Lord of the Fireflies vs Meursault

All the pokemon plop onto the sand before the cave with a flash from their captivity, taking a moment to assess their opponents while moving closer to their teammates. They don’t waste much time, though, before swiftly moving to attack.

Kazan moves first, kicking off so fast he’s just a blur of red before slamming into the blob that is meta. He bounces off like rubber, landing easily, while the ditto reverberates from the impact, completely astounded. It seems too shocked to react at all, simply staring at the monferno - it’ll take a while before it realizes what, exactly, happened.

Meanwhile Kaitei takes advantage of the lull, hissing taunts at the stunned ditto. meta turns its expression to the dewott, still a blank expression on its face, utterly confused at the joint attention on itself. Kaitei was merciless, though, mocking its lack of shape, its slowness, even going for its questionable parentage. That seems to have done the trick - meta finally falls out of its stupour, a new rage taking over it.

Yuzuko, a bit slow herself, plays up her admiration for the monferno’s tactics. What a great way of stopping her teammate, well done, truly! Kazan blushes - though it’s hard to tell, on an already red face - and takes a slight bow. Oh, if it’s so appreciated, who is he to reject a follow up?

He kicks off his heels again, aiming towards meta, a bit slower than before but not notably. He slams into the fuming ditto, elicing a hiss of rage, and the ditto flops over to Kaitei to unleash its pent-up aggression. It smacks bodily into the dewott, flattening itself with the force, clearly doing nearly as much harm to itself as it did Kaitei - but very little to relieve the rage.

Kaitei lazily pushes the ditto aside, taking in a deep breath of warm island air. Her body heats it even further, boiling the water within her until she can’t keep it for fear of burning herself, and she spits it out at a fearful speed, rushing straight into Yuzuko. The slakoth lets out a slow, pained yawn, fur bristling with burning water drops, but she doesn’t seem burned.

She distracts herself from the pain by clawing up some dirt, shaping it upwards into a misshapen clumpy pile. As it grows, more dirt piling up and out, it begins to take the shape of another slakoth, curled up lazily beside its creator, and finally Yuzuko adds the finishing touch - a bit of spit, and a breath of life. The dirt pile stretches to life, barely more animate than before, but ready to pounce if necessary to protect its master.

Predictably now, Kazan runs head-first into the new meta, eliciting only the smallest of reactions. The ditto doesn’t wait before slamming tiny balled-up fists down on the monferno’s head, hurting its own blubber in the process. Kazan seems a bit dismayed at this reaction to his beautifully performed routine, but it was never intended for meta anyhow, so he’s not too displeased.

Kaitei sucks in more air and unleashes another torrent of fire-hot water at Yuzuko, but this time her dirt golem rushes to take the blow. The water crushes it, wearing at the dirt that keeps it together until it’s barely holding on. Still it clings to life, standing before Yuzuko protectively as the slakoth seems to be falling asleep…​

Again to no one’s surprise, Kazan jumps straight into the blog that is meta, bouncing off lightly onto his feet. He seems entirely pleased with himself, so much so that maybe - just maybe - this might be the finale of his performance. meta’s rage seems to have ended with it, as it shrinks in on itself and then explodes upwards, stretching to grow a big bulbous head, tiny little paws, and squidgy feet to run about on - even a scalchop pops out of its abdomen, which it quickly grabs for protection. It turns its new nose to sniff at its opponents, eager to read anything it can about them.

Kaitei bursts into giggles at this new appearance of … himself. He cheers meta on, clapping his little paws at such excellent mimicry - and a great choice, too, clearly meta’s got great taste! The ditto’s eyes narrow in disbelief. Is he… mocking it? First it taunts, now applause…? Unsure what to believe, meta chooses to ignore this tomfoolery for now.

Yuzuko raises her tired head, turning towards the two dewott. If not for meta’s pink colour, the two would be indistinguishable, even to its teammate. Luckily she has no trouble telling Kaitei apart, and she begins to cheer on his cheers. Kaitei blushes, hiding his face behind his scalchop - oh, he did do a good job, didn’t he?? Oh, alright, he’ll do some more, if it’s so appreciated!

Kazan seems the only one impervious to this circlejerk of applause, and he isn’t entirely approving. He stares indignantly at his teammate for a moment before collecting back his palm, electricity growing from his short fur to the tips of his claws before he swings it down onto meta. The ditto rocks back from the force, sparks zipping across its soft skin from the newly-formed bruise, but it hasn’t got time to worry about the monkey.

Twirling to gather up ocean water, it launches at the loathesome monkey, knocking him off his feet and into the dirt with a spray of water. Kazan yelps at the blow, quickly jumping back upright, but there’s nothing he can do to stop the large bruise from forming on his stomach - that really hurt.

Still more displeased, Kazan braces himself and draws his fist back again, preparing for an attack. And so he’s entirely unready when meta turns its pinkish face to face him. Now even more angry, its encored performance having been ignored, it raises its paws to call forth the ocean water, wrapping it like a scarf around it, then launches itself as a missile into the bracing monferno. Kazan yelps in alarm and pain, the water and ditto hitting with such a force as to toss him off his feet onto his back, completely distracting him from his attack. meta swirls around, dashing away from him, while Kazan glumly gathers himself back up.

Kaitei whistles to grab meta’s attention again, ignoring the drowsing Yuzuko now, but the ditto only turns to hiss its displeasure at him. He winces, his clapping faultering at such a reception. Did it… not like his cheers? What he do wrong???​

meta furiously coats itself in water again and launches head-first into Kazan, tossing the monkey off hits feet and hoping - praying - for a flinch. Kazan certainly looks pained, wiping waterdrops off his bruised fur as he clumsily picks himself back up, but with a nod to his teammate, there’s no hesitation in his eyes. It’s on.

The two starters move to stand side by side, pressing their palms together to form a two-member wall. Not entirely formidable, not yet anyway, until they raise a single foot in unison and slam it down with all their might. For a moment, nothing happens… and then the ground grumbles, water gurgling to life, and bursts out in a cascading columns towards meta. It hits with enormous force, tossing it straight into the air like nothing, but even worse, it burned like lava. Each time meta sunk closer to the ground the water rushed up to hit him again, bursting columns until it was close enough to the ground for meta to jump off, its entire body feeling like white-hot pain. Even on the ground now, everything hurt to the touch, even the air itself; its skin was on fire.

Yuzuko was clearly unimpressed, as all she spared this was a bored yawn.

meta’s hissing continued, like steam rising from a kettle. Its pain was obvious, but it tried to ignore it as it mashed together piles of mud created by the pledge attack, building up a vaguely dewottish shape. It put very little effort into the actual shape, since it honestly preferred its own natural blob form, and by the end its doll was pretty frankensteinish when it breathed a big chunk of life into it. It flopped in front of meta, eager to protect.

And it was immediately called into action as Kazan’s fist came swinging forth, electricity buzzing around it likes flies. The doll jumped forward to take the blow, crumbling hard under the impact, but it withstood it - cracked, worn, but still standing. Kazan edged away, a bit creeped by the doll, quite honestly.

And he truly wasn’t eager to stand in the path of his teammate’s attack. Kaitei lowered her ears, scrunched up her face and screamed holy hell. Somehow, though everyone certainly heard the screaming, it cut right through meta’s defenses more than anyone elses - perhaps it was Kaitei’s evil glare that went along with the noise. The substitute could do nothing to stop it, either, despite meta’s pitiful looks, and even its attempts to grab the doll and hold it over its head. Nothing stopped the screams until Kaitei ran out of air, gasping for a bit of breath.

And finally, Yuzuko seems to have awoken, perhaps realizing what had happened earlier to her teammate. She gets up onto her hind legs, a grimace crossing her face, and spreads her forepaws before her facing Kaitei - maybe it was the screaming, then, rather hard to sleep during all that. A tiny spark of light grows between her claws, growing fast, so fast she can’t contain it until it explodes outwards into the dewott in a burst of light. It seems too much even for Yuzuko, so strong that it knocks both pokemon off their feet with the impact - though the slakoth only a few inches, while Kaitei is tossed several feet back, skidding across the ground until the light runs out. Her skin is visibly scorched, and it’s several moments before she dares stand again, entirely shocked. Yuzuko doesn’t bother - she’s fine where she landed.

meta resumes familiar tactics, perhaps comforted by routine while in so much pain. A raised fist calls forth the ocean to cloak it before it slams into Kazan, the two pokemon tumbling end-over-end before untangling finally. meta quickly jumps away, wary of a counter-attack, but Kazan seems finally to have been stunned by the blow, lying prone on the ground with water dripping off him and a dull look on his face. A grin spreads across meta’s face… finally.

More screaming from Kaitei cuts its celebration short. The two have a glare-off, neither daring to part their eyes, while Yuzuko slowly gets back to her feet, edging closer and closer to the prone monferno. Nothing stops her from reaching him, or drawing back her fist and holding it there for an absurdly long amount of time, drawing it tigher, focusing as much as she can before slamming it down so fast it seems to have come from an entirely different pokemon. Kazan screams - louder even than Kaitei, loud enough to halt her screeching in sudden fright - Yuzuko’s fist smashing hard into his chest, like a mountain landing on him. He can’t catch his breath, and for a moment he thinks this is it, he’s going to die, until a gasp brings back the air, and the crushing pain with it. Yuzuko stumbles away slowly while the monferno coughs, getting back to his feet.​

While meta waits to see what he’ll do, Kazan quickly draws up a protective shield, unwilling to take any risks. With a sorrowful nod, an awful grin spreads across meta’s face. It looks pained, forced, like it really isn’t meant to be there, but the ditto strains to look happy for its teammate - that damned sloth, where has it been all battle anyhow while meta’s been doing all this work - and meta cheers. Yuzuko turns her head slowly to the sounds of tired, pained applause, and somehow they seem to do their magic despite the obvious strain; she cheers up, feeling the boost of her teammates’ efforts. She can do this.

Yuzuko finally seems to have realized the stakes, now. Her face contorts in fury while she gets to her feet again, sunlight drawing in beads around her rising fur, and it explodes out in a thick rushing beam onto Kaitei. The dewott fights hard to stand her ground but it’s pointless - she’s lifted clear into the air, landing several feet back and skidding until she’s nearly in the ocean. Yuzuko plops back to the ground, appearing exhausted.

Kaitei gets up slowly, too pained to brush the mud caked onto his fur. His mind is racing, memorizing every aspect of that solarbeam - he can’t hope to match the power, but the technique, he can definitely mimic that. He brings his paws together, focusing hard to gather the sunlight between them. A tiny orb, growing shakily into what becomes a beam, zipping out and exploding on meta’s clay doll. The ditto jumps aside to avoid stray mud and rock remains flying from the destruction, like an exploded grenade; there’s nothing left now between it and oblivion.

And indeed, it sees only quick blurs of light blue and orange-red as the two starts slam fast into it. It tries to hold on, but its mimicked form loses shape, returning to a floppy pink blob as it loses consciousness and is returned to its ball. Kazan and Kaitei tiredly high-five each other as their remaining opponent takes a quick snooze.

Nothing stops them now… nothing besides one last substitute. Kazan runs over, fist drawn back and feint orange glow surrounding it before it slams into the doll and draws back whatever energy it can. The doll is done for, crumbling apart to dust, opening Yuzuko up for Kaitei. The dewott’s form cloaked in water as he slams into Yuzuko, startling her enough to wake up from her short nap. She roars upwards in sudden rage at this attention - oh, she’ll make them regret it!

No one boosts her on, but the orb of light growing between her paws doesn’t need it as it smacks dead-on into Kaitei. The poor dewott’s skin is almost entirely covered in scorch marks, and bruises under those, added to now as he’s shoved off his feet and lands hard on his chest. He seems to barely be holding on, but still gets up and actually cleans himself off a bit.

All memory of pain is quickly lost, though. A sudden, overwhelming heat engulfs the battlefield, so hot it makes moving painful. The ocean itself seems to be evaporating by the second; the air is so hot it blurs as you look through it. And so at first, when a slab of mountain seems to be moving, the pokemon think it’s a mirage - until it roars.​