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Hey thee everybody, got something I've been working on a long time here...
Remember my old "Double Act" series? The one with Rose & Petie as "Nanny & Teddy-Chan" going up against other Doubles Teams in an attempt to help Petie improve? Weeeeeeeeell...
It's back~
Here we start this arc off by introducing the principal players and setting the stage for what's to come... as we meet who the siblings will be up against and see how this fight gets started. This time there's a bit more to it than getting matched up to fight by the school after all~
Please enjoy, fav & comment (worked long and hard on this, would love to hear what you think), and have a great day! =D
Neoma owned by
xehta13
Everybody else owned by me
Pokémon owned by neither of us
*********************
It was Friday afternoon at the PCA. The weekend was coming up, students didn’t have their mind fully on their work, and it was time for the weekly large scale battles in the big arena. Being a battle school the Pokemon Combat Academy almost always had some kind of graded battles going on in the afternoon, one a week for most students was supposed to be the standard, most of them were just for casual grades… but the Friday battles were different. They lead up with some of the underclassmen facing off against each other, the undercard fights as they were known, the main events came afterwards and always had experienced juniors and/or seniors facing off in single combat or as teams and these tended to draw large crowds of curious students looking to see their competition.
Fights between rivals, grudge matches, and revenge matches had all happened here before… but today the first main event was just a normal (well, as normal as the PCA could be) match between two junior teams. Despite this the arena was packed to the brim with noisy students eagerly waiting for the fighters to step into the arena. The referee cleared his throat and began announcing the team… which, if they could recognize them by name, was a major bubble burster for anyone who came today hoping to see talented fighters.
The first team, Team Pink Energy, entered the arena… and whistles and cat calls immediately started for the predominantly female team. The simple uniform of black tank top and martial arts pants with pink trim and logo on the back did nothing to hide that most of them were big attractive ladies. Their large, broad, and busty Blissy leader was walking in front, a serious and composed look on her face, she was followed by a huge, Amazonia looking miltank with huge curves, a thick middle, and a carefree smile on her face. Between these two girls was a positively petite, in contrast, but shapely Audino girl with a shy, timid appearance. Bringing up the rear was a Aromatisse… girl? Guy? It was incredibly hard to say since they obviously went to the beauty salon waaaaay too much with the amount of feminine charm they were exuding. A huge and fat Lickilicky and a busty and maternal looking Alomomola waited back at the arena side, the alternate members of the team.
The cat calls and whistles, along with the cheering, continued to mixed reactions from Pink Energy. The Blissey didn’t seem to care, the Audino blushed and hid a little, the miltank just happily waved to the crowd, and the Aromatisse developed an unpleasant looking twitch in his left eye. Finally the noise quieted down and let the referee announce the next group to enter, Team Gero. The team received a much more subdued reaction as the members of Gero started to enter the arena. Their leader, a bulky and muscular (made more obvious by his bare chest) poliwrath guy, was at the front followed by a lanky and slightly scrawny looking croagunk kid. A very fat but decently curvy seismitoad girl with a grin on her face brought up the rear as she motioned to somebody still lurking in the locker-room out of sight to hurry. Their outfits were nothing special either, modified martial arts uniforms to fit their individual tastes. But despite this the crowds, particularly those who’d been whistling for Pink Energy, seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation.
The fourth member of Team Gero entered, a slightly awkward blush on her face. It was an incredibly shapely and beautiful Greninja girl with ample, generous curves further accented by her skintight outfit and a soft, lovely looking grace to her and her expression. The crowd exploded with cheers and whistles making the poor ninja frog just look even more confused as the seismitoad giggled, the croagunk blushed, and the poliwrath just groaned in annoyance. To be fair this was to be expected from a high school full of hormonal teens… the referee clearing his throat loudly to try and restore calm so the match could begin.
********************
“Think Neoma knows why they’re cheering her so much?”
“Noooooooope, and we’re not telling her either. Okay Petie? Poor girl has enough culture shock as it is.”
“… you’re not the person to be pointing that kinda thing out Rose…”
“Hmmm? What was that baby bro?”
“Nuthin.”
In the front row of the stands Rose and Petie Julafton sat, the kangaskhan in a seat proper and the teddiursa seated in his big sister’s lap since they’d gotten there a little late to get proper seats next to each other. The duo was doing their best to ignore the hormonal reactions around them, though Petie was still amazed how Rose could realize what was happening NOW and somehow still be oblivious when she got this kind of reaction during her matches. They waved to their friend, the greninja girl in question, a sweet-tempered foreign student by the name of Neoma Shio.
Watching the frog girl stretch in prep for the match, and the further whistles and cat calls that resulted from it thanks to her form fitting outfit, Petie thought back to when he’d first met Neoma. She had come up to the siblings a little while ago and introduced herself and even then she’d come off as sweet, kind, innocently confused, and (at least to Petie) making a horrible choice since she’d come up to Rose to ask for fashion help of all things. It was only later that Petie found out that where Neoma was from had radically different standards in what was acceptable to wear in public and it was causing the frog and her family (he found out later her mother taught at the school as well) a bit of grief. Fortunately Rose had been in one of her LESS experimental moods that day and had been able to help her, sparking a bit of a friendship between them… though Petie admittedly couldn’t help but get the impression Neoma viewed him less like a friend and more like an adorable toddler she’s letting hang out with and watching over even if she didn’t know about his diapers, but that was hardly a unique view among Rose’s friends…
Anyway he and Rose were down in the front row to support their new friend… even if Petie didn’t have a clue who her teammates were or who they were fighting against. Luckily that’s what bit sisters were for. “Rose? Do you know who Neoma’s gonna be fighting against?” he asked innocently, looking up to her as she cuddled him, Petie’s head resting lightly against her chest. His big step-sis was battle obsessed enough she probably had done plenty of research into this like she did for her own matches or the doubles matches they fought together in…
“Nope, it’ll be fun to see what they can do~ And what Neoma’s team can do~ Go Neoma!”
Or she could be in one of her more ditzy moods. Petie sighed and adjusted his position on her lap to get comfortable, turning his attention to the arena… as luck would have it his little chat with Rose had kept him distracted enough he’d missed the team members names. The referee had already moved to announcing it’d be a four on four style match. Pouting a little at being left curious who Neoma’s teammates were Petie leaned forward eagerly to see how the match would go…
**************
“Begin!”
At the ref’s shout the match started. The two teams were already moving… one forward and the other back. Team Gero charged forward led by their poliwrath leader and Team Pink Energy fell back to a more defensive position behind their miltank member as… a sparkling mist started to fill the arena? Looking closely Petie finally realized it was coming from the Aromatisse member… meaning it was probably one of those fairy type moves he hadn’t heard about before and since Rose wasn’t filling him in so he guessed she was in the dark too. Not that the poliwrath seemed to care as he barreled right through the mist, past the miltank who was curling up in a ball (Defense Curl meaning Roll Out was next followed by pain if Petie’s memory of Maddie’s matches was any indication), and right up to the Blissey leader apparently planning to slug it out with her.
Which didn’t happen since the moment he got into melee range with the Blissey her Audino teammate took a deep breath and sung what sounded like a beautiful musical cord… generating a pink soundwave that crashed hard into the Poliwrath knocking him back “Er… don’t remember the name but that was definitely a fairy type move.” Rose said, commentating the battle for Petie since he didn’t know near as much about moves as she did… mostly through first-hand experience “Fairy is super-effective against fighting if I remember right.” She added, neither sibling taking their eyes off the match, which seemed to be in disarray, Team Gero looked like they weren’t quite sure what to do other than give chase when Pink Energy had fallen back, but their leader being blasted seemed to refocus them as they moved to assist him.
The croagunk and Neoma had been focusing on the miltank, trying to hurt her before she spun up-to-speed for Roll Out when they pulled away and tried to go assist the poliwrath. Neoma haved to jump back as she disengaged since the miltank launched her Rollout right at that moment, forcing the greninja to do some agile dodging to avoid getting run down. She was still in a better position than the croagunk though since he ran right into an ambush in his attempt to help his leader. The Aromatisse seemed to appear out of nowhere from the mist and unleashed what looked like a concentrated high-powered spotlight from its body that struck the poliwarth and croagunk like a physical force, knocking them back as they tried to shield their eyes.
“What was that Rose!?”
“Er… um… ah! Now I remember! I think it was Dazzling Gleam, another fairy type LOOK OUT NEOMA!”
Rose’s shouted in warning as Neoma managed to slip away from the miltank’s attempts to flatten her, letting the cow roll right towards the seismitoad (Petie had actually forgotten about her) forcing the fatter frog to stop the weird dance she was doing and dodge, while the greninja dashed to help her teammates… running right into the audino’s grasp. A grasp which, to Petie shock and surprise, tugged the tall frog girl down to the bunny’s level as she planted a deep kiss on Neoma’s mouth, the greninja pulled so close she and the audino’s chests were pressing together. There was a moment of silence as Neoma’s eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed but then the audience exploded in cheers and squeals at this little scene as Petie just sat there, not sure what to think.
“… Rose?”
“It was probably Sweet Kiss, see? Neoma looks like she’s been confused.”
“Getting smooched in the middle of a match would confuse anybody, move or not…”
The audience weren’t the only ones who noticed the held smooch as Petie saw the seismitoad stop her odd dance (he was getting curious what that was supposed to do in the first place) to stare at the scene with a… rather excited expression. Well, stare at it till the careening miltank crashed into her with Roll Out and rolled right over her leaving her face down in the dirt. It was painfully obvious control of the fight was shifting to Pink Energy as Neoma, freed from the kiss, staggered drunkenly and was barely able to dodge getting rundown by the miltank herself while the poliwrath struggled to pull himself to his feet, still reeling from the super effective hits, while the less damaged croagunk took up a defensive stance in front of him. Oddly enough Pink Energy wasn’t readily pushing this advantage and seemed more focused on falling back and shoring up their defenses.
Something clicked as Petie’s experience playing tactical strategy games kicked in and he suddenly realized what Pink Energy might be doing. The Audino, Blissey, and Aromatisse were loosely grouped together in formation with the Blissey in front facing the bulk of Team Gero and the other two behind her. He’d read that Blissey had ungodly HP… er… stamina, Petie didn’t wanna try to define “real life” in game terms since that’d make things too weird, meaning she was acting as a wall for her two teammates to hide behind and attack or support her. Seeing the miltank, still a rolling ball of destruction, make a wide turn around her teammates and head straight for the poliwrath Petie also realized the cow was probably the teams tank and going to be dealing most of the damage…
Petie was shocked as the politwrath shifted his footing to face the miltank head on as the swirl on his chest seem to… rotate? Petie felt a little groggy briefly, a quick shake from Rose snapped him out of it, as his sis confirmed it was Hypnosis which seemed to have both worked (though how the rolling cow could even SEE it Petie had no clue) and failed since the miltank was now asleep and out of the Roll Out… but inertia was still carrying the bovine right at the unmoving water type like a fat pink hurled sandbag. Then, in a badass display like something out of an action movie, the poliwrath flexed an arm and almost casually SLAPPED the Miltank in the cheek hard enough to change her trajectory and seen her sailing to his left, now very much awake. Jaw gaping Petie was briefly aware of Rose reaching up and rubbing her own cheek as she mumbled.
“Oooo, Wake-Up Slap. I know first-hand that’ll leave a mark…”
The croagunk jumped to take advantage of the sudden events… literally. Leaping forward the poison frog punched the flying cow in the gut hard as Petie noted there was a glow around his fist. “Drain Punch, nice follow-up choice.” Rose commented answering the question before Petie could ask “But why don’t they look worried?” she added, pointing out that Pink Energy seemed utterly unconcerned by their visibly bruised and battered member being knocked around… course the miltank didn’t look concerned either but Petie had seen Rose smile through a fight that wasn’t going her way too often to consider that anything important.
What was important though were the identical glowing pink balls of energy the Blissey and Audino where holding in their hands like something out of one of Petie’s Shonen animes. Suddenly the orbs broke releasing identical waves of sparkling pink energy that converged forward and came together right on the miltank, her whole body glowing brightly. The glow shattered to reveal the bruises and visible signs of damage were completely gone as the grinning cow kicked herself back onto her feet confidently. The gamer inside Petie understood this was standard support tactics, have healers in the back supporting your tank to keep it from going down, while the combat student in Petie had NO idea what happened or what that move was.
“Rose, what was that!?”
“Search me, looks like it completely healed her though… maybe it needed two shots?”
“Thought you were the battling expert…”
“Single battles, I’ve got a lot of experience in SINGLE battles… look out Neoma!”
Snapping his focus back to the ring Petie saw a still confused Neoma stagger and barely dodge the miltank’s restarted Roll Out. Meanwhile there was a flurry of action and light from the half of the arena with the three other members of Pink energy and the two male frogs making it hard for the teddiursa to keep up with what was happening. The thought of “Where’s the Seismitoad?” crossed Petie’s mind briefly as he noticed the whole arena suddenly getting darker. Petie’s ears twitched at the sound of the first few droplets landing on the arena floor before looking up to see the dark clouds clustering above the fighters, just in time for it to start raining. The obvious smacked Petie in the face like a ton of bricks, the seismitoad had been trying to do Rain Dance.
Speaking of being smacked like a ton of bricks the seismitoad came ROCKETING out of nowhere right into the middle of the messy brawl at a speed Petie hadn’t though a girl that broad could reach. The melee scattered in time for the teddiursa to see the surprised Blissey gritting her teeth as the seismitoad punched her hard in the gut with a move Petie didn’t recognize… though judging by the look of pain on the normal types face it was probably a fighting type one. He’d ask Rose for clarification but he was scared of what he’d miss as the toad used a backflip of all things to avoid two ranged attacks, the musical attack from before and a sparkling blast of wind, launched at her by the Audino and Aromatisse.
“Well, she obviously has that ability that makes her faster when it’s raining.”
How exactly that was “obvious” Petie had no clue but he chalked it up to the experience Rose tended to quote so often for these things… just in time for his sis to chime in with more commentary. “I know that set up…” the kangaskhan mumbled as Petie just looked confused, having to follow her gaze to try and figure out what she was talking about. For whatever reason the Poliwrath had stopped moving and was standing in a strange posture… like he was winding back to throw a punch with his legs bent and his arm all the way back, but he was holding his other arm out straight out in front of him with his hand up like he was using it for targeting or something. The fact his eyes were shut tight just confused Petie more. Tt looked like the guy was just going to stand there and let the miltank run him down with Rollout. “Mind Reader, meaning the next move is…” Rose muttered, Petie blinking was about to ask what she was talking about…
And nearly missed the attack in the span it took him to blink as the poliwrath suddenly leapt forwards, eyes finally open, and swung his back arm forward with the speed of a bullet train, crashing it hard into the miltank. Hard enough the cow was forced to uncurl at the impact, revealing she’d taken the blow to the gut, with a look of shock and extreme pain on her face. The punch continued as the poliwrath pushed through the impact and used the momentum to send the miltank HURTLING across the arena as if she’d been shot from a canon before crashing into a wall. The whole thing happened in a few seconds, accompanied by the sound like an explosion going off, as Petie let out an undignified squeal of surprise at it. “Dynamic Punch, that’d just about do it…” Rose commented, Petie struggled to follow the chain of events as he watched the miltank’s head sag and sway as the cow was prone against the wall, still conscious but hurting from that blow and whatever else Dynamic Punch did.
Another cry of pain yanked his attention away as he saw the croagunk punching the blissy hard in the side, the slight glow around his fist letting the teddy know the poison type was using Power-Up Punch (a move Petie had looked into before). A moment later Petie realized the attack was also keeping the Blissy from healing the miltank again by taking away her focus, which meant the audino was the only undistracted healer they had to watch out for. Before Petie could even finish that thought he heard another cry and turned to look. There was Neoma, who’d apparently snapped out of her confusion, but now the Audino was face first on the ground apparently having been knocked over. He had no idea HOW she’d been knocked over but Neoma must have done something to make it happen. Usually he’d ask Rose to fill him in but the match was moving too fast for him to even try… he was struggling to keep up with everything as it was. Best he could tell Team Gero was taking control of the match… maybe… the little freshmen wasn’t sure at this point…
Either way this was only gonna ramp up from here…
*************************
“Bu, bu, but… how come they lost!? I thought Neoma’s team had that one wrapped up… when’d the miltank recover?! How’d they regroup!?”
“I think it was while the others were busy with the blissy and audino, the aromatisse snapped her out of confusion and she healed herself, then the team pulled back into what I think was a pre-planned formation and… wait… didn’t you notice that?”
“… nu, couldn’t keep up with what was happening half the time…”
“Oh, I see… yeah, it did get pretty hectic towards the end there. Don’t worry about it, you’ll learn to keep track of these kinda matches over time okay Petie? Anyway, bottom line is that the pink team had better tactics and more recovery, and Neoma’s team just didn’t have enough force to punch though it…”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I don’t think Neoma’s group was used to 4 on 4 matches either, but the other team obviously knew the format inside and out. That gave them an edge… never was good at those large scale team tactics stuff myself…”
“… Rose, you’re the one who suggested we form a doubles team…”
“Hey, don’t give me that look~ I said LARGE scale, 2 on 2 doesn’t count~ Now come on, lets go see if we can cheer Neoma up.”
The two siblings were talking loudly as they left the arena, their conversation partially muddled by the voices of other students also leaving. Far as they knew they weren’t saying anything worth overhearing anyway so it didn’t matter. Unbeknownst to them the large magenta colored bug type precarious positioned, thanks to her quadruped lower body, further in the bleachers was quite interested in what was being said. The scolipede girl’s half lidded, yellow eyes eyed the two closely, particularly their lips, as her large antenna twitched and trembled lightly with every noise around her. Both of them slowly swiveling and pivoting like tv antenna to focus in on the two talking siblings. As delicate as her ability to sense vibrations in the air with her antenna was it took a lot of effort and foreknowledge to be able to tell WHAT she was sensing… so it was fortunate she could read lips well enough to pick up what was being said as she honed in on what the kangaskhan and teddiursa were saying amongst all the other noise.
Finally rolling from the lounging position she was in the scolipede righted herself on her four feet, landing on them with a surprisingly light thud considering how much girth she had, and stretched her four arms casually before fishing a cell phone out of her pocket with one of them. Still acting casually as if she hadn’t been eavesdropping and it was a normal day for her the huge girl punched in a number. “Yo Joe.” Mamta Pilahona, better known as Big Mam the leader of Team Goliath, chimed in a deep, brassy, yet feminine voice as whoever she was calling answered. The senior student stifling a chuckle at the little joke as the voice on the other end grumbled a response before she continued “Yes I do know that annoys you, same way you know your Wide Load jokes annoy me~ Now how are you?” her tone was casual and relaxed as she watched the bleacher’s around her slowly emptying “I see, so you still have Advanced Math before your done for the day? Okay then, meet up at your studio like always? Alright… oh, also I’m putting step one of my plan into action~!” she declared the last line in an almost sing-song tone as if she was in a show or stage performance.
The moment of silence that followed showed whoever this Joe was on the other end of the line didn’t appreciate whatever this “Plan” was and was giving the bug/poison type an earful. Finally starting to walk, with surprisingly smooth and light movements given her size, since the bleachers had mostly emptied out Mam just sighed softly “Yes, I know you’re against this idea… but I think she’ll be perfect for the team and it’d be a shame not to bring her along when, well, I already explained this to you didn’t I?” she said, obviously unmoved by Joe’s argument “Anyway I just want to see her full potential before I make my offer, get to know her a bit better too. There shouldn’t be any dangers to her, I’ve planned this out remember? It’ll just be another match is all~” her tone was more understanding and reassuring as she headed for the exit. Before suddenly breaking out into a deep, good natured laugh laughter “Of course I know what I’m doing, I’ve done the research on them already. How many times have I messed up getting people to do what I want after all? … no, no, go ahead, I gave you the straight line so I deserve the comeback.”
Finally in the hallway Mam paused at a junction and pulled herself up to her full height, her long antenna sticking up straight in the air. The feelers twitched and swayed lightly as if testing the wind as she continued “Anyway all I need to do is find these boys and I should be able to get the ball rolling easily enough…. Aaaaaaand I think I just found one~” she said as her antenna twitched and she sharply turned down one of the passages “Anyway I’ll call you back afterwards to update you on how it all went, talk to you then Joe and… hmmm?” stopping mid-step to listen the giant girl made a frustrated face, pursing her thick lips in annoyance at what she was hearing “Yes I am SURE I’m not evil anymore, I was sure the LAST ten times you asked me… this isn’t evil it’s just…” her mouth hung open for a moment as she blinked, the gears in her head visibly turning before she arrived at an answer “Morally questionable, that’s a good word for it. Besides, it won’t hurt anyone. You know I wouldn’t do this if I thought it’d harm anyone. Anyway I’m going to hang up now, talk to you later Joe and take care.” With a digital beep she hung up on the call and quickly pocketed her phone, taking a deep breath to compose herself before continuing down the hall at a brisk trotting pace, which was fast enough most people would call it a run.
*******************************
"Oh, hello Rose. Hello Petie. You two have come to check on my condition?"
"Hey Neoma, and yeah me and Petie were worried and... um... where are your other teammates?"
"Oh, Keith and Eugene just left. They seemed very upset about the match... does this happen in teams?"
"Er... since I'm not on one I wouldn't know... Petie?"
"... if Sammi storming off during meetings counts then yeah, this is normal..."
The siblings had arrived in the nurse’s office to find only two of Team Gero waiting, Neoma and the seismitoad… who was quite interested in the newcomers, or at least in one of them anyway as her eyes slowly traced up and down Rose’s figure as the teddiursa carrying kangaskhan went over to the bed Neoma was resting in. “You okay Neoma?” Rose asked, sitting on the side of the bed and looking at her greninja friend “You fought hard in the match, so there no shame in losing. Alright?” the normal type said, offering comfort to sooth the loss… albeit poorly worded comfort. Despite that Neoma nodded, appreciating what Rose meant "I must admit, they were worthy opponents. They had such high defense formation we weren't prepared for. Among other things" the frog girl added, tapping her lips in emphasis.
There was what sounded like a happy sigh from the seismitoad… but the siblings unanimously decided it’d be best to ignore it. “Yeah, kiss moves can catch you off guard.” Rose said nodding “Didn’t expect her to have Draining Kiss too though…” a deep female voice piped up “That was a… surprise~ Yeah, a surprise~” as the siblings opted to turn and stare at the grinning seismitoad for a moment, who just innocently waved back to them as the silence started to get awkward. “Um.. Neoma? I have a question?” Petie broke the silence as he lifted a little paw like he was asking a question in class. Neoma’s smile was broad and amused as the bandaged girl gently rubbed the little teddiursa’s head “Of course Petie, you may ask your question~” her tone imitating her teacher mother and making Petie’s cheeks flush red. “Er… w… wh” he stuttered, squirming on Rose’s lap “Which of your teammates is which? I kinda missed the announcement…” the little freshman finally stuttered out.
The greninja smiled kindly despite the awkward question as she started to explain "The teammate here with me is named Beatrix" Neoma said, motioning to the seismitoad who added “Call me Bea~” as Neoma continued "Our leader is the Poliwrath. His name is Keith. And the Croagunk is named Eugene." She finished with a nod… before her smile faltered “Rose… I also have a question I do need to ask…” the foreign girl said softly, lips pursed as she was obviously bothered by something. “Er… okay, ask away.” The kangaskhan said, as Neoma nodded appreciatively “Thank you.” She said, gesturing as she talked “I am curious Rose. During the match I was able to save Eugene from being hit by the Roll Out, but I discovered he was unconscious...did I do something wrong when I helped him?" before looking to Rose for the answer… as the larger girl shifted nervously and Bea stifled a laugh from her bed.
“Er… no... you didn’t do anything wrong really…” Rose said while Petie was doing everything he could not to make eye contact with Neoma or his big sis. Both the siblings remembering the situation Neoma was asking about quite well… probably most of the audience remembered it too. The greninja had managed to pull her teammate away from the attack with an impressive last-minute running save… but she’d ended up planting him face first in her ample chest in the process. Rose wasn’t at liberty to guess whether the nosebleed had done the remaining damage needed to knock him out or if he’d just fainted… but even the kangaskhan knew better than to try and explain what happened to a girl who’d come to school in an outfit that’d left her nearly naked before being told it wasn’t casually socially acceptable to have 90-something percent of your skin exposed in public places.
“You…” Rose paused, finally settling on how to say this “You just might consider different ways to grab the people you rescue in the future… okay Neoma?” The greninja nodded but the call of “I wouldn’t mind that kinda rescue~” from the seismitoad brought out another awkward silence as the two normal types suddenly had an idea where some of Neoma’s most recent, sillier “misunderstandings” about what was socially acceptable might have come from… particularly the whole "hugging other girls chest to chest is an acceptable substitute for hello" thing...
*******************************
“… crooooo…”
It was a low, mournful croaking noise that echoed weakly through the empty hall. Originating from the lone, scrawny croagunk boy standing staring up at a poster pinned up on one of the PCA’s many bulletin boards with a depressed look on his face. Still dressed in his team uniform, pulled back over the few bandages he was sporting, Eugene actually looked pretty good for having just lost a match… though the croagunk’s expression told a different, pitiful story. Eugene had left the nurse’s office out of a mix of shame and other feelings… specifically shame at having been knocked out during the match BECAUSE of his other feelings. He didn’t wanna use it as an excuse but he was a teenage guy… he did have feelings, feelings he wasn’t quite so shameless as to wear openly like Bea did. Specifically the 16 year old frog had a major thing for strong, well build ladies… which made being on the same team as one of his big crushes, aka Neoma, rather hard. Especially since Eugene was the younger member of Team Gero and had the most to prove… as for his other big crush…
Lifting his gaze back to the poster again Eugene stared longingly at the fancifully dressed Kangaskhan posed next to what resembled a baby teddiursa. The bigger normal types outfit accenting her strong build and massive curves. “Croooooo…” his cheeks puffed out and slowly deflated as he let out another depressed croak. Rose was the name of the kangaskhan and Eugene had no idea if he had the right to call himself a fan of hers, if he was pitiful enough to be called a stalker, or if he just didn’t matter enough to be anything but a nobody as far as the Amazonian normal type was concerned. Especially since he didn’t even have the guts to try and say hello to her. It wasn’t like the case with Neoma where he’d be trying to get a date with a teammate, which he considered to be wrong. With how confused Neoma got over things like dating and relationships Eugene doubted that would happen even if he did have to guts to ask the foreign frog out. Course… there was one major problem with trying to get close to Rose, what with how Keith-
“Hey there, didn’t expect to see you here.”
For once Eugene was kinda grateful his jumping abilities weren’t terrible impressive for a frog… or else that surprise might have made him drive his head into the ceiling. Trying to act like he hadn’t jumped a few feet in shock the croagunk turned “Er… he… llo.. oooo…” he stuttered and trailed off, finding himself having to crane his neck back a little to look up. As far as he knew he’d never seen the massive Scolipede girl before and with a height and build that impressive Eugene was pretty sure he’d remember her if they’d met. Completely unperturbed by his staring the four-armed poison bug just smiled “No, we haven’t met. Just saw you in the match is all.” She said lightly, her voice deep and resonating while still being friendly “Kinda thought you’d still be in the nurse’s office getting patched up, you and your team already get released?” the huge girl’s casual delivery of the question help ease some of Eugene’s earlier wariness… and replaced it with awkwardly shifting and looking away because of the questions content.
“Er… n-no… I… I wasn’t hurt too bad so I left a little early…” he stuttered out, bad at lying but willing to give a half-truth by leaving out how he’d left early to avoid having to own up to how wimpy and pitiful he was. Nodding the huge bug smiled “Oh, I see. Alright, still it was a good match… didn’t look like you guys were used to team fighting, right?” the scolipede asked, Eugene only nodding weakly in response “Thought so.” With that the bug girl turned her attention back to looking at the poster of Rose. Eugene fidgeted a little more as he wondered if this situation was as awkward as it seemed to him or if he was just socially inept. Before he could think much on that the girl spoke again “So, what’s she like?” the bug punctuated the question by lightly tapping the poster with one of her hands “I mean, I’ve seen her in matches with her baby brother before and I’m a bit of a fan… but we’ve never met in person.” Eugene just stared blankly at her for a moment, his cheeks puffing up with a confused sounding “Croooo…?” before he finally managed to respond.
“I… I never met her!” he stammered out quickly, trying to hide his panic at the new topic along with his confusion. If the scolipede noticed she didn’t show it as her lips pursed in mild confusion “Really? I saw her and her baby bro going into the nurse’s office… I thought they might know your team or something.” the bug girls shrug her shoulders, a rolling motion that made her chest bounce slightly (something Eugene felt a touch embarrassed as he noticed… and stared) “She must know somebody on your team, pretty sure Pink Energy didn’t go to the nurse’s office… they’re self-healing had them looking pretty good when the match finished and-“ by now Eugene had partially tuned out what the scolipede was saying, her casual tone made it surprisingly easy, instead he turned over this new piece of info in his mind… and tried to yank his eyes away from her chest. Rose was apparently with Bea and Neoma… and probably knew Neoma since if Bea knew her the seismitoad would probably have hinted at having groped the kangaskhan in the shower in that overt way she does…
Meaning his two crushes were in the same room, knew each other, and were probably friends… Eugene quickly purged the first idea that came to his mind (though his face had already flushed red) in favor of maybe having Neoma introduce him to Rose. Since Keith had stormed off it might work! It was still wimpy… hiding behind one of his crushes to try and be introduced to another… but compared to not even having the guts to TRY and say hello… Eugene closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed to focus now, he needed to “-ey, hey, you still there? You sure you’re okay?” the croagunk blinked as he realized the scolipede was still talking to him. “Maybe you should go back to the nurse’s office…” the bug girls expression was kind and concerned as she looked down at Eugene “I think that match took more out of you than you thought, spacing out like that…” the frog let out a weak croak of guilt at a stranger being concerned about him… but this concern was the perfect excuse to get out of the conversation and go to the nurse’s office.
“Y-yeah… I think I’ll go back there… not feeling too great…”
“Want me to walk you there? Hate to find out you spaced out halfway there and collapsed in the hall or something…”
“N-no! No, I’m fine...really! Er… uhm… I… I’ll be going now. Was nice talking with you!”
“Alright, take care~”
****************************
Watching the croagunk scurry down the hall and out of sight Mamta allowed herself a proud smile. As confident as she’d been in her planning… she had to credit outrageous good fortune to how smoothly it was going so far. She found Eugene nearly immediately thanks to the croaking, complete with cheek puffing, he’d been doing. She’d have had trouble finding him otherwise… the mental map she put together from what her antenna told only gave her approximate height and builds of the people in range, even in an echo chamber like the hallway. She couldn’t help but think back on how much work went into learning how to translate what her antenna sensed into something understandable, even if it was vague, from the original, headache inducing mess it’d been before… but that was reminiscing for another time. Right now her plan was on schedule and that was the important part.
“I’m not used to being this lucky with my plans…” Mam said turned her attention to the poster on the bulletin board and smiled briefly “Like catching him looking at this.” the scolipede lightly tapping the image of Rose before turning away from it “Never did have a plan to bring her up without looking suspicious… very lucky indeed…” the scolipede paused for a moment before making an annoyed face “and I’m talking to myself again, great.”
She should have kicked that bad habit by now… but that was for later. Right now she needed to focus on the matter at hand. Mam had figuring out Eugene’s crush on the kangaskhan fairly easily. She’d made a hobby out of people watching for so long she could glean all kinds of info just through observation… not that Eugene made it hard. “How exactly did no one else notice he had a crush on her… and one on his own teammate for that matter?” Mam mumbled to herself, shaking her head as she did so “Maybe I’m just used to watching for those sorts of things… aaaaaand I’m doing it again.” Either way it looked like her research on Eugene (which she was careful to keep from crossing the line into stalking or privacy violation) to figured out how the croagunk’s mind worked had paid off. She’d assumed he’d be the type to beat himself up over mistakes (real or imagined), so between the match and his unresolved crushes it made sense that any excuse to get closer to the ladies he had his eye on would get the frog hopping to take it.
Horrible pun and the dangers of assumptions aside Mam was quite proud of the results… which, alongside talking to herself, was another bad habit she hadn’t been able to shake off yet. Too much pride and she got overconfident, which usually was when things starting going wrong, she’d have to watch that. As much as she wanted to enjoy the feeling for a moment, things were going surprisingly smoothly, she needed to focus on the next step of her plan. She still needed to track her second target down and only had a general idea where he was… hopefully her observations and assumptions about his temper, and how loud it might be, were correct.
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“So that’s how you and Neoma know each other… interesting~ I’d offer to let you join us for a training session… and maybe an after training shower session~ But probably better I don’t…”
“Er… um… and why is that Bea…?”
Rose shifted blushed slightly and shifted uncomfortably as she talked to the seismitoad. As oblivious as the kangaskhan was there were limits to what would go over her head… limits Bea had passed about half-a-minute into the conversation. They were still in the nurse’s office, with the nurse’s in the final stages of checking Bea and Neoma out before releasing them, as the frogs were still sitting up in the beds with Rose & Petie sitting at the foot of Neoma’s bed. The whole while Rose & Bea had been talking Neoma had just looked innocent or confused, making it clear the greninja wasn’t catching the very thinly veiled hints and offers Bea was making at all and was just seeing her friend chatting with her teammate. Petie for his part just sat on his sister’s lap glaring at the seismitoad like he was in some position to do anything if Bea went too far, though he of all people should know Rose was more than able to handle herself.
“Weeeeeeeell, lets just say it’s a good thing you showed up after my cousin had stormed off…” the seismitoad said, leaning back in the bed and putting her hands behind her head in a relaxed pose… before she noticed the blank stares she was getting from the siblings. “Keith. The poliwrath. He’s my cousin.” She explained curtly, before letting out a deep chuckle and rolled over to her side to let the nurse adjust her bandages “The big, muscle bound doofus happens to have a bit of a problem with how you fight… for whatever macho, code-of-the-warrior taurons shi-“ there was a light cough from Neoma as the ninja frog leaned forward to pull Petie off Rose’s lap and cuddle the squirming, protesting teddy closely. Her hands cupped over his ears. “Right, right, we’ve got to be toddler friendly here!” Bea said, letting out a big laugh of amusement before flashing a broad grin “Anyway he doesn’t like how you fight, the reason why is stupid, and if he was here it’d be a fight. Now lets change topics~”
“O-okay… what did you want to talk about instead?”
“You ever consider a costume that shows more skin… like a bikini or something~?”
“!!!!”
“That’s a no I take it?”
****************************
The visibly furious, bare-chested, really muscular, and partially bandaged poliwrath stomping through the hall discouraging people from getting near him, which left Keith thudding his way through the hall alone… which was about how he wanted it. The broad-built fighting type was fuming about his team’s loss… not because he couldn’t accept it. He didn’t think they’d been cheated in the match. Despite personally despising intricate and thought out battle tactics planned in advance Keith had to admit Team Pink Energy had worked hard for and earned their victory. The reason he was so furious was quite simple… Keith just really, really, REALLY hated losing with every fiber of his being. And he was on his way to deal with his anger in the most constructive manner he possibly could… by finding a training dummy or something similar and beating it till it cried… which was about the time he ended up running right into someone.
Staggering back a little Keith blinked and composed himself “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going…” he managed to say, suppressing his earlier anger as he looked… and found he’d run into the side of an absolutely massive scolipede girl. Despite it being rude Keith found himself staring, not being used to having to look up to people. “It’s okay…” the bug girls tone was friendly… as her expression suddenly lit up and she chimed out “Oh! I didn’t expect to see you here!” in that deep voice of hers. Making Keith fidget since he couldn’t place the girl meaning he probably hadn’t met her… or he forgotten her, which seemed kinda unlikely. If he had to guess she was probably a senior student and despite the plush on her massive frame Keith could tell she was well muscled underneath. Aka she looked like she could give him one heck of a fight and it was rare he’d forget somebody like that…
“No, no, we haven’t met before~” the girl said, chuckling softly and answering Keith’s unasked question “I just watched your match… thought you guys did pretty well all things considered.” This rang as empty platitudes in Keith’s ears (or whatever he had that substituted for them) as the poliwrath snorted “We lost.” He said bluntly, stating the obvious and immutable fact as the girl just shrugged… which Keith noticed was a surprisingly complex motion with her four arms “Yeeeeeah… but you gave it a good shot…” A little of the fighting types earlier anger flared up in him at that since he HATED the whole “It’s okay, you tried your best” concept. To him you either won or you lost, trying to soften the sting of defeat just made people less likely to try harder to avoid it next time. But he wasn’t about to take his anger out on an innocent bystander who didn’t know his feelings on this so he just bit back his frustration for the moment…
“Anyway are you alright? I’m a touch surprised you aren’t still in the nurse’s office…” that question on the other hand got a deep belly laugh from Keith (as he ignored the ache from his bruised ribs) “Don’t worry about it… I’m sturdy!” the poliwrath thumped a fist lightly on his chest (again ignoring the pain) “So I’ll be fine, thank you for your concern.” The bug type tilted her head a little, her thick antenna bobbing lightly in the air, with a thoughtful look on her face “Well… alright, was probably better I didn’t check the nurse’s office for you then. By the time I got there some people were already visiting anyway so…” she gave another shrug while trailing off as Keith blinked, realizing what she’d said. “Wait… somebody was visiting?” off the top of his head the poliwrath couldn’t think of anyone who’d visit his team in the nurse’s office… maybe some of Neoma’s family, she did have a sister and mother around… but beyond that he was drawing a blank.
“Yeah, it was a really tall Kangaskhan with a good build and long hair with an odd color… oh! And she was carrying what looked like a teddiursa first grader in her arms. Are they friends of yours?”
Keith actually didn’t hear the last question as his vision started to go red since he recognized who the scolipede was describing. The poliwrath had grown up being trained in the art of battling by his father and, as such, he’d had several views on battling beaten into him at an early age. Battling was supposed to be a competition between two fighters to see which of them was stronger, more skilled, faster, etc, etc… it was NOT supposed to involve showing off unneeded or unnecessarily flashy moves that serve no purpose beyond drawing attention to yourself. Those kinds of things and the obnoxious glitz and glamor associated with them belong in contests and dragging them into the arena insulted the honored tradition of battling and your opponent. And nothing made Keith’s blood boil more than seeing people who did this get treated like they were actual, serious battlers… like the double team of-
“Oh yeah!” the scolipede girl snapped her fingers “Nanny & Teddy-Chan, that’s what they call themselves… um… you okay? You… kinda have a vein throbbing there and it doesn’t look healthy…” Keith was far gone enough he didn’t register the question or the tone it was asked in as he simply took a deep, steadying breath “Thank you for telling me this.” he said formally, before turning sharply on his heels and barreling back the way he came as fast as he could move. Any thoughts he might have had about the bug girl were completely sponged from his mind as Keith’s focus was honed laser-fine on only one purpose and goal… the poliwrath’s white, glove like fist clinched in anticipation as the knuckle cracks, though likely quiet to the rest of the world, echoed in his ears like the starting bell of a fight…
Remember my old "Double Act" series? The one with Rose & Petie as "Nanny & Teddy-Chan" going up against other Doubles Teams in an attempt to help Petie improve? Weeeeeeeeell...
It's back~
Here we start this arc off by introducing the principal players and setting the stage for what's to come... as we meet who the siblings will be up against and see how this fight gets started. This time there's a bit more to it than getting matched up to fight by the school after all~
Please enjoy, fav & comment (worked long and hard on this, would love to hear what you think), and have a great day! =D
Neoma owned by
xehta13Everybody else owned by me
Pokémon owned by neither of us
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PCA - Double Act 3
Part 1 - Croaking with Frogs? Introducing Team Gero!It was Friday afternoon at the PCA. The weekend was coming up, students didn’t have their mind fully on their work, and it was time for the weekly large scale battles in the big arena. Being a battle school the Pokemon Combat Academy almost always had some kind of graded battles going on in the afternoon, one a week for most students was supposed to be the standard, most of them were just for casual grades… but the Friday battles were different. They lead up with some of the underclassmen facing off against each other, the undercard fights as they were known, the main events came afterwards and always had experienced juniors and/or seniors facing off in single combat or as teams and these tended to draw large crowds of curious students looking to see their competition.
Fights between rivals, grudge matches, and revenge matches had all happened here before… but today the first main event was just a normal (well, as normal as the PCA could be) match between two junior teams. Despite this the arena was packed to the brim with noisy students eagerly waiting for the fighters to step into the arena. The referee cleared his throat and began announcing the team… which, if they could recognize them by name, was a major bubble burster for anyone who came today hoping to see talented fighters.
The first team, Team Pink Energy, entered the arena… and whistles and cat calls immediately started for the predominantly female team. The simple uniform of black tank top and martial arts pants with pink trim and logo on the back did nothing to hide that most of them were big attractive ladies. Their large, broad, and busty Blissy leader was walking in front, a serious and composed look on her face, she was followed by a huge, Amazonia looking miltank with huge curves, a thick middle, and a carefree smile on her face. Between these two girls was a positively petite, in contrast, but shapely Audino girl with a shy, timid appearance. Bringing up the rear was a Aromatisse… girl? Guy? It was incredibly hard to say since they obviously went to the beauty salon waaaaay too much with the amount of feminine charm they were exuding. A huge and fat Lickilicky and a busty and maternal looking Alomomola waited back at the arena side, the alternate members of the team.
The cat calls and whistles, along with the cheering, continued to mixed reactions from Pink Energy. The Blissey didn’t seem to care, the Audino blushed and hid a little, the miltank just happily waved to the crowd, and the Aromatisse developed an unpleasant looking twitch in his left eye. Finally the noise quieted down and let the referee announce the next group to enter, Team Gero. The team received a much more subdued reaction as the members of Gero started to enter the arena. Their leader, a bulky and muscular (made more obvious by his bare chest) poliwrath guy, was at the front followed by a lanky and slightly scrawny looking croagunk kid. A very fat but decently curvy seismitoad girl with a grin on her face brought up the rear as she motioned to somebody still lurking in the locker-room out of sight to hurry. Their outfits were nothing special either, modified martial arts uniforms to fit their individual tastes. But despite this the crowds, particularly those who’d been whistling for Pink Energy, seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation.
The fourth member of Team Gero entered, a slightly awkward blush on her face. It was an incredibly shapely and beautiful Greninja girl with ample, generous curves further accented by her skintight outfit and a soft, lovely looking grace to her and her expression. The crowd exploded with cheers and whistles making the poor ninja frog just look even more confused as the seismitoad giggled, the croagunk blushed, and the poliwrath just groaned in annoyance. To be fair this was to be expected from a high school full of hormonal teens… the referee clearing his throat loudly to try and restore calm so the match could begin.
********************
“Think Neoma knows why they’re cheering her so much?”
“Noooooooope, and we’re not telling her either. Okay Petie? Poor girl has enough culture shock as it is.”
“… you’re not the person to be pointing that kinda thing out Rose…”
“Hmmm? What was that baby bro?”
“Nuthin.”
In the front row of the stands Rose and Petie Julafton sat, the kangaskhan in a seat proper and the teddiursa seated in his big sister’s lap since they’d gotten there a little late to get proper seats next to each other. The duo was doing their best to ignore the hormonal reactions around them, though Petie was still amazed how Rose could realize what was happening NOW and somehow still be oblivious when she got this kind of reaction during her matches. They waved to their friend, the greninja girl in question, a sweet-tempered foreign student by the name of Neoma Shio.
Watching the frog girl stretch in prep for the match, and the further whistles and cat calls that resulted from it thanks to her form fitting outfit, Petie thought back to when he’d first met Neoma. She had come up to the siblings a little while ago and introduced herself and even then she’d come off as sweet, kind, innocently confused, and (at least to Petie) making a horrible choice since she’d come up to Rose to ask for fashion help of all things. It was only later that Petie found out that where Neoma was from had radically different standards in what was acceptable to wear in public and it was causing the frog and her family (he found out later her mother taught at the school as well) a bit of grief. Fortunately Rose had been in one of her LESS experimental moods that day and had been able to help her, sparking a bit of a friendship between them… though Petie admittedly couldn’t help but get the impression Neoma viewed him less like a friend and more like an adorable toddler she’s letting hang out with and watching over even if she didn’t know about his diapers, but that was hardly a unique view among Rose’s friends…
Anyway he and Rose were down in the front row to support their new friend… even if Petie didn’t have a clue who her teammates were or who they were fighting against. Luckily that’s what bit sisters were for. “Rose? Do you know who Neoma’s gonna be fighting against?” he asked innocently, looking up to her as she cuddled him, Petie’s head resting lightly against her chest. His big step-sis was battle obsessed enough she probably had done plenty of research into this like she did for her own matches or the doubles matches they fought together in…
“Nope, it’ll be fun to see what they can do~ And what Neoma’s team can do~ Go Neoma!”
Or she could be in one of her more ditzy moods. Petie sighed and adjusted his position on her lap to get comfortable, turning his attention to the arena… as luck would have it his little chat with Rose had kept him distracted enough he’d missed the team members names. The referee had already moved to announcing it’d be a four on four style match. Pouting a little at being left curious who Neoma’s teammates were Petie leaned forward eagerly to see how the match would go…
**************
“Begin!”
At the ref’s shout the match started. The two teams were already moving… one forward and the other back. Team Gero charged forward led by their poliwrath leader and Team Pink Energy fell back to a more defensive position behind their miltank member as… a sparkling mist started to fill the arena? Looking closely Petie finally realized it was coming from the Aromatisse member… meaning it was probably one of those fairy type moves he hadn’t heard about before and since Rose wasn’t filling him in so he guessed she was in the dark too. Not that the poliwrath seemed to care as he barreled right through the mist, past the miltank who was curling up in a ball (Defense Curl meaning Roll Out was next followed by pain if Petie’s memory of Maddie’s matches was any indication), and right up to the Blissey leader apparently planning to slug it out with her.
Which didn’t happen since the moment he got into melee range with the Blissey her Audino teammate took a deep breath and sung what sounded like a beautiful musical cord… generating a pink soundwave that crashed hard into the Poliwrath knocking him back “Er… don’t remember the name but that was definitely a fairy type move.” Rose said, commentating the battle for Petie since he didn’t know near as much about moves as she did… mostly through first-hand experience “Fairy is super-effective against fighting if I remember right.” She added, neither sibling taking their eyes off the match, which seemed to be in disarray, Team Gero looked like they weren’t quite sure what to do other than give chase when Pink Energy had fallen back, but their leader being blasted seemed to refocus them as they moved to assist him.
The croagunk and Neoma had been focusing on the miltank, trying to hurt her before she spun up-to-speed for Roll Out when they pulled away and tried to go assist the poliwrath. Neoma haved to jump back as she disengaged since the miltank launched her Rollout right at that moment, forcing the greninja to do some agile dodging to avoid getting run down. She was still in a better position than the croagunk though since he ran right into an ambush in his attempt to help his leader. The Aromatisse seemed to appear out of nowhere from the mist and unleashed what looked like a concentrated high-powered spotlight from its body that struck the poliwarth and croagunk like a physical force, knocking them back as they tried to shield their eyes.
“What was that Rose!?”
“Er… um… ah! Now I remember! I think it was Dazzling Gleam, another fairy type LOOK OUT NEOMA!”
Rose’s shouted in warning as Neoma managed to slip away from the miltank’s attempts to flatten her, letting the cow roll right towards the seismitoad (Petie had actually forgotten about her) forcing the fatter frog to stop the weird dance she was doing and dodge, while the greninja dashed to help her teammates… running right into the audino’s grasp. A grasp which, to Petie shock and surprise, tugged the tall frog girl down to the bunny’s level as she planted a deep kiss on Neoma’s mouth, the greninja pulled so close she and the audino’s chests were pressing together. There was a moment of silence as Neoma’s eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed but then the audience exploded in cheers and squeals at this little scene as Petie just sat there, not sure what to think.
“… Rose?”
“It was probably Sweet Kiss, see? Neoma looks like she’s been confused.”
“Getting smooched in the middle of a match would confuse anybody, move or not…”
The audience weren’t the only ones who noticed the held smooch as Petie saw the seismitoad stop her odd dance (he was getting curious what that was supposed to do in the first place) to stare at the scene with a… rather excited expression. Well, stare at it till the careening miltank crashed into her with Roll Out and rolled right over her leaving her face down in the dirt. It was painfully obvious control of the fight was shifting to Pink Energy as Neoma, freed from the kiss, staggered drunkenly and was barely able to dodge getting rundown by the miltank herself while the poliwrath struggled to pull himself to his feet, still reeling from the super effective hits, while the less damaged croagunk took up a defensive stance in front of him. Oddly enough Pink Energy wasn’t readily pushing this advantage and seemed more focused on falling back and shoring up their defenses.
Something clicked as Petie’s experience playing tactical strategy games kicked in and he suddenly realized what Pink Energy might be doing. The Audino, Blissey, and Aromatisse were loosely grouped together in formation with the Blissey in front facing the bulk of Team Gero and the other two behind her. He’d read that Blissey had ungodly HP… er… stamina, Petie didn’t wanna try to define “real life” in game terms since that’d make things too weird, meaning she was acting as a wall for her two teammates to hide behind and attack or support her. Seeing the miltank, still a rolling ball of destruction, make a wide turn around her teammates and head straight for the poliwrath Petie also realized the cow was probably the teams tank and going to be dealing most of the damage…
Petie was shocked as the politwrath shifted his footing to face the miltank head on as the swirl on his chest seem to… rotate? Petie felt a little groggy briefly, a quick shake from Rose snapped him out of it, as his sis confirmed it was Hypnosis which seemed to have both worked (though how the rolling cow could even SEE it Petie had no clue) and failed since the miltank was now asleep and out of the Roll Out… but inertia was still carrying the bovine right at the unmoving water type like a fat pink hurled sandbag. Then, in a badass display like something out of an action movie, the poliwrath flexed an arm and almost casually SLAPPED the Miltank in the cheek hard enough to change her trajectory and seen her sailing to his left, now very much awake. Jaw gaping Petie was briefly aware of Rose reaching up and rubbing her own cheek as she mumbled.
“Oooo, Wake-Up Slap. I know first-hand that’ll leave a mark…”
The croagunk jumped to take advantage of the sudden events… literally. Leaping forward the poison frog punched the flying cow in the gut hard as Petie noted there was a glow around his fist. “Drain Punch, nice follow-up choice.” Rose commented answering the question before Petie could ask “But why don’t they look worried?” she added, pointing out that Pink Energy seemed utterly unconcerned by their visibly bruised and battered member being knocked around… course the miltank didn’t look concerned either but Petie had seen Rose smile through a fight that wasn’t going her way too often to consider that anything important.
What was important though were the identical glowing pink balls of energy the Blissey and Audino where holding in their hands like something out of one of Petie’s Shonen animes. Suddenly the orbs broke releasing identical waves of sparkling pink energy that converged forward and came together right on the miltank, her whole body glowing brightly. The glow shattered to reveal the bruises and visible signs of damage were completely gone as the grinning cow kicked herself back onto her feet confidently. The gamer inside Petie understood this was standard support tactics, have healers in the back supporting your tank to keep it from going down, while the combat student in Petie had NO idea what happened or what that move was.
“Rose, what was that!?”
“Search me, looks like it completely healed her though… maybe it needed two shots?”
“Thought you were the battling expert…”
“Single battles, I’ve got a lot of experience in SINGLE battles… look out Neoma!”
Snapping his focus back to the ring Petie saw a still confused Neoma stagger and barely dodge the miltank’s restarted Roll Out. Meanwhile there was a flurry of action and light from the half of the arena with the three other members of Pink energy and the two male frogs making it hard for the teddiursa to keep up with what was happening. The thought of “Where’s the Seismitoad?” crossed Petie’s mind briefly as he noticed the whole arena suddenly getting darker. Petie’s ears twitched at the sound of the first few droplets landing on the arena floor before looking up to see the dark clouds clustering above the fighters, just in time for it to start raining. The obvious smacked Petie in the face like a ton of bricks, the seismitoad had been trying to do Rain Dance.
Speaking of being smacked like a ton of bricks the seismitoad came ROCKETING out of nowhere right into the middle of the messy brawl at a speed Petie hadn’t though a girl that broad could reach. The melee scattered in time for the teddiursa to see the surprised Blissey gritting her teeth as the seismitoad punched her hard in the gut with a move Petie didn’t recognize… though judging by the look of pain on the normal types face it was probably a fighting type one. He’d ask Rose for clarification but he was scared of what he’d miss as the toad used a backflip of all things to avoid two ranged attacks, the musical attack from before and a sparkling blast of wind, launched at her by the Audino and Aromatisse.
“Well, she obviously has that ability that makes her faster when it’s raining.”
How exactly that was “obvious” Petie had no clue but he chalked it up to the experience Rose tended to quote so often for these things… just in time for his sis to chime in with more commentary. “I know that set up…” the kangaskhan mumbled as Petie just looked confused, having to follow her gaze to try and figure out what she was talking about. For whatever reason the Poliwrath had stopped moving and was standing in a strange posture… like he was winding back to throw a punch with his legs bent and his arm all the way back, but he was holding his other arm out straight out in front of him with his hand up like he was using it for targeting or something. The fact his eyes were shut tight just confused Petie more. Tt looked like the guy was just going to stand there and let the miltank run him down with Rollout. “Mind Reader, meaning the next move is…” Rose muttered, Petie blinking was about to ask what she was talking about…
And nearly missed the attack in the span it took him to blink as the poliwrath suddenly leapt forwards, eyes finally open, and swung his back arm forward with the speed of a bullet train, crashing it hard into the miltank. Hard enough the cow was forced to uncurl at the impact, revealing she’d taken the blow to the gut, with a look of shock and extreme pain on her face. The punch continued as the poliwrath pushed through the impact and used the momentum to send the miltank HURTLING across the arena as if she’d been shot from a canon before crashing into a wall. The whole thing happened in a few seconds, accompanied by the sound like an explosion going off, as Petie let out an undignified squeal of surprise at it. “Dynamic Punch, that’d just about do it…” Rose commented, Petie struggled to follow the chain of events as he watched the miltank’s head sag and sway as the cow was prone against the wall, still conscious but hurting from that blow and whatever else Dynamic Punch did.
Another cry of pain yanked his attention away as he saw the croagunk punching the blissy hard in the side, the slight glow around his fist letting the teddy know the poison type was using Power-Up Punch (a move Petie had looked into before). A moment later Petie realized the attack was also keeping the Blissy from healing the miltank again by taking away her focus, which meant the audino was the only undistracted healer they had to watch out for. Before Petie could even finish that thought he heard another cry and turned to look. There was Neoma, who’d apparently snapped out of her confusion, but now the Audino was face first on the ground apparently having been knocked over. He had no idea HOW she’d been knocked over but Neoma must have done something to make it happen. Usually he’d ask Rose to fill him in but the match was moving too fast for him to even try… he was struggling to keep up with everything as it was. Best he could tell Team Gero was taking control of the match… maybe… the little freshmen wasn’t sure at this point…
Either way this was only gonna ramp up from here…
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“Bu, bu, but… how come they lost!? I thought Neoma’s team had that one wrapped up… when’d the miltank recover?! How’d they regroup!?”
“I think it was while the others were busy with the blissy and audino, the aromatisse snapped her out of confusion and she healed herself, then the team pulled back into what I think was a pre-planned formation and… wait… didn’t you notice that?”
“… nu, couldn’t keep up with what was happening half the time…”
“Oh, I see… yeah, it did get pretty hectic towards the end there. Don’t worry about it, you’ll learn to keep track of these kinda matches over time okay Petie? Anyway, bottom line is that the pink team had better tactics and more recovery, and Neoma’s team just didn’t have enough force to punch though it…”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I don’t think Neoma’s group was used to 4 on 4 matches either, but the other team obviously knew the format inside and out. That gave them an edge… never was good at those large scale team tactics stuff myself…”
“… Rose, you’re the one who suggested we form a doubles team…”
“Hey, don’t give me that look~ I said LARGE scale, 2 on 2 doesn’t count~ Now come on, lets go see if we can cheer Neoma up.”
The two siblings were talking loudly as they left the arena, their conversation partially muddled by the voices of other students also leaving. Far as they knew they weren’t saying anything worth overhearing anyway so it didn’t matter. Unbeknownst to them the large magenta colored bug type precarious positioned, thanks to her quadruped lower body, further in the bleachers was quite interested in what was being said. The scolipede girl’s half lidded, yellow eyes eyed the two closely, particularly their lips, as her large antenna twitched and trembled lightly with every noise around her. Both of them slowly swiveling and pivoting like tv antenna to focus in on the two talking siblings. As delicate as her ability to sense vibrations in the air with her antenna was it took a lot of effort and foreknowledge to be able to tell WHAT she was sensing… so it was fortunate she could read lips well enough to pick up what was being said as she honed in on what the kangaskhan and teddiursa were saying amongst all the other noise.
Finally rolling from the lounging position she was in the scolipede righted herself on her four feet, landing on them with a surprisingly light thud considering how much girth she had, and stretched her four arms casually before fishing a cell phone out of her pocket with one of them. Still acting casually as if she hadn’t been eavesdropping and it was a normal day for her the huge girl punched in a number. “Yo Joe.” Mamta Pilahona, better known as Big Mam the leader of Team Goliath, chimed in a deep, brassy, yet feminine voice as whoever she was calling answered. The senior student stifling a chuckle at the little joke as the voice on the other end grumbled a response before she continued “Yes I do know that annoys you, same way you know your Wide Load jokes annoy me~ Now how are you?” her tone was casual and relaxed as she watched the bleacher’s around her slowly emptying “I see, so you still have Advanced Math before your done for the day? Okay then, meet up at your studio like always? Alright… oh, also I’m putting step one of my plan into action~!” she declared the last line in an almost sing-song tone as if she was in a show or stage performance.
The moment of silence that followed showed whoever this Joe was on the other end of the line didn’t appreciate whatever this “Plan” was and was giving the bug/poison type an earful. Finally starting to walk, with surprisingly smooth and light movements given her size, since the bleachers had mostly emptied out Mam just sighed softly “Yes, I know you’re against this idea… but I think she’ll be perfect for the team and it’d be a shame not to bring her along when, well, I already explained this to you didn’t I?” she said, obviously unmoved by Joe’s argument “Anyway I just want to see her full potential before I make my offer, get to know her a bit better too. There shouldn’t be any dangers to her, I’ve planned this out remember? It’ll just be another match is all~” her tone was more understanding and reassuring as she headed for the exit. Before suddenly breaking out into a deep, good natured laugh laughter “Of course I know what I’m doing, I’ve done the research on them already. How many times have I messed up getting people to do what I want after all? … no, no, go ahead, I gave you the straight line so I deserve the comeback.”
Finally in the hallway Mam paused at a junction and pulled herself up to her full height, her long antenna sticking up straight in the air. The feelers twitched and swayed lightly as if testing the wind as she continued “Anyway all I need to do is find these boys and I should be able to get the ball rolling easily enough…. Aaaaaaand I think I just found one~” she said as her antenna twitched and she sharply turned down one of the passages “Anyway I’ll call you back afterwards to update you on how it all went, talk to you then Joe and… hmmm?” stopping mid-step to listen the giant girl made a frustrated face, pursing her thick lips in annoyance at what she was hearing “Yes I am SURE I’m not evil anymore, I was sure the LAST ten times you asked me… this isn’t evil it’s just…” her mouth hung open for a moment as she blinked, the gears in her head visibly turning before she arrived at an answer “Morally questionable, that’s a good word for it. Besides, it won’t hurt anyone. You know I wouldn’t do this if I thought it’d harm anyone. Anyway I’m going to hang up now, talk to you later Joe and take care.” With a digital beep she hung up on the call and quickly pocketed her phone, taking a deep breath to compose herself before continuing down the hall at a brisk trotting pace, which was fast enough most people would call it a run.
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"Oh, hello Rose. Hello Petie. You two have come to check on my condition?"
"Hey Neoma, and yeah me and Petie were worried and... um... where are your other teammates?"
"Oh, Keith and Eugene just left. They seemed very upset about the match... does this happen in teams?"
"Er... since I'm not on one I wouldn't know... Petie?"
"... if Sammi storming off during meetings counts then yeah, this is normal..."
The siblings had arrived in the nurse’s office to find only two of Team Gero waiting, Neoma and the seismitoad… who was quite interested in the newcomers, or at least in one of them anyway as her eyes slowly traced up and down Rose’s figure as the teddiursa carrying kangaskhan went over to the bed Neoma was resting in. “You okay Neoma?” Rose asked, sitting on the side of the bed and looking at her greninja friend “You fought hard in the match, so there no shame in losing. Alright?” the normal type said, offering comfort to sooth the loss… albeit poorly worded comfort. Despite that Neoma nodded, appreciating what Rose meant "I must admit, they were worthy opponents. They had such high defense formation we weren't prepared for. Among other things" the frog girl added, tapping her lips in emphasis.
There was what sounded like a happy sigh from the seismitoad… but the siblings unanimously decided it’d be best to ignore it. “Yeah, kiss moves can catch you off guard.” Rose said nodding “Didn’t expect her to have Draining Kiss too though…” a deep female voice piped up “That was a… surprise~ Yeah, a surprise~” as the siblings opted to turn and stare at the grinning seismitoad for a moment, who just innocently waved back to them as the silence started to get awkward. “Um.. Neoma? I have a question?” Petie broke the silence as he lifted a little paw like he was asking a question in class. Neoma’s smile was broad and amused as the bandaged girl gently rubbed the little teddiursa’s head “Of course Petie, you may ask your question~” her tone imitating her teacher mother and making Petie’s cheeks flush red. “Er… w… wh” he stuttered, squirming on Rose’s lap “Which of your teammates is which? I kinda missed the announcement…” the little freshman finally stuttered out.
The greninja smiled kindly despite the awkward question as she started to explain "The teammate here with me is named Beatrix" Neoma said, motioning to the seismitoad who added “Call me Bea~” as Neoma continued "Our leader is the Poliwrath. His name is Keith. And the Croagunk is named Eugene." She finished with a nod… before her smile faltered “Rose… I also have a question I do need to ask…” the foreign girl said softly, lips pursed as she was obviously bothered by something. “Er… okay, ask away.” The kangaskhan said, as Neoma nodded appreciatively “Thank you.” She said, gesturing as she talked “I am curious Rose. During the match I was able to save Eugene from being hit by the Roll Out, but I discovered he was unconscious...did I do something wrong when I helped him?" before looking to Rose for the answer… as the larger girl shifted nervously and Bea stifled a laugh from her bed.
“Er… no... you didn’t do anything wrong really…” Rose said while Petie was doing everything he could not to make eye contact with Neoma or his big sis. Both the siblings remembering the situation Neoma was asking about quite well… probably most of the audience remembered it too. The greninja had managed to pull her teammate away from the attack with an impressive last-minute running save… but she’d ended up planting him face first in her ample chest in the process. Rose wasn’t at liberty to guess whether the nosebleed had done the remaining damage needed to knock him out or if he’d just fainted… but even the kangaskhan knew better than to try and explain what happened to a girl who’d come to school in an outfit that’d left her nearly naked before being told it wasn’t casually socially acceptable to have 90-something percent of your skin exposed in public places.
“You…” Rose paused, finally settling on how to say this “You just might consider different ways to grab the people you rescue in the future… okay Neoma?” The greninja nodded but the call of “I wouldn’t mind that kinda rescue~” from the seismitoad brought out another awkward silence as the two normal types suddenly had an idea where some of Neoma’s most recent, sillier “misunderstandings” about what was socially acceptable might have come from… particularly the whole "hugging other girls chest to chest is an acceptable substitute for hello" thing...
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“… crooooo…”
It was a low, mournful croaking noise that echoed weakly through the empty hall. Originating from the lone, scrawny croagunk boy standing staring up at a poster pinned up on one of the PCA’s many bulletin boards with a depressed look on his face. Still dressed in his team uniform, pulled back over the few bandages he was sporting, Eugene actually looked pretty good for having just lost a match… though the croagunk’s expression told a different, pitiful story. Eugene had left the nurse’s office out of a mix of shame and other feelings… specifically shame at having been knocked out during the match BECAUSE of his other feelings. He didn’t wanna use it as an excuse but he was a teenage guy… he did have feelings, feelings he wasn’t quite so shameless as to wear openly like Bea did. Specifically the 16 year old frog had a major thing for strong, well build ladies… which made being on the same team as one of his big crushes, aka Neoma, rather hard. Especially since Eugene was the younger member of Team Gero and had the most to prove… as for his other big crush…
Lifting his gaze back to the poster again Eugene stared longingly at the fancifully dressed Kangaskhan posed next to what resembled a baby teddiursa. The bigger normal types outfit accenting her strong build and massive curves. “Croooooo…” his cheeks puffed out and slowly deflated as he let out another depressed croak. Rose was the name of the kangaskhan and Eugene had no idea if he had the right to call himself a fan of hers, if he was pitiful enough to be called a stalker, or if he just didn’t matter enough to be anything but a nobody as far as the Amazonian normal type was concerned. Especially since he didn’t even have the guts to try and say hello to her. It wasn’t like the case with Neoma where he’d be trying to get a date with a teammate, which he considered to be wrong. With how confused Neoma got over things like dating and relationships Eugene doubted that would happen even if he did have to guts to ask the foreign frog out. Course… there was one major problem with trying to get close to Rose, what with how Keith-
“Hey there, didn’t expect to see you here.”
For once Eugene was kinda grateful his jumping abilities weren’t terrible impressive for a frog… or else that surprise might have made him drive his head into the ceiling. Trying to act like he hadn’t jumped a few feet in shock the croagunk turned “Er… he… llo.. oooo…” he stuttered and trailed off, finding himself having to crane his neck back a little to look up. As far as he knew he’d never seen the massive Scolipede girl before and with a height and build that impressive Eugene was pretty sure he’d remember her if they’d met. Completely unperturbed by his staring the four-armed poison bug just smiled “No, we haven’t met. Just saw you in the match is all.” She said lightly, her voice deep and resonating while still being friendly “Kinda thought you’d still be in the nurse’s office getting patched up, you and your team already get released?” the huge girl’s casual delivery of the question help ease some of Eugene’s earlier wariness… and replaced it with awkwardly shifting and looking away because of the questions content.
“Er… n-no… I… I wasn’t hurt too bad so I left a little early…” he stuttered out, bad at lying but willing to give a half-truth by leaving out how he’d left early to avoid having to own up to how wimpy and pitiful he was. Nodding the huge bug smiled “Oh, I see. Alright, still it was a good match… didn’t look like you guys were used to team fighting, right?” the scolipede asked, Eugene only nodding weakly in response “Thought so.” With that the bug girl turned her attention back to looking at the poster of Rose. Eugene fidgeted a little more as he wondered if this situation was as awkward as it seemed to him or if he was just socially inept. Before he could think much on that the girl spoke again “So, what’s she like?” the bug punctuated the question by lightly tapping the poster with one of her hands “I mean, I’ve seen her in matches with her baby brother before and I’m a bit of a fan… but we’ve never met in person.” Eugene just stared blankly at her for a moment, his cheeks puffing up with a confused sounding “Croooo…?” before he finally managed to respond.
“I… I never met her!” he stammered out quickly, trying to hide his panic at the new topic along with his confusion. If the scolipede noticed she didn’t show it as her lips pursed in mild confusion “Really? I saw her and her baby bro going into the nurse’s office… I thought they might know your team or something.” the bug girls shrug her shoulders, a rolling motion that made her chest bounce slightly (something Eugene felt a touch embarrassed as he noticed… and stared) “She must know somebody on your team, pretty sure Pink Energy didn’t go to the nurse’s office… they’re self-healing had them looking pretty good when the match finished and-“ by now Eugene had partially tuned out what the scolipede was saying, her casual tone made it surprisingly easy, instead he turned over this new piece of info in his mind… and tried to yank his eyes away from her chest. Rose was apparently with Bea and Neoma… and probably knew Neoma since if Bea knew her the seismitoad would probably have hinted at having groped the kangaskhan in the shower in that overt way she does…
Meaning his two crushes were in the same room, knew each other, and were probably friends… Eugene quickly purged the first idea that came to his mind (though his face had already flushed red) in favor of maybe having Neoma introduce him to Rose. Since Keith had stormed off it might work! It was still wimpy… hiding behind one of his crushes to try and be introduced to another… but compared to not even having the guts to TRY and say hello… Eugene closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath to calm himself. He needed to focus now, he needed to “-ey, hey, you still there? You sure you’re okay?” the croagunk blinked as he realized the scolipede was still talking to him. “Maybe you should go back to the nurse’s office…” the bug girls expression was kind and concerned as she looked down at Eugene “I think that match took more out of you than you thought, spacing out like that…” the frog let out a weak croak of guilt at a stranger being concerned about him… but this concern was the perfect excuse to get out of the conversation and go to the nurse’s office.
“Y-yeah… I think I’ll go back there… not feeling too great…”
“Want me to walk you there? Hate to find out you spaced out halfway there and collapsed in the hall or something…”
“N-no! No, I’m fine...really! Er… uhm… I… I’ll be going now. Was nice talking with you!”
“Alright, take care~”
****************************
Watching the croagunk scurry down the hall and out of sight Mamta allowed herself a proud smile. As confident as she’d been in her planning… she had to credit outrageous good fortune to how smoothly it was going so far. She found Eugene nearly immediately thanks to the croaking, complete with cheek puffing, he’d been doing. She’d have had trouble finding him otherwise… the mental map she put together from what her antenna told only gave her approximate height and builds of the people in range, even in an echo chamber like the hallway. She couldn’t help but think back on how much work went into learning how to translate what her antenna sensed into something understandable, even if it was vague, from the original, headache inducing mess it’d been before… but that was reminiscing for another time. Right now her plan was on schedule and that was the important part.
“I’m not used to being this lucky with my plans…” Mam said turned her attention to the poster on the bulletin board and smiled briefly “Like catching him looking at this.” the scolipede lightly tapping the image of Rose before turning away from it “Never did have a plan to bring her up without looking suspicious… very lucky indeed…” the scolipede paused for a moment before making an annoyed face “and I’m talking to myself again, great.”
She should have kicked that bad habit by now… but that was for later. Right now she needed to focus on the matter at hand. Mam had figuring out Eugene’s crush on the kangaskhan fairly easily. She’d made a hobby out of people watching for so long she could glean all kinds of info just through observation… not that Eugene made it hard. “How exactly did no one else notice he had a crush on her… and one on his own teammate for that matter?” Mam mumbled to herself, shaking her head as she did so “Maybe I’m just used to watching for those sorts of things… aaaaaand I’m doing it again.” Either way it looked like her research on Eugene (which she was careful to keep from crossing the line into stalking or privacy violation) to figured out how the croagunk’s mind worked had paid off. She’d assumed he’d be the type to beat himself up over mistakes (real or imagined), so between the match and his unresolved crushes it made sense that any excuse to get closer to the ladies he had his eye on would get the frog hopping to take it.
Horrible pun and the dangers of assumptions aside Mam was quite proud of the results… which, alongside talking to herself, was another bad habit she hadn’t been able to shake off yet. Too much pride and she got overconfident, which usually was when things starting going wrong, she’d have to watch that. As much as she wanted to enjoy the feeling for a moment, things were going surprisingly smoothly, she needed to focus on the next step of her plan. She still needed to track her second target down and only had a general idea where he was… hopefully her observations and assumptions about his temper, and how loud it might be, were correct.
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“So that’s how you and Neoma know each other… interesting~ I’d offer to let you join us for a training session… and maybe an after training shower session~ But probably better I don’t…”
“Er… um… and why is that Bea…?”
Rose shifted blushed slightly and shifted uncomfortably as she talked to the seismitoad. As oblivious as the kangaskhan was there were limits to what would go over her head… limits Bea had passed about half-a-minute into the conversation. They were still in the nurse’s office, with the nurse’s in the final stages of checking Bea and Neoma out before releasing them, as the frogs were still sitting up in the beds with Rose & Petie sitting at the foot of Neoma’s bed. The whole while Rose & Bea had been talking Neoma had just looked innocent or confused, making it clear the greninja wasn’t catching the very thinly veiled hints and offers Bea was making at all and was just seeing her friend chatting with her teammate. Petie for his part just sat on his sister’s lap glaring at the seismitoad like he was in some position to do anything if Bea went too far, though he of all people should know Rose was more than able to handle herself.
“Weeeeeeeell, lets just say it’s a good thing you showed up after my cousin had stormed off…” the seismitoad said, leaning back in the bed and putting her hands behind her head in a relaxed pose… before she noticed the blank stares she was getting from the siblings. “Keith. The poliwrath. He’s my cousin.” She explained curtly, before letting out a deep chuckle and rolled over to her side to let the nurse adjust her bandages “The big, muscle bound doofus happens to have a bit of a problem with how you fight… for whatever macho, code-of-the-warrior taurons shi-“ there was a light cough from Neoma as the ninja frog leaned forward to pull Petie off Rose’s lap and cuddle the squirming, protesting teddy closely. Her hands cupped over his ears. “Right, right, we’ve got to be toddler friendly here!” Bea said, letting out a big laugh of amusement before flashing a broad grin “Anyway he doesn’t like how you fight, the reason why is stupid, and if he was here it’d be a fight. Now lets change topics~”
“O-okay… what did you want to talk about instead?”
“You ever consider a costume that shows more skin… like a bikini or something~?”
“!!!!”
“That’s a no I take it?”
****************************
The visibly furious, bare-chested, really muscular, and partially bandaged poliwrath stomping through the hall discouraging people from getting near him, which left Keith thudding his way through the hall alone… which was about how he wanted it. The broad-built fighting type was fuming about his team’s loss… not because he couldn’t accept it. He didn’t think they’d been cheated in the match. Despite personally despising intricate and thought out battle tactics planned in advance Keith had to admit Team Pink Energy had worked hard for and earned their victory. The reason he was so furious was quite simple… Keith just really, really, REALLY hated losing with every fiber of his being. And he was on his way to deal with his anger in the most constructive manner he possibly could… by finding a training dummy or something similar and beating it till it cried… which was about the time he ended up running right into someone.
Staggering back a little Keith blinked and composed himself “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going…” he managed to say, suppressing his earlier anger as he looked… and found he’d run into the side of an absolutely massive scolipede girl. Despite it being rude Keith found himself staring, not being used to having to look up to people. “It’s okay…” the bug girls tone was friendly… as her expression suddenly lit up and she chimed out “Oh! I didn’t expect to see you here!” in that deep voice of hers. Making Keith fidget since he couldn’t place the girl meaning he probably hadn’t met her… or he forgotten her, which seemed kinda unlikely. If he had to guess she was probably a senior student and despite the plush on her massive frame Keith could tell she was well muscled underneath. Aka she looked like she could give him one heck of a fight and it was rare he’d forget somebody like that…
“No, no, we haven’t met before~” the girl said, chuckling softly and answering Keith’s unasked question “I just watched your match… thought you guys did pretty well all things considered.” This rang as empty platitudes in Keith’s ears (or whatever he had that substituted for them) as the poliwrath snorted “We lost.” He said bluntly, stating the obvious and immutable fact as the girl just shrugged… which Keith noticed was a surprisingly complex motion with her four arms “Yeeeeeah… but you gave it a good shot…” A little of the fighting types earlier anger flared up in him at that since he HATED the whole “It’s okay, you tried your best” concept. To him you either won or you lost, trying to soften the sting of defeat just made people less likely to try harder to avoid it next time. But he wasn’t about to take his anger out on an innocent bystander who didn’t know his feelings on this so he just bit back his frustration for the moment…
“Anyway are you alright? I’m a touch surprised you aren’t still in the nurse’s office…” that question on the other hand got a deep belly laugh from Keith (as he ignored the ache from his bruised ribs) “Don’t worry about it… I’m sturdy!” the poliwrath thumped a fist lightly on his chest (again ignoring the pain) “So I’ll be fine, thank you for your concern.” The bug type tilted her head a little, her thick antenna bobbing lightly in the air, with a thoughtful look on her face “Well… alright, was probably better I didn’t check the nurse’s office for you then. By the time I got there some people were already visiting anyway so…” she gave another shrug while trailing off as Keith blinked, realizing what she’d said. “Wait… somebody was visiting?” off the top of his head the poliwrath couldn’t think of anyone who’d visit his team in the nurse’s office… maybe some of Neoma’s family, she did have a sister and mother around… but beyond that he was drawing a blank.
“Yeah, it was a really tall Kangaskhan with a good build and long hair with an odd color… oh! And she was carrying what looked like a teddiursa first grader in her arms. Are they friends of yours?”
Keith actually didn’t hear the last question as his vision started to go red since he recognized who the scolipede was describing. The poliwrath had grown up being trained in the art of battling by his father and, as such, he’d had several views on battling beaten into him at an early age. Battling was supposed to be a competition between two fighters to see which of them was stronger, more skilled, faster, etc, etc… it was NOT supposed to involve showing off unneeded or unnecessarily flashy moves that serve no purpose beyond drawing attention to yourself. Those kinds of things and the obnoxious glitz and glamor associated with them belong in contests and dragging them into the arena insulted the honored tradition of battling and your opponent. And nothing made Keith’s blood boil more than seeing people who did this get treated like they were actual, serious battlers… like the double team of-
“Oh yeah!” the scolipede girl snapped her fingers “Nanny & Teddy-Chan, that’s what they call themselves… um… you okay? You… kinda have a vein throbbing there and it doesn’t look healthy…” Keith was far gone enough he didn’t register the question or the tone it was asked in as he simply took a deep, steadying breath “Thank you for telling me this.” he said formally, before turning sharply on his heels and barreling back the way he came as fast as he could move. Any thoughts he might have had about the bug girl were completely sponged from his mind as Keith’s focus was honed laser-fine on only one purpose and goal… the poliwrath’s white, glove like fist clinched in anticipation as the knuckle cracks, though likely quiet to the rest of the world, echoed in his ears like the starting bell of a fight…
Story Continues Below in Comments
Category Story / Pokemon
Species Pokemon
Size 174 x 310px
File Size 4.4 kB
Listed in Folders
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Rose and Petie stepped out of the nurse’s office in relative silence to let the nurse’s do their final checks on Neoma and Bre before the frogs would be allowed to leave. Well technically Rose stepped out of the nurse’s office while carrying Petie “I think Neoma’s teammate is a pervert…” Petie said, the sentence sounding so much more jarring coming from the teddiursa’s childlike mouth. “…… this does explain a lot about how she’s been acting though…” Rose mumbled, still blushing slightly at having had to argue Bea down from the bikini idea. Especially since they’d had to re-explain (for what had to be the… eighth… ninth time?) to Neoma about how it’s sociably unacceptable to show off that much of your body in a casual public setting. Either way the two normal were looking forward to a little not-awkward silence in the hall while they waited for their greninja friend… and their friend’s teammate since it was a safe bet Bea was gonna hang around like a Sticky Barb.
“YOU!!!”
Suddenly the silence was shattered as if someone had set off a canon, the shout reverberating off the halls as Petie and Rose snapped their heads in the direction it’d come from. The buff, and getting buffer by the moment as his muscles seemed to be bulging with every step he took threatening to snap his bandages, the shirtless poliwrath seemed to fill the hallway as he approached them with a measured tread. There was a squeak from Petie… not of fear though but surprise at how fast he found himself set down on his feet by Rose, the kangaskhan side stepping so her smaller baby brother was now behind one of her thick legs and out of the range of fire. “… can I help you?” Rose asked, the usual mirth and whimsy in her tone gone as her voice was flat and guarded… something that made Petie shudder a little since he so rarely heard her talk like that. “What are you…” the water/fighting almost hissed the word you “doing near my team you so-called-battler?” his voice never rising above a casual speaking tone despite it doing nothing to hide the unbridled rage he seemed to exude.
If the comment bothered Rose any she didn’t show it. The kangaskhan was sporting an expressionless mask as she spoke “Because we happen to be friends with your teammate Neoma… your cousin mentioned a few things about you Keith-” she dropped his name with emphasis as if her knowing it might make him step back a little “so lets just get to the point. What, exactly, is your issue with me and how I fight?” Rose lifted her arms in a shrug… Petie finally noticing his sister’s muscles were tensing in preparation if a fight broke out. A thought that had the teddiursa sweating cold as Rose continued “Your cousin wouldn’t go into specifics about it, but I think you at least owe me that much if you’re going to storm up to me and my brother in the halls.” The poliwrath didn’t budge and instead rolled his massive shoulders, muscles ripping as he did so, in an annoyed gesture as he brought his fists together slowly.
“Not MY fault you drag a toddler into your fights… even if calling those insulting displays by that name disgusts me…” Keith said, not even bothering to look at the “toddler” he was referring to as he lightly tapped his fists together in front of him “but if you want to know then fine, I’ll explain it so someone like you can understand.” A loud SMACK sound echoed through the halls as Keith unclenched one fist and punch his other into the open palm “What you do IS NOT battling… battling is a competition between two fighters to see which of them is stronger, faster, tougher, more skilled, or whatever else might set them apart and lift one above the other.” The conviction behind the words hung in the air as Keith spoke… Petie down by Rose’s knees just looking confused as if he was about to ask how that was different from what his sister normally did. Before he could though Keith continued “All that fancy but pointless and unneccisary fluff you add? Those eccentric and unneeded costumes? That has NO PLACE IN ARENA BATTLING! It belongs in CONTESTS and CONTESTS ALONE!!!” He bellowed… as Petie’s eyes went wide, his face paled, and it looked like he might have just filled his diaper in fear.
“…… say that again…” Rose hissed through her teeth, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, fists clenching so tightly there was a noise like straining leather. Despite how friendly and goofy his step-sister was Petie knew there was one thing, other than people bullying him or his friends, that was guaranteed to make her lose her temper in a bad way. Rose might be at peace with it (far more that Petie was with his own bad former parent issues) but her abusive and controlling contest star birth mother had left the kangaskhan with a deep, abiding hatred for contests. Despite visibly looking surprised at the reaction the poliwrath didn’t back down, his muscles tensing up even more “I said you have no place in battling and should take up contests.” His tone was guarded but unapologetic, as if daring Rose to do something, The little teddiursa just watched helplessly, his knees now knocking so badly he might fall on his butt, as Rose slowly lifted her clenched fist up as if she was going to try and drive it through Keith’s non-existent nose right then and there…
“And I say you’re a blowhard and whoever taught you to think like that is an idiot.” She opted to say instead of punching him, her tone icy cold with fury and hate… contrasting the bug-eyed expression of rage now on Keith’s face. “HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY FATHER LIKE THAT YOU GLITZ COVERED DIVA!!!” he roared so loudly Petie did fall backwards onto his bottom. But whether he went squish or not was lost in the ensuing ruckus as his step-sister and the poliwrath started to SCREAM at each other, now inches apart, as the door to the nurse’s office flew open for Neoma, Brea, and the two nurse’s to see what was happening. The teddiursa just whimpering and covering his ears at the awful den, obviously expecting this to become a full-fledged punch up any moment now… but unwilling or unable to abandon his big sister and leave her to face school security when they showed up.
************************
Mam’s mental map showed her five… no… six… maybe seven people as her antenna trembled and shook, trying to capture as many details as they could despite the echoing shouting disrupting them. The two sources of the noise were blurry and indistinct thanks to the vibrations from the ruckus… but she had a good idea who they were since she could hear their voices clearly. The small figure, which registered as a toddler or child to her senses, next to them was likely Petie since there was no doubt in Mam’s mind he’d be there… but the other four figures the scolipede could only guess at. She wasn’t even sure there was a seventh person there or not. There might be one between the two who were yelling and making all the motion… but the amount of vibrations was blurring it so badly Mam couldn’t tell. She had to assume that two of the blurs were Keith & Eugene’s teammates Neoma and Beatrice… the remaining ones were likely nurses. That was as clear an image of what was happening as Mam’s finely honed sense could put together without trying to sneak a peek of it herself…
And the entire thing had the large bug biting down on one of her thumbs in worry. Her plan had gone spiraling out of control and was heading dangerously fast to parts unknown… which meant her good luck streak was over. Worse it also meant she’d probably gotten arrogant with her planning again. She’d thought it’d been simple and straightforward… send Eugene Rose’s way first, let him fumble through saying hello to her and trying to talk to the girl. She’d figured his crush wouldn’t go anywhere… and if it did, good for him. Meanwhile she’d be sending Keith their way as well, the poliwrath most likely on the warpath due to his feelings about Rose’s battling style, but Eugene would be there to be a buffer to the situation. The croagunk would defuse the worst of his team leader’s rage or, if things went really wrong, fetch the rest of Team Gero before things could go too bad. The end result, at least according to Mam’s plan, would have been a match between Ketih and Rose where the scolipede would have been able to gauge the kangaskhan’s abilities better. She’d expected there to be heated tempers due to the clashing personalities… but not THIS!
A sudden flurry of motion had Mam’s thick antenna swiveling to reconstruct the mental map with the new data and what had just taken place. There’d been a blur of motion from one of the figures, a vibration she’d recognized (from past experience with her little siblings) as the squish noise of a full diaper, and now Petie was gone and the outline of one of the figures on the sidelines was different. Going with what she knew it seemed Neoma, who could move fast enough to make that blur, had scooped Petie up, who needed a change the poor little one, and gotten him to safety where she was cuddling him protectively… which was a silver lining to the otherwise dark news. Especially since the other two figures on the sidelines were retreating back into the nurse’s office, meaning they were probably the nurses… and going to alert campus security. Mam groaned and put her face in her hands, all four of them, at how wrong this was all going. If she assumed there WAS a figure between Keith and Rose then that was likely Beatrice trying to keep them from fully coming to blows in the hallway… so where was Eugene?
She’d been absolutely certain he’d have arrived long before Keith showed up… but there’d be time to figure that out later while she worked out how she’d screwed up. Pulling herself up to her full height she prepared to try and break this up (with the excuse that she was just passing through) before security arrived. She wasn’t going to have one of her messed up plans send two innocent people to detention. Before she could take a step though her antenna suddenly swiveled, picking up something on the very edge of her mental map… no, picking up a someone. Someone peeking around the corner of the opposite hallway and watching the scene. Someone puffing their cheeks out and making a croaking noise. Mam just groaned and put her head in her hands again. That answered her “Where was Eugene” question at least… now she wanted to know why he was only showing up NOW?
If she had to guess based on what she knew about him, as if she wasn’t doing enough guess work and assumptions, he probably lost his nerve halfway to the nurse’s office. He’d lost his nerve, stopped, wasted time worrying or whatever he’d been doing, and then come running when he’d heard the shouting… or something. It was a good as guess as any at this point. Just like she was guessing he was trying not to get involved in an active fight between his crush and his team captain, or just too scared to. Either way him not getting involved was the best call in the situation this far off the rails. If he just stayed where he was while Mam broke the fight up and went unnotic-
“EUGENE! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!”
Mam groaned as she could hear Keith's shout and the scurrying of feet… along with the faint sound of some higher power laughing at her expense. Alongside that horrible, familiar sensation she got when one of her "carefully laid out" plans crashed and burned…
************************
“B-bu-bu-but you… crooooooo… y-you c-ca-n’t have a m-match…”
“WHY NOT?”
Eugene flinched under Keith’s bellow, trying to hide his knocking knees. The situation had gotten so bad Bea wasn’t even trying to cop a feel from Rose as she struggled to keep her and Keith apart… which was a bad sign, maybe an omen of the oncoming apocalypse. One way or another it felt like the croagunk’s world was ending as he struggled to keep from stuttering too badly to be understood “S-sh-she’s p… p-part of a… a d-doubles team, i-it w-w-w… wouldn’t b-be p-practical f-for h-her to f-fight you o-one on o-o-one…” A bold faced lie if he ever told one since Eugene knew Rose fought one on one matches fairly often, he’d watched them after all, but he was hoping they were too angry to realize this. If he could squirm his way out of this without destroying his chances with his crush or destroying his relationship with his team leader then it’d be a miracle of divine intervention proportions… he would just have to hope that-
“FINE! THEN WE’RE GOING TO TAKE HER ON IN A DOUBLES MATCH!!”
“W-what!?”
“I CHALLENGE YOU! ME AND EUGENE AGAINST YOUR CIRCUS ACT! TWO ON TWO!!”
For the briefest moment the hallway went dead silent… as Eugene wondered if this was a long and intensely detailed nightmare of some kind and he’d wake up in a cold sweat any moment now. That or he’d had a heart attack, aneurism, or some other clichéd sudden method to die, was in hell for unspeakable crimes he didn’t remember committing, and this was his punishment. Both situations seemed preferable to the idea this was real and actually happening. A sharp intake of air broke the silence as Rose puffed herself up and proceed to yell right back in Keith’s face.
“YOU’RE ON!!!!”
There was a soft whimpering noise, but Eugene couldn’t tell if Rose’s teddiursa baby brother had made it… or if it’d come from the croagunk himself.
To Be Continued…
Rose and Petie stepped out of the nurse’s office in relative silence to let the nurse’s do their final checks on Neoma and Bre before the frogs would be allowed to leave. Well technically Rose stepped out of the nurse’s office while carrying Petie “I think Neoma’s teammate is a pervert…” Petie said, the sentence sounding so much more jarring coming from the teddiursa’s childlike mouth. “…… this does explain a lot about how she’s been acting though…” Rose mumbled, still blushing slightly at having had to argue Bea down from the bikini idea. Especially since they’d had to re-explain (for what had to be the… eighth… ninth time?) to Neoma about how it’s sociably unacceptable to show off that much of your body in a casual public setting. Either way the two normal were looking forward to a little not-awkward silence in the hall while they waited for their greninja friend… and their friend’s teammate since it was a safe bet Bea was gonna hang around like a Sticky Barb.
“YOU!!!”
Suddenly the silence was shattered as if someone had set off a canon, the shout reverberating off the halls as Petie and Rose snapped their heads in the direction it’d come from. The buff, and getting buffer by the moment as his muscles seemed to be bulging with every step he took threatening to snap his bandages, the shirtless poliwrath seemed to fill the hallway as he approached them with a measured tread. There was a squeak from Petie… not of fear though but surprise at how fast he found himself set down on his feet by Rose, the kangaskhan side stepping so her smaller baby brother was now behind one of her thick legs and out of the range of fire. “… can I help you?” Rose asked, the usual mirth and whimsy in her tone gone as her voice was flat and guarded… something that made Petie shudder a little since he so rarely heard her talk like that. “What are you…” the water/fighting almost hissed the word you “doing near my team you so-called-battler?” his voice never rising above a casual speaking tone despite it doing nothing to hide the unbridled rage he seemed to exude.
If the comment bothered Rose any she didn’t show it. The kangaskhan was sporting an expressionless mask as she spoke “Because we happen to be friends with your teammate Neoma… your cousin mentioned a few things about you Keith-” she dropped his name with emphasis as if her knowing it might make him step back a little “so lets just get to the point. What, exactly, is your issue with me and how I fight?” Rose lifted her arms in a shrug… Petie finally noticing his sister’s muscles were tensing in preparation if a fight broke out. A thought that had the teddiursa sweating cold as Rose continued “Your cousin wouldn’t go into specifics about it, but I think you at least owe me that much if you’re going to storm up to me and my brother in the halls.” The poliwrath didn’t budge and instead rolled his massive shoulders, muscles ripping as he did so, in an annoyed gesture as he brought his fists together slowly.
“Not MY fault you drag a toddler into your fights… even if calling those insulting displays by that name disgusts me…” Keith said, not even bothering to look at the “toddler” he was referring to as he lightly tapped his fists together in front of him “but if you want to know then fine, I’ll explain it so someone like you can understand.” A loud SMACK sound echoed through the halls as Keith unclenched one fist and punch his other into the open palm “What you do IS NOT battling… battling is a competition between two fighters to see which of them is stronger, faster, tougher, more skilled, or whatever else might set them apart and lift one above the other.” The conviction behind the words hung in the air as Keith spoke… Petie down by Rose’s knees just looking confused as if he was about to ask how that was different from what his sister normally did. Before he could though Keith continued “All that fancy but pointless and unneccisary fluff you add? Those eccentric and unneeded costumes? That has NO PLACE IN ARENA BATTLING! It belongs in CONTESTS and CONTESTS ALONE!!!” He bellowed… as Petie’s eyes went wide, his face paled, and it looked like he might have just filled his diaper in fear.
“…… say that again…” Rose hissed through her teeth, voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, fists clenching so tightly there was a noise like straining leather. Despite how friendly and goofy his step-sister was Petie knew there was one thing, other than people bullying him or his friends, that was guaranteed to make her lose her temper in a bad way. Rose might be at peace with it (far more that Petie was with his own bad former parent issues) but her abusive and controlling contest star birth mother had left the kangaskhan with a deep, abiding hatred for contests. Despite visibly looking surprised at the reaction the poliwrath didn’t back down, his muscles tensing up even more “I said you have no place in battling and should take up contests.” His tone was guarded but unapologetic, as if daring Rose to do something, The little teddiursa just watched helplessly, his knees now knocking so badly he might fall on his butt, as Rose slowly lifted her clenched fist up as if she was going to try and drive it through Keith’s non-existent nose right then and there…
“And I say you’re a blowhard and whoever taught you to think like that is an idiot.” She opted to say instead of punching him, her tone icy cold with fury and hate… contrasting the bug-eyed expression of rage now on Keith’s face. “HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY FATHER LIKE THAT YOU GLITZ COVERED DIVA!!!” he roared so loudly Petie did fall backwards onto his bottom. But whether he went squish or not was lost in the ensuing ruckus as his step-sister and the poliwrath started to SCREAM at each other, now inches apart, as the door to the nurse’s office flew open for Neoma, Brea, and the two nurse’s to see what was happening. The teddiursa just whimpering and covering his ears at the awful den, obviously expecting this to become a full-fledged punch up any moment now… but unwilling or unable to abandon his big sister and leave her to face school security when they showed up.
************************
Mam’s mental map showed her five… no… six… maybe seven people as her antenna trembled and shook, trying to capture as many details as they could despite the echoing shouting disrupting them. The two sources of the noise were blurry and indistinct thanks to the vibrations from the ruckus… but she had a good idea who they were since she could hear their voices clearly. The small figure, which registered as a toddler or child to her senses, next to them was likely Petie since there was no doubt in Mam’s mind he’d be there… but the other four figures the scolipede could only guess at. She wasn’t even sure there was a seventh person there or not. There might be one between the two who were yelling and making all the motion… but the amount of vibrations was blurring it so badly Mam couldn’t tell. She had to assume that two of the blurs were Keith & Eugene’s teammates Neoma and Beatrice… the remaining ones were likely nurses. That was as clear an image of what was happening as Mam’s finely honed sense could put together without trying to sneak a peek of it herself…
And the entire thing had the large bug biting down on one of her thumbs in worry. Her plan had gone spiraling out of control and was heading dangerously fast to parts unknown… which meant her good luck streak was over. Worse it also meant she’d probably gotten arrogant with her planning again. She’d thought it’d been simple and straightforward… send Eugene Rose’s way first, let him fumble through saying hello to her and trying to talk to the girl. She’d figured his crush wouldn’t go anywhere… and if it did, good for him. Meanwhile she’d be sending Keith their way as well, the poliwrath most likely on the warpath due to his feelings about Rose’s battling style, but Eugene would be there to be a buffer to the situation. The croagunk would defuse the worst of his team leader’s rage or, if things went really wrong, fetch the rest of Team Gero before things could go too bad. The end result, at least according to Mam’s plan, would have been a match between Ketih and Rose where the scolipede would have been able to gauge the kangaskhan’s abilities better. She’d expected there to be heated tempers due to the clashing personalities… but not THIS!
A sudden flurry of motion had Mam’s thick antenna swiveling to reconstruct the mental map with the new data and what had just taken place. There’d been a blur of motion from one of the figures, a vibration she’d recognized (from past experience with her little siblings) as the squish noise of a full diaper, and now Petie was gone and the outline of one of the figures on the sidelines was different. Going with what she knew it seemed Neoma, who could move fast enough to make that blur, had scooped Petie up, who needed a change the poor little one, and gotten him to safety where she was cuddling him protectively… which was a silver lining to the otherwise dark news. Especially since the other two figures on the sidelines were retreating back into the nurse’s office, meaning they were probably the nurses… and going to alert campus security. Mam groaned and put her face in her hands, all four of them, at how wrong this was all going. If she assumed there WAS a figure between Keith and Rose then that was likely Beatrice trying to keep them from fully coming to blows in the hallway… so where was Eugene?
She’d been absolutely certain he’d have arrived long before Keith showed up… but there’d be time to figure that out later while she worked out how she’d screwed up. Pulling herself up to her full height she prepared to try and break this up (with the excuse that she was just passing through) before security arrived. She wasn’t going to have one of her messed up plans send two innocent people to detention. Before she could take a step though her antenna suddenly swiveled, picking up something on the very edge of her mental map… no, picking up a someone. Someone peeking around the corner of the opposite hallway and watching the scene. Someone puffing their cheeks out and making a croaking noise. Mam just groaned and put her head in her hands again. That answered her “Where was Eugene” question at least… now she wanted to know why he was only showing up NOW?
If she had to guess based on what she knew about him, as if she wasn’t doing enough guess work and assumptions, he probably lost his nerve halfway to the nurse’s office. He’d lost his nerve, stopped, wasted time worrying or whatever he’d been doing, and then come running when he’d heard the shouting… or something. It was a good as guess as any at this point. Just like she was guessing he was trying not to get involved in an active fight between his crush and his team captain, or just too scared to. Either way him not getting involved was the best call in the situation this far off the rails. If he just stayed where he was while Mam broke the fight up and went unnotic-
“EUGENE! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!”
Mam groaned as she could hear Keith's shout and the scurrying of feet… along with the faint sound of some higher power laughing at her expense. Alongside that horrible, familiar sensation she got when one of her "carefully laid out" plans crashed and burned…
************************
“B-bu-bu-but you… crooooooo… y-you c-ca-n’t have a m-match…”
“WHY NOT?”
Eugene flinched under Keith’s bellow, trying to hide his knocking knees. The situation had gotten so bad Bea wasn’t even trying to cop a feel from Rose as she struggled to keep her and Keith apart… which was a bad sign, maybe an omen of the oncoming apocalypse. One way or another it felt like the croagunk’s world was ending as he struggled to keep from stuttering too badly to be understood “S-sh-she’s p… p-part of a… a d-doubles team, i-it w-w-w… wouldn’t b-be p-practical f-for h-her to f-fight you o-one on o-o-one…” A bold faced lie if he ever told one since Eugene knew Rose fought one on one matches fairly often, he’d watched them after all, but he was hoping they were too angry to realize this. If he could squirm his way out of this without destroying his chances with his crush or destroying his relationship with his team leader then it’d be a miracle of divine intervention proportions… he would just have to hope that-
“FINE! THEN WE’RE GOING TO TAKE HER ON IN A DOUBLES MATCH!!”
“W-what!?”
“I CHALLENGE YOU! ME AND EUGENE AGAINST YOUR CIRCUS ACT! TWO ON TWO!!”
For the briefest moment the hallway went dead silent… as Eugene wondered if this was a long and intensely detailed nightmare of some kind and he’d wake up in a cold sweat any moment now. That or he’d had a heart attack, aneurism, or some other clichéd sudden method to die, was in hell for unspeakable crimes he didn’t remember committing, and this was his punishment. Both situations seemed preferable to the idea this was real and actually happening. A sharp intake of air broke the silence as Rose puffed herself up and proceed to yell right back in Keith’s face.
“YOU’RE ON!!!!”
There was a soft whimpering noise, but Eugene couldn’t tell if Rose’s teddiursa baby brother had made it… or if it’d come from the croagunk himself.
To Be Continued…
Well, Keith is that one guy that even I hate in fights. Everyone has their own way of doing it like Rose does. Not sure I want to know what he'd think of Team Noble, and I need to get a battle with them out someday.
I am looking forward to more of this again, and so happy to see it back! Best of luck to Rose and Petie out there!
I am looking forward to more of this again, and so happy to see it back! Best of luck to Rose and Petie out there!
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