#enigmoth

[duckapus]

It's actually pretty easy for everyone to figure out who Mr. L is working with and why they took those four Avatars specifically thanks to the fact that GG has actually been playing "Connected Cosmos: The Game" and was looking forward to the new crossover update (her name is gamer girl, this is pretty much her Whole Thing, remember?). Of course, there's the issue that they can't just go into any old copy of the game and grab them once the update comes out, since it wouldn't be their version of them, so they have to find and break into the CCC's systems and the developer server, which is... shockingly well-hidden considering Jayin couldn't possibly know how to hide it from a Digital World perspective. Still, this is the internet, people talk, somebody's bound to know where it is. It also helps that, thanks to Timmy being so deeply entrenched in things and Alyssa obviously wanting to help when she finds out what's going on, the Grid is fully on board with helping the Admins and Meme Alliance in this, and Alyssa in particular has a lot of useful information to contribute as a co-founder and former employee of the company.

And of course there's plenty of friends they can call on from all over the 'net and beyond. Thus, the plan goes like this:

During prep we have three teams

Team one will scour the Digital Multiverse in search of an entry point to the Connected Cosmos Company Servers. Overseer and Abyssal will take point on this since Overseer has more knowledge of the modern DM's layout and cultures than just about anyone else and he already has Abyssal's contact info. The Grid will also be heavily involved in this part due to their extensive spy network.

Team two will learn all the ins and outs of Connected Cosmos: The Game so that when things get going the infiltration teams will have as much information as possible. Gamer Girl and the kids will be in charge of this since GG has a big head-start thanks to already playing it on her own time and the kids wanted to help and this was a relatively safe option for those of them who wouldn't have been as much help during the big fight.

Team three will be more general preparations. Getting the Codeship Fleet up and running, finding the cure for the Nintendo Firewall Virus plaguing the stolen Avatars, recruiting allies, coming up with the actual attack plan, etc. This will mainly be in the hands of the Avatars and the Meme Alliance.

Also, they need to transfer the memes refugees in Equestria to a server that can actually support a Meme Cycle as soon as possible, especially the Dead Memes. Discord is keeping them from becoming Corrupted somehow but whatever he's doing isn't sustainable in the long term, especially since it technically counts as actively preventing chaos and is thus taking a toll on him.

In the meantime, Jayin notices Tama is in the game when she's supposed to have been dead for years in-universe, but shrugs it off and figures she can just stick her in Devos as a random NPC, let the fans speculate, then come up with a quest involving her and put it in one of the smaller updates later down the line (it's an MMO, the players'll eat that shit up).

While Jayin's convinced she's already won (since her inability to see most Digital Beings as people means she's only considering Glitch Productions' possible reaction to this) Mr. L has enough experience both as part of Luigi and as the Crew's enemy to know this is far from over, so he slips through one of the leftover cracks between dimensions and makes a deal with someone those Junior Heroes would never expect...

Once things actually kick off, this is the plan:

The fleet, led by Peach and made up of everyone and everything they've got that can withstand Code Space, will battle the CCC's outer defenses (Twilight monsters, Brobots of every type, the CCC's own Code-level beings, and Mr. L's surprise guest who I'll be introducing in an actual ficlet) to keep the heat off of the infiltration teams.

One infiltration team will be all the Avatars/Anchors and their Crews and some other allies (except Doc and his Hamtor army, who have a Codeship and are part of the fleet) will enter Connected Cosmos: The Game courtesy of Timmy making a wish (since they know that FOP Fairy Magic trumps firewalls but Jayin doesn't), cure the stolen Avatars, then take out all the major Bosses in Renata, Harmonia and Sleeping Gaia (because the Twilit Rifts the bosses are connected to are acting as anchors keeping the stolen code attached to CC:TG's developer server) and await extraction.

The other infiltration team consists of Steve, Rob, Welony, Cursor, Samurai Bob, King Mickey, the AVA Squad and Enigmoth (the Paradox Pokemon, a legendary Bug/Dragon type that has Phase Shift, an ability that makes it not exist every other turn) sneak through the firewalls in a Gummi Ship using Enigmoth's Ability while Chroma and Blaze are being distracted by Mira (she's literally running across the physical firewalls to exploit the fact that firewall programs are programmed to destroy potential virus infiltrators at all costs because if you'll recall her base programming is to be annoying as hell and never get caught) so they can get into the maintenance areas of the CCC Servers and find and destroy the Purchase Keys so this can never happen again (Piracy, Bitches!!!)

Then the final steps are to breech the Firewalls entirely (they will, in fact, have several options for doing so) and have their strongest Programs grab the three Servers and the infiltration teams and hightail it out of there.

Jayin won't be able to do shit about it legally, since if she tries to press charges she'll have to explain how the hell it even happened, which will either make her sound nuts, or pull back the veil of secrecy and in the process reveal that she's exactly the kind of person she's been getting portrayed as in SMG4 and the Grid's videos when so far it's been seen by the viewers as part parody of studio execs in general, part Alyssa being understandably bitter about what happened to her. Either way her reputation would take a massive hit, and she would not be willing to do that to herself even if it would make her win overall.

As you might expect, this is going to work, but it will not go off without several hitches.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Terrible idea that I'm for some reason obsessed with for a Computer Hell inmate the Abyss could recruit:

A version of Black Doom who was the main villain of the movie Enigmoth featured in, and who got taken to Computer Hell after being defeated by Ash. He's ridiculously powerful compared to other versions of Black Doom because he's actually a straight-up God of Destruction who is Arceus's direct counterpart... but he's also hilariously cringe and pathetic when he's not actively bringing about the apocalypse. He and Arceus are apparently divorced and he's still not over it even though it's been billions of years (he's not taking you back dude), he's apparently an Epic Gamer with over 3000 hours logged in "The Fortnites" (yes he actually calls it that), repeatedly tries to commiserate with The Abyss over both of them having kids who hate them (he apparently had a hand in Ghiratina's creation specifically. she Does Not return his calls), uses internet slang really badly to sound Hip with the Young People, unironically calls himself the God of Edgelords (and knowing how memes work it's probably even true), you get the idea.

Most of the group finds him kind of annoying, but he's one of the most powerful and competent members (even counting the Code-Levels) and comes with his own army and a massive mobile base of operations for them to use once they're actually out of Computer Hell so they'll learn to live with it.

(And yes, he really likes Radical Highway)

IM TRYIMG SO HARD NOT TO LAUGH OM THE BUS. This is one of the funniest things I ever read and I love it.

Even the Abyss watches him, a little like "damn, this guy.. this guy might either be what I need to win or he's gonna make everyone die of cringe first."

[duckapus]

Some ideas I've had for new Pokemon Abilities

Abilities similar to Normalize, Pixelate, etc.: (so they convert Normal Type moves into another type and give them a slight power boost)

Liquify- Water

Ignite- Fire

Vegetate- Grass

Fossilize- Rock

Erode- Ground

Mechanize- Steel

Infest- Bug

Exercise- Fighting

Inspirit- Ghost

Toxify- Poison

Corrupt- Dark

Drakonize- Dragon

Abilities similar to Scrappy and Corrosion (so ignores immunities):

Uninsulated- Electric Type moves will affect Ground Types

Miracle Vision- Psychic Type moves will affect Dark Types (originally intended as a signature ability for a Mega Jirachi concept)

Manifest- Ghost Type moves will affect Normal Types

Mudslinger- Ground Type moves will affect Flying Types

Glittering Fangs- Dragon Type moves will affect Fairy Types

Tied to specific Fakemon ideas: (I won't be including Forme Change abilities since those kind of need pictures for context)

Patch Job- When the Pokemon is returned without fainting, the next Pokemon to enter battle will be healed a little. The signature ability of Doodoll and Cellouette, and one of the signature abilities of Animaniq.

Slapstick- The Pokemon takes half damage from contact moves, and its Defense is raised by one stage whenever it's hit by one. The other signature ability of Animaniq, which it gets if it evolves from a Cellouette with Dancer (which in turn gets that from a Doodoll with Synchronize).

Blast Sheild- The Pokemon does not take damage from explosion-based moves, and is not knocked out when it uses Explosion and its variants. The signature ability of Mega Electrode, though I did give it to Bob-omb and Bob-ulk in the SMG4 Factory Reset AU.

Event Horizon- Prevents all Pokemon from leaving battle, like Shadow Tag and Arena Trap. The signature ability of Geomatrix since it's basically a living microscopic black hole.

Sand Bath- Functionally identical to Earth Eater, just reflavored for something that isn't a giant worm with a muppet mouth. A hidden ability I came up with for a Ground-Type Eeveelution called Dusteon a few years ago before Orthworm was even a Thing.

Sunbathe- Identical Comatose but the Pokemon also heals in harsh sunlight. The signature ability of a Normal/Grass evolution of Komala called Koalimb.

Out of Body- Comatose combined with Long Reach. The signature ability of a Normal/Psychic evolution of Komala called Astroala.

Inebriated- Comatose but the Pokemon also can't be Confused. The signature ability of a Normal/Fighting evolution of Komala called Kowhallop.

Amplifier- All sound-based attacks increase in power when used in succession. Echoed Voice is not affected due to already having this property. The signature ability of the Normal/Fairy Donandan Smeargle and its evolution Borkestra, who are musicians instead of painters and learn exclusively sound-based moves on level-up instead of exclusively Sketch.

Knight's Code- The Pokemon cannot exit battle if the opponent's level is equal or greater than theirs. The signature ability of the Electric/Steel Donandan Gallade (the rest of the Donandan Ralts line is Electric/Dragon, and can have either Synchronize or Rough Skin, but Gallade can only have Knight's Code.)

Magnetize- When this Pokemon is on the field, no-one's Electric Type moves are able to miss. The signature ability of the Psychic/Electric Donandan Psyduck (Mutant Psyduck in Factory Reset), and one of the signature abilities of Donandan Golduck.

Electrokinesis- Electric Type moves also do Psychic Type damage (calculates the same way as Flying Press). The other signature ability of Donandan Golduck, who will have it if it evolves from a Psyduck with Anger Point.

Phase Shift- Every other turn, the Pokemon goes out-of-phase from the rest of the universe and cannot use or be directly affected by any moves. Items will still work for game balance reasons. The signature ability of the Bug/Dragon Legendary Enigmoth.

Crumble- After five turns, the Pokemon's Speed and Defense are halved. The signature ability of the Ghost Type Regiruin.

Pollution- When this Pokemon enters battle the air is filled with toxic gas for five turns (or until someone uses Defog). During that time any Pokemon that can be Poisoned will be and any Pokemon that can't will have their Special Defense lowered, including the Pokemon responsible. The signature ability of the Poison Type Regismog.

Incomprehensible- All Pokemon who see this Pokemon will be confused. Does not affect Pokemon who can't be confused, Pokemon with something obscuring their vision (hair, closed eyes, Minior before its shell breaks, etc.), or Pokemon who are just plain blind like Sliggoo and Zubat. The signature ability of the Psychic Type Regiwarp.

Crusade- If the Pokemon lands a Super Effective attack, its Attack and Special Attack go up by one stage. If it misses any attack, it takes damage. The signature ability of the Dark Type Regirook.

Haunted- The Pokemon functions as though it is a Ghost Type in addition to whatever other types it has. The signature ability of the Grass/Fire Mega Gourgeist.

Natural Curse- Any Pokemon who cames into contact with this Pokemon become Grass Type for the rest of the battle. The signature ability of Mega Trevenant.

Miscellaneous:

inner Fire- Identical to Haunted but for Fire Types. Technically it's exclusive to a certain Pokemon but that has to do with spoilers for the Papa Meowth AU fic I'll hopefully actually write someday.

Contagious- Contact with the Pokemon either Poisons the opponent, replaces the opponent’s ability with Contagious, or both. It would be a signature ability for the Electric/Poison Donandan Pikachu and Raichu, but I also came up with a pure Poison type called Atchu based on a cold virus that has that as its only ability.

Clean Sweep- When the Pokemon enters battle it removes all entry hazards (including ones you've set on the opponent's side) and prevents any more being set as long as it's on the field.

Atomic- The power of Explosion and its variants is doubled

Mind over Matter- Huge Power but for Special Attack