"In the right corner, our Champion, the undefeated Edgar!" an announcer broadcasted throughout the large arena.
The guy in the suit opened a part of the cage surrounding the ring for Moxy before she stumbled through. Edgar was already in the ring, still shirtless as he rotated one of his shoulder cuffs like it was sore from his last battle. He was also wearing two, metal bracers on his forearms, and there was a single, unprimed pokeball attached to the right one.
"Good luck." The guy in the suit said before slamming and locking the gate behind her.
Like that's going to do me any good, Moxy gulped before stepping up to the ring.
The lights overhead shined above her as she shimmied herself through the ring's sturdy ropes. The faces of the crowd peeked behind the cage, some bored, others angry, but most were energetic and eager. One face was familiar, that being Zee. The blood from the previous battle must have been cleaned in a rushed manner, for the stain was still imprinted into the white floor of the ring.
"And in the left corner, give it up for our challenger, Caitlin Crimson from Rustboro!" the announcer presented her, and she had to squint her eyes from the spotlight that glared overhead.
Kricketots.
"Let's go, Crimson!" Zee broke the silence, getting some annoyed looks around her.
Thanks, Zee, Moxy smiled. At least one person was rooting for her. Moxy swished her fake hair before facing her opponent.
"You ready to get crushed, westsider?" Edgar said. There was a triumphant smile on his face as if he had already won the battle the moment she stepped into the ring.
"Let's see your bite then," Moxy quipped. Her vision was pecked with stars, most likely from her drunken and sleepy state. Still, she drew Sylveon's ball like a gunslinger and fired her forward. Light erupted from the middle of the stage, and Sylveon appeared, confused as always.
"V-vee?" She gazed at the crowd around her. Her cheeks flustered first, but then she looked back at Moxy, her ears flat on her head.
"Naoo!" Sylveon barked defiantly. Moxy ran up to her and began rubbing her back.
"Sylvie, please. I need your help right now! C'mon, this guy's a chump!"
Sylveon whipped Moxy's hand off of her with a snapping feeler.
"Ow! Sylvie!" Moxy pleaded, coddling her hand. Sylveon pointed a feeler to her own mouth.
"What?! Are you actually angry about the ramen shop! We have no money!"
"Are you both done?" Edgar interrupted the squabbling. His pokeball came off his metal bracer with a whirring sound before he tossed it forward. The silhouette of that fiery, red pokemon grew from the light, and the belt on its waist burst into flames as it pumped its fist in the air.
The crowd went absolutely wild, and Moxy cringed when they chanted, "Incinaroar! Incinaroar!"
"RAHH!" the Incinaroar roared, and a chorus of claps echoed throughout the ring.
"Okay." Moxy pressed a trembling finger on her temple. "If we get out of here alive, I'll get you all the fucking ramen you want!"
Unfortunately, Sylveon retracted her ears again, and she shuddered under the terrifying gaze of the Incinaroar. An overwhelming force began to activate all of Moxy's fear receptors. Her hairs stood on end, and an icy chill raced down her back.
"We're being affected by something, Sylveon. That Incinaroar must have some kind of special ability to make us scared. Just… fight through it, okay?"
Sylveon nodded before positioning herself into her battle stance.
"Let the battle begin!" the announcer gave them no time to prepare. The Incinaroar knew this, for it charged as soon as the trashy electro-music started playing.
"Dash away!" Moxy called. Sylveon enveloped herself in pink energy and ducked under the Incinaroar's arm.
"Darkest Lariat!" Edgar called out.
What the hell is that move? Moxy freaked.
The Incinaroar charged Sylveon again, this time spinning on its heels like a dreidel. Black waves of energy surrounded it, and the Incinaroar turned into a red and black tornado.
"Dod-" Moxy called too late as Sylveon got smacked straight in the face by its bulky forearm. She careened into the ropes before being bounced forward.
Back to the Incinaroar.
"Sylveon!" Moxy cried before the Incinaroar drop-kicked Sylveon's stomach. She yelped and crashed into the corner of the ring with a crack.
No. Sylveon! Moxy raced towards her frail pokemon. Moxy was fearful of the Incinaroar coming over to finish Sylveon, but she was surprised to find it flaunting to the cheering crowd. It flexed, and the crowd went even wilder.
They're literally making a show of us. Moxy grimaced. She knelt to tend to Sylveon's injuries and was horrified to find one of her ears bending the wrong way.
Moxy was unsure what to do, and her eyes began welling up. She was surprised, however, when Sylveon struggled herself to her feet of her own volition. There was a bruise around her eye from the Darkest Lariat, and her throat was growling, almost savagely now.
"You still want to fight, b-baby?" Moxy hesitated.
"Vee!" Sylveon cried valiantly, her feelers snaking around herself defensively.
"Meh?" the Incinaroar tilted its head on Sylveon's second wind. It chuckled before raising its arms out like a wrestler and charging Sylveon again.
Hear my bark, bitch, Moxy cupped her ears before shouting, "Echoed Voice!"
Sylveon spread out her feelers, letting loose a powerful shriek towards the Incinaroar. It had no time to react, and it and Edgar covered their ears.
"Use Swift!" Moxy ordered. Not wasting a second, Sylveon summoned a Fairy Wind, propelling herself into the air. Stars coalesced around her feelers and tail, and Sylveon shot them like deadly frisbees at the Incinaroar. Each star exploded in a cloud of pink smoke, the Incinaroar unprepared to defend itself against the fairy-energy onslaught.
"G'ROAR!" it roared as the last star collided with its stomach, blowing it back into the corner of the ring. The crowd was speechless, but after a second, they began to cheer.
"Crimson! Crimson!" she heard, and she would be lying if she said it didn't boost her ego just a bit. As the smoke cleared away, Moxy found Edgar had defended himself with some kind of weird, transparent shield. He withdrew the shield into his metal bracer before ambling up to his Incinaroar. He put a hand on Incinaroars shoulder. However, instead of bringing his Incinaroar up to its feet, he pulled out a tiny syringe from his back pocket.
Moxy widened her eyes and looked over at Zee, who shared her expression. The syringe was filled with a glittering, red liquid.
The same liquid from the crime scene.
Edgar jabbed the syringe straight into his Incinaroar's upper arm. The Incinaroar fell over on its chest, groaning as it clutched its heart. Edgar backed away from it, his lips parting into a sly smile directed at Moxy.
"What the hell did you do to your pokemon?!" Moxy yelled at Edgar. His silence irritated her.
Suddenly, the noise stopped. A looming dread washed over Moxy when the Incinaroar's cries turned into short, vicious snarls. It pulled itself up by the ropes of the ring with a large, wicked hand. When it was finally standing, its body was two times bigger and hairier than before, and its canines were the size of an Excadrill's claws.
"BAWAURR!" its voice was like a car horn as the soundwave ripped through Moxy and Sylveon.
"AHHHH!" Moxy fell to her knees, her blood on fire as black and red electricity licked her vision. Even Sylveon was gritting her teeth against the attack.
"Be careful S-Sylvie!" Moxy called out before coughing. All the fatigue and alcohol in her system was purged, instead replaced by this numbing adrenaline. Her chest was vibrating, like something small was banging itself against it. However, before she could look down to see what was happening, the Incinaroar stomped towards them on all fours.
"Run!" Moxy cried out. Sylveon Quick-Attacked away just before a fist the size of a chair could smash her. Dark energy exploded from the point of impact, the force enough to send Moxy onto her feet.
She didn't waste a second crawling out of the ring before racing towards the gate she came in from. The man in the suit was still there, his black sunglasses reflecting the chaos ensnaring the ring.
"Hey!" Moxy pointed towards the ring. "That guy juiced his Incinaroar with some weird liquid!"
She was met with a blank expression.
"What the fuck is wrong with you! That's gotta be a disqualification! I'm not going to fight that… monster!"
Still, the man simply stood there. Moxy tried to force the door open, but it was secure with a chain and heavy lock.
Shit, she clicked her tongue and looked back at the ring, heart beating rapidly in her chest.
Sylveon summoned a fairy wind that carried her over the Incinaroar just before it tried to grab her with its massive claws.
"GRROW!" The Incinaroar snarled. Sylveon grappled the side of the cage and glided towards it. She hung on with her paws before staring back at the ring, fear in her eyes.
"Nehvee! Vee!" Sylveon pleaded with a broken voice, all the while trembling as she held onto the cage for dear life. The Incinaroar was merciless, and it growled before leaping over the ropes of the ring and towards her.
Sylveon sprang off using another Fairy Wind just as the cage rattled violently. The crowd behind it backed away from the Incinaroar as it tried to climb the cage, and Moxy was surprised by how well it was handling its weight.
Sylveon continued to grapple the sides of the ring with her feelers as the Incinaroar climbed after her like a Purugly chasing a Pachirisu. Each time the Incinaroar got close, Sylveon veered towards the other side of the cage.
It didn't take long for the Incinaroar to kneel forward, its massive body heaving in fatigue.
"Echoed Voice!" Moxy saw the opportunity. Clinging to the cage, Sylveon let loose a powerful soundwave at the Incinaroar. It covered its ears again and roared, but when the attack was over, a dark glare bore over its muzzle.
The fire around its belt swirled with black and red energy, and it puffed out its chest before a beam of black energy zipped towards Sylveon. She tried to jump away from the Dark Pulse, but she was too slow. The beam struck her chest in mid-air, and Sylveon was sent careening towards the ring in a crash.
"Grahehehaa…" the Incinaroar grinned before cracking its muscular neck.
"Kill her!" Edgar shouted, his eyes just as wild and bloodshot as his pokemon. Sylveon looked up at the Incinaroar in horror, its jaw covered in white-hot flames.
Fuck this, Moxy unclipped her only other pokeball from her belt and tossed it upwards, releasing her pokemon.
"SCREEEEE!" the cry came out as soon as her Zubat was released. The crowd watched displeased as he flew around the arena, shrieking his lungs out.
Moxy's plan seemed to work, because the Incinaroar looked up, much more irritated than before.
"Hey!" Edgar shouted at Moxy, his ears covered again. "This is a one-on-one!"
Moxy just gave him the same shit-eating grin he had been giving her the entire time before shouting "Get on its back, Sylvie!"
Sylveon grabbed Incinaroar's ankles with her feelers while it was distracted. She sprang to her paws and Quick-Attacked a circle around the Incinaroar. It didn't take more than a second for the Incinaroar to yelp as it stumbled over its entangled ankles. Sylveon was quick to get on top of the Incinaroar's massive back, tying her feelers under its armpits to keep hold when it got up.
"G-Groar?" the Incinaroar tried to swipe Sylveon off, but it couldn't reach that far behind its back.
There was this crazy look on Sylveon's face as she climbed up to the Incinaroar's neck.
"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Sylveon cried directly into the Incinaroars ear, and it was so loud that Moxy couldn't even hear the music playing in the arena anymore. Everyone in the room had covered their ears.
The Incinaroar roared weakly, the flames on its belt growing stronger as it singed Sylveon's tail and hind legs. However, that wasn't enough to stop her.
Sylveon tightened her feelers before letting loose another Echoed Voice, this one ten times louder than the previous.
Too loud… Moxy knelt down, all she could hear was this constant ringing in her ear. Even Edgar couldn't handle all the noise.
The Incinaroar had the worst of it. It began to shift back and forth in a daze, and its eyes rolled towards the back of its head.
"Sylveon!" Moxy couldn't hear her own voice, "That's enough!"
But on her pokemon's bruised, broken face, not a shred of mercy could be found. Sylveon inhaled one last time, this time so deep Moxy could see the distortion of the air as it entered Sylveon's lungs.
Two beams of red energy enveloped Sylveon and Incinaroar before anything else could happen.
Moxy was panting, Sylveon's pokeball outstretched in her hand. There was a moment of complete silence, even her Zubat was silent under the ceiling of the ring.
"Crimson wins…" the announcer mumbled on the cracky speaker.
A chorus of cheers and claps followed afterward, but it was still extremely hard to hear anything because of Sylveon's attacks. A spotlight shined on top of Moxy, and she gave off a shy, weak wave.
She noticed Edgar sitting down on the ring floor, his Incinaroar's pokeball in hand as he gazed up at an approaching Moxy with an angry expression.
"What, did a Skitty catch your tongue?" Moxy taunted him, a hand on her hip. Edgar just kept his mouth pursed.
Moxy chuckled. The crowd was still cheering Crimson, and along with Edgar being completely flustered, she couldn't help this surging feeling in her body. It was a rush of adrenaline and dopamine swirling in her head, enough to knock her dizzy off her feet.
I beat him. Hah! Teach you to talk to me like that! Moxy could almost giggle in joy.
However, Moxy frowned when the gate opened, irked at the guy in the suit who led her inside the ring but wouldn't let her out.
"Crimson, follow me. The boss wants to meet you." The man stated in his deep voice, his finger on his little earpiece. Edgar stood up quickly, his eyes wide.
"N-no! Fuck that!" Edgar's voice was hoarse. "That battle was just a fluke! Let me have a rematch! Tell mister-"
"Shut up, Edgar." the man in the suit shoved him back. Moxy raised her brow at Edgar, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking when. It didn't matter. This was her opportunity to get to the head honcho of this whole operation. She made sure to recall Zubat before following the man.
Thanks, Zubat, Moxy smiled. She was led through the large crowd, all still shouting her name.
"Hey, watch it! That's my client!" Moxy caught a small voice over the cheers, and she stopped when Zee finally fought her way through the crowd. Unfortunately, the man in the suit put his burly hand in front of Zee.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Zee asked, her fists balled. "Crimson's my client. If your boss wants to talk, he… or she, is going to have to talk to me first, got that pal?"
"Back off, cretin," The man ignored, continuing onward. However, he turned around when he noticed Moxy wasn't following.
"She comes with me." Moxy crossed her arms. "Or I don't go."
With a deep sigh, the man acquiesced.
"Let's go." Moxy gave Zee a determined nod. With that, they both disappeared into a backroom.
Reviews:
-RedBloodedMoon: I hope this chapter surprised you a bit! Thanks for reading!