[BATTLE] ANGELO VS ANABEL

[lou]

ROUND 2
ANGELO VS. ANABEL
BATTLE COMMENCE

[anabel]

War required anything.

Anabel knew that now. She had thought, before, that she understood this. But oh how wrong she had been.

That last fight she was in, it demonstrated to her the fact that it was really possible to die during these fights. She could still feel the throbbing of her blood where she had been shot! Anabel gritted her teeth and clung tightly to her Claydol as the two of them floated upwards, navigating the crumbling cave. The floor had practically been disintegrated everywhere she could see, no thanks to the last battle she had. Somehow, she had managed to win, and her first priority? It had been to run away.

Somehow during her journey through the cave, she had picked up a gun. Perhaps off the dead body of someone. She didn't care about the source. All she knew was that gun was safety. That gun was going to protect her, just as well as any pokemon. Anabel heard movement, and a moment later a pokemon came rushing out of the shadows towards her. The girl didn't even hesitate. She leveled the gun at it.

Bang.

It was almost too easy to shoot the creature. But the bullet hit and the small form crumpled to the ground. She and her Claydol finished coming over the crumpled ground and landed on safe ground. She saw a shadow darting from wall to wall.

Another bang.

Another body fell to the ground. Human.

Anabel stared, at both this body and that of the pokemon. She held in a whimper. Was this what fighting had been reduced to? Shooting a pokemon and its trainer without a proper fight? Anabel choked back a sob and looked at her Claydol. It, of course, showed no emotions. How could it? Anabel couldn't even discern a face on it. "Let's go..." she mumbled, stumbling through the cave, feeling she was near the exit.

[angelo]

Angelo had managed to escape by the skin of his teeth. Even after Walter had sliced the thick veils of Mycroft's String Shot, there were still stray strands that clung to the fabric of the agent's black jacket. He muttered to himself as he plucked another piece off his sleeve. "Mission accomplished. Can't complain much about that," he sighed to the electric flying squirrel perched upon his shoulder. Molly could only mirror her trainer's heaves wiping away an invisible bead of sweat from her forehead.

He nearly lost his grip on a rock, even with the help of Mycroft's sticky silk wrapped around his hands. "Shit," he hissed as the gunshot rang through the air. Angelo's grip on a jagged rock tightened, the only thing protecting his calloused palms from getting sliced open were a pair of leather gloves bound by String Shot. Molly shook her fur out before going stiff, nose twitching to try and detect any blood. They were not alone in this corridor of Victory Road, that was for sure. "Smell anything?" he whispered to the Emolga, to which she gave him a rigid nod.

Bang!

A strangled cry, and even from the height that Angelo hugged the wall, he heard the voice of a lost life. "Somebody's trigger happy," he muttered, though still not as trigger happy as a particular grown man that he was often assigned to babysit.

He felt the wind against his cheek as something glided past his face. Angelo blinked, crimson irises focusing in on a purple shadow maneuvering silently through the darkness. The creature latched itself onto a wall, swishing its tail from side to side. The Lux agent raised a brow. "About time," he said softly. The Pokémon on the other side of the cave grinned.

Something leaped in the darkness. He felt the weight upon his left shoulder disappear as tiny claws latched onto the back of a hard-shelled Pokémon.

A Gliscor swooped down silently, weaving through the air with an Acrobatics as the Emolga upon its back peered over Donovan's shoulder at the young girl below.

[anabel]

What was she becoming? Someone willing to do anything to live.

Was that the right thing to do? She really wasn't sure. Yes, it kept her alive. It stopped the people that cared about her from being sad. Like Elliot, wherever he was at. Or any number of the people she knew back from before all this happened. Like Ruby, or Sapphire. They would surely be sad if they ever learned she died. So she would not die. She would live, even if that meant making others sad by killing the ones that they cared about.

Anabel was just about to continue onward when she frowned, thinking she had seen something out of the corner of her eye. Queer...she could have sworn nothing was there a moment ago. She turned, and just barely was able to see a form flying straight for her and her Claydol, with something else on its back. Gliscor she told herself after the poison-type's form became more clear to her. And on its back...she wasn't sure, but it had to be another pokemon; a human could never fit on the back of a Gliscor, after all.

"Ice Beam," she ordered of her Claydol, and shards of ice gathered near what passed for its mouth, before a beam of pure ice was shot forth towards the approaching pokemon. Hopefully the Ice Beam would, at the very least, slow her enemy down. "Psych Up!" Anabel ordered of the Espeon she had just sent out as well, watching as the shiny pokemon bulked up her power. Then Anabel leveled the gun in the general area of the enemy pokemon, waiting for the ice beam to either hit or miss. Either way, she was aiming for the small form on the back of the Gliscor. As soon as she saw it, another bang went off.

Bang. Bang bang.

Three bangs, actually.

[angelo]

Whoa whoa whoa, was that a kid down there? Angelo rubbed the back of his neck, hanging onto the wall with one hand and two feet. Was Nox sending children again to the front lines? He'd heard about Iron Island, about the fourteen year olds that Nox had the nerve to send out. He'd also heard about five year olds, but Angelo had brushed that story aside. That was stupid. There was no way that Nox would send such young children to their deaths. Certainly, they could not be that heartless, could they?

He blinked, mentally kicking himself as he tugged his sticky palm away from the back of his neck. "Man that's some strong stuff," he muttered to himself before peering down the sheer craggy face of the wall. A beam of cyan caught his eye as he watched the shadow of his Pokémon bank right to avoid the Ice Beam as three shots rang in the air. Now that Donovan had been discovered, it was obvious that there was a trainer behind their actions. The Gliscor and Emolga were acting too perfectly in sync with each other to be two teamed-up wild Pokemon.

"Guess I can't hide forever," he sighed, letting out a high-pitched whistle that reverberated all throughout the cavern room. By making noise, he was revealing his location, but the echoes also made it more difficult to detect the exact place he was hiding in. The three gunshots below made it quite clear that whoever was down there was armed. Angelo quite enjoyed being alive and decided that clinging to the rocky wall wasn't very comfortable, but it was better than having metal bullets in him.

He let out two whistles, short, then two more longer ones. Donovan and Molly immediately separated from one another at the noise, eyes meeting each other's with a nod. It was going to be a little harder to fight without Angelo giving them verbal commands, but they had been trained in signs as well. Being deployed on missions had forced them to be able to use sign language and other means of communication.

First thing's first, they needed to get rid of that gun. Molly let out a giggle. There was no telling how competent this little girl was with the weapon, but as a smaller target, she knew she'd be safest with being closest to Anabel. With a nimble Acrobatics, she danced in the air towards Anabel's fingers and swiped out using her tiny paws. Once the gun was gone, Angelo could come down safely. Donovan, on the other hand, had melted into the shadows before popping out at the Claydol with his claws in a Faint Attack.

[anabel]

All three had missed? Hm, well, that did make sense. Pokemon were extremely fast beings, after all, and so Anabel let out a sigh, moving her arm to her side and assessing the battle. Two unknown enemy pokemon, yes, and she was positive they were working together. After all, wild pokemon often were not willing to leap onto one another's backs just to deal with a human.

No, a trainer was here, somewhere, but...where? She got her answer, somewhat, when she heard whistling coming from somewhere else in the cave. The teen calmly looked around, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the noise. It was not possible, mostly because of the damned echo that the cave made. Hm...the ice beam had missed too, which indicated to Anabel that these pokemon were stronger. It wasn't all that easy to pay attention to both bullets flying in the air and an ice beam coming right towards you.

Hopefully, the edge of it had at least clipped them enough to slow their movements, but...knowing her luck in this fight so far, that was probably not the case at all. A shame. Anabel's eyes flicked towards the enemy pokemon, watching as they seemed to separate from each other; so, then, they could both fly.

That at least narrowed down what the other pokemon could be. It had a small, tiny little form, which explained why she had been unable to hit it with bullets before. Hm...but Anabel wasn't sure. Perhaps it was some pokemon from Sinnoh or Unova. She wasn't particularly knowledgeable on pokemon from those regions. Either way, it was coming right for her. And based on its speed? Yeah, it was moving way too fast for she herself to dodge.

"Psychic," Anabel ordered; luckily, her Espeon was still right by her side, boosted by the Psych Up from before. Before the Emolga could dare to get close to the gun, psychic energy gathered around her in a Psychic attack. The Claydol, meanwhile, had no choice but to take the hit, and Anabel turned her attention to him, quickly. He was still weakened from the last battle, though she didn't remember how much punishment he had taken.

Certainly enough that a sustained assault right then was not viable for him. "Ice Beam, again." Anabel ordered, watching as her Claydol got even closer to the Gliscor after it struck out, and then he fired off a blue beam of energy, an Ice Beam, from practically point blank range. Hopefully its wings would get frozen. Anabel herself, meanwhile, focused on the other, mystery pokemon. She could see it clearly now, an Emolga. Narrowing her eyes, Anabel pointed the gun at it and shot again, just to convince it to not get any closer to her.

[angelo]

There was another reason why Angelo was hesitant to leave his perch upon the sheer cliff face. In a fight like this, he knew that he had to cling to every single advantage that was handed to him. Gripping a jagged rock with a gloved left hand, he rested his right one upon his thigh, cool metal pressed against his fingertips. He wasn't sure if the fight would come down to bullets. He really hoped that it didn't. He reached into his belt pouch, slipping a pair of night vision goggles over his eyes. Was that a child? Granted, Angelo really didn't want to kill anyone, but he knew that it would haunt him longer if he knew that the life he had taken was barely in their teen years.

He wondered if it was a Nox strategy to send in younger soldiers to catch Lux off guard. At least this one seemed competent, though by her stance and the way she was holding her gun, it was stark clear that she did not have proper training to use one. Angelo slid his pistol out of its holster and cocked it. He knew he had no chance of fatally wounding her from so far away, even if he was on higher ground. That was Wrath's department. But he figured that he didn't need to have perfect aim if he just wanted to wound the girl, not kill her.

Donovan did not appreciate the Ice Beam in his face. The Gliscor hissed and spat at the brutal damage. Angelo grimaced at the noise. Well that didn't sound so good. The trainer let out two short, shrill chirps as the Gliscor bristled, prepared to lunge at the Claydol, but suddenly made a u-turn and shimmied up the cavern walls with a Rock Climb. They would recalculate the situation from above. Briefly, Angelo wondered if any of Anabel's Pokemon would be able to reach him from his perch. He was 90% sure that Espeon would prefer not to get their paws dirty by scurrying up walls, and although the Claydol could levitate, it would need wings to reach Angelo and Donovan.

Molly felt a wave of PSI energy knock her aside into a wall. She growled, shook the dust off her fur, then snapped her little fingers. So close! A loud bang forced the Pokemon to jump back. So the little girl had a bite. Three whistles now, and Molly's eyes narrowed as her body began to glow with a Charge attack. The yellow light brightened the floor, creating an orb of yellow around Anabel and her Pokemon, before Molly shimmied up a wall after unleashing a brutal Shock Wave.

The Emolga sighed as she heaved her body by Angelo's feet. Donovan was pounding on the walls with his hard claws where he felt the walls were cracked. The Pokemon appeared to be perspiring as he used the last of his strength. Molly, on the other hand, grinned to herself, wondering if the Shock Wave had been enough to hit them, or if Anabel had been smart enough to avoid the electricity. No matter. Her work was done.

Crashes echoed about the cavern as the rocks rumbled.

"There goes your escape route, hon," Angelo mused to himself.

Victory Road was raining rocks. If it left puddles of red, that was a bonus.

[anabel]

Suddenly she became aware of herself.

...Why?

Why was she shooting at pokemon?

Because she was forced to.

But she wasn't forced to. She CHOSE to shoot, because she felt she had to. But that wasn't the truth at all. This war, it was...so horrible. So very horrible.

Anabel didn't want to kill people. Kill pokemon. But this war demanded that, because it was, after all, a war, and at its core, war involved death. Anabel felt she was prepared for that, but this battle for Evergrande was showing her that no, she had not been prepared in the slightest. With a sigh, the girl lowered her arm, a troubled frown on her face. She would only use it if, say, a Tyranitar was charging at her and there was no chance for her to get out of its path. There was no point in needlessly killing people. The least she could do was minimize the deaths on both sides. And that meant ending this battle swiftly.

So with that decision made, Anabel ramped her brain into overdrive, calculating and thinking. She was young, yes, but despite that young age she had become the Salon Maiden of the Battle Tower. She was not going to let herself fall here.

One, the Gliscor was retreating up into the shadows of the cave, high up. Based on the sounds, it was probably using some kind of attack to get rid of the rocks. Rock Climb, perhaps? Yes, that was potentially it. So first order of business was to deal with that, while the Emolga prepared for a counter attack. Another Ice Beam shot out of the Claydol, towards the area the Gliscor had flown off in.

With luck, the beam would at least graze it, and it would also light up the cave, to an extent. Anabel then turned her gaze to the Emolga. The Charge was easy to see, and so of course Anabel expected an attack to come shortly after. An attack did indeed come, and quickly she dodged to the right, just barely managing to get out of the way of the Shock Wave. Her Espeon followed suit, quickly leaping to the side as well, only getting grazed a bit by the wave of electricity by her tail.

The Espeon hissed at the retreating Emolga, before psychic energy gathered again in another attempt at Psychic, before the Emolga got too far away.

And then the rocks began to rain.

...Whoever this trainer was, he was certainly trying to kill her. A human would not be able to get out of the area fast enough to stop one of the rocks from falling on them. She had heard the echoes of someone, very likely the trainer that was commanding the Gliscor and Emolga. Her escape route? One could always be made.

Well, if this man wanted to kill her, she would return the favor.

"Parietal," she sent her Metagross out. He had been severely wounded in the last battle, but he was still up.

"Hyper Beam...both of you." Anabel ordered of both her Claydol and Metagross. The two took up positions, and then the beams of intense energy were shot out in the area the Emolga and Gliscor had retreated to, scorching the ground as they roared forward.

[angelo]

It was a simple equation. Angelo only had to peer over the edge with his goggles to see that a Claydol and Metagross had lined up side by side. A white light gathered in the Claydol's eyes, while the Metagross' iron jaws were wide open. Something glowed in the steel Pokemon's jaws. "Shit," he growled as his fingers nimbly produced two Pokeballs. Donovan melted into the capsule after being bathed in a red light, and in the nick of time, Angelo had thrown himself off the rock walls. His fingers fumbled with an extra Pokeball, producing a bold Gallade as he fell with his Emolga. The Pokemon grabbed his trainer in his arms as they fell, all while Molly clung to his shoulder, Teleporting to the floor.

"Walter, Protect," the agent commanded. The psychic-fighting Pokemon's eyes glowed red before casting a white light over his own body and his trainer's. Angelo cringed as the rocks bounced off of the forcefield. It would give him enough time to recalculate his attack plans. Feasibly, he could make a run for it while the Claydol and Metagross were left to regather their energies. He would have been toast if he'd gotten caught up in the Hyper Beam. On the other hand, he could take advantage of their immobility and strike. Sending out Mason with the Claydol still out probably wasn't the brightest of ideas though.

Now that he was on the floor, his disadvantages would be just as great as Anabel's. Large boulders from the cavern's walls obstructed his view, and even greater number falling from above after the pair of Hyper Beams intended for him. Bullets would have very little effect on both of Anabel's Pokemon, though an Ice Punch or two should put the Claydol out of commission.

On the other hand, little girls were not made of rock and steel. Angelo slid the silver pistol out of its holster, cocked it, and slipped through the rain of rocks. Walter made sure he stayed close by. Molly had resorted to clutching her trainer's shoulder with her tiny claws. "Okay girl, I really don't want to shoot you, but if that's what it's coming down to then so be it," he called out. To be fair, Angelo wasn't too comfortable with being out in the open. He preferred slinking about in the shadows with the cover of darkness as his ally.

He turned the corner, gun trained on Anabel. "C'mon, little girl. I was ready to toss my life out the window for my faction when I signed up for this job two years ago, but that doesn't mean I'll go quietly."

His red eyes glowed at her from behind Walter's white forcefield. He squeezed the trigger lightly.

"How about you?"

[anabel]

The explosion went off without a hitch, or so it seemed. Anabel knew better, there were numerous ways to counter a hyper beam. Such as just simply dropping down out of its radius. That would not, of course, work with two hyper beams. Protect could be used, and that would defend one reasonably well from the attacks. Really, anything could have been done, and so Anabel stood there, assessing the spot where the hyper beams had went. At the same time, she quickly glanced over to her Espeon.

"Stay out of sight. If I narrow my eyes, use Psychic on the area around me." Anabel said. There was a high possibility that she would be targeted for some kind of attack, whether that be from a pokemon or from a human, either one could happen. She was not going to take any chances here, not at all. Several tense moments passed, and then she heard movement. It didn't seem to be rapid movement or anything of the sort, however.

No, he was not moving towards her in a hostile manner, and indeed, were it not for the gun in his hand, she would question if he was the enemy at all. But that gun was pointing directly at her, and so she kept her gaze on it as he spoke to her. That voice of his...she narrowed her eyes. He had been at Slateport. he had warned them of the Lux attack. She definitely recognized that voice as the one that had shouted out back then. Anabel even recognized his looks in general, though just barely. She had, after all, only given him a brief glance, but that Emolga of his made him stand out too.

That boy had one too, back in Slateport. He was definitely one and the same. "If you don't want to shoot me, then you don't have to. Simple. You can just have your pokemon gouge off my fingers. It accomplishes the same thing," she said viciously. It probably had been the intent to just knock the gun out of her hands, but still, the Emolga could have easily scratched Anabel's fingers while she was knocking the gun out of her hands, and that could have resulted in a loss of said fingers. And ultimately, death from bleeding out.

So it would be the same thing as shooting her, in Anabel's eyes. "That's why I shot those hyper beams at you. Tell me, do you really want to end this by just shooting me, here and now? Especially considering Slateport. Weren't you the one that spoke up about the Lux then?" Anabel continued to speak to him, not intending to let up. But of course, she would have to eventually, if she wanted to get out of this situation. So it was right around then that she glared at him, thus narrowing her eyes. Instantly psychic energy gathered around her and she was tossed. Roughly.

Her Espeon wasn't all that in control of her power, after all. Anabel landed roughly on the ground, behind some of the rubble that had fallen from the ceiling due to the hyper beams passing by, not to mention the rock climb from earlier. Moments later red beams of light shot out from where she was hiding from, enveloping the Claydol and Metagross as they were returned to their pokeballs. With the fact that they were recharging clear, it would be easy for this man to kill them. That left her with 4 pokemon, counting her Espeon, who was lurking in the shadows somewhere. And one out of those 4 was injured a bit, her Alakazam. She took a breath, and then tossed three pokeballs forward. "Psychic, Psychic, and Dark Pulse!"

The sent out pokemon complied. Psychic energy gathered around the Alakazam and the Reuniclus, and in unison they sent it towards the enemy in a combined Psychic attack. Meanwhile, the Spiritomb, a rare new addition Anabel had attained, sent out a pulse of darkness too, the wave of Dark Pulse seeking to strike.

Anabel, for her part, stayed behind cover. Not that she had much choice. That Psychic from her Espeon had hurt. A ton. Breathing haphazardly, the girl stayed slumped on the ground, about ready to pass out from the exertion of the day.

[angelo]

Angelo played dirty, but he didn't play that dirty. He also doubted that Molly would have been happy about clawing Anabel's fingers off. Certainly, she would not have hesitated upon receiving directions from her trainer, but she would have given Angelo a piece of her mind after getting her fur matted and bloody. She didn't enjoy having the red all over her tiny paws and would have tugged on Angelo's ears to make sure he knew she was unhappy.

He raised a brow as Anabel recalled him as Nox's messenger of Lux's naval attack. A smug grin made its way across his face. Oh, he remembered that. Angelo kept the pistol trained at Anabel's forehead. "Whoopsadaisies," he said with a slight shrug. "I suppose my cover's been blown, hm. Oh, it was inevitable though." A light chuckle escaped from his lips as Walter stood with both arms held in a defensive position as Molly clutched Angelo's shoulder, muscles under her furry body tense and wound up.

Angelo's red eyes tracked the movement of Anabel's hands. Hand with pistol still raised, Angelo produced Mason and Mycroft's Pokeballs. "Mycroft, Signal Beam! Mason, Fire Spin! Molly, in with a Shock Wave!" The Emolga leaped from Angelo's shoulder, body glowing yellow as she released a wave of electricity. Red light revealed a large spider and a large, white fox. A column of fire erupted from the Ninetales while a spectrum of light bursted from the Ariados.

Psychic and dark energy collided with fire, lights, and electricity. Angelo squinted and braced himself for a blowback force, diving behind a fallen rock.

This was how a battle was meant to be fought, with Pokemon, not with weapons.

[lou]

VICTOR: ANGELO

+ 500 to Lux