Here's chapter three of my new Pokémon fanfic. I don't know about you all, but I find that writing a story becomes much easier if you actually enjoy what you're writing, and this is by far my favorite story that I've written. I base this story loosely off of another story on this site, but other than that the idea is pretty much original, and if you can find some similarities to another anime, manga, game, or anything, I'll be glad to find out, and then cry in the corner for not coming up with anything original for a while. My rant is over, in this chapter, just a heads-up, we're going to meet more of the OCs from the GalaxyStorm dorm becasue they seem to be the ones making the loudest assault on MoonBeam. Ja nee. Also, I'm finally done accepting OCs. Thank you for everyone who submitted, and I hope you enjoy reading about your characters...when they come that is.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON, BECASUE IF I DID, CHANDELURE WOULD HAVE LEVITATE.
Chapter 3: Strength, Outside and In
It's said that we are only true to ourselves when nobody is around to see it, and those who are who they are all the time are either seen as brave, or idiots by society. But what happens when you're in between? Somebody who wants to be who they are, and try, but finds that in the end they see themselves as an idiot, or it turns us into the one person another never hopes to be. Do you think that you could be that person? One who acts like they always do, but in the end, they hate themselves for it. A lot of people say they can do it, but in the end, they're just full of nonsense.
The Bishop in the game of chess at Nix Academy, cannot be that person. They must be filled with tact, and cunning. Not to mention, they must always be in control of their emotions. Many times, they are accused of being able to keep the same emotion they were born with no matter what comes their way. And in the same way, according to legends of Pokémon, the high priests of the different regions were said to be able to stay the people others thought they were, and not who they knew themselves to be.
The atmosphere felt as though it were an old movie or some memory as a thin figure stood in front of a class of children, all within their first few years of middle school. He stared at them with his dead gray eyes, and gave a quick bow before trying to move to his seat in the back of the room. Just before he walked away from the front, however, he was held in place by the teacher gripping his shoulder.
"Now, class," the woman said in a silky voice. "This a new friend named Sacha Tatarinov. he's a little shy, so let's see if we can make him a bit more comfortable. Okay?" she asked as the class in front of her gave no explicit reaction. "Well, if that's all. Sacha you can move to the seat in the back. Try your best, okay?"
"...Da," he said as the teacher looked at him confused.
The younger version of Sacha was much shorter than he as he is seen today by nearly a foot and a half, but retains much of his physical features, including the hair that reaches over his eye. Aside from that, Sacha appeared, at the time, to be no different than how he acts with the classes at Nix Academy. But another similarity appeared in any place that Sacha went through, no matter how young he got.
"Why doesn't he speak English?" one would whisper.
"Maybe he's just a little slow," another one would speculate.
"Nah, he's just an idiot," the final one would say before he snapped.
Sacha jumped form his desk, and gripped onto the boy's neck, pushing him to the ground while placing his PokéBall near his head. Sacha's expression never changed as he inched the ball closer to his face wihle the boy struggled in terror trying to remove his hand. The teacher instantly reacted to the sight, pushing the children out of the way, and gripped the hand with Sacha's PokéBall.
"Young man!" she shouted trying to exude the proper authority while making a single slap across his face. "That's not how we act in the classroom!"
"Zatkins!" Sacha shouted back as he stared into the teacher's eyes, almost making her back off, with his words, while unknown to them, translating to "shut-up."
"Please," the boy said still struggling against Sacha's grip. "Don't hurt me."
"Litwick," Sacha said as he opened the PokéBall. "Demon Ognya," he called out as the candle Pokémon chuckled while releasing a series of fireballs towards the young male student who gave one last cry before the entire image began to fade away.
"Nyet...proshu proshcheniya," Sacha said in his sleep as he recoiled up to sit up straight, with his words echoing in his head, translating to "pardon me," or "I'm sorry." "...Proshu proshcheniya."
Sacha was now wide awake, and sitting up in his bed with his breaths loud and deep as he looked at the clock next to his bed reading "2:30". He looked around his room, and saw his roommate Devon sleeping soundly as though Sacha's tantrum hadn't roused him from his rest. After wiping the sleep out of his eyes, Sacha walked over to his dresser, and looked at the mirror just above it. He kept his eyes fixed on himself, and clenched his fist before placing it gently on the image of his own face.
Walking out of his room, Sacha opened his PokéBall, and told Lampent to light his way. Travelling down the long stairs off to the side of the hall, Sacha looked at his hands, and thought back to his nightmare with his hand wrapped around that boy's neck. Down on the first floor of the dorm building, and off to the right side of the lobby was a kitchen large enough for several people to fit in at once. Opening the door to the refrigerator, Sacha pulled out a large bottle of milk, and walked over to a sofa in the lobby area, laying himself out on it completely.
"Za vas," he said as he held the bottle up in front of him, saying an equivilant for "cheers" in his native tongue.
Almost forcing the drink down his throat, Sacha looked at the silence all around him, then at his Pokémon, and the light that shone all around it. Left alone with just his Pokémon with him, the tall boy looked up at the moonlight beaming through the windows off to the sides of him. As he was about to fall asleep from the peaceful atmosphere the moon gave off, a series of footsteps walked down the stairs, rousing him from his sleep. Holding a flashlight in her hand, as Fiona followed after her, Arisu looked down at the couch to see Lampent and Sacha just watching them, and then the empty bottle in his hand.
"That better be non-alchoholic," Arisu said as she turned off her flashlight, and allowed Lampent to light the room.
"Eto moloko," Sacha said not looking at them, explaining that what he was drinking was milk, and nothing else.
"What are you doing down here in the middle of the night, Sacha?" Arisu asked she knelt down next to him, and looked at him from above.
"Eto nichego," Sacha answered as he looked away, claiming that there was nothing the matter. "Proshu proshceniya," he apologized as he began to close his eyes.
"He must've had a bad dream," Devon said from higher up on the stairs. "He kept moaning in his sleep, and saying that he was sorry for something. It's been happening for the last week, you know."
"Donoschik," Sacha said spitefully as he looked Devon's direction, accusing him of being a snitch.
"Oh, my little Sacha had a bad dream?" Fiona asked, feigning both innocence and concern as she rushed to his side, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "If you need to, you can cry on Fiona's shoulder," she said as she began to stroke his head.
"Little Sacha?" Arisu asked Fiona in her mind, but almost wanting to say it aloud.
"Nyet," Sacha said pushing her away. "Pozhaluysta, ostavʹte menya v pokoye," he said to the three, requesting to be left alone for the time being.
Having been a more complicated phrase in his native language, Devon and Fiona looked at each other, confused by its meaning, up until Arisu knelt next to both of them, and translated for both of them. Devon shrugged his shoulders, and went up without another word, whereas Fiona took some explaining from Arisu before she agreed.
"In situations like this, it's best to leave a friend alone to sort out his feelings," she explained as Fiona reluctantly went back up the stairs. Arisu, on the other hand, stayed in her position and walked back to the couch, and stared at Sacha from above. "You want to talk about it?"
"Nyet," Sacha said as he looked up at his Pokémon, and back at the moonlight seeping into the room.
"You know, there aren't a lot of things even I know about you," Arisu said as she sat down on the floor in front of the sofa with her back adjacent to Sacha's stomach. "You have no idea how much it bugs me to not know something. But it irritates me even more when a friend of mine doesn't let me know. Especially, when they know I can help."
"F-Friend," Sacha tried to say, choking on the word. "Y-You...s-say...I...friend?" he asked trying to sound out the sentence in English.
"Yes, and no matter how you want to argue it, I'll argue with all the more until you agree," Arisu said as she tilted her head back up against his side. "As it's said in your language, 'prosto drug budet s vami soglasen, no nastoyashchiy drug budet sporitʹ.' A mere friend will agree with you, but a true friend will argue with you."
"Spasibo," Sacha thanked as he sat up. "Ostavʹte menya v pokoye," he said plainly, still requesting that she leave him by himself.
Arisu reluctantly got up from her spot, and walked back up the stairs to find both Devon and Fiona trying to listen in on the conversation. She began to tap her fingers on her arm while a dark aura representing her anger began to form around her, and the rest is left up to the imagination as the rest of the night was nothing but pounding sounds.
On the southern end of the campus in the GalaxyStorm dorm, five figures all sat around a circular table with the lights still on. The first three were the Pawn, Knight, and King; Mike, or Ike, Valentine, Marlen Sasaki, and Tyson Arashi. The three met earlier, were still wearing their uniform along with the other two, and their chess pieces in Mike's pencil, a headband on Marlen, and Tyson's zipper. The other two, more than likely the Bishop, Rook, or Queen, sat on the other side waiting for their king to say something.
"Well," Tyson said, breaking the silence. "Obviously it's not fortunate that our loss was against our largest rivals, but in the long-run, it won't matter much after we've won. Ike's loss was not that I wanted to suffer early on, but rethinking my plan I found that makes us more fortunate when we deploy Marlen against the Bishop of that dorm."
"How do you suppose?" the boy sitting closest to Mike asked. "If he's been defeated, how does that help us?"
The boy, when the light shone on him, was about as tall as Sacha, but with a stronger build, and a broader frame. His hair was a jet black color that fell around his face with white highlights going into the root, and a pair of different colored, one being a firey red color, and the other being a ocean blue. Like all the people seated at the table with him, he was wearing the standard uniform for his dorm, with a necklace hanging around his neck with a figure resembling the Pokémon Hydreigon, and also on the chain was a purple tinted rook piece.
"Well, Zero," Tyson started turning to the boy. "In years past, the army who has lost a battle, would stay out of the competition for at least a week. It's only been three days since Ike's loss, so nobody will be expecting this battle. The only downside is that we're going to have to do it on the weekend. That's when battles are going to be mostly played out."
"Do you want to change the date?" the boy named Zero asked as Tyson shook his head.
"No, the plan I came up with is perfect in almost every respect," Tyson explained as everyone in the room turned to look at. "I only use the word 'almost' is because there are too many unpredictable variables."
"Like if we lose?" a girl on the other side of the table asked prompting everyone to turn to her.
The girl was at most, five foot seven, with a small, and thin build. Much like Zero, the girl's hair was dominately a black color, and white colors in it, but hers were at the tips rather than the root and extending. The girl's complexion was a darker color than the other's around her, a kind of caramel color for better description, with a pair of dark brown eyes, and with a scar extending from the forehead, down through the right eye, and ending adjacent to her right nostril. Her eyes were protected, so to speak, by a pair of green-blue framed glasses. Along with her normal school uniform, the girl also wore a scarf, wrapped loosley around her neck with a bishop piece stuck on the end.
"Can you please be serious for a second, Serena?" Marlen asked. "Besides, why would I lose to somebody like Sacha?"
"Because next to no one can understand a single word the guy says," the girl Serena answered with her hands folded behind her head. "If you can't decipher, record, or find some other way to study his speech, you won't be able to figure out whether he's telling his Pokémon to dodge, attack, stay in place, or dance the macarena. What do you think, Helen?"
All five people at the table looked at a final female figure in the corner, drinking a small cup of tea. She turned to them, and looked at them with her silver blue colored hair flicking behind. As she finished turning around, her bangs went over her eyes with the black and white highlights became more visible in the blue color. Her bangs curled back to keep them out of her eyes, not that it helped, and the longer strands travelled a long distance down her back. Aside from her hair, she was a small girl with a small build, and no real developement in her body. Much like Serena, she too wore a scarf along with the normal uniform with her chess piece, the queen, pinned to the main body of the scarf.
"...Fifty-fifty," Helen answered.
"Fifty-fifty?" Marlen asked angrily. "You think I could actually lose to guy like that?"
"...Yes," Helen answered bluntly as the words almost seemed to stab Marlen.
"Well, I'll show you," Marlen said pointing at the queen of GalaxyStorm. "I'll make that fifty-fifty into zero-one hundred."
"So Sacha's gonna beat you?" Serena asked as Marlen turned to her, and pounced at her leaving the three males in the dorm as the only one's unaware of the entire situation.
"Should we stop them?" Mike asked.
"And give up a good photo op?" Zero asked as Tyson chuckled. "What are you thinking about? When you're king of the academy?"
"No," Tyson answered. "Just thinking that if I were in any other dorm, then I would really be bored."
On the opposite end of the academy, where the climate began to chill, and traces of morning fog had begun to appear, the dorm of the psychic, ice, and poison types SuperNova stood. Inside the top floor in a single room, with a star pattern decorating the walls.
In the center of the room, a young girl with long black hair that flowed back, and around her dark blue eyes began to shuffle through a bag, pulling out a deck of tarot cards. Her skin was a lightly tanned color, and her body was of a smaller build, but not as much as the queen from GalaxyStorm, probably standing at five and a half feet. Around her neck, attached to a chain with a pentagram along with it, was a white colored bishop piece that would clink against the pendant as she moved.
"Is that you, Christian?" she asked as an older boy watched her from the open door.
The boy she referred to was taller than even Sacha by a few inches, and with a stronger build, as though he had been used to physical labor. Despite his shoulder build, his arms and legs were thin, and very long. His hair was much more conserved than some of the males in the school, reaching only to about his eyebrows, and just above his pale blue eyes. He was wearing his uniform, along with a long black fedora with a white chess piece dangling from the brim; the king.
"Next time you decide to do a midnight seance, close your door to make sure no one else wakes up, Taisuke," the boy said as he walked in, and placed his hat in a chair in the room. "Consulting the cards? What happened?"
The girl named Taisuke looked up from her deck, and pushed it towards Christian, "It's about the MoonBeam Bishop, Sacha Tatarinov. I want to believe that he's a nice guy, but it's hard to get past his emotional shell."
"Shell?" Christian said cutting the deck.
"He's afriad of something," Taisuke explained. "He's in my class at school, and everytime I watch him do his work, he's wanting more. As to what he desires, I don't know. I was hoping they might help," she said taking the bottom half of the deck that Christian made.
"In the middle of the night?" Christian asked. "Isn't that a bit too much."
"Knowing a person's secret may be the difference between life and death," Taisuke explained as she took the top card and closed her eyes. "As I thought," she said placing the card on the table depicting a man hanging upside down from a tree by one leg, the other bent to make a large four, and his hands bound together. "The Hanged Man," Taisuke said as Christian looked at it confused. "See his peaceful face even though he knows there is no escape from death," Taisuke explained. "The Hanged Man is a symbol of uncertainty. Sacha lives two lives. He's in a position where there are two things pulling him in two directions, and he doesn't know when it will stop."
"Sometimes the wait is the most painful thing about growing up," Christian speculated. "You think that Sacha really leads a double life?"
"No, not a double life, but a guilty life," Taisuke explained. "Sacha's done something that he can't atone for, and allows that to hold him back. He fears for his opponent, but he knows the implications of what happens to being soft on an opponent."
"Tyson Arashi from the GalaxyStorm told me he was going to make an assault on the MoonBeam dorm, starting with Sacha," Christian explained. "Would that have any effect on him?"
"The Hanged Man shows a place where there is no time," Taisuke said placing the cards back into her bag. "A waiting room, so to speak. There is the Sacha that did something horrible in the past, and the Sacha who is chained by that guilt. Eventually motion will being, but not even a psychic could tell you when that will be."
"So who will win the battle?" Christian asked.
"The winner of this battle cannot be seen in the cards," Taisuke said as she walked over to her bed, and sat down while staring out her window. "But if I was going to say if there was going to be a clear winner, it would have to be..."
As the sunlight began to creep over the academy, Sacha was still left sleeping on the sofa, and when he woke up, he felt something propped up against him. Looking back, he found a small pillow behind his head, and a blanket draped over hsi body. On the coffee table next to him, a plate full of small pastries with a note next to it greeted Sacha. Sacha looked at the note, and warmed his eyes, but not his smile as he placed the note back next to the plate, beginning to eat some of the breads
"Spasibo, Arisu," he thanked as he looked back at the note reading, "Worrying won't do you any good, so why don't you get some food before you collapse. Your friend, Arisu."
After eating several of the pastries, Sacha stood up, and grabbed Lampent's PokéBall, before heading back upstairs. On the way up the stairs, Sacha looked around him, and back down where the lobby was now just barely visible, thinking about what happened last night, when the scream of the child echoed in his mind. Holding his head in pain as the voice wouldn't leave his mind, Sacha almost collapsed to the ground when he felt a pat on his shoulder.
"Man, Sacha," Donato said from next to him. "You have to learn that your bed is upstairs, and not in the lobby. That makes what, three times this week?"
"Da," Sacha answered as he followed the Rook holding a several bags filled to the brim with letters. "W-What...that?" he tried asking in English.
"Just the normal batch of fan mail," Donato answered. "We have our fans to think about in this dorm, and even some from other dorms. I don't think there was any for you, this time, though. Maybe you'll get some in the next one."
"Nyet," Sacha said as he went up on ahead, leaving Donato stumbling up the stairs.
"You could take one of these bags, you know," Donato said as Sacha gave a quick, "nyet," leaving Donato whimpering as he walked the rest of the length fo the staircase.
Walking into his room, Sacha saw that Devon had already left, and was probably in Arisu's room as the King's and Queen's were communal when both the King and Queen were of the same gender. Sacha sighed as he flopped onto his own bed, held his arm up over his eyes, and began taking deep breaths when he heard the release of at least four bags in the room adjacent to his.
"Wow, only a week in school, and I have so many fans?" Fiona asked as she began to shuffle through a bag filled with letters specified for her. "I must've been born under a lucky star."
"And it's probably falling by now," Devon said as he was shot a death glare by the Queen. "Let's see, how many threats do I get today?"
"You really are a strange dude, you know," Donato said as he handed the largest bag to Arisu who gave an annoyed at the amount.
"Why do I always get the biggest bag?" Arisu asked as Fioan looked up and glared at her.
"That's what I'd like to know," she asked as she turned around with her arms folded across her chest.
"Does this happen all the time?" Akemi asked as she took a bag from Donato filled with a much smaller amount.
"Fiona being jealous of Arisu in every respect?" Donato asked. "Or the fan mail thing?"
"The second one," Akemi asked as she read the first of many letters. "Seriously, it's like they think were gym leaders or something. Do people really look up to us?"
"More or less," Donato answered. "You see, the Chess game that goes on throughout the academy attracts a lot of press, and every year there's this big exposé for every on each team. They try to ferret out a bunch scandals for the tabloids, but every year for the past two, they were never able to crack Arisu."
"Arisu has been a chess piece for three years now?" Akemi asked in amazement.
"Well out of the six of us, you, Sacha, and Fiona are first-timers to the chess thing, but Fiona and Arisu were roommates from the beginning," Donato explained. "They only implemented the use of the fifth floor this year so they could use it as something more than a storage area. I was the Bishop last year while Arisu was the Knight, and Arisu was the Pawn in my sophomore year. Devon was the Pawn last year, and everyone is convinced he'll be the King next year."
"I don't know," Arisu said from aside as Devon shot her a glare. "Speaking outside my role as the one who truly hates Devon in this group, I think that Sacha would be a better choice for King."
"Why him?" Akemi asked.
"Aside from Fiona's reason for wanting him to be King so she call him, 'your Highness,'" Arisu said as Fiona chuckled nervously. "Sacha has the humility to take responsibility for his actions. And while he's not the easiest person to understand, he's one of those people that you could see in a place of authority, but not too prideful to help his friends."
"Speaking of Sacha, didn't he have a bag like this?" Akemi asked as the other four looked at each, and burst out laughing. "What'd I say?"
"Nothing, you didn't know," Arisu said. "Sacha was chosen as the Bishop in May of last school year, and everyone expected him to be exactly me, only to find him as the way he is. After you find out who the chess pieces are for the next year, aside from the Pawn because they haven't been chosen, you find that everybody tries to get those kinds of autographs that are worth more because they were before the person was really famous. Everybody in that kind of group never warmed up to the guy, for obvious reasons."
"Why was he chosen then, if nobody liked him?" Akemi asked.
"Well, the Bishop isn't chosen by the student body," Fiona answered. "The Bishop is chosen by the teaching foundation for a understanding of the more spiritual essence of Pokémon, and a behavioral record that is above average. A lot of people accused Sacha of being a robot because he wouldn't react to anything. And I've tried everything to get the kid to smile sincerely."
"Well, if he doesn't get mail, what's this?" Akemi asked holding a letter with his name written along the front.
"Let's take a look at that," Arisu said opening the letter, and then reading the contents. "To the Bishop of MoonBeam dorm, Sacha Tatarinov," she read aloud as Sacha listened from the other side of the wall. "You may not know me, but there are many things that I know about you. For instance, you are a snide, condescending person with no regard for regular conversation."
"So not a lover letter?" Devon asked.
"What I also know is that you take all the accolates you receive very lightly, and make it seem as though they mean nothing," Arisu continued reading. "But more than that, you are an idiot to the people around you, who are forced to try to understand your language instead of you trying harder to speak their own. If you wish to prove me wrong, meet me today at seven behind the main school building."
"Does it say who it's from?" Akemi asked.
"No, but it should be easy to figure out," Arisu said holding the note up to the light, and motioning for Akemi. "Tell me what you see."
"Gel pen," Akemi said looking at the paper. "Indicates somebody who appreciates those aesthetics, like a girl. It's a crimson color, which is used to represent blood, and blood always means a threat or some kind of call to revenge."
"If so, how do we know who actually sent the letter?" Donato asked as Akemi took the note from Arisu, and placed it on the coffe table.
"Well," Akemi began thinking it over. "Try to imagine this person in your head; a female who is challenging Sacha because of some kind of condescension. She seems to have a vendetta to pull against either him individually, or MoonBeam as a whole. The clincher I think we're looking for is a chess piece."
"If she is a chess piece, then she would have to be the Knight," Arisu said as she walked over to her folder of the different participants in the campus war. "From my record, there are three different Knights who are female, but only one has ever been so blatant in her hate for MoonBeam. She was ever since she was the Pawn last year."
"Marlen Sasaki?" Akemi asked.
"How'd you know?" Fiona asked.
"When Ike and I battled a few days ago, we were told that we needed a rep from each of our dorms, and he chose this Marlen girl," Akemi explained. "She was definitely bitter againts us, as to why, is anyone's guess."
"Not a hard one," Devon said. "Marlen has always hated the MoonBeam dorm. But when you think about it, even since before any of us came here, the GalaxyStorm was always the one who attacked us first. Going along with that, they were also the ones to lose first."
"That's what unsettling about this whole affair," Arisu said still looking at the note. "Their King is Tyson Arashi, and I can't imagine him being so cryptic about his battle requests."
"But isn't it Marlen's?" Donato asked.
"Tyson calls the shots," Arisu explained. "Even before the game started, I could always see him training with his team, and the whole team listened to him as though he were a real king. He's a stubborn person, and very hot-headed, but more than that, he's an excellent strategist with a high sense of morality. He doesn't indirectly, or cryptically make these battle challenges. Marlen's acting out of her place."
"Why does that matter?" Akemi asked.
"Knights are the piece that everyone in their junior year wants to be," Devon explained. "But their chained to the ground by rules. People go into the job thinking that they can battle at any time, but they have to fill in special request forms to battle another piece if the Pawn hasn't been defeated. The requests have to be three pages of double spaced of formal speech. Along with that, the entire team has to be present for the witnessing of the battle, and the King's consent must be given in advance of the legal matters."
"If Marlen is acting out of her role as a Knight loyal to her King, the battle cannot go through," Fiona asked. "And she'll be suspended from battling the challenged dorm for an entire month."
"And here I thought it would've been nice to be a Knight," Akemi said as Devon gritted his teeth, feeling insulted. "Do you think we should tell Sacha about this?" she asked as her eyes popped open in realization.
"I wouldn't worry about him knowing, or not," Arisu said as she pointed to the open door.
The other four team members turned to look in the open doorway, and saw Sacha watching the four of them with cold eyes as he walked in the room to take the note from Arisu. Reading it over once, he left the room, and opened his PokéBall with Lampent following after him. He looked over at his team through his uncovered eye, and motioned for them to follow.
"Better make sure he doesn't overdo it," Donato said as four out of five of the other members nonchalantly followed after their Bishop.
"Hold on," Akemi said, following sheepishly. "Sacha, are you sure you actually go through this? We could just invalidate the match if Marlen is acting outside her place. Do you really want to do this?"
"Da," Sacha said simply, walking towards the staircase.
"If we accuse her of acting outside her role, she would have something else to hate us for," Arisu said. "The best thing to do is let Tyson take care of her, and if it turns out that she did cheat, Sacha just has to refuse the battle."
"Can't he do that anyway?" Akemi asked.
"Yes, but this way he doesn't have to waste his one time for the month," Arisu answered. "And really that rule is a misread, a Bishop has the ability to invalidate the special rules of other pieces, battles, or tests if they want. So, Sacha has the ultimate decision in this battle. And knowing him, he'll walk away, right?"
"Nyet," Sacha said surprising everybody. "I...no...run...from...battle," he said as he walked the rest of the length of the staircase. "Marlen...need...to...learn...rule."
"Alright, if you say so," Arisu said as the six piled into Donato's car, and drove off towards the school where they knew Sacha's first opponent as a chess piece waited.
The back side of the school was nearly identical to the front with the exception of the double doors leading to the inside, and instead having a small service entrance for staff, and other employees. About twenty feet from the building itself, a large painted rectangle with a circle in center was set in place as one of the many battlefields around the school campus. On one of the far ends was Marlen, busily tapping her foot in anger as it was approaching the time she had put in the letter.
"Marlen!" Tyson shouted from across the battlefield with the rest of his team following after him. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Exactly what you told me to do, your highness," Marlen said rather sullenly as she looked forward. "You approved me to battle Sacha, I don't see the problem."
"I approved a direct challenge, not a letter challenge," Tyson said as she motioned for her. "We're going to have to apologize for their trouble, and then talk about this later. Now come on."
"No," Marlen said. "There's one specific reason as to why this battle must go on."
"And that is?" Tyson asked as a car horn was heard beeping from the back of the school building.
"He's already here," she said as Tyson hurried over to the car. "It's too late, I made Sacha a battle challenge he could never refuse."
"What did you do?" Tyson asked.
"I insulted him," Marlen said simply. "Nothing boils his blood like a insult to both his character, and intelligence. Remember, he can invalidate your command to end the battle as well. The battle will go on, and I will be the victor. MoonBeam's days are numbered."
"Sacha!" Tyson shouted. "Please don't go through with this!"
"Zatkins!" he shouted back with Arisu translating directly after. "We...battle."
"Allow me to introduce the teacher in charge of the CraterStrike dorm, Boutros Girish," Marlen said holding her arms out, and pointing at a middle-aged man with one of the more distinctive looks among teachers.
Boutros was always known as a large man, and for good reason; despite his outward appearance in which he wore more of a robe from his religion, one could see his large, and broad shoulders. Aside from his shoulders, when he extended his hand to Sacha who returned the favor, his arms were shown to be very strong. He was a dark skinned man with dark brown colored eyes to match, wearing a large turban covering much of his shortly cut black hair. From his hair, extending down the sides of his face, he had a mustache, and beard connected all together giving him a very imposing visage.
"While I do not condone the behavior that young Sasaki has exhibited," he started out while shaking Tyson's hand and bowing. "I must abide by the rules of both my faith, which teaches of the values of helping others at their request, and the rule of the school saying that a teacher must be present to witness the result. I apologize for any trouble this causes your position as the King."
"No, I should be the one apologizing for how my subordinate was acting," Tyson said bowing back to him. "I'm sorry to have to drag you away from your students as they prepare for their own battles."
"Why didn't you use your dorm's teacher?" Arisu asked Marlen who merely chuckled.
"Xavier's out for the week," Tyson explained in her stead. "They needed him on a talk show for past league hall of fame members. So we had to find another teacher to referee the battle, and send in the request, and unfortunately for Mr. Girish, Marlen found him first."
"I truly find no inconvenience in this, and find it a privilege to watch a battle with the infamous Sacha Tatarinov," Boutros said. "Now, shall we begin this battle?" he asked as both Sacha and Marlen answered "yes". "Then, prepare your Pokémon," he said holding his arm up as Lampent went to its trainer's side, and Marlen held out her PokéBall. "And begin battle!" Boutros shouted swinging his arm straight downward.
"Togekiss, take 'em out!" Marlen shouted, throwing the capsule to send out an egg shaped bird with a wide smile on its face as Sacha moved his head toward the battlefield with his Pokémon slowly floating to the center of the circular design. "Let's start this out right. Extremespeed!" she shouted as the flying Pokémon sped toward its ghost elemented opponent.
"Why attack it with a normal attack?" Akemi asked.
"It's not for the power," Ike said from the other side as Togekiss was behind Lampent within fractions of a second. "It's for the speed."
"Now, Togekiss!" Marlen shouted as Togekiss lowered its head, becoming coated in a harsh colored light. "Sky Attack!" she called out as the flying Pokémon made a quick dash towards Lampent.
"Right off the bat?" Donato questioned. "Isn't that a little risky?"
"Risky is Marlen's middle name," Zero answered. "She doesn't believe in showing mercy to her opponents. Expecially if they're from MoonBeam."
"That's right!" Marlen shouted. "I can't stand you snobs in that stupid forest, not taking seriously. And I'll prove it to you," she said pointing at Arisu. "And the icing on the cake will be when I defeat you, Arisu. Prepare yourself for that."
"I'll put on my Sunday's best," Arisu said mockingly while Marlen looked back at Togekiss as it travelled closer to Lampent despite it already trying to float away.
"Over before it even started," Marlen said as Sacha finally began to pay attention to the situation. "What now, do you have something to say, Czar?" she asked, mocking him.
"Da," he said as he looked at Lampent who shifted its eyes onto its trainer. "Podnimatʹsya!" he shouted as Lampent stopped and turned to face Togekiss who began to pick up speed.
"What did he say?" Tyson said trying to remember the exact words while Ike sat next to him with a notepad and pencil. "He said that too fast."
Seconds before Togekiss would occupy the same space as it, Lampent slowly began to rise up into the sky as the flying Pokémon sped past it, and tried to turn in order to get into a better position to attack it. As Lampent continued to rise into the air, it looked below it, and turned itself sideways while staying stationary in midair, so as to face Togekiss.
"Plamya Vybrosov!" Sacha called out as Lampent released a constant stream of fire more commonly known as Flamethrower.
Togekiss began to shift its position back and forth in the air, dodging each attack made by Lampent, and then become level with the ghost Pokémon on the air. Sacha and Marlen both looekd straight up, and then down at each other. Sacha kept his eyes fixed on his human opponent while Lampent gave the same stare as its trainer to Togekiss. Marlen gritted her teeth, and clenched her fist as she looked back up at her Pokémon.
"Sky Attack again!" she shouted as Togekiss made a quick dash to charge straight into Lampent.
"Skhoditʹ," Sacha said calmly as Lampent quickly dropped to the ground with the same result as when Togekiss attempted to attack it before.
"Did we get either of those?" Tyson asked as Ike was at a loss for words. "Are you serious!" he asked angrily as he began to bang his hand against the ground while in a pathetic, fetal position.
"We'll just have to think about some other kind of trick to figure out what he says," Ike said as he put his notepad away into his bag. "Chances are, we may never know what the guy says."
"Well that's depressing, now isn't it?" Serena asked never taking her eyes off the battle.
"Like I meant it that way," Ike said as Marlen began to become more irritated on the battlefield.
"She looks like she's gonna blow," Devon said jokingly. "I never realized how frustrating it would be if any of us had to battle him. Trying to figure out if he's attacking, dodging, defending, doing nothing is what you don't want to think about in that situation."
"The only problem with your theory is that Marlen is fighting off of instinct," Arisu said in contrary. "She allows her anger to fuel her strength."
"Fuel her strength?" Akemi asked.
"Emotions play an important role in Pokémon battles," Arisu explained. "If a person feels most at home when they are relaxed, and if they can stay in that state while battling it becomes more natural to them to battle in that style. The same principle applies to someone like Marlen whose anger is what makes her feel most natural. The most important thing, though, is to have some catalyst for this emotion. For Marlen, its her hatred of our dorm, and our fifteen year winning streak."
"What emotion fuels Sacha then?" Akemi asked.
"There are still things about our friend that we don't know," Fiona answered. "Chances are, he's not fueled by any emotion, or he keeps all his emotions bottled up, and ready for use only in battle."
"I'm sick and tired of your condescension!" Marlen shouted. "Why don't you fight me fairly, you idiot!" she asked angrily as the final word in her statement hit Sacha like a ton of bricks.
"Marlen!" Tyson shouted. "You may have gotten away with this, but show proper respect to your opponent."
"How can I show respect to someone who won't even let me know what he says?" she asked as Togekiss charged downwards with another Sky Attack. "He doesn't have the decency to speak the most common language in the world, and he thinks it doesn't affect anyone around him? His own team doesn't understand him half the time!"
"Even still," Tyson said as he and Marlen stared into each other's eyes angrily. "Put yourself in his shoes."
"I'd be surprised if he could speak any English when he first came to this place," Marlen said as Togekiss rammed into Lampent, sending the ghost and fire Pokémon flying into the ground near its trainer, who was still in shock by the statement made by his opponent. "Or do you just hold back? You know, like the snob you are, deciding that English wasn't important to learn?" she asked as she saw Sacha's eyes wide open, and filled with a fear unlike anyone had seen.
"I-Idiot?" he sounded out. "You...call...me...idiot?" he asked as he fell to his knees. "Why? Why...I...idiot? Why?" he asked as he hit his head on the ground below him, and again the image of that kid's frightened face from his nightmare came to him. "Nyet, proshu proshcheniya," he said quickly, over and over. "I...stay...strong...or...he...hurt...me."
"What are you saying, Sacha?" Arisu asked.
"I...hurt...him...badly," Sacha said slowly. "I...burn...him. He...call...me...idiot. I...stay...strong...or...he...come...and...hurt...me."
"Marlen!" Tyson shouted at the GalaxyStorm's Knight. "What are you waiting for?"
"You want me to attack him as he is?" Marlen asked.
"I don't take pleasure in this, but you have to understand that if you don't take this opportunity, you may not get another," Tyson explained. "Would you be condescending to your opponent, by giving them opportunity to recover?"
Marlen's eyes widened in realization, and smiled as she called out to Togekiss. "It ends here! Togekiss, Ancient Power!" she shouted as the flying Pokémon became cloaked in another style of light that began to force several stones into the air. "Attack!" Marlen shouted as the stones were flung into the air, and all began to bludgeon the ghost and fire type.
"I...weak," Sacha said as he watched Lampent being continually beaten by the rocks. "I...stay...strong...to...stay...safe. Lampent," he started. "Demon Ognya!" he shouted as Lampent began to fight the stones back with a continual onslaught from Will O Wisp attacks.
Despite his best efforts, Sacha's Pokémon began to lose its power in the flames, and instantly backed off trying to evade all of the stones. Sacha began watching all the stones, and then moved his head with them.
"Lampent, pravaya storona!" he shouted as Lampent moved off to the right-hand side, dodgin several of the stones. "Levaya storona!" he called out afterwards, prompting Lampent to move off to the left, dodging more of the stones. "Demon Ognya!" Sacha commanded with Lampent releasing more fireballs that were aimed at the Pokémon rather than the stones.
Losing control of the stones as it tried to dodge, Togekiss looked forward to see Lampent already level with it in the air leaving both the Pokémon and its trainer dumbfounded. Marlen looked at Sacha confused, as his eyes were still as wide as they had been after hearing that word, but now his smile was unrecognizable, and almost sinister.
"How lucky," Arisu said as Marlen looked over at the female King. "You were accurate in saying that Sacha probably didn't know any English coming into the school, but there were two words that we didn't have to teach him. It was moves like this that make me wonder if he should've been in SunLight, but the irony probably would have been too much."
"You're point?" Marlen asked.
"You get to hear the two words that Sacha could speak in English without trying or stumbling over," Fiona said. "And every time he does this, it sends a tingle up my spine."
"And those words are?" Tyson asked, joining in on the conversation.
"Lampent," Sacha started as Lampent began to gain power in its internal flame source, before it became too great for it to contain. "...Inferno!" he shouted in flawless English with a brightly, and intensely colored flame began to engulf much of the field.
Togekiss began to fly away from it, but the swirling mass of fire in its pillar form began to suck the flying Pokémon inside from the high velocity. Seeing only its silhouette burn for nearly ten seconds, Marlen's own eyes widened in fear as the fire dissipated, and the flying Pokémon fell to the ground. Marlen was left on the ground, and in shambles after the sight she saw.
"Checkmate," she heard Sacha say as he walked away from the battlefield with Lampent following after him.
"I guess you were right about this battle, weren't you, Taisuke?" Christian said from afar.
"His waiting room is wanting his guilt for burning a young boy's face to be gone from his life," Taisuke said walking away, and back to the dorm. "The question is, can he really atone for what he's done? His fear is what drives his power, and that emotion is always stronger than anger, but it may become bravery as he grows."
Later that night, Sacha was still not completely recovered from his battle, and, if you wish to call it, his traumatic experience. So much so, it neithered bothered him, nor made him reject it, when Fiona wrapped her arms around him from behind, and placed her chin on his head.
"Do you want to stay in our room, Sacha?" she asked innocently. "I'll help you forget about that battle."
"Don't get any funny ideas, Fiona," Arisu said as she walked by them. "He's only here to tell me what happened, and now that I've got it, maybe he'll have a full night's sleep."
"So what did happen?" Fiona asked.
"I'm not at liberty to say," Arisu said as Sacha walked from the room still looking quite depressed.
"Okay, he's gone," Fiona said as Sacha closed the door. "Now, spill."
"Not gonna happen," Arisu said as she walked into the bathroom, and looked at herself in the mirror. "To think that Sacha would be so high-strung from being considered an idiot because he couldn't speak English, that he would burn anyone who called him as such. I guess there are things we don't want other people to know about ourselves, but that may become our greatest destroyer."
Dorm Points to Date:
CraterStrike: 0
GalaxyStorm: 0
MoonBeam: 4
PlanetFoundation: 0
SunLight: 0
SuperNova: 0
Chapter three complete. Can I say my hands hurt to no end? At any rate, hope you enjoyed one of my longer chapters that I've ever made, and the final count may be more than anything I've ever made before. Maybe this will become some kind of trend. Hopefully you enjoyed the battle a little more, and as time passes who knows? I may actually keep this story up, because some of you know my track record. As said before, my OCs are all filled, so I apologize to those who wanted another in the story, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. and just so some of you know, those who submitted King characters were the ones who made the teachers for their respective dorms.
Credits:
Arisu, Akemi, Donato, Devon, Fiona, and Sacha: NightFall00
Mike/Ike Valentine: Comicfan616
Serena Robinson: Hazelblossom
Marlen Sasaki: FlyPandaBear
Zero Silvers: GhostHuntingLuxray456
Helen Skylon: thesecretkeeper11
Tyson Arashi: Inhuman X
Taisuke Yana: Cyainde the Sneasel
Christian Picklesimer: pokemonmaster111
Boutros Girish: Lazyboredom
Thank you for reading