“Relax.” Navy tries to reassure her with one of his easygoing smiles. “You’ve got this. Josh thought you were good enough, so I’m not gonna hold back. Yeah, we’ve got ourselves a standard two on two. Interesting picks you’ve got there.” His eyes go between the Togekiss and the Absol. The Absol Navy has seen before. A massive specimen. Powerful. To beat that thing, he’s going to need Vortigern.[break][break]

Navy wonders how Josh would have fared, had his pokeball landed upon the black wyrm first. Would he have tamed it? Would it have consumed him and his whole gym? He worries that Josh, hasty as he is, wouldn’t have the constitution to truly tame this beast. How does he know that? Because he didn’t. Not without help. He’s only here today with Vortigern so tame thanks to Freya’s help.[break][break]

They’re lifted up, standing on a viewpoint above it all. A cheering crowd beckons them to fight for their amusement. This isn’t some spectator sport. Battles are brutal, as this woman shall soon be forced to learn.[break][break]

“Vortigern, create your lair. Junior, say hello.” He says code words. Both Pokemon understand what he means. He’s trained these two behemoths well. They’re considered two of the hardest Pokemon to train. One has the disposition of a big puppy that grew up too fast. The other looks like the king of all he surveys.[break][break]

Sensing the hostile intent, both Pokemon conjure rocks. These rocks, like the Pokemon themselves, couldn’t be a better study in contrast. Vortigern destroys the ground between him and his opponents. He scatters rocks flying between here and there, which soon become invisible. It is a floating minefield, almost impossible to navigate. These stealth rocks will not kill him, but they will make crossing the gap towards the two monsters hard for those Vortigern does not want to pass.[break][break]

Junior’s stone edge splits the earth, a small earthquake sending up spikes of sharp, jagged rock blades that mean to deliver vicious strikes to both of his opponents.[break][break]

Like Navy said, he’s taking her seriously. He’s going all out. He has to, if he wants to prove he can defend the region Josh, Gabe, and the rest love so much.







[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

There are but two creatures in the world that can truly hate: man and dragon. Other beasts can play at hatred. They toy with it the way a skitty toys with a plush raticate. Nothing understands the dark depths of that black pit like a dragon.[break][break]
Before Junior’s stone edge kicks up a sand stream, the black dragon watches the Absol taunt him. It is said that Absol can see impending calamity. If there is any truth to this myth, then in the moment that taunt is given, the disaster this Absol sees is absolute.[break][break]
Something is coming for him. It moves unseen through the sandstorm kicked up by the mere act of Junior’s existence, but it comes. He makes no secret of his coming, for a dragon has no need of secrets. No need of plots, no need of schemes. Techniques and technology are pretenses invented by man to allow them to play at defeating monsters like these.[break][break]
Every footstep is a tremor. It moves swift through the whipping sands, faster than any monster has a right to move. The dragon little cares for what a human thinks he has a right to do. In his outrage at the implication made by such a lowly creature taunting him, he consigns himself to a rampage and all the colors that go along with such a thing.[break][break]
Navy watches all of this with the implacable eyes of a battlefield commander. He knows well the measure of his own troops. Vortigern hungers. He has to end this quick, or else matters will spiral out of his control. So far, by the warrior-general’s estimates, the battle goes as he plans.[break][break]
He looks at Junior, who takes the powerful blast of aura. He does not dodge. Dodging too is a trick of lesser creatures. Tyranitar have evolved beyond a need to dodge. It pierces through his armor. Junior feels the same raw, red rage as Vortigern, he feels the pull to attack. It is his nature as well to attack. Tyranitar are creatures which can only, only destroy.[break][break]
Destruction is part and parcel of their existence. They are a living fossil of a time before civilization draped laws and rules over the only real laws that have ever mattered, nature’s laws. The laws of war.[break][break]
“He wants you to hit him so bad, Junior?” Navy speaks down to his Pokemon. Once, Junior was a sweet creature. There is no place for a sweet creature in Hoenn. Sweet creatures end up dead with half their face missing on morgue slabs.[break][break]
“Do it. Second verse, same as the first.” Junior roars in his own approval, ripping at the floor of the stadium with his bare hands. Stones fly. Rocks rush everywhere. This is a battle of monsters pretending to play by human rules for a prize meaningless within nature.[break][break]
Navy looks at the innocent girl commanding this battle. She too reminds him of Gabe. She plays at battle, but she no more understands its deeper meaning than Josh himself does. She lacks his experience, too. He wonders how she will take this maneuver, which is but a taste of what the monsters he has faced in Rocket can do. A rampaging dragon in the throes of its outrage, Junior’s terrifying stone edge, a howling sandstorm whipped up by his Pokemon’s stand stream, all on a field of rocks.[break][break]
Who’s the one being tested here, he wonders. Him, or this girl?


[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin forget Tyranitar's sand stream last round lmao

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

The warrior surveys the ongoing battle from the ramparts. A judge calls out a match-point, as if you could dress battle up with pretense and rules. Both the black dragon and its trainer demand all-out victory. The night slash finds purchase against Vortigern. It stings. It hurts. Pain is nothing to a dragon. This is not some creature raised from an egg to follow society’s rules. The scars across his body, the broken fin, they serve as markers.[break][break]
This creature demands subservience. The mere act of contact with his rough skin demands a toll, to say nothing of the rocks spread across the arena or the sandstorm whipping across them. Junior is forgotten for now. He protects himself at the last moment, raising his armor and wobbling about. He doesn’t have to do much anymore. Simply by existing, he creates cohesion with the black dragon.[break][break]
“This is gonna hurt.” Navy whispers. Whether it’s to the gym trainer, himself, or Vortigern, he can’t say. The bauble glows. Within the sandstorm is a blast of energy.[break][break]
What follows is silence.[break][break]
And then…[break][break]
“▂▂▃▃▅▅----▂▂▃▃▅▅■■■■ーー！”[break][break]
The dragon hungers. His body melts. Any pain felt by the Absol’s slash pales in comparison to this. Mega evolution is like being dipped in a vat of acid. It’s to have your body, down to the cells, rearrange in real time. Even knowing this is coming, Vortigern roars. He is blinded by rage.[break][break]
If his outrage was furious before, it is tantamount to a slaughter now. Within the sand, Vortigern is stronger – stronger and stronger still. He is vicious. He tears at the creature. With scythe, bites, claws, and his frame, he tears. [break][break]
He will not stop until he has won. Such is the nature of a dragon.[break][break]
Navy looks to the audience. He looks to the camera. He smiles.[break][break]
“Rocket, if you’re out there watching. This is what I do to my friends. What do you think I’m gonna do to you?”



[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin we ball, Vortigern mega evolves

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

To charge a foe like this is admirable. It is an act of undeniable courage. There are some battles, in the course of a man’s life, which simply must be fought.[break][break]

Yet charging into the maw of a raging dragon is undeniably stupid. He feels the air churn around him as the Absol charges. She shoots out of the sand at him like a missile. Her blade pierces through his chest. Perhaps that will leave another scar on his body.[break][break]

She saves him the effort of tracking her down. In the midst of his outrage, there is nothing to do except fight. Rip. Tear. Writhe in the agony of his own melting body. His teeth find her. His scythe-claws sink into her. They are locked together, warrior and dragon, in an intimate and deadly embrace. Only the safety measures put in place by the League are keeping her safe. Absol is thrown about, slammed across the battlefield, embraced by this monster.[break][break]

Again and again he slams her into the ground. Tears her. Claws her. This is no prize Pokemon. This is a vicious monster that allows the humans around him to live. If they exist with his knowledge, they only exist with his permission.





[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin we ball, Vortigern mega evolves

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

His first instinct is to roll. Through the whipping sandstorm, Navy runs. Dodging his own Pokemon. Recalling Junior. He can see once more. Everyone can see. The cheers stop as they realize just what Vortigern is doing to Absol. He isn’t concerned about the crowd. He rushes to the gym trainer’s side. Out comes Flora, his Blissey. Before Josh’s medical team can get there, Flora is making sure that she’s okay. She provides healing that only a Pokemon can.[break][break]

But that is not the only problem there that day. The black dragon still rages. Navy stands up, shoulders squared. Everyone looks on in fear as he walks up to the dragon. Absol is forgotten. This towering monster, almost ten feet tall, looks down at him. There’s bloodlust in his eyes. Plain, simple bloodlust. His ears are ringing from the sound of the explosions and the thunder.[break][break]

Yet, when he speaks, his voice is clear.[break][break]

“I’ll do this with you right here if you want.” He says to the dragon. “I toldja the day I fought you with Freya. I’ll fight you whenever you want. I’ll beat you down. I’m not afraid of you, Vortigern.” A wind blows across the arena. “If I’m gonna beat people like that Rocket or Lopez…I can’t lose to you. So make up your mind, you wanna go?”[break][break]

The black dragon studies him for a long moment. Eventually, the mega evolution passes. Vortigern allows himself to be recalled to his ball. The fight is over. Flora tends to Absol, too.[break][break]

It looks like he just might get his first gym badge.[break][break]

The warrior looks at the camera once more. He says nothing, but he’s looking into the eyes of every Rocket. Let this be a message to them.



[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Guess it’s over, then. Navy recalls the dragon back to his ultra ball, the only fit lair for such a beast. Hearing the whistle, he turns and sees Josh. The ceremony will come in time. Looking somewhat bashful at what just transpired, Navy crosses the distance between them, gets right up to the fence.[break][break]
“Yo, man.” Navy says with a nod, feeling bad that he couldn’t fight Josh himself. “Surprised it wasn’t you fighting me out here today. Shame about that. Sorry about what happened with the girl.” He frowns, feeling terrible. It was a harsh lesson, though. A good one for anyone who would fight on this battlefield called Hoenn.[break][break]
“And about the Absol.”

[break][break]

+ Josh Devlin

[attr="class","pokeclass"]