Hari and I peered through the doors to the Phenac Stadium. The stands were packed with a cheering multitude. On the field two trainers were shouting orders to their Pokémon.
We slipped into the seats nearest the door and watched Spinda and Grumpig take on Castform and Tropius. Gro lounged in the chair next to Hari, chewing on a piece of grass.
I flinched as one of the trainers made a stupid mistake. Castform used Hail, which made Tropius lose its edge and take damage from the falling ice. When Tropius lost its edge, it didn't take long for Spinda and Grumpig to take them down. The trainer's mistake cost them the battle.
I sighed and shook my head. Stupid mistakes can take a big toll. Judging from the trainer's expression, he knew he'd screwed up. Hopefully he'd learn from his mistake.
When the battle was over, we left the colosseum. "Hey," someone shouted as we stepped outside. I recognized the guy as someone who'd stopped to watch me battle Trudly and Folly. "Those weird men from before went into the mayor's house! Do you think the mayor's okay?"
"That doesn't sound good," I muttered. "Come on, Hari."
He and Gro hung dashed at my heels as I ran to the mayor's house. I threw open the door and stepped inside. I blinked for a moment, trying to take in what I was seeing. There seemed to be a giant… Pokéball floating in the air in front of me.
Beyond the giant Pokéball were the two guys from before: Trudly and Folly. To the left were three other guys, each in a different colored suit: red, blue, and green. When they saw us open the door, Folly pointed at us and shouted.
"Master Miror B! It's… It's her! The girl that overheard us!"
That was the moment when I realized that the giant Pokéball was in fact a guy's hair. It was a massive afro with one side died white and the other red. He turned to face us, revealing an outlandish yellow suit and a pair of purple shades.
My mouth was hanging open as I took in his ridiculous appearance. Behind me, Hari's eyes were at their widest. But afro dude didn't seem to notice out shock.
The guy, I assume his name was Miror B since that's what Folly called him, started talking. "Oh, now aren't you boys frightfully pathetic? You mean to tell me you were bested by these darling infants?" He directed his next words at us. "I'm afraid to say that you heard what you shouldn't have. If you don't like pain, like most people, you can avoid the pain by keeping your nose out of places it needn't be." He turned back to Trudly and Folly. "Boys! Oh, boys!"
Trudly and Folly saluted. "Yes! Yes we will!"
"Boys," the afro dude said, "I shall make my return to Pyrite now. Am I making myself clear? I won't accept failure from you again, boys." He laughed turned in a wild dance move. "Let the music spin! Let's get it on!"
He strolled past us out the door, followed by the three guys in suits.
My brain was still trying to process if this guy was for real, so I barely reacted. Hari, at least, managed to kick the blue-suit guy in the shins as they departed. He hissed in pain and hopped in place, but he continued to follow the others out of the house.
"Was one of those guys the mayor?" Hari asked.
"Uh," I said, shaking my head to regain my senses, "Where's the mayor?" I demanded of Trudly and Folly. The two of them were still there, apparently waiting to "take care of us."
Trudly shrugged. "Not here."
"Last time you caught us off guard," Folly said, "but that's not gonna happen again!"
Trudly stepped in front of him. "I'll go this time."
I stepped forwards and sent out Eon and Uber. Trudly sent out Duskull and Spinarak. I didn't need to warn Eon to beware of the type disadvantage.
Eon hit Duskull with Confusion as Uber dodged in to deflect an attack from Spinarak. Spinarak used String Shot, and Uber had to retreat to avoid getting tangled in the sticky threads. Eon dodged a Night Shade from Duskull, but Spinarak aimed his next Strong Shot at him. Eon couldn't dodge in time, and the webs tangled around his feet. He tried to dodge Duskull's Night Shade, but he tripped and fell to the ground. Night Shade struck him full-on.
I quickly returned Eon and sent out Ore, my Lucario.
As Ore engaged Spinarak, Uber was able to knock Duskull out with Faint Attack. Trudly returned Duskull and pulled out another Pokéball. He smirked.
"You won't stand a chance against this one."
I placed my hand to the side of my head. A headache had sprung up out of nowhere. I shut one eye, trying to focus on the battle. Trudly threw out his new Pokéball. It burst open to reveal a Makuhita.
Instantly, I fell to my knees, feeling horribly sick.
"Gah," I gagged. I tried to look up, but my vision was somewhat blurry. I shook my head, trying to regain my senses. Why was this happening?
I noticed that both Hari and Gro were beside me, bristling and pressed back against the wall, terrified.
Something was seriously wrong.
Ore immediately appeared at my side. "Listen," he whispered. "Look up. Look at the Makuhita."
I forced my gaze up to Trudly's Pokémon. Something was weird about him. The look on his face… His expression was cold and expressionless. Like a machine.
While Ore was speaking with me, Uber was keeping both Spinarak and Makuhita occupied, mainly dodging and feinting, but not daring to make any real attacks. He was just stalling for time.
"What do you see?" Ore asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Don't look at Makuhita. Look around him."
I squinted at the air around he Pokémon. I saw the faintest trace of something shadowy floating in the air around him, but I didn't understand what it meant.
"Here," Ore said. He placed his hand on my shoulder.
Immediately I could see Makuhita's aura clearly. It was a disgusting mass of billowing, sickly dark clouds. I glanced over to see the clean blue aura of Uber as he dodged Makuhita's fighting attacks and Spinarak's string. Suddenly the black aura intensified and Makuhita rushed forwards, striking Uber with the strange shadowy attack.
"Go help Uber," I choked to Ore. "KO that Spinarak, but don't defeat the Makuhita until I say so!"
Ore nodded and ran forwards to help Uber. When his hand left my shoulder, the images of the auras faded.
My mind raced frantically. What could I do? There was something seriously wrong with that Makuhita, and I had to find out what. But how?
I could think of only one possibility.
Mewtwo! I shouted telepathically.
What? He responded quickly, startled by my frantic tone.
I need you to send me one of your special Pokéalls! Bring it to Ben, NOW!
What? Why?
PLEASE!
Ore's Force Palm knocked Spinarak out. Trudly returned him, leaving only Makuhita.
"Please hurry, Mewtwo," I whispered as Ore and Uber dodged another shadow attack. I noticed that the shadowy aura became visible even to my normal sight during this attack, like a rush of solid shadows.
There was a buzzing sound from my pack, signaling the arrival of a Pokéball. I reached inside to find the black Pokéball Mewtwo had sent. I had only used one once before, and not on a Pokémon that belonged to someone.
"Ore!" I called. He dashed over to me and I passed the ball to him. Uber used Faint Attack to knock Makuhita off balance, and Ore leapt in and pressed the Pokéball against Makuhita's forehead. There was a burst of light, bright enough to make Trudly and Folly flinch. In that instant, Makuhita disappeared inside the Pokéball.
My head cleared once Makuhita was out of sight.
The light faded and Trudly looked back to the battle to find that his Makuhita had vanished.
"My Pokémon! Where'd it go?" he shouted at me.
I stared at him icily. "Why are you asking me?"
"Oh man," Folly moaned. "What are we supposed to do? We got flattened again, and your Pokémon is gone. Miror B's going to chew us out!"
"What do we do? What is there to do?" Trudly exclaimed. "Run away!"
The two of them dashed past us, out the door.
I turned to watch them go. The moment they'd left the room, I promptly collapsed to my knees again, shuddering. I pressed my hands over my face.
I heard a small whimper and turned around to see Hari and Gro huddled together against the wall.
"Ah," I said, quickly scooting over to them. "Are you okay?" I asked.
Hari blinked up at me, looking scared. Hari never got scared.
"Come on. It's going to be all right. See?" Ore handed the Pokéball to me and I showed it to Hari. "I caught Makuhita. Now we can try to make him better."
"What was it?" Hari's lip trembled. He looked like he was about to cry. I put an arm around his shoulders.
"I don't know. But I promise you that we're going to find out."
I coaxed him to his feet and lead him outside. He followed, a blank expression on his face. Gro, Uber, and Ore followed, all looking rather shaky.
Just as we made it through the door, we came face-to-face with a very round man with rather poofy gray hair.
"Oh my," he said as he saw us. "Visitors. I'm sorry I was out."
"What?" I said blankly. Then I realized that this guy must be the mayor. "Oh, yeah. We heard that there were weird people in your house, so we came to make sure that you were okay." I shook my head again. I'd become a bit dizzy again, no doubt from trying to walk.
"Oh, strange people in my house? It's lucky I was away!"
Something about his tone freaked me out. It was like he was talking to little kids.
"Thank you for your concern," he continued. "You look rather ill. Are you all right?"
"Uh, yes. We're fine. We'd better be on our way though."
I lead Hari quickly away from the mayor's house and pulled him behind one of the houses, away from prying eyes. I knelt in front of Hari and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. "Hari, snap out of it."
He blinked up at me, looking rather dazed.
"Are you listening?"
"Yeah," Hari muttered, still sounding rather spacey.
"We're going to find out what happened to that Pokémon, okay? But I need you to stay alert. We'll need your help."
Hari nodded. "Okay."
I wasn't entirely satisfied that he'd snapped out of it, nit I let go of him and turned to Ore. I held out the Pokéball containing Makuhita. "Ore, you know about auras. Can you tell me what's wrong with this guy?"
Ore glanced at the Pokéball. "Something about the Pokémon was corrupted. Something within his soul, which is why it's aura is polluted. But what that is, I can't say."
"Why do you think it made me sick, and Hari a nervous wreck?" I asked.
Ore thought for a moment. "I have a theory. Cara, when you battle, you have a very strong psychic bond to your Pokémon. They read your thoughts during the battle, which is how they know what to do without you shouting out instructions."
"Yeah?"
"So, when the Pokémon with the corrupted spirit appeared, it overloaded your senses. You'd never experienced anything so tainted before. And about Hari, he grew up surrounded by Pokémon. He knew immediately that something was seriously wrong with it. He'd never seen anything like that before, so it scared him."
"And… the auras? I saw them clearly when you touched me." I massaged my temples, trying to understand what Ore was telling me.
"That's because of your psychic powers. It let me lend you my ability to see auras."
"I've never been much good at reading auras, but even I could see a little bit of darkness around Makuhita before you touched me."
"Because its aura was so thick. It wouldn't be hard for you to learn to see auras. I could teach you. Hari might be able to learn too. Most people can if they're open to it."
"You think there's more of them out there?" Hari squeaked.
I glanced away to the distance. "I don't doubt it," I muttered. "I need to call Ben and Mewtwo. They need to know what's happening, and I'm gonna need more of Mewtwo's Pokeeballs.
