Forest of Death
Part VI
Naruto nibbled on a stick of Pocky as he watched his monsters eat lunch. Gamakichi shoveled his food down like a pig. Sandy and Shadow were much slower and neater as they munched on their lunch. Demon ate apart from the others, jealously guarding his own meal. Drifter had already finished eating, and Spooky seemed more interested in playing with her food than eating it.
Spooky was a difficult creature to handle, and it didn't help any that she creeped him out. The haunter enjoyed goofing around and scaring anyone that she could. It was difficult to keep her focused and she wasn't always obedient to his commands.
Drifter was much easier to handle. The non-creepy ghost did his best to do as Naruto wanted. But it was a timid, gentle creature and had trouble battling. When it was time to fight, Drifter just wanted to run away.
The boy sighed and nibbled some more on his candy.
It had been nearly two weeks since the mess in the forest and he hadn't found out much about it aside from the fact that the rest of the missing police officers had been found alive except for one. Beyond a bunch of whispered rumors in the city about super criminals hiding out in the forest, Naruto hadn't heard anything. He was curious, but he did his best to focus on the reason that he'd come to Senju City in the first place: the Leaf badge.
It's going to be tough, he knew. Even if I didn't have troubles with ghosts. She's got a blissey and those always have a lot of health and healing moves, a nidoqueen with poison and lightning, a sceptile which is way more evolved than anything I have, and a leafeon. And I have no clue what else she might have…
A shadow fell over him and Naruto looked up to find Sasuke staring down at him, eating a tomato like it was an apple.
"Ew!" was Naruto's immediate reaction. "How can you eat it like that?"
"I like tomatoes," Sasuke replied with a shrug.
The Uzumaki shuddered. "Yuck… What brings you out here?"
At the heart of Senju City was a smallish nature preserve where urban trainers could exercise and work with their pokémon. Leery of the next best place to train—the Forest of Death—Naruto spent his days in the wilderness park. So far, only Hinata had visited him, and only a few times when he got too into his training and forgot to come back in and eat the cheap pokémon center food.
Sasuke took another few bites out of his tomato before bothering to answer. "I've been thinking… Your mom didn't get you those evolution stones, did she?"
"I didn't steal them, so does it matter who I got them from?" Naruto countered.
"I noticed how your mom and Minato Namikaze interacted in Myouboku Town," the Uchiha continued. "Then there was that offer he made you to trade for your haunter. When you're around, he never notices me or Sakura. And you look so much alike…"
Naruto fiddled with his last stick of Pocky. "So what?"
"If you somehow didn't know before, you have to know now," Sasuke replied. "So why haven't you started bragging about it?" When Naruto failed to respond, the Uchiha did a little poking. "Did you find something unpleasant behind his celebrity façade? Or is it because he's trying to buy you off with nice things like stones and trades to make up for never being there?"
"Shut up!" Naruto snarled, leaping to his feet and jabbing Sasuke in the chest with his finger. "It's none of your business! And why do you even care?! You never care about anything unless it has to do with your obsession with beating your brother!"
"True," Sasuke conceded, unbothered by Naruto's anger. "But your behavior was out of character enough to catch my attention. I prefer it when I know what to expect from people, so I had to figure this out. Whatever the details of the situation are I really don't care. I just needed you to confirm what I thought so I could get my focus back to where it belongs."
Naruto glared and—too angry to think of anything better—stuck his tongue out at his childhood rival.
"Hn," Sasuke snorted and finished off his tomato. "I need to get back to my own training. Hope you don't fall flat on your again when you challenge Tsunade for real…and if you do, try to make it a little more entertaining than last time."
"Bastard!" Naruto shouted at the Uchiha's retreating back.
Sasuke wasn't the least bit bothered by the insult. Infuriatingly, he almost seemed proud to be labeled such a jerk. It was like some weird sort of family pride for Sasuke and his Uchiha brethren to be as jerk-ish as possible while not being physically mean.
Naruto steamed for a few more minutes before turning back to his pokémon, who had finished their lunch.
"Alright guys!" Naruto said, clapping his hands. "Let's get back to training! We're gonna kick grumpy old Tsunade's butt!"
And after that, maybe we'll fight Sasuke too and stomp him flat!
The interior of the Senju City gym was very elaborate. The battlefield was an open-air courtyard that was bare earth with grasses, bushes, small trees, and rock formations. Tsunade stood at the far end of the large space and sighed dramatically when Naruto entered the challenger's position. There weren't any bleachers like some gyms had so his friends (even Ino, who usually whined that gym battles were so crude and barbaric) found what vantage points that they could find on the challenger side of the field.
"I figured you'd be back," the gym leader grumbled. "I guess it was too much to hope that our alley fight would scare you off."
"Not a chance!" Naruto snorted. "What're the rules?"
"I will use four pokémon; you are free to use any pokémon that you have at your disposal. You may switch your monsters at anytime, but I cannot. The fights will be one-on-one. Whoever runs out of pokémon loses." Tsunade paused for a moment. "Any questions, or can we get this show on the road?"
"No questions," Naruto replied. "Let's start!"
"Fine then," Tsunade smirked. "Hashirama!"
The first monster she released was a willowy tree-like creature. It had short legs on a long body with branch-like arms and a forked branch shape on its head. But when Naruto did a quick bit of research on it with his pokédex…
"Sudowoodo…is a rock type?" Naruto sputtered. Man, maybe I should've kept Typhoon… Dang it.
"That's right," Tsunade nodded. "Now pick your first monster."
"Okay…" The blond boy chewed over his options for a moment before making his selection. "Gamakichi!"
The poisonous toad made his energetic appearance and then Tsunade turned to Shizune, who would referee the fighting.
"Begin!" Shizune cried, chopping her hand through the air.
"Rock smash!" Naruto instructed, hoping to get the first move in.
"Wood hammer," Tsunade countered.
Gamakichi rushed in to try and shatter the sudowoodo's rock body with the fighting attack, only to be nailed by the green-glowing club-like "hands" of his foe. While the grass-type attack didn't have much effect type-wise, there was a lot of power behind it and the fighting toad was sent flying backwards. The croagunk quickly recovered and eyed his foe warily.
"Mud bomb!" Naruto commanded.
"Mimic," Tsunade countered.
The croagunk went about gathering up dirt to make a snowball out of mud, but the sudowoodo simply copied him. What followed was a brief game of dodge ball using globes of sticky, damp mud. Gamakichi luckily landed a hit first.
"Great!" Naruto grinned. "Now brick break!"
While the false tree staggered and tried the claw the blinding mud from its face, the fighting toad rushed in to deliver a devastating blow to the sudowoodo's trunk.
"Low kick and rock throw," Tsunade barked.
The rock tree swept its leg low while Gamakichi was still close, tripping him up and knocking him to the ground. With the poison toad prone, the sudowoodo started hurling rocks. The mud reduced its accuracy, and rock throw wasn't terribly accurate to begin with, but enough stones hit to cause some damage.
"Roll out of the way!" Naruto cried. "And use mud slap!"
Although much weaker than mud bomb, mud slap was more accurate and had the same side effect of reducing the foe's accuracy. Once out of the line of fire, Gamakichi scooped up mud in his hands and slapped it on the sudowoodo's head. The fake tree cried out in pain and stumbled away, trying to rub the blinding dirt from its eyes.
Naruto grinned, sensing approaching victory. "Now try rock smash again!"
The poisonous fighter rushed in to deliver what could be the final blow—
"Flail," Tsunade commanded.
The sudowoodo immediately began blindly thrashing and, because its health was getting low, the hits it landed were punishing.
Naruto clenched his teeth. The sudowoodo was hurting, but so was Gamakichi. Tsunade's pokémon was older and stronger, even though it was at a type disadvantage it could outlast his monster unless he did something to end things quickly.
"Gamakichi, revenge!"
The croagunk gathered its strength and lashed out with a flurry of fighting strikes that left the rock tree stumbling…and then it collapsed.
"Hashirama is unable to continue battling," Shizune announced. "Match one, over!"
Tsunade removed the false tree from the field. "Not bad," she remarked. "But what can you do against Katsuyu?"
Naruto blinked as what looked like a large slug appeared. It was pink and brown and it looked like it had three eyes. His pokédex identified it as a gastrodon, a ground and water type…leaving its sole weakness to grass types, something that Naruto didn't have.
Aw crud…
There was no point in keeping Gamakichi on the field. He was weak to ground types and he had no advantage on this new monster. And he was tired. There was no point in sacrificing him when his poison powers could be advantageous against Tsunade's grass monsters.
"That's enough for now, Gamakichi," Naruto said as he recalled the frog from the field. "It's time for Drifter to take a turn!"
Tsunade frowned at the sight of the ghostly balloon. "…I thought you were afraid of ghost types."
"I'm working on that," Naruto huffed. "Now let's go!"
"Fine," Tsunade agreed. "Katsuyu, water pulse!"
"Drifter, use minimize!"
The water slug fired a ring of water at the drifloon, but before it could hit the purple balloon shrank in size so that the compressed loop of water passed it by without effect.
Naruto grinned tensely. "Alright, now stockpile."
Still shrunken and highly evasive, Drifter started glowing as he sucked in energy.
"Hmm," Tsunade frowned in thought. "Rain dance."
The gastrodon started to wriggle and sway and a faint blue aura surrounded it. The sky above the open courtyard swiftly darkened as clouds rolled in. And then a light rain started to fall, weakening any fire attacks while giving water attacks a boost.
"Stockpile again and then use spit up!" Naruto instructed.
"Harden," Tsunade commanded.
While the large slug stiffened up, raising its defenses, Drifter sucked in even more energy and then fired it all at his foe. The gastrodon shuddered under the blast, but the damage it took wasn't as much as Naruto had hoped. This battle wouldn't be quick or easy.
"Gust," Naruto called out.
Drifter summoned up a swirling gust of wind, but it wasn't a particularly powerful attack—it barely made the firmly rooted slug move.
"Desperate?" Tsunade smirked. "Katsuyu, muddy water!"
The pink and brown slug loosed a torrent of water at the earthen ground, kicking up a moderate-sized wave of murky water. Drifter tried to gain altitude to avoid it, but he wasn't fast enough and the muddy wave swamped him. His minimize was broken and he returned to regular size, badly battered by the powerful water attack.
Naruto clenched his teeth. "Drifter, payback!"
The purple balloon gathered up energy and unleashed a dark blast of vengeance at his attacker. It was a powerful dark-type attack, and one of the strongest that Drifter had in his arsenal. And since the gastrodon had just landed a punishing hit, payback was even stronger.
"Water pulse again, Katsuyu," Tsunade barked to her monster.
"Stockpile!" Naruto yelled.
Katsuyu fired another ring of pressurized water at Drifter. The drifloon gathered energy and while doing so his defense was raised. So when the circle of water clipped him, he withstood its force better.
"Stockpile and swallow!"
Drifter sucked in more energy, and then absorbed it all, restoring a chunk of his lost health.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Two can play at that game. Katsuyu, recover!"
Naruto almost wanted to cry as he watched the slug regain almost all of its health, more than what his drifloon had regained.
"Drifter," Naruto called out, "ominous wind!"
The flying ghost summoned a dark storm of winds that whipped the light rain still falling from the rain dance into a cold, stinging blast. The powerful ghost attack had the gastrodon reeling for a moment. And, as a side effect, Drifter's abilities spontaneously boosted, making him stronger, faster, and tougher.
The gym leader looked only mildly impressed. "Okay Katsuyu, sludge bomb."
Katsuyu spat a purplish glob of poisonous gunk and hit Drifter almost dead center, making the ghostly balloon wilt and shudder.
This is going nowhere, Naruto knew. It has recover, which is more powerful and faster than Drifter's two-step stockpile and swallow combo. This gastrodon will outlast him, and could outlast anyone else I pit against it. I think…drastic measures are the only real option…
"Drifter, constrict!"
The tired balloon flew in and wrapped his string arms tightly around the gastrodon's neck, but it was a weak attack made even less effective by such flimsy arms.
"Now I know you're desperate," Tsunade snorted. "Just get your drifloon off the field if you can't think of what to do with it."
Naruto ignored the gym leader's half-taunting advice. "I'm sorry to ask you this, Drifter, but…explosion!"
Tsunade inhaled sharply. "What—"
The drifloon glowed brightly for a moment before exploding with a tremendous blast of power. And since he'd been clinging directly to the gastrodon's neck, all that power hit the slug at point blank range. Once the blinding flash and dust had cleared, there was a shallow crater in the field, the drifloon was collapsed and flattened, and the gastrodon wobbled and collapsed.
"A double knock-out!" Shizune announced. "Katsuyu and Drifter are both unable to battle. Match two is over!"
"Huh, I didn't think you'd do something so extreme," Tsunade admitted. "Oh well…" She removed her collapsed gastrodon as the rain dance waned, leaving a cloudy but rainless sky behind. "Konoha, your turn!"
The dinosaur-like grass-lizard bounded onto the field, surprisingly fast and agile for its size.
Naruto response to that choice was simple. "Demon!"
His golden vulpix faced off against the sceptile, which dwarfed it by several feet in height. It wasn't a good match-up, except in types. Sceptile, as a pure grass-type, was at a hefty disadvantage against the pure fire of a vulpix.
"What an interesting color," Tsunade murmured. "I didn't notice before…"
"How pretty," Shizune smiled.
From behind him, Naruto could hear Ino muttering how battling with such a rare and stunning creature was a criminal waste.
"Fire spin!" Naruto instructed.
"Agility," Tsunade countered.
Demon created a swirling tornado of fire, but with agility's speed boost the sceptile easily danced out of the way of the inferno, leaving the attack wasted.
"Screech and quick attack," the gym leader commanded.
The sceptile let out an ear-splitting sound, sharply reducing Demon's ability to defend himself, and then rushed in for a speedy strike that knocked Demon off his paws.
"Damn," Naruto muttered. "Demon, flamethrower!"
Shaking off the stinging blow, the vulpix hopped back up and loosed a blistering stream of fire at his foe.
"Detect," Tsunade barked. "And then slam."
Sensing the direction of the blast of fire, the sceptile again danced around it and darted in to slam its bushy tail onto Demon with great force.
Damn it! Naruto silently cursed. At least detect can't be used several times in a row without a significant chance of it failing… "Keep using flamethrower!"
Demon rolled out from under the sceptile's bristly, fern-like tail and began spewing flamethrower after flamethrower.
"Agility," Tsunade coolly ordered.
The bare earthen field became a mess of fire and desperate dodging. The dirt completely dried from the rain and turned hot with each missed stream of flame. And then the fire started taking its toll as grazes from the flamethrowers turned into more and more solid hits.
"Night slash!" Tsunade ordered.
Konoha, half-scorched by all the fire, rushed in with the long leaves on its forearms glowing black.
"Will-o-wisp!" Naruto called out when the sceptile was too close to dodge it.
Demon spat dark ghostly embers into the sceptile's red-striped gut, causing crippling burns and interrupting the impending night slash attack.
"Ha!" Naruto grinned, tasting victory. "Now fire spin!"
The small tornado of fire hit this time, as the grass-lizard couldn't dodge it with its burns, and the fire just kept burning and burning as it restricted the sceptile's movements to almost nothing.
"What a relentless brat you are," Tsunade growled. "Konoha, break loose and use leaf storm!"
Charging through the flames in spite of the pain, the sceptile seemed to shed glowing leaves from everywhere and then the dense cloud of sharp green swirled towards Demon, catching the fire fox in a storm of cutting foliage.
Wow, Naruto blinked. Grass types hate fire. That sceptile must really love and respect her to run through fire for her.
"That sceptile can't have a lot of strength left," Naruto noted, as he watched the lizard struggle to keep its feet. "Demon, finish it with a quick attack!"
Fighting through the last of the cutting leaves, Demon darted towards the panting sceptile.
"Leaf blade!" Tsunade snapped.
Just as Demon was about to land his hit, the sceptile brought its arm leaves—glowing green—around like a samurai blade and sliced into the vulpix, cutting through fur and into flesh enough to draw some blood.
"Ah!" Naruto winced as if the blade had cut him and not his monster. That's wicked! "Demon, one last flamethrower!"
Staggering backwards, the golden fire fox spat another gush of flame, knocking the sceptile back and out.
"Konoha is unable to battle," Shizune announced. "Match three is over."
"I hate to admit it, but you're impressing me," Tsunade sighed as she removed her collapsed sceptile from the battlefield. "Your beasts are performing far better than mine are. But, I suppose this is what I get for slacking off and leaving all the work to Shizune for so long. My skills have gotten rather rusty. But now it's time for my closer…"
In a flash of light, Hime the nidoqueen landed on the field.
Naruto prepared to removed Demon from the field—
"Hime, earth power!"
The blue spiny beast glowed yellow for a moment and then stomped on the ground, sending cracks spidering over to and underneath Demon, blasting the little fox with a blast of yellow ground-type energy. When the glare of light was gone and the dust settled, Demon was out cold. Naruto winced, wishing he'd been a bit faster in getting Demon's pokéball back out.
"Demon is unable to battle," Shizune announced. "Challenger, select your next pokémon or withdraw."
"Alright, Sandy!" Naruto decided. "Your turn!"
The dragonfly-like vibrava appeared in a flurry of wings, wilting slightly at Ino's muffled squeak of fright and disgust.
"A dragon…" Tsunade remarked thoughtfully.
"Sandy, dragon breath!"
"Hime, dig!"
Sandy spat a spray of dragon flames that had the chance of paralyzing instead of burning, but the spiny blue monster burrowed into the dirt of the field, evading the attack.
Naruto scratched at the back of his head, puzzled. "You know with Sandy's levitate that dig attack isn't going to do anything…"
"True," Tsunade smirked. "But by hiding under the ground Hime takes no damages, suffers no risk of paralysis, and gets the element of surprise for her next strike. Hime, body slam!"
The nidoqueen burst from the dirt behind the hovering vibrava and belly-flopped onto the dragonfly, crushing her to the ground.
"Sandy, screech!" Naruto shouted, plugging his ears in preparation for the awful sound.
The vibrava vibrated her wings, creating a high-pitched sound that made the nidoqueen lurch backwards and clutch at her ears in pain.
"Now dragon breath again!" he instructed, ears still covered against the teeth-rattling noise.
Sandy peeled herself out of the dirt and sprayed another blast of red-orange dragon-fire. Hime staggered back from the flames, but didn't succumb to their paralyzing power. The blue monster lunged forward and grabbed Sandy by her wings, halting her attack.
"Excellent," Tsunade smiled. "Now, Hime, poison fang."
The nidoqueen pulled Sandy closer and bite into her shoulder with fangs glistening with purple venom.
"Sand tomb!" Naruto ordered desperately.
The vibrava's eyes started to glow and the previously solid ground under the nidoqueen's feet dissolved into a swirling mass of quicksand, which didn't hurt the monster so much as startle her into releasing the dragonfly.
Naruto sighed a bit in relief. "Okay, now faint attack!"
Sandy appeared to fade from view, reappearing the moment she landed her strike, but…when she backed off, her flight was unusually wobbly.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"Oh dear," Tsunade mock-sighed. "It seems that your monster has become poisoned. I can't tell if it came from the poison fang or Hime's poison point ability. Too bad."
Damn it! Naruto cursed to himself. Sandy won't last too long being poisoned. At least with sand tomb that nidoqueen will have a hard time moving around. "Okay, Sandy, crunch it into submission so we can end this!"
"Hime, flatter."
As the vibrava charged in to inflict a nasty bite, the nidoqueen started throwing bites of earth around like it was confetti and acting like a party was going on. Naruto was rather baffled by the odd display, but Sandy was even more confused. Her attack was halted and soon she was waffling around in the air as if she was seeing things.
"Huh, now your monster is poisoned and confused," Tsunade remarked, folding her arms over her chest. "What are you going to do now?"
Naruto considered his options for a moment. He knew he didn't have any persim berries, which would cure Sandy's confusion. He had pecha berries that would relieve her of poison, but in her confused state she might not understand his instructions in taking the berry. With her health low and continually getting lower from the poison…he decided to pull her out for the time-being.
"That's enough, Sandy," Naruto sighed as he sucked her back into her ball with the red return laser. "Now it's Shadow's turn!"
The gym leader didn't look the least bit bothered to see the umbreon appear before her bogged-down nidoqueen.
"Shadow, give it a confuse ray!"
The dark eevee spat a wavering sphere of eerie light that left the nidoqueen glassy-eyed and befuddled. Tsunade, however, did have at least one persim berry on hand and wasted no time tossing it to her confused beast. Naruto hurried to take advantage of the nidoqueen's vulnerability before it could recover.
"And now use assurance!"
Shadow raced in and leapt up to pummel the trapped nidoqueen with a darkly glowing paw. But Hime downed her berry and snapped out of her confusion seconds before taking the attack. After taking the dark smack, the nidoqueen shook it off and was ready for her next command.
Tsunade didn't waste any time in giving it.
"Superpower!"
The spiny blue beast almost glowed with power and then lashed out with a flurry of fighting blows. Shadow was knocked end over end almost all the way to the other side of the field and when he finally skidded to a stop he could barely regain his feet. As a dark type, Shadow was weak against fighting-type attacks, and superpower was one of the strongest attacks out there…
"Now get out of that sand and give it a double kick to finish it!" the gym leader commanded.
Hime kicked free of the waning sand tomb (which hadn't done much damage at all) and rushed in like a stampeding bull.
"Quick attack!" Naruto called out, feeling the sense of desperation rising again. "Try and trip that nidoqueen up!"
Shadow struggled to obey and did manage to hit Hime low, making the hefty beast stumble and crash face-first into the dirt. But the nidoqueen still lashed out with double kick from the ground, clipping the umbreon in the jaw. The black monster bounced once… twice… and came to a stop in a heap.
He didn't get back up.
"Shadow is unable to battle," Shizune announced. "Challenger, choose another pokémon to continue or withdraw."
Naruto fingered the pokéballs on his belt as he thought over his last three choices. Sandy wouldn't be confused anymore after resting in her ball, but she'd still be poisoned and weak, and that would take a bit of time to fix. Gamakichi was healthier, but he wouldn't be at full power and he'd be very vulnerable to Hime's earth power. But he still had one monster left that was at full health and could stand up to both earth power and superpower…
Sizing up the nidoqueen, he decided that it had to be a living tank. It had taken a lot of hits but had withstood them all and still had enough health to put up a good fight. With its list of powerful attacks it was just what Tsunade had called it: a closer.
Making his choice, Naruto pressed the button and released the beast of his choice into the air in front of him.
"…Are you sure that you don't like ghosts?" Tsunade asked as she stared at the haunter.
"I said that I'm working on that," Naruto insisted, and then nearly fell over backwards as Spooky decided to turn around suddenly and make a dumb face at him. "S-stop that! That way!" he gestured towards the panting nidoqueen. "Go that way!"
"This could be interesting," the blonde woman snorted. "Hime, thunderbolt!"
"Sucker punch!" Naruto squeaked, waving at Spooky who still seemed focused on making stupid faces at him. "Hurry up!"
Hime started building up charge on her horn when Spooky finally caught on that this wasn't a training fight and therefore was serious business. The spiky purple ghost spun around and rushed in, her floating hand turning black and slamming into the nidoqueen's chin. The sudden, startling blow shorted out the thunderbolt and nearly had Hime fall on her tail.
Tsunade's golden-brown eyes narrowed. "Crunch."
"Shadow ball," Naruto countered.
The nidoqueen surged forward with her jaws open wide for a super-powered bite. The haunter gathered misty dark energies into a black and purple sphere and cast it straight into its foe's open mouth. The shadow ball detonated, making Hime cough, gag, and stagger.
Naruto bit his lip before deciding to take a risky move. "Curse!"
"Try and crunch it again!" Tsunade barked.
Spooky produced a sharp nail from thin air and drove it into herself, cutting her health in half to lay a voodoo-like curse on Hime. The blue nidoqueen wrapped her jaws around the haunter's body in a punishing crunch attack. When the gnawing was over, Spooky could barely float anymore; her already halved health was hovering near zero.
"Finish it off with a bite," the gym leader ordered.
"Dodge and use spite," was Naruto's response.
Hime tried to snap up the ghost again for a finishing strike, but Spooky managed to move aside. The air shimmered and went gray around the nidoqueen as spite took effect, draining the monster's ability to continue using bite. And then Hime jerked as if a nail was driven into her side, leaving her sagging and barely able to stand once the brief episode passed.
"Hit it one more time and you win!" Tsunade shouted encouragingly at her faltering beast.
"Spooky, keep out of reach just a little while longer!" Naruto cheered.
The nidoqueen tried one more time to bite, but failed again. The blue beast jerked again as curse recurred and destroyed more of Hime's health. The poison monster wobbled and then collapsed in a dead faint.
"Hime is unable to battle," Shizune called out in the hushed silence that followed. "Match four is over. Challenger, Naruto Uzumaki, is the winner."
Naruto smirked, smiled, and then whooped in victory…
…And then he screamed when Spooky hugged him.