus those antibodies which tried to form further away and come close. Adamas  and Charity were winning those contests but everyone was fairly sure they were resetting time until they managed to make their shots.

Once or twice one of the non-legendary burst warriors would drop by with a new crystal shard or to request a heal. They were summarily stripped of valuables, bandaged and sent back to work by the Creation Jacks before they could ask any uncomfortable questions about what the base crew was up to. The crystals gathered were unceremoniously dumped in the sock with the rest of them.

Perle Jack looked at his cards again and glanced furtively at the other players. He lifted a hand to toss a couple more chips in the pot and then froze.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE," Perle Jack dove clear of the table as a blue-red blur smashed into it, shattering the floating section of wall and scattering chips, cards, and assorted drinks into the air. Then it all stopped.

"Aaand rewind," Jackamas said, winding his hands backwards. Obligingly the scattered offal returned to their original positions as the blur, apparently Abby and Benak, reversed course back out of the table to hang in midair.

Calmly Gallade Jack put together another chair while Ben shifted the time locked Kyogre burst into a sitting position at the table. Charity just took her drink from where it had been replaced and tried to take a pull from it only to find the fluid refused to behave as a fluid while under the time lock.

"And play." Jack spun his hands back in the other direction and Abby started in her seat.
"Huh? What?" she looked baffled at the sudden change. "What happened?"

"How's Perle?" Gallade Jack asked, returning to his seat. A wave of healing energy washing out over the group and washing away the injuries that Abby accrued.

Abby looked at the table covered in chips, cards, money, and drinks, then looked at the assorted bursts gathered around it. Behind her the sounds of the other legends could be heard still trying to distract the raging gods from the less time-and-space-proof warriors. Charity finished her drink.

“Are you seriously here PLAYING?” Abby shrieked, slamming her oversized mitts into the table and shattering it again. “Where did you even get this stuff?”

“Our room,” one of the Jacks offered, “I’m not sure where the drinks are coming from though. I didn’t even peg Charity as the drinking kind.”

“I’m not,” Charity grumbled accepting, “But f*** the world’s ending might as well try it well there’s time. I mean there’s a full bar at this thing it’d be a shame to waste it.” Charity gestured past the warriors to a standing section of ancient looking building.

Rather where the building had been as it’s front wall had been replaced by a full bar manned by a Jack in a formal vest and bow tie. The Jack continued wiping glasses clean then noticing the attention waved. Charity raised her empty glass in his direction and shook it, to which he nodded and set out a glass to pour another.

“He’s been here a while,” Charity commented, “You didn’t notice?”


“I don’t remember doing that,” the Gallade Jack said wonderingly, “How’d you get here?”

The bartender shrugged, placing Charity’s drink on a tray and carrying it over. “I’m just confused as you are. Still, as long as there are customers I guess I’ll serve drinks.”

“Are you all crazy,” Abby screamed, “There’s four Jacks right here and as far as I can tell NONE of you are helping.”

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Jack-G protested, “I’m just one guy who DIDN’T get legendary super powers. The knight paladin thing is pretty cool but I’m one guy. Healing and logistics from a central local is where I’m the most useful right now.”

“And them?” Abby waved a hand-fin at the time and space Jacks, “Don’t they have any stupid powers they could be using. Maybe if you stopped counting just yourself and counted all of yourselves you’d come up with something!”

“It’d take a damned army to make a difference here. I can’t be-“ Gallade Jack stopped. He looked at the creation duo Jacks who’d sat back and started in on some of the peanuts from the bar as they watched the argument continue.

“Hold that thought,” Jack said, holding up a finger to Abby. A quick huddle between the non-bartending Jacks was quickly formed and a heated discussion started. After a minute of quiet but urgent whispers they turned back to the group.

“After conferring among myselves we’ve come to the conclusion I might be able to do a bit more than I have been,” Space Jack admitted.

“I apologise for the inconvenience. I also apologise for what’s about to happen. But you asked for it,” Knight Jack added.

“Be right back,” Time Jack finished, vanishing from sight.

A moment passed a blue and metal lined fist appeared nearby between two pillars that had fallen into each other but remained standing. A second hand joined the first and around the edge of where they came through light began to shift rapidly in hue. With a spine chilling rip the hands separated and Time Jack reappeared in what could be seen through the tear that was outlined by the color distortion. On the other side behind him nothing could be seen except a field of white and green blurs. A few seconds later and the edges of the tear in space time had been fixed to the pillars and the blue Jack stepped through.

“All done,” he said stepping clear of the new portal.

“This can’t be safe,” Ben moaned piteously, turning to Charity for confirmation.

“It’s really not but time-space is in a shaky place right now anyway,” Charity confirmed.

“Then you really won’t like what comes next,” the Jack of Time giggled, turning back to the portal, “Alright it’s open! You can come on through!”

Immediately the world turned white and green as a horde of Mega Gallade fused Jacks poured through the hole the Adamas Jack had opened and he vanished to avoid being run over by the press of bodies. With a nearly deafening amount of noise as they talked among themselves and carried various things through Jacks flooded past the other bursters. A pair of Jack-Gs carried a large slab that looked somewhat like the wall Ben and the others had been using as a poker table. These two were flanked by a set of Jacks with messy beards.

“Oh crap,” the original Gallade Jack complained, “How long am I going to be doing this?”

“You don’t want an answer to that,” a bearded Jack replied patting the other on the shoulder. “Alright you two, just set up here.

The Jack’s carrying the wall nodded then confirmed that the object they held was the same table by kicking the old table out of its gravityless perch and placing the new one in its place. On the new one a map of the dome’s field had been outlined in several sections, crisscrossed by lines and marked out with numbers. Another Jack coming out of the portal cleaned off the old table and laid the cards and cash aside before producing a stick of charcoal and starting to draw from memory a map that looked a lot like the one on the new table.

“Done,” Perle Jack drew the attention back to himself as he swept hands wreathed in blue light back and the dome’s ‘sky’ shimmered as a blue energy covered it. “Portal field is up. That’s a tricky bit of work, but it should serve your purposes.”

“Thanks,” the Jack with the longest beard said with a nod.

“Sir,” a Jack with a five o’clock shadow ran up and saluted, “Jack-T has opened portals 2-4 and the first eight units are ready for orders.”

“Good. Tell the younger units to go assist the NL class burst warriors. The rest should assemble at points Bravo and Charlie to prepare to assault Alpha and Paris” the bearded Jack started giving orders and Jacks ran off to deliver them. He turned back to the former poker players who were watching with astonishment. “The younger Jacks tend to need some time before they’re willing to do the really suicidal stuff.”

Time Jack reappeared with a flash of light and the bearded Jack turned to him expectantly. “Eight portals right? They’re done.” Jack said, breathing heavily.

“Good work. I know you two are busy holding up your portals, but I’ll still need you on point defense for when Alpha and Paris try to annihilate units and for rapid deployment.”

Both the Jacks let out a groan.

“Uh, what about me?” the original Jack asked hesitantly.

“You stay here and watch us work. You need to be able to rapidly fit in with the existing units for your next go. I send you out for practical experience about halfway in,” another bearded Jack answered, before turning to Abby and the others, “You all should get back to work. I have this well in hand.”
As if a spell had been broken the others started in place. Abby dashed off to rejoin the fight while Ben and Charity looked sheepish before a Jack quietly leaned over to tell them they were to assist in dispatching medical divisions and pointing at the table.

“Send the signal, initiate operations,” the beardiest Jack said with a nod.

---

Esrever pulled the Gardevoir burst back to their feet. Nearby a pile of rubble collapsed and a golurk fused warrior erupted from a pillar to knock out an antibody. The last antibody temporarily dispelled the pair of warriors stopped to catch their breath while Esrever scanned the area.

“Okay, so they found a way to get me despite being immune to swift,” Andrew acknowledged, brushing away the dust from the rock pile he’d been buried by, “You win.

“I really wish I could was happy about being right,” the Gardevoir replied, rubbing her arm where the shooting stars had grazed her.

“Oh no.”

The pair turned to Esrever. His body shock still as he stared at something that hadn’t come into sight yet. White blurs swept around the corner and passed over the group flashing with pink light.

“That’s really not a nice thing to say,” Jack said sliding to a stop as his psychic attack bisected an antibody that had gone unnoticed above Esrever’s group.

“You asked me to take this seriously,” the other Jack continued, his own attack hitting the antibody’s partner. “I don’t think a thank you is out of line here.”

“I’ve died and this is my personal hell,” Esrever mumbled as another half dozen Jacks came filing around the corner. “This is what I get for always teasing Adamas and Perle…”

“I really hoped that I was lying and this got funnier the more times I saw it but it really isn’t,” a Jack said scratching his head sheepishly before turning to the others. “Can one of you signal that I found Golf?”

A pair of Jacks nodded and one boosted the other up on top of a ruin to deliver the signal. With two lines from Psycho Cut most letters and numbers could be spelled out. Launching them into the air with just enough power to make them visible was workable system, even if every Jack at some point complained that they hadn’t picked a pokemon with honest telepathy. That or a partner pokemon who didn’t have some passive aggressive hate on for them and would show them how to use Gallade’s psychic type to do something other than throw psi-blades.

“Still, I’m kind of surprised this is the first group of me you’ve seen,” Jack said, returning to Esrever.

“I’m rather busy trying to keep everyone running in the right direction and unhurt,” Esrever huffed.

“Uh huh. Well, if you get a chance you may just drop by the command post. I’ve basically taking over making people run in directions. It helps that I’m most of the people.”

“If there are so many of you why haven’t you immediately found the burst heart pieces?”

“I’m terrible at Zelda games. No, but it turns out that if you set out to help some people by bringing out your A-game then sometimes the opposition brings out THEIR A-game,” Jack explained, waving a hand in the direction directly behind the three not-Jacks.

They turned with the slow certainty that comes from knowing you won’t like what you see. Behind them a dozen antibodies had appeared, nearly the size of the raging Perle and Adamas themselves. A tense moment passed with the warriors facing off against the memory fragments.

“They seem bigger,” Andrew pointed out.

“And signficiantly more numerous,” his Gardevoir friend, the one Jack had never gotten the name of and honestly could be bothered to tell apart from all the other Gardevoir bursts he’d seen in the recent pasts while more important things were going on.

“Yeah they just get bigger and more numerous,” a Jack commented running past the still forms of the stunned warriors, “You guys keep looking for the pieces I’ve got this.”

“It’s like Esrever’s groping round all over again,” another Jack complained as he passed.

Gratefully the Golurk and Gardevoir bursts resumed their search as the Jacks leapt into the fray. Occasionally a Jack would crash near them and run back into the fight with a burst of healing but the search party themselves remained unaccosted. Esrever watched and, deciding to follow his usual modus operandi for dealing with Jack, ran with it. With Jack it was easier just to wait for him to finish what he was doing rather than try to derail him from it. So with a huff he vanished into the reverse world to look for the aforementioned command post.

---

ANike barely managed to roll with the fall as Adamas’ blow slipped past the warriors screening to catch her hard in the floating ribs. A cry from TaZekrom forced her to focus back on the fight and look up to see the other legendary warriors leaping clear as Adamas charged a new attack. An attack aimed directly at her.

“Oh.”

The world blurred away for a moment and it took ANike a second to realize that she’d not just been wiped from existence by Adamas’ Roar. Around her a group of white figures in gleaming white. One extended a hand to pull her to her feet as another pulsed with healing light.

"What?" she asked intelligently, allowing the armored figure to pull her to her feet. “Wait, Jack?”

“Hi,” all the nearby Jacks chorused.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re reinforcing you,” the Jack who had helped her up answered as the others scattered to do their various tasks.

“Why are there so many of you?”

“That will be covered in the debriefing.”

“The one all of me get at the end of this.”


“So you’re not going to explain it to me is what you’re saying.”

“Kinda busy,” Jack replied, grabbing Anike and pulling her roughly to one side as Adamas tore across the field, pushing a wave of Jacks along with him on a rising earthen mound.

A flash of light disgorged a squad of bearded Jacks who began striking Adamas in a series of rapid close combats punctuated with kicking him into the air toward an enrage Tazekrom.

“Where did they come from?” Anike asked in a shrill tone.

“Third week veterans have enough experience to be used for rapid deployment,” Jack explained nothing at all.

“Three weeks?” Anike answered incredulously, “You guys have been fighting for three weeks? I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true,” Jack insisted, “One and a half hours at a time. I’m basically running on spite, vitriol, a desire to keep existing, and enough healing pulse energy to probably give someone cancer.”

“Can you guys actually do damage to them without being a legendary warrior?”

“The point isn’t to knock him out anyway, but well, we’re giving it the old college try,” Jack shrugged, “If it looks like he’s going to pass out we’ll use healing pulse while he’s in range to benefit. He gestured to where groups of Jack were taking turns pummeling Adamas in a highly choreographed chain of martial and pokémon moves that were broken up by Adamas flying into angry legendary warriors who hit him back into the Jacks scattered around the field. The macabre game of tennis, with Adamas as the unfortunate ball, continued as the chatting pair gradually repositioned themselves to fit into the circuit of players.

---

Jack flinched as Perle’s Gravity suddenly pressed down on his group like the air was made of lead. The power from his burst form immediately compensated but the sheer force behind it was humbling.

“Did I get the first timer?” an older more grizzled Jack asked, noticing the other’s discomfort.

“Yeah. Sorry,” Jack straightened.

“Don’t worry about it. It only happens once,” the other replied, turning back to the field to watch for some sign the original Jack hadn’t learned yet. “Though if I sent you out here I guess that means that the fights going to switch to hard mode.”

“What’s that?”

The question answered itself as Adamas suddenly fought alongside another copy of himself, then those two double again and again, until the number of Adamas defied quick counting. Immediately the Jacks that had been waiting in the wings poured into the field to engage the newly available demigods. Quickly Jack found himself alone with the older Jack that had been identified as his immediate superior for this operation on his approach.

“This seems like cheating,” Jack grumbled, then stopped when the grizzled Jack gave him a flat look. “I guess I kind of voided my rights to play that card didn’t I.”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Still though couldn’t Adamas at least be original with his cheating?”

“You mean like Perle?” the older Jack pointed toward the side of the dome where the legendary warriors assigned to the pink demigod had been keeping him contained with Jack’s assistance.

Earth heaved and trembled in a wave from some point in that direction and the white bodies of Jacks could be seen thrown into the air by the upheaval. Pink light began to bleed out into the sky expanding as a solid mass until finally coalescing into a Perle many stories tall. The monstrous being swept a foot and the cries of Jacks could be heard from here.

“How do I fight that?” Jack shouted outraged.

“No one ever accused me of being original either,” the older Jack answered enigmatically.

Light flared again from Perle’s side of the field as another body rose up before resolving in a flash into a giant Jack. Hovering around it like tiny fairies the legends could be seen on hand ready to offer assistance.

“Is it wrong that I’m really looking forward to that?”

“Hell no. Every me alive would want to try that out.”

The Jacks turned back to their immediate section of the field where Adamas were cutting loose in all directions.

“Do we have the power to handle this?”

“The clones aren’t very strong but if you knock them out the damage goes back to the original. We just have to create a saturated field of fire with care to heal periodically so we don’t knock Adamas out,” the older Jack stepped forward gathering energy around the blades of one arm and holding it aloft before shouting, “ALL JACK ATTACK!”

He was answered by a wave of Jack answering by disengaging and copying his actions. Then nearly simultaneously the horde released waves of cutting psychic energy into the air toward a single point as they called out the move with a single voice.

“MAXIMUM OVERJACK: PSYCHO BLADE STORM!”

Above the blades instead of colliding churned and whirled around each other until they become indistinguishable for the mass they made up. Then blades began to fall like rain on the field. Jacks pulled legendary warriors out of the way as Adamas clones around the field fell victim to the rain and the reversed type matching they’d effected themselves.

The ground rumbled as on the Perle side the two goliaths exchanged punches in what seemed like slow motion. Each blow forcing the ground they stood on to try and hold the colossal forces colliding on it. The field around their field had become a morass of dust and debris as their movements tossed up everything around them.
---

Esrever stepped carefully as the Jack that had assigned himself as guide showed him through the field of Jacks laid out in neat lines among the broken columns of the dome. A handful of Jacks and even more Charitys threaded their way through the assembled injured checking on them and occasionally stopping to administer one treatment or another.

“Unfortunately, healing pulse only goes far to tending to the injuries I accumulate,” the Jack continued explaining, “Luckily what I can’t deal with Charity is a great help in dealing with. Between the two of us we can handle everything but the very worst levels of exhaustion,” the Jack stopped and shouted at a Charity. Then he flew ten feet into a pillar when Charity rocketed over the helpless Jacks to plant a fist in the face of the loud one. For her part Charity immediately started cradling her head after delivering her random strike.

“It turns out heal bell will clear out drunkeness but it still leaves you with a nasty hangover,” a medic Jack whispered to Esrever conspiratorially before continuing on as if nothing had happened.

“I thought you knew Hold Back,” Esrever prompted, approaching Charity.

“I do,” she replied rubbing her temples, “That in no way means I have to use it. Jack was giving you the grand tour?”

“Yeah, he seems to be very organised. How do you handle the things heal bell and heal pulse can’t handle?” Esrever asked, stepping out of the way to allow a Jack with a medic cuff on one arm past. “They can’t possibly cover all the issues that the fighting would bring up.”

“Leppa and rare candy mostly. The Leppa berries we actually have runner distributing throughout the entirty of the battle to keep everyone battle able. The candies are used for those extreme cases where healing pulse can’t restore their energy. The biggest issue actually have is with exhaustion. The Gallade-form Jacks have to have been going for a lot longer than is healthy or wise.”

A pair of medics had gathered near where Charity’s victim lay rolling around in pain clutching his face. They seemed torn between helping him and incurring the Celebi burst’s ire. There decision was made for them as a flash of something that seemed completely unlike light deposited a half dozen Jacks and a Ho-oh burst onto a cleared section of ground. Medics immediately broke off and rushed to the new patients.

“What was that?”

“When the twins manage to get the same opponent into their line of sight and target them that opponent ends up erased from existence,” Charity explained as the medics started tending to the wounded, “We can save them from it but there’s still damage from temporarily not being.”

Waves of healing light pulsed across the area the injured had landed and the medics helped the Ho-oh burst to their feet, the legendary warrior’s own healing abilities coming to bear.

“The legendary level warriors can be turned around put back in the fight quite rapidly, especially if they can heal on their own,” Charity commented, indicating the Ho-oh who took to the air back in the direction of the fighting. “The Jacks aren’t so lucky. Something in the process really doesn’t agree with them and we’re lucky if we can get them back on their feet before the next loop of fighting.”

Charity floated over to the newest group of casualties falling in alongside her time clones.The new Jacks still lay on the ground twitching and spasming, and the sound of heal bell being used repeatedly was audible from this distance. Eventually the Jacks, with the aid of their medic versions, were lined up next to the others. Now that Esrever knew what to look for he could see that many of the Jacks that weren’t being immediately treated and released still showed reduced signs of the twitching.
Anguished cries from the other side of the impromptu medical center redirected Esrever’s attention again and he crossed over to the other side to investigate while Charity was distracted with the newcomers. Seeing the origin of the sound, comprehension dawned on his face.

“I suppose that would explain how they’re managing all this,” he said to no one in particular.

Separated a generous distance from the Gallade Jacks, the Adamas and Perle form Jacks sat back to back visibly shaking as they continually wolfed down yellow and red berries. Behind them a tree full of the same fruit wavered into existence long enough for their fruit to seemingly by themselves break off from their branches and land on the ground before the plant disappeared again.

“Ah, I see you’ve found my problem patients,” Charity commented suddenly from behind him.

“What’s wrong with them?” Esrever asked, his question punctuated by the Adamas Jack grunting in pain as the world near them wavered again and a box of individually wrapped candies rolled off a conveyor belt into a portal that dropped them onto the ground nearby before the portal leading to it sealed shut.

“Strain,” Charity huffed, “They’re physically fine but a copy like theirs can’t possibly hope to keep up with the originals or they’d just stabilize the world for us and let us knock Adamas and Perle out. As it is if their forms had the ability I’d expect they’d have gone primal like the twins have. I’m worried that all the work we’re shunting onto their shoulders is going to do them some lasting harm.”

“I’ll be fine,” the Jack Charity had punched reappeared, holding his nose shut to keep blood leaking out, “The biggest thing I remember coming from this is that I don’t remember most of the day There’s also some migraine headaches but I can work through those.”

“You really shouldn’t have,” Charity admonished him, “and neither of those things might deal with long term consequences.”

“I’ll get a CAT scan as soon as I get a chance,” Jack reassured her.

“It does concern me that it took this many times for Jack to manage to get things right,” Esrever thought aloud.

“That’s not how it works,” Charity replied, “The time travel tunnel Jack made was more… Hm. It’s easiest to explain it as he came through as many times as he decided he was going to the first time. This is only happening one time, there’re just multiple Jacks going through the one time. Honestly it’d probably have been better if he’d come through fewer times, since his provocation has pushed the twins to greater feats of creativity.”

“How are there so many of you here?” Esrever asked, pointing out the extra Charity floating around the medical area. “Weren’t you out of power to try and run time shenanigans like him?”

Charity looked quietly abashed. “I’m somewhat guilty about that. I ended up using one of the tunnels Jack made to come through like he did. Thus putting even more strain on the already harried Jack versions of the twins. Though I limited the number of runs to how many I felt was wise, where he appears to have come through as many times as he could.”

“How many times do you come through?” Esrever turned to the Jack inquisitively.

“Uh,” the Jack stopped to think, “I never really counted. I had to stop coming through because those two couldn’t handle more and still keep everything together.” He stopped and stroked his beard. “I’m on my third week though.

“Three weeks without sleeping.”

“I got knocked out a lot,” Jack shrugged.

“That doesn’t count!” Charity buzzed over and flicked the Jack’s forehead. “We let a certain number of Jacks go for several loops in medical in normal sleep after they wake up. I had thought that it was their idea.”

“Never even occurred to me,” Jack shrugged, “I’d just assumed I was that good.”

Esrever and Charity rubbed their faces and grunted with aggravation.

---

The commanding Jack sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes as the latest reports filed in from the field. As he read them he watched the tiny figures that denoted enemy and friendly forces get moved around the board. Quiet meditations on troop movements were interrupted as a massive explosion roared through the dome Though it was not the largest explosion he’d heard this battle that one still had his left ear ringing and he intended to reprimand the Jack responsible, quietly he admonished himself and considered it a job well done. Then he noticed the other distinguishing feature of the explosion as one of his runners dashed into his operations room, which he demanded it be called despite lacking anything resembling a wall or ceiling. He stood and prepared to give an order. He didn’t need to hear the runner’s report to know what had happened. He could see from here that the giant Perle had vanished.

“ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR FINAL PHASE!” he roared to the room at large, forcing the Jacks nearby to scatter into a buzz of greater activity. He turned to his aids. “Advise all legendaries on the situation give them whatever forces they ask for. Giant Jacks are reserved for combat weak legendaries ONLY. SOMEONE GET ME ESREVER!” his voice raised to a mild roar again as he finished.

“I’m right here,” Esrever reminded him, “What’s going on?”

“Final phase,” Jack said perfunctorily, “last piece is close to found and the twins have fallen back to launch a new assault. They’ll split themselves into five pairs of clones, each clone will be individually as strong as their normal member and they will as pair launch independent raids on this location to try and recover their burst heart for purposes unknown.”

“Why is it unknown?”

“Because no Jack has let them succeed yet and I’ll be condemned to the deepest sunken ship in the ocean before I’ll be the first,” Jack growled, “I’m sending you into the field for this. The clones can be knocked out as usual as long as one of each pair persists. As the person who knows the twins and their abilities best you’re getting assigned to stop them without knocking them out until the other warriors can deal with the extras. I’m making whatever Jacks you want available to you. Just ask.”

Esrever stopped for a moment to digest this before rapidly deciding. “We need to hold them without knocking them out?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll need someone with as much experience fighting them as possible,” Esrever said, nodding to himself.

“Alright, Taz temporarily skirmished with both I-”

“Are you not the oldest Jack here?” Esrever asked.
“Yes?” Jack replied confused.

“Then I’ll take you. You’ve been fighting my brothers for weeks. You have the most experience.”

The old Jack considered this before turning to his aid. “Why do I not remember this?”

“You got concussed a couple runs ago and spent it medical. This bits a bit fuzzy,” the bearded aid explained, rubbing his head and the obvious bandage there.

“Alright.” Jack stepped away from the table. “Let’s do this. CANDY!”

Somewhere in the mass of Jack’s someone threw a rare candy. Snatching out of the air Jack peeled it open and laughed to himself.

“Y’know I always wondered why these were so rare,” he hummed to himself looking at the shiny ticket that had been wrapped up in the wrapper with the candy before tearing it in half and tossing the treat in his mouth, “I never figured I’d be partially responsible.”

A wave of pressure blasted out from the old Jack as a glowing aura of energy began to swirl around him. The light from the aura seemed to dye the Gallade fused Jack a shade of blue as he walked over to Esrever cracking his knuckles.

“Shall we?”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

“Everyone not assisting other legendaries or the search parties is to fall in on me as they become available,” Jack said turning to give final orders to himselves. “Only assist if the targets break past us. You have your orders now move out!”
As alliteration amuses.
Anyway here's my entry for the Reburst finale thing.  Super long because you're in a hurry, and I'm an asshole.

App: It's a Reburst App Jack
Ref: Reburst Final Round Ref - Mega Gallade

Burst people's mentioned: (Ref/App)
Esrever: Shall we play a game?
Ben: Third Eye Ben
Charity (She's the green one): Legendary party
The (angry) twins: Primal Brothers
Andrew: <da:thumb id="494056241">This guy again, oi
Taz: <da:thumb id="492857027">Taz/Erlade
Anise: Burst - Shiny Victini Pokemon Burst Application
Abby: Kyogre 'Benak' Burst Pkmn ReBurst - Abby
Emma:Earn Your Happy Ending Emma Schultz
Old Jacks(shadowonly): R6 Y'don't know Jack Ditto

I left out the Garde burst person because I can't honestly recall which one it was.

GDI why can't I dethumbnail those tall ones
© 2015 - 2024 Predhead
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LucarioGirl4Ever's avatar
OMG~ This was really needed after reading Tash's and Niko's entires. x'DDD
I am just... I can't even- Trapping Abby at the table was absolutely hilarious. For some odd reason I imagine this actually happening after my entry. Imagine getting hit by Spacial Rend and then ending up at a poker table. lololl *shot'd*