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Kyle stood with his teammates on the sidelines of the football stadium, the stands filling up with the rivalry crowd. It officially wasn't his first match on Varsity, but the sophomore Arcanine hadn't been used in last week's homecoming meet against Clover High, and had been an alternate for both of the first meets of the semester. Now, Westside's biggest (if one-sided) rivals, the Raptors of Indigo Battle Academy just down the street, were visiting the Warrior's home turf, and like last week Kyle was on the sidelines.

Coach Costales, as usual, had a full slate of twelve athletes on his team tonight, so Kyle would only get one chance for his first action on Varsity, if it even came down to it. In fact, one of the senior told him it was likely - every dual meet they'd had again Indigo before was pretty one-sided in the Raptors' favor, and any time a dual meet looks one-sided, Costales usually gives the nod to the younger teammates so the stronger athletes are less likely to be injured for the next meet. It wasn't the ideal way to get out on the battlefield, but hey, that was sports for ya.

Westside, being one of the biggest high schools in the area, always had a fairly good battle team, but Indigo was the one school they consistently had a losing record against. Whether it was the dual meets in the fall season or the challenge meets in the spring season, the Academy students beat the Warriors in about two of every three individual battles. Not only did this make the Warriors fans always psyched up for any meeting between athletes from the two schools, but it also meant that the Warriors had lost every single one of the twelve dual meets in the nine years since the Academy had been founded. Westside had managed to make several of those meets close, but had been shut out completely in six, including all three postseason meetings.

The team was doing stretches and warm-up sparring as the stadium filled up, getting very noisy by the time one of the assistant refs came over to gather the Warriors so they and the Raptors would walk out to the middle of the field for introductions and the national anthem. When that was over, each coach gave the ref their picks for the first three one-on-one fights.

The first pair ended up really unlucky for the Warriors as team Indigo had chosen a Weavile junior as their lead versus the Warriors' Gliscor senior. The battle was over well before the allotted five minutes, straight knock-out, setting up the second pair quickly. It was more even in the second round, the Warriors' captain Luxray against a Raichu, but the Luxray was a bit too slow at the wrong moment, getting knocked out by an impressive, supercharged Focus Blast. A Floatzel junior was up third for the Warriors; she fared better than her Ground-type boyfriend had, but her Ice Punch against her Golbat opponent wasn't quite as good as his Giga Drain against her was, earning another straight knock out for the Raptors.

With that, the Warriors were down three points to none, and some people in the stands were already starting to filter out. Even on rivalry night, getting swept through the first three single-battles usually was a fairly big turn-off and sign for a lost meet. Now the coaches were tasked with choosing two athletes at a time for the double-battle section of the contest. The assistant ref came over to coach Costales, the Marowak thinking for a little bit.

"Carton! Kinsley! You guys are gonna take this one."

Kyle popped up to his feet before he even really registered the fact he had been called on.

"Kyle!" the Breloom scolded, in reference to the Arcanine getting up before the four competitors were officially called, in theory letting the other coach see who was getting up and picking his two accordingly. Thankfully, it seemed like the main ref had already gotten a slip of paper from the other coach for this first double battle, so no harm done, but it put the fire-type on edge already when he was called to the center circle.

He oddly couldn't really hear the ref's short introduction and statement of the rules for the double battle, though he knew the speech by heart anyway from how much of a battle geek he was. His first Varsity opponents ever were a Hitmonchan and a perpetually-grumpy-looking Persian girl, neither of whom looked like they'd be easy to take down individually, much less together. He took a few steps back before the ref blew his whistle to begin, trying to put a reasonable distance between him and his opponents.

Still, when that shrill sound went off, he was shocked at just how quickly the Persian moved as slapped him across the muzzle, making him flinch as the Hitmonchan glowed a little bit, Bulking Up.

"Shake it off, Kyle!" his Breloom teammate yelled as he knocked the Persian away from the young Arcanine, letting Kyle spew off a flamethrower in the direction of the Hitmonchan, who unfortunately just dodged as he set up a Double Team.

Well, two can play at that! Kyle thought as he went into Double Team himself, though he still hadn't fully mastered the technique, which was obvious comparing his doubles to his opponent's.

"Kyle! Burn-bulk it!" his coach yelled from the sidelines, making the Arcanine's mind quickly click into the strategy and realizing it was definitely the best strategy against two fast physical attackers... He needed to land a Will-O-Wisp on each of his opponents, keeping himself healed with Morning Sun (which he cursed with the sun currently setting over the grandstands even now) and doing his best to cover his teammate's back while the Breloom went more on the assault.

He was having trouble getting a Will-O-Wisp successful, but he certainly could tank attacks from the Hitmonchan, the Arcanine jumping in the way of any Fire Punch or Ice Punch aimed at the Breloom. Even with the Hitmonchan having Bulked Up, neither did much damage to the firedog; he certainly grinned when the Persian yelled "Of COURSE the one punch you haven't mastered yet is ThunderPunch, Jack! Get it together!"

The battle kept going, mostly being divided into Arcanine-Hitmonchan and Breloom-Persian, though there were some crossover attacks. After a while, Kyle did finally burn the Persian with a Will-O-Wisp at about the same time his teammate blasted Jack the Hitmonchan with a Seed Bomb.

In that crossfire, though, the Persian let out a Screech of anger and lashed as the bombing Breloom, landing a critical Aerial Ace and knocking out Kyle's teammate almost instantly. Even as the ref called it, though, Kyle noticed the Persian twitch oddly - she had been paralyzed by Effect Spore! Taking another moment to ignore the Hitmonchan and break strategy to go on the offensive, Kyle raced forward in his best imitation of a Flare Blitz, bowling the feline over with another yowl. She struggled to get up, but the ref called it a technical knock out right then, declaring her unfit to continue.

Kyle stood there for a split second in awe at his first Varsity out, panting from the adrenaline, and just barely moved in time to dodge Jack's DynamicPunch.

From then on, it was back to a one-on-one fight on the field, just like the first three rounds, but now the crowd was as loud as - or maybe even louder than - they had been during the electric showdown earlier thanks to the first out against the Raptors this meet so far. Kyle settled himself - he was better at one-on-one than in doubles, so he was more at home now. Still, he had taken more of a beating so far than the Hitmonchan had...

Thankfully, he held his own in the battle, slowly but surely getting more comfortable (if more exhausted) as time went by. Jack mostly kept coming at him the Drain Punches (he was getting exhausted too), but Kyle fairly quickly managed to land a Will-O-Wisp as well to counteract the Bulk Ups, letting Kyle himself reenergize with Morning Sun as much as he could, occasionally spouting a Flame Burst.

Their draining dance was finally interrupted with another shrill shout of the ref's whistle, causing Kyle's head to whip around in the Zebstrika's direction. "Wait, was that ten already??"

"Time!" the ref yelled to the field, essentially answering the Arcanine's surprised question. The fire-type just stood there in the middle of the field, stunned for a moment all ten minutes of the double battle had passed already. His stupor was broken when he saw Jack come over to shake his hand for a good fight; his first Varsity appearance was going to come down to the ref's ruling.

The crowd had been getting louder as the fight went on and ended, but fell into a hush as the Zebstrika came over after discussing with his assistant, standing between the exhausted fighters and holding their wrists, ready to give his decision.

He lifted Kyle's hand into the air and the stadium erupted. Between the crowd noise and his own shock, the fire dog didn't hear the explanation of how his strategy was a bit more long-term than Jack's was, which would've eventually earned him the win in a few more minutes. He returned to his bench amidst wild congratulations as his win had earned the Warriors two points in the meet (of three possible in a double battle).

The energy seemed to carry over into the next fight, too, even as it turned in to a stallfest; coach Costales picked two people next he could tell to try what Kyle did and win by attrition, but the Raptors' coach apparently had the same idea. Still, with one technical knock out and a time out to no outs on their side, the Warriors racked up the full three points for that fight and were suddenly up 5-3 over their archrivals.

The Indigo Battle Academy wasn't going to get caught with their pants down, though, quickly scoring two straight knock outs in the third and final double battle, emphatically shutting up the crowd and pulling back ahead 6-5. The coaches then ordered their final three athletes, and Westside once again lost the lead-off lotto as a Raptor Fearow made short work of the Warriors' Quiladin, raising the score to 7-5 and one point from winning the meet.

Just like earlier, the second of the pre-ordered single battles was a same-type matchup, the Warrior's vice-captain Infernape against a Magmar from the Raptors. It was similarly close, though the fact it was close was not a huge compliment to the Infernape, since he had several rock- and ground-type moves while the Magmar didn't know Psychic. Everyone in the stands could tell the Magmar was good, the stadium silent and tense until the Infernape landed a Rock Tomb-Bulldoze combo, earning a straight knock out with very little strength left himself, sending the stadium into a frenzy as the score nearly leveled to 7-6.

Everyone knew who would participate in the potentially tying match, too, since both teams were down to their last athlete - the Warriors' Leafeon versus a Donphan from the Raptors. The type matchup was clearly in the Warriors' favor for once, which was why the crowd was raucous during the final fight, feeling much more like a party than the tying bout it was, all the stress having been on the previous fight. The tank-ish Donphan didn't make it an easy fight, but between the Leafeon's Swords Dance and Synthesis working together, the Ground-type was clearly only delaying the inevitable. The refs easily declared Leafeon the winner after the battle's allotted five minutes were up. The teams were tied 7-7 at the end of the regular nine rounds, which meant the Warriors would finish this dual meet with a tie-breaking rotation battle for the first time in four years.

Coach Costales gathered his still-fit athletes into a huddle as he quickly decided to give them a run-down of how they would handle a rotation battle. The Marowak shooed their vice-captain back to the bench, making Kyle suddenly realize that coach wasn't just addressing the team as a whole - he was talking straight to the four rotation battlers. The Arcanine was getting a second battle in his first Varsity meet.

"As I'm sure you can tell, our hand is rather forced here for who we're sending in. Indigo knocked out our first four battlers, another three in a row later, and Simian barely survived his slog-fest with that Magmar. So they've got eight or nine able-bodied athletes ready to go and know exactly which four we're able to use. You guys are going to have to be ready to be tagged in by your teammate at any moment if we want to rotate around whatever strategy they put to us. Now I know none of you have been in a rotation battle before, but just for general experience's sake, Kyle, you're going to be anchor instead of in the starting three, alright?"

"Yes coach!" Kyle barked back out of reflex, though the look on his face clearly showed he wasn't fully comprehending the decision.

"While you, Sherri, and Princeton all fought at about the same time earlier, you had the tougher fight. Sherri and Princeton also simply have more meet experience than you, so you being in anchor position should let you watch, learn, and warm-up with a little extra recovery time. Terry, that leaves you as lead here. I know you just finished beating that Donphan, but you looked like you were barely breaking a sweat out there, so I'm guessing you're still at high-energy and are also the most warmed-up of the four of you."

"Yes coach!" the Leafeon replied, clearly still on his battler's high, bouncing on his feet a little bit. If all was well, some of the Swords Dancing would still be lingering, too, giving him a slight edge when the battle would begin.

Soon, the ref was in the center of the field with his two slips of paper.

"We have our teams for this rotation battle tie-breaking round! Leading off for the Westside Warriors will be Terrence Bosely, with Princeton Morales and Sherri Strebler on deck and Kyle Kinsley as anchor! Leading off for the Indigo Battle Academy will be Enrique Nostrum, with Rebecca Gailes and Milton Granite on deck and Samuel Kirschel as anchor! Students, if you would come to the center of the field."

Kyle gulped a little as he trailed behind his three teammates to the center circle. Against them were the Raptors' four strongest performers of the night so far - the Weavile from round one, a Rhyhorn and Houndoom from round six, and the Fearow from round seven. He presumed the Houndoom was leading - a near-perfect counter to Terry - and the Weavile was anchoring.

"This will be a rotation battle with normal rules. Switching will occur with the active battler tapping out for a specific partner. When the first player on a team is declared out, the anchor will immediately step in as the active battler. There is no time limit. Begin!"

Terry wasted no time in tapping out for Princeton, sending the Quagsire in to try and handle Enrique the Houndoom, who traded a few blows with Princeton before tapping out for the Fearow, who was similarly much faster than Princeton but suffered no type disadvantages.

Unfortunately for Princeton, he was in a bit of a bind, unable to tap out without really putting a teammate at a disadvantage, meaning the Quagsire had to weather the storm coming from the opposing Fearow. Interestingly, though, after a few minutes the Houndoom yelled out "five-three-two!" The Fearow then oddly tapped out for the Rhyhorn, who rushed in confidently despite the type disadvantage. Their strategy soon became clear, though, as the Rhyhorn's horn seemed to leak sludge for a moment as he scratched Princeton with it before quickly tapping back out to the Fearow.

The guy knew Toxic. The other three Raptors had type advantages over Terry and Sherri, and this Rhyhorn had Toxic to stop Princeton and Kyle from playing stall. It was a brutally sharp strategy.

Poor Princeton could only last so long now, but in seemed to energize him, forcing extra turns in the center from Enrique and Milton before the Fearow finally wore him down enough for the ref to call the technical knock-out, sending the Quagsire to the assistant ref for some antidote.

The rotation battle progressed surprisingly quickly from there, Kyle first rushing in and managing to land a Will-O-Wisp on the flying-type before she was able to tap her rock-type partner back in, at which point Kyle tapped out for Terry, who quickly landed a return knock-out blow - which was quickly re-returned as the Weavile dashed in and took Terry out with a single strong Ice Punch right to the Leafeon's chest.

There was no way Sherri could take a hit from the Weavile, so Kyle went in with a Flame Wheel, though he wasn't as fast as the ice-type and instead simply damaged the Fearow some more as the Raptors swapped. The two of them traded blows for a little bit as Kyle wore the flying-type down (at his own expense) before Kyle and Sherri executed a very smooth, sneaky tap-in, the Houndoom barely having time to start yelling "four sev-!" before the fast fairy hit the Fearow with a surprise Moonblast, earning another straight knock-out and evening the tiebreaker rotation battle again.

Just like before, though, the Weavile rushed in and delivered a retaliatory blow, leaving Kyle as the last Warrior standing against two nearly-full-strength dark-types. Technically speaking, he had a type advantage over the Weavile, but the Houndoom was another story - especially since the ice-type already looked more than eager to take him on, the Arcanine certainly more worn-out than the Weavile already anyway.

Kyle simply gave a go-get-em huff and ran forward to take the first dark-type on, watching as his claws seemed to glow purple a little bit as he charged as well. The Arcanine let out a Flame Burst in an attempt to distract from the incoming Poison Jab, but the Weavile sidestepped it easily enough and closed the gap. The joust hurt but thankfully didn't pierce his skin, the canine's thick fur taking enough of the blow. He tried a Will-O-Wisp as they rebounded apart, though once again the Weavile was a bit too quick for him, coming back with a two-hit Beat Up.

Ranged attacks weren't working here, and Kyle was slowly accumulating more damage as the minutes passed. He did manage to land a Flame Burst eventually, and it certainly took a lot out of the Weavile, but one hit clearly wasn't going to cut it.

Kyle was getting tired. Even with the "KY-le "KIN-sley! *clap clap clapclapclap*" chant starting to go around, he felt like actually winning this match was going to be too tall of an ask. But if he was going to go out, he was going to go out with a bang. Instead of playing to win, he decided to guarantee he took out the Weavile before flaming out spectacularly against the Houndoom.

Darkness cloaked the Weavile's claws as he came at Kyle with a Night Slash. The Arcanine froze, bracing himself to simply take the hit. That got the Weavile close enough, and himself damaged enough, that he barked out a Reversal and sent the ice-type careening backward, nearly colliding with the Houndoom as he went tumbling off toward the Warrior's bench.

Kyle didn't stop to hear if it was a straight knock out or technical knock out, as the instant the Weavile nearly took out the Houndoom, the other fire-type held his attention. The Hondoom - Enrique apparently - started charging up a Dark Pulse without wasting any time. Kyle barely had time to think, and as he saw the black sphere launch at him, he just had time to get ready to Endure it as well.

Enrique growled threateningly at the delay of victory. Since he had kept his distance, there was no threat from a Reversal, but he knew that he had missed his main chance for a ranged attack to catch Kyle off-guard. He reached up to his chest and yanked off the necklace he had been wearing, clutching it in his fist in front of him. A moment later, rainbow flashes of energy started swirling out from his hand, the Houndoom's entire body beginning to glow.

Kyle's jaw dropped. Holy frick, how does a high schooler already have a Mega Stone?? The crowd was shocked as well, with all the oohs and aahs mixed with a fair amount of booing at the clear trump card being played.

The Arcanine thought fast; if this Houndoom was going to overdo it on that scale, he might as well gamble all the more. Taking a deep breath, he let out a meditative howl. As Enrique mega-evolved, Kyle's call made the three-quarter moon, still low and large in the sky, glow brighter and brighter with reflected sunlight, almost making the stadium lighting moot as his best imitation of Sunny Day took hold.

The crowd seemed split between confused and excited at the move. On one hand, the extra "sunlight" would trigger Enrique's Solar Power, strengthing his attacks even more; on the other hand, the extra "sunlight" would trigger Enrique's Solar Power, wearing him out much faster than otherwise.

It also had the added benefit of making the Arcanine's own Morning Sun all the more efficient, which he quickly used as the Houndoom finished his Mega evolution, eyes narrowed at the risky game Kyle was playing. He launched another Dark Pulse at the Arcanine, who responded by pulling off (under pressure) a perfect Double Team for the first time in his life. One of his two copies vanished with a light sizzle as the Dark Pulse went harmlessly through it, the Arcanine getting one more call on Morning Sun while he could before rushing at the Houndoom; Kyle was beginning to think he might make a battle of this, so long as he didn't let Enrique keep it a ranged fight, as a ranged fight would put Kyle at a distinct disadvantage.

The Houndoom let out a sweeping Solarbeam next, eliminating the second of Kyle's copies before the swath of solar energy swung to hit Kyle himself. Thankfully, it didn't hurt that much, and Kyle still had managed to get close enough that his momentum carried his Take Down into the other fire-type, sending them both stumbling a little bit. Kyle, who was apparently a bit more used to physical bouts, recovered first and surprised himself by pulling off yet another perfect Double Team, the Arcanine smiling to himself at that.

Enrique was not amused, though. "You want a physical fight, huh?" he barked, quickly surprising Kyle with a Faint Attack, hitting the Arcanine convincingly and dispelling his copies. It smarted a little bit, but Kyle could even feel now that Enrique was not used to hitting someone directly; he had to stay physically close.

Just for the sake of being frustrating, he went with Double Team again, apparently having overcome whatever mental block he had previously as he let muscle memory carry him through it. The more he stalled, the more the Houndoom's own ability would weaken him, even if Kyle's own attacks were not incredibly effective against the fire-dark-type; he could try Reversal, but none of Enrique's attacks were strong enough to really hurt Kyle enough for Reversal to do much damage, and anyway Kyle was hopeful he could win this and was no longer willing to risk getting to low health. As such, he did a good enough job of tanking the weak Faint Attacks and the occasional Foul Play if it hit him instead of a copy, using Morning Sun once or twice to keep himself healthy.

The battle thus dragged on and on, both combatants wearing thin despite the raucous crowd. Kyle could tell, though, that Enrique was getting highly frustrated at being unable to easily get the win. He felt that if he just waited long enough, the Houndoom would do something rash that he could take advantage of.

The battle didn't end with a breakthrough like that, though, nor even something with a grand finish. After a few more minutes of the back-and-forth, the two met in a Beat Up/Take Down tussle, grappling each other a bit before their tangled legs caused them both to fall over. Kyle's back was the one to hit the ground, but they rolled slightly leaving Kyle on top. The Arcanine raised a fist to try beating on the Houndoom back, but paused; Enrique was panting heavily with his head completely back against the ground, not even looking up at Kyle or trying to push the Arcanine off of him.

What was he doing? They were supposed to be battling, and he's just lying there...

In a surreal moment, the sound of the ref's whistle cut through Kyle's mind. He knew what that meant, or at least thought he did, but he couldn't believe it. His mind didn't process it quickly enough before he became aware of the space around him seeming to fall in; he looked up in time to see a rush of people streaming on to the field from the stands. The ref separated him from a still-panting Enrique in time for the crowd to come in and surround him.

Everyone was yelling and jumping around like what he thought a rave would be or something, complete with hands all over him in the confusing crush. A moment later, though, some particularly strong hands lifted him up above the crowd. It seemed several of the gridiron players had lifted him up to their shoulders. It really sunk in; clearly, he had won the battle. No, he had won the entire meet!

A moment later, he saw that Princeton, his conscious-again Luxray captain, and a couple of JV players including Ryan and Sarah had made their way next to him and were yelling up their congratulations at the bewildered Arcanine. He was certainly comfortable with the team, but as long as he had been out he had been a bit of a loner, and having an entire stadium of his classmates now parading him around was extremely foreign and a bit unnerving to him.

The Luxray yelled up at him "That was awesome! You're a hero, bro!" He then smiled knowingly and clearly mouthed "This is your chance! Embrace and enjoy it."

Kyle smiled at that, if a bit uncertainly, then yelped as one of the gridiron players nearly dropped him, earning a few gasps followed by a fair amount more of laughs, which the Arcanine truly joined in on.

As he was carried around the field, he glanced over to the Raptors' bench to see how they were regrouping and packing up. Jack the Hitmonchan looked over and locked eyes with the Arcanine, giving him a thumbs-up and a friendly wave. Kyle nodded and returned the wave before returning to the celebration at hand.