Ehehehehe...sorry this chapter took so long! But here it is at last. Maia's Pen, thanks for the reviews! Glad you liked the Slicer, and Rose as well (who appears in this chapter). Thank to all readers! And now, without futher ado...
Chap. 14—Spirit Showdown
A shrill whistle sounded. "All units, move out!"
Rose pushed her hair back behind here ears and glanced up; she had been so absorbed by the face-off between Captain Marius and the strange girl that she hadn't noticed the ghosts moving. Rose frowned, tucking her dark hair behind her ears. A large number of ghosts seemed to have fled...
Wait!
Suddenly, Rose realized what was going on. As her unit commander had seen, the ghosts had used a false retreat to disguise their true intention—surrounding Team Blade, flanking them and making it easier to defeat them. Team Blade had to respond quickly, and Rose's unit was following the retreating ghosts into the town to fight them their. Both sides would be separated into several smaller factions, but at least they would avoid being surrounded.
Rose hustled down the dusty, narrow streets, trying not to look at the empty buildings to either side. Those broken windows looked too much like dead, staring eyes for her taste. This whole town made her skin crawl, and the sooner they left, the better. Rose hurried to get in position as her unit commander had asked, readying her handgun, although she doubted it would be much use against ghosts; the special weapons Team Blade had brought had been broken by the Pokemon Lord.
Rose turned a corner and skidded to a stop. In front of her were a pair of ghost Pokemon—a Ghastly and a Haunter. They looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see them; apparently the ghosts had also been hurrying to get in position. Rose and the ghosts were in the same circumstance, although on opposite sides.
The ghosts quickly got over their surprise and turned to face Rose, grinning. Here was a chance to prove to their elders that they were tough enough to join the main battle, not just stay back and keep out of the way! They advanced toward Rose, ready to attack.
Rose bit her lip, thinking fast. Her gun was useless; she had no choice but to send out her Pokemon and hope for the best.
"Go—Scratch and Fang! Let's show these ghosts what we're made of!"
Scratch and Fang bounded forward enthusiastically, ready to defend their human friend and trainer. Fang howled in anticipation as Scratch sharpened his claws, purring.
Rose knew she was fighting at a disadvantage; Scratch might have trouble damaging the ghosts, and Fang had little physical defense. But Rose refused to give up; she and her Pokemon were all fierce fighters, and incredibly stubborn. They would never back down, no matter what the consequences. For them, it was a matter of pride.
The Haunter grinned and moved left as the Ghastly moved right, hoping to flank Rose's Pokemon. Thinking quickly, Rose issued her battle commands.
"Scratch, fall back and wait for the Ghastly to approach! Fang, get in there and use Bite on the Haunter!"
Scratch paced backwards, eyeing the Ghastly carefully. At the same time, Fang leaped toward the Haunter, slamming his jaws down on the insubstantial ghost. Although bite seemed like a simple physical attack, it was dark-type, and thus imbued with the dark energy of dark-type Pokemon. Fang's teeth slashed open the Haunter, wiping the grin off its face.
"Haunt, haunter haunt!" the Haunter yelled to the Ghastly. The other ghost Pokemon obeyed promptly, attacking with Shadow Ball. To the ghosts' apparent surprise, however, the ghostly move passed right through Scratch; these ghosts were young and had never been out of their homeland, so they didn't realize that Scratch was a normal-type Meowth.
"Meowth!" Scratch cried ferociously, using his own Bite attack to strike back at the Ghastly. The Ghastly quickly dodged aside, however, rendering the attack useless.
"Ghast. ghast!" the Ghastly vanished for a moment, then reappeared behind Scratch and struck home—a Faint Attack! Scratch howled in pain, falling back.
Rose wiped a drop of sweat off of her forehead. Double battles were tricky, and Rose knew that if she didn't finish this quickly, other ghosts might hear the commotion and join the fight. She had to try some kind of double attack.
"Fang, charge forward! Scratch, kneel down! Now Fang, spring off of Scratch and use Ember!"
The risky maneuver worked. Fang used Ember just as he was jumping, and slammed into the two ghosts as a snarling fireball. Ghastly and Haunter, seeing that they were outmatched, quickly fled.
Rose dropped to her knees with a sigh of relief; if the battle had gone on much longer, there was no telling what might have happened. Her two Pokemon immediately rushed over to make sure she was not injured. Grinning, Rose hugged them gently.
"We showed them a thing or two, huh? You two were great, but you'd better rest in your Pokeballs now—you both got hurt."
Rose returned her Pokemon and jogged off down the street. She was late to join her unit, and she didn't want to disappoint the commander. As she passed rotting buildings and dusty alleyways, Rose wondered idly what had become of the girl who had attacked Captain Marius. Then she smirked.
There was no question at all. Captain Marius never lost.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Willow clenched her fists, trying to stop her hands from shaking. She was facing a powerful trainer with a Pokemon whose abilities were totally unknown. But there was no choice; if she could buy just a little time for the ghosts, they might be able to gather enough reinforcements to defeat Team Blade. Willow swallowed hard; for a moment she didn't trust herself to speak.
"Pika pi!" Rafael looked back at Willow reassuringly. He had confidence in her, and she should have confidence in herself as well.
"That's right," Willow whispered to herself. "I'm not alone in this—my Pokemon are here fighting with me. We can do this...we can do this!"
"Well, well, well...what do we have here?" Captain Marius strolled forward casually, smirking. "A little girl with a scrawny rat for a Pokemon is going to fight a Team Blade officer with one of our spliced Pokemon. Little girl, you don't know what you're getting into. Tell you what—if you want to run, I'll give you a head start."
Willow glared at the Captain with all the strength she could muster. "We'll see who's joking after our battle!"
Captain Marius raised an eyebrow. "Our battle? What makes you think I'm going to battle you? I could just shoot you and be done with it."
Willow couldn't keep a fearful look off of her face; she had never been in such a terrible, life-or-death situation before. The Captain laughed.
"Awww...don't tell me you're scared? All right, we'll battle. After all, just killing you wouldn't be any fun. Attack, Nightshade! Use Night Claw!"
Willow, startled by the sudden attack, didn't react fast enough; her Pokemon was still standing at her side. She screamed in pain as the cat Pokemon's sharp claws raked across the arm she threw out to defend herself. Blood trickled down her wrist.
"PikaCHUUUU!" Rafael, enraged by this attack on his defenseless trainer, struck back with a powerful Thunderbolt. The other Pokemon, however, easily leapt out of the way, glancing at Rafael without a trace of concern in its intelligent eyes.
"Unh...don't worry, Rafael—I'm okay. Now use your Agility!"
Rafael began moving much faster, dodging around the cat Pokemon with ease. Now that Willow was back on her feet, they could work together to win the battle.
"Nightshade, use Slash!"
To Willow's shock, the cat Pokemon suddenly spun around and struck Rafael with its claws!
"How did it know where Rafael was?" Willow cried in distress.
Captain Marius shrugged with elaborate unconcern. "Oh...did I forget to mention? Nightshade doesn't need to see you to attack. With just that little rat, there's no way you can win. Maybe you'd care to switch Pokemon? This fight won't be any fun if you're this pathetic."
Willow was shaking not from fear now, but from anger. "Rafael is a great Pokemon. He's plenty strong enough to beat that thing—in fact, he's a ghost expert!"
"Chu..." Rafael was very grateful for this loyal defense of his fighting abilities; his first trainer had had about the same opinion of him as Captain Marius. He was determined to win and prove Willow right. He was strong, and he would teach Captain Marius not to take him lightly.
Willow smiled, seeing Rafael so determined to win. "That's right, Rafael—you can beat this guy! Remember, you know more than any of us about ghosts. How can we stop this Pokemon?"
Rafael thought. "Pika...pikachu. Chu, Pikachu."
He says he's not sure, but he can tell you some stuff about ghosts, Katsu said, popping his head out of Willow's backpack to translate. Ghosts are good at dodging attacks—they have an energy field around their bodies, and when it gets disturbed they know something is there. And they can go bodiless if they have to, so it's very hard to hit them.
"Oh...that doesn't sound good," Willow muttered, biting her lip.
"Pika! Pikachu, chu!"
Wait—Rafael says he should be able to dodge most of the ghost's attacks if he concentrates, because he's trained with ghosts and he knows how to read their body language.
"Pi, Pika. Chu pikachu."
Rafael says if you can think of a way to stop the ghost from using its energy field, he could make an attack and win—it shouldn't take more than one attack if it's powerful enough.
"Disable the energy field...disable the energy field...but how can we...?"
Willow paused. Suddenly, she smiled. Her doubts and fears cleared away in the light of sudden inspiration.
Willow knew how to defeat Captain Marius!