FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Stomping down with all her might, the Blaziken managed to pierce deep into the lofty soil. She stretched out her talons underground, feeling around and determining how much room for mobility she had. Using her other leg, she kicked the air in front of her and let the rest of her body follow the momentum as she rotated. Again and again she kicked, spinning her body faster and faster around each time. Lucario began to slowly back off before the Blaziken suddenly stopped in her tracks, exhaling heavily. From above them, a clapping sound could be heard.

"Incredible! Nice rendition of the Swan Lake!" Brendan shouted as he gave a standing ovation, "Personally, though... I am a much bigger fan of the firebird suite!"

"That's... It?" Lucario asked with a dumbfounded expression. Celebi held her breath while Zerobi could not help but admire the Blaziken's flair for performing so many skillful fouetté en tournant in a row.

"Just warming up... Can't be too stiff for this..." Torana answered honestly and inhaled deeply. Twisting her body while crouching down, she suddenly leapt up very, very high. Lucario gasped, Zerobi wondering why the sight of a bird staying airborne had elicited such surprise from him. He looked up as the Blaziken passed the halfway point between the floor and ceiling, where she stretched out her body in an attempt to utilize the wind pressure and slow her ascent.

Hovering almost motionlessly in midair, she suddenly lashed out with a kick. Her body began to spin around very quickly from the sheer power, and she continued kicking in the same direction. Without one leg attached to the ground there was nothing to slow her down as she gained more and more speed with each kick. Subtly her deep red body was beginning to light up with small flickers, like a flammable canister of explosives beginning to ignite. Weightlessly she soared high above, spinning similarly to a drill with yellow sparks flying about.

"Run, stupid!" Zerobi yelled with all her might, starting to feel her precious cold dissipate before an approaching storm of sweltering heat. Lucario suddenly realized he was pushing his luck and quickly made a couple of leaps back until he felt his back hit one of the walls. His dodge had not come a moment too soon as he could clearly see that the Blaziken was now burning, lashes of fire like solar prominence surrounding her. With one final kick, Torana curled herself into a rapidly spinning ball, before roaring and throwing out her limbs in every direction.

"AH!" Lucario screamed as he shielded his eyes, a bright flash filling the colosseum. Torana had lit up into a brilliant light, striking his forehead with a heated glare as he tried to not stare directly at it. A deep and ominous whoosh echoed throughout the halls of Pokémon Stadium as a pillar of flame emerged from her, stretching down to the floor beneath. In an instant, the chilly and lofty stadium had heated up like a hot desert, the snow melting and being replaced by slightly less whitish ash. The pillar spun wildly like a twister as the Blaziken hovered at the top, resuming her kicking and spinning while the fire whirl grew larger and larger.

"FIIIIIREEEE!" Brendan screamed like a rockstar on stage, headbanging and wildly throwing his white hair up and down and all around, "I'll see you burn, Lucario!"

Witnessing the burning tornado, Lucario felt quite grateful that Torana had warned him about the attack. Even so, simply being in the same room as the fierce storm was making him overheat, and he decided to get as far away from it as possible. Hoping it would not count as disqualification in Brendan's mind, he leaped over the arena's walls and onto one of the spectator's seats.

"Hey, great show!" Lucario joked as he sat down on one of the chairs and watched the fiery tornado rage on. It suddenly occurred to him that it was not heading towards him, yet still the Blaziken was insisting on letting it continued. Wondering whether she was simply trying to show off, the temperature in the room seemed to double as his vision was suddenly obscured by something large, bright and very, very hot.

"WHOA!" Lucario yelled in shock as he got to his feet and jumped up, a mighty torrent of fire passing by right under him. The mass of flames curved itself backwards in an arc, disappearing without igniting any of the seats. However, a sizzling sound followed his landing as pain engulfed his feet, making him trip on the now scalding hot metal.

"YAAHH!" Lucario screamed as he fell over, his shoulder and right arm landing on another seat and getting burned as well. Shuffling away from the impact site, he sat and blew wind on his damaged feet. Not wanting to be taken by surprise again, he squinted and forced himself to stare into the blazing sun that was now the Blaziken's. She was spinning around like before, kicking and showing no signs of exhaustion. Suddenly she put a little extra weight behind one of the kicks aimed at him, throwing another torrent of fire in his direction. The stream was surprisingly wide as Lucario was forced to jump again, this time moving to the side to make sure he would not be landing where the fire passed through. His triumph lasted approximately one second before he saw the Blaziken aim another kick at him, a second inferno heading straight for him. Unable to change his direction in midair, he braced himself as the crescent stream of fire completely engulfed his body.

"LUCARIO!" Zerobi shouted, the Fighting-type falling like a failed piece of firework covered by deadly yellow fire. Acting from instinct alone, she rushed towards him, readying a mighty blast of ice to help douse the flames licking his body clean. It was the same kind of instinct that allowed her to stop herself as a mighty flare caressed the ground where she would be standing had she kept moving. Although she had avoided the attack, the heat from simply being near it was more than her body could tolerate as she fell back, feeling like she was about to faint. Looking up at the immense vortex, she thought she could see the Blaziken shoot an angry glare at her. A clear warning of what would happen should she try anything.

Lucario crashed down on the ground and immediately began to roll around in the sandy soil, feeling the pain of his body breaking down all over. He knew that like a burning piece of paper, his fur was turning into tiny red sparks and his body would soon crumple up into a black, unrecognizable mess. Remembering the fate of his former body he began to fight harder, feeling lightheaded from the lack of oxygen while simultaneous trying his best to choke out the surrounding flames.

Celebi stared at the scene with a horrified expression, and for the first time in her life felt utterly helpless. Of all the elements in the world, the one she had most trouble dealing with was fire, and before her now raged an inferno unlike anything she had ever seen before. One kick was all it would take for the Blaziken to strike her and severely burn her, barrier or no. Even so, with each painful twist from Lucario and subtle shake from Zerobi she felt her inner reason begin to fade away.

"Eyahahaha!" Brendan cackled madly from up on his perch, wearing a set of sunglasses to be able to fully enjoy the blinding spectacle, "Squirm! You've trained yourself hard, but now it's all going to burn!"

"Haahh... Bullshit..." Lucario groaned as the last of the fire around him disappeared, feeling sore like a scrape wound covering him from head to toe. Hoping to take a break and catch his breath, he rose up at a rather sluggish pace, hoping the Blaziken would not sink so low as to attack a guy lying down. However, before he had even gotten up on his knees, Torana sent another stream of fire running towards him.

"Lucari-AAGH!" Zerobi screamed as she leapt up and tackled the staggering Lucario out of the way, taking the brunt of the fiery attack. She fell to the ground like a dying ember, unbearable heat and pain running all over her body. Lucario's right side caught fire as he desperately dug his arm underground, too low on power to even roll around anymore.

"SIS!" Celebi burst out as the sight of her dying sister and friend finally made her snap. She raced out towards the arena, conjuring up a splash of water to douse them with. Torana anticipated her move and threw out another long-distance kick of flames, covering Celebi before she even realized what had happened. Raising a powerful barrier, the water evaporated into steam due to the heat as several tiny flames penetrated her barrier and stung her.

Unwilling to give up, Celebi reached out with her psychic powers and attempted to grab hold of the Blaziken, but found that the Fighting-type was moving too violently with her kicks to get a good grip around her. Growing more desperate as she saw Zerobi's struggles suddenly weaken as she began to succumb to the fearsome fire, Celebi sent out a blast of raw psychic force towards Torana, hoping to at least knock her out of the tornado. A loud crash sounded as the invisible force was halted by an equally invisible wall, shielding the Blaziken. Feeling a new presence in the arena, Celebi looked up towards Brendan and saw that his Gardevoir had emerged once more.

"Foul! Red card!" Brendan yelled with an exasperated face, "Referee, remove this hooligan!"

His Gardevoir kept her eyes steady on Celebi, breathing somewhat heavily from having blocked such a powerful attack. Expression nearly as mad as that of Brendan, Celebi tore her now furious gaze away from the champion and his pet towards her poor sister. Zerobi had stopped burning, but was no longer moving and seemed to have lost consciousness. For an instant, she felt rage like never before course through her, ready to crush the Blaziken, the Gardevoir and their master like a set of ripe prunes. Knowing she would need to take out the Gardevoir first, she soared up and sped towards the well-dressed and now very frightened psychic.

As the flames died down once more, Lucario breathed out heavily. He withdrew his arm from the cool sand and began to get up, feeling hurt and disoriented. Zerobi was lying next to him, her fine coat looking a little blacker than usual. Celebi was flying away somewhere, and seemed to deliberately avoid bumping into the fire whirl. The burning vortex had grown even bigger than before, and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. He saw the Blaziken on top of it, spinning around while imagining her throwing him a bothered look with each turn. Somewhere in his scrambled mind, Lucario remembered why he was here and knew what had to be done.

"Ha... Haha..." Lucario snickered to himself, barely feeling anything anymore. The sources of pain around his body seemed to have collided and cancelled each other out, leaving him with a persistent yet unchanging level of agony. With no sudden spikes in pain to register, his mind felt completely focused upon the task that lay ahead.

"You think that this pathetic excuse for fire is enough to stop me!?" he shouted with all his might as he looked up at the Blaziken, "Time for you to taste MY brand of fire!"

With that, he began running towards the tornado. His legs were hurting, but he did not care. He knew things were going to get worse before getting any better. With each step he felt the temperature rise another hundred degrees, and had he still had them he was certain his sweat glands would have popped from exertion.

The Blaziken stared down with a horrified expression as Lucario's fur caught fire once more, but he continued running towards the center of the twister. She thought that he was hoping to reach the eye of the tornado, thinking he would be safe from harm in there. However, she knew her blazing fire whirl was not like any regular typhoon, and the center was actually where the temperature was at its highest.

Surprising her yet again, Lucario suddenly jumped up, moving directly through the tornado. Wall after wall of illuminating heat passed him by, singing his skin and searing his flesh. Lucario's brain entered a state of full panic, feeling his blood boiling and his eyes hurting as if beginning to melt out of their sockets. Scorched from every direction, all he could do was focus on the target in front. Like a ball of pure fire, he finally came upon the Blaziken, managing to cling on to one of her legs with the last of his strength.

"You fool! Stop it!" she yelled out in terror as she finally stopped kicking, staring at the soon-to-be cremated Pokémon holding on to her, "You want to die!?"

"Yeah, with a big fucking explosion!" Lucario laughed through the pain as he began to amass as many mitochondria as he could reach with his disoriented mind, "All you did was light the fuse!"

To his relief, he found he was able to command far more mitochondria than he had expected. They were in perfect synchronization with his crazy plan, lined up and ready to work towards the same goal - Killing Torana.

"KA-BOOOOOOM!" Lucario roared with all his power as he detonated every last mitochondria at once. A massive explosion of blue fire suddenly erupted from his body, overtaking the yellow fire surrounding him. It pierced and burned the Blaziken who began to scream in agony, her already worn out legs absorbing the blue fire like sponges. Although unfazed by regular fire and heat, the blue flames proved to be a great deal more troublesome. In an instant it felt like her legs had been chopped off, and some was currently carving through the stumps with searing hot razors. She entered shock as the pain increased further and further with each second, until her mind was not able to comprehend it anymore. Drifting away into darkness, she fainted.

A quiet wind sounded throughout the colosseum as the fire whirl swiftly died off. Celebi had stopped dead in her tracks, moments away from engaging the Gardevoir who was covering her face in speechless fear. Brendan's mouth was wide open as he slowly got to his feet, trying to get a better look at the arena. Zerobi groaned in pain as she came to and lifted her head, seeing two bodies dropping towards the ground at a rapid pace. She recognized the first as the Blaziken, but the other was unfamiliar to her. It had a furless body with faded pink skin, and it took her a moment to realize that Lucario had just had all his fur burnt off by the raging inferno.

Two silent thuds ended their fall as Lucario and Torana crashed down a few feet away from each other. The Blaziken was no longer moving, but Lucario had entered a violent coughing fit, smoke emerging from his badly hurt body. He blinked a few times, his body far too punished to attempt anything else. Turning his head slightly to the side he looked over the Blaziken, realizing that she had been defeated. It seemed unreal somehow, that despite having found himself at the epicenter of the burst of aura he still retained his consciousness whereas she had fallen.

"... Problem is... You win... Too much..." Lucario wheezed, "Me...? I get my ass kicked... Over and over... My tolerance... To pain... Is greater... Than yours..."

It was then that he became reminded of the dull ache all over his body. A violent twist in his stomach caused an eruption to pass through his jowls, and he puked out the small remains of the berries he had eaten with the help of mints earlier. Somehow, they tasted even worse coming back up.

At that moment, many things happened at once. Zerobi rose to her feet to move towards Lucario, Celebi turning around to do the same. However, the fastest of them was Brendan, who before any of them could reach him had already recalled both Torana and his Gardevoir, leaping off from his perch while throwing a Pokéball towards the ground. A flash of deep red and then azure blue shone throughout the quiet stadium as Suicune appeared and immediately jumped up, catching the quick-thinking trainer in midair. Without wasting even a second, Suicune dashed towards Lucario and halted right in front, causing both Zerobi and Celebi to stop themselves.

"Brendan! You promised!" Celebi shouted with a nervous tone, "Neither Zerobi nor I touched the Blaziken, so we did not interrupt their battle! Uphold your word!"

Zerobi gave off a soft wheeze in agreement, feeling weak from getting burned earlier. Brendan looked at her and then at Celebi, his expression unreadable. He crawled forward through Suicune's mane until he reached the neck of the legendary dog, bending over to look at Lucario. They stared at each other for a moment, Brendan's face going from a sneer to a smile to and finally a frown.

"Hmpf! This battle may be yours, but the war..." Brendan started, staring deep into the Lucario's eyes. The defiant expression he had come to loathe so was gone, replaced by a strange mixture of exhaustion and triumph. At that moment, Brendan's slowly building rage instead began to diminish, realizing that the Lucario really had defeated his Blaziken. Despite Torana choosing not to use fire until the very end, for a wild Pokémon to strike her down was nothing short of a miracle.

Brendan gazed over the Lucario with admiration, seeing him in a different light than before. There was something truly absurd about the Pokémon in front of him, something unpredictable beyond his wildest imagination. The way the Lucario adapted himself to the rapidly changing situation of battle... Learning a technique like ExtremeSpeed by simply watching his opponent... Finally ready to throw it all away with a glorious finish... It was as if the Fighting-type was both trainer and combatant in one. If a regular Lucario could learn to control the flow of battle through such minor and seemingly simple strategic moves, then so could a champion like Brendan.

"... Is over," Brendan finished as he sighed out in defeat, "You win. I will hunt you no more."

Zerobi and Celebi felt tension release its grasp of them, the Weavile lowering her shoulders in relief. Brendan's mind was suddenly racing with new strategies for competitive battling, his eagerness to start training almost causing him to forget where he was.

"Hmm... I owe you back your friend, no?" Brendan said with a smile as he looked down at Lucario, "Didn't bring her, wasn't expecting you to not die... Give me some time on that."

Lucario could not answer, having passed out from the pain just moments before. Celebi looked up and down between the blue jackal and the champion, realizing that Brendan was too caught up in his own thoughts to realize Lucario was no longer conscious.

"Until the next time we meet... Champ," Brendan said as he suddenly tugged at Suicune's mane. The great lion paid none of the other Pokémon any mind as he gracefully trotted past them towards the exit. As both master and beast left the arena, so did the oppressive atmosphere that had threatened to crush Celebi psyche earlier, the bud-like legendary currently hard at work with reconstructing Lucario's damaged body. Zerobi sat by and watched, helping to keep him and herself chilled in order to lessen the pain of the burn wounds.

Through all this, Lucario found himself in a black space, constantly reliving the battle he had just fought. Although it had been hectic, he felt strangely serene each time he watched himself strike the Blaziken and endure her attacks. Torana changed her shape into a Garchomp, the blue landshark also falling prey to his newfound strength. Entei, the Umbreon and the small star-like fairy all took turns in trying to bring him down, each beaten worse than the one before through skillful use of the Aura Sphere and ExtremeSpeed. Distracted by pleasant dreams brought on by Celebi's proximity, he remained blissfully unaware throughout the severe operations being performed upon his body.

Eventually, something rubbed him from his sleep. There was a strange sensation emanating from his stomach, but even more so he was overcome by a very recognizable presence. Opening his eyes, they were met by the familiar sight of the legendary he had been chasing for so long. Unable to hold back his surprise, he opened his mouth and spoke but a single word:

"Mew..."