Destiny Colosseum ~ Training Rooms

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa tried to ignore the unpleasant notion of this creature hitting on Curio. Judging by the thing's repulsive attitude, it couldn't have been pleasant. Still, Curio could look after herself.

"That 'guy' is your Shadow," growled Brisa. "Not literally your shadow. It's what folks are callin' the things that are showing up lately. They're... made out of yer negative feelings or yer secret thoughts or somethin'."

What did that say about Zane, she wondered? Did he think of her on some level as an animal? Of course he does. You ARE a violent fucking animal. The rest of them are kidding themselves.

Practicality took over as she assumed her ranger persona. "You gotta get rid of that thing. Either get a grip and ground yourself, or use your Radiance to flush it out. I swear if I see that fuckin' thing, it's gettin' vaporised."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane nodded along, more and more relieved as Brisa kept talking. "Okay, so this is some weird glitch everyone's going through." He sat down, reclining slightly onto his arms. "You wouldn't believe the looks I got trying to explain him to the doc." It belied belief. He'd gone through hell to convince that goodra he was hallucinating only for someone to release him anyway before he had a chance. "Can't believe hallucinating him means I haven't lost it," he chuckled.

"You sure are warm and comfy around someone primed and ready to kill you," his shadow cut in, still from nowhere.

"Not me, you," Zane countered.

"I am you."

"Part of me. Come on, coward. Show your face," Zane chuckled. The shadow didn't oblige or answer. "What's the hold up?" Zane asked and pushed himself upright.

"Well first of all," his shadow sounded like it had its teeth grit, "I'm stuck looking like your fatass, and that animal's primed to vaporize me the second she sees me."

Zane rolled his eyes and rested his chin against his right claw. "Yeah, animal, sure. How outdated are you? She's a pokémon. Sentient. Habla ingles, comprende?" Some bizarre glint of confidence glowed in Zane's eye. Every nerve built up from asking for Brisa's help disappeared the more he made fun of... himself. He looked cheerily at Brisa, taken back for half a second at how serious she looked. "He's harmless, don't worry. Just says whatever he can to piss whoever off. Not really worth killing."

His shadow finally cut in, "I ain't worth killing. She knows that. She just wants to pretend she's killing you."

"Wanna bet?"

"Twenty."

"Deal." Zane looked at Brisa. "C'mon, Breese, chill. I got twenty on the line here. He'll pop out, but just leave him, a'ight?" Just as Zane's complete nonchalance suggested, his shadow fizzed into existence three feet to his right.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa watched carefully, ears primed, and took in everything she could. It wasn't the things the Shadow had to say that bothered him, but the 'hallucination'. He obviously despised himself. He'd probably carried on this sort of inner dialogue long before Shaymin Village. Some part of him absolutely expected her to kill him. And the thing was afraid of her Radiance, which meant it would probably work.

She eyed the Shadow appraisingly. Maybe the thing was how Zane had looked before, but it was hardly a natural appearance for a zangoose. How bizarre that he should have been plucked from a world he wasn't native to to begin with.

"Howdy, motherfucker," she said to it, her upper lip curling back in contempt. "You owe my pal here twenty of your monetary units."

 

[Tanuki]

"Money?" Zane's shadow chuckled. It didn't seem particularly comfortable out in the open, but still tried to look smug. "Sorry, doll, we deal in doses." With that non-explanation, Zane clinked a bottle out of his bag, cracked it open with one claw and corked it with the pour spout his shadow tossed him. "Deal's a deal, I guess," it sighed in faux frustration before counting out twenty Mississippis once Zane started pouring it down.

The final count came, and Zane put the bottle down with a wince at the last gulp. "Echk. Remind me never to buy Strongarm Ale again."

"Ale? Come on, don't short change me," his shadow whined.

"You're the one who lost the bet, remember?" Zane could make fun of himself all day, but he'd asked Brisa for help. "Besides, I need to be sober for her sake, at least." After this huge conniption, he could at least try to get back on track. "Sorry about him. He's not a fan of my socializing." Brisa still seemed tense. "You all right? We can postpone the, uh..." he dropped his gaze to scratch behind his ear.

"Fwendship twaining," his shadow finished for him.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa glowered at the Shadow. "You may recall I had a run-in with my own Shadow in Shaymin Village. Can't say it's a great pleasure to be in the company of one now. My Shadow is... dangerous. But I can handle it. Just make sure you keep yours under control. The drinkin', too."

She turned back to the human-turned-zangoose-turned-zangoose. "I'm not intendin' on rippin' into you outside of a sparrin' match in which you're willin' to participate. I can't say I have a ton of advice about makin' friends, but I wish you the best of luck with it. And I really do mean that."

She prowled past the Zanes towards the exit, feeling her hackles rise the longer she was near a Shadow.

 

[Tanuki]

"What? Wait!" Zane hopped up, but his shadow's hand stopped him there. "We barely started! You're friends with everyone. I—" his shadow clenched a claw tighter on his shoulder. "What happened?"

"You aren't that dense," his shadow chuckled. Zane shoved its claw off his shoulder, but didn't take a single step away. "She got to know you better."

"You aren't me," Zane said. A tense, silent rage held him still.

His shadow circled around between him and Brisa. "You wanna lesson in friendship? Try listening more." Zane didn't even glance its way, refused to acknowledge his existence. "Negative feelings, secret thoughts, everything you want to keep hidden." Just a flair of his lips pulled into a snarl. "I'm your repressed honesty. Pretend to open up all you want. Play friend all you want. It'll always end the same. They're gone. You're alone. Quit while you're behind."

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"I've heard enough outta you," spat Brisa, her eyes flaring up.

Radiant bars of light snapped into place around Zane's doppelganger, and the apparition began to burn away at the touch of the light. Brisa's face showed no anxiety or earnestness as the Radiance danced around her eyes and she stared down the struggling Shadow.

"I ain't friends with everyone," she continued. "And before I came here, I spent four years in total fuckin' isolation, so I am constantly anticipatin' that I'm gonna fuck it up and drive folks away. Well, here's another lesson about keepin' friends I've started to figure out: you have to put yer trust in folks."

Her eyes blazed again and she intensified the crackling restraints around the Shadow, ignoring its every protest, before turning to Zane with a gentler expression, if only slightly so.

"I reckon you've got a ways to go, Zane. But you can make it. Y'hear me? You're better than this asshole. Y'can beat him."

 

[Tanuki]

Zane leapt away from the burst of radiance, half expecting another set to wrap around him. It didn't. When he took a peak, Brisa was actually helping him. Talking to him. Opening... up to him? She shared her own anxieties—that had to mean something.

His shadow writhed in pain but kept as silent as it could manage so Brisa didn't get the satisfaction. Its eyes locked on her, fuming with hatred as the radiance dissolved its form.

Zane clung to her every word. She stayed for him. She was fighting for him. Yet, a bitter cold cut him deeper than her words could reach.

Y'hear me? You're better than this asshole. Y'can beat him.

One deep breath. Two. He took a good look at his shadow, or at least, what was left of it. Spite. Anger. Fear. "You're on the right track," he said, attempting a forlorn smile for a second before it collapsed. "You said friendship was about trust, right?" Deep breath, look Brisa in the eyes. "Trust me for a second. Let it go." By his expression, no wasn't on the table, and his claws flashed with energy to prove the point.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa hesitated for a moment, a growl frozen in her throat. Then she dropped the Arrest. The Shadow survived. She stared at it with hackles raised and claws flexed against the floor.

Trust. Self-control. Mercy. She could do that.

"I'm not a violent goddamn animal," she said, quietly.

 

[Tanuki]

Zane's shadow tried to lunge for Brisa, but didn't have any legs to leap. "I appreciate the sentiment," Zane grumbled, "but I'm not any better than him." Either to prove his point, or maybe some catharsis, Zane kicked the shadow in the stomach. "Not yet. Not until I earn it." His shadow faded into nothing, mouthing several expletives Zane's way. "He's me."

Even when it had disappeared completely, Zane snarled at the floor at front of him. "He's what I used to look like. What I really look like. He's my gameplan for surviving this mission. He's a self-centered, abrasive, fat piece of shit. He's everything I hate about myself." He looked at Brisa, gaze tired and empty. "But, hey, I hate him. That's gotta count for something."

He shrugged, grabbed a flask from his bag and sat against the wall. "Anyway, enough about me." He kept his eyes on the opposite wall. "What's this animal business all about? Do you wanna talk about it, or would you rather spar?"

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

You're not that, Brisa thought. Now was perhaps not the best time to make that argument, if she even knew how to frame it.

"What's this animal business all about? Do you wanna talk about it, or would you rather spar?"

"Somethin' my father once said to me. That's all," she said, dully. "I could use a good sparrin' match, actually. I'll teach you a new trick or two to warm up, then maybe I'll go put myself through the wringer in the colosseum proper."

Brisa stretched out, cracking a few joints as she did, and took up a position in the training room.

"Let's start by seein' how tough y'are after that last big fight..."

Training and sparring was a much brighter prospect when her opponent didn't have his inner demons taunting him the whole time. This oughta be a good time. And then, sure, maybe she'd go crush it in the arena... like any pokémon ought to enjoy.

 

[Tanuki]

What the hell parentage did Brisa have? It must not have been his business if she just moved on like that, but what the hell? “Oh yeah, the fight I died in,” Zane mused, standing and stretching.

He just had to not think about blood-thirsty shaymin all around him, swarming, murdering with probably the most adorable faces he’d ever seen. “I’m your warm-up?” A grin reminiscent of his shadow’s pulled at his cheeks. “All right, sure. You teach me a thing or two about fighting, and I’ll return the favor teaching you what dirt tastes like.” He tossed his flask to his bag and bared his claws. “Show me what you got, ya filthy animal.”

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's eye twitched at the animal moniker, but it was whatever. Zane was Zane was Zane. She'd ask him to stop after the match.

Despite the Shadow, she was still doing okay. She'd kick Zane's ass hit the colosseum after, and maybe find a minute along the way to actually tutor the sonofabitch in combat techniques. Yeah. She could see herself spending some time here.

Destiny Colosseum, here she was.

<><><><><><>​

 

[Virgil134]

A few days after Icetales' party Cabot found himself at one of the training rooms of Destiny Village's Colosseum. Since the team had moved on from Treasure Town the rooms at the stadium had become Cabot's main place to train, with today being no exception.

He charged forward towards a training dummy and flicked several sharp stones at it, before hastily following up by slamming it with a rigid, steely tail. Cabot looked satisfied at the result, before turning to his Shade who was still inside his rock at the side of the room.

"I think I used those two attacks pretty fast!" the Cranidos exclaimed. "And I didn't even need Shadow Accelerate in order to do it."

 

[Chibi Pika]

It had been a hell of a busy week, but things finally started to settle into a routine with the team now living in Destiny Village. Which meant that it was time to get back into the swing of things with regular training. Starr hadn't had very much time to practice all her moves in her new evolved form, and she was ready to fix that. So she opted to head off to the training rooms over at the colosseum. (Fortunately, Lexx was nowhere to be found--he'd been busy with nerd shit at the lab, apparently.)

When Starr arrived, Cabot was already inside practicing an assortment of moves. Focusing on speed drills, from the looks of it. Starr raised a paw as a greeting and said, "Hey, mind if I join you?"

 

[Virgil134]

"Oh, hey there Starr!" Cabot cheered, giving a small wave. His Shade made his way over to the battlefield with small hops. "I wouldn't mind! Back home I never trained alone, so I certainly wouldn't mind the company."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr was always a bit taken aback by just how damn cheerful Cabot was, even to see her. It was weird, but also a nice change of pace from a lot of the bullshit she'd been dealing with lately.

"Yeah, same. I'm used to training with a bunch of people backhome. My team, my friends, their teams, you get the idea. Plus I wanna get used to fighting as a Torracat now." She couldn't help noticing the shade bouncing along after Cabot. So his was one of the ones that hadn't hatched yet.

 

[Virgil134]

"Oh right! Congratulations on evolving. I guess I never really got to say that with everything that happened," Cabot said. "I take it you're fully recovered then?"

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr grinned. "Heh, thanks. Wasn't really something I'd been like, looking forward to like someone who'd been a Pokémon their whole life. But now that it's happened, I'm sure as hell not complaining." Hard not to enjoy the simple fact that she was stronger now. "And yeah, pretty much fully recovered. That was some fight, huh? Thinking back on it, it still feels like a weird fever dream."

 

[Virgil134]

"Things sure got crazy, huh?" Cabot said, giving a small smile "At least the two of us did really great coordinating the team! If we all train hard enough maybe we can even take on that Mewtwo in the near future."