Death Battle: Garnet vs. Rash

Ray: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's settle this debate once and for all.

Steel: It's time for a DEATH BATTLE!!!

--

BattleToad Arena...

Another day, another beatdown in this strange Virtual Reality world. With the sound of typical 8-bit impact sounds, an enemy rat flew through the air, the cause of it being a gargantuan, green fist. Mentioned fist reverted back to its normal size, the owner turning out to be a tall, muscle-bound, anthropomorphic toad of all things.

After the oversized rodent was long gone, the toad looked around...well, at least that's what his flipping, standing pose seemed to indicate. Just below him, a black text-box appeared, indicating that its owner wore a broad grin and sported a pair of snazzy-looking sunglasses.

"COACH, ALL THESE SPEED RUNS ARE BUMMING ME OUT."
"GOT ANYTHING NEW FOR ME TO CLOBBER?"
"OH, AND DON'T SEND ME BACK TO FIGHT THOSE OTHER GUYS."

Far above, in what appeared to be a large space-cruiser, an anthropomorphic bird, wearing a lab coat and sporting a ringlet of white hair on his red-feathered head appeared to be monitoring the toad on a computer screen. As he did this and responded, he was still typing away madly at a keyboard.

Through a similar text-box, the bird responded.

"I DO HAVE ONE OPTION OUTSIDE KILLER INSTINCT."
"BUT IT IS EQUALLY UNUSUAL..."
"YOU UP FOR A REAL CHALLENGE?"

The ship lowered a long cable, which the toad grabbed onto with its thick, four-fingered hand.

"OH YEAH! I NEED A REAL CHALLENGE!"
"BRING ON THE BIG GUNS!"

With his statement final, Rash felt the ship lift him up by the cable and high into the air until they were well out of sight, off to fight challengers unnamed and unknown to them.

--

Beach City...
Afternoon

On the outskirts of Beach City, a tall woman walked calmly and collectedly, a paper bag of groceries in her arms. She wore a red-and-black bodysuit, had skin of a dark, reddish hue, and had her hair done up in a large afro. Her expression was hard to read, helped largely by the large pair of sunglasses that concealed everything from her forehead to the bridge of her nose.

Garnet of the Crystal Gems had been out running errands. She had no need for the foodstuffs in the bag, but she knew someone that would (two if Amethyst was in the mood).

A vision came to Garnet, causing her to stop and inspect the area.

"Another vision..." she said to herself, but after a quick thought, asked, "But what are the chances of THAT happening?"

There came a sudden crackle in the air, causing Garnet to turn towards the source of the noise. A portal of unknown matter sprouted like some kind of flower, and something dropped down from it. That something was a tall, muscular amphibian hanging by a support cable. He swung back and forth a few times, then sprang off.

"I'm crashing this party!" the toad said, whipping out a pair of sunglasses and slipping them on over his eyes, all while sporting a broad, toothy smile.

Garnet could only look at the sight unfold, expression unwavering, then sighed and shook her head. "Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right." Setting the groceries down, she walked over the the toad and folded her arms over her chest. "What business do you have here, frog?"

The Battletoad, Rash, seemed to take immediate offense to this. "First of all, I'm just here for some fun stuff. Secondly..."

WHAM!

Garnet was suddenly sent flying backward as the toad threw a punch that, surprisingly, magnified in size. The Gem smashed into a brick wall with enough force to crack it, then slumped to the ground.

"I'm a TOAD, for your information!" Rash said, crossing his own arms.

Garnet stood up, almost completely-unfazed by the impact of both the giant fist and her slamming into the wall, then held up her fists. Pinkish light surrounded them, then spread out and solidified into a pair of large gauntlets, adorned with heavy-looking knuckles and a star on the back.

"Alright, Toad," Garnet said, adding a bit of emphasis to the word "toad", then slammed one of her armored fists into an equally-armored palm, "If your idea of fun is a fight, let's get started."

Rash popped his knuckles, then cricked his neck. "FINALLY, someone's speakin' my language!" he said, excitedly, as he readied his own combat stance.





BattleToad and Crystal Gem crossed the distance in just a few steps, pulling back a fist and throwing it with the intention of breaking bones. Instead, giant fist met giant fist with a loud impact that sounded almost like a cannon being fired. So powerful was the impact that the concrete below their feet actually gave way and left a sizeable crater.

Both recovered from the initial punch, then met fists once again, then twice more. Garnet then pulled back and began to launch a series of high-speed punches at Rash, in a fashion that would make a certain "Star Platinum" proud. Rash was not to be outdone, it seemed, for he met Garnet's barrage, blow-for-blow. As if to show off what he really could do, Rash stopped punching and went into a kind of Russian step-dance, meeting Garnet's blows with powerful kicks from his now spike-laden boots.

That cocky move came back to bite him when Garnet landed a solid hook to the side of his face, staggering the toad long enough for her to land a haymaker in his visage and send him flying back like a cannonball. The toad skipped and skidded across the street until he caught himself, then made a spectacular leap that only a frog could pull off, rearing both fists back behind his head and slamming them down on the hood of a nearby car. The automobile flipped clean into the air as Rash touched down, then the amphibious gladiator reared back one fist, magnifying its size once again, and slugged the car so that it flew at Garnet.

A backhand diverted the vehicle, sending it tumbling away, but Rash turned out to be not far behind and with a good bound, planted a huge boot into her midsection, sending her in a small arc. Garnet landed on her back and Rash, after a laugh at her expense, sprang into the air, transforming his feet into spiked boots, clearly aiming to turn her into Swiss cheese when he came down.

Garnet, rather than panic and roll away, held up a fist. With a burst of what appeared to be fire, the fist shot out like a cannonball and nailed Rash full in the chin with a low "crunch" that sent the BattleToad soaring up into the air. Mentioned fist slowed, then reversed its trajectory to fit itself back on Garnet's, surprisingly, hand-less forearm. She stood back up to her full height just as Rash hit the ground with enough force to bounce off it, landing flat on his back on the second impact.

"Ugh...now that was a cheap shot." Rash said, fixing the angle of his crooked sunglasses before getting back on his webbed feet.

"There's still time to back off, you know." Garnet offered, fists still clenched.

Rash's toothy smile spread back across his face. "Not in this lifetime!" he said, then took a running start at Garnet.

"Darn."

Rash lashed out with his leg, a double-bladed, lethal-looking battleaxe sprouting from his knee to form a sideways-aiming arc that the Gem sprang over, leaving it to pass, harmlessly, under her feet. She touched down, then took a swing at Rash only to watch him duck under it with a "Whoops!", then followed up with a hook that Rash hopped over with an equally-obnoxious "missed me!".

The next swing met its mark, though, a gut punch that caused the amphibian to double over in pain. A haymaker from the crimson brawler sent the toad flying back into a conveniently-parked car, denting its hood and causing its alarm to blare, much to his annoyance.



Shaking the cobwebs from his head, Rash saw Garnet spring at him, fist reared back to smash him into roadkill, but Rash looked to his side, grinned at his own deviousness, then took hold of a lamppost and uprooted it completely. Winding up like a pro slugger, he slammed the post into Garnet, hitting her with enough force to send her skidding down the road until she planted a solid fist into the ground to slow her to a halt.

Under her shades, Garnet's eyes spotted another lamppost and she finally had something to compliment her amphibious opponent for.

"Now there's an idea." she said, then uprooted the lamppost herself and took off on a sprint after Rash, who charged to meet her at the intersection.

Both reared back their weapons of choice, then swung with all their might. With an almighty "clang", the two metal posts bounced off each other. Both Gem and Toad reached the same conclusion after this failed attempt and swung at each other again. Both met once again as Garnet's upward-raise of her blade intercepted a downward-chop from Rash. A low swing missed Rash completely, forcing Garnet to duck low in order to avoid a strike aimed at her head and she retaliated with a swipe at Rash's ribs that he parried with impeccable timing and accuracy.

The clash lasted just a few exchanges, any parry resulting in a deafening impact, but came to a sudden end when Garnet swung down, meeting Rash's own pole. She reached out with an armored hand and her arm extended like it was made of rubber, the metallic fingers clasping down on the toad's visage. With muffled protests, Rash let go of his lamppost in an effort to pry the strangely-powerful fingers off his face, but didn't even come close before he found himself hurled up into the air. As he came down, the next thing he knew was that the world around him suddenly appeared to fly forward without him. More accurately, though, was that he was flying backward with a very ringing pain in his spine.

The toad hit the ground rolling before he slid to a halt, sprawled out on his back. Peeking his eyes open, Rash saw Garnet in midair, her lamppost raised to slam down on the toad...

CLANG!

Much to Garnet's confusion, she didn't appear to hit Rash judging by the noise. She held up her lamppost and took in the fact that it was bent at almost a full ninety-degree angle. She took another look at Rash and found that a giant, green weight was right where he once was. It didn't even have a scratch from the impact.

"Well, that's disappointing."

The giant weight disappeared, and Rash was back in the game, his smug smile broad as always. He pulled back his head, then rushed forward with it lowered, ram horns sprouting as he advanced. The blow knocked Garnet back, but Rash pressed his assault with a barrage of giant fists, spiked boots, and ram-horn headbutts to ensure that she wouldn't recover anytime soon. With one quick windup punch, he socked the Gem hard in the face, cracking her sunglasses as she hit the ground hard.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" Rash boasted, grin never wavering.

Garnet, much to Rash's surprise, got up without any real sign of wear or tire, straightened her shades and responded with a calm, focused, emotionally-stable "Trust me. I'm only getting started."

Wanting to force-feed this woman her own words, Rash sprang forward, ready to clobber the Gem into dust. Garnet put up her heavily-armored hands, but tried a different tactic rather than just punch the amphibian. She opened her fist into a palm-strike and, just as Rash got a stone's throw from her, two things happened.

First, the gauntlet-clad hand expanded in size with a flash of pinkish light, expanding into a large palm-wall. Then, a split-second afterward, it shot forward as Garnet extended the length of her arm. The result was that Rash hit the oversized palm, face-first, like a fly on a windshield. As the toad hit the ground, the fist reached down, closed around him so that only his head peeked out from it, then dragged him back to a none-too-impressed-looking Garnet.

...

Okay, it WAS kind of hard to tell her emotions, but the tone in which she spoke to the frog seemed to indicate how much she had had with this fight.

"Get out of my town."

Garnet turned, then wound up like a professional pitcher in the Major Leagues before throwing Rash so far and so fast that the toad's screams faded away as he flew off into the horizon. Clapping dust from her palms, Garnet nodded in satisfaction, then turned to collect the groceries.

Rash screamed all the way down, eyes bulging behind his sunglasses as he saw the ground fast-approaching. An idea struck in the nick of time and the BattleToad hit the ground, kicking up a massive dust cloud. When it cleared, Rash was gone and the deep-green weight laid where he would have landed. The weight then transformed back into Rash, who was completely unscathed by the impact.

The toad, in the mood for a little payback, put two fingers in his mouth, took a deep breath, then emitted a shrill whistle. With the roar of a turbine, a speeder bike raced towards him, braking to a halt in front of Rash. The toad took a seat on it, gripping two handlebars.

"Payback 101, people..." Rash said, peeking over his sunglasses, "Do it in STYLE!"

Pushing his snazzy shades further up his...er, "nose", Rash revved the speeder bike and, with another roar of the turbine, the hi-tech speeder took off at high speed. So fast was it, that when it took off, Rash was thrown off his seat, holding on by the handlebars and whooping at the top of his lungs as he sped back to Beach City.

Spotting the groceries on the ground, right where she left them, Garnet picked up the paper bag and began walking towards the great statue on the outskirts of town. She stopped, however, as something flashed before her eyes.

That toad from before, and he was speeding towards her on a futuristic bike, ready to slam into her.

Sighing, Garnet shook her head. "You've got to be kidding..."



With strength that would surprise any human, Garnet tossed the groceries so far up that they shrunk away until they were out of sight. Summoning back her gauntlets, she whirled around, one fist reeled back.

As expected, Rash was there to meet her, smile broad as ever.

WHAM!

Garnet's armored gauntlet slammed into the front of the speeder and the whole thing flipped, nose-over-tail, into the air, catapulting Rash from its seat. The toad was more resourceful than Garnet had anticipated, however, for his surprised and frightened expression twisted back into a smug grin and he opened his mouth.

A long, pink tongue shot from the confines of his mouth and latched onto Garnet's back. The tongue then retracted, dragging Rash towards the Gem and used his webbed feet to thump her in the back, propelling himself off and sending her staggering forward. His tongue still latched onto Garnet, he jerked his head back and Garnet went flying towards him. He wound back a fist, ready to slug her once again...

Only for her to extend an arm to inhuman lengths and seize him around the wrist. Without his fist to intercept her, Garnet crashed into Rash, sending the two tumbling across the ground in a pile of reddish-violet and deep-green.

In the end, it was Garnet who came out on top, keeping the toad on the ground and wrapping her armored fingers around his neck. As Rash gasped and choked for breath, a fist slammed him across the face, followed by a backhand to the opposite side. Garnet pulled back her free fist and, next thing Rash knew, he was getting punched straight in the visage by a series of rapid-fire punches. The pain stopped for a brief instant before he was smashed into the ground in Garnet's grip, then kicked away.

Rash got up, then felt something hard in his mouth and spat it out. It was one of his own teeth.

"Oh, you've done it now, lady!" Rash said, a very-visible gap between one of his teeth, "You ruined my perfect teeth! NOW I'M MAD!!!"

Garnet didn't respond, only maintained a straight and relaxed stance. She suddenly reached up and caught something that was headed right for her face.

It was Rash's tongue and, some distance away, the BattleToad had just realized the error of his action. With one deft tug from Garnet, Rash was jerked off his feet and flying straight at Garnet, who planted a powerful haymaker into his face, sending him flying away.

That was, until he was jerked right back to her by his own tongue and got another fist in his face, sending him flying back once more. The process continued again and again until Rash was now little more than a giant, green paddleball.

Garnet, having enough of the game, gave Rash's tongue another jerk and pulled the toad right to her again. Rather than hit him, she seized him on the sides of the head and gritted her teeth as though she were straining her muscles.

Rash was initially confused at this action, but the thought of giving her a knuckle sandwich had just crossed his mind when he felt a burning sensation in his whole body. His muscles contracted so violently that he felt them cramp and his head was beginning to feel like it was on fire.

This was another ability of Garnet's: the ability to generate and manipulate electricity. She was using it to great effect as the BattleToad's own skeleton was beginning to glow like a neon sign, becoming visible underneath his skin and muscles.

There came a sizzling noise and Garnet released the toad, who now had smoke billowing from his eye sockets and mouth. The amphibian gladiator fell to the ground, dead as a doornail.

Garnet nodded in satisfaction, then put a hand to her chin. "Now...how do I deal with him?"

It was a stupid question, really, for she formed a bubble of energy around him via the powers of her own gems. The sphere encased the toad, shrank down to the size of a baseball, and fitted itself in Garnet's hand. With one good windup, she hurled the sphere away until it disappeared completely.

Garnet dissipated her gauntlets, then reached out with one hand and caught the paper bag of groceries. For extra measure, she moved it back and forth, here and there, all to catch the items she was to collect. She did so with pinpoint accuracy, then smirked at a job well done, and strode off for base.




--

Steel: OOOOH! FROG FRY!

Ray: Rash is tenacious and confident, and his shapeshifting and combat abilities are not to be underestimated. Good thing, then, that Garnet is not one to underestimate her foe.

Steel: Garnet exceeds Rash in movepool and variety of abilities, boasts an overall higher durability seeing as she's able to survive plowing through solid stone and waltzing through molten rock (something Rash can't accomplish outside of his weight transformation), and can keep a much clearer head and attitude in combat.

Ray: Garnet is even stronger and overall quicker than Rash, being able to punch at machine-gun level speeds and hammer through all but the toughest materials. What really tipped the scale in Garnet's favor were her future sight and ability to generate electricity. If she's a good enough guess, she can stay a good few steps ahead of Rash and play a better ranged game at the same time.

Steel: Rash's best bet would be to damage the gems on her palms, but considering that she's got them protected twenty-four-seven underneath those gauntlets that are bordering indestructible, he'll be fighting an uphill battle from the word "go". In the end, it looks like Rash...*sigh* croaked.

Ray: The winner is Garnet.




GARNET...
+Much stronger and overall tougher
+Broader arrange of abilities
+Future Sight helps a lot
+No easily-exploitable weaknesses
+No slouch in the speed department
+Calmer and more focused, even in combat

RASH...
+More open in terms of transformation
+Boasts impressive versatility
+Not above taking potshots
-Cocky and smug
-Narrower range of ability
-Much weaker and less durable