So after the last fight, Morgan and Esther head to Unova instead (Morgan having fulfilled his contract) while Esther recovers and trains. Morgan slips in with a leverage-style crew, mostly as the thief (Esther would be the hitter, if she wasn’t so busy elsewhere) and then... I think this is two years later? Esther decides to get back in the ring.
~
Morgan leant back against the dusty mirror that took up most of the space on the desk in the cube of walled in filth they called a dressing room and watched Tooth shift from foot to foot, flexing her fists. “Anyone watching’d think you were nervous,” he said dryly.
Tooth shot him a sharp look but couldn’t keep it up. “This is it, Morgan, what if – what if they don’t like me?”
“Then they’re idiots,” he fired back.
Her flared, poisonous purple shirt – made by their mother, of course, and embroidered lightly with the gold-washed altaria feather of their family – slipped from her shoulders as she turned to pace, and she tugged it back up over her shoulder, making a token effort to close it over the sports bra that was all she wore underneath it. “But what if–”
“You’ve never cared about that before.”
She shot him a glare. “They weren’t serious before.” She turned again, and her shoe squeaked against the ground.
“I’m surprised that doesn’t stick.” Morgan lifted his cup – brought in with him, from the coffee stand next door (like he’d buy anything in here, it all looked… well) – and took a drink, the straw rattling as it found air rather than liquid.
“Skies.” Tooth boosted herself up to sit beside him, picking at the fabric of her tight shorts. “First official match.”
“You’ll be fine.” Morgan swayed sideways, bumping into her.
“What if I lose?” Tooth knocked back at him.
“I didn’t let you drag me out to this highly suspect club in the backend of nowhere’s long-lost aunt’s cellar for you to lose.”
Tooth laughed. “It’s Virbank, not the Village Bridge.”
“And you’ll knock ‘em dead either way.” Morgan lifted her hand, making sure the straps were tight.
Tooth pulled her hand free and tugged it herself.
“You’ve been doing this since you were – what, ten?”
Tooth nodded. “But – officially.”
“If you say that once more, I think I’ll choke. It’s as bad as legally.”
Tooth laughed again.
There was a knock at the door. “Bell in five.”
Tooth jumped down from her perch, dropping a hand to stroke the jangmo-o tattoo that snarled across the right sight of her belly.
Morgan slipped to his feet, dropping the take out cup into the bin. He assumed it was the bin, anyway. Couldn’t really tell. “You can do this.”
“And if I can’t?”
“Then you keep punching ‘em until you can.” He punched her lightly in the shoulder.
Tooth smiled, found her confidence as she let out a shaky breath, and turned it into a sharp toothed smirk.
“There we go.” Morgan must have frozen time, because she blinked and he was in front of her, sweeping the door open with a mock bow, the movement as extravagant as he could make it. “Time for the fairy to fly, don’t’cha think?”
Tooth prowled past him, raising herself onto the balls of her feet and bending her knees until she was hunched, stalking through the narrow corridors and fitful lighting.
Morgan left the door to swing shut behind him, following her up to where the noise grew to a cavernous roar, the sound of a roomful become one in excitement and fervour.
Tooth cocked her head, listening intently to the muffled pitch of the screaming commentator, waiting for her moment.
She kicked the door open, and the heat – the smell – of the packed hall rolled back over them.
The way was lined with flickering torches, the carpet moth eaten and stained, ripped and worn at her feet.
Tooth flicked her head up and swaggered, any twitching nervousness lost in the moment as she lapped up the excitement, the expectation. All the attention that the baying crowd afforded this newcomer, this interloper from across the seas.
Morgan followed after her, clearly a part of her entourage in the same venomous purple, head raised as he sauntered behind her and taking stock of the crowd about them.
The crowd wasn’t just people – wasn’t just Unovans. Fights like these brought fans from all over, from wherever they had friends. Mostly from Kalos, where Tooth had made her informal debut into the fighting rings, where she’d made enough of a name for herself to be allowed in the ring no matter who the opponent was. The rafters, where there weren’t lights and speakers and banners hanging, were rife with pokémon and people that had climbed up to be out of the way, to get a better view of the rings.
Pokémon and people alike bayed in anticipation as Tooth reached the ring and swung nimbly up through the ropes.
She sized up her opponent. Average height, slightly thickset build. Male. Face was messed up, but his eyes were bright and focused. Against him, Tooth was small and sort of slim and almost child-like once more, for all that she was an adult. For all that she’d been fighting, training, for the last ten years.
But that was fine. She’d taken down more, knew how to work this.
She could do this.
All the same, Morgan clenched a fist – dug fingernails into his palm – and offered a brief bargain to whoever was listening. A dedicated percent of his next haul, given in their name. If Tooth won.
The commentator was screaming, introducing them. If anyone could make out words, it was a miracle.
Tooth flicked off her shirt and threw it in Morgan’s direction, snagging it on the post beside him. She made no flexing motions, nothing to show off what she had. She simply stood, raised on the balls of her feet, and watched.
Her opponent, already shirtless, flexed, bulging his shining muscles for the crowd’s appreciation.
The referee stepped back to the edge of the ring.
Somewhere, somehow, a bell rang out above the baying of the crowd.
Neither opponent moved from their corner.
Tooth bounced on her feet, hands curling into fists and coming up to mark. Her opponent did the same, and took a long step to the right.
Tooth mimicked him, and they circled, scanning each other for any tell.
The crowd quietened, leaning in.
Morgan studied them, unwilling to miss a single moment. Almost as an afterthought, he brought his phone out to film the fight. She’d want it, if she won. And if she didn’t, well… he could delete it.
It was hard to tell who moved first. Afterwards, some would swear blind that Tooth had made some sort of movement, a feint to the side, too quick to really be seen.
Most agreed that her opponent – who went by the name of Tauro, as imaginative as most of those in these rings (although in fairness, the Tooth Fairy was a play on childhood nicknames and the way no one took her seriously until they were out for the count) – made the first move, lunging with arms open as if to catch her against his chest.
Rather than backing up out of range, backing up to the barrier ropes and hemming herself into a corner, Tooth ducked down and lunged forward, underneath his arm and into the freedom of the ring. Twisting, she jabbed her fists into his side before leaping back out of range as he swiped for her, turning with a speed that only those who had watched him fight before really expected.
They made eye contact across the ring, and Tooth tossed her head to flick hair – purple, to match her shirt – from her eyes.
Tauro used that moment, that momentary distraction, to move again, and when Tooth focused on him again he was in front of her and she couldn’t avoid his punches, the sharp one-two to her midrift that sent her stumbling back against the ropes.
Morgan took a sharp breath, pacing around the outside of the ring towards her. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried, because he knew Unovans, knew the underworld of this great region. They could be vicious, and while he hadn’t heard anything of Tauro’s reputation, no one was ever worried about whaling on a girl down here.
It was just as well he made his living by lying though, because no one needed to know that, especially not Tooth.
She wrapped one hand around the rope and tugged, sending herself flying sideways just as Tauro punched towards her again. It clipped her shoulder and she stumbled, falling into the corner and catching herself on the ropes. She met her brother’s eyes; a cold, hard gaze. She knew what she was doing. She was still in this fight.
It had only just begun.
She turned, twisting in on herself like a snake, and sprang forward, hitting the mat with her hands and rolling over onto her feet just over the centre of the ring.
Tauro turned to her as she stood and brought his hands up.
Tooth smirked and beckoned him, her hands ready.
Tauro stepped towards her, carefully, slowly.
Tooth marked his movement inside the ring – Morgan watched from outside, his attention barely on the phone between his hands as he focused every part of his concentration on his sister in the ring.
She stepped in, dodged his punches, and slammed her fist into the side of his face from within the circle of his arms. Her second fist came up against his chest, sending him a step backwards as he gasped for breath.
He didn’t fall, his feet automatically finding their placing.
Tooth leapt back, landed her feet on the bottom rope of the ring, and sprang off it to come at him from above.
Tauro brought his arms up to block – and Tooth grabbed them, swinging her feet down into his stomach.
He stumbled back, gasping. His mouth guard coming loose as he doubled over, mouth wide to suck in air.
Tooth dropped to the ground and didn’t wait for him, this time, landing punch after punch across his head – his neck – into his side. She circled, dancing back out of reach as he recovered.
She caught sight of Morgan and grinned, and he grinned back because this was his younger sister and he was so, so proud, proud as he hadn’t been since she’d first decked a sailor, since he’d learnt the basics of throwing a punch from her – since he’d put that to use against Calia’s father. This was why she’d come to Unova, to train up. Learn some more fighting tricks. To take a break from the Lumiose scene, but they never admitted that to each other. Never admitted that night before the tower.
Tauro came back up and at her, catching her almost unawares.
His fist caught her face and she stumbled back, blinking desperately and shaking her head.
She landed against the ropes near Morgan, and he reached up to her, ready to tap in if she needed to.
“No,” she hissed, the first thing she’d said since entering the hall, and he knew she’d win this fight whatever it took, because never again. That was their watchword now, between the two of them and the great underbelly of any region they found themselves in.
She got her feet under herself and caught at the rope, swinging up onto the post and crouching there.
Morgan stepped back, looking up at her. She looked out over the crowd, almost as if seeing them for the first time.
Tauro stepped up behind her, snapping his hands forward as if to grab her.
The crowd roared out – and Tooth sprang.
She shot up, out of his grasp before he could fully close his hands, arcing up and over into a brief handstand on his head.
Then she was down behind him, delivering a sharp but brutal kick to the back of his knees and, as he stumbled down, slamming the back of his head forward so that he hit the post.
Tooth stepped back and to the side, and Tauro hit the ground.
The commentator – he’d been yelling all this time, Morgan realised, but the sound had gone curiously muted, even the spectator’s roars muffled in his ears – rushed forward, crouching down beside Tauro.
Tooth stepped back, rolling her shoulders. She kept her eyes on Tauro, but she was grinning, her eyes alight.
The commentator was counting, the crowd counting with him.
Morgan could hear nothing but the rush of a roar, like a waterfall.
Then there was screaming, and Tooth flung her hands above her head, face to the arched ceiling high above them.
The commentator leapt to his feet, grabbing her hand.
It took a while – too long, really – for Morgan to realise what that meant, to stuff the phone in his pocket and scramble in under the ropes to sweep his sister up with a roar of his own, launching her onto his shoulders in a madcap parade of the ring as Tauro was helped up, helped out.
She had won, she was in.
Like his first heist with the Castelia crew, like being initiated into Kalos, this was – this was a heady rush, a mix of alcohol and adrenaline and champion. Had the captain felt like this, every time she’d beaten a league? Was this why she did it?
Tooth’s legs, warm and slick with sweat, tensed as she balanced herself on his shoulders, screaming her fury, her joy, her life.
Morgan howled with her, and the elation of the crowd swept them out of the ring and away into the night.
Diary entry 001: This is the first entry of what will be Many in this phone. My name is Alexander Halkin Heartnote I’m 33, male, Born and raised in Virbank city. I went to Castelia University with a major in Information Technology, Minor in Contracting and did some extracurriculars In pokemon psychology thanks to a very successful pokemon journey in my youth.
I graduated with honors and held a good job at a pokemon center as their I.T. guy, handyman, and assistant to the nurse until the Financial crash back in 08 prompting the close of the center. I then had a job at the mall of unova at the game store before I was let go for using force to take down a thief. Which to my luck I was let go a few days before the Red Friday attack, I was in Castelia visiting old college friends at the time of that disaster.
Well, after moving back in with my Mom I put my resumé down everywhere whilst working at her ranch at the outskirts of town, for about 8 years no bites. That was until just a couple of weeks ago I got a call from this up and coming organisation called the Aether foundation, they were based in the far off region of alola and they wanted someone of my skills to work for them. The pay was good and they were willing to spare no expense in my move there.
This deal felt too good to pass up so I took them up on it and soon as I got settled I got this phone, the on site therapist suggested I keep a Diary of events in case I get famous or dead. At the least have something for me and others to look back on. These aether uniforms feel kinda weird but they got pockets for days and Lusamine is kinda nice. Though that Faba guy kinda creeps me out. All in all The pay’s good my boss is nice and I hope to get a Nicer home and thankfully they were able to help me transfer my pokemon here.
First double pokemon encounter, hoping for a Venipede. Instead, two Sunkern. What a waste. Accidentally killed them both and you know what? Not even sorry. Fortunately, caught a great break in the Virbank Complex. First pokemon; Magnemite. Immune to poison, in a town with a poison type gym. Little training, get Lokina and DeepC leveled up, evolve DeepC, boost lots of experience with Audino and double battles, and next time; Roxie!
Note: Audino are perhaps the best pokemon for leveling up against, but they should not be the only thing you face. Thing is, the only EVs they give I believe are HP and maybe Def. Always make sure to include regular wild pokemon in training.
Route 20: Sunkern, murdered by accident, sorry not sorry
I have swapped Natasha for a Magnemite I found in Virbank Complex, who is also Level 11, but of better stats in special attack and speed. I have, of course, named it Mjolnir.
On reaching Virbank, I witnessed some ship’s captain arguing with someone named Roxie. It seems the captain is her father, and wishes to star in films, but she worries for his responsibilities to his ship.
