[BATTLE] BRIANNA VS. STELLAR

[STYLE=float: left; background: url(http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/571f3782a86b76c502aca57b8e9a4390/http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/Onigiri_Iconz/Axis%20Powers%20Hetalia/Belgium/27.png); width: 100px; height: 100px; border: 5px solid #883A48; border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; -moz-border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; margin: -25px 0px 0px -25px;]

AND I KNOW

nothing's gonna stand in my way, no matter what the people may say

[STYLE=margin: -10px 0px 0px 0px; width: 180px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -1px; color: #A05668; text-align: left;]tagged,

Oh God You Again

words,

dun care

in character,

"dialogue."

"What do you see, Tinywings?"

A girl clung to her Koffing like a flotation device as it bobbed in the waters by Ever Grande, a Natu perched on her head. Birds passed overhead and water types surfed through the winding, rocky currents, but Brianna remained hidden behind a chain of boulders floating in the water. Any fliers were too high up to see her, and any swimmers were dealing with the waterfall. There was a mission to focus on, after all: who would notice a single woman bobbing somewhere in the currents?

Brianna Taccardi, notoriously unlucky Lux Sentinel (in training), had a good feeling about this mission for once.

cruelty and death tunnels collapse ninjas shoot a little girl and the green-hair freezes the seas as the old man dies in his tower

they keep coming and coming and coming and coming and STOP

The Natu on her head, eyes tightly shut, suddenly let out a small chirp. Its eyes snapped open to reveal a brilliant blue glow, prompting the bird to give one more squawk. Its Future Sight had given it vague glimpses of the Nox assault: namely, that this particular wave would finish landing in a minute or so. It was far from a precise measurement, but it was just enough info to give Brianna an idea of when to jump into the fray. From there, it would be time to ambush the ambushers.

Birds continued to pass overhead, the flood starting to dry up as the Natu predicted. But the psychic type seemed uneasy, letting out small, uneasy squawks and trembling slightly. It seemed almost scared to enter the fight, trembling even as Brianna gently stroked its head.

"Calm down, Tinywings," the girl gently commanded. Her voice was stern in an almost parental way, concerned but at the same time adamant in her decision. "Hoenn's been considered the big threat in Nox for this whole war. If we cut the barbarians off here, imagine the promotions we'll get! And what better way than to use their own methods against them?" Coldness gave way to an almost cruel glee. Whether out of malice or her sense of duty, Brianna seemed genuinely excited to start this fight.

Tinywings looked at her, nervousness slowly giving way to trust. It still seemed uneasy, but if trainer wanted to fight trainer would get a fight. The bird nodded, inquiring to the others if they were ready. DOGARS, bobbing gently in the water, let out a lazy grin and an agreeing "Koff." The third Pokemon, a Gengar, seemed to materialize from nowhere as it phased through a rock. It grinned eagerly, red eyes sparking with a desire to fight. Warlock had taken a shine to Sentinel duty more than even Brianna herself, and it was clearly ready to win one for Lux.

The Gengar took his trainer's hand, completing the circuit. Tinywings' body began to glow, and in a flash of light they were Teleported off.

The four appeared between the Pokemon Center and a ridge, Brianna and Warlock crouching to avoid being spotted. Nox continued to land on the island, whether from air or from sea, but this wave was beginning to stop. Brianna looked from target to target, trying to mentally isolate the weakest looking one. Most held no interest to her, merely landing and running off to their mission, but the girl with the Swanna caught her eye.

Brianna remembered the some of the rules of being a Sentinel: strike first, strike fast, strike hard.

She and Tinywings hung back, DOGARS and Warlock advancing in their stead. The Koffing let out a thick, rolling Smokescreen to try and blind the pair, continuing to grin obliviously. It looked almost innocent, as if it didn't even know it was in a war. Sadly, Warlock was much less placid. The Gengar's usual shark-like grin widened as it pointed its finger into the air, electricity crackling around it. Aiming its hand like a pistol, it launched an arcing Thunderbolt right at the Swanna.

If one looked closely, they'd see the Gengar had mouthed a word. "Bang."

template by DARKEE of BTN.

[STYLE=float: left; background: url(http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/571f3782a86b76c502aca57b8e9a4390/http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/Onigiri_Iconz/Axis%20Powers%20Hetalia/Belgium/27.png); width: 100px; height: 100px; border: 5px solid #883A48; border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; -moz-border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; margin: -25px 0px 0px -25px;]

AND I KNOW

nothing's gonna stand in my way, no matter what the people may say

[STYLE=margin: -10px 0px 0px 0px; width: 180px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -1px; color: #A05668; text-align: left;]tagged,

Oh God You Again

words,

dun care

in character,

"dialogue."

Brianna let out a small, sadistic grin. One shot and the scales were already tipped in her favor: power like that was what made Warlock one of her favorites. But what was a good opening strike without a follow-up? Her opponent was already mobilizing a comeback, releasing an Aggron and a Ampharos.

Aggron. The sight of the massive steel type reminded her of him. The man with the shovel from that hellhole Sinnoh, who brutally crippled her Toxicroak and left it to die. Her eyes narrowed with pure hatred as she peeked at the battlefield from behind the Pokemon Center. The mere sight of it caused her blood to boil at the memory, the pain that poor ZIts was put through . . .

Warlock took one look at the Ampharos and Aggron aiming their attacks, turned to his Koffing teammate, and gave a sarcastic wave. Before DOGARS could comprehend what had happened, the Gengar had sunken into the ground and left him to take the hits. The Koffing's eyes widened with realization, before slamming shut to guard its pupils from rocks flying at its face. Ampharos' thunderbolt, being aimed at Gengar in the first place, merely flew past harmlessly.

DOGARS wobbled back, its eyes opening to reveal hurt and fury. Not just at Warlock, but also the pair who tried to knock him out of the skies. Seemingly aware of the battle for the first time, it began forming a murky Sludge Bomb inside of its gullet. The ball of gunk launched right at Ampharos, heralded by a furious "KOFF!"

Back at "base," Brianna released a Croagunk from its Pokeball and turned to Tinywings. "Tinywings, hop on Pimple's head. Its time for death from above," she whispered, doing her best to avoid being heard. "Pimple, as soon as you're too close to avoid, smash that thing to rubble." Pimple nodded obediently as Tinywings nervously fluttered onto his head, clearly shaken from its future visions.

In a flash, the two Teleported away.

Tinywings stayed airborne, but Pimple soon found himself falling. He was a few feet above the Aggron, just enough to prime an attack and aim it where it hurts. Lax eyes hid determination bubbling in its gut: Zits had been like a father to him, and even the thought of revenge turned his buck-toothed smirk into a grin. He primed a Focus Blast as he fell, aiming to fire it right in the Aggron's face.

As the frog fell, Tinywings flew away from the scene of the fight. Despite being part of these plans, the bird himself wanted nothing to do with the violence. Still, its green, pea-shaped body would be quite obvious in the clear blue skies of Ever Grande.

Warlock had yet to resurface. Since he had abandoned DOGARS he had been missing in action, seemingly lurking somewhere underneath the surface. However, if Stellar took time away from the battle to look down, she might have noticed a second shadow standing right next to her first. It cheerfully waved and smiled, a familiar sharp-toothed grin spreading on its face.

In a classic Gengar trick, Warlock had mimicked Stellar's shadow. And it topped the deception off by bursting from the ground, conjuring up a Sludge Wave to try and knock Stellar to the ground. Warlock's showboating shadow-puppetry jeopardized its assault, however. Its foolery left just enough time to get away.

template by DARKEE of BTN.

[STYLE=float: left; background: url(http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/571f3782a86b76c502aca57b8e9a4390/http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/Onigiri_Iconz/Axis%20Powers%20Hetalia/Belgium/27.png); width: 100px; height: 100px; border: 5px solid #883A48; border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; -moz-border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; margin: -25px 0px 0px -25px;]

AND I KNOW

nothing's gonna stand in my way, no matter what the people may say

[STYLE=margin: -10px 0px 0px 0px; width: 180px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -1px; color: #A05668; text-align: left;]tagged,

Oh God You Again

words,

dun care

in character,

"dialogue."

DOGARS looked at the Ampharos, eyes still narrowed in anger. The electric sheep was aiming a punch at a floating Pokemon, and only anger stopped the Koffing from laughing as it lazily floated above the Ampharos' punching range. It close its eyes and began to shake like an alarm bell, psychic pulses radiating from around it. This Psywave snaked its way toward Ampharos, moving in unpredictable patterns that usually threw off most attempts at dodging. Would the Ampharos succeed where many others had failed?

Pimple ducked, feeling the tail streak over his head. Sheer force alone nearly bowled him over, but the Croagunk stood his ground defiantly. As the Iron Tail cruised above him, he scooped up some dirt from the ground and spat into it. Acidic spit dissolved at the handful of soil, turning it into a caustic, muddy mixture. As he recovered from his dodge he hurled the Mud Bomb right at Aria, a dirty Pokemon using a dirty tactic.

Warlock didn't have such luck. He expected a weak, easy to dodge flamethrower from a twitchy, shaken Vulpix. He wasn't expecting a blast of such magnitude, nor a mid-battle evolution. The Gengar's juke to the left wasn't enough, and searing flame burned at the right side of his ghostly body. A malevolent hiss escaped a closed mouth, smile finally flipping to a frown for the first time today.

Brianna smiled cruelly as she oversaw the battlefield, an increasingly nervous Tinywings approaching her side. Tinywings was innocent: the Natu abhorred fighting, and just wanted everything to just get away. Attacking Ever Grande was bad, but all this violence was bad too! It worriedly nuzzled up against Brianna's leg, clearly unnerved. Brianna, on the other hand, was relishing in it. She tried being nice at Slateport, and it got Puffer killed. She tried making friends at Cinnabar, and it just resulted in her fighting an unstoppable man of steel. She tried tolerating that accursed Angelo, and all he did was mock and belittle her every step of the way.

Her eyes flared, a small snarl coming over her face at the memory of that perfect asshole. No more Mrs. Nice Brianna. This was a battle she would end now. And she had a plan, too.

Her Sentinel training included rudimentary stealth training, but she had done her own research into the field on off hours. One technique she particularly enjoyed was throwing her voice, hiding her own location while fooling anybody around her. She cleared her throat quietly, ready to make use of her little trick. "Warlock, Pimple, fall back! DOGARS, cover them!" The voice seemed to be coming from the path to Victory Road, rather than the Pokemon Center she was actually hiding behind.

After her announcement, however, the girl quickly released another Pokeball. A Trubbish, her brother's most trusted Pokemon, appeared in front of her and smiled and easygoing grin. "Blobert, I know you're no fighter, but I need you now. When DOGARS lays down the smokescreen, I need you to go set up a trap. Are you okay with that?" The Trubbish nodded: he had set up toxic spikes to keep Rockets out of Lavender Tower before, and he could do it today at Ever Grande. It was just keeping out criminals like old times, right?

Like clockwork, everything started in motion. Warlock stopped his counterattack to float away from the battle, sticking out his tongue in mockery. DOGARS, hostilely glaring at him, followed. He began to belch out a rolling black Smokescreen, which the ghost and Koffing quickly vanished behind. Pimple followed suit, chuckling darkly as he dashed into to fog.

Sneaking in from the side, Blobert had also run into the blackness. His top began to quiver as a hail of Toxic Spikes sprang out. They littered the pathway, guaranteeing that any frontal charge would be greeted with a painful surprise. Pretty much the entire team was hidden behind the smokescreen, with the exception of Tinywings and their trainer herself.

Brianna wanted nothing more than to be there with her party. But they needed this ambush: they hit hard but didn't take hits well, and if they were out in the open for much longer they'd crumple like paper. Besides, she had her own ways of joining the fray . . .

The girl quietly drew a knife, expression neutral. Now it was just time to wait.

template by DARKEE of BTN.

[STYLE=float: left; background: url(http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/571f3782a86b76c502aca57b8e9a4390/http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/Onigiri_Iconz/Axis%20Powers%20Hetalia/Belgium/27.png); width: 100px; height: 100px; border: 5px solid #883A48; border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; -moz-border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; margin: -25px 0px 0px -25px;]

AND I KNOW

nothing's gonna stand in my way, no matter what the people may say

[STYLE=margin: -10px 0px 0px 0px; width: 180px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -1px; color: #A05668; text-align: left;]tagged,

Oh God You Again

words,

dun care

in character,

"dialogue."

Brianna smirked as she noticed the Aggron rearing up for an Earthquake. With it being one of Nox's favorite tactics, pretty much any Sentinel with a brain learned to call one when they saw one. It began with gentle rumbles, just like the ones happening now . . .

The girl briefly thanked her luck for remembering to pack a team of fliers. At this point, the Earthquake would be worse for the other trainer's Ninetales and the Ampharos than it would be for any of her own.

"Really?" she whispered to Tinywings, hiding a chuckle. "On Akiyama's turf, of all places? Ace, get us out of here." A Pokeball opened, revealing a menacing looking Crobat. Brianna climbed on its back, Tinywings fluttering by their side. The gentle rumbles slowly turned more intense. She knew her team could handle themselves: they were clever, and pretty much all were combat trained. Confident, she had Ace fly from the Pokemon center to get toward the skies. Preferably while Stellar was still too busy shaking to focus on some unimportant building in the background.

Just as the girl predicted, her team snapped into action at the rumbling. Warlock and DOGARS broke off their arguing to take to the skies, continuing their debate while floating above the ground. Pimple, seeing an opportunity, hopped right onto DOGARS' head. The three were airborne, and pretty easily able to avoid the cracking ground. DOGARS was much more alert now, firing a large Sludge Bomb to knock the incoming Power Gem out of the skies. Everything was moving like clockwork.

Except for one.

Blobert wasn't nearly as well trained as the rest of Brianna's team. While the other three went through their earthquake drills, he merely covered his head with his arms and trembled. As the earth shook he shook harder, terrified of what was about to happen. Warlock flew toward him, trying to grab the Trubbish and lift him away, but the intensity of the shaking earth kept yanking him away from the ghost's grasp. Warlock was helpless to do anything, letting out quiet swears as the earth shook and cracked and split.

As the quake subsided, all was still. And so was Blobert, eyes shut and trash leaking. The Trubbish roughly shuddered with each breath, letting out pained gasps as if it was suffocating. Brown, sludgy trash, its life blood, hit the grass in steady drips. It was still alive, but how long would it stay that way? Tinywings fluttered from behind the Pokemon Center, not caring if its cover was broken. It hovered by the Trubbish's side, desperately looking it up and down and chirping to try and wake it up. The others turned to look at the damage, as still as statues.

For a while Brianna's team was silent, facing their comrade mournfully. Then they slowly turned around, accusatory eyes aimed at Stellar. DOGARS, dopey unawareness replaced by burning indignation. Tinywings, eyes watery and uncomprehending. Pimple, smirking knowingly as he looked at the Aggron and cracked his knuckles.

Finally Warlock, whose eyes shined red with a hatred never witnessed before. His body quaked as if he was about to burst into tears, selfishness giving way to concern over the one teammate he actually cared about. His mouth slowly opened as a ghoulish shriek filled the air. Pain and anger and hatred and even a bit of fear all melded into a discordant cacophony as the Gengar pointed a single, purple finger at Stellar.

And then he lead the charge.

Old wounds were forgotten as DOGARS and Warlock flew forward, side by side. Blobert was more important. Pimple stood on top of the Koffing as he dashed, hands drawn back to gather all of his spirit into a single burst. The resulting Focus Blast tore through the air, fuelled with indignation as it hurtled right at the Aggron's chest. Warlock's finger began to crackle as he furiously pointed at Stellar's Noctowl, a bright blue Thunderbolt arcing toward the bird.

Staying behind the pack was Tinywings, whose tears dripped to the ground as he quietly hopped away from Blobert's side. His eyes began to glow, not a bright white but instead a malevolent lavender, as an Ominous Wind began to blow around him. With a single, piercing squawk the wind shot forward, carrying bushels of abandoned toxic spikes with it as it pushed toward Stellar and her team. Even a failed ambush could still find a purpose.

Brianna herself had no more words. Tears fell on her Crobat's back as she watched from a bird's eye view. And yet despite this, her face remained perfectly calm. She was broken beyond emotion, besides the occasional smirk or stern glare. Only dull, cold eyes hinted at the pain within. She gripped her knife with new resolve, whispering to Ace as the bat flew behind Stellar.

"Kill."

Ace didn't even hesitate, swooping down from high above in a mad frenzy. A horrific Mean Look on his face warned his quarry not to run, fangs spread and eyes widened. His fangs glowed a sickly violet, readying a Poison Fang to try and crunch down on Stellar as he flew past. Brianna herself knew distracting her shining mutt was of utmost importance, and as Ace descended she aimed her knife right at it.

The two descended, getting lower. And closer. And closer.

And that's when Brianna hurled her knife.

template by DARKEE of BTN.

[STYLE=float: left; background: url(http://img-cache.cdn.gaiaonline.com/571f3782a86b76c502aca57b8e9a4390/http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac113/Onigiri_Iconz/Axis%20Powers%20Hetalia/Belgium/27.png); width: 100px; height: 100px; border: 5px solid #883A48; border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; -moz-border-radius: 20px 20px 0px 20px; margin: -25px 0px 0px -25px;]

AND I KNOW

nothing's gonna stand in my way, no matter what the people may say

[STYLE=margin: -10px 0px 0px 0px; width: 180px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: -1px; color: #A05668; text-align: left;]tagged,

Oh God You Again

words,

dun care

in character,

"dialogue."

Life has a strange way of doing whatever it wants, whether you want it or not. A nice, surgical strike can turn into a frantic orgy of violence. You can get sucked into a battle you didn't even think you were needed for. You can have a plan go incredibly well until one little incident pushes things across the line.

You can fuck up and maul one of your own best friends, just because of one tactical misstep.

But you don't let life stop there. You don't curl up in a ball and cry. No, when that happens you get back up and strike twice as hard. You take up your blade and your ball for the sake of those who suffer. And you don't stop until you've fixed the problem, you've gotten revenge on the killer.

You don't like it, do you, Brianna? You don't like the loud, piercing shriek that comes from your Crobat as he's struck with electricity. You don't like how his eyes bulge, how he's knocked out of his charge and instead sent flapping backwards to try and recover. You don't like how his purple body jitters and trembles, paralyzed in electricity's deathgrip as he has to fight twice as hard just to stay airborne.

As your steed recovers, you turn to the side to check on how everyone else's doing. You see DOGARS and Pimple, two younger teammates who haven't even interacted much, immediately weather the Surf in unison. The Koffing jets forward to breach the wave before it crashes down, as the Croagunk crosses his arms to avoid falling off. As they slammed through the wave, bruised and water-logged, Pimple hurls another Mud Bomb as DOGARS clouds its eyes with a Smokescreen. Don't you see it, Brianna? It takes tragedy to bring loners together. Not that you're a stranger to tragedy: remember Puffer? And Zits? Both taken from you way too soon. But did it really make you stronger?

Or has it just broken you?

While you look you see Warlock, a horrific scowl on his face. Like your shadow he echoes your every feeling. Unlike you? He's actually competent. He thrusts a finger into the air, a Wil-O-Wisp spiralling outwards to fight fire with fire. The flames burn each other out as the Gengar rushes forward, eyes glowing menacingly as he flings a Shadow Ball at the Ampharos who hurt you. You look and can't help but grin, if only to hide tears. He's brave and protective and strong and everything you're not and never will be.

How does it feel to be worse than a shade?

Then as you finish looking you turn and you see the girl with a gun and as she aims you can't help but panic. You already lost somebody, but that wasn't enough, was it? You won't learn until you get another killed, will you? And even though you panic you keep a cool face because that's what Bale and the Devils said and they were never wrong about this. "Ace, Acrobatics!" you shout and the confidence in your voice sounds absolutely foreign to you.

The bat sweeps gracefully to the side but suddenly stops. You look and you see its poor, twitching body and its desperately flapping wings and you know fate's made its judgment. An ear-splitting bang smashes your hearing as you and your Crobat fall in two different directions. The landing hurts and you don't stand. Because you can't, or because you don't want to? But then you steel your courage and get on your feet and swear with pain because the lightning burned your leg. That's right, it did, but you were too busy worrying about the past to even notice.

As you stand you look and see your Crobat rise. Blood leaks slowly from a hole in its left wing, but its right wing defiantly grabs at the ground and pulls it forward like some kind of limping wyvern. Tiny, rear wings push it forward as its head glows purple, taking the pain of the lightning and the pain of the bullet and the pain of moving and letting it all go. Its eyes shut in a meditative peace as it lurches forward with a swing of its wing to try and Zen Headbutt the girl with the gun.

But you can't even look at Ace, can you? You're too worried about what's going on elsewhere, aren't you? You turn and you look at the garbage bag with the Natu next to it and wish nothing more than to be there with them. But instead you're here, and helpless. All you can do is look at the Natu, radiantly glowing eyes visible even from so far away. You know its seeing with Future Sight, and when it lowers its head and shuts its eyes mournfully you know it doesn't see anything.

And your heart breaks.

Everything's cold and painful and you just want to stop it all and run off somewhere but you can't. Then the cold thaws, then melts, then replaces by burning as you're filled with hatred. Filled with hatred for the murderer, who took three of your greatest friends away from you. But its not the girl with the gun and her electric lamb. Its not the man with the shovel and those horrible, horrible gears. Its not Angelo, that asshole.

You scowl and you glare and you hate as you try to envision the killer, and all you see is a mirror. Don't you feel accomplished, Brianna? Isn't sacrifice what being a Sentinel is about? Sacrificing your morals, your Pokemon, your sense of self. You don't like that, do you? It fills you with rage, doesn't it? No? Just a numb, dead feeling?

Congratulations. You're on your way to being a true Sentinel.

template by DARKEE of BTN.