The next room is painted a neon purple with darker hues, giving it the appearance of seeming to glow under the black light from the ceiling. The edge of the battlefield is bordered with massive obsidian shards jutting from the ground and a huge, drawn back velvet curtain stands at the center of the room, looming over us all. The floor is speckled with golden paint, giving it the appearance of a starry sky. Someone spent their sweet time designing this, and the effect is breathtaking.
Karen smiles as we appreciate her tastes in interior decor, her hair lit up by the black lights over head. "I'm Karen. It's lovely to meet you."
"You as well." I reply, still dumbfounded.
"As you can tell by my room, I'm a fan of the Dark type. They're mysterious, dangerous, and rugged... yet there's still this allure to them. I've been known for my overpowering tactics, though I suppose you'll find out just how I battle soon enough. Care to begin?"
Minerva bares her teeth. Pisces stands above me, ready for her next challenge, and the others look on with admiration in their eyes. Still, it's Fang who jumps onto the battlefield first. "Can I lead?"
"Go ahead." I tell him. "Yes, I'm ready."
Karen smiles and sends out her own Umbreon: "Breeze, you're up." Breeze, who takes the field snarling, is a little stouter than Fang. Its ears are a little more pointed, and its rings are blue, so its must be shiny, but besides that the two are more or less identical.
Fang leaps into battle, but I'm disappointed to find Faint Attack does next to nothing. Breeze takes the time to counterattack, and the two begin dueling, claw to claw and tooth to tooth. They're evenly matched, with neither able to get any critical attacks in edgewise, but I get the uneasy feeling that I'm watching something more akin to a feral dogfight than a real Pokemon battle.
"Fang, use Confuse Ray." I say, hoping to get this over with faster, and Fang summons an orb of hazy light from his head. It strikes Breeze, who staggers over, but as Fang is celebrating his success Breeze lunges sideways at him and knocks him over with a startled yelp.
The two resume their battle, but Fang's superior speed is giving him a new advantage. Breeze is hardly able to parry a blow, and it looks like we're about to finish the Umbreon off when Karen calls Breeze back and applies a Full Restore. "There you go," she says, smirking at me all the while. She knows exactly what she's doing. "Now, Breeze- Confuse Ray."
"Fang, dodge!" I yell, but Breeze's Confuse Ray is persistent. He manages to get halfway across the field before it hits him in the back of his head and his eyes glaze over, as if he's forgotten why he's here altogether.
I feel buzzing at the back of my own mind, making it hard to suggest anything to Fang and giving me a major headache to boot. Instead, I ask, "Are you okay?" and Fang gives me a sharp slanted gesture that might have been some semblance of a nod. "Okay."
Okay.
The two Umbreon turn to face each other again, and after staring into each other's eyes (or attempting to), Fang lunges... and misses.
"Damnit!" I yell, and the battle continues with lazy, halfhearted strikes on both sides. Neither Pokemon is able to make any real moves due to the confusion and if it wasn't an Elite Four battle, I'm sure I'd find this hilarious.
"You know, if someone had told me I'd be watching two Umbreons stagger around drunkenly for the better half of my afternoon, I might not have believed them. Yet here we are." Minerva states, then shakes her head. "Forget this. I'm going in."
She jumps straight into the fray and pushes Fang out, returning him to my side, where he blinks, free of his curse, and falls asleep on top of Pisces. Minerva, undeterred, looks back at Karen, anticipating her next attack.
"She's a feisty one, isn't she?" asks Karen. "Healthy, too- her mane is well groomed. You must care for her well."
I didn't come here to talk about Pokemon grooming, I think.
Minerva, unhelpfully, adds, "That's because I groom my mane. Ashley can't brush her own hair."
I don't know if Karen can hear her or not, but either way, this is getting ridiculous. Blushing a little, I reach out to Minerva and order her to get on with it. I swear I can sense her rolling her eyes at me, but with a Fire Blast that lights up every obsidian shard in the stadium, it's over.
Her next Pokemon, which isn't a dark type at all, emerges from the back of the stadium, grinning hugely at us. The Gengar sticks out its tongue and asks, "Well, well, do I see a new challenger ready to join the ghosts?"
"Not today." Minerva says, her maw crackling as she readies another fiery attack.
The Gengar brightens with a sinister light, which pours from its body and onto the floor, emerging around Minerva and binding the two of them together. It's Destiny Bond. I remember it from Millie's death, and reminders of one of my last field deaths fill my mind. Minerva's presence pushes back, wiping them away.
I'm not stupid enough to fall for that, Ashley.
She blows a soft fire towards the Gengar, a bluish blaze that sets flames circling about it. She doesn't need to turn to me to confirm her strategy. It's Will O' Wisp.
Minerva announces proudly, "My kind have been fighting Gengar for millennia. We know their tricks."
The Gengar's grin turns to a frown, and its hands twist to the side, a blue orb of light growing in its hands. Minerva ducks as the Focus Blast crashes into an obsidian cluster behind her, fracturing the stone and sending shards everywhere. Minerva pants, catching her breath, but the Gengar's not done yet. A volley of Focus Blasts tear through the arena, one of them singing Minerva's tails and another hitting her straight in the chest. She makes a harsh sobbing noise, collapsing against the obsidian, and I whip open the Pokedex.
Red health.
A dark energy rises from her and she bolts forwards in one last desperate attack, the energy collecting and slamming the Gengar on all sides as she herself hits it right in the stomach, then jumps back to watch as the burn damage piles on top of her boosted attack and the Gengar fades back to shadow, its body disappearing first and the frown second.
"Payback? When did you learn Payback?" I ask.
"I stole it from your TM case." Minerva cackles, though she's hardly standing at this point. I slam my palm against my face. I haven't run an inventory on TMs for months. I don't know how she managed to steal it, get it into the Pokedex, and load it herself, but an amused hoot from Ten tells me that this was a team act.
Karen nods, "Our Pokemon are full of miracles that humans may not even understand. Aren't they wondrous?"
Oh yeah. Miracles.
Minerva looks at me with the smuggest expression she can muster, and then limps back so I can spritz her with a Max Potion.
"Ardent, give it your all." Karen says, releasing a Houndoom nearly twice as tall as Minerva onto the battlefield. It looks like it could bite half my Pokemon in two, but if we're going for intimidation (and type match ups), I have him beat already.
Pisces slithers onto the field, eyes narrow. "Go get 'em, girl." I say.
The Houndoom is tougher than Bruno's Pokemon, and its teeth are sharp. Pisces roars in pain as the Houndoom sinks its teeth into her side, leaving huge marks as it lets go, leaping onto her back and attacking her fin.
Pisces cloaks herself in water, writhing against the Houndoom's grip, but it's still almost a full minute before it lets go. When it does, she knows she has it beat, and she turns on the weakened, sputtering canine and descending with the full force of her Waterfall attack. Like Bruno's Pokemon, despite the struggle, it eventually relents and is defeated, and Pisces sniffs her wound. I sense the sharp tang of iron blood, but Pisces doesn't seem deterred, rather, she grits her teeth.
Give me one more. I can take this one.
Karen's next Pokemon is a Murkrow, a plucky one with a huge brimmed hat, and Ten tilts his head. "I'm afraid Extrasensory won't work on it, if that's what you're thinking. I say we give her the chance."
Pisces has already started running with her chance. The Murkrow just stands and watches as
a storm gathers overhead, and a bolt of lightning strikes the arena, frying the crow. Pisces slinks back, her work finished, and I begin applying Hyper Potion to her wound.
Karen calls, "Vernis, it's all up to you," and sends out her final Pokemon, a Vileplume.
Ten and Minerva both step forwards at once.
"You want it?" Minerva asks.
"You should rest." Ten suggests.
"Oh, I'm healed."
"Then by all means." He gestures her onto the field.
"If you insist." she says, stepping past him, and yells to the Vileplume, "I don't suppose you know Destiny Bond, do you?"
The Vileplume shakes its head, and Minerva grins. "Good."
She inhales and blows a wave of fire across the room, smouldering the Vileplume. Satisfied, she turns, exhaling a stream of smoke from her mouth.
"If I've learned anything today," remarks Reginae, "It's that Minerva and Pisces are terrifying."
"Agreed," say the rest of the team's male population.
I'm just as happy as them to be done with this, but it bothers me how easy these battles have been. The team is tired, but none of us have sustained injuries that can't be spritzed off, which means we should all be good for our final fight. The thought of it fills me with dread, but the battles up until now have been, save for a few moments of genuine panic, flawless. I set my fears aside. Whatever Lance has in store for us, we can take it.
"You've won," Karen tells me as I greet Minerva, ruffling her mane affectionately. "Strong Pokemon. Weak Pokemon. This is only the perception of selfish people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokemon they love most. You love your Pokemon, do you not?" She holds out her hand before I can answer. "No, don't worry... I can see it in your eyes. Go on, Ashley. Lance is waiting for you."
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