The Pokemon Philosophy

[Isabelle]

Lopunny stood in the center of the large makeshift stadium, all eyes fixed carefully on her. She stood shivering in place, frozen with fear as the crowd continues its gaze. She saw in the corner of her eye, the great koopa king, massive in size, watching her with the most antagonizing of looks as he raps his fingers on the armrest of his hastily built rock throne. She knew she had to do something.
“H-Hi,” she began, visibly shaking in terror, “m-my name is Lolbunny-LOPUNNY!”
The crowd breaks into uproarious laughter. Lopunny’s nerves eased a bit when she thought she was winning them over, but then she heard the hoots and jeers fill the air. The Koopa King, who was laughing along with the crowd, turned to one of his advisors next to him and whispers in his ear. The advisor disappears in the swarms of Koopas. Lopunny slowly coward away from the laughs, falling to her knees with her arm in front of her face, helplessly hoping it would shield her from the mass crowing at her expense.
However, a large thud sounded from near her leg, her arm jolted out of the way as she scanned in the direction of the sound. A large hammer, about half the size of her head had made impact leaving a large sizable indent in the earth. She looked ahead and saw one of the Koopas with a shell like helmet, holding a hammer in his hand.
He tossed another hammer into the air. This time, the impact was closer, barely missing her foot by half an inch. She jolted to her feet, making a small scream. The crowd roars with laughter from this. The hammer koopa throws another; she barely jumps out of the way as it nearly hits her chest. She starts to run around the stadium as the hammer koopa continues to toss hammers at her, barely missing her each time. Every time a hammer hit the ground near her, she makes an audible yelp. This was a riot for the crowd, including the koopa king, who sat with an evil grin spreading wider and wider across his face through the entire thing.
One of the hammers grazed one of her ears, and she stops in her tracks to check it; rubbing the sore part which was a little red. She looked up at the hammer koopa, who already had a hammer in his hand, but he wasn’t throwing it; just watching her, waiting. She knew she had to do something about this.
She darted forward, the hammers started up again at full force. She ran around in curves around the stadium, steadily making her way towards the Koopa. When she was within a thirty-foot range of him, she launched herself into the air with one flying leap. A single hammer barely missed her as she flew through the air towards the koopa. She made a perfect pinpoint landing on top of his face, shoving it into his shell. She jumped off; landing in a short distance as readied her fist. As soon as he got his head out, he was met with the image of the Lopunny sending a flaming upcut into his shell, launching him above the canyon and away from sight.
The smoke settled and the crowd was in a stunned silence. Koopas all over the stadium just sat there with their jaws dropped. The Koopa King however, still had a smug smile on his face. He turned to his advisors to whisper another order.
Lopunny started to feel good about herself. But before she could enjoy the moment for too long, her smile turned into a frown as she watched the koopas roll out big black cannons. She heard the loud bang of one, and before she could even start a run, she felt a large object hit her in the back, making a small burning explosion. She heard another bang. She leapt straight up into the air, but still felt something impact her stomach, which launched her hard into the soil. Lying on the ground, her back aching, she could hear the crowd hooting and hollering at her suffering. Taking advantage of the brief lull in fire, she climbed to her feet, wincing in pain. The burning sensation from the bruises brought tears to her eyes.
Another bang, this time she went into a full run. She looked over her shoulder briefly to see what was behind her: It looked like a giant black bullet with an evil grin on it’s front. It was following her, homed into her every move. She kept running, but she couldn’t shake it.
Thinking fast, she spun around, kicking it as fast as she can, hoping it wouldn’t explode on her foot. The attack was enough of a nudge to send it off course, careening into the audience. Several koopas get launched into the air as the crowd cheers in excitement. The kick started to spark her imagination
Two more bangs rang out through the stadium. Lopunny ran, but this time, she began to do it with finesse. Her jumps were reminiscent of a deerling leaping in spring. The bullets would shake, shimmy, and get mixed up just trying to follow her flourished movements. She would spin in a few of the leaps, turning clockwise two or three times before landing perfectly back onto her feet. These would confuse the bullets the most as they were sent crashing into each other.
Two, three, or maybe even four more sets of bangs, but she ignored it allowing her ballet and acrobatic moves to do their work. She did back flips, sending two bullets crashing into each other headfirst. She did cartwheels, sending the bullets into a tailspin not sure which end of her to follow. For a while, she just lost herself, imagining herself as the Lopunny she saw on TV all that time ago. Though the audience was different and her life was in peril, she couldn’t help thinking she had become the Lopunny.
However, her fantasy may have been truer than she thought. She was so lost in the moment that she didn’t even realize that the bangs have long subsided, the koopas were no longer cheering at her pain, but were just cheering at performance, curious and excited to see what she would do next. They’ve only seen acrobatics like this on the battlefield from their enemies, but it was much different seeing it up close as a performance.
In her finale, she did a spinning jump from a handstand, her ears making a swirling design in the air. She adjusted herself in midair, and landing perfectly on her feet. The crowd gives her a standing ovation, and even the king koopa looked amused.
As it donned on her that this was really happening, Lopunny formed a smile wider than she had in a long time, and took a bow before her audience. But before she could stand up straight again, she felt a bunch of koopas approach from behind her and lift her up. They carried her straight up to the King’s throne, and plops her on the stone beside it. Two female koopas start brushing out the damage that had been done to her fur, as the koopa king reaches out and pats her on the head. She’s beaming with glee. At last, she felt like she belonged.
Beer was passed around. When some came her way, she politely refused. Other koopas started coming down to center stadium, each one eager to present their talents to the king. One did a juggling act with the bullets from before, another performed a song that was booed out of the stadium, and another told raunchy jokes about some guy named Mario. Lopunny was laughing and cheering along with the crowd, enjoying every minute. She spent the rest of the night sitting beside the king, as he seemed to not mind her company. Though it started out rough, it was the best night she had in a very long time.

Early the next morning, she woke up amongst the crowd of koopas, sleeping off the hangover. The king was nowhere to be found, but Lopunny could see giant footsteps wondering off a random direction.
Leaping up to the top of the canyon, she looked around to see Death Mountain still on the horizon. Direction set, she continued on forward, not even looking back towards her new reptilian companions.