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X&Y

~10:45 AM, Tuesday, November

Lurking in the shadows of an alleyway, a sneasel watched from across the street as the group sat on the front steps of an apartment complex and talked with each other. After realizing the group was familiar to her, she emerged from the alleyway and stood in the open on the sidewalk. On the other side of the street, the group didn't show signs of acknowledging her presence, as they kept talking. Being the haughty sneasel she was, she questioned their overlooking of her presence angrily.

"Keep quiet over there!" she called, making a reason for herself to go over to them (so she could deliberately cause trouble). "Damn goons." She sped across the road, not bothering to look both ways. Why would she need to when all oncoming cars would, without hesitation, stop for their mistress?

The group of pokémon was now staring at her. The sneasel looked them over, making a mental list consisting of the pokémon and their titles as portrayed by her:

The awkward absol. The quiet "O Wise One" armaldo. The easy KO, dumb-looking scyther... And the easy KO, tiny grovyle, who was apparently last year's winner. Also, there was some unrecognizable ninetales, who was presumably just tagging along with the group.

"You're all in the Biathlon," the sneasel stated forthrightly, not referring to the ninetales. "What a coincidence. So am I!" She grinned wickedly as she rested the backs of her paws on her hips and studied the grovyle.

Cereus looked back at her nervously. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before he could even utter a syllable.

"So you won a Biathlon before, huh?" asked the sneasel.

"Yes. I have," Cereus replied warily. His response was met by a derisive laugh from the sneasel.

"Get out of town! You're not even evolved. You're like a tiny, flimsy... twig in the wind."

Cereus' face showed a slight pang of sadness, and this made the sneasel's sly smile even wider. He frowned suddenly, retorting, "I rely on speed to win. Last year, it was me up against a rhydon who had practically trampled its way up to the last competition. It was tough; depending on its weight to crush its opponents. But me, I simply stepped out of the way of its charge, leapt on its back, and found a weak spot in between two of its metal plates, and—"

"Cereus, please stop," Aztec silently pleaded, nervously scratching at his neck where two of his own shell plates met.

The sneasel, however, had been sitting, eagerly listening to Cereus' speech like a kid listening to war stories told by their grandfather. After a moment of silence, she stood up. "Very interesting story, Gramps." She looked to the rest. "Never expected Biathlon fighters to be hanging out with each other before they start to kill each other. But, then again, that's something I would do. Hah!" She began to make her way down the road, much to the group's relief. "Hey, when the tournament starts next week, look out for Kira, the sadist sneasel! Not to be confused with the other sneasel in the tournament. There's two. Kira, the sadist sneasel! Keep in mind." She continued rambling until she approached a corner, where she stopped and took one last look at the pokémon. "Weaklings!" she yelled contemptuously before disappearing around the corner.

At first, the group was silent. Then Kai broke the silence with a laugh. All was silent again.

"...What the hell?" Lily looked around at the others with a look of both disgust and confusion on her face. "Who does she think she is?"

"The sadist sneasel, apparently."

"Well look, Lilynette." Cereus leaned forward to get a better look at the absol. "For something like this, this tournament, you can't expect all who enter to be nice and friendly." He ran his claws along his other arm's trailing growths, sprucing them absentmindedly. "Some pokémon volunteer to join just for the sake of killing."

"Yeah, I am aware," Lily replied glumly.

"Her and the lucario," Kai spoke up, "both seem a little arrogant."

"Let's hope they die quickly."

"Speaking of the lucario, where is Shiro?" Kai looked around the street. "And Imara too? And... Cinder."

"Frankly, I don't think Shiro and Imara like us very much," Aztec stated softly. The others considered it for a moment. The zangoose did seem a little harsh, but that was supposedly a typical faculty that came with being independent. The blaziken seemed more amiable, but if someone didn't agree with her on something, she'd probably have a fit.

Lily went back to talking with the ninetales. "So did Roy, like, adopt you or something?"

Aster shook her head. "Is that Kaiser's trainer's name? No, I'm with Roy's friend, Elliot."

"That's cool. I'm glad you have a good trainer," Lily said, feigning a smile and trying to hide her envy towards the ninetales. "If you don't mind me asking, how'd he catch you?"

"Why would I mind?" Aster raised a brow. "Actually, he didn't catch me. He doesn't have my pokéball. It was left at the black market."

"Oh yeah, you told me about how you escaped. Wait, how did you escape?" Lily asked, leaning in closer with curiosity.

Aster shuddered slightly. The question seemed to disconcert her and bring back bad memories. She fell into an unresponsive, trance-like state. "All those pokémon," she breathed hoarsely. "Touching the metal bars... Running. Dying." She looked down at the absol apathetically. "Well," she started, her composure miraculously regained, "I was in a cage up for sale, and these Pokémon Activist people came out of nowhere and tried to free the pokémon. I and some others were freed. This group calls themselves the People for the Ethical Treatment of Pokémon. I heard they're trying to stop the Biathlon now. They're trying to get some law passed that officially prohibits all to-the-death pokémon battles."

Lily lightened up. "I've never heard of that, but that's good!"

~4:30 PM

Julie had stopped by Coscrown's flat to drop off Cinder and take Coscrown out for a drink, giving Cinder and Kai time to get to know each other. They sat on the couch which they had moved to face the windowed wall. The sun was setting at that time, and luckily there was an ideally dearth amount of clouds. The couple clouds that did spot the sky didn't ruin the picture, as they were hued orange from the sun and they kind of added to the beauty.

"You know, Cinder," Kai began, "I'll be honest. At first I didn't like you that much—"

"You mean you like me now!?" The scizor practically jumped out of her seat.

"No," Kai scoffed. "Not like that."

"Oh. Well I don't like you like that either." Cinder pouted.

"Anyway... We have quite a lot in common though. Like, tell me about how you were born on Fire Island."

Cinder thought for a moment. A speckle of light, produced from the setting sun, bounced off her shoulder's shell and danced along the wall, like she was mirror ball. "Well, I was hatched there. And I had some parents."

Kai stared blankly at Cinder. What an obscure answer... He decided to start off himself. "Well, I was hatched in Cherry Grove. My father, who took off much before I was born, was a heracross. My mother was a scizor."

Cinder stared at Kai incredulously. "No way," she gasped. "Same here..."

At first, Kai stared back emotionlessly, trying to register why she was so shocked. Then, he grew horrified. "...What?"

Cinder broke into laughter. "Just kidding! I was born on the other side of the Island."

Kai breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wouldn't that be weird though, huh? Incest!"

The scyther quietly nodded. Silence followed. "Incest!" he blurted out. "Who said anything about sex in the first place?"

Cinder laughed. Kai glared at her.

More silence passed between the two as they watched the sun fall. Cinder slowly lifted her claw and moved it through the air, where it eventually rested on the middle of Kai's scythe. He stared at her claw out of the corner of his eye, but he didn't attempt to move or scold her.

Days passed, days of which they both spent with each other. Kai was amazed at how his opinion of one who he used to hate could change so dramatically and so quickly. At one point, he found himself balled up on his bed, distressed, asking himself how he could let something like that happen.

How could he have fallen for her so easily? It was the damn similarities they shared. Not only were they the same species, technically, but they also talked nonstop with each other about science mostly pertaining to the weather or the biology of the Bug-type.

'She is annoying,' he told himself. 'She is just a fan desperate to get with me,' he tried forcing himself to believe. It was all in vain, though.

Finally, he gave up. He figured that, because he would most likely die during the tournament, he might as well spend the last moments of his life happily. So one day, when Cinder was, once again, attempting to get in closer contact with Kai, he let her. She leaned against him, and he put his scythe around her.

Cinder, somewhat surprised, looked up to Kai with beckoning eyes. Could she take this further? She moved her head closer to his. Kai cringed slightly, but, knowing it was pointless trying to fight against her, he responded by moving his head closer to hers.

The gap between them diminished until air could no longer pass through. They interlocked their beaks, Kai softly biting down on Cinder's lower mandible, as Cinder did the same with Kai's upper.

The sunset was particularly beautiful that day.