Genji VS Winston

The battleground setting was put on random, as usual. Winston pushed his glasses up, laying a hand on the activation switch. Before he could pull it, however, someone called out to him.

"Winston, setting up early today, aren't we?"

"Oh, Commander Morrison. Yes, sir, I am about to initiate today's arena terrain formation sequence. It's quite the spectacle."

The hyperintelligent gorilla pulled the activation switch. The randomizer slowed to a stop, the screen reading "Ravine".

"This one ought to be interesting."

Artificial pillars of rock rose from the borders of the arena, leaving large glass panes for spectators to see through. In a matter of seconds, the ceiling had been sealed off, and a complex cave system was formed where the empty arena once was, complete with a giant chasm in the middle.

"Not bad. Looks like Harold taught you a thing or two. But I'm not here to congratulate you for it. The UN's been worried about the astral projector since yesterday's psychic standoff. You sure that thing is safe under high pressure?"

Winston frowned, stroking his chin. "Of course… I will relook at the projector, though I would assure you, sir, that the astral projector is 100% safe to use under normal circumstances. Do forward to me any relevant reports and complaints."

"Good. I'll leave you to it, then. Oh, by the way, you're up against Shimada today. Genji Shimada."

*Later*

Spectators cheered wildly as the cyborg ninja backflipped into the chasm, landing in a crouch. Winston straightened his glasses, nodding curtly at his opponent.

"I look forward to battling you, Genji. Just like old times."

"The honor is mine. Let us bring out our true strengths."

"Competitors, send out your first pokemon."

"Take the lead, passimian."

"Swift as the wind, go ninjask!"

Winston analysed the ninja pokemon, considering his options. Just as Athena announced begin, the scientist immediately ordered a switch, sending out his vikavolt. However, the cyborg ninja was one step ahead, ordering a substitute that scattered copies of the ninja pokemon all around the cave complex. Seeming to familiarize itself with its new battleground, ninjask shifted positions rapidly, boosting its speed.

"Right. That kind of ninjask. In that case… agility!"

Prediction on point, the stag beetle pokemon phased from one copy of ninjask to another, upping its speed game. Fearing an attack, Genji had ordered a protect, but Winston's superior judgement allowed him to capitalise on this opportunity to put vikavolt on par with ninjask's mobility.

Ninjask's speed boost activated again, widening the speed gap once more. Inconclusive on how to proceed, Winston settled on a bug buzz. Despite the type ineffectiveness, Winston observed the reactions of every ninjask image, pinpointing one that reacted much more strongly to the attack…

"Ninjask, leech life!"

Swift as the wind, the ninja pokemon darted from cover behind its substitutes, latching onto vikavolt's foreleg. Before it could dig its claws in, however, the stag beetle pokemon swatted it away with its mandibles, charging a yellow ball of energy within them.

"Thunderbolt!"

With vikavolt's twin mouthparts acting as rails, a blinding electric blast raced towards ninjask. On orders from Genji, the ninja pokemon extended twin blades from its scythes, gracefully swerving out of the way of vikavolt's attack. The thunderbolt connected with multiple substitutes, destroying them before crashing into the cave wall.

Finished with its swords dance, ninjask's speed and attack grew. Summoning more substitutes, the many images glowered down at vikavolt like a swarm of bats, with the real ninjask slipping left and right, looking for an opening.

Little did Genji know, Winston and his vikavolt had kept note of ninjask's position ever since it was revealed with bug buzz. Taking aim, vikavolt fired at ninjask, only for a protect shield to surround the ninja pokemon.

The thunderbolt was deflected into the cave wall, causing a cave-in. Ninjask, with its speed being constantly boosted, had no trouble escaping into the main chasm, leaving vikavolt lagging behind despite its agility boosted speed.

Rocks tumbled down, sealing the shaft and throwing up a cloud of dust. Vikavolt barely made it out. Shaking dirt from its eyes, it saw the multitudes of ninjask substitutes, but now, it was a gallade that stood behind them.

"Hon ki-o misete miro. Gallade, mega evolve!"

Behind the rocks, pillars and ninjask substitutes, spectators could make out the changing form of gallade as its blades grew longer and jagged, its helmet curving downwards and a cape billowing out from its back. Its arms glowed with a light red aura, a memento of the speed and attack passed on from ninjask.

"Zen headbutt!"

A blue aura surrounded gallade's helmet. With its ninjask substitutes buzzing around it, the blade pokemon jumped high and went into a nosedive at the stag beetle pokemon. However, vikavolt used its agility to swerve out of the way, forcing gallade to land with a backflip. But before gallade could fully recover, Winston ordered a full-power bug buzz from vikavolt, flooding the arena with red sound waves.

Up in the Champion's chamber, Reinhardt sighed. "Kids these days, playing with their sound weapons and bypassing substitutes. Back in our day, we had to physically pummel our way through the enemy, isn't that right, my friends?"

Torbjorn piped in. "I told ya, the size of the hammer doesn't matter! These sonic blasts can bring rockfalls down harder than your big hamm-"

"Guys, stop. I don't think any of that's hitting gallade any time soon."

The Elite Four and Champion have seen many sound-based moves executed and countered over the past 5 matches, and this time, it was mega gallade's inner focus that pulled it together. Ignoring the deafening noise around it, gallade suddenly sprung from its crouch, landing its zen headbutt at last. The red aura from its arms gathered onto its helmet, blasting the stag beetle pokemon away.

Vikavolt recovered, retaliating with a thunderbolt that tore through many more ninjask substitutes. Gallade dashed to the side, before sprinting up close to the stag beetle pokemon. Its arms shrouded in ice, the blade pokemon attempted an ice punch. Vikavolt promptly crunched on gallade's free arm, slamming it into the chasm wall.

Tightening its grip, the stag beetle pokemon began to form a bolt of electricity between its mouthparts, ready to blast gallade into oblivion. However, Genji was quick to react, ordering a zen headbutt that the blade pokemon landed square on vikavolt's mandibles. The stag beetle pokemon released its grip, allowing gallade to grab it by the abdomen and pin it into the chasm wall.

Extending a blade from its arms, gallade fired off one swift slice, loosening the structure of the ravine wall. Releasing vikavolt and backflipping away, a rock slide came crashing down onto the stag beetle pokemon. Once the dust cleared, vikavolt was quite evidently crushed and unconscious.

"Vikavolt is unable to battle. Genji gains a point."

"Impressive, my friend! Your gallade seems to be stronger than I had calculated. Looks like further documentation is required… metagross?"

The iron leg pokemon shook the arena a little as it landed. Winston tapped his glasses, revealing a key stone.

"As validated by science, mega evolve!"

Metagross morphed in a flash, its legs thickening and swinging forward like a four-pronged claw. With a deep whirr, it began to levitate off the ground as it scanned its opponent, its 8 parallel brains processing as one.

"Gallade, close combat!"

With the element of surprise, gallade dashed right into metagross, its few remaining ninjask substitutes in tow. However, the iron leg pokemon finished its calculations right on time, dashing out of the way and preparing a horizontal swing with two of its clawed arms.

The attack came down, without any time for gallade to parry. The remaining ninjask substitutes sacrificed themselves instead, disappearing into puffs of smoke as metagross' heavy arms rammed hard into them.

While metagross recovered from the heavy swing, gallade swerved 180 and landed a swipe to one of its rear arms. Flipping the iron leg pokemon into the air with a vertical swipe, the blade pokemon took aim, and launched a full force thrust at the hole in metagross' central chassis.

However, the iron leg pokemon recovered quickly. Predicting gallade's attack, metagross righted itself and caught gallade's blade in one of its four clawed arms. Gallade tried another swipe with its free arm, only for that to be caught by metagross as well.

"Brace yourself, gallade!"

With two arms free, metagross slugged gallade heavily in the chest, throwing it to the chasm wall. Tucking all four of its arms in, metagross began to spin, whirring like a jet engine, with a blue aura forming around it.

"Meteor mash!"

"Get to cover, now!"

Gallade scrambled into a nearby cave opening just as metagross' heavy, spinning arms crashed into the chasm wall, causing multiple shock waves, an explosive cloud of dust and forming cracks that zigzagged all the way up the ravine. The spectators oohed at the pure power of metagross' strike, only to have gallade avoid it at the last second.

"Yes! Now that is power! An unfortunate miss, however…"

As usual, Torbjorn was first to tease the German veteran. "Reminds me of the times you miss your charge, you old brute! The fireworks coming out of your armor was always a spectacular sight!"

Metagross screeched in anger, starting towards the cave entrance. However, Winston stopped him, with another strategy in mind.

"Precision strikes, metagross. Bullet punch here, here and here."

Metagross obeyed without question, blasting out chunks of rock with its heavy arms. The ravine shuddered, and Genji caught on to what Winston was planning.

"Gallade! Get out of there now!"

The entire section of the chasm wall crumbled, as gallade's cave section began to collapse. Rocks tumbled down, threatening to seal the entrance at any minute, while metagross kept its distance, careful not to be by falling rocks. Its arms continued to glow from the bullet punches it fired off, prompting Genji to issue a reminder…

"Your enemy is right outside, by your left!"

Gallade burst from the collapsing cave, its cape strewn with dirt. Just as predicted, metagross dashed at its revealed opponent, one of its arms outstretched. With lightning-fast reflexes, the blade pokemon parried the blow, and countered with a vicious chop to the arm socket.

Under normal circumstances, metagross' tough steel exoskeleton, coupled with its psionic barriers, would easily be able to withstand such a blow. However, the contestants and spectators alike were able to see the gash from gallade's previous blow to metagross' arm widen in that split second, and with a ghastly metallic shriek the heavy, clawed arm was sheared clean off.

Everyone gasped collectively, with Mercy's hand flying instinctively to her mouth.

Metagross screeched in agony, though its arm had already begun to reconstruct itself. Capitalising on that massive blow, gallade stabbed one of its blades hard into the top of metagross' chassis, prepared to deal the finishing blow. However, the cornered metagross swung its arms wildly, managing to nail gallade and shake him off.

"Recuperate, metagross. Keep your distance!"

The iron leg pokemon levitated further up with its psychic abilities, gaining a height advantage over gallade. However, gallade was not deterred, like master, like partner. Using its blades as anchors, it scaled the ravine wall, pulling itself towards metagross' level so it could launch a final blow.

"Keep him off, metagross! Earthquake!"

Slamming two of its arms like jackhammers into the cliff face that gallade was climbing, metagross caused a series of tremors that loosened rocks and portions of the entire wall. Forced to jump ship, gallade made one great leap at the iron leg pokemon, both its blades ready to sink into metagross' core.

The iron leg pokemon predicted that attack easily, swatting gallade off course with bullet punch. However, the blade pokemon clung on to its arm, prompting metagross to dive towards the cliff face, attempting to slam gallade into it.

Gallade flipped over onto metagross' underside as the iron leg pokemon rammed into the wall, causing a miniature rock slide. While metagross was distracted by the countless stones pelting its carapace, gallade jumped onto metagross' face, one of its blades shrouded in red energy from ninjask's attack boosts.

Realising its impending doom, metagross quickly regained flight control, using one of its arms to hold gallade's blade back. Then another, and another. 3 heavy metal claws holding back a boosted stab from the blade pokemon, yet the organic blade still inched further. The iron leg pokemon was weak from the battle, and without its fourth arm, it could do nothing to stop gallade's arm sinking into its facial cross.

Going all the way through, gallade promptly removed its blade from metagross' chassis. Its opponent's eyes went dark, and the 942kg monstrosity sank to the ground. The blade pokemon jumped off, dusting its cape.

"Metagross is unable to battle. Genji gains a point."

"Mizu no yō ni nagare. Let us hope your passimian can reverse the outcome."

Back in the battle, gallade immediately engaged the teamwork pokemon with close combat, forcing passimian to parry with a close combat of its own.

The two fighting types engaged in a heated close range scuffle. With the power of mega evolution, gallade clearly had the upper hand, but passimian was putting up a good fight, swinging from gallade's flashing blades and landing a double kick into gallade's chest.

Recovering easily, gallade counterattacked hard and fast, its arms a blur of motion as it sent a flurry of stabs and slashes towards passimian, who ducked and weaved like there was no tomorrow.

Feigning left, gallade instead delivered a horizontal right slash, that passimian was barely able to avoid by jumping over it. Wrapping its long tail around gallade's foot as it went, the teamwork pokemon tripped its opponent, following up with a flurry of punches.

However, using psychic's fighting resistance, gallade avoided an uppercut from passimian, landing a blow with the flat of its blade square to the teamwork pokemon's face. Taking advantage of the momentary stun, the blade pokemon gathered its energy to its helmet, successfully executing a zen headbutt that blasted passimian away, defeating it.

"Passimian is unable to battle. Genji gains the final point without suffering a knockout. Flawless victory!"

Winston sighed, adjusting his glasses. "I suppose there always is more to discover, about each other and about our partners. Well played, Genji."

"It was a good, fair battle. Thank you, old friend."

Winston walked over to the terrain generator. Deactivating the formation switch, the half-destroyed chasm dissolved to dust, swirling back into drainage units on the floor of the arena. In a matter of seconds, the arena had returned to an open sphere with a clear, unscratched glass floor, as though it had not been used at all.

The spectators gazed in amazement, bursting into cheer as the two Overwatch operatives left the arena. From his seat, Gabriel smiled and shook his head.

"That monkey's still got a lot to learn."

Author's note: It's Fyre again guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Looks like work's been piling up non-stop, had to pull out quite some time and effort to write this one.

Some of you may notice that the usual 'private scene at night' isn't here in this chapter, but don't worry, I'll publish that in the next one. The battles are about a third through (oh no!) so I guess I should develop a bit more on the plot at this point. Until then, see ya!