Juliana really should have just asked Florian to help her take down the titans. The lad had just cleared the Montenevara gym with a spectacular performance. The ghost-type rapper actually got Florian on the ropes by capitalizing on his critical misplay of terastalizing his krookodile into a dark type, removing its ground typing, when toxtricity was unveiled.
Still, he and his trusty pyroar triumphed, as they always do. They were practically an invincible duo, and nothing made that more apparent than what they were doing right now.
"Flamethrower!" called out Florian, immediately bringing the Lurking Steel Titan itself to a critical state, forcing it to dig underground and flee.
"What in the world are you feeding that thing?!" Juliana commented.
"Girafarig," Florian winked.
Soon the titan was downed once again, this time with Arven by their side. Although he didn't really do much considering Florian was there. Arven didn't mind at all however, only grateful that the titan was taken care of. Which led of course to their discovery of yet another herba mystica, and the creation of yet more of Arven's delectable sandwiches.
As the two had a victory snack, Juliana focused on cleaning her crocalor, leaving Arven and Florian to discuss by the table.
"So... are you asking my sister out any time soon or?"
Arven squeezes his sandwich into bits out of embarrassment, "it's not like that!" he whispered, "she's an underclassman, it'll feel weird."
"You're like two years older than her, that's hardly any difference. Also you like her."
"Two years is too much!" the upperclassman retorted.
"I didn't hear a no on the last part," Florian grins. Arven just places down his ruined sandwich and wipes his hands clean with a napkin. "There is no conceivable way I would be able to successfully ask her out."
"Oh come on man, it's not so hard," says Florian, "Ma already likes you, and I think you're pretty alright. You might as well, you know?"
"Mmmmhh..." Arven grunted, looking behind him to see Juliana with her back turned, still cleaning her crocalor. The upperclassman looks back at Florian, "what do I say?"
"I don't know, I didn't expect you to actually be willing to do it," Florian munched on his sandwich, earning a facepalm from Arven.
"Please, Florian, just-"
"Just ask her directly"
"What will that do? There's no finesse, no style, girls love that."
"It'll be funny, that's enough."
"Funny to who?"
"Me"
Arven facepalms again.
"Oh don't get your boxers in a twist, Arven" Florian puts his sandwich down, "it's just a dance. Everybody is expected to have a date. Just say you need one and she'll gladly go with you. It's prime real estate we're talking about 'ere, and she's waiting to be bought. Why do you think she's trying to keep away from literally everybody else?"
"She is not a property to be bought," Arven glared, his tone deepening. Florian however doesn't flinch, "she's not a goddess either, yet here you are groveling. Just ask her, once they see who they're dealing with, they'll all start going away."
"But what if somebody challenges me to a duel?!"
"That's for marriage, this is a dance we're talking about. Chill out" Florian brings out his phone, getting a notification about a mass outbreak somewhere, "no one's going to want to take another man's girl, and if they are, they are no man."
"But what if-"
"Hey Arven!" Juliana called out, resting her hands on his shoulders, "got a sandwich for me? I'm starving..."
"Huh? Oh, y-yyeah!" Arven grabs one nearby, "here! Have as many as you like!"
"Alright, I gotta go, I think there's something I need to focus on real quick," Florian gets up and takes a sandwich with him before exiting the cave. Leaving the two "lovebirds" inside.
"J-J-Juliana..."
"Thanks Arvy!" Juliana grabs one.
Unfortunately for Arven, there was no meal power for courage, and so he never mustered up any to ask her to the dance. Instead he decided to focus more on making sure his mabosstiff regained its strength. Although it seemed this one had no particular effect. He could only sigh, hoping the summation of herba mystica was enough, once they cleared the last remaining titans.
~+~+~+~+~+~
The Quaking Earth Titan was next. Florian had apparently known of its whereabouts, but was hesitant on going. If he wasn't keen on facing the creature, what more of them? Arven could only roll up his sleeves and steel his nerves. They had to defeat it.
And so they journeyed through the desert, which was full of sandy rocks, tall dunes, and fallen towers. Arven wanted to ride on Koraidon alongside Florian, but the lad insisted Arven ride on Miraidon with Juliana instead, knowing full well what the upperclassman was trying to do.
Florian could only snicker as he watched the contained frustrated expression on Arven's face.
On the back of two the two dragons did they ride into the heart of Asado desert, leaping over various different creatures thanks to the two bike-lizard's newly regained leaping abilities. They reached the titan in time. The titan was exactly as Florian first found it. Its stomps shaking the earth, its massive visage unmistakable as it flattened the earth beneath its feet, roaming in a circle as the sandstorm refused to end. For as long as the titan was here, the sands too were wild and untamed.
Juliana tries to contact Professor Sada, but to no avail. There was no signal this far deep into the desert. Arven doesn't notice her, instead gasping at the sight of the enormous great tusk, and then coughing up some sand that got into his mouth as a result.
"A great tusk!" Arven yelled out, "I'd pull out the books, but I don't want them to be ruined by all this sand!"
"What is it?!"
"It's a creature described in the book as one that hails from Area Zero! It must have breached it and spilled into the desert! It's likely why the desert has been so wild these past few years! We have to stop it before it stirs up any more trouble!" says Arven. The twins nod, and the battle begins.
A razor leaf from Arven's scovillain manages to land along the creature's side, but the ancient donphan only roars before unleashing tornadoes of sand and widening cracks along the earth. Juliana's quaxwell tries to slash the creature with its aqua cutter, only to be blown away by the small shockwaves of power pulsing from within the creature. Juliana catches the duck pokemon and both fall straight into the sand.
"Gah! Darn it! I hate sand!" the girl complains, before quickly getting up and brushing herself off.
"Gardevoir! Psychic!" commanded Florian. The psychic pokemon would proceed to telekinetically stop each and every single individual grain of sand, and even grab hold of the enormous titan. The titan is then encased in a massive ball of sand, before said prison is compressed at all sides, resulting in an explosion of psychic energy which causes the ancient titan to crash onto the ground, causing a tsunami of sand to follow.
"Gah!" says Arven before he is buried underneath a dune of sand. He pops right out, coughing up some sand, all the while lots of it covers his hair.
The great tusk bellowed, adrenaline running through its body, forcing it to rise and flee quickly to its power source. Before Florian could go off to pursue the creature however, the earth quakes again as fissures open up from everywhere. The ground beneath Florian's gardevoir especially as another titanic entity rises from the depths, hitting the fairy type with a point-blank iron head.
The poor psychic-fairy was KO'ed immediately as another titan made itself known, the futuristic donphan, iron treads!
Arven is forcefully carried by the pile of sand as he falls through the fissure into the uncertain drop below, but right before he could fall to his presumed demise, Juliana leaps in after him and grabs him by the ankle. The two are showered by sand as Juliana's body is dragged along the surface, unable to hang onto anything and with Arven too heavy for her much more lithe frame.
Miraidon fortunately was there, standing up bipedally for once to grab its current guardian and pulling both her and Arven out of the deepening fissure. The two laid there, exhausted, as Florian sent out his gabite to bulldoze the iron titan. Soon the iron treaded titan too flees after its fellow beast. Leaving the three alone to briefly recuperate.
"Arven! Are you okay?!" Juliana shakes the upperclassman a bit.
"Y-y-yeah..."
"Good, now enough dilly dallying you two," Florian wipes some sand off of his hair, "we're this close to taking those two down." Quaxwell and scovillain both nodded, they were ready to finish the job with their trainers.
Arven coughed up some more sand, "I think I hate sand now."
Julianna giggles, "that makes two of us."
The two titans shared their herba mystica, and began to overflow with powers. The great tusk's brutal muscles were coursing, its veins pumping blood at an immense rate as it emanated a red steam. The iron treads' on the other hand was supercharged, all of its gears running full swing and unobstructed while its internal systems were at optimum performance. The two creatures, from the past and the future, turned to face the twins and Arven. Both roared as the trio braced themselves.
"Oh boy... get your tera orbs ready, this one's going to be rough!" says Arven. A vicious two for one special. It was definitely karma, in the way. Symbolic two. Her mother was obsessed with the past, and so the great tusk was here. His father was obsessed with the future, thus the iron treads was here. Both faced against him, as well as the twins he'd befriended, who in turn also held their own symbolic problems.
Here's to hoping he doesn't die by the end of all this. He'd much prefer to live and see his mabosstiff walk again.