A/N: I think we've had enough dark stuff. Let's go back to happy friendly fun times! You know, before Nightmare and William Afton decided to try and fuck things up.

I changed the name of "Video Game Bonanza" to "Fun with Video Games" so that I don't have to pigeonhole myself into talking about 3+ video games whenever I do these things. Cause Pokémon could warrant a chapter all on its own. Also, I apologize to both any hardcore Pokémon fans if the following battles don't actually play out the way they do in reality, as well as any non-Pokémon fans out there - I'll try to make the battles as interesting as possible.

To answer a few reviewers, I won't be including the Bite Victim from FNAF4 as another ghostly family member cause I have my own plans in the future for him. Him AND Michael Afton both. Neither one will show up for a while, though, especially since we just got done with the heavy, scary, and/or depressing stuff.

Chapter 27 – Fun with Video Games 2

"So, Pokémon..." Mike said as he sat on his couch, the ghosts crowding around him with all ears open. "Where do I begin?"

"Hey Liz, remember? That's the game that broke our Henry Stickmin run back in our first night here!" Fritz interrupted.

Liz smiled at the memory from long ago. "Oh yeah, that Pokeball had a Missingno and it completely glitched the game during the FAIL."

"I have never seen a Missingno in-game, ever, and that's probably a good thing," Mike commented. "Anyway, the basic premise of the game is incredibly simple. You go around a given world catching various creatures and have them battle against each other."

"That's it?" Susie asked. "Seems kinda…basic."

Mike smirked. "You say that, but you'll be surprised how attached you'll get to the guys you pick up as part of your team. Heck, I'd even say that the Pokémon you choose to be part of your team are part of your family. That and the fact that you try to be the best trainer in your world and you try to stop a villain team from trying to screw with the world one way or another in the process." He shook his head. "I can't explain it well. You guys have to play it to understand."

Jeremy shrugged. "We'll take your word for it, dad."

"Naturally, I have all 7 generations, because I have absolutely no excuse not to have them with my gigantic lottery income and all that. Pokémon is both a simple game and one of the most complicated games ever at the same time. To really enjoy it, you need to have a brain." He raised an eyebrow. "How smart do you guys think you are?"

"We're geniuses, we can handle anything!" Fritz declared proudly. The other ghosts just looked at him incredulously.

"Says the guy who thought that running solo into three Heavy Armor fighters in our last D&D session was a good idea," Gabe snarked. Fritz threw him a dirty look and opened his mouth for a rebuttal.

"Enough, you two," Mary intervened. "Please continue, Mike."

Mike smiled. "I could pick any one of the generations to introduce you to Pokémon, but I'm going to pick Generation IV. Mainly because it's the one where, for me at least, battling makes the most sense, and things didn't get way too complicated yet in the series. I was thinking about that or Gen III, but some of my favorite Pokémon are in Gen IV, so there."

"There are…certain people…who would absolutely insist that you focus on Gen I and ONLY Gen I," Mary commented.

"Mary, I don't give the slightest shit about what the fucking Genwunners say," Mike blithely replied. The ghosts looked between the two of them in confusion.

"Genwunners?" Cassidy repeated in bewilderment.

"I'll explain later," Mike brushed it off. "Anyway, I could just let you all go through the adventure mode in Platinum and call it a day, but we're a family and we should be playing games together. So instead, I have a ton of full evolution Pokémon that I have saved up in my Platinum games that you can use to battle each other. Their movesets might not be the best, but they're functional enough and will give you an idea of what battling is like. Does that sound good to you?"

The ghosts grinned. "Yeah!" they exclaimed.

"All right, but first, I need to explain how battling works, cause that's where the complicated part comes in," Mike answered. "So, to begin with…"

[[ONE GIANT, LONG-ASS EXPLANATION ABOUT POKEMON BATTLING LATER, BECAUSE LET'S FACE IT, POKEMON BATTLING IS COMPLICATED AS FUCK IF YOU'RE NOT BRAINLESSLY TRYING TO USE FOUR ATTACKING MOVES ON EVERY POKEMON AND IT TOOK ME WAY TOO GODDAMN LONG TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS GOING ON WITHOUT SOMEONE TO HELP ME WHEN I FIRST PLAYED IT.]]

"And that's the best way I can describe the intricacies of Pokémon battling," Mike finished his speech. The ghosts all stared at him blankly and Mike could have sworn that he could see the circling birdies animation for Confusion status around their heads.

"What the crap?" Jeremy was the first to speak.

"Why is this game so complicated?" Fritz added blankly.

"I didn't understand half of what you just said," Liz muttered.

Mike shook his head. "For simplicity's sake, just use attacking moves with maybe a status move thrown in here or there," he replied. "Once you get it, you'll be surprised how addicting it is." He moved over to his stack of video games, took out two Nintendo DS's, and put in two Platinum games.

Liz shuddered as she caught a glimpse of the Pokémon on the case. "That Pokémon…" she muttered, "…it looks a lot like Nightmare." The other ghosts also shuddered as they recognized the comparison.

"Oh, Giratina?" Mike asked, not looking bothered. "Yeah, I can kinda see the resemblance, but unlike Nightmare, Giratina isn't that bad of a guy. He helps save the world from the main villain in this game, even though he ends up nearly destroying it himself by accident. He basically rules an alternate, kind of screwy dimension, but he keeps that dimension and everything in it safe, and that's critical for keeping the real world safe too. Incidentally, he's also my favorite legendary."

Gabe looked at Giratina again uneasily but decided not to let it bother him. "Whatever you say, Dad."

Mike smiled. "Trust me, Gabe, there's a certain warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you catch that scary and evil-looking legendary and it completely loves you after 20 levels of training. But anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, battling. We're gonna be doing this in two teams. Three of you for each DS. One person will do the actual playing, the other two will be looking up things like Type Matchups, Items, and Moves to help the player try and beat the other team's Pokémon. This is the best I can do to get as many people involved as possible. Does that work for you guys?"

"Yeah!" everyone enthusiastically agreed. Gabe, Susie, and Cassidy took one DS, while Jeremy, Fritz, and Liz took the other. Mike guided them to the PC box, where several fully evolved Level 50 Pokémon waited to be chosen. He then identified several Pokémon as "Legendary," which he banned from usage due to them being too powerful, and instructed the children to each pick four from the rest. After several minutes of talking, debating, and even flat-out arguing, the two teams were chosen.

"You guys ready?" Mike asked as the two connected a Link Battle. "Let the games begin!"

[[Start Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Gym/Elite Four Theme Here]]

The first Pokémon sent out for Gabe's team was a Swampert, while the one for Jeremy's team was a Machamp. "Ooh, an interesting match-up to start off with," Mike commented.

"Hit'em with an Earthquake!" Susie insisted, while Fritz encouraged Jeremy to fight using Dynamic Punch. Gabe's Swampert went off first and hit Machamp for decent damage, but Machamp was able to survive just fine and land a sure hit back with Dynamicpunch thanks to his No Guard ability. Gabe's team groaned as Swampert ended up confused, which if they remembered Mike's words correctly, was easily one of the most annoying status conditions out there.

"Come on, please don't hit yourself…" Cassidy begged him. To their immense relief, Swampert was able to fight through his confusion, and landed a Waterfall on Machamp since Gabe wanted to try and get a flinch off. To their surprise and delight, the Waterfall attack caused Machamp to flinch, netting them a free hit.

"Aww crap, this isn't good," Jeremy muttered.

"They're still confused, we can kill them with another Dynamic Punch if they hit themselves. Just go for it, there's no point in switching out this guy now," Fritz pointed out, and his two teammates agreed.

Gabe tried to finish Machamp off with an Earthquake, but to his team's disappointment, this time Swampert hit itself in its confusion. Jeremy took full advantage of this failure to land another Dynamicpunch on Swampert, and the Mud Fish Pokémon fainted.

"Don't worry about it," Susie said as Gabe decided to send out a Dragonite. "You can easily kill him back, that Machamp is almost dead."

"Yeah, we really can't do much with him anymore," Liz reluctantly agreed with her opponent. Gabe instructed Dragonite to finish him off with a Dragon Claw, and Machamp went the same way as Swampert.

Jeremy, Fritz, and Liz quickly talked amongst themselves quickly, and Jeremy sent out a Tyranitar. "Oh, looks like we're going to have a battle of Pseudo-Legendaries here," Mike commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Pseudo-Legendaries?" Cassidy asked.

"Pokemon that are powerful enough without actually being the ridiculously overpowered legendaries that I banned from this fight cause they're just that goddamn strong," Mike explained.

"Wow. Okay. This should be interesting," Fritz muttered.

"Does our Dragonite have any Super Effective moves against that Tyranitar?" Susie asked Gabe. "It has a couple of weaknesses, including a 4x one to Fighting."

"Lemme see…" Gabe quickly went through his moveset. "Well, it has Earthquake like Swampert did."

"Wait, hold on, I have an idea!" Cassidy whispered. "Why don't we use Dragon Dance? It'll boost our Attack and Speed one stage, and then we'll be sure to knock out that Tyranitar with an Earthquake!"

"Good idea!" Gabe agreed. He picked Dragon Dance, and they watched as their Dragonite powered itself. However, their smiles quickly vanished when they saw the menacing smirk on Jeremy's face, which was also mirrored on both Fritz's and Liz's.

"You should've attacked me, guys," he said with a grin. "Tyranitar…use Ice Punch!"

"Wait, isn't Dragonite 4x weak to…OH CRAP!" Cassidy suddenly shouted as Tyranitar landed his attack. To everyone's surprise, however, Dragonite's item activated as soon as his enemy's attack hit.

Gabe smirked. "Not to worry, Cass. I knew that somebody on that team would have an Ice move eventually, so I prepared for this with a Yache Berry. It'll still hurt, sure, but it won't kill." True to his word, Dragonite's HP lowered significantly, but not enough to cause it to faint. It was still significantly weakened, though, and it almost certainly wouldn't survive another powerful attack.

"All right, time to fight back, with Earthquake!" Gabe declared. Dragonite launched its attack. Jeremy grimaced as the Earthquake slammed into his Tyranitar, and brought it down to just a sliver of HP remaining. Jeremy's team breathed a sigh of relief.

"So close, yet no cigar," Jeremy replied. "Wrap this up, Tyranitar!" He slammed another Ice Punch into Dragonite, and this time there was no way for the dragon to survive that. Gabe shook his head as he fainted, and Gabe turned to his team.

"Lucario?" he asked.

"Lucario." they agreed.

Gabe sent him out, and Jeremy's team grimaced. Considering how low their Tyranitar was thanks to Dragonite, there wasn't any point to switching him out.

"This is for Dragonite!" Gabe proclaimed. "Aura Sphere!"

Lucario fired off an Aura Sphere at Tyranitar, who had no chance of surviving. Tyranitar's item activated, revealing a Chople Berry, but with how low his HP was it didn't even matter.

"Fun fact," Mike said as Jeremy and his team debated on who to send out against Lucario. "In Sandstorm, Rock Special Defense is boosted by 50%. I mean, it doesn't matter here when it's a 2x weakness and low health, but it's a nice fact to consider when you're making a Sandstorm team."

"Wasn't that a 4x weakness?" Cassidy asked.

Mike shook his head. "Chople Berry made it a functional 2x weakness, Cass."

"Does it also work for Ground and Steel types?" Susie asked eagerly.

Mike shook his head. "Nah, Sus, sorry. Your Lucario isn't getting that boost, though it doesn't take damage every turn either."

Susie shrugged as Jeremy sent out a Dusknoir. Liz poked his shoulder and whispered into his ear. "What's his moves?"

Jeremy looked at the moveset. "Uh…Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Substitute, Focus Punch?"

"Use substitute this turn and Focus Punch next turn," Liz whispered. "Lucario's squishy and weak to fighting, and Focus Punch has 150 power. With a substitute they can't stop it. There's no way that Lucario will survive!" she finished confidently.

"Good idea, Liz!" Fritz complimented quietly. He snuck a peek at Gabe, who was looking at them suspiciously but seemingly didn't know what they were planning. "Let's knock him out."

"I dunno what you're planning, but it's not gonna work!" Gabe declared. "I've got Super Effective moves on this guy, too! Lucario, use Shadow Ball!" His Lucario fired off his attack and managed to bring down Dusknoir to slightly below half HP. He then watched in confusion as Dusknoir summoned a doll in front of him and lowered his own HP even further. Mike smiled to himself – he knew exactly what kind of strategy Jeremy's team was using.

"Wait, what?" Cassidy asked, bewildered. "Why would you do that? You just wasted your turn!"

Jeremy smirked at her. "Oh, did I, Cass? Did I?" His Dusknoir suddenly popped up in front of his substitute doll and began to channel, before slipping back behind. Lucario fired off another Shadow Ball, but this time it only hit the substitute, which promptly faded away.

"You're screwed!" Fritz cackled as Dusknoir smashed a Focus Punch straight into Lucario. Gabe and his team watched as Lucario's health plummeted down…straight into 1 HP. His item suddenly activated, revealing a Focus Sash that promptly saved his team from fainting.

"Wait, what?" Jeremy exclaimed. "How did that not kill?"

Gabe wagged his finger. "Nice try, you guys. But I put a Focus Sash on Lucario since I knew he was so squishy. And here's our gift in return!" He clicked on Lucario to use Shadow Ball again, but to his surprise and horror Dusknoir attacked first. His Shadow Sneak rushed at Lucario before he could fire his Shadow Ball, and at 1 HP there was no way Lucario could survive even the weakest of attacks.

"Hah!" Liz grinned. "You still died anyway!"

"Dammit dammit dammit…" Susie muttered. There was only one Pokémon left, and Gabe sent his final Pokémon, a Togekiss. He, Susie, and Cassidy all suddenly grinned as Jeremy's team looked at them worriedly.

"What are you guys planning?" Jeremy muttered.

"Only the most asinine strategy we found so far," Gabe flippantly replied. He ordered Togekiss to Thunder Wave Dusknoir, and to his opponents' great annoyance Dusknoir ended up fully paralyzed on that turn and couldn't act. Gabe then proceeded to spam Air Slash, and his team started laughing at his opponents' growing ire as Togekiss proceeded to flinch Dusknoir to death.

"What the FUCK is this nonsense?" Jeremy snarled as he sent out his final Pokémon, a Mamoswine. "How the fuck is that fair?"

Mike took out a fake pipe and proceeded to imitate smoking it. "Ah yes," he explained in a British accent that was so fake and exaggerated that the kids couldn't help but laugh. "The strategy that Gabe implemented is infamous to all players of Generation IV, and is known as the Paraflinch. You see, Togekiss has an ability known as Serene Grace that doubles Air Slash's flinch rate from 30% to 60%. When you combine this with the 25% chance of failure from paralysis, it means that your enemies will only have a 30% chance of being able to attack at all. To those of us well-versed in the intricate nature of Pokémon battling, that, my children, is known as…" his voice suddenly returned to normal, "…a real dick move." The sudden reversion in voice and personality earned another bout of laughter from the ghosts. "No, I mean seriously, Gabe, that's the kind of strategy that makes you lose all of your friends out of rage."

"It got us down to Jeremy's last Pokémon, didn't it?" Gabe countered.

"I didn't say it wasn't a good strategy, only that it's annoying as fuck," Mike replied. "But anyway, here we are, down to the last Pokémon for each team. As luck would have it, both of these have the exact same base speed, and since Mamoswine is part Ground, you can't Paraflinch Hax it to death." He grinned. "Let's see who comes out on top, shall we?"

"We've got this, guys," Fritz said to his team quietly. "We have super effective moves against Togekiss. This game's as good as ours."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Fritz," Liz replied. "The way this game's been going, anything can happen."

"Ice Shard has priority, I think we should save that for last," Jeremy muttered. "I can shoot a Stone Edge at Togekiss if you're not worried about us missing."

"Do it, I bet that Togekiss has super effective moves on us too," Fritz told him.

With a nod, Jeremy turned back to the battle. "Mamoswine, use Stone Edge!" he declared. Unfortunately for him, it was the Togekiss who acted first. The bird Pokémon sent out an Air Slash, but to Gabe's horror, the attack missed.

"Hah, they missed! We're gonna wreck them now!" Fritz declared triumphantly….only for Stone Edge to miss too. The two of them stared blankly at the screen and the two full health bars.

"Wait…the heck just happened?" Susie asked.

"Looks like you both missed," Mike commented with a raised eyebrow. "Huh. I mean, I sometimes call Stone Edge Stone Miss because of its 80% accuracy, but Air Slash is fairly reliable for attacking. Oh, well. Try again?"

"Yeah, and this time I'm done screwing around," Gabe muttered. "Remember my good buddy Lucario's Aura Sphere?" he asked with a smirk.

"Ye…OH," Liz realized. "That's not good."

"Damn right it's not!" he declared. "Cause here's a round 2!" Togekiss fired off an Aura Sphere, and Jeremy's team flinched as the attack lowered Mamoswine to slightly below 50% HP. Mamoswine fired back with another Stone Edge, and this time the attack hit. Rocks slammed into Togekiss' belly, also lowering it to below 50%. It was clear that whoever landed the next hit would win the fight, and by extension, the entire battle.

"It all comes down to this," Mary murmured. "Whoever manages to land the next hit will win the battle. It all comes down to whoever wins the Speed Tie."

To her surprise, Fritz began to chuckle. "You're right, Mary," he commented. "Whoever goes first will win." His lips stretched into a menacing and confident grin. "But you're also wrong. There is no speed tie. We ARE going first."

"Mamoswine, use Ice Shard!" he, Liz, and Jeremy all shouted at the same time. And just as they had planned, Mamoswine went first thanks to Ice Shard's priority, and a volley of ice slammed into Togekiss. The attack knocked Togekiss' HP to 0, fainting it. Jeremy's team cheered and Gabe's team groaned as the battle ended, yielding victory for the former.

[[End Theme]]

"We did it, guys!" Fritz whooped. "We won!"

"That was so much fun!" Liz agreed, some of her past vibrancy returning at long last. "And man, that was tough, too! It all came down to the last 'mon!"

"I definitely need to play this game more!" Jeremy insisted. He looked over at Gabe's team. "What do you guys think?"

Gabe's eyes narrowed. "This is just the beginning, Jeremy. You guys might have lucked out, but once we figure out what we're doing, we're gonna come back, and next time, we're gonna wreck you!" he promised.

"Amen to that!" Susie agreed. "This is way too much fun to let you guys just take a win like that."

"There's so many strategies and other things to think about it!" Cassidy added. "I've never seen a game like this!"

"And that's the beauty of Pokémon," Mike interrupted with a smile. "Whether it's the Pokémon themselves, the world you're in, or the battling, as you've just seen, there's so much to this video game series that can satisfy almost anyone. But enough about that…we've had some fun with competition just now. How about some cooperation now?"

The ghosts all stared at him blankly. "What?"

"It's quite simple," Mike replied. "With the exception of Mary, you all work together to try and beat me. In fact, I'll even make it easy. I'll use only 3 Pokémon, you get to pick 6. Think you can do it?"

His children grinned. "You're going down, dad!"

Mike's return chuckle was unnerving. "Oh, I very much doubt I'll go down as easily as you think. I've got my own Pokémon prepped for this." He took one of the DS's and the ghosts crowded around the other one. "Let's battle. Oh, and Legendaries are still off limits. Just so you know."

"Fair enough," Gabe conceded as he and the children picked their six Pokémon. "Let's battle!"

[[Start: Either Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Cynthia Battle Theme or Team Galactic Cyrus Theme, Depending]]

Mike grinned. He didn't say a word, simply sent out his first Pokémon: a Starmie. Gabe sent out his own first Pokémon, a Gyarados. The kids chittered excitedly as Intimidate lowered Starmie's attack, but their enthusiasm faded when they realized Mike didn't seem even remotely bothered by this. "You know, it's a shame that Starmie is a special attacker and doesn't care about Attack drops. But you know what's more of a shame?"

"What?"

Their father smirked. "This." Mike's Starmie proceeded to unleash a devastating Thunderbolt on Gyarados, knocking its HP from full straight to 0 thanks to its 4x weakness. The children stared at the screen.

"Oh, crap…" Cassidy was the first to mutter.

"We've still got five more, don't give up, guys!" Susie tried to encourage them. "Look, we have a Weavile! That thing completely counters Starmie! Just hit it with a Night Slash and we're good to go!" Nobody had any better ideas, so Gabe sent out the Weavile. To their surprise and growing nervousness, however, Starmie still went first and hit Weavile with a Surf that knocked out a good chunk of its HP.

"Are you kidding me?" Jeremy exclaimed. "How? How did Starmie still go first even when Weavile has higher speed?" As the ghosts desperately tried to make sense of it all, Mary's eyeholes narrowed and the lights inside flickered briefly. Something wasn't right here…

Fortunately for the ghosts, Weavile's Night Slash was able to bring Starmie down to critical, though it didn't outright kill. "Can you hit it with an Ice Shard, it might be able to kill!"

"I'll see what I can do!" Gabe muttered. He instructed Weavile to attack with an Ice Shard, and to the ghosts' immense relief, it just barely managed to knock Starmie out.

"Okay, okay, okay…" Liz muttered. "We're doing all right. He's down to 2 and we've still got 5."

Mike shrugged and sent out a Scizor. He immediately instructed it to send out a Bullet Punch. Gabe had tried to use Rolling Kick since it was the only move that Weavile had that wasn't resisted, but Bullet Punch's priority ensured that Weavile was knocked out anyway.

"So who's next?" Mike asked with a smirk.

"What do we do now, guys?" Fritz asked.

"Wait a minute, we have a Magnezone!" Susie suddenly pointed out. "We can trap that Scizor in with Magnet Pull and just Thunderbolt him to death!"

"Hold up, I just noticed that this Magnezone has Hidden Power. Could it be…?"

"Only one way to find out!" They sent out Magnezone, and their hopes heightened as Mike noticeably grimaced. He ordered Scizor to attack Magnezone with Superpower, but to his surprise, Magnezone's item suddenly activated. "It's Quick Claw time!" Jeremy cheered as Magnezone got the jump on Scizor with Hidden Power Fire. The ghosts cheered as they realized that Mike was down to his last Pokémon. They could win this easily.

Or at least, that's what they thought. "Well, that was a bit unlucky," Mike admitted. "Didn't expect you to have a Quick Claw of all things, though I had a feeling that Magnezone had Hidden Power Fire. Oh well. Time to bring out my best and my last," Mike declared. He sent out his final Pokémon. A Garchomp that he had nicknamed Armageddon. Not wasting any time, Mike ordered Garchomp to use Earthquake, and it shot Magnezone's HP straight from full to 0.

Gabe sent out a Snorlax, intending to hit him with a high power Return. To his surprise, however, Mike didn't attack. Instead, he ordered his Garchomp to use Swords Dance, allowing Snorlax to land a hit on him that did decent damage, but nothing particularly devastating.

"Why did you spend a turn doing that?" Jeremy asked. But to his surprise, Mary slapped her hand onto her face and groaned.

"You guys just lost," she muttered.

"What?" Jeremy asked incredulously. "We have four Pokémon and Mike only has one."

"No," Mary shook her head. "I've seen this before, and the only two Pokémon you had who could have countered Mike's Garchomp are already dead. You're about to get wrecked."

Mike gave them an unnerving smirk as he ordered his Garchomp to use Earthquake. To the ghosts' surprise and horror, the attack destroyed their Snorlax completely, plummeting his health from full to 0.

"What the…how…HOW?" Susie spluttered. "Our Snorlax was at full HP!"

"You're right, Susie! And now it's at zero," Mike taunted. "Try again."

The ghosts sent out Electivire, hoping against hope that it could kill Mike's Garchomp with the Ice Punch it had. Only for it to ALSO get OHKO'd. Even the Shuca Berry that Gabe had placed on Electivire meant nothing, thanks to the Swords Dance that Mike had used earlier.

"How are we down to our last Pokemon ALREADY?" Cassidy desperately asked. Gabe looked at the final Pokemon he had.

"Uh…we have a Flygon," he replied uncertainly. His eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait, the Flygon can't be hit by Earthquake!"

"SEND IT OUT!" Liz insisted, and Gabe gladly did so. They finally had their own Dragon to play with…and their sense of relief vanished when Mike's grin widened even more.

"Oh, congrats, you finally forced me to stop with the Earthquakes," he said with mock congratulations. "The only problem is, the other main move I have on my Garchomp is even stronger. Armageddon, buddy, show'em your Outrage please." The background turned into a sea of red and white fire as Garchomp let loose a storm of flames from his body, obliterating the Flygon completely. Mike had killed four of their Pokémon with just one.

[[End Theme]]

"What the fu…" Fritz mumbled. "…what the fuck just happened?"

"Mike's Garchomp completely wiped the floor with us!" Gabe exclaimed. "How? How is one single Pokémon THAT STRONG?"

Jeremy suddenly realized something. "Wait a minute…that Swords Dance earlier! It gave him a massive power boost that let him wreck all of us!"

"That's part of it, but I know the real reason why," all eyes turned to Mary, who had her eyes narrowed. She looked straight at Mike. "That Starmie…it was EV trained with a Timid nature, wasn't it?"

"Maaaaaybe, maybe not…" he replied, but for some strange reason he had what looked like a nervous grin on his face.

"And so was that Scizor, right?"

"In my defense, it didn't matter since it got knocked out thanks to Magnezone's Quick Claw…"

"And ESPECIALLY that Garchomp, which I bet also had a Jolly nature, didn't it?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny…"

Mary sighed and smacked her face with her spindly hand. "Mike, you're a great person and I love you, but you can be such a gigantic asshole sometimes."

Mike shrugged. "Hey, I needed to get revenge for 20 shitty nights at Freddy's somehow…"

The ghosts looked back and forth between Mike and Mary. "What are you guys talking about?" Liz asked the question on everyone's mind.

Mary groaned again. "I'll explain it to you," she muttered. "The long and short of it is that Mike went as close as possible to cheating in that fight without actually cheating…"

/

A/N: Sending 3 fully EV-trained Pokémon with optimal natures against a bunch of kids without EV-trained Pokémon who didn't have any idea what they were doing? Especially a Garchomp, which is functionally Loophole Abusing since he's a non-Legendary that was easily on par with most Legendaries back in Gen IV? Dick move, Mike. Dick move.

Who remembers the glory days of Gen 4, with Togekiss spamming Paraflinch and Garchomp slaughtering entire unprepared teams all day long? Good times, good times…

The team that Mike used – Starmie, Scizor, Garchomp – is my main Platinum team for the Battle Tower. And with the right items, it is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING in how well it works. Got me to a 100 streak more than once. I completely adore Garchomp – it has been one of my favorites ever since it got released. And my favorite legendary is Giratina, in case you were wondering. Hence the little talk about him earlier.

I dunno how this ended up taking a full 11 pages on Word. Thank God I decided to focus only on Pokémon this chapter, cause there's no way I could fit another game here.

Hope you guys enjoyed!