It’s another alley in Slateport. Another brawl. Navy’s 26, but he feels 16. It’s just before his mom and dad die in the crash. They die young, leaving him to tend to Gabe. The mist rolls in. It’s not that strange of a sight on a Slateport night. Mist rolls off the sea. Maybe there’s a party down by the beach. Navy’s not much for parties. [break][break]
Well, most kinds of parties. This one, he can dig. Fighting. No more Pokémon to distract him. This kid and him are rare breeds. Too rare to live, too dumb to die. Navy pulls himself along by the coarse brick wall. Sliding closer to his opponent and leaving a trail of blood like red graffiti art, Navy took the initiative. [break][break]
It’s hard to hate the kid at this point. That’s the funny thing about men. The more they fight with their fists, the more they understand each other. There’s nothing to hate about this guy.

[break][break]
As his brother’s ghost walks by, that doesn’t stop Navy from socking the Rocket across the face. [break][break]
“Let me see you grit those teeth!”

[break][break]

+ 10 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

The tough kicks Navy into next week.[break][break]
No, he literally kicks him into next week.[break][break]
The kick sends Navy into a wall, which shatters like glass. On the other side is a crying child. One week after that nice little walk in Slateport, his parents are dead. The exact circumstances of the wreck, who’s at fault, aren’t known at the time. In truth, it doesn’t much matter. All that Navy knows is that his parents are dead. Gabe and him will go homeless if he doesn’t do something. There are bills to pay. They’re two kids that are either about to slip through the cracks or be separated.[break][break]
“Please, Navy.” His little brother clings to another Navy, a younger Navy, a dumb kid with an eyebrow piercing and a bad attitude. “I don’t want us to be separated.”[break][break]
Navy, the adult, gets up from the pulverized kitchen table that the street kid put him through. His teeth are gritted. Whether seeing this angers him or the kick angers him, either way he jumps up. Rushes past his brother’s ghost as the Navy of the past gives his reply.[break][break]
“…I promise I’ll keep us together. I’ll find a job.”[break][break]
He rushes back to his foe and jabs him hard on the chest, just over his heart.


[break][break]

+ 20 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

A scene from another life, not his own. A life poorly lived. A life the kid in front of him didn’t choose. No one chooses their life. Deserve has nothing to do with the circumstances of one’s birth. The only thing a man can do is grin and bear it through it all. Try to cast aside the stains of time and look to the future. Take a blade in hand and carve a better world for yourself. That’s truth as Michael Navidson sees it.[break][break]
Fancy thoughts which don’t do him a whole lot of good as the kid comes at him with a chair. It’s something that’s supposed to be reserved for wrestling matches. Raising his hands to cover his sensitive head, he manages to avoid getting double knocked out by the chair. It still sends him sprawling. The bits of metal and wood explode into snowfall as the world grows cold.[break][break]
They’re in a graveyard. It’s cold. Hoenn, despite being on the coast, can still get quite cold sometimes. Gabe sets a wreath down on their father’s grave.[break][break]
“I’m sorry he’s gone.” Gabe says. Navy comforts him with an arm around his shoulder.[break][break]
“Yeah. Me too.” Navy lies.[break][break]
The Navy of the present rushes with both hands and pushes the kid in front of him back into a high tombstone raised behind him.

[break][break]

+ 30 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It’s rough, having an abuser say something like that to you. Navy doesn’t have time to think about what he’s seeing. There’s sympathy there, but ultimately, what can either of them do? They’re bystanders. Passerbys in one another’s lives. Forced to sit through all of this. Tumble through their pasts together. It doesn’t even feel like they’re fighting each other anymore. They’re fighting their own weight. It’s either throw themselves at each other or contend with what the dreams are trying to show them.[break][break]
He doesn’t comment. He’s too busy being tackled. The tackle sends them both diving into the blue. Panic sets in almost as soon as he feels the water around him. All his wounds are on fire. They’re floating in the salty spray, tangled together. It’s a small miracle from Arceus that they soon surface on Slateport’s beach. He’s breathing hard, trying to put air in his lungs instead of blood or seawater.[break][break]
Gabe’s up near the shore, floating on top of Kohryu. There’s a gaggle of girls around him. He’s farther back. Just sitting under an umbrella, letting his brother be the hero. He told the kid that there was no point to raising a Pokemon like Magikarp. Shows what he knows.[break][break]
“Wow, he’s so well behaved!” One of the girls says.[break][break]
“Can I take a ride with you?” Another, bolder girl says.[break][break]
Chicks dig Gyarados, what can Navy say? He takes a moment to smile at what he’s seeing.[break][break]
Right until a wall of stone, an ultra beast from the Meteno raid, tumbles from the sky and crushes them both. Gabe and Kohryu’s bones crunch. Them and the girls are no more.[break][break]
“Don’t waste your time on me.” Another monster says. “You’ve got a meteoroid incoming, don’t you?”[break][break]
Navy shouts in rage. He whirls around and pulls the other kid back under the water. His fists flow like the water they’re sinking back into, flying into his kidneys. Beating against them as if that’ll stop all this from happening.

[break][break]

+ 40 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Kouji, huh? What a sad way to learn the guy’s name. They’re both hellbent on making sure that the other has no time to see their pasts. They can’t dwell on the past.[break][break]
This next blow brings Navy to somewhere he wants to be. It’s an odd thing. A study in contrast. His very form changes when Kouji hits him in the Navidson family jewels. He groans. He rolls on the ground.[break][break]
They are standing in an arena. People are cheering. The name MICHAEL NAVIDSON is plastered in giant jumbotron letters. TOP CHAMPION OF HOENN. WORLD CHAMPION OF THE POKEMON LEAGUE.[break][break]
Navy looks the part. He’s got an elaborate getup on. A big belt, like the kind pro wrestlers have when they have a championship title. He can barely stand. He’s in a pitiful state as the crowd cheers and showers him with roses. The faces of women he knows are in the crowd. Melody, the flower shop owner, the girls from high school he never had time to talk to before he dropped out.[break][break]
And Gabe’s face, too.[break][break]
He musters himself to his feet. The crowd urges him to get up. Begs him to rise. This is a dream born of a man whose cure for the past is to look to the future. A brighter tomorrow keeps him from dwelling on all the pain he has suffered through. He stumbles forward. Clutching his crotch with one hand as if that will dull the pain Kouji sent through it, he slams a haymaker into the side of the kid’s jaw.[break][break]
It’s hard to not go all out after a blow like that.[break][break]
“You little shit!”

[break][break]

+ 50 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

They both have their battlefields. They’re meant for different worlds. Their aspirations could not be more incompatible. The same goal. The same destinations. Just different venues.[break][break]
One to shine in the light, one to be the champion of the dark. Navy isn’t the sort of man to dwell on that. Not with the fight going on. Not with an overhead swing knocking him back to the present.[break][break]
It’s like the whole world goes white. It reforms into a dingy little office. Navidson Solutions. The present, the here and now. His little slice of heaven. An unsung world, forgotten after all of the turmoil he has gone through. Kohryu’s death threw him off. His climb to the mountaintop was forgotten in favor of the bottom of a bottle. It’s filthy. He needs to clean up. He was planning on doing that when he got back to his office, and then all of this happened.[break][break]
It's not real. He knows it can’t be real. They’re fighting through the backstreets of their mind. Grabbing a plaque off the wall, Navy throws it at Koji. He knows the plaque well enough to know its glass will shatter on impact. But a guy like him can take it, right? He wants to be the strongest beast in the jungle.


[break][break]

+ 60 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

A momentary pause in the battle. Navy tackled to the ground, rolling off, climbing up holding onto a bed. Trying to catch his breath. Looking around at these barracks. What the hell is this? His detective instincts kick in, trying to remember every little detail that he can. As a man hellbent on getting to the truth of Team Rocket and their activities in the region, he has to understand his foes. To do anything less is to invite disaster.[break][break]
“What the hell is this?” Navy asks while he paces. “They treat you guys like soldiers in the barracks? This is a messed up way to live.” He looks to his fist and realizes that every punch seems to take them away.[break][break]
He takes in the surroundings. Looks out the window. Imprints it on his mind…[break][break]
And then, he unleashes a barrage of punches. Each one takes them through a different scene.[break][break]
He’s in Melody Miro ‘s office. His Larvitar giggles as he ties his shoelaces together and Navy falls.[break][break]
He’s in Elisabeth Fiorelli ‘s flower shop. Lamenting his past. Trying to look to the future with a bouquet of flowers for a brother long dead.[break][break]
He’s in Josh Devlin ‘s gym. Choking on the starting line. Unable to do something so banal as a gym challenge after the Meteno raid.[break][break]
His barrage careens them through time, not letting them linger in any moment. All lost, one after another. Memories left unviewed.

[break][break]

+ 70 MP

[attr="class","pokeclass"]