Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Salieri? Salieri!?] Chen Zhen called down. The second cave in offered him no openings to get down to the tunnel. Not even the thin Vine Whip was getting through. And worst of all, he couldn’t tell what was happening down there. If she was hurt, if she was scared. How do I get down there?

The Pansage looked around in the grassy ruins. Salieri had fallen down there somehow before. He’d have to find the way she did it, or else he would be useless. Chen Zhen got up and began his search.

Meanwhile, Liuye was on the ground after the ceiling had collapsed, as the Focus Blast happened more or less at the same time Salieri attempted to free her Pawniard. Now the Thunderbolt was incoming, leaving Liuye to fend it off on his own. He had no defensive moves to speak of, and he didn’t know Detect like Salem did, so he’d have to match the offense with his own.

He closed his eyes in concentration and swiped his bladed hand across his body, releasing a purple glowing crescent of light. The Psycho Cut flew at the Thunderbolt, pushing against the electricity in an attempt to slice it in half. If it worked, it would disperse the attack into harmless energy and go right through to Watchog.

But it didn’t. Instead, the two attacks clashed and then exploded. The explosion was nothing compared to the Focus Blast, but it was enough to force Liuye backwards a few steps to avoid being blasted. Purple sparks hung in the air briefly where the attacks had met.

Luckily for Salieri, her hands were exceptionally fast. They had to be to utilize her family’s One Inch Punch that she so diligently taught Chen Zhen and Liuye Dao. It would be dishonorable to not have mastery of the technique on her own. Her arm snapped back fluidly like water, evading Bill’s grasp as she leaned back onto two legs and backed up into Liuye Dao. Now the two of them were back to back, facing down opponents on both sides, both in fighting positions.

It’s like fighting a soldier. No wonder they dress up like knights...although these uniforms are impossibly tacky... She tried to think if she had stocked up any potions back in Striaton this morning. No, that wouldn’t work. She had, but pokemon medicine wouldn’t heal her arm, which she had rationalized was dislocated. If I could fight at full force, this would be a different story. She’d need to pop it back into place if she wanted to fight Bill.

Liuye’s been hit only once, but how long can he keep up this defense? We can’t get past this guy like this…we’re going to have to beat him to get by, before we get caught in a landslide. Let’s push some buttons.

“Alright, not bad, not bad,” she told Bill with a nod and a mock clap. “Looks like you guys have got some moves. I underestimated you before.” The Battle Girl lowered her stance and lightly pressed the palm of her dislocated arm onto the ground. She clenched her teeth and in one quick motion snapped her shoulder around. A loud popping sound rang through the cave as a look of pain briefly flashed onto Salieri’s face.

This look was replaced more or less immediately with a smile that slowly crept bigger and bigger until Salieri was showing off her bright white teeth, including her sharp canines. Her amber eyes were flashing with determination. “I won’t make that mistake again. Been a while since I picked on someone twice my size.” She stopped smiling for a second to lick her lips slowly, and then her shark like smile returned. Along with her eyes, it was like a demon that savored battle had possessed the girl.

With her recently relocated arm, she motioned with her fingers for Bill to come at her. “C’mon, tough guy. Unless you think you can’t beat a girl and her slave.”

Salieri and Liuye Dao looked over their shoulders at each other. They nodded and then sprang up. Liuye buried his claws into the ceiling, clinging like a ninja. Salieri didn’t have bladed hands like Liuye, but her Pawniard had created grooves in the ceiling from before when he launched himself at Bill’s foot. She used these to grip to the top of the tunnel.

The Sand Attack flew past where Salieri and Liuye Dao used to be, and now headed towards the ginger grunt’s eyes. As soon as the dirt had passed underneath him, Liuye dropped down at the Watchog’s head knee first with a Break Break attack. His trainer still held onto the makeshift handholds in the ceiling, waiting to see if Bill had been blinded before making her next move. She was also trying to figure out the easiest way to kick him in the balls. Because he was a sexist creep, and Salieri wanted him to pay. Now that she had both arms fully functioning, she felt far more confident in her abilities. Nobody laughs at a Del Forrest and gets away without getting kicked in the balls, you ginger piece of crap.

Salieri grimaced and rotated her lower half, kicking at the debris to deflect it while dropping down. “What does that even mean?!” she roared while launching a high roundhouse at Bill’s chest. "And why are you here?!"

Based on how he had countered their moves before, it seemed that he preferred to grab as a counter. It made the most sense, since Salieri was relatively small and light. So Salieri kept her legs limber to see if he would try it again, preparing to snap it back if he did so. The kick was just another test to see Bill’s moves.

The rock that Salieri had kicked flew at Liuye, who pushed off of it in midair to land on the ground underneath the Flamethrower in a three point landing. It seemed like the Watchog’s arsenal was full of powerful moves, including two super effective ones. Wasn’t Team Plasma against the idea of using pokemon as weapons? Why did this grunt carry around one that was solely trained for battle?

Regardless, Liuye couldn’t dwell on the fact for too long. Watchog had plenty of ranged attacks that would end the battle if they were successful. He needed to disable his opponent quickly. Now that he was in close, Liuye rose from his crouch to deliver an uppercut at the Watchog’s jaw with the flat part of his blade. The Brick Break emanated an invisible fighting spirit pressure as Liuye Dao attacked, and if it worked then Watchog’s jaw would be broken. He wouldn’t be able to launch any more attacks from his mouth.

Watchog’s attack was almost like a belly bump. Not the most powerful way to launch a Rock Smash, but definitely one of the most unlikely. Fortunately for Liuye, he was covered in blades. Which was an excellent defense in this situation. He actually considered himself lucky that the Watchog would attempt this attack, because he had a perfect natural counter for it.

The ribcage blades charged up with the power of Brick Break, and Liuye would allow the Rock Smash to close in while he himself was moving forward. Liuye Dao would allow himself to take the hit, but the result would essentially be Watchog stabbing himself on Liuye’s rib blades. In a really, really unfortunate place for the critter.

Salieri, meanwhile, brought her leg back quickly after the kick. Ouch. She had no idea there was armor under there, but she should have seen it coming with the whole knight theme. She had no idea where else hidden armor would be, but she knew that there wasn’t any on his face. Behind Bill, she could see a shadow sweep across the tunnel, and a grin quickly flashed onto her face. “I thought you guys were supposed to be paragons of righteousness. BullSHIT!”

Salieri gently wrapped her fingers around Bill’s outstretched wrist, intercepting the punch and vaulting upwards using his arm as a launching point. Following her jump, Salieri let go of the wrist and brought her legs up and towards the sides of Bill’s head in a swift and impressive display of flexibility. She was trying to clap both of her legs on the sides of Bill’s unarmed face, and when the move was over she’d bring her legs back down and land on her feet assuming everything went as planned. And if it didn’t, she was pretty sure she had a contingency plan coming.

Salieri would have a contigency plan, in theory, but likely not for this. The grunts hand moved quickly, taking away Salieri's point of leverage, of grounding, forcing her to act quickly. Her legs came and they were followed by Bill's metal clad arms. The distance was too short, even if her Pokemon used their fastest techniques, they wouldn't reach it in time. After all, that was insinuating that they could move meters in the time it took Bill to move his hands inches.

They came up and around, aiming to crash into Salieri's thighs, the weight and power allowing him to bruise her. The point of contact would occur at the same time, meaning Salieri could only trade blows for her double kick to succeed. Now, Bill would take the hit and the headache, but not without trading out.

As for Watchog, luckily the blades weren't in the middle and they'd stab into his hips and thighs. Damaging, but it allowed the pelvic thrust to go all the way to Liuye's torso, hitting the opponent with the pelvic rock power.

And at this range, with his blades stuck in bone and flesh, and his defenses likely compromised at his chest, which would likely consist of a single broken point where something phaellic would have struck, it would be theoretically impossible for Liuye to dodge lightning.

Hell, people can't dodge it when it's tens of thousands of feet in the sky. Two inches?

To skip the small bits, Watchog, without losing a single second, fired Thunder Bolt from his mouth.

Bill was ready to smash the girl when his ankles and wrists were grabbed and he was brought to his knees with a "gah!"

On his knees he struggled to be free but he lacked the leverage for it, opening him up to the kick. So he said, "Topper!"

Salieri's kick would connect with the metal cup protecting his groin, likely doing damage to Salieri's foot, punishment for the girl being so rash.

Watchog, who had taken the blast and kept standing, turned as he heard his name. Bleeding heavily from the blades and burned from his own attack, he seemed unphased. In a sideways stance he tired a Thunder Bolt at Salieri, the attack would catch her, thanks to the speed of electricity, long before Liuye could call out, if he tried to counter like that. It was more likely that he would have to take this chance to win the match than to save his mistress-

-whose foot was touching the potentially unlucky metal cup of a man who was clad in steel.

K-Rok released his membrane and it snapped back into place as he swatted the rock away. He wasn't going to let himself get hit by such a weak kick. K-Rok grinned and ducked down. It was over, with this. As he pushed himself passed Hitmonlee he twisted around to face his opponent.

Time for his strongest technique.

[You may got a mean a** kick,
but all the ladies know you got no d**k.
Up in here like you got some skill,
keep at it and you'll get a hospital bill.
Haters like you always up in my s**t!
Keep at it b***h and I'll drop you with the first hit!
Steppin' your game all up in my way
b***h, best listen to what I have to say
Drop that weak a** trainer
cause I'm bout to put him through a strainer
now get your a** back in that ball
cause this shits over, that's the judge's call!] rapped K-Rok loudly, no, more than that. A rant, a series of them, each set of lines a Snarl, a rapid machine gun of them at the speed of speech, a series of attacks where just hearing them could drop an opponent.

That's right, b***h, I'm K-Rok, rap masta battla of the east side.

Luka tentatively opened the door and was immediately caught in the embrace of his younger brother. "Mummy, Daddy, Luka's home!"

Luka's warm smile washed over his little brother as he ruffled his hair and returned the hug. "Hey, Scotty."

"How long are you home for, Luka?" His brother bounced up and down energetically as Luka's parents appeared at the door. "How've you been? How was your final project thingy? Have you learned anything awesome?"

Luka looked and grinned at his parents, "Hey."

His parents smiled lovingly back and Luka returned his attention to his little brother, Scott. "I'm only home for the night, Scott. I'm sorry. But, I'm starting my Pokémon Journey so I'm gonna become the best trainer I can be."

Scott's beaming grin dropped to a horrified pout, "Only for the night? But I miss you Luka..."

Luka ruffled his brother's hair again, "It's ok. One day, you'll go on your own journey too and by then you'll have learned that missing people is natural. I miss you and Mum and Dad every day but I know that you're always with me in here." He pointed to his heart. He knew it was corny and clichéd beyond all belief, but, his brother was ten and very naive and sometimes clichés were the best way of describing things to him. "No matter where I go and no matter what I do, you're all always with me and we're always with you too."

His brother felt his own chest and his pout lessened and was replaced by a sheepish smile, "Ok. I believe you."

It was at this moment that Luka's parents chose to move in to embrace Koda themselves and his mother said, "It's good to have you home, at least for a little while. I'm so proud of you."

"I know, Mum. I know."

His mother stroked his hair and ushered him in to the living room where they all sat down. "So, have you started on your journey officially yet or are you still battle-less?" That was something his mother always did. She'd start with pleasantries and loving words before getting immediately to what she wanted to find out.

"I've caught my first Pokémon, a Sewaddle, and I have been in three trainer battles, two of which I have won and one of which I have lost. I got some tips from Burgh in Castelia City before I started to head home." Luka's blunt recital of the events was something he had learned to do over the years. He loved his mother dearly, but the most successful way of answering her questions were to be short and concise with the information.

Luka's Dad laughed jovially, "So, what was the order of your match results?"

"One loss to start things off. It was in Burgh's gym and a Harlequin jumped out of the honey and...." He shivered at the memory, "Yeah. Then I had my two victories. Both with Kai who is now a Pignite."

Luka's Dad, who was sat on the sofa with Luka, patted his son on the back. "Don't worry, most trainers lose their first battles miserably. But, you seem to be making an excellent start. So, Kai is making some progress. That's good. Squirt?"

"Still a mischevious little squirt."

Another jovial laugh, "Of course. I'll get Crush to sort him out tonight."

And so, the conversation continued with lots of smiles and laughter.