Once again, I apologize for such a lengthy bio (ask anyone who's known me; it's impossible for me to write "short" stories XD ). Anyways, here's Team Indigo's mistress of fury, Stiletto!
(submitted for the PokéCombat Academy of Higher Learning  pokecombatacademy )


As one may guess from the team profile, Stiletto the Sandslash is the team’s “bad girl with an attitude.” At first many thought she was just a hard-edged Pokémon with a bad temper and a desire to be the center of attention. Nothing could be further from the truth, however...

Stiletto was born into a terrible home; an unplanned birth that came as an accident from two new parents who didn’t even love each other. To them, the poor child was seen as nothing more than a constant reminder of their mistake and a burden on dwindling finances from their already-poor living conditions. As a result, both parents were hideously abusive to her; her father, suffering from one of the worst anger management problems a person could have, physically beat her at the slightest provocation. Her mother, angry at her “lover,” for beating herself, verbally insulted young Stiletto at every opportunity, blaming her for forcing this relationship to continue. From this, Stiletto learned early on how to take hits both physically and emotionally, as well as how to hide (not an easy thing considering that her species are really good at digging and finding things). Whatever personal possessions she owned were the result of constant attempts at keeping her quiet, and most of the time they were destroyed by her father’s fits of rage later on.

What made matters worse was that she quickly ended up doing what most every child does – emulate the parent. Even at such a tender young age, she was using the exact same coping mechanism to dealing with her own emotions that her father was, which led to her nearly destroying her own room every time she was sad or angry (and in a home such as hers, it was FAR too often).

This also happened at school, leading to her expulsion early on. She was taken from school to school, and even the guidance counselors were perplexed at how to help her deal with such engrained emotional coping methods. Thanks to serious threats made by her father not to tell about her home life, she became a surprisingly good liar to keep her home life private, and her species’ natural body armor visually hid nearly every bruise she had.

The situation took an even MORE gruesome turn when she ended up in a brutal fight after school one day with an Onyx kid who was nearly as mean as herself, and the Onyx’s father happened to catch the fight right as he came to pick his son up from school. It took some (metaphorical) digging, but he finally got in contact with Stiletto’s parents and mentioned the fight. Stiletto’s father just thought it was another nosy parent worried about his daughter, but at the mention of “battling arena,” everything changed.

The Onyx’s father happened to run an underground, illegal fighting ring (part of the reason his own kid was such a bully), and after telling how impressed he was with how Stiletto handled herself, he touched the OTHER major problem her father had: gambling addiction.

Suddenly, Stiletto found herself forced into a series of fights with other kids, threatened with further beatings if she lost but nothing more if she won. She had no choice, and in all reality she didn’t even understand the whole thing. All she knew was that she had to fight or end up beaten even MORE by her father again. Tragically, the abuses she suffered at home and her coping mechanisms of dealing with them proved to be her fighting skill. She could take hits that knocked out others her size, and was dishing out a brand of fury no one had ever seen in the ring from such a young individual. To them, she was a ticket to high-roller riches. To her, it was just something she was supposed to do... or else.

The worst, however, came when one night she lost to a fighter twice her size and twice her age. The ensuing beating from her father had driven her to fight back this time, but she could not take the rage that her father had to a daughter who dared fight back at him. Due to a dreadful, horrifying twist of evolution, she ended up evolving into a Sandslash on the spot, much earlier than was natural thanks to this cruel fighting she had been forced into. Not only that, but when she awoke after being left as a bloody pulp on the floor, she found that her father had left a disfiguring X-shaped scar on her forehead from his beating. She wanted to try running away from home, but she knew her father would find her. The contacts he had in the underground arena ensured that they would not lose their prize fighter. She was trapped.

Before long, however, the ring was busted. An entire league of undercover cops came down on the arena and put it to an end right then and there; Stiletto was even in the middle of a fight when it happened.

When it was over, she knew her father was caught in the riot that occurred during the bust. She did not care if he survived. Ironically enough, the officer that ended up fighting her father was the aunt of her future teammate, Blaze.

Stiletto was soon put into a foster home, but the damage to her psyche had been done years ago. The professionals that rescued her were afraid that she was in serious danger of becoming a Shadow; a soulless, emotionless fighting machine. She was right on the threshold, but was not full-blown (to this day, they wonder how, after a life such as hers, she had not crossed the line; a matter she herself didn’t even realize until recently). As a result, when she faced more of life’s difficulties she still had no concept of non-violent coping mechanisms. Multiple times she was even caught sneaking out of the house at night, trying to find another fighting ring to take out her aggressions in. She was unaware of any other way of life.

After more years of psychiatric help (only partially-effective), she was old enough to enroll in private high school academies and was offered a new opportunity: The PokéCombat Academy for Higher Learning. It was believed that this would give her a better environment for controlling and dealing with her aggressive tendencies, as well as give her access to a number of trained faculty who knew how to help problems such as hers. Though Principal Felinduce was hesitant at first, not wanting such a problem student with that type of aggression in his Academy, he later decided that the faculty and even some of the students may be able to help her through the Academy’s own curriculum, and since she was not a bonafide Shadow Pokémon, he accepted her into the school.

School life was, of course, very rough at first. Quick to take offense and too stubborn to back down, she ended up in her share of fights both sanctioned and unsanctioned (the latter of which kept her in detention for nearly half her starting year). This changed, however, the day she decided to show off her strength by challenging the new foreign exchange student, Neon the Dragonair.

No one expected Stiletto to win against a dragon, even one as timid as Neon, but what came as the biggest surprise was the literally MASSIVE scale of the resulting beat-down. Stiletto was left defeated and utterly humiliated (hey, they’re DRAGONS for a reason...).

Neon wanted to accept the win, but felt deep pity for the Sandslash. She could sense a heap of personal problems within her, but wasn’t exactly sure how to help her, especially when Stiletto was absolutely hating her for such an embarrassing defeat. However, Neon managed to extend a hand of sympathy for her, offering her a chance at joining a team. Stiletto was furious that Neon even wanted to have anything to do with her after that, but when she was offered a team position, she was stunned. No one had made an offer like that before. She finally decided to give it a shot, curious at what it would mean to officially be on a team.

She was soon introduced to Storm the Jolteon, leader of the developing Team Indigo. Storm was a bit reluctant, considering Stiletto’s reputation, but after talking it over with Neon and his friend Blaze, they finally decided to give her a chance.

Being a team player was not easy for Stiletto, but thanks to the care and concern that her teammates had for her well-being, she was amazed that a group of peers still wanted to associate with her despite her attitude. Thanks to Storm’s calm leadership, Blaze’s guidance, and Neon’s kindness, the Sandslash was finally beginning to become... normal.

Before long, the team was solidified as friends and Stiletto found herself caring for them as much as they cared for her. At last, Team Indigo had a loyal forth member and she had an actual “family.” Her attitude and temper still remain, though not to an extent as before, and the X-shaped scar on her forehead continually reminds her of her own terrible past. It is something she still has not completely recovered from, but her teammates have been making tremendous progress in helping her through it.

Stiletto’s particular way of fighting that developed from her horrible past still exists, but now she can control it better. As a result, she fits perfectly into the brushfire tactics of her team and has the endurance and toughness to ride out her opponents’ counter-attacks. Her striking ferocity and cold demeanor are just as much weapons of battle as her powerful claws, and she knows how to use them amazingly well. Due to taking the verbal abuse of her mother so long ago, she even knows how to maintain a straight face when someone tries to goad her with insults. “I’ve heard worse,” she says.

Stiletto has also developed a new hobby since enrolling at the Academy, PokéBall (the sport, not the object). A proud member of Zap’s Fightin’ Primapes, the team-playing skills she was taught from Team Indigo serve her well here (though she’s still prone to showing off on occasion), and few things make her smile more than playing rough.

Her loyalty to Team Indigo is as solid as a diamond (she would quite literally take a bullet for them), and she hopes to one day bring her team to the forefront of contenders at the Academy. It hasn’t happened yet, but she still dreams big!


Stilleto Versa copyright Aelius (me)
Pokémon copyright Nintendo/Game Freak