Chapter 4: A Battle of Gastly Proportion

Summary: Maka and Black Star face the gym leader in Mortality City, as well as a crazy good trainer that also ends up to be genuinely crazy.

"Okay," Maka told Black Star as they got their pokemon back from Nurse Medusa, "The gym is in the middle of town, impossible to miss. Mr. Barrett is the leader. He raises mostly ghost type pokemon. Since I have a dark type, I should be fine, but you need an attack plan."

Black Star scoffed and released his eevee. "Tsubaki and I are great enough to defeat some silly gym leader without a stupid attack plan. Right?" he asked his pokemon.

"Eevee!" it replied with the same amount of confidence its trainer had, which was a lot.

Maka rolled her eyes. "Once you miss out on a gym badge don't complain to me."

Black Star scoffed. "How hard can a gym battle possibly be?"

After some walking, they got to the gym, and the young trainer got his answer. Another trainer ran out of the gym, cradling his two fainted pokemon, a Magby and a Elekid. The trainer had darker skin, glasses and black hair. He hardly noticed Maka and Black Star as he passed. "I can't believe I lost," he cried to himself.

Maka watched him leave and worry swelled up inside her. "Kilik couldn't beat the gym leader? But he was one of the top kids at school!"

"School, schmool," Black Star said, "I never went to a stupid Pokemon school and I'm the best trainer around. It doesn't mean anything if someone's the top of a class, they'll still be beat out by me."

A copy of 'The Official Pokemon Handbook: Deluxe version' hit Black Star square on the head, making him fall down. "Pokemon school isn't stupid, you idiot!" Maka hissed. "I'll prove to you that those five years I spent studying was worth it and rub my badge in your badgeless face!" She ran into the gym, avoided all the trainer looking for a battle in the lobby and went straight to the chair for the gym leader. She knew battling the weaker trainer would be good for experience points and trainer tokens, but she just wanted to prove a point as fast as possible.

On the chair sat a large man, his skin completely blue. His black hair was somewhat long, and his eyes were white voids. Two rows of teeth were very prominent and trapezoid shaped. He stared at her in utter silence and stillness.

Maka stared back in surprise. She didn't know what to expect from a gym leader, but it wasn't that. She shook away her feelings and pointed to him. "Gym leader Barret, I challenge you to a pokebattle."

He stood up, making himself even bigger. "Well, I was never the man to decline a battle. You know the rules right, kid?"

Maka nodded. "I can use as many pokemon as you have, which is two. If I faint both of your pokemon before you faint mine, I get a gym badge. If the other way around, I give up half my trainer tokens, rounded up if there's an odd amount. A one on one ba-"

"I already know the rules," the gym leader interrupted. "Let's get this started."

Maka nodded. "Right."

The two of them brought out their pokeballs. "Go Blair!" "Go Gastly!" They yelled. Out came each pokemon.

"Skitty!" "Ga-astly!"

Since it's speed was higher, Blaire attacked first. "Blair, shadow ball!"

The cat nodded. A purple ball appeared around its mouth and was hurled at the ghost, weakening it fast.

"Gastly, curse." The ghost pokemon drove a screw into its own head, fainting it.

Maka blinked a couple times. 'That was too easy. This can't be right…' Blair was laughing at the gastly's 'stupid' move, but then it shook as a sudden pain coming over it.

"Go Sripedd!" Sid yelled. He threw a pokeball, and out came a pokemon. It was dull blue in color with blotches of green. In shape, it had a rectangular prism for a base, with a pole coming out and stretching until it reached a giant circular, pure white eye. The pole finished coming out the top the eye, which thickened and came back together in bulb-likeke shape. Another pole came out of the sides, perpendicularly, and cutting off cleanly. "Sripedd," it said.

Maka gasped. "I've never seen that pokemon before! What is it?"

"Sripedd," Kid's pokedex recited as he held it in front of the said pokemon. "A ghost type. Sripedd is said to be the tombstone of a regretful pokemon, given a second chance at life. The pokemon's intelligence, however, doesn't travel with its spirit."

Kid looked at Professor Stein, who took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke. "Seems good," he said. "Did you put how it's HP and both defence stats are above average?"

Kid nodded. "It's later in the entry. You know, this pokemon is pretty powerful. Who ever faces against one better have a good plan, or level."

"No, Blaire!" Maka exclaimed. She returned her nearly fainted pokemon. In three moves, the curse had finished off the cat. "It's okay," she said, "you did great Blair. We really weakened-" Maka never finished her sentence since Sid used a potion, reversing most of the damage she just delt. To make matters worse, Sid called out for the Sripedd to harden for the fourth time, which it did.

"Go Soul," Maka said, all her confidence lost. In a red light, the pokemon came out?

"Sol?" Soul questioned his trainer's attitude.

"What's wrong little girl?" Sid asked. "You scared of losing? Of dying? I was too. Now, I'm free of fear. I can have you join me."

Maka's eyes went wide. "What? I'm not ready to die yet!" She looked at her pokemon, then back at her challenger. A determined face fell on top of hers. "And I'm not ready to give up yet either. Soul, let's try that move."

Soul looked at her in surprise, but then looked back at his target. Maka and Soul took a breath in together and let it out. "Let's go, super-resonance!" they shouted in unison. Soul glowed a bright white. Sid and the sripedd started in awe. "Sol."

"Pokehunter!" Maka yelled. Sol took a step forward, but the sheer power radiating off of the disaster pokemon didn't sustain, and it shot out prematurely, flying to the ceiling. The force from the attack hit the roof.

Sid exclaimed in surprise. "What was that!?" As he asked, the ceiling where the attack hit fell right on top of the gym leader's pokemon.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry sir," Maka said. Sid threw the roof off of his pokemon rather easily and showed that it was completely knocked out. He returned it to its pokeball.

"You… that can seriously hurt a pokemon, little girl! Do you know what you just did?"

"I- I didn't mean to. I was just-" Maka started. "I'm sorry."

Sid sighed. "My Sripedd should be fine in a while, and it was an accident, so I won't give you any trouble, that's the type of man I was. But don't expect a gym badge from me." The zombie went up to a gym worker, whispered something, and left.

Maka and Soul stood in shock. "Sol sol?" Soul asked in confusion.

"'But don't expect a gym badge from me'? Does that mean ever!"

She continued to freak out about what she just did until her blue haired friend ran in.

"YAHOO! I'M READY TO FIGH…" Black Star yelled, but he noticed something. "Hey, Maka, where's the old guy I'm supposed to beat?"

Maka looked at him, showing her face covered in a mix of confusion, sadness, and fear. "I- I scared him away. I might never get a gym badge, and he'll be gone for a long time while his pokemon gets healed. What am I supposed to do?"

"What!?" Black Star yelled. "He's going to be gone a long time? I can't wait that long! There has to be something we can do!"

The young trainer looked at her absol. "Maybe Lord Death will know what to do…"

"Oh, you dropped the ceiling on Sid's sripedd?" Lord Death questioned. His voice suddenly turned cheary. "Don't worry Maka it'll be fine." The two young trainer were video chatting him from the mirror in the pokecenter.

As Maka let out a sigh of relief, Black Star pushed her out of the way. "Yeah, that's fine and good, but we still need a gym badge! Where can we get one now that Maka messed everything up?"

"Hey!" Maka hissed.

The darkness type trainer thought for a second. "Well…" he said, but shook his head. "No, that's a bit much for your first battle."

There was a sudden light in Black Star's eyes. "No its not! I can take on anyone! Where can I get this badge!"

"If you insist, there's a house out side of town. It's the home of Doctor Franken Stein, the former gym leader of the town. He retired a while ago, but he can still hand out authentic gym badges to worthy trainers. But I have to warn you, he-"

"Yahoo!" Black Star interrupted the death god. "Last one to that guy's house is a rotten egg!" With great speed, the assassin ran out.

"Stop that!" Maka yelled after him. She turned to Lord Death. "Thank you sir, I'll get that gym badge this time, I promise."

A giant white thumbs up covered the whole screen. "I believe in you. Tell Kid I said hi!" the god's face disappeared, leaving only Maka's reflection.

"Kid? Who's that?" She asked herself, but she shook off the question. Running out of the pokecenter, she looked for hr friend.

Stein stood over Kid as he typed into his pokedex, deleted what he typed, and re-typing it slightly different. "Are you almost done gathering data on my pokemon?"

"Yep. After this, I'll have one pokemon left."

Clicks were heard from a turning screw. "Interesting…"

Both of them were interrupted by a sudden noise from outside. They crowded around the nearest window in curiosity. Outside was two young trainers, the one with blue spiked hair was yelling something at them while the blonde girl tried to calm him down. Some words like gym leader and battle were hearable through the walls.

"Challengers. I haven't had those in years."

Kid looked at the mad scientist. "Are you going to battle them?"

A giant insane smile spread across the professor's face. "Well they want a battle, now don't they." He plopped down on the nearby rolling chair and push off towards the front doors.

Kid watched for a second, but his thoughts were interrupted by his pokemon. "Murkrow murk," Murkrow Said, pointing to the pokedex with his claw.

"You're right, the sooner we finish, the sooner we can leave." With that, Kid tried his hardest to focus on his work and not the pokebattle outside.

Outside, Maka tried her hardest to get Black Star to stop yelling, and it eventually worked. "Do you think he heard me?" the assassin asked.

Maka sighed. "Even the deaf could hear you."

A crescendoing squeaking sound kept them quiet. As it grew and grew, the ten year olds mentally prepared for what was to come. Neither prepared for an old man in a stitched up trench coat with a screw sticking out of his gray hair to roll in on a chair and immediately fall. The two stared blankly as the man stood up to sit back on the chair and turn the screw, making it click. He stared blankly back for a bit, his glasses hiding his eyes.

"You wanted to have a gym battle, right?" Stein eventually asked.

Life sparked back in the kids. "Well, if you're the gym leader then yeah!" Black Star said

"Me too," Maka said. "Mr. gym leader, I will beat you."

Stein looked them over. "Don't be so sure." The clicking stopped. "Go, Mewthree."

Out of a pokeball came a tiny, dark purple pokemon that floated in the air. It's whole body was smaller than a human head. In fact, it looked to be a floating, bodiless head. It was very smooth and circular except for two little ear-like triangles and a long, thin tail that thickened at the end. The only facial features it had was two eyes completely bright blue and glowing lightly.

Maka took a step back from it. "That's not in any books I've read!" she exclaimed.

Inside, Kid couldn't help but get sidetracked. He placed the pokedex against the window as he stared out of it. "That one's powerful," he mumbled, admiring the pokemon.

Automatically, the black pokedex recognized the pokemon through the glass. "Mewthree," its robotic voice said. "A psychic type. A pokemon created by a mad scientist to be a better version of Team Rocket's mewtwo. It is a clone from the ancient pokemon mew. Height: five inches. Weight: 3 pounds. HP: 109. Attack: 37. Defence: 103. Special attack: 180. Special defence: 103. Speed: 150."

"Murk," Murkrow said as it grabbed its distracted trainer. "Krow!" It pulled him back to the last pokemon he needed to analyze for the pokedex.

"They're going to get hurt out there!" Kid whined.

"Murkrow row!"

He sighed in response to his pokemon. "Fine." The young reaper stated his task again, but the battle outside still was trying to steal his attention, even if it hasn't really started yet.

Stein sat staring at the children as they released their pokemon Soul and Tsubaki simultaneously.

"Hey, you battled first last time, so I'm gonna go first this time." Black Star said.

"But I need to battle him too!"

The scientist raised his slipping glasses. "I can battle you both at once, it won't make a difference. Just look at those levels. A level 12 absol and a level 19 eevee? The eevee's quiet nature isn't doing it much favors with that moves either. Not to mention how low of levels you two are as trainers."

Black Star crossed his arms. "What do you know about levels?"

"He must be a pokemon meister, but only the best pokemon meisters should be able to see a pokemon's moves," Maka said.

Black Star tilted in his head in confusion. "Pokemon… meister?"

"It's common for trainer to the see the HP and level of pokemon if they try. I can do it, sort of. Levels are still a little hazy. If someone can, they're naturally better at being a pokemon trainer and are called pokemon meisters, not to be confused with pokemon masters."

Half way through her speech Black Star got bored. "Yeah, yeah, fancy you. Tsubaki, baton pass flareon."

"Eev" Tsubaki said. It turned into a fire type and changed its appearance. "Eon."

"Now Tsubaki, use smokescreen."

"Flare!" the fire type did as it was told, spreading a cloud of smoke. The kids and Soul started coughing from the smoke.

"You idiot, now we can't see either," Maka whined.

Stein and his pokemon didn't seem all that affected by it. "An eevee that can evolve without a stone? Fascinating. Mewthree, I'd hate to hurt it in battle. Pick it up and fly it above the battle. I can deal with them."

Without a word, the purple head pokemon grabbed the flame pokemon and flew to the roof. "Flareon!" it yelled in fear.

"No Tsubaki! You'll pay for this!" Black Star yelled. He charged straight toward Stein, who dodged it without even getting off the chair.

Maka released Blair, and told it to save Tsubaki. With a begrudging sigh, it started climbing the asymmetrical building. "Now Soul, use faint attack."

"Sol."

As the dark attack hit, Stein placed his hand onto it. A surge of power came from his hand, injuring the atrocity pokemon. "No, Soul!" Maka exclaimed. She aided it, then looked at the professor. "What did you do?"

From inside, Kid saw the move Stein just used. "A human with that strong of an attack? He's practically a pokemon himself!"

He could hear Black Star's booming voice through the walls. "Ha, you think you're so cool with your pokemon moves! Well, watch this! Dynamic punch!" The attack landed.

"He can use pokemon moves too?" Kid exclaimed.

"KROW!" Murkrow yelled and pulled him away from the window.

Outside, Stein seemed completely unaffected by the attack. "What? That should have done something!" Black Star said, taking a step back in astonishment.

Smiling, the scientist looked at the blue headed boy. "Don't you remember? I can see movesets. All of yours are either fighting or normal type, so before you attacked I changed my internal typing to ghost to completely resist any move used by you. Now, It's my turn. He placed his hands on Black Star's head. Purple waves flowed between his opposing fingers, making the assassin cry out in pain.

"FLAREON!" Tsubaki yelped. It baton passed into a vaporeon to slip out of Mew three's tail and land safely in some water it created. Swiftly, it jumped out of the water, turned into an eevee and ran to its trainers side. By that time, Stein stopped, causing Black Star to fall to the ground, fainted.

Kid lifted two luxury balls. "I don't care what you say Murkrow, they're going to get killed if I don't help." Liz and Patty came out of their balls. "There's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise."

An evil smile appeared on the darkness type pokemon's face. "Murkrow row krow." it said confidently.

Both cheering pokemon gasped at the bird's words as Kid's face lost what little color it had already. "W-what do you mean I could have left the toilet paper unfolded? Th-that… that…" The trainer slowly fell to the floor. "That's entirely possible. What if I didn't fold the toilet paper into a triangle? What kind of failure of a grim reaper am I? I'll never be a great gym leader if I get defeated by toilet paper."

Patty laughed as Liz glared at Murkrow. "Plusle plusle plus!"

Murkrow shrugged it off.

Unaware of the patheticness going on inside, Soul was at Black Star's side with Tsubaki. "Sol," It said sadly, but then flames appeared in its eyes. "Sol sol sol sol so sol!" it yelled at Stein, then looked at its trainer. "Sol ol sol," it said determinedly.

It just saw the look on Maka's face. She looked utterly horrified. Falling to her knees, Maka stared at the professor. "Sol?"

"I-I can see it now," she said, sounding almost hypnotised. "And it's impossible."

"I guess you can see my level then," Stein said.

The young girls green eyes shifted to the floor. "You're level 12, he's a level 53. We can't possibly win…"

"Sol? Sol sol sol!"

Small tears appeared in her eyes. "I can't battle, he'll defeat me. Black Star has been battling a lot longer than me and look at him! It's hopeless! I'll never be a pokemon master!"

"Sol sol sol, so sol sol ol! Sol sol!"

Shadows covered Maka's face. "Just shut up Soul! I can't understand you! Now return to you're ball before Stein faints you."

Soul shook its head. "Sol." It turned to Stein, standing widely. "Sol sol."

"Didn't you hear me? He's 41 levels higher than you and can make his typing into anything you're weak against!"

Soul shrugged and smiled at Maka. "Sol."

Something clicked in the young girls mind. She stood up and wiped away the tears. "Your right. I'll never succeed if I don't try, so I'll try my best!" She placed a foot forward and pointed at Stein, who was standing patiently, waiting for Maka to attack. "Let's go, super-resonance!" she yelled and Sol ecoed. The absol glowed once more. "Pokehunter!" Maka yelled. "And this time we won't fail!"

"Sool!" A beam of energy shot out at Stein, which he partially blocked with his hand.

"Impressive," Stein remarked. "Such a strong attack from such low levels. And it's used successfully. But it's still not strong enough!" Stein used the beam to send an attack of his own, hurting both Maka and Soul, causing them to fly backwards and the move to stop.

Silence filled the air, nothing but footsteps were heard as Stein walked over to Maka, who was barely conscious. "For a human, I'm surprised you endured that much. You won't be able to survive this." He held up a hand.

"Wait!" A voice said, making Stein stop. Kid finally made his way outside, his hair staticy from the shock his partners just gave him. "Don't hurt those trainers anymore or you'll have to deal with me!"

Soul, only slightly farther from unconsciousness compared to his trainer, jumped in the way of Stein's hand. "Sol."

The professor looked between Kid, Soul, and Tsubaki. He laughed. "You guys win," he said. They all looked confused. "Well, as long as Mewthree gets fainted." Said pokemon flew down., with a tired out Blair not far behind. The pink cat went into its pokeball, but it left the purple head decently damaged.

"Okay then, Murkrow, faint attack."

It did as it was told, landing a critical hit super effective hit, fainting Mewthree.

"What do you mean 'we win'?" Maka asked.

Stein smiled. "Your pokemon were willing to sacrifice themselves. That's worth a gym badge to me."

Kid's jaw dropped. "What? But they didn't even… Blue hair's knocked out even!"

Black Star shot up off the floor. "Blue hair?! I'm Black Star! Who do you think you are stealing my thunder by fainting that psychic pokemon? I was going to do that!"

Stein ignored Black Star. "Badgeless trainers would never be able to defeat me in a real battle, so this is definitely good enough in my book. Of course, a darkness type trainer might not realize that."

"But that's not, the rules say, a real gym leader," Kid stumbled over his words, but gave up. "You know what, I'm going home." He returned all of his pokemon and flew away.

With Soul's help, Maka slowly sat up. "So what does this mean?"

Stein handed her and Black Star shiny metal pins in the shape of a screw. "It means you two have a gym badge. And trainer tokens." He handed five to each trainer. "Now you two must be tired, why not stay at my house for the night?"

"No way!" Maka and Black Star yelled in unison.

Back at the pokecenter, they got ready for bed. Black Star looked determined. "That black haired kid is going to pay for upstaging me."

Maka thought for a second. "Oh yeah, Lord Death wanted me to say hi to a kid at Stein's today. I wonder if that was him."

What will become of our heroes now that they've got a gym badge? Not to mention that battle Black Star has planned for Kid. Exciting things are the future so don't forget to favorite, follow, and most importantly, review, as the journey continues.