Chương 48: Chapter 46

Beedrill blurred yellow as it zipped over the battlefield. The leaves of the overhanging tree shook from the wind that followed in the Bug Type's wake. Haunter had time for a single yelp but nothing past that. Two gleaming stingers jabbed into him, piercing his purple flesh, and then Beedrill repeated its Twineedle attack to jab him again, and again, and again. Haunter was riddled with holes when Beedrill drew its arms back to take a breath.

"Confuse Ray!" Sam shouted. The lingering holes warped to twist in on themselves, filling the gaps in Haunter's amorphous body—his injuries looked much worse than they actually were. He was less rooted in the physical than other Ghost Types, and he had a four-times resistance to Bug Type moves as well. He was still in the fight, but the sheer amount of strikes he had taken couldn't be ignored. Still, his eyes flashed with light. A grey beam struck Beedrill in the center of its forehead.

The confusion settled in, but it didn't let up. Its angry focus allowed it to remain wholly focused on Haunter as it lunged to resume its Twineedle once more. Sam breathed out, forcing himself to not panic from the onslaught directed Haunter's way. Come on, Sam! We planned for this! This was the entire reason we didn't bother to have him dodge String Shot in the first place! The sticky gunk from Kakuna was still stuck to Haunter's body.

It remained there, though now with several holes, as the Beedrill continued to attack and as Josh pulled back his straw hat to better observe the battle taking place in the air.

"Keep it up, Beedrill! Go, get your revenge!" he shouted. For how young he was, the kid's bloodlust was somewhat off-putting, but Sam had seen worse. He'd been traveling with Redi.

"Escape!" Sam shouted.

"Use the shade!" As one last jab of Twineedle pierced Haunter, he exposed the smile he had barely been holding back. His malleable body had helped minimize the damage from Beedrill's attacks, and now it let him pull in on himself as the string fell to the floor. The shade of the tree assisted, as the edge of Haunter seemed to fizz. He lunged rather unexpectedly, surprising Beedrill enough to cause it to pull back out of wary shock even through its rage.

The Bug Type brought up its stingers into an X-shape to try to block whatever Haunter was doing, but his body turned to mist as he passed right through his foe. Beedrill snapped around, expecting to see Haunter behind him. Red, compound eyes met nothing. Its gaze rapidly flicked around to try to find him, but no matter where it looked, Haunter was gone. Sam could finally allow himself to stop holding his breath.

Though Sam's heart was hammering in his chest, he was relieved that Haunter was able to successfully pull off this trick. Only one Pokémon was visible on the field now, but that Pokémon was growing more frustrated by the second.

"Check the tree!" Josh shouted, biting his lip. The boy looked almost as annoyed as his Pokémon. When Beedrill looked straight up, nothing was there. When Beedrill looked directly underneath it, nothing was there. It raged and struck at the air, but its attack missed. Haunter remained completely hidden. As Sam started to receive the ire of both Josh and his Pokémon, he chose to simply smile cheekily and say nothing, leaning into their rage.

Josh looked like he wanted to shout for something, but he was interrupted when there was finally a change on the battlefield. Red light began to leave Beedrill's body as a Spite began to drain it. The stratagem worked, but it did reveal Haunter's position as the light seemed to be pulled to a small spot right on Beedrill's back. If he was able to dive into shadows, who was to say he couldn't dive into a shadow on top of his opponent's body?

"There! It's under your wings!" Josh yelled. Sam didn't bother to stop his laughter at the Beedrill's panic as Haunter's red eyes peeked out from a small shadow. Going underneath their opponent was what they originally planned, but if the Gym was so kindly providing them the shade of a tree to use, why not make the most of it? Beedril desperately tried to turn around. It did, but Haunter remained on its back. Stingers dug backwards as it tried to scratch behind it.

It landed, allowing its wings to stop moving, and it did its best to try to peel Haunter's shadow away. Sam hurriedly lifted up a Pokéball.

"Return!" he shouted.

"Quilava, come on out!" Using his first of four switches for this battle, Sam replaced Haunter. Josh tried to react with a Poison Sting, but Quilava's flames were already ablaze and a flash of Detect allowed her to dodge to the side. The Beedrill didn't let up its attacks, but that was no problem for Sam nor Quilava. While its anger had let it focus, the subject of its anger was gone. That meant the move used so long ago was now in full effect.

Subjected to the illusions of Confuse Ray, Beedrill didn't bother returning to the sky.

"Incinerate," Sam said. He didn't need to call it out that loud. Quilava promptly acted in accordance with his command. From her mouth, a ball of flame formed and slammed into Beedrill. The explosion of the super effective move sent it clattering to the ground. Still not knocked out yet, it tried to push up. However, its movements were slow from the effects of spite. Quilava was able to fire off a quick Ember to finish it off. Sam smiled and swiped a hand over his mouth to disguise his next command.

"Make sure to taunt him," he said as quietly as he could. As Beedrill was sucked back up into its Net Ball with a beam of red light, Quilava sat down and rubbed her paw across the top of her head. It was an action clearly inspired by Delcatty, and she managed to pull off the feline's smug aura quite well. Josh seemed to seethe at the act, inhaling through his nose and furiously clipping the ball back to his belt.

"Sure using Beedrill like that was wise?" Sam asked, adding insult to injury. Strategy was more than just using the right moves. Sometimes, you needed to adjust your opponent's mindset as well. So far, the battle against Josh had been exactly what Sam wanted to see; a rotation, where opposing Pokémon were set up, then finished off, then set up, then finished off, and so on and so forth. It was less about dealing damage outright and more about making it so Pokémon couldn't fight back.

Add a few taunts and snarky comments to make an opponent angry, and then those Pokémon might be subjected to a few emotionally-influenced, mistaken commands. In the future, Sam hoped to be able to stack enough conditions on one opponent to make it that even just recalling that Pokémon would be a doomed proposition. He wanted it so that anyone he faced felt so overwhelmed that they struggled to come up with any moves.

Sam waited for the kid to send out his next Pokémon, but he just pulled his hat down to cover his face.

"... You're mean," Josh mumbled. Sam winced. The comment hurt, but Sam knew he had to get over it if he wanted to bring this strategy to higher levels of play. As Sam chose not to respond, Josh went ahead to grab a new Pokéball from his belt. Quilava was already heated up and raring to go, and the red-hot charcoal tied to her neck suggested flames even more powerful than from a usual Pokémon. In the face of such a strong Fire Type, Josh didn't look like he was satisfied with his own decision.

This next species was another that appeared in the air. Graceful, white wings kept it aloft as its compound eyes scanned the field.

"A Butterfree," Sam said. The butterfly Pokémon's wings seemed to glisten even in the shade of the field. With its appearance, Josh seemed to get a second wind, as a smile was forced back onto his face from under his hat, and he looked back to the field while trying to stand taller than before.

"You might have taken out half my team, but the rest won't be that easy!" the kid shouted.

"Butterfree! Use Sleep Powder!" For a second, Sam paused. Half his team? He blinked.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about Kakuna." The kid let out a growl as he made a show of dramatically pointing forward. His expression gained a malicious satisfaction as a cloud of sparkling powder drifted out from under Butterfree's wings. Except, Sam had seen this trick before, and he had the perfect counter for it. His experience in the war that was Azalea's Gym Trial meant he had the time to think of how to stop it.

"Curse! Into Flame Wheel!" Curse was used almost instantaneously. The flames on Quilava's back gained a dark tint, looking closer to a shaded red. She then curled up into a ball to accelerate towards her opponent, becoming consumed by the dark fire and carried forward by the momentum of Flame Wheel. Together, these moves offset the slowdown of Curse while emphasizing the boost it brought. If she hadn't spent so much time working on her control over that boosting move, it wouldn't have been possible.

But since it was her doing this, she was able to push off the ground to jump into the air, still spinning, and the fires of her attack burned away any Sleep Powder that dared to drift near her. Once the Flame Wheel finished burning a path through the cloud, Sam shouted.

"Now, as practiced, Will-O-Wisp into Swift!"

"Confusion!" Sailing in an arc, Quilava unfurled as she caused motes of flame to coalesce from the lingering sparks of her previous attack. Each one was launched right towards the gliding Butterfree, who turned around, eyes glowing blue, and tried to use Confusion to stop their advance. Yes, some of the Will-O-Wisp motes became stuck in place, but not every mote stopped. More continued their path towards Butterfree, and as Quilava fell, she went ahead and unleashed a barrage of stars from her mouth.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. So focused on keeping the wisps away, Butterfree didn't have a defense against the Swift.

"Stun Spore! Whirlwind!" Josh desperately shouted. His own combination of moves was clever, Sam had to admit. Stun Spore created another debilitating cloud not unlike Sleep Powder, and Whirlwind pushed it all forward directly towards Butterfree's foe. Together, it meant Quilava didn't have enough space to run away, as the Whirlwind scattered the Stun Spore everywhere. Even Detect wouldn't do. There was no empty space to move to.

Quilava sneezed as the spores hit her, but Butterfree had a much more violent reaction as it trilled in pain. While its combination attack came out quickly, both Will-O-Wisp and Swift had landed. The Bug Type was struggling to stay in the air from the injuries it sustained and the blackened marks of a Burn that now scarred its wings. Josh clicked his tongue, hesitating. A hand hovered over his waist, as if he were considering a switch.

"Tch. If you really want to play it that way—""Return, Quilava," Sam interrupted.

"Are you kidding me!?" Replacing her on the field was Haunter, with Sam using his second switch for the battle. The very second the referee off to the side called for the battle to resume, both Sam and Josh called out their moves.

"Hex!"

"Psybeam!" Purple flames chased Butterfree, but a Psychic Type attack pierced through their advance. When the Hex struck, it seemed as though Haunter was about to take the attack, but at the very last moment he dipped to the side. He cackled. Sam let out a snort. With its computer-like mind, Porygon had exceptional aim. Its Psybeam was far more accurate than Butterfree's, and Haunter had his share of practicing against this very move.

If Josh had called for Confusion, he'd likely have taken out Haunter thanks to the damage Beedrill had inflicted before. Instead, Haunter took no damage and his Hex struck Butterfree. It fell out of the sky, calling out its name, and when it crumpled to the floor, it didn't get up.

"... Return," Josh mumbled. He looked like he was gritting his teeth. Sam, meanwhile, hid his sigh of relief with a cocky smile. That switch was a risk that paid off. Quilava had hidden it, but he could tell she was exhausted after putting everything into that expansive combo. Not to mention, she was suffering from paralysis thanks to Stun Spore, too. Josh, though, glanced around. He glared at Sam, meeting him in the eyes.

"That dodge was bunk, and you know it," he said. Sam merely shrugged.

"Sure, it was luck more than anything else, but isn't a bit of luck needed to win every Pokémon battle?" Haunter readily agreed and added to that statement by sticking out his tongue and blowing a raspberry at the kid. Grumbling, Josh grabbed one last Pokéball from his waist.

"Whatever. I still have my strongest Pokémon left. And since your team's so weak—""Return, Haunter," Sam said quickly. Josh took several seconds to stare with his mouth still open from where he had been interrupted mid-sentence.

"Ugh! Why don't you just leave your Pokémon out!" he yelled, stomping on the ground. Fuming, Josh tossed forward the final Pokéball standing between Sam and Azalea's Gym Badge. Sam was already reaching for Mankey's Pokéball as this last opponent appeared on the field. So between Scyther, Heracross, and Pinsir, it's Pinsir. Now that's lucky for us! Pinsir was a Pokémon covered in a brown carapace with a set of white horns that clacked as they pinched at the air.

Stubby hands clenched into fists, and on its face, a vertical mouth gnashed together teeth that honestly reminded Sam of a rib cage.

"Hey, ref," Sam said, turning to the man overseeing the field. The referee didn't verbalize a response, but he did turn his head to Sam to show he was listening.

"I know my other two Pokémon are still able to battle, but is it okay if I withdraw them from the match?"

"You can't do that!" Josh interrupted.

"What if your final Pokémon faints?!" Sam smiled.

"He won't." Frowning, the referee nodded, accepting Sam's request. Sam went and tossed his final Pokéball. He knew Mankey had been listening from within, and while strategically flawed, withdrawing both Quilava and Haunter from the battle carried a purpose. Mankey wanted a fight between him and this battle's strongest Pokémon. There was no back-up, and there was no way out. He'd need to win, or the entire team would lose.

Sure, that added a lot of pressure to his shoulders, but it was also a way for Sam to express his absolute faith in this fight. When Mankey hit the field, he was absolutely ready to go. His fur stood on its ends, and his hands were held up above his head, positioned to strike. Sam went over the possibilities in his head and decided to cash in every taunt he'd been building up right here.

"How about we end this in one move?" he asked. He heard Mankey snicker. An agreement, then. Across from him, Josh practically turned red with rage. And it worked. Every moment of cocky arrogance from Sam caused Josh to finally have enough. Once more, he pointed forward, and as his teeth ground together, he managed to get off one more shout.

"Just... Tear it off the field! Grab it with Vise Grip, and make it hurt, Pinsir!" Sam wanted to laugh. Everything was lining up perfectly. The instant the battle resumed, the Pinsir lunged forward, head lowered and horns to its front. They stretched wide, ready to grab, and Mankey hunkered down to prepare himself for this strike. But he didn't dodge. The Pinsir charged and yanked him right off the floor without an ounce of resistance from his part. The result was that Mankey howled in horrible pain.

Moves that happened to land in such a way to bypass a Pokémon's defense were generally referred to as critical hits, but what if a Pokémon didn't bother to put up a defense in the first place? Those were generally critical hits as well. Josh had made a mistake with his final order. Vise Grip was inherently a weak move. It didn't do much damage, but it grabbed an opponent to set them up for an easy, follow-up strike.

In this case, Mankey was held in the air and squeezed, but the pain from the critical damage overwhelmed him with rage.

"Anger Point," Sam explained as Mankey began to thrash.

"I know Pokémon abilities are still being discovered, but you should know that's Mankey's. When he takes a critical hit, his physical attack is maximized." Josh's eyes widened.

"Submission! Throw it away, quickly!" he said in a panic. Pinsir tried to rear its head back, but Mankey roared and wrenched open Pinsir's horns. The jerking movement made it stumble, and Mankey broke free from Pinsir's grip. Falling, his brown eyes briefly flashed red, and he twisted around to cause a fist to spark into flame thanks to friction off the air. Screaming his name, the Fire Punch crashed into the dead center of Pinsir's head. The impact sent Mankey falling backwards and Pinsir continued its stumble.

Flames licked at its carapace from where the move hit. Eyes rolled up as its movements stiffened. One final step backwards, and Pinsir fell. Sam felt as though the thud could have been felt from miles away. There was a silence between Sam and his opponent. Mankey stood on the field, huffing and puffing and looking around furiously to see if anything would come next. But the referee spoke up, and the battle was over.

"Bug Catcher Josh has no more Pokémon usable in battle," he called out.

"Challenger Samuel wins!" Josh rubbed his eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. As for Mankey, he came to after several rapid blinks before swinging his arms around in victory. Sam shouted—not saying anything, just needing to vocalize something after that win. Mankey turned around and threw himself at Sam. Sam caught him, and the primate Pokémon started to excitedly swing all over Sam's body.

"Feel like you proved yourself?" Sam asked. Mankey rocked back and forth on one of Sam's extended arms. The monkey Pokémon pushed and pulled his legs to continue that motion. He didn't say anything. He simply looked satisfied. Sam went ahead and returned Mankey, as there was a nasty slash across his chest. The Vise Grip had landed critically after all; a big chunk of hair had been sliced clean off. Sam happily returned the Pokéball to his waist, where it rightfully belonged.

But, as he did, his expression grew serious. Luck was a bigger factor than he had implied. Their victory had come because things had lined up perfectly for them. Mankey was meant to be the bruiser on the team. He'd clean up and take out any Pokémon no one else could handle. Against that Pinsir, the correct decision would have been to have Quilava burn it first.

However, since they didn't do that, if Pinsir had used a move stronger than Vise Grip, or if the boy had brought out a different final Pokémon capable of super effective moves... Well. That just means our strategy needs more work in the future. Sam stepped onto the field to approach his opponent. The young Gym Trainer was frowning. Josh stared at Pinsir's Pokéball, still held in his hand.

"Good battle," Sam said. He winced, remembering his actions.

"And, um, sorry, too."

"Why? Because you won?" Josh clipped the ball back to his hip and looked at Sam with a scrunched up nose.

"No, I, uh, probably went a little too far trying to anger you. Mind games, you know? I was fishing for that mistake at the end." Josh stared at Sam's hand for several seconds before scoffing and holding out his hand.

"Yeah, I might have been doing something similar," he said with a sniff. Sam laughed.

"So you know taunting works."

"How do you think I've won half my battles?" Sam clasped the Gym Trainer's hand and shook. Both of them snickered as the referee approached.

"I appreciate the show of good sportsmanship at the end, but I do suggest that you be more respectful to your opponents in the future," the referee said.

"Sorry," Sam mumbled.

"Still, I acknowledge your victory today and grant you this. Here." The man handed over a red and black metal pin.

"This Hive Badge serves as proof of your victory over Azalea Gym. Congratulations, and we wish you the best of luck on the rest of your journey." The Hive Badge resembled a Ledyba, but in a simplistic way. It looked like a basic representation of a ladybug roughly the size of Sam's thumb.

"Thank you. Both of you. I learned a lot thanks to you." Sam bowed his head before heading out of the glass building. Once he was out of view, he let himself do a little hop. Yes! No one fainted! It was still a little too luck-based for his liking, but he'd celebrate the victory anyway. Returning to the crossroads that split the path to each of the greenhouses, Sam was surprised to see Redi already there. She pushed off the wooden sign and waved as he approached.

"Hey! Got your badge, too?" she shouted at him. He held up his Hive Badge to answer, which glinted in the sunlight. Redi held up hers as well.

"You won before me?" he asked, reaching her side.

"Well, duh. I only had to faint three Pokémon. And Porygon swept." She put her hands behind her head.

"Turns out Conversion into Charge Beam is pretty effective, especially when you can release everything you've built in a one-hit-KO Discharge at the end."

"Charge Beam? Discharge? Already?" Sam said, blinking.

"Well, duh. I told you Porygon figured out the Electric Type. With how smart they are, how long did you think it'd take?" Sam didn't have any words for her. While he had the New Pokédex, he didn't have anywhere near as much hands-on knowledge with Porygon as Redi.

"So Teddiursa didn't even need to fight," Sam said flatly.

"A one-Pokémon wonder! Porygon's pretty great," Redi said, grinning. Having met back up, they both started to head back to the Pokémon Center to heal their teams, but Redi looked away awkwardly and scratched at her cheek.

"But, uh, you aren't upset I didn't catch the end of your battle, right?" she asked.

"I had time to stop by, but I kind of forgot which greenhouse you were battling in..." A few days after their Gym battles, Sam and his friends moved to leave town. They walked over the stone streets and chatted idly among themselves. None of them noticed her. She was too clever. It'd taken years of practice to get this stealthy, and she had absolute confidence in her skills for a reason.

"So you said you wanted to pass through Union Cave? We can either go through its tunnels or travel over its hills. Either way, doing that leads to Route 32," Sam said.

"No, Union Cave is best," the girl one replied.

"I was talking to some trainers in the Pokémon Center, and they said there's a part of it that floods once a week. I wanted to go there when that happens, 'cause apparently a herd of Lapras visits and practices their songs."

"You're kidding. Lapras?"

"Yeah! Who'd've thunk a Pokémon as rare as that predictably visits a cave?" Sam and his friend continued along, and they continued to not notice her following. Sam took out that book of his—the New Pokédex—and he flipped through a few pages before gaining a frown.

"I really don't get this book at all. Why the heck does it list Union Cave for Lapras but almost nowhere else?"

"So I'm right!" the girl one smiled.

"Oh man, this is going to be so cool!" They walked a bit further as Sam put away his book. However, he paused outside of one shop right at the side of the road.

"Mind if we make a stop before heading out?"

"Sure. It's not like we're in a rush. Still got a lot of time ahead of us until the Conference." Sam stepped inside, and the girl one and her team waited on the road. Watching the girl, she desperately wanted to go inside as well. To greet him once again and chat and rest and talk and train, but that... Something inside her chest hurt. She waited behind a nearby rooftop, instead. Sam came out holding a rolled bundle in his arms. Something beneath its paper was white.

"I'll be quick," he said.

"Just one more stop, alright?"

"Alright," the girl one said, now speaking with a much more serious tone. They didn't talk any further, and she had to keep herself even more quiet than before. Sam hadn't yet realized the benefits of Night Shade. Controlling shadows made hiding within them a breeze. Sam and the girl one continued down the road, exiting the town to approach the lake. When they reached the well, the girl one stayed behind, but Sam continued forward.

He approached the stone structure, now surrounded by trees, and he knelt, placing the bundle on the ground and whispering something over it. She couldn't hear what he said, as she couldn't risk getting close. There were too many watchful eyes. Too many that would see a strange shadow moving across the ground. He knelt there for several minutes before standing up, sniffing and wiping his face.

"I'm good. We can head out, now," he said, returning to his friend. The girl one threw her arms up behind her head and took on a casual stance.

"Great! You wanna talk about Ghost Type moves?"

"Sure. I'd like that," he said. Sam looked genuinely happy. She waited for them to leave. She waited for them to travel far enough away that none of them would see. At this point, she didn't care if anyone else responded to her, and she finally left her shadow to drift over to that bundle. A Spinarak in the tree hissed at her, but she hissed right back. She had no plans to enter the well—she was just curious, that's all. Inching closer, she allowed herself to linger in the air a foot away from what Sam had left.

They were flowers. White and beautiful. Lilies, she recognized. Something about them stood out to her. Their presence made everything nearby feel... peaceful. She wasn't sure why she did it, but she floated down and picked up a fallen petal in her mouth. She wanted a part of this to be hers, but it wouldn't be fair to take anything more. So she started to leave this place. She started to resume her chase. She also started to prevent tears from dripping from her eyes. How long had it been at this point? Years?

Decades? More? She was tired. She was upset. But to tell the truth, Misdreavus just didn't want to be on her own anymore.