This is a thing I would never expect to see. The glass so strong even my best punch didn`t break it. The glass so transparent I can`t even see it at all like it doesn`t exist.
Okay, I know how to navigate in the mazes – always walk along the one wall. And how to navigate in the invisible mazes? I have an idea!
I took my writing pen and made a small line on the wall before me. Yep, this works all right. I will draw the line along the wall I passed and clearly see the way I made. I can only hope my pen will not end until I reach the finish.
I slowly raised my eyesight at the trainers before me. These guys don`t notice me at all, but they definitely challenge me when I approach them.
"Moment, come out!" I threw pokeball up to release my Golbat. "This is an invisible wall before you. Check how high it is."
He understood my command and flew up to the very ceiling and tried to hit the air in front of him. The air appeared to be solid. That means the wall is really high and there`s no way of flying over it.
"Well, thanks." I returned my Golbat back and began to follow the line that I draw. I hope they will not make me erase this thing later.
I was slowly moving forward and keeping my pen on the wall until I got very close to the nearest guy. This trainer was like one of the tricksters, absolutely not looking like ninja at all. But who I am to judge him? Maybe he didn`t get his uniform yet.
My pen suddenly came off the wall and scratched it a little. The very quiet sound of it made the trainer open his eyes and finally look at me.
"Oh yeah, the challenger." He said with determination. "A good training for me and my partner."
"I have to say, your gym is… interesting." I complimented him. "Do we have to battle in this invisible surroundings too?"
"Of course!" The trainer replied and got up heading to the position. "Come on, give your strongest pokemon! I will show you how the strategy overcomes the rough strength."
"Oh… This is exactly my style!" I gladly said and made a couple of steps back to face the opponent. "All my pokemon are strong. But let`s try out… Reaper!"
I released the menacing Beedrill on the field. The foe smiled satisfied after that.
"A perfect target for my pokemon. Hypno, go!"
And he released his pokemon too. It was a humanoid-like yellow creature almost as high as his trainer. The pokemon had some fur around his neck, and long creepy nose and a… hypnotic pendant in his hand?
Could it be the evolved Drowzee? I feel the familiar creepiness in this pokemon.
"A Hypno? He`s a psychic type, isn`t he?" I questioned surprised. "This gym is supposed to be a poison-type, yeah?"
"Oh, the poison isn`t necessary in the type. It can be in your moves, in your blood or… in the tactic that you use. Hypno, begin with Psychic!"
Oh no… I know that move. At really powerful move that is also super effective on my Reaper! Maybe we can attack first?
"Okay, Reaper. Use Twineedle!" I gave the command.
And now the first battle of gym began. My Reaper waited for this for very long and gladly rushed to his opponent preparing to strike. The opposing creepy Hypno raised his pendant and glowed his eyes bright purple. The slight purple glow appeared around my pokemon too, but he was a bit faster to his first. One powerful super effective strike and then another – Hypno got much damage from it. He had to retreat back and then finish his own move causing the powerful psychic wave around my pokemon and hitting him too. We suffered as well.
"Your foe is weakened… Use Meditate!" The opponent commanded. His Hypno suddenly sat on ground and prepared to actually meditate as the slight read aura appeared around him.
"Stop him! Use Twineedle again!" I commanded to my pokemon.
Hypno didn`t move a bit after that but Reaper rushed to him again and hit again very powerfully. Another super effective hit from us! But the opponent wasn`t defeated yet. More than that – after his meditation he tenses and looked more muscular than before.
"Finish it with a single Headbutt!" Opposing trainer shouted.
"Great! Be ahead and use the Speedy Backstab maneuver!" I turned the battle into our favor. The opponent didn`t realize what hit him.
Hypno lowered his head and rushed to us. My Reaper wasn`t waiting and accelerated too. Right at the second before the hit he struck the for with his left needle and jumped over him just to strike even stronger once again. That was a really strong move, maybe even a critical one. Hypno fell on the ground right on the place.
"And now finish him with Fury Attack!" I shouted.
My Beedrill raised his stings at the opponent, but suddenly not to hit with them. They began to glow green just like during the Twineedle attack, but instead of it small sharp spikes appeared on the stings and literally shot into our opponent. One, another, and one more, and another and finally the fifth one!
After that opponent was definitely defeated.
"You…" The opponent said contemptuously while returning his Hypno. "You have much more poison on your strategy."
"I didn`t see the poison in yours at all." I confidently replied to him and then called to my Reaper. "Hey… Come here for a second."
Beedrill obediently approached me and returned back inside the pokeball. I took the TM Case and put the capsule inside.
The strange behavior, as I suspected, appeared to be the attempt of learning a new move called Pin Missile. Not bad bug-type move that is very similar to Fury Attack.
Well then, we get the benefit from learning it. With a single press of a button my Reaper forgot the Fury Attack and learnt completely the Pin Missile. But damn, I don`t like messing with pokemon memory…
But when I finished and returned my attention to the room, my opponent was already gone. At least, now I can proceed deeper into the maze.
And as I was walking along the wall and drawing the line on it I was moving forward, closer to the distant wall of gym and further from the leader Koga himself. The strange maze leads me away from my goal.
Very soon I approached another trainer. Surprisingly he didn`t interrupt his meditations to battle me. Or he`s just fell asleep. Maybe it`s better, I don`t want to waste much time for these guys.
But the next one that was practicing his air-punching skills with – suddenly – Sandslash didn`t lose the chance of challenging me. This was one of those who wear a jeans pants and rough blue shirt. I often see such guys on the countryside trying to tame pokemon without catching it. They usually fail or give up and catch them in the end.
"Finally, you came!" He gladly greeted me. "Let me introduce myself. I am Phil, the student of Koga`s pokemon gym and ninja school. Ha… The invisible walls got you confused?"
"Yeah, a bit." I agreed. "How do you guys navigate in this place?"
"It`s all the memory and ninja skills!" He struck a pathos pose.
"I don`t see anyone but your leader looking like ninjas."
"Because we must blend into the crowd, hide in the shadows… The uniform will be given only to those who does not need it to become invisible." The guy mysteriously answered. His words had some sense, to my surprise.
"Okay, I think I get it. Your ninja school looks stylish. But I still don`t understand why it`s called the poison-type gym. Or you`re one of those who think that 'the poison must not necessary be in the type, it`s enough to have it in blood…'?"
"You will see. Sandslash, let`s begin!" He pointed at me and his partner pokemon jumped forward ready to battle.
"Okay, we accept this. And I begin with Harry!" I sent my pokemon at the battlefield. Weepinbell screeched loudly at the Sandslash beginning the fight.
"Let`s start with Poison Sting!" Phil gave the command. Looks like I finally see some poison in a poison-type gym. Can`t tell I was looking forward to it too much.
"Harry, use Vine Whip!" I did the same thing. Our pokemon rushed to each other to attack. Too bad the foe Sandslash was faster than us, and on a close distance he hit strongly with his sting hidden between the claws. Fortunately to us this is a poison-type move which is not super effective against us, so it wasn`t that bad. But when we got the chance to strike, our attack was super effective and made the opponent fell back.
"Vine Whip again!"
"Defense Curl!" Phil orientated in the battle, and his pokemon jumped on place and curled into a hard spiky ball. Our attack hit it again, but this time the effect was much weaker.
"Great, keep protecting from this Vine Whip!" The opponent was keeping the pace.
"Really? We know how to deal with this. Whirligig maneuver!" I commanded to perform a new maneuver we invented during the vacation at Bill`s.
Harry grabbed poor Sandslash and partly wrapped him with the vine and then spinned the spiky ball like a real whirligig sending him straightly into the invisible wall. The mouse pokemon crashed into the transparent glass with such power he fainted immediately.
"That`s right! Harry, great job!" I complimented my pokemon and raised eyesight at the opponent to see what he is going to do next.
"Cunning and strong… You would be a good ninja." He said to me and beamed his pokemon back. "Let`s show you the strength of a real poison-type! Arbok, let`s go!"
When the huge menacing figure of snake pokemon appeared on the field I immediately felt the familiar horror in it. The evolution of Ekans, my hated pokemon.
This reminded me of that night… The bite marks almost disappeared but the memory will remain forever. There is only one pokemon I can hate more than Ekans and his evolution. And so I want this one feel pain for appearing before me.
"Have a rest, Harry… This guy will do the job." I switched my Weepinbell to Gengar, the scary ghost-poison pokemon.
"Aha! Let`s shower him with Acid, boy!" Phil cunningly commanded.
"Loser, use Shadow Punch!" I felt a little bit awkward pronouncing his name, but that doesn`t matter. This is a Loser that is going to win!
My Gengar appeared to be much faster than Phil`s Arbok so he easily punched this bastard in the face and sent him back to the ground. Who was born to crawl must crawl!
After a quick recovery the opponent opened his mouth and spit a large clot of toxic goo into my Gengar. Being partly poison-type pokemon by himself gave him the advantage and resistance to this stuff. Not very smart and not very effective.
"Approach him closer!" Phil commanded.
I crossed my hands on chest and stayed silent. I was waiting for a fitting moment. And when this moment came, we struck.
"Curse!"
"Bite!"
Oh, that was a mistake. I had no idea this Arbok knows Bite that is actually super effective against my Gengar. And also we hit ourselves with the Curse that possibly will last longer than us. And don`t want to change my active pokemon.
Loser performed his cursed spell to hurt Arbok, but right after that the opponent bit him badly in the part that looked like Gengar`s ear. The painful screech of ghost pokemon was painful to me too as I literally felt his pain. That was too strong as my pokemon fell on ground almost finished. But Arbok looked bad too. It`s the matter of last move…
"Yeah… Let`s end this. The last Bite!" My opponent evilly said.
"No way. Sucker Punch!" I intercepted him just like my Gengar was literally lifted from the ground by the magic power of high-priority moves and rushed to the enemy and hit him at full power. Arbok screeched this time and then suddenly silenced. Defeated.
"I see that I still have lot to learn…" Phil sadly said and returned his second and last pokemon into the capsule. The battle is over.
"Well, I learnt something here too." I replied and returned Loser back. "Maybe you can give me some advice on how to get to Koga and defeat him?"
After this question Phil gave me very angry look.
"The best advice is the one that you give yourself." He answered and immediately disappeared in the column of smoke.
"Damn ninja posers…" I swore and returned to spoiling the property of gym by drawing explicit lines on the invisible walls.
The road of the air line very soon made me turn to the left and then turn once more. Looks like I got to the other side of wall where I can clearly see my own line on the other side of glass. From this point I can easily say that the glass walls here are pretty thick.
As I followed the path of one-side wall I had soon to turn again. Now I am pretty close to Koga, but some more trainers still present around me though the glass. I passed one of them, but he didn`t react to me too. Maybe it was the glass blocking us or something like that.
And very soon I came to another turn of wall with another trickster guy on the right from me. He stopped his training and faced me immediately.
"So… You are here to challenge the leader Koga." His voice sounded very deep and rude. "Do you know who he is?"
"Um… No. Tell me."
"Master Koga is the descendant of a very great ninja clans of the past. Thanks to him the ancient ninja teachings will not be forgotten!" He suddenly raised his voice at me.
"Sheesh, calm down. If not thanks to him – then thanks to someone else they will be forgotten. I am just a random challenger, don`t yell at me. This hurts."
"You shall not pass until I stand!" He angrily looked at me and threw his greatball. For a second I thought he is going to catch me, but his capsule opened in the flight and released Drowzee on the field.
"Oh… Drowzee. Seriously?" I gave him a sorry look. "You`re a poison-type gym! Where are poison-type pokemon, damnit?"
"Shut your mouth and battle me!" He rudely replied. I think now I know what the 'poison in blood' means.
"Okay, but don`t tell later I didn`t warn you!" I said and prepared the burning pokeball in my hand for the throw.
"Wha… You didn`t warn me!" The opponent confusedly said.
"Don`t tell this to anyone then." I replied and finally sent out my main star into the battle. The mighty Charizard!
This was the first time my Dumpling entered the real battle in this form. He looks really menacing as a Charizard. And finally he got used to throwing the flames from his mouth, now he shoots the fire column right into the air just because it`s cool.
And so we began. Or course, Dumpling was waiting to try out his awesome flamethrower on the real opponent.
"Yes, my boy. Do it!" I gave him the command.
"Start with Confusion!" The opponent counterattacked.
Despite being big and wide, my Dumpling appeared to me quite fast and agile. This let him launch a powerful fire attack right at the opponent`s Drowzee even before he managed to concentrate and perform an attack of his own. But suddenly the effect wasn`t as strong as I expected it to be – Drowzee withstood that and exploded Dumpling`s mind. Fortunately, without a confusion.
Maybe I overestimated the power of flamethrower a bit. We have to train it more later, but for now we can switch to something other.
"How about giving him a couple of Wing attacks?" I cheerfully said.
"Drowzee, use Disable!" The opponent angrily commanded.
Dumpling rushed to the enemy and struck him powerfully with his strong wing. This attack was pretty strong – maybe, Drowzees are more vulnerable to physical attacks? But right after our move the creepy opponent casted his own spell of Disable and immobilized the wings of my Charizard.
"Oh, we have more! Metal Claw!" I shouted.
"Disable!"
Damn, again with this thing? He tries to block all our physical attacks! At least, that proves my theory. But we still have the chance.
Dumpling quickly approached his foe and punched with the metallic-tough claw. Drowzee flew away and grunted, but still survived and disabled another of our moves. I noticed the cunning smile on our opponent`s face.
Now we`re run out of physical attacks that damage the opponent so good, but fortunately for us, he can`t disable out maneuvers. And one more physical attack is all we need.
"Okay now, Dumpling… Use Butt kick maneuver!"
"Wait, wha…" The opposing trainer was too confused. "Um… Disable! Use Disable!"
My Charizard approached the enemy once again attacking from behind and gave him a nice kick. Drowzee was sent flying right into the invisible wall and finally fainted after a nice hit.
"What the heck was that?" The trickster was shouting after returning his fallen pokemon.
"Hah… It`s not that easy to teach your pokemon lifting his leg, yeah?" I mockingly looked at him and smiled. "Come on, do you have more of these or I am free to proceed?"
"The battle is not over!" My opponent grabbed another capsule of his. "Hypno, assist me!"
And so another Hypno appeared on the invisible battlefield.
"You guys are strange… Dumpling, let`s finish this quickly. Flamethrower!"
"Hypno, Psychic!"
Another round began with two pokemon charging their attacks. I was understanding that if Drowzee resisted my special move then Hypno will resist it even more, but I need to buy some time for the effect of Disable to run out. I just hope that Hypno doesn`t know this move too.
But in the end the powerful flamethrower hit our opponent and made him retreat back a bit. As I expected, for Hypno that wasn`t too bad, but the counterattack with powerful Psychic from him was really bad for us. This psychic impulse exploded right before my Dumpling and threw him back on ground. In a second battle in a row he looked not very good.
"And now… Poison Gas!" Our opponent evilly commanded.
"Oh no, Dumpling, get up, get up! Dodge that!" I began to worry.
But my pokemon was hit by that Psychic attack too badly and Hypno had plenty of time when Charizard was trying to get up. The hypnosis pokemon sent a disgusting cloud of purple smoke right from his large nose and hit my pokemon. The poison got under the skin immediately, causing my partner to shiver from pain.
I expected to see poison-type moves in this gym, but I wasn`t glad to see it.
This was the pain to see my pokemon suffering, balancing on the edge. But the close doesn`t mean real end for him. This means the end for his enemies.
Because this is where the Blaze activates!
And I saw it coming when the temperature got really heated around us and the fire was burning stronger on my Dumpling`s tail. This is the moment that scared both our opponent and his pokemon. This was even more impressive when Dumpling made a loud furious roar across the whole gym.
"Give him the best Flamethrower you can, boy!" I shouted and pointed forward.
"No-no, counterattack with Headbutt!"
My Charizard was unstoppable. The powerful flamethrower much stronger than usually struck the poor Hypno and made him fall back. The stream of fire didn`t end even after that and it dissolved just after the fallen enemy have lost the last signs of life.
That was the best Flamethrower ever, a real critical hit!
My Dumpling was looking at his opponent and heavily breathing. But then suddenly the gurgling wheeze sounded from him, and he fell down on ground, defeated by the poison.
"You still was awesome, my boy." I praised him and returned back to pokeball.
"Well, you have some power, man." My opponent said while sending his pokemon back to rest too. "Still… This is not enough to beat the Master Koga."
I looked back at the man sitting relatively near me. I bet there is still an invisible glass dividing us, but at this point the meditating leader was closer than ever.
When I returned my eyesight back in front of me, the defeated trickster was gone just like the others before him. Well, now it seems like I can continue drawing the lines again.
Or can I?
For some reason the sight of leader sitting in some meters from me attracted my attention. And without thinking I headed to him. I was walking forward, slowly approaching the great Master Koga. When he was very close, I reached out my hand to him expecting to bump into another invisible glass… But no.
I laid my hand on his shoulder.
"So, you came to challenge." The calm and deep voice of Master Koga reached me.
"No. I came to make a deal."