Episode 7: Hydra Cup and the Aftermath.

Episode 7: Hydra Cup and the Aftermath.

The 3rd week of July have arrived....And with that, the day of the Hydra Cup, a relatively small tourney, have arrived as well. It's night time in Central Togle as a good amount of people have entered the arena and head to the stands. The arena is shaped in a circle with no roof above them, although that's not a problem due to the clear night sky above them all.

Within those stands are the Gautier twins who are currently looking down at the arena floor, a turf using actual grass with some boulders laying about here and there. "Whoa.." Soleil speaks up...awe in her tone as she continues. "Can you believe this is how stadiums look during this time?" "I can't even begin to describe it..." Inigo answers back with his eyes scanning the field. "Can you even comprehend how they got the grass in here, Soleil?"

"Nope...you know, this is gonna be the first time we ever seen monsters fight without the intent to kill each other..." She sighs wistfully with her younger twin patting her back. The 2 of them were wearing identical  clothing consisting of a t-shirt and shorts, Soleil with a Blue one with a red crescent wave on it and Inigo with a Red shirt and blue crescent wave on it. "Yeah..." He nods.. "but hopefully we can see what made these battles so fun for our parents, right?"

"Mhm.." She smiles and nod at him as the doors before them on the southern end open up as the 4 entrants walk in. Leading them as he sits on Durag's shoulder and waving is Sylvain, their own father. "Man, Dad looks pretty damn cool riding on Durag like that..." Inigo awes as Soleil nods and notice the person behind him as she points. "Hey, look, that must be Gerome's father, Felix!" Behind their father is Felix walking with a small smile  on his face with his Blue Hare, Mercial, by his side as he wave at the crowd with a small smile matching Felix's. Soleil rubs her chin with a smirk of her own sporting on her face. "Man, Gerome's daddy looking kinda fine...you think he wouldn't mind if I spoke to him? Heheheh..." Inigo roll his eyes at her. "C'mon, you know that's not a good idea based on how fucked up that would be..."

Soleil snickers as they witnessed the 3rd person, someone who they don't know with a Purple Worm slithering behind him and the last person with a hat, long sleeve muscle shirt, and a sweatpants walking with a scowl and a regular Garu with a girl with black hair and a long red coat on that she recognizes..

"Wait, is that Alexis Pruett?!?" Soleil shouts, getting her brother's attention as he too look and gasp. "..That IS her....which means..." he point shakily at the man before her. "That must be her father...Jalen Pruett!"

As to how Alex is down there with her father, we have to go back to the morning of today....

[FLASHBACK]

Jalen sit down at his porch in a lounge chair watching the ocean's waves with a calm look along with Marth. The 2 of them sipping some orange juice. Today was their first tourney and shockingly enough, the two of them was quite nervous.

This is the start of their journey to masterhood, and they can't help but feel nervous judging by how Jalen is clutching his orange juice and shaking as Marth is breathing hard. "Damnit...why are we so....nervous?" Jalen sighs as he gets up and walk to inspect the gadgets on his ranch as Marth follows him."We've been training for the past couple of months..." He scowls and punches a sandbag in anger. "I hate it.."

"It's a natural feeling."Jalen quickly turn around and sees Alex standing behind him with Alm staring at him. He points at her with a frown. "How the fuck did you come here without me hearing you?"She points behind her motorcycle with a calm look. "I merely turn my engine noises down._ Upon hearing that, Jalen frowns and crosses his arms. "Ok, when you come here to deliver mail or to visit, I need that shit on so I can hear you coming.."

"Understood." She firmly nods with no disagreement at all to his surprise. "(..Was expecting more resistance from her..)"

"So..." Placing his hands in his coat pocket. "What brings you here now?" "Today is your tourney, correct?" Nodding at her answer, she continues with her stoic face on, hiding her nervousness. "Well, I was wondering if I can come watch as your assistant" Jalen blinks at her and rubs his forehead., feeling a slight headache coming on, elicting a worried glance on Alex's face. "(Father may not let me come with him...I need to com-)"

"Allright, fine."

"I implore you to recons-" What he have said registers on Alex's mind as she blink, Alm tilting his head in confusion as they both look at one another and back at Jalen.

"Er...did you said...yes?" He sighs and nods. "Something tells me you're not gonna relent with this idea...So you can come with me." He walk passed her towards his house with Marth behind him with Alex and  Alm sharing a look and looking at Jalen's back right before he enters it.

"I-I'll be here a good 15 mins before you head out!"
He merely waves a hand at her without looking as she runs back to her cycle and rev the engine up as she and Alm ride off..

Closing the door as she rides off, Jalen groans and sit on the couch. "Why am I being so nice to her...?"
[FLASHBACK ENDS]
Now back to Jalen and Alex standing before the crowd, the former tuning out the announcer introducing the others along with him as they head back to their dugouts. It's him, Alex, and Marth in the southern corner.

The first match is between Marth and Durag, We see Sylvain in the northern corner hyping him and Durag up along with the crowd. As for Jalen, he's merely standing in the dug-out arms crossed as he is mentally prepping himself up. Marth doing some last-minute jumping jacks. Alex for her part is reading some notes in a notebook.

"I see you've taken some detailed notes on the foes here..." She flip the pages through Durag's section as the announcer call them out. Jalen roll his shoulders and begin to walk on the turf with Marth. Both of their feet crunching up the grass as Sylvain walk on the turf with Durag's heavy footsteps stomping down.

"Damn, Dad's about to fight against Alex's dad..." Inigo adjust himself in the stands with Soleil getting pumped. "Not gonna lie, but I wanna see Dad win this flawlessly!" Inigo rubs his chin in thought.. "While I feel the same, Soleil..you're forgetting that Mr.Pruett was considered the best trainer among the adults in the army...including the king himself."

Soleil shrugs as she doesn't seem too worried about the outcome. Down below, Durag is standing before Marth and put his giant green scaly hands up in a boxing stance as Marth get into a martial arts stance. Sylvain have a confident smile on as opposed to Jalen's stoic look.

"Yo, long time no see, eh?" Sylvain yells across the field and wave before noticing Jalen's calm look with a shrug. "Guess you're not a talker...Normally I SHOULD be getting revenge against you for punching me..." Sporting an uncharacteristic scowl against Jalen, he takes it off and assume a relaxed position of his arms behind his head "BUUUUT!..Because of you, I got the number of that cute babe from last time! So all's forgiven!"

"...You're easy to forgive.."Jalen rubs the back of his head with a bored look, Sylvain shrugs at it. "Well, Mom told me that to not hold grudges and what-not..." He smirks now, feeling that he will win this. "That said, I'm gonna win this."

Jalen adjust his hat in defiance. "Good grief...we'll see about that." The bell rings out as Durag strides towards Marth with a Thwack ready to smash the Garu to the ground, Marth dodges the descending hand as the entire turf shakes from the impact of the attack. As evidenced by the cracks in the ground as Durag raise his hand up and stride towards him.

"(Strong Scalie...As expected. but our plan won't falter...gotta stay patient and have it waste its guts so that Marth can attack.)"

"Durag, use Slap this time!" Durag, listening to Sylvain's command, raise his hand up and send it towards Marth to knock it across the arena, Marth managed to jump over it barely and land on the turf on his back as he gets up and see Durag turning himself towards him.

"Now...Marth, use Wild Slash!" Marth growls and jump towards Durag's chest and slash him with his claw, dealing minimal danage as he land on the grass and jump back. Seeing Durag with a bored look on his face as Sylvain chuckles. "Sorry dude, something like that won't hurt Durag!" Jalen scowls, Hating that he's right. But...that don't matter.

"Marth!...Now!"


Marth nods and begin to run...away from Durag., Confusing the crowd and Sylvain...Durag gets an order for a Punch and runs after the Garu who constantly stays away from him. "(What is he doing?)" Sylvain ponders as the timer is on 30 now."Uhhhh...Any answers as to why Marth is running away?" Scratching his head, Inigo turns to his sister who gasps as she just got it. "...Oh..Oh, Mr.Pruett is a cheeky bastard..." :What? How?"

She shush him as she gesture him to watch as the timer is on 15 seconds now, Sylvain widens his eyes as he and the now booing crowd gets Jalen's plan now. "No way...You're....you're stalling me? Why? I'm gonna win since I've Durag throw out more attacks, therefore using more Guts!" Jalen scoffs and shakes his head. "Wrong..Think back to Marth's first attack." Gasping, the redhead look at the clock with 10 seconds and curses.

The final 0 seconds come down to Durag failing to hit Marth as the latter is crowned the winner of the match much to the crowd's annoyance, booing both Jalen and Marth who walk off the stage back to their dugout with Alex waiting in there as she closes the notebook. "Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting you to stick to the gameplan." "You doubted me?" Jalen rise an eyebrow as he leans against the wall as Alex filps the book open and show that the gameplan was to get ONE hit on Durag..and stall the match out due to the slower speed.

"Well, a bit..I would imagine anyone getting bored and wanting to get to the action."  Jalen roll his eyes and sighs as he look at her, hearing the shaming of his name from the crowd. "If you can't accept stepping out of your comfort zone on battling, you will never be the best around....It was annoying me and Marth as well, but we weren't gonna win that if we tried to match blow for blow with Durag..."

"(Father's smart as Mother said he was...)" "Excellent answer, Jalen..." Alex nods with a small smirk, getting a scoff and shaking his head from Jalen who sit down next to her and watch the next match between Marcial and Yulius witht he former winning by KOs from a lot of attacks.

The next match is Mercial vs Marth. Felix standing behind his Blue Hare with a frown matching Jalen's who is behind Marth. "So..You were able to beat Sylvain.." Jalen roll his shoulders as Marth bounce on his feet and get ready. "Just another battle to me..nothing special."

"Pretty confident, are we?" Felix scowls as the bell rings, starting the match now as Mercial runs in towards Marth and throw out a 1-2 Punch at him. Marth barely blocking the 2 punches before getting punched in the stomach from a Straight

"Not as tough as I would expected.." Felix smirks as Marth tries to Wild Slash Mercial who backflips out of the range of the attack. "(This is annoying...)" A scowl on his face, Jalen quickly think back to his notes on Blue Hares.

Meanwhile, Marth barely dodges a Straight from Mercial by moving his head to the side in time...and block a couple of 1-2 punches from the blue hare with Jalen gritting his teeth in frustration.  "(For as offensive as Mercial is...it's extremel frail and would need to step back thanks to the lack of stamina it have..that's when we will strike.)" "Marth!. Hang on!"

Marth endures what he can get as soon with about 40 seconds, Mercial bends his knees and jump back...and as he is in the air..Jalen sees his chance. "Now, Burn Knuckle!" Marth spread his arms out and soon jump towards Mercial with a fist aflame with blue fire and strikes him right on the chest. "Wh-what the fuck?!?" Felix shouts as well as the whole crowd who never seen such an attack before. "That...that's one of..." Soleil can't finish due to the shock of actually seeing one of the techs that Alex's father have invented, So Inigo finishes for her. "Mr.Pruett's secret techs..."

"Burn Knuckle..." Alex whispers to herself..a move that her mother told her about, but never seen until now. Mercial is on the turf and get up slowly as he clutches his belly in agony. "Hmph...Not perfected..." _Jalen speaks to himself with Felix barely hearing with an aghast expression.__ "NOT PERFECTED!??! What move IS that and what the hell happened??"

"That's..." Jalen scowls and rubs the brim of his hat and point at him with a fierce look. "None of your business...Marth, Finish your Judgement on the Blue Hare with Claw Barrage..." Marth screams as he runs in and deliver a quick 20-claw strike, raking all over Mercial's body before sending it flying to the air with an upward slash as Mercial lands on the turf KO'ED.

"No way...I lost...and after such a good start.." Felix fall on his knees as the whole crowd does a quick 180 and cheers loudly for Jalen and Marth, the latter walking off with no acknowledgement for them as the former just scoffs and return to his dugout with an annoyed look.

"Man, he's just..wow..I know Alex used to tell us about him according to what her mother told me..but to see it live.." Soleil breathed out with a weary look and look at Inigo who's rubbing his eyes as if he can't believe what he've seen. "I can believe her when she said that her father was the best trainer ever." "Now, sister..." Inigo take a sip of his water bottle and place it back in the holder as the next match between Dugan and Yulius begins. "You know that we can't say that until we see Lucina's and Severa's dad go toe-to-toe with Mr. Pruett."

"Even still...I would bet on Mr.Pruett."
Soleil shrugs as she and her brother watch the match as meanwhile down there.

"So...That was what you kept a secret..."
Alex speaks up as she watches the match with Jalen doing the same as does Marth. "...Yeah.." He answers calmly.. "So..how did you come up with it?" Hearing her question, he turn his head and find her staring at him with a curious look. "......That's a secret..."

She sighs and look away, which stirs something in Jalen's heart. Making him relent as he groans.. "Fine..I'll tell you...It's from one of my games that I play." Alex turns her head fast and blink with shock in her eyes. "You...what?" Jalen chuckles and smiles at her "What? It's not too far-fetched for you, right?"
"...." She smiles and giggles as she shakes her head. "No..Guess not."

Dugan wins the match with a well-timed Thwack, crushing Yulius against the turf so badly that the doctors had to come in and escort the injured worm to the medical room. This essentially means that due to not able to battle, Marth is the declared winner of the Hydra Cup.

"Oh....shit, I may had fucked up." Sylvain rubs his head with an uneasy look as Yulius's trainer glare at him and leave with Felix sighing. "Great...so the new guy wins and we're stuck fighting for 2nd place..." As for Jalen...He stands up and walk to one of the refs. "Yo, do I have to stay for the 2nd place match?" The ref turns and get rather intimidated by the look Jalen's giving him. A rough look that's a normal expression on the black man's face, making him shiver in fear. "U-U-Uh, I ca-ca-can go get the prize money.."

"..Thanks..." Jalen watches as the guy run off and within 10 seconds the man comes back with the prize money in the bag as Jalen takes it and walk off, Marth and Alex following him as Sylvain and Felix watches.
"He's just gonna walk off without watching the 2nd place match?! What a jerk.." Sylvain grumbles as Felix sighs despondently and speak up. "Evidently, we're not really on his radar... "

Outside of the stadium, Jalen and Marth are outside of their car with Alex sitting on her motorcycle. "So....You won your first tourney, how does it feel?" She crosses her arms waiting for an answer as Jalen look up with a pondering look at the night sky. The cool air hitting his chest. "It's just the beginning, both me and Marth have much more to do in order to get better..."

"(Not one to bask in the glory of victory, huh Father?)" She chuckles as she revs up her motorcycle. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, I got mail for ya so be ready." Marth grunts and wave at her as Jalen adjust his hat. "Yo...It was..nice having you there with me." He sighs and look away. "...Feel free...to do so anytime."

As he turn and get inside of his car, he doesn't see the wide smile on her face aimed at him. But Marth sees it and smiles back at her. This make Alex blush in embarrassment as she clears her throat and look away. "Same to you, Jalen. Good night."

And the two of them drives off for the night..
Meanwhile in a house within Central Togle...We see Severa steaming on the couch as she was wathcing the tourney. Why is she mad? It's simple..Seeing your friends and Alex being near their parents(In Alex's case, SPEAKING to hers) make the younger princess steam with intense envy and jealously.
"(Why the fuck can THEY see their own parents, meanwhile me and Lucina can't do the same for our own?!?)"
She flops on the couch in anger as her monster, a Kitten(Pixie/Kato) named Athena pats her back to soothe her as Lucina walk in the house with Gabriel behind her. The former dressed in clothing designed for sneaking in the darkness of the city. "Ok, I was able to get some info for some missions we all can do in the next week and..." She sees Severa crying on the couch and rush to her side. "Sevvy, what's the matter?"

She sniffs and wipes her face as she look at Lucina. "It's..It's the others...they seen their parents and yet we can't...that's not fair!" Lucina groans, knowing how she feels and can relate a lot. "I know...but we're different in which we have the Lowell marks on us and would be heavily interrogated. We can't risk the timeline we're in for our own personal feelings...I'll talk to the others about this...Who was it?"

"So-Soleil...Inigo...and that da-damned Nohrian Alex!"
"(I really need to remove her racism...)"

"Right.." Lucina nods as she walk up to her room and dismiss Gabriel to her own bedroom. "Get some rest, Sister...we have a busy week ahead of us."
Severa nods and follow her up the stairs with her own monster behind her to her own bedroom"(Stupid, fucking nohrian scum...I hate you...I hate you and your cunt of a mother!)" . Where the plans to change some moments of the timeline will begin.