Fist Mountain loomed over Muscle Village like an unspoken threat. Although the mountain was too modest to cast a physical shadow on the pokémon who lived there, it still darkened the villagers' lives and whenever they spoke of trouble, whether natural or pokémon in origin, Muscle Village's inhabitants tended to look to the mountain. It was not because of any danger that Fist Mountain itself presented that caused the villagers to associate it with ill fortune, but rather because of what it represented. The mountain and its foothills, separated from Muscle Village by both a walled perimeter and then a thick forest, was a symbol of the wild that threatened the villagers and all that they held dear.
The pokémon who lived on Fist Mountain and around it were so different from the villagers that they hardly deserved the name of pokémon. They hunted and fed like savage beasts and slept under the stars instead of in homes of wood or stone with thatched roofs. The villagers told hushed stories about those who had ventured too far from the security of the village and its protector and were never seen again. In Muscle Village, saying that a pokémon was "starting towards the mountain" was a common reprimand when he or she was thought to be courting trouble.
Muscle Village abounded with plenty of tales about pokémon which had foolishly ventured into the wild, but only once did a pokémon from the outside come to the village. He was an orphaned riolu who had been found by the village's protector, an infernape named Verkong. For reasons unfathomable to any pokémon but himself, Verkong had not left the foundling to the elements and the other wild pokémon, but had rather brought this child of the mountain into the sanctuary of Muscle Village.
It had not been a popular decision and the protector had shown no interest in raising the child himself, so his motives for taking in the riolu remained a mystery. The child had been passed through the paws of several villagers before winding up at the home of a blaziken who was considered strong and forthright. It was hoped that he and his family might be able to tame the wild inherent in the young pokémon, though, of course, none of the other villagers put much faith in civilizing a pokémon found in the shadows of Fist Mountain. When he was old enough to speak, the riolu told them that his name was Blue Moon, but he said it in such a rush that it sounded as if he said "Bloon" instead. That was the moniker he bore whenever the villagers deigned to speak with him.
Without consciously understanding what set the riolu apart, the young pokémon of Muscle Village readily imbibed the attitudes of their parents. If it weren't for the blaziken's own offspring, a torchic named Amber, the riolu would not have had a single friend among the village's youth.
One day, years after Bloon had first come to Muscle Village, he and Amber were walking down the main road on their way to the village's nursery. The two young pokémon were talking animatedly about nothing in the way that young pokémon do. Amber was always good at keeping Bloon's mind off of the distaste that radiated off of the other villagers through her jokes and intentional pratfalls. This morning, the orange-feathered pokémon had seized upon the idea of pretending to be a pompous queen and decided that Bloon was her honored guest, an ambassador of lands far beyond.
"You there!" Amber chirped at a poliwhirl sweeping the street in front of his shop. "That dusty patch of ground must be three, no, five times as clean if you expect my royal patronage!" The poor pokémon looked on the two giggling children with befuddlement before it returned to his task. "Terribly sorry about that," Amber said to Bloon as they continued to walk. "The peasantry is a little daft in this part of my kingdom. If they don't shape up, I'm afraid I'll have to send the lot of them off to the mountain until they learn their lesson."
The next pokémon that Amber accosted was a hariyama hard at work in her bakery baking bread in her bakery. The pokémon was wider than she was tall and was sweating from both the heat from her oven and the exertion of shifting around pans laden high with loaves of bread. "Peasant woman!" chirped Amber at her newest victim. "The barbarians' ambassador and I would like two slices of your best cake, for free, of course!"
The baker turned towards Amber's voice, but her expression deteriorated rapidly from excitement at the prospect of a customer to amusement at the young torchic's antics to dismay when she saw Bloon. "Get along, you two," the hariyama said curtly as she went back to her work.
"Such rudeness," Amber clucked as she shook her head sadly. "And towards their own queen, no less!"
"Oh, can I give it a try?" asked Bloon and, before Amber could answer, he called out, "Hello! You there! Get out of the way of the queen and her guest!"
Unfortunately for the two mischievous youngsters, the pokémon who Bloon had chosen to accost was a wild-eyed primeape. The simian pokémon rounded on Bloon and Amber with his fists raised and his eyes flashing with anger. "You!" was all the primeape said and then he started towards the children.
Giggling wildly, Amber took off running and Bloon was following her lead in a heartbeat. The primeape chasing after them had the advantage of his larger limbs, but Bloon and Amber had been playing on the streets of Muscle Village for years and so they knew all of the helpful passages and hiding spots. Though Bloon might have been able to outrun the primeape in a straight contest, he and his friend needed to use every trick in the book to make up for Amber's scrawny legs. "This way!" the torchic cried before leading Bloon into an alleyway littered with overturned crates and garbage. Breathing heavily, Bloon followed his friend in ducking under and around the pile of refuse, and then jumping atop of it to scramble up to the fence which bisected the narrow space between the two buildings on either side.
"Come on, Amber!" Bloon shouted as he stood atop the mountain of trash. "Come on!" Amber tried her best but her clawed feet kept sinking into the muck and flapping her stubby wings did nothing to help her, and, all the while, the primeape drew nearer and nearer. He reached for Amber just as Bloon did, but fortunately it was the riolu who grabbed her first. Bloon yanked Amber up after him bodily and then the two of them hopped over the fence to the other side of the alley. Behind the pair, the primeape started up the mound of garbage, but his weight soon led the waste to cascade down on top of him. As Bloon and Amber ran off, they could hear the soiled pokémon cursing them.
It wasn't far from Amber's parents' home to the nursery, but her and Bloon's game, and the resulting chase, had meant that Bloon and Amber were the last of their peers to arrive. That attracted plenty of attention from the other young pokémon and their teacher, a breloom named Ms. Spore. Their tardiness wasn't the only thing that earned a frown from the green-capped pokémon. Wrinkling her nose, Ms. Spore said dryly, "Playing in garbage, have we, Bloon?"
"Um," Amber said as Bloon picked a piece of fruit rind out of her feathers.
"Just go in the back and wash up," sighed Ms. Spore, "quickly, please."
Bloon and Amber dutifully walked around the back of the sloping nursery building and found the well. As Bloon worked to lower the bucket, fill it with water, and retrieve it, Amber couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation, "That should give Ms. Spore something to say to my mom and dad when she runs into them out shopping! 'Your daughter was playing in garbage.' Can you picture it, Bloon?"
"Yeah, it's really funny," the riolu answered without looking up from his work. "Do you mind holding the rope for me? I think there's a knot I have to untangle."
"I suppose," said Amber and she let Bloon lay a section of the rope flat on the ground before stepping onto it.
"Hold it steady," Bloon instructed his friend, but when he bent over the well to try and see what was wrong with the rope, it snaked out from under Amber's feet and caught the other young pokémon by surprise. "Whoa!" shouted Bloon as he tried to both catch the falling bucket and keep his balance on the edge of the well. He managed the former, but not the latter, and went tumbling into the shallow hole with a splash.
"Oops! Sorry, Bloon!"
When Amber peered over the edge of the well, she found a very wet, very annoyed riolu whose red eyes were glaring up at her. Fortunately, the two young pokémon were able to get Bloon out of the well and they both returned to the front of the nursery properly cleaned and chastened.
As soon as she saw that Bloon and Amber had rejoined the group, Ms. Spore cleared her throat and announced, "All right, children, gather round, I have an announcement that I've been asked to make." The larger pokémon surveyed the yard and trained her beady black eyes on any stragglers until they had abandoned the play equipment scattered about the yard. Once Ms. Spore's charges were arrayed before her, the green-capped breloom began, "Now, you may have noticed some additional activity in the village over the past couple of days. Our current protector, Verkong, has decided to step down from his position due to his age."
At that, the children all nodded. The old, bearded infernape currently serving as Muscle Village's protector, the same pokémon who had discovered Bloon and brought him back to the village, had taken on the title long before any of them had been born. As much as the elderly pokémon had been a fixture in their lives, it made sense to the young pokémon that he was ready to relinquish his duties.
"So, what happens next?" asked Amber.
"I was getting to that," huffed Ms. Spore. "Now, in order to select a new protector, it is a tradition for all interested pokémon to participate in a competition, a tournament, to determine which of them is the strongest. The tournament will be held in three days' time." That piece of news set the young pokémon abuzz with excitement, and Ms. Spore had to clear her throat loudly before they settled down. "In order to, yes, what is it?" she asked the child with his arm raised above his head.
The pokémon in question was a confident, blue-skinned machop. In a voice as respectful as his excitement would allow, he asked, "Who's allowed to compete in the tournament? Is it open to anybody?"
"Well, Brutus, strictly speaking, yes," admitted Ms. Spore, but the breloom rushed to head off the resulting excitement by saying, "but obviously it doesn't make sense for children to participate!"
Her protests were of no use. The younger pokémon couldn't contain themselves any longer and they scattered across the playground, eagerly discussing the tournament and playing at competing in it. Ms. Spore soon had her claws full with breaking up fight after fight as the children tried out their fledgling abilities on one another.
Bloon and Amber didn't participate in any of the roughhousing, but their huddled conference was just as excited as any of the other conversations which dotted the nursery's yard. "A tournament!" exclaimed Amber. "That's going to be so cool! Do you think they'll let us watch it?"
"I don't know, I hope so!" replied Bloon. "This is going to be bigger than the summer festival, I think."
"Yeah." Amber looked out over the yard where Ms. Bloom was trying to separate two wrestling pokémon and sighed with a happy little ruffle of her orange feathers.
"Do you think your dad will try to enter the tournament?" Bloon asked.
Amber cocked her head to one side and thought before answering, "I don't know. He's pretty old, but it would be so cool if my dad was the protector. Think about everything that we could get away with!" The two of them spent a few minutes imagining new ways to raise havoc around Muscle Village before Amber asked, "Do you think you should say goodbye to Verkong?"
"Why would I do that?"
"He's the pokémon who found you, isn't he?" Amber asked before adding with a theatrically weary sigh, "I just thought you might feel some kind of connection to him, that's all."
Bloon shook his head rapidly enough that his floppy ears swung around his head. "No, I don't really think about him at all."
The two friends clung to each other's side for the rest of the day as they always did. Finally, the sun was well on its way to setting and the young pokémon were released to go home. A few parents arrived at the nursery to retrieve their children, but most of them set off for home alone or accompanied only by a few friends. Bloon and Amber were talking excitedly about the upcoming tournament when they rounded a corner and ran into three pokémon who had been waiting for them.
"Oof," grunted Bloon as he bounced off of the group and landed on the ground. "Oh, Brutus," he growled when he saw the machop looming over him.
"Don't you guys have anything better to do than bother us?" Amber demanded.
That made Brutus laugh and the pokémon on either side of him, a sneering, black-furred sneasel and a stout shieldon laughed with him. "I just wanted to tell you how cute it is that you bring your pet with you everywhere you go, Amber," Brutus said.
"Yeah, her pet, how about that?" giggled the sneasel while the third member of Brutus' gang guffawed along with him.
Bloon had gotten back on his feet by then and he growled at the bullying pokémon, "How about you leave us alone?"
Brutus's mouth opened in mock surprise and he exclaimed, "Amber! I'm impressed! You taught it how to speak!"
"Oh, why don't you go climb the mountain?" Amber asked. The torchic gestured for Bloon to follow her with one of her stubby wings. "Come on, Bloon, let's go home." She started to walk around Brutus and his gang, only for the machop to stick out his foot to trip Amber.
Before his friend had hit the ground, Bloon had already leapt at Brutus with a wild snarl. He sunk his teeth into the machop's muscular arm which made the other pokémon scream in fright and pain. "Bloon, no!" shouted Amber, but her friend refused to let go, even when Brutus and his friends started hammering Bloon's thin body with blows. Even under the weight of the three pokémon trying to make him let go, Bloon held on to Brutus' bleeding arm for as long as he could. Finally, Bloon's jaws slackened and he landed limply on the ground next to Amber.
"Come on, let him go," Amber pleaded but to no avail. Brutus and his sneasel friend kicked savagely at Bloon's ribs while the shieldon perched atop of Amber to keep her from interfering.
"Pick him up," Brutus ordered in-between panting breaths. "Come on, Sid, do it!"
"Whatever you say, Brutus," Sid the sneasel said shakily and he seized Bloon and pulled Bloon up off of the ground. The riolu was still limp so Sid had to work hard to keep the other young pokémon from sliding back down to the ground.
"Hurry up, Brutus, I think I hear someone coming!"
Brutus snapped, "Shut up, Face!" Then, he curled his fists and punched Bloon's midsection with a few choice haymakers as he roared, "You should have stayed in the trash where you belonged!"
The beating stopped only when the shieldon, Face, said again, "Come on, Brutus! Someone's coming!"
Even then, Brutus lingered for a moment as he weighed whether or not to strike Bloon again. Fortunately, for the brutalized pokémon, Sid's arms gave out and he let Bloon fall back down to the ground. "Fine, let's get out of here." Brutus spat on Bloon before muttering, "Stupid animal," and running back down the street with his cronies in tow.
Amber waited to make sure that Brutus and the others wouldn't come back and then she went to Bloon. She rolled her friend over onto his back and groaned, "Oh, Bloon, why'd you do that?" She gently rocked him back and forth with her clawed foot and said, "Come on, Bloon, get up, you're scaring me. You're okay, you're okay."
Finally, Bloon coughed and opened his eyes. "Did they hurt you?" he wheezed and he started to close his eyes again after Amber bobbed her head. She rocked him again, a little more roughly this time, and Bloon moaned and started to sit back up.
"What happened to you two kids?" a gruff voice asked.
Bloon and Amber turned around to find themselves looking at the same primeape who had chased them that morning. When he recognized the two young pokémon, the primeape started to glare, but the sight of Bloon's battered body made his expression soften. "Come on, kids," the primeape said without looking Bloon in the eye. "Let's get you home, okay? Where do you live?"
There was no argument from Bloon or Amber as they let the older pokémon help them to their feet. Amber was much more subdued than usual as she helped Bloon and led the stranger back to her house. They stuck to the wider, more heavily used streets of Muscle Village, but even so Amber's eyes checked every alleyway and she paused at every corner.
"Those kids really did a number on you," grunted the primeape. When Bloon and Amber stopped in front of a shabby-looking building, he then asked, "This is your home, right? Well then, take care of yourselves."
With that, the furred primeape awkwardly shuffled off in the direction that he and the children had come from, and Bloon and Amber were left alone in front of her home. "Come on, Bloon, let's go inside. My mom will be able to help."
Bloon didn't feel strong enough to say anything, especially after it had taken what was left of his strength to walk this far so soon after his beating. He leaned against Amber and let her guide him inside of their shared home.
It was a small dwelling, but a cozy one. The dirt floor was covered with a table and a set of mismatched chairs which held dishes of food, already prepared by Amber's mom. Further inside, under a section of the building with a lower ceiling, were a set of beds where Amber and her family slept. Bloon usually slept in the main room.
Amber's mom, a combusken with sharp eyes and a beak set in a permanent frown, saw Bloon and her daughter and immediately stood up from her work and rushed over to them. "Oh no, what happened? Are you okay, Amber?" she clucked. "What happened to Bloon? What happened?" Only the last question was directed to the riolu.
"Some other pokémon stopped us on our way home," Amber explained breathlessly, "they wouldn't let us get away and Bloon bit one of them so they beat him up!"
"They were going to hurt Amber, ma'am," Bloon said softly. Amber's mom was looking at him and he held her gaze even though he wanted to look away.
Finally, the larger pokémon shook her head and told the children, "Well, whatever happened, it's good that you're here safe and sound now." Amber's mom gave Bloon's injuries a quick examination and then bustled off to the corner of the home where she opened up a chest. The combusken brought back two small blue berries and gave them to Bloon and Amber. "I always keep a few of these around for emergencies, but that doesn't mean that you can keep getting into fights like this, Bloon."
Amber ate the fruit from her mom's clawed hand, while Bloon took his with a murmured "thank you" before working through the pain in his jaw to slowly chew the juicy berry.
When she saw that the two of them were finished, Amber's mom said, "Now, Amber I need your help getting ready for dinner. As for you, Bloon, why don't you sit down in the yard until the food is ready." As Bloon limped back toward the door outside, he heard Amber's mom admonish him, "You can't go around biting other pokémon, Bloon, that's not what we do here."
Bloon didn't give any sign of hearing her, but outside he sank down onto the dirt ground and hung his head between his knees. His head was still pounding and his body still ached from what Brutus had down to him, but he refused to cry. That didn't mean that his eyes didn't water or that his lower lip didn't tremble, and it was in the middle of holding back a howl of pain that Amber's dad found Bloon.
"What happened to you?" the red- and cream-feathered blaziken asked. Bloon looked up at the powerfully-built pokémon with his long legs and sharp claws, beak, and eyes and immediately felt the tears that wanted to come out of his eyes dry.
"I got in a fight, sir," answered Bloon simply, "and I lost."
Amber's dad looked down at Bloon, his avian expression unreadable to Bloon even after years of living under the same roof. "You got in another fight, and you lost again. What are you going to do differently next time, Bloon?"
The riolu shrugged. "I don't know, sir, try to win instead, I guess."
Bloon thought that would be the end of the conversation, but instead Amber's dad dropped to his haunches and looked at smaller pokémon intensely with his predatory eyes. "And how are you going to do that?" When Bloon didn't answer, the blaziken stood back up and said, almost to himself, "I can see that I haven't done right by you, Blue Moon. You were entrusted to me and I haven't been successful in making you truly a part of our village. I have failed at the simple task of keeping you safe."
"It's not your fault, sir," murmured Bloon.
"It is, Bloon," Amber's dad said forcefully. "I don't blame your injuries on you for not knowing how to defend yourself, it was my responsibility to teach you instead of trusting that children wouldn't be cruel and adults wouldn't be set in their ways." The blaziken stopped speaking to regard Bloon again as he asked the smaller pokémon, "Have you heard about the protector retiring?"
Bloon nodded his aching head. "Yes, sir. Ms. Spore told us about it at the nursery today. Are you going to compete in the tournament?"
"Yes, I am. I did some training under Verkong when I was younger, so I believe I may have a chance at succeeding him as our village's protector." Amber's dad clicked his tongue inside of his beak as an idea occurred to him. "Would you like to help me prepare for the tournament, Bloon? It might be useful to have a sparring partner and I can teach you how to protect yourself and Amber as well."
"Yes, sir, please, sir!" Bloon said eagerly, but instead of the smile that any of the village's other children might have worn Bloon's response to this honor was to set his throbbing jaw even more firmly. "I won't disappoint you, sir."
Amber's dad studied Bloon as though he was going to say something further, but then Amber came rushing outside and the opportunity to say whatever he had planned to say was gone.
"Bloon! Dad! Dinner's ready!"
They followed the energetic torchic inside, but at the threshold Bloon felt Amber's dad place a clawed hand on his shoulder before wordlessly stepping around him. His body was still hurting from his fight with Brutus, but Bloon also felt a blossom of warmth in chest which radiated throughout his body. It didn't entirely push the pain away entirely, but the feeling made Bloon straighten his back and stride into the home he shared with Amber and her family with a new purpose in mind.
He was going to battle in the tournament and become Muscle Village's next protector.