Chương 12: 1.12 Appetizer

Appetizer 1. 12 Aaron Fulan Mauville City, Hoenn Region I was led to a battlefield with no furnishments. Battles involving higher badge-levels could take place in a wide assortment of field designs, but there was nothing in the here and now. The eccentric gym leader stood at the far end in just a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a tan jacket. His bushy, white beard looked like it hadn't seen a comb in months. The one part of his appearance he seemed to pay attention to was his hair.

He has a single, white tuft on his otherwise bald head that he styled into the shape of a lightning bolt. I couldn't imagine the amount of gel that took. All around him was the aura of happiness. It was good to see that the jolly old man wasn't putting on an act.

"Aaron Fulan!" he bellowed, making me flinch a bit.

"Wahahaha! Are you ready for your challenge?"

"Yes, Leader Wattson."

"Good! We'll get right on that then." Four League-provided baltoy hovered into the room and formed a psychic shield around the field. The ref, a young-ish gym trainer, stood at the side.

"This is the gym battle between Aaron Fulan of Mossdeep City and Gym Leader Wattson," she shouted, enunciating clearing for League records.

"This is the challenger's first gym battle and will be a two on two battle in which only the challenger may make substitutions. Challenger, please send out your pokémon." I motioned for Jeanne to take the field. The mareep bleated cheerily and ambled onto the field, about as unbothered as I'd ever seen anyone. Sometimes, I wished I had Jeanne's casual contentedness.

"Leader Wattson, please release your pokémon."

"Hoh, an electric type? You must be very confident in that mareep, boyo!" With a rambunctious laugh, he tossed a pokéball into the field, revealing a voltorb that shook with barely contained anger. So, really, a normal voltorb.

"Pissed the fuck off" seemed like their natural state of existence.

"If you came here expecting only electric type moves, you're in for a real shock! Wahahaha, I crack myself up!"

"Begin!" the ref called.

"Wahahaha," Wattson let out another booming laugh.

"Roll out the red carpet with Rollout, voltorb!" His shitty jokes made me want to groan audibly, but I didn't have the time. The voltorb was fast.

"Jeanne, Protect then Spore!" The voltorb careened into my little lamb just as an emerald shield stuttered to life around her. It cracked with a single collision, but it was enough to send the voltorb's momentum elsewhere. Then, as the danger-ball began to course-correct, Jeanne positively exploded into a cloud of wool fluff. It was barely directed, couldn't really be called an attack. I saw several fly in my direction and bounce off the psychic barriers.

Within moments, my side of the field looked like a kindergarten's attempt at an indoor "snow day." The voltorb took the brunt of the "attack." A tide of woolen balls rose up in front of it like a castle wall, slashing its momentum to a more manageable pace.

"Now, Tackle!"

"Ma-reep!" she cried as she charged forward. She wasn't very fast, a little encumbered by her own newfound terrain, but she did have the benefit of horns. Like a miniature taurus, she flung herself horns-first at the wide-eyed voltorb, launching it back to Wattson's side of the field.

"Chase it, then Cotton Spore again." My little lamb dutifully ran over to Wattson's own field. Instead of trying to tackle the ticking time bomb, she let out a bleating cry and drowned his field in woolen balls too.

"Excellent use of terrain, challenger," Wattson complimented. His eyes sharpened and his aura flared with newfound interest.

"Sonic Boom!" The voltorb screeched, letting out a wall of sound that impacted like a physical force. It wasn't like the Sonic Boom of an exploud thankfully; it wasn't leveling buildings or anything, but it was still enough to clear the woolen balls in the area, flinging them away to form a circle around it. It screeched again, a lower frequency this time, and a ripple of distorted air launched out like a missile and struck Jeanne. It was her turn to be flung across the field.

"Mareep!" she cried in pain.

"Now follow it with Rollout." The voltorb was too fast. It rolled around within its cleared circle until it built enough momentum to disregard the woolen spores. It then careened towards Jeanne, launching her into the psychic barriers before she could recover. She made a good showing, but in the end, she was too slow and too inexperienced to do much more. I had hoped that Jeanne would be able to defeat the voltorb and use Flash to blind the electrike, but that turned out to be too much to ask for.

"Return," I recalled her with a gentle smile.

"You were brilliant, Jeanne."

"Challenger, please reveal your final pokémon," the ref said, as if it wasn't obvious who my anchor would be.

"Artoria, ready?" White flames of will blazed brightly around her.' I will avenge my comrade,' she swore in my mind, swinging her spoon forward into chūdan.

"Wahaha, that's quite the fiery ralts you've got there. Electrifying! I like it!"

"Nuki waza," I told her, our bond flickering with what I had in mind. Wattson's brows furrowed. I didn't just teach Artoria to respond to kendo forms because I thought it was cute, though it was; it also provided a significant advantage in battle. Good trainers, especially people with decades of experience like Wattson, could discern their opponents' strategies from overhearing a handful of vocal commands. Unless Wattson was familiar with Kantoan sword arts in this world, that advantage was gone.

"Rollout," he ordered. I said nothing, smiling genially as his voltorb rolled towards my ralts. Against a human, that would no doubt be bone-breaking force. Artoria's smile mirrored my own. Then, a second before impact, she moved. She stepped forward, her foot gliding on the ground. A single step brought her adjacent to the voltorb. Her spoon collided with her opponent in a swerving arc, its head scooping up the ball pokémon like a lacrosse stick.

For a fraction of a second, the voltorb ground against the spoon futilely. Then, the Mana Edge exploded. The blast launched the voltorb clear across the field until it was stopped painfully by the psychic barriers in front of Wattson, making the old man flinch slightly. For once, he had no jokes or puns. He wordlessly recalled the fallen voltorb.

"Sorry, Jeanne needs some work, but Artoria's my starter for a reason," I said.

"If you underestimate her because she uses a spoon, you're going to be in for a bad time."

"I can see that," Wattson replied. Then, slowly, a wide grin split his face.

"Wahahaha, alright, Aaron. I'll admit the little missy's got spark. Now, electrike, let's bring the thunder!" With that, the pokémon I'd initially wanted appeared. I'd gotten pretty knowledgeable about the species over the past week. This electrike sported green fur with highlights of golden yellow around its mane. I noticed that the yellow had fully overtaken the sides, telling me that it was a mature specimen. The longer mane marked it as male.

"Electrike, Quick Attack," Wattson barked. The lightning pokémon obeyed. To my untrained eyes, he all but disappeared in a blur of white. It was only the corona of emotions that surrounded him that allowed me to track his movements. In a second, he'd already crossed the field to clash fang to spoon against Artoria. I'd drilled into her head that head-on confrontations weren't the way to go, but he was so fast that she didn't have the chance to dodge away or throw out a Protect.

She grit her teeth and dug in her heels, bracing as much as her slim body would allow. Even with Confusion bolstering her own physical strength, she was being pushed back.

"Teleport," I said. I wanted to save it to surprise Wattson, but I wasn't given much of a choice. In a flash of blue, she was in Wattson's side of the field. She had positioned herself to place the bulk of the woolen spores between her and her opponent. If he wanted to reach her, he'd have to weave his way between the spores and do his best to not accumulate too many, giving her precious seconds to react.

"Thunder Shock."

"Lightning rod," I countered. I sent her a telepathic image of what I expected. Artoria stuck her metal spoon in the ground and stepped away, taking a knee to minimize her already short stature. The lightning sailed above her head, drawn to the silver.

"Smart, but not good enough. Shock Wave!" Rather poor naming aside, the attack was dangerous. Electrike's yellow highlights glowed blue as electricity coalesced in his fur. Then, he barked, sending an arc of directed lightning that ignored Artoria's makeshift lightning rod completely to strike my unprepared starter.

"Ralts!" she cried in pain. Seeing that baiting the electrike wouldn't do any good, I made a snap decision.

"Rush in," I told her.

"Attack and don't let up. Burst!" The lightly packed dirt beneath her feet cratered, sending a cloud of dust into the air as she shot out like a meteor. There was pain in her aura, but also resolve and joy. This was what she'd been waiting for, a chance to prove that her faith in the way of a knight was not misplaced. As though her sword had a mind of its own, it dug itself out of the ground and slapped into her outstretched hands.

"Double Team!"

"We can play that game. Match her, electrike!" It was almost a mirror copy of Artoria's battle against Lucky the elekid. She split into six and the electrike followed. The twelve pokémon met in the middle of the field, but she wasn't aiming for the electrike. Mana Edge struck the ground with a thunderous crack. All her psychic energy and momentum were channeled into one mighty blow that covered the field in a thick dust cloud.

"Now, all out!" Cotton Spore was my Plan A. Flash was my Plan B. This was my Plan C. Wattson was blind so long as the dust cloud persisted. So was electrike. Artoria and I had our empathy to draw on. Inside the cloud, twelve silhouettes of our two pokémon danced.

"Get out of there!" Wattson shouted, a sense of urgency entering his voice for the first time this battle.

"Keep him there," I said. I could almost taste victory. Artoria teleported from one edge of the cloud to the other, striking then warping away and keeping electrike from leaving her impromptu battlefield even while her clones distracted him. It was death by a thousand cuts. A full-power Mana Edge would be counterproductive, knocking him out of the cloud, so she was reducing the strength of her own attacks while avoiding his own.

"Enough. Flash!" I cursed inwardly. It was a strategy I'd planned with Jeanne, so why wouldn't Wattson think of it? Bright light filled the gym. I heard Artoria yelp in surprise, giving away her location. She was promptly tackled out of the cloud and back onto my side of the field. I blinked the spots out of my eyes to see Artoria on her knees. To be fair, the electrike wasn't faring much better.

Even through his green fur, I could see that he was one big mass of bruises and he stepped gingerly as if it hurt to put weight on his forelimbs. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Splendid use of strategy," Wattson complimented me.

"It was a truly charged battle, but I think it's gone on long enough."

"Artoria, can you stand?"' Y-Yes, my lord,' she said, but her thoughts were staggered like I'd never heard her before. She began to stand on shaky legs.

'I am your knight, your sword and shield. Your dreams will be my own, your dearest wish my reason for being. This, I swore!' It started first with her spoon. It began to shine with the telltale blue of psychic aura, only to get brighter and brighter. The aura spread, covering her entire body so thickly that her crimson horns looked violet in the light. Flickers of white sparks danced from her hands.

"End this, electrike. Howl into Spark!" A canine howl pierced the gym, stirring my caveman fight or flight instincts and making my hair stand on end. Lightning arced around his fur. He started with a walk, wincing in pain. His eyes sharpened and the walk turned into a sprint as he stoutly ignored his own injuries. A comet of yellow electricity streaked towards her. She met it with a charge of her own, a wordless war cry on her lips.

"Electrike!"

"Ralts!" Then, in the moment of impact, white overtook blue and the light of evolution shoved the electrike back. It was different from the white aura I saw that represented willpower. There was no way to explain it, but it sent what limited psychic senses I had into overdrive. The light dimmed, revealing my new kirlia. She stood on trembling legs, panting desperately as she held her sword towards her downed opponent. She was still filthy, caked in dirt and bruised all over her white blouse.

Evolution didn't magically fix every problem like it did in the anime; she was still very much on her last legs. I had enough. I'd gotten what I wanted, a challenging foe to battle and the chance for Artoria to evolve. My hand twitched towards her ball to concede the match. If the electrike could continue after that, we'd just come back in a week and stomp it flat.

"Leader Wattson's electrike is unable to battle. Challenger Aaron and kirlia are the victors!" the ref called, drawing me from my thoughts. She'd been so quiet that I honestly forgot we had one. Then the gravity of that declaration weighed in on me and I laughed. I was so focused on my new kirlia that I completely missed the electrike fall over in exhaustion. We'd done it. Jeanne, Artoria, and I had our first badge. The psychic shield went down and I ran out to embrace my partner.

Even evolved, she was still a diminutive two feet. She'd grow taller in time. I scooped her up and twirled her around.

"We did it," I said.

"We won! You were amazing!"' M-My lord! Please let me go,' my adorable knight pouted, upset that she was still so easily huggable. I'd catch hell for it later, but I couldn't help but think that her ridiculous spoon was finally the appropriate length to qualify as a standard longsword now.

"Well done," Wattson said as he walked over, "and congratulations on her evolution."

"Thank you, Leader Wattson," I said with a respectful bow.

"Wahahaha, you're as formal as Sharon. She told us to expect you."

"Mom? You spoke with her?"

"All the gym leaders did. That girl's very proud of you, you know."

"She has a funny way of showing it," I grumbled. Then, I thought of something, a nagging suspicion.

"Did… Did mom tell you to use a stronger pokémon?"

"Yes, yes she did. Electrike here is one of the ones I reserve for the second badge," the jolly old man revealed.

"Typically, first badge challenges don't involve a pokémon who's quite so fast. He also knows a lot more moves than I normally use."

"Fucking hell. Why?"

"Wahahaha! Why? Because she believes in you of course." The ref reappeared carrying two boxes. Wattson opened them and handed me the golden Dynamo badge and a TM disc.

"Here. The badge is what you get for winning. The TM contains Shock Wave and I hand these out to truly exceptional trainers."

"Thank you," I said, even if I felt a little bitter towards mom. Not for the first time, I wondered if I'd be better off without her particular brand of tough love. X Today had been a long day. The battle against Wattson hadn't lasted more than half an hour, but it left all of us feeling drained. It was only noon when I returned to the pokémon center, but I wanted nothing more than to fall back into bed. Still, that could wait.

After entrusting my pokémon to the nurses, I grabbed a quick shower, pinned the Dynamo Badge on the inside hem of my favorite jacket, and started packing. I'd be out the door tomorrow, headed to Verdanturf to hopefully snag that gardevoirite before Wanda could get her hands on it. Honestly, chances were slim. I was banking on Artoria being able to sense the psychic and fae energy signature given off by the mega stone, just as she'd done with the alakazite in Slateport.

If she couldn't, I'd just have to accept that it wasn't there and wait for another opportunity. I came back down to the lobby and grabbed my pokémon, thanking the on-call nurse. I released my pokémon onto the pokémon center lobby.

"Artoria, Jeanne, how do you feel?"

"Mareep!" my excitable mareep bleated cheerfully, completely unbothered by her defeat. Most other pokémon would have either been down or felt the need to jump back into training to avenge their loss, not Jeanne. Her tail and horns literally shone with good cheer as arcs of electricity danced merrily in her wool.' I am well, my liege. Better than well,' my first pokémon said with a smile.

The green bangs covering her eyes as a ralts had been shifted to one side, revealing a single, ruby eye that almost seemed too large for her face. I could see why so many people found the ralts line so cute; they had facial features similar to those of babies. Her inner voice was different too. As a ralts, her telepathy had been astonishingly clear, light and airy like the summer breeze. As a kirlia, her thoughts felt weightier.

The voice was deeper too, more mature, but there was more to it than me associating her thoughts with sounds. The truth was, telepathy wasn't as people assumed; it was more complicated than just "talking, but with thoughts." A single thought was more than just a series of sound waves or rationalizations. Thoughts contained a whole host of associated emotions, instincts, and memories that were jumbled together into a singular package.

There was no way for an undisciplined or inexperienced mind to untangle the complex web of mental associations without help. It was why people who experienced telepathy for the first time often missed subtle nuances. Just as spoken words could convey a number of connotations based on tone, telepathic thoughts could be equally complex. As a kirlia, each of her thoughts felt more organized, more controlled, than they did as a ralts.

I could feel her care, love, devotion, and passion with every word, but they were carefully curated now in a way that was no less genuine than before. Impossible to explain, but that difference was immense.

"I can see that," I said, sending her a pulse of affection. Reaching down, I ruffled her hair and chuckled as she went cherry-red. It never ceased to amuse me that my kirlia could feel my emotions at all times and so enjoyed a type of intimacy most people would never experience, but immediately turned into a stuttering mess at the first sign of physical affection.

"Good. We'll have time to talk about the battle later. We'll go over what we did right and what we could do better. But for now, I need to give mom a call."' Lady Sharon?'

"Mareep?"

"Kir-Kirlia," Artoria explained to Jeanne.

"Yes. It seems she told Wattson to make our battle harder than it needed to be."

"Reep? Mareep?"' Why?' I rolled my eyes.

"Why else? Because she's a social cripple who is incapable of showing love except by pushing people harder and harder." Artoria frowned.

'She is not that bad, my liege.'

"Really? We're talking about the same woman here, right? The one who signed me up for the Junior Astronauts Summer Camp and expected me to rank first? At the age of eight?"' Well…'

"Or how about the time she had me memorize great granddad's journal word for word because it contained the basics of pokémon nutrition? At the age of seven?"' She just wants you to be your best?'

"Yes, that's the problem, Artoria," I said, letting out a frustrated sigh as I led us back to our room.

"I know she loves me, I can see emotions fine. I just have a problem with her complete inability to show affection."' Be that as it may, my liege, you shouldn't speak ill of your mother.' Reaching down, I scooped her up into my arms.

"Oh, fine. You're right." In my room, I flipped open my PokéNav and dialed home. It was picked up in two rings and Tate's cute face filled the screen.

"Aaron! Liza! Come quick, it's Aaron!" he shouted excitably.

"Aaron? Hey, bro!" Her face squished into the screen, pushing her brother away.

"Congratulations!"

"You already heard about the gym battle?" I asked, surprised. The recording wouldn't go live for a few hours at least to give the League porygons a chance to scrub it for glitches or classified details, not that a battle at my level would have any.

"Kind of? Mom was teaching us divination today and we decided to check up on you." I had mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I lived in a world of psychics. My family were some of the more powerful ones around and privacy was ultimately an illusion. As Aaron Fulan, I'd come to terms with that long ago. But on the other hand, Aaron Kanda-Locke grew up in a society where privacy was heavily prized. That part of me wanted to be upset with my siblings and mom for allowing it.

True, I had a similar connection with my kirlia, but it felt different with her. Constantly being able to feel her loyalty towards me went a long way to soothing ruffled feathers. I swallowed. Perhaps it was a matter of distance.

"So you saw the battle?"

"Uh-huh. Your ralts evolved!"

"She did," I said agreeably and nudged Artoria in front of the camera.

"Say hi, Artoria."

"Artoria? Is that her name?"

"Hello, Lord Tate, Lady Liza, I hope you are well," my little knight said, though it came out as "Kirlia-kir."

"Mareep!" Jeanne cried, feeling left out. She bumped the PokéNav out of my hand. Looking at the camera, she gave the lens a curious lick and shuddered in disgust.

"Mareep…"

"Woah, what? Was that your mareep?"

"Jeanne, come back." I tucked the sheep under one arm and my pixie in the other and placed my camera on my knee.

"Yeah. I actually caught her yesterday."

"Wait, you went into a gym battle with a fresh capture?" Tate asked, scandalized.

"Wow, I would never have been able to tell. She almost beat that voltorb," Liza added.

"Yeah. Jeanne's a quick study. She might be more suited for contests though. She really wants to be the 'most radiant ampharos in the world' or something."

"Ooh, a contest-trained ampharos would be really pretty," my little sis squealed. She was still in the phase where she was picking her favorite pokémon based on how cute they were. When I left, her favorite was togekiss. Who knew what it was now? Suddenly, the image lifted itself into the air. When it settled, I saw the stern face of my mother.

"Hello, son."

"Hi mom. I hear you rigged my match."

"Hardly. I felt you deserved a worthy challenge."

"Did you know I'd win?"

"Of course. You're my son."

"You know, that'd almost be touching if I didn't know for a fact you just looked ahead to see me with the Dynamo Badge."

"Uncertainty is for lesser minds," she sniffed.

"Was… Was that a joke? You can joke?"

"I'll have you know I am not devoid of humor." I felt Artoria's elbow in my side.

"Yeah, fine, fine. Should I expect all my gym battles to be equally difficult?"

"No, Quinn and I just felt that Artoria needed a little push."

"To evolve."

"Indeed. Your father sends his regards, young one," she said to Artoria. Quinn the gallade appeared by his mistress' side in a flash of blue.

"Gallade. Gal. Gall-ade."

"Kir? Lia?"

"Gallade."

"Kirlia!" I had no idea what the two were saying to each other, but I took the flaring of purple and blue aura around my starter to mean they were enjoying themselves.

"Where's dad?"

"Dad's off on a training seminar," Tate chimed in.

"He said he needs to update his zero-g certificate."

"Huh, cool. Tell him I said hey."

"Okay."

"So," I said as casually as I could. I'd thought about this. In the end, I wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, but…

"I found an alakazite."

"You what?" It was the first time I'd seen mom surprised in a while. She didn't emote well at the best of times. Her surprised face was just two rapid blinks, but I savored it. Even that loss of control spoke volumes where she was concerned. Reaching into my bag, I held it out before the camera.

"I have an alakazite."

"So I see…"

"No, 'As expected of my son,' or 'As I had foreseen?'" I teased.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scoffed.

"I have no expectations in your ability to track down rare items."

"Oww."

"And you know powerful relics are blindspots."

"Yeah… I'm going to have to brush up on precogs," I said honestly.

"I forgot about most of it after you told me I didn't have the Sight."

"Typical. The future is ever-changing, Aaron. Looking into the future is like looking into a reflection in the mirror. In the end, we shape our reflections."

"Cool, very mystical and all, but what does that have to do with relics being blindspots? I mean, it makes some sense. If you could divine the location of mega stones, we'd be sitting on a small mountain of them."

"Quite. The mega stones and their key stone counterparts, as well as several other items, are universal constants. You will find it utterly impossible to break one. The weight of their existence interferes with our sight." I still didn't understand but nodded along anyway.

"Huh, neat. So… you can't find one? You mean…" I grinned slyly.

"I have something you wouldn't be able to get?"

"Truly, Arceus favors the dim-witted."

"Oww…" Still, I grinned. That was as good as begging with her. More importantly, it meant no one, literally no one knew the locations of mega stones. This was likely true of several relics such as the Lustrous and Adamant Orbs. I decided to make sorting my memories a priority. It wasn't an art I had any natural talent in, but I'd push through with bullheaded effort.

"What do you plan on doing with it?" I shrugged.

"Who knows. How much do you think this will go for?" She frowned.

"You want to… sell… an artifact of immense power?"

"I'm joking. Want it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Do you want to alakazite."

"Yes… What will it cost me?"

"A favor," I said.

"I'm going to cash in a favor sometime in the future and it'll be one that requires you to leverage your position as a gym leader."

"Done." This time, it was my turn to be surprised.

"Just like that?"

"A gym leader may reward a sponsored trainer for meritorious deeds. I will not show favoritism because you are my son, but locating a mega stone would qualify."

"Huh."

"Indeed. I recommend you think carefully about this favor. There are many who would go to great lengths to have me 'owe them one.' Do not squander it."

"I won't," I said firmly.

"So… What now?"

"Now I will send Quinn to you to pick it up."

"Sure, when can I expe-" I was cut off by the bright light of Quinn's Teleport. Artoria's father was tall for a gallade at six feet. His emerald and white armor gleamed in the light. The angular crystal on his chest pulsed with power, bathing the room with psychic energy.

"Hey, Quinn," I greeted, tossing him the alakazite.

"Tell Alfonse to have some fun and pull that third spoon out of his ass."' As crass as ever, young lord,' he spoke in my mind, his voice a rich, deep baritone.

"Right, you're why Artoria insists on calling me 'lord.'"' There is nothing wrong with proper etiquette.'

"Right, right," I waved him off. The gallade was as big a chuuni as his daughter. Though to be fair, he was as close to a true knight as anyone could get.' Father.'' Daughter. You have advanced quickly.'' I have.'' I look forward to seeing the knight you will become.' With that rejoinder, he was gone.

"I think that means he's proud of you."' Father acknowledged me,' Artoria said shakily.

"He's always acknowledged you."' As a daughter. This is the first time he ever called me a knight.' I pulled my pokémon into a hug.

"Well it's about time. We're going to save Mossdeep for last. Then, for our eighth badge, we're going to shove a spoon so far up his ass he'll be tasting breakfast for dinner."' You are far too crass,' she admonished, but I could see the corners of her mouth twitch upward.

"Mareep."' See? Jeanne agrees with me.'

"Right, right. My own pokémon are ganging up on me." We hung up shortly after. The three of us spent the rest of the day going over the battle and watching reruns of pokémon contests so Jeanne could get an idea of what they were like. Author's Note Hopefully, that gym battle was suitably epic. It's a little hard to give the battle the gravitas it's due. Closing an arc is always a little challenging.

I need to conclude at a decent point and wrap up some plot threads while leaving a few hanging for me to pick up on later. I think Verdanturf and a favor owed by Sharon Fulan are good enough for me to pick it up later. Now, any guesses as to what this favor might be? This concludes Arc 1 of When is a Spoon a Sword? I will be switching back to Legendary Tinker, my Worm/Runeterra cross. Thank you for reading.

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