FSE

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Everyone who grew up in Johto vividly remembers their first time seeing the Magnet Train. Many tour guides proudly claim that it can travel at over 340 miles per hour in an attempt to awe the crowd, but such large numbers are difficult to imagine and usually only good for comparisons. They cannot adequately portray the mind-bending sight of such a large chunk of metal moving from one horizon to the next in a matter of seconds. Standing next to the rails can be a very traumatizing experience - Feeling the pressure of wind as something that could have annihilated you in a second just barely passes you by, your mind secretly wondering what might have happened had you ended up in its way.

This memory crept upon Lucario as Melinia's spear rived through the ground, striking where his torso had been a quarter of a second earlier. In fact, it had not been an intentional dodge at all, Lucario he had merely been twisting his body at just the right moment. It had been close, so close that he was certain some of his chest hair had been split like the soil underneath him.

The Marowak landed with a loud thud, bracing herself with her arms. She eagerly looked up, but gasped when she noticed her attack had missed.

"Oh dear. I suggest you don't move next time," she said with a voice caught somewhere between concern and annoyance, "It throws off my aim, and trust me - You don't want this thing anywhere near your eye or groin."

"Next time!?" Lucario repeated with shock, certain that he was dead meat if it ever came to that. Luck was a very rare occurrence for him. He saw that the still impressively lengthy spear was halfway gone, lodged very deep into the ground. Thinking about the kind of condition his ribcage would now be in if he had just been a little bit slower, he suddenly realized that tiny little bit of luck had led him to victory.

"What, you think I'm just going to let you pick it up?" he grunted and quickly moved between the weapon and his enemy, preferring hand-to-hand combat to trying to use a pike that would probably rip his hands to shreds again, "Because I'm not! Come on, come get it!"

"Why, thank you!" Melinia chirped happily, completely ignoring his battle pose. She then bent forward and started digging a hole, quickly submerging herself underground.

"Hey, where are you going!?" Lucario shouted worriedly, wondering if she was trying to trick him into following and leaving the spear unguarded. He refused to budge and listened as the sounds of the Marowak's incessant humming faded away behind a wall of mud.

Suddenly he felt very paranoid, realizing she could pop up from anywhere. He could sense her aura beneath him, but his abilities were nowhere near accurate enough to determine an exact location. Even though he had seen the Garchomp and the Excadrill do the same thing previously, he still had no idea on how to deal with it. She was underground and he was not, he would have jump into the hole to keep the fight going and that would give her all the advantages, weapon or not.

But instead of something coming out of the ground, something went inside of it. The spear trembled for a moment before sinking into the dirt, Lucario realizing his mistake just a little too late. He ran forward to try and grab it, but it was already gone, the only thing remaining a small hole leading deep underground. Caught by surprise he nearly did the unthinkable and decided to look down into it, but stopped himself just as the lance returned with a vengeance, splitting the air with terrible force.

"Hmm... Feels a little light," a familiar voice echoed from below. The pike retracted and suddenly pierced through the ground two feet in the other direction. Lucario gasped fearfully as he fell back, the spear suddenly shooting up barely a decimeter from his left leg. He rolled away, not even bothering to scramble to his feet as the giant spike frantically stabbed through the soil until the whole patch of land collapsed, now more hole than mineral.

"Bullshit! Cheater!" Lucario bellowed with fury as he got to his knees, feeling like the battle had gone from moderately dangerous to extremely deadly and starting to regret ever using his Aura Sphere, "You're the biggest coward I've ever met! Get up here and fight for real, goddamn it!"

Everything was quiet for a moment. Then a segment of dirt moved around, and the Marowak's skull stuck out.

"Oh, don't be that way. Are you really surprised to see a Ground-type digging?" Melinia asked sheepishly, "I do live underground. Do you want to see it? Would you like to come home with me? We could watch TV together!"

Lucario slapped his forehead in frustration as she effortlessly made her way out of the mudhole, leaning the spear against her shoulder as she used her free hand to clean off the dirt. When it was done, she did a happy little twirl and went back to her habit of bobbing back and forward in place.

"How the hell can you act so casually!? This is a duel between life and death, it's bloody serious!" he shouted and clenched his fists. He knew he wasn't the best at gauging the seriousness of a situation himself, although he had the excuse of inexperience while Melinia's behavior was just absurd. Pokémon generally did not put too much thought into the ethical implications of fighting someone, but this Marowak had taken it to another step, seemingly unaffected by the prospect of risking death or killing someone.

"Sweetie, sweetie, sweetie... You shouldn't consider this a duel," Melinia whispered gently as she leaned forward and turned her cheek, almost like requesting a kiss on her bony skull, "This is just a prelude to my victory, I have no reason to be rude. In fact, I am quite glad to acquire such a valuable and, mmm, handsome bounty, I would much rather be celebrating if you'd care to join me!"

"How... How the hell would I celebrate with MY OWN bounty!?" Lucario yelled as he suddenly felt his stomach growl, the gauntlet of exhausting battles taking its toll on his ravaged body, "You don't even have a bounty, there's nothing in this for me! When I beat you I'll still be poor and miserable!"

"You didn't seem to mind fighting Prime-poopsie," Melinia pointed out while rolling her eyes.

Yeah, Lucario thought, because Prime-poop was never a centimeter away from skewering him. Narrowly avoiding attacks that might actually kill him in one blow was a new, terrifying experience, and he felt that his usual method of trading blows was definitively going to bring a quick and painful end to his life.

However, aside from fisticuffs he had little else to offer, his only actual moves was the Aura Sphere and ExtremeSpeed. The Aura Sphere had already proven itself less than stellar, but at least it did not put him at risk since the Marowak seemingly lacked proper retaliation aside from chewing him out for it. ExtremeSpeed was something he was extremely reluctant to try, he had a habit of failing to pull it off and ending up in an even more perilous situation. While in his physical prime he had managed it four or five times total, so his chances after months of binge drinking and no exercise had to be pretty low.

"Excuse me? Are you ignoring me?" Melinia asked, getting a bit tired of constantly bouncing in place. Lucario looked up and figured it was better to be safe than sorry. If she was going to exploit her abilities, then so was he. Focusing with all his might, he assembled the mitochondria in his chest into a group and lead them towards his right arm, ready to fire off another Aura Sph-

"HAARGH!" Lucario screamed as he instinctively clutched his shoulder, his body wracked in pain. He had completely forgotten about the wound there, the volatile aura losing stability when exposed to the outside and exploding, blue flames burning his already open wound and forcing him to his knees in agony. Overwhelmed by blinding pain, he tried to recollect himself while making a mental note to use his left arm the next tim-

A stabbing pain shot through his left shoulder. Looking up he saw that Melinia had taken the opportunity into action and thrown her spear straight into him. Although not as weighty as when she had held the weapon, or even close to as destructive as when she had thrown it from above, the damage was still notable as Lucario fell on his back from the sheer force of the weapon.

"I told you not to do that," the Marowak said darkly as she slowly moved forward and grabbed onto the other end of the spear. Caught off guard, Lucario feared she would shove the weapon all the way through, but instead she drew it out of his body and moved back as he squirmed around in pain.

"No more Aura Spheres and I will let you keep your arms," she continued, the words sounding weird when used by her sweet voice. Lucario quickly recollected himself, noticing the wound in his left shoulder had not been as kind as the other, actually hurting pretty badly when he tried to move and would probably not let him use it to throw any more punches.

"Hey," he grunted as he got to his feet, only to immediately move into a crouching position.

"Hello!" Melinia responded cheerfully, oblivious to his intentions but playing along anyway, "Did you finally realize how nice I am and decide to surrender?"

"Nah," Lucario muttered before pumping mitochondria into his legs, making sure not to hit any 'crossed wires' inside his body this time. Experience and a sense of urgency rather than luck let him perform the move without a hitch, Lucario smiling as the mitochondria detonated and filled his lower body with immense energy. With speed surpassing that of the unavoidable Aura Sphere, Lucario flew towards Melinia as time seemingly stood still.

There was no holding back as he threw up his right elbow, ready to strike a hole through her chest. However, the twisting of his body brought about another problem as his no longer famished gut suddenly decided not to comply with his turn. At a speed where he was basically flying, it spelled disaster. He whiffed past the Marowak and slammed into a tree with his upper body so hard that a large chunk of bark ripped straight off, together with a notable amount of skin and a nasty crack filled the air.

"H-Huh...?" he stammered in shock as he slumped down on the ground, blood rushing down his face with his body engulfed in even more agony than before.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Melinia laughed heartily at the scene as she clutched her stomach, "I love your personal interpretations of the Aura Sphere and ExtremeSpeed! Now I finally have something fun to share at the party - You're going to be legendary, my love!"

Lucario could not register her chiding remark as he was stunned, nothing about the scenario making any sense to him. ExtremeSpeed had worked, it had totally worked, somehow his aim had just been off, how did that happen? His balance had screwed with him, had he really gained that much weight just from drinking, his appearance had not changed in the mirror, or had he just been too delusional to notice? And simply striking a tree should have just given him light bump on the head, here he laid almost completely out of commission, more damaged than after one of Torana's kicks, by his own clumsy feet and a fucking tree.

"Are you ready to call it a day, darling?" Melinia chirped happily, doing a very poor job at feigning concern as she moved closer. Lucario felt a sense of primal dread creep up his spine, grabbing for anything within reach to help himself up. He noticed a distinct lack of painless movement from his left hand - As if the stab wound wasn't enough, this time the crack had not come from a branch as his wrist was clearly broken.

"Does it hurt? We might need a splint for that," Melinia continued as she winced just for a moment, "Lots of bandages. Band-Aids? Mmhmm, I normally just let the Pokécenter decide what to do."

"What!? You pussy, you afraid to lose!?" Lucario yelled desperately as he flailed around, trying to get to his feet but his legs buckling under his weight from the strain of his ExtremeSpeed move. The only thing within his reach was the large piece of bark torn from the tree, which he picked up thinking it would be solid enough to be used as a decent projectile.

"Lucario. Honey. You cannot actually avoid my attacks anymore," the Marowak explained calmly while moving right next to him, "Please don't make me stab you anymore, it would be painful for me as well."

They exchanged a look for a moment.

"Well, not really!" Melinia exclaimed happily as she bounced in place. This one second of carelessness was all that Lucario needed, as he ordered his legs to get back in the game and stepped towards his enemy with bark in hand. Smacking the side of her head with all he could muster, bark struck bone with ferocity and staggered the poor Marowak inside. Letting go of the makeshift weapon, Lucario knew his limbs were in no shape to deliver a flurry of hits or some fancy combo and simply sent one brutal punch straight into her stomach, causing her to keel over.

"URGH!" the Marowak exclaimed a guttural growl and Lucario realized he was finally doing some damage. Hoping to repeat the success of earlier, he picked up the piece of bark again, placing it against his shoulder as he tackled Melinia with all his might, sending the draconian tumbling backwards. And even though this was a perfect cue to follow up with some good old fashioned kicking-them-while-they're-down, Lucario felt his breath run and did not want to risk retaliation as he examined his newfound wooden friend with admiration.

"Bah! Who needs a weapon when you've got a shield!?" he panted while taking better grip of it, breathing in and out to recover his stamina as fast as possible. Melinia wobbled a little as she got up on her feet, examining her helmet with care before picking up her trusty lance.

"Mmhmm...!" she exclaimed menacingly as she thrust it straight towards Lucario's stomach. Unable to move around quickly anymore, Lucario deflected the blow with his shield.

"Mhhmhmhmhmhhmh!" Melinia continued with obvious rage as she attacked him against and again, each blow parried but merely defending with the piece of bark was starting to hurt Lucario's arm badly. He was about to throw the shield to the side and hope for the best when she suddenly stopped.

"W-Well, now... Stalemate against a p-paraplegic...?" she breathed heavily in exhaustion, "A conundrum... If I ever saw one..."

"Why don't you come closer? Find out how much of a paraplegic I am!" Lucario taunted, not too sure he was still able to throw a proper punch with either of his hands.

"Soon-to-be paraplegic, I should say," the Marowak muttered as she suddenly turned around and started walking away from him. Once more thinking she had given up, Lucario slowly realized what she was planning on doing and swallowed hard.

He dropped the shield in defeat. It was not going to do anything to save him against what was coming. An attack so fast that mere luck let him avoid it back when he was in much better condition, and so destructive it was guaranteed to pierce straight through his body. As the Marowak began to climb up a nearby hill, all he could do was surrender or pray the spear would miss his vital organs, which still sounded like an unpleasant experience altogether.

Bloodied and worn, bones shattered and muscles torn, he slumped down and began to reflect on this battle. He had lost many fights before, but when battles became drawn out like this he usually ended up with a victory, either due to his perseverance or simply because he bought enough time for someone to come save him. However, unless Zerobi made a miraculous escape from the pit anytime soon, it seemed that was not going to happen. If he gave up, he could always rely on Celebi or the others to come rescue him before whatever nasty plan this Marowak or the delusional villagers had in store for him.

The mere thought disgusted him. Zerobi could be dead for all he knew, or could very well end up that way if she tried to fight Melinia. Celebi and Zoroark were big players on the world stage, surely they had better things to worry about than bailing him out. He had faced Brendan and Blue like a man, he had stood up to Darkrai and Raikou and survived, he had even defeated powerhouses like Torana and that Primeape from earlier in single combat, he was not about to surrender to a fucking mole.

Lucario inhaled sharply. Something of an epiphany struck him as a memory from the previous year resurfaced and made itself apparent. He could always use THAT thing. Lucario had no idea how he could possibly have forgotten about it, he used it against Raikou and then just kind of left it alone since the Aura Sphere's debilitating effects came in handy more often.

"Hey!" he yelled as he stood up.

"I can't hear you!" Melinia shouted back, now quite far away and almost all the way up the hill.

"HEY!" Lucario yelled louder, "I know why you don't want to take off that mask!"

"I already told you, pumpkin!" she responded and decided this was far enough, stopping and getting ready to rush down, unless Lucario was actually using a very peculiar method of giving up.

"You lied! It's because you're ugly!" he shouted as loudly as he could, the words feeling very satisfying as they left his throat, "Your face is nothing but a mess of scars! Zerobi told me, since you're from Victory Route it has to be hideous!"

The taunting was actually not part of his plan, it was just something he was dying to get off his chest. Melinia shook her head in disappointment before taking her first steps down, increasing her tempo until she was running down the hill at maximum speed. Like before she polevaulted herself into the air, even higher this time as she aimed for Lucario's leg. However, she was not the only one aiming for something.

Lucario carefully redirected the mitochondria in his body through a very roundabout passage around the wound in his right shoulder, making his abdomen tickle in tension. With such a strange, long-winded preparation, it would take much too long to stabilize the aura into a circular motion. Such was not his intent. Knowing his life may very well depend on this, he aimed very, very carefully before firing off an Aura Sphere straight at Melinia's head.

The Marowak frowned as she realized Lucario really was attempting one last ditch attack, because this time it was almost certainly going to make her barf. Such a waste, she thought, pain and a strong sense of nausea was nothing new and would not be enough to throw her aim off. Making her final adjustments, she prepared to throw the spear through Lucario's right leg the instant the Aura Sphere engulfed her.

It was a very unstable Aura Sphere. Like Raikou before her, Melinia soon found the Aura Sphere just barely touching her skin before it exploded like a blue star, the shockwave ripping the side of her helmet into little bits. Startled, she threw the spear where Lucario had last been standing, but he had already moved out of the way and the mighty pike crashed down into the ground, the Marowak following soon thereafter.

Lucario's smile quickly vanished as Melinia stood up to face him. The left side of her helmet was gone, but there was no mark of the explosion on her face. In fact, there was not even as much as a blemish or scratch. The face was similar in shape to the mask, but even from a distance Lucario could tell how incredibly lean and untarnished it was. Her facial scales almost looked like skin, and particularly smooth skin at that. Ignoring her almost draconian appearance and a powerful ridge running up from the tip of her nose to her head, it was pristine like a block of ice floating in the arctic, enchanting like wild flowers sprouting out of a split rock and beautiful to the point where it was actually not hideous at all, as he viewed most Pokémon.

It was not her appearance that surprised him however, but the fact that his attack had done such minimal damage. Hoping to at least take off a chunk of her enviable face, the helmet had instead absorbed every last bit of the explosion. Suddenly wishing he had not taunted her so much, the Marowak stared at him with a murderous gaze, very unbefitting such a clean face but very much befitting the ragged monstrous body upon which it sat.

He remained motionless as Melinia walked up beside him and quietly picked the spear off the ground, knowing that if he tried to stop her she would just dig underground again. Then she turned around and began to walk away, not saying a word as the process was bound to repeat itself.

"Wait," Lucario suddenly exclaimed, feeling his bravado replaced by a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, "Let's... Discuss the terms of surrender."

The Marowak suddenly stopped, her now visible ear flexing.

"No terms," she said bluntly. Lucario's spirits sunk as he tried to think of a response.

"At least let me make sure Zerobi is alright," Lucario demanded with a stern expression as he looked back at the hole where she had disappeared a while ago, "I'll come quietly if you let me do that."

"Sweetie, I wasn't born yesterday," Melinia clarified as she turned her still masked side towards him, "I'll be long gone before that Ice-type comes and ruins my day further."

"But...! That's...!" Lucario stammered as he felt his anger returning, "I can't let you do that! I'll... Poke your eyes out when you fall asleep!"

"That's why I said no terms!" Melinia shouted as she fully turned her head towards him, face warped into a dismal frown, "I surrender. That's it."

It took a moment for the words to register with Lucario. When they did, he used his utmost self-control to keep his cool and pretend this was what he was expecting all along. Melinia longingly ran a hand alongside her exposed cheek.

"I only have one face. I wouldn't risk it for money," she muttered melodramatically, "Do you have any idea how long it will take to find a skull in my exact size?"

"You could maybe try to kill someone your own size next?" Lucario suggested jokingly, overwhelmed with relief.

"Mhmmhmm, no. It would be too messy to clean out," Melinia replied, actually thinking it over for a moment, "I'll have to find one underground... But without a mask, all that dirt..."

She sighed before suddenly eyeing the plastic bag dropped and forgotten by the outskirts of the forest. Lucario looked at it and then back at her, waving his hands around.

"You can, uh, have it as a consolation prize," he said, making a mental note to pick out five hundred plastic bags the next time since all Pokémon were so eager to get their hands on one. Melinia smiled as she picked it up with her spear, shaking it and letting its contents fall out on the ground.

"A present? You shouldn't have!" she joked while ignoring the books, "Still no kiss for you, you evil man. Unless you really want one?"

"No no no!" Lucario exclaimed hastily, before noticing a foul expression suddenly crossing her face, "I mean, uh, yes?"

The malignant intent remained for but a moment before Melinia smiled again, more now than before.

"I told you so," she said before pulling the plastic bag over her head and leaning the spear against her shoulder. She left in her typical cheerful stride, wagging her hips while humming some foreign melody until she was but a long line by the edge of the horizon.

Lucario collapsed on the ground and exhaled, deciding on whether to cheer like mad or simply pass out and let things sort out themselves. He wanted to go check on Zerobi, but was in such bad shape that he figured he would just trip down the hole if he even went near it. Thirty minutes passed before he heard a set of familiar curse words coming from a familiar voice.

"Heddo!? Damn! Anibodi!?" Zerobi's slurred voiced flew out of the pit, waking Lucario from his short nap.

"Yo, what's up?" Lucario responded instinctively, roused from his sleep. The pit was quiet for a moment.

"Pick me up!" Zerobi shouted with confusion.

"Can't. Blood. Tired," Lucario spoke in a broken manner as he noticed his vision was blurry for some reason. The pain in his legs were gone, but his shoulders still hurt and especially the one where his failed Aura Sphere had burst out. The sound of scurrying followed as Zerobi's head poked out of the ground, struggling to climb out using her big claws as pitons.

"Why didn't you shave me!?" she panted as she finally made it out, her tongue clearly still paralyzed by whatever had kept her down there, "From the pit! Why didn't you reshcue me!?"

"Kind of busy fighting," Lucario muttered, wanting to put more effort into showing how happy he was that she was alright, but completely out of willpower.

"I'm an Ishe-type!" Zerobi insisted while getting up on her feet, "She wash Ground! I could've beaten her in five sheconds!"

"Shave, wash... Didn't know you were that into grooming..." Lucario joked as he chuckled lightly to himself. Zerobi's irritation vanished as she noticed the wounds over his body and the copious amount of blood dried up in his fur. Both exasperated to no end, they did nothing else that day but lie in the sunlit grass. The next day they continued on their way back to Nomad's Land, leaving the troublesome forest and blood soaked grasslands behind.