The insult caused Rex's teeth to bare slightly, his eyes flashing with the pleasure of this verbal spar. It's nothing compared to the clanging of swords or clashing of blades, but there's a cruel beauty to wordplay that whets the young man's appetite.

He's not alone. He thinks of keiko mori and her arms wrapped around his broken, bloody form.

"Whatever you say. Whatever you say." Rex watched as Kusanagi cleaved through the Aqua Ring with the ease of a hot knife cleaving through butter. His Azumarill rises to take the hit for his trainer, and he falls to his knees before Rex. There's a flicker of rage in Rex's face, but it's quickly overshadowed by the pride of the fight.

"That's a sharp sword. Well, bad news. Mine is sharper, and mine is going to cut yours in half." He produces the ratty Pokeball of a Gallade that had been with him since he was young. He throws the Pokeball with a fervent intensity reserved for an ace in the hole.

And, as he emerges, Gallade Mega Evolves.

The Kartana's strike is met with a Psycho Cut, and the clashing blades cause nearby trees to split and sever.

---

Hitoshi Inoue
+30 (post)
+50 (tag Temp)
+50 (take revenge)
+50 (respect for a warrior)
+50 (highest point - battle mania)
_50 (lowest point - unhinged)
+50 (reflect on why they're fighting)
+50 (get inspired by Keiko)
+50 (antagonistic exchange)
+50 (pokeball importance)
+50 (pokeball throw)
+50 (KO)
+10 (mega)

He remembered this Annihilape. He remembered how it raged and screamed and cursed at the world for the mere curse of existing. Luckily, that meant that he knew how to deal with it. He'd let it rage until its heart gave out.

Then, when Hitoshi thought that he had the advantage, Rex would turn the tables.

The invigorated Rage Fist smashed into Azumarill, sending it crashing backwards over a mountain of corpses. Red stained a blue body in the paint of the slain, and the Azumarill groggily got to its feet. It was like being hit by a train.

An Aqua Ring surrounded Rex and his Pokémon, and he took a deep breath as life returned to his flesh.

"Rustboro?" Rex cocked his head in confusion. "Why would I give a damn about Rustboro?"

Realization quickly dawned, and the young man began to snicker. His snickering increased in volume until it resulted in a roaring howl. He shook his head and held up a bloodstained finger.

"Wait, do you think I actually care about this whole war? Like, at all? Do you think pushing me back to Rustboro will stop me from hounding you until I beat you? Until I win?"

---

Hitoshi Inoue
+20 (post)
+50 (tag Temp)
+50 (take revenge)
+50 (respect for a warrior)
+50 (highest point - battle mania)
_50 (lowest point - unhinged)
+50 (reflect on why they're fighting)

As the Rage Fist falls upon Rex and threatens to atomize Rex, time seems to crawl to a stop. Rex grinned, teeth bared into a wolfish grin as the attack fell towards him.

"WHAT'S UP? MISS ME!?" Rex roared as his Azumarill lunged forward, his adorable face twisted into a ferocious snarl as it caught the fist with their Huge Power. Leveraging their massive strength, the name-stripped aqua rabbit retaliated with a Play Rough.

Rex, meanwhile, was covered in blood and gore. A gash on his leg made him limp along, yet despite the heavy wounds he had taken from his battle with Tempest Quinn, Rex hardly felt encumbered.

Instead, he felt alive.

"I've been practicing!" Rex grinned at the Rocket Beast. "Can't you tell? This time is gonna be different!"

---

Hitoshi Inoue
+10 (post)
+50 (tag Temp)
+50 (take revenge)
+50 (respect for a warrior)

Pancakes, huh? He could utterly demolish a plate of pancakes, right now. They were cheap, too. It meant that the courier couple could actually pay for the damn things without breaking the bank.

Except...

"Oh right! I got my bonus from that Sea Mauville restoration effort!" Rex snapped his fingers in remembrance, digging into his pockets for an envelope, thick with cash. He waggled it slightly, beaming with pride as he did so. Money was good, and fighting alongside ollie morales had helped too. "The folks at the Ranger HQ? They love me!"

By that, it meant that a secretary had given him a once over, nudged her colleague, and called him the 'Water Ops guy'. Hopefully there was another crisis soon. These bonuses were pretty sweet.

"So I'll pay. We can grab the new Yung-i-oh set too." He led her by the hand as he kept yapping. "Maybe I'll buy a mansion..."

And when they eventually got those pancakes, they were delightfully sweet.

---

keiko mori

Ironically, Illeana's explanation does make sense. Replace 'infinity' with 'life' and the whole explanation gets a whole lot simpler. Why didn't academics just call it life energy, instead of making it sound cool and mystical? Before Rex can yap back at the Head Scientist, Victini appeared.

Then everything went up in flames.

Hot. Burning. Home. Oh, how victory hated them all. Yet the Three Days War has long since ended, and even the majority of the Megalopolans stranded in Hoenn are long gone. Victini was just a rabid soul that remained affected and broken by war, and that was something that Althus Rex could respect.

Littleroot had changed him, too.

"All right, now this is what I'm talking about!" He felt immense satisfaction at seeing Robin's Pokémon falter before the V-Create. It meant that this was an attack worth meeting head on. If Rex couldn't take this hit, then it wasn't worth living. It wasn't that Robin Coello was inept. She evidently was not. Rex was just built different. "Alright, Gallade. It's no Roar of Time or anything like that, but..."

He smiled widely as he and Gallade marched forward to join Robin's symphony of self-destruction, the Psychic-type's blade turning a hue of aquamarine as he prepared to use Aqua Cutter.

Hell, maybe this would get him the illusive badge he craved if he bragged about it enough on the internet.

"...we can block this one! Isn't that right?"

---

illeana reyes lam logan robin coello

"Nah, don't be stupid." He shook his head. "It just means my girlfriend would be the strongest."

The amount of pride in his voice was palpable. Rex genuinely believed in Keiko's potential, even if it was, in part, due to his own twisted perspective on strength. Keiko Mori would reach her pinnacle, one day, and she would become a challenge for anyone who strived to beat her.

It was such an exciting prospect that Rex positively vibrated with excitement. This region's potential was off the chart. Rex wanted to see where the trainer population of Hoenn ended up.

"What's wrong, Ms. Courier?" Rex raised an eyebrow as he climbed out of Granite Cave and collapsed alongside her. "Struck a nerve?"

His grin grew wider, and his voice adopted a singsong tone.

---

keiko mori

Another breathy gasp escaped Rex's lips as he returned to reality. Memories of Littleroot were buried as Togekiss flew away, leaving a trail of fluffy feathers behind. His eyes sparkled as he felt Keiko's hand brush his face as she cupped his face.

"No, no... It was just so exciting. So exhilarating!" He shook his head, before popping the joints in his hand. Blood covered his arm, though he wasn't sure if it was his or Fisher's. After clasping his hand to ensure that it worked, Rex nodded in approval. "Good, it still works."

He was still functioning. He was still strong.

Yet not strong enough. Compared to Fisher and that odd Floette, Rex and Keiko were mere sparks in the sun. Yet as those two members of Team Rocket disappeared into the distance, Keiko Mori's spark became his sun.

"I'm fine." His forehead touched hers, and he slowly lowered her arm so that it could rest. "We're fine. That won't happen again. Next time..."

He'd kill them.

"We'll win."

---

keiko mori
+70 (posts)
+50 (thread flashback)
+50 (show throwing style)
+50 (get hurt by a pokemon)
+50 (importance of Pokeballs)
+50 (character strength)
+50 (character weakness)
+50 (highlight another character's strength)
+50 (respect another character)
+50 (antagonistic exchange)
+50 (get inspired)
+50 (meaningful character/pokemon moment)
+50 (faint)
+50 (back and forth)
+50 (take revenge)
+50 (reflect on fighting)
+10 (mega)
325 (loss/faction conflict/complete)

Gaius's Pokemon Mega Evolved. Rex's did, as well. From a remarkably classic Pokeball throw, the trainer's locket opened to reveal a Key Stone. As the Aura Sphere flew forward, Gallade's blade cut the energy ball in two, sending the two halves careening into a nearby forest.

Boom! Several Pidoves flew into the sky.

"Good, good, good! Mega Evolving off the back is bold, but I fuck with it! You've gotten stronger!" Rex laughed as his Gallade ran forward, footsteps pounding on the ground as it twirled through the air, intent on spilling the Lucario's blood with an Aqua Cutter. "But so have I!"

They've fought once, but Rex knew Gaius well. The older man wouldn't be satisfied with a mere spectator sport. He craved something more.

Who was Rex to deny him?

"Fetch!" Rex picked up a rock, tossed it up in the air once, before throwing it directly at Gaius's head.

---

gaius marcellus
+10 (post)
+50 (tag another)
+50 (remember a past thread)
+50 (mega)
+50 (respect strength)

Althus Rex does not run. To run would be to deny a purpose almost three years in the making. Rather than balk in the face of this Rocket Beast's Sygna Suit, at his power formed from a bond with a Pokémon, Rex did the opposite.

The Gallade flies backwards. Rex marches forward, ducking under tooth and claw in order to maul the Rocket Beast. There was no grace to the attack. No grand plan. This wasn't even a battle between Team Rocket and the League, anymore. It was just an ugly, brutal mauling that meant everything and nothing.

There's an intimate moment where the duo are close, and he smells the sweat and shit and and blood that radiated from this man. Proof that this man was a fighter. Proof that he was a warrior worth overcoming.

His Gallade, meanwhile, closed the distance, preparing for another slash at Compass's neck.

Their intimate moment is shattered when Rex scoops a sharpened rock from the ground and attempts to brain Temp in the temple.

---

Tempest Quinn
+20 post
+50 Pokemon KO
+50 (rock bottom)
+50 (character strength)
+50 (character weakness)
+50 (respect
+50 (Mega Evolution)

"Oh." He stared at Illeana with the wide eyes of a student who nodded in understanding, before immediately going back to doodling cubes in his notebook once the lecture was over. He cocked his head in confusion when she mentioned Infinity Energy. "I don't know what that is."

The education system hadn't bothered to bring Rex up to scratch by the time he had graduated. Infinity Energy this, Dynergy that, Tera Crystals over there, and sometimes someone would mention Z-Power before Rex slammed them with a Breakneck Blitz. Still, he nodded along, so that Illeana didn't think that he was a complete idiot.

Besides, he needed to impress Lam to get his Gym Badge from him. The objectives were simple: take a selfie with Victini, get Lam's badge, get some extra victory for the road, fight some shadow mimics, and run off into the sunset.

It was a good plan, all things considered.

Wait.

Shadow mimics?

"Uh oh." Rex knelt as a corrupted version of Robin attempted to brain him with a malignant fist. He tapped a Pokeball in a fluid motion, before his Gallade emerged to split the alternate version of Robin in half with a Psycho Cut. "Gotcha!"

He didn't make a note that this shadow Robin was less scary than the normal Robin, with her thousand yard stare and vaguely murderous gaze.

"Dunno anything about a snare! I'm just here for the fight!"

---

illeana reyes robin coello lam logan
GALLADE IS OUT, USES PSYCHO CUT ON PUNISHED ROBIN

If the fist connected, Althus Rex would die. His bones would fold like glass under the weight of a man who, in another life, could have rivaled gods. Yet he chained himself up and refused to allow his true potential to overflow. It was curious. It was so strange.

As the fist closed the distance, Rex could tell, even now, that this was not everything that Fisher was capable of.

Yet it would be enough to kill Rex when it landed. He wasn't fast enough to dodge it. He was in the middle of a motion, and to fight back now was an impossibility.

Yes, when that attack hit, it would-

CLANG! The arm of Gallade intersected, a sword being used as a shield so that the knight could save his lord from death. Pokemon were more durable than humans, and yet the knight's arm still cracked bone. Grigori Sokolov had broken the bone of a Pokémon with but a punch.

And Rex continued to smile. He turned to face the Light of Ruin, which fainted his Azumarill with but a scrape. The young man continued to smile.

"This is a good way to go." Rex murmured. "It's beautiful. I was never even close. We were never going to beat them. That's so..."

A dry swallow as Rex reached out towards the light, fingers outstretched.

"...exciting."

Yet instead of death, his hands find Keiko's. Her fingers intertwined with his, and dragged him off into the distance. Gallade and Azumarill disappeared in a red haze, and he squeezed her hand tightly as she saved them both from destruction.

"Let's do this again, sometime!"

---

keiko mori Grigori Sokolov Alba Evovae
+60 (posts)
+50 (thread flashback)
+50 (show throwing style)
+50 (get hurt by a pokemon)
+50 (importance of Pokeballs)
+50 (character strength)
+50 (character weakness)
+50 (highlight another character's strength)
+50 (respect another character)
+50 (antagonistic exchange)
+50 (get inspired)
+50 (meaningful character/pokemon moment)
+50 (faint)
+50 (reflect on fighting)
+10 (mega)

Finn made it exactly seven steps into the festival before getting interrupted by a new challenger. It just happened to be that the challenger in question was only several inches tall and struggled to wield a sword.

'toge toge?'

A Togepi waddled up to the swordsman's person and nudged on his foot, before looking up at him with large, innocent eyes. The Togepi was remarkably huggable, very snuggly, and would likely look impeccable on a mountain of Flying Sword School merchandise. Katana-wielding Togepi would likely sell like hotcakes.

'toge toge! pi!'

Togepi raised his arms, before a young man emerged from the crowd, unceremonious in his attire and evidently frazzled. Orange hair stuck up at strange angles, and parts of his 'Fight the Power!' t-shirt were torn from various sword exhibitions and Pokémon battles. A large amount of scars indicated clumsiness, but it also indicated remarkable endurance.

"Did you find one, Togepi?" Rex said, finally catching up to the egg Pokémon. He put his hands on his knees and took a deep breath, before looking up at Finn. "That's good! I was running out of challengers!"

---

Finnegan Yang