Team Sparks Chronicles 1-3: Schoolyard Rumble "Jeez. We'll never catch him at this pace. Gourd Pond Park is still 2 km away." "Gimme… *pant* a bit to *pant* cool down…" said the same voice from someone else's mouth. Yarn tiptoed on a brick fence, eyes closed and arms behind her head. On the street below, Nise (still in Yarn's colors) walked beside her, totally winded. True to Yarn's insistence, he had run down from the mountain and to the town below. Yarn looked down at him. Based on their shadows it must have been around 4:00 p.m. She said, "Yeah, I suppose. Around this time he's usually gone downtown to THERE HE IS!" Yarn pointed across the street, There was a school there, the sign reading "Minami-Hayashi Shiritsu Futaba Elementary (南林市立二葉小学校)." Sparks was in the back playground, dribbling a basketball as though it were a soccer ball. He grabbed it with both hands as he jumped, and threw it at the hoop. It went in. "2 points!" "Spaaarkie!" came a familiar voice. Sparks turned to see Yarn flying towards him and someone else climbing the fence. Sparks waved. "Oh, Yarn! Hi" Yarn and Sparks took each other's hands and twirled around a little, then rubbed cheeks together. "Hamha *pant* Sparks. *pant* Room for one more?" The Pawmo finally caught up with them, desperately trying to catch his breath. Sparks winced for a bit. He didn't directly look Nise in the eyes. How could he after that incident? But he still put on a nervous smile. "Oh, Nise too. Hamha! …wait,, why are you Yarn-colored and why does it look like you've run a marathon?" No matter how many times Nise transformed, he'd always forget to restore his colors when reverting to himself. Nise chuckled nervously. "Emo!" he said in Yarn's voice, and struck a pose similar to her "Attract". Then he quickly reverted his colors to his favorite cream-and-orange pattern. "Aw, c'mon," Yarn said, then kissed Sparks's cheek. "It wasn't more than a K and change." Sparks laughed. "Still no stamina, huh? Anyway, come here you." The trio put their faces together, with Sparks in the middle, grinning and rubbing cheeks. Electricity crackled between them. Sparks went to get the basketball. "So, if Nise is here too I'm guessing he wants something." "Y-yeah, actually," Nise stammered. His gaze fell to the concrete of the basketball court. "I, uh… actually there's a, uh…" "Nise-san wants to train!" Yarn interjected. Nise's eyes widened. Sparks turned around, holding the basketball. "Train? In what?" "Uh…yeah." Nise hurriedly bowed and put his nose to the ground. "I need to be stronger!" Sparks paused. *Stronger? Seriously?* "You know it's one of my dreams to learn how to evolve after all." "Personally I think evolution is overrated. Besides, you can be a Pawmot anytime you want." Nise lifted his head. "You know it's not the same. My False Mode doesn't make me any stronger." Sparks bounced the ball as he walked over to them. "Well I don't know how your species evolves." Yarn shrugged. "I dunno either…" Sparks passed the ball to her. "...but I think it's more about him wanting to build his overall level." Yarn lept two feet and shot the ball at the hoop. It rebounded off the board. Sparks chased after it. "Well," Nise said, "There's another—" "Nise definitely has it in him already," Sparks said, dribbling the ball. "He seems weak but I think it's just his personality. Maybe a change in mindset is all it takes." Sparks made a jumping shot, but it bounced off the hoop. Yarn caught it in the air. "No fair, flying during a game!" Yarn did a handstand on the basketball. She stuck her tongue out at Sparks and winked. Nise sat up in disbelief. Yarn's claim to be a circus acrobat seemed like hot air once before but she's been acting more and more like it recently. Has she been training herself? Yarn flipped over and balanced on the ball. "At least humor him, darling. You've never actually seen him fight for real. Maybe he can learn one of your moves, even." She kicked the ball to Nise, who got up to catch it. "A new move, huh?" Nise said. He looked down at the ball. It was about half his height. Then he looked up at the hoop. Sparks must have lowered it but it was still about 4 feet high. Nise grunted as he chuckled the ball in the air. But it only barely scraped the underside of the net, and hit the chain-link fence behind the court. "Ah, bummer," Sparks said. "But sure, we can battle. It'll help gauge exactly where we are." Nise bowed his head. "Thank-Q." "But you gotta call me master while we train~!" Nise got on all fours and bowed. "Yes, master Sparks sir." "'Master', huh?" Yarn giggled. Sparks was giddy, grinning cheek pouch to cheek pouch. Nise took off his scarf and passed it to Yarn, who then sat back in one of the playground swings to watch. The two stood twelve feet apart, Nise directly behind the post. His eyes wandered around. Sparks rubbed his cheeks with his hands. "Any last words?" he said confidently Nise rubbed his own cheeks in imitation. "Yeah. Yarn said something about us and yesterday." Sparks's smile turned upside down. His cheeks flared with sparks of electricity. "Yeah. I'm going to get you back for that!" "So that was you after all?" "Shut up! I'm coming at you full force! Pi-CHUUU!!" Sparks shot lightning around the playground indiscriminately. Nise held both arms up in a sumo stance. "You… know electricity doesn't faze me, right?" Sparks lunged directly at Nise with a Quick Attack. Nise sidestepped the incoming attack, and Sparks banged his head on the basketball post. *Clever,* Yarn thought, watching the match. *Nise-san knows Sparks is handicapped in this match, and that he only ever Quick Attacks in a straight line. So he put himself right behind an obstacle, far enough away to dodge it.* Nise ran to a corner of the basketball court, surveying the playground in front of him. Sparks stood up, teary-eyed and massaging the bump on his head. Luckily his goggles didn't break. "That hurt, you jerk!" He came at him with another Quick Attack to his head. Nise's ears twitched, and he ducked just in time for Sparks to fly over him and headfirst into the sand pit. *He's got good senses too. Meanwhile Sparks-kun is hasty and rash. If Nise-san wasn't facing the Living Dynamo, he could win with his brain alone.* "No, master, you did that to yourself. Well now it's my turn." Nise did a sumo stomp, unclenched his fists, then ran forward with Arm Thrust. But before he could land any thrusts, Sparks turned around and flailed his arms wildly. Nise put his hands up defensively, using his Arm Thrust to deflect some of the wild punches aimed at his face. "Why are you so upset? I'm just trying to ask about yesterday." Nise tossed one punch but Sparks backflipped over him, then went in for a lunge. Nise dodged the punch, tripped him with a leg sweep, and tossed him over the shoulder. He landed face-up in the sandbox again. Yarn shook her head. *He's a Fighting-type too. Sparks has never dealt with styles like that.* Sparks rolled over. *Damn. I can't zappy-zap at all, but he can do judo or something? What's my next move?* He clenched a fistful of sand, and got an idea. Nise looked down at Sparks lying on the ground. "Can I piece this story together now? So it was during my nap…" Sparks threw the fistful of sand at Nise's face. Some of it got in his eyes. As he quickly tried to wipe it out, Sparks spun around like breakdancing and tripped Nise's feet. He came down as Sparks leapt up, spinning, his tail glowing. "Iron Tail!" Nise didn't roll aside this time, but instead held his paws up and exhaled deeply. A green light channeled through them and formed into the shape of a green monster plushie. The Iron Tail sliced through the Substitute, and smoke billowed from it. Nise and the plushie both vanished "Huh? Where'd he go?" Sparks looked around, and saw Nise hanging from the Mankey bars with one hand, still wiping his eyes out with the other. "Phew. Even at half damage that would have been rough." Sparks pointed at him and shouted, "Cheater! How did you teleport like that!?" "Clearly you don't know the properties of the Substitute,"Nise responded more calmly. He let go of the bars and crossed his arms. "Maybe I should be the master." Sparks gritted his teeth, and veins popped from his head. "Are you holding back? Refusing to take this seriously? Cheater, cheater!" "Says the prank master!" Yarn shouted from the swings. Sparks face-faulted Yarn chuckled, stroking the scarf in her hands. *Sparks isn't using Nasty Plot because he knows his Special moves don't work on Nise. But it also means he can't strategize well. His hot-headedness against Nise's reactive style…. it'd be a bad matchup if Nise was anywhere near our level.* Nise extended his arms out again. "Okay, okay. If you think I wasn't being serious, then I'll take the offensive now for round 2. But you gotta hear me out." "About what?" Nise conjured a slightly smaller Substitute. "So, you were watching me sleep. I'm guessing you broke my sleeping mate too, unaware of just how fragile they might be." He rubbed the Substitute against his back, until it stuck with static alone. Then he ran at Sparks with fists up. The two tossed and deflected simple blows. "Weirder still, I felt this unusual surge of energy and pleasure in my dream that afternoon. I wake up and there's white stuff on my belly." Sparks put a little too much weight into one missed punch. Nise dodged it, then sideways-kicked Sparks in the back. The Pichu somersaulted onto his feet. "So you had a wet dream." He Quick Attacked to Nise's left, then at him. "Happens to all of us who don't get any after a while!" Nise jumped to the side, then continued stepping backwards to avoid as much of the Pichu's Quick Attack spam as he could. Sparks wasn't aware he was being led to the jungle gym. "I know what that is. That's why I also know it's not what happened after all!" The two navigated the maze of bars, unable to find a clearing to attack. Finally Sparks ran back out, Nise chasing after him. "It wasn't my blow. I know what I smell like, and that wasn't it!" Sparks jumped over one thrust and on top of the jungle gym bars. "How could you possibly…? Even I don't know my own—" "You're naïve! Have you ever even tasted yourself?" Nise assaulted the jungle gym itself with more Arm Thrusts, rattling it until Sparks fell off. "Then let me ask you…" Sparks landed on his feet, then lunged forward with a Quick Attack. Nise took a direct hit, getting spun around. Sparks came back for another attack, but this one hit the Substitute on his back, and they vanished into smoke again. Sparks looked around, then to Yarn. She pointed directly at him, or rather behind him. Sparks turned around to see Nise sliding down the slide and stopped two inches from his face. "Then let me ask you: how did I taste to you?" Sparks's eyes widened. Before he could say or do anything, Nise kissed him on the nose, and Sparks's entire world went dizzy. Nise then followed up with a tremendous flurry of kiai shouts and Arm Thrusts to the chu, attacking from every direction, and finishing with one last punch he put his all into. Nise stepped back to catch his breath, clearly worn out from that last move. But Sparks was still on his feet. In fact that blow allowed him to shake off the confusion. He rubbed his face and said, "Are you really not holding back? That was barely a slap, and you're already tired?" Nise gasped for air. Sparks smirked. "Hissatsu!" He leapt up, lit up another Iron Tail, and spun through the air at Nise. *Too close to dodge, and I can't make another Substitute…* Nise instead caught the Iron Tail with both paws clapped together, halting Sparks's movement… …or so he thought. Sparks flipped in the other direction, and tossed Nise over him. He flew at great speed and slammed backwards into the brick wall of the school. He was down for the count. Sparks celebrated by climbing up the slide and spanking his butt at the unconscious Pawmo. "Nise-saaan!" Yarn got down from the swings and ran to him. "You tried your best but my darling Sparky was too much for you, huh?" Yarn grabbed one of Nise's feet and rubbed it against her cheek. Her electricity poured into him. He groaned in pain, then couldn't hold back his laughter from his foot being tickled. "Sto-sto-sto-ya-ya-yarn-ya-sto…" "But you seem to like it! And I like it. So please, just 10 more seconds?" "Noooo-ho-ho-ha-ha-ha" All three laughed, although in Nise's case it was from the tickle torture. — The trio looked down at the neighborhood from the roof of the school. The sky was a deep orange, and street lights had just been turned on. Nise broke the silence. "Why do you keep telling me I'm strong? Master?" "Okay first, drop the 'master' schtick. I know I asked for it but it's getting cringey. Second, because you are, just like the rumors say!" Nise did a 'heke'. "Look, you shouldn't believe everything you hear about me. I'm not—" "You are! When you held me down, in your sleep…" Sparks looked away and blushed, "It wasn't just me being caught off-guard. I felt totally pinned!" "Iiiii…am sorry I can't help what happens while I'm unconscious?" "It's not just that," Yarn chimed in. "You lasted a good while against a level 90 opponent. Even had the upper hand for a time. I'd say you have hidden potential too." Nise looked down and twiddled his fingers. "But in the end I was weak after all. When we're battling together I tend to either be the diversion or use Helping Hand to buff you." "You're the only one who actually knows it," Sparks said. "If all 3 of us had it—" "Um…I do actually have another…" Nise pulled a TM out from behind his back. "I was going to give it to Yarn for her birthday, but if she—" "D'awww, you cutie!" Yarn hugged Nise tightly and ruffled his hair, and he blushed. Then Nise's stomach groaned audibly and he blushed even harder. "Aww, someone's hungry." "That apple was hours ago after all…" Sparks's stomach also growled. "I've only had a few cookies myself today. Let's go get something that's actually filling."