Ange's made a bold play, walking into a bar in Pyrite Town and challenging the head of the thugs there to a pokemon battle! But it seems she's handling herself well! The odd nature of her Slaking has ensured an early lead in the match, but will it be enough to guarantee her victory? Or will Gansley come up with another dirty trick?

Jjjdunk1: Glad you could make it. And I, for one, have no idea. I don't think Slaking are supposed to know that move.

KedharS: Yup, she's not one to mess with, that's for sure.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Ange looks like she blows up trains? That's… odd. I don't remember including that in her description.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Let's see.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 875

The audience to Ange's duel with Gansly was stunned into silence. This pokemon trainer, some random girl who didn't even look old enough to drink, had thoroughly schooled two of the strongest pokemon of the head of Pyrite Town's underworld. Gansly's Gengar was frozen solid and his Machamp had taken a beating, and all of it at the hand of a pokemon who hadn't suffered so much as a scratch.

Ange's Slaking was like nothing they had ever seen before. It was faster than a Slaking, using spectral moves that none had ever seen a Slaking use before. And if that wasn't enough to unnerve them, when Gansly's Machamp had landed what should have been a direct hit with his dynamicpunch, the attack had passed right through the Slaking like it wasn't even there.

"What… what's going on here?" One of the spectators asked, taking a few shaky steps back. Not too long ago he had fought the others in the crowd for the privilege of watching Gansley battle from the front row, but now he wanted to be as far away from this as possible. This girl… there was something off about her and her pokemon, an aura of malevolence radiating through the plaza that had everyone frozen with terror.

But the fear that the audience felt couldn't be compared to what Gansley experienced, standing face to face with this girl named Ange.

What… What IS this?! Gansley asked himself, and was unable to come up with an answer. I… I thought she was just… some kid… but this feeling…

Pyrite Town was a tough place to live. Those who made it their home were forced to struggle and fight for every last scrap they could get hold of, and Gansley was no different. Since he was a boy that was bigger than most boys his age, he had been able to secure a decent (or indecent) living for himself, stealing from those weaker and poorer than him as he climbed the ranks of power in the slums of the Orre Region.

Now, there was none in Pyrite Town who didn't know- and tremble- at his name. But before all that, back when he was just a boy hungry for scraps, barely scraping by one day to the next and not sure where his next meal had come, he had been familiar with fear. And he overcame it. Pushing past fear and becoming strong was essential to survive in Pyrite Town. And it was because he had grown up so afraid, he knew how to use fear to his advantage, inflicting pain and hardship on those who opposed him, so he would never have to be on the receiving end of such actions ever again.

But that fear he'd felt as a boy was back tonight- and it was nothing like he'd remembered it. He felt like he'd been such a fool, thinking he knew what fear was.

This… this was real fear. Primal fear. A fear that came with the assuredness that what stood before you would see you dead if you made a wrong move.

It was a kind of fear that the people of the Orre Region, which was so sparsely populated with wild pokemon, would seldom truly encounter. He street gangs and thugs and killers of the slums could be reasoned with, appeased, but this…

It was like the only thing that would appease the malevolent aura in front of him was his death.

Gansley was a coward. Deep down he could acknowledge that on some level. It was why he picked on the weak. Why he hadn't hooked up his collar to discharge electricity when he challenged the other girl. Power and fear were weapons he wielded against others, but he dreaded the thought of them being used against him in turn.

Gansley was a coward. But he'd never had a problem with that. Because everyone he knew was a coward, too. Pyrite Town was a place filled with cowards, and everyone was trying to get ahead not by putting themselves at risk, but by kicking down on the people that they could. Gansley was King Coward, and he held himself with pride, always believing that even if he was a coward, he was still a braver coward than the scum around him because he'd had the courage to seize the top.

And tonight, he could be proud of the fact that he was correct. Because where a lesser coward might have lowered their head and given into their fear, and begged and pleaded, scraped and bowed, said whatever they could say to appease Ange's ire, Gansley didn't back down. He had a spark of courage that hadn't been snuffed out from a lifetime of cowardice, due to pride in his position of top boss of Pyrite Town.

Weakness was a sin.

If he backed down here, if he showed weakness in front of this girl, then all that he'd struggled so long for would be lost. So even if Ange's intensity terrified him, he wouldn't back down. He'd keep fighting with everything he had and seize victory by any means necessary.

"Ma… Machamp!" He shouted over the roaring of the Slaking's shadows. "Use your bullet punch to counter attack!"

"Machamp!" His Machamp grunted, wincing from the freezing tendrils. He pulled back all four arms and began unleashing a rapid barrage of blows at the Slaking.

"Belle, retreat into the shadows and use shadow sneak," Ange ordered. Belle growled and sunk into the ground, shooting across the plaza at the approaching Machamp and slashing at him with claws of ghostly energy.

But that wouldn't be enough to break the bulky pokemon, and no matter how fast she moved, his No Guard made it impossible to dodge.

"Zzzrrrr-!" Belle coughed as Machamp finally scored a direct hit, pummeling her with powerful punches that pushed her backward.

"Ghggh!" Belle wasn't the only one hurt by that move. A current of electricity surged through Ange and she winced, but didn't back down. This pain was nothing!

Instead… she laughed.

"I'm amazed that a coward like you can find the strength to fight back," she smirked, playing off the pain she was in as Belle recovered from Machamp's assault. "But I suppose it makes sense. When pushed far enough into a corner, anything can get the strength to put up a struggle, whether it's a pokemon or even a human being."

"Don't underestimate me!" Gansley snarled, spit wetting his beard. "I won't give in to a little girl, no matter how strange her pokemon are!"

"That's the confidence of a man who's been on top all his life," Ange sneered. "Someone who thinks they know what hardship is because they had it a little worse off than other people."

"What are you talking about?" Gansley growled. Was she mocking what he'd been through? She had no idea how hard he'd fought, how much he'd gone through to claw his way to the top of Pyrite Town's underworld.

"I know all about guys like you," Ange coldly replied, the twitching from the electricity wearing off. "You're like a Poliwhirl that's king of his tiny little well. You look at the privileged people with better lives and opportunity than you had, and sneer at them because they 'didn't have it tough like you' isn't that right? Because it makes you feel better about the position you found yourself stuck in. But at the same time, you delight in kicking those lower down than you as well, thinking that they 'deserve' it because they weren't… what? As tough as you? As smart as you? As lucky as you? …Well, the reason doesn't really matter. The point is that you believe that you're better than the weak because they're weak, and better than the privileged because you had to struggle to get to where you are."

She sighed.

"But you don't know what real struggle is. Real struggle isn't about 'who's on top' or who can call themselves 'king of the rubbish bin'. Someone who struggles with real hardship knows… it doesn't matter that you live a nice, cushy life now. It doesn't make the pain and sacrifice 'worth it' in the end, and it doesn't make you stronger. It just means you were a little luckier than the other guy. You were able to get away, while he got eaten. It's as simple as that."

Gansley didn't understand what she was talking about. But he was petrified by the look in her eye. He'd seen it before, countless times, on the people in the slums who'd given up. It was a hollow, dead look of someone who had nothing left to fight for. People that could hardly be called 'people' at that point, and were more like walking corpses.

But this was the first time he'd ever been frightened by eyes like that.

"Tell me, Gansley," Eve mused, mindlessly playing with a lock of her hair. "Did you have parents growing up?"

Gansley glared at her and finally found his tongue. "No, I didn't! So what?!"

"Neither did I. Not my birth parents, anyway," Ange replied. "I still remember them, though. They were archaeologists. …Oh, wait, you probably don't know what that is. 'Archaeologist' is a fancy word for 'person that's smarter than you are'. I would go to ruins all the time when I was a little girl, and then… well. Then I was an orphan."

Ange sighed and closed her eyes. It was a hard thing to think about.

"I was only 5 years old. I'd lost… everything." Ange placed her hand over her chest and stared at Gansley. "When you first met me, calling me 'little lady', I could see your contempt in your eyes. You looked down on me like I was some privileged little rich girl, not someone who's had to struggle like you, isn't that right? So, hearing that, what do you think now?"

Ganslet spat. "I don't fucking care about any of your 'hardship', bitch. Are you going to battle or not?" It was mainly posturing for the others. Right now, she could be reciting Shakespeare for all he cared, as long as it prolonged her pokemon tearing his apart. She'd been right on the money. Even knowing that this little lady had taken down nearly his whole gang in one night, he'd still underestimated her. No wonder Brandon had sold him out. Gansley would have sold out his grandmother if it got this girl away from him.

Ange sighed. "I figured as much. I guess empathy and understanding is beyond the limit of trash like you. But if it makes you feel better, you weren't too far off. Not long after that, I was taken in by a friend of my family. Another archaeologist named Aurore. He gave me 'privilege' that you never got. I always had a warm meal, a soft bed, and more love than I ever deserved."

She smiled. She barely remembered her father, but the professor… he was everything to her. "Those 'privileged' people, they have struggles and hardships too. What my father went through, trying to prove his theories, even when the whole scientific community laughed at him… I couldn't take it. I knew then, that I would have to prove him correct. I would do whatever it took to show that the Oracles were real."

And in a way, she'd done just that. It wasn't long after that, that Ange's life of privilege and comfort had been violently torn from her.

Perhaps, if she'd never gone through what she'd gone through, then she wouldn't be the woman she was today.

"You don't know real struggle or hardship. No one who behaves like you is capable of understanding the pain of others," Ange seethed, her anger nearly getting the best of her. "But that's okay. Because I'm here now, Gansley, and I'll be sure to show you just what real hardship is like."

Her lips curled up in a wicked smile.

"And I'll start with this! You fought hard to score a hit on my pokemon, and now, take a look at your reward!"

Her Slaking rose up on her hind legs and threw out her arms, letting out a roar that shook the entire plaza. And as she did, a red mist slowly began to emanate from her body. The bulking mass of the Slaking gave way to reveal a pokemon no less imposing, but far leaner and meaner.

Whatever it was, it wasn't a Slaking. Her body was sleek and covered in grayish-white fur, that was broken up by long red gashes that stretched across every inch of her. Countless wounds that seemed to burn with pain. The pokemon was a fox, and the long white main that surrounded its throat danced in the freezing winds, stained in the crimson red of her own blood.

"ZOROARK!" The white pokemon howled.

She looked like an incarnation of death.

"What… What is that?!" Gansley cried, turning pale in the presence of such a ghastly pokemon. It wasn't like any pokemon he'd encountered. "I've never even seen a pokemon like that!"

"Of course not," Ange said, her voice as cold and bitter as the chilly air. "That's because my Luci is a pokemon from a species that was driven to extinction by humans like you. She's a Zoroark. But not like any you'd find in Unova. She's from the region of Hisui, a harsh and cruel world that makes Pyrite Town look like a joke."

"Hi-Hisui?" Gansley stuttered.

"A world where pokemon didn't live in fear of humans. Where humans and their 'progress' didn't destroy the habitats of others just because they could. An ancient world, a better world! A world where weak trash like you would would never survive! That was the hell I thrived in, a world untouched by the likes of you!" Ange couldn't keep her contempt under control any longer.

From the moment she'd learned of it, Ange had envied the power of harmonia. Being able to communicate with a pokemon and understand their feelings, it was something that she'd always coveted.

But with Luci, it was different. She'd been by Ange's side from the beginning. Even without any special powers, Ange's bond with her Zoroark was something unshakable. She didn't need harmonia to touch Luci's heart.

All the contempt for humanity that Luci felt, Ange felt it right there with her. It was overwhelming, the pain that stained her precious pokemon. Sati might have represented Ange's anger, but Luci was her pride- pride in a time that had passed her by, seen the extinction of all she held dear, and the urge to destroy that came with that trampled pride.

"That's right… we were fighting, weren't we, Gansley?" Ange asked, turning to her beloved Luci. "You may have broken through my dear Luci's illusion… but this match hasn't ended yet, has it? No, it's just getting started… allow us to show what real terror is like!"

"ZOROARK!" Luci roared, a blazing red aura leaping up around her.

Gansley froze. The air was the coldest he remembered it ever being in Pyrite Town, and that pokemon, Zoroark…

The massive pokemon's eyes were golden, but in the dim street lights they seemed to glow red. This ferocious pokemon was filled with wild might, and she charged at his Machamp with blinding speed, leaving a red blur in her wake.

"M-Machamp! Use-" Gansley didn't have time to give the order. With a savage roar the Zoroark raised her claws, striking with a powerful cutting shadow that knocked the muscled pokemon into the air. He came crashing down beside Gansley's frozen Gengar, badly injured.

Gansley's heart was pounding in his chest, and everything around him seemed to be moving in slow motion. He needed to think. He had to think fast, think of something, and then he got a sudden stroke of genius.

The reason that his Machamp's dynamicpunch had missed could only have been because the target was a Ghost type pokemon. It was the only explanation. No Guard would have made the move hit under any other circumstances.

But the Zoroark wasn't the only Ghost type pokemon on the battlefield. His Gengar was a ghost as well, even if he was frozen solid.

But if it had worked with Zoroark, then it would work here, as well!

"Machamp, use brick break on Gengar!" Gansley ordered.

Ange raised her eyebrow. Not a bad move, she had to admit.

"Machamp!" Machamp bellowed, raising his hand high in the air and bringing it down in a powerful chop on the frozen pokemon's head. His brick break smashed straight through the ice and kept moving, hitting the Gengar as well, but passing right through the spectral pokemon!

"Gengar!" Gengar cackled, free of the ice at last.

"Now, Gengar, use shadow ball on that Zoroark!" Gansley ordered.

"Gengar!" Gengar nodded, putting his newfound freedom to good use. Shrugging off the cold he leapt forward, holding up his hands and forming an orb of ghostly energy between them. He fired the shadow ball at the charging Zoroark.

Ange smirked. The shadow ball went sailing right through Luci as easily as the dynamicpunch had, to Gansley's shock.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Ange scoffed. "Luci isn't just a Ghost type pokemon, Gansley, she's a Ghost type AND a Normal type! That means neither Ghost or Fighting type moves will work on her, and neither will your pokemon!"

"Zoroark!" Luci cackled arrogantly, shadows dancing around her once more.

"Now go, Luci, give them a taste of all the pain and suffering we've had to endure… all the hardship and loss we've had forced upon us…" Ange couldn't even see straight, her eyes were filled with furious tears. "Bitter malice!"

"Zoroark!" Luci howled, slashing forward. Tendrils of shadow rippled out across her body, cutting fresh gashes into her fur. But she was unconcerned with the pain of her ghostly power, and released a chilling blast of energy that struck Gengar directly, sending him flying into the Machamp as well. Both pokemon hit the ground in a heap.

"N-No!" Gansley gasped.

"Yes," Ange smirked. "But don't think it's over just yet. Luci… isn't the only one of my pokemon filled with unbridled rage, isn't that right, Sati?"

She turned to her Tauros, who was already charging with her head lowered.

"You may not have noticed, but Sati's been biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity," Ange smiled wildly. "And now she's found it. It's time, Sati, let them feel the full taste of your outrage attack next!"

"TAUROS!" Sati bellowed, the air around her crackling with fire and lightning as she barreled through the plaza. That was the limit for most of the audience, who fled back like the Tauros was coming after THEM.

Sati's muscles were surging and her body coursed with draconic energy as she slammed into the stunned Gengar and Machamp at full speed, unleashing a devastating attack on the heels of Luci's bitter strike.

"Gengar!"

"Machamp!"

The two pokemon cried out in pain and were knocked backward by the tempest, collapsing in front of their trainer.

It was clear to the few onlookers that remained that neither were in any state to battle.

"N-No…" Gansley gasped in shock. Those were two of his best pokemon!

"Call them back," Ange's cold snarl cut through the night. "You still have four pokemon left, don't you? Our battle is far from over."

Gansley had lived until now fleeing from his fear of death, trying to ensure a state of life where he'd never have to confront it directly.

But now… now he was feeling fear for real.

Damn. Ange isn't holding anything back, huh? A Hisuian Zoroark, that's a pokemon filled with a lot of malice, and isn't about to go down easy! Does Gansley have any chance at all?