In the second round of the SECT Lorissa is matched against 's Illiana, and isn't happy about it. One freshman opponent on her quest for respect was bad enough, but she doesn't think fighting two is going to help her cause. Though an unexpected twist might change things.

Time and shoulder pain kept me from doing a nicely shaded pic and all, maybe next time.

Roberta "Bob" Mahtava belongs to
Referee Turino belongs to


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A long-haired pachirisu sat on a workbench in a cluttered garage, lazily strumming on his electric guitar. He had shown up to band practice early today, not to do any extra work, but to talk with the garage's usual occupant. He looked up and out to the street running through the subdivision, wondering where she was before returning his attention to his guitar.

After another five minutes or so the quiet tranquility of the Grande Vista subdivision was broken by an approaching rumbling noise, turning into the squeal of tires as a dark green pickup truck with a camper top pulled into the driveway. A stocky lairon with an angry scowl on her face threw open the door and hopped out, slamming the door behind her and causing the truck to rock back and forth.

"Whoa, Lori, what's wrong?" asked the pachirisu, setting his guitar down on a table.

"Sons of bitches," she growled, stomping her way into the garage. "This!" she yelled, throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at him.

He bobbled it for a moment before catching it, unrolling it and reading it over. "So it's your next opponent for the S.E.C.T., what's the big deal? Illiana Larin... who the hell is that?" he asked, the name unfamiliar.

"Another damn freshman Dom!" she spat, slamming her fist down on one of the cymbals of the drums in the back corner, putting a big dent in it and filling the garage with a crashing sound.

"So... what's the big deal?" asked Dominic once the noise subsided, wadding up the paper and throwing it away. "Just another bye, that's all. I'm pretty sure you can handle it."

"That's not the point!" yelled Lorissa. "The whole reason I entered this tourney was to prove I'm not a joke, and what do they do? Stick me up against two freshmen! This is a load of taurcrap!"

Dominic sighed and looked up at her. "Hey I dunno how they even got into that tournament, but somebody has to fight 'em."

"But why me? Twice?" growled Lorissa. "It's like they're trying to make me a laughing stock!"

Dominic picked his guitar back up and laid it across his lap. "Lori, we've been friends for a while, can I be honest with you? There's something I wanted to talk to you about even before you showed up here."

Lorissa shrugged and folded her arms. "Free region."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but when you were with that last team, a lot of people thought you were a joke. I know that's what you're trying to shake off," he said, holding his hands up defensively. "But don't trade one bad reputation for another."

"What are you tryin' to say?" asked Lorissa, still with an irate tone to her voice.

"I know you wanna win, and that's cool. You trained really hard for this thing, and the other guys and I were fine with you missing practices for it, we're behind you and all. It's just..." he said, trailing off as Lorissa narrowed her eyes.

"It's just what?' she said with a scowl, leaning against a workbench.

"You've always been a laid back, cool person to be around, never really took much seriously. Fun to hang out with," he continued. "Just... don't get so wrapped up in this you stop being yourself. I see a lotta people at school who get really good then turn into complete pricks. Just don't want you goin' that route."

Lorissa scoffed in response. "I'm not gonna go stompin' around beating up freshmen, that's the last thing I want! I just wanna be taken seriously for once, I'm sick of being a bad joke. How the hell am I supposed to do that when they have me fighting teddy bears and little girls?"

"Win," answered the pachi plainly. "Nothing fancy, no overkill, just beat them straight up and move on. You'll get your chance."

"Yeah whatever, this still blows," growled the lairon. "An actual challenge would be nice. "

Dominic sighed and picked up his guitar. "You'll get it, you've endured the jokes and shrugged 'em off for a while now, another match won't kill you."

"Yeah but I didn't care then, now I do," answered Lorissa. "And don't tell me to just stop caring, I can't."

"Well that's a good thing, shows you're taking pride in this. But seriously, don't lose yourself over this Lori, just do what you have to do. You think the guys at the top never had to choke down something like this to get where they are?" shrugged the pachi, lazily plucking at some of the strings on his guitar.

Lorissa grumbled and sighed. "You've been listening to that sister of yours too much. Look I'm really not in the mood for this right now," she said, sweeping her arm across the drums she played in their band and the small area in the garage cleared out for them to practice. "Do me a favor and call the others, tell 'em it's off today. I'm gonna get a shower before mom gets home and, I dunno, head over to the junkyard and break things or somethin'."

Dominic nodded, picking up his guitar. Normally he'd joke with her, asking if she needed any help, but right now he figured wasn't a good time. "No problem," he said. "I'll give 'em a call, I'm sure they'll understand. You just take care alright?" he said, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before heading out to his own car parked on the street.

"Right, thanks," she replied, though her mind was elsewhere. She headed into the house, slamming the door behind her, still with a lot to think about.

Lorissa spent the days leading up to the next round of the tournament doing little more than just working out. She was still in a foul mood over the entire situation, but finally resolved to just do as Dominic had advised - stomp her opponent and move on. When the day of the battle arrived she sat in the locker room, adjusting her battle outfit one last time before silently heading out into the main hall leading to the arena.

The halls were quite familiar to her, she'd spent most of her time at the academy working on mechanical projects, which led to her being taken on as an apprentice of sorts to the school's arenamaster "Sparky". Unlike most students she'd actually been inside the belly of the arena, privy to the intricate technology and mechanisms within that most students never even considered or just took for granted. It was actually something of an edge in this tournament, her familiarity with the arena itself effectively gave her home field advantage. It may not serve her well in this upcoming battle though, the arena had been sealed before this round of the tourney and Sparky had been tight-lipped about it. There was sure to be something special, but knowing the capabilities of the school's arena, it could be anything.

Lorissa stepped through the curtain separating the hallway from the arena beyond, squinting at the bright lights. She was a bit surprised at what she saw once her eyes adjusted. The floor of the arena had been covered in sand, piled in dunes in some places. Crumbling walls, pillars, and obelisks stood among the sand and rocks lay strewn about the desert-like battlefield. The whole setup looked like the remains of an ancient, ruined city though for the life of her she couldn't remember ever seeing anything like the ruined decor in the arena's vast stock of terrain. On the opposite side of the arena she saw a smaller nidoran surveying the sand with an equally confused look as the crowd above began making noise.

The noise and rabble continued for a bit before being drowned out by the sudden squawking of the arena's PA system. "Greetings students!" chirped a cheerful voice, followed quickly by the irritating noise of feedback. "Oh, sorry, let's just fix that!" said the voice as the feedback subsided. The speaker, giratina vice principal Roberta Mahtava, stood in the main observation booth, looking out over the arena floor with a jovial expression. "If the two fighters would approach the middle of the arena please?" she asked in a cordial tone.

The lairon and nidoran shrugged but did as they were told, still not sure what the sandy mess was all about. They met on a large sand dune in the middle of the arena, looking each other over without a word. They were sure the vice principal would begin speaking again at any moment so they remained silent, even though both had something to say.

Ms. Mahtava chimed in again once the pair had climbed the dune. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering why there's sand all over the arena floor. Well, in an effort to make this round of the tournament more challenging, the tournament board elected to add a random terrain element to the battle!" she said excitedly. "And this is what the randomizer came up with! You're encouraged to use the terrain to your advantage, if you don't, your opponent will!" she teased with a smile, neither fighter seeming too amused. "Now if you'll give me another moment or two, I need to talk with the referee about the match before we begin!" she said, nodding up to a vibrava in a referee's shirt circling the battlefield from above.

Lorissa was the first to speak, glaring down at her smaller opponent. "Look, I'm not gonna bother offering you a chance to concede, I know you won't take it. But I'm not gonna go easy on you. I don't care if you're a freshman, you knew what you were getting into, so I'm just gonna end this quick."

Illiana looked up at her, not intimidated by the much larger lairon. "Good," she stated flatly. "I'm wanting a challenge, and I already beat a junior, a senior shouldn't be much more trouble," she said with a confident smirk.

"I did my research," continued Lorissa, not even acknowledging her opponent's bravado. She was expecting it, but still found the posturing irritating. "You won your first round match by poisoning your opponent and waiting them out. I really hope you have a backup plan, or this is gonna be even shorter than I expect," said the steel type with a scowl.

The nidoran had to pause and reflect on that for a moment, the reality of the lairon's words sinking in. Her venomous quills retracted slightly as she realized they were useless, her opponent immune to their effects. The truth is that she really didn't have much of a plan. She had a few loose ideas of what to do but now that she was standing toe to toe with her opponent she realized how impractical and ineffective they really were. She didn't want to admit it but now that the impending battle was at hand she knew she was in trouble. Her opponent was a senior, immune to most of her attacks, and to make matters worse, the random terrain highly favored the lairon. With the battle about to start at any moment she had to think fast.

Illiana racked her brains for a way to overcome her opponent when a sudden flash of inspiration struck. The deck was completely stacked against her, but she could always reshuffle the cards and re-deal. "You're right," she said with a shrug. "You're bigger, stronger, tougher, and it's gonna be real hard for me to do any real damage," she admitted with a nod of her head. "But I did my research too. I know you got involved in this looking to prove something, and what's beating a freshman gonna prove?"

Lorissa continued to glare at the nidoran but didn't answer. She watched with some curiosity as Illiana dug a claw into the bottom of her shirt, tearing off a narrow strip of red and white cloth and picking a long shard of stone out of the sand. "I mean yeah, you can win, but that won't prove anything," Illiana said with a shrug. Lorissa glared at her some more, some of the taunts of the crowd above echoing in her ears louder than they were before. "So how about we make it a challenge," said Illiana, tying the strip of cloth to the end of the long stone spike and jabbing it into the sand.

"If I can get this flag to the edge of the arena, I win," said the nidoran, pointing to the wall of the arena. "But if you knock me out, you lose," she continued. "Whaddya say? It'll show you can do more than just smash things. I bet I can do it in five minutes," she said with a confident grin.

Lorissa stared down at her. She had no reason to accept, a win in a straight up fight was a sure thing. But saying no would only lead to more jokes, and the nidoran was right, it wouldn't prove anything. "You have three,' said the lairon after a pause. Illiana looked unhappy and started to protest but Lorissa cut her off. "I can always say no, take it or leave it."

Illiana nodded her head, about to say something else but interrupted by Ms. Mahtava. "I'm sorry about that students!" she chirped over the PA system. "We were discussing the match rules and got sidetracked, but I think we're ready to begin. Are there any questions?" she asked the two fighters.

"Yeah," answered Lorissa. "We wanna add a stipulation."

"A stipulation?" asked the giratina curiously. "Whatever sort of stipulation do you mean?"

"A special win condition," said Illiana. "If I can get that flag to the arena wall in three minutes, I win. But if she knocks me out, she loses," she said smugly, pointing first at the flag and then at Lorissa.

Ms. Mahtava pondered this for a moment before speaking up. "So a combination of capture the flag and king of the mountain? Or queen of the mountain in this case? Well, I suppose that would add some excitement to this match, do you both agree to this?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," answered both fighters in unison.

"Well then!" said Ms. Mahtava with an excited clap of her hands. "Did you hear those terms Mr. Turino?" she asked of the referee. The vibrava nodded silently and resumed his position above the battlefield. "Well then, let's make it official!" said Ms. Mahtava. "Ms. Larin, if you would please step back a bit?" she requested. Illiana did as she was told, stepping down the sand dune. "Keep going, there, that's good!" said Ms. Mahtava once Illiana got about ten yards away from the lairon, who stood over the flag. "Three minutes on the clock timekeeper, and Mr. Referee? Begin when you're ready!" she said as a three minute timer appeared on the display above the arena floor.

Mr. Turino wasted no time signaling the fighters to start as the clock began to tick down. Illiana knew she had to move fast and acted accordingly, making a dash up the sand dune. Running uphill in sand proved to be much tougher than she thought, and her dash turned into a tired climb as she neared the top. The sand offered no traction, it was much more effort to move than she had thought, and by the time she got into position she was slow and sluggish. Lorissa was easily able to block her and shove her back down the hill, the nidoran tumbling head over heels and landing flat on her face halfway down. "New plan," she muttered to herself, spitting out grains of sand.

"Not gonna be that easy," taunted the lairon, stomping her foot on the ground and sending up a large cloud of sand. The sand began to whirl and rage around the top of the hill, abrasive grains pelting Illiana as she stood up. The sandstorm stung, though there was no way it alone was going to take her out. It was causing her problems though, as it made it very hard to see. She could see the silhouette of the lairon in the whirling sand as she looked up, as well as a spike of stone jutting up from the ground, but she had to squint her eyes lest the sand completely blind her.

"Good!" she yelled above the noise, making a hurried crawl on all fours up the side of the dune. That method served her much better, and the nidoran was able to reach the top of the hill without much difficulty this time. She saw Lorissa coming for her but tucked and rolled away from the attempt to shove her back down the hill. Illiana made a scramble for the flag but the lairon proved to be quicker than she thought, sticking her leg out and tripping the nidoran.

Illiana fell face first onto the dune again, coughing and spitting up sand. "Clock's ticking," taunted the lairon as she made a grab for Illiana. The nidoran proved her own quickness as well though, rolling over onto her back and knocking Lorissa's hand away. She aimed a kick at Lorissa's leg, hoping to trip her in return, but a solid thumping sound was the only result, the lairon not budging. Wincing slightly the nidoran cut her losses and scrambled to her feet, diving for the flag.

The nidoran snatched the stone spike with her hands and just rolled forward in a ball. She grunted and groaned as she tumbled down the sandy hill, sliding down the last bit before getting to her feet. She was covered in sand and her eyes hurt, but she made a mad dash for the wall of the arena with them closed, just hoping not to run into any of the large obelisks or rocks cluttering the battlefield. About halfway there she managed to open her eyes, just in time to avoid colliding with a stone pillar jutting up from the sand. Coming to a sudden halt she fell backwards on her rump, full of a mixture of excitement that she was going to make it and worry that the lairon was sure to be right on her tail.

As she stood up and started running again she glanced down at the flag, then quickly came to a halt, panting from the exertion. Something was wrong, this chunk of stone was larger and heavier than the one she had initially jabbed into the ground, and tied to the end, fluttering in the faint breeze, was a long strip of blood red cloth, not the red and white strip she had tied herself. A small mix of anger and disappointment welled up inside her as she realized she'd been tricked, Lorissa must have made the fake and switched it out when Illiana was tumbling down the dune and crawling her way back to the top. "That's cheating!" she yelled, turning back to the dune and throwing the fake flag away.

"All's fair!" yelled Lorissa in return, holding what Illiana presumed to be the real flag in her hand and waving it, still silhouetted against the sandstorm. Illiana muttered to herself as she ran back to the dune, trying to ignore the fatigue. The deception had cost her valuable time and now she was going to have to rush to capture the flag before the clock ran out. Lorissa jabbed the flag back into the ground and motioned Illiana forward, standing to block her way again.

"Now I really wish I knew Dig," thought the nidoran as she once again climbed the dune, trying to use what rocks she could find as traction. She scraped her shins and knees on some of them but shut it out, she wanted to win and wasn't going to let a few cuts and bruises stop her. She used one of the crumbling stone walls as cover as she climbed, trying to take any advantage she could find. She looked up at Lorissa through squinted eyes once she reached the top, neither girl really wanting to make the first move. It didn't take long for Illiana to realize Lorissa's plan though, the lairon could wait all day, it was up to the nidoran to win., which meant she had to make the first move.

Illiana tried faking to the right and going around Lorissa to the left but she just couldn't move quickly enough in the sand. She almost got around her larger opponent but Lorissa reached out for her, grabbing her arm. The lairon hefted the nidoran up, holding her in a full nelson as Illiana kicked. "Put me down!" she yelled, kicking and wriggling as hard as she could but her opponent was just too strong. It wasn't hurting her, but it was eating up valuable time.

"Make me," taunted Lorissa, holding her opponent fast and slowly walking backward away from the flag. Normally she'd use such a hold as a prelude to slamming her opponent onto the hardest surface within reach but now she had little recourse other than to just hold Illiana there and run out the clock. "Tick tock," she said, provoking the nidoran into squirming even harder, using up energy as well as time. Illiana tried to force her way free but the lairon's arms were like a vice. After several seconds of struggling she hung limply in the lairon's arms, panting. Lorissa glanced up at the clock above the battlefield to see how much time was left, which provided Illiana with a much-needed distraction.

Taking a deep breath the nidoran pulled her arms back and twisted, sliding free of the lairon's grip. Before Lorissa could react Illiana turned around and shoved with all her might, catching the lairon under the chest. The impact wasn't much, but already off-balance from standing on the sand dune Lorissa staggered backward. Illiana followed up by ramming her shoulder into Lorissa's stomach as hard as she could. It probably hurt the nidoran more than her opponent, Illiana's wincing a sure sign of such, but it was enough to knock the lairon backward. Lorissa tripped over a chunk of rock sticking up out of the sand and fell over, sliding a few feet down the dune before her weight caused her to stop.

Illiana didn't waste any time watching her fall. Giving her shoulder a quick rub she turned and picked up the flag, taking but a moment to make sure it was the real thing this time. She leaped off the sand dune away from Lorissa, tumbling and rolling down the hill and getting to her feet at the bottom. She could hear Lorissa chasing her this time, the much heavier lairon moving through the sand easier than Illiana could. Illiana didn't look back though, she just focused on the arena's edge and ran as fast as she could. Some of the rocks and debris stood in her way, she had to slow her pace and turn to avoid them. She paused for just a moment when she realized the sound of pursuit had stopped, but quickly began running again when she felt a low rumble underneath her and saw bursts of sand shooting into the air around her.

Illiana tried to sprint for the wall but an eruption of sand blocked her way and knocked her back. The impact jarred and disoriented her but was off the mark, not causing her any real harm. Lorissa emerged from the sand in front of Illiana, wasting no time in moving to grab hold of her again. The cloud of sand stirred up by Lorissa's passage underground began to whirl about as she moved, once again pelting the nidoran and stinging her eyes, but Illiana did her best to ignore it. She quickly got to her feet and began running as fast as she could though the sand was slowing her down considerably.

Squinting her eyes to see through the sandstorm she saw one of the tall obelisks toppled over and laying on the sand up ahead. "Finally some luck," Illiana thought as she jumped onto the stone obelisk, the solid surface letting her run much faster as the lairon closed in. She wondered for a moment why the lairon had stopped chasing her as she neared the end of the obelisk, the arena's wall, and victory, in sight through the obscuring sand.

Her answer would come in the form of a loud cracking noise as she reached the end of the obelisk as Lorissa stomped on the other end of the obelisk with a thunderous roar. The obelisk tilted suddenly, the force catapulting Illiana up into the air as the powerful earthquake that Lorissa sent through it shattered it and sent pieces of stone flying. Illiana flipped head over heels in the air, unharmed by the earthquake but disoriented and dizzy. Squinting through the sandstorm she spied the arena wall just ahead and reared her arm back, throwing the spike of stone will all her might.

The shard of stone was launched with as perfect a spiral as a rough chunk of rock could have and for a moment it looked as if it was going to make it. Illiana’s elation quickly turned to dismay though as the spike's weight and the buffeting sandstorm caught hold of it, rapidly dragging it down. The whipping sandstorm tore the piece of cloth at the end off, sending it flying as the stone shard crashed to the ground a mere yard or two from the edge of the wall. "It's not over, I can still make it," thought Illiana as she righted herself and prepared to land on the sand, but her determination turned to dread when she looked down.

Lorissa had used her great strength to pick up one of the rounded columns, holding it like an oversized baseball bat underneath Illiana. Her intentions were clear, Illiana could do nothing but brace for the impact, but the thought ran through her head that if the lairon knocked her out, she'd lose. Was she angry enough that she just didn't care? As Illiana fell from the sky Lorissa swung the stone column at her, but checked her swing before it connected. The impact knocked the wind out of Illiana but didn't knock her out. Unfortunately for her it was enough to imbed her into one of the sand dunes with the column pinning her, barely able to move. It took her a moment to recover, at which point she tried to push the column off, but the wind was knocked out of her again as the lairon sat down on it, right over Illiana. "Ballgame," she said, leaning over to use her own body to shield Illiana from the sandstorm.

Illiana grunted and strained but it was no use, she was held fast and couldn't come close to budging the pillar, especially with the lairon holding it in place. She had enough room to breathe but that was about it, the sand packed too tightly for her to wriggle free. Some of her sharp quills extended and fired out at the lairon's legs, but they bounced off harmlessly, the poison attack having no effect. "You can call it now or I can just sit here until the clock runs out," said Lorissa with a shrug. "Don't make no difference to me."

The nidoran scowled before laying back and panting, trying to catch her breath. "I've got three minutes," she grumbled, gathering what strength she could for one final attempt to break free, though it would be to no avail. As the sandstorm subsided she could clearly see the clock above the arena counting down the final seconds, a loud buzzing sound sealing her fate as the clock reached zero.

"Match!" yelled the referee, landing on one of the still-standing columns to announce the victory. "Lorissa Fernacio is the winner by decision!" he yelled, his words picked up by the arena's PA system as the spectators, having been relatively quiet, began to cheer and make noise again.

Lorissa stood up and picked up the stone column pinning Illiana, tossing it aside and holding a hand out. The nidoran sighed but took it, letting the lairon pull her up. "Thanks," she said as she started dusting sand out of her clothes. "Hey I can't be mad, you gave me a chance, I just came up short," she said, coughing up a bit of sand.

Lorissa shrugged in response, also covered in sand but not so bothered by it. "You tried, came close. But hey, this is the best battle academy in the world and this is my fourth year here. I've learned a thing or two."

Illiana nodded. "Yeah, guess I learned a few things too, so it's not a total loss. But I had fun, and thanks for giving me a fair shot, most people wouldn't have done that," she said, holding one hand out while trying to dig sand out of her ear with the other.

Lorissa shook the nidoran's hand and nodded. It wasn't quite the battle she was hoping for but maybe challenges were what you made of them, and not just a contest to see who can smash who first. Hopefully agreeing to limit herself and fight on someone else’s terms would earn her some wanted respect. She seemed to have it from her opponent, and for now, that was good enough.