Destiny Colosseum

[Namohysip]

Turf knew it was coming, but the shock followed by the drain was more than enough to completely negate her speed and send her toppling to the ground. She whimpered and staggered to her feet. "L-like that'll be enough... I'm not weak like before!"

"A lot can change in a month!" Surf said. "T-Turf! Again! Then we'll go for it!"

And another twin Screech rattled Bahamut again.

"Is it just me," Surf said, "or is B-Bahamut getting stronger?"

"No... he's tired!" Turf looked up at the status bars on the arena screen. Bahamut was stoic as always, and his health was apparently giving the interface some rendering problems, but it seemed like his energy levels were going down rapidly from all the techniques he was performing.

 

[Ambyssin]

"If you're just going to keep using Screeches, can we just call this off? I'm not used to having ears."

This time, Bahamut didn't use any specific technique. He just struck Turf with a forepaw... twice.

 

[Namohysip]

"Ahhh!" Turf didn't expect that one. Bahamut had been so tending toward nonviolence that doing halfhearted attacks, no matter how light they were, took her off her groove. She went tumbling away and rolling, and the audience quieted down to see how they would react. They mumbled to one another. Bahamut was actually attacking back?

They looked at the counter to the right. The battle's timing was nearing its end. They had to finish things quickly or forefeit simply due to how strong Bahamut was over them health wise.

"F-fine," Surf said, and the blades danced around her once again. Turf tried another Screech, but Bahamut seemed to have evaded most of it with ease, and his defenses didn't seem that affected this time.

"Then on my next attack... I'll hit you," Surf declared.

 

[Ambyssin]

Bahamut frowned. Stubborn to the bitter end, huh? Fine. Two could play at that game. "Well—"

"Whoa, whoa. C'mon, boss." Esper tapped his forehead. "Can't you at least play it up a bit for the crowd? Your strike actually got a reaction from them. I was starting to think they'd died of boredom."

Bahamut gnashed his metallic teeth. "This isn't—"

"Maybe you can teach the kiddos a lesson?" he whispered. "Surely your inner dad likes that?"

Another sigh, then a clear of the throat. In a booming voice, he declared, "Your spunk impresses me. Clearly you have your parents' determination. But let me perfectly clear, little one, you have a choice to make." The necrozma raised his right hand and pointed to Turf. "If you're dead-set on striking me, then I will return the favor and knock your sister out. She cannot withstand two more of my strikes."

Bahamut turned his claw on Surf. "Can you call yourself the daughter of a hero if you let your own family fall just to get a strike in on an opponent?"

In some regards, it was as much a damning jab at himself as it was at Surf. But she didn't need to know that.

 

[Namohysip]

Surf's teeth seemed to be coated in a dark aura, and Turf tensed up, jaw tense, though it did not have the same dark aura.

"I... can't handle it?" Turf asked. "You barely put any effort, and I..."

Tick, tock, Surf could feel the seconds slipping away. If she didn't deal as much damage as she could right then, Bahamut would win by default. They spent too much time preparing, and now he was threatening them with defeating Turf? Why was that making her freeze up?

"Do it," Turf suddenly said, crouching down. "Sis! You've got this! This is what we planned for, remember?!"

"But--"

"I did my part! Don't let him scare you!"

The crowd cheered, though it was hard to tell who. They had managed to force the great wall to strike back. But could they actually break through?

Surf squeezed her fists. "Fine," she said. "This is a battle, Bahamut. You giving me a false choice isn't going to stop me from attacking... We planned for this from the start!"

 

[Ambyssin]

"All actions have consequences." Bahamut again struck Turf twice. That should've been enough to put her down.

 

[Namohysip]

Turf went toppling across the ground, landing badly on her arm. She tried to stand, but it didn't look like it was going to be enough, and she fell over. Surf, meanwhile, let out a rallying cry and bit at Bahamut--but he was too fast, too evasive, and she was only able to get a small hit in despite all of their preparation.

Surf's Crunch dealt a grazing 23 damage to Bahamut!

But Surf wasn't going to give up just like that. She kept at it, running toward him again, while Turf managed to stand herself up.

"I..." Turf tried to step forward, but her vitality sensors on the screen suggested otherwise. "You're right... w-we're the daughters of heroes, and... we've been running away from that!"

"They wanted us to live peacefully, and we bought into that, because a life of strength is dangerous. That's what we thought, and it's true, but... but we can do more! Maybe we want to do more! You've been our motivation to get stronger for a whole month!" Surf stomped on the ground. "I'm not going to back down just because of a threat like that. It just means we have to get stronger, and..."

"A-and... I don't..." Turf stumbled forward. "I don't... want to be weak... I don't want... to be used... like a hostage..."

Incineroar was watching carefully, waiting for pauses in speech to make his own commentary. Yet, mid-sentence, something caught his eye. "Turf is too weak to keep fighting! Surf is carrying on the fight! Time is ticking down--there is perhaps only enough time between them for another exchange of blows! It looks like this might be the end for--wait--what's this?!"

The vitality sensors on Turf had a new symbol next to it. A rare one, typically when abnormalities are being sensed in the fight. It was an exclamation point next to her name, and her vitality sensors blanking out.

Just then, a white light enveloped Turf.

 

[Ambyssin]

“Oh, good grief.” This was turning into some sort of spectacle. At least it would be over shortly.

Just for good measure, Bahamut did one last Siphon on Surf, then swatted her with a forepaw, angling to send her into Turf.

 

[Namohysip]

Turf yelped and ducked, not used to her new body yet. She didn't know how to fight with it, but she did know how to scream--so, in a last-ditch effort to get Bahamut when it counted, she made one last Screech attack against him. And this time, it was just barely enough to get his defenses down to as low as they could go... And even with that, Esper seemed to be covering some ground, too. Bahamut's weakest was still not too weak.

Not that that stopped Surf. "I'll show you what we can do!" Surf said. "Together... the Croconaw Sisters! OR, um..."

"Better name later," Turf said, "hurry! Time's running out!"

Turf feigned a Screech, and just then, Surf took advantage of it and launched her strongest Crunch yet. This time, it landed--and with Bahamut's minimized defenses, the dark aura seeped into him. His Prism Armor resisted quite a bit of it... but it still hurt more than anything he'd probably dealt with before.

And they'd only gotten this strong after a month?

Surf's Crunch dealt 116 damage to Bahamut!

Surf jumped away before she could be countered, but right as she called for Turf to go in for a finishing blow--which likely would not finish things at all--a buzzer rang above everyone's heads and Turf tripped over herself, faceplanting into the dirt.

"And that's time!" Incineroar said.

 

[Ambyssin]

"Great. Are we done here?" Bahamut licked a forepaw and brushed his metallic mane.

 

[Namohysip]

"W-wait!" Surf said. "Come on! You have to at least acknowledge how much damage I dealt there! Look!" She pointed at the vitality sensors, which showed that Surf was tired, Turf was exhausted, and Bahamut, surprisingly, had a decent chunk of damage out of him--especially considering he'd previously broken the interface.

It seemed that the judges were deliberating the winner.

 

[Ambyssin]

"And look how much you exhausted yourself for the sake of one strike that, while decent, would be negated by my healing." Bahamut snatched Esper before he could float up and mouth off to ruin the moment. "Imagine for a moment that this wasn't some battle for sport. That you were battling for survival, like your parents once did. Do you think this would be a good result?"

 

[Namohysip]

"If we were battling for survival we'd be running away," Surf pointed out, frowning. "This was a competition where we want to fight to win! It's totally different!"

Turf looked Bahamut over pensively, wondering why he was thinking of this like it was to survive. "We aren't fighting the Blacklight right now," she said.

 

[Ambyssin]

Fighting to win? “You are both young. And fortunate. Where I’m from, battles are about survival. Nothing more, nothing less. So it behooved me to avoid confrontations.”

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh..." Surf looked to Turf--she had looked down on reflex, before realizing that she no longer had to do that. She grinned a little, but Turf seemed more concerned with Bahamut.

"But if battles are always about survival, how do you get stronger?" Turf asked. "Everyone loses a battle now and then..."

 

[Ambyssin]

“In the old days, you pushed yourself against nature itself.” Bahamut’s eyes flickered purple. “Nowadays, they have enchanted dummies and other contraptions, but it scarcely matters. Every successive generation of pokémon has grown weaker. Technology has reduced their need to use their strength and power.

“This fake body is just a fraction of my true power. Back home, my attacks had such overwhelming force behind them, I tended to avoid fights unless it was absolutely necessary.”

 

[Namohysip]

"That's sad," Turf said simply.

Surf rubbed her shoulder. "Well, you're in a world where you can fight for fun, if you ever warm up to that," Surf said. "Thanks for the battle, I guess. You got to fight back, right? But just you wait. One day we're gonna get so strong that we'll overwhelm you! We're supposed to be able to rival Legends and stuff one day!"

She reflexively tried to pick Turf up, but she was too large for that, now, and there was a hint of sadness in Surf's eyes when she realized this. "Well, uh--c'mon, Turf. Let's go see our parents."

"See you, Bahamut!"

 

[Ambyssin]

"Mmm. See you. And congrats on your evolution, little one. I'm sure you'll be a feraligatr before you know it."

As he made for the exit, however, one phrase echoed in the back of his head. Overwhelming force. Overwhelming force. Overwhelming force...

"Overwhelming force. Overwhelming force," Esper whispered to Bahamut. He swatted Esper away like he was nothing more than an annoying beedrill.

"I need to recapture that sense of power." Bahamut's eyes shifted red. "I have to figure out how to turn this defensive energy into an actual attack."

<><><>​

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Brisa's mane crackled with agitation as she loped into the arena. She needed to burn off some energy before she could even consider going through with this hypothetical meeting with her father. Even if it couldn't actually happen, she'd gotten way too worked up from staring down a god and all but daring him to kill her. Time to kick some ass. Or get her ass kicked, that would also do just fine, and it could actually happen with her body still not caught up to her usual strength and the folks of Cibus being mighty strong.

"Who am I up against today?" she called out, half-expecting it to be the twins again. That'd be alright, but she was hoping for someone tougher, someone who might actually beat her.

Luz took up a supporting stance behind her, waving her arms up to the crowds and kissing her digits and blowing kisses to the audience. What a fucking show-off.

 

[Namohysip]

"Aaand here she is, the Electric powerhouse, the capturer of Rayquaza himself, Brisket of Team Spectrum!" Incineroar was enthusiastic as ever, and then he turned to the other side--the anonymous match that Brisa had been invited for was finally going to be revealed. "Her opponent... the hero-turned-archeologist, the cryptid researcher, the saver of the timecrash... Pepper!"

It wasn't the daughters. No, this time, it seemed that Brisa had to tangle with the mother.

She smirked from the opposite side, but that expression melted into a friendlier expression as she waved Brisa down. "Hey! Guess we're gonna be fighting it out this time, huh?" The Feraligatr revealed a disarming but toothy grin. "Y'know, I'm way stronger than when you found me all corrupted..."