"You gotta be f-"Splash! Saph landed in the water, and thought to himself as he sunk down towards the bottom of the pool...

Okay, he wasn't going about this right... He wasn't thinking about this like a fight, he was thinking about it like a game... He went cross legged in his drop to the bottom, tapping his temple in thought... What was going on here? First off, that fox was a little too smart; it followed its owners instructions like it knew what she was saying... second off, the girl was a mutant; why else would she be here, at this mansion... knowing this, he had several theories as to what exactly was going on...

Theory one: The girl was controlling the fox, like a puppet, and she was some sort of telepath... no... that one didn't work... Telepaths couldn't make flames appear out of thin air...

Theory two: The fox was mutant, and it could breathe fire... the girl somehow had the ability to turn people into animals... no, the fox had just multiplied before his very eyes... fire breathers couldn't do that...

Theory three: The fox was a robot, and the girl was an alien with advanced technology that far surpassed anything he had experienced before...

That was unlikely... He started to kick and struggle the half of him that did work underwater to get to the shallow end... progress was steady, but agonizing.... he wondered if he would make it before he ran out of air... Suddenly, a dark shadow passed over him, and he fought the sting of the chemicals to look around.... Magikarp? Magikarp had come to save him from drowning! They had finally bonded! It was that, or the carp was angry, and was lashing out at the easiest target... Yeah, it was that...

The next thirty seconds entailed him being rammed and beaten by a large carp...

Oh god, he was gonna die! His life was over! he was drowning, being smothered by the clear blue liquid that he drank regularly! He was going to be killed by a freaking fish! He was... He was... in the shallow end? He blinked a few times, and stood... "Hm...." It seemed the Carp had kicked his #$@ into the shallow end on accident... Yay!

He looked about to the many foxes poking at the water, and frowned slowly, looking over to blondie... He knew what he had to do... Any way he thought of it, she had a great stake in the power of their master, and monster team, and she was young... He was willing to bet that she hadn't had as much training in her ability as he had in his... So all he needed to weaken them was a solid distraction...

"Hey blondie! Think fast!" He reached back his hand and swatted a handful of water, putting a decent amount of force into it, so that it turned into a fast moving jet of liquid in order to both make the distance, and hit with a measure of speed. If he could score an eye hit, he could get the distraction he needed... He knew that he couldn't hurt her, per se, but this wouldn't really hurt as much as it would break her concentration, so he was sure it was okay.

This would at least give him a clear measure of what her powers were, if nothing else.

The floating islands were in the way yet again, and Katrina was having trouble seeing what had become of her oppnent and his pokemon. Surely, that Saphirus person couldn't have just sunk to the bottom? He wasn't going to drown, was he? She looked over at DocProf Oak with a question in her eyes, but he merely crossed his arms and pursed his lips. Apparently from his angle, the angler looked just fine.

Katrina bit her lip and peered around one of the floating structures...
>>>“Go Team Vulpix!”

A distraction? The little illusionist and her little vulpi team turned to see who was cheering them on. In that moment, the magikarp trainer attacked.

Katrina turned back toward the pool, completely soaked. Her eyes were narrowed and seemed almost as if there were fires burning deep within them. Sixteen vulpi turned to glare, too. The flames behind their eyes were much more prominent.

“You're cheating!” Katrina growled accusingly. Her words dripped with venom just as her entire body dripped with chlorinated water Okay, so she hadn't actually written a rule saying you couldn't attack the other trainer, but it was still rather unsportsmanlike. She turned to DocProf Oak, but he merely shrugged as he pointed to his rule card indicating that according to the rules such an outrage was technically allowed.

Well. Wasn't that just peachy? Fine then. She would show him.

“Fire spin!” The soaked blonde teen pointed dramatically at the pool. Sixteen vulpi opened their mouths. Sixteen sparks grew into sixteen flames. Sixteen flames grew. And grew and grew. Sixteen pillars of fire began to spin, trapping anyone who was still in the pool within an illusionary inferno.

Cheaters. Team Vulpix knew how to deal with cheaters. Cheaters could burn in Fire Spin.

From sixteen directions, coils of flame burst forth from the mouths of the skulk, the individual whips twining into a solid weave of hexadecimal light. Left and right, sky and water, the fires weft and warped into an infernal sphere. It charred pool tiles. It incinerated water. It devoured air. For a raging moment, it stood. Then it tightened inwards, roaring in on its target.

And his little carp, too.

"I ain't cheatin, I just splashed you a little, grow some b-" HOLYEFFINGCRAP she was trying to roast him alive! "Ahh!"

The vulpi had surrounded the pool and where now creating death providing fire... She was going to try and kill him for splashing her. What. The. Fudgesicle. Well, he knew that his first and only reaction would be to kill her back; what else could he do?

He older mutant reached into his trench coat and brought out his patented dealer of death, Mr.Crowbar(C). He quickly took aim through the slowly growing flames, and pulled back his arm to unleash the fury.

And he couldn't... Nope... He couldn't kill a little girl, even if she was trying to make him into Saphlet Mignon. "Son of a $#@$%!" He did the only other thing he could do. He spun and turned on the nearest Vulpix, and threw the crowbar right into it's skull. It's small section of flame died out, and used some of the energy he'd gathered from the carp to propel himself to the section of water that fire had been aimed at, quickly climbing out of the pool from that direction, grabbing his crowbar again, and taking aim at the next target. He had a lot of runts to kill.

Magikarp had now retreated to the bottom of the pool, and was swimming in a frustrated figure eight... The water was starting to sting it's gills when it breathed; a smaller and weaker fish would have succumbed to chlorine poisoning already, but this carp was gonna hold out as long as it could.

DocProf Oak frowned. He didn't approve of roasting people alive. Though, Saphirus seemed to still be able to launch attacks, and his fish was still swimming around. Everyone was still able to continue battling, so he continued to wait. The fish wasn't looking so good, it seemed it would only be a matter of time.

Katrina focused on her tightening the spiraling inferno she had created. Every bit of heat and burning she could imagine was put into it. The battle was nearing an end, she could feel it.

Through the flames, she could see the dark figure of Saphirus. He had something in his hand, something he was about to throw. It looked for a second like it was aimed at her, but at the last moment aimed it at Shadow Vulpix No. Seven. It hit him in the head.

The little illusionist narrowed her eyes. If that had been the real one... but he was safely hidden, there was nothing to worry about here. No. Seven disappeared in a splash of shadow, leaving nothing but dark smoky pools on the ground. The crowbar man turned toward his next helpless foe. Behind his back the puddles of No. Seven began to wiggle. No. Thirteen disappeared, leaving another pile of puddles behind. Then No. Three. The puddles trembled furiously and began to grow. Each place where a vulpix was smashed by the crowbar three more grew, fuming, in it's place.

Now there were twenty. Now thirty. Now a hundred. In the battle frenzy, did Saphirus even notice?

Katrina would ensure that he did.

“Vulpi, tackle!”

From every side they swarmed, heads lowered, ready to bash into him (and a token few for his fish). Every side of him would feel pummeled. Every. Side. Because illusion fox attacks didn't have any real force behind them, their energy couldn't be absorbed or recycled.

Once and again the opposing trainer attempted murder. Trice and more, his crowbar struck home.

The shadow foxes crossed the divide of death and returned, their power trebled from the journey. Katrina may have just as well asked them to use Rage.

Four hundred feet agilely cleared both water and ground, six hundred tails blurring the air in a fluff of furious red.

Vulpi used Tackle¹⁰⁰.

Saph had successfully offed several of the little buggers, but when he turned to pick his next target he was stunned to find that there were even more of them! He experimentally jumped at one close by and gave it a good whack, watching as more formed in it's place... "What the..."

Okay, so between two possible mutants, they had the ability to make fire, turn into mythical animals, make more mythical animals, and not falter when distractions were put in place? Jesus, they were like super mutants, or something! Saph stood helplessly as the Blondie gave the order for them to charge, and he got into stance; it was best to just fend off as many as he could and hope he collected enough energy to do something incredible. The first attacked, and he swung at it, causing it to puff out. He paused though as he felt one knock into his back, and blinked as he swung widely knocking three from the air and stepping back as the many foxes flew at him. He winced when they knocked into him, swung when he could stop them, and avoided them when he could, bit something was off here.

One smacked into his right side; it hurt, and he didn't get any charge from it. One knocked him in the left shoulder; his body didn't spin to counter it on it's own... He didn't feel those tinglies at all here... Was his power canceled? He acted to swing at one of the vulpi flying at him, and 'missed' hitting himself in the right knee. It didn't hurt, and he felt a tingling at his finger tips... Yup, his powers were working just fine; something was up.

He did his best to reduce the damage that was coming his way for the next few minutes, but it was hard; he felt wave after wave of the little guys crash into him; hitting them didn't give him energy, and it only made more, so he had taken to smacking himself while moving as much as he could to dodge the blows.

His fish was faring better; the water was it's territory, so it swam circles around it's attackers without actually having to engage for more than half a second at a time.

Saph was thinking as he juked and dove away from his attackers just about as much as he got hit by them. These foxes didn't give him any force; they hurt him all over, and he didn't react to them like he did other incoming objects. There was nothing at all wrong with his powers, so that meant there was something wrong with the foxes. He changed hands, and swung his crowbar at them; his right hand couldn't break a fly's back, but with a poof, the fox dissapeared.

Saph had an idea. He had to test it out. He scanned the area after his latest dodge, and caught sight of something that would work. A beach ball, most likely left out by someone who was enjoying the pool with the better weather they had been having. Saph switched crowbar hands again, steering himself in the way of the object as he backpedaled and was beaten up by his assailants. He swung at them again, making sure his attacks followed through into the right side of his body; it would look like he was jut being clumsy and hitting himself. A kidney blow nearly made him fall to his knees, but he gritted his teeth and forged onwards. He finally made it to the ball, and fought with it at his feet, soon disappearing under a pile of Vulpi.

BLAM! With great surge of energy he sent them flying off to go spawn more of their kin, taking advantage of the momentary reprieve to snatch up the beach ball, and spin quickly, picking his target, and firing away.

His target was Katrina's face, and he'd put enough force into the ball to make it fly so fast that it would have some serious knock out power behind it. He was hoping the fact that this attack might seem totally random and reasonless would give him the element of surprise. He did, in fact, have his reasons, however. These Vulpi were fake. Maybe they were made of pure energy or something, but they had no force behind them, which meant no mass. The only conclusion he could come to was that she was somehow creating them. He figured the personal attack wouldn't be against the rules, considering she had tried to fry him alive.

The thing was, now that he thought of it; he recognized her. She had been there when that squid monster had attacked, and he'd heard her voice in his ear as clear as he heard her shout commands to her pokemon, even though she had clearly been far away from him. How was that?

With the way Saphirus was hitting the fake vulpix clones, Katrina was very glad her real one wasn't out there. Maybe it would be best if he wasn't out there for the next battle either, if they ever made it that far. She bit her lip, and looked back at the magikarp in the pool. This battle had gotten a little out of hand. His pokémon wasn't even really part of the battle any more. How was she supposed to focus on attacking it when the trainer was the one who was attacking? Maybe a flame thrower would tire out the big 'karp in the pool...

*POW!*

She hadn't even seen what hit her; it was all a colorful blur and suddenly she was tripping sideways over the end of a lawn chair. She tried to catch herself using her hands, but the right one hit down at just the wrong angle, one that made a snapping noise and sent sharp pains shooting up Katrina's arm.

All but one wet and bedraggled vulpix had disappeared at *pow*.

Katrina sat up with tears in her eyes, clutching her arm to her stomach. DocProf Oak was already running over from the other side of the pool.

Trainers are not supposed to make snapping noises: teeth are. And teeth did, as one wet and bedraggled vulpix stood firmly between his injured friend and the man who’d been exhibiting homicidal tendencies towards the both of them, its canines bared large and white in a snarl. This wasn’t a Pokébattle anymore: the man’s own Pokémon was gasping in the pool, ignored by everyone now that the shadow clones that had been heckling it were gone. That man was not a Pokémon Trainer: he was just a man with a crowbar who’d gotten tired of braining effigies of the vulpix’s own finely furred self, and was now looking to attack a fourteen year old girl.

This was not fun anymore. If the man dared to come any closer to Katrina, Calley intended to teach him just how not fun he was being.

The DocProf came to a halt next to Katrina, his white professor’s coat still billowing from his rapidash. He drew in a breath, and put every bit of air he had into blowing his whistle.

His hit landed, and a moment of victory instantly turned into a sinking sensation as all of the vulpi disappeared, along with the pain from the blows they'd dealt, and one formerly invisible fox apeared...

He stood there for a moment letting everything sink in... All of those blows hadn't been energy, or some unexplained force... the pain was gone...Which meant... it was fake. Everything had been fake. The many foxes, the myriad of attacks... The flames. His eyes went wide with recognition... She hadn't been trying to kill him. Sure, the blow did way more damage than he thought humanly possible; he was only trying to give her a distraction she couldn't shrug off, and instead, he heard the crack of a broken wrist. But that didn't change the fact that he'd definitely beaten the crap out of a child who hadn't actually meant him any real harm.

His crowbar his the ground, and he hurried over, a look of panic on his face as he totally ignored the fox in his way. "Holycrap holycrap holycrap! Are you okay?" This had gotten out of hand. "Jesus Christ I beat up a kid! Why didn't you tell me the flames were fake?! I thought you were tryin to kill me!" He realized that yelling at the kid wouldn't solve anything. "Oh man... Please tell me you're alright!"

He heard a bubbling at the pool to the side, and saw his sickly carp float up, wiggling helplessly in the chlorinated water. "Aww crap my carp!" Inhuman acts toward fish, and prelegal arm breakage? This was turning out to be a really horrible day!

Katrina may have been the only one in the area that was not glaring at Saphirus. He eyes were pinched tight shut and her teeth were clenched as she tried to simply cope with the lightning bolts of pain shooting up her wrist. It wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt. She could cope. She. Could. Cope.

Whistles blew, feet pounded, and somewhere in the distance someone demanded a kiddie pool be filled with fresh water.

>>>“Holycrap holycrap holycrap...”

“Katrina?”

The little illusionist peeked out from under her eyelashes. One shoe, two shoes, brown shoes, wet shoes, and a pair of angry fox feet. A little higher up she found some very concerned looking eyes.

“I'm going to heal you, alright?”

Katrina nodded at DocProf Oak. Yes please. He rolled up his sleeves and placed his hands against her arm with a familiar golden glow.

“It was just a game,” she winced as she answered Saphirus' question. “It was just supposed to be for fun.” Already her arm was feeling better. The Doc's powers at work always reminded her of chocolate chip cookies: warm and comforting with a hint of vanilla.

The fox. Did not. Appreciate being ignored. If the man hadn’t suddenly sprouted a conscience, Calley would be testing out which of his legs was immune to fox teeth.

“Ah. So you didn’t know it was fake. That’s nice. So when you were out there braining me, you meant it.” It yipped, its white teeth flashing awfully close to the man’s wet pants. “Didn’t you read the rules? This is a Pokémon battle. With Pokémon attacks. Between Pokémon.”

Not between thugs and little girls. Or crowbars and fox skulls, for that matter.

Somewhere behind him, a weakly struggling monster carp was hoisted out of the pool by two men and set into a pink plastic ICU pool fed by a garden hose. Someone was mixing in the anti-chlorine treatment even as it filled. The little bottle of chemicals they held was enough for the kiddy pool, but would have done next to nothing for the larger arena.

“And is that a real fish?” Because the fox clearly had a few tail whips in reserve for animal abusers.

Saph felt even more guilty as the girl spoke, and opened his mouth, but was at a loss for words, so he just moaned and pressed his hands against his forehead helplessly. And then the animal spoke up, and he looked at it for a moment... Well, he supposed that really shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

"When I hit you with the fish it was still a game! But with the fake you's... Yeah, Yes.I did mean it. I mean, hey... I SPLASHED her, and I thought she was replying with real flames. They were hot, they made the water boil just before. I thought I might die, so I tried to kill you. Sorry. I mean, how was I supposed to know the flames were fake? On top of that, how was I supposed to know that splashing her was gonna prompt you to spew fire my way? I was just trying to distract her!" He was being defensive, yes, but in his mind he had a point. He splashed her, she threw flames at him, he threw a beach ball at her head. Considering he didn't know the flames were real, a less kind person might have done a lot worse to her.

He looked over to the girl again, frowning sympathetically. "Hey... I really didn't mean to hurt you so bad.... I'm sorry... I... I just didn't understand. God... I feel like a monster..." He sunk to his knees, looking at the ground. He'd really messed up bad this time. Who'd have known a beach ball, a pocket of air wrapped in very thin plastic, would have done so much damage. He probably scarred her for life. Great. Just great. After coming here it had been one screw up after another...

The fox asked about his fish, and he paused. "Er... Yeah. That's a real fish. Eh.... Oops."

They were getting the fish out of the water, now, and putting it in it's new pen... Saph couldn't bear to look. He figured this would be easy; have his huge carp eat up all of their little animals and get a prize. Apparently nothing was ever so easy.

Katrina felt bad. She was half responsible for the creation of this tournament, and apparently somewhere she had gone wrong. Something had been miscommunicated somewhere along the line.

“Sorry,” she answered dejectedly, patting the older man's head (which had descended down to her level) with her good hand. She wiggled the fingers on her bad hand, testing them out. DocProf Oak gave her a smile and let go of her. He was already finished with his task and went on to check on the amazingly large and overly chlorinated carp.

“At least things turned out in the end, see?” She waved her hand to show that it was back to its old self. “Why don't you come watch the next battle? Maybe it will be fun now to see, now that you know it isn't serious” Ever the peacemaker, she wanted to smooth everything over and make it all better. And keep Calley from biting anyone, at least in the for-real sense.

DocProf had moved on to the carp, leaving a healed and peace-keeping Katrina in his wake. Another of the contest helpers came by, handing off towels for both the wet fox and the dripping man. The kit burrowed into his own, wiggling and ruffling his fur to a more respectable state of saturation. His dark eyes continued to glitter out from under the folds.

He could forgive the guy. Maybe. If his Trainer order him to. Until then, he was using Grudge.