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Victor ducked under a dark, gloved fist and immediately returned his own, his knuckles smashing into his opponent's rock-hard abdomen. Hop let out a stunned oof before taking Victor in a grapple and reversing his control over the fight. At the edge of the ring, Dubwool and Starmie cheered on their trainers, the only other sounds in the gym besides the rapid grunts and kiai of the sparring trainers.

Like he was discarding a toy, Hop shoved Victor down onto the floor, and Victor lifted his half-lidded eyes to see Hop sneering victoriously down at him. In that moment, Victor felt nothing but rivalry for Hop, and a gripping desire - no, a need - to refuse his partner a victory. Victor had been this way since they were just boys - he had to be player one, no matter what. He loved Hop very much - but not more than winning.

Likewise, Hop knew not to overextend himself - that is how Victor could beat him. Raw ambition was his downfall, everytime - and though he knew this fact, he still allowed his heart to flutter when he realized he might win this time.

Victor staggered to his feet, his legs quaking beneath him. He leapt instantly toward Hop, his fists homing in on any inch of skin he could find. The corners of his vision pulsed inward and outward - Hop got him good with that last punch.

"ATTENTION," called a gruff voice over the P.A. system, "In accordance with revised energy consumption protocols, we'll be cutting our hours of operation down to four hours daily,"

"Wait, what the fuck?" Hop said aloud, losing his fighting stance and looking up at the P.A. speaker.

"Sorry, boys," the voice relented, "We'll be open again at 500beats."

As the speaker audio cut, so, too, did the bright, fluorescent ceiling lights running the length of the gym, casting the empty hall into the dim sepia of the emergency lighting system.

"I almost had you there, bud," Victor said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Talk about saved by the bell."

"No way!" Hop retorted exuberantly, "You were floundering, clearly! A couple more seconds and I could've beat you!"

Victor laughed. It was nice that even with everything going on, he could still count on Hop to ground him - to keep him from losing his mind on this cold, metal prison in space.

Knowing that there probably would not be hot water left for very long, Hop and Victor showered under the emergency lights and dressed in near darkness. As Victor laced up the strings on his boots, Hop asked a tough question - one he'd been thinking about for a while, that bubbled up to eruption in the shower.

"Do you think Leon's still alive?"

A wave of guilt washed over Victor. Leon. He hadn't heard that name in so long, he'd almost forgotten he existed.

No, Victor thought to himself, but of course he would never say such a thing out loud. That was the one thing he was willing to lie to Hop about.

"Hop," Victor said reassuringly, "if fucking Champion Leon didn't make it, I don't think anyone could have."

Hop tilted his head in confusion - Victor, though his heart was always in the right place, was never very good at this type of reassurance. Now, it wasn't just his brother he was thinking about, but everyone else back home.

"I'll be 60 if I ever see him again," Hop cried out. "How in the fuck am I just supposed to live for another 40 years, on the off chance that maybe they'll get shit together enough to send a third ship, or even just live long enough to send a message?"

"You don't have a choice," Victor replied stoic. "That's what I keep telling myself."

They continued dressing in silence before grabbing their bags and leaving the gym. As they walked, they noticed a crowd that seemed to have formed along the railing, overlooking the main lobby of the guild.


Jeers and cheers came from the balconies above as Nol and Tapas took their place on one side of the circular room. The photon crystal in the center of the room descended into the floor and closed up, forming the unmistakable core of a Poké Ball design.

The long-haired Ranger smirked and looked to the dozens of faces staring down, wondering what he was going to do.

"You're going to regret this, little girl," he sneered at Nol, but she was quick to respond.

"Prove it, pussy!" she roared, much to the absolute delight of the audience. The words pierced the long-haired Ranger to his soul, and a flame erupted within.

"All right, fine then!" he challenged, "I, the great Ranger Blant, accept your terms! Prepare to be humil-"

"Tapas, use Micro Missiles!"

Out of each of Tapas's eight eyes fired tiny projectiles made of red energy, spinning through the air like twisting helixes. Blant's Lunatone rushed forth and faced the missiles head on, effortlessly maneuvering its sizable mass around the majority of the missiles, its psychic abilities guiding it safely. Two missiles managed to make their mark, blowing dinner plate-sized holes in Lunatone's rocky surface.

"She likes to play dirty, does she?" Blant hissed, "I'll show you dirty, you childish testy!"

Nol allowed the slur to bounce off her skin - she was too in it to win it to care.

"Lunatone, Rock Slide!" Blant commanded. The crescent-moon creature spun around as pieces of its body split and formed a cloud of rocks above itself; as swiftly as they had collected, the pieces shot forth with the speed of shooting starts and pounded Tapas's metallic skin, leaving dents and divots but otherwise doing little damage.

"Is that all you've got!?" Nol jeered, "I've seen harder hits in children's wrestling!"

Lunatone's red eyes pulsed as the air around it began to vibrate, the psychic shifting of light's wavelengths causing the air to glow red and blue, before a wave shot forth and smashed into Tapas's left module, sending it careening across the lobby and smashing against one of the holo-screens displaying a live view of the surface of Golra. The other half looked on in surprise before turning back to face Lunatone - fortunately, it was designed to function just fine with only one module.

Up on the balcony, a man in blue Ranger armor approached the crowd and looked over to see the battle happening below. As he did, he smiled. He wasn't expecting her so soon.


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