”Ha! Please, just call me Mars, Mr. Del Mar was my dad.” The man grinned, but his words weren’t entirely true. After all, Del Mar had never been his father’s surname, and it wasn’t even Mars’. It wasn’t as he was about to explain all that to Doug though, since that sure would have defeated the whole point of going by an alias. Keep your secrets, Martín.
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”It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Captain Douglas.”
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Mauville resident as Mars was, of course he knew who the city's gym leader was. Not to mention he was probably the reason why a crowd had gathered around them, even if the man didn’t seem to mind this fact at all. He stood there, both casual and confident; his hand resting in the pockets of his shorts while a light blue shirt laid unbuttoned, beneath it a t-shirt with the words ”If they’re not P.O.G, they’re not POG.” Not the most PR-friendly of slogans out there, but Piazza Oro Grande Bank’s merch department had been really feeling their memes lately. ‘Get all the kids young adults through FOMO’, they said, ‘It works like a charm.’
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”It’s been busy, but fun. How about you, should I expect to see you up in the leaderboards?”



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+ John Sullivan
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”Fair enough, Doug!”
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Truth be told, Mars had been too busy to pay much attention to most of the matches that had taken place during the tournament, but it wasn’t all that difficult to guess who had been doing well. There were likely to be a couple of dark horses here and there, to be sure, likely an incognito Team Rocket member or two, but there were also people who kind of had the heavy weight of expectations on them, didn’t they?
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Like Doug over here, as he himself said.
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”Ha! Don’t sweat it, I bet you’ll make everyone back at Mauville proud. I’ll be rooting for you as a fellow resident.” Did he really count as one when he only spent a third of his free time up at his penthouse in Mauville Hills? Maybe, maybe not, but out of all his current residences in Hoenn, it was the one he liked the most. Plus, he did really like the gym leader's attitude, so why not root for him?
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”Though, if you ask me, winning or losing a battle doesn’t matter much as long as you win people’s hearts – that’s the real fight.” At this, the man smirked. Words spoken as a CEO would. That’s what Mars was here for: PR, his inner competitive nature being set aside for the sake of focusing on the more important battle at hand. To him, this tournament was about looking good and putting on a show, and he sure could do that.
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"Oh, but don't think I'll just hand you a win though!" He laughed.

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+ John Sullivan
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Leave it to the man who named himself after an ancient deity of war to know a thing or two about battles. His tournament record didn’t point to that at all, of course, but in his eyes that was preferable. Imagine if he somehow, for some reason, won a bunch of them at this tournament and Team Rocket suddenly saw him as an important asset or something... That would have been annoying and too fucking troublesome. So for now, Mars was fine with putting on a good show and not really trying. Plus, Azul really loves the extra battle points.
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When the teenage captain released a Kabutops onto the field, the man whistled, impressed. ”Damn, nice one.” And it was indeed a nice one. Fossil Pokémon weren’t all that common, for starters, and considering that Mars himself favoured both Water and Psychic types, it put him in a bit of a tough spot when it came to type looking for type advantages. That was fine though.
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”Ezzelin, how about you have a go at it?” The man asked when reaching for a Love Ball, the flash of light emitted by it coming to reveal a beautiful and dignified Sylveon. With large pink ears perking up in attention, the Intertwining Pokémon looked at the Kabutops, a strange blue mist beginning to be released from its body as MISTY TERRAIN expanded over the arena.
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Mars grinned. ”Your turn, Doug!”

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Seeing a water type dive down to the deep and wait to attack a poor confused landlubbing pokémon that couldn’t find its opponent was always fun, but Ezzelin was no fool of a Sylveon, and he had dealt with Mars’ own water types one too many times.
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He didn’t go near the edge, in fact, he stayed far enough so that the Kabutops would only be able to directly attack him from beneath if he jumped out. And, with a nod from Mars towards his right, he went from platform to platform, heading to towards one corner of the arena. This diminished the area from which the attacks could come, but of course, it also decreased the amount of escape routes he would have if an attack did come. This was okay: that was a risk Mars was willing to take when standing within the influence of Misty Terrain.
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”How about you sing us a nice song?” The man asked then.
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But, sadly for everyone involved in the match and those watching it as well, ‘a nice song’ to the Sylveon happened to be a loud, painfully high-pitched cry – DISARMING VOICE likely being heard even beneath the surface.
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What can I say? Gotta love moves that bypass accuracy checks?


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The Del Mar family didn’t really exist (yet, at least), but if they had, one of their many mottos would have gone something like this: What do we do when facing destruction? Easy, WE ADD TO IT!
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War was always in Mars’ heart, and apparently, this effect transferred over to his pokémon, because the moment the Night Slash hit, Ezzelin was out for blood.
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”Get it, boy.” Mars said as if he were talking to a guard dog, and he might as well have, since the Sylveon growled as the platform began to collapse – jumping onto the nearest thing that popped out of the water surface: the head of the Kabutops.
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He jumped away towards a platform a second later, mind you, but not before an ominous full moon appeared in the sky despite it being a nice cloudless afternoon. MOONBLAST had been summoned by the fairy type, and it was aimed directly at the other pokémon. A couple platforms hit by it were destroyed, debris falling to the water.
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Meanwhile, the Sylveon ungracefully swam to clear the distance to land, shaking his body in an attempt to dry himself once he was safely on the ground. He had been hit, and he needed a second to take a breath and rest after all that.
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Mars whistled. ”Damn… that’s going to take some repairs, huh?”


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”Ha! No worries, it was our fault too. I’ll chip in.” Leave it to a man like him to just say that casually. It wasn’t that Mars felt particularly bad about destroying the arena, honestly, but he knew it would have looked pretty bad if someone like him just caused all that damage and ditched. PR, people! PR!
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Too bad his Sylveon couldn’t have cared less about any of that, and he definitely had more important concerns at the time. Concerns like, for example: the debris suddenly flying towards him from the water.
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In an effort to diminish the effects of an attack that was almost unstoppable for a pokémon with his speed, he bravely stood his ground, DISARMING VOICE once again ringing through the field. Although, this time it was with the intent of breaking up the debris, but if the Kabutops also didn’t enjoy the sound, then that sure worked out well for Ezzelin!
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He was still hit, and he winced. But stubborn as the Sylveon was, he refused to fall, jumping over to the next platform since he now knew the sound would probably lure the destructive Kabutops.



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”Least I can do for my city’s gym leader, right? Let’s call it a donation from Piazza Oro Grande Bank!” The man grinned, and it was a grin that was made as if for a toothpaste ad. You never know when the cameras are rolling, after all, and a man like him must always look his best no matter what.
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His Sylveon, on the other hand?
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Well, his Sylveon wasn’t looking too good, but he stood his ground nevertheless. He had a plan. Crazy plan, but hey, still a plan!
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With glowing eyes, Ezzelin stared at the Kabutops, the power of PSYCH UP granting the same boost in speed the other pokémon had, and thus allowing him to jump out of the way at the very last second. It wasn’t an attack, and he didn’t completely avoid it – still being thrown back by the sheer force of the impact. But, he didn’t grant the Kabutops the satisfaction of slamming directly into him, and small victories are still victories indeed.
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Honestly, there was no way this could have lasted much longer though. Mars knew this.
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After all the jumping around and being barely able to counter all these attacks, the Sylveon was tired; panting and barely being able to stand. It would probably only take one more attack.
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Or would it now?


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+ John Sullivan
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