Chapter 24: Soul

Ted's POV

I blinked rapidly, trying to register what had just happened. One minute I had been watching the group of pokemon we were listening in on all leaving the cave. The next thing I knew, I was lying flat on my back, my nose stinging. I rubbed my nose to ease the pain, hearing a quiet, malicious laugh all around me as I did. "Come, come now, Teddiursa," I heard the voice say. "Surely that wasn't enough to keep you down for good. Perhaps there's a way to provoke you." I turned my head over to where Cleft was standing to see the pokemon materialize behind him His claws were sharpened as he placed them in front of Cleft's neck. I watched as Cleft tensed his body, fearful of the fact that he was now held hostage.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," I said as I sat upright. "But weren't you ordered not to harm him?"

The pokemon chuckled maliciously through his zipped up mouth before unzipping it. "Destiny cares little what I do, so long as I get the job I'm assigned done."

"Guess that makes sense," I said. "But this battle is between you and I, bro. It's an unfair advantage using an innocent bystander as a shield."

"Which plays totally to my advantage," the pokemon said. "So long as I rid of you I won't have any more usage for this Clefairy. And the sooner I rid of you, the sooner I can resume my assistance to making this world better for those who deserve it."

"Unfortunately I'm not one to stand idly by and let that happen," I said, causing the pokemon to laugh once again.

"Well if you're not willing to let that happen, then why not attack me?" the pokemon said with a smirk. "That is, if you're all right with doing damage to this Clefairy." Cleft looked at me, eyes full of alarm and distrust at me. I didn't want to have to attack without having to hurt Cleft in the process, but I didn't see much of an option at this point.

I glanced out at the corner of my eye to see how Zack was holding up against this Destiny guy. The two seemed to be standing completely still, neither one of them making a move. I averted my gaze away and quickly scanned the area for something I could use against the pokemon to separate him from Cleft, yet nothing in the cave I looked for was good for usage of weaponry. In fact, the entire cave was made up of nothing but rock. If only we were in a cave with stalagmites I would have definitely had a chance.

I gazed up at the ceiling as I thought this, staring up at the rock that made the cave, an idea forming within my mind. There might not have been any stalagmites up above, but what I was thinking of was my only other option prior to the one that involved hurting Cleft just to get to the pokemon.

Focusing all my power, I began firing off a barrage of Swift up at the ceiling, giving it everything I had. The pokemon looked up as well, no doubt what it was I was trying to do. "Just what are you trying to pull?" he asked me as I kept up my attack, going all out. "If all you're trying to do is buy time, then I'm afraid you're just wasting your time. I guess you don't really care about this Clefairy's life after all."

My time was out as the pokemon drew back his claw to stab Cleft in the side of his neck, yet I didn't let up my attack one bit. "Please!" I thought as I continued . "Please break!" My thoughts were almost immediately answered as the bedrock cracked, loose debris falling down upon Cleft and the pokemon, the latter of whom looked up wondering what was falling on him. His eyes instantly widened as he figured out what I was doing. Unfortunately, he was a little late in dodging as the rocks came falling down.

By this time, however, I had already crouched down into a running position and dashed forward, grabbing Cleft and jumping out of the way of the rocks as they landed upon the pokemon.

"You all right?" I asked Cleft who looked a little shaken.

"Y-Yeah," he replied. "I think I am."

"You may want to duck out of the way," I said as I looked at where the rocks fell. "I got a bad feeling that this isn't over."

A sinister laugh answered my suspicions as the pokemon materialized right in front of the rocks. "You're certainly right about that, Teddiursa," he said. "It will take more than a bunch of rocks to do me in."

"Take cover," I ordered Cleft. "Now!" Cleft didn't need to be told twice as he ran out of harm's way, leaving me alone with the pokemon. "So assuming that you survived being crushed, I'd say you're a ghost type."

"Check out the brains on you," the pokemon said. "Nothing gets by you. But yes. I am a ghost. My name is Soul and yours will soon no longer be in this world."

"I highly doubt that," I said. "Perhaps we could stop and talk about this whole world domination thing."

"Oh?" Soul said. "How so?"

"Well for one, I think it's rather ridiculous that'd you want to eradicate all humans from this world," I replied. "People and pokemon alike should never be underestimated."

"Well unfortunately for you Teddiursa, I'm not much one for talk," Soul said. "I could care less about humans actually. They all deserve to die, much like how you are going to be."

"You don't have to do this, you know," I said, giving him one final chance to walk away. "Perhaps if you join up with us you can understand by what I mean."

"Ha!" Soul said snidely. "As if."

I sighed. "Have it your way then," I said as I got into my usual position to up my speed. Soul just remained standing there as I leaned forward and shot right up to him, catching him by surprise. I clenched my fist and swung it forward, hitting him straight in the face, or so I thought. My fist did end up hitting something, but it wasn't Soul that I hit. Rather, it was the rocks that I broke off from the ceiling, smashing it into pieces. My eyes widened, surprised by the fact that he disappeared. I heard his chuckling from behind me as he reappeared where I was standing just a few seconds ago.

"My, my," he said. "For someone who finds out what type a pokemon is, you certainly don't know a lot, do you? Normal attacks don't do a thing to me, so your little punch was all for nothing."

"Well then," I said, turning to face him. "I guess I'll just have to find a way to beat you. There's bound to be a weakness for all types, after all, bro."

Soul chuckled. "Quite true," he said. "Unfortunately none of your attacks will work on me. Normal attacks such as yours is ineffective against ghost types like me."

"Which makes beating you all the more challenging," I said with a smirk. Soul's eyes widened just a little, not expecting an answer such as that. He made a quick recover though, adding another one of his malicious chuckles to his amusement.

"You certainly amuse me, Teddiursa," he said. "But just what can you do against someone who has an advantage over you?"

"That's something I'll have to find out," I said, causing Soul to scowl.

"You think you're pretty funny, don't you Teddiursa?" Soul said. "Well I'll do you a favor and wipe that smug look off your face." With that, Soul disappeared into thin air, becoming intangible. I darted my eyes around, searching for any sign of him, though saw nothing out of place. My attention shifted over back to Zack to see how his battle was going. I saw him leap at Destiny from behind, shooting out a barrage of Swift at him. That was all I saw a blackish purple ball collided directly with my face, yet again. The impact of the explosion knocked me right onto my back. I just seemed to be having bad luck with Shadow Balls lately.

I barely had time to register anything else that happened when Soul appeared right above me, smiling quite evilly. My eyes widened, feeling something bad was about to happen as he held both his hands in front of him and released quite a powerful electric wave. I felt my entire body tense, all my muscles lock as electricity surged through my body. I clenched my teeth together rather than open my mouth and scream, all to endure the pain. I could barely see Soul laughing, enjoying the pain I was in.

Even after the attack ceased, my body refused to move, the electricity lingering upon my body, a rather means of paralysis kicking in. "You may have gotten in a few smart alec sentences, but I'm the one having the last laugh," Soul said, chuckling. "I told you from the beginning that you wouldn't stand a chance against me."

I was panting hard by now, and the fight had barely even started. "Yeah, well, I guess that makes me stubborn," I said, trying to move an arm.

"Indeed," Soul said, arms crossed. "A shame I have to kill you. You're quite interesting."

A small chuckle escaped me, a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. "I don't see any reason why you should have to," I grunted, powering up an attack. "You still have the option of walking away."

"I don't think you understand," Soul said. "This is something I enjoy doing, all for the sake of Destiny." I fired off a Swift attack of my own right then, the stars hitting Soul directly before going right though him. "Was that the best you got?" he asked as I ceased my attack. "Perhaps my Shock Wave hadn't shocked some sense into you!" He rounded another round of Shock Wave, but by this time, depsite my screaming, aching muscles, I managed to up myself on my hands and propel myself away from the attack just as it hit, collapsing on my knees as I landed.

"Impressive!" Soul said. "But let's see how well you'll dodge this." I turned slightly, seeing blue fireballs forming in his hands. "Will-O-Wisp!" From paralysis to being burned. This was definitely not going well. Thinknig about how to survive this attack, I grabbed a piece of the rock I had smashed and used it as a shield against the incoming fireballs, the fire dispersing as they hit.

"You're a little slow, aren't you, Teddiursa?" Soul asked from behind me. I had been so focused keeping myself from being burned that I forgot he could rematerialize anywhere he wanted to. I couldn't even move as he fired off another Shock Wave. Again I felt my body lock up as electricity surged through me. The rock I was holding crumbled apart as I dug my claws into them. I wasn't even sure how long Soul went on with his attack. By the time he was done, I wasn't even sure he had stopped. I suppose it wasn't until I fell forward, catching myself, that I realized he had stopped his attack. By this time though, I was panting very hard, trying to hold myself up, even though my arms were about to give out. I felt completely drained of energy and my body wasn't responding to movement.

I heard Soul chuckle evilly from behind me while I strained to keep myself from losing consciousness. "You're not looking so well, Teddiursa," he said. "What's the matter? Did I shock you to your system?" As he laughed at his own joke, my pants began to turn into growls of anger. I began baring my teeth, clenching them hard while my paw balled up into a fist. I felt a very familiar feeling I haven't felt in such a long time, causing me to realize just what path I was about to go down again.

"Calm down," I thought to myself, trying to surpress the anger that was trying to force its way out. "Don't loose control of all those years of surpressment. I must remain in control of myself." I shut my eyes and began clearing all my thoughts of everything, taking a deep breath in and letting it out as I began to relax myself, leaving the area of the cave I was in, floating in nothingness. I was at peace with myself, feeling the anger subside until it was no longer bubbling to surface. Once I was relaxed enough, my mind emptied, I began thinking of attacks I had that would beat Soul. Unfortunately, not one thought seemed to be coming to mind. I eventually broke out from my state of mind as Soul spoke.

"Finally thinking of giving up?" he asked. "Wise decision. Unfortunately it's too late to choose that option. You made the decision to fight me, so now I think it's time to get serious and wrap this fight up." I heard him starting to charge up an attack, a finishing move to do me in, but what he didn't know was that this fight was only beginning. Ever so slowly, I stood up, eyes still closed, waiting for the right moment to make my move. "I wouldn't bother. This is it for you." I opened my eyes about halfway, smiling as I was ready. I listened carefully as Soul launched his attack at me, laughing once again, but his laughter was about to end as everything suddenly blurred. I really couldn't quite explain what had just happened, but before I knew it, I was behind Soul, the beam he fired sending up rock and debris where I had recently stood. "Huh? What the-! Where'd he go?"

"You know it's funny," I said, no doubt catching his attention. "You never know what just might happen in a battle. Say for instance, your opponent learning a new attack." And it was true. I had tapped into a new power I never thought I would learn as I rammed Soul hard in the back, sending him flying into the wall. The look of surprise on his face was, I imagined, one of surprise as he went face first into the wall. "Never assume victory unless you know for sure that it's yours, bro."

Soul slid down onto the ground, lying there for several seconds before slowly getting up. I just stood and watched as he abruptly turned about, eyes glaring daggers at me. "Never in my whole life would I expect a normal type to do damage to me. You're going to pay for that, Teddiursa."

"You can try," I said, ready to use the attack again.

"You know I'm really tired of your smart ass remarks," Soul said angrily. "I'll make you eat those words." I only smiled more as Soul went to make his move. That smile was lost almost instantly within the next second. All i remembered next was a very loud explosion ringing through my ears and everything going white.