Willow Ranzel the Lopunny
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Lytala City, Tempest Festival Central Stadium

Cheering. Noise. Strobe lights. And seemingly endless fanfare, fireworks, and thunderous applause. The music was loud and the audience was already becoming drunk and unruly.

It was foolish to expect anything less out of the Tempest Festival Opening Ceremony.

Avid fans of the savage and bloody games cheered as deadly machines of war drove around the stadium as a precursor of the ravaging mayhem that was to ensure in the weeks to come. Usually hundreds of competitors would be killed as a result of these mortality combat games, but with the arrival of the dark 50th anniversary, it was estimated to reach in the thousands as more and more entrants had signed up for a chance to win it all only to lose it all. The metallic and imposing stadium was lit and full of loud and rambunctious activity.

Perched in her sniper position high up in the stadium, Willow the Lopunny could see everything happening down below. She was charged with the task of making sure nothing would try to make an attempt on Queen Taiya's life as she watched from her throne, but in truth, Willow wasn't worried in the slightest. She had her EinCaliber Sniper Rifle in position with the sights calibrated, but Willow knew Queen Taiya could perfectly handle herself and her presence there was simply additional overkill, which was a Black Lotus custom. But Willow enjoyed the thought of someone being stupid enough to try and attack her as this thunderous opening ceremony was being broadcasted around the world. It would be a race between everyone on standby as to who could kill them first.

As the ceremony continued, a fleet of new and larger armored vehicles stormed their way into the stadium. These were some of Black Lotus's finest, but just to keep the competition on the edge, they weren't getting all the insight as to what to expect when the actual competitions started.

"This is Visor 3," a voice suddenly spoke into her headset radio. "I've lost visual on the asset due to audience obstruction. Changing position."

"No, you stay there, Riggs," Willow sighed into her headset. "Taiya has more operatives watching her back than you think. You're a rookie compared to most of them."

Willow never liked handling new recruits and even though Riggs had been on a few missions already, the formality of his approach was too tight in her opinion. The Nidoking was fidgety, too eager, and so much by the book that when there was an exception to what the book called for, he had trouble making his own rational choices. And to Willow, it was taking him forever to pick up on.

It was only a short while after the fanfare that things had settled down a bit and Queen Taiya had approached the metallic podium's microphone.


Queen Taiya the Lilligant
Black Lotus Ruling Authority
Lytala City, Tempest Festival Central Stadium

A dark smile never left Queen Taiya's face as she watched everyone so eager, so viciously and wickedly eager for the Tempest Festival to begin. The arenas were dry and were yearning for blood. The burial pits were vacant and begged to be given their fill. And so many contenders were lined up and in dire need of such death. As the dark and wild audiences cheered and the performers all looked upon Taiya to give the Opening Festival her blessing, she smiled and greeted all of them. The fierce and wildly-loved Lilligant was more than happy to proudly grant this sadistic audience their darkest and most violent wishes.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Taiya gracefully smiled as her voice was broadcasted throughout the stadium and all across many channels, "You've waited too long for this moment. You've counted down the days and you've had many sleepless nights as the anticipation for this legendary Tempest Festival kept you begging for time to march faster!"

There were roars and cheers throughout the crowd, and Taiya smiled at how in the recent days, the desire for the opening of the 50th annual Tempest Festival had only gotten more frantic with every passing hour. They wanted it to be legendary and Taiya knew it would satisfy all their sadistic desires and then some. All their wishes for the most destructive events the festival had always promised would be bigger and better than ever before. They wanted blood. They wanted screams. And there would be plenty.

"And now it's here," Taiya grinned to her highly anticipated audience, both in the stadium and watching on live broadcast. "Now you will see everything your feverish hearts have desired. And more. Victory will go to the strong and prepared. And death will take its claim on the weak and foolish. You've seen it in the years past but none of that will prepare you for what's to come this year. This anniversary. This glorious, 50th anniversary!"

And the cheering had gone wild and frantic. Already there were some members of the audience that had gone overboard after vicious cocktails of powerful drugs and highly potent alcohol. Horns and firecrackers had been going off...

...and at that moment, it was then that one had decided to take his chance while the audience was distracted and the noise level was high. Just under the stage where Queen Taiya had been standing, a panel had been moved. Months of planning and preparation had prepared Nenge the Toxicroak for this moment. He was going to be the one assassin to bring Queen Taiya down.

In front of everyone.

He quickly leapt onto the podium while the intensity was at its peak and Taiya was giving her speech, and in the heat of those few, critical seconds, he took his combat sword and was ready to take her down in one, perfect, lethal killing blow. Before any of the Black Lotus snipers or bodyguards could even make their move. The "Tongue of Death" was what they called this shadowy assassin strike that took years to train in, and only a few knew it. A twisting, burrowing strike right into her side would be more than enough to reach her heart and dig it out.

The audience suddenly saw what was going on. Some thought this was part of the ceremony, while others suddenly realized this was an unanticipated occurrence. And then there were others that were far too drunk and stoned to even take notice and would only ever know what happened in the replays of the recording. As he was tempted to scream that the Shadow Network sent their regards, he stayed silent. The strike was more important.

Nenge made his move knowing he would immortalize himself in history as being the one who assassinated Taiya. His hand, his blade, his years of training and stealth all lead up to this moment. HIS moment. It had all come down to this.

She narrowly dodged what was supposed to be the perfect, killing blow that would change and write history.

There was only one word that struck his mind in that moment.

HOW...?

But just as his combat sword flew forward, twisting and digging through nothing but air as he drove it down thinking it would have gone through Taiya's flesh, Taiya had spun around, elegantly as if in a dance. Her leaf-like hand was swift to deftly unsheathe her own concealed blade, and she struck the Toxicroak in his red vocal sac, causing it to burst as her blade tore through his lungs and permanently cut off his breathing. There was suddenly blood all over her blade as members of the audience were now on their feet in shock, bewilderment, and excitement for what had just transpired.

Nenge had tried to fight death. Desperately, desperately tried to withhold himself from the reaper's grasp. He tried to improvise one last, wild strike in this last ditch moment to at least take her with him into the dark gaze of death, but as Taiya slowly drove her blade in further, he was too weak and in too much crippling pain to hold onto his sword. His fingers loosened, and the hilt slipped further and further from his dying grasp before it left his hand and plummeted to the ground with a simple but career-ending clang.

He had failed.

And then it suddenly hit him as his vision was fading and his blood was spattering all over the metallic floor. Suddenly he realized what exactly Ante was...

...only it was far, far too damn late to warn anyone about it.

In his dying moments, Queen Taiya spoke a simple line, but it was carried into the microphone that was broadcasted to everyone... everywhere.

"Oh thank you so much for that," Queen Taiya smiled.

And those were the last words he heard. Nenge's bloodied body crashed to the ground besides his sword as blood pooled around the Toxicroak's corpse while Queen Taiya's freshly bloodstained blade gleamed in the lights of the stadium making her look fiercely heroic and charismatic before all her supporters and admirers. Instead of making history and being the one assassin that put an end to Taiya's reign, Nenge simply became the first kill of the Tempest Festival, captured on live broadcast, in front of everyone. And there would be no end to how many times the moment would be replayed over and over, all showing Queen Taiya's superior skill in bringing down her fifth assassin and only proving just how unstoppable she truly was... and always would be.

The crowd had gone berserk. The cheers, the fanfare, the promise of blood and violence was already unfolding before them, even when no one expected it. Queen Taiya simply made her way back to the podium, and smiled before her adoring and admiring crowd.

"Let the games begin!" she cried out with a loving smile.