(( Authors Note: I've had a particularly shitty day today. I've had this laying around for a while, so I figured I'd fix it up a little and slap it up. See if I could work out another chapters since I'm getting into pokemon again. ))


Nemo glared at his opponent. It was written all over his face as he looked down at the changes to the arena grounds and up at the crowds, he was going to lose another pokemon tonight. He was sure of it. But this time, he wasn't going to go down without a fight. He didn't know where he was, or who he was fighting, just that if he surrendered, He'd probably be worse off than the little guys he had in the pokeballs.
Traik watched the younger trainer and saw these open thoughts moving over the younger boy's face. He barely remembered being that age. So young, so innocent. From the looks of it, the boy was catching on very quickly to his situation. As soon as the horn blared, the fight for the survival of they're little balled up friends would ensue. The winner would be praised and given the treatment of a hero. The loser would be lost in despair of losing another pokemon that had so much training, effort and companionship put into it.
Traik grinned and gave Nemo a little half nod of respect for another battler. Un-surprised that the kid didn't return it.

The horn blared and the sound of the crowd faded from Traik's ears. If he looked up, he could see them cheering and roaring for one side or the other. But he was deaf to it now. So many years in this game had taught him to block it all out. He pressed the trigger on the ball, almost imagining hearing the little click, and watching the red light seep out, revealing Politoed at the base of his podium. He gave the hardened pokemon a nod and a slight wave of his fingers. Hearing another click across from him he looked up.
The battle hadn't even begun yet, and he already saw the crushed expression in Nemo's eyes. The child may be standing under his own power, but inside, he'd broken already. The only pokemon he had available to him had been an Oddish. Traik glanced up at the hungry eyes of those watching. They wanted a quick fight. They wanted to see the child get his very psyche eliminated.
"Well, Politoed... Let us deliver." He softly said under his breath, his eyes forward once more, simply letting his eyes bore into Nemo's skull, while the little one spent the rest of the fight trying to direct his pokemon into something useful in the way of tactics.

The match was over almost as soon as it had began. The oddish's knowledge was minimal and despite all the spores and powders it threw at the politoed, almost all of it was for naught, the water based pokemon reacting to none of it. The oddish ran around for a while, before it slipped in the gravel and toppled. From there, it was just a matter of politoed ripping the leaves from its head, picking up one of the rocks that had been provided from one of the previously spilled grates, and used it to beat the small pokemon into a pulp.

Nemo's screams were barely heard under the gleeful sounds of the mob in the benches above the walls. Tears and snot covering his face as the pit fiends pulled him from the strapping and dragged his limp body from the ring, vanishing into the tunnels. Traik stepped down from his podium and walked out to the center, resting a hand on the politoed's head and ordering him to stop his destruction of the little corpse. He raised a fist into the air, and the cheers redoubled for a moment.

He did not stay there and milk the crowd as so many others liked to do in the beginnings of the little tournaments. He'd let other people do that. He slipped into the tunnels, past the gates he'd only come out of a few minutes before. Once there, he broke into a jog, recalling his pokemon as he went, and soon had his usual spot at the edge of the pit. He wouldn't place any bets this night. He needed to watch every battler for potential.
He arrived in time to hear the announcer calling for the beginning of the next match. He'd missed the names, but from the looks of the trainers, it was a similar situation as the first fight. One older, battle hardened civilian, and one younger, fairly inexperienced kid. Though this one had fire and spirit to his eyes, something Nemo had lost from the start. And yet, both man and child seemed pretty casual about it. There was respect for the game between them. No ill will for the other, as they knew one of them was going to lose.
A Blissy came from the older man, and an average looking Ekans from the younger trainer. They paused a moment to look their opponents over, ignoring the crowd much as Traik had done, and soon waved their pokemon onwards and forwards, into battle. Not a command slipping from either of their lips.

There was no hesitation. Blissy took a deep breath and started to sing. Without a microphone to enhance the volume, the crowd would be unaffected, and even with the cheering and roars for blood, they couldn't hear it anyway. The snake on the other hand, slithered quite fast over the new terrain without a problem and moved in close. The song started to affect it, slowing it down, but not all that much. Before anyone could even blink, the snake had made it within range, and jolted its head forward, fangs sinking into the startled pokemon opponent.

Blissy screamed in pain, curling back a little and grabbing Ekan's head with its paws, trying to pull the snake free before the poison in its fangs could begin to take effect. The large pink and white pokemon only just managing to pull this off, twin wounds in its side bleeding, a slight reddish-purple slime around the edges, likely the blood's reaction to the poison. Ekans hissed, mouth still open from the position Blissy was holding it in, and tried to catch the pokemon's eye, to execute a leer attack.

Wiser than that, the Blissy threw the snake's head down to the ground, reaching down to pull the egg from its pouch, ready to use it as another weapon. Ekans proved to be a formidable opponent however. Rather than laying there dazed, the snake moved into action while the egg was being removed and slithered around behind the pink and white behemoth. Another scream came from its mouth as it felt the fangs sinking into the spot between its shoulder blades, another does of poison shuttling into it's bloodstream. Try as Blissy might to shake him off, and after an ineffective tail whip, it only just noticed the snake trying to wrap its coils around its upper body.

Not to be outdone, Blissy dropped the egg back into its pouch, as the attack it had planned was temporarily useless, and began beating against the coils with its paws, and made a quick dash backwards, throwing the both of them against one of the gates.

Ekans' coils loosened a moment, dazed from the blow, but remain latched on by fangs buried deep within the flesh, head working back and forth, making itself push more and more poison into the larger body. Blissy took this loosening coils as a good sign and even as the poison caused its muscles to feel like they were burning away from the inside outwards, it gathered a coil in its paws, turned around, and started beating it, hard, against the wall.

The snake's body truly started taking a beat down, and despite multiple bites and sings to blissey's back, the Ekans was just unable to take blow after blow. Like any slab of pounded meat, the fibers in the muscle started to stretch and break, bones shattering, and it wasn't much longer until the center of the snakes body was so much putty in the pink and white behemoth's paws. One more motion and the innocent looking pokemon had shred the opponent completely in two.

The crowd went absolutely wild, cheering for the trainer of the Blissy. Ekans died without so much as a hiss as the Blissy performed the finishing move, drawing forth the egg again, and slamming it down on its head, effectively crushing its skull.
"Yes folks, Garod wins another match! Kudos to Mark for making an effort with his Ekans!" The announcer practically sang over the hidden speakers.
Traik smiled a bit, and made note of the names.
Once the Trainers had walked off the arena floor, and the corpse of the Ekans was pulled away, there was a few minutes of people calling for refreshments and things, while the next match was likely being pulled out of a hat. It wasn't long until the gates opened again and the next pair faced each other off on the podiums. Both of them seemed to be considering Traik's addition to the arena. One looking annoyed with the obstruction, the other had a sharp smile, looking like it could cut people down when he spoke, and holding himself oddly. There would be no respect in this fight. These two would fight simply for fighting's sakes.

"Folks, its some of your old favorites here tonight, the third battle for your eyes only! All the way from the training grounds deep within Dark Cave, we have Crazy Tom!" And the man with the sharp smile looked up from the floor and raised his hands into fists above his head. Many cheered, and just as many jeered. "And from our lovely hometown, Sol!" The other, familiar to Traik from the roadwork crew, Waved to friends in the crowd, and got the home town cheers.

After the cheering died down, the two got right down to business. Sol released his Meganum, and Crazy Tom let loose Dunsparse. Crazy Tom looked uncertain for a moment, while Sol just crossed his arms and laughed.
Meganum started to circle the Dunsparse, the smaller pokemon just hovering on its oddly shappen wings, turning and not daring to let the larger pokemon get behind it.
"Meganum, destroy him." Sol calmly commanded, waving an open fingered hand at the Dunsparse as if he were so much dirt to be swept away, a soft, disconcerting smile flashed to Crazy tom, who's only reply was silence and a twitch.

The two pokemon moved closer to the center, their movements slow and jerky. Meganum's head bobbing this way and that on the elongated neck as it looked over its battle scarred opponent, looking confidant. Dunsparce couldn't seem to see too well through its eyes, not with the glaring lights of the arena nearly blinding it when it did try to open them past a simple slit. It's little wings fluttered now and then, causing it to hover a few inches off the ground for a few moments, before dropping down to rest again.

Meganum's chittering, almost crazed laughter at the pokemon it was faced with, caused quite a few in the crowds to laugh as well. The larger pokemon simply pranced forward and raised up its front legs from the ground, and slammed them down again on Dunsparse's skull.

The smaller pokemon retaliated immediately, letting loose a screetch loud enough to make both trainers and offending pokemon to cringe back, both of them turning away slightly as they covered their ears, almost missing the sight of the following action. Meganum's scream rippled back and forth in the stadium on ground level, the Dunsparce's drill like tail having slammed into the base of its neck, and was twitching and digging in, blood and ichor of the planty creature pouring from the open wound.

Meganum pushed off from the Dunsparce and backed away, growling. Crouching slightly, and lowering its head, it only paused a moment, before sending a torrent of razored leaves and petals from the growth around its neck, cutting up the hide of the smaller pokemon with natures fury. Despite this, the strange little pokemon progressed through the leaves, and lunged the last few feet - with help of wing and tail - bashing its skull into the previously opened wound, wings keeping it aloft as the drill bit tail curled under and began to drill into the flesh just behind one of the legs.

A bloody attack, as well as a mistake. Under any other circumstance, this may have been an advantage, but it was over as soon as it had started. Megunum reared up with a howl of a roar, and game back down again, hard, body slamming the Dunsparce into the ground. The spike may have thrust into and damaged the muscles of one of Meganum's legs, but far more audible was the crushing ribcage of having something more than six times it's own weight tumbling down atop it, gravity on its side.

Crazy Tom whooped and hollered, going off into an explosive rage as he marched down the tunnel. He threw the pit fiends off of him, as he wasn't really a threat to anyone, he was all just show. His crushed pokemon corpse was soon dragged after him at his request, and the crowd roared, cheering and praising Sol for another home town win.

"Sol marks up to a sixty win streak, folks, today with his Meganum, lets hear a round of applause for Crazy Tom too, always giving us something different to cheer for!" The announcer basically congratulating both. If not for the announcers words, Crazy Tom might not have gotten any praise at all. They all loved Sol from the sound of their praise.
Traik signaled for another drink from the walking vendors, as many people were doing to keep their throats primed for the harder battles. They were fast and efficient, he noted. The older players didn't waste time with tactics and went right for the head on attacks. Sol had used an elemental attack this battle, unlike the previous two physical ones. Good, but not good enough. His eyes had been on Crazy Tom the entire time, and after a bit more though, he added it into his own personal list.

As the night continued onwards with the bloody battles to the death, Traik's list hadn't grown much beyond the first three matches. At least half the battles went badly because neither pokemon could figure out how to deal with an obstacle course and kept trying to grapple each other against the walls or the podiums themselves. The fight between Sandslash and Houndoom had been thrilling, with the gouts of flame from the dark pokemon, blackening the hide of the Sandslash. They had heavily mutilated each other before Sandslash had finally thrust its claws into Houndooms mouth and broke into the skull that was protecting the brain.

He'd added both of them to his list, as they had dealt with the battleground and absorbed it into both their tactics. There were a few others. A Haunter possessing the opponents body and causing itself to swallow rocks and beat its skull against the battlepit's wall until it was mush. Some were noteworthy. Some were not.

By the end of the little tournament, Traik handed out a few tokens of appreciation to those who'd won and a few of those who'd not. Everyone on his list was also slipped a closed envelope, instructed not to open it until they were safely home.

It was the beginning. The beginning of the end.

A/N, I know, lame last line, but I couldn't think of anything better. Especially considering how long this fic has been stagnating on my desktop.