Iris POV
When Senior Blue had first told us that Ghastlys are controlling the elite four, I was skeptical. There was no way four of Johtos most powerful trainers would succumb to the ghost type, especially when one of them specializes in psychic types. Then I remembered that he said three of the elite four members were under the influence. Meaning Will of the elite four was here on his own accord, but that still didn't answer the question of who is controlling the Ghastlys.
"Well what a treat indeed, challengers who wish to take me on" Will sang.
"Don't even start with the whole 'you're not gonna win thing" Crystal snapped. "I have beaten you before and will gladly do it again." Will promptly shut up after that.
"Who's controlling the Ghastlys?" Black asked. "And how do we get to them?"
"I will tell what," Will smiled, "I have already battled her and do not wish to do so again" he motioned at Crystal. "But I will battle one of you three, if you win, I will reveal the location of the Ghastlys controlling Bruno, Koga and Karen, as well as the person pulling the strings"
"Okay" I agreed. Will clapped happily.
"Excellent! Which one of you three shall I have the honor of battling?" N stepped up almost immediately.
"I thought your against battling" Black pondered.
"Yes, but this is to improve the lives of Pokemon so, I'll do it" He replied. N reached for a Pokeball. "You three go on ahead, keep the remaining elite four members occupied until I finish, I'll catch up quickly" Will threw out his Xatu.
"It won't be as quick as you might think!"
N's POV
This reminded me so much of when I took down Unova's Elite Four in the name of Team Plasma. The only difference is that I am now on the right side. And that this guy is really weird. When I saw Xatu, I knew that Zoroark could handle this relatively easily.
"Night slash!" I asked Zoroark.
"Aerial Ace!" Will ordered. My Zoroark ran to dodge the flying type move. We had gotten lucky, until the move hit Zoroark's leg and sent him tumbling. However he got up as if it was nothing and attacked the Xatu. "U-turn!" Xatu charged at Zoroark and tackled him, before going back to Will. In Xatu's place, he sent out an Exeggutor.
"Flamethrower!" I called before Will could say anything. Zoroark launched waves of fire at the tree Pokemon, severely burning it. As our Pokemon were battling, Will questioned me.
"Why are you here? What's in this for you?" He asked.
"Pokemon do not deserve to be locked up like prisoners, they deserve to roam free and be with their trainers" I divulged. "You're not hypnotized to be here, so why are you?" Will looked down at Xatu's pokeball.
"I'm only here because of Karen, we grew up together and we never left eachother sides so why start now?"
"She's one of the elite four?" Will nodded. Zoroark knocked the Exeggutor out with another flamethrower. In retaliation, Will sent out his Slowbro. I switched out Zoroark for Klinkang. He isn't here because he wants to, he's here because he doesn't want to lose his friend.
"Curse!" Will yelled, ending our previous conversation. The Slowbro lost half its HP and cursed my Klinkang with a pain that keeps going until she faints.
"Fight the curse! Use Thunderbolt!" I demanded. Before Klinkang could launch the super effective attack, the curse took its toll. Klinkang roared in pain from the agony, but still managed not to faint.
"You have fought well against me challenger, but I'm afraid your Pokemon is out of juice" Will smiled. "The curse is going to finish it off before your thunderbolt can hit my Slowbro" While Will had been gloating about his victory, I had already orchestrated the attack on Slowbro. Electricity rained down and electrocuted the water psychic type. Will let out a small sigh as he returned his Pokemon. "This is it, I haven't been down to my Last Pokemon in a while"
"I thought you had more than three" I pondered. Crystal had told us a bit about the Elite Four of Johto before we had entered. They all have (normally) 5-6 Pokemon to fight Challengers.
"I had five before Clair came," he lamented. "I tried to free Karen and leave but my insubordination costed me two members of my team." He sent out the Xatu that had attacked earlier. "Psychic!" He demanded. Along with the curse, Xatu had finished Klinkang with just one attack. I returned Klinkang apologizing for its injuries. I sent out my Vanilluxe to finish off Xatu.
"Vanilluxe, frost breath!" I demanded. Vanilluxe squealed as she covered Xatu in frost. Xatu broke free of the ice rather quickly and flew up, about to use Aerial Ace once again. "Then why not help us? Why make me go through the battle rather than just telling me how to get rid of the Ghastlys and free the remaining Elite Four members?"
"I have known the intentions of the four of you the moment you walked in. However, I had to commence the battle because of that" he pointed to a portrait of what I'm assuming is Giovanni, same brown eyes and black hair as Crystal described. "In the portrait is a camera, each room has one but they do not detect sound. If we had just been talking, they would burst in and seize the both of us. That's why I have challenged you" Xatu flew down at Vanilluxe who took on the full heat of the attack. Vanilluxe used flash cannon and in the flash of light, finished Xatu with another Ice breath. Will retuned his final Pokemon, defeated. "Excellent work!" He praised. "Now as for the ghastly problem, each room has a broken light. There is ghastly hiding in each one the person controlling them, there isn't really anyone in particular, Giovanni just ordered them to take control of the Elite Four" I returned Vanilluxe.
"Thank you, Will." I walked towards the doors that lead to the next room.
"Just please dont hurt her" he said.
"She will be okay, trust me" Before entering the next room, I healed up my team using full restores and revives I had kept with me for occasions like this. Koga was the second member of the Elite Four and he uses poison types. What Im failing to comprehend is that Koga was at one point part of Team Rocket, so why would they control him? Koga's Ariados had tied Crystal's Arcanine in webbing. I fumbled for Archeops Pokeball, since its my only flying Pokemon. I scanned the celing for a broken light. It was the one farthest to the right. Koga and Crystal were in the midst of an intense battle, neither had noticed my presence yet. Archeops flew up towards the broken light and it, scratching it with Dragon Claw. The ghastly screeched and attacked Archeops. Ariados turned and also attacked my Pokemon. Archeops would have been overwhelmed if not for Crystal's interference. Arcanine chomped on the antennae of Ariados.
Ghastly roared in pain as Archeops continuously attacked it with crunch. Crystal and Arcanine finally managed to knock out Koga's Pokemon just as Archeops finished off the Ghastly. Koga groaned and collapsed as the effects of the Ghastly wore off. Crystal walked over to Koga. He was still out of it.
"They're in the lights?" She asked me.
"Yep. Also, that portrait of Giovanni needs to be destroyed"
"Why?"
"Hidden Camera" Was all I told her. "Black and Iris went ahead?"
"Yeah, in the next two rooms are Bruno and Karen, fighting and dark type specialists" I nodded before leaving. Just as I exited the room with Archeops, Koga stirred.
"This guy is HUGE!" Black yelled as he and his Pokemon dodged hits from Hitmonlee. Bruno sat, crisscrossed yelling orders to the fighting type Pokemon.
"Hit the light Archeops!" I yelled. Archeops flew and once again finished off the Ghastly. Hitmonlee and Bruno both collapsed.
"Next time, I am not playing rock paper, scissors" he mumbled. "Thanks N, that guy was about ready to kill me"
"Your welcome" I smiled at him.
"Let's go, I do not want to be here when he gets up" Black hurried to the door. Before we left, Archeops smashed the picture of Giovanni.
"Oh, you both beat Bruno" Crystal walked in, Koga was behind her.
"Why is this guy so tough?" Black said, exasperated. "He nearly killed me!"
"You're just being over dramatic" I told him.
"Actually he probably isn't" Koga spoke up, "wouldn't be the first time something like this happened." Black flashed the ever so famous 'I told you so' face. Koga walked over to the unconscious form of Bruno, "you three continue on, I'll explain things to Bruno"
"Okay!" Black went back towards the doors without hesitation. Crystal and I followed him out. We walked into the final elites room when I had remembered my promise to Will. Iris had her Aggron out battling Karen's Umbreon. "Where's the Ghastly?"
"In the broken light" I pointed at the ceiling. He sent out his Emboar.
"Think Assurance will hit from here?" He hypothesized.
"It's worth a shot" Crystal replied. Archeops charged towards the ceiling light as Black ordered his Pokemon to use Assurance. Crystal had sent out Hitmonlee and ran to help Iris.
"Two against one? That's not very fair of you" Karen sneered. The scowl on her face soon turned to a look of pain as Ghastly took a bad hit, effecting her.
"Quick do that again!" Iris yelled at us.
"I'll do you one better" Black replied as the familiar hand of Assurance smacked the Ghastly to the ground, knocking it out. Crystal caught Karen before she hit the ground. Will had entered the room shortly after that.
"She's okay?" He asked me.
"Yes, it didn't take long for the other Elites to snap out of it, so she will be up soon" I answered.
"You have done something I've been wanting to do for the last five years, thank you guys" he smiled at the four of us.
"Glad we could help" Crystal smiled back at him. He turned to Karen, who was now slowly waking up. "Guys, heal up your teams. Our biggest challenge waits past these doors." She handed us full restores and revives.
"Ready to go kick some ass?" Black asked.
"We should plan this right," Crystal responded. "Last time we didn't, and I left there with one less person with me"
"Only thing I have planned is that I'm not telling White if you die" he joked towards me. "But in all seriousness, a plan would be nice" Crystal and Iris exchanged glances, they must have thought about this way beforehand.
"Okay you two, here's the plan..."