[BATTLE] MEROPE VS CRIMSEN

[lou]

ROUND 3
MEROPE VS. CRIMSEN
BATTLE COMMENCE

[merope]

TW: abuse

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true] [atrb=style,width:320px,bTable] [style=float:left; width:320px; text-align:center; font-family:arial; font-size:12px; letter-spacing:-1px; text-transform:uppercase]she calls the mansion not a house but a tomb flashes of white down the hallway. no, red, but you clearly remember white. is it here or is it there? you're shaking and clinging to ophelia and she's hissing angrily because you're not supposed to be like this. you're usually composed on the battlefield. orion is cleaning the blood off of his talons and you know he is here now, in the world of red lights and warning sirens. the labs are being destroyed and the island is going to be lost-- maybe. but perhaps there's no island, because there's a man lying before her with lavender-pink hair and he's lying dead and no, maybe he's sleeping. maybe he's just sleeping. and when he wakes up you know what he's going to do. you know he's angry when you mess up. so you dry your eyes and stand up, because if he catches you crying, he'll give you a reason to cry. you don't need a reason, no. you keep yourself from sobbing and you hold it in, because smiling is what you're meant to do. you're supposed to walk around with a happy face plastered on because that makes him comfortable. any feelings of your own are forfeit. so you've learned to stop feeling, haven't you? your husband may be around here somewhere, and you haven't thought of him in a while, but perhaps he never really happened either. does this little girl have the guts to do such things? she's always had an imagination, though, perhaps that was the source of that fever-dream. the flashing neon of the under occasionally overlays the emergency lights flickering overhead. ophelia and orion follow after. you're not sure if they exist or not because the little orphan girl that no one wants has no friends. she only has artemis, and she should be grateful for him. he's the reason anyone gives a damn about her, because if he leaves, she'll be alone again, and won't that be fun? because caelano and orion are gone, and now she's the only xylander left in the dark. you wonder if this little girl will ever become anything, but you don't have the heart to acknowledge now that she's going to die a thousand times and each time is just as painful as the last. you run your hands along the walls and sometimes they're white and cracked and stained with blood and other times they're dark dank earth, the deep mines of your home. not that you'll admit it to lux, because then they'll ask you how you got out. (if you got out; sometimes you wonder, but then again, would your mind make up this story? wouldn't it give you a happy ending and a handsome princ(ess) to sweep you off your feet? but no one could have gone through this. maybe you're making up your own life, because none of it seems real anymore.) there's more blood on your hands than most, you remember as you step down another hall, almost careless had orion not been out. orion, the last remnant of your brother, named for him as well. the staraptor's breast is coated in blood and his eyes are sharp. he is still hungry for battle. killing a man and his mightyena was not enough. you touch his wing and he looks down at you-- he towers over you. he's capable of tearing your heart out, and you know this well. he's done it just now, ripping into the lilac-haired man, and maybe he's really dead, not just sleeping and he's going to find you and make you apologize for something you did wrong without realizing it. but that's not going to happen, not with orion around. and then he's gone and there again and you aren't sure if you're awake or asleep at all. ophelia knows when something's about to go wrong. dainty and elegant she may be, but she's hardly useless. merope's shaking and laughing and trying not to cry, but ophelia can sense the shift in the air. "someone's nearby," she snaps, tail twitching. "stitching good to fight?" "i don't think so," orion grumbles. the cat's tail flicks. "then you lead the way. if you need backup, i'll handle getting the others out." the staraptor pauses. "you won't be joining me?" and then he notices the liepard's limp. orion is a bird of little words and less concern, but the sharp gleam in his eye softens. the cat doesn't look him in the eye. "maybe. i'll keep an eye on stitching here for now, though." and with a nod, the raptor lifts himself off the ground and flies ahead, with barely room to move in the cramped cave. may those that find themselves on the end of his claws be blessed with mercy, for there is blood on his talons and he's yet to have his fill. NOTES: no attacks yet, staraptor = orion, liepard = ophelia TAGS: 1k credit to ALPHA of GANGNAM STYLE

[1000]

[rs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=width,100] [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; text-align: justify; padding: 5px; line-height: 14px; word-spacing: -1.5px; color: #232323; margin-top: -15px;]This post has 451 words, tagged for Lou's Merope.

[style=font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-transform: lowercase; letter-spacing: 5px; margin-top: 5px;]Kanto, a Hard Nox Life What a bust. Blaine had been defeated and it seemed LUX and NOX were still neck and neck for what was left of the battle and what was left of the island. If NOX failed to capture the island then all those fallen here today will have given their lives for naught and there were a lot of fallen. Pokemon and humans alike scattered the place with their limbs and blood and innards. If he had really taken the time to hang around and get a good look at the whole of the carnage he might have puked. He had seen dead bodies before today but the scale was larger than any other battle he'd participated in first-hand. Now that Blaine had been taken care of there was only one thing the young gentleman wanted to do. Force the remaining the LUX from the island and provide whatever NOX were still fighting with backup. Most of pokemon were still in top shape from the earlier battles. Katon namely had taken the most damage but he was also still concious inside his pokeball so Crimsen figured at the very least his 'pacing' during these back to back to back battles was okay. Still, with all that had transpired thus far there was a hard slab in Crimsen's throat he couldn't quite swallow. The slab was his own paranoia that the worst of this Seafoam story had yet to happen. It was nothing more than his instincts doing what they normally did, programming him to 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst'. His instincts turned out to be right though as he saw the deformed shadow of a demon gliding along the cave walls. Sounds made in their area were subject to typical echoes and since he didn't hear any, he decided not to make any. Or at least, he wanted not to make any. He was a sitting duck as it was though and so without drawing too much attention to himself (or so he thought, but who knew what kind of heightened senses that shadow pokemon might have?) He dropped a pokeball to his side and used it for cover, ducking out the other way. Raiton had the best mobility in this passage way so Raiton would make the best scout. He wanted to say "Eyes open, stay frosty." But he was only 60% sure Raiton would know exactly what that meant. But he couldn't risk the noise so instead he let the electric rodent pick on his body language. In a moment or two the shadow pokemon would be upon them, hopefully upon Raiton first. At least Raiton would probably be fast enough to dodge.... probably. [/style]

[atrb=vAlign,top] ✲ AMB Tanz by the way, [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 8px; text-align: justify; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 4px; width: 126px;] [standing there flexin'] [/style]

[merope]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true] [atrb=style,width:320px,bTable] [style=float:left; width:320px; text-align:center; font-family:arial; font-size:12px; letter-spacing:-1px; text-transform:uppercase]I stole her heart away and put ice in its place. oh, one could only wish orion were shadow. this particular monster's heart is clear of shadow. this particular monster is a prime example of his species: the staraptor, predators by nature, and they fear nothing. his eyes are sharp, taking in any movement. there, in the corner of his vision, is a man, sending out some electric mouse to distract him. it doesn't work. he lets out a screech: "danger!" and ophelia, back near merope, reaches up with her paws and knocks pokeballs off her belt. the beast that appears is a mighty one: a glistening gold luxray, one with massive paws and a well-kept mane. he can see orion through the walls, yet moves with no sense of urgency. ophelia hisses at him to hurry, but rex sees no reason to waste his energy. "orion handles everything, after all," rex says, a hint of bitterness in his voice. (and you're still far away, little girl, trying to make sense of the sounds. and the red lights are back, telling you to leave, but you start staggering forward, towards one of artemis's dogs-- but it's a cat now, a yellow cat that's sleek and likely dangerous. you're not sure if it's real or not, but maybe if you can catch it, you can find out.) the staraptor, several halls away, makes his move. his mighty wings expand and from his mouth comes a small flame, which grows as his wing-beats increase in frequency. the small flame becomes a raging inferno, and the heat wave engulfs the hallway, hopefully burning the rat and its pet alike. orion remains in the air when the attack ends, though there's not much room to maneuver. he'll have to be careful of that rodent. NOTES: staraptor used heat wave TAGS: 1k credit to ALPHA of GANGNAM STYLE

[1000]

[rs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=width,100] [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; text-align: justify; padding: 5px; line-height: 14px; word-spacing: -1.5px; color: #232323; margin-top: -15px;]This post has 697 words, tagged for Lou's Merope.

[style=font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-transform: lowercase; letter-spacing: 5px; margin-top: 5px;] Kanto, A Hard Nox Life He couldn't hear a trainer. The first impression of the bird he saw, whose shadow he'd seen coasting along the wall, was that he couldn't hear nor see a trainer with it. "Rai... use WISH..." Raiton, took no time to follow orders, a scowl on his face matched his trainers'. The bird looked... strange, almost threatening. They were going to handle this carefully and deliberately. When it came to Kanto, Crimsen knew of every single sub-species of pokemon originating from within his region's borders. Hell, how could he not, the list hadn't changed for over ten years. He also knew the mass majority Johto breeds, a standard majority of Hoenn breeds and a small handful of the ones from Sinnoh, Unova and Orre. All things considered he put his money on this one being from one of the latter two regions. It was too soon to make assumptions but the bird's body 'profile' suggested it to be its own regions equivalent to the Pidgey-line as every region seemingly had a commonplace bird type (or two in Kanto's case), most of which had a three stage evolution. In any event he knew the pokemon wasn't a native breed (because a bird in a cave was total giveaway) so it had to be either the recently freed pokemon of a recently killed trainer acting of it own volition or it was a trainer's bird and he simply hadn't seen nor heard the trainer yet. This bird was smaller than a fully grown Pidgeot, so was this stage two or stage three? In the time it took to tell himself it didn't matter what region the bird was from or how many potential evolutions it had left in it, the damn thing was already making its move. The cave system didn't leave it much room in the air so using Fuuton would be more con's and pro's. As the bird opened it's maw and heat began to pool the Kanto native began a sprint, darting right for the raven-esque pokemon. As he ran his hands pushed back his Rapidash-burned jacket from his waist and then from his waist, fell a pokeball, from that pokeball came a light, from that light a construct formed and attached itself to the back of Crimsen's head, the pokeball bouncing back into Crimsen's hand and replaced on his waist. Jinton had taken a well deserved rest during the fight with Blaine and when he was called forth again he was almost excited to back out in the field. Excited for an Abra anyway, which just meant he allowed his head to tilt slightly farther to the right than normal. It was the most movement Jinton ever did without using his big brain. Sliding to a halt right in harm's way the gentleman removed the only pokeball he'd yet to use here on this Seafoam siege. He hoisted his arm in the air as if he was about to spike a football or smash an egg on the ground at his feet. "Jin, TELEPORT!!" Suddenly, what may or may not have seemed like an easy victory to the opposing Flying-type was undoubtedly complicated by the sudden disappearance of its targets. Its fierce heat-laced winds scorched the halls of the cave and Raiton could do nothing in its wake but pray. Crimsen hated having to use his pokemon in this way, sacrificing them his only solace was that the mouse's prayer would be answered soon enough. Meanwhile, back at the side Orion wasn't facing, out popped Crimsen and Jinton and the former finished his motion of slamming the pokemon to the ground and releasing his third fighter. He felt less guilty about the 3 on 1 tactics. If this was some dead guy's bird he needed it out the way so he could find some actual LUX to remove off the island. If this one was the flier of some non-dead LUX guy (or gal) he wanted it out the way before its inevitable backup arrived. From the pokeball emerged one of his lesser used pokemon, Ningen who despite his calm nature was looking forward to standing with its peers. "Ningen... GRAVITY" [/style]

[atrb=vAlign,top] ✲ AMB Tanz by the way, [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 8px; text-align: justify; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 4px; width: 150px;] [WISH @self] [TELEPORT @self/crimsen] [GRAVITY @field] [/style]

[merope]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true] [atrb=style,width:320px,bTable] [style=float:left; width:320px; text-align:center; font-family:arial; font-size:12px; letter-spacing:-1px; text-transform:uppercase]this elevator only goes up to ten you trail after the golden cat, boots clinking in the hallway as you limp along. the luxray's tail flicks as he walks, and you think he's a marvelous thing that can probably pick you up and tear you in two. you want to touch him and stroke his mane, but then he growls and you step back instinctively and there's suddenly a loud ruckus coming from the next hallway. you're not in the caves anymore, but you feel like it. as you take the gun off your belt, you still feel young and powerless and you still look over your shoulder, because you're seeing shadows in the corners of your eyes. still hearing things in the darkness, even if they aren't really there. the gravity in the next room is intense and you feel it push down upon you. orion's now on the floor, and his prey has moved. it's disappointing, but he can manage to fire off some attacks now that he's stuck on the ground. the electric rodent comes to mind. he opens his beak and a blinding light fills the cave as a hyper beam impacts the side of the wall, making the entire place rumble and shutting off a few lights. the raichu, if caught in the blast, would certainly be injured; orion hopes it is, because raichu hearts are especially tasty. you blink, eyes readjusting to the shift in the lights. but one thing, beside you, doesn't worry for a second about the change. rex, with a nod to ophelia, lunges for the girafarig, hoping to over-power it. his jaws clamp down with a vicious crunch. ophelia herself, limping from pain, steps in front of you, and you glance down at her and you wonder how you could have gotten something that's so pretty, so fragile, so perfect. and for the first time you get a glimpse of your opponent's face and the wonder fades, because you've been deceived by pretty boys before. and this man isn't lux, isn't part of the light. you can't trust him. "...kill him." ophelia, not willing to get too close, instead fires off a weak jolt of electricity. with luck, the thunder wave should prevent the boy from doing much. it'd make ophelia's work much easier. NOTES: staraptor used hyper beam on raichu. luxray used crunch on girafarig. liepard used thunder wave on crimsen. TAGS: 1k credit to ALPHA of GANGNAM STYLE

[1000]

[rs=2][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=width,100] [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; text-align: justify; padding: 5px; line-height: 14px; word-spacing: -1.5px; color: #232323; margin-top: -15px;]This post has 1028 words, tagged for Lou's Merope.

[style=font-size: 16px; text-align: center; text-transform: lowercase; letter-spacing: 5px; margin-top: 5px;] Kanto, A Hard Nox Life Raiton did as he was told and used WISH before darting after his trainer. He saw Crimsen stop and then he and Jinton were gone. Suddenly nothing stood between himself and the oncoming torrent of fire-soaked wind. The high temperature winds smothered and burned him and forcibly caused the mouse to fight against them in order to keep moving forward, but move forward he did. The resistance took its tool on him though, between the heat wave and that old Arcanine's extreme speed, he doubted he could take much more punishment. His was starting to feel heavy, as if he was going to topple over if someone so much as pinched on him. As the winds subsided however he began to move forward a little faster. His speed increasing and his wounds healing with every step. His cheeks surged with sparks in anticipation of retribution. The pain was fading away and a self-righteous fury was taking its place. Given the attack he endured and the healing that took place he'd all in all taken a net loss of health. The flyer got a shot in, now it was his turn. He'd been cut off from his trainer but he knew he had to fight on. He had a few things going for him though. He had the type advantage from his multiple spars with Fuuton and other flyers over the years. He knew he had the mobility advantage because a flyer in a cave was just a total giveaway. Plus he could feel the hold of Ningen's psychic power at play, personally he adored the Neck Pokemon for it, it meant flyers couldn't escape to the air. Of course even he didn't have those things going for him he probably would have still lunged forward, it was in his nature to do so. With his body no longer on the verge or collapse he threw it forward with a blast of AGILITY racing down the flier with an agitated glare. He saw the maw open again with a glow and his anger intensified, he was in no mood to nailed by a second attack before he could even get off one. Even if that last time had been Crimsen's fault and not his own. He couldn't think of a plan that was more than 'run faster stupid' so when the hyper beam went off he cried out a Raichu equivalent of 'holy shit' and did his best to power forward, dodging the explosion and debris that was the cave's walls that exploded outward at him. ------ "A god damned Hyper Beam down here? So it's not just annoying it's stupid and/or reckless." His scowl got worse as he thought to himself while the stakes grew higher. It was too late to give Raiton orders now, they would only interrupt or confuse him. He'd put over 12 years into trainer the little thunder-rat, he could let him maneuver on his own for this little bit. As the opposing trainer appeared however, quadruped pokemon in tow, it dawned on Crimsen that being trapped between this woman and her weird bird wasn't the best strategy. "Jin... keep us alive both of us." The Psi pokemon said nothing, did nothing, gave no indication that he was even aware of his surroundings but Crimsen (and the other trainer he was sure) knew better. The Luxray stepped to Ningen quickly attempting to take a bite from him with no direction to do so from its accompanying master. Her attention seemed affixed on him for only the most brief of moments and very quickly she seemed to have made her decision about him. "...kill him. "I don't die on the first date lady... " The Liepard made its move from the distance and was about to shock him. He couldn't tell which move it was, or it was even a move at all. It didn't seem to have the power of the more damaging electric attacks but that didn't mean he wanted to be hit by it. Before he could say anything however he was on the opposite side of both the trainer and her pokemon, another teleport from Jinton. The electric attack aimed for the two of them instead dug into the cave walls. "...it's rude." Luxray and Girafarig were closely matched in both weight and height, head to head neither would dominate the other in a physical tussle. Pokemon moves altered the rules a bit though, because that Crunch was typed to Ningen's inherit weakness and thus was going to hurt like a bitch and do some notable damage. If not Ningen's second head lunging out to caustically bite at alien/unpleasant smells he might have been bitten somewhere more vital, like his first head. There he was again, sacrificing his pokemon, to have to do it again so soon in the same battle was beginning to make him sick. "NINGEN, PSYCHIC THE BIRD!!" If he was going to have to keep letting his team take hits he was going to have to make good on his counter attacks, starting with her bird. "Rai... don't lose..." ------ Raiton had been lucky to avoid being buried by the rocks but luck could only get on so far, he dodged most of the bigger pieces with ease and grace but in the end he'd managed to have gotten conked on the head. He tripped and came to sliding stop just past the heaps of rocks that marked the newly collapsed cave path. With an aching pain in his body once more Raiton stood, more pissed than before. The blow to the head hadn't killed him but it had made him a little dazed and confused. He couldn't tell what was what and his surroundings seemed unfamiliar, friend and foe made no difference to him and he could only clearly make out one thing in front of him. A flyer. His throat let out a growl and he dashed on at the larger target, his balance restored. Sure, he couldn't remember exactly where he was right now, or what his trainer looked like... but there wasn't a rock big enough to hit his head and make Raiton forget his hatred of flyers. [/style]

[atrb=vAlign,top] ✲ AMB Tanz by the way, [style=font-family: arial; font-size: 8px; text-align: justify; letter-spacing: 1px; padding: 4px; width: 150px;] [AGILITY @self] [TELEPORT @self/crimsen] [PSYCHIC @staraptor] [/style]