(I don't own pokemon or any products affiliated with it the franchise. Duh. Dummies.)

Chapter 6

Mystique

This was the biggest moment of my life so far. Well, ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but it seemed really, really important at the time. This was my first gym battle, and I had to succeed. I knew I could just try again, but in order to convince myself that I could actually complete this whole journey, I had to win on the first try. I had to prove it to myself "Alright," I whispered under my breath before walking behind the red curtain that housed my strongest opponent yet, "Let's do this."

I was completely unprepared for what I found on the other side. It was...nothing. An empty room with a cloaked woman sitting at a table in the middle. She was swirling her hands around a glowing orb in the center, but it wasn't as gimmicky as the rest of the gym. "Hello?" I called to her. "I'm guessing you're the Gym Leader. Umm...hello?" She waited before responding.

"Yes. It is I Mystique." The woman said, but I didn't see her move her lips. She was just staring intently at the orb, not blinking.

"Should I sit down?" I asked. I wasn't sure if this was actually a dumb question, because she wasn't giving me many other looked up at me, her eyes gray and cold. The table was lifted up into the curtains above us, but I couldn't spot any strings. Her chair flew back, screeching across the floor. White and purple lights shot out, illuminating the room, showing the stadium between us.

"Are you ready to begin? If you believe you are, I feel I must warn you, I am not like the others in this Gym. I am gifted in the Psychic arts. That's why I allow no one to spectate, they might try to hard to figure out my tricks." She said, taking out a pokeball.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm ready, bring it on." I said, taking out a pokeball of my own. "Go! Omen!" I said, releasing my crow onto the battlefield. "You have got to be kidding me." I mumbled to myself when Mystique sent out yet another Spoink. "Alright Omen! Pursuit!"

"Quick, use Reflect, Spoink!" Mystique said. Omen started dashing at the little piggy, his dark energy blazing around him, seemingly more powerful than ever. Before he could make contact however, the pig's orb started glowing, and a wall of psychic energy appeared in between them. Omen's attack connected, but the Spoink was easily able to shake it off.

"Ok then, how about this, use Haze!" I commanded. Omen's wings started flapping powerfully, conjuring the same mysterious mist as before. The fog was blasted at spoink, not damaging him, but shattering the magic barrier between them. "Now, let's see your Super Luck in action, Omen! Use Pursuit!" I shouted, the Murkrow flying towards the Spoink, my new most hated pokemon. Spoink was hurled back, flying through the air at the wall behind it, but just before it hit, Mystique recalled it.

"I see the way you play. Very well then. Chimecho, go! Reestablish our defenses with another Reflect!" She sent out the Wind Chime Pokemon and it conjured the same magic barrier.

I laughed, "Don't you ever learn? Omen, use-"

"Disable." She whispered. The mist disappeared, and Omen was left flapping his wings for no reason, looking like he was completely lost.

"Grr, I hate that move! At least she didn't disable Pursuit, go Omen!" I said, shaking off the complication. Murkrow dashed into Chimecho, but with not as much force as last time. It was losing hope.

"Great," Mystique said, cackling like a witch, very fitting in retrospect, "Now that Murkrow is in close range, use Charge Beam!" The wind chime blasted a beam of electricity at Omen, hitting his wing and sending him plummeting to the ground. I was able to recall him just in time. He didn't faint, but he was definitely weakened.

"Alright, Mirror, Shadow Sneak!" I said, sending out my Kecleon. He melted into the ground, becoming a dark blotch. In his new shadow form, he dashed over to Chimecho, going above the surface right before impact and smashing into it. It didn't do much damage, but it was a hit. "Good job! now-" I didn't have time to finish my command. Mirror was smashing Chimecho with a barrage of moves, none with my commands.

Mystique Chuckled and said, "You should really try to control your pokemon. Chimecho, Confusion." The Psychic-type sent out waves, much like the Hypnosis move, but these were moving faster. I didn't know how much damage they'd do, because on one hand, Confusion is a pretty weak move, but on the other hand, it got stronger because of Charge Beam. Luckily enough for me, Mirror was able to dodge them by sinking into the dark and using Shadow Sneak again. He just used all of his moves, Shadow Sneak, Astonish, Dizzy Punch, even letting loose the occasional Psybeam. None of these did much. With no STAB on the super-effective moves, and Reflect still up, Mirror couldn't get much damage through. Then I noticed a pattern.

Mirror would Shadow Sneak into a battle, use a few Dizzy Punches and Astonishes, then he'd jump out, onto the other side of the battlefield. He'd run around, dodging moves and sometimes shooting a Psybeam or two, but the whole time he was flicking his tail. I had never seen him flick his tail before and it looked like a metronome. Like he was keeping time or…"He's timing it!" I thought to myself, "Mirror is keeping track of the Reflect!"

"Mirror, good plan! Keep going with it! We got this." I shouted, holding out a thumbs up.

"What? What plan?" Mystique said, aggravated. "You haven't said anything about a plan to this pokemon!"

"Haha, you know, I expected more from a damn psychic! Why don't you try to read my mind?" I said, taunting, trying to keep her from noticing Mirror flick his tail. Then, the magic barrier shattered. The Reflect was down.

"Chimecho, use Ref-" Mystique started saying, but it was already too late. Kecleon had run up right into Chimecho's face and smacked it with an Astonish. While it was trying to shake that off, he landed a Dizzy Punch, making sure it wasn't going to be able to put up another wall. Then, finally he finished it off with a Shadow Sneak. The deed was done.

As Mirror was walking back towards me, I noticed that he was still green, meaning Chimecho had not hit him with a move that entire time. I laughed, but my laugh faded when I saw the look on Mystique's face. She was smiling. Like, a completely insane smile. Then she said, "Go, Espeon!" She sent out her purple-cat thing, then continued by simply saying, "You know what to do." The Espeon nodded and looked straight at Mirror, her eyes glowing blue and the gem on her head glowing red. Mirror looked back at me, as if to ask what that was. I shrugged and gestured to Espeon, signaling that Kecleon could go get her. I think at this point we weren't directly communicating just to mess with Mystique.

Mirror used Shadow Sneak but Espeon leaped high into the air before he could hit her. as she landed, she just purred and licked her paw. Mirror was getting agitated. He rushed over at her, trying to land something, anything at all, but he was exhausted from dashing around so much in the last battle. He wasn't able to land anything, but Espeon didn't attack either. It just patiently waited for him, taunting him. Finally, Mirror got right in front of Espeon, ready to use Astonish, but something happened. He froze, his green skin changing to a deep purple. He collapsed, writhing, but unconscious.

"What the hell was that?!" I asked, recalling Mirror to his pokeball.

As I sent out Omen, she cackled again and said, "Remember that little lightshow Espeon put on went I sent her out? That's something I like to call Future Sight. Now let's go, use Reflect!"

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE-" I started saying, then I decided not to let her get the best of me, "Fine, fine, use Haze!" Omen started flapping his wings, creating fog, but this time, he couldn't finish the move.

"Now, while it can't move, use Dazzling Gleam!" Mystique shouted. Gleaming projectiles shot out of its red gem at Omen, forcing him to get out of the way. "Now, use Charm!" a heart shot out at Omen bursting in a pink dusty blast. The battle went along like that, Espeon kept lowering Omen's attack, and whenever he got close enough to use Pursuit or stopped to use Haze, she'd blast him with a Dazzling Gleam.

It was not looking very good and I was running out of ideas, so I looked at Omen and asked, "You have any ideas buddy? Maybe a new move or something, like in the first battle?" To my surprise Omen nodded. He flew up into the air, then cawing loudly, his eyes started glowing red. All of a sudden, an Umbreon appeared in front of Espeon. It looked real, but I somehow knew it was just an illusion. I guess the Espeon didn't because she started inching closer and closer to the Umbreon, and when she got close enough, it morphed into a Zoroark, its fangs bared and it's claw raised. It slashed down onto the Espeon, sending it flying. Then, it disappeared.

We both stood, stunned. The Zoroark couldn't have been real, it had to have been some kind of projection or hallucination or….

"Congratulations," Mystique said, walking from her orb and handing over a badge that looked like a gleaming purple eye, "Here is the Fortune Badge, but I must ask, what was the move you beat me with? The move that got past all of my defenses?"

I took the badge, looked over at Omen, and laughed. "Night Shade."

(This was by far the hardest chapter to rewrite because it was such absolute shit the first time around. I hope you guys liked it, because this is the last chapter of rewrites, all the rest will be new. Thanks for reading you big dummies.)

Tune in next time to see Carbon discover a surprised secret about one of his closest friends and battle an old foe. Will he be deterred by this disturbing realization, or will friendship keep the bonds of our group strong? Find out next chapter in, "Truth or Dare?". Thanks for reading.