Roadhog vs Pharah

There wasn't much headway being made on both sides. Snorlax had set up so much that it could hardly move, while skarmory just finished spraying its final layer of spikes. Roadhog knew what Pharah's next move will be.

"Whirlwind…"

"Get em good snorlax! Fire punch!"

Snorlax easily brushed past the stealth rocks and spikes scattered all around the arena, taking advantage of skarmory's command to use whirlwind. With its fist aflame and a gigantic boost to its attack from all those turns of curse, its fist melted right through skarmory's defenses, grounding it in a deafening blow.

What roadhog failed to consider, was skarmory's ability, sturdy. Gingerly, the armor bird pokemon got back into the air, and unleashed a powerful gust of wind, blasting snorlax back into its pokeball. Roadhog grunted, quite clearly frustrated. He wasn't messing around now. Sending swampert out of its pokeball, roadhog pulled out his hook, with a key stone embedded at the base of one of its barbs.

"Grill em like bacon, swampert! Mega Evolve!"

The swampertite on swampert's collar glowed with a blinding light, the beams connecting to the key stone in roadhog's hook. The crowd watched in amazement as swampert's arms swelled and grew, its fins growing outwards and feet bracing apart. With a roar, mega swampert surrounded itself with water and crashed headfirst into skarmory, earning roadhog the first point of the match. From the competitors' seats, Roadhog could hear Junkrat cheering him on. If the other 2 of pharah's pokemon were this easy to defeat, roadhog knew he was in for an easy victory.

Pharah wasn't one to pull her most powerful pokemon to lead. Stroking the pokeball that held her trump card, she instead sent out her second pokemon.

"Go, Toucannon!"

The newest addition to her team squawked as it landed on its feet and tail, while roadhog quite rudely let out a long chuckle. Anyone who underestimated the final evolution of the more common bird pokemon of any region was to receive a nasty surprise. With roadhog's ignorance of more recent discoveries, pharah might just be able to take his swampert down.

"Swampert, ice punch!"

Pharah ordered toucannon to wait. She knew an outright assault on a mega evolved pokemon as bulky as swampert would be significantly less effective. Instead, as swampert lumbered closer on all fours, rearing up with its fist of cold, blue ice, ready to deliver the finishing blow…

"Now, toucannon! Bullet seed!"

Toucannon's beak, almost completely red from those few moments of heating up, burst open and blasted countless seeds at swampert's exposed belly. The attack took the mud fish pokemon by surprise, knocking it back. But swampert managed to dig one of its clawed arms into the ground, and with roadhog's command of earthquake, caused it to dig in further and anchor itself, while forcing toucannon to fly and continue its assault from another angle.

Pharah began to grow worried. As much as toucannon's ability, skill link, improved the power of bullet seed, she feared that toucannon could not keep up the barrage of seeds for long enough to take swampert down. Furthermore, swampert was lying prone on the ground, its heavily scaled back taking most of the damage. After a few more butt-clenching moments, toucannon finally ended its assault, as swampert carefully uncurled itself.

"Almost got it, toucannon! Use return!"

With a sparkle in its eyes, toucannon channelled all its strength in a full-body tackle, expecting to take swampert out. Instead, it found itself slamming into the blazing hot body of an emboar that roadhog just commanded to switch in. Despite the small window of reaction time, emboar grabbed toucannon by the beak before any follow-up could be made and slammed it to the ground with its fist aflame.

Seeing toucannon momentarily incapacitated on the ground, roadhog gave a long, hearty laugh that was cut short by a coughing fit.

"Heh, good punch emboar. Finish it with wild charge!"

Emboar's arms crackled with electricity. Jumping into the air, it landed a devastating elbow drop on toucannon, sending out a huge cloud of dust and leaving a massive crater. The dust cleared, and toucannon was left on the ground, terribly injured and unable to battle, earning roadhog another point. Without any other choice, roadhog's opponent sent out her last pokemon, a salamence. The dragon pokemon growled, sending a chill down both roadhog and emboar's spines. Noticing the collar and stone set on salamence's neck. Roadhog knew his team was in trouble.

Pharah raised her gauntleted hand. The key stone set where her usual concussion rockets rested glowed in sync with her salamence's salamencite, enveloping it in a white-blue light. It was always a spectacle to see a mega evolution, but roadhog's fear steadily grew as salamence's wings grew longer and sharper, its horns elongating and becoming ridged and its tail lengthened and snapping around like a whip.

He knew that these creatures were more savage than anything else. He knew that their wings could slice through anything while it was mid-flight. He knew that they were reported to have brutally attacked their very own trainers.

"Emboar, I need ya to trust me. You blokes are in a bit of a pickle, so you gotta hit that wanker as hard as you can so your mates can finish the job. Gottit?"

Emboar went for another wild charge, but to its surprise, salamence barely flinched. The dragon eyed emboar with bloodlust as it dodged emboar's electrically charged follow-ups in a series of frantic movements, seemingly circling menacingly around emboar. The boosts to its attack and speed were quite obvious. With a deafening roar, salamence flew out of emboar's reach and plummeted down at it at full force.

"Quick, emboar! Sucker punch!"

Just as salamence's return was about to connect, emboar delivered a sucker punch square to its face, causing salamence to veer wildly off course. However, the tip of its wing snared the tufts of fur on emboar's ample body, and with a hard twist sent it slamming into the walls of the arena. Just as emboar stood up, salamence crashed wing-first into the mega fire pig pokemon, knocking it out instantly with hardly a scratch on its newgrown armor and earning pharah her first point.

Pharah looked at salamence with satisfaction. It was the very first pokemon provided by helix security and she had trained it into a merciless fighting machine. Salamence then gave an otherworldly shriek of content, causing the spectating crowd to cover their ears. She knew that her opponent could only try to stop a creature so powerful, so terrifying. Once again, she saw roadhog's snorlax back in the arena. Skarmory's work, however, did pay off. The spikes and pointed stones dug deep into snorlax's fat frame, earning a little wince.

"It's weakened, salamence! Use return!"

Very obediently, for a pokemon with such a bad reputation, salamence accelerated head-first into the sleeping pokemon. Its attempt at body slam was immediately nullified with a sharp, scaled draconic head connecting with its belly, and slamming it into a nearby artificial hill, cracking the structure significantly and throwing up a cloud of dust. However, snorlax still emerged, albeit heavily injured, and attempted to finish its assault.

The ground rumbled. Both trainers looked at their surroundings and saw a barrage of loosened rocks plummeting down the hill towards their pokemon. Snorlax didn't worry. Connecting a body slam on salamence's tail, it smiled back at its ridiculously overweight trainer, satisfied that it was able to weaken Pharah's trump card, hopefully enough for swampert to take it down. Salamence, on the other hand, had to make it out alive. Using its boosted speed, it expertly weaved its way out of the rockfall, only for a large boulder to fall on its left wing, injuring it severely. With a roar of pain, it landed awkwardly, fortunately clear of the rock slide.

Pharah rushed to salamence, only for it to brush her away with a growl and take off once again, wounds all over its body. Roadhog sent swampert back out, the stealth rocks and spikes taking its toll on the already injured mud fish pokemon. Both mega evolved pokemon were terribly injured. It came down to this final assault.

"Return!"

"Ice punch!"

Having the speed advantage, salamence effortlessly grabbed swampert mid-flight in the curve of its wing, bringing it high into the sky looking for a ledge to slam its opponent into and end the battle. Unexpectedly, salamence was unable to suppress the pain of its injured left wing, causing its grip on swampert to slip. Taking advantage of this, swampert grabbed hard on salamence's wing with an icy fist, the sudden cold causing salamence to lose flying capability altogether as the two pokemon plummeted towards the earth.

The ground shook. The dust cleared.

Swampert stood gingerly out of the crater, leaving salamence's unconscious body in the dust.

Junkrat was the first to let out a loud "woo!" The rest of the spectators were still reeling at how a backwards criminal was able to defeat helix security's finest.

After a while, a clap. Then another. Until the whole stadium erupted in applause. Pharah recalled salamence into its pokeball, shook roadhog's hand, saying, "well played, I can see what you and your pokemon have been through." Pharah left the arena, returning to her seat among the competitors.

Up high, in the champion's chamber, Gabriel Reyes chuckled.

"See, Jack? I told you even criminals got potential. Just look at what I did with Mccree…"

"Listen, Gabe, we're here to be Elite Four members, not to get ourselves new disciples. We've got jobs to do."

Ana Amari sighed. "Except you're champion, Jack. You can go running laps whenever you'd like, just returning occasionally to deal with those strong enough to get past all of us. Meanwhile, I have to babysit the rest of you…"

"I ain't got no need for that! My babies can handle themselves, and they can get me lunch too, mind you," Torbjorn huffed.

"Don't insult Ana's cooking. Besides, we're here as a team! To see what this new young generation is capable of! Surely you are paying great attention to all these wonderful battles! I'm all about them!"

Reinhardt's cheery attitude and love for battles always got the team back on track. Gabe let out a rare laugh.

"Yeah, we're all about it… I'd be excited for tomorrow's battle if I were you…"

*A few hours later*

Amelie polished her pokeballs as she prepared to go to bed. Tomorrow was a big day for her. The day that would put her on the road to power. Fame. Her phone suddenly rang. Picking it up, the deep voice of her superior came through.

"I suppose you are very familiar with our strategy. Don't fail in battle. And speak nothing of your affiliation. There will be consequences if we are forced to execute plan B…"

"Understood. Bonne nuit."

She looked one last time at her gauntlet before shutting her eyes. The image of her key stone lingered in her mind. She would do this. She would not fail. For Talon.

Author's note: Hey guys, it's Fyre again, hope you are enjoying the very first match of the tourney! I kinda had to decide the outcome of the first match, and I already have those of the remaining matches and the competitors' Pokemon all planned out, so I'm sorry if it isn't the ideal tournament matchup you would have in your mind :3

I will accept really good plot suggestions however, so please do comment! Upload interval will be about 1-2 weeks per chapter. As usual, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next chapter!