What`s on this douchebag`s mind again?
"Are you serious? What for?" I surprisingly asked.
"This shouldn`t bother you. We battle with our Haunters, just them. You lose and we exchange them in the Pokemon Center, as it should be. You give me yours, I give you mine." Douchebag tried to hide his evil intentions as much as he can, but such thing is not that easy to hide, not for him.
But battling with our Haunters… This may be really interesting. And much easier for me to win this! He will not have double advantage over me, our pokemon are nearly equal. He won previously because he had advantage in type and level. Now I have advantage of my own.
"This can`t be that easy. What`s the catch?" I asked Douchebag with suspicion. It just can`t be otherwise.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot again how stupid you are. They evolve this way!" My opponent yelled at me. "Both of us get Gengars in the end, that`s all."
Evolving because of trading? That`s something new to me. Or not… I think Bill mentioned this earlier. And I`m inclined to believe that wacky engineer.
But the other thing bothers me – I don`t want to give my Caesar away. Of course, Douchebag`s pokemon will somehow evolve after we finish the trade and I will get the powered form of Haunter in the end, but still… This will be another pokemon. Another Haunter. Not Caesar I slowly got used to. I just can`t be sure that Caesar got used to me.
"So… Do you accept this challenge?" Douchebag asked me again seriously.
"You`re ready to bet your own pokemon for this?" I accusingly questioned him in return. I still can`t decide whether I want it or not.
"You didn`t understand, you blockhead! I am going to give you my pokemon if you lose! That`s not a regular bet. Also, I taught it one special move that yours definitely doesn`t know! The benefit is all yours!"
"This can`t be right…" I couldn`t understand what`s wrong with this extremely strange and suspicious offer. Could this be just because Douchebag wants to get a stronger Gengar instead of his Haunter? This just doesn`t fit in my head.
Oh! Maybe we could exchange them back again? That sounds like a plan.
"If you don`t want it, then get lost and don`t waste my time…" He waved away and turned around to leave the field.
The situation is so interesting and hot that I can not only turn it into my favor in ANY result, but even double it.
"I accept your challenge!" My proud voice reached him. "And I have my own terms too, just for you to know."
"Oh, now you do have guts to face me. I`m listening."
"I want my pokemon back after that. We get the evolutions and exchange them back. And then… You will head back to Viridian City. Meet Red Rob and tell him that the investigation is on the way. Then find your boss. You make him give away all the information about Team Rocket agents he worked with…" With all seriousness I said.
"Well, I could expect something like this from you…"
"…if I lose."
And THAT was unexpected for him that made him even retreat back a little.
"You… you`re betting against yourself?" He looked really surprised. Haunter opened his mouth in shock and melted into the dark pool on ground. What a funny pokemon.
"Yes, so what? I can`t do that?"
He closed his eyes and smiled suspiciously.
"Yeah… Unexpected stuff is really expected from you." He made a step forward and looked at me with determination. Looks like he accepted all my demands. "Let`s go!"
"You don`t have to say twice." I slowly retreated to the nearest end of field where my trainer`s position is placed and grabbed a pokeball. The one that even feels dark and evil when you touch it.
Douchebag moved to his position and pointed at the place before him for his Haunter to stand.
"Let`s show them, Caesar!" I shouted and threw the pokeball on ground, releasing my own Haunter. The creepy ghostly figure appeared before me, stretching his… separately hovering hands.
When Douchebag`s Haunter saw my Caesar, both pokemon screeched from the joy. Looks like they are pretty happy to see each other again.
"You two seem to be good friends." I said to my Caesar. "But don`t let this stand in the way of our victory. Let`s start with Night Shade!"
He turned back and questionably looked at me. Looks like he didn`t expect me to give such a command.
"You worry too much about nothing, dumbass! Use Night Shade!" Douchebag commanded to his pokemon and he immediately executed it without hesitation. My Caesar barely noticed the dark shade approaching and dodged it when Haunter appeared from shadows.
That was unexpected for him too, and he yelled at his friend. Opposing pokemon screeched something too, and attacked even without the next command, turning into the shadow again. This time my pokemon wasn`t fast enough to dodge that attack, and the dark phantom struck him right into the face, causing some real damage.
Douchebag didn`t seem to care that his pokemon acts without his commands. That didn`t look like his battle style previously… He`s definitely up to something.
"Caesar, focus! Lick him!" I did my best to keep my Haunter`s attention on the field.
"Sucker Punch!" Douchebag gave his command. Again, that was a move I don`t know.
My pokemon opened his mouth and prepared to attack the opponent with his tongue but suddenly opposing Haunter just in a moment reached mine and punched right between eyes. Caesar screeched from extreme pain and retreated back. I guess, that was the new move Douchebag mentioned before.
After a quick recover, my pokemon angered and finally got the chance to strike. Well, if a lick could be named as strike. Anyway, this made our opponent get into the paralysis. How lucky.
But the situation isn`t going in our favor. Caesar was hit pretty badly twice, and the opposing Haunter was hit just once with pretty weak move. What maneuver could be good in this situation? Right now we trained just two of them, and… they do not suit here. Well, looks like we have to battle like all do. There is not much of choice.
"Use Sucker Punch!"
"Use Curse!"
We gave the commands at the same time, and after that Douchebag`s face changed in confusion. He didn`t expect me to do that. That`s a really huge risk – even if my pokemon won`t finish him with his own move and even survive another attack from the opponent, he will remain really at the edge. But with the effects of paralysis and curse for our opponent and, of course some luck for us we can have hope. There is no other way. All other variants lead to loss.
Which is profitable to me more than victory… What an interesting situation. But I don`t want to lose just because of one reason.
I want to defeat Douchebag.
The next round began with a strange thing – my opponent prepared to launch his attack, but suddenly he stopped like something blocked him. He couldn`t hit us, and we successfully performed the cursed move.
I saw how painful that was for Caesar, but it was also painful for the opponent. Now he slowly dies.
Douchebag was surprised and confused at the same time. Did he expect me to lose intentionally just because this is profitable for me? Hell no, the chance of finally defeating him is much more valuable! Even the chance of tracking down the Rockets again…
This is pretty messed thought, I have to admit. But there is a way to save my pokemon and my pride. Another plan.
The opponent retreated a bit back and prepared for another round. My Haunter hovered before me, loudly growling.
"Now let`s hit him with Night Shade!" I commanded.
"Use Night shade too!" Douchebag counterattacked.
Finally luck was on our side. My pokemon jumped into the shadow on the floor and rushed to the opponent. Douchebag`s Haunter was paralyzed and couldn't do anything against us, and we managed to hit him pretty good.
Caesar returned back to his position and prepared for the next move. But right at the second I wanted to give another command, he rushed from the place by himself with his hand squeezed in a fist. Dark glowing fist.
Our opponent suffered the additional damage from the Cruse and angered too. With the fist ready to attack, he rushed to us. Douchebag didn`t stop him, and two pokemon uncontrollably collided with each other.
And that worried me pretty much as that threatened my plan a lot!
The result was really unexpected. They struck each other with a powerful moves, both were thrown back and… fainted.
Yes, both Haunters managed to knock each other out at the same time.
The result was exactly as I wanted, although I wanted to do this the other way. But this is fine too.
But another thing bothered me – what was that punching move they both performed? I don`t remember anything like this. So I returned my Haunter back inside his pokeball and quickly connected it to the TM Case.
"Shadow punch?" I made a rhetorical question looking at the screen. "That was Shadow punch move! How interesting…" This move looks much better that the moves we have now. It is much stronger… And it never misses! I definitely need to learn this move.
But Caesar knows four moves now… Which I should replace? Damn nature blocks…
Lick looks like the first candidate to forgetting. This is not a strong move, and also not a very pleasant one. But it can cause the paralysis, which can be useful sometimes.
Night Shade? If TM Case is correct, this move will become stronger as my pokemon grows stronger, so it will always be actual. Definitely not this one.
Curse? That`s dangerous and risky move, but that`s exactly how we play this game. I need it, at least now.
Hypnosis looks good too sending the opponent to sleep. No, this one is needed too.
So… In the end, the Lick seems to be less needed. I think I`ll choose it.
And I confirmed the memory rewriting in TM Case, making my Caesar fix his new move. A very useful battle it was indeed.
"At the same time…" Douchebag just couldn`t believe into this. "Well, I will have a pokemon with Shadow punch anyway now." He sighed and returned his pokemon back into the greatball. After that he raised his eyesight at me. "I have no idea how to decide the winner."
"I know." I gladly replied and smiled cunningly. "I have achieved two my goals here. I defeated you. AND I lost to make you execute your bet." The face of Douchebag became really unpleasant. Looks like he stopped liking the idea of bet, but it was too late.
My life-long rival clenched his teeth and silently headed back inside the PokeCenter. I followed him into the building.
The devices for trade and moveset checking were placed right in the main hall. The trading one was free now, and we quickly approached it.
"Do you know how this works?" I asked Douchebag.
"Of course, I know!" He replied irritably. "Only an idiot will not understand how this thing works."
Maybe, he is right. The machine has a slot on the other side and the same slot on the other. It switches pokeballs in the slots, and that`s all. Looks simple. I just don`t understand what actually this device is needed other than cause the evolution of certain species?
I took Caesar`s pokeball and raised it over the slot from my side. Something stopped me from doing it. I still don`t want to give my pokemon away! Even if I know that I can return him back later.
"Is this actually the only way to evolve them?" I clarified and looked at Douchebag. He already placed his greatball into the socket and was ready to press the confirmation button on his side.
"Yes, it is! Come on already." He hastened me.
"Then what are these things needed for trades of pokemon that don`t evolve this way?"
He just angrily stared at me. Looks like he doesn`t know the answer and don`t have the intention to answer anyway.
I sighed and looked at my pokeball. For some reason it felt like I keep it in my hand for the last time. The bad feelings never let me down. But Douchebag will not dare to do something stupid. He knows that I`ll get him if I need to.
So I made a deep breath and put the pokeball into the socket. Just pressing the button – and that`s it.
And I pressed it. The machine turned on, buzzed and shined with small light bulbs. Our capsules moved inside the device, and the screens on each side switched on to show pokemon inside.
Mine showed, of course, the image of Haunter. Then the image hid inside pokeball and flew away into Douchebag`s side. After a few seconds the image of greatball appeared and replaced the pokeball. After an animated explosion, Haunter appeared on my screen.
The process finished pretty quickly, and soon the real greatball moved outside the machine right to me.
I don`t even know what to do now… Douchebag`s pokemon is now in front of me. Should I take this pokeball? Or not? For some reason this still feels like it someone else`s.
But I got the courage to take this greatball in my hand. This one felt just like Caesar`s – the cold ghostly capsule with something really evil inside. That`s just the feeling that appears by itself. Maybe, it was a mistake and the device switched pokeballs but not the pokemon?
"Let`s see…" I said and opened the capsule. Blue light erupted from it and landed on the ground, forming a… Haunter. "What?" I was still surprised.
But only then I was surprised even more as the pokemon before me immediately glowed light-blue and began to grow. The shape of his body slowly became more round and… maybe a bit smaller. Short limbs grew quickly, and also some spikes on the top. When the glow faded, a whole new pokemon was before me.
And it was a horror. The small grinning thing with huge mouth and eyes. Gengar.
I took PokeDex and scanned the capsule to get the final entry of this evolution line.
Gengar, the shadow pokemon.
Hiding in people's shadows at night, it absorbs their heat. The chill it causes makes the victims shake.
Holy crap. The final form of Gastly is even creepier than the first one… At least, it doesn`t cause nightmares during the daytime. I hope it doesn`t…
This scary bastard looked at me cunningly and then opened his huge mouth – almost of a size of the whole body – and showed large tongue.
"And you all have such a tongue…" I said with a bit of disappointment. "Come on, show me my Caesar!" I addressed to Douchebag.
He grabbed my – and for now his – pokeball from the device and opened it. The energy stream turned into Haunter that quickly evolved into Gengar too. I was really glad to see my Caesar here again, despite him being a complete and uncontrollable pokemon asshole that disobeys me in the most important moments and scares the shit out of people.
Suddenly something in the machine from Douchebag`s side began to spark and after a few seconds a small explosion happened.
"What the hell?" That scared me seriously.
"Ouch… Looks like the machine broke now…" Douchebag said with histrionic sadness in his voice. "We can`t trade them back now."
That was really sudden for me. I immediately realized that Douchebag arranged all that. The challenge, the bet, battle, loss, trade and the broken machine. I just couldn`t understand – what for? Everything seems to be in my favor now. What this douchebag is up to?
This jammed my mind, for real. I knew this is wrong, and the answer is so obvious.
So why can`t I understand what is wrong?
Meanwhile Douchebag returned my Caesar back to his pokeball and slowly headed to the exit.
"Why?" I quietly asked him.
"I help poor and retarded people." He said. I remember him saying this earlier, and that made me mad. Knowing that he made something ugly is bad itself. Knowing that he made something ugly but not knowing what exactly - is the worst. Right now he walks away, giggling insidiously and waiting for me to realize the catch. I just can`t stand that satisfied look on his mug.
Okay, I need to calm down. Maybe, everything isn`t that bad. I still have a ghost-type pokemon, stronger that the previous one. I just need to catch up with Douchebag in the next PokeCenter, tie him up and trade back. Until then… I need to find the common language with this shady guy.
"Okay, Caesar, return." I habitually called him. "Oh yeah, I forgot, you`re not Caesar…"
"By the way…" Suddenly Douchebag shouted to me from the very other side of PokeCenter, almost near exit. "Its name will fit you very well. Its name is Loser!"