Ch 6

GardenBeam gently parted a few of the vines to get a glimpse at PsyThorn. Though she talked with confidence, her strength was truly lacking. Her only real attack was confusion, and that hardly threatened anyone in a psychic village, especially someone as powerful as MoonRose. GardenBeam sighed and wish MoonRose has at least some confidence in her.

PsyThorn and MoonRose continued to stare each other down. MoonRose began to doubt her ability to fight at all after being out cold for a good two hours, and PsyThorn grinned at her doubt. Still, inside, PsyThorn was shaking harder than a Bellsprout in a tornado. She knew her limited power was no match for anyone in the forest except her subordinates, FrostBeam and ShallowBeam, so she would have to rely on psychological warfare.

"You know, I would be pretty scared right about now if I were you." PsyThorn smirked.

"Why is that? You three are some of the weakest Gardevoirs in the forest." MoonRose still doubted her abilities as she spoke these confident words.

"I can hear the lack of confidence in your voice, and I know why. You know you're outnumbered. It's three on one, soon to be twenty-three on one." PsyThorn laughed as twenty illusions of herself began to appear and surround MoonRose. Her double team attack was very developed, as it felt like all twenty-one PsyThorns were laughing simultaneously. With both twins laughing too, the forest filled with the sound of cackling.

MoonRose grew very nervous at the sheer number of enemies around her. Out of powerful fright, MoonRose launched a wild shadow ball at the location of the original PsyThorn, only to realize it was the original. How pathetic that she never even changed her location. The shadow ball knocked PsyThorn into both twins, causing them all to faint and all of the illusions to disappear. MoonRose took this opportunity to run to the forest. All the while she couldn't help but wonder: why didn't GardenBeam help?

After MoonRose disappeared into the forest, GardenBeam stepped outside to move the three fainted Gardevoirs out of her lawn. They were ruining the scenery. After moving them into some bushes to recover, GardenBeam silently apologized for not helping. MoonRose needed to accept her power.

Hidden amongst the willow trees of the village, SilverMind watched the whole scene. He saw MoonRose recover and look at the trophy with regret in her eyes. He saw her stare down PsyThorn with doubt raging through her. He could tell that she saw her victory against them as a fluke. He knew she was looking for him and her brother; that she wanted to stop the rematch. He sighed, and like MoonRose, wished the first battle never took place.

"BlueBlade? BlueBlade? Where are you? Answer me!" MoonRose dashed through the trees of the forest in search of her brother. "BlueBlade! Answer me! SilverMind, you too. We need to talk!" MoonRose sighed as the only response was her own echo.

Suddenly, she heard a rustle behind her. She turned around, hoping to find her brother or SilverMind, but instead, she saw something worse than anything she could have thought a reality. Starring at her was a pair of vicious red eyes, eyes that she had seen all too many times at night.

Only one word would pass through her lips. "Houndoom."