With Akuma and Kurishimi gone to fight the approaching bandits it was now Chad alone facing off against Niklos. Considering his full team of six Pokémon and Niklos having lost two to Akuma's Pokémon a moment ago, the battle seemed to be in Chad's favor from the beginning. In contrast to that, his opponent was a criminal and there was no guarantee he would play by the rules either. Niklos also had much more time and experience in battles than Chad which would probably be more significant in the long run. The only advantage Chad knew that he had was the knowledge and training he'd acquired in Lavender Town plus what he had learned from Akuma's battle style. This fight could go either way and might even change depending on what would happen where Akuma and Kurishimi were fighting. Reinforcements could come for either side at any time so the best option for both of them would be to end the battle as quickly as possible to better assist their allies. However it was unclear whether Niklos was thinking the same thing. His outrage at what had happened to Growlithe was still apparent and possibly impairing his judgment.
"Sudowoodo, use your sucker punch attack!"
"Pidgeotto, show me your twister attack!"
Before Chad's Pokémon could create the dragon type attack, Sudowoodo dashed in and punched the bird Pokémon much faster than Chad expected it could move. Pidgeotto struggled to regain its control in the air before responding to its trainer's attack command by whipping up a strong gust storm that caused Sudowoodo to hold its ground in endurance. Before they were opened to attack again, Chad had his Pokémon climb into the sky and out of reach from Sudowoodo's arms. While his opponent was out of reach, Niklos commanded Sudowoodo to use block. Chad felt the poké ball in his hand shudder as it was sealed shut to prevent Pidgeotto from escaping until one of the two combatants fainted. With the high type disadvantage it seemed like Sudowoodo would probably win the match now, but Chad knew better than to give up this early.
"Pidgeotto, shower it with your featherdance!"
Pidgeotto flew in circles above the battlefield causing feathers to rain down over Sudowoodo. The effect would be a severe reduction in attack power, but even with the support moves Chad and Pidgeotto were still outclassed.
"Sudowoodo, use an inverted rock slide to ground Pidgeotto."
Sudowoodo pulled at the ground until huge rocks flew up into the air and smashed into Pidgeotto. Chad's Pokémon plummeted toward the ground, unable to keep airborne after the impact. When it had fallen far enough, Sudowoodo leapt into the air and struck Pidgeotto with a vicious hammer arm attack that smashed the helpless bird into the ground. Chad didn't need to check whether Pidgeotto could continue battling and instantly returned it to the safety of its poké ball.
To counter the deceptive rock type Pokémon Chad ordered Ivysaur to battle next. Ivysaur launched a whirling razor leaf attack from the plants on its back while Sudowoodo used a heavy rock throw attack. Ivysaur's leaves sliced the rock into smaller pieces and continued past to strike Sudowoodo. The mimic Pokémon was crippled by the leaf barrage, but was still able to fight. On command from Niklos, Sudowoodo raised an arm into the air and fiercely struck the ground in front of it for a rock tomb attack. Ivysaur was struck from underneath as sharp jagged rocks shot out of the ground into its belly. Ivysaur's speed was also crippled as the attack struck its sensitive underbelly, but could easily continue fighting. Before it could notice, Sudowoodo quickly found itself under assault by Ivysaur's vine whip attack. The rock Pokémon tried to swat the vines away, but one managed to grab the knob on its head and lifted Sudowoodo high into the air. Unable to manipulate the rock elements for defense, Sudowoodo was held immobile in the air as Ivysaur once again fired a razor leaf barrage until it had fainted.
Niklos became even more enraged when his Pokémon was defeated in a flawless manner not unlike an execution. Chad noticed his uncertainty before another fighter was chosen which caused him to wonder how difficult it was to counter his Pokémon's type, or whether Niklos was simply unprepared for battle. When Niklos revealed his next Pokémon however, Chad assumed it was probably the latter.
"Vileplume, cast a cloud of stun spores!"
"Ivysaur, cut through it with a blast of your razor leaf!"
From the interior of the flower on Vileplume's head a thick cloud of yellow pollen erupted toward Ivysaur who was already launching his own thick blast of bladed foliage into the mix. Most of the paralyzing storm was dispelled by the razor leaf flurry and the remainder was easily avoided as Ivysaur moved to the side. Vileplume was not as lucky. Since its own attack was not intended to cause damage none of the leaves were halted until they began to cut into their target. Partway into the attack Vileplume dropped its head forward so the soft yet thick petals absorbed the attack, but there was still a minimal effect. Now taking an aggressive stance, Vileplume's petals contracted as it spewed a corrosive acid at the more animalistic grass type Pokémon. The acid destroyed the remaining razor leaves which had not struck the target yet and found an unprepared Ivysaur to take the sudden retaliation. Ivysaur's eyes burned as the acid struck it in the face leaving it partially blinded. Chad cried out to his Pokémon as another stun spore attack followed. Like before Ivysaur tried to defend with razor leaf, but being unable to properly aim the attack proved to be a vain attempt as the spores covered Ivysaur's body, putting it in a paralyzed status. The formerly difficult matchup had shifted in favor of Vileplume as Ivysaur desperately tried to find a target by lashing its vine whip across the battlefield. Vileplume retaliated this time with a move called 'natural gift' as ordered by Niklos. Vileplume tossed a small red berry into its flower and focused its energy until an orb of swirling red energy came out to hover above the gaping hole in the center. With one more burst of energy, Vileplume willed the orb to be launched at Ivysaur and the damage done was critical as flames licked out from the energy that washed over Chad's Pokémon. After such a brutal combination of attacks Chad's Pokémon collapsed in defeat.
Chad swallowed the heavy lump in his throat as Ivysaur disappeared into the poké ball it had just recently come out of. He'd been fighting defensively against an opponent who was best at aggressive fighting. In fact it seemed more like a brutal assault than a Pokémon battle since this wasn't a sporting match and criminals didn't play by the rules; especially one who was fueled by anger just as he had predicted. Vileplume seemed to be able to fight defensively on its own as it hadn't moved at all since it had appeared to do battle, and despite this there was a surprising amount of aggressive attacks to deal with too. Without a clear tactic available to him, Chad decided to fight with a wild card.
"Rattata, to the battlefield!" he declared.
The rat Pokémon appeared with a flash of crimson light, spinning through the air before landing in a threatening fighting stance with a hiss. Chad wasn't sure where the flashy entrance had come from, but had to think about that after the battle was ended.
"Vileplume, surround yourself with a cloud of sleep powder!"
Vileplume spun in a pirouette as a green gas enveloped its body and began spreading outward. The cloud settled into a halo shape around the flower Pokémon's body preventing Rattata from getting too close, and since Rattata was a close range attacker it would be knocked to sleep before it could land a successful attack on the opponent.
"Oh Muk farts," Chad swore under his breath. "This isn't going to be an easy fight at all. Rattata, do you think you're ready for a field test of those moves we learned in Lavender Town?" Rattata responded with a confident nod while Chad took a reassuring breath as he reviewed the three moves they'd been working on. They'd worked on some strong strategies in the simulator for the moves they had learned from the move tutors, but this was a real battle test now. He was sure they could get Vileplume to pull off one attack he wanted to counter, but after expending all three special moves he didn't know what he would do next just yet. "Let's get to work then, Rattata. We'll start with double team!"
Rattata began to charge at Vileplume as it split into multiple copies before running in a wide circle around its opponent, making sure to stay well out of reach from the cloud between them. Vileplume responded by spraying a fountain of stun spores outside the cloud into Rattata's path. The rat Pokémon's copies jumped away from the cloud in unison as if part of a dance leaving the spores to fall pathetically to the ground. Rattata's copies jumped back and forth over the stun spores and between the differing spores while still running in a circle around Vileplume as if taunting the wasted effort. In anger Niklos commanded his Pokémon to fire an acid spray at the rats. Chad quickly ordered a mimic from his own Pokémon to acquire the attack for their own use as Rattata bounded out of reach from the venomous poison. When the acid attack had ceased, Chad instructed Rattata to use the final attack he had planned: dig.
Each Rattata copy jumped between the grounded stun spores and the sleeping powder to burrow underground, but only one hole formed as the real Rattata dug under the earth and the copies merely vanished into the dirt. Vileplume braced itself for Rattata to come up from the ground under its feet, but instead the rat Pokémon appeared from between the two spore traps at a different location and burrowed underground in the same way until there was a middle ring of holes surrounding Vileplume. Neither Pokémon nor trainer was sure about what looked like a strategic plan until Vileplume's acid attack spewed out from the holes and over the cloud. Being unable to move due to the triple layered trap surrounding it, Vileplume could only take the acid attack in full force.
"Great job, Rattata! Now do what we practiced against the Starmie simulator. Hyper dig attack!" Chad was pumping his arms in the air and nearly dancing as he said this last line with a huge smile on his face.
Rattata's double teams erupted from every hole surrounding Vileplume with a shriek, rising above the sleep inducing gases as they leapt into the air. In a panic Niklos commanded Vileplume to use a wide acid spray to hit all the attackers at once, but the poisonous attack passed through every one as none of them were real. Before the opponent could realize what had happened, the ground under Vileplume broke open as Rattata leapt out at the Vileplume which had left its underside completely unguarded to focus on the aerial copies. Rattata's hyper fang attack latched onto the point between Vileplume's body and petals while the flower Pokémon was distracted and scored an easy critical hit. In a panic, Vileplume flailed around in a futile attempt to shake Rattata off until it ran through the sleep powder cloud, breaking the mist so Rattata wasn't affected. Being a grass type, Vileplume was immune to the gases, but not the holes Rattata had made surrounding them as one foot fell into the holes causing it to trip and fall face-first into the grounded stun spore which it was also not immune to while Rattata kept a grip safely on its back. Another hyper fang finished off the grass Pokémon allowing Rattata to strike a victory pose on top of its opponent's back which, of course, only served to further fuel Niklos' anger by insult.
"Quit screwing with me and my Pokémon!" Niklos yelled as he replaced Vileplume with another fighter. The next attacker was a brown Pokémon wearing a purple outfit with red boxing gloves. Though thin it seemed agile and powerful too. "Hitmonchan, beat that vermin into oblivion!"
Hitmonchan leapt over the stun spore cloud and crashed into Rattata's position fist first. The impact dissipated the sleep powder in a blast of air, but Rattata's tunnel system had weakened the ground enough to cause it to collapse under the two combatant's feet. While Rattata had dug underground to avoid the punch, Chad was suddenly afraid that his Pokémon had been buried alive.
"Rattata, get out of the ground now if you can! Let me know you're okay."
Rattata quickly appeared from under Hitmonchan and latched onto the enemy's leg with a hyper fang attack. Chad allowed himself to breathe a heavy sigh of relief right before Hitmonchan used a mega punch to knock Rattata away. Chad's Pokémon bounced luckily over the remaining stun spores that lingered on the ground, but Niklos wouldn't give them a moment to recover. Hitmonchan was quick to follow Rattata with another mega punch to crush the smaller Pokémon into the ground and didn't pause before fighting back again with a comet punch flurry. Unbelievably Chad's Rattata was able to endure the brutal assault and managed to stand up enough to rush out and bite Hitmonchan's leg again with another hyper fang. Hitmonchan was caught off guard and fell to one knee. The lower altitude allowed Rattata to attack the enemy's arm this time, but Chad noticed his Pokémon was quickly growing weaker. It might have been an adrenaline rush that allowed Rattata to escape earlier meaning it was about to pass out from exhaustion alone if Hitmonchan didn't get a solid hit in soon.
"Rattata, get back! You're too weak to keep fighting now. Let someone else take over," Chad called out.
Rattata ignored its trainer and continued to bite into Hitmonchan as best it could until the larger Pokémon smashed his fist into its side, causing Rattata to collapse to the ground. Chad was sure his Pokémon was finished this time, but Rattata got up once more. Chad couldn't believe his Pokémon's limitless stamina. Even Nidorino would have fallen by now. Wait, maybe this was a sign that Rattata was…
"Rattata, I get it now. Use that burst of energy and you can-" Rattata's body suddenly flashed with a bright glow. "-evolve!"
Rattata's formerly limber and athletic body morphed into a huskier, stronger build and rose up on its hind legs which turned into hind feet as the lower legs all but vanished into the fur. Its whiskers grew out longer and the incisor teeth grew wickedly huge. Instead of purple fur, the former Rattata's body was now a bright tan and the curled tail became a furless ugly whip. When the transformation finished, Chad's brand new Raticate growled threateningly at the opposition while Hitmonchan rethought the moves it had been using until now in battle. It was now two fully evolved Pokémon in the fight, but Chad's side had taken major damage prior to the evolution. If he could get a few more hits in it was possible that Hitmonchan could be dropped at the same time as Raticate. His Pokémon probably didn't know its own power yet so they had a chance, however slim it might have been.
Niklos' voice broke Chad out of his thoughts. "Doesn't matter if the Pokémon evolved or not, Hitmonchan. Beat it to a pulp! Get in close with your mach punch!"
Hitmonchan sped toward Raticate at an incredible speed and drove his gloved fist right between Raticate's eyes. Raticate started to drop, but grabbed Hitmonchan's right arm with one of its newly developed forepaws and sunk another hyper fang deep into Hitmonchan's shoulder. Chad could hear a loud crack as the fighting Pokémon's shoulder blade snapped in two. It was confirmed now that Raticate didn't know its own power yet. Despite his Pokémon being crippled, Niklos continued to give orders as if nothing happened while Chad was forced to play the defensive side.
"Use an ice punch to slow Raticate down!"
"Raticate, toss Hitmonchan away!"
An ice punch from Hitmonchan's remaining arm brushed across Raticate's belly before the punching Pokémon was tossed away and chilled some of the fur so ice crystals formed, causing Raticate's torso to glimmer. If the punch had made full contact Chad assumed half of his Pokémon would have been frozen solid. Hitmonchan landed noiselessly on the ground and rushed back to counter attack with a blazing fire punch as ordered by Niklos. Raticate performed a clumsy backflip so its tail whip snapped Hitmonchan's face and botched the aim of the fire punch. Hitmonchan fell to one knee again, giving Raticate the perfect opening to grab his head in another hyper fang attack, though this one was more subdued so as to not crush his skull. Chad thought they were about to win when Raticate was punched high into the air by a sky uppercut. This time when his Pokémon landed there were no more reserves of energy left to use. Raticate had fainted.
"This could be going better," Chad said to himself. He and his opponent were now down to two Pokémon each. Then again, considering the condition of his current enemy maybe he only had to fight one and a half Pokémon. Sadly he wanted to save his trump card until last, but if he did he was unsure as to whether he could win and he still needed to go help Akuma and Kurishimi who were currently very outmatched. Akuma was fighting with only three or four Pokémon at this point; he couldn't get an exact count. Kurishimi's Alakazam had just dropped as well and Vaporeon seemed to be targeted by the majority of the enemies. "Might as well pull out all the stops I suppose," Chad said to himself as he opened poké ball number five.
What started as a small flash of light quickly grew in size as Gyarados appeared with a loud roar in front of a Hitmonchan that was now making a face suggesting it had soiled its outfit. When Niklos yelled for Hitmonchan to strike the atrocious Pokémon with a thunderpunch, Chad was ready to counter with a twister attack. Though Hitmonchan leaped toward its opponent with a dangerous electric attack, Gyarados used the force of the twister to throw Hitmonchan back to the ground helplessly. After that Hitmonchan was too weak to stand up on its own, but Niklos still demanded it to rise. In pity for the Pokémon, but not the trainer, Chad told Gyarados to slap Hitmonchan back to Niklos with its tail. Niklos was knocked to the ground while his Pokémon went unconscious.
For Niklos that was the final insult. He threw his last poké ball to the ground so hard a crack appeared in the underside, but it opened anyway. Chad had been hopeful for an easy win, but fate had a cruel sense of humor today when he saw that his last enemy was an electric type. It looked like a fox or a wolf that had taken a bath with an electric toaster as its fur was yellow and pointed up at many angles. Just like its trainer it was quite angry and barked threateningly at the larger Pokémon as if there was nothing to be afraid of. Gyarados was unimpressed and roared back powerfully as thunderclouds gathered overhead and a downpour started without warning.
"Gyarados, dragon rage!"
"Jolteon, thunderbolt now!"
The two attacks collided in the air and canceled each other out.
"Thunderbolt again!"
"Gyarados, tail slap the ground as hard as you can!"
The electric attack was launched too quickly for Gyarados to do anything more than follow its trainer's orders. Dirt and rocks flew through the air and intercepted the thunderbolt attack while providing Gyarados with temporary cover. Following that there was a twister attack that Jolteon was unable to evade due to being unable to locate the attacker. The wind from Gyarados' attack caught up some of the dirt and rocks before they fell to the ground which further pelted Jolteon when the attack hit for additional damage.
"Use your pin missile attack!"
Jolteon's fur spiked up and launched a flurry of needles toward Gyarados with perfect accuracy now that the veil of sand had fallen. Gyarados endured the attack until it was about to end, then released another dragon rage blast which Jolteon was unable to avoid. The damage done was apparent, but nowhere near enough to bring the electric Pokémon down. Chad commanded another twister attack which Jolteon evaded. Following that, Gyarados was struck with a well placed thunderbolt that did severe damage. Before they could recover, Jolteon also used a thunder wave that paralyzed the mighty dragon. Chad realized his Gyarados couldn't take much more of the attacks and tried to have it use dragon rage again. The attack succeeded, but took much longer to pull off. Jolteon countered with a thunderbolt that pierced the now underpowered attack and struck its target. Gyarados roared in defiance, but couldn't take the extreme damage and collapsed to the ground unable to fight back any longer
Chad wasn't expecting to win that battle, but neither was he expecting to lose so quickly either. With reluctance he replaced Gyarados with his last Pokémon: Sandshrew. Niklos didn't seem to know how he should feel when he saw the short and lazy mouse Pokémon. His face seemed to contort between great anger as well as amusement. Both trainers knew there was a strong type advantage for Sandshrew, but after watching Jolteon defeat Gyarados there didn't seem to be much point in continuing this fight.
Jolteon didn't wait for its trainer to give it a command before hitting Sandshrew with a quick thunderbolt which naturally had no effect on the ground type Pokémon. Sandshrew, with its eyes half closed, seemed to be bored and unwilling to battle as it picked it nose with indifference. Jolteon now seemed to be angrier than its trainer and fired a slew of high-speed pin missiles at Sandshrew. The mouse Pokémon didn't even flinch as it used a defense curl so the spines bounced off its back. When the attack ceased it uncurled with the same look of resolute boredom on its face and yawned. Jolteon instantly used a quick attack to charge the little insult while Sandshrew watched it coming, apparently still feeling unthreatened. When Jolteon was close enough Sandshrew caught it off guard by striking up under its chin with a scratch attack. The quick slap attack threw off Jolteon's aim, causing it to sail over the tiny creature and land ungracefully in the dirt. Without even turning around to see what had happened, Sandshrew sat down unceremoniously in the grass and started picking at the ground while Chad looked on with an open mouth. Jolteon quickly rose to its feet to charge at Sandshrew with another quick attack. It jumped over Sandshrew's back to land in front of it and used a double kick with its hind legs intending to strike Sandshrew's face. But Sandshrew simply laid back in the grass while the double kick sailed over its head. While Jolteon was thrown off balance, Sandshrew ripped a scratch attack across its belly. Jolteon rolled away and whined in pain while curled up on the ground. Sandshrew didn't pay it any mind while nibbling on a blade of grass it had recently picked. Jolteon quickly rose to its feet and collapsed just as fast. It seemed Sandshrew had struck a sensitive part on its body precisely enough that it couldn't stand up straight. While lying in the grass Jolteon fired another pin missile attack, but Sandshrew just rolled over so the attack bounced off its back harmlessly.
Even in his rage Niklos could tell Jolteon couldn't fight anymore and recalled it. Then to Chad's surprise, he sent out Vileplume again! He ordered it to use mega drain on Sandshrew, but Vileplume was still unconscious. He replaced Vileplume with Golbat, telling it to take down the bratty mouse Pokémon, but Golbat hadn't recovered yet either. Sudowoodo was still crippled as well, and Hitmonchan… was completely useless in its current state. At least he wasn't angry enough to think about sending out Growlithe, whose damage was the cause of his outrage to begin with, Chad noticed.
Chad sighed in relief, knowing he'd beaten his opponent fairly, but he was still confused about Sandshrew's abilities. The little creature hadn't even taken orders from him and had managed to win while he looked on in disbelief the entire time. Was his Pokémon hiding powerful battle skills, or was it just lazy and lucky? He'd have to get a skill analysis when they got to a Pokémon Center next. He was just about to recall Sandshrew when he heard a monstrous roar that chilled him to the bone. Even Sandshrew sat up quicker than he'd ever seen it move and scampered over to its trainer in fear. Chad was frozen with fear at the moment so Sandshrew let itself back into its poké ball on its own. Niklos seemed to freeze up as well from the carnal sound; his anger forgotten.
Both trainers looked toward where Akuma and Kurishimi had gone and saw a huge green monster with burnt orange colored wings shaped like axe heads destroying Pokémon left and right. No Pokémon or trainer was attempting to fight back. Every living thing was either running away or getting torn apart. In fact none had escaped the destruction yet.
"What is… is that a Pokémon?" Chad asked in horror.