There'd been an air of unease over the gathering the night before, or at least over some of its members. Karo hadn't been entirely oblivious to it, but had brushed it off as just people being antsy about what was, after all, still an unexplained situation. He wouldn't have minded some answers himself, but overall he hadn't been too worried. Whatever was coming, he was sure he could handle it--that nearly everyone here could, and that the stronger ones among the crowd could take care of anyone who couldn't handle it.
He'd plunked the inteleon squarely in the "can handle it" category. Now it seemed he'd been wrong.
"...Dang," he said, and sighed. "He seemed like a cool dude. Wish I could've gotten to know him." Sure, he'd been a water-type, but they tended to have good enough control of their powers at their final stage. No real risk of unintended dribbles. Had he been a sobble...
A small lizard, crying in bereavement. His strange, somewhat canine companion gone, vanished in the night. Karo approached, wishing he knew how to properly console the poor little squirt...
Karo made a grating noise, confused and a bit unsettled. That thought was quite a bit clearer than the previous intrusions. More psychic shenanigans? No... no, that assumption didn't feel quite right somehow. That was a real memory. But... from when? And why had he forgotten it?
And, he wondered, what else might he have forgotten?
Grabbing Steven by the shoulder, Archie punched the man's face, throwing his full weight into the punch. Steven flew through the air and collapsed onto the ground. Not wasting any time, Archie leapt on top of him, throwing more punches.
"No Pokemon, huh? Who's the 'Champion' NOW, pretty boy?!"
Still musing to himself, Steven barely caught the sound of approaching footsteps before a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. The fist slammed into his face before he knew what was happening.
A weight on his chest. More blows landing. He couldn't see properly. Up was down. Down was right. Stars danced in Steven's vision as the punches rained down. It was all he could do to try to curl in on himself, covering his face with his hands. It didn't occur to him to call for help, but as his arms ached and his cheek swelled and his head spun, a moment of clarity struck: This wasn't part of the game.
"Stop! Please!" he cried out, only to get another punch for his troubles. He didn't even know who or what had hit him, but whoever it was they were bigger, stronger, and they were mad.
If someone didn't help soon, well, he'd never seen this happen before... Could participants kill each other outside the rules of the game?
Steven's eye was swollen shut now. The white nothingness around them was starting to go dim....
"Hey! HEY!" Karo closed the distance as fast as he could, which wasn't very. "What the heck, bro?" he said to the one who'd attacked Steven. "What'd he ever do to you?" A thought occurred to him. "You think he had something to do with what happened to Inteleon? Maybe you oughta explain yourself instead of going straight into butt whoopin' mode."
To Steven, "Are you okay?" Karo asked. It looked like he was on the brink of passing out. "Now's not the time for a nap. We've got stuff to do." A game to play, apparently. Karo found some solace in that fact--if a fact it was. Maybe the inteleon was just fine. Maybe losers of the game just kind of got... whisked off to a loser's room or something.
Antares had... not expected this. He paid little attention to the murmurings of the others here. There was a fight, and thankfully he was here to save the day!
"An unjust attack! Fear not, I shall put a stop to this madness!" He said loudly as he rushed over and pounced onto Archie, trying to get him away from Steven.
"Go easy on him, okay?" This game wasn't going to be much of a game at all if half the players spent the day knocked out.
