BATTLE OF SOOTOPOLIS MAIN EVENT

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OOC NAME: nagato[break]
CHARACTER: Aoki Hana [break]
FACTION: rocket[break]
POKEMON PARTY (MAX 6) same[break]
NOTES/COMMENTS: short one empoleon & out for blood

TFW PRELUDE: SOOTOPOLIS SCENARIO B-10

character's curry entry

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thread summary: Hana's a relatively new recruit to Rocket, sent out in the vanguard to defend Sootopolis where she encounters the Top Champion of the League, Melody Miro. Despite the obvious power disparity, her tenacity gives the champ a good run for her money and she partially stops Melody from putting all the Electrodes to sleep. All of Hana's taunts get to the woman, and Melody reveals her avatar powers, killing Hana's starter pokemon in her rage. [break]

why is it important?: For Hana, this places her firmly on the side of Rocket, if she was unsure about her motivations before. League is an invading force who throws their strength around, and kills her starter pokemon after it had already been rendered harmless. She's been approached by Navy before this, and they've discussed her reasons for preferring Rocket over the League, but this adds a lot of nuance to the conversation. The narrative the League likes to tell, that it's a force for good, that this is in the best interests of its people and pokemon, rings hollow for her, and this only serves to reinforce old prejudices. The fact that Navy and Melody are heavily associated with each other makes future plotting potential with either of them more juicy as well.

Beads of mercury on the tatami floor begin to quiver and reform themselves, but each slash seems to pare more away than the legendary pokemon can regain at once.

Panting, Hana and her Excadrill hack away at the Melmetal, who grows more gaunt in appearance as it goes on, but grows no less fierce. Enraged, still leaking grease from the eye in the nut on its head, it fights back against its bullies, but to little avail. Each punch grows slower, and the two of them seem to grow faster as their blood begins to boil.

"What do I fight for!?"

Hana asks Inoue with a roar, slashing against the bracers on the metal giant's wrists so that it cannot block a metal claw coming from behind. Her swords scatter sparks across the room, and she's pushed back several paces.

"A sharpedo swims... a staraptor soars... a lycanroc hunts...!"

She crosses the room again, to contest the Melmetal's tantrum. It seems to quiver in quiet sobs as she meets it again and again, not relenting in spite of the pokemon's obvious fear.

"Might as well ask why I breathe!!"

She feints beneath a heavy arm, one that could nearly knock her head off if she misjudged it. She digs her blades in deep, her Exacadrill doing the same from behind, and all at once the living metal seems to stop moving. It looks down at its body, tiny and emaciated, splattered across the room, painting the floor, the ceiling, the walls, and Hana and her Excadrill besides.

Then, Hana pulls her swords free and slips them into their scabbard, the nut atop the legendary pokemon's head slipping to the floor with a violent clang. It blinks up at her, questioningly. She kneels down, and smiles.

Hana smashes her sword against the woman's psychic barriers, one after the other. Cracks appear in midair, shattering, but they are replenished faster than she can break through.

It doesn't matter. She keeps hammering, all her rage focused on the woman in front of her.

"FUCK you!! I'll rip out your guts and hang you with 'em, you fuckin' cunt!!"

Melody's threats fall on deaf ears.

Literally.

All she hears is a constant ringing, the woman's scream temporarily deafening her. Hana probably could have read her lips if she cared to, but she was beyond talking. Talk wouldn't bring back the dead. Talk wouldn't bring back Hideyoshi. A part of her had sunken to the depths along with him, and all sense and measured restraint with it. She was out for blood now.

She wanted to crush that pretty neck of hers. She wanted to claw out her eyes and shove them down her throat, and stop this gods-awful singing.

But before she can get the chance, talons bite into her shoulders. She's grasped and ripped off her feet, huge beating wings lifting her into the air. The Skarmory moves quickly, dragging Hana skyward with another agility. Hana could remember kicking, and screaming. What she had screamed at Melody, at her Skarmory, at the world, she had no recollection. But she remembered Melody Miro growing smaller and smaller beneath her, as well as the sinking ship, and the battle at large growing so small. It had seemed much so much larger on the sea, as most things do.

She remembered what came next, too. A dense energy wave. A massive explosion that swallows the ship they had been on moments earlier. The resulting shockwave that nearly dragged them from the skies, and her Skarmory's frantic flapping to rise above it.

Hana watched, stunned.

In that moment, she had almost wished she'd recalled the Skarmory. That she hadn't been able to be dragged away. That she could have forestalled the Top Champion, and died together with her in the explosion. It would have been a fitting end. Nobody could have said she'd done nothing of value, had she taken the Champ to hell with her.

But she was alive, even though she would rather not be.

Alive, but lacking her Empoleon, her dear friend, the only one she could ever trust. She could not remember a life without him. Even as an urchin amid the ships of Pacifidlog, he was there. Diving for Clamperl. Jumping between fishing junks, and eventually ships that journeyed out to the ocean at large. He had been with her from the beginning, and now he was gone.

Stolen, by...

"Melody Miro," she recounts the name, to nobody in particular.

The rush of the wind muffles her voice. Even her Skarmory cannot hear her at first, but as the iron bird sets her down on the edge of the crater, looking out over the destruction wrought by war, she listens.

"I swear. I will kill you."

The bird coos, reassuring her. Hana places a hand on the bird's dented and scuffed armor, wounded by the Champion's Meowscarada. The Skarmory's heartbeat echoes in her chest, and Hana realizes just how wounded she is, blood trickling out between plates in her armor. The crimson feathers had hidden it, but it was a wonder she still stood.

"Yoshitsune... thanks... "

She looks down from the crater's edge, to see the results of all her 'hard work'...

The moment she sees red, she knows she's won.

Her smile grows cruel watching the Champion bleed. A superficial wound, almost certainly. But with the shock on her face comes the realization she has probably never been cut like that before. Despite her blade, a singer does not play at swords. That only fuels Hana's schadenfreude, savoring the moment like a lycanrock sinking its teeth into its prey for the first time on a hunt.

Gotcha...!

Hana raises her sword, readying a blow to take her head off. She wanted it clean. As much disdain as she had for the Champ, she didn't want her to suffer. She'd make this girl's head roll, and then she'd--

A piercing noise fills her head. Knives shoved into her ear canals, it's all Hana can do to wince and raise her hands to her head. The execution is abandoned. All the swordswoman can focus on is that dreadful noise, and the ringing that comes after...

She looks up, blinking through the pain. It's only then that she notices all the glass, and the spinning roof overhead, peeled away like a tin can. She hadn't even heard it, momentarily deafened by the woman's voice.

Of course.

It wasn't so easy to kill the Champ.

She was an avatar, had borrowed the powers of Meloetta. Cillian Quinn had informed her of that much before she was sent into the field. Hana was fighting an uneven battle from the beginning, but now she was sure to learn just how uneven that would be. Something tells her by the rage in the Top Champ's eyes that she would drive that reality home as sure as she could.

Gods... what is this...!?

She raises her eyes to the floating roof, turned lateral like a blade. It looms above her, heavy like an executioner's sword, ready to slay her.

Then, Melody unleashes it. The metal comes crashing down all at once over the deck of the ship. Wooden slats, the tougher material underneath, multiple decks below, even the hull -- they are sliced through cleanly. And atop it all, was--

"H-- Hideyoshi!!"

Hana calls out to her Empoleon, but it's too late. The blade had severed in half on impact, taking it to the depths. The woman gasps in disbelief, no stranger to loss but still taken aback nevertheless.

"HIDEYOSHI!!"

She calls out to him again, not hearing her own voice. She's too far away to run to the hole in the ship. Too occupied by the Champion in front of her to dwell upon it, lest she lose her life. She wheels around to face Melody, tears welling in her eyes, but she blinks them back.

The boat begins to shift underfoot, and Hana realizes it's beginning to sink - instinct, from spending her formative years on the sea. There isn't much time left, but she must avenge hr fallen comrade before they're lost to the sea.

"Murderer!! You fucking BITCH, I'll tear your throat out!!"

She screams the words, not registering what she's saying. Neither can she hear them over the ringing that fills her head. But that doesn't matter.

Hana raises her swords to swipe angrily at the woman, but it's rage behind her strikes now, not technique. She strikes with a fury cutter, not once, but twice, losing herself in her rage. She doesn't even notice the Meowscarada behind her, preparing an attack...

A screech comes from the skies, and her Skarmory dives downward with her agility, putting herself between her Master and the attack. It fills her to her core, cutting deep into the bird's hollow bones, but she manages to retain her faculties -- owing to her sturdy construction. Letting out a squawk, she tries to alert her master that it's time to go.

The woman, however, seems to have other designs...

Be as bad as the coucilman, was that it?

"You want me to be worse? Dunno if I can, girlie... but sure, maybe I'll try for you!"

She smiles, locking eyes with Melody for a moment. Taking in the rage in those eyes. Savoring it. She was the Top Champion, the apex of the League's fighting force. A girl who had everything, while she had nothing. And yet, when harassed by some lowly Rocket grunt, she'd gotten flustered. It was a weak point, but she played like it didn't bother her.

Hana knew, deep down, it had.

She wouldn't have said anything if she didn't care. The Sheriff's her weak spot, alright.

But there's no time to think up a snappy response to that.

A sword strike comes up from below, aiming for her throat. Hana reels back, thinking herself caught for a moment, but with the screech of claws on metal she notices a hulking shape shoot over her head. Her Empoleon brings down his blade, taking the brunt of the attack. He shouts to her, as if to tell her not to look back. Not to worry. She obliges his request, and presses the pursuit, even as she hears him hit the deck.

And so she continues, racing behind the Champion, trying to reach her before she meets her objective...

Flowers bloom in front of her, another metallic shape harrying the pursuit, this time from the air. Her Skarmory races downward, plunging toward the Meowscarada with a brave bird, trying to take it with one deft swipe of its claws...

CrsEyutb

... somehow, it works.

Hana sighs in relief.

Talons rip away the bombs in front of her before they explode on her, allowing her to close the distance. She raises her Doublade, a wry smirk on her face as she prepares a sacred sword for Meloetta and Melody both.

"No... it's too late, Champ!"

She swipes both swords at the diagonal, perpendicular to one another, cutting in a wide swathe and damaging the ship, the equipment, and perhaps even the Top Champ -- if she didn't get outta the way.

Blood hits the tatami at Inoue's feet.

Hana raises herself up, wiping her chin on the back of her sleeve and eyeing the metallic creature seriously for the first time.

"Fuck... your doc. I ain't finished... yet."

She struggles to stand, but she brushes Hitoshi away with her sword. One hand lets go of her sword and goes to her hip. The Doublade remains floating at her side long enough for her to find the ball, and toss it.

The blinding flash of light obscures the shape inside long enough for it to begin spinning, obscuring its true shape. Nevertheless, it's clear what this pokemon is by the angry squeak ishe makes, and the sharp blades that protrude from her swirling drill run, burying herself deep into mercury flesh.

"... Dig out its heart!" Hana snarls, cheering the mole on.

The Melmetal stumbles backward, trying and failing to grasp the Excadrill as she burrows in its chest. Its hands were made for punching, not grasping, and that weakness becomes clearly evident the more the mole digs, sending liquid metal flying about the room.

Finally, with a sharp metallic clang that sounds like a cry of pain, the Melmetal's eye turns from sad to angry. Its temperament quickly grows aggressive, smashing its own chest with its gigantic iron fists, once, then twice -- a double iron bash -- and the drill is stopped in her tracks.

Lost momentum, the Excadrill leaps back and stumbles. Her claws, dug into the tatami, keep her upright. She's dizzy, but the bent barbs of her drill are the only real harm, shielding iher from the Melmetal's angry strike. She glares at her foe, the hole in the Melmetal's chest gradually filling itself as they stare each other down.

"... There... that's more like it, huh...?"

Hana growls, breathlessly, addressing Hitoshi but keeping her eyes trained on the now-hostile legendary pokemon. Her Excadrill regains her balance, and immediately leaps for it again.

"Love...?"

She's almost taken aback.

Not because she'd expect anything less of the woman, caught up in her romantic sensibility and her lyrics, so lost in her own concept of love she couldn't escape it if she tried, but rather... for the countenance of the man she'd claimed to love when he'd glared at Hana in the midst of their battle.

Whatever 'love' Navy and the Top Champion shared, she'd seen it falter when his cold steel eyes cut through her.

She gives a wide, devilish smile at that.

"How sentimental. But love is blind, isn't it? Your dear Navy's gotten up to quite a bit in your absence, y'know..."

Her Empoleon slices clear through the ball of spikes with a metal claw, rounding on Melody as she draws near. Overhead, her Skarmory is struck by a passing explosive flower, flapping her wings angrily and tossing up a buffet of wind to try and blind Melody's pokemon, with a sand attack.

Meanwhile, Hana laughs.

"You haven't noticed, have you? The way he looks at other women. The way he wields his 'sword' against them... I certainly never got the impression there was anyone else. Maybe he wanted it that way. Maybe..."

Her swords turn her intangible again, and she passed through the notes that hang in the air from Meloetta's normal-type Relic Song, tethered to Melody's own shadow. She appears behind her, pursuing her as she retreats to the sound system.

"Maybe the reason I didn't hear a word about you from him was cause he was ashamed, hm?"

Her voice is nearly a whisper as she says it, a diagonal cut aimed across Melody's back as she retreats with another shadow sneak

She rounds on him almost immediately, a spark of anger in her eyes as he calls her names. Her Doublade bristle as well, newly-sharp edges calling for his blood. She resists their pull, but she stares a hole through him in that moment. Sooner she'd drive a sword through him, but she stops herself.

And then she laughs.

"Hah! Dog loves to bark, don't it?"

He may have seniority over her, but he wasn't a higher rank. Even if he was, she doubt she'd care. She'd made it on her own long enough to know when it was worth cutting out the tongue of those who would disrespect you. This one's insults ran off her like a spring rain.

"These're pokemon, aren't they?" She lifts her blades to show them off. The Melmetal nods along, agreeing with her. "Besides... If I'm gonna kill somethin', I wanna do it with my own hand!"

The nodding Melmetal is stabbed through the gut, and it lets out a squeak of pain. She rips open its gut, and liquid mercury falls to the floor as if it were disemboweled. Without a moment's hesitation, Hana rips both swords free and turns on her heel, aiming for the neck.

She almost succeeds, a hand reaching out and grabbing both swords before they connect. They cut through metallic flesh and are embedded in the creature's hand, before it halts their momentum and stares at her. Its eye remains wet, and it whimpers slightly before it puts all its weight into a mega punch that sends Hana flying across the room and into the wall.

She slumps forward, then falls to her knees, blood running down the side of her cheek.

Hana gives him an ugly look. Somehow, it feels like she's offended.

"What, you expected me to just hammer at it like some berserker? That what you think of me, Inoue? I'm not some numbskull, some blood-drunk warrior without a brain. A samurai's gotta get in the right headspace to slay his foes, right? And if they're not human, especially so!"

She gestures at him with her incredibly-sharp blade. Then, tilting her head, she hefts her sword over her shoulder and gives him a reassuring smile.

"Relax. Relaaax. All in due time, my little dog. We've got all the time in the world, don't we? Not like the League are gonna attack Sootopolis tomorrow, eh?"

She laughs to herself, eyeing the quivering quicksilver foe in front of her. Somehow it seems like it's gotten bigger since a moment ago. Maybe his pep talk has gotten through to it. Maybe it had just quit cowering.

She looks up, at that big, dumb eye as it wipes away a tear.

"Alright, alright. You ready? Now, watch and learn!"

She takes a single step forward and hacks across the living metal's torso. As it passes through, droplets of mercury splash across the ceiling, walls, and floor, parting for the sake of her blade. If it were flesh and blood, it would be a clean kill. However, the lumbering mass just stands there, staring. Only a moment later does it realize anything's happened, and it reaches down to assess its wounds. Metal-flesh flows into the gap created by Hana's sword, and the pokemon rebuilds itself without even thinking.

A shrug, and it delivers a punch to Hana's gut that sends her reeling backward. She winces, letting out a breathless grunt. All the air knocked out of her.

"... F... fuck!"

Faltering, the Melmetal reaches out as if to help. Then, quickly, it remembers its assignment and bows its head. Its sad, watery eye would've surely accompanied a frown, had it the proper anatomy.

The Rocket flashes a wicked grin at the champ's reaction.

That got under her skin, she knew. Whatever she'd said, it was personal. Was it the doubt in her capabilities? No, surely she'd faced those kinds of comments before, warranted or not. Then, was it the thing about the sheriff...?

Her doublade cut apart the burst of music notes, edges of her yukata shredded by a few errant eighth triplets. A drop of blood hits the deck at her feet. But the woman doesn't seem to notice or care, eyes remaining fixed on Melody's, watching intently.

Judging.

"What're you so sorry for, champ? This is War, ain't it!?"

She slaughs.

A flash of light, and her Skarmory shrieks overhead. Feathers sharp as blades rake against one another, shaving off their edges and growing sharper with every flap of its wings. The remnants scatter across the deck as spikes.

"Or... are you embarrassed? What, you got a thing for mister sheriff?"

Navy 's intensity was appealing, she had to admit. Cold steel eyes cut into her every time he looked at her. But a woman like this, she seemed to like delicate and soft things. How'd someone like her come to appreciate the sheriff's rough exterior?

The empoleon struggles to move, wrestling against an unseen psychic force. The pressure that builds around it crushes the floor of the deck around it, but it stands tall in spite of it, letting out a defiant cry and sharpening its blades against one another...

Hana takes a step toward Melody with that. She flicks her wrists, readying her blades for another attack, a streak of blood painted across the deck. Sweat trickles down her brow now. The beast made of magma seems to scorch her, but she does her best to ignore the heat. A sword is forged in worse heat than this!

The little blob before her doesn't react at first. All it does is whimper, as Hana smacks it with the flat of her blade again. Then, one more time, before she plants her foot on it and wrenches her sword free.

She inspects it for damage, while more black grease leaks onto the floor in front of her. It'll probably leave a stain, but nothing worse than the blood stains she's left in her wake all her life. She looks down at it with a grin on her face.

"Damn, never seen my sword this sharp before! You do this on purpose, lil' guy?"

The question seems to take the whimpering, crying little blob off guard. Slowly, it blinks away its tears, and raises its eye to meet the sword that hangs overhead. Sure enough, the light gleaming off the blade is proof of its wicked edge. The strange little pokemon stares in wonder, as if asking itself whether it did, in fact, just do that. Little appendages search its body, as if wondering exactly how, but that doesn't seem to concern Hana any.

"Yo, Inoue... ain't this the sharpest blade you've ever laid eyes on?" She shows him, stepping to the side. Then, with a look down at the pokemon, she clicks her tongue. "... You sure we should be killing this thing? Where'd you get it, anyhow?"

"I dunno, that Navidson guy was pretty tough."

The swordswoman clicks her tongue with a wicked laugh, taking a step forward as she readies her swords in each hand. Tendrils of shadow pour from the cloth wrapped around her wrists keeping the blades steady, bleeding into the floor.

"The line between bravery and idiocy's as thin as a sword's edge, girlie. Only thing that makes the difference is how you wield that edge. Skill and luck, and I reckon' I've got just enough of both to take on even the champ!"

She winks at Melody, and then her image flickers out of view. A moment later, and her shadow sneaks behind the woman, aiming a strike at her neck intent to lop off her head, and dull the ear-splitting song echoing out across the crater.

Meloetta's song rings in her pokemon's ears, but her empoleon stiffens and maintains its composure, focusing on the pain of battle to blunt the pain. It dives forth, cutting between plumes of hot magma and swerving to and fro, delivering a cut as it reaches its magma hide before it rounds back with a flip turn.

Her excadrill's wounds prove to be its undoing. Unable to focus through the ringing of the song in its ears and the wounds it had sustained before, it raises its claws to defend against a giant plume of lava. Metal claws on its paws and its snout begin to burn red-hot, cooking it, but it pushes back with all its can, finally stabbing them into the deck of the boat to keep itself steady for one more move -- an earthquake that rocks all aboard -- before fainting.