{{{{{{{{{{
Hey guys. So, yeah. I'm lame. I apologize times 100000000000 (you get the point) for not updating. If you haven't noticed, my editor and I have been redoing the format of the chapters because this site no longer seems to like dashes and stars. In between points of view is now: o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o. A change in time is now / / / / / / / / / / / / / /. And Author notes are now between {{{{{{{{{{{ }}}}}}}}}}}}}. If anyone sees something different and/or there is a point in this story you thought was confusing because there was probably supposed to be something indicating a point of view/time change, but nothing showed up, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it.
I also apologize because due to this fixing up, several of my comments to you reviewers were deleted.
So the whole writing a chapter a week was obviously a miserable fail. I'm back to once a month and plan to stay that way until this story is finished, unless for some reason I randomly get ahead. And note, I WILL FINISH THIS STORY- no matter how long it takes.
Anyway, I'd like to thank anyone who's still reading this. You guys keep me writing. Now for reviewer replies (for chapter 28 and 29 because I didn't actually post the previous chapter):
ChaosAngel4us- Ah, Jamie. Weird guy. He certainly does have big plans. And I'm glad you like Me, and you'll have to see about Apple...
Bronze Barometer- You have an awesome conspiracy cap.
sigrum- Just sorry.
Sands Buisle- Thanks! Several readers seem to believe similar conspiracies.
sloganlogan- Yup, that is probably the main reason I won't stop writing this story- it'd be such a waste because everything is planned out. Sorry about the late update.
TiDaktaKutdIMaLam- Apple refers to her predecessor Mew as Father, not Celebi. The sentence referring to Mewtwo was Apple's vision from her Father Mew's point of view (happened several chapters ago)
Q- Happy belated birthday! Sorry!
And finally, a double huge thank you to ChaosAngel4us. Seriously. Next chapter should come around the beginning of December. It's called Power Exchange. Thank you to all my readers, reviewers, and to my awesome editor!
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Chapter 30: Invisible Forces
I was clueless.
Me. The Master. The fucking brilliant fourteen-year-old gym leader protégé. I had been contemplating the same nonsense for four years, following even the smallest leads—my father's notes, files, books, keyboard strokes—anything that might show me what he knew about destroying a legendary—and here I was back at square one.
The best option remaining was to recheck the evidence. Look for what could have been overlooked.
Press the rewind button.
Watch carefully.
"Father, I think it's going to hatch soon!" a cloaked boy yelped, bouncing in a cushioned black chair behind a plain wooden desk. The boy's black cloak blended in with the dark chair, making the boy and the chair appear as one disfigured entity. In the center of the desk lay an egg cupped in a heated stand. The boy had one hand supporting his weight on the desk, and the other held lightly against the egg. "I felt a kick!"
The boy's father paced across the room and checked his watch. "We have to go now. The Master is meeting Gibson in her office in five minutes. Come." The father approached the door.
The boy fell back into the chair, letting the shift in weight roll the chair backwards slightly.
"Come," the father repeated.
"Father, I think someone should stay. I read it's important for hatched Pokemon to see another living creature—"
"This is important, too. You need to witness—"
"But I already know what's going to happen!"
"Come, now. Regardless of whether you know the end result, it is vital for you to see every step of the process. I am going to be the gym leader and the Master. If something were to happen to me… These demonstrations—how easily people can be manipulated—it needs to be ingrained into your very core. You need to be... safe."
The boy hesitated only a second before following his father out the door. The two swiftly walked down the hall.
"You're wearing my favorite shirt," the boy said.
The father smiled. "Because you twined it yourself?"
"Because it keeps you safe."
The father knocked on a wooden door.
"Enter, Mendol," a voice called. "You have three and a half minutes."
The man and boy entered the dimly lit room. The Master sat a desk in the shadows, her Kirlia in its usual protective stance in the room's corner. "Please forgive my forwardness, Ma'am, but I have reason to suspect you might be in danger."
"What kind—"
"The kind that requires self-defense," the man continued. "Look, this will only take a minute to show you. It's just a basic move that will allow you enough time to get help—I… I heard Gibson threaten—I'd just feel much safer when you meet with him—I know you've been fighting—"
"Show me."
"I need someone to demonstrate with. My son is too small."
The Master rose from behind the desk. "You may demonstrate on me. Quickly. I have a schedule to keep."
The boy took a few steps back, closer to the Kirlia. The boy's fingers hung so they barely touched the Kirlia's dress.
Facing the Master's cloaked figure, the father placed his hands on the figure's waist.
The door burst open.
For a moment Gibson stood, a still silhouette in the doorway. For a moment, nobody moved.
The boy never knew whether Gibson charged at his father or the Master. Whatever the case, the boy's father quickly stepped in front of Gibson, caught him around the wrist, and used the tall man's forward motion to send Gibson sprawling over the father's shoulder. The boy scuttled away from Kirlia to his father's side.
On the ground, Gibson moaned, "Arkle… and Mendol… Diane, how could you? You whore—how many others?"
The Master slowly raised her hand to her head and pulled her cloak off. A small woman with four-inch heels and wrinkles at the corners of her eyes stood above Gibson. "There. I'm exposed. More naked than I've been every time I've crept under your covers late at night. Now do you understand my complete trust? Now, can I earn yours?" There were tears in the Master's eyes, fogging her glasses. The Master turned to the father. She handed him the cloak. "Mendol, I declare you the next Master. The paperwork is in the team's safe. The key is in my desk and the password is G-I-B-S-O-N. Don't try to contact me."
The Master swiveled toward the door and rushed out.
The father grinned and bent down so his head was level with Gibson's. "You're fired," he whispered.
Later, the boy and his father returned to the father's office laughing. The boy tugged on the doorknob, eager to return to the egg.
As the duo entered the office, they spotted the egg. Cracked. Bits of egg splattered the walls, the blinds, the father's framed scripture—
A cracked egg lay atop the desk, the pieces bloody, mingled with flesh and broken bones.
Of an unborn, dead Eevee.
Their laughter died quicker than an Eevee's head can snap.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
"It's disrespectful to point, Mel," Erin snapped, putting her delicious looking tuna sandwich down on her plate. I wanted a tuna sandwich. Mrs. Kendle gave me peanut butter and jelly. When I asked her for tuna she smiled at me and told me that I had a tuna sandwich on my plate.
I'm not stupid. I think she is. My sandwich wasn't tuna.
Scary told me that Mrs. Kendle thought I wouldn't like tuna so she was trying to trick me. I think that made her even stupider.
Oh, well Mrs. Kendle left for work anyway.
"I'm pointing at the ceiling, not at anyone. You can't disrespect the ceiling," I said, continuing to point at the nearest light bulb.
"That's right. You can't disrespect the ceiling."
I scrunched my eyebrows at Erin. "I don't get it. You agree with me?"
Erin rolled her eyes and mumbled, "Oh, never mind."
My game was more important than Erin's disrespect. She didn't know what she was talking about.
They probably didn't get why I was pointing because they were boring and couldn't see Scary. It was ironic that they never figured all the times Scary was out of his Pokeball, but invisible.
{Whatever.} Ironic and fun! Scary and I played all sorts of games. Sometimes we made Erin's hair stick up after she used her foamy hair cream; sometimes we untied everyone's shoelaces within a hundred meters, sometimes Scary snuck up behind strangers to give them the chills…
But now we were playing a game Scary called "a nice game." It was a game that was helpful to people—the opposite of our normal games. Nice games were usually boring and I'd only play them if Scary gave me candy, but this nice game was different. It was awesome!
What happens is I point to a light bulb and that's where Scary floats. That light bulb becomes the base. Scary has to protect the base and all the other light bulbs from dangerous psychic waves from the Evil Anita Empire that was upstairs. He uses his own psychic to predict the Evil Empire's attack and then from the base he sends out an invisible dark pulse at just the right moment to protect every light bulb.
The challenge was I changed which light bulb I was pointing to whenever I felt like it so Scary had to keep moving and it was hard for him to keep a constant lookout over all the light bulbs.
I moved my finger to point at a light bulb across the room. Scary moved to where I pointed.
I grinned when there was an explosion to my right. Little glass pieces fell onto Liam's turkey sandwich and the surrounding plate and table.
{Haha, you missed one!} I said, knowing Scary would hear my thoughts. Usually I had to be all ghosty inside a person or a Pokemon to exchange thoughts, but Scary knew how to use psychic—like the Evil Empire—so he could hear inside anyone's head.
Erin slammed the water glass she had been holding onto the table. A little bit splashed out. "That's it. We have to do something. That's the twelfth in a day and a half. She can't keep exploding light bulbs."
My water glass exploded, making my peanut butter and jelly sandwich soggy. I smiled. Now I couldn't eat it. "And drinking glasses," I added. "Erin, can I eat the rest of your sandwich?"
Erin pushed her plate to me. "My Griffy's training excuse isn't going to last much longer with my parents," she said.
I stopped pointing at the ceiling because I needed both hands to eat. I looked at Erin as I took a big bite. She was sending nasty eyes at Liam.
Liam poked at his peas, trying to get as many as possible stuck to each fork finger. When he finally noticed Erin's mean look, he said, "What?"
"You could be stopping her," Erin replied.
Liam snickered. "Sorry. I only hold her hand twenty-three hours a day. I apologize for wanting to eat."
"We have to get her to eat something. We have to get her to do something," Erin said.
"Shove a bagel down her throat."
"Force isn't the way—"
"And letting her have a destructive temper tantrum is?" Liam paused. "She owes me several shrinkers."
Erin sighed. "Shouldn't she get tired or something? Don't her powers run out?"
"Yeah, every time she's fainted and been out for a few hours," Liam answered. "But as you have seen, she wakes up with more energy and then releases it in angry bursts. She's constantly exhausted and angry."
"So what do we do?"
"Find Apple. Or a dark band so she doesn't need constant vigilance."
"The police are looking. Anita's psychically looking when she's not unconscious or sulking."
Scary let out another dark pulse to stop Anita's psychic from reaching the light bulbs and the table. "I think she just needs focus," I said.
"Nobody asked you," Liam muttered.
They were dumb. Well, no, they were good at thinking and all. Liam was smart with battling and types of Pokemon and Erin was creative and had a brain—but they got an idea and only saw that idea. They were too focused.
"Whenever Scary wants to keep me from doing something dangerous, he gives me candy or plays a game with me," I explained. "Like one time when I was six, I wanted to jump through wild rose bushes so Scary said he had hidden a chocolate bar—"
"I don't think candy is the solution to this one…" Erin said.
"Anita just needs something to do," I suggested.
"Like?" Liam asked.
An image of Anita putting a psychic barrier around Sparky popped into my head. "Like battle Sparky again."
Erin frowned. "Mel, I think she really hurt him—"
"No! He was a-okay! When I took him to the Pokemon Center it turned out all he needed was electricity—he's like his Jolteon—and now he's fine and ready—"
"Still, she's really dangerous right now—"
"I cannot believe I am saying this, but I think Mel might be right," Liam interrupted. "Battling Sparky would give her a temporary focus. It would probably drain her powers for a good deal longer than the couple of hours she's been knocked out…"
"I don't think Sparky can handle—"
"He's a gym leader," Liam said.
"He's also an old man."
"He can kick butt!" I added.
Erin hesitated. "Okay, suppose Sparky can handle Anita and he agrees to do this. How the hell are we going to get Anita to battle him? She won't even leave my room."
"I doubt she'll leave for anything but information that might assist in locating Apple," Liam said.
"Then we should give her that," I suggested.
"We can't just make something up. She's already so upset—that'd be cruel," Erin said. "Plus, when she found out we were lying, she'd murder us…"
Liam folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.
I had a solution. "Scary and I give people make-believes all the time. We can give one to Anita. Then she wouldn't get mad at anyone."
Erin scratched her head. "What are you talking—"
"He means visions. He wants to give Anita a fake vision," Liam clarified.
"Oh—wait, he can do that? And I didn't think Anita usually got visions…?"
I nodded.
"The amount and clarity of visions depend on a psychic's amount of power," Liam explained. "Most psychics don't have enough power to ever receive them. In fact, most psychic Pokemon don't have enough power to receive visions. I don't know whether Anita has ever received a vision, but it is certainly possible, especially with regard to Apple because there's a strong bond—"
"Okay we get it," Erin snapped. "So what exactly, is Anita going to see?"
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
The room was dusty and sparkly and I could feel the dirt mingle with the sweat covering my body and turn to mud. In one hand, I held a metallic lightning bolt the size of a thimble. In the other hand I held a bag of dust.
Neither brought me happiness. Neither made me feel anything at all.
Then, suddenly, something changed.
A spark. Not literal. In my gut or heart or brain.
It wasn't hope.
It just was.
I felt her return. She was alive. She was here.
I jolted awake, got tangled in covers, and fell out of Erin's bed onto the orange carpet. I scrambled up to grab one of Erin's ponytail holders from her nightstand and quickly pulled my hair back. I didn't glance at the mirror, not wanting to see the dark circles that were forming under my eyes.
Apple would return.
My whole body ached as I leapt down the stairs. I was not sure if the lack of nutrition or the lack of sleep or the lack of movement caused this, but none of it mattered.
Apple would return.
I practically collided with Erin, who was nervously shifting at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm going to battle Sparky," I said.
"Anita, you need to eat—" Erin started.
"I'm going to battle Sparky now," I said. "Griffy can take me there fastest."
Erin nodded but did not move. Mel walked through the doorway carrying a sandwich on a plastic plate. "I'll let you borrow Griffy if you eat this sandwich," Erin replied.
For a second, I considered using my newly found telekinesis to take Griffy's Pokeball.
I snatched the sandwich from Mel's plate and stuffed half of it in my mouth. Four swallows later, Erin handed me Griffy's Pokeball.
Apple would return.
I would make sure that Apple would return.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
"Aw, we missed the prelim," I complained as Erin and I became solid. Erin sat down on a dusty rock against the wall, no letting go of my hand. I wanted to take my hand back because Erin was a girl and she might have a girly disease and I didn't want anyone to think she was my girlfriend, but I didn't want to make her upset. Plus, I could turn us ghosty if an attack came our way.
"I still don't think this is a good idea. What if Anita's too… you know? This whole thing. It's probably going to blow up in our faces. Literally." Erin hissed.
"Anita'll be tired and knocked out—" I started.
"Shhhh! She'll hear you!"
"Look." I pointed to the arena in front of us. Anita's eyes glowed like shiny turnips in moonlight, and there was a purple bubble around Sparky. In the center of the arena, Splash tackled Sparky's Electrode, who seemed to be held still against its will. "She's not paying attention to us."
Erin grumbled something and tried to kick a pile of dust by my foot. She ended up falling on the ground. I laughed. "With all of Sparky's stupid underground surprise gyms, you'd think at least one would have bleachers," Erin snickered. I pulled Erin back onto the rock and we both sat down.
The battle was turning kind of bad. Lots of ground was exploding, but the psychic bubble around Sparky kept flickering. Another psychic bubble around the Electrode was also flickering. It was like a bubbly purple firefly fest. I had a hard time seeing because Sparky was throwing lightning bolts that made the weird dust in the ground light up.
"Can I let Scary out of his Pokeball now?" I asked.
"No. I've already told you, Sparky said it's against gym leader policy. There can be no possible interference from spectators," Erin snapped. She then groaned as the Electrode hit Splash with a spark.
"I wish Liam were here," I said. "You're usually too busy annoying or arguing with him to be sad."
"Yeah, well, he's concocting something for when this plan fails so much that Arceaus will award us with giant F stickers."
"You're no fun when you're a worry Wartortle," I said.
Erin didn't answer. Splash fell to the ground and fainted from one of Sparky's lightning bolts.
I liked Sparky. He treated me like I was me and not some baby. Plus he could shoot lightning from his hands and could usually sense where I was even when I was invisible through electric pellets… or something. He was better at sensing ghosts than Anita.
When I squinted, Sparky looked like my dad with crazy hair.
"Come on, dad! You're so slow!" A toddler with blond, nearly white, hair tugged at the hand of a short plump man wearing glasses. The two were trudging uphill through a lightly wooded field.
"Mel," the man panted. "I'm not cut out for this sort of exercise. One mile, fine. We've had to have walked three by now!"
The pale boy crinkled his nose. "We'd already be there if you weren't so slow. Scary and I only take—" Mel looked at his watch and pretended to read. "Four hundred minutes."
Mel's father started to chuckle, but it quickly turned into a cough. "Four hundred minutes is a long time," he finally managed to say.
Mel crossed his arms. "I said three hundred."
"That's still a long time.
"I said three hundred hours!"
"That's an even longer—"
"It was just really short, okay!" Mel said angrily. "We're almost there."
"I can't imagine what could possibly worth seeing…" the father murmered.
The trees became more scattered and the wind picked up. The man squinted ahead, but the wind teared his eyes and he was forced to look at the dirt ground.
Suddenly, Mel jumped up and ran around his father. "We're here!" Mel and his father had arrived at a cliff. The sound of the Palute Sea crashing against the rocks entwined with the coos of circling Winguls created a sort of ensemble the boy enjoyed immensely. He listened for a moment, and then— "Dad, watch what I can do!"
Mel jumped off the cliff.
I shook my head. Sometimes I wish I could turn my brain untouchable so it would fall out of my body.
A couple of nights ago Liam, Erin's creepy friend Zach, and I were talking at night about stuff we couldn't live without. Zach said medicine. I thought that made sense.
Liam said memory.
"Ta-da! See, dad, I can float!" Mel exclaimed.
Mel's father continued to look over the cliff. "Mel? Melvin?" he murmured. His right hand twitched.
"Helll-oooo! Dad, I'm right behind you! Stop looking so scared!"
The father's hand slid over a Pokeball. In a flash of red, a Gengar appeared. "Scary," the father said, crouching into a sitting position. "My… Mel fell. Off. Off the cliff. He fell. Please, go get him. Find him."
Scary looked at the father, smiled, and pointed past the father's head. The father turned around. "What?" he asked.
Scary continued to smile.
"Dad, silly, I'm right here!" Mel yelled.
The father snapped his head around. "God-damn it, Scary. MY SON JUST JUMPED OFF A CLIFF AND ALL YOU CAN DO IS PLAY MADE-YOU-LOOK JOKES!"
Scary quickly started shaking his head and frantically pointed at Mel.
"You are USELESS! Go… do something. Get the police. Find my dead son's body. Do…" The father brought his knees close to his body and hung his head over them. "Go."
Scary's eyes flickered from Mel to his father. The Gengar disappeared.
"Dad?" Mel asked tentatively. The boy reached forward to touch his father's shoulder. His hand went through the body. "Dad, why can't you see me? I didn't mean for this… I usually stop floating and turn all visible again. I don't know why… dad?"
The father squeezed his face into his legs and sobbed.
Liam's stupid. I could live without memory.
I couldn't live without Scary.
Fiery's tail lit up and crashed down onto Sparky's Electrode. The Electrode started to glow. A purple psychic shield appeared around Fiery. I grabbed Erin's hand. We turned intangible as the Electrode exploded, sending dirt and rocks everywhere.
When the dirt settled, it looked like Anita's shield hadn't held. Both Fiery and the Electrode were knocked out.
Sparky released a Flaffy. To my surprise, Anita released Sunflower and immediately created another bubble around the Eevee. As the Flaffy started shooting off thunderbolts, Sunflower created what looked like a purple ball of fur, but was really a shadow ball. I smiled, proud of the little Eevee. When Sunflower released the shadow ball, Anita did not have to pull back the shield. The ball went right through the purple shield and hit the Flaffy's stomach.
Scary taught me how to control my ghost powers, just like I taught Sunflower. It took a lot of time though. Way too much time.
"Alright, Alakazam, you're sure you can't sense any life?" a man wearing a navy blue uniform asked, gesturing towards a cliff. The Alakazam nodded.
A Gengar appeared behind the Alakazam and threw a shadow ball at the Pokemon. "Hey!" the uniformed man shouted. "Knock that out! I only tolerated your presence earlier because Alakazam claimed you wanted to learn how to use the attack psychic. I will not have you assaulting my Pokemon—" The man paused and stared at the Alakazam. "So this Gengar claims that the boy, Melvin, can change back and forth between ghost and human, but for right now, he appears to be stuck in ghost form. Can you sense this ghost boy? Kind of? Some sort of presence? Right, I know psychic types have issues with ghosts. Honestly, I think the Gengar has probably been traumatized by the loss of his trainer's son—" The man was forced to duck another shadow ball thrown by the Gengar. "Gengar… or Scary, as my Alakazam calls you. I believe you. I believe that you can see and communicate with the boy's ghost. But that's all it is. A ghost. No, the body was never found, but the body is more than likely crushed into indistinguishable pieces by the ocean and washed ashore elsewhere. Scary, it's up to you to help the boy move on."
"Anderson?" someone called.
The uniformed man looked past his Alakazam. "Look, Bert is coming now. I have to give him the unfortunate news…" Scary threw yet another shadow ball at the uniformed man. The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, Scary, but I cannot tell Bert about your ghost boy. It will just bring about completely false hope and a lot more pain. I can't do that to the poor man. It's been over six months. He needs to move on."
A gauntly man with graying hair and glasses approached Anderson. "So?" the man asked.
"I'm sorry, Bert," Anderson replied. "Alakazam did not sense the body. The ocean has probably destroyed it by now."
"GENGAR! Gang!" The Gengar made evil faces at Anderson.
Bert frowned. "Scary, how'd you get out of your Pokeball? I'm sorry, Anderson, he's been like this ever since… Anyway, thank you for trying…"
Anderson patted Bert on the back. "I'm sorry for your loss."
A ghost boy floated over the scene, crying waterless tears that would be neither seen nor heard.
Nor felt.
Flaffy fainted. The bombardment of shadow balls prevented the Pokemon from ever getting close enough to Sunflower to use Brick Break, which would have made Anita's barrier go poof. The barrier stopped both Sparky's and Flaffy's electricity from reaching Sunflower. It seemed like a super strategy to me.
Sparkles, my favorite of Sparky's Pokemon, was released into the arena. The Jolteon smirked at Sunflower and immediately dodged one of her shadow balls. Anita would need a new strategy. Or maybe she could just blow stuff up like she did with the lightbulbs.
I looked from Sparky to Anita. I couldn't decide who I wanted to win. Anita was nice. Sort of. And Sparky was, well awesome and cool and funny. Anita winning would mean I'd have to leave Sparky. Okay, so part of me really wanted Sparky to win. Most of me. It was like there was this little Combee inside my head though, buzzing with a pollen-sized bit of hope that Anita would win. I think it was because of the dream I gave her. I felt bad… and even though I know it was made up, I wanted it to come true.
To lose someone that close. It made the world fade from reality. I knew what that was like.
"You are released. Free," a silhouette said standing with one foot in the mansion and one foot on the porch. Sunlight beamed into the mansion around the man's figure.
Scary shook his head and made to follow the man.
The man sighed. "You are not coming with me. I… I have to try… try to move on and get better. With all your strange gesturing and anger and visions your give me—Scary, you remind me of M-Mel and the cliff—I can't—I'm sorry."
Scary turned invisible.
"I know you're still there. I'm serious. I'll fight you if I have to," the man said. He reached into his pocket and pulled a Pokeball. Scary reappeared. The man pulled out another Pokeball and placed it next to the door. "That is—was your Pokeball. I… I didn't know what to do with it so it's yours."
Scary turned to the invisible boy floating next to him and gestured for the boy to follow his father out the door.
The man at the door shook his head. "There you go again. Goodbye." The door closed. Scary pushed the boy forward.
The boy hesitated. "Scary… I can't… you're the only one who sees me."
Scary pointed to the door.
The boy shook his head. "No. I'm staying. Dad doesn't… he doesn't want me around."
Scary shook his head and grabbed the ghost boy's hand in an attempt to pull him through the door.
"No!" The boy struggled. "I won't go! I love Daddy, but he's gone and he's been gone! I… I haven't hugged him in a lot of time, and… and now I don't need to. But you… without you I'm—
"I'm just a ghost."
Anita was struggling. She couldn't seem to hold both a barrier around Sparky and Sunflower, especially with Sparky fighting against the barrier with his, well, sparkage. The floor lit up from the weird dust when Sparkles used thunderbolt.
The barrier around Sparky disappeared like a popped balloon. Our plan must have been working—Anita was finally losing all that pent up energy. Sparky took the opportunity to heal what little damage Sparkles had taken by sending more lightning bolts at the Jolteon.
"Hey, where'd Sunflower go?" Erin asked.
"Huh?"
"Sunflower. She just disappeared." Oh great, not again. Anita would collapse into an energy sucking ball of unhappy yuckiness if another one of her Pokemon disappeared. Anita didn't look upset, though—well, not any more upset than she had been before.
I looked back at the battlefield. The ground and walls continued to light up as Sparky and Sparkles released seemingly random electric sparks. It was very strange. There were no holes in the ground that I could see so I didn't think Sunflower was using dig.
Suddenly, Sparkles started yelping in pain. Sparky sent more electricity at the Jolteon, but it did not seem to have an effect. In fact, Sparkles started yowling louder and running in circles.
Sparky was being annoying. He was supposed to be crazy super master of all trickery, but he seemed as clueless as me. I bet Anita was doing mind tricks on Sparkles or something.
Anita pulled an Obi-wan and easily deflected one of Sparky's attacks away from her face with a flick of her hand. With lightning flashing, Sparkles' continuous howling, and Sparky shouting commands, the room was very loud and bright.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the brightness and loudness suddenly ceased.
When the quickly dimming dust settled, I was able to see Sparkles sprawled across the dirt ground, thoroughly knocked out. To the left of the Jolteon, there was a giant ball of…
Wait. The ball moved and then disappeared. Dust wafted downward, as if it were falling from a broken snow globe.
"Eeveachooo!"
Beneath the falling dust, Sunflower sneezed. She shook out her body in an attempt to keep the dust from settling into her fur. How did…? "I don't get it," I said. "What happened?"
"I think…" Erin started. "I'm pretty sure Anita created a barrier around Sunflower and somehow managed to get this brightpowder—" Erin scooped up a handful of dust from the ground. "—stuck in or to the barrier. Then when all that electricity was being shot around—"
"The ball lit up like a… ball of light and blended in with the rest of the brightness," I finished.
"Right. And when Sparky's Jolteon was getting hurt by Sunflower, Sparky could not see what was causing the pain and tried to feed Sparkles electricity in order to heal the Jolteon. Only that didn't work because his sparks lit up the area around Sparkles causing Sunflower's bright barrier to blend right in."
"Okay, great. She won," I said as Sparky approached Anita. Sparky handed her a badge, and then bent down to the ground. As Erin had done, he scooped up a handful of dust. He put the dust in a small bag that looked like the lollipop part of an upside-down lollipop. Sparky then placed the bag in Anita's other hand. "So now what?"
"Well, I was kind of hoping she'd be out cold," Erin replied.
Anita had not yet reacted to the situation. She had not congratulated Sunflower, nor acknowledged the badge in her palm. Her head began to tilt away from Sparky, towards a staircase that I was pretty sure led to a back door.
Slowly, Anita mouthed the words, "She's here."