It was another typical day at the poke-combat academy, with the halls bustling with students accessing their lockers to prepare for their first classes. However, something was off today, and it wasn’t just everyone gawking at the giant fluff ball that was once the six tails of certain vulpix who’d been shocked and beaten up the night before. No, there was something much more dark and forboding in the air this morning.

A certain group of morphs that had stayed out of the open for a while, that had been taking their classes during the night sessions, normally reserved the more nocturnal pokemorphs, were now out in the day light, and most of the student body was seeing them for the first time. They walked down the halls in perfect sync, following a diamond formation, with one leading, two in the middle, and one in the back.

At the front was a very calm and serious looking kadabra girl, with her long, braided brown flowing in an invisible breeze she was creating with her psychic abilities. Her cobalt blue irises shown in the light, reflecting an air of confidence and power about her, as if she could dominate anyone she came up against. She was wearing jeans and her team’s jacket, which was closed at the moment.

Next in line was an incredibly beautiful looking and very curvy Zapdos girl. Her long head feathers flowed down her back, and in the light, their slightly brownish look actually sparkled, along with the rest of her feathers. Her wings were hidden inside her top which was hidden underneath her own Darkfall jacket, which was zipped up. But even with that jacket on, her figure was easily noticeable and it turned the heads of several of the older boys in the hall. It also helped that her black miniskirt was particularly mini. However, she didn’t even acknowledge any of this swooning or attraction, wearing a completely blank expression on her avian face. However, her dull hazel eyes reflected a whole rainbow of negative emotions and a long history of pain and abuse.

Next to her, standing at 6’8”, was a very dashing looking dapple grey rapidash. He was also wearing a serious expression on his face, but his shining emerald eyes reflected a highly developed mind that was always in thought, constantly solving problems that came into his wake, and planning out future battle strategies, as if all he wanted to do was to find the best way to make his opponent pay. He was a pair of brown slacks that went down to his hocks, and his team’s jacket, of course. On his arms and legs, along with his tail, and the hair on his head, burned the ever constant that the fire horse species were known for, only these flames weren’t the usual red. They were instead a vivid mixture of purple and lilac, which was a very strange and dark color for flames. To top off his look, a few strands of his flaming mane fell forward, framing his equine face.

Finally, in the back, there stood a true giant. Standing at an impressive and very intimidating 8 feet and 2 inches in height, he was probably the tallest student in the school, and his three horns just barely avoided scraping against the high ceilings of the hallways of the academy. This huge sea serpent was a Siberian Gyarados, which was obvious from his pale blue and grey coloring instead of the aqua blue and yellow of an Ocean Gyarados. It almost made him look like an ice type, and his blonde buzz cut added to this look. His dark brown eyes reflected a look of contemplation and a far off stare, as if he were trying look over the unseen horizon and all the way back to his mother country of Russia. His 12 foot tail with its large fin slowly swayed back and forth behind him, while his long white whiskers twitched slightly, picking up movements in the air. He was wearing a pair of long, thick, tight-fitting pants that went down to the second joint in his digitigrade, dragon-like legs. At the end of each of these legs were four massive clawed and webbed toes that made a combination of a squishing and thud sound each time they hit the ground as he walked. His team jacket was custom made to be able to fit his long, snake-like torso without exposing any of his under belly. His massive mouth was closed at the moment, making his face look sort of like a canine’s.

They all walked together in this diamond formation, until they caught the eye of the resident queen of the school. A certain haughty meowth walked forward to intercept them, followed closely by her step-sister.

“So, what dark hole did you four crawl out of? I haven’t seen any of you at this school yet, and I make it my business to be familiar with all the fresh meat that has entered this academy.” Nicole said in her usual condescending tone that she used when speaking down to the lower grades.

Natalia kept her cool and even smirked slightly while she prepared to respond. Meanwhile, the eyes of the rapidash, zapdos, and gyarados had all drifted over to meet the gaze of the female mightyena. If there was one thing that got her actually interested in someone, it was people who were taller than her. The rapidash had about 2 inches on her, and the gyarados had almost 2 feet. She scowled at them, but the sea monster remained impassive, while the rapidash scowled back.

“My name is Natalia Yargasia. I transferred to this school from Germany and now I lead Team Darkfall. These are my team mates,” Natalia replied in a tone that was so calm it was as if she were talking to an equal, rather than an upper classman.
“Ignacious Furnac,” she said as she pointed to the rapidash.
“Esmeralda Zeneeva,” as she pointed at the shiny zapdos girl.
“And Sergei Sharvanavitch, from Russia,” as she pointed to the massive water dragon, who proceeded to open part of his mouth to show some of his serrated teeth in his own scowl.
“The reason you haven’t seen us is that up until now we had been attending the night classes at this institution.”
Natalia finished off her introductions with a small smile that did nothing but cause Nicole to raise her eyebrow.

Meanwhile, the scowling contest kept happening between Ignacious and Tenebra. Really, the mightyena couldn’t help but feel some kind of strange and dark connection to these individuals, but she couldn’t explain what it was.

“Well, allow me to explain to you how things work in the day portion of this institution’s operation.” Nicole condescended as her face turned to a sneer.
“Around here, my team rules this school. You stay out of our way, and you’ll be just fine.”
Then she held up her right hand and her claws extended as her tone of voice grew darker and more menacing.
“But if you get in my way, if you forget your place, you can bet that my entire team will be there to beat yours into the dust. And every member of my team is a lethal fighting machine.”
Tenebra, as if on cue, emitted an audible growl to accompany this threat. But then, something unexpected happened.

“Hey Nikki! There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Mitzi, ever the bubbly dumb blonde, came skipping up to this gathering, wearing a big grin across her muzzle. She then spotted the members of Team Darkfall, and her canine face changed to an almost adorable curious expression as she positively squealed.
“Oooooh! Who are these people? I haven’t seen them bef—“

It was then Ignacious’s flames caught her eye, and she immediately got a sparkle in hers as she just ran right up to him and started chatting it up right in his face, their muzzles almost touching.
“Hi! I’m Mitzi! You have to tell me how you got your flames to glow such a pretty color!”

Ignacious was at first taken aback by this sudden intrusion of his personal space, as it didn’t happen that often. Most people were frightened off by his height or by his demeanor. But this girl was different, and her behavior actually brought a small smirk to his equine face.
“Well, I eat lots of potassium,” he responded with a slight bit of friendliness, but still with mostly a cool and aloof tone about him.

Meanwhile, from the point that Mitzi had appeared, Natalia’s smirk had turned into a full on smile. On the other hand, Nicole had touched two fingers of her other hand to her forehead and was shaking her head. She hated it when Mitzi came in while she was trying to intimidate freshmen. Tenebra was currently looking UP at Sergei, which was something she really wasn’t used to doing, but she was doing it anyway in order to exchange mean looks with him.

“Potassium…like bananas? I like bananas, especially with ice cream!” Mitzi joyfully replied as she poked one of her fingers through the flame on Ignacious’s forearm, parting the pretty colored flame.

“Mitzi, what exactly did you want me for?” Nicole asked in a slightly annoyed voice.

Mitzi stopped playing with Ignacious’s flames and turned towards Nicole put a finger to her chin.
“Ummm…I can’t remember,” Mitzi said as she blushed and grinned at Nicole.

At that point, Nicole was getting more and more angry at Mitzi, but then Natalia brought her back to the matter at hand by clearing her throat with a “hem hem” noise.
“Ms. Blackclaw, let me just say that I have the utmost respect for you and your team. If I or any of my team members are interfering with your operations in any way, please notify me immediately and I’ll bring all of Team Darkfall back into line.” Natalia replied in her calm and cool voice. She then took on stern tone and turned around to her team mates.
“Ignacious, Sergei, Esmeralda, stand by!”
At hearing that, all three of the other members of Team Darkfall stopped what they were doing, turned to face Natalia, stood at attention, and saluted her.

Nicole turned and actually smiled at this.
“It’s nice to meet a freshman that actually knows her place. I’m glad to hear that you’re willing to stay out of my way, and I admire the way you keep your team in line. I wish I could say the same about some of the members of my team.”
She cast an angry stare at Mitzi, who just blushed again.

Natalia turned around and gave another nod and smirk in response to Nicole’s praise, which was quite a rare gift from the alpha bitch.

“Mitzi, Tenebra, we’re out of here,” Nicole shouted at her team mates.
Tenebra gave one last nasty scowl to finish her meeting with these strange individuals.
Mitzi just jumped up and down a few times and then waved.
“Bye! It was nice meeting all of you!”

She then skipped off after the two Blackclaws and they walked away, with Team Darkfall heading in the opposite direction. It was Ignacious that cast the first stone.
“The 8th shadow was right there. Why didn’t we try to capture her while she was close?”

“Patience Ignac. We can’t just take her right now, as she is too heavily guarded, not only by her team, but also by a smoke screen of school regulations and the rules of society.” Natalia said coolly with a wistful wave of her hand.”

“Bah, don’t go trying to feed me all of that politics crap again,” Ignac said disdainfully as he was getting ready to spit out a small flame.

“Ignac, need I remind you that you are not on your streets anymore, nor are you at that ridiculous blood lust dojo. Here, a battle is as much a matter of social structure and regulations as it is about power. In order to fight the more prominent players here, you must climb the power structure to reach them,” Natalia said with her ever confident and cool voice.

Ignacious spat out the small flame before continuing.
“Whatever. You can handle all that politics tauros-shit. Just let me know when I can finally get into the arena,” Ignac said in a voice that was no longer angry, but still annoyed.

“Just think of it as an elaborate game of strategy, Ignac, in which every player has his or her own role to play, and can only take each other out with the proper combinations of moves. The first step to winning this game is to meet and befriend the most powerful of these players, so that they may become allies and assets, rather than enemies and liabilities,” Natalia said sardonically with a maniacal smile on her face.

&&&
LATER THAT DAY...
&&&

“OWWW! Cut it out! I’m sorry, I…*gak*,” sputtered a manectric junior as he was pinned against the wall by one Esmeralda’s hands around his throat, causing him to start choking.

“Were you just insinuating having sexual relations with me, without paying my price, because I could have sworn that’s what I heard,” she deadpanned as she continued to constrict the electric dog’s windpipe, while her other hand started to crackle with electrical arcs, but her face still remained impassive. She swung back and struck the guy hard in the groin before releasing his neck and letting him fall to the floor, his hands immediately moving between his legs.

“If you want me, you have to pay my price of either $3000 for a date, or $9000 for a lay. Don’t you ever forget it,” she continued to speak mechanically before walking away with most of students nearby staring at her, and most of the males of that audience at her butt and long, flowing tail feathers.

&&&
A FEW HALLWAYS AWAY...
&&&

There was a loud slam as a large female mammoth hit the floor on her back hard, her right leg held in a death lock by large siberian gyarados. He had apparently seen her turn to him and say something in a mocking tone.
“Yowt galats nache hyn lawk lach om igie deipe.”

And then he tackled her, flipped her over with strange ease to a sit-up position, then wrapped his legs around hers and flip her again in some sort of strange martial arts move. No sooner had this happened that a certain donphan came running up, a combination of concern and amazement on his elephant face.

“Hey man, let her go! What did she do to you?!” Eddie shouted as looked down on both of them, since Sergei was also on the floor to hold her there.

“She insulted me in Russian,” Sergei drawled as he continued to squeeze her leg tighter and tighter.

“That’s ridiculous! Tuscany doesn’t know a word of Russian. You misunderstood her. She has a speech impediment from her tusks,” Eddie said, taking a slightly more stern tone.

Eddie then stooped down to Tuscany’s head and had a serious expression and an equally serious tone.
“Tuscany, please tell me what you said this gyarados exactly.”

Tuscany cleared her throat and enunciated her previous as best as she could into one of Eddie’s ears.
“His golors nake hin look like an ige dype.”

Eddie then repeated the much clearer version to Sergei with a note of relief in his voice, since Tuscany hadn’t insulted him on purpose.
“She only said that your colors make you look like an ice type, and quite frankly I have to agree with her. She meant no insult, I promise you.”

Sergei simply nodded in response, his sea monster face turning blank again as he released her leg and picked himself up. But unfortunately it was too late for apologies. Tuscany was up shortly. She roared and came charging at the gyarados with an ice punch.

Sergei not only easily avoided this blunt attack, but grabbed onto her wrist as her icy fist passed, and twisted it at an odd angle, locking it in place. With his other arm, he blind-sided her head with his forearm and elbow and swept one of his legs under hers. In this single fluid motion that could only come from a water type, he turned her own weight against her and sent her down onto the floor on her back once more. He then pinned her to the floor by placing one of his massive feet on top of her chest, giving her just enough slack to allow her to breathe. At this point, Sergei was in a position to use the arm that wasn’t gripping her wrist to deliver a death blow to her throat, but he held back for a minute as Eddie shouted at him.

“Okay! That’s enough! You’ve obviously proved you’re stronger than her, so lay off already. Who are you and where the hell did you learn those moves from?”

“My name is Sergei. A special style of Sambo designed for my species was taught to me by a retired Red Army Elite Forces officer.”

Tuscany, now unable to get up and barely able to breathe, could only just glare up at the sea monster. Here was someone that was not only taller than her and able to overpower her in a pinch, but he also actually knew how to fight, and didn’t just come charging at his opponents like an avalanche, which was her basic fighting style. She didn’t know what to think of this male, but she certainly wasn’t attracted to him, since she was a lesbian.

Sergei pressed down on Tuscany’s chest a bit more, making her cough, but then he noticed Eddie glaring at him too, so he just smirked at him.

“Da, she’s gentle compared to Russian mamoswine. And what you mean, ‘speech impediment’? Mamoswine I know have no problem speaking Russian clearly. Perhaps English not such good language after all,” Sergei drawled with a thick Russian accent before literally laughing out loud, opening his mouth wide to do so, and then taking his foot off of Tuscany’s chest and releasing her wrist.

But the smile faded from Sergei’s face and it got serious before he actually did something completely unexpected: he extended his hand to help Tuscany up. This definitely caught Tuscany by more surprise than his attacks had, and elicited an eyebrow raise. After a dramatic pause, she accepted her help, and as she was getting up, did something that made the jaws of everyone there (except Sergei) drop: she blushed. She had not done that since her final evolution.

As, that was happening, Sergei actually smirked at her, but then he looked around, and snapped his hand out of hers as soon as she had regained her footing. He then turned around as an embarrassed look appeared on his dragon-like face and began walking off, mumbling to himself in Russian. His head was sunk slightly low and his extra long tail was lashing about a bit more than usual—it was a wonder that it didn’t hit anyone, especially since his eyes were closed, but it did create a bit of breeze.

&&&
MEANWHILE, IN YET ANOTHER HALLWAY...
&&&

“Hey there pretty pony! Does your mommy help your flames look so cute?” shouted Zap as he saw Ignacious passing by. But before he could even blink, the flame horse had charged at him with an agility attack and hoisted him off the ground. He then threw one of his knees into his gut, causing him to sharply exhale, and then threw him about 10 feet away from him onto his butt.

“Don’t you ever speak ill of my mother or so help me, I’ll pummel you into nothing more than a smear. And as for my flames, I make them look like this on my own, and you probably won’t think that purple is such a sissy color once your face is being burned off by a purple flamethrower.” Ignacious angrily shouted at him with a deadly glare on his face.

Natalia just stood back with an evil grin on her face, hoping to see some blood-shed.

Zap was not amused from getting caught off guard by a freshman, and he was rapidly getting up and charging for an electrical attack.

Ignacious saw this and began charging up for a flamethrower, while students began to gather for what looked to be the start of another fun hallway fight between a freshman and a senior. But suddenly, a very massive typhlosion stepped out of the crowd and stood between them.

“Easy you two! If you both have issues with each other, you can settle it in the arena in an individual fight,” he spoke in a firm tone, looking at each of them in turn.

Zap eased off and after a few more seconds, so did Ignacious. Zap sidestepped Cindy and glared at Ignac from a distance.

“You’re lucky Cindy was here to stop me from kicking your butt, you freshman pony.”

It was then that Natalia walked over and between them, gave a cocky smile, and spoke to Zap in a sweet voice, causing Zap to relax even more at seeing another pretty girl.
“Actually, I would say that you’re the lucky one, Zap Pikans of Team Green. I’ve seen video footage of some of your fights, and I’d say that Ignacious here already outclasses you in fighting ability.”

It was then that Zap once again started to grow angry, a few electrical arcs sparking from his cheek sacs as he replied in his angry voice.
“Yeah right. That guy’s not even worth my time. Like he could even land an attack on me.”

“Actually, I think he’d be able to do much more than land attacks. But if you need real proof, then just come to see him the next time he fights. You’ll see that he’s no one to be trifled with, especially over matters of his parents, since he lost both of them at a young age,” Natalia replied coolly, the electrical arcs not intimidating her in the slightest.

“Fine, I’ll come and see this pony’s next fight, just to laugh when I see him beaten into the arena’s floor by his opponent,” Zap replied with a smile on his rat face and a gleam in his eye before turning around and walking off. Cindy, his job done, gave one last stare at Ignacious before also walking off. The students dispersed, many of them disappointed that they didn’t see another all out brawl like the one between Nicole and Charmanda.

“Well, at least I can count on fighting him soon enough. If he’s truly one of those bastards who’d laugh at my mother’s death, I’ll thoroughly enjoy shutting his mouth for good,” Ignacious said disdainfully as his fists curled and started heating up.

“Patience, Ignacious. You’ll get your chance at him soon enough, but our team hasn’t even fought another one yet, and I believe we may have one coming up. And, as far as killing your opponent goes, I believe that counts as excessive force under the school rules and will result in your expulsion,” Natalia said with her ever calm and confident tone. “Speaking of which, I believe they have planned battles between all the teams in the school to discourage hallway incidents like the one you almost got in.”

Natalia had been eyeing a flyer over on the wall of the hallway while she said this last sentence. She proceeded to walk over to it and read it while Ignac was approaching. The flyer announced that due a “very violent unregistered and unsupervised fight” in the halls of the Academy, Principle Feliduce has issued a school wide exam that fosters teamwork as well as practicing combat skills. The rationale was to provide a little activity for the students in order to keep them focused on their work so they won’t have any repeat performances of the hallway fight between Charmandra and Nicole.
Natalia traced her finger down the list of Teams on the list, until she found Team Darkfall and their registered opponents: Team Otaku.

“Hmmm. It says that our team is set to face off against a team called Otaku, and the date is tomorrow at noon. To think we almost missed it.” Natalia said the last line comically, but with an evil smile on her face.

“What in the world does Otaku mean?” Ignacious said as one of his eyeridges rose.

“It’s a Japanese slang word used to describe people obsessed with things like comics, video games, anime—in other words, geeks and nerds. It shouldn’t be too hard to beat them then,” Natalia continued to speak with her evil smile and a cocky tone. “Let’s say we go about meeting them today at lunch.”

Ignac simply nodded in response, and followed her as they walked towards their lockers before the first class was to begin.

&&&

By lunch time, the entire school was buzzing with the reports of what the members of Team Darkfall had done in the hallways this morning before class.

“Did you hear how Tuscany Plio got her butt handed to her by that giant gyarados freshman?”

“And she actually blushed! Can you believe that?! I didn’t even think something like that was possible.”

“I heard that Zapdos chick slammed a student just for using a pick up line on her!”

“She said that she won’t get into bed unless she gets 9 grand in advance. Can you even believe that?”

“I bet she’s not even a good lay.”

“Man, Zap really got that huge rapidash pissed. I hope he has life insurance.”

“No way, that guy may be large, but he’s only a freshman. Zap could probably take him out with one hand.”

“Man, those Team Darkfall students are vicious. It’s as if someone unleashed a whole pack of Tenebras into the school.”

&&&

The four members of Team Darkfall entered the cafeteria in their diamond formation, and proceeded to the line for their lunch. Everyone in the cafeteria stopped for a moment to stare at them, before resuming their lunch. Natalia smiled at this, as their team name was quickly being spread around the school. As they slowly moved through the lunch line and made their selections, Natalia informed her team mates of what they had to do.
“Now, we’re looking for the members of Team Otaku. I took the liberty of looking up their names in the school records between classes. Their leader is Diamond McCabe, a weavile, and their other three members are Roquelle Westman, a geodude, Gregorian Blues, a snorlax, and Amy Blues, a ledian. We should try to spot them and try to learn as much as we can about them.”

Upon hearing the last three names, Es paused for a moment, as those names rang a bell. After a few dramatic seconds, her eyes widened slightly before relaxing again to resume her blank expression.
“I know those last three. They went to the St. Kahn’s orphanage with me. They were part of a street fighting team called the ‘Rejects’. I would sometimes tag along with them to see how they fought, during the short times I was actually at the orphanage,” she spoke in her monotonous voice.

Once Es said “street fighting”, this caught Ignac’s attention, and he turned to his head to listen to what Es had to say about them with a curious look on his equine face. Meanwhile, Natalia positively grinned in her maniacal fashion upon hearing that Esmeralda knew most of the team that they were going to face.
“Excellent Es! Let’s hurry up and get out of this line first before proceeding,” Natalia said in a more excited tone.

They quickly finished their lunch selections, with Sergei positively piling up his tray with all the food he could get his hands on, until Mrs. Milton had to yell at him to save some for the other students. Once they had all finished and cleared the line, Natalia gave her orders.

“Ignac, hold my tray. Sergei, hold Es’s tray. Es, I want you to focus on all the memories you have of those three members of Team Otaku, particularly the ones of them fighting.”

Esmeralda quickly passed her tray to Ignacious’s waiting free hand, while Natalia did the same with Sergei. The Kadabra girl then dug a spoon with a twisted handle out of one of her pockets, and pointed it at Es’s head. The zapdos then closed her eyes and took on a look of deep concentration—so did Natalia. The spoon in her hand begin to take on a blue glow and vibrate slightly as she used it to deep read and analyze Esmeralda’s memories of Amy, Greg, and Roquelle. After a few minutes of silence among them, with Ignac and Sergei simply staring at them, Natalia’s spoon lost its glow, and her arm dropped.

“Okay Es, you can stop now. I have all I need,” Natalia said in her confident tone as her eyes opened and another evil smile spread across her face. “I will analyze these memories, find any exploitable weaknesses, and devise strategies to beat them. Now all we have to do is try to find that weavile and see if she has any weaknesses. Sergei, could you now locate Team Otaku?”

On Natalia’s cue, Es opened her eyes and took her tray back from Sergei, who then started scoping the room for the Team in question. Natalia took her tray back from Ignacious as well.

“There they are,” Sergei said as he turned and pointed towards a table where Team Otaku sat. The members of Team Darkfall then resumed their diamond formation and approached the table, with people looking stopping to look up at them as they passed. As soon as they were within 20 feet of the table, Diamond was the first to look up, and a smirk appeared on her feline face. She spotted the symbol on their matching jackets, and as soon as she figured out who they were, she spoke to them in her own cocky tone.

“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Team Darkfall. I was wondering when your team would show up to meet us. I was beginning to think that you had chickened out after hearing that we were your opponents, and that I was the leader of Team Otaku.”

“Well, we were waiting for the right time to show ourselves, show that your team wouldn’t be scared before our battle was planned,” Natalia replied with her own smirk and cocky tone, proceeding to sit down and start eating.

Meanwhile, the other three members of Otaku had finally noticed their arrival, and they all reacted in their own unique ways. Greg had just finished eating the large portions on his own tray, and then he spotted those on Sergei’s.
“Are you going to finish all that?”

“Da,” Sergei responded in his deep voice, and then sat down and started wolfing his food down, practically pouring it into his massive mouth.

Sergei’s sheer size, along with his deep voice and the size of the other members of Team Darkfall, made poor Amy cringe and sink down in her seat shivering like a leaf in the wind. This caused Greg to scoot over and give her a comforting pat on the back while smiling down at her.

As Esmeralda came out from behind Ignacious and sat down, it was Roquelle that first noticed her, and she cocked her head in curiousity.
“Esmeralda? Is that you?”

As Esmeralda nodded in response, Roquelle’s face lit up with she joyously shouted at her.
“Oh my Arceus, it’s been years Esmeralda! What have you been up to?”

As soon as Amy and Greg heard this, they also turned to look at Esmeralda, and they were pleased to see her, but not as enthusiastic.
“Just getting bounced from family to family, as usual, until about a 6 months ago, when I got taken in by an elderly pigeot who’s a retired military general.”

“How’s he been working out for you?” Roquelle asked sympathetically, since she had also been down the road of having one’s foster parents arrested.

“Well, considering he hasn’t tried to rape me or trick me into helping him commit crimes, I’d say he’s the best one I’ve had yet,” the zapdos girl deadpanned as she took a bite of her meal.

“That’s good to hear. I think that your social worker was positively evil for putting you with all those pedophiles and criminals.”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that he got arrested on charges of embezzlement about a month after I was adopted for the last time. With my help and that of a few other people, they were able to pin him with child endangerment during the trial,” Es continued to deadpan out in her emotionless style.

“I still see that you’re having trouble releasing your emotions.”

There was no response to this from Esmeralda, but while this was happening, Natalia was having a very lively conversation with Diamond.

“You know, you might as well quite right now. I want to win, and I always get what I want,” Diamond said in her conceited tone to Natalia’s face. Natalia simply smirked in response, and responded in her calm and confident tone.

“Well, you’re certainly a girl who’s used to getting what she wants, but so am I, and I refuse to lose to the likes of you.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to get used to losing, little miss medium. What’s the matter, upset because you can’t read my mind?” Diamond then mocked Natalia by putting one of her hands against her head and wiggling her claws, then laughing out loud. Natalia was not amused, and her smirk quickly turned to a frown, as her voice took on an annoyed tone.

“You have no idea what I can do in the ring, little princess. It’s unwise to underestimate my abilities.”

Natalia raised one of her fists and clenched it hard. Diamond’s smile turned to a frown as well, and she responded in just as angry a voice.
“And you have no idea what I can do, you little witch. You keep that in your mind.”

Diamond raised both her hands and scraped her claws together to show how sharp they were.

Natalia couldn’t risk showing off her trump card towards dark types before getting in the ring, so all she did was just pout at her and then respond to this threat in disdain.
“We’ll just have to wait until we get into the ring to decide who gets what she wants.”

While this was going on, Sergei had long finished wolfing down his lunch, and was busy watching the argument between Natalia and Diamond go on, but then the sight of Amy caught his eye, who hadn’t stopped cringing and shaking since she had seen him. Greg was doing his best to comfort her and kept telling her to not be scared.
“What’s wrong with small bug? She scared by my size?” Sergei asked and then chuckled.

Greg looked up at Sergei and glared at him before responding bitterly.
“For your information, she’s small because her mother took drugs while she was pregnant.”

Sergei actually sighed and then starred off into the distance, as if looking back to his home country.
“Da, I can relate. I was born crippled, because my mother grew up near Chernobyl, and passed her radiation poisoning onto me. I would always be beaten up and picked on by older childs in village before I learned sambo.”

Upon hearing this, Greg immediately lightened up and went back to his cheerful self, talking encouragingly towards Amy.
“Wow! See Amy, he was a cripple too. If he can get that big and strong, just think of how powerful you could become?”

Amy stopped shivering for a moment, and gazed up at the big scary gyarados, trying to imagine him small and frail, but it wasn’t easy. She eventually gave up and looked back down again, speaking in her shy voice.
“*click* I don’t *click* know. I don’t th*click*ink I could *click* ever be as *click* good as h*click*im.”

“Don’t say that Amy. I know you can do anything if you put your mind to it,” Greg said as he continued to pat her back and reassure her. This clicking in her voice had not only raised one of Sergei’s eyebrows, but it had also gotten Ignac’s attention, as he was just about finished eating his lunch.
“What’s with the clicks in her voice? Does she have the hiccups,” he asked.

“Her mother took a lot of untreated rare candy when she was inside her. This led to her being born with a speech impediment and a fragile body.” Greg answered matter-of-factly.

“Huh? That’s interesting, but not really all that depressing,” Ignac deadpanned and then shrugged before finishing off his lunch. This got Roquelle’s attention, as she had given up trying to gouge Esmeralda back into conversation. She questioned him in a somewhat stern voice.

“And what’s your problem? I’d think that you’d feel a little sorry for her.”
Roquelle was a bit touchy, because she always had a tendency to cling to ones she cared about.

Ignacious had finished and just gave her a cold stare as he replied in an equally cold voice.
“I’ve seen horrors that would make your skin crawl and stomach turn. I’ve been through some of the toughest parts of the streets and lived to tell the tale. A disability from drug abuse is hardly an eye-opener for me.”

“News flash! I’ve been on the streets too, and I’ve seen some bad stuff. I think your problem is that you don’t know how to care for people,” Roquelle said angrily.

Ignacious’s glare suddenly intensified to full on rage and his fists clenched and started to heat up as he yelled right back at her.
“Don’t know how to care? DON’T KNOW HOW TO CARE?! You listen here, you little rock. I watched my mother die at age three, and then my father died when I was five. They’re one of the main reasons I fight today, so don’t you dare say I don’t know how to care about them.”

Ignacious was once again on the verge of fighting, with his fists starting to ignite. Roquelle seemed to charging her energy for a magnitude attack. Esmeralda was had also finished eating by now and was staring off into space. Sergei was looking down on Amy and remembering what he used to be like, while Greg was giving her another hug. Natalia was back to arguing with Diamond.

“You listen here, you stuck up little slut. My parents run one of the biggest political movement organizations in the Western Hemisphere. You can’t talk to me like this!” Natalia shouted as she continued her angry stare at Diamond. Diamond had her claws out and looked ready to attack as she stood up from her seat.

“And you listen her, you evil little witch. My daddy owns one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the United States. I have the power to rule the world, and that includes your parents’ precious political thing. Someday you and your whole family will bow to me!”

By now, everybody in the cafeteria, whether they had finished eating or not, was now staring at the table where Team Darkfall and Team Otaku were situated, on the verge of fighting. It was about to break out into a huge brawl, but then the bell rang to end the current lunch period. At the moment that happened, Natalia took a deep breath, and then regained her calm demeanor and cocky smile.

“We’ll settle this tomorrow in the battlefield. I’ll see you then little princess.”
Natalia then turned and shouted her orders at each of her team mates.
“Ignacious, Sergei, Esmeralda, stand by! We’re leaving now.”

And with that, Sergei and Esmeralda got up from their seats and into formation with Natalia. Ignacious lowered his fists and took a deep breath himself before casting one last angry glare at Roquelle and getting into his team’s formation. Then, all of Team Darkfall walked off, following behind the main crowd of students heading towards their lockers and classes.

“We are going to kick their butts tomorrow, I’ll make sure of it,” said Diamond with disdain to the rest of her team mates.

“But *click* Diamond, we don’t *click* know an*click*ything about *click* how they f*click*ight.” Amy objected in her nervous tone.

“It doesn’t matter how much we know about the way they fight. We have the strength and skills to beat them,” Diamond said with her own confident tone and evil smile on her face.

They then left the cafeteria for their own lockers and classes, while Diamond continued to stare angrily at Natalia’s back. She was thankful that her mind couldn’t be read.

&&&

THE END

Well, for future reference we typically do each other the courtesy of asking permission before we beat the crap out of another player's character. And I'm not sure what you're on about with Tuscany's reaction.

I didn't have much to go by with Tuscany's short back story, so I assumed that she'd be embarrassed for having not only been knocked down easily after her evolution, but also being helped up.
Does that not fit her character?

Oh, and as for the permission part...SORRY! I'm still new to the Poke-Combat Academy, and with all the stories people keep passing around with each other's characters in them, I wasn't sure how strict the player consent rule was, since I don't know what PMs are exchanged before the final products appear.

Yeah, typically it's courteous to ask permission if another char is going to play an active role in your story (not so much simple walk-ons), and DEFINITELY if you're planning on beating up another person's char. Just so you know in the future.

And no...Tuscany's a roughneck and wouldn't be so easily embarrassed. But as you said, I haven't posted much on her as of yet.

Yes, thank you for informing me of this. It's a good thing I learned of this now, as the battle between my characters and those of Asuraludu are coming up, so I'm going to give her the play-by-play of the battles via a PM and see if she approves before writing the detailed version.

Okay, no easy embarrassment, so this one will probably have to be retconned.
So, if you're saying she's a roughneck, is it safe to assume that she would just keep getting up and trying wail on Sergei until Sergei knocks her out?
What would it take to get a different reaction than that out of her?

No, just end it. She'll listen to Eddie, who'd probably tell her that Gweneth wouldn't want her needlessly fighting. Have him lead her off.

Yeah, talk to Ludu first and make sure he approves of what you want to do with his chars. Most of us prefer an even playing field, as opposed to our chars getting indiscriminately beat up. Makes it more sporting that way.

Okay, I'll do that. Thanks for the information. Also, I just really wanted Sergei to be one of the people who helps bring Tuscany's better half back out. He can relate to her because as a magikarp, he was a cripple, suffering from something similar to what Tiny Tim had. But he learned to defend himself and evolved, and things turned around for him at that time (even though he'd already been through enough pain and misery to make him a shadow pokemon ).

And I'll definitely keep that even playing field in mind. Team Darkfall may be as powerful as juniors (and I would have had them enter as juniors if I had known that was possible at the time ), but Team Otaku isn't just going to lie down and accept defeat so easily, since most of them used to fight on the streets and the other is a professional fencer I think.

It's 'Chindy'. Cindy is a girl's name *giggles*

Also, I haven't really done much with my characters, but I'm sure he does more than just break up fights . . .

What more does he do then?

Well, he's Jenna's boyfriend, and he has a very high one-on-one rating. . .

Yeah, but he's also one of the hall monitors, right?

Well that's because he's studious! He's very rules-oriented, and some people take that to mean that he can't think outside of the rulebook (but he can)

So then, he's not the kind of person that would be caught using excessive force then. It definitely makes sense why he's a prefect.

Ignacious: Pathetic. Yet another good fire type falls to this politics tauros-shit.

Pretty good. Though neither Greg or Roquelle would pull the pitty card with Amy. Daimond maybe because she hasn't seen what Amy can do. Greg would definately reassure Amy if she got nervous, but Amy is the one that would tell people how she got her speech pattern.

Well it's not the first time one of Nicole's attempts at intimidation has been ruined by Mitzi's bubbliness.

Then I'll take that as a confirmation that I was accurate in portraying your characters and their typical behavioral patterns.

wow cool story with even cooler characters

One thing Twofeather'd be tempted to say to Ignacious...

"Ah. So you care more about dead people than living ones. How noble."

Would he say it in stereo or with just one of his heads? Also, do his heads share one mind, or are they separate and prone to sometimes getting in fights?

Like all Doduos and Dodrios, each head has its own mind. However, Dodrio culture stresses solidarity between their heads, with cautionary tales of the terrible things that can happen if your heads become in conflict.

What kind of cautionary tales? Perhaps the heads peak each other's eyes out and devour each other's brains like buzzards. Or perhaps one head gets a sharp object and just decapitates the others.
Hey, that'd be a fun way for a two-headed species to commit suicide: a simultaneous double decapitation.

But, I digress, seriously, I would think that a dodrio's three heads would be prone to getting into fights, due to each head representing a different emotion, and two of those heads are negative emotions: sorrow and anger. Also, I saw the heads fighting on Episode 33 of the Anime: The Flame Pokemon-athon (Blazing Pokemon Race).

Also, what do they do if their heads get tied up into a knot like that one hospital patient dodrio in Episode 47 of the Anime: A Chansey Operation (Rakkii's Clinical Records)?

Well, that's the concept- If you get into fights with your other head, it doesn't end well for either of you- so the concept of solidarity even in the face of conflict between heads is a big issue in Doduo/drio society.