Prompt: The heroes encounter another adversary, but instead of a battle, this foe will only give up if defeated in a different challenge.


The sound of battle in the entry hallway of the Royalty Brutes headquarter had died down. The grand hall was littered with pokemon on the ground. None of them conscious, aside from two, breathing heavily, not sure themselves if they could call themselves victors.

"How are you feeling, Grace?" The kirlia asked the other.

"Like my body is burning from the inside." the other kirlia replied.

"Great." the first one said, as he looked at the remains of the battlefield.

"So... It might be the exhaustion..." Grace gasped for air every other word. "But was that sarcasm or not? Couldn't tell."

"Both." August sat up, a string of 'Ow's following the motion. "Because, hey. We won... I guess."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Grace and August looked around the room for the source of the commanding voice.

"But dear, you must admit that those two are strong." another, equally commanding voice followed.

The doors at the end of the hall, on top of the stairs, opened up and a nidoking and nidoqueen emerged.

"Quite. But that is to be expected." The nidoking chuckled. "If the musketeers are after them, they must hold some power."

The nidoqueen slowly descended from the stairs with surprising grace, as the two humans turned pokemon were shaking as they slowly got on their feet, sore from the previous battle.

"Standing your ground even when weakened. I respect that." The nidoking followed his partner of crime, his movement showing force and domination.

"So tell me, little ones." The nidoqueen's tone was sweet, yet threatening. Like a poisoned piece of candy. "Are they the brave heroes who saved the world, or is it their darker selves that chases you?"

Grace eye's widened. "You know about them?"

"Of course we do." Nidoking bellowed. "Just because we call ourselves brutes, doesn't mean we know the value of knowledge." He then sighed, before taking a deep breath. "If the circumstances had been different, we might have been allies against them and their master. Instead you decided to side with that goody two shoes of a scizor."

"Funny you should say that." August gasped. "He and the Strike Brigade are willing to pardon you... IF you were to help us stop the musketeers and... whoever they serve."

"Uuh. A tempting offer, no my dear?" Nidoking nodded to Nidoqueen in response. "Then again, maybe if we handed you over to the musketeers, we could be rewarded. Oh, what is a crime queen to do." It was then that the tension was utterly ruined by four stomachs loudly rumbling, each pokemon looking awkwardly at one another. Nidoqueen's eyes sprung up. "Oh, but if I haven't just gotten the perfect idea."

Nidoking looked puzzled at his partner, with Grace and August just as confused.

"King and I, along with all of the Royalty Brutes, will surrender to you, Scizor and the Strike Brigade, on one condition." She clapped her hands loudly, and frantic sounds, from the room the two nido emerged from, could be heard.

Nidoking smirked. "You always do come up with some crazy idea, and I love it."

"What?" the two Kirlia asked, still not knowing what the two were talking about.

"CHEFS!" Nidoking yelled out. "PREPARE FOR COMPETITION. TWO KIRLIA VERSUS YOUR REGENTS!"

A meek 'right away' could be heard from inside the mysterious room.

"Finish more plates than us, and we will join you. Fail and..." Nidoqueen chuckled as she picked up the two psychic types and carried them up the stairs. "Well, I wonder how broken Cobalion wants his toys."


The mystery room turned out to be a dining hall. The two pairs were sat at their own table, with a buffet in front of them. Grace was looking at all the food, and August was doing his best to not just grab a plate and start eating.

"So... Not for sounding ungrateful for not just ending us then and there, but..." Grace gestured to all the food. "Why this?"

"You have shown might by beating our strongest men." Nidoking said, his voice booming in the dining hall. "But we have one rule in this gang. Prove your worth."

"Our eating competition is a display of endurance and fortitude. If you can prove these traits, you will indeed be found worthy to follow." Nidoqueen finished.

A Dartrix flew in between the table and cleared its throat. "Rules are simple. Each side will finish as many plates as they can. The competition ends once none can eat any more, or thirty minutes have passed. Portions are adjusted to the competitors sizes so none have an advantage over the other. For that same reason, all dishes on the tables are the same, and if more is needed, they will arrive in the same order." He raised his wing and the nido's adjusted their positions. "With that, on my signal." He lowered his wing. "GO!" and the four started eating.

The initial set of plates were gone fast, and the servers were almost struggling keeping pace at the beginning, but as the plates started to stack, both sides slowed down considerably. As the tempo was reduced, August got a moment to look up and see that the food was indeed delivered in the same order. "They have so much. Scizor would murder us if he could see it wasted on this."

After twenty minutes both sides had slowed down to a crawl, and all the eating had made both Grace and August exhausted. Then the entire stronghold shook as the sound of something really large crashing down in the entry hall. Not long after a frantic zigzagoon ran into the room. "MY KING, MY QUEEN!" He paused as he saw the four pokemon stopping what they were doing looking at the panicking minion. "IT'S COBALION!" he yelled, scared as he darted past them and through a smaller door.

"TIME!" Nidoking yelled. "We must end the competition prematurely." He looked on the other table with a grin. "We will have this counted. Then we can write on your gravestones whether you won or lost."

Grace and August got up and tried to run away, but all the food made them sluggish and couldn't muster up any psychic attack, as Nidoking stomped over to them and picked them up.


"Cobalion, what brings you to our humble castle?" Nidoqueen asked the blue quadruped standing on top of the great door he had knocked down.

"Drop the theatrics, worm, and hand me over those two creatures." Cobalion demanded, his voice unflinching, without emotion.

"It's called keeping up appearances. You used to appreciate it." Nidoqueen mumbled as Nidoking appeared behind her, and casually tossed August and Grace down to Cobalion, the two landing right at his feet.

"Finally. I don't know how you two always seemed to be two steps ahead, but at last, your luck has reached its end." Cobalion couldn't help but cackle. "Any last pathetic words?"

"Actually, if I may?" Nidoking spoke up, Cobalion groaning in annoyance.

"Sure, go ahead. Why. Not!" Cobalion was pissed, but Nidoking had just handed the two over to him, so he could humor himself, if just a little. Then he could kick Nidoking's teeth in for wasting his time afterwards.

"Humans, I hope you enjoyed your last meal. It was a shame you weren't here on a tuesday. I'm sure you would have loved the duck." Once nidoking finished the sentence, the two kirlia jumped to the side as a powerful Hyper Beam connected with Cobalion, pushing him back as Nidoqueen rushed in, grabbed the two and ran past a furious Cobalion.

"BRUTES, RETREAT! FROM TODAY UNTIL AN UNDETERMINED TIME," Nidoking's yell got fainter as the three barreled out the castle and into the dark dusk. "WE ARE ALLIED WITH THE HUMANS AND THE STRIKE BRIGADE!"


"Thanks for keeping your word." Grace told Nidoqueen as they neared the brigade's current camp.

"I'm impressed that you were three plates ahead." she mused as out from a bush, another member of the Royalty Brutes emerged, this one seemingly escaping relatively unharmed from Cobalions fury.

"It's funny. Had Cobalion been five minutes slower then you might have had left us to die." August said as they could see the flames from one of the campfires.

"That is destiny meddling with this world's affairs, I guess." Nidoqueen answered.

A throh and a sawk appeared from between two trees, crude spears in hand, aimed at Nidoqueen.

"Well, well, well. Do I want to know how they convinced you?" Scizor descended from the treetops and landed in front of the group.

"Too much food, and Cobalion got involved at some point." August said while Grace shrugged.

"Is it true what they said about the pardon?" Nidoqueen asked.

"It is." Scizor gestured to the guards to lower their weapons. "Because with what we're up against, we need as many hands as possible, at any price."

2/2 Yup, more Grace and August adventures. They've managed to evolve since the last time we focused on their story, and Cobalion is getting more on edge. Guess those two are really pissing off his master.


AN: A bit of a leap from where we last saw Grace and August, but that is how it is with the nature of this thing.

On a side note, I had a lot of fun writing this one.