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"thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/411/411230_Milkie_pok_mon_rumble_ch._6.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/411/411230_Milkie_pok_mon_rumble_ch._6.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "120", "thumb_huge_y": "120", "thumb_large_x": "120", "thumb_large_y": "120", "thumb_medium_x": "120", "thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "pools": [ { "pool_id": "8511", "name": "Glint and Spark", "description": "A collection of all my Glint and Spark stories so far!", "count": "8", "submission_left_submission_id": "66985", "submission_left_file_name": "87423_Milkie_the_most_electrifying_first_day_of_school_ever_inkbunny.rtf", "submission_right_submission_id": "363954", "submission_right_file_name": "467930_Milkie_date_night.doc" } ], "description": "[b]Chapter 1[/b] starts on... [b]page 1[/b]\n[b]Chapter 2[/b] starts on [b]page 25[/b]\n[b]Chapter 3[/b] starts on [b]page 53[/b]\n[b]Chapter 4[/b] starts on [b]page 77[/b]\n[b]Chapter 5[/b] starts on [b]page 115[/b]\n[b]Chapter 6[/b] starts on [b]page 136[/b]\n\nTa-daa~! A new installment in my Glint and Spark series! What's happening today, I wonder?\n\nSeems like the twins are itching to get into a fight! But don't worry, this one is officially sanctioned by the Pokémon Junior League! Yes, our little dynamic duo are going to POKéBATTLE!\n\nRead on, Pokéfans!\n\n---\n\nGlint & Spark, Salem, Whitney, Meryl, Tina, Cinder, Marco, Scyllia (c) [iconname]Milkie[/iconname]\nNori (c) [iconname]Norithics[/iconname]\nSammy (c) [iconname]Shmucky[/iconname]\nPokémon (c) GameFreak and Nintendo ltd.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Chapter 1 starts on... page 1
Chapter 2 starts on page 25
Chapter 3 starts on page 53
Chapter 4 starts on page 77
Chapter 5 starts on page 115
Chapter 6 starts on page 136

Ta-daa~! A new installment in my Glint and Spark series! What's happening today, I wonder?

Seems like the twins are itching to get into a fight! But don't worry, this one is officially sanctioned by the Pokémon Junior League! Yes, our little dynamic duo are going to POKéBATTLE!

Read on, Pokéfans!

---

Glint & Spark, Salem, Whitney, Meryl, Tina, Cinder, Marco, Scyllia (c) \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMilkie\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMilkie\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Nori (c) \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Sammy (c) \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShmucky\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShmucky\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Pokémon (c) GameFreak and Nintendo ltd.", "writing": "[u][b]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 1 [/b][/u]\n\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\t\n\t“I’m telling you, that teacher is evil,” Glint said as she walked through the halls at her local high school. Lunch had come, and many students were marching their way towards the cafeteria to get their much needed afternoon nutrition, the Plusle included. Right at her side was her brother, a Minun, named Spark.\n\n\t“I don’t think that’s the case…” Spark responded. Though the two were twins, they couldn’t have seemed more different. For one, Glint was a girl, and Spark was a boy. Many of the markings on their bodies were the opposing colours of red and blue, and their general demeanors were polar opposites. Though different as they were, nothing could separate them. They were as close as close could be.\n\n\tMost brothers and sisters didn’t hold hands as they walked through the halls at school. But compared to what else set them apart from most siblings, hand-holding was timid. Most siblings didn’t share open-mouth kisses or sexual intimacies either, but Glint and Spark sure did. Most siblings didn’t love one another on a transcended level, far beyond brothers and sisters. Glint and Spark did. Definitely.\n\n\tSpark squeezed his sister’s hand as they walked. It was a mild reminder, if nothing else, to Glint that he did love her, as more than just his sister. They couldn’t publicly display their sentiments on a level any higher than that though. They’d learned the hard way what could happen if they dared try. They didn’t want to relive the experience. Glint could only return the scrape of affection with a knowing look into her brother’s brown eyes, and a sweet smile of her own.\n\n\tThe outside world was awful distracting. As much as the two wanted to disappear, reality was all too present. The halls were crowded, more than usual it seemed.\n\n\t“What’s going on around here?” Glint would ask, looking around at what seemed like an unnaturally high number of students crowded around the entrance to the cafeteria. Spark noticed them too, his ears perked attentively to pick up snippets of conversation where he could, but there were so many voices that it all seemed like a jumbled mess.\n\n\tIndeed there was a group so thick the twins would have to push through them. They were all huddled around something outside the cafeteria. Hungry as they were, the twins were curious creatures… They pushed and shoved their way to the front to see what the matter was. It was there they saw a grand-looking poster.\n\n\tThe poster was big, and had plenty of almost cartoony explosion graphics that attempted to make the words stamped atop them jump off the paper and grab attention. If the huddled mass was any indication, it performed adequately. The poster though had a familiar word to the twin Pokémon: “Pokébattle.”\n\n\t“The Junior Pokébattle League Tournament…” Spark murmured aloud. He then looked to his sister and raised a brow, “Some kind of fighting tournament for Pokémon?” He’d ask.\n\n\tGlint was studying the poster curiously as well, but her expression was as much joy as anything. Their school didn’t see many Pokémon… Glint and Spark were only two of maybe a handful of the “pocket monsters” that attended. It was nothing short of a surprise that there would be a publicly advertised Pokémon event their school was even aware of. The idea of at least seeing the event was more than appealing to the young pair… Of course, the idea of entering was racing rampant through Glint’s head as well.\n\n\t“They’re accepting entries!” She said with a smile, eyes wide as she read the finer details in smaller print.\n\n\t“What? No.” Spark shot back. “No way.”\n\n\tSomeone else in the crowd recognized the twins and spoke up, “Hey! Glint and Spark are Pokémon! They should enter!”\n\n\tSpark’s ears perked up quickly and he turned to the crowd, which had seemingly surrounded them in a half circle. “No!” He said, “We can’t enter that!”\n\n\t“Enter, you puss!” A voice shouted out from somewhere in the crowd, and several other students jumped right on board trying to encourage them.\n\n\tGlint, ignoring the lot of them, kept reading. “Entrants must supply official entry applications and a small entry fee,” She said, rubbing her chin in thought, “The tournament is going to be held in three months for a whole weekend. There are single, doubles, and triple battles…”\n\n\tSpark turned to Glint and grabbed her arm, pulling her a little to ease her away from the poster, as if trying to drag her away from the notion itself, “Gliiiint, noooo~!”\n\n\t“But Spark, we can totally do it!” Glint responded, looking to her brother, “This is our chance to show everyone that we’re more than just brother and sister… we’re a team too!”\n\n\tSpark let out a heavy sigh. He was certain that she was going to say something else.\n\n\t“You’re wastin’ your time, girlie!”\n\n\tThe twins looked away to see a familiar bunch… Three leather coat wearing greasers - Antonio, an Anteater, Tony, a Tiger, and a mouse… whose name had escaped the twins. In fact, no one really knew what his name was.\n\n\t“Your brother’s got the spine of a wet noodle, girlie,” Antonio jeered, much to the chagrin of the Minun, “And you want him to enter some kinda fightin’ tournament? You’re outta your mind!”\n\n\tThe tiger, a tall and intimidating male, grinned. “Yeah, Spark’s just a little pipsqueak.”\n\n\tThe mouse just… laughed, a little… stupidly.\n\n\tGlint shot the trio a glare. It wasn’t the first time she had to deal with them, but if she had her way, this tournament would ensure that it’d be the last. “Spark and I have been fighting since you were using training gel in that gross hair of yours, Antonio! We were trained growing up!”\n\n\t“It’s just… been a while…” Spark admitted woefully.\n\n\tAntonio just laughed. “Ch’yeah right. Only thing you two were probably trained to do is jump-start cars!”\n\n\tGlint glared again, though this time at Spark. “Spark!” She barked.\n\n\tSpark jumped a little. “W-What?”\n\n\tThe Plusle turned to her brother and took both of his hands and held them in hers. She looked him dead in the eye, with a look Spark knew all too well. She was pleading with him now. She wanted him to write his name down on that poster, right where it gave them space to accept applicants. She wanted him to prove to those three guys that he wasn’t just some spineless wimp, like she knew he wasn’t! The thought made him a little nervous.\n\n\tBut it was more than just some pride issue. Spark turned his gaze to the poster and tried to think of it. This was something that he and his sister could do together. In some small way, they could expose their unison, their synergy with one another through fighting. Back at the Center they grew up on, Pokémon were trained to battle growing up. It helped keep them strong and focused, and built strong relationships between allies and opponents alike. It helped them understand more about themselves and other Pokémon, be it their natural elements and types or what they were capable of… It was as much an educational tool as it was a means to embrace the species’ instinct.\n\n\tGlint and Spark had always made an exceptional team. They moved fluidly together, and worked hard for one another in battles. They encouraged and challenged one another, and it spurred them to victory more times than not. Most of all, fighting alongside one another made them feel… well they couldn’t have described the feeling. It was fun, it was exhilarating, and it was… right. It was something they were meant to do.\n\n\tThey hadn’t battled in their recent years. Before being adopted by their father, Nori, they had slowed their battling to a near halt. When they were adopted and brought to a new home, it had stopped altogether. The thought of being able to do it again, even if just one more time, made the twins antsy. It was stirring up instinctive feelings in them they hadn’t felt in years. The goading helped, ironically enough. Just being told they couldn’t do it filled them with purpose – to take those words and make the greasy Anteater choke on them.\n\n\tBut most of all, if it meant that he could go out there with Glint and show everyone how amazing they were together, Spark couldn’t say no.\n\n\tThe boy took a deep breath before taking the permanent marker string up on the wall next to the poster and writing down his name, and Glint’s too.\n\n\tThe action was met with applause and cheering, mostly at the idea that the students would be able to go and watch something exciting for a change. Glint jumped for Joy before grabbing Spark and hugging him tight. Antonio and his boys… they seemed pleased too, but probably just at the idea that the twins would get beaten for their entertainment.\n\n\tSpark… sighed. What had he done?\n\n\t…\n\n\tThe look on his face was hardly any different when he was walking out his back door at home after school was over. He and his sister stepped down the wooden steps of the back porch onto the somewhat grassy, but mostly sandy back yard of their beach-side home. They walked together, Glint nearly skipping along, making her bodacious breasts bounce in her red tank top.\n\n\tInside, their father watched as they made their trek into the back yard. He stood in front of the sliding glass door that left into their back yard from the kitchen, holding a tea cup in both his hands. As mentioned before, Glint and Spark were adopted… so while they were yellow rodents prone to electrical discharges, their father, Nori, was a grayscale raccoon with golden-amber eyes. He stood there, bare toes wiggling against the floor, casually slumming around in a pair of old shorts and a t-shirt like the beach bum he was… He was the younger, cooler Dad in most people’s opinions. His light gray hair couldn’t even make him look old.\n\n\t“They said they were going to practice, but I don’t see their soccer ball,” He said, “Weird kids.”\n\n\t“If they put half as much effort into their work on the weekends as they do in soccer…” At the kitchen table sat another Pokémon – a Pikachu.\n\n\tShe wasn’t much unlike the twins. Most of her fur from head to toe was yellow. Unlike the twins though, she had brown swipes across her lower back, and the circles on her cheeks were just red spots, no cross-sectioning or anything. She had green eyes, and her brown hair peeked out from beneath the green bandana she wore on her head.\n\n\tShe dressed fairly lightly, but in her defense it was warmer out. A simple pair of green shorts and a gray tube top with some green accents kept her nice and modest… or at least as modest as her heavily curved body would allow. Her name was Sammy, and she owned a ranch outside of the city. On the weekends, the twins went to help her out, and she had been called on several times to look after them in Nori’s absence. He thought it was good for the twins to have another Pokémon in their lives.\n\n\t“Well, to be fair, we do have them working at the ranch on the weekends,” Nori chuckled as he turned his attention back to his guest. He walked over to the table and took a seat across from her.\n\n\t“True!” Sammy laughed, sipping her tea, “Teenagers have a sort of disliking for working outside of school.”\n\n\t“Tell me about it. Sometimes it’s impossible to get those two to do anything at all,” Nori said, “They can be a little rambunctious.”\n\n\t“Well, they are Pokémon,” Sammy grinned behind her cup, “We can be a little rambunctious by nature.”\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Alright, ready Spark?” Glint asked as her untied red sneakers slid through the sand. She shifted into a stance, ready to pounce almost.\n\n\tSpark stood across from his sister, pushing his own feet into that position as well – blue sneakers like his sister’s ready to propel him forward in a sprinter’s dash. “I… guess. It’s been a long time.”\n\n\t“ReadysetGO!”\n\n\tGlint rushed forwards without giving her brother much more than a second. She’d launched herself from her starting position, and propelled herself to her target with a surprising display of agility her little, but very buxom form would betray her having. Spark was ill prepared for it – his sister’s hands were all over him in an instant, and not in a good way!\n\n\tGlint grabbed on to her brother’s shoulders and fell backward, pulling him towards the sand with her. She landed on her back, but with her knees bent to catch Spark’s weight, she pushed her butt upward to roll herself back. All at once, she pushed up against Spark’s body as it was tossed over her, launching him into the air! The poor Minun’s body flipped and he watched the ground and horizon across the beach waters roll past his vision before he saw nothing more than sky. His back hit the sand hard, nearly winding the boy.\n\n\t“Hngh!” Spark grunted as he hit the ground, his teeth grit.\n\n\tGlint quickly rolled forwards and lifted herself to her feet; turning to look at her brother laying sprawled out in the sand, just staring into the sky in disbelief. Glint had been so quick; it was like she’d just been itching for the chance to do that!\n\n\t“Aw, don’t just lay there!” The akimbo-standing Plusle giggled. “Come on, get up.”\n\n\tSpark just kept lying there, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.\n\n\t“What are you doing?” The young lady approached her brother and stood next to him. Spark could barely see her annoyed gaze past her lovely breasts.\n\n\t“Why did you do that?” Spark would ask.\n\n\tGlint gave him a puzzled look. “Duh, because—!”\n\n\tShe didn’t get to finish. Spark had lifted most of his body off the ground… straight up! Supporting his weight mostly on his shoulders, he used his arms to spin himself. His legs flew out almost as if he was break-dancing, and they soon swept low and took out Glint’s feet. She fell to the sand on her front, kicking up some dirt as she landed with a dull thud. Spark was back on his feet before she managed to look up, continuing his momentum and spinning to his feet like some kind of fake-wrestler.\n\n\t“Real sneaky, sis…” Spark waggled a finger.\n\n\tGlint planted her hands in the sand and pushed up, raising her upper body as she glared up at her brother. She was all dirty, much like Spark’s backside had gotten. “Why you…”\n\n\tShe kicked up sand in a dash as she launched herself at her brother again, but the Minun proved dexterous. Spark merely stepped aside, and Glint flew right past him. The cheeky bugger even gave her a smack on the ass as she stumbled on by. She got her footing though and whipped around to face her brother-turned-opponent, just in time to raise her arms and block a punch with her forearms. Spark’s fist crackled electrically as it hit, and the force of the built up energy behind it pushed Glint away. Her sneakers actually drew lines in the sand as she slid backward, but kept her footing.\n\n\tGlint lowered her arms slowly, panting a bit, and she saw Spark standing across from her, fist clenched. Electricity crackled from his hand just as it did from the blue pouches on his cheeks. He stared her down, she grinned, and it all started again.\n\n\tGlint rushed in with an electrically charged fist of her own, and Spark bent down and twisted his body just enough for it to go sailing right over his head. He planted his hands right on his sister’s bouncing E-cup breasts, and shoved her away… but didn’t do anything after that. He let her come at him again.\n\n\tAnd come at him she did! No bull-rushing that time however, and instead, she tumbled forwards, pushing herself up on her hands backwards. Her handstand turned into a grapple quickly as her feet landed on Spark’s shoulders and she crossed her sneakers behind his head. She then pulled back with every ounce of strength she could muster, whipping the boy off his feet and into the sand behind her again. Spark tumbled with his fall, somersaulting to kneel so he could get to his feet again quickly.\n\n\tPushing himself forwards, Spark threw his punches, and Glint stepped with him, keeping their distance and pushing his fists away with her forearms. Once the Minun left an opening, she launched forwards in a side-kick that her brother was too slow to avoid. He took her kick right in the side, his body jerking aside and causing him to stumble… Those thighs weren’t thick for nothing… her legs were strong!\n\n\tHe closed the gap again quickly. She threw another kick, but he was ready for it. Spark ducked under his sister’s leg. She stumbled from the missed attack and took a step in to follow up, only to have her brother’s forearm smack dead into her collar bone. His counter-momentum took her right off her feet and she fell back into the sand again.\n\n\t“Well they misbehave, sure, but they’re not terrible,” Nori said before drawing his teacup to his lip and sipping – not loudly, politely. He could be impolite when company was gone.\n\n\tSammy giggled, turning away from the table, seated on her chair sideways. She threw one of her legs over the other and rested her elbow on the table. Her cheek cradled in her palm, she looked out the glass sliding door towards where the twins had gone. “Of course not, they’re…”\n\n\tNori opened his eyes and set his teacup down. “Mm? They’re what?” He asked, noticing the Pikachu had simply trailed off.\n\n\t“They’re… um…” Sammy watched the scene outside nervously, “Well, they’re currently fighting in the back yard.”\n\n\t“Again?” Nori’s annoyance was obvious. Taking his teacup and drawing another sip, he stood from his chair and turned to the glass to look out at them.\n\n\tJust in time to see one of Spark take Glint down to the sand.\n\n\tNori’s reaction was knee-jerk. His eyes shot wide and his shoulder hunched up as his head dipped forwards. He coughed, but it sputtered into his tea. He turned quickly and set his cup down on the table, one hand resting against his nose in a vain effort to stop the tea that had just assaulted his sinuses and was flowing out his nostrils from spilling all over the place.\n\n\t“What the--?” Nori couldn’t say more as he coughed and sputtered. “Bloody hell!”\n\n\tGlint leapt forwards and tackled Spark, catching her brother and taking him down to the ground. In the meantime, the back door to their house flew open, and the frantic footsteps of their father’s bare feet clapped down the staircase of their back porch.\n\n\t“Oh my God,” Glint panted as she straddled her brother’s body, pinning his shoulders down to the ground, “I haven’t seen you look like that in years!”\n\n\t“Get off me!” Spark protested, trying to push his sister away from him. Glint just smiled, moving to grab his hands and push them back down against him. The two of them struggled against one another.\n\n\t“Yeah? What are you gonna do?” Glint giggled breathlessly. Suddenly, Spark rolled her over onto her back and thrust her to the ground by her shoulders. He was above her, hands pinning her down, knees on either side of her body, and he stared down at her intensely.\n\n\tThey both were panting hard, covered in sand, their respectfully coloured clothes more brown and dirty than anything. They hadn’t gotten that fired up in years… no argument they had could have ever amounted to the level of venting they had done. There was no better way to relieve frustration than that, and not being able to go out with your lover and do couple things sure left them with a lot of frustration.\n\n\tAs healthy as it felt to vent though, they were… charged, as it were. Their cheeks were both flush and crackling with wayward electricity as their bodies had generated it in excess. It was because they were fighting together… Glint filled Spark with such surging energy, and he filled her with much the same. They felt hot, tingly, and like they could have run a marathon.\n\n\t“Ooooh… Sparkie… Mmn…” Glint purred beneath her brother, grinning coyly up at him, “Man-handle me more…”\n\n\tMaybe it was just the tone of her seductively cooing voice… so deliberate, so hot… Or maybe it was just the energy coursing through the Minun’s body making his muscles seem so tense, like his body was running on adrenaline… But he obliged her right then and there and he didn’t care who saw it.\n\n\tHis hands latched onto her breasts roughly, squeezing them like he was trying to maul those fleshy orbs. The way they pillowed out between his fingers and felt so snug in the sports bra Glint wore under her top felt utterly amazing. The sudden harsh squeeze hurt the poor girl, but the only sound she could make was a moan… one that was promptly stifled as her brother’s lips mashed up against her own in a clumsy, tongue-filled lip-lock of sheer passion.\n\n\tGlint just held on for the ride, grabbing onto her brother’s cheeks. Electricity surged out between her fingers, and her own generated arcs of static energy bounced off the sand she laid in and were snuffed out by the non-conductive dirt. Spark was so [i]aggressive[/i]! That hot muscle of his writhed around in her mouth savagely, and the sheer energy of it made her body tense up and arch against his. Their bodies felt so hot against one another, and their movements were uncharacteristically uncoordinated for the twins…\n\n\tGlint swore she felt her eyes roll into her head, closed as they were when Spark’s index fingers and thumbs began to relentlessly tease the erect nubs in her shirt. God, her body was so… so… [i]ready[/i]!\n\n\t“What in the mother-effing-H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEYSTICKS is going ON out here?!”\n\n\tThe twins froze as their eyes shot open. They had forgotten about… everything - the sand, sun, sky, everything. Nori’s voice sounded so utterly outraged and… loud that they were ripped back to reality before they were ready. Spark pried himself away from his sister and sat up like he’d just been jabbed with a cattle prod, and he shot his wide-eyed gaze over his shoulder quickly. Glint shared the same shocked look, peeking around Spark.\n\n\tNori stood there with his arms crossed and his cheeks puffed out like he was a blowfish ready to explode in rage.\n\n\t“We’re practicing!” Spark said first, getting up off his sister and turning to face Nori directly, “For a Pokébattle Tournament!”\n\n\tWell that wasn’t something Nori expected to hear… and the sudden response from Spark, so direct and firm, was a real blindside. He was stunned for a moment.\n\n\t“Yeah, for a Tournament!” Glint repeated as she quickly got to her feet and brushed herself off. She hoped to God, or any other power that be, that Nori hadn’t seen them. It was all that was going through her head over and over again.\n\n\t“… I just saw you knock the spit right out of your sister!” Nori practically screeched, “And this is for some kind of Tournament? What are you talking about?!”\n\n\t“You haven’t heard of Pokémon Tournaments?” Came Sammy’s voice as she approached from the house. Nori turned his attention to her in a snap, looking puzzled as all hell. Was the other Pokémon actually endorsing this behavior?\n\n\t“… No! No I haven’t!” Nori responded.\n\n\tSammy sighed and hung her head, resting a few of her fingers against her forehead. “Kids, let’s… go inside and talk about this, okay?”\n\n\tNori turned his attention to the twins sternly. His only words were, “Inside. [i]Now[/i].”\n\n\tAs he and Sammy turned to leave, the twins, now shaking a little, let out a held breath and nearly collapsed against one another.\n\n\t“Oh God, okay, good, yes, thank you…” Spark sighed as he panted, “I thought for sure Dad saw us…”\n\t“Spark…” Glint murmured.\n\n\t“Huh?”\n\n\t“Spark, your pants… I can totally see your hard-on.”\n\n\t“W-What? Oh, sh--!”\n\n\t…\n\n\t“So let me get this straight… Since before you could walk and talk, two legs and all, Pokémon have been fighting one another in competitions,” Nori said as he sat back in his arm chair. Sammy, Glint and Spark all sat on the couch not far from him in the living room to help Nori understand it all.\n\n\t“Totally.” Glint affirmed.\n\n\t“And you guys still do it… So you basically just beat on each other until one or the other faints.”\n\n\t“Mhm.” Spark Nodded.\n\n\t“And three months from now, you want to go out and do that.”\n\n\t“That sounds like the plan,” Sammy said with a sheepish smile. She could tell by Nori’s expression that he wasn’t at all impressed.\n\n\t“And you didn’t think to even ask me first? To tell me?” The raccoon sat forward in his chair, having to look beside him to stare down his kids, “Well, of course you didn’t. Why would you? How could I, as any sort of a responsible father, let my kids go out and get beat to a pulp for the entertainment of the masses?”\n\n\t“We’re not going to get beat down!” Glint protested, leaning forwards as well to look back at her father, “It’s not that bad!”\n\n\tNori retorted, “From what I saw, it’s barbaric!”\n\n\tSammy sat back a little her hands folded in her lap. “Now Nori,” She said, “This sort of thing goes beyond just fighting one another. It’s something we all grew up knowing. It’s part of our heritage.”\n\n\t“But that was some time ago… And Glint and Spark are just kids!” Nori responded, trying to rationalize his argument.\n\n\t“We’re not just kids, we’re practically adults,” Spark chimed in.\n\n\tNori shook his head and finally stood up from his chair. “I can’t, I just can’t let you go ahead and do something like this. You could get hurt,” He said, his voice as gentle as he could by while trying to be stern at the same time. He wasn’t going to budge on the issue.\n\n\t“Wha? But Dad!” Glint and Spark whined.\n\n\tNori shook his head. “I said no. What if something happened? I… I just can’t, all right? If you entered that tournament, then you’re going to withdraw.”\n\n\t“That’s not fair!” Spark gasped.\n\n\t“We’re paying the entry fee ourselves!” Glint added.\n\n\t“Then get your money back!” Nori snapped back, his patience dwindling, “I said no and that’s final!”\n\n\tGlint sat back with a huff, crossing her arms. “Of for fu--!”\n\n\t“Watch your mouth!” Nori barked.\n\n\tThe twins scowled and stood from their seats, marching past Nori and towards the stairs to go sulk in their rooms. Nori’s ear perked to listen, hearing one of them stomp up each step, but the other…\n\n\t“It’s not like you’re our real Dad!” Glint shouted, before she stomped on up the stairs too.\n\n\tWhen their bedroom door soundly slammed, silence followed in its wake. Nori stood where he was, just looking straight ahead at the television. It wasn’t even on. Sammy sat there with her hands folded in her lap, her fingers nervously fumbling against one another. Her eyes glanced to Nori, but he didn’t say a word. The Raccoon’s ears slumped down after a while, and his posture slumped somewhat too. The awkward stillness in the air was almost tangible.\n\n\t“Nori… I’m going to head home before it gets too late…” Sammy said softly as she rose from her seat, “I’ll come by to pick the kids up on Friday.”\n\n\tShe left too, leaving Nori all by himself. He let himself fall back into his chair, his legs kicking out as he half laid in the recliner, his gaze on the floor. He wasn’t even aware that he was looking at nothing, his mind just reeled. It was the first time either of the twins had said anything like that in such a way. Sure, in the beginning, they knew that Nori wasn’t their ‘real’ father. He adopted them, he had no biological ties, and he didn’t raise them from birth… But he’d provided for them and watched after them, and did what he felt a father should.\n\n\tBut those words had left Glint’s mouth like a bee-sting.\n\n\t[i]It’s not like you’re our real Dad![/i]\n\n\tThe girl had never been one to pull any punches when it came to words… Nori tried to remind himself of the fact, but it didn’t help. He still felt his heart sink into his stomach just repeating the words in his head. The way Glint said it… it was spiteful, to say the least. Had he reacted too harshly?\n\n\tThe thought of them hating him hurt, but the thought of them getting hurt was worse. It was frightening. Somehow, if he let them do what they wanted to do, and got injured, it would be his fault. It would be his fault for allowing it to happen in the first place.\n\n\t“Gods,” Nori sighed as he rested his cheek against his balled-up fist, “I hate being the bad guy sometimes.”\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Well, we’re definitely not listening to him,” Glint said after she slammed the door, storming over to her bed and leaping onto it, falling onto her back.\n\n\t“Yeah…” Spark sighed; staring at the ceiling as he lay sprawled out on his own bed, “But what are we going to do?”\n\n\t“After school tomorrow, we’re going to the gym,” Glint said in a matter-of-fact tone, “We’ll just say it’s a study group or something. We’ll get in shape and practice all we want! We just have to not be here when we do it.”\n\n\t“And then?”\n\n\t“Dad doesn’t know when the competition is. We’ll just sneak out and go to it when it comes.”\n\n\tMost kids would be nervous going against their parent’s wishes so directly, and coming to that decision so soon. Glint and Spark however seemed perfectly okay with it. The thought of getting caught ran through their minds, but at the same time, they didn’t think they would. It would be easy to avoid Nori for three months, to have their little secrets…\n\n\t… They’d been hiding secrets for years. What’s one more?\n\n\n[u][b]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 2 [/b][/u]\n\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\n\tGlint and Spark weren’t taking their father’s prohibiting of their tournament sitting down… or perhaps technically they were. It depended on what part of their exercise regiment they were on!\n\n\tIt had been three weeks since Nori had told Glint and Spark they could not, would not enter in the local Junior Pokébattle that was set to take place at a stadium in town in only nine weeks. Even though their Dad said no, they didn’t listen. They had snuck out after school to head to their local work-out center and get into shape for the upcoming competition. One had to admit, their determination, even towards a goal they weren’t supposed to peruse, was something to admire.\n\n\tThe other people using the gym weren’t about to question why the high schoolers never showed up without a parent to supervise them… Most of them were too busy enjoying their company. Because work-outs needed lots of movement, and lots of movement meant… tight clothes!\n\n\t“So, what do you want to watch me do today?” Glint teased as she made her way through the gym.\n\n\tHer body was breath-taking… the young girl was filled out in all the ways a grown woman should have been, and she had plenty of filling-out to spare! Her buoyant breasts jiggled softly in the tight black sports top she wore – nice and snug for optimal cling, to keep from too much bouncing… not any bouncing, just too much. Her short red shorts weren’t any more concealing than her top. They hugged her butt and very little more than that, and hid nothing of her underwear’s straps digging into her widened hips. Topped off with red fingerless work-out gloves, her cute socks and her favourite red sneakers, she was the gem of the gym!\n\n\tSpark blushed, since his sister spared no effort in making her gait lovely to look at. His eyes were glued to her posterior as she teased him, and his cheeks were flushed and crackling with electric sparks. He opted to dress more conservatively than his sister… He wore black shorts that were looser and came down to his knees – they had a nice white stripe down the side and a logo marking them as active wear specifically. He had to wear this for the very same reason he wasn’t paying attention to any of the other patrons, or any of the sights and sounds as he made his way through the gym… because of his sister, the little minx!\n\n\tHe had a loosely fit sleeveless shirt on too… Not at all the tight-fit one he normally wore, but a more sky-blue one that hung loosely down to about his crotch, adding what he felt was another layer of protection in case he was struck by any arousal… Thankfully he’d worn tight, clingy underwear too. If Glint was going to tease him so, he was prepared to hide his shame.\n\n\t“Maybe just the usual routine?” Glint would ask, since she got no answer from her brother, “Well, set your watch, Sparkie, and let’s get to work!”\n\n\tThe twins pushed a few buttons on the Pokétchs on their wrists, and set a count-down to time themselves between activities, and then set to it.\n\n\tFirst was stretches, of course. It was important to loosen up those muscles so the twins didn’t pull anything. Spark had pulled something once in the first week… and explaining that to their father was tough! The twins set out to the exercise mats and would spend as much time as they needed to go from one stretch to another, everything from simple head tilts, to quadriceps, to arm-reaches, and everything in-between. They would talk about things while they stretched, like some of the homework they got, or the last thing Antonio had said to get one of them worked up, and every now and again one of them would call ‘switch’ to move to the next set of stretches. Considering they held their stretches for thirty seconds at a time, the whole process didn’t last much more than several minutes.\n\n\t“Hnn… Okay!” Spark sighed as he released his last stretching position, shaking out his arms and legs a little, “Abs first. Crunches!”\n\n\t“Oka- AH!” Glint squealed as Spark swept her up off her feet and carried her along towards the work-out equipment. She giggled and sighed, wrapping her arms around her brother and letting him carry her like a newlywed, passing all kinds of people and equipment along the way. Could anyone see them? Being all cute like that?\n\n\t… Did anyone care? They were awful absorbed in their work-outs… either way, Glint and Spark loved every second of it.\n\n\tSpark carried Glint over to the decline crunch station… a basic piece of equipment used to help gym-goers do crunches. The Plusle would lie out on the bench provided, and hook her legs in between a pair of supports to keep her knees raised and bent. With her hands behind her head, she’d lift her upper body towards her knees, hold for a few seconds, and then rest back down. It was one of the simplest exercises, and a good starting point, working the abdomen.\n\n\tSpark spotted Glint first, making sure she didn’t push herself too hard and timing her exercises. The twins would switch after a good several minutes so that one was always spotting the other while they exercised. It beat having a personal trainer! They had looked online for all sorts of tips to help them out, so they were pretty well-researched on the matter. Like usual, all they needed was each other… and, well, a bundle of exercise equipment.\n\n\tCrunches were always the starting point, and as fun as it was to watch Glint breasts heave with each curl, they’d move on eventually to leg extensions, and then pull downs. By the time they reached low cable rows, they’d usually have worked up a fair bit of a sweat, warranting a break as sweat would bead over their fur.\n\n\tGlint just loved spotting Spark, as she loved watching him exercise. She could really see the muscles under his flesh and fur working when he pushed his body, and she’d be the first to admit it made her heart flutter. The sheer appeal of Spark was so often over-shadowed by the Plusle that she felt it almost criminal… but at the same time, that just left everything for her.\n\n\tAfter a break and plenty of water to drink, they would go back to their routine. The incline bench press would often come after low cable rows, and Spark certainly out-performed his sister, having the better upper body strength. They could lift a surprising amount of weight given how slender their arms looked. Sure, the real meat-heads with the bulging biceps could bench-press far above the average weight, getting well into two hundred pounds, some of the real strong ones closer to three hundred than not… But Glint and Spark could manage a little above average at least! (Some say that’s somewhere around 135 pounds!)\n\n\tA dumbbell press would follow that, a slightly easier exercise in comparison… or it would be if their arms didn’t feel a little sore. It made lifting those smaller, individual weights tough! Now that one was more fun to watch Glint do… because she couldn’t help how the action of laying back and raising those dumbbell weights up time and again would cause her upper arms to squish her breasts together. It was little wonder Spark would opt to stand behind her while she performed the exercise, as the lovingly dirty bugger could see right down her stretchy top… but that was okay, it just let Glint look right up at his crotch in return, so it was all fair.\n\n\tFront presses, where a barbell weight would be pressed up from behind one’s neck, would follow after that for several minutes before the twins would take another break, often nearly exhausted.\n\n\t“So this is almost a month down…” Glint said as she sat back on one of the mats, holding her water bottle. She raised it to take a sip and very deliberately squeezed the bottle to squirt water over her neck and chest – not enough to soak her, just a little spill. “Whoops~”\n\n\tSpark gave her a somewhat flat look as she teased him further. She was horrible for that. “Classy, sis…” He’d sigh, shedding a smile, taking a sip of his own water, and nodding. “Mm. Getting ready is real tough…”\n\n\t“Aw, don’t be such a Muck about it,” Glint giggled, resting her head on Spark’s shoulder, “… It’s not so bad. I think it’s fun.”\n\n\t“We’re just starting three months before… what if others knew about it before that? They’d be training all year,” Spark said, his ears lowering, “I looked up the last competition’s winners on the internet… They both come from some Pokémon Battle Academy in some far away city.”\n\n\t“Aw man, we should have gone there, that’d be the best…” Glint murmured, taking another sip from her… oddly blue water bottle. Spark’s was red. “So what were they?”\n\n\t“A Jynx and a Haunter,” Spark said, “Nothing we’d have a definitive advantage against, right?”\n\n\tGlint shook her head. “Nope,” She answered, “So we’ll just have to beat them through pure teamwork and ability… or raw sex appeal!”\n\n\t“But the Jynx is Jamila Stone…” Spark said with a sheepish grin to his sister.\n\n\t“Aw, THE Jamila Stone? The heir to that mineral extraction company? She’s stacked better than a mountain of pancakes!” Glint whined, sighing and lowering her ears a little, “Maybe this is going to be harder than I thought… But hey! We can’t start thinking like that.”\n\n\t“Yeah,” Spark smiled, then paused and blinked, “Er, I mean… no… or… yes but no.”\n\n\tGlint giggled and shook her head again. “The only thing I’m thinking is that we’re going to give it our best shot. If we come in third, it’s better than anyone else at our school can manage, right? I say as long as we get a trophy, then that’s good enough for me!”\n\n\t“Right!” Spark smiled.\n\n\tGlint grinned a little, reaching up and tracing her finger along Spark’s chest. He’d started feeling a little firmer in the last few weeks, she had to admit. Her finger drew obvious heart shapes against his pecs. “I’m also thinking about how cute your butt looks when you’re doing raises. Come on!”\n\n\tStealing a peck to her brother’s cheek, Glint pushed herself off the mat and quickly grabbed Spark’s hand to pull him along towards their next set of activities.\n\n\tStanding curls, pull downs, and Glint’s ever-so-favourite raises would round out the end of the work-out routine. The whole set kept the twins at the gym for hours. They’d normally go after school, taking their bikes into town and back, and they’d normally pull into their driveway again a couple hours before they should go to bed… Of course, they’d be so tired; they’d quickly finish their homework and turn in early most days.\n\n\tThe best part was that their father was none the wiser. Glint and Spark would always eat dinner before they left, and they’d always make it a note to finish their homework when they got home. They’d take every other day off to rest so they didn’t go out TOO often as to raise suspicion, and they’d finish their chores on those days because… well, compared to a whole exercise regiment, chores were cake. They stayed on their absolute best behavior if for no other reason than to curb any suspicion Nori might have gotten from their activities.\n\n\tTheir active lifestyle worked in their favour. If for any reason they couldn’t go to the gym, nothing stopped them from taking their soccer ball into the back yard and kicking it around. The constant bike riding into and out of town served as more pushing towards their ultimate goal, and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for them… that was probably the most important part.\n\n\tAt the end of the day, Glint stepped out of the showers at the gym, her gym clothes stuffed into her bag and her casual clothes slipped back on. Spark would be waiting out there for her… Sometimes they dared try to sneak into the showers for some time together, but too many near-miss experiences almost getting caught had made them too wary to try it often.\n\n\t“Another day of making myself sore~” Glint groaned as she let go of her stretch, looking to her brother, “Ready to go, cutie?”\n\n\t“Ready when you are, beautiful,” Spark smiled, his cheeks flushing bashfully.\n\n\tLike always, the two would leave the building by exiting the change room area, and walking right out the front door to the bike racks. But that particular day, something… odd stopped them. They were minding their own as they made their way towards the main gym area, duffle bags over their shoulders, their sneakers tapping against the linoleum floors of the corridors, when the sound of… odd grunting caught their ears.\n\n\tJust before one would exit the change room hallway to the gym area, there was a vending machine. It was stuffed full of things like breakfast bars and breakfast drinks, granola treats, trail mix, and other low-fat things to help stave off the irony of having a snack food vending machine in a gym. The twins had always walked right on past it, not wanting to spend any more money than they needed to, and knowing that Nori often made too much for dinner and there’d be something at home if they were hungry.\n\n\tBut the strangest thing was there, and it made the twins take pause. It looked… odd. It was anthromorphic like them, but the species was difficult to put a finger on. It looked to be a dark violet all over, and resembled some kind of amphibian. It had small, clawed fingers and fins on the side of its head, and couldn’t have stood any more than four feet tall… in fact, it was probably less than that, coming up to the twins’ stomachs. It didn’t look like whoever it was had come to work out, since the creature was dressed in what looked like a pair of clingy navy blue jeans, and nothing else. It looked like it had little blue pieces of crystal poking out from its back too…\n\n\tBut it was struggling with the vending machine. It was standing on its toes, trying to reach for the highest buttons on it, but just barely unable to reach… It was waving its one arm frantically as it reached high as it could, and because it was failing so… it was making this horrible sound!\n\n\t“SKREEEEE! Salem just want noms for Salem’s tums!” It shrieked in frustration, the screaming sound it made croaking out.\n\n\tThe sound made the twins wilt their ears. “Oh God, what is that noise?!” Glint exclaimed, tugging her ears against the side of her head protectively.\n\n\tHearing this, the small creature froze. It held its position perfectly still for approximately 3.48 seconds, and then sloooowly turned its head, casting its gaze at them. That was when they’d realize that the creature had big, blue, shiny gemstones where its eyes should have been! And not only had that, but a big grin full of sharp, pointed teeth as well!\n\n\t“Blue and red!” It shouted, “Come to save Salem!”\n\n\tThe creature dropped from its reach and turned to scuttle on up to the twins, standing before them and jumping up and down. “Help Salem! Help Salem! He need your help, brave, fearless rodents!”\n\n\t“Ugh, creepy…” Glint groaned as she let go of her ears and allowing them to lift back up.\n\n\t“No creepy. Is Salem!” The creature responded.\n\n\t“Is… your name Salem?” Spark would ask, rubbing at the inside of his ear with one of his fingers, “Um… would it be rude to ask what you are?”\n\n\tThe creature’s smile faded, into something of a toothy frown as hits little hands rubbed along it head as if its mind was reeling at the question. “Is Salem!” It answered. After a few more moments, it looked back up at the two, “Ooh! Salem is Sableye. Salem is Pokémon like blue and red! Blue is Minun, red is Plusle.”\n\n\tThe twins looked at each other for a moment, then down to… Salem. Salem just stared back up at them, probably because he looked incapable of blinking. In their moment of silence, there was a high-pitched tummy rumble, and Salem suddenly grasped his abdomen and flopped onto his back on the floor, rolling around and releasing that croaky screech again.\n\n\t“SKREEE! Salem hungers!” the Sableye shouted, “Please! Plusle and Minun must help Salem reach ticker-tacker buttons! Salem must have bar of blueberry goodness!”\n\n\tAfter the twins stopped grimacing at the sound Salem was making at the top of his croaky lungs, Spark wandered over to the machine curiously. He looked inside to see just what Salem might have been talking about, eyes scanning through the selections.\n\n\t“Oh, you want a blueberry breakfast bar? Okay,” Spark said as he casually pushed the buttons A and 4 as if it was no big deal at all. The machine got to work dispensing the wrapped up health bar with the blueberry filling, and soon they all heard the snack tumble on down to the bottom… just like that.\n\n\tSalem had watched this by arching his back off the floor and staring towards Spark with his head upside down. When he heard the snack hit the bottom of the machine, he frantically scurried to his feet, clawed fingers and toes scraping against the floor as he got his footing. He dashed to the machine and slid to a stop in front of it, sticking both his hands into the dispenser flap and pulling out the bar.\n\n\tFor a while, Salem held it in his hands, gawking at the bar like he’d just been given a crystal skull.\n\n\t“… EeeeeEEEEEEEEYEAH!” Salem screeched out happily, lifting the bar above his head, “Blueberry bar get! BADUM-BA-DAAH!”\n\n\tGlint joined her brother by the machine as the two of them just stared, watching Salem tear open the bar’s wrapped and devour it like it would be his last meal. He shoved it into his mouth with both hands, those sharp teeth of his chomping down on it relentlessly. Crumbs sprinkled down over the Sableye’s pants, which he didn’t care to brush off. Soon, he looked back up at the twins, shedding that creepy, toothy smile. He had blueberry filling all stuck over some of his teeth, and crumbs on his cheeks.\n\n\t“Red and Blue save Salem! Salem envies your skills of long legs and button-pushing!” He chirped, “What are names of mighty heroes?”\n\n\t“Oh, uh…” Glint blinked a few times to snap herself out of her dumbfounded gaze, “… I’m Glint, and this is my brother Spark.”\n\n\t“GLINT AND SPARK!” Salem shouted back eccentrically, startling the twins at the sudden outburst, “Salem is not worthy!”\n\n\t“Eheheh… We just got you a snack…” Spark muttered, trying to wave off Salem’s over-enthusiastic… ness.\n\n\tSalem fell silent for a moment… and then burped. His body jumped a bit as if the belch caught him by surprise, and he quickly smacked his hands against his large mouth to cover it up.\n\n\t“Ooookay then,” Glint said as he wrapped her arms around Spark’s and started walking, “We need to go Salem. It was nice meeting you!”\n\n\tSpark waved a little before stumbling off, his sister leading the way.\n\n\tSalem stood there alone in the hallway as the twins departed, and he began to frantically wave his arms around. “Salem will always remember Glimmer and Sparkle! Er…” He paused, his smile fading again as he caught his mistake, “Glisten and Shiny? Errr…”\n\n\tHis brow furrowed a little over those gemstones he had for eyes, and soon he smacked his hands in against his head, shaking his head wildly side to side. “Salem had brain-fart! NNNGH!”\n\n\tThe last thing the twins would hear in the distance was Salem’s frustrated screeching before the automatic glass doors of the gym slid shut behind them.\n\n\t“Weird little midget,” Glint said as she looked back towards the building, “Let’s just go home, Spark…”\n\n\tSpark couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah… yeah, let’s do that.”\n\n\tUnlocking and climbing onto their bikes, the twins took off from the gym to head home. It was just one more work-out during the day, getting back to their home.\n\n\tThey’d arrive home exhausted, stepping into the door and taking their shoes off. Naturally they’d make for their room right away, hoping to not see their Dad and get drilled with questions about how their night went… but they were never so lucky. That particular night they had made it to the stairs before Nori exited his downstairs bedroom into the kitchen, managing to catch a glimpse of the twins as they tried to hurry on by.\n\n\t“Hey you two! How was study group?” He’d ask, though they didn’t stop.\n\n\t“Was good,” Glint answered, “Practiced Spanish. Wanna go to bed now.”\n\n\t“Mhm…” Spark murmured as he took off up the stairs.\n\n\tAs the twins disappeared upstairs, Nori furrowed his brow. “Spanish?” He’d ask himself, “I didn’t know they had a Spanish class.”\n\n\tHe didn’t give it too much thought however, shrugging his shoulders and turning to disappear back into his room.\n\n\tIt seemed every other day for months was the same way. Glint and Spark snuck off, trained their bodies, and were back in time for bed, and Nori was completely out of the loop. The twins would spend their days biking or running everywhere they had to go, including school and back, and every day of rest was spent relaxing their sore muscles.\n\n\tWorking at Sammy’s ranch on Saturdays was just as much a work-out as a trip to the gym, as the twins would brush the wild, feral Rapidash kept there, haul bundles of hay, lug around barrels of poffins, and clean out the stables and stalls all morning. They’d return home in the afternoon to rest after a hard day’s work, and take Sunday off before going to school on Monday, then hitting the gym again. The on-and-off training was starting to see some results.\n\n\tAfter a month and a half, the twins found that any excess weight they had was burned off… Neither of them was overly plump in any way, but it was noticeable how their bellies would go from having some slight, yielding softness, to being rather firm with a trim definition. Mostly the training toned their bodies, and improved their stamina. They found they could bike or jog for longer periods of time and not have to exert themselves as much to achieve the same feeling they were getting at the beginning when they were running themselves ragged.\n\n\t…\n\n\tOnly another month and a half remained. Glint sighed to herself as she stepped into the old barn at Sammy’s ranch. She both loved and hated that place… she hated it because it smelled like… old barn. She wasn’t used to the sights, scents and sounds of the country, so while Sammy seemed to relish in them, Glint just thought they were gross. What she did love about it though? It was a private little spot. Sammy had built a new barn, and the old one had yet to be torn down… The twins had lugged in some spare hay barrels and left them there so between jobs they had a place to rest. The Plusle flopped back into the hay, staring up at the ceiling of the barn, at least liking how sun peeked through the cracks in between the wooden boards.\n\n\t“Man, I’m tired…” She murmured, lifting her head from her sprawled-out position in the hay, looking at Spark.\n\n\tSpark had followed her in with his backpack, and took a seat next to her, setting his bag down on the ground and opening it. “I’m not feeling too tired… The work’s getting easier, but we’re doing so much now it’s hard not to feel tired,” He said as he produced a couple cans of soda from his bag. The twins had brought them from the house.\n\n\tSpark pushed the cold can up against Glint’s neck, making the Plusle squeal and try to wiggle out of reach of the can. The chill that washed over her body was refreshing… and made her nipples stand on end, but she wasn’t all too worried about that around her brother. She snatched the soda from her brother and sat up as well, opening it and taking a sip.\n\n\tThe two of them lay out on the hay, their legs hanging off the side of the hay cube as they relaxed. Glint wiggled over to snuggle up next to Spark, and Spark circled his arm around his sister’s shoulders to hold her close. The barn was good for cuddling, good for time alone… Sammy didn’t usually go looking for them until they had a fair amount of time together. It was obvious to both of them that they had a lot on their minds, but they weren’t saying anything about it.\n\n\tGlint rested her cheek against Spark’s shoulder, and her free hand on his abdomen, just rubbing into his covered fur tenderly. Her cold can of soda pressed against his hip. “So… What do you think’s going to happen?” She’d ask.\n\n\tNot looking away from the roof of the barn, Spark’s ear closest to his sister perked up. The other rested out flat as he held her soft body close to his. “Mm? When?”\n\n\t“At the tournament. What do you think?” The Plusle reiterated.\n\n\tSpark hadn’t given it too much thought, but Glint’s prompting got his clever mind working. “Well… we’re going to go, and we’re going to fight,” He answered.\n\n\t“Going to win,” Glint butt in.\n\n\tSpark chuckled a little, “Going to win. We’ll come home with that big trophy, and Dad’ll catch us. Then we’ll be grounded until we graduate… from College.”\n\n\tGlint couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh no… what’ll we do with all that alone time in our room?” She asked, her fingers playfully drifting down low across Spark’s abdomen, and teasing along his inner thigh.\n\n\tSpark’s cheeks flushed. “We’ll think of something.”\n\n\tGlint snickered, purring lightly as she bit at her brother’s cheek. His cheek sparked against her muzzle, the static shocks tickling her nose. They both laughed, Spark giving her a nudge away from him, and Glint retaliating with a full-on tackle into the hay, while trying not to spill her drink. The two of them wrestled for a while. It was nice to take a literal roll in the hay when they could.\n\n\t“Why am I not surprised that you two are still going to that?”\n\n\tThe twins squeaked, and looked upwards quickly. They had to crane their heads back a bit, but they saw Sammy watching them. She stood looking into one of the windows of the old barn, arms folded on the old windowsill, breasts lovingly shelved atop them. The Pikachu’s green eyes were cast on them, but she didn’t look mad. She wore a knowing grin, if anything, like she had fun startling the two of them.\n\n\t“S-Sammy!” They gasped.\n\n\t“And your old Dad doesn’t know? You two are going to give that poor raccoon gray hairs,” She said, knowing full well the irony of such a thing.\n\n\tGlint pushed Spark down and straddled him, but more to get closer to Sammy. She sat up atop her brother, grabbing onto the windowsill with her free hand. “You [i]can’t[/i] tell Dad!” She begged.\n\n\t“You shouldn’t be going behind his back like that,” Sammy retorted.\n\n\tSpark was lucky enough to have his muzzle snug between his sister’s breasts… or unfortunate, as he had to pretend to be. He muffled some form of protest that was ignored by the girls.\n\n\t“Have you tried talking to him about it?” Sammy pressed on, “I know this is something you feel like you really have to do… I didn’t feel any different when I was your age.”\n\n\t“Then YOU try talking to him,” Glint shot back in dismissal, “He just thinks we’re stupid kids that don’t know what we’re getting into.”\n\n\t“Aren’t you?” Sammy would ask with an apologetic smile.\n\n\t“HEY!” Glint squeaked.\n\n\tSammy giggled and waved a hand defensively, “Sorry, sorry. I mean, have you really thought about it…? Just springing the idea on him was a little rash, don’t you think?”\n\n\tThis made Glint pause and ponder, one of her ears flattening out to the side. Spark’s one ear did the same, but he had his arms wrapped around Glint’s waist and his face buried against her bosom. He was happy as a clam, it was a wonder he was listening at all.\n\n\t“Well… maybe…” The Plusle finally conceded.\n\n\t“Exactly… But listen, I’ll tell you what,” Sammy pushed off the windowsill and stood back up, her breasts giving a bounce in her tube top, “I’ll talk to Nori for you… but I have a fence outside that needs painting. I WAS going to pay you extra for it… but since I’m doing you a favour, and I caught you drinking sodas in my barn, I figure you’ll do it for free.”\n\n\tThe look on Glint’s face was priceless, so shocked and embarrassed that they got caught.\n\n\t“U-Uhh… Okay!” Glint said, “We’ll totally do that, right Spark?”\n\n\t“Mmhmmph~” Spark nodded, nuzzling firmer into his sister’s cleavage. Fortunately, Sammy couldn’t even see him.\n\n\t“It’s a deal then. Finish those drinks and get out there in the next five… no, three minutes,” Sammy winked, before strolling away.\n\n\t“O-Okay!” Glint shouted, leaning forwards more to look out the window after Sammy. Poor Spark was smothered… he couldn’t breathe!\n\n\tSighing, Glint leaned back into the barn and looked down at her brother, giving him a few light thwacks upside the head. “Stop that! Stop that! Get out of there!”\n\n\tSpark pulled his head free and looked up at Glint; purposely brushing his cold soda can against the small of her back. “Two more minutes?”\n\n\tGlint shivered, feeling like her fur stood on end, and she curled her arms around Spark’s shoulders and pulled him in against her chest again. “Mm… Two more minutes…”\n\n\t…\n\n\tAside from doing extra work, the month and a half heading towards the tournament went by without incident. Sammy really abused the hold she had over the twins, using that blackmail to get them to do… whatever she wanted! It seemed cruel, but Sammy was going to make good on her word… just not right away.\n\n\tIndeed, heading into the very week of the tournament, it seemed like Nori had no idea. The twins were more suspicious of him than he was of them – for a change! But it worked in their favour. The less he suspected them, the better!\n\n\tThe night came, and the twins were more than anxious. They were restless, and could hardly hold still. Summer had hit, there was no school to be had, so they spent all day at home just… being antsy. They couldn’t focus on anything like Spark’s doodling or Glint’s practicing music on her electric keyboard… All they could think about was that tournament and how it was going to pan out. Waiting for the evening to hit seemed like the longest several hours of their young lives!\n\n\tGetting out was easy. All they had to do was tell Nori that they were going to bike up the beach for a while, and off they went, duffle bags and all. They had stuffed their soccer ball into one of the bags for the sake of being convincing, but tucked away their water bottles and changes of clothes too, in case somehow their clothes got damaged while they fought. With a species like Pokémon, where they could shoot lightning from their bodies or spit fire from their mouths, that just seemed all too likely.\n\n\tThe twins pedaled like their lives depended on it, whipping past cars and pedestrians alike on their way to the stadium that hosted the tournament. The larger town they lived in had its own stadium that was used for a multitude of sporting events. For that night it had been converted into a Pokémon arena. The twins could see the spotlights sweeping through the air from the rooftop of the stadium long before they saw the building and the crowds of people that had gathered. People were still funneling in, but it seemed like the event had attracted hundreds of people, if not hundreds more already inside… probably out-of-towners and the like.\n\n\tThe twins slid their bikes to a stop, staring up at the Light-Bright of a stadium. It seemed like the Pokémon League spared no expense in making the event stand out… so many flashing lights! Not to mention… mascots? There were women, beautiful Pokémon women, walking the crowds outside and getting them hyped up for the event inside. Just looking at the place, and all the people, made the twins’ stomachs do back flips.\n\n\t“Oh, wow…” Spark said with his mouth slightly agape, “This is… Well this is something.”\n\n\t“Yeah…” Glint concurred, “… Ready to lock your bike up?”\n\n\t“If you are,” Spark laughed nervously, “Let’s, uh… go? I guess?”\n\n\tThey walked their bikes around the side of the building and locked the up at the bike racks. Taking their bags, they luckily got to forego all the crowds out front of the stadium. Instead, they got to use the side entrance of the building, just as soon as they could get their papers cleared.\n\n\t“Um, here,” Glint said, handing their papers to the security guard out front.\n\n\tHe was a large… large Snorlax. Some kind of really big, really fat, blue cat or something… It sure had ears like a cat, and claws too. It sat on its rump, its sheer size and bulk able to cover the side doors to the arena completely. He wore a uniform… who knew how tailored it had to be for his size? He didn’t say much as he snatched up the papers and peered at them through his squinty eyes.\n\n\t[i]“Oh god…”[/i] Glint started a thought.\n\n\t[i]“… I hope we don’t have to fight anything like THAT!”[/i] Spark finished the thought.\n\n\t“Excuse me… are you here for the competition?”\n\n\tGlint and Spark looked away from the guard for a moment to address who spoke to them.\n\n\tIt was a girl, with tanned skin, wearing an orange sweater and a red skirt. She stood with her hands folded together in front of her politely, and peered at the twins through red-framed glasses. She had lovely eyes, an amber colour that reminded them of Nori’s eyes. What stood out the absolute most about the girl though was her… hair? It looked almost like wool, or something similar. White fluff topped her head and poofed out behind her at such a size that it seemingly dwarfed her. It also wrapped around her neck like a scarf or something. In that sense, she almost looked like some kind of sheep or a ram based on the fact that she seemed to have little green horns that curled down against the sides of her head.\n\n\tShe was a Whimsicott, unbeknownst to the twins.\n\n\t“Yes, we are,” Spark answered, “Why?”\n\n\t“Oh, no reason… I am too,” She said, giving the twins a smile, “My name’s Whitney… My partner hasn’t arrived just yet, and I was out here waiting for him.”\n\n\t“I’m Spark,” Spark said, looking to his sister afterwards, “And this is Glint. We’re entering the doubles tournament… does that mean you are too?”\n\n\t“Oh, yes, I am!” The Whimsicott said. Her voice sounded as soft as she looked – and not just her wooly hair or clothes. She had a thick set of thighs too, and a curvy chest… she looked a little chubby, “That would mean that we’re competitors. Is this your first? I haven’t seen you before…”\n\n\t“Mhm,” Glint nodded, “We’re fresh out of the Poké Center you could say.”\n\n\tClasping her hands together in front of her, Whitney smiled, though her expression almost looked… lazy and air-headed. “Aww, that’s cuuuute…” She swooned, “I really hope you two have a real good time here… and win too! Or, almost win anyways… I’d kind of like to win…”\n\n\t“Heh! Well hopefully we don’t have to fight each other then,” Glint grinned, “I’d hate to kick your butt!”\n\n\t“Oh my…” Whitney shrunk, reaching back to tug her wool in around her body protectively.\n\n\tThe Snorlax broke the pleasantries by speaking in a gruff voice, “You two can go on in.”\n\n\tThe guard shifted his considerably bulk onto his feet, and waddled aside, to sit back down again, clearing the way to the door. His sitting down made the ground shake a little bit, much to the surprise of the three young Pokémon.\n\n\t“Oh, okay!” Spark smiled, looking to Whitney and waving, “It was nice meeting you Whitney!”\n\n\tThe girl stayed all huddled in her wool, mumbling something about her butt.\n\n\tSpark waved again with a sheepish grin, before stepping in through the doors with his sister.\n\n\t“Was it something I said?” Glint asked, as the heavy metal door closed behind them, marking their first step towards their first Pokébattle Tournament.\n\n[u][b]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 3 [/b][/u]\n\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\n\tThe roaring cheers of the crowd drowned out any noise, in the stadium turned Pokémon arena. It looked so basic, the floors having been painted with a large white rectangle, and the symbolic Poké Ball right smack in the middle of it all. But with how the bright lights shined overhead, how the crowd was on its feet, and how the banners around the outside of the arena had official sponsors plastered all over them… it looked very impressive regardless of the minimalistic approach.\n\n\tGlint and Spark stood on the arena grounds with plenty of other Pokémon of all shapes and sizes, waiting to compete. It was the last little bit of hype before the event would finally begin – a “meet the contestants,” if you will.\n\n\t“Hello and welcome to another Junior Pokébattle Extravaganza, hosted by the official Pokémon League!” Came a loud, showman’s voice over the PA system. Anyone who looked closely would see that the voice came from one of two announcers who had a booth set up for them in a skybox, where they would see all the action from. Nobody could really see who was up there though.\n\n\t“My name is Jeff Grundle, and joining me tonight in the commentator’s box is former Junior and Senior Pokébattle champion, Cinder!”\n\n\t“Hello Jeff, and welcome everyone,” A strong female voice came from the PA. She didn’t say much more than that.\n\n\t“Tonight we have a real show folks,” Said Jeff, “These young competitors will face off against one another in a series of competitions, from single battles to thrilling three-ways! I hope you’ve all strapped on your wetsuits, because we’re going to dive right in!”\n\n\t“Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting any longer…” Cinder remarked.\n\n\t“Heh! No we wouldn’t!” Jeff responded, “Audience, cast your eyes on the battlegrounds, and get a good look at tonight’s competitors! You’re going to see them butting heads before too long. Competitors! Give the good people a wave and a bow!”\n\n\tMany of the Pokémon crowding the arena floor paid their dues to the crowds with waves, bows, salutes, and whatever other gestures of appreciation they could show. Glint and Spark were so overwhelmed, standing side-by-side, that they couldn’t do anything more than gawk at the sheer number of spectators. It was clear they were new, uncomfortable, and anxious… The wait to start had been killing them as badly as it was killing the audience for the night.\n\n\t“Alright competitors, head into the back and rest up, because your time is coming!” Jeff’s voice echoed. The twins made their way off the field with the others, funneling out single-file.\n\n\tAs the sounds of the cheers died down, Spark looked to Glint nervously. “I… I wish they’d just start and get this over with.”\n\n\t“I feel almost nauseous,” Glint said with a sheepish grin, “B-But don’t worry! We’ll be okay, we just have to focus!”\n\n\tThe drill was simple. Wait in the back locker rooms until it was your turn to go out and give the crowd a show… those rooms were so packed full of Pokémon men and women, the twins felt oh-so-small… smaller than usual! It was hard to hear anything with all the chatter going on between teams and opponents alike… and some even got into heated arguments they were more than anxious to settle on the field.\n\n\tGlint and Spark stayed quiet for the most part, making sure their clothes were as neat as they could get. They didn’t change out of their usual clothing… those lazy cargo pants of theirs and those sneakers they wore were just iconic of them… it felt wrong to get all dressed up like some of the others. They’d brought changes of clothing just in case, but for the most part, they just went with their casual look.\n\n\tThe battles didn’t last for too long really. That was a good thing, since there were so many fights to get through… the fact that some Pokémon knocked out others in a single hit was a benefit to time constraints, but made for a boring show over-all. Glint and Spark watched on the TV hanging in the corner of the changing rooms… They watched a few one-on-one fights and even one three-on-three… Sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on when too many Pokémon were on the field at once, but no one could deny that it was a spectacle. With thunderbolts, fireballs, and gusts of wind strong enough to carve through pavement, Pokémon battles really brought their own flavor to it.\n\n\tIt seemed like it came too quick when the twins were finally called upon.\n\n\t“Glint and Spark! You’re up!” Shouted a liaison.\n\n\tThe twins squeaked, startled from their TV-trance, but got to their feet quickly and shuffled out of the locker rooms nervously. The attendant escorted them to the entrance to the arena… There were two entrances, one on either side. Opponents walking out to meet on center field made it more… dramatic to watch, and really gave a sense of two opposing forces going at it. The twins couldn’t see their opponents, just silhouettes. The lights were far too bright out on the field to really offer a good look.\n\n\t“Well… here goes…” Glint sighed as she took a deep breath, looking to Spark. Spark looked back into her eyes and forced a smile to try and mask his own uneasiness.\n\n\t“Let’s give it our best,” He said with a nod, taking Glint’s hand into his own.\n\n\t“All right everyone; here come the next mighty warriors to duke it out!” Came Jeff’s voice on the PA. The liaison ushered the twins out the tunnel and into the light at that cue, and they stepped out only to stop. So many eyes! They gulped, squeezed one another’s hand, and carried on.\n\n\t“Oh no! This looks like a bad first fight for the Red Team!” Jeff’s voice remarked. Glint and Spark had to check how their side was colour coded to be sure they knew who he was talking about… Their side was blue.\n\n\t“The Red Team, Meryl and Tina, are up against the Blue Team, Glint and Spark! The type difference is really going to make it here folks,” Jeff carried on.\n\n\t“You can’t be certain,” Cinder’s strong, feminine voice cut in, “Glint and Spark are newcomers to this sort of competition. Elemental weaknesses can even succumb to experience in battle.”\n\n\tAs the twins approached center stage, they did their best to size up their opponents… One was a Marill, a blue, mouse-like Pokémon. She was a stout and robust girl, having an all-too-obvious roundness to her frame. She looked nervous… her emerald eyes could barely look up from her feet, and she clutched the bobble-ball at the end of her jagged tail close to her chest. Her little round ears kept twitching as the commentators commented back and forth to one another about possible outcomes to the fight, but the girl seemed more concerned about covering her body up. She was wearing something similar to a wrestler’s one-piece leotard, and was obviously put off by how revealing it was of her chunky frame.\n\n\tThe other was much different. She was tall, fit, a Lopunny, an earthy-toned rabbit Pokémon with absolutely massive ears, tipped with light fluff. She had no shame in her body it seemed, as she wore a black top that she had tied off in a knot under her breasts, and a pair of blue denim daisy-dukes. Her legs looked fit, her thighs thick, and it wasn’t surprising… A Lopunny ought to have strong legs, no doubt about it. They made up a fair deal of her height, and she wasn’t even wearing shoes, preferring to go barefoot.\n\n\tWhen both teams reached the center of the arena, close enough to talk to, the crowd just kind of faded into background noise for the lot of them. They were more focused on each other.\n\n\t“Howdy there!” The Lopunny said, adjusting the trucker cap on her head.\n\n\tGlint and Spark were caught off guard by the casual approach of the Lopunny. The Marill didn’t say anything.\n\n\t“Glint and Spark, huh? I’m Tina, and this shy doll is Meryl,” The Lopunny continued, nodding her head towards the shy Marill, “No hard feelin’s no matter what happens, right?”\n\n\t“R-Right…” Spark said, not sure how to react.\n\n\t“Aw, don’t ya’ll be frettin’ none,” Tina giggled, holding out her hand, “Let’s have a good ol’ fashioned rumble, okay?”\n\n\tThey all exchanged handshakes, the twins taken back by the sportsmanship displayed. Somehow they weren’t expecting their own opponents to be so welcoming to them. After the courtesy was done with, the teams stepped back to give each other a respectable distance. The twins followed suit as their opponents stood before them, settling into fighting stances.\n\n\t“Remember, just hit them fast and hard,” Glint said, shifting her gaze to Spark, “Hit the ground running.”\n\n\t“Mm.” Spark gave a brief nod and a deep breath, trying to relax himself.\n\n\t“Get ready…!”\n\n\tGlint stared forwards, the Marill standing across from her. Compared to Meryl’s stance, Glint was looking confident… how could she lose to someone who seemed too bashful to even stand up in front of a group of people? The fight was going to be a piece of cake, she was sure of it!\n\n\t“GO!”\n\n\tThe twins were off like marathon runners at a starter’s pistol. They charged forwards at high speeds, hoping to catch the pair before they were ready… it wasn’t exactly as easy as they had planned it in their heads though.\n\n\tTina squat down low to load her legs like a spring, and used her leg strength to launch herself into the air. She leapt tremendously high up over the twins and Spark tried to follow her with his eyes, but his gaze caught the bright spotlights bearing down on them, and he lost track of her. He could barely see her frame sailing over him, and he stumbled to a stop to turn and catch where she’d land. She was quick, falling perfectly into her landing and springing up from the impact with an uppercut the Minun barely was able to avoid. Tina had him on the ropes, following up with a series of kicks that had the Minun backing away to try and get some breathing room.\n\n\tGlint was puzzled as The Marill took a deep breath and rolled herself up into a ball rather than make any move to dodge or block Glint’s assault. When the blue mouse started to roll in place though, Glint took pause. “What the heck…?” The Plusle asked herself, watching as the rotund Marill picked up speed in her roll, but didn’t go anywhere… she was like a car that had yet to let up on the brake.\n\n\t“Go on and ROLL OUT, Meryl!” Shouted the announcer’s voice.\n\n\t“Roll ou--?” Glint could barely get the question out of her mind before Meryl suddenly launched forwards, a rolling ball of blue and spandex sailing through the air towards Glint. The Plusle gasped, though it was effectively cut off. Meryl bounced off the ground and struck Glint’s body like some kind of high-speed rubber ball, bouncing right off and into the air as Glint fell backwards with a “gugh!” She was laid out flat on her back, seeing stars. As she recovered, she saw Meryl circling around like some kind of armadillo rolling along the ground. Meryl stopped, rolling in place for a moment, picking up more speed, and launched herself towards Glint again.\n\n\t“Gah!” Glint’s ears shot up as Meryl came back for another run at her, and the Plusle scrambled to her feet and ran as quickly as her legs could take her – it almost looked like a boulder scene from some adventure movie. She barely had time to throw herself aside as Meryl came at her, causing the blue blubbery ball to go soaring right past her.\n\n\tThe spectacle was drawing roaring cheers from the crowd. Glint almost looked goofy trying to out-run and dodge Meryl, while Spark was suppressed by a flurry of kicks from Tina.\n\n\tSpark ducked under a kick that was swung towards his head, pushing himself under Tina’s leg to circle around behind her. He threw a punch, but the dexterous Lopunny simply sprung forwards, leaping a distance to ensure she wouldn’t get hit. Spark clenched his teeth in annoyance. The darn bunny had been leaping around since the fight started, and it was making his task of hitting her too difficult. No matter how fast she was, all she had to do was leap into the air and the poor Minun was helpless!\n\n\tHe charged at her, shouting out in his anger, just trying to take the Lopunny down. If he could just get her off her feet…!\n\n\t“Boing~!” Tina mused as she leapt up and simply leap-frogged over the charging Minun easily. Spark stumbled as she did this, regaining his footing and whipping around to see the Lopunny taunting him! The Lopunny turned her back on him and wiggled her wide hips, shaking her considerable rear at him. Spark’s attention snapped from her backside to the back of her head, knowing she was probably grinning ear to ear.\n\n\t“Spark, gangway!”\n\n\tHearing Glint’s voice, Spark turned around in a shot to see… a rolling blue mouse charging at him at high speeds. Tina had done such a good job distracting him that the rampaging roller took his legs out from under him as she collided with him. Spark was laid out in the air for a moment as he fell forwards. No matter how much he flailed his arms, he couldn’t stop his chin smacking the arena floor hard. He let out a pitiful squeak as he landed; his eyes clenched shut as he tried to absorb the impact. The wind had been nearly knocked out of him.\n\n\tHurrying to her brother’s side, she helped him to his feet. She was panting, looking rather ragged, like she’d just run a whole mile. “This isn’t what I expected…” Glint panted, “What do we do? They’re not holding still!”\n\n\t“You… you gotta give me a boost, okay?” Spark responded, looking to his sister, then to their opponents. Both Meryl and Tina were coming back for another round.\n\n\t“What about the butter-ball boulders there?!” Glint squawked back.\n\n\tSpark got to his feet and grinned. “Just think of her as a soccer ball.”\n\n\tGlint turned her attention towards Meryl. She was coming at them so fast that she was kicking up dust as she went. Glint stared her down, trying to envision the rolling water Pokémon as nothing more than her favourite soccer ball, the one she practiced with in the park with her brother. She could almost see the resemblance, watching as Meryl came at them like she did. Glint’s mind clicked. She knew what to do!\n\n\tRather than run or avoid the ball, she went straight for it! The Plusle took off in a dash to meet the Marill. Moments before Meryl could make contact, Glint danced around her like she would when trying to steal the ball in a soccer game. Her sneakered feet tapped around the zaftig Pokémon, and once behind her, Glint followed up with the hardest kick she could muster! Meryl squeaked as Glint’s sneaker hit her right on the backside, sending her balled-up frame into the air right towards her brother. It was out of her control now; Meryl was a victim of the twins’ momentum!\n\n\tSpark did what any good soccer player would do when he wanted to perform a hard intercept… or at least one as talented as he was. He jumped up into the air and head butt the ball right out of the air. Meryl squeaked out again as she was sent sailing in the other direction, unable to maintain her grip. Her body uncurled and she was sent back at Glint. Glint’s fist crackled with electricity, and she drove it in against the poor Marill’s back. Once more, Meryl’s body was jerked in the opposite direction, but that electricity shocked her to her core.\n\n\tThe Marill was finished. She fell to the ground in a heap and didn’t move. She was as good as unconscious.\n\n\t“One down!” Glint squealed, clapping her hands.\n\n\tGlint’s view of Spark was obstructed as Tina dropped out of the air and landed in front of her. The Lopunny turned around, winding up her fist in a spinning, almost cartoony manner, and then feeding the Plusle a knuckle-sandwich. Glint was woefully unprepared, her head snapping back as she stumbled backwards from the force. She was dazed, and almost fell, but managed to keep her footing. Tina would leap away as she heard Spark running up to assist, once again putting distance between her and the twins.\n\n\tSpark grabbed Glint’s hand and pulled her steady. “Unnh…” Glint groaned as she shook out the cobwebs, “Oof, that was sudden… Catch the number of that train?”\n\n\t“You okay?” Spark asked, holding his sister’s shoulders, “Can you help me get at her?”\n\n\t“Eh? Oh… yeah! Yeah!” Glint grinned, holding her fingers up in a victory sign, “A boost, right? You got it!”\n\n\tFinally the twins turned their attention onto the evasive Tina. Spark gave Glint a pat on the back to signal her to start running, and she rushed forwards just as Tina was expecting. Spark wasn’t far behind. As the two rushed in, Tina squat down to spring-load herself again, ready to leap at a moment’s notice. The twins were waiting for that.\n\n\tWhen Tina finally did propel herself off the ground, Spark shouted, “Glint, NOW!”\n\n\tGlint pushed her body to the limit, running as fast as she could, until she could plant her sneakers on the ground and slide. Probably ruining the soles of her shoes, she turned in her slide to kneel down and brace her hands for her brother. Spark was a second after his sister, stepping one foot into her hands, where she would put all her strength and body into throwing him upwards into the air. The result was just what Spark wanted – he was sailing right up towards Tina… intercept trajectory!\n\n\tThe Lopunny was flipping gracefully through the air, unaware of Spark’s rapid ascent towards her. “Here I come…!” Spark exclaimed, his body surging with an electrical charge he was building up. But even he was shocked at just how he got hold of Tina.\n\n\tThe Lopunny’s eyes shot open wide in the air as she felt Spark’s arms wrap around her from behind. She was in utter disbelief, but better still, she felt him right up against her ass! Poor Spark was shocked to find that the only way he could grab hold and push his body close was by Tina’s lower body… His face was squished right up against her overly-bubbly backside. The static shock and surging energy from Spark’s body tickled, but Tina could hardly enjoy it, because despite the awkward situation, Spark still discharged all his stored power at once!\n\n\t“G-G-Goood GRAAA-AAVY!” Tina wailed as she felt her body being electrocuted, causing her muscles to seize up and her brain to register pain… pain from everywhere!\n\n\tThe two colliding in mid-air stopped Tina’s original course cold, and the two were falling like a bag of bricks towards the arena floor. Spark took the brunt of the landing, smashing into the ground on his back with Tina right on top. The poor boy was smothered by so much bodacious bunny booty that he couldn’t even hear the shrieking cheers from the crowd for a moment. Tina’s body lay still atop his, and after a moment, he mustered up the strength to push her off of him.\n\n\t“Spark!” Glint hurried to his side and helped him up, “Spark, are you okay?!”\n\n\t“D-Don’t worry… the ground broke my fall…” Spark chuckled with a cough.\n\n\tThere was a brief silence from the crowd.\n\n\t“… And Tina goes down, down, DOWN!” Jeff the announcer shouted over the announcement system, causing the crowd to erupt into loud cheers again… this time in celebration of the twins’ victory. The twins could hardly believe it… they had to look back just to check and see if Tina and Meryl were indeed passed out on the floor.\n\n\t“That was awful resourceful,” Cinder, the guest announcer said, “Very impressive.”\n\n\t“That’s what I call a shocker!” Jeff chuckled.\n\n\t“…” Cinder was silent for a moment, “… Your crude humor is untactful.”\n\n\t“Glint and Spark win!” Jeff announced, “Congratulations!”\n\n\tThe twins looked all around them, as if they’d forgotten about the crowd, and they smiled brightly, suddenly filled with such a tremendous amount of pride. The rush of battle made them tremble in their victory, and they… laughed. They laughed in disbelief and joy, unable to control the reaction. Glint hugged Spark tight, and held him close, which was a welcome embrace after the whole ordeal. \n\n\tThe two of them just relished in their victory for what felt like ages before they’d find themselves in the back locker rooms again.\n\n\t“Omigawd~!” Glint cried, beaming and bouncing happily around the locker room, overjoyed and not afraid to show it. She bounced around the bench Spark sat on before simply jumping over it and planting herself in a seat next to him. “We won! We really won our first Pokémon Tournament match! And you were so cool!”\n\n\t“You were cool!” Spark beamed back to his sister, before she tackled him off the bench and onto the floor in her excitement.\n\n\t“Hee-hee~” She giggled, planting kisses all over Spark’s cheeks. Both their faces were flush from exertion and excitement, and they were sparkling, literally, in delight.\n\n\t“H-Howdy down there ya’ll…”\n\n\tLooking up, the twins saw Tina and Meryl standing over them. They didn’t look overly beat up, but both of them were still smoking from the electrical charges they’d suffered. Tina took a moment to lick her fingers and pinch a tuft of her fur on her one shoulder to stop it from smoking. It made a hissing sound, as if she’d put out a candle.\n\n\t“H-Hello…” Meryl finally spoke, so very soft-spoken, and now wearing glasses, “Congratulations…”\n\n\tTina grinned widely and gave them a thumb up. “Yeah, darn tootin’!” She gleefully chirped in her lovely southern accent, “I reckon I ain’t seen nothin’ like that before! I didn’t expect ya’ll to snatch me outta the air like a flyin’ plum!”\n\n\t“Like a… what?” Glint furrowed a brow.\n\n\t“That don’t matter now,” Tina giggled, “Just wanted to give ya a holler and say good job. You guys may be spring chickens on this ranch, but ya’ll pack a real whallop!”\n\n\t“Well, we had the advantage over one of you…” Spark said, trying to be modest, and Meryl’s reaction was almost saddening. The poor girl looked like she was ready to cry.\n\n\t“B-But even so, you guys really put up a fight! I-I mean, wow!” Spark continued in a fluster, “M-Meryl! You really had us going for a while, I… was really impressed!”\n\n\t“Really…?” The Marill asked, biting her lip softly.\n\n\t“Really! I thought you were going to make me road kill,” Glint chimed in, sitting up astraddle her brother, “You’re a really good fighter!”\n\n\tThis brought a smile to Meryl’s face, and they all shared a good laugh over the fight and how it panned out. In the end, it really felt like what they had done was just for fun. They had a good time doing it, and no one was sore about it.\n\n\t“Mmf, we need to go ahead and lick our wounds some more, ya’ll,” Tina finally said with a smile and a nod to the twins, “But you can bet your bonnet we’re gonna be watchin’ you guys!”\n\n\t“Thanks!” The twins beamed together.\n\n\t“Ya’ll behave now,” Tina said, before leaning down and pinching one of Spark’s cheeks with a smirk, “Especially you, darlin’. Ya’ll’re welcome to stop by my garage sometime for a little practice session.”\n\n\t“Goodbye,” Meryl murmured, bowing her head politely.\n\n\tThe two left then, walking away and leaving the twins to themselves. The twins giggled, giddy over their win, before Glint paused.\n\n\t“Wait, did she just hit on you?”\n\n\t…\n\n\tNori plopped down onto the couch in his living room with a sigh. Work had been tough on him that day, and the summer heat wasn’t helping. Now that it was the evening, he was set to relax. His tail flicked up as he leaned forwards, pressing the lip of the cap sealing a bottle of root beer up against the corner of his coffee table. With careful placement, he pushed forwards on the bottle, popping the cap off with a hiss. He snatched the cap up off the floor after it fell, set it on the table, and leaned back again.\n\n\tResting his bare feet on the table, he sighed. “Alright TV, shower me in your heavily biased opinions,” He said, snagging the remote from somewhere on the couch and flipping the TV on.\n\n\t“… about two dozen eggs, throw ‘em in a bowl, MIX THE FU…”\n\n\t“… on Highway 11. No injuries reported in…”\n\n\t“… a coma until next season.”\n\n\tNori’s expression was deadpan as he flipped through the channels gracing his satellite TV. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but something interesting enough to distract him was choice.\n\n\tFinally he came upon something interesting. He managed to find on the sports channel… Live feed of the Junior Pokébattle Tournament that was being hosted in his town. Watching it on TV probably wasn’t like seeing the real thing, but he was more curious than anything. This was what his kids were trying to go to… He had a pre-conceived notion about the nature of the event, but… well, at least if he was proven wrong, he didn’t have to tell anybody.\n\n\tSo he watched, sipping on his sugary beverage every now and then as he took in what it was to Pokébattle. He watched as some strange creature that resembled a sharp, blue duck throw his opponent - some kind of hornet with sharp spikes jutting from his forearms – around the arena… seemingly with his mind. Nori kind of squinted, sitting up straight and leaning forwards a bit to watch more closely. Was that duck psychic? No, that had to be staged…\n\n\tHe watched some strange cloaked creature – later learned to be a Forslass – whip up a snowstorm from seemingly nowhere as it fought a strange little yellow creature that looked like it had a massive black jaw jutting from the back of its head. He watched some silly-looking man in what looked like a purple skirt and a pair of boxing gloves throttle the hell out of what looked like a puddle of purple goo. He may have been the most surprised by the small camel that could spew fire from the hump on its back like a geyser. No, he was the most surprised by the big round red and white ball that seemingly self-destructed at the first given opportunity.\n\n\t“… Wow, what the hell?” He asked himself after a fair bit of watching. His soda was gone, and he was relaxed, but mostly confused. How could this not be fake? Glint and Spark were something special, he thought… was there really an entire species of animal out there that had super-powers? If wrestling was acting, Pokémon battles had to be the triple-A Hollywood productions that spend billions on special effects and computer generated graphics.\n\n\tAfter a moment of contemplation and laziness, Nori suddenly got up from his seat. “Bathroom break,” He muttered to himself, leaving the room to do his business in the nearby bathroom. He kept an ear out, listening to the odd commentators banter back and forth about the fights they were seeing.\n\n\t“… Glint and Spark…!”\n\n\tNori’s ear gave an abrupt twitch. He leaned aside while tending to his relief to stick his head out the door, listening more intently while not much paying attention to his ‘number 1.’\n\n\t“They’ll be pit against a couple of tough foes this time around. I wonder if they’ll pull through again? Only one way to find out!”\n\n\tNori’s eyes squinted.\n\n\t“Son of a bitch,” He muttered to himself, before gasping and ducking quickly back into the bathroom.\n\n\t“Aw, son of a bitch!” His voice echoed throughout the house.\n\n\tIt wasn’t long before Nori was racing up the stairs. He ran to his kids’ room, and paused in front of it. He thought to himself that he’d open the door, and see his kids there… behaving, being good. Spark would be reading a book; Glint might be playing on her DS… Or maybe they turned in to bed for the night after tuckering themselves out, and that’s why he hadn’t heard them before. His kids would be there, and he’d be a crazy old man hearing things while he watched late-night television.\n\n\tHe threw the door open quickly, slamming it against the wall and looking inside the room. He looked… entirely unimpressed and completely unsurprised. No Glint. No Spark. The room was devoid of teenagers.\n\n\t“… Yep,” Nori sighed.\n\n\tHe carefully closed the door and turned away, a look of deep contemplation on his face.\n\n\tHe was out the door in seconds, running down his front steps and stumbling at the end. One of his sandals had fallen off, and he turned to see it, cursing himself and running back to slide his foot back into it. He had his keys, and he had his plan: to get to the stadium and drag his kids out without first murdering them. Just as he was half-way to his car however, a familiar pick-up truck pulled up next to his house, stopping on the road and honking its horn.\n\n\tThe passenger side door opened, and Nori could make out Sammy’s face as she peered out at him.\n\n\t“Need a ride?” She’d ask simply.\n\n\tNori was in the truck in a second, pulling the passenger side door closed.\n\n\t“I am a seething pot of rage, boiling over with discontent,” He muttered.\n\n\tSammy shifted gears and pulled away before the raccoon had even gotten his seatbelt. “Uh huh,” She said, taking off in her truck down the road, “Well I guess this is a good time to ask if you want to go see a show.”\n\n\t“Mm?” Nori arched a brow and looked over at Sammy. She had a pair of tickets for the event stuck between her breasts, her cleavage holding them snug with the help of her tank top. Nori casually reached over and pulled one of the tickets free, eying it.\n\n\t“Why don’t you give it a shot before you dismiss it, hm?” Sammy would ask.\n\n\tNori looked at her suspiciously. “I somehow get the feeling you knew about this,” He said.\n\n\t“Sudden right turn!” Sammy shouted.\n\n\tShe took a right turn into town sharply enough to toss the raccoon inside the driver’s compartment of the truck, purposely making him yelp just to silence his accusations. Having his face fall in against her breasts helped pacify him, at least for a while.\n\n\tThe heavy, strong truck carried on down the road, the lights of the stadium shining high in the air in the distance...\n\n[b]\t[u]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 4[/u] [/b]\n\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\n\tThe Junior Pokébattle Exhibition Tournament was still going strong.\n\n\tIt seemed like the briefest of moments that the crowd was silent as they waited for the next match to start. On the Blue side, Glint and Spark, a pair of Plusle and Minun twins, stood ready. After their first match against two surprising opponents, they had rested up and were ready to go in strong once again. But they stood there looking puzzled as their opponent approached.\n\n\tYes, one single opponent, and she was familiar. The twins never would have forgotten the wooly fluff that dominated the girl’s body, sprouting from her head like the softest, most downy hair.\n\n\t“Whitney?!” Spark gasped, having had to search his memory for the name.\n\n\tThe girl smiled warmly, nodding her head, reaching up to adjust the red-framed glasses she wore. “Yes, hello!”\n\n\t“Where’s your partner?” Glint would ask.\n\n\t“GLINT AND SPARK!” Came a familiar shout, startling the twins.\n\n\tFrom Whitney’s cottony bundle of fluffiness popped Salem’s head, jutting out from the mess like he’d been hiding in there all along. His sharp-toothed smile and eerie gaze met the twins, and he looked ecstatic to see them. His arms popped out from either side of Whitney’s fluff, then his legs, and with a shake of her body, Whitney shook the Sableye loose. He tumbled to the arena floor and scrambled to his feet, hurrying over to Glint and snatching up her hands, staring up at her.\n\n\t“Meet again, we do!” He chirped, “It has been so long since the valiant red and blue saved poor Salem from starving! Like saviors from the sky, with their long legs!”\n\n\t“Ugh, it’s you!” Glint pulled her hands away quickly, causing poor Salem to stumble a bit as he tried to maintain his grip, “We have to fight you?!”\n\n\t“YES!” Salem hopped back, striking a kung-fu pose he must have seen on TV, though his head tilted around as if he couldn’t really see, his gaze sweeping over the entire arena. “Today Salem stands before you as big mean bad-guy-guy! We see who strongest, young samurai!”\n\n\tFolding her hands in front of her, Whitney bowed respectfully to the twins. “I’m sorry to say, but that is how the cookie metaphorically crumbled,” She said, shedding a decidedly fitting sheepish smile.\n\n\t“I’m actually pretty interested in this…!” Spark chuckled, taking Whitney’s hand, and then Salem’s, giving both a shake. He had to squat down a bit for Salem. “Well, let’s see what you can do!”\n\n\t“And here we go, folks, another round of Pokémon on Pokémon… on Pokémon on Pokémon battling!” Jeff the announcer’s voice bellowed out over the stadium’s loudspeakers, “Hold on tight! Combatants, get ready!”\n\n\tGlint and Spark slid easily into their fighting stances.\n\n\t“Get set…!”\n\n\tWhitney took a deep breath, closing her eyes to get into her zone. She moved her hands, closing them almost together in front of her, as if she were holding a ball. Salem struck every goofy kung-fu pose he could remember from all the movies he’d watched on TV, from the crane to the monkey, to the drunken fist.\n\n\t“GO! FIGHT! START!”\n\n\tAs soon as the start was signaled, Salem made his move. His purple body slowly faded to complete black, wisps of the blackness flickering off his body like some kind of smoke. He melted into the floor quickly, the smog dissipating as if the Sableye had simply fallen apart. The twins both jumped at the odd sight… and were startled worse when the black mist formed the distinct shape of Salem’s shadow before darting across the floor at tremendous speeds! The black shadow stretched as it raced across the arena and under the twins’ feet.\n\n\tSalem’s shadow stood at Glint’s ankles as if it were her own, and he shot up from the ground like a leaping ninja, black mist puffing up into the air as if he’d leapt right out of his own shadow. Glint barely turned around before Salem’s foot connected with her cheek in a hard round-house, sending the Plusle helplessly twirling through the air. She spun a good two times before hitting the floor. Salem landed again and struck another pose, his hands trembling.\n\n\t“Hoooooaaah~!” He breathed out like a cheesy martial artist.\n\n\t“And the first strike goes to Salem!” Jeff exclaimed to the roars of the crowd, “What a sneaky little devil!”\n\n\tSalem yelped as he was suddenly grabbed under the arms by Spark. He hadn’t been paying any attention to the Minun at all, and had paid for it. Spark lifted him up off the ground much to his chagrin, and Salem just started flailing his arms and legs. Before Spark could do anything though, a sharp impact struck his side and threw him to the ground where he lost his grip on Salem. Salem tumbled away, and Spark scrambled up to check his side. It felt like he’d had a bowling ball thrown at him… Nothing worse than a bruising would result of it, but the most curious part was that he couldn’t see what hit him, no matter how much he looked around for it.\n\n\tHis eyes shot across the battle field, past his sister, to Whitney, who stood a fair ways off. Floating between the Whimsicott’s hands as she swept them around in a strange, almost magical motion was a ball of light. The light was a shining bright white, but had hints of green sweeping around it in ribbons. When Spark caught her eye, she thrust her hand out to toss the energy ball towards him. It raced through the air like a pitched fast ball, and Spark barely rolled out of the way, where the ball would hit the floor and dissipate into the air in twinkling green particles.\n\n\tGlint sat up, one hand bracing her weight on the ground, the other rubbing her cheek. For a little guy, Salem sure could kick hard. She saw Spark dodge out of the way of some kind of projectile, before noticing that Salem was preparing something much the same. Above his hands he’d somehow conjured up shadowy, black orbs… and without much time to think, he’d thrown them as hard as he could at Glint. She squeaked as she scrambled backwards to make sure the blobby orbs struck the floor, disappearing when they did.\n\n\t“This is worse than dodgeball!” Glint groaned.\n\n\t“Hey, I like dodgeball!” Spark retorted.\n\n\tGlint rolled her eyes as she scrambled to her feet, “Close the gap!”\n\n\tSpark rolled his eyes, because Glint was telling him to do what he had already thought to do. Closing distances was generally easy for the twins, since they were so quick on their feet, but to do so against a barrage of light and dark projectiles? They knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Fortunately, they had little tricks up their sleeves to help in such a situation.\n\n\tRushing towards Salem, Glint utilized as much of her speed as physically possible for her to duck and weave side to side. The left and right motions in her stride were so quick to the naked eye that she often left after-images of herself, making it look as if two of her were rushing Salem. She may as well have been skating across the arena floor, regardless of the fact that it resembled a clay tennis court… And it was working! Salem frantically let fly his shadow orbs, throwing them as fast as he could conjure them up in his hands, but he just couldn’t catch Glint. Throwing to the after-images of the Plusle meant his targets would often phase out of existence before he hit.\n\n\tBefore reaching Salem, Glint leapt up, electricity crackling over her arm, moving down towards her hand. She decided to respond in kind to Salem, concentrating her electrical energy into a ball in her hand, and using her entire body’s weight to throw it at him. He gasped and stumbled backwards, falling onto his rear as the electric orb struck the ground with a light flash, leaving a black, smoking splotch in its wake. He trembled a little, but scrambled backward further as Glint kept up the assault.\n\n\tSpark dashed on, not able to project his body quite the same way Glint could, but he was quick even so. Whitney kept up her long-range assault, but Spark was able to duck, roll and leap past the flying energy balls and only get grazed by a couple. He was on Whitney before too long, winding back a punch to send her way. Whitney’s reaction was a knee-jerk squeal in fright, and she grabbed hold of her wooly fluff that dwarfed the back of her body and tugged it around her like a protective cocoon. Just before Spark’s punch connected, her fluff puffed out like she’d inflated an airbag.\n\n\tSpark blinked as his fist sunk into pillowy softness, and didn’t even seem to connect too hard with Whitney’s body. “Whaa…?” He reared back to punch again, and again, and again. He threw his fists as hard as he could, but it was like he was trying to beat up a beanbag chair. His fists sunk in so far into the cotton that he’d lose sight of them… and Whitney’s only real response was a wiggle every time, trying to keep her balance.\n\n\t“Get out of there!” Spark shouted, his body discharging electricity in his rage. But even that couldn’t get through Whitney’s insulation. He shocked her time and again, but she only wiggled. When Spark finally paused, she poked her head out of her fluff.\n\n\t“Okay,” She said, releasing her fluffiness and combing her hands back through it as if to fix it. She skipped backwards in the motion though, and gave a twirl, shaking free more stuff from her wooly fluff of a mop. Tiny seeds flung free and they pelted against Spark’s fur. He gasped as the seeds, rather than simply fall to the floor, actually clung to his fur and rooted inside of his body. Little sprouts popped out over his arms, and one even grew on the top of his head.\n\n\tSpark gawked at the sprouts in confusion, looking up only to see an energy ball come flying his way. It struck him in the chest and took him off his feet, sending him flying back a few feet.\n\n\t“SKEEE!” Salem cried as he frantically twisted his body to avoid Glint’s ankle as it came slamming down towards him. “EEEE!” Another punch went right over his head, and he tripped as he tried to avoid a leg-sweep, just barely managing to clip his feet. He tumbled to the ground in a somersault, and curled his knees up against his chest to roll a couple more times just to get distance between him and Glint.\n\n\t“Hold still you little weasel!” Glint grunted, diving at him and trying to grab hold of him.\n\n\t“No weasel!” Salem shouted as he jumped up, and planted a foot on the top of Glint’s head to spring off of her. She fell to the ground as he landed, looking back at her cautiously. “Is Salem!”\n\n\tGlint stood quickly and turned around to face her opponent again, but Salem had already scrambled towards her on his hands and feet like a dog. She barely had time to blink before the little scamp had passed right between her legs and was behind her. Salem looked back again to see Glint’s backside, and got a clever little idea. He turned, and opened his jaws wide, and then clamped his sharp teeth right onto Glint’s rear end!\n\n\t“EEK!” Glint squeaked in such a pitch, and she frantically pulled away from Salem as quickly as she could. There was a tearing sound. Glint turned to see Salem sitting upon the ground, red denim fabric sticking out of his mouth. He looked so innocent sitting there… spitting out the butt of her pants onto the floor.\n\n\t“EeeeYEEEAH!” Salem screeched out as he clapped his hands together, “Hahaha! Salem butt-munch!”\n\n\tGlint felt the breeze against her rear. Her underwear was exposed to everyone, the powder-pink thong probably looking plenty nice over her bubbly butt. A heavy blush spread across her cheeks.\n\n\tSalem looked clueless as Glint’s foot connected with his jaw hard enough to send him into the air, well off his feet. She caught him, dashing forwards to snatch his leg up, violently tearing him out of the air to slam him down against the ground again. He wailed at the top of his lungs, frantically clawing at the floor as Glint pulled him backward, to lift him up and have him dangle upside down in front of her. She gave him the nastiest glare, and he could only smile pitifully.\n\n\t“Erm… Salem think you have tasty butt,” Was all he could think to say.\n\n\tGlint looked murderous as she held up her other fist, the built-up electrical charge within sending sparks and arcs of electricity all over her body.\n\n\tSalem was still for a moment, before simply raising his hands to his face and covering his gemstone eyes.\n\n\t“EEEeeeee-YEOW!” Salem wailed as he flew past Spark, hurled through the air by an electrical punch.\n\n\t“W… What are these things?” Spark groaned, brought down to one knee, feeling as if his strength was being slowly sapped from his body. The sprouts he could see on his arms got a little bigger and a little leafier in spurts of growth every so often. He had no doubt they were to blame for his waning strength.\n\n\t“Leech Seeds,” Whitney explained, “Another of my abilities. They sap the strength from you and give it to me.”\n\n\t“N… Neat…” Spark grunted as he struggled to his feet.\n\n\tWhitney took a deep breath and shivered noticeably when Spark’s body felt just slightly weaker. The sprouts grew just a little more, and Spark’s legs wobbled slightly, but he kept his balance. Whitney seemed to enjoy the feeling of the nutrients from Spark’s body being soaked into her body. It had a physical effect on her frame too, making her grow just a little bit bigger in every direction, but the effects were so slight that Spark never would have noticed.\n\n\t“Absorbing nutrients from the earth and other beings is a strong point of mine,” She huffed, “It makes it quite difficult to beat me in battle.”\n\n\t“I just have to dish out more than you can take from me,” Spark grinned back tiredly.\n\n\tWhitney paused and mulled over the wording Spark at used. “… What?”\n\n\tThe Minun rushed in while Whitney was distracted by her own mind, and before she could react, he swung around behind her as he grabbed her around the middle. Whitney was too shocked to react before Spark lifted her off the ground, using his legs to push as he bent backward, taking her down to the floor behind him in a surprisingly sudden backwards suplex, slamming her head against the floor. She yelped in pain, her glasses bouncing off her face and onto the floor.\n\n\tSpark released her and rolled over onto his front, pushing himself onto his feet again. There was a moment of pause as the Leech Seeds sucked more of his strength from him, and he shuddered as he fell to his knees, hands planted on the ground to keep him up.\n\n\tWhitney rolled to sit up, rubbing her head as she whined in pain. Shaking out the daze the impact had left her in, she shakily got to her feet as well. “You’re strong… But you can’t win like that,” She’d say, golden eyes gazing down at him, “You’re getting too weak now.”\n\n\t“Not… done yet…” Spark muttered as he forced himself onto his feet, his sneakers squeaking against the floor as he stumbled, appearing to be stumbling about drunkenly. His vision was blurred and his head was light… it was hard for him to get his balance, let alone to move around. Somehow, he pushed forwards, tripping over his own feet, but grabbing hold of Whitney’s shoulders as he fell. Immediately, as if by reflex, the Whimsicott reached to grab hold of her cottony fluff and pull it around her, but before she could close the shield of pillowy softness, Spark grabbed her arms and wrenched them apart.\n\n\tWhitney could only stare as Spark pulled back, and then slammed his forehead into hers roughly. It was the last move he could pull off before his legs gave way. He released Whitney and fell to the floor again just as she fell backwards as well. Spark caught himself on his hands and knees, and watched as Whitney was laid out by his attack. She was still conscious though, and Spark noticed this when she reached up to rub her head with a whine.\n\n\t“Darn… it… Glint…” Spark panted, feeling the last of his strength be torn away by the blasted seeds sprouting from his body. They withered away as soon as Spark began falling to the floor, and when he hit, the sprouts were all gone, having finished their purpose. Spark’s consciousness faded away, as did his vision, the Minun surrendering to his fatigue and closing his eyes to finally rest.\n\n\tWhitney steadied herself with a hand as she climbed to her feet, her legs a little shaky even though she’d beaten Spark. She took him in with a fleeting glance, knowing there were more important things to worry about than the Minun… like her partner. How was Salem doing? She hadn’t been able to watch.\n\n\t“WHIIIIITNEEEEEY~!”\n\n\tSalem’s shriek came so suddenly, that Whitney stumbled as she whipped around to see her partner sailing towards her through the air. She couldn’t react fast enough to catch him, the small Sableye instead hitting her in the face like some kind of living torpedo. It all felt like slow motion after that, the impact sending poor Salem into the air, and Whitney once again falling towards the floor. But the Plusle… she was too fast.\n\n\tGlint was upon them in a flash, reaching up to snag Salem’s leg out of the air. Salem shrieked as he was yanked around, pulled by the Plusle and used as a living weapon once again to club Whitney as she fell. This slammed her into the floor, and the shock and impact strength had rendered her unconscious immediately.\n\n\t“Don’t you DARE hurt my Sparkie!” Glint growled like a girl possessed.\n\n\tSalem’s head was spinning as he sat up, finding he was atop Whitney’s fainted body. He yelped and cocked his head around in panic, taking in everything from every direction as quickly as he could. He saw Glint going for him once again, and before she could grab him, he quickly deformed his body into shadowy black mist. Glint would find her fingers pushing through Salem’s body like the fog he resembled, watching him slink away into the floor like he had when the match had started. This time though, Glint knew what was coming.\n\n\tAs quick as a whistle, Salem had crept behind Glint and sprung up from the shadows to strike. His arms were out-stretched as he sought to grab the girl, but when he closed his arms in a hug, he found himself beaten at his own game… his arms faded through an after-image! Landing again, Salem looked at his hands in confusion, curling his fingers as if to process he had nothing in his grasp. His gaze shot up from his hands and he stared straight ahead at Glint’s shadow casting over him from behind.\n\n\t“Nnnnhohno…” Salem croaked with a shiver of fright.\n\n\tHe turned. She stomped. The sole of Glint’s sneaker smashed into Salem’s curious little face and fiercely pinned him to the floor under her heel. She pushed a little, and only got a slight jerk of Salem’s arms and legs in response… He was as good as out.\n\n\t“Hell hath no fury like a Pokégirl! Glint wins it for the Blue Team!” Jeff the announcer shouted as it was obvious Salem wasn’t getting back up.\n\n\tGlint spun on her heels and ran for Spark, falling to her knees beside her unconscious brother. She grabbed hold of him and shook him to try and rouse him, but received no response. “Spark? Spark?! Get up!” She shouted, but to no real result. She immediately felt as if her words had sunk down her throat and settled in the pit of her stomach as she shook him some more.\n\n\tLooking up, she could see the strange pink Pokémon coming out to fetch the unconscious combatants… They wore nurse hats, and were shaped similarly to the eggs they kept in pouches on their exposed stomachs. Unlike Glint, Spark, and many other combatants, these Pokémon weren’t humanoid, instead having the anatomy as any feral, or ‘classic,’ Pokémon would. Any Pokémon would have recognized them immediately as Chansey, the “postermon” for caretaking and healing the world over. Four of them waddled out, each pair with a stretcher. One pair loaded up Spark, the other pair snatched up Whitney and laid Salem atop her body on the stretcher.\n\n\t“Chan~sey! Chan~sey! Chan~sey!” The feral Pokémon chanted like ambulance sirens as they hurried off the arena with the lot of them. Glint hurried along behind, keeping in time with Spark as he was carted back.\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Good God, is he going to be okay?” Nori snapped his attention to Sammy in the seat next to him. He’d gawked at the ending scene of the fight so long; he hadn’t even noticed that he’d dropped a handful of the popcorn Sammy had gotten for them to share.\n\n\t“Don’t worry, he’ll be just fine Nori,” Sammy said, reaching aside and patting the oh-so-distraught raccoon on the shoulders, “Those Chansey are going to take real good care of him.”\n\n\t“And [i]this [/i]was supposed to ease my mind?!” Nori squawked, “My son was out there growing [i]saplings [/i]out of his damn fur for Pete’s sake!”\n\n\t“W-Well, yes, but… did you watch them?” Sammy responded with a sheepish grin, before nodding towards the now empty arena, “Did you watch your kids participate? Despite the physical risk, they really enjoyed themselves. They got to let loose in a way day-to-day life couldn’t offer them, and they worked beautifully together. Aren’t you at least a little proud of them for winning?”\n\n\tNori had to really think about what he was seeing… He just didn’t see it like Sammy did, no matter how hard she tried. He calmed, if only a little, not yelling in a manner that would make his voice crack at least. “Yes, yes, I am glad they won, I’m happy that they succeeded at something they set out to do, but…” Nori trailed off into a frustrated sigh. He didn’t know what to make of it beyond his own worry for his kids’ safety.\n\n\t“And did you see Spark lay that head butt on that other girl?” Sammy asked, going back to speculating over the matches more casually.\n\n\t“Well, yes, that was… well I didn’t think he was capable of something like that,” Nori admitted, sitting back uneasily in his seat, “And Glint! Remind me not to get on her bad side like that.”\n\n\t“This is the kind of fighting spirit all Pokémon have,” Sammy said as she reached aside and snatched up a handful of popcorn from the tub settled in Nori’s lap, “And your kids, Glint and Spark, they’re strong. I always kind of expected they would be.”\n\n\t“Yeah… they are,” Nori said, staring down at the arena.\n\n\tSammy looked at him and tilted her head aside slightly, giving him as comforting a look as she could muster. “Have a little faith in them, Nori. You’ve got to trust that they’re going to give it their all, and be fine. If you just watch, I think you can learn a lot about them.”\n\n\t“Learn… what, exactly?” Nori furrowed his brow in struggled thought.\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Oh God, this is all my fault…!” Glint nearly sobbed, standing over her brother who was resting in the infirmary area the League had set up for combatants to rest in after the matches.\n\n\tSpark was resting peacefully in bed, white sheets pulled up over his body, his arms resting to his sides, bared from the coverings. He didn’t look to be in pain or any kind of suffering, and the Chansey were doing everything they could to help. They were making sure he was comfortable, and spraying him with what looked like some kind of weird spray-bottle. They had to work around Glint, since she refused to leave. One of the Chansey approached glint and sprayed her with the watery sprit of one of the bottles… right over her backside that was still exposed from the hole in her pants.\n\n\t“Ouch!” Glint hissed as the spray, whatever it was, got into the teeth-marks on her butt, and stung like the dickens. She jerked away from the Chansey that was helping her, and swiped at the bottle that the little, chubby Pokémon quickly pulled away from her reach. “Knock it off!” Glint harped, the Chansey shouting back at her, but of course unable to communicate in any way other than saying its own name.\n\n\t“So noisy!” Came Salem’s voice from the bed next to Spark’s, “Glint yell so loud! Make Salem’s head pound like Jigglypuff!”\n\n\t“Shut up!” Glint hollered back, “I’m just worried!”\n\n\tIn a row of three beds, Salem’s bed was between Spark’s and Whitney’s. Whitney sat up at the end of the row, her gaze dopey, if not sleepy, and pouty. She had a little X-shaped bandage stamped onto her forehead to cover up a bruise left by Spark. “Don’t be,” She said, looking over to Glint, “My Leech Seeds can’t cause any sort of fatal or even serious injury… He simply lost consciousness, and will be awake again before you know it.”\n\n\tGlint glared at the two of them before looking down at Spark again.\n\n\t“Salem sorry…” Salem pouted too as he sat up, “… Don’t mean to make Glint so mad. Salem just battle.”\n\n\t“We don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Whitney said, shaking her head, “We both were knocked out, and you don’t see us acting that way.”\n\n\t“[i]Excuse me?[/i]” Glint snapped back to them, moving away from Spark and standing between Salem and Whitney’s beds, crossing her arms, “Is it so bad that I worry about my own brother?”\n\n\tWhitney eyed Glint tiredly. “This isn’t the first time we’ve lost… Salem and I have competed in this tournament for three years straight… and we’ve never won more than a match before we were knocked out of the running,” She explained, “We learned fast that handling a loss is just as integral to a team as winning is… You’ve never lost before, have you?”\n\n\t“This is our first tournament ever! We don’t even get to practice battling at school, or at home!” Glint answered.\n\n\t“Glint need to get over loss like Salem get over not being able to reach ticker-tacker buttons on snack machines,” Salem said, his tone somewhat softer than usual, “Not every battle is win-battle. Sometimes, in fight, Salem fall down and hurt his tummy… But Salem always get up on little feets again.”\n\n\tWhitney nodded as she smiled to Salem. “Yes… When you fall down, you simply need the strength to get back up,” She said, looking to Glint then, “Your brother is strong enough to get back up, isn’t he?”\n\n\t“Glint believe in Spark, yes?” Salem asked right after.\n\n\tGlint looked back and forth between Salem and Whitney, and then turned her attention to Spark. She made her way back to his bed and got down on her knees beside it, reaching out to take one of Spark’s hands into both of hers, holding it tight. “He is. I know he is, but I just don’t like seeing him this way… You guys… You just don’t get it, okay?”\n\n\t“We do,” Whitney answered immediately, “We understand what it’s like to see someone fall next to you. I understand what it feels like to think that you could have done them better, you could have helped, and that if you went down instead, it would be better…”\n\n\t“It not better!” Salem shouted, springing up out of his sheets and onto his bed, “It no different!”\n\n\tHe was regarding Whitney.\n\n\tThe Whimsicott just smiled somberly and nodded. “Yes… Glint… It’s not your fault… You need to accept that. That, and you need to stop blaming your opponents, and you can’t blame Spark… no one’s to blame. Falling happens in battle.”\n\n\t“Yeah… it happens.”\n\n\tGlint lifted her eyes from the bed to see Spark looking at her. He looked a little tired, but he was smiling all the same.\n\n\t“Spark!” Glint’s expression lifted immediately, and she threw herself at him to hug him tight. The boy was lucky he didn’t have any real injuries, or that would have really smart!\n\n\tSpark grunted, but laughed softly. “I’m okay… see? Stop yelling at Salem and Whitney,” He said, “You’re not going to let something like… me falling in a battle to get you down, are you? That’s… heh… that’s not much like you.”\n\n\tGlint pulled away from Spark and blinked a few times. She looked towards her former opponents and frowned. Spark, as usual, was right, and so level-headed… She felt embarrassed beyond belief. Turning her attention back to her brother, she leaned over his bed and kissed his cheek, before standing.\n\n\t“… I’m sorry,” She sighed, releasing Spark’s hand and wringing her fingers together, “You’re right.”\n\n\t“Salem no mind,” Salem said as he plopped down onto the bed again, “Salem just glad Glint and Spark is okay.”\n\n\t“This is your first time,” Whitney said, “Don’t feel too bad.”\n\n\t“No… that doesn’t fix anything,” Glint said, making her way to Salem’s bed and leaning down to look him in the eye. She only saw her reflection in the brilliant gemstones that gazed back at her, so she forced a smile.\n\n\t“You both are right… I was just being an idiot. I mean, we didn’t even really lose… I guess I just want to do better next time,” She said.\n\n\tSalem grinned brightly, shining those sharp teeth of his. “Yes, yes! That it! Glint just do better next time No falls, no hurt tummies,” He said.\n\n\t“We accept your apology,” Whitney grinned.\n\n\tGlint blushed, but stood up again and smiled at Whitney, a knowing, angry sort of smile. She had never said she apologized to them, but of course, she was doing just that underneath it all.\n\n\tOne of the Chansey had brought Spark some orange juice and he was now sitting up and slurping away at it through a straw. He was looking better already! He turned his attention to Salem and Whitney, struggling to not gawk at the hole torn into the back of Glint’s pants. “What will you two do now…? I guess we knocked you out of the tournament…”\n\n\tThey both pondered over the question for a bit, before Salem spoke up. “… Root for Glint and Spark!”\n\n\t“Eh?” Glint seemed surprised at this, “Really?”\n\n\t“Yes! Yes! If Glint and Spark beat tar out of Salem and Whitney, Salem want Glint and Spark to beat tar out of all them!” Salem clapped his hands together, “Remind Salem of first time he fight with Whitney. Salem got sad like Glint, Whitney got hurt…”\n\n\t“My arm only had a minor fracture,” Whitney giggled as she got up from the bed and walked over to Salem’s bed, reaching over it to snatch him up and hug him back against her body. His head rest snuggly against her chest. “But yes, we don’t hold anything against you, even if you beat us… That’s not how Pokémon are supposed to work.”\n\n\tGlint sat back on the edge of Spark’s bed, and shook her head. “Feh… You two really know how it goes around here, huh?”\n\n\t“Yes, and we know how hard it is too,” Whitney smiled, “So we’re going to support you.”\n\n\t“Rah rah!” Salem chanted, thrusting a fist into the air.\n\n\tGlint sat back on Spark’s bed and crossed her arms, shooting her brother a look with a raised brow. “We are such noobs…” She muttered, leaning over him then and placing a gentle kiss on his lips, company be damned.\n\n\t“Salem see Kanto! Salem see France! Salem see Glint’s [b]underpants[/b]!”\n\n\tGlint’s ears shot up and she pulled away from Spark to look at the two across from the bed. Salem was cackling, and Whitney was trying her best to hide a giggle, but she was blushing furiously. The Plusle’s cheeks flushed red as well, and she sat up in a hurry to hide her exposure. Standing, she covered her rump with her hands and cast a look over the lot of them.\n\n\t“I’m… I’m going to change!” She squeaked, turning and hurriedly running out of the room, “And shut up, Salem!”\n\n\t“Pretty-pretty powder pink!” Salem called after her.\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Up next folks, we have Glint and Spark of the blue team versus the tenacious Marco and Scyllia! So far, these two teams have pulled through and made great wins, but which one’s going to triumph this time?!”\n\n\t“Good, here they come again,” Nori said, leaning forwards anxiously in his seat, “They have to fight again so soon though?”\n\n\t“It’s okay Nori, see?” Sammy gestured down to the arena as Glint and Spark emerged from the tunnel to once again take their places on the battlefield. They were waved off by their former opponents of the last round as they stepped out to take their place. They looked right as rain, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever, and Glint had changed into a red pair of short-shorts. Nori was relieved, and sat back just a bit, before his ears swiveled up when he cast his gaze on their new opponents.\n\n\tOne was a hulking behemoth of muscles and vascularity, his raw strength making his blue skin obviously rock-hard with his massive muscles. His legs almost looked silly in comparison to how big his upper body was… it was a miracle his clothes fit. A pair of black jeans and a very stretched-out muscle shirt, also black, with a red ‘R’ stamped on the front. He looked almost like some kind of lizard or something… the shape of his skull sure seemed to suggest it, not to mention the odd fins on his head.\n\n\tThe other was a strange one. She was obviously feminine in build, but her body was hidden under what looked like plates of armor. Her eyes peered out of a green helmet that almost resembled the head of a dragon, while metal, insect-like wings sprouted from her back. The breastplate was also green with some lighter green, almost creamy yellow lining, and her abdomen was left exposed, her skin matching the lining colour of her armor’s plates. Wicked-looking faulds protected her thighs, and she seemed to wear very little to keep her decent, just black spandex short-shorts beneath. The graves had clawed toes to resemble a beast’s, and the green plating of the protective footwear ended somewhere near her knee. The most intimidating part were the curved blades on her gauntlets that covered her hands entirely, extending outwards from the armor a good couple feet.\n\n\tIf one looked close enough, they might see the red ‘R’ stamped onto the front of her shorts.\n\n\t“These guys are in the junior division?” Spark asked himself, “They look older than us by a long shot!”\n\n\t“Machoke and Scyther, huh? Neat!” Came Jeff’s voice over the loudspeaker, “This ought to be interesting to see!”\n\n\t“Puny mice,” Marco, the Machoke, grumbled, “How they got this far is beyond me.”\n\n\t“Hey! Who’re you calling puny?” Glint squeaked.\n\n\t“Well, no matter,” Scyllia, the Scyther, muttered, “We’ll take them out just as we planned and be that much closer to Miss Stone. The winner here goes on to face her and that blasted Haunter, after all.”\n\n\t“Really?” Spark asked, “Huh. Well, sorry to break it to you, but we have an appointment with Jemila too. We’re not going to roll over for you.”\n\n\t“We will see, tiny mice,” Marco grunted, “I will crush you.”\n\n\t“Well, you know what they say,” Glint sighed as she got ready to attack, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”\n\n\t“Ready combatants?!”\n\n\t“Get set…!”\n\n\t“GO!”\n\n\t“Meat or potatoes?” Glint would ask, nodding her head from Marco to Scyllia.\n\n\t“I’ll take the meat,” Spark said, “You handle the potatoes.”\n\n\t“You never did eat your vegetables,” Glint chuckled, before dashing off towards her mark.\n\n\tSpark sprinted across the field towards Marco, who stood ready for him with his large arms poised to snatch the Minun up once he got close enough. Spark’s body was small and limber, and Marco was obviously much larger and bulkier… In the Minun’s mind, as long as he could keep moving, he was bound to be fine. Marco’s stationary fighting style would be the end of him!\n\n\tSpark ducked under the larger Pokémon’s arms as he came in close, jamming a fist into the Machoke’s rock-hard abs. The impact was solid, but Marco barely even flinched. He raised an arm to bring it down on Spark like a club, and the Minun was forced to step side to side to avoid the falling slabs of muscle. Marco’s fists cracked the hard floor when they landed, and Spark noticed this… Surely one good hit and he’d be done for!\n\n\tSpark danced around the Machoke, punching and kicking his solid frame wherever he could find and opening. Marco tried to follow the Minun’s movements, but found himself one step behind every step of the way. Spark’s hits weren’t overly strong against his heavily bulked body, but Marco was still getting frustrated trying to catch the little rodent. Every punch found that Spark was nowhere near the mark, every grab for the kid’s ears would turn up with nothing… Spark was one step ahead of the game the entire time.\n\n\tSpark finally charged up an electric jab, and after ducking a swing fist, he leapt up in a dazzling uppercut that cut through the air with crackling electric force! It connected right with Marco’s jaw, hard enough to snap the Machoke’s head backwards, and make him stumble… two whole steps backwards. The larger Pokémon righted himself, cracked his neck, and stepped back in to continue the fight. He seemed barely phased.\n\n\t“Whew, you’re going to take some work…!” Spark sighed, “Right then, I can do this all day!”\n\n\tGlint had to dodge two razor sharp gusts of wind created by Scyllia’s blades as she swung them through the air. The sheer force of the gusts tore through the arena floor leaving trails in their wake, and sliced through the air sharply enough to make a high-pitched whistle as they blew past Glint’s ears. Not to be deterred, Glint moved in for the attack without a moment’s hesitation, leaping up once she was close enough to throw a kick towards Scyllia’s armored face. Scyallia simply leaned her body aside to dodge it just barely, and returned with another slash of her bladed arms.\n\n\tGlint leaned her whole body backwards, watching as the blades crossed right before her eyes. She snapped back up in an instant and drove her shoulder in against Scyllia’s chest, pushing her back only to set her up for a follow-up punch to her gut. Scyllia took the brunt of it full-force in the gut, and she felt the air forcefully exit her lungs in a choked gasp.\n\n\tGlint focused her energy, the pouches on her cheeks crackling with electricity that she channeled into her palm in an orb. She let the electric orb fly through the air, throwing it like a baseball pitcher. Scyllia barely managed to swing her blade fast and hard enough to swipe the orb clear out of the air, sending it hurling off course to crash against the floor.\n\n\t“Spark, switch!” Glint shouted.\n\n\tSpark’s ears perked up to the sound of his sister’s voice, and he quickly stepped back towards her. He bent forwards, and she rolled right over his back, flipping her body to land facing Marco, while Spark stood and faced Scyllia.\n\n\tWith the opponents switched, Spark now had to contend with the razor sharp blades of the Scyther. Scyllia attempted to bring her blade down into his shoulder, but Spark closed the gap and caught her forearm in his hand. He slammed his forehead against the front of her helmet with enough force to make her jump and stumble backwards, halting her offense. With the opening set, Spark wasted no time in rushing Scyllia again.\n\n\tSpark darted forwards so quickly, and his entire body surged with a dazzling display of electric might. His entire body was shrouded in crackling, sparking, and wildly arcing energy, seeming to make his speed increase ten-fold. In an instant, his electric form slammed into Scyllia’s with all his might. The electric charge caught to her armor and caused the full surge of energy to flow through her body quickly. The resulting reaction was like an explosion of light and power that send her hurdling backwards through the air several feet, only to have her land on her back, skipping like a rock the remainder of the way.\n\n\tHer body was smoking, and she grunted as she got to her feet, glaring at the Minun who still stood, though he was panting.\n\n\tGlint had as much of a time with Marco as Spark previously had. He seemed to have no problem hitting a girl, as his massive fist collided with Glint’s forearms when she blocked. The force of his blows took her off her feet, and she landed roughly on her backside. She sprung to her feet to leap aside, narrowly avoiding another straight-arm punch.\n\n\tWhipping around behind Marco, Glint took the chance to scramble up his back. With how large and broad he was, it wasn’t hard for her to get good footing, and she soon found herself with her arms wrapped around his neck, and her legs wrapped around his middle. He reeled back, spinning to try and throw the Plusle off, but she held on for dear life, and her grip was firm. At first, Marco tried reaching back over his shoulders to throw her off, but she was too low… his large arms couldn’t grasp at her body.\n\n\tWhen he finally got the sense to grab at Glint’s arms and try to pry her off, Glint clenched her eyes shut and discharged a good several volts of electricity into Marco’s body. The Machoke cried out in pain as the electricity surged throughout his body, causing all his muscles to seize momentarily. He shuddered, and shook off the attack, prying Glint’s arms apart and roughly tossing her off of him. She hit the ground roughly on her side, bracing herself to take the impact, and she looked to Marco with a grin.\n\n\t“Having a tough time against a puny mouse, big guy?” She goaded, quickly getting to her feet.\n\n\t“Your scampering will end soon enough,” Marco responded gruffly, “Then we will see who is laughing.”\n\n\t“Yes, you should be feeling it… right about now…” Scyllia grinned.\n\n\tAt the same time, the twins felt… such a strange feeling wash over them. A sudden head-rush washed over them, into feelings of nausea. Their heads tingled uncomfortably, and it felt as if their sinuses had closed up. The effects were noticeable as their eyes sluggishly got heavy… Their limbs felt heavy, if not numb. They felt dizzy and sick, the feeling washing over them in strange waves.\n\n\tThe twins rested a hand on each of their heads, stumbling a little, looking as if they couldn’t get their bearings straight.\n\n\t“W… Whuh…?” Spark groaned.\n\n\tGlint moaned pitifully, “Wha… What did they… do?”\n\n\tGlint was the first to take a blow before she could even register it was coming. Her mind lagged behind, but not so far that she couldn’t feel a fist the size of her gut ram into her body. Marco was strong, strong enough to lift her smaller body off the ground, successfully knocking the wind out of her and sending her soaring high into the air. She came back down like a sack of bricks, falling to the floor in a heap. She coughed, wheezing as she got to her knees, clutching her stomach where the punch had landed, wrapping both of her arms around herself.\n\n\tShe barely got to look up before she took another shot to the face. Her body was sent tumbling across the floor, sliding and scraping along the hard surface several feet before she slid to a stop once more. She groaned, rolling onto her side to see Marco marching towards her. She tried to get up, she tried to move, but it felt like her head was weighing her down like a ball of cement.\n\n\tSpark squeaked as he fell backwards onto his rear, having tripped back trying to avoid a series of slashes that now had his shirt in ribbons, and cuts across his chest. He hissed in pain, clenching his teeth to try and bear through it. He tried fighting back; clenching his fist and trying to charge his electrical power… but nothing came. He managed a few sputtering sparks from his cheeks, but nothing came of it. He gasped after forcing the effort as much as he could. He couldn’t use his electrical abilities!\n\n\tHe saw Glint tumble across the floor, and watched as she was beset by Marco once more. The Machoke seemed to be marching casually, as if enjoying her pain… and Spark wasn’t going to have any of that. As Scyllia tried to bear down into his shoulder with a blade, he rolled back and braced his legs against her chest. Forcing all his strength into it, he kicked forwards to toss her off of him. She landed roughly, stumbling and falling, giving Spark the chance to help his sister.\n\n\tSpark rose to his feet with an effort, and ran sluggishly at Marco, who saw him coming from a mile away. As Spark threw his punch, Marco simply caught his hand in mid-lunge, stopping it cold. Marco closed his hand hard around the Minun’s cracking Spark’s knuckles and fingers harshly. Spark cried out in pain before Marco tugged him inwards, wrapping his arms around the Minun’s smaller body and hoisting him off the ground.\n\n\tMarco proceeded to squeeze Spark harshly, bearing down on him with his strong muscles, pressing in against Spark’s bones, making him cry out in a pathetic squeak. Spark felt his spine crack from bottom to top, and he clenched his eyes and teeth shut to try and bear with it.\n\n\t“Without your zapping, you are simply vermin to be exterminated!” Marco laughed, “Squeak, little mousie, squeak and beg for mercy!”\n\n\t“What the hell?” Nori gasped, on the edge of his seat like everyone else… But something was suspicious to him. Glint and Spark had been doing so well, they were dancing circles around those oafs…! How could it have turned around so quickly?\n\n\t“Uuunh…” Sammy groaned next to him, pulling her bandana down off her head. Her cheeks were flush, and she looked every bit as groggy as the twins did down below. This got Nori’s attention, and he tore his eyes away from the action on the arena floor to look at the Pikachu rancher instead.\n\n\t“What’s wrong?”\n\n\t“Mmngh…” Sammy simply groaned sickly, “I feel… Nn… Terrible…”\n\n\t“Are you sick? Do you need to leave?” Nori asked, close to leaving his chair. Sammy’s cheeks were sputtering weak sparks… it was a curious thing.\n\n\t“Nori… Pokémon like me have an electric charge all through their bodies…” Sammy sighed, closing her eyes, “This… This causes adverse affects when exposed to electro-magnetism… The natural magnetism of my body… of our bodies becomes out of whack, and we… essentially get sick.”\n\n\t“Wait, what?” Nori gasped, looking down to the twins on the field for a moment, “You mean…?”\n\n\t“Something foul’s going on…” Sammy nodded, covering her eyes with her forearm.\n\n\tNori’s eyes darted around from his seat. If Sammy was right, then he had a sneaking suspicion that trouble was afoot. Call him a paranoid parent, but it was the only explanation as to why his kids had gone from shoe-ins to pitiful victims in only moments. There had to be some sort of explanation to it all…\n\n\t… Then he saw it. Above what would be the four-way score board for sports games, there was a curious metal orb. Nori was no expert on electronics, worse so on the inner workings of a sports stadium, but something about it looked odd. He squinted, peering past the light, using a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the stadium lights… and saw people up there! Or… maybe Pokémon? He didn’t recognize their species… but he did recognize their outfits.\n\n\tBlack, with red ‘R’s stamped on them. Just like the two currently pummeling his poor kids.\n\n\t“Villainous curs,” He growled, slamming a fist into the arm rest of his chair, “Like hell this is going on.”\n\n\tHe stood from his chair and looked to Sammy, leaning in and getting her attention with a hand on her shoulder.\n\n\t“Sit tight. I need to go to the bathroom,” He said simply, pulling away and leaving her as he squeezed his way between the other spectators and the seat aisle.\n\n\t“Wha… Nori?” Sammy blinked, furrowing her brows, “But…”\n\n\t“I’ll just be a moment!” He shouted back.\n\n\tGetting out of his row, he took one last glance up towards the stadium’s score board. From there, he couldn’t see anything of what he saw before… But if he was right, there were people up there – people harming his kids.\n\n\t[i]No one[/i] harmed Nori’s kids.\n\n\t\t[b][u]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 5[/u] [/b]\n\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie) \n\n\t“I must be losing my mind,” Nori muttered to himself, “This is crazy.”\n\n\tNori crept through the corridors of the stadium expertly. His goal, to stop a foul plan put in motion by a shady group of Pokémon that were obviously out to sabotage a match in the Pokémon Tournament he’d been watching. The match being mucked up was the one his adoptive son and daughter were participating in. Even at that very moment, his poor kids were being pummeled without enough coherencies to defend themselves. Nori had seen through the enemy’s tricks though… it wasn’t his first walk around the park known as “villainy.”\n\n\tHe knew the trends. Even if the particular group he had set out to stop were Pokémon - a species of creature with special abilities and near magical powers – they were still your typical villains.\n\n\tThey had brought some kind of device that emitted electro-magnetic waves… pulses that caused intense feelings of weakness and sickness in electric type Pokémon much like his dear Glint and Spark… his children, his responsibility. He may not have been a Pokémon like them, unable to shoot beams from his eyes or lift a car, but he knew right and wrong was no different no matter what abilities you had… Having special abilities only gave you the opportunity to do wrong in special ways.\n\n\tBut most of all, his children were being unfairly beaten, and as their father, he wasn’t going to stand for it.\n\n\tNori casually walked away from the spectator seats at first, but once he started dipping into the more restricted areas of the stadium, he had begun to slink and sneak, sticking to the shadows. A Pokémon he was not, but a raccoon had their own specialties at their disposal. His ears were attentively raised to hear footsteps from ages away, and his eyes were keen in the dark. He had come across a ventilation shaft, sealed by a grate, and knew that if he kept working his way higher, he would be able to reach the ne’er-do-wells skulking about on the catwalks above the arena.\n\n\tNo one was around. The lesser-travelled corridors smelled like… like a sports arena would, and the lights were dim… some even flickered. None would go that way except for janitorial staff, that much was certain. The only things down there were electrical rooms and broom closets.\n\n\tReaching up, Nori pushed his claws into the screws holding the vent’s grate in place, and carefully used them to unscrew them. \n\n\t“In 1908, raccoons were found to open eleven out of thirteen locks in under ten tries,” He muttered to himself as he worked the screws loose and pulled the grate away, setting it aside. “Of course, that’s without practice,” He grinned. The opening looked small, but he was able to pull himself into it. He kicked his legs as he squeezed into the narrow shaft, pulling his body through and disappearing into the ducts.\n\n\tWith some fumbling and clumsy climbing in the ducts, he found his way throughout the arena’s lesser-known passages and eventually ended up at the top of the arena. It was easy to find, what with the cheers reverberating through the vents, and once he got to the top, he was able to turn his body and kick against the grate with his flip-flops. It took some work, but eventually he busted the grate off most of its screws. It slid down and hung by a single corner so that it didn’t fall, and Nori slipped his way out.\n\n\tFrom below, the catwalks looked so simple, but up above they seemed more complicated. It must have been all the wiring for the lights and electronics that made it look like a complex, jumbled mess of high-rise paths. Fortunately they had rails… that safety measure put Nori’s mind at ease. His goal was clear – the score board. One catwalk passed right over it, and he could see the dastardly bastards and their weird machine from where he stood. It seemed like they hadn’t noticed him.\n\n\tOne of them looked like the strangest blue toad, with lazy yellow eyes and red spots in his cheeks. He had a black toque on his head, and a thick black ensemble to match. The red ‘R’ emblemized on the hat was a trend now, Nori noticed, and was probably the logo of whatever group they’d conjured up for themselves. The one other Pokémon with him looked a lot like a crow wearing a big, tri-pointed hat. His clothes were less covering than the toad’s, being simple shorts and t-shirt, but they were black too. That just seemed to be their colours.\n\n\tThe Pokémon were Croagunk and Murkrow respectively.\n\n\tThe Croagunk was holding on to the railing and looking down over the fight. He seemed to be in a conversation with the Murkrow, so Nori was able to slink around the catwalks quietly and not have them notice him. Since the fools weren’t paying much attention, Nori went the long way around so he could approach them from their backside. This led him straight to the strange machine… Some kind of coil with a big, round orb on the very tip. There was nothing to suggest it was on other than a dull humming that couldn’t be heard over the crowds below.\n\n\tHunkered down low, Nori crept, not wanting to move too quickly and draw attention, yet with an urgency to help his kids out of the jam they were stuck in. For a moment, Nori peered down over the edge of the catwalks to see how Glint and Spark were faring against their unfair adversaries.\n\n\tSpark reached out to grab the back of Glint’s shirt and pull her backwards as Marco sent one of his giant fists down at her. She stumbled back to miss the floor-denting blow, but couldn’t afford to stop. Her moves were sluggish, but she back-pedaled fast enough to avoid Marco’s blows for some time, frustrating the Machoke since his trick hadn’t handed him an easy victory yet. As hard as it was for Glint to focus, she tore her attention between Marco and Spark.\n\n\tSpark was holding his own fairly well, batting away Scyllia’s arms as she swung her scythe-like blades in a flurry of attacks. Try as he might however, she attacked too quickly for him to keep up, and one well-placed block made him stumble backwards and fall. He was quick to roll over onto his hands and knees to get back up, but lifting his weary body was difficult. He was too slow, and Scyllia was bearing down upon him in a fierce, plunging slash from above in an instant.\n\n\tGlint’s body acted before even her mind could catch up, taking off in a mad dash towards her brother to protect him. Marco was too slow to catch her as she broke away, and she charged right at Spark, leaping to tackle him. She barely managed to grab Spark and take the Minun off his feet again, pushing him out of harm’s way. Scyllia’s blade met nothing, and the twins met the floor harshly.\n\n\t“G-Get up…” Glint grabbed her brother’s shirt and tried to lift him as she worked her way to her feet again. She pulled him to his feet, and he shook his head, trying to get himself out of the funk he was in… but it was no use. The physical effects of the electromagnetic waves weren’t going to fade until exposure to them was cut off.\n\n\tLooking back over his shoulder, he saw Scyllia barreling at them as if she were gliding across the floor. It was a split-second action he took to shove Glint aside and step away himself, causing Scyllia to charge right between them. With an opening available, they both slammed their fists into the back of the Scyther’s head as harshly as they could muster, taking her down to the floor roughly.\n\n\tNori watched from above, impressed at how well his kids were handling themselves despite the obvious handicap they’d been put under. But he could tell they were struggling, and seeing them put everything they could into it despite that gave him a renewed sense of urgency. Tearing his eyes away from the spectacle down below, the raccoon continued on his mission.\n\n\tHe snuck right up to the machine from behind, able to see an obvious panel in its design. That seemed like as good a place as any to start. Unseen, he worked quickly to use his claws as a faux screwdriver to work away the screws holding the panel in place. The openings were small, so it was no easy task… All the while, he kept an ear out for the guards.\n\n\t“I-I don’t like being this high up,” The Croagunk whined, “W-Why haven’t Marco and Scyllia beat the brats yet?”\n\n\t“Quit whinin’,” The Murkrow scowled, smacking the Croagunk upside the head, “Even if it’s takin’ them a while, those kids can’t win like this. It’ll be fine! Then we can grab Jem and force her pops to do whatever we want.”\n\n\tThe Croagunk frowned, rubbing his head. “L-Least then we’d have tons of money,” He mumbled.\n\n\t“And all the Evolution Stones we could ever want!” The Murkrow cackled, “I’d evolve and be super powerful!”\n\n\tNori did his best to follow the conversation while he worked. Getting one screw loose, it fell onto the catwalk with a light clanging. He froze, ears wilting, listening to see if he’d gotten the attention of the guards… They sure didn’t seem to notice.\n\n\t“If we win before that, then everyone’ll see that Team Rocket is strong! Strong enough to whoop Jem AND that freaky Haunter,” The Murkrow sneered, “Strong enough to rule the world, just like Pokémon should!”\n\n\tNori rolled his eyes as he worked out the second screw. “How typical,” He muttered to himself.\n\n\tThe talking stopped then, and the roars of the crowd below drowned out any sound. Nori worked faster, not sure how long he’d be able to stay there. Getting the third screw off, he let it fall onto the catwalk… but that’s when it was all over. He noticed the shadows looming over him, and he looked back slowly over his shoulder to see the two unsightly Pokémon leering down at him.\n\n\t“Well look at this!” The Murkrow grinned, “One of them average-types is snooping around our fancy electro-whatsit machine!”\n\n\t“S-Stupid average type,” The Croagunk sniggered.\n\n\t“… Ah… heh…” Nori flashed them the most sheepish of smiles. Well, he was caught, and now he was likely in for a world of hurt.\n\n\tHe was snatched up quickly by the heavier-looking Croagunk, and picked up by the scruff of his shirt. They didn’t seem too eager to use any of their fancy Pokémon abilities on Nori though, opting instead to simply punch the raccoon in the gut and knock the wind out of him before shoving him back onto the catwalk. Nori fell back, coughing a bit as he gasped for his breath.\n\n\t“I can’t believe we gotta share the world with bozos like this guy,” The Murkrow sneered, stepping up beside Nori and kicking him in the ribs. The bird’s talons tore Nori’s shirt slightly in the action. “What does he expect to do against guys like us? What’s his power? Rummagin’ through our trash?”\n\n\tNori rolled over, grimacing in pain. He pressed his back up against the wave-transmitter machine, finally getting his breath back.\n\n\t“… You think you’re better than non-Pokémon?” He’d ask, unable to hold back a little grin.\n\n\t“W-We KNOW we’re better! Y-You’re just some weak, regular guy!” The Croagunk croaked.\n\n\t“Sure,” Nori said, quickly shifting up into a squat. He lunged forwards, pushing off the catwalk with his legs, sending himself at his attackers. His first order of business was to clench a fist and punch the Murkrow straight in the groin. This caught the bird Pokémon completely off guard, and he got the full force of Nori’s dirty fighting. He reeled back, falling to his knees and clutching between his legs. That was one taken care of!\n\n\t“You guys have a lotta nerve!” Nori shouted, turning as the Croagunk threw a punch his way. The toad… missed, utterly and completely. Nori grabbed hold of his slimy arm and quickly sunk his teeth into it, biting as hard as his jaw would allow, sinking his sharp teeth in as deep as he could. The Croagunk wailed in pain, tearing away from Nori.\n\n\t“You mess with my kids, and I’ll show you what a regular guy can do!” Nori growled, giving the Croagunk a rough shove, making him stumble back and hit the guard rail, keeping him from falling right off the catwalks.\n\n\tNori had an awful taste in his mouth after biting into the Croagunk. He spit, trying to get it out. The taste wouldn’t go away, and it tasted… strange. He couldn’t have begun to explain the foul taste, but he’d watched enough nature documentaries to know that he shouldn’t have been biting into anything that even resembled a frog. It didn’t take long for his suspicions to be justified, as whatever he’d ingested in the exchange got to work. His vision doubled, and his body felt weak.\n\n\tHe’d been poisoned!\n\n\t“Ugh… how unpleasant…” Nori groaned, “Bleh…”\n\n\tNori collapsed onto his hands and knees. His body wasn’t as adept as a Pokémons’ when it came to fending off toxins. The poison worked far too quickly for Nori, and he felt sick to his stomach, and cold, as if he’d eaten bad shellfish or something. It was everything he could do to keep from throwing up all over the catwalks. He looked up to see both the Murkrow and the Croagunk standing over him, and he cursed his idiocy. He should have known that when it came to fighting against Pokémon, he really was helpless.\n\n\tBut he couldn’t have sat there and done nothing while Glint and Spark suffered… Sammy too!\n\n\tHe fought it as best he could, and struggled to stand… but the Pokémon effortlessly pushed him back down. His legs wobbled and he fell back onto the catwalk, finding it difficult to even get up off of his back. He tried to stand again, but fell back once more due to his own arms giving out on him. Finally landing flat on the catwalk, his limbs felt too heavy to move, and his vision was fading. He heard less and less of the crowds below and more of his own breathing and heartbeat as he lingered in consciousness as long as he could.\n\n\t“… Unhand him!”\n\n\tNori couldn’t see just who had come to his rescue. The last thing he saw before his head fell back was the Murkrow get struck, and somehow frozen solid. The Croakgunk was also taken out, by some cackling madman by the sound of it… But alas, he couldn’t even make out his own hand in front of his face by that point. His hearing even started to go.\n\n\tHe could hear the voice of a young woman, but it was hard to make out. \n\n\t“…okay? … speak… my voice? We’re… get help… hold on!”\n\n\tConvinced he was out of danger, Nori relaxed, and slipped into unconsciousness.\n\n\t…\n\n\tDown below, Glint and Spark were on their last leg. They’d run themselves to exhaustion, and rested kneeling on the floor. They held one another just to keep themselves up, staring across the arena at their opponents, who seemed right as rain. The mostly unharmed Machoke and Scyther began their final rush towards the twins, ready to knock them clear out of the fight. They passed through the arena from one side to the other on their way.\n\n\tWhen they reached the center of the arena however, a loud crash, and a series of flashes from up above stopped the pair in their tracks. All attention was cast up at the raised scoreboard, visible even though it had been drawn upwards towards the ceiling to get it out of the way for the Pokébattle tournament. The ruckus from up above was loud and distracting. Unbeknownst to the spectators below, the electromagnetic wave transmitter had been destroyed, and the resulting explosion tore electrical wires and sent sparks raining down from above.\n\n\tThe explosion sundered the catwalks, and wrecked the scoreboard, sending the screen barreling down towards the arena. The crowds gasped in fright, and Marco and Scyllia stared slack-jawed as the scoreboard came down over their heads.\n\n\t“W-What?!” Scyllia gasped.\n\n\t“N… No! NOOOO!” Marco shouted.\n\n\tThe scoreboard crashed down overtop them, slamming loudly into the ground with the ruined debris of the catwalks and their evil machine coming down over their heads as well. It was unclear whether or not the two Pokémon were safe, the rubble covering them entirely. Glint and Spark had wilted their ears and shut their eyes tight, missing the scene. When they opened their eyes again, they saw nothing of their opponents, only the ruin their treachery had caused.\n\n\t“What in the heck is going on?!” Jeff, the announcer’s voice came over the loudspeaker.\n\n\tThe twins were about to ask the same. With the destruction over with, they noticed that the sickly feeling that had come over them was fading away. It was like magic, that they had started to feel better so quickly. They got to their feet, only a little shaky in comparison to before, and they stared over the scene curiously, studying the rubble, and the area above.\n\n\t“Hey, Glint, look!” Spark pointed high above the arena.\n\n\tFalling after the scoreboard came a Pokémon, holding the Croagunk and the Murkrow in either hand by the scruffs of their shirt. He fell from high above, but before he touched the ground, he seemed to stop in mid-air so that his heavy, buckled leather boots could touch down softly. The Pokémon landed atop the rubble delicately, and tossed the two unconscious Pokémon that had ‘accompanied’ him to the arena floor.\n\n\tSpark shook his head. “That’s… That’s Jack!”\n\n\tJack was one half of the reigning champions of the junior doubles team. He was a lanky sort who seemed to prefer wearing baggy pants to hide the fact. To match his large boots, he wore black bondage pants, with many hanging chains, buckled belts, and loose straps attached for seemingly no other reason than to achieve the gothic-punk aesthetic. His thin frame was all the more apparent up above, since he opted to wear a tight black turtleneck. The only things visible of him were his hands, each with three, sharp digits, and his head. He had a grin that almost looked like a cut-out on a jack-o-lantern, and sharp, blue eyes. No hair to speak of, but it did look like his head had been blasted back to some effect.\n\n\tJack stepped down off the rubble, making it a point to walk over the Croagunk and the Murkrow and step on them the whole way. He was waving and bowing despite the fact that no one was cheering… The odd event had drawn a silence from the crowd.\n\n\t“Hey now! Ladies, gents, and childrens of allllll ages! Jack here, Junior Pokémon League Doubles Champ!” He had as much of a fake radio voice as Jeff the announcer did, if not more-so of one, “I gots some good news and some bad news!”\n\n\t“Good news is that the red team is one-huuuuundred peeeeercent dis-qualified! Heheh!” He cackled at the fact, before coughing into his hand, “Ahem! And Glint and Spark here win by default!”\n\n\tHe turned to the unconscious duo and squat down to poke at the Croagunk’s head a few times. “That oughta teach ya, you dirty rats…” He chuckled, voice changed to sound like an old gangster.\n\n\tHe stood back up and twirled around – literally, like a ballerina – to face Glint and Spark again. “So! Give these fine folks a hand!” He exclaimed in the most flamboyant way possible, once again completely shifting the tone of his voice. If that wasn’t strange enough, he applauded along with the crowd, clapping his hands together… But when he went to lower his hands to stop, they separated from his body. They floated in mid-air, continuing to clap, as the rest of him approached the twins.\n\n\t“And the bad news is…!” He paused, looking at the empty cuffs of his shirt, before casting a glare back over his shoulder. His hands made gestures as if they were startled, and zipped back over to him to settle securely where they were supposed to be. The twins just watched the odd spectacle in disbelief.\n\n\t“Anyhoooo~ The bad news is that your next match is gonna be against me and Miss Jemila Stone!” Jack beamed, patting the twins on the head, “So you two better go back and get your rest! I hear that Jack’s a real bastard!”\n\n\tHe then turned away from the twins… and sat on the floor. He sat down and pulled his legs up to sit in a cross-legged, meditative position. It didn’t take long for his odd behavior to get stranger, as he floated up off the ground, levitating in the air. “As for everyone else, now’s a good time to go get yourself some snacks! Go to the washroom! Whatever it is you people do when you’re not encouraging complete strangers to pummel the candy outta each other like living piñatas! This mess is gonna be cleaned up right-quick!”\n\n\tHe stretched out with a yawn, and sprawled out on his side, elbow propping up his head in his hand. This all, of course, was in mid-air, as he leisurely started to float away towards the combatants’ exit. He soon disappeared from sight, leaving people confused and awe-struck by what they’d just seen.\n\n\tGlint finally looked at Spark and asked, “What just happened?”\n\n\t“I… I don’t know,” Spark responded, “I just… I don’t know.”\n\n\t…\n\n\t“Salem know those types! Team Rocket! Team Rocket!” Salem shouted as he made a beeline towards the locker rooms with Whitney and the twins.\n\n\t“What’s Team Rocket?” Glint would ask.\n\n\t“Mean, mean Pokémon… Think they strongest!” Salem explained, waggling his fingers in a spooky gesture, “Just because they Pokémon, they think they should rule entire earth-globe! No sharing with weak normal animals like tigers and raccoons!”\n\n\tJust hearing mention of a raccoon made the twins slightly uneasy. Glint and Spark shared a look of guilty concern as they walked. But in doing so, Glint caught a passing glance over Spark’s shoulder into the infirmary where Spark, Salem and Whitney had been before. She paused mid-stride to get a double-take on just what she saw within… and reached over to yank her brother back to her so he could also see.\n\n\t“Spark,” She said, sounding one part shocked, two parts mortified.\n\n\tSpark nearly fell as he was pulled back so suddenly, and looking into the room where Glint pointed, his jaw dropped agape.\n\n\tIt was Nori!\n\n\tThe raccoon was all rested up in one of the beds, Chansey hurrying about in their ever-busy manner, fussing over how his sheets were tucked in and how the IV he was hooked up to was in, and constantly monitoring his condition.\n\n\t“Dad?!” The twins both shouted, hurrying into the infirmary, much to Salem and Whitney’s confusion.\n\n\tThe twins nearly tripped over themselves scrambling to Nori’s side. While they would have normally tried to avoid him for the sake of staying out of trouble, the shock of seeing their father unconscious in an infirmary bed, let alone at the stadium at all, severely over-powered that self-protective notion. The only thing they could think was…\n\n\t“What the heck happened?!” Glint squeaked, “What happened to Dad?!”\n\n\t“Whatever happened, they’re flushing something out of his system,” Whitney commented as she approached, looking over the equipment Nori had set up for him with intrigue, “I can’t say what… But considering the method, something must have gotten into his bloodstream.”\n\n\t“How do you know?” Spark asked, the look of mild panic and concern in his eyes even when he looked away from his father.\n\n\t“Oh, um… my parents are both doctors…” Whitney muttered, blushing in some unnecessary embarrassment.\n\n\t“What did he do? Why is he even here?!” Glint couldn’t stop asking questions even though she wasn’t going to get any answers standing over an unconscious Nori.\n\n\tShe certainly wasn’t going to find any answers when some annoyed Chansey were trying to shoo the lot of them away. There were crowding the patient, and getting in the way. Glint and Spark didn’t want to leave, but the persistent little Pokémon ended up winning as they shoved the twins and their new friends out into the hall.\n\n\t“Chansey!” One huffed, before turning to hurry back into the room.\n\n\t“What the heck…?” Spark slumped, staring into the room curiously.\n\n\t“Glint, Spark!”\n\n\tEveryone’s attention was directed down the hall, where Sammy approached.\n\n\t“There you two are… have you seen your Dad?” Sammy asked, “I brought him here, but he got up to go in the middle of your last match and I haven’t seen him yet.”\n\n\t“They’ve got him laid up in there!” Glint answered, pointing to the infirmary, “He’s out like a light! Something happened to him!”\n\n\t“Oh my…!” Sammy rested a hand to her cheek, clearly worried, “What could have happened?”\n\n\t“Salem’s head pound again!” Salem wailed, his hands resting firmly on his head as he swayed back and forth, “What going on?”\n\n\t“Uhh…” Glint didn’t know how to answer.\n\n\tSpark took Glint’s hand and smiled sheepishly to his friends. “Let’s get back to the locker rooms and we’ll explain… I think Dad’s going to be fine here for now.”\n\n\t…\n\n\t“… So that raccoon is your father? That must mean…” Whitney was putting things together in her head after hearing the twins’ story.\n\n\t“Yeah… we’re adopted…” Glint answered with a sense of shame. Being adopted was just one more thing people could flak you with when you were a teenager.\n\n\tSalem hopped up onto the bench Glint and Spark sat on, able to look the twins in the eye from there. “You go when he say no-no!” He said, “When he wake up, someone going to get a hurt real bad!”\n\n\tThe twins both slumped and their ears wilted as they sighed. With the moment of concern past they were brought back to their thoughts of what Nori was going to do to them for disobeying him so directly like that. It was ironic how sure of it they were when they’d snuck away, and how remorseful of it they were when they got caught… They, of course, weren’t sorry for doing what they did… just feeling sorry that they’d been found out.\n\n\tSammy couldn’t help but feel guilty herself. If she hadn’t brought Nori to the stadium, what just happened wouldn’t have happened. Nori wouldn’t be laid out in some hospital bed getting treated by feral Pokémon for some kind of wound or illness they didn’t even know about. The sheer uncertainty of it was the most painful aspect. When it came to the twins getting into trouble however… that didn’t seem too important now. From her standpoint, they could have been grounded for life and it wouldn’t have been important. Nori’s well-being was the most important thing.\n\n\t“I suppose you know how he felt then, don’t you?” Sammy asked, tussling Glint’s head fur, “He was so worried you’d end up… well… like he is now.”\n\n\t“Yeah…” Glint sighed, her fists balled in her lap, sitting rigid, yet slumped.\n\n\t“I really wanted him to come here and get a better understanding of why you two felt you needed to go so badly that you’d sneak out to do it,” She said, resting her arm around Glint’s shoulders and giving the Plusle a hug. “He watched you two do things he didn’t even think you could do… If nothing else, I’d say you impressed him.”\n\n\t“Impressed is right!”\n\n\tNori had arrived, much to the glee of the Pokémon. He leaned up against the doorframe at the entrance and took a moment to rest, feeling woozy as all out. He grinned to his kids though, knowing full well they probably felt as bad as he looked about the whole thing… Even so, they’d practically jumped out of their seats and hurried over to him to see if he was alright… and much to his surprise, they hugged him. He stumbled back, but they held him up as they wrapped their arms around him and squeezed him so tight!\n\n\t“Dad!” They both cried.\n\n\t“What happened to you?” Glint asked, “When did you get here?”\n\n\t“Are you okay?” Spark shot a couple questions of his own right after, “How long were you watching?”\n\tNori just laughed a little, and rested his hands on both their heads, mussing up their head fur playfully. “One question at a time, you ill-behaved miscreants,” He chuckled, “And go easy on me. I think I’m sloshing with how much antidote I have in me.”\n\n\t“Antidote?” Whitney asked, from inside the room, “You were poisoned?”\n\n\tNori nodded. “I was… It’s a long story, but cutting it short…” He looked down to the twins and couldn’t help but smile, “… I was just an idiot Dad who got in over his head trying to stick up for his kids. Those Pokémon were playing rotten… I wanted to do something about it, but… I couldn’t.”\n\n\t“You tried fighting Team Rocket?” Glint gasped.\n\n\tSalem gasped dramatically from within the room, covering up his mouth in his amazement and shock.\n\n\t“More like failed to do so, but yeah…” Nori sighed, shaking his head.\n\n\tThe twins were speechless, as was Sammy. No one really knew what to say in response to an act of such bravery and selflessness. The twins… they were especially confused. When had anyone ever done such a thing for them? Risked their lives and well-being for them? All they could ever remember when thinking back to their dealings with adults were instances where adults thought more of themselves than the twins. The three foster parents they had before Nori had returned them to the Center as soon as they discovered the twins’ little tryst… Just sending them back like an unwanted gift to a department store.\n\n\tNori had never entertained the idea. He got cross with them as any parent should have with the things they often pulled, but no matter what was brought up; Nori always seemed to fight it for their sake. He’d always make things work out, and he’d deal with the twins in such a manner that… looking back on it, it was obvious Nori’s number one concern was staying with them.\n\n\tEven when it came to the Tournament, Nori wanted them to stay away simply because they could have gotten hurt.\n\n\tThe feelings that welled up in the twins were hard to explain. Some crude mix of guilt and joy over what their minds had just put together. Everything they’d done to push Nori’s buttons, how little they trusted him, and how despite this Nori seemed to act in their best interests every single time regardless… The feeling brought tears to their eyes.\n\n\tNori’s eyes widened in surprise as his son and daughter – and they were his son and daughter, no matter their origin – began to tear up and sniffle. They both hid their faces against his shoulders as they began to cry.\n\n\t“H-Hey… Don’t do that now, hey…” Nori didn’t know what to say. All he could think to do was embrace his children, his hands rubbing their backs as comfortingly as he could.\n\n\t“… We’re sorry…” They sobbed, “We’re so sorry…”\n\n\tNori swallowed a lump in his throat and forced a smile. “Don’t you two worry about it, this wasn’t your fault…”\n\n\t“We should’ve listened…” Glint sniffled as she rubbed her tears off on Nori’s shirt.\n\n\t“That’s right, you should have… But even so, no matter what you do and no matter what happens to me, I’m just glad you’re alright,” He said, pulling back to get a better look at their faces, “And you are alright, aren’t you? Those magnetic waves didn’t leave you feeling sick?”\n\n\tThe twins looked at one another, then back to Nori, shaking their heads. Spark brought a hand to his face to wipe away his own tears.\n\n\t“We’re fine, but who cares about us? You got poisoned!” Glint squeaked, “You should be worrying about you!”\n\n\t“You’re going to find I don’t do that a lot…” Nori chuckled, still forcing his smile, “But hey… I watched you two while those goons had you on the ropes… I’ve got to admit, I’m proud of you.”\n\n\tThis wiped the guilt from the twins’ faces and replaced it with confusion. “What? Why?” Spark would ask.\n\t“You didn’t give up, simple as that,” Nori shrugged, “And you looked out for one another… In the end, I can’t really ask for much more, can I?”\n\n\t“Thanks… I guess,” Spark shrugged, looking to Glint.\n\n\tGlint shared that look with her brother, before regarding Nori. “… Do we have to go home now?”\n\n\t“Nah… You have another battle to fight, don’t you?” Nori would ask.\n\n\t“HURRAY!” Salem shouted from back in the locker room, jumping up on the bench again for joy. This brought the twins and their Dad back to the present, where they noticed that Salem, Whitney, and Sammy had been watching the whole scene. Whitney dabbed her eye with a tissue, and Sammy just smiled at the bunch, probably just as proud of all of them as Nori was in his kids. Nori sighed and shed a grin at their audience, before turning his attention back to his kids.\n\n\t“No, we can stay. Just go out there and give them hell, alright?” He’d ask.\n\n\t“O… Okay!” The twins squeaked, pulling away from their father.\n\n\t“Let’s get ready then!” Glint said, taking her brother’s hand and dragging him away.\n\n\tSammy giggled as the twins hurried away, and she leaned towards Nori a bit. “Look at you,” She said, “Inflict you with a fatal condition and you turn around fairly quick.”\n\n\t“It wasn’t fatal, just a little poison,” Nori quipped back as he entered the locker room and opted to sit down next to Sammy, just needing to get off his feet. “Besides… My son and daughter are Pokémon. I’ve never really been interested in changing anything about them… they’re perfect the way they are, even if that means they sometimes like to go and throttle each other in my back yard.”\n\n\tThe raccoon leaned forwards to peer around Sammy at Salem and Whitney, who stood fairly quiet most of the time.\n\n\t“And you two… you were against them a little while ago, weren’t you?”\n\n\t“Yes sir,” Whitney nodded, “Glint and Spark are tremendous fighters. They’re strong, and closely bonded. It was a great experience going against them.”\n\n\t“Salem would do it again!” Salem said, sitting on his rear again on the bench, “But Salem not sure if he would bite Glint in the butt again.”\n\n\t“… Yes, we might have to set some boundaries,” Nori said, “But it’s good to see my kids are making friends around here. It’s nice to meet you.”\n\n\tSalem and Whitney exchanged a look between one another, as if to check if they’d heard Nori right. “Friends?” Salem would repeat, before looking back to Nori.\n\n\t“Yes! Friends!” Salem would exclaim, “Glint and Spark good friends. Good kids!”\n\n\t“I would say that if I could be their friend, it would be an honor…” Whitney smiled, “It’s really nice to meet you too.”\n\n\tNori chuckled softly, and took a deep breath to let out a sigh. It’d been a long day for him, and the exhaustion of it all was certainly catching up to him.\n\n\t“Alright… I’m about ready to see the next match.”\n\n\t[b][u]Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 6[/u] [/b]\n\nAuthored by MilkJunkie ([url=http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie]http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie[/url])\n\n\t“N-Nn!” Glint’s toes curled against the tile floor as she pressed her weight into the wall in front of her, surrendering to the need to rest. “T-Things are finally working out our way…”\n\n\tSpark panted, allowing for his hot breath to wash over his sister’s neck. Even in the hot steam of the shower she could feel it. They both relaxed in the warm embrace up against the wall for only a moment before Spark eased off and let Glint have room enough to get off the wall and get clean. They parted with an audible, wet ‘schllrp!’\n\n\tWhen she turned, her brother planted a kiss right upon her lips – one she returned eagerly.\n\n\t“What do you say we go out there and give it the old college try?” Spark would ask with a smile.\n\n\tGlint giggled, playfully pinching the Minun’s cheek. “… You know, you’d never say something like that before,” She said, “I’m really glad I roped you into this… you really seem to be growing up.”\n\n\tSpark blushed, shaking his head. “J-Just… come on, because we’re probably starting soon.”\n\n\tWith that, the twins quickly finished up and left the shower together. They dried off quickly, and in the privacy they’d been given by their father and friends, they changed to get ready for what they knew would be the most challenging of their matches to date – they would take on the running Champions of the Pokébattle Tournament, Jemlia Stone and her partner, Jack. They had only read up on the pair during their preparation for the Tournament, but knowing that they were the Champions alone was enough to ensure a victory wouldn’t come easily.\n\n\tSpark threw on his spare shirt, a black muscle shirt, before fetching his underwear. Glint had already squeezed into her black sports top and gotten comfortable in her under-things before sliding her legs into her short red shorts (because her pants had the rear torn out by a ‘cheeky’ bugger). The last things were Glint’s gloves, fingerless and red, before they were all set to go. They left the changing rooms hand in hand, exiting into the corridor to head towards the arena. They were nervous, and somehow seeing all their friends standing at the entrance to the arena to see them off made it no less unnerving.\n\n\t“All ready to go, are you? I was worried I’d have to come get you,” Nori said as he stood next to Sammy, “Your match is about to start… So, these guys are the former Champions?”\n\n\t“Current Champions,” Glint corrected her father with no subtle tone of uncertainty over how things would go, “It’s gonna be tough.”\n\n\t“I think you’ll do better than you think,” Whitney said. She stood across the hall from Nori and Sammy beside her friend, Salem. “You two are exceptional fighters. I’ve never thought of getting to fight the Champions in my wildest dreams.”\n\n\t“Glint and Spark! Glint and Spark!” Salem chanted as he jumped around, clapping his hands, “Kick their butts! Kick their butts!”\n\n\t“With everything that happened during the last match, I can honestly say that you two have probably lived through worse,” Sammy said with a warm smile, “So go out there and give it your best. We’re all back here rooting for you.”\n\n\tThe twins exchanged a look and a nod. They had all the support in the world!\n\n\t“We’ll see you when we win!” Spark said with a grin before he and his sister took to the field, so to speak.\n\n\t“And here we are again!” Jeff the announcer’s voice rang out over the loud speakers, “But this time we’re in for a real fight! On one side, we have a pair of new up-and-comers, and on the other, we have the current Pokébattle Tournament Champions!”\n\n\t“Now we’ll really see how far Glint and Spark can be pushed,” Cinder’s strong, feminine voice sounded out over the speakers, “They have withstood much. The fatigue from it will hinder them.”\n\n\t“We’ll see about that!” Jeff retorted, “Everyone put your hands together for the new dynamic duo, the Twin Terrors, the Identical Incredibles, and surprisingly good looking… Glint and Spark!”\n\n\tFrom their spot on the field, Glint and Spark waved to the wildly cheering audience, feeling their faces go flush from embarrassment and anxiety. They gulped, but hid their discomfort behind smiles as they pandered to the crowds in what little way they could. Their hands squeezed one another a little bit tighter for support.\n\n\t“Identical Incredibles…?” Nori muttered from his spot afar.\n\n\t“Shh!” Sammy hushed the raccoon.\n\n\tNori recoiled a bit from the sudden hushing, and settled back in to watch. “… I mean, really?”\n\n\t“And now, everyone please welcome the current standing Pokébattle Champions, Jamelia Stone – sole heir to the Stone Industries business and fortune – and her strange, mysterious partner, Jack!”\n\n\tJemila and Jack’s entrance was much showier, with special lights and even their own theme music. They were lowered from a lift on the ceiling, standing sturdy as they were gracefully brought down to the arena. Jack was as Glint and Spark knew him… the indigo ghost was still dressed all in black and chains, so covered that his hands and head were the only shown features of his body. Jamelia they hadn’t seen until that point… The Jynx had glorious, long, golden hair, perfectly kept and perfectly cleaned, nary a split end to speak of. Her skin was completely black from head to toe, and her body magnificent. She really did look the part of a rich man’s daughter.\n\n\tAside from having a body Glint would strive to when she was older, there was one small catch. Like most Jynx, Jamelia had plump red lips that stood out from her face, kissable and sweet, and gorgeous, icy blue eyes… but she had no nose. It was a strange look the twins couldn’t quite wrap their heads around. She was dressed amazingly, in little shorts with leather suspenders hanging uselessly to the sides, having no chance in hell of getting over her breasts hidden beneath her white t-shirt. The boots she wore had high heels and were finely polished, a decent brown shade with buckles and clasps, and even her little red jacket seemed nice… But that didn’t change the fact… that she still had no nose. The twins just couldn’t get over it.\n\n\t“Is she wearing… heels?” Spark would ask, finding the choice of footwear to not lend itself to fighting.\n\n\tGlint gawked too. “Forget that,” She said, “Where’s her nose?”\n\n\tThe pair stared so much at her; they hadn’t even realized she had approached them at center field.\n\n\t“Why not take a picture?” She’d ask, sounding as snooty as one would expect.\n\n\t“A-Ah, uh… Sorry! Star-struck,” Glint covered with a wide grin.\n\n\tJemila crossed her arms, shelving her impressive bust. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were,” She said, “Though I would question how you got this far with that dreadful focus.”\n\n\t“Hey!” Spark exclaimed.\n\n\tJemila simply gave a flick of her hair, turning her gaze away from the twins. “Jack, let’s dispose of these peasants quickly.”\n\n\t“A real charmer, ain’t she?” Jack chuckled, “The Ice Queen herself!”\n\n\t“Combatants, take your positions!” The announcer shouted.\n\n\tGlint and Spark took their spots, as did Jack and Jamelia, but the twins weren’t so sure about their opponents… Jamelia in particular. They just didn’t like her, and she in no way made that feeling a difficult one.\n\n\t“READY! SET! GOOOO!”\n\n\tThe Champions were off like lightning; with Jack practically gliding across the arena floor and Jemila close behind. She could run awful well in those heels! “Oh! Watch out!” Glint was barely able to shout before Jack was upon Spark, throwing out his fist that the Minun was just barely able to avoid. Spark ducked the attack and hopped aside, putting a little distance between he and Jack, but Jack the Haunter was hot on his heels.\n\n\tGlint turned her attention to Jemlia just as the Jynx was thrusting a palm towards her. Glint quickly stepped aside, turning her body for the Jynx to miss, and then grabbed hold of her arm tightly. Glint spun around to push her back in against her opponent, and quickly hauled forwards, tossing Champion Jemlia over her shoulder and causing the older girl to land harshly on the arena floor. She hit with a hard thud, and Glint couldn’t help but grin to herself. Jemila though, lifted from the ground and floated to her feet again.\n\n\t“Look at you, you little rat, scampering around so quickly…” Jemila sneered.\n\n\tGlint gulped and went to make a move, but it was little more than a jerk movement before Jemila thrust her arm out again with an open palm. An eerie violet glow surrounded her ebony frame, and soon the same glow surrounded Glint’s body. Glint could barely turn her head to look and see what had happened. The strange invisible force that had gripped her kept her unable to move even a muscle. She gasped as she was lifted by the force, shooting her attention to Jemila, who was sweeping her hand up high, as if to life the Plusle from the floor.\n\n\tThose sensuous black fingers and their red painted nails were upturned, and then clenched into a hard fist. Glint felt the pressure around her body bear down on her hard enough to make her scream, before Jemila thrust her hand down fiercely and threw the Plusle to the floor. Glint was released right before impact, slamming her back off the clay court hard enough to bounce. She gasped as the wind was driven from her lungs, and fell flat to the floor.\n\n\tGlint lifted herself from the floor, her ears limp against her head. “O… ow…”\n\n\t“It looks like Jemila’s psychic powers haven’t dulled a bit since the last tournament,” Ex-Champ Cinder’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker, “If anything, they’re stronger than before. She may be an Aristocrat, but she’s kept her training up.”\n\n\t“Ps… Psychic?” Glint panted as she stood to her feet again, “How… How am I supposed to beat that?!”\n\n\tJemila brought the back of her hand before her lips, though she didn’t make any real effort to stifle her demeaning laughter. “Ohohoho! I don’t need to read your mind to know what you’re thinking, little rat,” She chortled, “You may as well give- UNGH!”\n\n\tGlint’s fist had found its mark in the Jynx’s well-toned stomach, knocking the wind out of the aristocratic girl with some sense of vengeance. As Jemila doubled forwards, Glint stepped back and delivered a firm backhand right across her face, her sweeping digits crackling with electricity as they passed. It was just enough for Jemila’s cheek to be numbed to the pain she would have otherwise felt. “Did you see that coming?!”\n\n\t“You…!” Jemila would have shrieked if not for Glint slamming both her feet into the Jynx’s chest. The Plusle had leapt up and delivered one hell of a missile dropkick to the Champion, taking her off her feet. Glint fell to the floor as well, but was quick to leap to her feet once again.\n\n\tSpark had meanwhile been swiftly evading Jack’s assault. It wasn’t until Jack finally laid a hand on him that Spark was able to retaliate. The Haunter’s clawed hand grabbed hold of Spark’s arm to keep him still, and only got a heavy surge of electricity for his trouble. Spark clenched his eyes shut and output who knew how many jiggawatts that caused his entire body to glow and crackle in thunder strike that sent Jack flying. Jack flipped through the air and was able to right himself before falling, floating with his buckled black boots inches from the ground.\n\n\t“YEOWZA!” He shrieked, “Whassup Sparklemouse? Bleeh, feels like I just licked a battery, heheh!”\n\n\t“This guy’s nuts…” Spark muttered to himself. He rushed Jack quickly, quickly readying himself for another attack.\n\n\t“Tell him what he’s won, Jerry!” Jack laughed, twisting his body around as he swept in faster towards Spark.\n\n\t“Suckas get a SUCKAAAAH PUUUUNCH! WOOO!” Jack howled as he quickly slammed a dark-veiled fist into Spark’s cheek before the boy was able to attack. It startled Spark enough to nearly knock him off balance… Spark spun around, stumbling on his feet before being caught and steadied by… Jack. The Haunter looked him right in the eyes with that eerie, crazy smile. “All aboard, Junior!”\n\n\tJack wrapped his arms around the younger boy in a tight hug, and then launched from the ground and into the air. With a dramatic twirl and a spin, he flipped both himself and Spark upside down, and sent the boy crashing back down to the arena floor. Spark’s skull slammed the clay court hard, causing him to pitifully squeak out as he was released and fell backwards onto the floor. He was effectively rattled, but he rolled onto his front and pushed himself up, looking to see Jack’s body still stuck in the floor.\n\n\tJack’s head had been phased into the ground. The haunter planted his hands onto the floor and spun his lower body around in the air several times, before he curled his whole lanky body to plant his feet onto the floor. He pulled hard to pull his head out of the ground with a *POP!* Upon standing with his back to Spark, it was obvious his head was now on… backwards.\n\n\t“Heheh, you spin me right round, baby… Right round~” Jack snickered to himself, “Now I see why Mama always said she had eyes on the back of her head! Wahahaha!!”\n\n\tSpark had just about had enough of Jack’s constant babble. He gritted his teeth, stumbled the first few steps, before finally picking up in a run towards the Haunter. “Aaaargh!”\n\n\t“Eh?” Jack took pause, blinking a few times.\n\n\tSpark leapt, arms open to grab Jack and tackle him to the floor. He aimed right for the unnaturally slim fellow’s middle, looking to grab him about the waist and take him down. But when Spark made contact… it was like trying to football tackle a curtain. The Haunter’s shirt and pants simply flipped forwards as Spark passed right through, instead getting another face full of the arena floor as he landed on the other side of Jack. He was confused, rolling onto his back, only to see Jack standing over him. The Haunter thrust his boot into Spark’s chest and kept him pinned.\n\n\tJack finally turned his head around, and he took on a more stoic demeanor. He even changed his voice a fair bit.\n\n\t“No can do, pilgrim,” He said, doffing an imaginary cowboy’s hat as he looked down towards the Minun. He reached down and lifted the front of his shirt to reveal… there was nothing beneath it. “That right there’s about as empty as a dried out riverbed, pardner. You ain’t gonna find no water there.”\n\n\t“What…? But how…? Spark looked almost morbidly confused.\n\n\t“I’M A GHOST! I AIN’T GOTTA EXPLAIN SHI…!”\n\n\tSpark surged another blast of electricity through his own body hard enough to cause another explosion, throwing Jack off of him and through the air. The Minun scrambled to his feet, taking a deep breath and readying his fists. “Fine, I’ll just have to zap you!”\n\n\tAs Jack righted himself in mid-air again, Spark shot a look to see how his sister was doing. She and Jemila were locked exchanging blows to one another, Glint delivering them fast and with purpose. It wasn’t until Jemila, brought to a knee, was able to lock Glint in another psychic attack that Spark decided he needed to help! “Glint, I’m coming!”\n\n\tGlint struggled against the invisible mental force that bound her as she was once again lifted from the ground. “N-Ngh! Hurry!”\n\n\tJemila stood poised, one hand out, controlling the Plusle as she floated in mid-air. Her other hand brushed her golden, angelic waves of hair way from her sapphire blue eyes, idly casting a glance Spark’s way as the twin brother charged forth. “Jack, would you kindly?”\n\n\t“Yeeeeeus dear…” Jack monotonously responded in a goofy accent as he took off from his spot, shooting through the air to intercept Spark.\n\n\tWhen Jack whipped into Spark’s path and held his arms out to block Spark from getting to Jemila, Spark simply grinned. He rushed in and quickly threw out his fist, which passed right through Jack’s chest, taking his shirt with it a little. Jack’s eyes went comically wide as the fist passed through… and it was like slow motion as Jemila turned her head to see what was going on, only to take the shot right where her nose ought to be. Jemila’s head snapped back, and she stumbled back. The field surrounding Glint faded, and she fell to the floor with a graceful landing.\n\n\t“Oh! OH! That’s cheating!” Jack shrieked.\n\n\tGlint smirked and rushed in from behind jack as Spark withdrew from the Haunter. With both twins crackling their hands with electricity, Glint pushed her hands into Jack’s lower back, and Spark pushed his into Jack’s stomach… and unsurprisingly, thanks to the elemental charge, they were able to grab hold of Jack as if he were physical.\n\n\tJack raised one of his fingers, and opened his mouth to protest.\n\n\tGlint and Spark closed their eyes tight and pumped the Haunter as full of electricity as their young forms could muster.\n\n\tJack lit up like a cartoon character, his indigo head and hands shocking as black as the rest of his clothing, electricity surrounding his body. The audience all shielded their eyes as the dazzling display of lightning and electric currents reached near blinding. Jack was screaming and twitching the whole time as he had the wrath of Zeus pumped into his body relentlessly. The display lasted what felt like ages before dying down as quickly as it started, leaving the twins panting and Jack stumbling around the arena, coughing out black smoke.\n\n\t“I’m never grounding them again,” Nori said as he watched wide-eyed.\n\n\tThe twins though looked worse for wear. Their ears and tails were droopy and they visibly slumped where they stood and panted for breath.\n\n\t“They put too much into it…” Whitney said as she grabbed the lower hem of her sweater nervously.\n\n\t“Poor darlings can barely stand up!” Sammy gasped.\n\n\tJemila slowly rose from her laid-out spot on the ground, her golden blonde hair draped down over her head, and pooling around her body. The twins turned their attention to her as she slowly stumbled to her feet.\n\n\t“You… miserable cretins… You insufferable curs… How dare you?!” She nearly roared as she stood up, “You’ve certainly done it now, peasants. You’ve crossed the line…”\n\n\tIf she was trying to be scary, she succeeded. The twins stared on slack-jawed for a moment as Jemila stood right, and threw her hands out to her sides. That psychic glow of purple shocked her lovely body, and threw her hair out haphazardly… It looked less like golden curtains of knee-length hair and more like terrifying anacondas as the sheer energy the girl exerted shook the area around them, and made little flecks of debris from the clean-up scoreboard raise from the ground. Even her blue eyes were glowing a shockingly bright purple.\n\n\t“HOW DARE YOU MARR MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!” She shrieked like a woman possessed. Indeed, there was an unsightly purple bruise spread over her face.\n\n\tThe twins both flinched as she shouted at them, feeling as if the air around them had gone chill… It wasn’t until they opened their eyes that they realized it really had. Their breath was coming in hot, steamy puffs from their mouths as the temperature rapidly dropped around them. They shivered, and perked up, ready to act at a moment’s notice. At least until Glint noticed one small snowflake floating down from above, delicately dancing and landing on the arena floor where it melted away.\n\n\t“Snow?” She said aloud, and Spark noticed it too. He looked around as he realized snow was falling from the ceiling, but where it was coming from was uncertain.\n\n\tA sudden harsh gust of wind nearly took the twins off their feet.\n\n\t“Get her! Quick! She’s up to something!” Glint squeaked.\n\n\tThe twins rushed the Jynx again, but before the two of them could reach her, the snowstorm took a turn for the absolute worst. The wind whipped the white, falling snow that came in sheets all around the arena. It went from snowfall to blinding in an instant, and all the combatants disappeared into the flurry that had been created. The audience held onto whatever headgear they may have been wearing to keep it from being blown away… even Nori and the others had to stand their ground firmly to keep from toppling over.\n\n\tThe storm cleared after a while… snow was resting all over the arena in a thick sheet, and the snowfall simply disappeared. Spark had covered his face with his arms, and once he realized the blistering cold had faded, he lowered his arms with a shiver. “W… What did you do?! Look at all this snow, Glint!”\n\n\tGlint didn’t respond.\n\n\t“Glint?” Spark looked over to his sister who wasn’t more than two feet from him, and he gasped aloud. The Plusle was frozen solid! She was shrouded in thick ice that obscured a good look at her, but she was stuck in the shielding position she took when the blizzard had whipped up.\n\n\t“Oh my God! Glint!!” Spark squeaked, running to his sister’s frozen form and resting his hands on the cold, cold ice. He banged on it a few times. “Glint! Glint?! Hey!”\n\n\tSpark was torn away from his dread when he heard Jack’s voice. “Hey Ice Queen, did you freeze one of ‘em solid?” Spark looked over to see Jack sprawled out onto his back in the snow, making snow angels in the white powder. Spark flattened his ears back and narrowed his eyes.\n\n\t“Take it easy on them, eh? It’s their first time out,” Jack said as he lazily sat up and knocked on one side of his head, snow pushing out the other side as he emptied his ears.\n\n\t“Personally, I think it’s an improvement on her look…” Jemila grinned, finally calm again, “It’s a beautiful sculpture. It encompasses the futility of battling against me.”\n\n\t“Shut up!” Spark shouted, “Shut your mouth!” He was ready to go again.\n\n\t“Oh, you want your sister back? Very well…”\n\n\tJemila lifted the Glintcicle from the ground with her psychic powers, and Spark stumbled back away to watch in slight awe. With Glint suspended high in the air, Jemila swept her hand in a careless motion. The frozen block of Plusle swung quick through the air at Spark, and he squeaked before jumping aside, tumbling to get away. He was too slow however, as Jemila came back for a second round before Spark could get righted again. That person-sized ice chunk hit him dead on with near bone-crushing force, sweeping him away.\n\n\tWhen Jemila lifted to pull Glint into the air again Spark would tumble off, hitting the ground and rolling. He groaned as he got onto his knees, struggling to stand. Jemila’s last attack would be to suspend Glint high above her brother, and send her crashing down to Earth. The resulting impact on Spark’s spine made him scream as Glint was shattered free. She was battered enough by the experience to collapse onto her brother’s back on the ground. The twins lay then in a heap, unable to move.\n\n\t“The Twins have fainted!” Jeff the announcer shouted, “Jemila and Jack win!!”\n\n\tSpark was barely conscious as he looked up to see Jack squatting before him, prodding at the twins to see if they were even still alive. “Hell hath no fury, eh? Heheh!” He chuckled.\n\n\t“Mm, too bad…” Jemila sighed as she approached, “But that’s what you get. Newcomers can never hope to win on their first time out.”\n\n\t…\n\n\tSpark blacked out!\n\n\t…\n\n\tSpark’s eyes opened again in a flutter, staring up at the familiar white ceiling of the backstage. It was unclear what hurt more... his possible wounds, or the fact that he and Glint had been shut down so easily. He groaned as he rolled his head aside, feeling rather heavy all over. “Ngh…”\n\n\t“Looks like they’re coming around,” Spark heard Whitney’s gentle voice, and soon the Whimsicott was looking over him from above.\n\n\tThe twins both lifted their head from their beds at the same time, dragging themselves to sit up. The whole little gang had been gathered together, with Whitney and Nori looking over the twins while Sammy and Salem waited nearby. \n\n\t“H… Hnn… ACHOO!” Glint sneezed rather suddenly, making her head jerk forwards. She lifted her head again and pitifully groaned, snorting a little. It seemed being frozen had given the poor dear a cold. “I feel… like the floor of a taxi cab…” She said in a stuffy tone.\n\n\t“They sure gave you two a beating,” Nori said as he stood between the beds, looking between the twins, “I was assured you two would be okay though… glad to see you both up and about already, more or less.”\n\n\t“Unfortunately you two didn’t take any notable place in the Tournament,” Sammy said with her ears lowered sadly, “I’m sorry…”\n\n\t“We did all that for nothing…” Spark sighed as he let his head fall back against the wall, “Ugh…”\n\n\tSalem jumped up onto his seat, the tiny Sableye shaking his head rapidly. “N-No! No! Not for nothing!” He chirped, flailing his arms around as he struggled to assure the twins, “Salem thought Glint and Spark did real, real great! Spark was smartie-pants!”\n\n\tThe Sableye jumped down from his seat, and quickly began to act out the scenes that he had seen during their fight. “Jack was ‘no, no!’ then Spark was ‘POW!’ He knocked mean ol’ Jem-Jem’s block off! Cleaned her clock! And Glint was all ‘whoooooa!’”\n\n\tSalem’s audience tried to stifle their laughter as he swung his arms around and twisted his body in exaggerated Matrix-like actions, going through the entire fight in a sort of play-by-play that was entirely jumbled and out of order. But they couldn’t argue with his sheer excitement… his explanation stopped rather abruptly when he burped, and that was about all the twins could take. Despite what had happened, they burst into laughter that hurt their abdomens. The others couldn’t help but join them, and even Salem laughed and clapped his hands together, excited as all-out.\n\n\t“Sparklemouses could have beat Champs easy-peasy with just a bit more practice!” Salem concluded as he clambered up onto Spark’s bed and stood on it. “No feeling bad! Salem thinks you two are extra-best almost-champs.”\n\n\t“Thanks, I think?” Glint said as she cocked a brow and looked to her brother, “Well… that’s it then, I guess.”\n\n\t“What, that’s it?” Nori would ask as he looked between the Pokémon, “You just… go home now?”\n\n\tWhitney nodded her head as she addressed Nori, “Yes. They lost,” She explained, “And without any sort of top rank placement, receive nothing. But they gave it their best, and their best out-performed even veterans… They have plenty to be proud of. The Tournament will progress through the weekend, but as far as contending goes they’re out of it.”\n\n\t“That’s fine with me…” Spark sighed, rubbing his forehead a little, “I’m too sore to fight anymore. I just wanna go home.”\n\n\t“Me too…” Glint sighed as well, “I’m done here. I just wanna lie down.”\n\n\tNori crossed his arms and sighed as well. “Jeez, I’m sorry you two,” He said, “… Wish there was something I could do.”\n\n\tThe twins looked at one another for a moment, and then to Nori. The raccoon knew the look… it was like they just shared a thought in that instant, and it most likely involved his wallet.\n\n\t“Can we have enough money to go see a movie?” Glint would ask.\n\n\tSpark nodded, “Yeah, can we?”\n\n\tNori couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Really? That’s it?” He’d ask, “Well, I guess you guys fought hard enough to deserve that… You guys can see a movie over the weekend.”\n\n\tThe twins tiredly raised their hands in a happy little gesture… that would have looked much happier had they not been so sore.\n\n\t“You’re… going to see a movie?” Whitney would ask, canting her head aside a little, “Tomorrow?”\n\n\t“Probably…” Glint answered. She lowered her ears in thought for a moment, before addressing Whitney again. “Do you guys want to come too?”\n\n\tWhitney looked surprised. “Us? Salem and I?”\n\n\tSalem gasped dramatically, “See a movie with Salem?!”\n\n\t“Yeah!” Spark smiled, “Come on…”\n\n\tSalem and Whitney both looked at one another as they contemplated their options. “Well…” Whitney began, “I suppose we’re stuck in town until the end of the weekend anyways…”\n\n\t“Great!” Glint smiled, tossing her covers away and slowly shifting her body to slide out of bed, “We could use the distraction anyways.”\n\n\t“Yeah, so we can forget this ever happened,” Spark said as he slowly got out of bed too.\n\n\tNori looked back to Sammy, who was simply looking at them. The two of them could only shrug. It seemed Glint and Spark were fit to simply take it all in stride… Honestly, it shouldn’t have been too surprising for a pair of teenagers like them. The group of Pokémon made their way out of the infirmary talking amongst them as they went.\n\n\t“I wanna see that Partners movie, it sounds so cool. It’s all super-powers and stuff.”\n\n\t“Kids with super-powers? Sounds weird…”\n\n\t“I’ve heard of that. I want to see it because it has an interesting take on future society… things like marriage laws and same-sex relationships.”\n\n\t“Salem want explosions!”\n\n\t“You guys have a Pokétch? We can talk with it! You totally need to get one!”\n\n\t“Yeah!”\n\n\t“… Salem want exploooosions!”\n\n\tAnd like that, they left.\n\n\tNori chuckled and looked back to Sammy. “Well, the night wasn’t a total loss… I think other than you, those’re the first Pokémon they’ve ever met around here.”\n\n\tSammy stood up from her seat and smiled as she walked over to Nori. “Pokémon Battling has been about more than just beating the tar out of one another for pretty much all of time,” She said, “It’s how Pokémon connect in nature… by battling, they become a more knit community, and develop deeper understandings between one another – it was awful sweet of you to let them come here.”\n\n\tNori furrowed his brow at the last little bit. “Wait… I didn’t let them…”\n\n\tSammy kissed Nori’s cheek and winked, before striding off after the others before they got too far.\n\n\tNori stood alone for a moment, watching Sammy as she left him to himself. Once she was gone, he threw his arms up with a sigh. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to this!”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 1
\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)
\t
\t“I’m telling you, that teacher is evil,” Glint said as she walked through the halls at her local high school. Lunch had come, and many students were marching their way towards the cafeteria to get their much needed afternoon nutrition, the Plusle included. Right at her side was her brother, a Minun, named Spark.

\t“I don’t think that’s the case…” Spark responded. Though the two were twins, they couldn’t have seemed more different. For one, Glint was a girl, and Spark was a boy. Many of the markings on their bodies were the opposing colours of red and blue, and their general demeanors were polar opposites. Though different as they were, nothing could separate them. They were as close as close could be.

\tMost brothers and sisters didn’t hold hands as they walked through the halls at school. But compared to what else set them apart from most siblings, hand-holding was timid. Most siblings didn’t share open-mouth kisses or sexual intimacies either, but Glint and Spark sure did. Most siblings didn’t love one another on a transcended level, far beyond brothers and sisters. Glint and Spark did. Definitely.

\tSpark squeezed his sister’s hand as they walked. It was a mild reminder, if nothing else, to Glint that he did love her, as more than just his sister. They couldn’t publicly display their sentiments on a level any higher than that though. They’d learned the hard way what could happen if they dared try. They didn’t want to relive the experience. Glint could only return the scrape of affection with a knowing look into her brother’s brown eyes, and a sweet smile of her own.

\tThe outside world was awful distracting. As much as the two wanted to disappear, reality was all too present. The halls were crowded, more than usual it seemed.

\t“What’s going on around here?” Glint would ask, looking around at what seemed like an unnaturally high number of students crowded around the entrance to the cafeteria. Spark noticed them too, his ears perked attentively to pick up snippets of conversation where he could, but there were so many voices that it all seemed like a jumbled mess.

\tIndeed there was a group so thick the twins would have to push through them. They were all huddled around something outside the cafeteria. Hungry as they were, the twins were curious creatures… They pushed and shoved their way to the front to see what the matter was. It was there they saw a grand-looking poster.

\tThe poster was big, and had plenty of almost cartoony explosion graphics that attempted to make the words stamped atop them jump off the paper and grab attention. If the huddled mass was any indication, it performed adequately. The poster though had a familiar word to the twin Pokémon: “Pokébattle.”

\t“The Junior Pokébattle League Tournament…” Spark murmured aloud. He then looked to his sister and raised a brow, “Some kind of fighting tournament for Pokémon?” He’d ask.

\tGlint was studying the poster curiously as well, but her expression was as much joy as anything. Their school didn’t see many Pokémon… Glint and Spark were only two of maybe a handful of the “pocket monsters” that attended. It was nothing short of a surprise that there would be a publicly advertised Pokémon event their school was even aware of. The idea of at least seeing the event was more than appealing to the young pair… Of course, the idea of entering was racing rampant through Glint’s head as well.

\t“They’re accepting entries!” She said with a smile, eyes wide as she read the finer details in smaller print.

\t“What? No.” Spark shot back. “No way.”

\tSomeone else in the crowd recognized the twins and spoke up, “Hey! Glint and Spark are Pokémon! They should enter!”

\tSpark’s ears perked up quickly and he turned to the crowd, which had seemingly surrounded them in a half circle. “No!” He said, “We can’t enter that!”

\t“Enter, you puss!” A voice shouted out from somewhere in the crowd, and several other students jumped right on board trying to encourage them.

\tGlint, ignoring the lot of them, kept reading. “Entrants must supply official entry applications and a small entry fee,” She said, rubbing her chin in thought, “The tournament is going to be held in three months for a whole weekend. There are single, doubles, and triple battles…”

\tSpark turned to Glint and grabbed her arm, pulling her a little to ease her away from the poster, as if trying to drag her away from the notion itself, “Gliiiint, noooo~!”

\t“But Spark, we can totally do it!” Glint responded, looking to her brother, “This is our chance to show everyone that we’re more than just brother and sister… we’re a team too!”

\tSpark let out a heavy sigh. He was certain that she was going to say something else.

\t“You’re wastin’ your time, girlie!”

\tThe twins looked away to see a familiar bunch… Three leather coat wearing greasers - Antonio, an Anteater, Tony, a Tiger, and a mouse… whose name had escaped the twins. In fact, no one really knew what his name was.

\t“Your brother’s got the spine of a wet noodle, girlie,” Antonio jeered, much to the chagrin of the Minun, “And you want him to enter some kinda fightin’ tournament? You’re outta your mind!”

\tThe tiger, a tall and intimidating male, grinned. “Yeah, Spark’s just a little pipsqueak.”

\tThe mouse just… laughed, a little… stupidly.

\tGlint shot the trio a glare. It wasn’t the first time she had to deal with them, but if she had her way, this tournament would ensure that it’d be the last. “Spark and I have been fighting since you were using training gel in that gross hair of yours, Antonio! We were trained growing up!”

\t“It’s just… been a while…” Spark admitted woefully.

\tAntonio just laughed. “Ch’yeah right. Only thing you two were probably trained to do is jump-start cars!”

\tGlint glared again, though this time at Spark. “Spark!” She barked.

\tSpark jumped a little. “W-What?”

\tThe Plusle turned to her brother and took both of his hands and held them in hers. She looked him dead in the eye, with a look Spark knew all too well. She was pleading with him now. She wanted him to write his name down on that poster, right where it gave them space to accept applicants. She wanted him to prove to those three guys that he wasn’t just some spineless wimp, like she knew he wasn’t! The thought made him a little nervous.

\tBut it was more than just some pride issue. Spark turned his gaze to the poster and tried to think of it. This was something that he and his sister could do together. In some small way, they could expose their unison, their synergy with one another through fighting. Back at the Center they grew up on, Pokémon were trained to battle growing up. It helped keep them strong and focused, and built strong relationships between allies and opponents alike. It helped them understand more about themselves and other Pokémon, be it their natural elements and types or what they were capable of… It was as much an educational tool as it was a means to embrace the species’ instinct.

\tGlint and Spark had always made an exceptional team. They moved fluidly together, and worked hard for one another in battles. They encouraged and challenged one another, and it spurred them to victory more times than not. Most of all, fighting alongside one another made them feel… well they couldn’t have described the feeling. It was fun, it was exhilarating, and it was… right. It was something they were meant to do.

\tThey hadn’t battled in their recent years. Before being adopted by their father, Nori, they had slowed their battling to a near halt. When they were adopted and brought to a new home, it had stopped altogether. The thought of being able to do it again, even if just one more time, made the twins antsy. It was stirring up instinctive feelings in them they hadn’t felt in years. The goading helped, ironically enough. Just being told they couldn’t do it filled them with purpose – to take those words and make the greasy Anteater choke on them.

\tBut most of all, if it meant that he could go out there with Glint and show everyone how amazing they were together, Spark couldn’t say no.

\tThe boy took a deep breath before taking the permanent marker string up on the wall next to the poster and writing down his name, and Glint’s too.

\tThe action was met with applause and cheering, mostly at the idea that the students would be able to go and watch something exciting for a change. Glint jumped for Joy before grabbing Spark and hugging him tight. Antonio and his boys… they seemed pleased too, but probably just at the idea that the twins would get beaten for their entertainment.

\tSpark… sighed. What had he done?

\t…

\tThe look on his face was hardly any different when he was walking out his back door at home after school was over. He and his sister stepped down the wooden steps of the back porch onto the somewhat grassy, but mostly sandy back yard of their beach-side home. They walked together, Glint nearly skipping along, making her bodacious breasts bounce in her red tank top.

\tInside, their father watched as they made their trek into the back yard. He stood in front of the sliding glass door that left into their back yard from the kitchen, holding a tea cup in both his hands. As mentioned before, Glint and Spark were adopted… so while they were yellow rodents prone to electrical discharges, their father, Nori, was a grayscale raccoon with golden-amber eyes. He stood there, bare toes wiggling against the floor, casually slumming around in a pair of old shorts and a t-shirt like the beach bum he was… He was the younger, cooler Dad in most people’s opinions. His light gray hair couldn’t even make him look old.

\t“They said they were going to practice, but I don’t see their soccer ball,” He said, “Weird kids.”

\t“If they put half as much effort into their work on the weekends as they do in soccer…” At the kitchen table sat another Pokémon – a Pikachu.

\tShe wasn’t much unlike the twins. Most of her fur from head to toe was yellow. Unlike the twins though, she had brown swipes across her lower back, and the circles on her cheeks were just red spots, no cross-sectioning or anything. She had green eyes, and her brown hair peeked out from beneath the green bandana she wore on her head.

\tShe dressed fairly lightly, but in her defense it was warmer out. A simple pair of green shorts and a gray tube top with some green accents kept her nice and modest… or at least as modest as her heavily curved body would allow. Her name was Sammy, and she owned a ranch outside of the city. On the weekends, the twins went to help her out, and she had been called on several times to look after them in Nori’s absence. He thought it was good for the twins to have another Pokémon in their lives.

\t“Well, to be fair, we do have them working at the ranch on the weekends,” Nori chuckled as he turned his attention back to his guest. He walked over to the table and took a seat across from her.

\t“True!” Sammy laughed, sipping her tea, “Teenagers have a sort of disliking for working outside of school.”

\t“Tell me about it. Sometimes it’s impossible to get those two to do anything at all,” Nori said, “They can be a little rambunctious.”

\t“Well, they are Pokémon,” Sammy grinned behind her cup, “We can be a little rambunctious by nature.”

\t…

\t“Alright, ready Spark?” Glint asked as her untied red sneakers slid through the sand. She shifted into a stance, ready to pounce almost.

\tSpark stood across from his sister, pushing his own feet into that position as well – blue sneakers like his sister’s ready to propel him forward in a sprinter’s dash. “I… guess. It’s been a long time.”

\t“ReadysetGO!”

\tGlint rushed forwards without giving her brother much more than a second. She’d launched herself from her starting position, and propelled herself to her target with a surprising display of agility her little, but very buxom form would betray her having. Spark was ill prepared for it – his sister’s hands were all over him in an instant, and not in a good way!

\tGlint grabbed on to her brother’s shoulders and fell backward, pulling him towards the sand with her. She landed on her back, but with her knees bent to catch Spark’s weight, she pushed her butt upward to roll herself back. All at once, she pushed up against Spark’s body as it was tossed over her, launching him into the air! The poor Minun’s body flipped and he watched the ground and horizon across the beach waters roll past his vision before he saw nothing more than sky. His back hit the sand hard, nearly winding the boy.

\t“Hngh!” Spark grunted as he hit the ground, his teeth grit.

\tGlint quickly rolled forwards and lifted herself to her feet; turning to look at her brother laying sprawled out in the sand, just staring into the sky in disbelief. Glint had been so quick; it was like she’d just been itching for the chance to do that!

\t“Aw, don’t just lay there!” The akimbo-standing Plusle giggled. “Come on, get up.”

\tSpark just kept lying there, as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

\t“What are you doing?” The young lady approached her brother and stood next to him. Spark could barely see her annoyed gaze past her lovely breasts.

\t“Why did you do that?” Spark would ask.

\tGlint gave him a puzzled look. “Duh, because—!”

\tShe didn’t get to finish. Spark had lifted most of his body off the ground… straight up! Supporting his weight mostly on his shoulders, he used his arms to spin himself. His legs flew out almost as if he was break-dancing, and they soon swept low and took out Glint’s feet. She fell to the sand on her front, kicking up some dirt as she landed with a dull thud. Spark was back on his feet before she managed to look up, continuing his momentum and spinning to his feet like some kind of fake-wrestler.

\t“Real sneaky, sis…” Spark waggled a finger.

\tGlint planted her hands in the sand and pushed up, raising her upper body as she glared up at her brother. She was all dirty, much like Spark’s backside had gotten. “Why you…”

\tShe kicked up sand in a dash as she launched herself at her brother again, but the Minun proved dexterous. Spark merely stepped aside, and Glint flew right past him. The cheeky bugger even gave her a smack on the ass as she stumbled on by. She got her footing though and whipped around to face her brother-turned-opponent, just in time to raise her arms and block a punch with her forearms. Spark’s fist crackled electrically as it hit, and the force of the built up energy behind it pushed Glint away. Her sneakers actually drew lines in the sand as she slid backward, but kept her footing.

\tGlint lowered her arms slowly, panting a bit, and she saw Spark standing across from her, fist clenched. Electricity crackled from his hand just as it did from the blue pouches on his cheeks. He stared her down, she grinned, and it all started again.

\tGlint rushed in with an electrically charged fist of her own, and Spark bent down and twisted his body just enough for it to go sailing right over his head. He planted his hands right on his sister’s bouncing E-cup breasts, and shoved her away… but didn’t do anything after that. He let her come at him again.

\tAnd come at him she did! No bull-rushing that time however, and instead, she tumbled forwards, pushing herself up on her hands backwards. Her handstand turned into a grapple quickly as her feet landed on Spark’s shoulders and she crossed her sneakers behind his head. She then pulled back with every ounce of strength she could muster, whipping the boy off his feet and into the sand behind her again. Spark tumbled with his fall, somersaulting to kneel so he could get to his feet again quickly.

\tPushing himself forwards, Spark threw his punches, and Glint stepped with him, keeping their distance and pushing his fists away with her forearms. Once the Minun left an opening, she launched forwards in a side-kick that her brother was too slow to avoid. He took her kick right in the side, his body jerking aside and causing him to stumble… Those thighs weren’t thick for nothing… her legs were strong!

\tHe closed the gap again quickly. She threw another kick, but he was ready for it. Spark ducked under his sister’s leg. She stumbled from the missed attack and took a step in to follow up, only to have her brother’s forearm smack dead into her collar bone. His counter-momentum took her right off her feet and she fell back into the sand again.

\t“Well they misbehave, sure, but they’re not terrible,” Nori said before drawing his teacup to his lip and sipping – not loudly, politely. He could be impolite when company was gone.

\tSammy giggled, turning away from the table, seated on her chair sideways. She threw one of her legs over the other and rested her elbow on the table. Her cheek cradled in her palm, she looked out the glass sliding door towards where the twins had gone. “Of course not, they’re…”

\tNori opened his eyes and set his teacup down. “Mm? They’re what?” He asked, noticing the Pikachu had simply trailed off.

\t“They’re… um…” Sammy  watched the scene outside nervously, “Well, they’re currently fighting in the back yard.”

\t“Again?” Nori’s annoyance was obvious. Taking his teacup and drawing another sip, he stood from his chair and turned to the glass to look out at them.

\tJust in time to see one of Spark take Glint down to the sand.

\tNori’s reaction was knee-jerk. His eyes shot wide and his shoulder hunched up as his head dipped forwards. He coughed, but it sputtered into his tea. He turned quickly and set his cup down on the table, one hand resting against his nose in a vain effort to stop the tea that had just assaulted his sinuses and was flowing out his nostrils from spilling all over the place.

\t“What the--?” Nori couldn’t say more as he coughed and sputtered. “Bloody hell!”

\tGlint leapt forwards and tackled Spark, catching her brother and taking him down to the ground. In the meantime, the back door to their house flew open, and the frantic footsteps of their father’s bare feet clapped down the staircase of their back porch.

\t“Oh my God,” Glint panted as she straddled her brother’s body, pinning his shoulders down to the ground, “I haven’t seen you look like that in years!”

\t“Get off me!” Spark protested, trying to push his sister away from him. Glint just smiled, moving to grab his hands and push them back down against him. The two of them struggled against one another.

\t“Yeah? What are you gonna do?” Glint giggled breathlessly. Suddenly, Spark rolled her over onto her back and thrust her to the ground by her shoulders. He was above her, hands pinning her down, knees on either side of her body, and he stared down at her intensely.

\tThey both were panting hard, covered in sand, their respectfully coloured clothes more brown and dirty than anything. They hadn’t gotten that fired up in years… no argument they had could have ever amounted to the level of venting they had done. There was no better way to relieve frustration than that, and not being able to go out with your lover and do couple things sure left them with a lot of frustration.

\tAs healthy as it felt to vent though, they were… charged, as it were. Their cheeks were both flush and crackling with wayward electricity as their bodies had generated it in excess. It was because they were fighting together… Glint filled Spark with such surging energy, and he filled her with much the same. They felt hot, tingly, and like they could have run a marathon.

\t“Ooooh… Sparkie… Mmn…” Glint purred beneath her brother, grinning coyly up at him, “Man-handle me more…”

\tMaybe it was just the tone of her seductively cooing voice… so deliberate, so hot… Or maybe it was just the energy coursing through the Minun’s body making his muscles seem so tense, like his body was running on adrenaline… But he obliged her right then and there and he didn’t care who saw it.

\tHis hands latched onto her breasts roughly, squeezing them like he was trying to maul those fleshy orbs. The way they pillowed out between his fingers and felt so snug in the sports bra Glint wore under her top felt utterly amazing. The sudden harsh squeeze hurt the poor girl, but the only sound she could make was a moan… one that was promptly stifled as her brother’s lips mashed up against her own in a clumsy, tongue-filled lip-lock of sheer passion.

\tGlint just held on for the ride, grabbing onto her brother’s cheeks. Electricity surged out between her fingers, and her own generated arcs of static energy bounced off the sand she laid in and were snuffed out by the non-conductive dirt. Spark was so aggressive! That hot muscle of his writhed around in her mouth savagely, and the sheer energy of it made her body tense up and arch against his. Their bodies felt so hot against one another, and their movements were uncharacteristically uncoordinated for the twins…

\tGlint swore she felt her eyes roll into her head, closed as they were when Spark’s index fingers and thumbs began to relentlessly tease the erect nubs in her shirt. God, her body was so… so… ready!

\t“What in the mother-effing-H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEYSTICKS is going ON out here?!”

\tThe twins froze as their eyes shot open. They had forgotten about… everything - the sand, sun, sky, everything. Nori’s voice sounded so utterly outraged and… loud that they were ripped back to reality before they were ready. Spark pried himself away from his sister and sat up like he’d just been jabbed with a cattle prod, and he shot his wide-eyed gaze over his shoulder quickly. Glint shared the same shocked look, peeking around Spark.

\tNori stood there with his arms crossed and his cheeks puffed out like he was a blowfish ready to explode in rage.

\t“We’re practicing!” Spark said first, getting up off his sister and turning to face Nori directly, “For a Pokébattle Tournament!”

\tWell that wasn’t something Nori expected to hear… and the sudden response from Spark, so direct and firm, was a real blindside. He was stunned for a moment.

\t“Yeah, for a Tournament!” Glint repeated as she quickly got to her feet and brushed herself off. She hoped to God, or any other power that be, that Nori hadn’t seen them. It was all that was going through her head over and over again.

\t“… I just saw you knock the spit right out of your sister!” Nori practically screeched, “And this is for some kind of Tournament? What are you talking about?!”

\t“You haven’t heard of Pokémon Tournaments?” Came Sammy’s voice as she approached from the house. Nori turned his attention to her in a snap, looking puzzled as all hell. Was the other Pokémon actually endorsing this behavior?

\t“… No! No I haven’t!” Nori responded.

\tSammy sighed and hung her head, resting a few of her fingers against her forehead. “Kids, let’s… go inside and talk about this, okay?”

\tNori turned his attention to the twins sternly. His only words were, “Inside. Now.”

\tAs he and Sammy turned to leave, the twins, now shaking a little, let out a held breath and nearly collapsed against one another.

\t“Oh God, okay, good, yes, thank you…” Spark sighed as he panted, “I thought for sure Dad saw us…”
\t“Spark…” Glint murmured.

\t“Huh?”

\t“Spark, your pants… I can totally see your hard-on.”

\t“W-What? Oh, sh--!”

\t…

\t“So let me get this straight… Since before you could walk and talk, two legs and all, Pokémon have been fighting one another in competitions,” Nori said as he sat back in his arm chair. Sammy, Glint and Spark all sat on the couch not far from him in the living room to help Nori understand it all.

\t“Totally.” Glint affirmed.

\t“And you guys still do it… So you basically just beat on each other until one or the other faints.”

\t“Mhm.” Spark Nodded.

\t“And three months from now, you want to go out and do that.”

\t“That sounds like the plan,” Sammy said with a sheepish smile. She could tell by Nori’s expression that he wasn’t at all impressed.

\t“And you didn’t think to even ask me first? To tell me?” The raccoon sat forward in his chair, having to look beside him to stare down his kids, “Well, of course you didn’t. Why would you? How could I, as any sort of a responsible father, let my kids go out and get beat to a pulp for the entertainment of the masses?”

\t“We’re not going to get beat down!” Glint protested, leaning forwards as well to look back at her father, “It’s not that bad!”

\tNori retorted, “From what I saw, it’s barbaric!”

\tSammy sat back a little her hands folded in her lap. “Now Nori,” She said, “This sort of thing goes beyond just fighting one another. It’s something we all grew up knowing. It’s part of our heritage.”

\t“But that was some time ago… And Glint and Spark are just kids!” Nori responded, trying to rationalize his argument.

\t“We’re not just kids, we’re practically adults,” Spark chimed in.

\tNori shook his head and finally stood up from his chair. “I can’t, I just can’t let you go ahead and do something like this. You could get hurt,” He said, his voice as gentle as he could by while trying to be stern at the same time. He wasn’t going to budge on the issue.

\t“Wha? But Dad!” Glint and Spark whined.

\tNori shook his head. “I said no. What if something happened? I… I just can’t, all right? If you entered that tournament, then you’re going to withdraw.”

\t“That’s not fair!” Spark gasped.

\t“We’re paying the entry fee ourselves!” Glint added.

\t“Then get your money back!” Nori snapped back, his patience dwindling, “I said no and that’s final!”

\tGlint sat back with a huff, crossing her arms. “Of for fu--!”

\t“Watch your mouth!” Nori barked.

\tThe twins scowled and stood from their seats, marching past Nori and towards the stairs to go sulk in their rooms. Nori’s ear perked to listen, hearing one of them stomp up each step, but the other…

\t“It’s not like you’re our real Dad!” Glint shouted, before she stomped on up the stairs too.

\tWhen their bedroom door soundly slammed, silence followed in its wake. Nori stood where he was, just looking straight ahead at the television. It wasn’t even on. Sammy sat there with her hands folded in her lap, her fingers nervously fumbling against one another. Her eyes glanced to Nori, but he didn’t say a word. The Raccoon’s ears slumped down after a while, and his posture slumped somewhat too. The awkward stillness in the air was almost tangible.

\t“Nori… I’m going to head home before it gets too late…” Sammy said softly as she rose from her seat, “I’ll come by to pick the kids up on Friday.”

\tShe left too, leaving Nori all by himself. He let himself fall back into his chair, his legs kicking out as he half laid in the recliner, his gaze on the floor. He wasn’t even aware that he was looking at nothing, his mind just reeled. It was the first time either of the twins had said anything like that in such a way. Sure, in the beginning, they knew that Nori wasn’t their ‘real’ father. He adopted them, he had no biological ties, and he didn’t raise them from birth… But he’d provided for them and watched after them, and did what he felt a father should.

\tBut those words had left Glint’s mouth like a bee-sting.

\tIt’s not like you’re our real Dad!

\tThe girl had never been one to pull any punches when it came to words… Nori tried to remind himself of the fact, but it didn’t help. He still felt his heart sink into his stomach just repeating the words in his head. The way Glint said it… it was spiteful, to say the least. Had he reacted too harshly?

\tThe thought of them hating him hurt, but the thought of them getting hurt was worse. It was frightening. Somehow, if he let them do what they wanted to do, and got injured, it would be his fault. It would be his fault for allowing it to happen in the first place.

\t“Gods,” Nori sighed as he rested his cheek against his balled-up fist, “I hate being the bad guy sometimes.”

\t…

\t“Well, we’re definitely not listening to him,” Glint said after she slammed the door, storming over to her bed and leaping onto it, falling onto her back.

\t“Yeah…” Spark sighed; staring at the ceiling as he lay sprawled out on his own bed, “But what are we going to do?”

\t“After school tomorrow, we’re going to the gym,” Glint said in a matter-of-fact tone, “We’ll just say it’s a study group or something. We’ll get in shape and practice all we want! We just have to not be here when we do it.”

\t“And then?”

\t“Dad doesn’t know when the competition is. We’ll just sneak out and go to it when it comes.”

\tMost kids would be nervous going against their parent’s wishes so directly, and coming to that decision so soon. Glint and Spark however seemed perfectly okay with it. The thought of getting caught ran through their minds, but at the same time, they didn’t think they would. It would be easy to avoid Nori for three months, to have their little secrets…

\t… They’d been hiding secrets for years. What’s one more?


Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 2
\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

\tGlint and Spark weren’t taking their father’s prohibiting of their tournament sitting down… or perhaps technically they were. It depended on what part of their exercise regiment they were on!

\tIt had been three weeks since Nori had told Glint and Spark they could not, would not enter in the local Junior Pokébattle that was set to take place at a stadium in town in only nine weeks. Even though their Dad said no, they didn’t listen. They had snuck out after school to head to their local work-out center and get into shape for the upcoming competition. One had to admit, their determination, even towards a goal they weren’t supposed to peruse, was something to admire.

\tThe other people using the gym weren’t about to question why the high schoolers never showed up without a parent to supervise them… Most of them were too busy enjoying their company. Because work-outs needed lots of movement, and lots of movement meant… tight clothes!

\t“So, what do you want to watch me do today?” Glint teased as she made her way through the gym.

\tHer body was breath-taking… the young girl was filled out in all the ways a grown woman should have been, and she had plenty of filling-out to spare! Her buoyant breasts jiggled softly in the tight black sports top she wore – nice and snug for optimal cling, to keep from too much bouncing… not any bouncing, just too much. Her short red shorts weren’t any more concealing than her top. They hugged her butt and very little more than that, and hid nothing of her underwear’s straps digging into her widened hips. Topped off with red fingerless work-out gloves, her cute socks and her favourite red sneakers, she was the gem of the gym!

\tSpark blushed, since his sister spared no effort in making her gait lovely to look at. His eyes were glued to her posterior as she teased him, and his cheeks were flushed and crackling with electric sparks. He opted to dress more conservatively than his sister… He wore black shorts that were looser and came down to his knees – they had a nice white stripe down the side and a logo marking them as active wear specifically. He had to wear this for the very same reason he wasn’t paying attention to any of the other patrons, or any of the sights and sounds as he made his way through the gym… because of his sister, the little minx!

\tHe had a loosely fit sleeveless shirt on too… Not at all the tight-fit one he normally wore, but a more sky-blue one that hung loosely down to about his crotch, adding what he felt was another layer of protection in case he was struck by any arousal… Thankfully he’d worn tight, clingy underwear too. If Glint was going to tease him so, he was prepared to hide his shame.

\t“Maybe just the usual routine?” Glint would ask, since she got no answer from her brother, “Well, set your watch, Sparkie, and let’s get to work!”

\tThe twins pushed a few buttons on the Pokétchs on their wrists, and set a count-down to time themselves between activities, and then set to it.

\tFirst was stretches, of course. It was important to loosen up those muscles so the twins didn’t pull anything. Spark had pulled something once in the first week… and explaining that to their father was tough! The twins set out to the exercise mats and would spend as much time as they needed to go from one stretch to another, everything from simple head tilts, to quadriceps, to arm-reaches, and everything in-between. They would talk about things while they stretched, like some of the homework they got, or the last thing Antonio had said to get one of them worked up, and every now and again one of them would call ‘switch’ to move to the next set of stretches. Considering they held their stretches for thirty seconds at a time, the whole process didn’t last much more than several minutes.

\t“Hnn… Okay!” Spark sighed as he released his last stretching position, shaking out his arms and legs a little, “Abs first. Crunches!”

\t“Oka- AH!” Glint squealed as Spark swept her up off her feet and carried her along towards the work-out equipment. She giggled and sighed, wrapping her arms around her brother and letting him carry her like a newlywed, passing all kinds of people and equipment along the way. Could anyone see them? Being all cute like that?

\t… Did anyone care? They were awful absorbed in their work-outs… either way, Glint and Spark loved every second of it.

\tSpark carried Glint over to the decline crunch station… a basic piece of equipment used to help gym-goers do crunches. The Plusle would lie out on the bench provided, and hook her legs in between a pair of supports to keep her knees raised and bent. With her hands behind her head, she’d lift her upper body towards her knees, hold for a few seconds, and then rest back down. It was one of the simplest exercises, and a good starting point, working the abdomen.

\tSpark spotted Glint first, making sure she didn’t push herself too hard and timing her exercises. The twins would switch after a good several minutes so that one was always spotting the other while they exercised. It beat having a personal trainer! They had looked online for all sorts of tips to help them out, so they were pretty well-researched on the matter. Like usual, all they needed was each other… and, well, a bundle of exercise equipment.

\tCrunches were always the starting point, and as fun as it was to watch Glint breasts heave with each curl, they’d move on eventually to leg extensions, and then pull downs. By the time they reached low cable rows, they’d usually have worked up a fair bit of a sweat, warranting a break as sweat would bead over their fur.

\tGlint just loved spotting Spark, as she loved watching him exercise. She could really see the muscles under his flesh and fur working when he pushed his body, and she’d be the first to admit it made her heart flutter. The sheer appeal of Spark was so often over-shadowed by the Plusle that she felt it almost criminal… but at the same time, that just left everything for her.

\tAfter a break and plenty of water to drink, they would go back to their routine. The incline bench press would often come after low cable rows, and Spark certainly out-performed his sister, having the better upper body strength. They could lift a surprising amount of weight given how slender their arms looked. Sure, the real meat-heads with the bulging biceps could bench-press  far above the average weight, getting well into two hundred pounds, some of the real strong ones closer to three hundred than not… But Glint and Spark could manage a little above average at least! (Some say that’s somewhere around 135 pounds!)

\tA dumbbell press would follow that, a slightly easier exercise in comparison… or it would be if their arms didn’t feel a little sore. It made lifting those smaller, individual weights tough! Now that one was more fun to watch Glint do… because she couldn’t help how the action of laying back and raising those dumbbell weights up time and again would cause her upper arms to squish her breasts together. It was little wonder Spark would opt to stand behind her while she performed the exercise, as the lovingly dirty bugger could see right down her stretchy top… but that was okay, it just let Glint look right up at his crotch in return, so it was all fair.

\tFront presses, where a barbell weight would be pressed up from behind one’s neck, would follow after that for several minutes before the twins would take another break, often nearly exhausted.

\t“So this is almost a month down…” Glint said as she sat back on one of the mats, holding her water bottle. She raised it to take a sip and very deliberately squeezed the bottle to squirt water over her neck and chest – not enough to soak her, just a little spill. “Whoops~”

\tSpark gave her a somewhat flat look as she teased him further. She was horrible for that. “Classy, sis…” He’d sigh, shedding a smile, taking a sip of his own water, and nodding. “Mm. Getting ready is real tough…”

\t“Aw, don’t be such a Muck about it,” Glint giggled, resting her head on Spark’s shoulder, “… It’s not so bad. I think it’s fun.”

\t“We’re just starting three months before… what if others knew about it before that? They’d be training all year,” Spark said, his ears lowering, “I looked up the last competition’s winners on the internet… They both come from some Pokémon Battle Academy in some far away city.”

\t“Aw man, we should have gone there, that’d be the best…” Glint murmured, taking another sip from her… oddly blue water bottle. Spark’s was red. “So what were they?”

\t“A Jynx and a Haunter,” Spark said, “Nothing we’d have a definitive advantage against, right?”

\tGlint shook her head. “Nope,” She answered, “So we’ll just have to beat them through pure teamwork and ability… or raw sex appeal!”

\t“But the Jynx is Jamila Stone…” Spark said with a sheepish grin to his sister.

\t“Aw, THE Jamila Stone? The heir to that mineral extraction company? She’s stacked better than a mountain of pancakes!” Glint whined, sighing and lowering her ears a little, “Maybe this is going to be harder than I thought… But hey! We can’t start thinking like that.”

\t“Yeah,” Spark smiled, then paused and blinked, “Er, I mean… no… or… yes but no.”

\tGlint giggled and shook her head again. “The only thing I’m thinking is that we’re going to give it our best shot. If we come in third, it’s better than anyone else at our school can manage, right? I say as long as we get a trophy, then that’s good enough for me!”

\t“Right!” Spark smiled.

\tGlint grinned a little, reaching up and tracing her finger along Spark’s chest. He’d started feeling a little firmer in the last few weeks, she had to admit. Her finger drew obvious heart shapes against his pecs. “I’m also thinking about how cute your butt looks when you’re doing raises. Come on!”

\tStealing a peck to her brother’s cheek, Glint pushed herself off the mat and quickly grabbed Spark’s hand to pull him along towards their next set of activities.

\tStanding curls, pull downs, and Glint’s ever-so-favourite raises would round out the end of the work-out routine. The whole set kept the twins at the gym for hours. They’d normally go after school, taking their bikes into town and back, and they’d normally pull into their driveway again a couple hours before they should go to bed… Of course, they’d be so tired; they’d quickly finish their homework and turn in early most days.

\tThe best part was that their father was none the wiser. Glint and Spark would always eat dinner before they left, and they’d always make it a note to finish their homework when they got home. They’d take every other day off to rest so they didn’t go out TOO often as to raise suspicion, and they’d finish their chores on those days because… well, compared to a whole exercise regiment, chores were cake. They stayed on their absolute best behavior if for no other reason than to curb any suspicion Nori might have gotten from their activities.

\tTheir active lifestyle worked in their favour. If for any reason they couldn’t go to the gym, nothing stopped them from taking their soccer ball into the back yard and kicking it around. The constant bike riding into and out of town served as more pushing towards their ultimate goal, and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for them… that was probably the most important part.

\tAt the end of the day, Glint stepped out of the showers at the gym, her gym clothes stuffed into her bag and her casual clothes slipped back on. Spark would be waiting out there for her… Sometimes they dared try to sneak into the showers for some time together, but too many near-miss experiences almost getting caught had made them too wary to try it often.

\t“Another day of making myself sore~” Glint groaned as she let go of her stretch, looking to her brother, “Ready to go, cutie?”

\t“Ready when you are, beautiful,” Spark smiled, his cheeks flushing bashfully.

\tLike always, the two would leave the building by exiting the change room area, and walking right out the front door to the bike racks. But that particular day, something… odd stopped them. They were minding their own as they made their way towards the main gym area, duffle bags over their shoulders, their sneakers tapping against the linoleum floors of the corridors, when the sound of… odd grunting caught their ears.

\tJust before one would exit the change room hallway to the gym area, there was a vending machine. It was stuffed full of things like breakfast bars and breakfast drinks, granola treats, trail mix, and other low-fat things to help stave off the irony of having a snack food vending machine in a gym. The twins had always walked right on past it, not wanting to spend any more money than they needed to, and knowing that Nori often made too much for dinner and there’d be something at home if they were hungry.

\tBut the strangest thing was there, and it made the twins take pause. It looked… odd. It was anthromorphic like them, but the species was difficult to put a finger on. It looked to be a dark violet all over, and resembled some kind of amphibian. It had small, clawed fingers and fins on the side of its head, and couldn’t have stood any more than four feet tall… in fact, it was probably less than that, coming up to the twins’ stomachs. It didn’t look like whoever it was had come to work out, since the creature was dressed in what looked like a pair of clingy navy blue jeans, and nothing else. It looked like it had little blue pieces of crystal poking out from its back too…

\tBut it was struggling with the vending machine. It was standing on its toes, trying to reach for the highest buttons on it, but just barely unable to reach… It was waving its one arm frantically as it reached high as it could, and because it was failing so… it was making this horrible sound!

\t“SKREEEEE! Salem just want noms for Salem’s tums!” It shrieked in frustration, the screaming sound it made croaking out.

\tThe sound made the twins wilt their ears. “Oh God, what is that noise?!” Glint exclaimed, tugging her ears against the side of her head protectively.

\tHearing this, the small creature froze. It held its position perfectly still for approximately 3.48 seconds, and then sloooowly turned its head, casting its gaze at them. That was when they’d realize that the creature had big, blue, shiny gemstones where its eyes should have been! And not only had that, but a big grin full of sharp, pointed teeth as well!

\t“Blue and red!” It shouted, “Come to save Salem!”

\tThe creature dropped from its reach and turned to scuttle on up to the twins, standing before them and jumping up and down. “Help Salem! Help Salem! He need your help, brave, fearless rodents!”

\t“Ugh, creepy…” Glint groaned as she let go of her ears and allowing them to lift back up.

\t“No creepy. Is Salem!” The creature responded.

\t“Is… your name Salem?” Spark would ask, rubbing at the inside of his ear with one of his fingers, “Um… would it be rude to ask what you are?”

\tThe creature’s smile faded, into something of a toothy frown as hits little hands rubbed along it head as if its mind was reeling at the question. “Is Salem!” It answered. After a few more moments, it looked back up at the two, “Ooh! Salem is Sableye. Salem is Pokémon like blue and red! Blue is Minun, red is Plusle.”

\tThe twins looked at each other for a moment, then down to… Salem. Salem just stared back up at them, probably because he looked incapable of blinking. In their moment of silence, there was a high-pitched tummy rumble, and Salem suddenly grasped his abdomen and flopped onto his back on the floor, rolling around and releasing that croaky screech again.

\t“SKREEE! Salem hungers!” the Sableye shouted, “Please! Plusle and Minun must help Salem reach ticker-tacker buttons! Salem must have bar of blueberry goodness!”

\tAfter the twins stopped grimacing at the sound Salem was making at the top of his croaky lungs, Spark wandered over to the machine curiously. He looked inside to see just what Salem might have been talking about, eyes scanning through the selections.

\t“Oh, you want a blueberry breakfast bar? Okay,” Spark said as he casually pushed the buttons A and 4 as if it was no big deal at all. The machine got to work dispensing the wrapped up health bar with the blueberry filling, and soon they all heard the snack tumble on down to the bottom… just like that.

\tSalem had watched this by arching his back off the floor and staring towards Spark with his head upside down. When he heard the snack hit the bottom of the machine, he frantically scurried to his feet, clawed fingers and toes scraping against the floor as he got his footing. He dashed to the machine and slid to a stop in front of it, sticking both his hands into the dispenser flap and pulling out the bar.

\tFor a while, Salem held it in his hands, gawking at the bar like he’d just been given a crystal skull.

\t“… EeeeeEEEEEEEEYEAH!” Salem screeched out happily, lifting the bar above his head, “Blueberry bar get! BADUM-BA-DAAH!”

\tGlint joined her brother by the machine as the two of them just stared, watching Salem tear open the bar’s wrapped and devour it like it would be his last meal. He shoved it into his mouth with both hands, those sharp teeth of his chomping down on it relentlessly. Crumbs sprinkled down over the Sableye’s pants, which he didn’t care to brush off. Soon, he looked back up at the twins, shedding that creepy, toothy smile. He had blueberry filling all stuck over some of his teeth, and crumbs on his cheeks.

\t“Red and Blue save Salem! Salem envies your skills of long legs and button-pushing!” He chirped, “What are names of mighty heroes?”

\t“Oh, uh…” Glint blinked a few times to snap herself out of her dumbfounded gaze, “… I’m Glint, and this is my brother Spark.”

\t“GLINT AND SPARK!” Salem shouted back eccentrically, startling the twins at the sudden outburst, “Salem is not worthy!”

\t“Eheheh… We just got you a snack…” Spark muttered, trying to wave off Salem’s over-enthusiastic… ness.

\tSalem fell silent for a moment… and then burped. His body jumped a bit as if the belch caught him by surprise, and he quickly smacked his hands against his large mouth to cover it up.

\t“Ooookay then,” Glint said as he wrapped her arms around Spark’s and started walking, “We need to go Salem. It was nice meeting you!”

\tSpark waved a little before stumbling off, his sister leading the way.

\tSalem stood there alone in the hallway as the twins departed, and he began to frantically wave his arms around. “Salem will always remember Glimmer and Sparkle! Er…” He paused, his smile fading again as he caught his mistake, “Glisten and Shiny? Errr…”

\tHis brow furrowed a little over those gemstones he had for eyes, and soon he smacked his hands in against his head, shaking his head wildly side to side. “Salem had brain-fart! NNNGH!”

\tThe last thing the twins would hear in the distance was Salem’s frustrated screeching before the automatic glass doors of the gym slid shut behind them.

\t“Weird little midget,” Glint said as she looked back towards the building, “Let’s just go home, Spark…”

\tSpark couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah… yeah, let’s do that.”

\tUnlocking and climbing onto their bikes, the twins took off from the gym to head home. It was just one more work-out during the day, getting back to their home.

\tThey’d arrive home exhausted, stepping into the door and taking their shoes off. Naturally they’d make for their room right away, hoping to not see their Dad and get drilled with questions about how their night went… but they were never so lucky. That particular night they had made it to the stairs before Nori exited his downstairs bedroom into the kitchen, managing to catch a glimpse of the twins as they tried to hurry on by.

\t“Hey you two! How was study group?” He’d ask, though they didn’t stop.

\t“Was good,” Glint answered, “Practiced Spanish. Wanna go to bed now.”

\t“Mhm…” Spark murmured as he took off up the stairs.

\tAs the twins disappeared upstairs, Nori furrowed his brow. “Spanish?” He’d ask himself, “I didn’t know they had a Spanish class.”

\tHe didn’t give it too much thought however, shrugging his shoulders and turning to disappear back into his room.

\tIt seemed every other day for months was the same way. Glint and Spark snuck off, trained their bodies, and were back in time for bed, and Nori was completely out of the loop. The twins would spend their days biking or running everywhere they had to go, including school and back, and every day of rest was spent relaxing their sore muscles.

\tWorking at Sammy’s ranch on Saturdays was just as much a work-out as a trip to the gym, as the twins would brush the wild, feral Rapidash kept there, haul bundles of hay, lug around barrels of poffins, and clean out the stables and stalls all morning. They’d return home in the afternoon to rest after a hard day’s work, and take Sunday off before going to school on Monday, then hitting the gym again. The on-and-off training was starting to see some results.

\tAfter a month and a half, the twins found that any excess weight they had was burned off… Neither of them was overly plump in any way, but it was noticeable how their bellies would go from having some slight, yielding softness, to being rather firm with a trim definition. Mostly the training toned their bodies, and improved their stamina. They found they could bike or jog for longer periods of time and not have to exert themselves as much to achieve the same feeling they were getting at the beginning when they were running themselves ragged.

\t…

\tOnly another month and a half remained. Glint sighed to herself as she stepped into the old barn at Sammy’s ranch. She both loved and hated that place… she hated it because it smelled like… old barn. She wasn’t used to the sights, scents and sounds of the country, so while Sammy seemed to relish in them, Glint just thought they were gross. What she did love about it though? It was a private little spot. Sammy had built a new barn, and the old one had yet to be torn down… The twins had lugged in some spare hay barrels and left them there so between jobs they had a place to rest. The Plusle flopped back into the hay, staring up at the ceiling of the barn, at least liking how sun peeked through the cracks in between the wooden boards.

\t“Man, I’m tired…” She murmured, lifting her head from her sprawled-out position in the hay, looking at Spark.

\tSpark had followed her in with his backpack, and took a seat next to her, setting his bag down on the ground and opening it. “I’m not feeling too tired… The work’s getting easier, but we’re doing so much now it’s hard not to feel tired,” He said as he produced a couple cans of soda from his bag. The twins had brought them from the house.

\tSpark pushed the cold can up against Glint’s neck, making the Plusle squeal and try to wiggle out of reach of the can. The chill that washed over her body was refreshing… and made her nipples stand on end, but she wasn’t all too worried about that around her brother. She snatched the soda from her brother and sat up as well, opening it and taking a sip.

\tThe two of them lay out on the hay, their legs hanging off the side of the hay cube as they relaxed. Glint wiggled over to snuggle up next to Spark, and Spark circled his arm around his sister’s shoulders to hold her close. The barn was good for cuddling, good for time alone… Sammy didn’t usually go looking for them until they had a fair amount of time together. It was obvious to both of them that they had a lot on their minds, but they weren’t saying anything about it.

\tGlint rested her cheek against Spark’s shoulder, and her free hand on his abdomen, just rubbing into his covered fur tenderly. Her cold can of soda pressed against his hip. “So… What do you think’s going to happen?” She’d ask.

\tNot looking away from the roof of the barn, Spark’s ear closest to his sister perked up. The other rested out flat as he held her soft body close to his. “Mm? When?”

\t“At the tournament. What do you think?” The Plusle reiterated.

\tSpark hadn’t given it too much thought, but Glint’s prompting got his clever mind working. “Well… we’re going to go, and we’re going to fight,” He answered.

\t“Going to win,” Glint butt in.

\tSpark chuckled a little, “Going to win. We’ll come home with that big trophy, and Dad’ll catch us. Then we’ll be grounded until we graduate… from College.”

\tGlint couldn’t help but giggle. “Oh no… what’ll we do with all that alone time in our room?” She asked, her fingers playfully drifting down low across Spark’s abdomen, and teasing along his inner thigh.

\tSpark’s cheeks flushed. “We’ll think of something.”

\tGlint snickered, purring lightly as she bit at her brother’s cheek. His cheek sparked against her muzzle, the static shocks tickling her nose. They both laughed, Spark giving her a nudge away from him, and Glint retaliating with a full-on tackle into the hay, while trying not to spill her drink. The two of them wrestled for a while. It was nice to take a literal roll in the hay when they could.

\t“Why am I not surprised that you two are still going to that?”

\tThe twins squeaked, and looked upwards quickly. They had to crane their heads back a bit, but they saw Sammy watching them. She stood looking into one of the windows of the old barn, arms folded on the old windowsill, breasts lovingly shelved atop them. The Pikachu’s green eyes were cast on them, but she didn’t look mad. She wore a knowing grin, if anything, like she had fun startling the two of them.

\t“S-Sammy!” They gasped.

\t“And your old Dad doesn’t know? You two are going to give that poor raccoon gray hairs,” She said, knowing full well the irony of such a thing.

\tGlint pushed Spark down and straddled him, but more to get closer to Sammy. She sat up atop her brother, grabbing onto the windowsill with her free hand. “You can’t tell Dad!” She begged.

\t“You shouldn’t be going behind his back like that,” Sammy retorted.

\tSpark was lucky enough to have his muzzle snug between his sister’s breasts… or unfortunate, as he had to pretend to be. He muffled some form of protest that was ignored by the girls.

\t“Have you tried talking to him about it?” Sammy pressed on, “I know this is something you feel like you really have to do… I didn’t feel any different when I was your age.”

\t“Then YOU try talking to him,” Glint shot back in dismissal, “He just thinks we’re stupid kids that don’t know what we’re getting into.”

\t“Aren’t you?” Sammy would ask with an apologetic smile.

\t“HEY!” Glint squeaked.

\tSammy giggled and waved a hand defensively, “Sorry, sorry. I mean, have you really thought about it…? Just springing the idea on him was a little rash, don’t you think?”

\tThis made Glint pause and ponder, one of her ears flattening out to the side. Spark’s one ear did the same, but he had his arms wrapped around Glint’s waist and his face buried against her bosom. He was happy as a clam, it was a wonder he was listening at all.

\t“Well… maybe…” The Plusle finally conceded.

\t“Exactly… But listen, I’ll tell you what,” Sammy pushed off the windowsill and stood back up, her breasts giving a bounce in her tube top, “I’ll talk to Nori for you… but I have a fence outside that needs painting. I WAS going to pay you extra for it… but since I’m doing you a favour, and I caught you drinking sodas in my barn, I figure you’ll do it for free.”

\tThe look on Glint’s face was priceless, so shocked and embarrassed that they got caught.

\t“U-Uhh… Okay!” Glint said, “We’ll totally do that, right Spark?”

\t“Mmhmmph~” Spark nodded, nuzzling firmer into his sister’s cleavage. Fortunately, Sammy couldn’t even see him.

\t“It’s a deal then. Finish those drinks and get out there in the next five… no, three minutes,” Sammy winked, before strolling away.

\t“O-Okay!” Glint shouted, leaning forwards more to look out the window after Sammy. Poor Spark was smothered… he couldn’t breathe!

\tSighing, Glint leaned back into the barn and looked down at her brother, giving him a few light thwacks upside the head. “Stop that! Stop that! Get out of there!”

\tSpark pulled his head free and looked up at Glint; purposely brushing his cold soda can against the small of her back. “Two more minutes?”

\tGlint shivered, feeling like her fur stood on end, and she curled her arms around Spark’s shoulders and pulled him in against her chest again. “Mm… Two more minutes…”

\t…

\tAside from doing extra work, the month and a half heading towards the tournament went by without incident. Sammy really abused the hold she had over the twins, using that blackmail to get them to do… whatever she wanted! It seemed cruel, but Sammy was going to make good on her word… just not right away.

\tIndeed, heading into the very week of the tournament, it seemed like Nori had no idea. The twins were more suspicious of him than he was of them – for a change! But it worked in their favour. The less he suspected them, the better!

\tThe night came, and the twins were more than anxious. They were restless, and could hardly hold still. Summer had hit, there was no school to be had, so they spent all day at home just… being antsy. They couldn’t focus on anything like Spark’s doodling or Glint’s practicing music on her electric keyboard… All they could think about was that tournament and how it was going to pan out. Waiting for the evening to hit seemed like the longest several hours of their young lives!

\tGetting out was easy. All they had to do was tell Nori that they were going to bike up the beach for a while, and off they went, duffle bags and all. They had stuffed their soccer ball into one of the bags for the sake of being convincing, but tucked away their water bottles and changes of clothes too, in case somehow their clothes got damaged while they fought. With a species like Pokémon, where they could shoot lightning from their bodies or spit fire from their mouths, that just seemed all too likely.

\tThe twins pedaled like their lives depended on it, whipping past cars and pedestrians alike on their way to the stadium that hosted the tournament. The larger town they lived in had its own stadium that was used for a multitude of sporting events. For that night it had been converted into a Pokémon arena. The twins could see the spotlights sweeping through the air from the rooftop of the stadium long before they saw the building and the crowds of people that had gathered. People were still funneling in, but it seemed like the event had attracted hundreds of people, if not hundreds more already inside… probably out-of-towners and the like.

\tThe twins slid their bikes to a stop, staring up at the Light-Bright of a stadium. It seemed like the Pokémon League spared no expense in making the event stand out… so many flashing lights! Not to mention… mascots? There were women, beautiful Pokémon women, walking the crowds outside and getting them hyped up for the event inside. Just looking at the place, and all the people, made the twins’ stomachs do back flips.

\t“Oh, wow…” Spark said with his mouth slightly agape, “This is… Well this is something.”

\t“Yeah…” Glint concurred, “… Ready to lock your bike up?”

\t“If you are,” Spark laughed nervously, “Let’s, uh… go? I guess?”

\tThey walked their bikes around the side of the building and locked the up at the bike racks. Taking their bags, they luckily got to forego all the crowds out front of the stadium. Instead, they got to use the side entrance of the building, just as soon as they could get their papers cleared.

\t“Um, here,” Glint said, handing their papers to the security guard out front.

\tHe was a large… large Snorlax. Some kind of really big, really fat, blue cat or something… It sure had ears like a cat, and claws too. It sat on its rump, its sheer size and bulk able to cover the side doors to the arena completely. He wore a uniform… who knew how tailored it had to be for his size? He didn’t say much as he snatched up the papers and peered at them through his squinty eyes.

\t“Oh god…” Glint started a thought.

\t“… I hope we don’t have to fight anything like THAT!” Spark finished the thought.

\t“Excuse me… are you here for the competition?”

\tGlint and Spark looked away from the guard for a moment to address who spoke to them.

\tIt was a girl, with tanned skin, wearing an orange sweater and a red skirt. She stood with her hands folded together in front of her politely, and peered at the twins through red-framed glasses. She had lovely eyes, an amber colour that reminded them of Nori’s eyes. What stood out the absolute most about the girl though was her… hair? It looked almost like wool, or something similar. White fluff topped her head and poofed out behind her at such a size that it seemingly dwarfed her. It also wrapped around her neck like a scarf or something. In that sense, she almost looked like some kind of sheep or a ram based on the fact that she seemed to have little green horns that curled down against the sides of her head.

\tShe was a Whimsicott, unbeknownst to the twins.

\t“Yes, we are,” Spark answered, “Why?”

\t“Oh, no reason… I am too,” She said, giving the twins a smile, “My name’s Whitney… My partner hasn’t arrived just yet, and I was out here waiting for him.”

\t“I’m Spark,” Spark said, looking to his sister afterwards, “And this is Glint. We’re entering the doubles tournament… does that mean you are too?”

\t“Oh, yes, I am!” The Whimsicott said. Her voice sounded as soft as she looked – and not just her wooly hair or clothes. She had a thick set of thighs too, and a curvy chest… she looked a little chubby, “That would mean that we’re competitors. Is this your first? I haven’t seen you before…”

\t“Mhm,” Glint nodded, “We’re fresh out of the Poké Center you could say.”

\tClasping her hands together in front of her, Whitney smiled, though her expression almost looked… lazy and air-headed. “Aww, that’s cuuuute…” She swooned, “I really hope you two have a real good time here… and win too! Or, almost win anyways… I’d kind of like to win…”

\t“Heh! Well hopefully we don’t have to fight each other then,” Glint grinned, “I’d hate to kick your butt!”

\t“Oh my…” Whitney shrunk, reaching back to tug her wool in around her body protectively.

\tThe Snorlax broke the pleasantries by speaking in a gruff voice, “You two can go on in.”

\tThe guard shifted his considerably bulk onto his feet, and waddled aside, to sit back down again, clearing the way to the door. His sitting down made the ground shake a little bit, much to the surprise of the three young Pokémon.

\t“Oh, okay!” Spark smiled, looking to Whitney and waving, “It was nice meeting you Whitney!”

\tThe girl stayed all huddled in her wool, mumbling something about her butt.

\tSpark waved again with a sheepish grin, before stepping in through the doors with his sister.

\t“Was it something I said?” Glint asked, as the heavy metal door closed behind them, marking their first step towards their first Pokébattle Tournament.

Pokémon Rumble – Chapter 3
\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

\tThe roaring cheers of the crowd drowned out any noise, in the stadium turned Pokémon arena. It looked so basic, the floors having been painted with a large white rectangle, and the symbolic Poké Ball right smack in the middle of it all. But with how the bright lights shined overhead, how the crowd was on its feet, and how the banners around the outside of the arena had official sponsors plastered all over them… it looked very impressive regardless of the minimalistic approach.

\tGlint and Spark stood on the arena grounds with plenty of other Pokémon of all shapes and sizes, waiting to compete. It was the last little bit of hype before the event would finally begin – a “meet the contestants,” if you will.

\t“Hello and welcome to another Junior Pokébattle Extravaganza, hosted by the official Pokémon League!” Came a loud, showman’s voice over the PA system. Anyone who looked closely would see that the voice came from one of two announcers who had a booth set up for them in a skybox, where they would see all the action from. Nobody could really see who was up there though.

\t“My name is Jeff Grundle, and joining me tonight in the commentator’s box is former Junior and Senior Pokébattle champion, Cinder!”

\t“Hello Jeff, and welcome everyone,” A strong female voice came from the PA. She didn’t say much more than that.

\t“Tonight we have a real show folks,” Said Jeff, “These young competitors will face off against one another in a series of competitions, from single battles to thrilling three-ways! I hope you’ve all strapped on your wetsuits, because we’re going to dive right in!”

\t“Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting any longer…” Cinder remarked.

\t“Heh! No we wouldn’t!” Jeff responded, “Audience, cast your eyes on the battlegrounds, and get a good look at tonight’s competitors! You’re going to see them butting heads before too long. Competitors! Give the good people a wave and a bow!”

\tMany of the Pokémon crowding the arena floor paid their dues to the crowds with waves, bows, salutes, and whatever other gestures of appreciation they could show. Glint and Spark were so overwhelmed, standing side-by-side, that they couldn’t do anything more than gawk at the sheer number of spectators. It was clear they were new, uncomfortable, and anxious… The wait to start had been killing them as badly as it was killing the audience for the night.

\t“Alright competitors, head into the back and rest up, because your time is coming!” Jeff’s voice echoed. The twins made their way off the field with the others, funneling out single-file.

\tAs the sounds of the cheers died down, Spark looked to Glint nervously. “I… I wish they’d just start and get this over with.”

\t“I feel almost nauseous,” Glint said with a sheepish grin, “B-But don’t worry! We’ll be okay, we just have to focus!”

\tThe drill was simple. Wait in the back locker rooms until it was your turn to go out and give the crowd a show… those rooms were so packed full of Pokémon men and women, the twins felt oh-so-small… smaller than usual! It was hard to hear anything with all the chatter going on between teams and opponents alike… and some even got into heated arguments they were more than anxious to settle on the field.

\tGlint and Spark stayed quiet for the most part, making sure their clothes were as neat as they could get. They didn’t change out of their usual clothing… those lazy cargo pants of theirs and those sneakers they wore were just iconic of them… it felt wrong to get all dressed up like some of the others. They’d brought changes of clothing just in case, but for the most part, they just went with their casual look.

\tThe battles didn’t last for too long really. That was a good thing, since there were so many fights to get through… the fact that some Pokémon knocked out others in a single hit was a benefit to time constraints, but made for a boring show over-all. Glint and Spark watched on the TV hanging in the corner of the changing rooms… They watched a few one-on-one fights and even one three-on-three… Sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on when too many Pokémon were on the field at once, but no one could deny that it was a spectacle. With thunderbolts, fireballs, and gusts of wind strong enough to carve through pavement, Pokémon battles really brought their own flavor to it.

\tIt seemed like it came too quick when the twins were finally called upon.

\t“Glint and Spark! You’re up!” Shouted a liaison.

\tThe twins squeaked, startled from their TV-trance, but got to their feet quickly and shuffled out of the locker rooms nervously. The attendant escorted them to the entrance to the arena… There were two entrances, one on either side. Opponents walking out to meet on center field made it more… dramatic to watch, and really gave a sense of two opposing forces going at it. The twins couldn’t see their opponents, just silhouettes. The lights were far too bright out on the field to really offer a good look.

\t“Well… here goes…” Glint sighed as she took a deep breath, looking to Spark. Spark looked back into her eyes and forced a smile to try and mask his own uneasiness.

\t“Let’s give it our best,” He said with a nod, taking Glint’s hand into his own.

\t“All right everyone; here come the next mighty warriors to duke it out!” Came Jeff’s voice on the PA. The liaison ushered the twins out the tunnel and into the light at that cue, and they stepped out only to stop. So many eyes! They gulped, squeezed one another’s hand, and carried on.

\t“Oh no! This looks like a bad first fight for the Red Team!” Jeff’s voice remarked. Glint and Spark had to check how their side was colour coded to be sure they knew who he was talking about… Their side was blue.

\t“The Red Team, Meryl and Tina, are up against the Blue Team, Glint and Spark! The type difference is really going to make it here folks,” Jeff carried on.

\t“You can’t be certain,” Cinder’s strong, feminine voice cut in, “Glint and Spark are newcomers to this sort of competition. Elemental weaknesses can even succumb to experience in battle.”

\tAs the twins approached center stage, they did their best to size up their opponents… One was a Marill, a blue, mouse-like Pokémon. She was a stout and robust girl, having an all-too-obvious roundness to her frame. She looked nervous… her emerald eyes could barely look up from her feet, and she clutched the bobble-ball at the end of her jagged tail close to her chest. Her little round ears kept twitching as the commentators commented back and forth to one another about possible outcomes to the fight, but the girl seemed more concerned about covering her body up. She was wearing something similar to a wrestler’s one-piece leotard, and was obviously put off by how revealing it was of her chunky frame.

\tThe other was much different. She was tall, fit, a Lopunny, an earthy-toned rabbit Pokémon with absolutely massive ears, tipped with light fluff. She had no shame in her body it seemed, as she wore a black top that she had tied off in a knot under her breasts, and a pair of blue denim daisy-dukes. Her legs looked fit, her thighs thick, and it wasn’t surprising… A Lopunny ought to have strong legs, no doubt about it. They made up a fair deal of her height, and she wasn’t even wearing shoes, preferring to go barefoot.

\tWhen both teams reached the center of the arena, close enough to talk to, the crowd just kind of faded into background noise for the lot of them. They were more focused on each other.

\t“Howdy there!” The Lopunny said, adjusting the trucker cap on her head.

\tGlint and Spark were caught off guard by the casual approach of the Lopunny. The Marill didn’t say anything.

\t“Glint and Spark, huh? I’m Tina, and this shy doll is Meryl,” The Lopunny continued, nodding her head towards the shy Marill, “No hard feelin’s no matter what happens, right?”

\t“R-Right…” Spark said, not sure how to react.

\t“Aw, don’t ya’ll be frettin’ none,” Tina giggled, holding out her hand, “Let’s have a good ol’ fashioned rumble, okay?”

\tThey all exchanged handshakes, the twins taken back by the sportsmanship displayed. Somehow they weren’t expecting their own opponents to be so welcoming to them. After the courtesy was done with, the teams stepped back to give each other a respectable distance. The twins followed suit as their opponents stood before them, settling into fighting stances.

\t“Remember, just hit them fast and hard,” Glint said, shifting her gaze to Spark, “Hit the ground running.”

\t“Mm.” Spark gave a brief nod and a deep breath, trying to relax himself.

\t“Get ready…!”

\tGlint stared forwards, the Marill standing across from her. Compared to Meryl’s stance, Glint was looking confident… how could she lose to someone who seemed too bashful to even stand up in front of a group of people? The fight was going to be a piece of cake, she was sure of it!

\t“GO!”

\tThe twins were off like marathon runners at a starter’s pistol. They charged forwards at high speeds, hoping to catch the pair before they were ready… it wasn’t exactly as easy as they had planned it in their heads though.

\tTina squat down low to load her legs like a spring, and used her leg strength to launch herself into the air. She leapt tremendously high up over the twins and Spark tried to follow her with his eyes, but his gaze caught the bright spotlights bearing down on them, and he lost track of her. He could barely see her frame sailing over him, and he stumbled to a stop to turn and catch where she’d land. She was quick, falling perfectly into her landing and springing up from the impact with an uppercut the Minun barely was able to avoid. Tina had him on the ropes, following up with a series of kicks that had the Minun backing away to try and get some breathing room.

\tGlint was puzzled as The Marill took a deep breath and rolled herself up into a ball rather than make any move to dodge or block Glint’s assault. When the blue mouse started to roll in place though, Glint took pause. “What the heck…?” The Plusle asked herself, watching as the rotund Marill picked up speed in her roll, but didn’t go anywhere… she was like a car that had yet to let up on the brake.

\t“Go on and ROLL OUT, Meryl!” Shouted the announcer’s voice.

\t“Roll ou--?” Glint could barely get the question out of her mind before Meryl suddenly launched forwards, a rolling ball of blue and spandex sailing through the air towards Glint. The Plusle gasped, though it was effectively cut off. Meryl bounced off the ground and struck Glint’s body like some kind of high-speed rubber ball, bouncing right off and into the air as Glint fell backwards with a “gugh!” She was laid out flat on her back, seeing stars. As she recovered, she saw Meryl circling around like some kind of armadillo rolling along the ground. Meryl stopped, rolling in place for a moment, picking up more speed, and launched herself towards Glint again.

\t“Gah!” Glint’s ears shot up as Meryl came back for another run at her, and the Plusle scrambled to her feet and ran as quickly as her legs could take her – it almost looked like a boulder scene from some adventure movie. She barely had time to throw herself aside as Meryl came at her, causing the blue blubbery ball to go soaring right past her.

\tThe spectacle was drawing roaring cheers from the crowd. Glint almost looked goofy trying to out-run and dodge Meryl, while Spark was suppressed by a flurry of kicks from Tina.

\tSpark ducked under a kick that was swung towards his head, pushing himself under Tina’s leg to circle around behind her. He threw a punch, but the dexterous Lopunny simply sprung forwards, leaping a distance to ensure she wouldn’t get hit. Spark clenched his teeth in annoyance. The darn bunny had been leaping around since the fight started, and it was making his task of hitting her too difficult. No matter how fast she was, all she had to do was leap into the air and the poor Minun was helpless!

\tHe charged at her, shouting out in his anger, just trying to take the Lopunny down. If he could just get her off her feet…!

\t“Boing~!” Tina mused as she leapt up and simply leap-frogged over the charging Minun easily. Spark stumbled as she did this, regaining his footing and whipping around to see the Lopunny taunting him! The Lopunny turned her back on him and wiggled her wide hips, shaking her considerable rear at him. Spark’s attention snapped from her backside to the back of her head, knowing she was probably grinning ear to ear.

\t“Spark, gangway!”

\tHearing Glint’s voice, Spark turned around in a shot to see… a rolling blue mouse charging at him at high speeds. Tina had done such a good job distracting him that the rampaging roller took his legs out from under him as she collided with him. Spark was laid out in the air for a moment as he fell forwards. No matter how much he flailed his arms, he couldn’t stop his chin smacking the arena floor hard. He let out a pitiful squeak as he landed; his eyes clenched shut as he tried to absorb the impact. The wind had been nearly knocked out of him.

\tHurrying to her brother’s side, she helped him to his feet. She was panting, looking rather ragged, like she’d just run a whole mile. “This isn’t what I expected…” Glint panted, “What do we do? They’re not holding still!”

\t“You… you gotta give me a boost, okay?” Spark responded, looking to his sister, then to their opponents. Both Meryl and Tina were coming back for another round.

\t“What about the butter-ball boulders there?!” Glint squawked back.

\tSpark got to his feet and grinned. “Just think of her as a soccer ball.”

\tGlint turned her attention towards Meryl. She was coming at them so fast that she was kicking up dust as she went. Glint stared her down, trying to envision the rolling water Pokémon as nothing more than her favourite soccer ball, the one she practiced with in the park with her brother. She could almost see the resemblance, watching as Meryl came at them like she did. Glint’s mind clicked. She knew what to do!

\tRather than run or avoid the ball, she went straight for it! The Plusle took off in a dash to meet the Marill. Moments before Meryl could make contact, Glint danced around her like she would when trying to steal the ball in a soccer game. Her sneakered feet tapped around the zaftig Pokémon, and once behind her, Glint followed up with the hardest kick she could muster! Meryl squeaked as Glint’s sneaker hit her right on the backside, sending her balled-up frame into the air right towards her brother. It was out of her control now; Meryl was a victim of the twins’ momentum!

\tSpark did what any good soccer player would do when he wanted to perform a hard intercept… or at least one as talented as he was. He jumped up into the air and head butt the ball right out of the air. Meryl squeaked out again as she was sent sailing in the other direction, unable to maintain her grip. Her body uncurled and she was sent back at Glint. Glint’s fist crackled with electricity, and she drove it in against the poor Marill’s back. Once more, Meryl’s body was jerked in the opposite direction, but that electricity shocked her to her core.

\tThe Marill was finished. She fell to the ground in a heap and didn’t move. She was as good as unconscious.

\t“One down!” Glint squealed, clapping her hands.

\tGlint’s view of Spark was obstructed as Tina dropped out of the air and landed in front of her. The Lopunny turned around, winding up her fist in a spinning, almost cartoony manner, and then feeding the Plusle a knuckle-sandwich. Glint was woefully unprepared, her head snapping back as she stumbled backwards from the force. She was dazed, and almost fell, but managed to keep her footing. Tina would leap away as she heard Spark running up to assist, once again putting distance between her and the twins.

\tSpark grabbed Glint’s hand and pulled her steady. “Unnh…” Glint groaned as she shook out the cobwebs, “Oof, that was sudden… Catch the number of that train?”

\t“You okay?” Spark asked, holding his sister’s shoulders, “Can you help me get at her?”

\t“Eh? Oh… yeah! Yeah!” Glint grinned, holding her fingers up in a victory sign, “A boost, right? You got it!”

\tFinally the twins turned their attention onto the evasive Tina. Spark gave Glint a pat on the back to signal her to start running, and she rushed forwards just as Tina was expecting. Spark wasn’t far behind. As the two rushed in, Tina squat down to spring-load herself again, ready to leap at a moment’s notice. The twins were waiting for that.

\tWhen Tina finally did propel herself off the ground, Spark shouted, “Glint, NOW!”

\tGlint pushed her body to the limit, running as fast as she could, until she could plant her sneakers on the ground and slide. Probably ruining the soles of her shoes, she turned in her slide to kneel down and brace her hands for her brother. Spark was a second after his sister, stepping one foot into her hands, where she would put all her strength and body into throwing him upwards into the air. The result was just what Spark wanted – he was sailing right up towards Tina… intercept trajectory!

\tThe Lopunny was flipping gracefully through the air, unaware of Spark’s rapid ascent towards her. “Here I come…!” Spark exclaimed, his body surging with an electrical charge he was building up. But even he was shocked at just how he got hold of Tina.

\tThe Lopunny’s eyes shot open wide in the air as she felt Spark’s arms wrap around her from behind. She was in utter disbelief, but better still, she felt him right up against her ass! Poor Spark was shocked to find that the only way he could grab hold and push his body close was by Tina’s lower body… His face was squished right up against her overly-bubbly backside. The static shock and surging energy from Spark’s body tickled, but Tina could hardly enjoy it, because despite the awkward situation, Spark still discharged all his stored power at once!

\t“G-G-Goood GRAAA-AAVY!” Tina wailed as she felt her body being electrocuted, causing her muscles to seize up and her brain to register pain… pain from everywhere!

\tThe two colliding in mid-air stopped Tina’s original course cold, and the two were falling like a bag of bricks towards the arena floor. Spark took the brunt of the landing, smashing into the ground on his back with Tina right on top. The poor boy was smothered by so much bodacious bunny booty that he couldn’t even hear the shrieking cheers from the crowd for a moment. Tina’s body lay still atop his, and after a moment, he mustered up the strength to push her off of him.

\t“Spark!” Glint hurried to his side and helped him up, “Spark, are you okay?!”

\t“D-Don’t worry… the ground broke my fall…” Spark chuckled with a cough.

\tThere was a brief silence from the crowd.

\t“… And Tina goes down, down, DOWN!” Jeff the announcer shouted over the announcement system, causing the crowd to erupt into loud cheers again… this time in celebration of the twins’ victory. The twins could hardly believe it… they had to look back just to check and see if Tina and Meryl were indeed passed out on the floor.

\t“That was awful resourceful,” Cinder, the guest announcer said, “Very impressive.”

\t“That’s what I call a shocker!” Jeff chuckled.

\t“…” Cinder was silent for a moment, “… Your crude humor is untactful.”

\t“Glint and Spark win!” Jeff announced, “Congratulations!”

\tThe twins looked all around them, as if they’d forgotten about the crowd, and they smiled brightly, suddenly filled with such a tremendous amount of pride. The rush of battle made them tremble in their victory, and they… laughed. They laughed in disbelief and joy, unable to control the reaction. Glint hugged Spark tight, and held him close, which was a welcome embrace after the whole ordeal.

\tThe two of them just relished in their victory for what felt like ages before they’d find themselves in the back locker rooms again.

\t“Omigawd~!” Glint cried, beaming and bouncing happily around the locker room, overjoyed and not afraid to show it. She bounced around the bench Spark sat on before simply jumping over it and planting herself in a seat next to him. “We won! We really won our first Pokémon Tournament match! And you were so cool!”

\t“You were cool!” Spark beamed back to his sister, before she tackled him off the bench and onto the floor in her excitement.

\t“Hee-hee~” She giggled, planting kisses all over Spark’s cheeks. Both their faces were flush from exertion and excitement, and they were sparkling, literally, in delight.

\t“H-Howdy down there ya’ll…”

\tLooking up, the twins saw Tina and Meryl standing over them. They didn’t look overly beat up, but both of them were still smoking from the electrical charges they’d suffered. Tina took a moment to lick her fingers and pinch a tuft of her fur on her one shoulder to stop it from smoking. It made a hissing sound, as if she’d put out a candle.

\t“H-Hello…” Meryl finally spoke, so very soft-spoken, and now wearing glasses, “Congratulations…”

\tTina grinned widely and gave them a thumb up. “Yeah, darn tootin’!” She gleefully chirped in her lovely southern accent, “I reckon I ain’t seen nothin’ like that before! I didn’t expect ya’ll to snatch me outta the air like a flyin’ plum!”

\t“Like a… what?” Glint furrowed a brow.

\t“That don’t matter now,” Tina giggled, “Just wanted to give ya a holler and say good job. You guys may be spring chickens on this ranch, but ya’ll pack a real whallop!”

\t“Well, we had the advantage over one of you…” Spark said, trying to be modest, and Meryl’s reaction was almost saddening. The poor girl looked like she was ready to cry.

\t“B-But even so, you guys really put up a fight! I-I mean, wow!” Spark continued in a fluster, “M-Meryl! You really had us going for a while, I… was really impressed!”

\t“Really…?” The Marill asked, biting her lip softly.

\t“Really! I thought you were going to make me road kill,” Glint chimed in, sitting up astraddle her brother, “You’re a really good fighter!”

\tThis brought a smile to Meryl’s face, and they all shared a good laugh over the fight and how it panned out. In the end, it really felt like what they had done was just for fun. They had a good time doing it, and no one was sore about it.

\t“Mmf, we need to go ahead and lick our wounds some more, ya’ll,” Tina finally said with a smile and a nod to the twins, “But you can bet your bonnet we’re gonna be watchin’ you guys!”

\t“Thanks!” The twins beamed together.

\t“Ya’ll behave now,” Tina said, before leaning down and pinching one of Spark’s cheeks with a smirk, “Especially you, darlin’. Ya’ll’re welcome to stop by my garage sometime for a little practice session.”

\t“Goodbye,” Meryl murmured, bowing her head politely.

\tThe two left then, walking away and leaving the twins to themselves. The twins giggled, giddy over their win, before Glint paused.

\t“Wait, did she just hit on you?”

\t…

\tNori plopped down onto the couch in his living room with a sigh. Work had been tough on him that day, and the summer heat wasn’t helping. Now that it was the evening, he was set to relax. His tail flicked up as he leaned forwards, pressing the lip of the cap sealing a bottle of root beer up against the corner of his coffee table. With careful placement, he pushed forwards on the bottle, popping the cap off with a hiss. He snatched the cap up off the floor after it fell, set it on the table, and leaned back again.

\tResting his bare feet on the table, he sighed. “Alright TV, shower me in your heavily biased opinions,” He said, snagging the remote from somewhere on the couch and flipping the TV on.

\t“… about two dozen eggs, throw ‘em in a bowl, MIX THE FU…”

\t“… on Highway 11. No injuries reported in…”

\t“… a coma until next season.”

\tNori’s expression was deadpan as he flipped through the channels gracing his satellite TV. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but something interesting enough to distract him was choice.

\tFinally he came upon something interesting. He managed to find on the sports channel… Live feed of the Junior Pokébattle Tournament that was being hosted in his town. Watching it on TV probably wasn’t like seeing the real thing, but he was more curious than anything. This was what his kids were trying to go to… He had a pre-conceived notion about the nature of the event, but… well, at least if he was proven wrong, he didn’t have to tell anybody.

\tSo he watched, sipping on his sugary beverage every now and then as he took in what it was to Pokébattle. He watched as some strange creature that resembled a sharp, blue duck throw his opponent - some kind of hornet with sharp spikes jutting from his forearms – around the arena… seemingly with his mind. Nori kind of squinted, sitting up straight and leaning forwards a bit to watch more closely. Was that duck psychic? No, that had to be staged…

\tHe watched some strange cloaked creature – later learned to be a Forslass – whip up a snowstorm from seemingly nowhere as it fought a strange little yellow creature that looked like it had a massive black jaw jutting from the back of its head. He watched some silly-looking man in what looked like a purple skirt and a pair of boxing gloves throttle the hell out of what looked like a puddle of purple goo. He may have been the most surprised by the small camel that could spew fire from the hump on its back like a geyser. No, he was the most surprised by the big round red and white ball that seemingly self-destructed at the first given opportunity.

\t“… Wow, what the hell?” He asked himself after a fair bit of watching. His soda was gone, and he was relaxed, but mostly confused. How could this not be fake? Glint and Spark were something special, he thought… was there really an entire species of animal out there that had super-powers? If wrestling was acting, Pokémon battles had to be the triple-A Hollywood productions that spend billions on special effects and computer generated graphics.

\tAfter a moment of contemplation and laziness, Nori suddenly got up from his seat. “Bathroom break,” He muttered to himself, leaving the room to do his business in the nearby bathroom. He kept an ear out, listening to the odd commentators banter back and forth about the fights they were seeing.

\t“… Glint and Spark…!”

\tNori’s ear gave an abrupt twitch. He leaned aside while tending to his relief to stick his head out the door, listening more intently while not much paying attention to his ‘number 1.’

\t“They’ll be pit against a couple of tough foes this time around. I wonder if they’ll pull through again? Only one way to find out!”

\tNori’s eyes squinted.

\t“Son of a bitch,” He muttered to himself, before gasping and ducking quickly back into the bathroom.

\t“Aw, son of a bitch!” His voice echoed throughout the house.

\tIt wasn’t long before Nori was racing up the stairs. He ran to his kids’ room, and paused in front of it. He thought to himself that he’d open the door, and see his kids there… behaving, being good. Spark would be reading a book; Glint might be playing on her DS… Or maybe they turned in to bed for the night after tuckering themselves out, and that’s why he hadn’t heard them before. His kids would be there, and he’d be a crazy old man hearing things while he watched late-night television.

\tHe threw the door open quickly, slamming it against the wall and looking inside the room. He looked… entirely unimpressed and completely unsurprised. No Glint. No Spark. The room was devoid of teenagers.

\t“… Yep,” Nori sighed.

\tHe carefully closed the door and turned away, a look of deep contemplation on his face.

\tHe was out the door in seconds, running down his front steps and stumbling at the end. One of his sandals had fallen off, and he turned to see it, cursing himself and running back to slide his foot back into it. He had his keys, and he had his plan: to get to the stadium and drag his kids out without first murdering them. Just as he was half-way to his car however, a familiar pick-up truck pulled up next to his house, stopping on the road and honking its horn.

\tThe passenger side door opened, and Nori could make out Sammy’s face as she peered out at him.

\t“Need a ride?” She’d ask simply.

\tNori was in the truck in a second, pulling the passenger side door closed.

\t“I am a seething pot of rage, boiling over with discontent,” He muttered.

\tSammy shifted gears and pulled away before the raccoon had even gotten his seatbelt. “Uh huh,” She said, taking off in her truck down the road, “Well I guess this is a good time to ask if you want to go see a show.”

\t“Mm?” Nori arched a brow and looked over at Sammy. She had a pair of tickets for the event stuck between her breasts, her cleavage holding them snug with the help of her tank top. Nori casually reached over and pulled one of the tickets free, eying it.

\t“Why don’t you give it a shot before you dismiss it, hm?” Sammy would ask.

\tNori looked at her suspiciously. “I somehow get the feeling you knew about this,” He said.

\t“Sudden right turn!” Sammy shouted.

\tShe took a right turn into town sharply enough to toss the raccoon inside the driver’s compartment of the truck, purposely making him yelp just to silence his accusations. Having his face fall in against her breasts helped pacify him, at least for a while.

\tThe heavy, strong truck carried on down the road, the lights of the stadium shining high in the air in the distance...

\tPokémon Rumble – Chapter 4
\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

\tThe Junior Pokébattle Exhibition Tournament was still going strong.

\tIt seemed like the briefest of moments that the crowd was silent as they waited for the next match to start. On the Blue side, Glint and Spark, a pair of Plusle and Minun twins, stood ready. After their first match against two surprising opponents, they had rested up and were ready to go in strong once again. But they stood there looking puzzled as their opponent approached.

\tYes, one single opponent, and she was familiar. The twins never would have forgotten the wooly fluff that dominated the girl’s body, sprouting from her head like the softest, most downy hair.

\t“Whitney?!” Spark gasped, having had to search his memory for the name.

\tThe girl smiled warmly, nodding her head, reaching up to adjust the red-framed glasses she wore. “Yes, hello!”

\t“Where’s your partner?” Glint would ask.

\t“GLINT AND SPARK!” Came a familiar shout, startling the twins.

\tFrom Whitney’s cottony bundle of fluffiness popped Salem’s head, jutting out from the mess like he’d been hiding in there all along. His sharp-toothed smile and eerie gaze met the twins, and he looked ecstatic to see them. His arms popped out from either side of Whitney’s fluff, then his legs, and with a shake of her body, Whitney shook the Sableye loose. He tumbled to the arena floor and scrambled to his feet, hurrying over to Glint and snatching up her hands, staring up at her.

\t“Meet again, we do!” He chirped, “It has been so long since the valiant red and blue saved poor Salem from starving! Like saviors from the sky, with their long legs!”

\t“Ugh, it’s you!” Glint pulled her hands away quickly, causing poor Salem to stumble a bit as he tried to maintain his grip, “We have to fight you?!”

\t“YES!” Salem hopped back, striking a kung-fu pose he must have seen on TV, though his head tilted around as if he couldn’t really see, his gaze sweeping over the entire arena. “Today Salem stands before you as big mean bad-guy-guy! We see who strongest, young samurai!”

\tFolding her hands in front of her, Whitney bowed respectfully to the twins. “I’m sorry to say, but that is how the cookie metaphorically crumbled,” She said, shedding a decidedly fitting sheepish smile.

\t“I’m actually pretty interested in this…!” Spark chuckled, taking Whitney’s hand, and then Salem’s, giving both a shake. He had to squat down a bit for Salem. “Well, let’s see what you can do!”

\t“And here we go, folks, another round of Pokémon on Pokémon… on Pokémon on Pokémon battling!” Jeff the announcer’s voice bellowed out over the stadium’s loudspeakers, “Hold on tight! Combatants, get ready!”

\tGlint and Spark slid easily into their fighting stances.

\t“Get set…!”

\tWhitney took a deep breath, closing her eyes to get into her zone. She moved her hands, closing them almost together in front of her, as if she were holding a ball. Salem struck every goofy kung-fu pose he could remember from all the movies he’d watched on TV, from the crane to the monkey, to the drunken fist.

\t“GO! FIGHT! START!”

\tAs soon as the start was signaled, Salem made his move. His purple body slowly faded to complete black, wisps of the blackness flickering off his body like some kind of smoke. He melted into the floor quickly, the smog dissipating as if the Sableye had simply fallen apart. The twins both jumped at the odd sight… and were startled worse when the black mist formed the distinct shape of Salem’s shadow before darting across the floor at tremendous speeds! The black shadow stretched as it raced across the arena and under the twins’ feet.

\tSalem’s shadow stood at Glint’s ankles as if it were her own, and he shot up from the ground like a leaping ninja, black mist puffing up into the air as if he’d leapt right out of his own shadow. Glint barely turned around before Salem’s foot connected with her cheek in a hard round-house, sending the Plusle helplessly twirling through the air. She spun a good two times before hitting the floor. Salem landed again and struck another pose, his hands trembling.

\t“Hoooooaaah~!” He breathed out like a cheesy martial artist.

\t“And the first strike goes to Salem!” Jeff exclaimed to the roars of the crowd, “What a sneaky little devil!”

\tSalem yelped as he was suddenly grabbed under the arms by Spark. He hadn’t been paying any attention to the Minun at all, and had paid for it. Spark lifted him up off the ground much to his chagrin, and Salem just started flailing his arms and legs. Before Spark could do anything though, a sharp impact struck his side and threw him to the ground where he lost his grip on Salem. Salem tumbled away, and Spark scrambled up to check his side. It felt like he’d had a bowling ball thrown at him… Nothing worse than a bruising would result of it, but the most curious part was that he couldn’t see what hit him, no matter how much he looked around for it.

\tHis eyes shot across the battle field, past his sister, to Whitney, who stood a fair ways off. Floating between the Whimsicott’s hands as she swept them around in a strange, almost magical motion was a ball of light. The light was a shining bright white, but had hints of green sweeping around it in ribbons. When Spark caught her eye, she thrust her hand out to toss the energy ball towards him. It raced through the air like a pitched fast ball, and Spark barely rolled out of the way, where the ball would hit the floor and dissipate into the air in twinkling green particles.

\tGlint sat up, one hand bracing her weight on the ground, the other rubbing her cheek. For a little guy, Salem sure could kick hard. She saw Spark dodge out of the way of some kind of projectile, before noticing that Salem was preparing something much the same. Above his hands he’d somehow conjured up shadowy, black orbs… and without much time to think, he’d thrown them as hard as he could at Glint. She squeaked as she scrambled backwards to make sure the blobby orbs struck the floor, disappearing when they did.

\t“This is worse than dodgeball!” Glint groaned.

\t“Hey, I like dodgeball!” Spark retorted.

\tGlint rolled her eyes as she scrambled to her feet, “Close the gap!”

\tSpark rolled his eyes, because Glint was telling him to do what he had already thought to do. Closing distances was generally easy for the twins, since they were so quick on their feet, but to do so against a barrage of light and dark projectiles? They knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Fortunately, they had little tricks up their sleeves to help in such a situation.

\tRushing towards Salem, Glint utilized as much of her speed as physically possible for her to duck and weave side to side. The left and right motions in her stride were so quick to the naked eye that she often left after-images of herself, making it look as if two of her were rushing Salem. She may as well have been skating across the arena floor, regardless of the fact that it resembled a clay tennis court… And it was working! Salem frantically let fly his shadow orbs, throwing them as fast as he could conjure them up in his hands, but he just couldn’t catch Glint. Throwing to the after-images of the Plusle meant his targets would often phase out of existence before he hit.

\tBefore reaching Salem, Glint leapt up, electricity crackling over her arm, moving down towards her hand. She decided to respond in kind to Salem, concentrating her electrical energy into a ball in her hand, and using her entire body’s weight to throw it at him. He gasped and stumbled backwards, falling onto his rear as the electric orb struck the ground with a light flash, leaving a black, smoking splotch in its wake. He trembled a little, but scrambled backward further as Glint kept up the assault.

\tSpark dashed on, not able to project his body quite the same way Glint could, but he was quick even so. Whitney kept up her long-range assault, but Spark was able to duck, roll and leap past the flying energy balls and only get grazed by a couple. He was on Whitney before too long, winding back a punch to send her way. Whitney’s reaction was a knee-jerk squeal in fright, and she grabbed hold of her wooly fluff that dwarfed the back of her body and tugged it around her like a protective cocoon. Just before Spark’s punch connected, her fluff puffed out like she’d inflated an airbag.

\tSpark blinked as his fist sunk into pillowy softness, and didn’t even seem to connect too hard with Whitney’s body. “Whaa…?” He reared back to punch again, and again, and again. He threw his fists as hard as he could, but it was like he was trying to beat up a beanbag chair. His fists sunk in so far into the cotton that he’d lose sight of them… and Whitney’s only real response was a wiggle every time, trying to keep her balance.

\t“Get out of there!” Spark shouted, his body discharging electricity in his rage. But even that couldn’t get through Whitney’s insulation. He shocked her time and again, but she only wiggled. When Spark finally paused, she poked her head out of her fluff.

\t“Okay,” She said, releasing her fluffiness and combing her hands back through it as if to fix it. She skipped backwards in the motion though, and gave a twirl, shaking free more stuff from her wooly fluff of a mop. Tiny seeds flung free and they pelted against Spark’s fur. He gasped as the seeds, rather than simply fall to the floor, actually clung to his fur and rooted inside of his body. Little sprouts popped out over his arms, and one even grew on the top of his head.

\tSpark gawked at the sprouts in confusion, looking up only to see an energy ball come flying his way. It struck him in the chest and took him off his feet, sending him flying back a few feet.

\t“SKEEE!” Salem cried as he frantically twisted his body to avoid Glint’s ankle as it came slamming down towards him. “EEEE!” Another punch went right over his head, and he tripped as he tried to avoid a leg-sweep, just barely managing to clip his feet. He tumbled to the ground in a somersault, and curled his knees up against his chest to roll a couple more times just to get distance between him and Glint.

\t“Hold still you little weasel!” Glint grunted, diving at him and trying to grab hold of him.

\t“No weasel!” Salem shouted as he jumped up, and planted a foot on the top of Glint’s head to spring off of her. She fell to the ground as he landed, looking back at her cautiously. “Is Salem!”

\tGlint stood quickly and turned around to face her opponent again, but Salem had already scrambled towards her on his hands and feet like a dog. She barely had time to blink before the little scamp had passed right between her legs and was behind her. Salem looked back again to see Glint’s backside, and got a clever little idea. He turned, and opened his jaws wide, and then clamped his sharp teeth right onto Glint’s rear end!

\t“EEK!” Glint squeaked in such a pitch, and she frantically pulled away from Salem as quickly as she could. There was a tearing sound. Glint turned to see Salem sitting upon the ground, red denim fabric sticking out of his mouth. He looked so innocent sitting there… spitting out the butt of her pants onto the floor.

\t“EeeeYEEEAH!” Salem screeched out as he clapped his hands together, “Hahaha! Salem butt-munch!”

\tGlint felt the breeze against her rear. Her underwear was exposed to everyone, the powder-pink thong probably looking plenty nice over her bubbly butt. A heavy blush spread across her cheeks.

\tSalem looked clueless as Glint’s foot connected with his jaw hard enough to send him into the air, well off his feet. She caught him, dashing forwards to snatch his leg up, violently tearing him out of the air to slam him down against the ground again. He wailed at the top of his lungs, frantically clawing at the floor as Glint pulled him backward, to lift him up and have him dangle upside down in front of her. She gave him the nastiest glare, and he could only smile pitifully.

\t“Erm… Salem think you have tasty butt,” Was all he could think to say.

\tGlint looked murderous as she held up her other fist, the built-up electrical charge within sending sparks and arcs of electricity all over her body.

\tSalem was still for a moment, before simply raising his hands to his face and covering his gemstone eyes.

\t“EEEeeeee-YEOW!” Salem wailed as he flew past Spark, hurled through the air by an electrical punch.

\t“W… What are these things?” Spark groaned, brought down to one knee, feeling as if his strength was being slowly sapped from his body. The sprouts he could see on his arms got a little bigger and a little leafier in spurts of growth every so often. He had no doubt they were to blame for his waning strength.

\t“Leech Seeds,” Whitney explained, “Another of my abilities. They sap the strength from you and give it to me.”

\t“N… Neat…” Spark grunted as he struggled to his feet.

\tWhitney took a deep breath and shivered noticeably when Spark’s body felt just slightly weaker. The sprouts grew just a little more, and Spark’s legs wobbled slightly, but he kept his balance. Whitney seemed to enjoy the feeling of the nutrients from Spark’s body being soaked into her body. It had a physical effect on her frame too, making her grow just a little bit bigger in every direction, but the effects were so slight that Spark never would have noticed.

\t“Absorbing nutrients from the earth and other beings is a strong point of mine,” She huffed, “It makes it quite difficult to beat me in battle.”

\t“I just have to dish out more than you can take from me,” Spark grinned back tiredly.

\tWhitney paused and mulled over the wording Spark at used. “… What?”

\tThe Minun rushed in while Whitney was distracted by her own mind, and before she could react, he swung around behind her as he grabbed her around the middle. Whitney was too shocked to react before Spark lifted her off the ground, using his legs to push as he bent backward, taking her down to the floor behind him in a surprisingly sudden backwards suplex, slamming her head against the floor. She yelped in pain, her glasses bouncing off her face and onto the floor.

\tSpark released her and rolled over onto his front, pushing himself onto his feet again. There was a moment of pause as the Leech Seeds sucked more of his strength from him, and he shuddered as he fell to his knees, hands planted on the ground to keep him up.

\tWhitney rolled to sit up, rubbing her head as she whined in pain. Shaking out the daze the impact had left her in, she shakily got to her feet as well. “You’re strong… But you can’t win like that,” She’d say, golden eyes gazing down at him, “You’re getting too weak now.”

\t“Not… done yet…” Spark muttered as he forced himself onto his feet, his sneakers squeaking against the floor as he stumbled, appearing to be stumbling about drunkenly. His vision was blurred and his head was light… it was hard for him to get his balance, let alone to move around. Somehow, he pushed forwards, tripping over his own feet, but grabbing hold of Whitney’s shoulders as he fell. Immediately, as if by reflex, the Whimsicott reached to grab hold of her cottony fluff and pull it around her, but before she could close the shield of pillowy softness, Spark grabbed her arms and wrenched them apart.

\tWhitney could only stare as Spark pulled back, and then slammed his forehead into hers roughly. It was the last move he could pull off before his legs gave way. He released Whitney and fell to the floor again just as she fell backwards as well. Spark caught himself on his hands and knees, and watched as Whitney was laid out by his attack. She was still conscious though, and Spark noticed this when she reached up to rub her head with a whine.

\t“Darn… it… Glint…” Spark panted, feeling the last of his strength be torn away by the blasted seeds sprouting from his body. They withered away as soon as Spark began falling to the floor, and when he hit, the sprouts were all gone, having finished their purpose. Spark’s consciousness faded away, as did his vision, the Minun surrendering to his fatigue and closing his eyes to finally rest.

\tWhitney steadied herself with a hand as she climbed to her feet, her legs a little shaky even though she’d beaten Spark. She took him in with a fleeting glance, knowing there were more important things to worry about than the Minun… like her partner. How was Salem doing? She hadn’t been able to watch.

\t“WHIIIIITNEEEEEY~!”

\tSalem’s shriek came so suddenly, that Whitney stumbled as she whipped around to see her partner sailing towards her through the air. She couldn’t react fast enough to catch him, the small Sableye instead hitting her in the face like some kind of living torpedo. It all felt like slow motion after that, the impact sending poor Salem into the air, and Whitney once again falling towards the floor. But the Plusle… she was too fast.

\tGlint was upon them in a flash, reaching up to snag Salem’s leg out of the air. Salem shrieked as he was yanked around, pulled by the Plusle and used as a living weapon once again to club Whitney as she fell. This slammed her into the floor, and the shock and impact strength had rendered her unconscious immediately.

\t“Don’t you DARE hurt my Sparkie!” Glint growled like a girl possessed.

\tSalem’s head was spinning as he sat up, finding he was atop Whitney’s fainted body. He yelped and cocked his head around in panic, taking in everything from every direction as quickly as he could. He saw Glint going for him once again, and before she could grab him, he quickly deformed his body into shadowy black mist. Glint would find her fingers pushing through Salem’s body like the fog he resembled, watching him slink away into the floor like he had when the match had started. This time though, Glint knew what was coming.

\tAs quick as a whistle, Salem had crept behind Glint and sprung up from the shadows to strike. His arms were out-stretched as he sought to grab the girl, but when he closed his arms in a hug, he found himself beaten at his own game… his arms faded through an after-image! Landing again, Salem looked at his hands in confusion, curling his fingers as if to process he had nothing in his grasp. His gaze shot up from his hands and he stared straight ahead at Glint’s shadow casting over him from behind.

\t“Nnnnhohno…” Salem croaked with a shiver of fright.

\tHe turned. She stomped. The sole of Glint’s sneaker smashed into Salem’s curious little face and fiercely pinned him to the floor under her heel. She pushed a little, and only got a slight jerk of Salem’s arms and legs in response… He was as good as out.

\t“Hell hath no fury like a Pokégirl! Glint wins it for the Blue Team!” Jeff the announcer shouted as it was obvious Salem wasn’t getting back up.

\tGlint spun on her heels and ran for Spark, falling to her knees beside her unconscious brother. She grabbed hold of him and shook him to try and rouse him, but received no response. “Spark? Spark?! Get up!” She shouted, but to no real result. She immediately felt as if her words had sunk down her throat and settled in the pit of her stomach as she shook him some more.

\tLooking up, she could see the strange pink Pokémon coming out to fetch the unconscious combatants… They wore nurse hats, and were shaped similarly to the eggs they kept in pouches on their exposed stomachs. Unlike Glint, Spark, and many other combatants, these Pokémon weren’t humanoid, instead having the anatomy as any feral, or ‘classic,’ Pokémon would. Any Pokémon would have recognized them immediately as Chansey, the “postermon” for caretaking and healing the world over. Four of them waddled out, each pair with a stretcher. One pair loaded up Spark, the other pair snatched up Whitney and laid Salem atop her body on the stretcher.

\t“Chan~sey! Chan~sey! Chan~sey!” The feral Pokémon chanted like ambulance sirens as they hurried off the arena with the lot of them. Glint hurried along behind, keeping in time with Spark as he was carted back.

\t…

\t“Good God, is he going to be okay?” Nori snapped his attention to Sammy in the seat next to him. He’d gawked at the ending scene of the fight so long; he hadn’t even noticed that he’d dropped a handful of the popcorn Sammy had gotten for them to share.

\t“Don’t worry, he’ll be just fine Nori,” Sammy said, reaching aside and patting the oh-so-distraught raccoon on the shoulders, “Those Chansey are going to take real good care of him.”

\t“And this was supposed to ease my mind?!” Nori squawked, “My son was out there growing saplings out of his damn fur for Pete’s sake!”

\t“W-Well, yes, but… did you watch them?” Sammy responded with a sheepish grin, before nodding towards the now empty arena, “Did you watch your kids participate? Despite the physical risk, they really enjoyed themselves. They got to let loose in a way day-to-day life couldn’t offer them, and they worked beautifully together. Aren’t you at least a little proud of them for winning?”

\tNori had to really think about what he was seeing… He just didn’t see it like Sammy did, no matter how hard she tried. He calmed, if only a little, not yelling in a manner that would make his voice crack at least. “Yes, yes, I am glad they won, I’m happy that they succeeded at something they set out to do, but…” Nori trailed off into a frustrated sigh. He didn’t know what to make of it beyond his own worry for his kids’ safety.

\t“And did you see Spark lay that head butt on that other girl?” Sammy asked, going back to speculating over the matches more casually.

\t“Well, yes, that was… well I didn’t think he was capable of something like that,” Nori admitted, sitting back uneasily in his seat, “And Glint! Remind me not to get on her bad side like that.”

\t“This is the kind of fighting spirit all Pokémon have,” Sammy said as she reached aside and snatched up a handful of popcorn from the tub settled in Nori’s lap, “And your kids, Glint and Spark, they’re strong. I always kind of expected they would be.”

\t“Yeah… they are,” Nori said, staring down at the arena.

\tSammy looked at him and tilted her head aside slightly, giving him as comforting a look as she could muster. “Have a little faith in them, Nori. You’ve got to trust that they’re going to give it their all, and be fine. If you just watch, I think you can learn a lot about them.”

\t“Learn… what, exactly?” Nori furrowed his brow in struggled thought.

\t…

\t“Oh God, this is all my fault…!” Glint nearly sobbed, standing over her brother who was resting in the infirmary area the League had set up for combatants to rest in after the matches.

\tSpark was resting peacefully in bed, white sheets pulled up over his body, his arms resting to his sides, bared from the coverings. He didn’t look to be in pain or any kind of suffering, and the Chansey were doing everything they could to help. They were making sure he was comfortable, and spraying him with what looked like some kind of weird spray-bottle. They had to work around Glint, since she refused to leave. One of the Chansey approached glint and sprayed her with the watery sprit of one of the bottles… right over her backside that was still exposed from the hole in her pants.

\t“Ouch!” Glint hissed as the spray, whatever it was, got into the teeth-marks on her butt, and stung like the dickens. She jerked away from the Chansey that was helping her, and swiped at the bottle that the little, chubby Pokémon quickly pulled away from her reach. “Knock it off!” Glint harped, the Chansey shouting back at her, but of course unable to communicate in any way other than saying its own name.

\t“So noisy!” Came Salem’s voice from the bed next to Spark’s, “Glint yell so loud! Make Salem’s head pound like Jigglypuff!”

\t“Shut up!” Glint hollered back, “I’m just worried!”

\tIn a row of three beds, Salem’s bed was between Spark’s and Whitney’s. Whitney sat up at the end of the row, her gaze dopey, if not sleepy, and pouty. She had a little X-shaped bandage stamped onto her forehead to cover up a bruise left by Spark. “Don’t be,” She said, looking over to Glint, “My Leech Seeds can’t cause any sort of fatal or even serious injury… He simply lost consciousness, and will be awake again before you know it.”

\tGlint glared at the two of them before looking down at Spark again.

\t“Salem sorry…” Salem pouted too as he sat up, “… Don’t mean to make Glint so mad. Salem just battle.”

\t“We don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Whitney said, shaking her head, “We both were knocked out, and you don’t see us acting that way.”

\t“Excuse me?” Glint snapped back to them, moving away from Spark and standing between Salem and Whitney’s beds, crossing her arms, “Is it so bad that I worry about my own brother?”

\tWhitney eyed Glint tiredly. “This isn’t the first time we’ve lost… Salem and I have competed in this tournament for three years straight… and we’ve never won more than a match before we were knocked out of the running,” She explained, “We learned fast that handling a loss is just as integral to a team as winning is… You’ve never lost before, have you?”

\t“This is our first tournament ever! We don’t even get to practice battling at school, or at home!” Glint answered.

\t“Glint need to get over loss like Salem get over not being able to reach ticker-tacker buttons on snack machines,” Salem said, his tone somewhat softer than usual, “Not every battle is win-battle. Sometimes, in fight, Salem fall down and hurt his tummy… But Salem always get up on little feets again.”

\tWhitney nodded as she smiled to Salem. “Yes… When you fall down, you simply need the strength to get back up,” She said, looking to Glint then, “Your brother is strong enough to get back up, isn’t he?”

\t“Glint believe in Spark, yes?” Salem asked right after.

\tGlint looked back and forth between Salem and Whitney, and then turned her attention to Spark. She made her way back to his bed and got down on her knees beside it, reaching out to take one of Spark’s hands into both of hers, holding it tight. “He is. I know he is, but I just don’t like seeing him this way… You guys… You just don’t get it, okay?”

\t“We do,” Whitney answered immediately, “We understand what it’s like to see someone fall next to you. I understand what it feels like to think that you could have done them better, you could have helped, and that if you went down instead, it would be better…”

\t“It not better!” Salem shouted, springing up out of his sheets and onto his bed, “It no different!”

\tHe was regarding Whitney.

\tThe Whimsicott just smiled somberly and nodded. “Yes… Glint… It’s not your fault… You need to accept that. That, and you need to stop blaming your opponents, and you can’t blame Spark… no one’s to blame. Falling happens in battle.”

\t“Yeah… it happens.”

\tGlint lifted her eyes from the bed to see Spark looking at her. He looked a little tired, but he was smiling all the same.

\t“Spark!” Glint’s expression lifted immediately, and she threw herself at him to hug him tight. The boy was lucky he didn’t have any real injuries, or that would have really smart!

\tSpark grunted, but laughed softly. “I’m okay… see? Stop yelling at Salem and Whitney,” He said, “You’re not going to let something like… me falling in a battle to get you down, are you? That’s… heh… that’s not much like you.”

\tGlint pulled away from Spark and blinked a few times. She looked towards her former opponents and frowned. Spark, as usual, was right, and so level-headed… She felt embarrassed beyond belief. Turning her attention back to her brother, she leaned over his bed and kissed his cheek, before standing.

\t“… I’m sorry,” She sighed, releasing Spark’s hand and wringing her fingers together, “You’re right.”

\t“Salem no mind,” Salem said as he plopped down onto the bed again, “Salem just glad Glint and Spark is okay.”

\t“This is your first time,” Whitney said, “Don’t feel too bad.”

\t“No… that doesn’t fix anything,” Glint said, making her way to Salem’s bed and leaning down to look him in the eye. She only saw her reflection in the brilliant gemstones that gazed back at her, so she forced a smile.

\t“You both are right… I was just being an idiot. I mean, we didn’t even really lose… I guess I just want to do better next time,” She said.

\tSalem grinned brightly, shining those sharp teeth of his. “Yes, yes! That it! Glint just do better next time No falls, no hurt tummies,” He said.

\t“We accept your apology,” Whitney grinned.

\tGlint blushed, but stood up again and smiled at Whitney, a knowing, angry sort of smile. She had never said she apologized to them, but of course, she was doing just that underneath it all.

\tOne of the Chansey had brought Spark some orange juice and he was now sitting up and slurping away at it through a straw. He was looking better already! He turned his attention to Salem and Whitney, struggling to not gawk at the hole torn into the back of Glint’s pants. “What will you two do now…? I guess we knocked you out of the tournament…”

\tThey both pondered over the question for a bit, before Salem spoke up. “… Root for Glint and Spark!”

\t“Eh?” Glint seemed surprised at this, “Really?”

\t“Yes! Yes! If Glint and Spark beat tar out of Salem and Whitney, Salem want Glint and Spark to beat tar out of all them!” Salem clapped his hands together, “Remind Salem of first time he fight with Whitney. Salem got sad like Glint, Whitney got hurt…”

\t“My arm only had a minor fracture,” Whitney giggled as she got up from the bed and walked over to Salem’s bed, reaching over it to snatch him up and hug him back against her body. His head rest snuggly against her chest. “But yes, we don’t hold anything against you, even if you beat us… That’s not how Pokémon are supposed to work.”

\tGlint sat back on the edge of Spark’s bed, and shook her head. “Feh… You two really know how it goes around here, huh?”

\t“Yes, and we know how hard it is too,” Whitney smiled, “So we’re going to support you.”

\t“Rah rah!” Salem chanted, thrusting a fist into the air.

\tGlint sat back on Spark’s bed and crossed her arms, shooting her brother a look with a raised brow. “We are such noobs…” She muttered, leaning over him then and placing a gentle kiss on his lips, company be damned.

\t“Salem see Kanto! Salem see France! Salem see Glint’s underpants!”

\tGlint’s ears shot up and she pulled away from Spark to look at the two across from the bed. Salem was cackling, and Whitney was trying her best to hide a giggle, but she was blushing furiously. The Plusle’s cheeks flushed red as well, and she sat up in a hurry to hide her exposure. Standing, she covered her rump with her hands and cast a look over the lot of them.

\t“I’m… I’m going to change!” She squeaked, turning and hurriedly running out of the room, “And shut up, Salem!”

\t“Pretty-pretty powder pink!” Salem called after her.

\t…

\t“Up next folks, we have Glint and Spark of the blue team versus the tenacious Marco and Scyllia! So far, these two teams have pulled through and made great wins, but which one’s going to triumph this time?!”

\t“Good, here they come again,” Nori said, leaning forwards anxiously in his seat, “They have to fight again so soon though?”

\t“It’s okay Nori, see?” Sammy gestured down to the arena as Glint and Spark emerged from the tunnel to once again take their places on the battlefield. They were waved off by their former opponents of the last round as they stepped out to take their place. They looked right as rain, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as ever, and Glint had changed into a red pair of short-shorts. Nori was relieved, and sat back just a bit, before his ears swiveled up when he cast his gaze on their new opponents.

\tOne was a hulking behemoth of muscles and vascularity, his raw strength making his blue skin obviously rock-hard with his massive muscles. His legs almost looked silly in comparison to how big his upper body was… it was a miracle his clothes fit. A pair of black jeans and a very stretched-out muscle shirt, also black, with a red ‘R’ stamped on the front. He looked almost like some kind of lizard or something… the shape of his skull sure seemed to suggest it, not to mention the odd fins on his head.

\tThe other was a strange one. She was obviously feminine in build, but her body was hidden under what looked like plates of armor. Her eyes peered out of a green helmet that almost resembled the head of a dragon, while metal, insect-like wings sprouted from her back. The breastplate was also green with some lighter green, almost creamy yellow lining, and her abdomen was left exposed, her skin matching the lining colour of her armor’s plates. Wicked-looking faulds protected her thighs, and she seemed to wear very little to keep her decent, just black spandex short-shorts beneath. The graves had clawed toes to resemble a beast’s, and the green plating of the protective footwear ended somewhere near her knee. The most intimidating part were the curved blades on her gauntlets that covered her hands entirely, extending outwards from the armor a good couple feet.

\tIf one looked close enough, they might see the red ‘R’ stamped onto the front of her shorts.

\t“These guys are in the junior division?” Spark asked himself, “They look older than us by a long shot!”

\t“Machoke and Scyther, huh? Neat!” Came Jeff’s voice over the loudspeaker, “This ought to be interesting to see!”

\t“Puny mice,” Marco, the Machoke, grumbled, “How they got this far is beyond me.”

\t“Hey! Who’re you calling puny?” Glint squeaked.

\t“Well, no matter,” Scyllia, the Scyther, muttered, “We’ll take them out just as we planned and be that much closer to Miss Stone. The winner here goes on to face her and that blasted Haunter, after all.”

\t“Really?” Spark asked, “Huh. Well, sorry to break it to you, but we have an appointment with Jemila too. We’re not going to roll over for you.”

\t“We will see, tiny mice,” Marco grunted, “I will crush you.”

\t“Well, you know what they say,” Glint sighed as she got ready to attack, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”

\t“Ready combatants?!”

\t“Get set…!”

\t“GO!”

\t“Meat or potatoes?” Glint would ask, nodding her head from Marco to Scyllia.

\t“I’ll take the meat,” Spark said, “You handle the potatoes.”

\t“You never did eat your vegetables,” Glint chuckled, before dashing off towards her mark.

\tSpark sprinted across the field towards Marco, who stood ready for him with his large arms poised to snatch the Minun up once he got close enough. Spark’s body was small and limber, and Marco was obviously much larger and bulkier… In the Minun’s mind, as long as he could keep moving, he was bound to be fine. Marco’s stationary fighting style would be the end of him!

\tSpark ducked under the larger Pokémon’s arms as he came in close, jamming a fist into the Machoke’s rock-hard abs. The impact was solid, but Marco barely even flinched. He raised an arm to bring it down on Spark like a club, and the Minun was forced to step side to side to avoid the falling slabs of muscle. Marco’s fists cracked the hard floor when they landed, and Spark noticed this… Surely one good hit and he’d be done for!

\tSpark danced around the Machoke, punching and kicking his solid frame wherever he could find and opening. Marco tried to follow the Minun’s movements, but found himself one step behind every step of the way. Spark’s hits weren’t overly strong against his heavily bulked body, but Marco was still getting frustrated trying to catch the little rodent. Every punch found that Spark was nowhere near the mark, every grab for the kid’s ears would turn up with nothing… Spark was one step ahead of the game the entire time.

\tSpark finally charged up an electric jab, and after ducking a swing fist, he leapt up in a dazzling uppercut that cut through the air with crackling electric force! It connected right with Marco’s jaw, hard enough to snap the Machoke’s head backwards, and make him stumble… two whole steps backwards. The larger Pokémon righted himself, cracked his neck, and stepped back in to continue the fight. He seemed barely phased.

\t“Whew, you’re going to take some work…!” Spark sighed, “Right then, I can do this all day!”

\tGlint had to dodge two razor sharp gusts of wind created by Scyllia’s blades as she swung them through the air. The sheer force of the gusts tore through the arena floor leaving trails in their wake, and sliced through the air sharply enough to make a high-pitched whistle as they blew past Glint’s ears. Not to be deterred, Glint moved in for the attack without a moment’s hesitation, leaping up once she was close enough to throw a kick towards Scyllia’s armored face. Scyallia simply leaned her body aside to dodge it just barely, and returned with another slash of her bladed arms.

\tGlint leaned her whole body backwards, watching as the blades crossed right before her eyes. She snapped back up in an instant and drove her shoulder in against Scyllia’s chest, pushing her back only to set her up for a follow-up punch to her gut. Scyllia took the brunt of it full-force in the gut, and she felt the air forcefully exit her lungs in a choked gasp.

\tGlint focused her energy, the pouches on her cheeks crackling with electricity that she channeled into her palm in an orb. She let the electric orb fly through the air, throwing it like a baseball pitcher. Scyllia barely managed to swing her blade fast and hard enough to swipe the orb clear out of the air, sending it hurling off course to crash against the floor.

\t“Spark, switch!” Glint shouted.

\tSpark’s ears perked up to the sound of his sister’s voice, and he quickly stepped back towards her. He bent forwards, and she rolled right over his back, flipping her body to land facing Marco, while Spark stood and faced Scyllia.

\tWith the opponents switched, Spark now had to contend with the razor sharp blades of the Scyther. Scyllia attempted to bring her blade down into his shoulder, but Spark closed the gap and caught her forearm in his hand. He slammed his forehead against the front of her helmet with enough force to make her jump and stumble backwards, halting her offense. With the opening set, Spark wasted no time in rushing Scyllia again.

\tSpark darted forwards so quickly, and his entire body surged with a dazzling display of electric might. His entire body was shrouded in crackling, sparking, and wildly arcing energy, seeming to make his speed increase ten-fold. In an instant, his electric form slammed into Scyllia’s with all his might. The electric charge caught to her armor and caused the full surge of energy to flow through her body quickly. The resulting reaction was like an explosion of light and power that send her hurdling backwards through the air several feet, only to have her land on her back, skipping like a rock the remainder of the way.

\tHer body was smoking, and she grunted as she got to her feet, glaring at the Minun who still stood, though he was panting.

\tGlint had as much of a time with Marco as Spark previously had. He seemed to have no problem hitting a girl, as his massive fist collided with Glint’s forearms when she blocked. The force of his blows took her off her feet, and she landed roughly on her backside. She sprung to her feet to leap aside, narrowly avoiding another straight-arm punch.

\tWhipping around behind Marco, Glint took the chance to scramble up his back. With how large and broad he was, it wasn’t hard for her to get good footing, and she soon found herself with her arms wrapped around his neck, and her legs wrapped around his middle. He reeled back, spinning to try and throw the Plusle off, but she held on for dear life, and her grip was firm. At first, Marco tried reaching back over his shoulders to throw her off, but she was too low… his large arms couldn’t grasp at her body.

\tWhen he finally got the sense to grab at Glint’s arms and try to pry her off, Glint clenched her eyes shut and discharged a good several volts of electricity into Marco’s body. The Machoke cried out in pain as the electricity surged throughout his body, causing all his muscles to seize momentarily. He shuddered, and shook off the attack, prying Glint’s arms apart and roughly tossing her off of him. She hit the ground roughly on her side, bracing herself to take the impact, and she looked to Marco with a grin.

\t“Having a tough time against a puny mouse, big guy?” She goaded, quickly getting to her feet.

\t“Your scampering will end soon enough,” Marco responded gruffly, “Then we will see who is laughing.”

\t“Yes, you should be feeling it… right about now…” Scyllia grinned.

\tAt the same time, the twins felt… such a strange feeling wash over them. A sudden head-rush washed over them, into feelings of nausea. Their heads tingled uncomfortably, and it felt as if their sinuses had closed up. The effects were noticeable as their eyes sluggishly got heavy… Their limbs felt heavy, if not numb. They felt dizzy and sick, the feeling washing over them in strange waves.

\tThe twins rested a hand on each of their heads, stumbling a little, looking as if they couldn’t get their bearings straight.

\t“W… Whuh…?” Spark groaned.

\tGlint moaned pitifully, “Wha… What did they… do?”

\tGlint was the first to take a blow before she could even register it was coming. Her mind lagged behind, but not so far that she couldn’t feel a fist the size of her gut ram into her body. Marco was strong, strong enough to lift her smaller body off the ground, successfully knocking the wind out of her and sending her soaring high into the air. She came back down like a sack of bricks, falling to the floor in a heap. She coughed, wheezing as she got to her knees, clutching her stomach where the punch had landed, wrapping both of her arms around herself.

\tShe barely got to look up before she took another shot to the face. Her body was sent tumbling across the floor, sliding and scraping along the hard surface several feet before she slid to a stop once more. She groaned, rolling onto her side to see Marco marching towards her. She tried to get up, she tried to move, but it felt like her head was weighing her down like a ball of cement.

\tSpark squeaked as he fell backwards onto his rear, having tripped back trying to avoid a series of slashes that now had his shirt in ribbons, and cuts across his chest. He hissed in pain, clenching his teeth to try and bear through it. He tried fighting back; clenching his fist and trying to charge his electrical power… but nothing came. He managed a few sputtering sparks from his cheeks, but nothing came of it. He gasped after forcing the effort as much as he could. He couldn’t use his electrical abilities!

\tHe saw Glint tumble across the floor, and watched as she was beset by Marco once more. The Machoke seemed to be marching casually, as if enjoying her pain… and Spark wasn’t going to have any of that. As Scyllia tried to bear down into his shoulder with a blade, he rolled back and braced his legs against her chest. Forcing all his strength into it, he kicked forwards to toss her off of him. She landed roughly, stumbling and falling, giving Spark the chance to help his sister.

\tSpark rose to his feet with an effort, and ran sluggishly at Marco, who saw him coming from a mile away. As Spark threw his punch, Marco simply caught his hand in mid-lunge, stopping it cold. Marco closed his hand hard around the Minun’s cracking Spark’s knuckles and fingers harshly. Spark cried out in pain before Marco tugged him inwards, wrapping his arms around the Minun’s smaller body and hoisting him off the ground.

\tMarco proceeded to squeeze Spark harshly, bearing down on him with his strong muscles, pressing in against Spark’s bones, making him cry out in a pathetic squeak. Spark felt his spine crack from bottom to top, and he clenched his eyes and teeth shut to try and bear with it.

\t“Without your zapping, you are simply vermin to be exterminated!” Marco laughed, “Squeak, little mousie, squeak and beg for mercy!”

\t“What the hell?” Nori gasped, on the edge of his seat like everyone else… But something was suspicious to him. Glint and Spark had been doing so well, they were dancing circles around those oafs…! How could it have turned around so quickly?

\t“Uuunh…” Sammy groaned next to him, pulling her bandana down off her head. Her cheeks were flush, and she looked every bit as groggy as the twins did down below. This got Nori’s attention, and he tore his eyes away from the action on the arena floor to look at the Pikachu rancher instead.

\t“What’s wrong?”

\t“Mmngh…” Sammy simply groaned sickly, “I feel… Nn… Terrible…”

\t“Are you sick? Do you need to leave?” Nori asked, close to leaving his chair. Sammy’s cheeks were sputtering weak sparks… it was a curious thing.

\t“Nori… Pokémon like me have an electric charge all through their bodies…” Sammy sighed, closing her eyes, “This… This causes adverse affects when exposed to electro-magnetism… The natural magnetism of my body… of our bodies becomes out of whack, and we… essentially get sick.”

\t“Wait, what?” Nori gasped, looking down to the twins on the field for a moment, “You mean…?”

\t“Something foul’s going on…” Sammy nodded, covering her eyes with her forearm.

\tNori’s eyes darted around from his seat. If Sammy was right, then he had a sneaking suspicion that trouble was afoot. Call him a paranoid parent, but it was the only explanation as to why his kids had gone from shoe-ins to pitiful victims in only moments. There had to be some sort of explanation to it all…

\t… Then he saw it. Above what would be the four-way score board for sports games, there was a curious metal orb. Nori was no expert on electronics, worse so on the inner workings of a sports stadium, but something about it looked odd. He squinted, peering past the light, using a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the stadium lights… and saw people up there! Or… maybe Pokémon? He didn’t recognize their species… but he did recognize their outfits.

\tBlack, with red ‘R’s stamped on them. Just like the two currently pummeling his poor kids.

\t“Villainous curs,” He growled, slamming a fist into the arm rest of his chair, “Like hell this is going on.”

\tHe stood from his chair and looked to Sammy, leaning in and getting her attention with a hand on her shoulder.

\t“Sit tight. I need to go to the bathroom,” He said simply, pulling away and leaving her as he squeezed his way between the other spectators and the seat aisle.

\t“Wha… Nori?” Sammy blinked, furrowing her brows, “But…”

\t“I’ll just be a moment!” He shouted back.

\tGetting out of his row, he took one last glance up towards the stadium’s score board. From there, he couldn’t see anything of what he saw before… But if he was right, there were people up there – people harming his kids.

\tNo one harmed Nori’s kids.

\t\tPokémon Rumble – Chapter 5
\tAuthored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

\t“I must be losing my mind,” Nori muttered to himself, “This is crazy.”

\tNori crept through the corridors of the stadium expertly. His goal, to stop a foul plan put in motion by a shady group of Pokémon that were obviously out to sabotage a match in the Pokémon Tournament he’d been watching. The match being mucked up was the one his adoptive son and daughter were participating in. Even at that very moment, his poor kids were being pummeled without enough coherencies to defend themselves. Nori had seen through the enemy’s tricks though… it wasn’t his first walk around the park known as “villainy.”

\tHe knew the trends. Even if the particular group he had set out to stop were Pokémon - a species of creature with special abilities and near magical powers – they were still your typical villains.

\tThey had brought some kind of device that emitted electro-magnetic waves… pulses that caused intense feelings of weakness and sickness in electric type Pokémon much like his dear Glint and Spark… his children, his responsibility. He may not have been a Pokémon like them, unable to shoot beams from his eyes or lift a car, but he knew right and wrong was no different no matter what abilities you had… Having special abilities only gave you the opportunity to do wrong in special ways.

\tBut most of all, his children were being unfairly beaten, and as their father, he wasn’t going to stand for it.

\tNori casually walked away from the spectator seats at first, but once he started dipping into the more restricted areas of the stadium, he had begun to slink and sneak, sticking to the shadows. A Pokémon he was not, but a raccoon had their own specialties at their disposal. His ears were attentively raised to hear footsteps from ages away, and his eyes were keen in the dark. He had come across a ventilation shaft, sealed by a grate, and knew that if he kept working his way higher, he would be able to reach the ne’er-do-wells skulking about on the catwalks above the arena.

\tNo one was around. The lesser-travelled corridors smelled like… like a sports arena would, and the lights were dim… some even flickered. None would go that way except for janitorial staff, that much was certain. The only things down there were electrical rooms and broom closets.

\tReaching up, Nori pushed his claws into the screws holding the vent’s grate in place, and carefully used them to unscrew them.

\t“In 1908, raccoons were found to open eleven out of thirteen locks in under ten tries,” He muttered to himself as he worked the screws loose and pulled the grate away, setting it aside. “Of course, that’s without practice,” He grinned. The opening looked small, but he was able to pull himself into it. He kicked his legs as he squeezed into the narrow shaft, pulling his body through and disappearing into the ducts.

\tWith some fumbling and clumsy climbing in the ducts, he found his way throughout the arena’s lesser-known passages and eventually ended up at the top of the arena. It was easy to find, what with the cheers reverberating through the vents, and once he got to the top, he was able to turn his body and kick against the grate with his flip-flops. It took some work, but eventually he busted the grate off most of its screws. It slid down and hung by a single corner so that it didn’t fall, and Nori slipped his way out.

\tFrom below, the catwalks looked so simple, but up above they seemed more complicated. It must have been all the wiring for the lights and electronics that made it look like a complex, jumbled mess of high-rise paths. Fortunately they had rails… that safety measure put Nori’s mind at ease. His goal was clear – the score board. One catwalk passed right over it, and he could see the dastardly bastards and their weird machine from where he stood. It seemed like they hadn’t noticed him.

\tOne of them looked like the strangest blue toad, with lazy yellow eyes and red spots in his cheeks. He had a black toque on his head, and a thick black ensemble to match. The red ‘R’ emblemized on the hat was a trend now, Nori noticed, and was probably the logo of whatever group they’d conjured up for themselves. The one other Pokémon with him looked a lot like a crow wearing a big, tri-pointed hat. His clothes were less covering than the toad’s, being simple shorts and t-shirt, but they were black too. That just seemed to be their colours.

\tThe Pokémon were Croagunk and Murkrow respectively.

\tThe Croagunk was holding on to the railing and looking down over the fight. He seemed to be in a conversation with the Murkrow, so Nori was able to slink around the catwalks quietly and not have them notice him. Since the fools weren’t paying much attention, Nori went the long way around so he could approach them from their backside. This led him straight to the strange machine… Some kind of coil with a big, round orb on the very tip. There was nothing to suggest it was on other than a dull humming that couldn’t be heard over the crowds below.

\tHunkered down low, Nori crept, not wanting to move too quickly and draw attention, yet with an urgency to help his kids out of the jam they were stuck in. For a moment, Nori peered down over the edge of the catwalks to see how Glint and Spark were faring against their unfair adversaries.

\tSpark reached out to grab the back of Glint’s shirt and pull her backwards as Marco sent one of his giant fists down at her. She stumbled back to miss the floor-denting blow, but couldn’t afford to stop. Her moves were sluggish, but she back-pedaled fast enough to avoid Marco’s blows for some time, frustrating the Machoke since his trick hadn’t handed him an easy victory yet. As hard as it was for Glint to focus, she tore her attention between Marco and Spark.

\tSpark was holding his own fairly well, batting away Scyllia’s arms as she swung her scythe-like blades in a flurry of attacks. Try as he might however, she attacked too quickly for him to keep up, and one well-placed block made him stumble backwards and fall. He was quick to roll over onto his hands and knees to get back up, but lifting his weary body was difficult. He was too slow, and Scyllia was bearing down upon him in a fierce, plunging slash from above in an instant.

\tGlint’s body acted before even her mind could catch up, taking off in a mad dash towards her brother to protect him. Marco was too slow to catch her as she broke away, and she charged right at Spark, leaping to tackle him. She barely managed to grab Spark and take the Minun off his feet again, pushing him out of harm’s way. Scyllia’s blade met nothing, and the twins met the floor harshly.

\t“G-Get up…” Glint grabbed her brother’s shirt and tried to lift him as she worked her way to her feet again. She pulled him to his feet, and he shook his head, trying to get himself out of the funk he was in… but it was no use. The physical effects of the electromagnetic waves weren’t going to fade until exposure to them was cut off.

\tLooking back over his shoulder, he saw Scyllia barreling at them as if she were gliding across the floor. It was a split-second action he took to shove Glint aside and step away himself, causing Scyllia to charge right between them. With an opening available, they both slammed their fists into the back of the Scyther’s head as harshly as they could muster, taking her down to the floor roughly.

\tNori watched from above, impressed at how well his kids were handling themselves despite the obvious handicap they’d been put under. But he could tell they were struggling, and seeing them put everything they could into it despite that gave him a renewed sense of urgency. Tearing his eyes away from the spectacle down below, the raccoon continued on his mission.

\tHe snuck right up to the machine from behind, able to see an obvious panel in its design. That seemed like as good a place as any to start. Unseen, he worked quickly to use his claws as a faux screwdriver to work away the screws holding the panel in place. The openings were small, so it was no easy task… All the while, he kept an ear out for the guards.

\t“I-I don’t like being this high up,” The Croagunk whined, “W-Why haven’t Marco and Scyllia beat the brats yet?”

\t“Quit whinin’,” The Murkrow scowled, smacking the Croagunk upside the head, “Even if it’s takin’ them a while, those kids can’t win like this. It’ll be fine! Then we can grab Jem and force her pops to do whatever we want.”

\tThe Croagunk frowned, rubbing his head. “L-Least then we’d have tons of money,” He mumbled.

\t“And all the Evolution Stones we could ever want!” The Murkrow cackled, “I’d evolve and be super powerful!”

\tNori did his best to follow the conversation while he worked. Getting one screw loose, it fell onto the catwalk with a light clanging. He froze, ears wilting, listening to see if he’d gotten the attention of the guards… They sure didn’t seem to notice.

\t“If we win before that, then everyone’ll see that Team Rocket is strong! Strong enough to whoop Jem AND that freaky Haunter,” The Murkrow sneered, “Strong enough to rule the world, just like Pokémon should!”

\tNori rolled his eyes as he worked out the second screw. “How typical,” He muttered to himself.

\tThe talking stopped then, and the roars of the crowd below drowned out any sound. Nori worked faster, not sure how long he’d be able to stay there. Getting the third screw off, he let it fall onto the catwalk… but that’s when it was all over. He noticed the shadows looming over him, and he looked back slowly over his shoulder to see the two unsightly Pokémon leering down at him.

\t“Well look at this!” The Murkrow grinned, “One of them average-types is snooping around our fancy electro-whatsit machine!”

\t“S-Stupid average type,” The Croagunk sniggered.

\t“… Ah… heh…” Nori flashed them the most sheepish of smiles. Well, he was caught, and now he was likely in for a world of hurt.

\tHe was snatched up quickly by the heavier-looking Croagunk, and picked up by the scruff of his shirt. They didn’t seem too eager to use any of their fancy Pokémon abilities on Nori though, opting instead to simply punch the raccoon in the gut and knock the wind out of him before shoving him back onto the catwalk. Nori fell back, coughing a bit as he gasped for his breath.

\t“I can’t believe we gotta share the world with bozos like this guy,” The Murkrow sneered, stepping up beside Nori and kicking him in the ribs. The bird’s talons tore Nori’s shirt slightly in the action. “What does he expect to do against guys like us? What’s his power? Rummagin’ through our trash?”

\tNori rolled over, grimacing in pain. He pressed his back up against the wave-transmitter machine, finally getting his breath back.

\t“… You think you’re better than non-Pokémon?” He’d ask, unable to hold back a little grin.

\t“W-We KNOW we’re better! Y-You’re just some weak, regular guy!” The Croagunk croaked.

\t“Sure,” Nori said, quickly shifting up into a squat. He lunged forwards, pushing off the catwalk with his legs, sending himself at his attackers. His first order of business was to clench a fist and punch the Murkrow straight in the groin. This caught the bird Pokémon completely off guard, and he got the full force of Nori’s dirty fighting. He reeled back, falling to his knees and clutching between his legs. That was one taken care of!

\t“You guys have a lotta nerve!” Nori shouted, turning as the Croagunk threw a punch his way. The toad… missed, utterly and completely. Nori grabbed hold of his slimy arm and quickly sunk his teeth into it, biting as hard as his jaw would allow, sinking his sharp teeth in as deep as he could. The Croagunk wailed in pain, tearing away from Nori.

\t“You mess with my kids, and I’ll show you what a regular guy can do!” Nori growled, giving the Croagunk a rough shove, making him stumble back and hit the guard rail, keeping him from falling right off the catwalks.

\tNori had an awful taste in his mouth after biting into the Croagunk. He spit, trying to get it out. The taste wouldn’t go away, and it tasted… strange. He couldn’t have begun to explain the foul taste, but he’d watched enough nature documentaries to know that he shouldn’t have been biting into anything that even resembled a frog. It didn’t take long for his suspicions to be justified, as whatever he’d ingested in the exchange got to work. His vision doubled, and his body felt weak.

\tHe’d been poisoned!

\t“Ugh… how unpleasant…” Nori groaned, “Bleh…”

\tNori collapsed onto his hands and knees. His body wasn’t as adept as a Pokémons’ when it came to fending off toxins. The poison worked far too quickly for Nori, and he felt sick to his stomach, and cold, as if he’d eaten bad shellfish or something. It was everything he could do to keep from throwing up all over the catwalks. He looked up to see both the Murkrow and the Croagunk standing over him, and he cursed his idiocy. He should have known that when it came to fighting against Pokémon, he really was helpless.

\tBut he couldn’t have sat there and done nothing while Glint and Spark suffered… Sammy too!

\tHe fought it as best he could, and struggled to stand… but the Pokémon effortlessly pushed him back down. His legs wobbled and he fell back onto the catwalk, finding it difficult to even get up off of his back. He tried to stand again, but fell back once more due to his own arms giving out on him. Finally landing flat on the catwalk, his limbs felt too heavy to move, and his vision was fading. He heard less and less of the crowds below and more of his own breathing and heartbeat as he lingered in consciousness as long as he could.

\t“… Unhand him!”

\tNori couldn’t see just who had come to his rescue. The last thing he saw before his head fell back was the Murkrow get struck, and somehow frozen solid. The Croakgunk was also taken out, by some cackling madman by the sound of it… But alas, he couldn’t even make out his own hand in front of his face by that point. His hearing even started to go.

\tHe could hear the voice of a young woman, but it was hard to make out.

\t“…okay? … speak… my voice? We’re… get help… hold on!”

\tConvinced he was out of danger, Nori relaxed, and slipped into unconsciousness.

\t…

\tDown below, Glint and Spark were on their last leg. They’d run themselves to exhaustion, and rested kneeling on the floor. They held one another just to keep themselves up, staring across the arena at their opponents, who seemed right as rain. The mostly unharmed Machoke and Scyther began their final rush towards the twins, ready to knock them clear out of the fight. They passed through the arena from one side to the other on their way.

\tWhen they reached the center of the arena however, a loud crash, and a series of flashes from up above stopped the pair in their tracks. All attention was cast up at the raised scoreboard, visible even though it had been drawn upwards towards the ceiling to get it out of the way for the Pokébattle tournament. The ruckus from up above was loud and distracting. Unbeknownst to the spectators below, the electromagnetic wave transmitter had been destroyed, and the resulting explosion tore electrical wires and sent sparks raining down from above.

\tThe explosion sundered the catwalks, and wrecked the scoreboard, sending the screen barreling down towards the arena. The crowds gasped in fright, and Marco and Scyllia stared slack-jawed as the scoreboard came down over their heads.

\t“W-What?!” Scyllia gasped.

\t“N… No! NOOOO!” Marco shouted.

\tThe scoreboard crashed down overtop them, slamming loudly into the ground with the ruined debris of the catwalks and their evil machine coming down over their heads as well. It was unclear whether or not the two Pokémon were safe, the rubble covering them entirely. Glint and Spark had wilted their ears and shut their eyes tight, missing the scene. When they opened their eyes again, they saw nothing of their opponents, only the ruin their treachery had caused.

\t“What in the heck is going on?!” Jeff, the announcer’s voice came over the loudspeaker.

\tThe twins were about to ask the same. With the destruction over with, they noticed that the sickly feeling that had come over them was fading away. It was like magic, that they had started to feel better so quickly. They got to their feet, only a little shaky in comparison to before, and they stared over the scene curiously, studying the rubble, and the area above.

\t“Hey, Glint, look!” Spark pointed high above the arena.

\tFalling after the scoreboard came a Pokémon, holding the Croagunk and the Murkrow in either hand by the scruffs of their shirt. He fell from high above, but before he touched the ground, he seemed to stop in mid-air so that his heavy, buckled leather boots could touch down softly. The Pokémon landed atop the rubble delicately, and tossed the two unconscious Pokémon that had ‘accompanied’ him to the arena floor.

\tSpark shook his head. “That’s… That’s Jack!”

\tJack was one half of the reigning champions of the junior doubles team. He was a lanky sort who seemed to prefer wearing baggy pants to hide the fact. To match his large boots, he wore black bondage pants, with many hanging chains, buckled belts, and loose straps attached for seemingly no other reason than to achieve the gothic-punk aesthetic.  His thin frame was all the more apparent up above, since he opted to wear a tight black turtleneck. The only things visible of him were his hands, each with three, sharp digits, and his head. He had a grin that almost looked like a cut-out on a jack-o-lantern, and sharp, blue eyes. No hair to speak of, but it did look like his head had been blasted back to some effect.

\tJack stepped down off the rubble, making it a point to walk over the Croagunk and the Murkrow and step on them the whole way. He was waving and bowing despite the fact that no one was cheering… The odd event had drawn a silence from the crowd.

\t“Hey now! Ladies, gents, and childrens of allllll ages! Jack here, Junior Pokémon League Doubles Champ!” He had as much of a fake radio voice as Jeff the announcer did, if not more-so of one, “I gots some good news and some bad news!”

\t“Good news is that the red team is one-huuuuundred peeeeercent dis-qualified! Heheh!” He cackled at the fact, before coughing into his hand, “Ahem! And Glint and Spark here win by default!”

\tHe turned to the unconscious duo and squat down to poke at the Croagunk’s head a few times. “That oughta teach ya, you dirty rats…” He chuckled, voice changed to sound like an old gangster.

\tHe stood back up and twirled around – literally, like a ballerina – to face Glint and Spark again. “So! Give these fine folks a hand!” He exclaimed in the most flamboyant way possible, once again completely shifting the tone of his voice. If that wasn’t strange enough, he applauded along with the crowd, clapping his hands together… But when he went to lower his hands to stop, they separated from his body. They floated in mid-air, continuing to clap, as the rest of him approached the twins.

\t“And the bad news is…!” He paused, looking at the empty cuffs of his shirt, before casting a glare back over his shoulder. His hands made gestures as if they were startled, and zipped back over to him to settle securely where they were supposed to be. The twins just watched the odd spectacle in disbelief.

\t“Anyhoooo~ The bad news is that your next match is gonna be against me and Miss Jemila Stone!” Jack beamed, patting the twins on the head, “So you two better go back and get your rest! I hear that Jack’s a real bastard!”

\tHe then turned away from the twins… and sat on the floor. He sat down and pulled his legs up to sit in a cross-legged, meditative position. It didn’t take long for his odd behavior to get stranger, as he floated up off the ground, levitating in the air. “As for everyone else, now’s a good time to go get yourself some snacks! Go to the washroom! Whatever it is you people do when you’re not encouraging complete strangers to pummel the candy outta each other like living piñatas! This mess is gonna be cleaned up right-quick!”

\tHe stretched out with a yawn, and sprawled out on his side, elbow propping up his head in his hand. This all, of course, was in mid-air, as he leisurely started to float away towards the combatants’ exit. He soon disappeared from sight, leaving people confused and awe-struck by what they’d just seen.

\tGlint finally looked at Spark and asked, “What just happened?”

\t“I… I don’t know,” Spark responded, “I just… I don’t know.”

\t…

\t“Salem know those types! Team Rocket! Team Rocket!” Salem shouted as he made a beeline towards the locker rooms with Whitney and the twins.

\t“What’s Team Rocket?” Glint would ask.

\t“Mean, mean Pokémon… Think they strongest!” Salem explained, waggling his fingers in a spooky gesture, “Just because they Pokémon, they think they should rule entire earth-globe! No sharing with weak normal animals like tigers and raccoons!”

\tJust hearing mention of a raccoon made the twins slightly uneasy. Glint and Spark shared a look of guilty concern as they walked. But in doing so, Glint caught a passing glance over Spark’s shoulder into the infirmary where Spark, Salem and Whitney had been before. She paused mid-stride to get a double-take on just what she saw within… and reached over to yank her brother back to her so he could also see.

\t“Spark,” She said, sounding one part shocked, two parts mortified.

\tSpark nearly fell as he was pulled back so suddenly, and looking into the room where Glint pointed, his jaw dropped agape.

\tIt was Nori!

\tThe raccoon was all rested up in one of the beds, Chansey hurrying about in their ever-busy manner, fussing over how his sheets were tucked in and how the IV he was hooked up to was in, and constantly monitoring his condition.

\t“Dad?!” The twins both shouted, hurrying into the infirmary, much to Salem and Whitney’s confusion.

\tThe twins nearly tripped over themselves scrambling to Nori’s side. While they would have normally tried to avoid him for the sake of staying out of trouble, the shock of seeing their father unconscious in an infirmary bed, let alone at the stadium at all, severely over-powered that self-protective notion. The only thing they could think was…

\t“What the heck happened?!” Glint squeaked, “What happened to Dad?!”

\t“Whatever happened, they’re flushing something out of his system,” Whitney commented as she approached, looking over the equipment Nori had set up for him with intrigue, “I can’t say what… But considering the method, something must have gotten into his bloodstream.”

\t“How do you know?” Spark asked, the look of mild panic and concern in his eyes even when he looked away from his father.

\t“Oh, um… my parents are both doctors…” Whitney muttered, blushing in some unnecessary embarrassment.

\t“What did he do? Why is he even here?!” Glint couldn’t stop asking questions even though she wasn’t going to get any answers standing over an unconscious Nori.

\tShe certainly wasn’t going to find any answers when some annoyed Chansey were trying to shoo the lot of them away. There were crowding the patient, and getting in the way. Glint and Spark didn’t want to leave, but the persistent little Pokémon ended up winning as they shoved the twins and their new friends out into the hall.

\t“Chansey!” One huffed, before turning to hurry back into the room.

\t“What the heck…?” Spark slumped, staring into the room curiously.

\t“Glint, Spark!”

\tEveryone’s attention was directed down the hall, where Sammy approached.

\t“There you two are… have you seen your Dad?” Sammy asked, “I brought him here, but he got up to go in the middle of your last match and I haven’t seen him yet.”

\t“They’ve got him laid up in there!” Glint answered, pointing to the infirmary, “He’s out like a light! Something happened to him!”

\t“Oh my…!” Sammy rested a hand to her cheek, clearly worried, “What could have happened?”

\t“Salem’s head pound again!” Salem wailed, his hands resting firmly on his head as he swayed back and forth, “What going on?”

\t“Uhh…” Glint didn’t know how to answer.

\tSpark took Glint’s hand and smiled sheepishly to his friends. “Let’s get back to the locker rooms and we’ll explain… I think Dad’s going to be fine here for now.”

\t…

\t“… So that raccoon is your father? That must mean…” Whitney was putting things together in her head after hearing the twins’ story.

\t“Yeah… we’re adopted…” Glint answered with a sense of shame. Being adopted was just one more thing people could flak you with when you were a teenager.

\tSalem hopped up onto the bench Glint and Spark sat on, able to look the twins in the eye from there. “You go when he say no-no!” He said, “When he wake up, someone going to get a hurt real bad!”

\tThe twins both slumped and their ears wilted as they sighed. With the moment of concern past they were brought back to their thoughts of what Nori was going to do to them for disobeying him so directly like that. It was ironic how sure of it they were when they’d snuck away, and how remorseful of it they were when they got caught… They, of course, weren’t sorry for doing what they did… just feeling sorry that they’d been found out.

\tSammy couldn’t help but feel guilty herself. If she hadn’t brought Nori to the stadium, what just happened wouldn’t have happened. Nori wouldn’t be laid out in some hospital bed getting treated by feral Pokémon for some kind of wound or illness they didn’t even know about. The sheer uncertainty of it was the most painful aspect. When it came to the twins getting into trouble however… that didn’t seem too important now. From her standpoint, they could have been grounded for life and it wouldn’t have been important. Nori’s well-being was the most important thing.

\t“I suppose you know how he felt then, don’t you?” Sammy asked, tussling Glint’s head fur, “He was so worried you’d end up… well… like he is now.”

\t“Yeah…” Glint sighed, her fists balled in her lap, sitting rigid, yet slumped.

\t“I really wanted him to come here and get a better understanding of why you two felt you needed to go so badly that you’d sneak out to do it,” She said, resting her arm around Glint’s shoulders and giving the Plusle a hug. “He watched you two do things he didn’t even think you could do… If nothing else, I’d say you impressed him.”

\t“Impressed is right!”

\tNori had arrived, much to the glee of the Pokémon. He leaned up against the doorframe at the entrance and took a moment to rest, feeling woozy as all out. He grinned to his kids though, knowing full well they probably felt as bad as he looked about the whole thing… Even so, they’d practically jumped out of their seats and hurried over to him to see if he was alright… and much to his surprise, they hugged him. He stumbled back, but they held him up as they wrapped their arms around him and squeezed him so tight!

\t“Dad!” They both cried.

\t“What happened to you?” Glint asked, “When did you get here?”

\t“Are you okay?” Spark shot a couple questions of his own right after, “How long were you watching?”
\tNori just laughed a little, and rested his hands on both their heads, mussing up their head fur playfully. “One question at a time, you ill-behaved miscreants,” He chuckled, “And go easy on me. I think I’m sloshing with how much antidote I have in me.”

\t“Antidote?” Whitney asked, from inside the room, “You were poisoned?”

\tNori nodded. “I was… It’s a long story, but cutting it short…” He looked down to the twins and couldn’t help but smile, “… I was just an idiot Dad who got in over his head trying to stick up for his kids. Those Pokémon were playing rotten… I wanted to do something about it, but… I couldn’t.”

\t“You tried fighting Team Rocket?” Glint gasped.

\tSalem gasped dramatically from within the room, covering up his mouth in his amazement and shock.

\t“More like failed to do so, but yeah…” Nori sighed, shaking his head.

\tThe twins were speechless, as was Sammy. No one really knew what to say in response to an act of such bravery and selflessness. The twins… they were especially confused. When had anyone ever done such a thing for them? Risked their lives and well-being for them? All they could ever remember when thinking back to their dealings with adults were instances where adults thought more of themselves than the twins. The three foster parents they had before Nori had returned them to the Center as soon as they discovered the twins’ little tryst… Just sending them back like an unwanted gift to a department store.

\tNori had never entertained the idea. He got cross with them as any parent should have with the things they often pulled, but no matter what was brought up; Nori always seemed to fight it for their sake. He’d always make things work out, and he’d deal with the twins in such a manner that… looking back on it, it was obvious Nori’s number one concern was staying with them.

\tEven when it came to the Tournament, Nori wanted them to stay away simply because they could have gotten hurt.

\tThe feelings that welled up in the twins were hard to explain. Some crude mix of guilt and joy over what their minds had just put together. Everything they’d done to push Nori’s buttons, how little they trusted him, and how despite this Nori seemed to act in their best interests every single time regardless… The feeling brought tears to their eyes.

\tNori’s eyes widened in surprise as his son and daughter – and they were his son and daughter, no matter their origin – began to tear up and sniffle. They both hid their faces against his shoulders as they began to cry.

\t“H-Hey… Don’t do that now, hey…” Nori didn’t know what to say. All he could think to do was embrace his children, his hands rubbing their backs as comfortingly as he could.

\t“… We’re sorry…” They sobbed, “We’re so sorry…”

\tNori swallowed a lump in his throat and forced a smile. “Don’t you two worry about it, this wasn’t your fault…”

\t“We should’ve listened…” Glint sniffled as she rubbed her tears off on Nori’s shirt.

\t“That’s right, you should have… But even so, no matter what you do and no matter what happens to me, I’m just glad you’re alright,” He said, pulling back to get a better look at their faces, “And you are alright, aren’t you? Those magnetic waves didn’t leave you feeling sick?”

\tThe twins looked at one another, then back to Nori, shaking their heads. Spark brought a hand to his face to wipe away his own tears.

\t“We’re fine, but who cares about us? You got poisoned!” Glint squeaked, “You should be worrying about you!”

\t“You’re going to find I don’t do that a lot…” Nori chuckled, still forcing his smile, “But hey… I watched you two while those goons had you on the ropes… I’ve got to admit, I’m proud of you.”

\tThis wiped the guilt from the twins’ faces and replaced it with confusion. “What? Why?” Spark would ask.
\t“You didn’t give up, simple as that,” Nori shrugged, “And you looked out for one another… In the end, I can’t really ask for much more, can I?”

\t“Thanks… I guess,” Spark shrugged, looking to Glint.

\tGlint shared that look with her brother, before regarding Nori. “… Do we have to go home now?”

\t“Nah… You have another battle to fight, don’t you?” Nori would ask.

\t“HURRAY!” Salem shouted from back in the locker room, jumping up on the bench again for joy. This brought the twins and their Dad back to the present, where they noticed that Salem, Whitney, and Sammy had been watching the whole scene. Whitney dabbed her eye with a tissue, and Sammy just smiled at the bunch, probably just as proud of all of them as Nori was in his kids. Nori sighed and shed a grin at their audience, before turning his attention back to his kids.

\t“No, we can stay. Just go out there and give them hell, alright?” He’d ask.

\t“O… Okay!” The twins squeaked, pulling away from their father.

\t“Let’s get ready then!” Glint said, taking her brother’s hand and dragging him away.

\tSammy giggled as the twins hurried away, and she leaned towards Nori a bit. “Look at you,” She said, “Inflict you with a fatal condition and you turn around fairly quick.”

\t“It wasn’t fatal, just a little poison,” Nori quipped back as he entered the locker room and opted to sit down next to Sammy, just needing to get off his feet. “Besides… My son and daughter are Pokémon. I’ve never really been interested in changing anything about them… they’re perfect the way they are, even if that means they sometimes like to go and throttle each other in my back yard.”

\tThe raccoon leaned forwards to peer around Sammy at Salem and Whitney, who stood fairly quiet most of the time.

\t“And you two… you were against them a little while ago, weren’t you?”

\t“Yes sir,” Whitney nodded, “Glint and Spark are tremendous fighters. They’re strong, and closely bonded. It was a great experience going against them.”

\t“Salem would do it again!” Salem said, sitting on his rear again on the bench, “But Salem not sure if he would bite Glint in the butt again.”

\t“… Yes, we might have to set some boundaries,” Nori said, “But it’s good to see my kids are making friends around here. It’s nice to meet you.”

\tSalem and Whitney exchanged a look between one another, as if to check if they’d heard Nori right. “Friends?” Salem would repeat, before looking back to Nori.

\t“Yes! Friends!” Salem would exclaim, “Glint and Spark good friends. Good kids!”

\t“I would say that if I could be their friend, it would be an honor…” Whitney smiled, “It’s really nice to meet you too.”

\tNori chuckled softly, and took a deep breath to let out a sigh. It’d been a long day for him, and the exhaustion of it all was certainly catching up to him.

\t“Alright… I’m about ready to see the next match.”

\tPokémon Rumble – Chapter 6

Authored by MilkJunkie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/milkjunkie)

\t“N-Nn!” Glint’s toes curled against the tile floor as she pressed her weight into the wall in front of her, surrendering to the need to rest. “T-Things are finally working out our way…”

\tSpark panted, allowing for his hot breath to wash over his sister’s neck. Even in the hot steam of the shower she could feel it. They both relaxed in the warm embrace up against the wall for only a moment before Spark eased off and let Glint have room enough to get off the wall and get clean. They parted with an audible, wet ‘schllrp!’

\tWhen she turned, her brother planted a kiss right upon her lips – one she returned eagerly.

\t“What do you say we go out there and give it the old college try?” Spark would ask with a smile.

\tGlint giggled, playfully pinching the Minun’s cheek. “… You know, you’d never say something like that before,” She said, “I’m really glad I roped you into this… you really seem to be growing up.”

\tSpark blushed, shaking his head. “J-Just… come on, because we’re probably starting soon.”

\tWith that, the twins quickly finished up and left the shower together. They dried off quickly, and in the privacy they’d been given by their father and friends, they changed to get ready for what they knew would be the most challenging of their matches to date – they would take on the running Champions of the Pokébattle Tournament, Jemlia Stone and her partner, Jack. They had only read up on the pair during their preparation for the Tournament, but knowing that they were the Champions alone was enough to ensure a victory wouldn’t come easily.

\tSpark threw on his spare shirt, a black muscle shirt, before fetching his underwear. Glint had already squeezed into her black sports top and gotten comfortable in her under-things before sliding her legs into her short red shorts (because her pants had the rear torn out by a ‘cheeky’ bugger). The last things were Glint’s gloves, fingerless and red, before they were all set to go. They left the changing rooms hand in hand, exiting into the corridor to head towards the arena. They were nervous, and somehow seeing all their friends standing at the entrance to the arena to see them off made it no less unnerving.

\t“All ready to go, are you? I was worried I’d have to come get you,” Nori said as he stood next to Sammy, “Your match is about to start… So, these guys are the former Champions?”

\t“Current Champions,” Glint corrected her father with no subtle tone of uncertainty over how things would go, “It’s gonna be tough.”

\t“I think you’ll do better than you think,” Whitney said. She stood across the hall from Nori and Sammy beside her friend, Salem. “You two are exceptional fighters. I’ve never thought of getting to fight the Champions in my wildest dreams.”

\t“Glint and Spark! Glint and Spark!” Salem chanted as he jumped around, clapping his hands, “Kick their butts! Kick their butts!”

\t“With everything that happened during the last match, I can honestly say that you two have probably lived through worse,” Sammy said with a warm smile, “So go out there and give it your best. We’re all back here rooting for you.”

\tThe twins exchanged a look and a nod. They had all the support in the world!

\t“We’ll see you when we win!” Spark said with a grin before he and his sister took to the field, so to speak.

\t“And here we are again!” Jeff the announcer’s voice rang out over the loud speakers, “But this time we’re in for a real fight! On one side, we have a pair of new up-and-comers, and on the other, we have the current Pokébattle Tournament Champions!”

\t“Now we’ll really see how far Glint and Spark can be pushed,” Cinder’s strong, feminine voice sounded out over the speakers, “They have withstood much. The fatigue from it will hinder them.”

\t“We’ll see about that!” Jeff retorted, “Everyone put your hands together for the new dynamic duo, the Twin Terrors, the Identical Incredibles, and surprisingly good looking… Glint and Spark!”

\tFrom their spot on the field, Glint and Spark waved to the wildly cheering audience, feeling their faces go flush from embarrassment and anxiety. They gulped, but hid their discomfort behind smiles as they pandered to the crowds in what little way they could. Their hands squeezed one another a little bit tighter for support.

\t“Identical Incredibles…?” Nori muttered from his spot afar.

\t“Shh!” Sammy hushed the raccoon.

\tNori recoiled a bit from the sudden hushing, and settled back in to watch. “… I mean, really?”

\t“And now, everyone please welcome the current standing Pokébattle Champions, Jamelia Stone – sole heir to the Stone Industries business and fortune – and her strange, mysterious partner, Jack!”

\tJemila and Jack’s entrance was much showier, with special lights and even their own theme music. They were lowered from a lift on the ceiling, standing sturdy as they were gracefully brought down to the arena. Jack was as Glint and Spark knew him… the indigo ghost was still dressed all in black and chains, so covered that his hands and head were the only shown features of his body. Jamelia they hadn’t seen until that point… The Jynx had glorious, long, golden hair, perfectly kept and perfectly cleaned, nary a split end to speak of. Her skin was completely black from head to toe, and her body magnificent. She really did look the part of a rich man’s daughter.

\tAside from having a body Glint would strive to when she was older, there was one small catch. Like most Jynx, Jamelia had plump red lips that stood out from her face, kissable and sweet, and gorgeous, icy blue eyes… but she had no nose. It was a strange look the twins couldn’t quite wrap their heads around. She was dressed amazingly, in little shorts with leather suspenders hanging uselessly to the sides, having no chance in hell of getting over her breasts hidden beneath her white t-shirt. The boots she wore had high heels and were finely polished, a decent brown shade with buckles and clasps, and even her little red jacket seemed nice… But that didn’t change the fact… that she still had no nose. The twins just couldn’t get over it.

\t“Is she wearing… heels?” Spark would ask, finding the choice of footwear to not lend itself to fighting.

\tGlint gawked too. “Forget that,” She said, “Where’s her nose?”

\tThe pair stared so much at her; they hadn’t even realized she had approached them at center field.

\t“Why not take a picture?” She’d ask, sounding as snooty as one would expect.

\t“A-Ah, uh… Sorry! Star-struck,” Glint covered with a wide grin.

\tJemila crossed her arms, shelving her impressive bust. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were,” She said, “Though I would question how you got this far with that dreadful focus.”

\t“Hey!” Spark exclaimed.

\tJemila simply gave a flick of her hair, turning her gaze away from the twins. “Jack, let’s dispose of these peasants quickly.”

\t“A real charmer, ain’t she?” Jack chuckled, “The Ice Queen herself!”

\t“Combatants, take your positions!” The announcer shouted.

\tGlint and Spark took their spots, as did Jack and Jamelia, but the twins weren’t so sure about their opponents… Jamelia in particular. They just didn’t like her, and she in no way made that feeling a difficult one.

\t“READY! SET! GOOOO!”

\tThe Champions were off like lightning; with Jack practically gliding across the arena floor and Jemila close behind. She could run awful well in those heels! “Oh! Watch out!” Glint was barely able to shout before Jack was upon Spark, throwing out his fist that the Minun was just barely able to avoid. Spark ducked the attack and hopped aside, putting a little distance between he and Jack, but Jack the Haunter was hot on his heels.

\tGlint turned her attention to Jemlia just as the Jynx was thrusting a palm towards her. Glint quickly stepped aside, turning her body for the Jynx to miss, and then grabbed hold of her arm tightly. Glint spun around to push her back in against her opponent, and quickly hauled forwards, tossing Champion Jemlia over her shoulder and causing the older girl to land harshly on the arena floor. She hit with a hard thud, and Glint couldn’t help but grin to herself. Jemila though, lifted from the ground and floated to her feet again.

\t“Look at you, you little rat, scampering around so quickly…” Jemila sneered.

\tGlint gulped and went to make a move, but it was little more than a jerk movement before Jemila thrust her arm out again with an open palm. An eerie violet glow surrounded her ebony frame, and soon the same glow surrounded Glint’s body. Glint could barely turn her head to look and see what had happened. The strange invisible force that had gripped her kept her unable to move even a muscle. She gasped as she was lifted by the force, shooting her attention to Jemila, who was sweeping her hand up high, as if to life the Plusle from the floor.

\tThose sensuous black fingers and their red painted nails were upturned, and then clenched into a hard fist. Glint felt the pressure around her body bear down on her hard enough to make her scream, before Jemila thrust her hand down fiercely and threw the Plusle to the floor. Glint was released right before impact, slamming her back off the clay court hard enough to bounce. She gasped as the wind was driven from her lungs, and fell flat to the floor.

\tGlint lifted herself from the floor, her ears limp against her head. “O… ow…”

\t“It looks like Jemila’s psychic powers haven’t dulled a bit since the last tournament,” Ex-Champ Cinder’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker, “If anything, they’re stronger than before. She may be an Aristocrat, but she’s kept her training up.”

\t“Ps… Psychic?” Glint panted as she stood to her feet again, “How… How am I supposed to beat that?!”

\tJemila brought the back of her hand before her lips, though she didn’t make any real effort to stifle her demeaning laughter. “Ohohoho! I don’t need to read your mind to know what you’re thinking, little rat,” She chortled, “You may as well give- UNGH!”

\tGlint’s fist had found its mark in the Jynx’s well-toned stomach, knocking the wind out of the aristocratic girl with some sense of vengeance. As Jemila doubled forwards, Glint stepped back and delivered a firm backhand right across her face, her sweeping digits crackling with electricity as they passed. It was just enough for Jemila’s cheek to be numbed to the pain she would have otherwise felt. “Did you see that coming?!”

\t“You…!” Jemila would have shrieked if not for Glint slamming both her feet into the Jynx’s chest. The Plusle had leapt up and delivered one hell of a missile dropkick to the Champion, taking her off her feet. Glint fell to the floor as well, but was quick to leap to her feet once again.

\tSpark had meanwhile been swiftly evading Jack’s assault. It wasn’t until Jack finally laid a hand on him that Spark was able to retaliate. The Haunter’s clawed hand grabbed hold of Spark’s arm to keep him still, and only got a heavy surge of electricity for his trouble. Spark clenched his eyes shut and output who knew how many jiggawatts that caused his entire body to glow and crackle in thunder strike that sent Jack flying. Jack flipped through the air and was able to right himself before falling, floating with his buckled black boots inches from the ground.

\t“YEOWZA!” He shrieked, “Whassup Sparklemouse? Bleeh, feels like I just licked a battery, heheh!”

\t“This guy’s nuts…” Spark muttered to himself. He rushed Jack quickly, quickly readying himself for another attack.

\t“Tell him what he’s won, Jerry!” Jack laughed, twisting his body around as he swept in faster towards Spark.

\t“Suckas get a SUCKAAAAH PUUUUNCH! WOOO!” Jack howled as he quickly slammed a dark-veiled fist into Spark’s cheek before the boy was able to attack. It startled Spark enough to nearly knock him off balance… Spark spun around, stumbling on his feet before being caught and steadied by… Jack. The Haunter looked him right in the eyes with that eerie, crazy smile. “All aboard, Junior!”

\tJack wrapped his arms around the younger boy in a tight hug, and then launched from the ground and into the air. With a dramatic twirl and a spin, he flipped both himself and Spark upside down, and sent the boy crashing back down to the arena floor. Spark’s skull slammed the clay court hard, causing him to pitifully squeak out as he was released and fell backwards onto the floor. He was effectively rattled, but he rolled onto his front and pushed himself up, looking to see Jack’s body still stuck in the floor.

\tJack’s head had been phased into the ground. The haunter planted his hands onto the floor and spun his lower body around in the air several times, before he curled his whole lanky body to plant his feet onto the floor. He pulled hard to pull his head out of the ground with a *POP!* Upon standing with his back to Spark, it was obvious his head was now on… backwards.

\t“Heheh, you spin me right round, baby… Right round~” Jack snickered to himself, “Now I see why Mama always said she had eyes on the back of her head! Wahahaha!!”

\tSpark had just about had enough of Jack’s constant babble. He gritted his teeth, stumbled the first few steps, before finally picking up in a run towards the Haunter. “Aaaargh!”

\t“Eh?” Jack took pause, blinking a few times.

\tSpark leapt, arms open to grab Jack and tackle him to the floor. He aimed right for the unnaturally slim fellow’s middle, looking to grab him about the waist and take him down. But when Spark made contact… it was like trying to football tackle a curtain. The Haunter’s shirt and pants simply flipped forwards as Spark passed right through, instead getting another face full of the arena floor as he landed on the other side of Jack. He was confused, rolling onto his back, only to see Jack standing over him. The Haunter thrust his boot into Spark’s chest and kept him pinned.

\tJack finally turned his head around, and he took on a more stoic demeanor. He even changed his voice a fair bit.

\t“No can do, pilgrim,” He said, doffing an imaginary cowboy’s hat as he looked down towards the Minun. He reached down and lifted the front of his shirt to reveal… there was nothing beneath it. “That right there’s about as empty as a dried out riverbed, pardner. You ain’t gonna find no water there.”

\t“What…? But how…? Spark looked almost morbidly confused.

\t“I’M A GHOST! I AIN’T GOTTA EXPLAIN SHI…!”

\tSpark surged another blast of electricity through his own body hard enough to cause another explosion, throwing Jack off of him and through the air. The Minun scrambled to his feet, taking a deep breath and readying his fists. “Fine, I’ll just have to zap you!”

\tAs Jack righted himself in mid-air again, Spark shot a look to see how his sister was doing. She and Jemila were locked exchanging blows to one another, Glint delivering them fast and with purpose. It wasn’t until Jemila, brought to a knee, was able to lock Glint in another psychic attack that Spark decided he needed to help! “Glint, I’m coming!”

\tGlint struggled against the invisible mental force that bound her as she was once again lifted from the ground. “N-Ngh! Hurry!”

\tJemila stood poised, one hand out, controlling the Plusle as she floated in mid-air. Her other hand brushed her golden, angelic waves of hair way from her sapphire blue eyes, idly casting a glance Spark’s way as the twin brother charged forth. “Jack, would you kindly?”

\t“Yeeeeeus dear…” Jack monotonously responded in a goofy accent as he took off from his spot, shooting through the air to intercept Spark.

\tWhen Jack whipped into Spark’s path and held his arms out to block Spark from getting to Jemila, Spark simply grinned. He rushed in and quickly threw out his fist, which passed right through Jack’s chest, taking his shirt with it a little. Jack’s eyes went comically wide as the fist passed through… and it was like slow motion as Jemila turned her head to see what was going on, only to take the shot right where her nose ought to be. Jemila’s head snapped back, and she stumbled back. The field surrounding Glint faded, and she fell to the floor with a graceful landing.

\t“Oh! OH! That’s cheating!” Jack shrieked.

\tGlint smirked and rushed in from behind jack as Spark withdrew from the Haunter. With both twins crackling their hands with electricity, Glint pushed her hands into Jack’s lower back, and Spark pushed his into Jack’s stomach… and unsurprisingly, thanks to the elemental charge, they were able to grab hold of Jack as if he were physical.

\tJack raised one of his fingers, and opened his mouth to protest.

\tGlint and Spark closed their eyes tight and pumped the Haunter as full of electricity as their young forms could muster.

\tJack lit up like a cartoon character, his indigo head and hands shocking as black as the rest of his clothing, electricity surrounding his body. The audience all shielded their eyes as the dazzling display of lightning and electric currents reached near blinding. Jack was screaming and twitching the whole time as he had the wrath of Zeus pumped into his body relentlessly. The display lasted what felt like ages before dying down as quickly as it started, leaving the twins panting and Jack stumbling around the arena, coughing out black smoke.

\t“I’m never grounding them again,” Nori said as he watched wide-eyed.

\tThe twins though looked worse for wear. Their ears and tails were droopy and they visibly slumped where they stood and panted for breath.

\t“They put too much into it…” Whitney said as she grabbed the lower hem of her sweater nervously.

\t“Poor darlings can barely stand up!” Sammy gasped.

\tJemila slowly rose from her laid-out spot on the ground, her golden blonde hair draped down over her head, and pooling around her body. The twins turned their attention to her as she slowly stumbled to her feet.

\t“You… miserable cretins… You insufferable curs… How dare you?!” She nearly roared as she stood up, “You’ve certainly done it now, peasants. You’ve crossed the line…”

\tIf she was trying to be scary, she succeeded. The twins stared on slack-jawed for a moment as Jemila stood right, and threw her hands out to her sides. That psychic glow of purple shocked her lovely body, and threw her hair out haphazardly… It looked less like golden curtains of knee-length hair and more like terrifying anacondas as the sheer energy the girl exerted shook the area around them, and made little flecks of debris from the clean-up scoreboard raise from the ground. Even her blue eyes were glowing a shockingly bright purple.

\t“HOW DARE YOU MARR MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!” She shrieked like a woman possessed. Indeed, there was an unsightly purple bruise spread over her face.

\tThe twins both flinched as she shouted at them, feeling as if the air around them had gone chill… It wasn’t until they opened their eyes that they realized it really had. Their breath was coming in hot, steamy puffs from their mouths as the temperature rapidly dropped around them. They shivered, and perked up, ready to act at a moment’s notice. At least until Glint noticed one small snowflake floating down from above, delicately dancing and landing on the arena floor where it melted away.

\t“Snow?” She said aloud, and Spark noticed it too. He looked around as he realized snow was falling from the ceiling, but where it was coming from was uncertain.

\tA sudden harsh gust of wind nearly took the twins off their feet.

\t“Get her! Quick! She’s up to something!” Glint squeaked.

\tThe twins rushed the Jynx again, but before the two of them could reach her, the snowstorm took a turn for the absolute worst. The wind whipped the white, falling snow that came in sheets all around the arena. It went from snowfall to blinding in an instant, and all the combatants disappeared into the flurry that had been created. The audience held onto whatever headgear they may have been wearing to keep it from being blown away… even Nori and the others had to stand their ground firmly to keep from toppling over.

\tThe storm cleared after a while… snow was resting all over the arena in a thick sheet, and the snowfall simply disappeared. Spark had covered his face with his arms, and once he realized the blistering cold had faded, he lowered his arms with a shiver. “W… What did you do?! Look at all this snow, Glint!”

\tGlint didn’t respond.

\t“Glint?” Spark looked over to his sister who wasn’t more than two feet from him, and he gasped aloud. The Plusle was frozen solid! She was shrouded in thick ice that obscured a good look at her, but she was stuck in the shielding position she took when the blizzard had whipped up.

\t“Oh my God! Glint!!” Spark squeaked, running to his sister’s frozen form and resting his hands on the cold, cold ice. He banged on it a few times. “Glint! Glint?! Hey!”

\tSpark was torn away from his dread when he heard Jack’s voice. “Hey Ice Queen, did you freeze one of ‘em solid?” Spark looked over to see Jack sprawled out onto his back in the snow, making snow angels in the white powder. Spark flattened his ears back and narrowed his eyes.

\t“Take it easy on them, eh? It’s their first time out,” Jack said as he lazily sat up and knocked on one side of his head, snow pushing out the other side as he emptied his ears.

\t“Personally, I think it’s an improvement on her look…” Jemila grinned, finally calm again, “It’s a beautiful sculpture. It encompasses the futility of battling against me.”

\t“Shut up!” Spark shouted, “Shut your mouth!” He was ready to go again.

\t“Oh, you want your sister back? Very well…”

\tJemila lifted the Glintcicle from the ground with her psychic powers, and Spark stumbled back away to watch in slight awe. With Glint suspended high in the air, Jemila swept her hand in a careless motion. The frozen block of Plusle swung quick through the air at Spark, and he squeaked before jumping aside, tumbling to get away. He was too slow however, as Jemila came back for a second round before Spark could get righted again. That person-sized ice chunk hit him dead on with near bone-crushing force, sweeping him away.

\tWhen Jemila lifted to pull Glint into the air again Spark would tumble off, hitting the ground and rolling. He groaned as he got onto his knees, struggling to stand. Jemila’s last attack would be to suspend Glint high above her brother, and send her crashing down to Earth. The resulting impact on Spark’s spine made him scream as Glint was shattered free. She was battered enough by the experience to collapse onto her brother’s back on the ground. The twins lay then in a heap, unable to move.

\t“The Twins have fainted!” Jeff the announcer shouted, “Jemila and Jack win!!”

\tSpark was barely conscious as he looked up to see Jack squatting before him, prodding at the twins to see if they were even still alive. “Hell hath no fury, eh? Heheh!” He chuckled.

\t“Mm, too bad…” Jemila sighed as she approached, “But that’s what you get. Newcomers can never hope to win on their first time out.”

\t…

\tSpark blacked out!

\t…

\tSpark’s eyes opened again in a flutter, staring up at the familiar white ceiling of the backstage. It was unclear what hurt more... his possible wounds, or the fact that he and Glint had been shut down so easily. He groaned as he rolled his head aside, feeling rather heavy all over. “Ngh…”

\t“Looks like they’re coming around,” Spark heard Whitney’s gentle voice, and soon the Whimsicott was looking over him from above.

\tThe twins both lifted their head from their beds at the same time, dragging themselves to sit up. The whole little gang had been gathered together, with Whitney and Nori looking over the twins while Sammy and Salem waited nearby.

\t“H… Hnn… ACHOO!” Glint sneezed rather suddenly, making her head jerk forwards. She lifted her head again and pitifully groaned, snorting a little. It seemed being frozen had given the poor dear a cold. “I feel… like the floor of a taxi cab…” She said in a stuffy tone.

\t“They sure gave you two a beating,” Nori said as he stood between the beds, looking between the twins, “I was assured you two would be okay though… glad to see you both up and about already, more or less.”

\t“Unfortunately you two didn’t take any notable place in the Tournament,” Sammy said with her ears lowered sadly, “I’m sorry…”

\t“We did all that for nothing…” Spark sighed as he let his head fall back against the wall, “Ugh…”

\tSalem jumped up onto his seat, the tiny Sableye shaking his head rapidly. “N-No! No! Not for nothing!” He chirped, flailing his arms around as he struggled to assure the twins, “Salem thought Glint and Spark did real, real great! Spark was smartie-pants!”

\tThe Sableye jumped down from his seat, and quickly began to act out the scenes that he had seen during their fight. “Jack was ‘no, no!’ then Spark was ‘POW!’ He knocked mean ol’ Jem-Jem’s block off! Cleaned her clock! And Glint was all ‘whoooooa!’”

\tSalem’s audience tried to stifle their laughter as he swung his arms around and twisted his body in exaggerated Matrix-like actions, going through the entire fight in a sort of play-by-play that was entirely jumbled and out of order. But they couldn’t argue with his sheer excitement… his explanation stopped rather abruptly when he burped, and that was about all the twins could take. Despite what had happened, they burst into laughter that hurt their abdomens. The others couldn’t help but join them, and even Salem laughed and clapped his hands together, excited as all-out.

\t“Sparklemouses could have beat Champs easy-peasy with just a bit more practice!” Salem concluded as he clambered up onto Spark’s bed and stood on it. “No feeling bad! Salem thinks you two are extra-best almost-champs.”

\t“Thanks, I think?” Glint said as she cocked a brow and looked to her brother, “Well… that’s it then, I guess.”

\t“What, that’s it?” Nori would ask as he looked between the Pokémon, “You just… go home now?”

\tWhitney nodded her head as she addressed Nori, “Yes. They lost,” She explained, “And without any sort of top rank placement, receive nothing. But they gave it their best, and their best out-performed even veterans… They have plenty to be proud of. The Tournament will progress through the weekend, but as far as contending goes they’re out of it.”

\t“That’s fine with me…” Spark sighed, rubbing his forehead a little, “I’m too sore to fight anymore. I just wanna go home.”

\t“Me too…” Glint sighed as well, “I’m done here. I just wanna lie down.”

\tNori crossed his arms and sighed as well. “Jeez, I’m sorry you two,” He said, “… Wish there was something I could do.”

\tThe twins looked at one another for a moment, and then to Nori. The raccoon knew the look… it was like they just shared a thought in that instant, and it most likely involved his wallet.

\t“Can we have enough money to go see a movie?” Glint would ask.

\tSpark nodded, “Yeah, can we?”

\tNori couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Really? That’s it?” He’d ask, “Well, I guess you guys fought hard enough to deserve that… You guys can see a movie over the weekend.”

\tThe twins tiredly raised their hands in a happy little gesture… that would have looked much happier had they not been so sore.

\t“You’re… going to see a movie?” Whitney would ask, canting her head aside a little, “Tomorrow?”

\t“Probably…” Glint answered. She lowered her ears in thought for a moment, before addressing Whitney again. “Do you guys want to come too?”

\tWhitney looked surprised. “Us? Salem and I?”

\tSalem gasped dramatically, “See a movie with Salem?!”

\t“Yeah!” Spark smiled, “Come on…”

\tSalem and Whitney both looked at one another as they contemplated their options. “Well…” Whitney began, “I suppose we’re stuck in town until the end of the weekend anyways…”

\t“Great!” Glint smiled, tossing her covers away and slowly shifting her body to slide out of bed, “We could use the distraction anyways.”

\t“Yeah, so we can forget this ever happened,” Spark said as he slowly got out of bed too.

\tNori looked back to Sammy, who was simply looking at them. The two of them could only shrug. It seemed Glint and Spark were fit to simply take it all in stride… Honestly, it shouldn’t have been too surprising for a pair of teenagers like them. The group of Pokémon made their way out of the infirmary talking amongst them as they went.

\t“I wanna see that Partners movie, it sounds so cool. It’s all super-powers and stuff.”

\t“Kids with super-powers? Sounds weird…”

\t“I’ve heard of that. I want to see it because it has an interesting take on future society… things like marriage laws and same-sex relationships.”

\t“Salem want explosions!”

\t“You guys have a Pokétch? We can talk with it! You totally need to get one!”

\t“Yeah!”

\t“… Salem want exploooosions!”

\tAnd like that, they left.

\tNori chuckled and looked back to Sammy. “Well, the night wasn’t a total loss… I think other than you, those’re the first Pokémon they’ve ever met around here.”

\tSammy stood up from her seat and smiled as she walked over to Nori. “Pokémon Battling has been about more than just beating the tar out of one another for pretty much all of time,” She said, “It’s how Pokémon connect in nature… by battling, they become a more knit community, and develop deeper understandings between one another – it was awful sweet of you to let them come here.”

\tNori furrowed his brow at the last little bit. “Wait… I didn’t let them…”

\tSammy kissed Nori’s cheek and winked, before striding off after the others before they got too far.

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