While Beedrill and Butterfree were having their fight, Mawile and Gothitelle were getting ready to start theirs, the goth saying, "You can start at any time. I'm going to wait until you do," the girl feeling strangely intimidated by this. As a member of a team of villains, she knew that when a fighter let the opponent go first, it usually meant they had a countermeasure of some kind planned.

With that in mind, she figured maybe she could trick Gothitelle into a false sense of security as she smiled politely, bowing her head and replying, "Oh, thank you ever so much, but I'd prefer it if you had the first move."

The goth shrugged and replied, "Alright," before rushing toward Mawile, a dark aura surrounding her hands.

The girl smirked while thinking, 'Good. Now I can get the drop on her,' her smirk slowly fading when she realized how difficult it was coming up with a counterattack on such short notice.

With that, she ended up taking a hard palm punch to her face, her eyes widening as she backed up a bit, rubbing the spot as Gothitelle asked, "Are you alright?" Mawile growling, seeing this as pity as she snapped, "OF COURSE I AM! YOU SHOULD WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF! I'M EVIL, REMEMBER!?"

The goth blinked and nodded, replying, "That's right. This is a fight to save the world. I should be more concerned with my own well-being," Mawile thinking, 'She just said the same thing I did with different wording. I hate that.'

The truth was that Gothitelle was not faking any of this. Despite being socially awkward, she was a good sport when it came to fighting, almost too good as she showed a bit of concern and caring for her opponents, even villains. This was of course a result of her ability to sometimes read their auras, and right now she was detecting a great deal of doubt in Mawile, but she knew she would not get an explanation if she simply asked, at least not right now.

However, Mawile seemed to regain some confidence as her mouth started growling quietly, the girl nodding as she rushed toward the goth, saying, "You got a lucky shot, but you're not gonna be so fortunate again!" the girl leaping at Gothitelle and aiming a kick toward her face. However, the goth saw this coming and grabbed the incoming foot, lifting Mawile up and slamming her back hard against the surface.

Mawile grimaced, cursing herself in her mind right now. Sure, it was still early in the fight, but she could tell this Gothitelle was a smart adversary. Simple tactics would not work on her so easily. But what could the young girl try?

An idea came to her when her hair started growling again. The girl nodded, thinking, 'You're right. When I fight, you're always fighting with me,' the girl then sprinting toward Gothitelle as the goth readied for another counterattack.

However, rather than sending another direct attack her way, Mawile ran behind Gothitelle as her hair's jaws opened wide, biting into the goth's right arm as her eyes went wide. Gothitelle was not the kind to make loud mouth noises, so she did not cry out, but there was no doubt she was still feeling intense pain from this.

"You didn't think the mouth on my hair was for decoration, did you?" Mawile asked with a smirk, "I'm afraid this is my ultimate weapon. When push comes to shove, my hair always comes through," the girl then having her hair lift Gothitelle over her head, Mawile grabbing hold of her ankles with her hands and pulling hard, the goth's back bending as she winced in pain.

All the while, Beedrill was trying to come up with some way to finish Butterfree and work around the spores effecting him. Needless to say, coming up with a strategy was not easy as the effects were unpredictable. With that in mind, he would certainly need to keep his distance, but at the same time, he needed to be close to Butterfree in order to attack her.

However, while thinking about this, he noticed his body start to freeze up again, Butterfree smirking and flying at him. The wasp was fuming as he struggled to move his body. He was getting sick and tired of this, and strangely enough, just as Butterfree got close, Beedrill somehow ended up shifting his body to the right, but only slightly. Luckily, this was just enough for the butterfly to miss, her eyes wide.

Beedrill blinked but knew he had to take advantage of the fact that his movement had returned. With that in mind, the wasp sent one of his arm stingers toward Butterfree's back, the butterfly flying away just in time to avoid taking in extreme damage but not fast enough to avoid a light jab.

She was now trembling as Beedrill kept his distance in case the spores took effect again, Butterfree all the while shaking her head and thinking, 'I must have taken too long to get to him. I gotta stay close and go in when his body freezes again.'

With that in mind, the butterfly flew closer to the wasp, but stayed far enough away for him not to potentially strike her. She would not go in for another attack unless he had stopped moving and with her being close enough, there was no way the effects would ware off before she could strike him.

Beedrill, all the while, would have taken advantage of the fact that she was deliberately getting closer to him, but there was the possibility of his body becoming paralysed while he was attacking. He could not take that risk again. He just hoped that Butterfree was not close enough to hit him before the effects wore off.

However, his train of thought ended when his body stopped moving, Butterfree wasting no time flying at him. She knew there was no way she would miss this time and yet Beedrill had somehow managed shift himself to the side again, just barely enough to avoid the butterfly's incoming attack.

She grimaced and spat, "DAMMIT, I THOUGHT I WAS CLOSE ENOUGH!" Beedrill replying, "I hate to admit it, but you were. You reached me in less than three seconds."

The butterfly stared and asked, "Are you sure about that?" Beedrill nodding and replying, "I was counting down in my head to see if I could go five seconds without being hit," Butterfree blinking and asking, "But how are you moving?"

"I don't know," Beedrill replied with a sigh before adding, "Though if it helps, both times actually kind of hurt and barely gave me any movement at all," Butterfree thinking, 'I see now. Somehow, he's managed to overpower the spores. I'll just have to swerve to the side the next time I go after him.'

With that in mind, Butterfree kept the same distance as before while Beedrill was on the defensive. After about half-a-minute, the wasp's body once again froze as Butterfree flew at him. She noticed him trying to move to her right as she swerved in that exact direction only to end up missing, her eyes widening as Beedrill wasted no time swinging his left arm sideways and putting a small gash in her side.

"You weren't able to fight it this time!" Butterfree spat, holding her bleeding side as Beedrill replied, "Actually, I probably could have. I just had a feeling you were going to try and counter it," Butterfree staring in confusion as the wasp sighed, "I would have tried the same thing if I was in your situation."

With that, Butterfree had now lost patience. Both fighters wanted to end this as quickly as possible, and both had something to prove, but Butterfree was feeling the most impatient right now. She wanted more than ever to prove herself superior to him. She had always worked hard to outdo this wasp and now victory was in her grasp and yet she could not acquire it no matter how hard she tried.

"Alright, you've forced me," the butterfly said coldly, Beedrill blinking and uttering, "Oh no, don't tell me-" Butterfree then smirking with a hint of insanity in her eyes as she stated, "You should be honoured. You've gotten me to use all three of my powders in this fight!"

Beedrill's eyes widened as she said in a delicate tone, "Poison Powder," before flapping her wings hard enough to send a green powder toward him.

And like with the sleep powder, Beedrill only needed to hear the name to know what this would do as he spat, "I DON'T THINK SO!"

But just as he was about to dodge, the stun spores once again took effect as he spat, "NO!" trying his hardest to move but only getting slight movement in, not enough to avoid the powder.

But just as it was less than an inch away from him, the wasp closed his eyes and managed to start flapping his wings at an unbelievable speed, emitting wind that only those with big wings had ever managed to generate. Butterfree's eyes widened as the strong gust managed to blow the powder away from him and toward her instead.

Fortunately for her, she was able to react in time to avoid being poisoned by her own move, but right after that, her eyes widened in shock. Since the wind was also blowing against Beedrill's sides, the spores attached to him were starting to fly off. Butterfree could not believe her eyes. She had never seen anything powerful enough to force her stun spores off and yet this gust of wind had done just that.

Since this came as a much bigger shock to her than the poison powder being sent back at her, she was too stunned to move as the spores attached themselves to her. The butterfly's eye twitched as Beedrill opened his eyes to see the poison powder had not touched him and stopped flapping.

"You bastard," Butterfree uttered, the wasp blinking and saying, "Look, I'm sorry I wasted your powder-" the butterfly remarking, "IT'S NOT THE POISON I'M TALKING ABOUT! YOU GOT MY STUN SPORES ON ME!"

She suddenly realized she should not have told him that, Beedrill blinking and asking, "So you mean I'm free to move as much as I want?"

With that, the wasp put on a serious look as Butterfree spat, "IT WON'T HELP YOU ANYWAY!" flying at him only to stop dead in her tracks.

Beedrill, of course, knew the effects would not last long as he flew behind her, saying, "I think it's time to end this."

With that, the wasp proceeded to send his arm stingers through the tips of her wings as opposed to piercing her flesh, the butterfly's eyes wide with shock as he flew high above one of the normal land forms, flipping himself over one-hundred-and-eighty degrees before shouting, "TWIN NEEDLE SUPLEX!" slamming the butterfly's skull hard into the ground.

Her eyes were closed now as she lay there, a big hole in each of her wings thus meaning she would not be able to fly for a while if ever again. Though it seemed that there was not even a possibility as Beedrill knew this was the perfect chance to prevent her from ever committing acts of evil in the future, the wasp flying high above her with the stinger on his abdomen pointed toward her heart.

With that, he started to descend while shouting, "FELL STINGER!" but just as he was about to make contact, he stopped himself, taking a deep breath and moving next to the butterfly, looking down at her.

Butterfree slowly opened her eyes and stared at him with confusion. Luckily, she was unable to move as the suplex had done far too much damage, but she was still conscious.

"Why won't you kill me?" she uttered, "You have a perfect chance. You want to do good for the world now, right? Why don't you just end my life?" Beedrill sighing, "Because killing you would make me no better than a villain."

Butterfree took a deep breath and grunted, "I don't want your charity," before closing her eyes, though secretly, she was happy to have been spared. Sure, she would have trouble letting this humiliating defeat go but at the same time, she valued her life.

During this time, Gothitelle was still in Mawile's clutches as the girl smirked, saying, "Let's see you get out of this. My mouth has an incredible grip!" Gothitelle gritting her teeth as she had to think of some way to escape. If she pulled out, she knew she would only end up losing skin and if she tried anything else, she would end up hurting herself more.

She then took a deep breath and thought, 'Alright, what would mother do in a situation like this?' looking back to when a woman by the name of Gothorita had a talk with her about being a hero at the age of ten.

She was very similar to Gothitelle in terms of appearance only her head was shaped like a ball as opposed to a teardrop and the skin coming from the sides of her head looked more like big pigtails instead of disc-shaped bangs. Like Gothitelle, she did not get out much with the only difference being that during her time as a hero, she only fought evil at night and slept during the day.

Gothorita sat in front of her daughter as Gothitelle looked confused as to why they were having this conversation, the woman saying, "Gothitelle, as you know, villains have not made an appearance in a long time. Most of them are either gone or have turned good," her daughter nodding as she added, "But if there is one thing I know, it's that evil can never be gone from the world forever no matter how much we want it. That is why heroes are needed to combat the threat."

Despite only being ten, Gothitelle could tell where her mother was going with this, her eyes sparkling. Her family had never been known to emote much, but even the slightest of change in their expression said enough about how they felt, and right now, Gothitelle was excited.

"Eager, I see," Gothorita said with a light smile, "You will one day be a hero like me and save the lives of many. But there are a few things you should know that got me through many hard battles. I almost never lost and among all the reasons, there was a major one that made it all possible."

Back in present time, Gothitelle was thinking those exact words she had said. 'Never cave in no matter how bad the situation. Treat pain like a minor inconvenience and not like a major problem.'

With this in mind, the goth took a deep breath and was no longer wincing as she wriggled her arm around, Mawile's eyes wide with shock as she managed to free herself from the mouth. Sure, her arm was now bloody and her sleeve was ripped, but she ignored this and latched her arm around Mawile's neck, squeezing hard enough to cause her to gasp like a fish out of water, the girl releasing her hold on the goth's ankles.

With that, Gothitelle proceeded to send her free palm into Mawile's back before leaping away from her, taking a deep breath and thinking, 'Even if I do ignore pain, it doesn't mean I can't take in damage. I need to avoid that mouth at all cost.'

Mawile on the other hand was looking irritated as she thought, 'Dammit, this girl just keeps getting tougher every second,' the mouth letting out low grunts as the girl nodded, whispering, "Thanks. You're right, I just need to keep my head in the game."

Gothitelle looked rather confused by this. Due to her distance and the way the hair was speaking quietly, she had not noticed it was actually talking to Mawile and as such, she saw this as the girl talking to herself for motivation. The goth shrugged and remembered that she used to do similar things as a child due to her having virtually no social life before meeting Octillery so this did not seem too strange to her.

However, with Mawile's confidence back, Gothitelle would still need to be careful. For all she knew, that backbreaker could have very well been nothing more than a simple warmup. Things had been going well for her up to this point, but could it last? After all, another thing her mother had told her was to never take an opponent lightly, even if the opponent was really weak.

With that in mind, she stayed on the defensive, now keeping a close eye on the hair. After that last attack, she knew better than to get too close to it again.

Seeing as Gothitelle was not moving from her spot, Mawile was just about to take the offensive when the hair let out a series of low, quiet growls. The girl blinked and whispered, "Really?" the hair replying with a few grunts as Mawile replied, "Well, if you're sure you can handle it."

With that, the girl backed up a bit toward a rock about her size located behind her. Gothitelle blinked, curious as to what she was planning. Was she scared or was this an attempt to get the goth to lower her guard? Either way, Gothitelle was not going to let herself fall victim to another attack.

However, this thought process seemed to backfire when Mawile smirked, her mouth opening up before clamping down onto the rock when she was close enough. With that, the hair threw itself forward and flung the rock toward the goth like a catapult, Gothitelle's eyes wide with shock as she quickly threw her arms forward to stop the incoming attack.

Unfortunately, even the powers of darkness were not enough to stop the rock as it ended up forcing the backs of her hands into her face. Combined with the might of the rock itself, this dealt a considerable amount of damage as she fell on her back, just barely managing to push the rock off of her so it would not crush her head.

"OH MY GOD!" Mawile squealed, a big fiendish grin forming as she added, "You're a genius! That was so cool!"

Gothitelle coughed up blood while slowly rising to her feet, now looking weak as she stared in confusion, Mawile still squealing while talking to her hair. This went beyond talking to herself for motivation. Something was definitely up.

The hair let out low grunting as Mawile blinked, saying, "You're right, she is still standing," before taking a deep breath and noticing the goth's bleeding face. This combined with the fact that her body was twitching now was definitely a good sign for her.

"I'll admit, you actually provided a descent challenge for me, but I think it's clear who's going to win this," Mawile said with a big grin on her face as Gothitelle let out a sigh, saying, "You're getting ahead of yourself," spitting out a small drop of blood, Mawile simply laughing and retorting, "Was that supposed to sound intimidating!? Come on, you're in hardly any condition to be talking tough!"

Gothitelle took a deep breath and decided to ignore her words. If Mawile was going to let her ego get the better of her, then so be it. After all, Gothitelle had to win this fight for the sake of the world and could not let her own policies get in the way of that.

With that in mind, the goth decided to take the offensive as there were more rocks in the area. After all, if Mawile used another one, it could likely knock her out. Gothitelle may have had strong hands and been a generally smart fighter, but even she could not sustain lots of pain due to her being so skinny. Unlike Gardevoir when her powers were activated, her muscles did not expand when she used her power of darkness so she could not risk being hit too many times.

Mawile simply waited for her to get close, noticing the goth sending her palm toward her before the girl turned around, Gothitelle's eyes widening when the hair's mouth opened up and clamped down on her wrist. Once again, the goth winced but would not cry out in pain. It was not because of pride but rather it was in her genetics. She just could not let out loud mouth noises even if she wanted to.

With her trapped in place, Mawile laughed and stated, "This match is mine," before shouting, "ALLIGATOR JAW SWING!" spinning her body around before hurling Gothitelle hard into a rock, the goth coughing up more blood as the substance dripped from her wrist.

Gothitelle's eyes widened when she noticed it, the hair actually laughing along with Mawile. So she had not imagined it. The hair was definitely alive and not just a weapon. It was as if she was fighting two opponents at once, and this was not something Gothorita had prepared her for.

However, while she was actually scared now, she also had many questions. Though she knew she would not get a straight answer so easily. She would likely need to beat Mawile first, but with things as they were right now, would she even stand a chance at pulling that off?