Sealing The Deal

The next day, Mint had decided to sleep in for a bit longer than usual before heading out. He was up late last night with that Pikachu, Scott, and he had brought him to a part of Pinwheel Forest that he had never been to. It took him almost an hour to get back home because of the unfamiliar location but once he made it back, he instantly went to sleep… except his parents questioned him for why he was out that long.

He told them that he lost track of time due to thinking about a whole bunch of stuff, mainly, how he saw the colony Elder. He didn't tell them about the Pikachu though because he knows that he most likely won't be seeing him again unless a freak chance meeting happens. At least he put their worries at ease. When he left his home this morning, he left his pendant under his bed so his parents wouldn't find it. He didn't want anyone potentially seeing it and possibly bully him for having a 'Girly accessory'.

It's a new day now, and while the late morning sunshine pierces through the trees and thick leaves, Mint is a little bit down. The chilly breeze of the late fall air flows through the colony, disturbing his fur a bit as he sits on the edge of the fountain again. The children from yesterday are here playing once again, but they seem to completely ignore him this time around. Finally, some peace and quiet for once, something Mint had been hoping to have for the last few days.

Unfortunately for him, his unlucky streak of not-so-peaceful days is about to continue, for a certain couple of Minccino have returned to the colony: Rachel and Patricia.

Both of them are outside Patricia's house. Patricia seems to be gently rubbing the spot on her face where Mint hit her a few days ago. The swelling has finally gone down but in its place is a nasty black and blue mark from near her lips almost all the way up to her ear, he got her pretty good. She isn't so happy about it and seems to be complaining about it to Rachel. Mint can hear them as they're pretty loud at the moment and while he doesn't care for what they have to say, he indirectly listens in.

"My beautiful face is ruined! How am I supposed to use my beauty to attract a mate if I have such an ugly mark on my face?" she says, apparently on the verge of sobbing by her tone of voice.

Rachel tries to comfort her. "Aww c'mon… it's not THAT bad… you're still just as beautiful as ever! I think that mark looks kinda cool, shows that you're tougher than you look if I'm going to be brutally honest."

She doesn't seem to see it that way. "No, it's not cool! My face is what all the guys are going to see when they first meet me and if you were one of them, would YOU think of having me as your mate if you saw me with this disgusting mark?"

"Patricia, you're making a big deal out of it… marks like this fade away over time."

She thinks she doesn't have that. "Time!? I don't have time! You know we're supposed to start getting a mate by this age, how can you not freak out about it? I'm an ugly bitch that nobody will want!" her sadness quickly turns into fuming anger. "That fucking…" she begins to ramble under her breath.

Mint gulps down a small amount of saliva. His instincts are telling him that what's gonna happen next isn't going to be good for his or Patricia's health. He can practically feel her rage at this point. "Great… I just HAD to act without thinking and tail slap her in the face, didn't I?" he thinks to himself as he tries to listen to the conversation once again.

"I'm going to find that son of a bitch and make him pay for what he did to me…! 'Next time you blah blah blah, I'm gonna make you eat the dirt' How about you come out from hiding you fucking coward!? If you're gonna make threats, you better go through with them!" she yells as she starts walking in the direction of the elder's den.

Lucky Mint, he decided to sit on the opposite side of the fountain today, but he's still got a problem now. "What the fuck am I going to do now? If I try and leave, they'll hear me and then…" his thoughts are cut off by Patricia yelling.

"Come out, come out, stop hiding from me you filthy motherfucker! I got a bone to pick with you!" her voice seems to suddenly be getting louder and louder.

Mint has to do something, otherwise she'll find him. He quickly thinks of a possible escape route but as he's thinking, she rounds the fountain and spots him. "AHA! YOU WERE HERE THIS WHOLE TIME!?" she yells in his face.

"FUCK" is all he can say in his head.

She gets right up in his face, making him back up and almost fall into the fountain pool. "Happy to see me? I thought you couldn't resist looking for a fucking fight after what you did to me a few days ago."

He looks away and stays silent. This only further infuriates her. "Helloooo! I'm over here!" she slaps his face to make him look at her, making him flinch. "LOOK AT SOMEONE WHEN THEY'RE TALKING TO YOU!"

Rachel starts looking around nervously, tapping her paws together. She seems uneasy and senses something bad about to happen. What she's actually doing is trying to make sure nobody sees or hears them. Patricia laughs in a rather sinister way before speaking to Mint.

"Remember when you said you'd make me eat the dirt at my feet the next time I talked shit about your parents? Well what do you have to say about eating not only the dirt at my feet, but also eating your own words!?" she then uses 'Doubleslap' and with all of her might, slaps him so hard on the right side of his face that he is knocked into the air for a moment and falls right into the fountain pool.

Water splashes up everywhere, and unlike normal fountains, the fountain pool actually goes a bit deeper than what it looks like from the outside. Mint comes up to the surface, gasping for air. He now has a nasty mark on his face, no where near the size of the one she has, but still nasty enough to be very noticeable.

A little bit of water splashed onto Patricia, but she doesn't care. She laughs happily at what she's done and points at him. "Look, a wet sewer rat has come up from the fountain! Oh no… I'm soooo scared!" she teases before chuckling and then becoming serious. "Get the fuck out of there you prick. Fight me!"

The children who were running and playing around from before saw what just happened and all of them fall silent. Some of them decide to run off back home but the ones that don't run off become sorta hypnotized by what's going on. Mint doesn't want to climb out of the fountain, but he has no choice since he can't swim forever.

He goes to climb out, only for Patricia to grab him by his left paw and forcibly drag him out and onto the floor. She immediately kicks dirt on his face and body. "You like that!? The dirt suits you so well! FUCKING TAKE IT YOU BITCH!"

Her yelling starts grabbing the attention of a few Minccino who are in their dens. They come out to see and the ones closest to the fountain notice what's going on. In normal situations, if this was a fight with anyone else, they would be all over them to stop and break it up. However, since Mint is involved, nobody wants to do anything because, well… we already know, don't we?

Mint spits the dirt out of his mouth, somehow, she managed to kick some in there. She stands over him, waiting for him to get up, but he's not. Even though he knows what he said, he isn't going to fight her. He thought that he made it clear to her that if she did anything to him again, she would be in a world of hurt but apparently this threat wasn't intimidating enough.

She yells in his face again. "GET UP! DON'T JUST LIE THERE, FIGHT ME!"

He looks away and takes a deep breath before standing up, but he's quick to react and as she goes to use 'Doubleslap' again, he jumps away from her. His soaking wet fur sprays water over her from his movement and the long tuft of fur on his head flops down over his left eye. He pushes it out of the way and his expression becomes intense.

Patricia smiles cockily, she's finally getting what she wants, at least, that's what it looks like in her eyes. She wipes some of the water off her face and snickers. Rachel on the other hand is stuck between running back home to avoid becoming an accomplice to the fight or if she should try to break it up herself. Even though she hates Mint, this fight is pointless. She tries to talk some sense into her.

"P-Patricia, is this really nec-" she cuts her off.

"Stay out of it! I don't need you getting hurt by this bastard, it's bad enough he hurt me in more ways than I can count."

She tried, the only thing she can do now is hope neither of them get seriously injured so she backs a fair distance away from them. A rather decently sized crowd has now gathered on the very outskirts of the plaza, waiting to see the fight kick into high gear. Some of them are even silently cheering for Mint's defeat. In the meantime, Mint and Patricia stare each other down.

On his forehead is a bunch of sweat droplets mixed with water. They slowly roll down his head and as soon as they fall off and hit the ground, Patricia runs at him. The two end up locking paws with each other and attempt to push the other to the ground. Even though Mint may be stronger battlewise, he's not that strong physically and as such struggles a little bit against her. She grunts and bares her teeth, she's not kidding around.

It takes all of his strength to keep her at bay but he can't hold her forever and decides to let her push him down… except he uses this downward momentum to slide right past her on her right side. She falls to the ground as there's nothing holding her up. A small cloud of dirt is created from the impact but she stands up immediately.

A few of the Minccino that are spectating actually cheer Mint for his move, but he doesn't acknowledge them, they're only trying to trip him up. Patricia runs at him again but uses 'Iron tail' and even though he could dodge it, the small distance between the two of them makes this almost impossible and he gets hit with it right across the stomach. He stumbles back a little and she combos into 'Swift'.

Star shaped rays appear around her and she throws her paws forwards and they all pelt him, throwing him further off balance. She then jumps at him and finishes off with 'Tail Slap'. She hits him once in the face, which keeps him off balance, then she hits him in the ears, which makes him grab them and almost falls over in response, finally, she hits him with a vertical swipe going from toe to head and this is enough for him to be knocked onto his back.

Everyone in the crowd cheers as he goes down. He isn't out just yet, but these three attacks did a considerable amount of damage. The dust and dirt on his fur shows his damage. If he were to take these same attacks again, he'd be nearly defeated. One thing about Minccino is that while they have good attack power, they have very little defensive capabilities, making them rather frail. Up against each other, it's all about how fast they move and who can hit first.

Mint stands up, but not as fast as before, a clear sign that he's taken much damage. Patricia rubs under her nose and speaks with a confident but cocky tone. "What's the matter, Mint? Feeling a little tired? You can't POSSIBLY be tuckered out already, we only just started!"

His breathing is a little weird too, taking much deeper breaths than usual. He doesn't want to hit her, he knows what will happen if he does. He quickly looks at the crowd around him and realizes that nearly everyone in the colony is there now… minus his parents and a few others.

He shifts his attention back to her. She's waiting for him to make his move. "C'mon! Make me eat the dirt like you said you would!" she punches her paws together and braces herself for his move, but he shakes his head.

Her eyes widen in response but she smiles devilishly. "You're not gonna attack? You really ARE all show and no go!" she uses the move 'Swift' once again.

The star shaped rays surround her once again but this time, Mint isn't gonna let her hit him. She throws her paw forward and the stars fly at him. This time, he uses 'Tail Slap' and with his tail, whacks every single star up into the air, completely avoiding damage. The stars break above them and little, harmless stars fall all over them. Patricia is mildly surprised, but at the same time, doesn't care.

She runs at him and prepares to use 'Iron Tail' once again but he counters by using 'Tail Slap' once more. Their tails collide with each other and a wave of energy billows forth, causing a bit of dust and dirt to fly into the sky. She takes this chance to grab him by the fur on his chest using her left paw and with her right paw, repeatedly slaps him across the face using 'Wake-Up-Slap' a move that's super effective against Normal types.

While he gets hit by each slap, Mint responds with 'Bullet Seed' and he shoots 3 seeds at her, 2 towards her eyes, and one at her nose. This causes her to flinch and grab her eyes in response and she drops him, letting him run away from her. The wake-up-slap did massive damage to him and he feels a bit lightheaded, a sign that he's getting close to being defeated.

Everyone is half torn on cheering and booing. Cheering for Patricia and booing for Mint. While nobody was looking, Rachel had managed to slip through the crowd and began to run home, hoping that she could find someone or something that could stop the fight before Mint or Patricia get brutally hurt.

Back at the plaza, Mint and Patricia are back at it again, paws locked together and trying to push the other to the ground. Patricia is starting to tire out and this is something that Mint can use to his advantage, but once again, he's not gonna do what he said he'd do. She speaks to him through her teeth. "You've really and gone and done it, haven't you? See what you did to my face!?"

Mint doesn't care. He pushes her back. She pushes back harder in response and continues talking. "Because of you, I won't be able to get a mate! Do you know what it feels like to be alone!? HUH!?"

Those words strike a potent nerve and Mint shoves her back really hard, throwing her onto the ground and he starts seeing everything around him painted in blood red. His face suddenly becomes covered by an extremely dark shadow and the entire crowd goes silent. He speaks for the first time in this battle. "...do I know what it feels like to be alone…?" his voice is very low and holds immense rage.

She looks up at him, realizing that what she said was quite possibly a fatal mistake. He steps forward over her and his shadow seemingly grows tall and covers her, making her put her paws up over her face in response and turning her head away, cowering a bit. He inhales deeply and screams right in her face with everything he's got, his voice cracking and breaking. "HOW DARE YOU PLAY THE ROLE OF THE VICTIM YOU UNGRATEFUL, SPOILED, GREY TRASH, EGOTISTICAL, BEAUTY CRAZED SNOB. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ALONE! THE MOMENT I WAS ABLE TO GO OUT AND MEET THE OTHER MINCCINO IN THIS COLONY, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU KICKED ME TO THE CURB AND LEFT ME OUT OF ANY AND ALL ACTIVITIES! PLAYTIME, NAPTIME, LUNCHTIME, FUCKTIME! IT DOESN'T MATTER! 16 YEARS OF BEING LONELY AND 7 OF THOSE YEARS SPENT BEING BULLIED BY YOU, YOUR WASTE OF FUR FOR A FRIEND, AND EVERYONE ELSE IN THIS FUCKING SHITHOLE COLONY! I SURE AS HELL KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IT'S LIKE TO BE LONELY, SO DON'T YOU DARE PLAY THE VICTIM CARD EVER AGAIN!"

Everyone around him is wide eyed and shocked. Mint stands there, panting heavily as the red in his vision fades away slowly and he comes to his senses. He doesn't realize what he did or said, it was all impulse and instinct that took control of him. He sees Patricia on the ground, eyes wide as they can be, completely mortified and lost for words. He looks up at the crowd. They're all staring at him with equally surprised looks. A few of them start to whisper among each other and Mint shoots his gaze back to Patricia.

She stands up, his words seemingly not having any effect on her but deep down, this hurt her immensely. She dusts herself off before getting right up in his face. "You talk a lot of shit for someone who won't fight back. I don't know what got into you to make you think that you can just yell at me like that…" she clenches her paws into extremely hard fists and her tone becomes extremely aggressive and angry, her face reflecting it too. "But I'm not gonna fucking take that without putting you down!"

She uses the move 'Last Resort' and with an insanely powerful punch to his nose with her right paw, she knocks him out and possibly breaks his nose in the process. He falls on his back and hits the ground, blood starting to come out of his nose. A few Minccino in the crowd cheer for Patricia, but most of them are still whispering about what Mint said moments before.

Patricia looks at Mint who is now unconscious. She kicks dirt onto him and wipes the little blood droplets off her paw and onto his. She makes an 'ugh' sound as she touches him. Even though he put up no fight at all, she had a bit of difficulty trying to take him down. She's had enough of this and wants to go home. She pushes her way through the now dispersing crowd and heads for her den to tell her father about what she accomplished.


An hour or so seems to go by… Mint wakes up in his bed at home. He's confused as to how he got there but this thought shifts to the rather unpleasant sensation coming from his nose. He wipes at it and a little bit of fresh blood comes off and onto his paws. He sighs and notices that he has what looks like a gauze wrap over it. He groans as he realizes just exactly what that means.

His groaning grabs the attention of his parents who are nearby. Emilia runs over to him and slides to a stop in front of him, worried out of her mind over what happened. "Mint! You're finally awake! Oh my Arceus… I was so worried… " She grabs him into a rather big hug. She's acting as if she wasn't going to see him again for the rest of her life.

"...mom… that… that hurts…" he says in a pained voice. He aches from all the battle damage he took, not to mention, it seems some attacks he took also left little cuts and bruises here and there.

She stops hugging him. "Sorry… it's just…" she's very upset over what happened and her voice seems a bit higher than usual. "One of our old friends from the Cottonee colony came to visit with the intent on doing some trading and found you knocked out in the plaza… he also said he heard from one of the Minccino that you were in a fight with Patricia…"

Ross, on the other hand, has a dark shadow over his face and a very deep growl could be heard coming from him. Mint knows that when his father gets mad, there's almost no stopping him depending on what caused him to get like this. He sits up in his bed. "Dad…"

No response. Mint's heart sinks. He knows what could happen and he doesn't want that to be the case. "...D-dad? Please say something…"

His head turns towards him and the shadow lightens up a bit but his face is extremely tense and his looks strike fear into Mint. Only one thing came to his mind: a brutal fight is about to break out between him and either Patricia or Brian.

He speaks, his voice so deep and wrathful. "Stay here. Whatever I'm about to do, I don't want my precious son or mate getting involved with it because someone is gonna be on the ground bleeding."

Emilia stands up and shakes a little for a second. "Ross… please don't… remember last time?" she says.

He takes a few steps towards the drapes, then looks over his shoulder. "I do, and this time I won't be coming out of it with a broken arm or ribs." he then gets on all fours and runs out of the den.

Mint, despite being in a bit of pain, jumps out of his bed and goes on all fours to give chase to him. He doesn't know what he's planning, but just from those words alone, he can't let him do whatever it is. His mother goes to grab him but he's still speedy even when injured. She has no choice but to give chase to both of them. As Mint calls out to his father, a sense of dread and guilt comes over him. He can't catch him because Ross is a bit faster than him but Emilia manages to catch up to Mint and they both exchange a few different looks between each other and only one thing's for certain: All of them are going to be in deep shit once everything is done and over.


PD: Oh boy...