A/N: Hihi! We're back and after Nano back in full swing as well! Also, this prompt was almost too perfect to kill someone, but I managed to restrain myself for the time being. Enjoy!
After Being Blue
Poke-ball 24: Mortal
Sabrina. And Agatha as well.
The ghosts had attracted them. Or perhaps it was Erika. And if she had called upon them – one of the most powerful Gym Leaders in Kanto and a member of the Elite Four – then he and Red were in way over their heads.
And with the way Red's Pikachu was glaring, he wondered if he even had Red on his side in the first place. They were rivals after all. Once upon a time they were friends but now he had to wonder. They'd fought against each other too many times. Lost too much in those battles.
Then Sabrina's Venomoth launched a supersonic towards Agatha.
It did nothing to her, but Erika shrieked. And so did all the invisible ghosts clustering around her. Neither Sabrina nor Agatha seemed to be surprised. In fact, Sabrina was fiddling with something. A Silph scope.
They'd come more prepared than the two of them. And Blue had made that mistake once already, wandering into Lavender Tower without a Silph scope. Red had a scope though. He remembered that.
Red was squinting at Erika. Apparently he hadn't brought it with him.
'Didn't come prepared, Champion?' asked Agatha, lips curling. 'Childish antics won't manage a government, I'm afraid, or the crimes of humans and pokemon alike.'
'You haven't changed,' Sabrina sighed, before Red or Blue could respond. 'Someone who didn't know you better might think you were trying to be helpful?'
'My,' the old woman smiled, 'are you saying I'm not?'
Sabrina didn't reply with words, but another attack – this time counted by a shadow ball from Agatha's Gengar. Blue's mind was racing, though. Agatha was the ghost-type leader of the Elite Four and the oldest surviving member of the Kanto government, despite the numerous challenges who'd targeted her. She was the second highest ranked as well, after the Champion, but for whatever reason she'd never coveted that position like other challengers of the league or other Elite Four members. And his grandfather, Professor Oak, had never liked her.
He'd never really said why, but Blue was more inclined to trust him than Agatha. 'My grandfather doesn't trust you.'
'He doesn't?' Red said in surprise.
'Of course not,' Agatha laughed. 'All you can really trust in the end is yourself. Haven't you learnt that yet, kid? Your predecessors aren't particularly helpful, are they? And your rivals only seek to supplant you. Between Blue and Lance and all the new challengers coming your way, who do you think you can lean on?'
'You changed your tune quickly,' Sabrina remarked, summoning further monsters to her side. Agatha answered with more ghosts on her own – and between her pokemon and the vengeful spirits of the tower, she had an overwhelming force on her side.
Though none of that explained why Sabrina was suddenly fighting her.
And as for Blue… Agatha had changed her tune quickly and what was her purpose? She'd been of no help at all to Red's ascension, unlike Lance and unlike Blue. And yet she tried to smear both their relationships with Red. And he couldn't speak much for Lance but he'd duelled the man. He was strong and straightforward and proud. He worked with the G-man on top of his Elite Four duties because he genuinely wanted to make the world a better place – or perhaps that was just their childhood innocence, their narrow-mindedness, in the mess of this big and complicated world.
But it was also Lance who'd suggested this journey for him, who'd suggested he retrace his steps and see how the world had changed, and how his experience changed the way he saw it. And he saw corruption. He saw lies and deceit that spread deeper than he'd ever thought. He saw a puppet tugging on his strings instead of someone who controlled the nation. Someone who, instead, was controlled from the shadows…
Controlled from the shadows?
Erika had been oddly silent since that scream, still staring with those empty eyes, as though waiting for their exchange to end. She wasn't confused by the supersonic. The ghosts weren't either. But the ghosts weren't immune to status-changing normal type moves. And Sabrina and her psychics seemed pretty keen to keep Gengar and Golbat in particular under control.
Or maybe that was just strategy. After all, psychics were weak to ghosts but strong against poison-types. And yet… Blue couldn't help but think there was something more.
Golbat could use Supersonic as well. And Gengar could use Hypnosis. Was Erika hypnotised, then?
His Gengar was a far cry from Agatha's, but it could use Dream Eater, at least.
It didn't do a thing, though. Erika didn't even look at his ghost, and Agatha was too busy fending off Sabrina and staring at Red.