May scowled at the two older women, crouched down on the floor and breathing heavily. It had been several minutes since the initial move, and the three women watched each other warily. "So, the little girl can hold her own," Mauve said, patting at her swollen lip, "Even managed to hurt me..."
"Quite an accomplishment," Kayley agreed, before smiling wickedly, "Not going to be enough to beat us though." She ran at May, pushing her back onto the table. "I love a good battle!"
The magma woman was starting to feel uneasy, no matter how confident she sounded. She hadn't expected the younger girl to put up such a fight, let along a fight that wasn't even about protecting her own safety. Smiling, Kayley whispered evilly into her ear, "I cannot wait until the fight is over...your hubby is almost too delectable...not quite though."
"What is he, dinner to you!" May asked, thrashing determinedly, "Gods, I hate people like you!" Kayley laughed, punching the ruffled girl in the face. Going still, May stared at her with hardened eyes. Worriedly, Ash made a move to get up, as the three women stayed silent, watching each other.
"Don't move," Mauve said, looking out of the corner of her eyes at him, "if you know what's good for you." Ash went quiet once again, frowning. The pokemon had by then surrounded him, just as scared and worried.
"We'll all get out of here just fine," he whispered to them, settling back down on the floor to continue watching the fight.
Roxanne had listened closely to the footsteps heading toward the second set of stairs until she could hear them no more. Her mind focused on the battle finally, she put her pokemon into use. One by one the Magma grunts were beat, though not without getting their own hits in.
It got dangerous though, when some of them abandoned the idea of a pokemon battle, and dove at her alone. Crying out in shock, Roxanne called out her Nosepass to fend off her attackers, glaring at them. "Cheat," she said, doing a palm strike to the man that got past Nosepass, "ganging up on someone like that!"
His head snapped back at the impact, as he stepped back from the pain of it. When Roxanne pulled back, she saw a dribble of blood coming from the grunt's nose. Her attack hadn't done all that much damage, but it had given him a bloody nose. Looking past him, she saw that Nosepass had managed to scare off the others, and was standing and waiting for an order from her.
When he saw her pokemon group together, the man scampered off, with one hand to his face. First smart move they've made, Roxanne thought, as she smiled at her team, "Great work! We beat them!"
Once the cheering stopped, Roxanne couldn't help but get a sinking feeling. She looked back toward the staircase leading upstairs, and frowned. Roxanne knew something was wrong, but it was obvious it was something she shouldn't get involved in. Only time and patience would show whether she was right or not.
-
There was more silence, along with the tense stillness of the room. Amber's ears flattened back, as she crouched down and covered her eyes with her paws when May curled her legs up and kicked Kayley in the stomach with her heels. Clutching her hurting abdomen, the Aqua woman collapsed down, and growled. "Damn you, since when did you know how to fight like this?" she hissed, before springing back up.
Mauve snickered slightly. After seeing the damage that could be done, she wasn't about to intervene in the pair's plight. She didn't want to get seriously hurt for a fight. When both were winded and tired, that would be when she'd strike. For the moment though, she was content with just sitting back and watching.
"You try living in Lunar most of your life without learning the delicate art of battle," May said, wishing at that moment that the Goddess hadn't put that protective barrier around Lunar to protect the rest of the world from the magical attacks and monsters. Kayley deserved to feel the bite of Nitro Dagger. "You should find out the history of who you are about to attack before doing so. It'll help you in the long run, you know."
With a cry of rage, Kayley lunged at the frowning girl. May stepped back, before going forward for a move of her own. Neither actually hit the other, however, as Ash finally got up to stop the fight before it went on any further. With very little grace, he jumped forward, throwing an arm out to stop Kayley from executing her right-hook.
On the other hand, Ash ended up taking a very painful uppercut from May.
There was once again silence, as the four stared at each other. Kayley pulled back, glaring at them, before getting down on her knees. Her breath had been knocked out, and she was panting. Ash closed his eyes, his head tilted downward. The punch had seriously hurt.
The silence was broken by the quiet giggles from their pokemon, as they snickered and giggled into their teammates. Ignoring the playful baby pokemon, May stepped back, her hands covering her mouth, and stared in horror at Ash. "My goddess...I'm sorry!" she said, wincing, "I wasn't aiming for you! I'm so sorry!..."
"Just a scratch." Ash rubbed the spot gingerly, knowing a bruise was going to form eventually. He made a small noise, which sounded a lot like an 'erk,' when May ran forward, and flung her arms around him, hanging onto him tightly. "...and a broken rib or two."
The small attempt at humor was lost, however, when Mauve dove into May, the two of them tumbling across the floor. "We aren't finished yet!" Mauve growled, slapping the younger girl vehemently, "You haven't won yet!"
Most of the pokemon scattered, whimpering fearfully once again. The struggling pair had very nearly hit them, and they didn't wish to see how close they could get before getting involved. When a light vibration started through the building, they looked at Ash curiously, waiting for answers to their questioning eyes.
He was getting just as uneasy as they were. "Return," Ash said, pulling each pokemon into their individual pokeballs, one at a time, with the exception of Amber. "This can't mean anything good."
Chapter 16, Part 1. I'm chopping it up to try to get it up faster, and will probably combine them later on, after its finished and done. -sighs- The straining to write is getting annoying for the both of us, me for lacking the motivation and you for waiting so long, and for what? 3 freakin' pages. u.u; Its something though, right? Anyway, normal blah blah blah, thanks for reading, will attempt to get Paige to wake up (either by prodding her or shoving my boot up her arse, whichever will work best) so the rest can be churned out before the next millenium.