PFL Nights

[AmbushCat]

*grinning* Called it. *stands up to cheer with the others*

Mini-Lina: *grumbles, one hand on her chin* Grateful I'm not a gambler.

[Whatevr89532]

After a bit, the two combatants are fine again, and the announcer hops back onstage once more. The atmosphere is a little tense, Lord Colburn looking enraged while D crosses her arms and gives a kind of 'go on and try' smirk. "Well--uh, anything you two want to say to each other?" says the pika-girl, and the Ditto waves her over to take the mike.

"I want to say this where everyone can hear." There are some 'ooh's and even a gasp or two from some of D's fans. A few people mutter 'the shutdown'. The stadium gets quiet. "After you made it so hard to get a fight with you at all I thought it'd be nice to put on a little show. I thought it'd be a huge risk to take on so many technically weaker forms against you, but you made it so easy to work it all in. I didn't even need the heal, it turns out. Listen.." She leans forward slightly. "Your anger is a gigantic weakness waiting to be exploited, and as a result any one of your buddies is a far more challenging fight than you. I don't know how you came to be the leader of the band, but if you want to stay worthy of that title you'll need to be a little better than that. Ciao." She makes a small wave of putting two fingers close to her forehead and pointing them toward her most recent opponent, and then turns the mike horizontal and releases it (the announcer quick-attacks across its falling path in time to catch it and rescue the precious sound equipment as well as people's ears from a loud thumping noise), followed by shifting to some kind of ghost-type form and disappearing from view entirely.

The announcer sweatdrops slightly and looks around. "Er--well, I'm sure she's still around here somewhere if you have anything to say to that?"
Colburn just sighs and shakes his head, wearing a similar expression to before, but it seems more frustrated than angry now.

"Aalllright! Well, that's it for tonight's show folks! If you liked it there are schedules available on the flyers being handed out and online and probably a lot of other places too! Next thing coming up is an Ark fight day after tomorrow night, where some up-and-comings and a few already arrived try to take down--or at least survive a round or two--against our mutual boss. It's bound to be an exciting time!

Any-way, give it up one more time for all our fighters tonight!" (She waits a moment for the applause to die down again) "That's all for now, folks! See you soon!" The lights flash back to stadium lighting so everyone can see their way out after that.

((Phew...end of the first 'night'. I'll maybe leave some space for reactions to this thing and then make a post transitioning to the next one))

[AmbushCat]

*After Aldonza applauds, the two of them---or rather, Aldonza by herself---pick up their trash to throw away and call it a night.*

So. Thoughts?

Mini-Lina: ...Eh, it'll do. Kinda struck me as some sorta weird combination of your Personal Battles and pro-wrestling.

...Okay, the Personal Battles I get, but why pro-wrestling?

Mini-Lina: *clears her throat and attempts to do a credible impression of The Rock* Tell the Rock, exactly, who in the blue h*** are you two French popcorn farts anyway? It doesn't matter who you are!

...Okay, I admit that D was rather mouthy after the battle, but don't you think that's a little unfair?

Mini-Lina: Sure. That's why I said it. Now c'mon. You promised me a meal at Barry's Bonanza, remember?

Yeah, yeah...

((OOC: Edited to account for the fact that Mini-Lina's human form doesn't have access to magic.))

[Whatevr89532]

Two nights later, another event at the same location. This one is a bit different--more advertised to those who are already fans of the PFL than to newbies.

Marcus "Ark" Aurelius, the boss and owner of the entire PFL, is a humanoid Arceus. His abilities seem to so far surpass every other member of the organization that a fight between him and an individual--or even any team of individuals--would be over almost before it began. So, rather than bore the audience with a two-second fight when he feels like participating, he will occasionally take on an endurance match against however many comers want to try and take him on. Most opponents last less than a single round, and lasting more than three rounds is a true mark of skill or luck, frequently enough to earn even a complete newbie to the PFL instant status in the Uber tier. You'd think people would learn, but the temptation of "easy" access to the higher-ranking, better-paying tiers draws plenty of opponents in. Sometimes those already in the higher tiers, and perfectly happy with their present position, get offered a bonus to participate just to make the fight slightly more of a challenge.

In truth, there are three kinds of people among which the Ark fights are popular: Those who enjoy watching Ark's overwhelming performance in battle, those who enjoy watching his opponents be crushed, and would-be future contestants hoping to spot some weakness or effective strategy to use in a later Ark fight. The first two are rarely disappointed, while the last rarely see much hope.

The people begin to filter into the stadium once more, where Ark himself, appearing as man in an all-white suit covering all but his face, stands already in the center of the ring.

[AmbushCat]

*Aldonza's nowhere to be found this time. Instead, entering the seating area are Swift and Shiver (in their Human and Illusion forms, respectively). Swift has the look of someone who was talked into doing something he didn't want to do, while Shiver's loaded down with snacks.*

Shiver: --Aw, c'monnn. You need to have some fun once in a while!--

Swift: *growls* --I was having fun, and you dragged me away from it.--

Shiver: --Pssh. Sudoku's boring. You were fine with going the other day, weren't you?--

Swift: --I attended because Whyte was fighting. What do I care about watching the epitome of juggernauts?--

Shiver: --If that's Big Word-Speak for "I don't have a life", we're having a good chat here.--

*Swift lowers her head into her hands and slowly moves it from side to side.*

[Whatevr89532]

After a while, everyone seems to be in. The lights dim on the audience and brighten on the stage. Ark speaks, and though he doesn't appear to be miked and his tone sounds quiet and conversational, his voice is heard throughout the stadium. "Welcome, everyone. Good evening." He sounds refined, calm. "If you are not aware of how this works, I will inform you. I shall be in the ring. My opponents will come in from alternating sides," (he waves to indicate entrances on either side of the ring) "while a recording each one made stating his or her name and a brief introductory statement is played. Fainted opponents will be removed from the arena for immediate treatment, and the number of rounds they lasted will be stated by an announcer. At the end I will list any meaningful comments I have. Tonight I have thirty-three opponents." There's some reaction from a portion of the crowd unfamiliar with how Ark fights tend to go at this number, which he pauses politely to wait for.

[AmbushCat]

*Shiver lives up to her name, trembling with excitement with her hands clenched near her face.*

Swift: *switching to English, imitating Count von Count* Thirty-three! Thirty-three doomed opponents! Ah, ah!

[Raleigh]

*Having paid to enter rather than being rude and teleporting in, Raleigh sits back to observe these Ark bouts. He is unsurprisingly sitting near Shiver and Swift because why wouldn't he be.* I do hope this will be entertaining. If it is, I might make arrangements for the next one myself.

[AmbushCat]

Shiver: *cackles* --I'd buy that for a dollar!--

Swift: *sighs* That reference? Really?

[Whatevr89532]

After the pause, Ark nods. "That out of the way, let's get started." He gestures toward the entrance on the right side of the stage.
A recording of what seems to be a young girl's voice plays as the first fighter steps onstage. "Alyssa, nya~" The owner of the voice is a Meowth girl, who smiles and waves to the crowd on her way up. She looks at Ark, who makes a gesture easily read as 'ready when you are', and then pulls her hand back and throws a bunch of coins at him. Ark's suit shifts its shade to a dark purple and the coins go straight through him; he then responds by holding one hand out and firing a large sphere of blue energy at her. She looks surprised, attempts to run away from it, and it briefly chases her before catching her in the back and knocking her offstage.
"One round," says an announcer's voice.

Without any real fanfare, it proceeds to the next fighter, coming in from the opposite side of the stage. It looks like a man in samurai garb including a sheathed katana...except that on closer examination he's actually made entirely of expertly folded and drawn paper. His introduction is just his name: "Kitsugi." Ark's suit has changed to a bright red shade.
Kitsugi places his hand on his katana, and with one swift, sudden movement flashes from one end of the stage to another, straight through Ark's position. He sheathes his sword after a brief, dramatic pause, and a shimmer of a white protective shield shatters around his opponent. Ark whirls around and makes a gun-like shape with his hand, the "barrel" of which expels a massive gout of fire. This has a predictable effect on his opponent, leaving him not just scorched but actually on fire, but he's still standing. He whirls and makes a swift slashing motion with his blade in the air, creating a visible current of air sailing toward Ark. Ark makes a swift chopping motion with his hand and produces a similar, but larger and significantly more intense, blade in the air. It crashes through Kitsugi's, dissipating it, and then slams straight through the paper samurai, sending him sailing out of the ring just like the last one, aside from some fluttering around on his way down.
The announcer's dispassionate voice reports: "Two and a half rounds."

(((Meowth) Pay Day, Aura Sphere;
(Kartana) Guillotine, Protect, Flamethrower, Air Slash/Air Slash))

[AmbushCat]

Shiver: *grins widely* --I think I'm in love.--

Swift: Cool your jets, Shiver. He's genderless.

Shiver: --He's genderless? How does that even-----

Swift: And besides, don't you have that crush on Elk?

*Shiver cuts herself off and returns to watching the match, blushing.*

[Raleigh]

*Nods but is fairly neutral faced.* At least a Genesect would be necessary... or a lucky metronome.

[Whatevr89532]

"Lavarro." The next voice introducing himself sounds French. "This will not hurt for long." Its owner is a Furfrou-hybrid man with a full coat of expertly-styled fur, he steps and moves into a kind of fighting stance.
Ark, already back in the purple ghost-type suit, moves in to attack, but Lavarro dashes straight in, landing a punch straight in the face. The impact resembles a person punching stone for how much Ark reacts to it, and he continues with his own attack, bringing both hands down in a straight chop to the top of the head. Lavarro takes it hard, sailing backwards and skipping across the arena floor a couple of times before bouncing back to his feet, looking badly hurt. He takes a second to run a hand through his hair, which seems to be a characteristic movement for him, and then jumps, mouth full of sharp teeth open, at Ark. This time, he bounces off of another protective barrier, seemingly created by the Arceus-man's left hand held in a palm-forward position. The other hand immediately comes in for a hard, straight chop to the side, sending his opponent spinning his way out of the arena.
"Two Rounds."

"Wawa~," a girl's voice drifts dreamily through the speaker. A silly-looking girl wanders onstage, looking a bit oblivious, like she has no idea what's going on.
Wawa's first action is to close her eyes and make a kind of buzzing hum. A strange kind of light travels from the location of her shadow to Ark's. He brings his hands down to his sides, and a very DBZ-ish effect of powering up displays around him, visible sparks of energy and small chunks of the arena floor floating up around him. His suit shifts to a swirl of purple and black, indicating another change of type. Wawa holds her arms up in front of her face as Ark rushes forward, curling his hands into something resembling hand puppets of a pair of massive jaws before bringing them together, causing a huge set of spectral teeth to appear in midair and close directly on her. Bleeding badly, she flails forward waving her arms wildly around, but just goes straight through him. He blurs out of view and reappears facing the other way, toward his opponent, and makes a casual tossing motion which fires a gigantic ball of shadowy energy straight at her. It catches her easily in the back and she goes sailing high into the air with an audible cartoonish high-pitched "fweeeee" sound, and gets caught by a couple of audience members before some staff quickly rush to take her somewhere she can be healed.
"Two and a half rounds."

(((Furfrou) Sucker Punch, Cross Chop, Bite, Doublecast:Protect+Karate Chop
(Wobbuffet) Destiny Bond, Focus Energy, Counter/Crunch, Shadow Ball))

[AmbushCat]

Swift: He's French? No wonder he has that outrageous accent.

Shiver: *giggles* You silly king.

----

Swift: Well, that's one Wobbuffet that won't be evolving into Boba Fett anytime soon.

Shiver: Aw, c'mon. A good jetpack, and she's good to go!

Swift: But wouldn't all Ark need to do to win against her would be to hit it with a spear or something?

Shiver: ...Point taken.

[Whatevr89532]

"Sirn. Three rounds."
Ark's next opponent is a very thin-looking man with bug wings and a halo over his head; he floats up on stage on some sort of mystical power. His voice sounds distant, like someone in the middle of meditation. Ark moves as if he's going to attack at first, but it quickly becomes clear he's doing a kind of aggressive, yet somehow graceful, dance. His opponent has raised his arms in front of himself and there is a brief glimmer of a protective barrier around him, but it has nothing to protect against. Next, Sirn simply disappears from view. Ark's suit changes back to its original pure-white coloration, and one by one several apparent "copies" of him appear around the stage, both on the stage and floating at various elevations above it, each one in a brief upward rush of white energy.
A bunch of dark purplish energy bits appear throughout the stage, rushing straight through all of the Arks but just harmlessly phasing through them, before they all gather together and and reform into Sirn again. One of the numerous Arks higher up in the air suddenly turns into a small blurry streak of white directed at his opponent, and then a combo of some thirty or so blindingly fast slashes cut through Sirn, causing him to jerk around in the air repeatedly before being tossed out of the arena.
The round-announcing voice says, "Three...oh. Right."

"Sssilvera." The next person onstage looks like a lamia of some sort, with a purplish lower half strongly resembling an Arbok's. She looks briefly surprised at the multitude of Arks, but recomposes herself quickly. With an evil grin, her eyes light up strangely, and anyone looking directly at them finds it difficult to move all of a sudden, the effect worse for those closer to the arena. A gardevoir-woman quickly floats up from beneath the stage and spraying paralyze heals on any audience members who actually got paralayzed by it, but perhaps most surprising is that Ark--all of him--seems to have actually been hit. His suit shifts colors again, now to a dull, earthy brown, but he seems to have trouble actually moving.
Giving an evil-looking grin, Silvera opens her mouth and makes a loud, hissing sound, her strong lower body flailing her upper body around and allowing her to spray purple acid from her mouth all over the arena, some of it connecting with one Ark or another as it does so. There is a shield up around the stage which prevents any of this from reaching the audience, thankfully.

The Boss regains his ability to move, and now one of them places his hand on his forehead. Rings of psionic waves pulse outward from him, and despite her best attempts to outslither them they rush in on and connect with the Arbok-woman, resulting in Ark's paralysis disappearing and her getting a taste of her own medicine. Nevertheless, she raises her arms and throws out several globs of mud at as many of the Arks as she can manage, and one or two of these also connect. An Ark standing right next to her latest position makes a forceful gesture with his hand; nothing visible happens, but she suddenly clutches her head and screams as if experiencing excruciating pain.

She breathes heavily afterward, clearly hurt but not out. Letting out an enraged kind of yell, she suddenly charges forward along the stadium floor, tearing a rut through the floor itself and shaking the building slightly in the process. She goes straight through several apparent copies of Ark, causing them to simply disappear, but never quite finds the real thing. Another of him blinks into view just above her as soon as her attack stops; a bunch of purple energy flies out from him and strikes her full-force across the front, knocking her backwards a few yards and skipping her across the stadium floor a couple of times before landing her flat. Rather than getting she slowly curls into a ball, not fainting but going to sleep. Ark's response is to turn his suit solid pink and immediately make a drawing-forth motion at her. She floats up into the air and something resembling a ghost of her--perhaps her very soul--is suddenly torn out of her body and pulled toward him, yelling in pain the entire time. Once she's close he grabs the spectral snake-girl in his arms and there are a few audible snapping and tearing sounds before the ghostly image is returned to her body, which falls limply to the floor, properly fainted. Ark floats down and gently kicks her offstage.
The round-announcer states, "Five Rounds."

(((Shedinja) Swords Dance/Protect, Phantom Force (chargeup), Double Team, Phantom Force (attack), Aerial Ace
(Arbok) Glare, (paralyzed), Acid Spray, Psycho Shift, Mud Bomb, Psychic, Bulldoze, Psyshock, Rest, Dream Eater))