Episode 21: Ghostbusters
Niko and Fay walked with their friends to the Ecruteak gym the following afternoon, ready to challenge the fourth gym leader, Morty. Knowing that he was a ghost type, Niko at the least was slightly worried, since only totodile had any solid advantage against ghost types. Otherwise, that was it. Fay, by all accounts, seemed to be calm and collected.
They entered the gym and looked past the plain-looking battlefield at Morty, who seemed to be sitting in a chair, reading what looked to be a very old book. Looking up, he noticed the two trainers standing before him, and stood up.
"Welcome Niko, Fay," he said with a warm smile. "Which one of you will go first?"
Niko stepped forward. "I'll go first. Fay and I switch off each gym."
"Ah, I see. Interesting. Anyways, these will be four-on four pokémon battles. Eusine here will act as the judge. Don't worry, he'll be fair," Morty winked. "Anyways, Niko, you first."
Niko, without hesitation, sent out his first pokémon. "Magnemite, you're up!"
"Ghastly, come on out!" Morty calmly commanded, summoning a black ball of gas that looked like it was snickering. "Use mean look!" the gas pokémon's eyes glowed ruby red as several similar eyes surrounded magnemite. "There, no substitution. You don't see this strategy often, Niko, especially in the pokémon league, as you might already know. Now ghastly, use curse!" the ghost type cried out briefly as a nail came out of thin air and stabbed it.
"Magnemite, thunderwave!" Niko cried out as the magnet pokémon sent out a wave of electricity that temporarily stunned ghastly. "Now, follow up with thundershock!"
Magnemite buzzed around eagerly, shooting off sparks of electricity at its opponent, who took the attacks due to its inability to move. Eventually, ghastly wasn't able to handle more attacks and, due to the curse it inflicted on itself, fainted rather quickly.
"Ghastly is unable to battle, magnemite wins! Morty will send out his second pokémon!" Eusine declared.
"Misdreavus, come on out!" Morty called out, summoning a small dark blue ghost. Its head resembled that of a small girl, with large red and yellow eyes, a ruby-red necklace, and frills on the bottom of its body that looked like a dress. JJ pulled out his pokédex to get a better understanding of it:
"Misdreavus, the screech pokémon. Ghost type. It loves to watch people it's scared. It frightens them by screaming loudly or appearing suddenly."
"Magnemite, thunderwave again!" Niko commanded, aware that he was under the glare of mean look and couldn't substitute. Plus, magnemite was under the curse that was wreaking havoc on the little magnet pokémon. Magnemite, although calm, did have some difficulty conjuring up another thunderwave, due to the curse dealing damage to it as it did so.
Before the attack launched, misdreavus flashed its eyes quickly, clearly using confuse ray to further trouble magnemite. It tried to use thunderwave but instead slammed itself into the ground multiple times.
"Misdreavus, use psywave!" Morty shouted. The wave of psychic energy slammed into magnemite, who was trying to use thundershock but failed miserably. The magnet pokémon was thrust backwards, the curse ultimately doing it in.
"Magnemite is unable to battle, misdreavus wins! Niko will send out his second pokémon!"
"Hoothoot, I choose you! Use peck!"
"Mean look, misdreavus!" Morty commanded while the screeching pokémon agilely evaded the flurry of pecks aimed right at it. Knowing that this was the only move hoothoot could use that might affect ghost types, Niko had no solid strategy here. However, he was also aware that it would be difficult for ghost types to hit hoothoot, who was part normal.
The ghost type seemed to have no problem evading the attacks, ultimately hitting hoothoot with a psywave before running a confuse ray at it. Here, hoothoot closed its eyes to avoid the attack successfully before launching into another round of pecks. The two kept at this for some time before hoothoot ultimately subdued misdreavus.
"Misdreavus is unable to battle, hoothoot wins! Morty will now send out his third pokémon!"
"Haunter, you're up!"
Niko, who for a moment waited for haunter to use a move, decided to go on the offensive instead. He commanded hoothoot to use peck once more, but the haunted, using mimic, gave the owl pokémon a taste of its own medicine.
"Nice choice using a normal type, Niko," Morty called out, "Haunter's only offensive move is a ghost type, other than mimic. But I'm sure you already figured that."
"I didn't, actually. I've only fought one ghost type trainer before you. And she was pretty tough. Hoothoot, keep using peck! Let's try and whittle this haunter's health down."
"Haunter, you keep it up with peck as well. Looks like this will be a totally offensive round."
As both Niko and Morty commanded, their two pokémon kept at it, hoothoot struggling with the idea of being locked into a single move. It had spent most of its training time on take down, not on peck. However, the more it used the move, the more powerful it felt itself getting. Eventually, the two pokémon fell to the ground, defeated.
"Hoothoot and haunter are both unable to battle, Niko and Morty will send out their next pokémon!"
"Yanma, you're up!"
"Gengar, come on out!"
Niko froze at the site of the shadow pokémon in front of him. Last time he faced a gengar, it was against Agatha. He had a very good impression of gengar then. He wondered for a moment if this one would be strong as well. Obviously, not in the same league as Agatha's, but strong enough to dissolve Niko's very narrow edge. Nevertheless, he had to consider what moves to use. He made a rather foolish choice with yanma—it only knew normal type moves. For a bug and flying type, this was more problematic to Niko.
Fortunately, he got some unexpected help. "I'd have thought that you would have had the foresight to using a yanma, Niko," Morty said, "unless, of course, you know the right move that can actually defeat ghost types. Gengar, mean look!"
Now Niko was in trouble. He lost his chance at withdrawing yanma at the last second and relying completely on totodile. As Morty commanded gengar to use shadow ball, Niko retaliated with a double team that surrounded gengar, hoping this would buy him some time while he considered another strategy.
It didn't.
Yanma was flung into the opposite end of the stands by a shadow ball almost immediately. Niko began to panic a little. Wish I had the foresight to use yanma…what does that mean? He thought. Wish I had the…foresight…wait a moment. Wait a moment! Isn't that a move? Yeah, it is! JJ mentioned it one day while we were training. Said it was useful. But for what? Against ghosts? Yanma was taking more shadow balls, waiting for a command from a rather panicked Niko. Dammit! How was this useful information!? C'mon, Niko, what did JJ say? When did he…oh! He said it a few days ago. It negates the ghost type's immunity to normal types!
"Yanma, use foresight!" Niko said. He actually had no idea if yanma knew the attack or not, so it was a shot in the dark. Hoping for the best, yanma began to glow, albeit briefly, before turning to Niko again, smiling, but damaged.
"Bravo, Niko!" Morty shouted out. "You figured it out! Although, maybe a bit too late. Gengar, shadow ball to finish it off!"
"That won't happen! Yanma, use sonicboom!" Niko loudly commanded, throwing out his left hand as a gesture. The clear wing pokémon then vibrated briefly before flapping its wings at gengar and unleashing a wave of sonic energy. Gengar took the hit and fell backwards. Yanma then went in for the quick attack, but did not expect gengar to get up as fast as it did.
"Hypnosis!" Morty commanded. Yanma instantly crashed into the ground at gengar's feet, fast asleep. "Now, dream eater!"
Yanma shook briefly, clearly having a bad dream, before ultimately fainting.
"Yanma is unable to battle, gengar wins! Niko will now use his final pokémon!" Eusine declared.
"Totodile, it's up to you now, buddy! Use bite!" Niko yelled out, commanding his water type to rush forward and grip into gengar's ghostly body with its large mouth. He clearly did not learn from the previous round—getting too close to gengar would be, well, a nightmare.
"Hypnosis and dream eater!" said Morty. Gengar obliged, and put totodile to sleep long before the latter would reach it. It then closed its eyes as if envisioning totodile's dream. The big jaw pokémon shook a little, just like yanma. However, instead of fainting, it woke up, violently shaking its arms around. Totodile didn't seem too pleased with gengar at this point. It launched a relatively powerful water gun at its opponent and, while gengar was reeling from that attack, rushed forward and bit onto its arm, as originally intended. Gengar cried out in pain, shrugging off totodile after a while.
The big jaw pokémon was relentless, however. It leapt back onto gengar and bit it once more before shooting a water gun out of its mouth, propelling it into the air, and landing one final scratch atop gengar's head, causing the shadow pokémon to collapse to the ground.
"Gengar is unable to battle, totodile wins! The victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" Eusine said, throwing up a flag to indicate the winner. Niko smiled at Morty before picking up totodile to congratulate it, taking a painful bite to the arm again. As he yelped out, Eusine rushed off to grab some bandages to fix Niko up while Morty went to heal his pokémon.
Minutes late, with Niko in a makeshift arm sling, Fay stood where it friend was minutes ago, ready to start his battle with Morty.
"Ghastly, let's go!"
"Cyndaquil, I choose you!" Fay said, starting off with his starter pokémon. "Use smokescreen!"
"Mean look!" Morty said, although it seemed to fail when he realized ghastly couldn't even see where cyndaquil was. It was too late, though: cyndaquil came from the side and launched a series of embers at ghastly, knocking it backwards. As ghastly attempted mean look once more, cyndaquil used smokescreen and repeated the tactic. Before long, ghastly was defeated.
Eusine looked in shock at the strength of cyndaquil. Granted, ghastly was Morty's weakest pokémon, but nevertheless cyndaquil bested it relatively fast. "Ghastly is unable to battle, cyndaquil wins! Morty will send out his next pokémon!"
"Haunter, you're up!" Morty commanded. "Use night shade!"
"Cyndaquil, ember!"
Darkness enveloped cyndaquil as the night shade took effect. It quickly found itself unable to attack, and instead took the night shade. Luckily, the fire mouse didn't seem too damaged by it, which made Fay understandably quite happy.
"Cyndaquil, ember again!" Fay said, realizing that it was the only offensive move that he could use. None of his pokémon knew foresight—at least, he didn't believe so. Cyndaquil leapt around the battlefield, unleashing embers all around haunter, trying to evade its attempts at night shade. Clearly the evasion techniques Fay was using seemed to be paying off, despite the occasional night shade hitting cyndaquil.
Maybe he realized haunter was coming to an end quickly, but Morty used mean look to lock in cyndaquil. Moments later, an ember brought down the ghost type.
"Haunter is unable to battle, cyndaquil wins! Morty will now send out his third pokémon!"
"Misdreavus, let's go!" Morty commanded. "Use confuse ray!"
"Quick, cyndaquil! Use smokescreen!" Fay shouted out. They got lucky—the smoke temporarily blocked the screeching pokémon's vision while cyndaquil launched a flurry of embers at it. Misdreavus was able to block a couple of the attacks, but once the smoke cleared it found its moment, using confuse ray on the fire mouse. Cyndaquil wobbled a little before collapsing on the ground, taking in hits from its opponent's psywaves before being defeated.
"Cyndaquil is unable to battle, misdreavus wins! Fay will now send out his second pokémon!"
"Fay, that cyndaquil is strong. Well, more like quick, which allows strength to add up over time. Kudos to you, you're doing pretty well for yourself."
Fay smiled warmly, responding in kind to the gym leader before summoning mareep. "Thunderwave!"
"I've seen this before, I think. Misdreavus, confuse ray!"
"Close your eyes, mareep, and continue with the attack!" Fay shouted out, refusing to repeat the same mistakes Niko had with magnemite. The strategy worked out, and misdreavus found itself temporarily stunned, allowing for Fay and mareep to go in for a thundershock, slowly doing damage. Then Fay got an idea.
"Mareep, flash your bulb for me, will you?" Fay asked. The wool pokémon did as was told, and flashed the bulb a few times. Fay smiled. "I have an idea, then. We just have to wait for misdreavus to attack."
"Misdreavus, use psywave!"
"Now, mareep, use flash!" Fay shouted. The bulb flashed brightly as misdreavus noticed it, trying to close it eyes. The psywave missed; it flew directly above Fay's head and hit the wall behind him. "Wow…nice job, mareep. We might have both been goners if that didn't work," mareep turned and laughed a little. They both suddenly got serious again. "Now, finish off misdreavus with a thundershock!"
"BAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mareep shouted out, unleashing whatever stored electricity it still had, hitting the temporarily blinded misdreavus and sending it collapsing into the ground.
"Misdreavus is unable to battle, mareep wins! Morty will send out his final pokémon!" Eusine declared.
"No surprise here, Fay. You've already seen this, I'm sure. Gengar, let's go!"
"Be prepared, mareep. This gengar is pretty tough. It gave Niko plenty of difficulty. Although, I think we can pull it off," Fay said, reassuring the wool pokémon. "Now, use flash! And thunderwave!"
Mareep's flash nearly landed, but gengar shut its eyes quickly enough. Damn, it is fast, Fay thought. The thunderwave did hit, temporarily stunning the shadow pokémon, whose eyes were still closed on Morty's orders. "Now, use thundershock repeatedly, mareep!"
The attacks kept hitting gengar, but eventually it was able to escape the paralysis and launch a shadow ball, which successfully hit the wool pokémon and knocked it backwards. Gengar following up with hypnosis and dream eater, which quickly subdued mareep.
"Mareep is unable to battle, gengar wins! Fay will send out his third pokémon!"
"Sudowoodo, let's finish this!" Fay shouted out. Sudowoodo hasn't fought in an official battle yet. Let's see if it'll listen. "Use rock throw!"
The imitation pokémon summoned a rock from above its head to toss at gengar, who responded with a shadow ball. "Now, use mimic!"
"Ah, solid choice of moves there, Fay," Morty said pleasantly. "Gengar, use—!"
"Sudowoodo, use whatever move you gained from gengar!" Fay commanded. The rock type did just that—but it didn't seem to work. "What…?"
"Looks like sudowoodo took dream eater, which only works if the opponent is asleep. Nice try, but now it's my turn. Gengar, use hypnosis!"
Gengar's eyes began to glow as it quickly put sudowoodo to sleep. As it proceeded to steal the imitation pokémon's dreams, sudowoodo could distinctly hear Fay's voice. Struggling to fight gengar, sudowoodo slammed its branch onto the floor of the battlefield, and woke up.
"Huh?" Fay said. "Sudowoodo, did you just escape dream eater?" The imitation pokémon nodded as it stood up. "Heh, alright then, let's win this. Use rock throw!"
"Gengar, shadow ball!"
Once more the two attack collided, but sudowoodo rushed forward instead of using another rock throw. Dodging shadow balls left and right, sudowoodo proceeded to leap into the air, summon a large rock from above its head, and slam it down onto gengar, as if it was performing a slam dunk. Gengar fell to the ground, but wasn't finished. It grabbed sudowoodo by the leg and tossed it aside, pelting it with shadow balls as it got up. However, both pokémon were exhausted, and it seemed that the next attack would decide who won that round. Fay smirked—if sudowoodo could defeat gengar, then he'd win, of course. But even if he didn't, he still has teddiursa, who knew a ghost-type move: lick.
"Rock throw, sudowoodo!" Fay shouted out as Morty commanded a shadow ball. Both attacks hit their intended targets. Both pokémon fell.
"Both sudowoodo and gengar are unable to battle. Since Fay still has one pokémon remaining, he is the victor!" Eusine declared. Fay walked up to sudowoodo in the middle of the field.
"You did a great job. For not wanting to listen to me at first, you certainly improved a lot. Thanks, sudowoodo," Fay said, returning his pokémon. Niko and Morty approached him.
"Niko, Fay, as proof that you've both beaten me, I would like to award you with the Fog Badge. Congrats, boys, you've both earned it. And I'm glad you seemed to learn something from this battle. That's really the point of the gym challenge, I think—to learn more about how to train your individual pokémon and strengthen that bond. You've both shown me that while you've got more to learn, you're both well on your way to competing in the Silver Conference. Best of luck."
"Thanks, Morty, it's been a pleasure," Fay said, shaking the gym leader's hand. "Now, let's go get some food, eh JJ, Brittany?" His two other friends nodded eagerly.
"Yeah, watching you two battle makes me pretty hungry!" JJ said, satisfied with the idea that they were going to grab lunch, seeing as they only had a small snack prior to heading to the gym. His friends laughed slightly as they exited the gym. Niko and Fay were halfway done with the Johto gym challenge. However, the next four would collectively be significantly more challenging than the first four, as they would soon find out.