Chapter 6
A lull has taken over the room. The ref is a little stunned -shellshocked more like- and Morty…Morty is staring at me. It's not a glare of accusation or anything like that but he suspects. Suspects that I did something. Something to let perform well beyond the 'fourth level' Pokémon I openly described him as last night. I've no idea if he has any knowledge of aura, true, rumor, or otherwise. Heck, I doubt I could recognize another user if they were right in front of my face. Ground has many applications but sensing -outside of things actually buried in the earth- really can not be counted among them.
'Ugh' I start to feel a little wooziness in my gut. 'And there's the backlash.' My fingers tighten over the metal railing. I can't guarantee I won't fall on my ass should I let go. 'My spiritual muscle has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year..' Blrgh. Oh boy. There's the nausea. '..but damn there's nothing quite like the feeling of pushing it too hard.'
"G-Gengar and Krokorok are both unable to battle!" The ref finally gets his head straight. "The score is 3-1! Both trainers must now select their next Pokémon!"
"No." Morty calls, getting the referee to glance at him. "I've seen enough. He's demonstrated plenty for the Fog Badge already." The Gym leader inclines his head. "For the purposes of scorekeeping I've decided this match is already concluded. However," he raises his eyes to meet mine. "There's still something we need to take care of isn't there?"
I nod silently, fingers gliding over Simon's Pokéball on my belt.
"Thank you for refereeing Sam," Morty calls to his confused employee. "You can return to your desk. We won't require a ref for this next part."
The man seems puzzled...but also doesn't strike me as the type to question. With a simple incline of his head he bows out, leaving his central podium and exiting through a door on the room's far-side. "This is a 'mon I've been training up for my Elites." Morty gets my eyes back on him as he holds up a Dusk Ball. "She's not quite there yet, but she's definitely beyond the other Ghosts you've seen today. She's also a bit of a mother hen and probably the best choice I have for helping with your Golett's problem." His serious tone dips to something a little softer. "Don't worry," he speaks assuringly. "She won't hurt him for real."
I nod once more. "Let's go Simon!" My arm winds back. "It's all you on this one!"
"Amalia," Morty calls, lobbing the ball out. "Just like we discussed."
Simon emerges onto the half-destroyed field and it's immediately obvious his first thought is confusion as to what's going on. One of the most basic tricks of aura -so basic that many ordinary trainers do it subconsciously- is to project what's going on in the real world to your team members while they rest or reside in their Pokéballs. It's a fairly simple connection…which means it's fairly simple to blind it if an aura user who knows what they're doing wishes to do so.
Not that you would ever really want to do that most of the time but…needs must. I didn't want Golett getting a heads up about what's happening today.
On Morty's half of the field a Ghost made entirely of gray wrappings sways from side to side. Two large hands open and close in a slow rhythmic pattern and a single red eye glows ominously in the center of its head.
Dusclops: Lv. 49
Nature: Hardy
Potential: B-
"Gol! Gol!" Simon's used the context clues of his surroundings to figure out what's going and the panic is already setting in. He swivels in my direction, sees how far away I am up on a ledge, and then begins wildly looking around for other places to hide.
"Shadow Sneak." With a base Speed of 25, Dusclops is one of the slowest Pokémon out there except for babies fresh out of their eggs. That number means basically nothing though when dealing with the subject of Priority Moves. Dusclops sinks into a shadow on the floor and in all of a blink is already rising up at Golett's backside to tower over him.
"GOL!" Simon yelps and it is only then that Dusclops strikes. Having waited until she was seen first. It's a deliberately light hit, a Lv. 49 'mon could easily have struck way harder, but it's still enough to blow Simon ass over teakettle and have him go rolling in the dirt.
"Simon! Protect yourself! Iron Defense!" The Golett pushes himself up on shaky arms and hurriedly tries to obey the order. Boosting his shields with Defense Curl or Iron D are basically the only commands I can trust him to actually follow through with.
Morty doesn't seem impressed. "Spite."
Golett sags as his ability to further use defensive moves is drained away from him. Normally in the games, Spite is a relatively weak technique that only takes 2-5 PP of the last move used. Here, it's a little more powerful. Sucking away not just Iron Defense but also boosting moves similar to it. And thanks to the egregious level difference with this Dusclops, Spite takes it all.
"Simon!" I shout. "You can do this! Fight back with Shadow Punch!"
The Ground/Ghost type is now in full panic mode. Dipping into his ethereal side, he tries to become weightless and float away-
"Gravity"
-only to be forcibly brought low back onto the earth! He pushes himself back up, barely managing to overcome the oppressing energy, when a Future Sight slams home and knocks him across the field again.
My own personal worry starts to rise. 'I didn't even see when the Dusclops set that up.' "Simon! You can't run from this one! You have to fight!"
"Amalia, advance." The Dusclops makes slow lumbering footsteps towards its Unovan cousin, making grasping motions with those large hands as it gets closer. One of the two limbs begins to glow with the shadowy aura of Shadow Punch and I bite at my thumb nervously.
"Gol! Gol!" Simon continues to retreat, crawling backwards like a cornered animal until his back hits an upturned rock, courtesy of the jagged field.
"Dus…Dus…clops." The Ghost hovers over him, raising its fist high.
"Simon!"
"Gol!" The golem averts his eyes and throws his hands in front of him, building up a large swath of Ghost energy in a pattern I've never seen him use before.'Wait a sec, that's Night Shade! When did he- he picked it up after just seeing one Natu use it yesterday?!'
Morty's made the realization too and he leans forward sharply. "Amalia! Dodge that!" There's urgency in his voice and to understand why you need only look at Dusclops' stat distribution. Absolutely monstrous Defenses with an itty bitty HP pool to make it balanced. Night Shade however ignores Defenses. It does true neutral damage equal to the caster's level. Never one point more, never one point less.
One could almost say that Night Shade was Super-effective against the Dusclops-line as a species.
"CLOPS!" Morty's Pokémon cries in alarm as it gets blasted back several feet, briefly sailing through the air before eventually skidding to a stop a good deal worse for wear.
"Gol..?" Simon mutters a little confused, a bit in disbelief that…that it worked. He climbs to his feet and stares at his open palms in..well I can't quite see the expression from this distance..but it might be in wonderment.
"Amalia." The Gym leader calls as his next move becomes obvious. "Imprison!" A Psychic thread connects the two combatants and with one clutching of the larger Ghost's hand a sort of lock slams into place., weighing down Golett for not the first time in the match.
Golett may now no longer use any moves that Dusclops herself knows. That list including, but not limited to: Astonish, Shadow Punch, Shadow Ball, Confuse Ray, and of course..Night Shade.
"Amalia, advance again!" Morty orders. "Leech Life."
The grasping hands begin to approach once more, now glowing with the sickly parasitic glow of Bug-type energy. "Gol!" Simon thrusts his hands out, trying in vain to summon up Night Shade again. "Gol! Gol!" he cries as it refuses to work.
"Simon, you have other moves! Use Magnitude!"
His foot comes stomping down but it's a weak little thing. Magnitude 5 at best. The Dusclops with its Defense stats doesn't even stumble. "Hit it again Simon! You can do this!"
Golett scrunches his face up and stamps down harder. 'Magnitude 7!' This time Dusclops does stumble, just a little, and it lets the Leech Life drop from one hand so it can cast Disable instead.
Simon seems on the verge of tears as yet another ability is robbed from him. They're not tears of despair though! They're ones of frustration! "You still have options Simon! Your fists are as hard as iron remember!"
Dusclops is only a few seconds from him now.
"Even if you don't believe in yourself! You just have to believe in me! And I believe in you!"
With eyes screwed tightly shut, the little golem breaks into a dead sprint at his encroaching foe. "Goleeeeett!" His left fist glows with the crackling yellow of Thunderpunch while his right is enshrouded in the white-blue of Ice. "Golett! Gol!" His punches are wild, uncoordinated and sloppy. The Dusclops drops the Leech Life to block and does so as easily as a boxing coach wearing punch mitts. Just accepting and rebounding the blows with its oversized hands until the smaller Pokémon stops.
Only he doesn't stop.
He keeps punching.
Faster.
Small rings of air are erupting now from where fist meets palm and the Dusclops actually takes a step back.
Morty frowns. "Amalia? What are you doing?"
"Dus! Dusclops!" the Pokémon objects as it starts backpedaling for real. No longer putting on a show of blocking but truly legitimately defending itself from the onslaught.
"GOL-!" Simon's right pulls back wide for a haymaker and the Ice spreads up over his entire forearm! 'That's not Ice Punch!' My eyes go wide. 'That looks more like Hammer Arm! But his species can't learn Ice Ha-' "-ETT!" Simon swings his last blow forward, fully boosted by the Ability of his species-line, and shatters through the Dusclops' guard, not through a cheap trick of Night Shade math but with his own physical power.
While Morty's Ghost is unexpectedly knocked away for the second time of the fight, Golett sinks to his hands and knees, absolutely spent from exhaustion. His neck weakly cranes up to me.. and with a shaking, throbbing arm...gives me a thumbs up. "Golett.."
...
...
...
"Ha ha!" My hands shoot to my hair! "Simon!" Without even thinking about it I hop down into the field, race straight past the Dusclops casually dusting itself off, and scoop my boy up beneath his arms. "You did it Simon!"
"Gol! Gol!" he frets embarrassedly, clearly wanting to be put back down, but I'm not letting him have any of it! Instead I pull him tightly into a hug and swing him around like a kid, proud as I've ever been. "You did it!"
Off to the side, Morty inspects his own Pokémon, noting the unexpectedly high amounts of electrical and freeze burns on her hands. "Thanks for your hard work girl. Sorry it got a little rough at the end there."
The single glowing red orb folds into a happy eye-smile. "Dusclops!"