Draconix observed his opponent, a Trainer called Jak. The blonde Trainer sent out an Ekans, and Draconix pondered his choices. After a moment, Charmeleon jumped in the field. "Alright, keep the distance and go for Ember." He said. The main danger of a Poison-type was unsurprisingly his venom. Draconix knew full well that he had the upper hand in this fight so long as he kept Charmeleon from being burned.
The Fire-type obeyed, moving around the Pokémon and launching barrage after barrage of Embers. Ekans, in response, leapt forward, slithering on the arena floor and quickly dodging the Embers. Charmeleon grunted seeing it come in close, and Draconix realized their first plan was already done: jumping back would have meant ending up outside the arena and losing. "Go on the offensive then! Breaking Claw!"
Charmeleon roared and hit with the claws the snake. In response, the Ekans coiled around his arm, blocking the attack, and bit. The Toxic begun to flush into Charmeleon, to the point Draconix could have sworn he was turning green for the malaise of the poison. In response, however, the Fire-type launched and Ember barrage at the snake, even if it hit his arm too in the process. Ekans hissed furiously, and in response Charmeleon grinned. Draconix nodded "Can you keep that up?" He asked. He knew that, even if his scales were fire resistant, Charmeleon couldn't be completely comfortable to throw Ember at his own arm. However, Charmeleon simply nodded, taking a breath and unleashing a second barrage. Ekans, however, was not stupid. At the last second, she uncoiled himself and darted forward. The Embers only scraped her, while her follow up Bite forced the Charmeleon one more step back.
The Snake Pokémon grinned seeing the Pokémon only one step from the arena border, and at Jak's order let go. Landing on the ground, it quickly leapt forward with Tackle. At the same time, however, Charmeleon unleashed his Breaking Claws on the arena floor. Planting his arms in the ground, he managed to resist the push. The impact made both of them clench their teeth, but the first to recover was Charmeleon, that quickly swiped upwards with a follow up Breaking Claw, sending Ekans flying back.
"Alright, we regained the distance, keep it up."
"It's over." Jak replied "Sorry, but I win." He said.
"What? But he didn't get sent out of the Arena!" Draconix protested, looking back at his Pokémon to make sure that even Charmeleon tail was, if narrowly, in the ring. But when the Charmeleon took a step, he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Toxic." His opponent explained as the referee announced his victory "You completely forgot you were running against time as well, so you lost."
Frant shook his head, looking at Draconix distraught expression. 'The Trainer's job is to adapt to the situation, not just to passively order a brainless charge. You clearly trust your Pokémon on the offensive, Draconix, but you only think about that. The moment I went for Toxic, you should have changed your strategy to throw Ekans outside.' He thought. He moved forward to shake his hand, then went back to his position, while the younger Trainer left. The finale was going to see 'Jak Dexon' facing Raziel Spartos, exactly as planned.
He looked at Raziel and Draconix, the former patting the latter on the back, both chuckling at some joke, and then grabbing each other hand. 'Sounds like they have made some agreement.' He thought, as the Ghost Trainer walked in position 'Very well, let's see this.'
Gastly came out of the Ball, positioning himself on the opposing side.
With a smile, Frant sent out Houndour. The Poison and Fire-type gritted his teeth and glared at Gastly, a low rumble uncharacteristic of his kind building up. The Rocket Lieutenant shook his head. Houndour was a Gyarados in the wrong body in his opinion. The Pokémon was rare in Kanto, and even his type was called into question, since he didn't seem to share every weakness and resistance of other Poison types, but for him it was sufficient to know it worked remarkably well to fight Ghosts. He notice a lot of spectators seemed to be particularly interested, and he could see why. Kyoku had raised a number of those, though she never felt comfortable with them, so to him it wasn't quite so special, but for most people Houndour was about as rare of a sight as a Farfetch'd.
When the referee gave the go, Houndour howled and darted forward. Gastly tried to fade, but Frant did not care. At his order, Houndour released a cloud of Smog from his mouth, the poisonous gas slowly drifting toward the target.
Of course, Gastly propelled himself forward and attacked with Lick. Houndour reacted snapping at him with a Bite, but with a twirl the Ghost's tongue connected with Houndour's skin.
Gastly evaded carefully the Fire-type's fangs, gasping inwardly as he dodged the attack. With a quick movement he started preparing a Confuse Ray, but before the attack was ready the enemy jumped to Bite him, forcing him to stop and dodge to execute a Night Shade. In response, instead of dodging the shadow, the Houndour jumped through it to release another wall of Smog.
'Seriously, why Smog?' He wondered, yelping as a Bite connected, the teeth cutting through his body like sharp razors. Then the Pokémon released Smog again, happily taking a Night Shade on the flank in the process.
Gastly coughed. As a partially Poison-type, he did not suffer any serious risks from breathing gas, but this was starting to turn into a thick fog rather than the usual attack. The Houndour emitted it again, this time not even aiming at him, and simply carefully dodging the follow up Lick. "Wait, he is a Fire-type, then…" The Ghost gasped in realization and turned around, realizing just how much smog was covering the field. A lot of gas… all very flammable.
"I commend your instinct, Ghost. But is too late." The Houndour growled, his mouth opening to release the Embers.
And then the Arena exploded.
Raziel stared with his mouth wide open at the torrent of fire that invaded the field as the Smog caught fire all at once. He had realized only at the last second what the enemy was planning. When the fire cleared, the first Pokémon he noticed was Houndour, standing proudly in the middle of the field. 'That explosion did nothing to him?' He wondered for a second, before noticing Gastly over weakly above the ground. Somehow, the explosion had not thrown him out of the field, though only barely.
The Ghost-type slowly descended to face the Houndour, and Raziel noticed once more how weird it was that Houndour had not a single damage. In fact, he was almost bursting with energy, flames erupting from his mouth from time to time. "Can you do it Gastly?" He asked, turning his attention back to his starter. The Ghost nodded, though Raziel could see his fatigue. He was on his last leg, metaphorically at least. "Go for Night Shade. I don't know how much that hurts him, but Lick is not working. Don't try with Confuse Ray, it takes you too long to charge. And if you can, try to go for a ring out."
Gastly nodded, then moved forward. The two Pokémon carefully studied each other, slowly circling, the flames in Houndour's mouth matching the ones in Gastly's body. 'He got burned, but is trying to act strong.' Raziel realized feeling guilty. Maybe he should have just recalled him. 'No, Gastly said he can continue, I will trust his judgment.'
Then it happened all at once. Both Pokémon launched themselves on the offensive. The Night Shade hit first, then came the Ember. Gastly shouted and narrowly dodged it, rotating before unleashing another Night Shade. This time though Houndour dodged, the shadow hitting harmlessly the ground. 'He dodged.' Raziel realized. So far the Houndour had never avoided a hit, rather focusing on preparing the ground for their grand strategy or attacking.
"We can do this Gastly, keep going!"
After being a Rocket Lieutenant for years, there were only a few things that could surprise Frant. The kid that had found out about their base first had been one such thing. And now, this Gastly. By all means, it should have already been down. Not burned to ashes – he had made sure to not use too much Smog – but certainly defeated. Instead, he had to watch it attack with Night Shade once more, Houndour narrowly dodging.
'Houndour had to take a lot of hits to set up the Smog bomb. He mostly makes up for it with Flash Fire, using his guts to keep himself going, but if he gets it again once or twice we are done.' The Lieutenant thought with a careful calculation. He had to admit, Gastly had managed to throw a wrench in his plan. Yet, there was no reason to panic. With a shout, he gave the order, and Houndour jumped forward. His Bite crashed in the surprised Ghost's body, and the gaseous Pokémon began to fall.
And then it launched another Night Shade. To Frant's surprise, he was wrong once more. The Gastly held up, and the one that fell, defeated, was Houndour.
The spectators exploded in applause, as the referee declared Raziel the victor over him. In all this, however, Frant could only stare at the Ghost. Why hadn't it fallen. Twice he had expected it to crash to the ground, and twice it had held up.
He recalled Houndour and walked forward. Almost mechanically he extended his hand to Raziel, observing the Trainer closely. He would have called him just an unremarkable Trainer with no fashion sense if he had to give a quick judgement. His battle style was a repetitive use of the same two moves, with only a hint of something more from time to time. And yet, he had lost against him and his Gastly.
He walked off, leaving the arena. He had no interest in the award ceremony. He had seen and tested all he needed, now it was time to start planning. He took out the phone.
"Crimson Arbok, it's me." He said.
Kyoku responded immediately "Orange Raichu? What is it?"
"Get the other two ready to follow Draconix. Brief them on the information I am sending you and tell them I will kill them if they fail this one."
"So you are taking the one called Raziel?"
"Yes. I have to see where this goes." He replied.
Giuls applauded as Norman entered the arena, now repaired thanks to the hard work of a few Machoke. After Raziel's victory, the tournaments had moved up. The second tier, for people with four to six badges, had only a few participants. Her, Leaf, Draconix and Raziel had watched the matches together, although the latter two had spent most of the time discussing their respective fight. She heard Raziel comment something about 'changing the bet next time', but she couldn't figure out what he meant.
Then the tournament for seven or more badge Trainers came up, the one she was actually waiting for. As she expected, Norman was there.
"That's him right?" Leaf asked.
"Yeah, a future Gym Leader apparently." She replied.
"I can see that. Though it's weird he revealed to you he is one. I think they are supposed to be a secret until an official announcement is made."
"He said that he won't tell me where it is that he will be one, only that I can guess the type."
And when the tournament begun, she immediately could. Although, while she called it tournament, it was more like a one sided victory. Norman's choice in the first two rounds was an Ursaring. The Pokémon from Johto was ferocious, and both the Pidgeot and the Rapidash that challenged him where quickly finished. The Ursaring hit like a truck, and the two Pokémon capitulated without much of a challenge.
The final match from Norman saw an even more unusual sight than Ursaring: a large primate Pokémon, with a belly that could make a Snorlax jealous and short white hair around his bald face. The Slaking faced the opposing Clefable with almost disinterest, and Giuls could clearly see why. After a few moments of taking blows like they didn't matter, it hit with an attack she did not recognize, a wild rain of punches and kicks, and Clefable was immediately sent flying off.
"Not even a chance…" She found herself saying out loud.
Next to her, Leaf could only agree "Yeah, that was a slaughter, that's… that's a really strong trainer, almost to the point of being scary. I guess that's what a serious Gym Leader candidate looks like." She turned to look at her with a smile "Well, this motivates us to get stronger, doesn't it?"
Giuls nodded, looking at Norman. She felt only admiration for him. She wanted to be that strong after all.
Giovanni carefully considered the news. "So you believe the operation is worth continuing."
The red haired woman nodded "Yes, Boss. We believe we have figured what is hindering us in our operation. We are taking steps to solve the issue."
Giovanni nodded, thoughtful "Why is it taking so long to clear the area?"
"Well, the merchandise has moved into hiding. And there is also the dangerous one we discussed. I believe my proposal works though."
Giovanni sighed "A single enemy seems hardly worth the effort this will take, but you are lucky Ariana, I need to test the factory's security anyway. And there is always some morbid curiosity in obtaining something money can't buy. Leave a written request to Matori, she will take care of it."
Ariana nodded again "There is also another mission planned, but I'd need more details for…"
"Not necessary. I will personally brief the men you assign to the task." He could see Ariana's gaze studying him. Of all his followers, she was one of the few that didn't seem to just blindly idolize him. However, after a moment she simply nodded a third time. Giovanni and her discussed a few more minor missions, then she left the room and he sighed.
'For now, I need to not do any dangerous move. No need to rush something. But once I have M2…' And with that happy thought he returned to work.