The great master of ninja art slowly got up and then turned to me.
"That`s interesting. You came through my gym, beat my best students just to… make some deal?" he suspiciously stared at me. At some point I thought he knows that I am involved in recent robbery of local PokeCenter. Maybe he really knows it, but he showed no sign of it.
"Not exactly." I made a step back and stared at him too, "we WILL have a gym battle. I will earn my badge fair and square, but after that we will have some serious talk."
Koga raised his eyebrow in surprised manner. Looks like his boring life of poisonous master doesn`t usually consist of serious challengers that need something BESIDES the badges from him.
"You got my attention, challenger Vengeance." the man seriously answered.
"I… I didn`t introduce myself yet. How do you know my name?" my suspicion went sky high after his words.
"You did. Right when you stepped inside my gym." he threw a quick glance at the entrance. "if I`m meditating that doesn`t mean I hear nothing. I hear… everything."
Koga turned back from me and slowly headed forward – maybe to his leader`s side of battlefield.
"In this gym I can control every your step. I was listening to each your command, to each your word. Your style of battle looks…" he stopped and looked over the black line that I was drawing in my way to him and then half-turned to me, "…interesting. Let`s see how you handle your pokemon in a real battle."
Master Koga raised his hand and clicked fingers. The surroundings of gym began to change quickly: the sudden light revealed the walls that were invisible until now. Damn, the path from my last opponent to Koga was very tight – one step aside and I would crush into it. I saw this way slowly closing and then the lights disappeared making the walls invisible again. But now I know that we are in a closed room and partly I remember how far the walls are.
And then suddenly something else was lifted – I could hear it but I could not see. I bet he added some more invisible walls right on the battlefield. Damn, I have to think about the way of finding these walls.
A large screen raised from above and turned on to control our battle, as always. I could see no trainers around us but maybe they are watching over the walls.
Two more devices lifted up from the floor – the healing machine right near me and the pokeball stand near the leader Koga. He nodded, and I headed to the machine for healing. This process was some faster than usually, and I quickly returned to the marked position.
"How many badges do you have?" the ninja master asked me.
"Four. Yet." I answered with determination.
"Good. That`s good… That means I can show you one of my best pokemon!"
"The battle between gym leader Koga and the challenger is about to begin!" the loud voice that belonged to my latest opponent announced, "This is one-on-one battle with four pokemon on each side. Only the challenger is allowed to substitute. Begin!"
Koga grinned and grabbed his first pokeball from the stand.
"Koffing, let`s begin!" he released his pokemon on the field that appeared to be a flying toxic ball. Yeah, that was expected …
"Well, he know how to handle this. Dumpling, you`re on!"
I began the battle with my best and strongest pokemon. Charizard appeared before me and launched a powerful stream of flame into the air showing his readiness to battle.
"The bigger they are – the harder they fall…" Koga said mysteriously. This reminded of me saying the same thing in a battle against Onix. "Let`s start with Toxic!"
"Okay, and we will start with Metal Claw!"
Just with one jump my pokemon reached the opponent and hit him hard with the big and sharp claw. Koffing was struck pretty badly as he slowly levitated back, but stopped quickly and gave a creepy happy glance at us. These pokemon always keep their happy face no matter what and this makes them even creepier. The hit didn`t manage to damage his hard shell. And this thing immediately shot the disgusting clot of poison at my Charizard, burning his skin with acid and immediately causing the poisoning.
Things are getting bad for us. Now we need to be much faster that the poison.
"Well then, let`s try Flamethrower!" I gave the command.
"Use Sludge, Koffing…" Koga answered us confidently.
And that`s again a move with the name that speaks for itself. It speaks nothing good.
But my Charizard is much faster than this creepy flying swelling and easily burnt it good before the wave of sludge hit him and another effect of poison damaged him even more.
Looks like this is becoming worse and worse. But our opponent was hit pretty badly with our flamethrower – looks like the tough bark of Koffing protects him from physical attacks and not special ones. One more attack – and the first will be down!
"Let`s finish him… With Flamethrower!" I shouted feeling the close victory.
"Yes… Try it. Smokescreen, Koffing!" Koga countered us with my own strategy.
But it was almost useless. My pokemon launched a strong stream of fire right at him and hit pretty badly, sending the flying Koffing to the ground. With the last breath, opponent released a weak cloud of smoke and fainted.
"Koffing is unable to battle!" our commentator announced, "Charizard is the winner!"
"Great job, Dumpling! Keep it going!" I cheered my flaming champion. He roared with determination, but then the effect of poison struck him again, "Hold on. We were training for this!"
Koga closed his eyes and returned the defeated Koffing back. The loss wasn`t too hurt for him.
"The battle didn`t even begin yet." he grabbed another pokeball and threw it on the field releasing… another Koffing.
"Seriously?" I surprisingly asked, "how much of these do you have?"
"Exactly enough. Koffing, Smokescreen!"
"Oh no… Dumpling, destroy this thing, faster! Flamethrower!" I quickly ordered an attack. And attack of ours was fast and strong, as always, but it was still not enough to destroy the Koffing with one hit. In return he released a large cloud of dark smoke on the field, blocking our vision. He succeeded in lowering our damn accuracy.
"Wave your wings to take the smoke away!" I improvised the counter to this.
"And meanwhile we use Sludge…" leader Koga calmly replied.
Yeah, our attempt to gain control over the field will give our opponent a real advantage. My Dumpling is still suffering from the pain of poisoning and if the battle continues this way – then my dream to swipe all the leader`s pokemon with a single pokemon from me will be just a dream… At least, not for this gym.
This time my pokemon tried to take the smoke away with his wings and this seemed to work a little. The figure of Koffing hiding behind the veil became more visible just to launch a devastating sludge shot and hit us badly.
This Koga seems to be pretty tough opponent. Well, all gym leaders are tough opponents, I have to admit. They all put me to limit, but not as much as Giovanni did. And yet we have to act before time runs out.
"And now let`s return to our attack with Flamethrower!" I commanded. Koga shook his head disappointedly and gave his own command.
"Repeat the Sludge attack!"
Finally we began our assault. Charizard charged the massive Flamethrower in his mouth and directed it straight into Koffing, but… it struck into the invisible wall opponent was hiding behind. And when our flame ended, the gas pokemon moved aside a bit and shot in return performing another successful attack.
This is the main trick of this gym – the invisible wall, I get it. The locals remember the placement perfectly and can hide behind it, but we have to hope for the best.
At least, now I know why Koga acts so carefully – he realizes that another attack from us can actually defeat his Koffing. Both pokemon are beaten quite badly, our only successful hit was pretty strong. But we need to do at least one more…
"Follow him and attack with Metal Claw!" I gave the command. My pokemon understood what I want to do. And so did Koga.
"The extreme measures, yes? Fine. Ours are more extreme. SELF-DESTRUCT!"
And what the heck is self-destruct? This doesn`t sound good at all!
Charizard carefully ran around the place where his flamethrower hit the invisible wall and got to Koffing. At this moment the gas pokemon somehow tensed and inflated quite a lot coloring himself in dangerous red. And right after my partner hit him with a powerful Metal Claw… The explosion shook the whole gym. A strong shock wave threw my Charizard back, right at the wall. The damage was so strong it made my pokemon faint immediately.
"Both pokemon are unable to battle!" The commentator announced. He didn`t sound like surprised at all. I guess this is Koga`s regular move – to sacrifice his own pokemon just to defeat the opponent`s strongest.
But we still have the chance. Maybe he actually took down my best pokemon I still have three and he has two. And all the rest of my team – not counting the unfit for action Magikarp – is half-poison type and resist it pretty good. Well, Harry doesn`t resist it because of the also half-grass type. But he has some good maneuvers to perform.
"Okay, master Koga… Now I see you." I said threateningly, "Moment, come out!"
I returned poor Dumpling back into his pokeball to have a rest and grabbed Golbat`s pokeball to take his place. And the magnificent bat pokemon flew above the battlefield.
"Great." leader Koga seemed to be glad seeing a poison-type from my side, "let`s see how you deal with THIS!"
And in a light of his pokeball the large figure appeared. The strange pokemon that stood in my way to victory was like a Grimer, but darker and much bigger. That was obviously his evolution.
"Let`s win this with your speed!" I said to Moment, "begin with Astonish!"
"Hm? Acid Armor, Muk…" the opponent suddenly commanded.
The sludge pokemon prepared to emit another layer of dirt to protect from our attack, but it appeared to be not necessary because my extremely fast Moment was stopped by an invisible wall and fell down right now. Muk had plenty of time to make the defensive layer of sludge. Koga predicted that we won`t be able to stop him.
These walls are really damn high and that`s a problem. But to invent a way to outsmart Koga I need firstly to observe him.
"Memorize this spot, Moment. Find another way to strike again!"
"Really? Well, Muk, use Minimize," Koga sounded not really interested in our battle at all. He thought that his invisible walls can protect him.
And they actually did that when my Moment accelerated again to our sludgy opponent and hit another wall again. Looks like up there are much more walls than on ground. Damn this is really smart thing, I have to say. Unfortunately, we lost another turn and Muk tensed his liquid body to Minimize… Whatever this means.
Sometimes I think that the evolution can be harmful. Zubat could easily find the invisible walls with his soundwave detector or something, but Golbats cannot. Golbats got the eyes and this natural mechanism is no use to them anymore. Well, this could be useful to us NOW. He have to look for the hole or change the tactic.
"Moment, descent to the ground and use Wing Attack!" I improvised.
"Not bad. Minimize again, Muk!" Koga fended off with determination.
As we have already explored, there are less invisible walls on ground level – maybe Koga doesn't like flying pokemon or just wants to have a balanced battles. Anyway, my Golbat flew down and just then accelerated in Muk`s direction.
But exactly at the moment my pokemon could hit the opponent with his wing, Muk suddenly shrank a bit to barely dodge the attack. Moment just flew past him and crushed into another invisible wall behind. Damn, that looked hurt.
"Speed doesn`t always matters when you use the environment…" Koga seriously told me. This bastard is going to teach me now! Well, I will remember this.
At least, now I know that there is no invisible walls between Moment and Muk and we can make a 100% hit if we do this right into the center. But this is going to be risky as my poor Golbat hit himself quite a lot.
"Wing Attack, Moment! Aim for the middle!" I furiously ordered.
Filled with anger and thirst for vengeance, my Golbat got up after the hit and rushed to Muk. At this moment Koga looked very pleased. We got into his trap.
"You know what to do."
The sludge pokemon just opened wide his mouth and caught my Golbat with it. The body of my pokemon was got right into his liquid form and… swallowed? Digested? That`s a horrible thing to see.
But in some seconds Muk just spit out my Golbat on ground, defeated.
"Golbat is unable to battle! Winner is leader Koga`s Muk!"
So he easily leveled the score… It`s two on two now. And his current pokemon is well-defended. And also he can dodge our attacks by shrinking in size. And he did this without moving his pokemon at all! How could we overcome this?
With using a pokemon that resists the poison by both types at once!
"Let`s go, Loser!" I confidently shouted and sent out my Gengar on the field. Koga looked confused but this didn`t bother him too much.
"I see you have… a variety of pokemon." He said quietly.
"Of course, I do. I also have a variety of moves! Such as… Curse!" I cunningly replied.
Until now Koga tried to protect his Muk from any our attack with defense and dodging, but Curse isn`t a thing you can ever avoid. This is very risky but we need to take our chances.
Judging by Koga`s surprisingly raised eyebrow he realized my evil plan.
"Quickly, use Sludge!" He ordered to his pokemon.
Looks like now we got a trap of our own if opponent have no better moves and uses such useless Sludge against us.
My agile Gengar jumped a couple of times and then casted his cursed spell to strike both Muk and himself. That hurt quite a lot, I know. But if we will stick to my strategy we can have the chance. The Sludge attack hit my pokemon, but not very badly. He grinned and stared at hurt Muk like it was nothing.
"We can still do it. Continue shooting Sludge at it!" Koga gave the order.
"And we WILL do it. Carefully run around Muk!"
Loser immediately rushed to the side and dodged the toxic attack that flew past him and struck the invisible wall leaving a nice large blot. Koga didn`t give a meaning to this and repeated the command while we were carefully moving around. One time my Gengar did crush into another invisible wall and got hit by the shot of sludge, but it was not enough to finish him.
But the time we bought was enough to finish the opponent. On the last breath he spit out the clot of poisonous stuff that struck the wall near Loser. Another miss for him… And the final hit from the Curse.
Opposing Muk fainted.
"Muk is unable to continue and Gengar is the winner!" our commentator announced. Damn, I like when they announce my victories.
"Okay, now I see YOU." Koga said to me while returning his pokemon, "you have found a pretty good strategy against my Muk. I wish to know what you will find against my final pokemon!"
And he threw an ultraball on the floor, releasing his last pokemon. This one looked pretty disturbing… It was another Koffing… But bigger… With another smaller Koffing stuck to his side. These two faces didn`t look like enjoying their life.
So, it`s obviously another gas pokemon. I can expect something like Koffings had… But this one definitely will not explode – this will make no sense. I think I have prepared the field good enough to face this two-headed threat.
"We will stay. Make your move."
"Well then… Weezing, use Sludge!" Koga stepped back and coldly commanded. Why he continues using this again? Doesn`t his pokemon know any… more effective moves?
"Cover behind the wall, Loser!" I gave the command.
While large head was charging the poison shot my quick Gengar jumped behind the invisible wall. Now as the half of field is covered with acid we can perfectly see the earlier invisible surfaces. When Weezing shot his powerful poison attack and struck just the wall, Koga understood my trick.
"Oh, that is clever… But we know this field better than you! Weezing, fly around the wall and hit him straight!"
Judging by the strength of Koffing`s Sludge move I could tell another one can be really dangerous for my already-beaten Loser. The own damage from Curse and that other Sludge from Muk was strong enough to get him almost to edge. Final pokemon is a pokemon you shouldn`t play with. Maybe if we find his weak spot we can defeat Weezing with one strong hit. Or, maybe, two.
"Keep dodging it and hide behind the walls!" I gave the command to my Gengar.
The chase began. Loser was running between the poison shot literally hanging in the air and trying to dodge the bullets of acid coming from Weezing`s mouth. The room was so filled with toxins I even felt a little dizzy. This still couldn`t distract me from observing the body of our enemy and trying to make a new strategy.
But just after some time I noticed that our opponent doesn`t even try to aim at us. He shoots a little to the left of Loser causing him run to the right. This looked like Weezing is… leading my Gengar somewhere to!
We know this field better than you!
Damn! He is leading my pokemon into a dead-end!
But when I realized this, it was too late. My Loser tried to run away from the chasing Weezing and crushed into another invisible wall. Opponent launched a powerful clot of acid burning the phantom body of Loser. Maybe he resists the poison attacks naturally, but when the opponent is really strong, this doesn`t mean much…
"Gengar is unable to battle! Weezing. Is. The winner!"
And it was so good looking… I returned my fallen pokemon back into his greatball and raised my eyesight to Weezing. This large steaming blob of gas… What do I have now?
Reaper is half-poison type and resists the attacks but all his moves are not very effective against poison types.
Harry is half-poison too but also half-grass type. That means the poison attacks affect him neutrally… And all his moves are not very effective too… But he knows some cool maneuvers and has one last trick.
Magikarp isn`t an option. No, not now.
So the choice is obvious.
"Let`s go, Harry!"
I released my final pokemon on the field and let him bloom like a flower. Deadly and poisonous flower…
"Another poison type. I wonder how would your battle another gym leader would go…" Koga let him think a bit, "Doesn`t matter. Weezing, let`s start with Tackle!"
"All right, Harry, and we will begin with Flash!"
Comparing to Loser`s fast speed reaction Harry in a form of small Weepinbell was much slower. Just a bit of difference let Weezing hit him before the Flash was executed and Harry was thrown back. That was some really strong Tackle, I have to admit, but my Harry quickly recovered and flashed brightly blinding the opponent.
"So, this is how you act? Let`s give our powers some balance. Smokescreen!" leader Koga shouted.
"Quickly, use Stun Spore!" I reacted to that.
Weezing obeyed the command and opened his mouth releasing a huge cloud of smoke to block our sight. My Harry was lost in this damn veil and launched his spores somewhere far away from the actual target.
"Hide behind the wall, Harry!" I switched to defensive tactic trying to get as much use of our previous trick as possible.
"Tackle. That. Wall!" master Koga shouted mercilessly.
I always thought tackle to be one of the weakest moves. This Weezing proved me wrong when he smashed the invisible wall into barely visible pieces and threw my Harry onto the other wall. Maybe if it is not for our Flash, he could aim better and strike harder but the effect still was.
Okay, this monstrosity can crush walls. He is strong on all sides, what does that give me? I have no idea. Is it time to unleash my secret weapon? No, it is not. And… now I`m not even sure whether the secret weapon will be enough.
"Keep running!" I gave the command and my Weepinbell immediately jumped away from the destroyed coverage.
"Don`t lose him, Weezing! Tackle again!" Koga pressed on us even more.
My pokemon tried to run behind another wall marked by the sludge, but the opponent decided to cut the way right through the wall, smashing it into pieces and flooding the surroundings with small splinters. This is another disadvantage for us as walking on the broken glass isn`t good for my Harry anyway.
But each time Weezing was crushing into wall I saw how much his health drops on the central screen. Now I have learnt to get the useful information from it. And now I know when to get a good moment.
Soon Koga noticed that too and had to stop this senseless destruction right when there were no invisible walls left on the field. Well, at least no invisible walls left that I could see with the help of markings.
"Now you have nowhere to run. Finish him with the best Tackle you can!"
I was literally amazed by how much strength this pokemon has. Usually pokemon get tired of using the same move too many times, but this one… This one was not.
Master Koga gave us this precious moment.
"So, Harry… Do the maneuver you performed against Snorlax! A Slingshot maneuver!" I took our chances. We MUST withstand it.
The unexpected turn of events made even a determinate man like Master Koga make a confused face.
My Harry stretched his vines and grabbed Weezing from two sides. When opponent successfully and very powerfully hit him with Tackle, Weepinbell flew away barely alive but managed to hold his grip. When his vines tensed enough, the effect of slingshot worked. At high speed Harry launched himself back into Weezing and hit him even stronger. This made both pokemon fall back and land on ground, both on the edge. Once again, it`s the question of last move – who will be the first.
Despite Weepinbell being slower than Weezing, the first move will be ours!
"Harry, catch!" I took the Leaf Stone from my pocket and threw it to Harry. He was ready and grabbed it in the air.
And he began to shine with familiar blue light. The body of Weepinbell became bigger and longer, leaves moved down, a long lone vine grew down from the top and a large spiky leaf appeared closing the mouth.
The shining light faded and a completely another pokemon appeared between us. A pokemon I faced during my last gym battle. Menacing and powerful Victreebel with small angry eyes and very notable scar. I knew it will remain.
Harry screeched loudly stating his readiness for battle.
"Amazing. You were waiting exactly for this moment, right?" leader Koga shockingly asked.
"Exactly. The moment of your defeat. Harry, use the Back Vine maneuver!"
"What are you… Weezing! Tackle it and FINISH it!"
Exactly as I predicted. Opponent rushed towards us in an attempt to strike, but our vines are longer and stronger. And – what`s more important – faster now. Harry caught this smoking ball in a tight grip and accelerated him in the direction of floor behind. Throwing this poisonous menace over himself Victreebel crushed Weezing into the ground with the powerful strength.
Gas pokemon wheezed from all this suffering and laid down. He got up no more.
"Weezing is unable to battle. Winner is Victreebel and the victory goes to the challenger!" the loud voice of our commentator loudly announced my victory.
Our victory.
Leader Koga closed his eyes and silently returned the defeated Weezing back inside the capsule. The seconds passed until he pulled himself together and bowed before me.
"Humph! I accept the strength of you and your pokemon, challenger," he slowly put the ultraball inside his coat and took a small heart-shaped badge just like Douchebag had. "You have proven your worth! Here! Take the SoulBadge!"
I gladly accepted this and looked at the prize. This… looks interesting. Definitely a regular plastic, but it feels somehow sticky. Although it is definitely not. I slowly grabbed the badge case and put it into the fitting slot. It`s so nice to see the collection growing.
"Ah! Take this, too!" And he quickly took a small disk from another of his pockets of purple color and handed it over to me. "Sealed within that TM lies Toxic! It is a secret technique dating back some four hundred years. When afflicted by Toxic, a Pokémon suffers more and more. It suffers worsening damage as the battle wears on! It will surely terrorize foes!"
"Whoah… That is interesting. Thank you, master Koga," I took another his gift and hid it in my greatcoat.
Then I grabbed the TM Case and inserted this disk into it. I will check this later. Now it`s time to check my new pokemon in PokeDex.
"You were great, Harry. You`re great now." I praised him and returned into the marked pokeball and scanned with my device.
Victreebel, the flycatcher pokemon.
This horrifying plant Pokémon attracts prey with aromatic honey, then melts them in its mouth. Once ingested into this Pokémon's body, even the hardest object will melt into nothing.
Holy crap. More deadly pokemon into my collection of deadly pokemon. If my Gengar doesn`t suck all my heat in the night, then Victreebel can easily eat a whole human. Great.
All this time I was checking my pockets, updating my devices and hiding the prizes master Koga was patiently waiting for me with all his ninja patience.
"Wow, congrats, challenger!" a really squeaky girlish voice sounded somewhere behind me. I turned around to see a girl a bit younger than me running to us. This young lady was in a classic ninja suit, but didn`t look like a real ninja at all.
"Erm… Thank you. Your leader is a really good trainer, this battle wasn`t easy at all."
"Yeah, my father is the top leader of `em all!" the girl bragged proudly, "you were just lucky to beat him!"
"Janine, don`t bother this young man," Koga scolded her and addressed me after that, "excuse my daughter. Follow me to my office where we can talk about that… deal of yours."
And together we left the main gym hall, leaving the broken and dirty invisible walls and a lone angry Janine in the center of all this mess.
Master Koga`s office looked a bit bigger than others. He had much more rewards and cups for participating and winning different competitions.
"Whoah. You seem to be pretty… active as a gym leader, master Koga," I complimented the leader.
"Ah, it`s all useless. My wish is to make my way to the Pokemon League," he answered to me.
"To become the champion?"
"Ha, no. This is too much for an old man like me. Too much attention, too much farce… I want just to join the Elite Four," Koga explained and I could just agree with him.
"That`s a very ambitious idea anyway."
"I already battled one of them… But lost. There is still much more for me to learn," Koga took his place at the table and crossed his arms on chest, "but let`s talk about the business. What do you want?"
I carefully looked around and approached the door to close it. It this moment I noticed how Koga`s face changed to the extreme mistrust and he pulled his hand to something I guess very weapon-like on his waist. But I then slowly passed him and took my place on a chair.
"Do you know about Team Rocket, right?" I whispered carefully.
"Yes, I know…" Koga slowly answered.
"Good. How do you treat them?" I bended back and looked straight into his eyes.
This question confused him a bit. The leader had to take some time to decide his answer.
"I never actually encountered them… But I know that they are real bandits."
Interesting… He tells the truth, even in such formulation.
"What if I tell you… that they are more than just regular bandits?" I asked him with an intriguing tone.
"Then who are they? And… who are you then?" he began to act nervous a bit but did his best in not showing it.
"I`m the guy that was hurt by their actions… and wants to stop their plans," I took some distance from my interlocutor, just to make sure.
"Stop their plans? What exactly are you going to do?"
I looked around once again to make sure we are alone. When I calmed down my inside paranoiac I finally pulled myself together to tell him.
"I want to assault the Saffron City."