Destiny Colosseum ~ Training Rooms

[Chibi Pika]

Well these two sure bounced back quick. Still, it was kinda refreshing after how much of the team had been stuck in a pit of misery before the last mission. Things had actually been going kind of well ever since the festival--hopefully it'd stay that way.

"Hey, so... glad to see you two are cool now," Starr said, nudging Cabot with a paw. "How about we get around to that training? I figure you'll need to learn how to do co-op now that he's, y'know... not a rock anymore." (Ugh, Lexx would be joining her in the next mission, wouldn't he. She'd have to get used to that.)

 

[Virgil134]

"Ah! Right! I guess that is why we're after all," Cabot said with a sheepish smile, before turning to Pleo. "You wanna join us?"

"Uh-huh!" the Lugia nodded.

Cabot began to make his way over to one side of the battlefield, before stopping and turning back to Starr.

"By the way, would you like to team up sometime here at the stadium?" he asked. "We did do a really great job coordinating everyone last battle, so I know we'll make for a great team here in the arena as well! And they allow for teams up to three, so maybe we can even ask someone else on the team to join us."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr took up a spot at the other end of the sparring field, then paused to consider Cabot's offer to team up at the the colosseum. Battling for an audience. Now there was something she hadn't done in a long time (at least, not on a League scale). She had to admit, the two of them had really kicked ass during that last mission. Why not put it to use building a reputation?

Starr grinned. "Hell yea, why not everyone what we're made of. Shouldn't be too hard to find a third, either. I'm pretty sure Brisa would join us in a heartbeat." And it would make for a good chance to finally make things less awkward between the two of them, too.

As her paws lit up with embers and she rushed forward to meet Cabot and Pleo, Starr had to admit she was already looking forward to that.

<><><><><>​

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Two shadowy vulpixes arrived in one of the training rooms. Soul was exited!

"Here we are!"

 

[Cresselia92]

Woohoo! Training time! As he bounced into the room, Petram felt like its core was burning and doing its tingly thingy. He was ready!

"Heck yeah! Good old--" He sneezed and shook his head; his bounces had lifted some dust. "Huff... and dusty training room, yeah! I don't even know why I sneezed, we don't have lungs! Must be one of those reflex muscles things or something."

He began rubbing his paws, while phantom flames flickered around his tails. "So! Who starts?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"I'll show you what I did again. I looked into my stone, and there was this swirly energy lashing about. Letting that out..."

The wisps appeared around her again. She funnelled them into a dummy, but... nothing happened.

"Huh. Did I do it wrong? H-Hold on, can you try it? Maybe it'll work for you."

 

[Cresselia92]

Petram shrugged. “Heh. Sure, lemme try.”

The small Vulpix stared at the dummy, before lowering himself and wagging his spectral tails. “Oh! You! You’ve got a bone against me? Heh? Heh? Then lemme show you what happens when you mess up with the wrong Vulpix!”

He took a deep breath (even if he didn’t need it), feeling a burning energy inside his core. Then, he howled at the dummy, shooting a few small wispy beams and cloaking the target in a strange dark mist.

“Ha! I did it! …I think.” Petram tilted his head. “Well, for being spooky, that’s spooky.”

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Soul decided to try tapping into one of the other energies of their stone, to see if any of them could affect the dummies. This time, a cold stream of air came from their mouth, powdery snowflakes swirling in the breeze. The dummy's chest frosted up.

"There we go! This one did something."

 

[Cresselia92]

"Oooh! Nice ice you've got there!" commented Petram, before walking toward the dummy. "Hmm... Yeah, that's frosty, alright. Then... lemme try something!"

Petram took a few steps back and lifted his tails. Wisps flickered into view and his Ultra Stone glowed with a burning energy. Then, he spat a fireball toward the frosted dummy, melting the ice instantly and leaving a few burnt marks on the target. He grinned in delight and turned to Soul. "Yoh! Did you see that? Huh? Huh? First your ice, now my fire! You know what that means?" He walked toward the other shade and raised a paw dramatically. "We could be the 'Ice & Fire Siblings'! Sounds like a slick title, don't you agree?"

 

[Shiny Phantump]

"Woah!" Soul exclaimed. "You did better than I did!"

"We could be the 'Ice & Fire Siblings'! Sounds like a slick title, don't you agree?"

Soul awkwardly tapped their paw against Petram's "S-Sure. That... could work?"

 

[Cresselia92]

Petram grinned happily. “Woohoo! You’re so cool, literally and figuratively! And hey,” he wagged his tails, “I’m sure you’ll do better next time. Just watch!”

Then, his spectral body started wobbling, and he chuckled sheepishly. “Welp! All those energy bursts drained a lot of my… well, energy. What do you think we we get ourselves a bite or something? That’d be another good moment to test your new jaws. Whatcha think?”

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Soul wagged their tails. "I saw food at the party, but I haven't tried any. Let's go fix that!"

Done with their training, the two departed the room. It was snacktime.

<><><><><>

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa hardly knew what she was even expecting, or hoping for, or trying to achieve. But whenever she thought about her idea to summon Jesse with the help of Buffet, there was one friend she kept thinking of to ask for help.

"Howdy, Dave. Y'got a minute?"

 

[Dragonfree]

“Yeah?” Dave looked up from Mia’s fighting exercises. She was darting all over the place, lunging at imaginary things with precise slashes of her glowing scythes. “What’s going on?”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"She's a natural," commented Brisa, coming to sit by Dave. She scratched her cheek fur, as she'd started to do again when thinking. It was good to be a luxio again. Maybe she'd get that fight with Mia organised soon.

 

[Dragonfree]

“Yeah, she’s very good at this. Still getting used to it, you know, being normal here.”

Mia had spent all her human life essentially wanting this while they tried to get her to keep it strictly to games with her sister, because humans were squishy and she could murder one in the blink of an eye. And yet here, on Cibus... fighting was just what people did, for fun, and everyone shrugged off injuries with ease, her included. She could fight as much as she wanted. Nobody stared at her. Nobody was scared of her.

This Mia could have a better life than the real one ever could. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa nodded. "I was half stir-crazy at her age from not gettin' to spar often enough, and I still got to spar weekly at a minimum. Can't imagine how frustratin' it'd be to be denied even that."

She'd have gone out of her wits, she was sure. She wasn't sure what that said about her, even after all the advice she'd had since coming to Cibus.

 

[Dragonfree]

"Huh." Even as a Poochyena he couldn't quite relate to that. But speaking to Brisa about it was a... pretty interesting perspective. They'd always seen her hunter's instinct as something fundamentally animalistic that her human, reasoning half just had to rein in. But here was a sapient Pokémon who still felt something like it, and just saw it as something about as natural as the urge to eat or sleep.

"Well, she had a sister who was half Misdreavus. She could turn herself insubstantial at will, so Mia could go to town without hurting her. We set clear ground rules about it, of course, but it was an outlet."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"Oh thank fuck fer that. That ain't half as bad as I was imaginin'. Still, I'm thrilled fer her that she gets to have this now. Even if, y'know, this Mia is a shade."

Brisa scratched her head awkwardly. The way Dave talked about Mia, looked at her... there was something sore there. She knew better than to risk touching that directly, but with Jesse on her mind...

"Pokémon aren't people where you're from, are they."

 

[Dragonfree]

"Yeah, no, not really. They're smarter than people often give them credit for, but they can't talk. They can express basic ideas, like 'I'm hungry' or 'go away', but no complex communication or abstract thought the way we think of it, as far as anyone can tell."