//------------------------------// // 311. Pound Out! // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -???, Buttina- “So… the wolves in this world are called Tigers?” It wasn’t the strangest thing I’ve ever heard, didn’t even rate my top twenty five list of strangest things to happen with Oleander. “Yeah and they apparently come in several varieties, I’m thinking of finding a Hare Hound for Pom. I’ve already gotten her enough eventual large deterrents to anyone ever bothering her ever again and she already has a Fu-Dog.” Yes, like she needs more canines in her lives, but I can understand that you want to be both a good friend and a sadistic person at the same time. Eh, it’s not like Vault Hunters aren’t like that already and I technically counted as a hunter ‘of many things that may include vaults’. “So something cute and cuddly like another puppy… with rabbit attributes and vicious combat capability.” “Quick question, how are we going to find the right disc with specific said monster inside it?” We’ve given this world a cursory glance before, disc, shrine, spinning said disc right over a shining light and boom you have a monster to be friends with. Also we met this nice girl Holly who thought we were some rare monsters at first, we made sure that she was quite aware of Fred being the only real out and out demon among us. “I can see the shape of the souls the disc will turn into. I just need a picture of a Hare Hound and we can find a disc that will produce one easily.” Fred offered amiably, then he goes into his whole demonic voice like usual. “Oh come now, I’m not that predictable Butt Stallion.” “Yes, Fred’s habit of reading minds aside, we might want to even look into the whole Master Moo thing while we’re here. Apparently its some kind of genetically engineered cow dragon that can absorb the negativity of this worlds inhabitants for power, also can possess people… it’s going to be one of those weeks Buttina.” Oleander just shook her head and gave a derisive snort. “Honestly creating super evil cow dragons, why do all ancient civilizations immediately go to big, horned and hooved for powerful creatures?” “Ahem… I’m one of those creatures Olllie.” Stated Fred dryly. “Yes, but you weren’t actually made by an ancient civilization.” Retorted Oleander. “It’s either that or some form of tentacle horror.” “Hm… good point… but even I resemble the general idea of a Minotaur when my full form is summoned by you.” From what Fred has said about it, most demons do share the trait of horns, hooves and a fiery personality. “Yes, yes, when I fully summon you, you proceed to protectively stuff me into your chest where your heart would be as a form of your symbolism of loving me and my pretty hair by being your metaphysical big heart when we combine forces.” That didn’t even rate among the top one hundred weirdest things Oleander has led to. The super move was kind of terrifying sure, but it wasn’t edible cheese pizza monsters that remain perfectly edible ‘no matter what they do’ weird. Still weird that grime doesn’t stick to the pizza monsters and they actually taste like what their name implies, spicy tomato sauce for blood and three cheeses and perfectly cooked dough for skin! It’s almost like they were one of those Fighting Foodons, only more aggressive and with really weird reproductive cycles. -Pokémon World, Ransei, Central Ignis, on a rock, Tamamo- “…” Okay… Tamamo has been moping around for too long, I just need to somehow sell my indentured servitude to Pom and somehow convince her to marry me so she can be my husband. I know I have psychological issues, but what really quirky fox like me doesn’t? “Excuse me, but do you need help?” Jumping and looking up at the shadow being cast over me, I sighed in relief when it wasn’t a death god… “I could use some myself.” “Well I do need to find my... what I might call a ‘Sister’. There’s also what I would loosely term a friend that really doesn’t like primates. I also want to make up for a problem I caused someone... and I’m not sure how to fix the mess. Causing problems is a bit of a running theme for me.” I could use someone who could protect me if I ever run across someone like Lu Bu again, but I would be a little skeptical about their offer. “I’m Tamamo no Mae, what can I do for you and how do you think you can help me?” -The next day, Pugilis, Pummelton, Mienshao’s Place, Ocellus- “So I talked to Tianhuo… she’s going to get in contact with Queen Novo to find out why being a Chrysomallus would bother Pom so much.” Hopefully they would get back to us soon with an update on that later. “So… are you ready for the competition Shanty?” “After a big breakfast… no… I be thinking I need another dip in the healing springs before then. I will be needing all the strength I can be getting if I am to be beating some sense into Pom.” If you could do that Shanty, then maybe we could get Pom to tell us what was wrong instead of shutting down and doing odd things. “We still don’t have a clue why Pom signed up for the competition.” No, but we could make a ton of guesses Smolder and be nowhere close to the truth until Pom starts talking. Even Dolly was having problems and she was directly connected to Pom’s mind. “Is there anything we need to seriously discuss?” I added to the other occupants in the room. “Well… there’s something I want to ask Jeanne about, but it’s not that important and can wait until later.” Shine had drawn our attention to her, she waved her leafy hair in our direction while leaning back. “It’s nothing bad, just an idle curiosity.” “I, Favela, think we’ll be tired of pickles if we stay here for more than two days.” The pickles weren’t so bad last night Favela… then again I didn’t have to eat of them so I wouldn’t know how strong the taste was. -Four hours after breakfast and a visit to the healing springs, Pummelton Indoor Super Stadium, Dolly- So this stadium was built inside the mountain the castle was connected to, no problem with weather if we’re doing this indoors and with decent lightning. It was cool, but I still wanted to know where those skate parks were and find someone to watch Pom for me. Using my paws to raise a headband to my forehead, I quickly tied it there and then crossed my paws ready for a fight. “The orange paw print mark on that is pretty cute Dolly.” Glaring at Smolder for trying to ruin my attempt at looking cool, I sighed and waved a paw at the dragon and basically accepted what she said. I wasn’t going to use the Stone Bone Boomerang, my nearly indestructible skateboard or my equally nearly indestructible helmet. Fighting using my own strength was the name of the game on this one without any of my gear. I could still use magic, but I would save that for Pom. Shanty got some more healing spring time in, but I don’t believe she’s at one hundred percent. She was good enough that she likely didn’t need it. Pom wasn’t saying anything, but she was going to be one of the most dangerous competitors. Didn’t even know where that Kelpie sword guy was staying, but I didn’t see him here at the moment. Torchic needed all the help she could get, didn’t think she was even going to get past the first round of fights. There were several fighting rings and I bet I would be called into one of the ones first. “When called proceed to arena and wait for the call to start fighting, all fights will begin at the same time. Torchic, Machop, Ring 1-A. Pom Lambchop, Hitmonchan, Ring 2-A…” The announcer called out, he was a Loud-Dread guy or something related to those wimpys that were scared of Dazzle back in Aurora. Oh… right… I didn’t want to be put into an arena too far away from Pom and I would have to finish my opponents quickly! I whined as the next ring was announced. “Tyrogue, Meditite Ring 3-A…” “Don’t worry Dolly, we’ll look out for Pom for you, just focus on winning your match.” Nice sentiment Ocellus, but I can’t help but worry about her. “Timburr, Shroomish, Ring 4-A.” According to Loud-Dread that means I wasn’t near enough to Pom to keep an eye on her. “It’ll be fine Dolly, I don’t think Pom is going to get hurt on purpose too badly, now keep an ear out they are calling for opponent in the B-Rings.” Not that I could feel good Smolder, not when Pom was already move for her ring. My name wasn’t in the B or C Rings either, Shanty was in 3-C at least facing off against a leak bird that was different from farfetched bird we saw before. There were a lot of strong looking Pokémon guys here and I am getting worried I was going to be paired off against the giant forearmed four arms guy. “Hitmontop Seventeen, Dolly Danger Dalmatian Lambchop, Ring 1-D.” Well that figures, the Loud Dread calling me to a D ring. I started to quickly make my way over the ring and upon climbing the stairs up into the ring I saw my opponent they were dancing from foot to foot. They were brown, had a large spike on their head and a tail with a round part and a spike sticking out of it that was half the size of their three claw feet two claws in the front and one claw in the back like a birds talons. Their arms were a bit weird, reminded me of the big red boxing gloves the guy that gave out those pamphlets had, except these weren’t as large and were just ball shaped. Hit-On-Top, tilted his head curiously at me and it would be pretty painful to hit him on the pointed cone head that seemed to have to hard flaps angling down from it. His face was rather simplistic with two eyes and a mouth. “This is my opponent?” He sounded like a kid, probably was. “She officially signed up for this.” Stated the bipedal grass thing that looked familiar, except she wasn’t wearing a skirt and her legs were showing, she wasn’t like the dancing one in Arbor Day town. “Well okay then, prepare for the might of my spinning bird kicks!” He said taking a stance. “We’ll see about that dude!” Sure he couldn’t understand my barks, but my intent was easy to read when I started growling at him. “All rings filled, prepare for a fight.” Announced the Loud Dread guy. “You’ve got this Dolly!” Cheered Dazzle while holding the empty Digivice that was currently communicating with my family, I wondered if I should actually have let my family watch this? Things were going to get fairly violent. “Be careful Dolly, remember that I can’t be there to take care of you!” Wait, Delilah, my step mother was going to be watching this? Must have gotten some time off to spend more time with the pups. “Hey, I’ve got this, no sweat!” At least this would go better than the faking a monster in the park did, though I was facing an actual monster. “Ready… Begin!” The fighting broken out all over the stadium. I had something to prove to myself today and I was going to show that I could do anything if I put my mind to it even without a weapon in paw. -Fight Ring 1-D: Dolly vs Hitmontop #17- Dolly and Hitmontop moved towards each other. Hitmontop opened with a kick, which Dolly dodged away from, he lashed out another kick lunging forward, which was again backpedaled from. When Hitmontop went for their third kick, Dolly darted forward and entered a slide under the last kick to end up behind him as his last kicked missed and he was left exposed to an attack from behind. Dolly rolled onto her paw and then jumped slammed her head into his back with a momentum boosted hit that sent him sprawling and bounced off his straight up horn chest first into the rings ropes. Flopping onto his back Hitmontop angled his horn at Dolly as she charged forward to leap at him and managed to avoid skewering herself on the point of his head spike. As Hitmontop got up, he launched a punch that sent out a flash of silver and Dolly rolled to the side to her left and narrowed her eyes at her opponent. He launched two more silver flashes with thrust that Dolly dodged back right and left. Once he opened up enough distance between them, Hitmontop launched a high right kick at the air to flip entirely upside down and started rapidly spinning toward Dolly on his horn. He was rapidly swinging his tail and feet like a demented top of doom as he moved toward her. Dolly slowly backed up and kept her eyes on the spinning form and then raised her right paw and waited before putting it out in front of her on a moment’s notice while leaning her head back. She caught Hitmontop’s left leg and stopped his momentum entirely. Hitmontop’s leg having, been caught the way it had, almost wrench both of his legs out of his hip sockets from the sudden stop. He was promptly slapped by Dolly’s left paw and was sent skidding backwards and flopping onto his face. Not wasting any time while her opponent was down, Dolly leapt high up and stomped down on Hitmontop’s back with all her paws using momentum boosted impact on contact. She bounded backwards towards the center of the arena and then carefully approached Hitmontop. Even if Hitmontop hadn’t moved, he felt like he suddenly got harshly smashed into a brick wall, he might have underestimated his opponent for her size. He wasn’t completely out of this yet. Hitmontop lashed out with his tail and the spike on the end narrowly missed slashing up Dolly’s face when she approached to see if he was out of the fight. Something drew Dolly’s attention away from Hitmontop allowing him to get back into a standing position and was facing her. Dolly went to attack him and he started glowing and smiling as he put himself in a defensive posture, Dolly stopped and waited. After a moment Hitmontop frowned and realized that Dolly wasn’t going to hit him while he was prepping a Revenge move. A move that returns double the damage dealt back to the attacker if they got hit and weren't knocked out while it is going. Instead, even if she didn’t know what he was currently doing, Dolly went with her instincts and didn’t attack and went onto her hind legs and prepped her right paw by bringing it back and curling it up. Sparkles of the magic of flowing motion built up around Dolly for a powered forward leap. Her left hind leg lifted up slightly ahead of her right hind leg she was balancing on, she leaned back as if she were going to throw a ball like a pitcher. Her tail flicked several times to keep her balanced for the attack she was about to launch. Once the red glow died out on Hitmontop he reared back his right fist and it started glowing silver as he went to attack, but he could no longer get off his Bullet Punch move. Dolly had launched her attack the second Hitmontop’s Revenge move ended and her right paw slammed him right in the middle of his face with the force of a brick dog house. This sent Hitmontop flipping out of the ring and flopping across the floor twice and after landing on his back, he was out cold with swirling eyes. Turning to the referee, Dolly pumped her front legs as she sat on her rear and her tail wagged. “Winner by knockout and ring out, Dolly!” The plant girl stated. “Yeah!” I raised my left paw in the air. “You can take a break now, until all the other fights conclude.” The Fighting Lilligant didn’t need to tell Dolly twice as she hopped out of the ring and went to see how Pom’s fight was progressing. -Fight Ring 3-C: Shanty vs Slay the Farfetch’d- “You’re big vegetable be looking tasty.” Shanty said with a grin as she eyed the thick leak being wielded by the duck like bird. “Good, because you’re going to be eating it soon enough.” The darker Farfetch’d with a thick unibrow stated while point his weapon at her. “Ready… Begin!” The central announcer called out. Shanty immediately lunged forward, starting with a left hoof slashing at her opponent. She soon found herself being deflected and even pushed back with an unnaturally fast swing. A second later, with his leak glowing darkly as he held it up and took two steps forward, the Farfetch’d swung and created a massive circular arc of force that struck Shanty and knocked her over. With a leap Farfetch’d raised his weapon high above his head and brought it down at Shanty. Shanty rolled onto her hooves and managed to brace for the shockwave and immediately fired a Riptide once she was able to collect herself. Farfetch’d raised his massive leak and it took Shanty’s blast of water without damage and it was swung upward with powerful force in retaliation. The focused blast wave that flew off the glowing vegetable struck Shanty in the belly and knocked the air out of her as she was pushed into a corner of the ring. “Come on now, put up more of a fight, I just need one more… I can feel it.” What that one was, went unsaid as Farfetch’d twirled his large leak above his head then tried to slam it down on Shanty’s head. Shanty dodge the attack and slashed her opponent across the side lightly as he hopped to the right to avoid taking a deep injury from her. She rolled forward to dodge a glowing slash of the vegetable the bird wielded and then watched as he hopped backwards with his weapon glowing brightly like the sky. With a swing a slash of air shot at Shanty requiring her to dodge to the side, for some reason the ring wasn’t damaged by the attack. Shanty dodged two swings of the heavy leak from farfetch’d with impressive leaps and then landed another slash across his right side, but that was about as far as her luck went when she had all four of her legs knocked out from under her as she landed. Farfetch’d hit Shanty was a golf swing and Shanty went sprawling across the arena, she tried to get standing when the leak was pressed roughly against her throat. “Yeah, I still not being at full strength…” Shanty said weakly as she was pressed back down, the large leak being held at her throat. “Opponent unable to battle, winner by pin Slay the Farfetch’d…” The referee Lucario stopped at a flash of bright light going off and saw that Farfetch’d was evolving, within the light the leak split into two different forms and the farfetch’d grew slightly large. “Correction, Slay the Sirfetch’d wins!” When the white light resolved itself, the Farfetch’d was white feathered instead of dark brown and was now holding a mostly blunt leak sword with an exceptionally sharp stabbing tip and a large leafy green shield. “Darn it… I be wanting to fight Pom…” Shanty wilted, she would go find Smolder and Ocellus as soon as she could get up. -Fight Ring 1-A: Torchic vs. Machop- It had been a minute or so into the fight and Torchic had actually managed a few decent hits, her strange and clumsy evasion maneuvers had prevented her from taking any devastating blows from her opponent. Eventually Torchic leapt high into the air and angled herself downwards. Unleashing a powerful burst of flame from her backside and, upon using the flames to jet forward, Torchic rammed herself beak first into the small muscular grey Pokémons chest with and into the ground kicking up a lot of dust. After a moment of laying down, Torchic shook her head popped up onto her talons and looked about for her opponent… only to realize she was standing right on them. “Winner by knockout, Torchic!” At the announcement from small ball of white fur with lanky limbs called a Mankey that was a small monkey with anger issues, she looked to see a number of people gathering in the next ring over. She hopped out and quickly went to see what was going on with Pom’s fight. -Fight Ring 2-A: Pom Lambchop vs. Hitmonchan- “Ready… begin!” As soon as the fights were called to start, the kilted and red fisted brown Pokémon charged forward with a raised right fist. Hitmonchan thrust his fist forward in a high speed corkscrew motion, only for it to be deflected off to the side. Pom stared blankly at her opponent, while she dodged back and to the side with her right hoof thrusting forward and up at the bipedal monsters oddly shaped head with the five blunted spikes. Hitmonchan was incredible focused on his opponent, he could already tell that there was something wrong with her and given his opponent suddenly reared up onto her hind legs and brought her hooves up into a boxing stance. Immediately recognized the tough opponent before him, Hitmonchan shifted his offensive stance to a defensive and stamina efficient one. With a left thrust of her hoof Hitmonchan ducked under Pom’s attack and launched a high speed right for her kidney, only for her wool to take the attack and barely shift the upper half of her body. Immediately Hitmonchan weaved to the side and swung a rising left hook for Pom’s chin as her right hoof tried to hit him with a right straight. Pom was still in the middle of bringing her left hoof back in while trying to turn and keep him in sight. The blow to the chin rocked Pom and Hitmonchan tried to get another blow in on Pom’s unprotected face, but overextended by dropping his defense and was struck across the right side of his face by Pom’s left hoof. This staggered Hitmonchan back and gave him a black eye. Staggering further back to avoid taking another blow, Hitmonchan flashed his left fist forward and slammed Pom in the right eye making her grunt loudly returning the favor of a black eye. Pom stepped into the painful attack and crouched slightly before performing a leaping uppercut with her right hoof. Thanks to the blow to his jaw stunning him and rocking him backwards, Hitmonchan couldn’t prevent Pom from slamming a nasty left hook into his face. He was knocked back a fair distance, but not down or to the edge of the ring. Hitmonchan even managed to steadily land on his feet too. Pom hopped back while keeping her hooves up in a defensive posture, she then exhaled and flashed forwards moving in a half circle to the right. She threw a straight right that Hitmonchan dodge by leaning left. Pom hopped inhaling and was back at where, she exhaled again and started her half circle run charging from the left this time before throwing a straight left. Hitmonchan leaned right to dodge and watched as Pom hopped back to where she started again. This time Pom moved in half circle in both directions at the same time, which confused Hitmonchan long enough to take a straight left to the face. The pain caused Hitmonchan’s concentration to skyrocket and he actually saw how Pom did what she did… when she hopped back and then started zigzagging at high speed between the two spots along the circle of movement she initially made making it seem as if she was coming at him from both sides at once. With that in mind and waiting until the last moment, Hitmonchan ducked the straight right and then threw his own right straight into Pom’s forehead dazing the dull eyed fighter. The stun lasted long enough for Htimonchan to slam several painfully piercing punches in the form of what was known as a Drain Punch into Pom. Pom’s wool might protect against blunt force… but it didn’t stop the shockwaves of pinpoint hits or having her energy stolen for Hitmonchan to heal himself with. Leaning back Hitmonchan reared back his right fist to throw a high speed Mach Punch, he threw his hips and entire body into the right hook… And missed entirely as Pom ducked his blow. He was struck in the gut with Pom’s right hoof as a counter, doubling Hitmonchan over and allowing her access to his face. Pom lashed her hooves into his face four times with a left and right rapid fire hoof blows, then for a fifth hit she threw a devastating leaping left hook that sent Hitmonchan spinning around twice and toppling over onto the floor. After a second or two Hitmonchan rolled away from Pom trying to stomp down on him with her right hoof and immediately bloodied her nose with a rising right hook. Pom hopped back and crouched down while holding front legs up in a defensive manner. Hitmonchan was wary of charging her and was breathing roughly after that left hook that knocked him down. There was something akin to a wariness in the dull eyes that seemed to narrow in concentration, Hitmonchan narrowed his own and ready to move forward. Pom was inhaling and exhaling evenly and then slowly started to inhale slowly for a long time. Hitmonchan put his left foot forward, his fist glowing, to charge his opponent. Pom exhaled explosively and appeared in front of him in a blink from where she had been standing, she was now to his left. A hopping rising right uppercut hit Hitmonchan staggering him, which was followed by a rising hopping uppercut to the left, four more hopping uppercuts followed, two right and two left in rhythmic manner that staggered Hitmonchan to the edge of the ring. When it looked like Hitmonchan was prepared for a full hopping uppercut he threw a hasty left hook and missed, because Pom decided to land in front of him instead of hopping into the path of his hastily thrown attack. Pom was crouched down with both her hooves held out to both sides over and then she lashed them both forward and then upwards while kicking off the floor with her hind legs. Hitmonchan eyes were wide as he felt his jaw break under the force of the two simultaneous blows and the world spun for him twice before hit slammed into the floor outside the ring face first and blacked out. “Winner, by knockout and ring out Pom Lambchop!” The Pancham referee announced. Pom dully turned and calmly walked her way out of the ring. -Dolly- “Pom… are you alright?” That double uppercut looked painful for the boxing gloves for hands guy. “I’m fine Dolly.” Like anyone would believe that Pom, not when you won’t talk out loud. “Say that when your voice isn’t hollow, you don’t have a shiner, several painful bruises along your body and are hurting inside for some reason and won’t tell us why.” I can be spot on when I want to be and I pay attention to my friends, then again Dalmatians tend to be ‘spot on’ in a lot of situations. “Again, I’m fine.” Says you in our heads Pom, you actually signed up for this competition and that’s concerning behavior knowing you. “Sure you are…” I stated dully, before wondering when the next fight starts. I moved away from Pom and towards Dazzle. “Hey guys, did you see me, I got through the first fight!” I was keeping Pom on my mind in the back of the head. “Yes, quite an impressive display of violence Dolly.” Dawkins didn’t particularly care for blood sport, most of my family didn’t, but even he had to admit that I’m awesome. “Are you okay, are you hurting anywhere?” Mom asked and I sent a smile her way to let her know I'm okay, I still decided to say it anyway. “I’m fine, besides this fighting competition isn’t too bad… could always forfeit if I end up with that guy.” I pointed out the bipedal mound of muscles with four arms that was flexing and quite frankly we didn’t hear what happened to his first opponent, we probably didn’t want to know. Quite a few puppies back home agreed, that four arms guy was scary. I turned to see Shanty hanging out with Favela, she only seemed mildly upset to be knocked out in the first round by an onion wielding bird. One that upgraded from their fight to wielding a sword and shield. If anything it was amazing Torchic managed to survive the Ma-chopper... strange that the guy didn't have any propellers for flight, but eh. “First round ended, winners of the first round are as follows, Torchic, Pom Lambchop…” They spoke an entire list however something came up that shocked quite a few Pokémon as the last name was spoken. “Wild Wrestling Wooloo.” “There’s a Wooloo in a competition with all the fighting types around?” One of those fire pig guys asked with clear shock, pig nitro or something like that. “How did they get past the first round, I’m pretty sure there are enough Fighting Types that he would have had to face one in the first round.” White ball of fur with a pig nosed and muscular limbs stated, he had large boxing glove like fist like the red boxing fists guy. Except he was far shorter and more stout. “A normal type beating a fighting type, don’t be absurd!” Stated another guy that looked like a Popsicle with legs and arms, their legs seem particularly powerful given the bunched up and spring like quality to them. “Actually the wooloo’s first opponent was a Croagunk…” A large tiger with red and black striped fur with a grey furred torso and a large belt with a fire motif spoke up, he stood there with his arms crossed looking all cool as he looked around for the white wooly wonder that entered this competition. “Must be a really tough masochist to get through a fight like that.” Didn’t know what a Croagunk was, but I’m guessing that the Wooloo had to be Geo Puff. “Do you think it’s Geoff?” Dazzle asked me with a hint of curiosity. I nodded, yep it had to be Geo Puff. “Why would he enter the competition, he’s at a disadvantage… unless he wants to be hurt and I wouldn’t put it past him to enjoy that.” “Maybe it’s the same reason I entered the competition… to keep an eye on Pom.” Oh right, my barks weren’t being translated… Dazzle couldn’t understand me. “I assume it has something to do with Pom.” Sighing audibly, Dazzle looked to Pom who was sitting quietly off to the side and waiting for the next match. “We’ll figure it out Dolly, even if we have to force the issue.” “Oh I’ll force the issue alright, Pom can’t keep being silent about whatever this is she’s got going on in her head forever!” I was going to get her to open up eventually. -Condensed Montage Time- Dolly was faced off against a heavyset short guy with black boxing glove fist, a common feature among many fighting type Pokémon apparently, he was small yellow sumo wrestler with a bag or dumpling shaped head and red circles on his cheeks. It was called a Makuhita… Dolly just called him a Maximum-eater and called it a day as she dodged his rapid fire arm thrusts, Pom’s attacks were far faster than that when she was going full speed with Dolly. When the Makuhita blasted a palm shape mass of energy Dolly leapt straight over it and flipped into flying buck to the skull, thus far her momentum boosted hits hadn’t done anything to slow the guy down when she struck his body. However a pinpoint blow to the skull was more than the Pokémon could take and he fell down with a painful knot on his forehead in the shape of two paw marks. Dolly’s evasion skills and speed more than made up for the fact that her opponent was a walking tank. Torchic ended up with a poor matchup and was fighting a Poliwag, a tadpole with a swirl on their belly and legs that fired blasts of water that she had to frantically dodge. The Poliwag wasn’t willing to lose to her opponent being a fire type, but Torchic was proving quite squirrely to hit with a blast of water as she tripped, flopped and or clumsily dodged all over the place. At some point Torchic managed to actually land a hit after fifty seven consecutive misses and that was in the process of being slapped by the walking tadpole’s tail. The Peck attack Torchic landed was accidental because it slammed into the tail as she got hit. The tadpole tried to follow up with a bubble beam only to miss when Torchic landed and then sprang high up in the air and performed an incidental bounce attack and ended up behind the dazed tadpole… one would think her next attack would be the finished blow. They’d be wrong. Torchic tried to point blank an ember attack and missed entirely, from less than half a foot away… Not that Torchic was going to let the Poliwag opponent recover, she decided to just tackle the tadpole with a Body Slam, which actually worked. Afterwards Torchic evolved into a Combusken and earned her ability to do fighting type moves with more power. Her wings extended and grew three claws each, her body grew bigger and taller and more bipedal stature as her legs reverse the way they bent. Torchic was cheerful that she managed to finally achieve one dream of managing to get enough experience in battle to evolve. Pom was faced off with what Dolly termed the Popsicle or a corndog with arms and legs. It was a Hitmonlee, the kicking Pokémon. The Hitmonlee’s legs could extend and stretch a fair distance that had three claws on the feet, its arms were pretty short in comparison ending in three blunt digits and didn’t seem to fight with its hands very much. When their fight started, the Hitmonlee lashed out several hundred rapid fire kicks, Pom started by dodging and then eventually matching and deflecting his kicks with her hind legs. As the fight went on it was apparent that Pom was learning kick boxing style that Hitmonlee were known for as she fought him in his domain and was only deflecting or defending with her front hooves. The Hitmonlee found his opponent to be a worthy challenge and despite her emotional state, he appreciated her fighting him in his domain. As they exchanged blazing fast kicks, Pom had a slightly bloodied nose and battered face. Hitmonlee had several bruising hoof shaped indents in his neckless torso made for kicking. Quite a few Pokémon were watching the high speed exchange of kicks, twisting, turning, and even soccer styled blows they were landing on each other’s bodies was creating quite a scene of skill and violence in equal measure. The Hitmonlee was quite a challenge for Pom as he could kick at her from any position whether from the floor, upside down on top of what passes for the headless torso with eyes doing a spinning break dance maneuver and it didn’t help that the legs were incredibly flexible beyond what even Pom could do. It was an understatement that Pom was having trouble with hitting her opponent with a solid finishing blow given his insane amount of legwork. Hitmonlee’s legs that could stretch to twice their length and could change angles at a moment’s notice up to at least three times mid kick along the segmented portions of leg, the claws on the Pokémon’s feet had dug into Pom’s side piercing her wool with each successfully blow several times. It wasn’t until the Hitmonlee made a mistake in trying to do a High Jump Kick, a jump attack that ends in a powerful crushing knee blow, the fight then turned completely to being ultimately in Pom’s favor. Pom was faster than Hitmonlee in movement and dodged the crushing knee attack and after that the Hitmonlee had trouble with his injured leg being less flexible than before. After a final roundhouse buck to the top of torso boy’s skull, Hitmonlee toppled and couldn’t get back up to continue the fight. Pom was left the victor and bleeding a little bit. In another ring a Wooloo wearing a bright yellow luchador mask covered in smiling faces was pile-driving a Clobbopus into the floor head first. The two large tentacles ending in boxing glove like appendages of the Clobbopus tried to struggle out of the wooly wonders hooved grip and didn’t succeed in time. The Clobbopus’s six stubby mobility tentacles were sticking up in the air out the floor and their large head with bar shaped eyes had painfully punctured through the floor of the ring. Since the Clobbopus couldn’t get free and its two large boxing glove tentacles were pinned to its sides, the Wild Wrestling Wooloo was soon declared the winner. -Condense montage end, stadium space, Dolly- “Thanks for the water Dazzle.” I nuzzled her left thigh in a show of appreciation. I then pointed to Pom who, even with her dull eyed look, seemed to need refreshment. “Oh right, I’ll do that for her too Dolly!” Dazzle passed me the Digivice my ‘fam’ was watching all this on and made her way to give Pom some water and a few berries. After two rounds the contestants were allowed thirty minutes to eat some berries and drink some water. “The competition is heating up folks, the stronger Pokémon and visitors are going to get into harder fights, who’s going to walk away with the top three spots?!” Yeah, didn’t really care about that Loud-Dread dude, I just wanted Pom to return to having a bit of life in her eyes. “Do you think you can reach her sister?” Deepak immediately asked and all the puppies seemed worried for Pom. “I don’t honestly know, maybe I’ll reach if I come close to breaking our bond…” Which would require me to pull out all the stops against Pom. “Yeah, that fight isn’t going to go in your favor Dolly, Pom is like really tough, fast and she’s known as one of the world’s strongest heroes here in our world for a reason!” Delgado, wheelchair wonder pup, wasn’t wrong. “I know… but that doesn’t mean I will give up. In any case I’m kind of surprised Torch Chick made it this far, she even evolved. Too bad she’s against big four arms guy next, she’s going to get creamed by that Mock Champ guy.” I even knew my next opponent… since there were few fighters left and a bracket could be made. “At least that onion guy be fighting Geoff.” Shanty tossed out there, didn’t know if the pervert sheep guy could win that fight. The bird with the sword and shield looked ridiculously tough and had taken out Shanty before evolving. Said brackets were randomized, not that it would help for my next fight to know who my opponent was… The sign for the bracket fight had been randomized, it was kind of what I wanted to happen as it read ‘Ring 3-D, Pom Lambchop vs Dolly Danger Dalmatian Lambchop’. I think this was going to strain our bond to the extreme.