Unbroken Disguise

As Lucas walked into the Gym, he found that the lobby area was empty.

But he didn’t think that he was alone.

His experience with Ghost types may be limited, with only a few scattered encounters outside of that stupid mansion and N’s Pokemon, but it was enough for him to recognize the signs that he was being watched. It was cold in the Gym, and given that this wasn’t an Ice type Gym, he doubted that was being done with air conditioning or anything similar. And then there was the way that the hair on the back of his neck was standing up, and the light giggles he could hear, and the way he kept seeing things in the corner of his eye, only to find nothing when he turned…

Either he was surrounded by Ghosts, or he was going crazy.

The empty lobby was weird, though. Fantina had said today, hadn’t she? And N had mentioned one last battle…

Perhaps she was just waiting further inside? Lucas made his way through the lobby and entered into the arena proper.

His first impression was that the Hearthome Gym was certainly different from the ones he had visited before. The overhead lights, if there were any, were turned off. The room wasn’t pitch black though, illuminated instead by the natural light coming in through the stained glass windows. When paired with the thick stone walls, it gave a vibe similar to that big building on the west side of the city. What had it been called? The Foreign Culture Building or something like that? Not that he knew which foreign culture they were talking about. Though Fantina had that weird accent, didn’t she? Maybe it was her home region.

His thoughts were interrupted when the lights suddenly came on and a laugh pierced through the quiet giggles.

“Ohohoho!” Fantina’s laugh came off as very fake. “Finally, you have arrived! Since I came to this region, always I try to learn new things. They hold contests in this city? I say to myself, enfin. I will excel. That is why I dress this way.”

Had she been hiding in the shadows like some sort of weirdo? Regardless, now that he could see her properly, he found that she was wearing the same purple dress as he had seen her in before as she walked towards the battle arena.

“C’est une performance! Also, I study Pokemon very much. I have come to be Gym Leader. Ah, uh, so it shall be that you challenge me. But I shall win. That is what a Gym Leader does, non?”

Was it? If that was true, then the two he had faced so far weren’t very good at their jobs.

Her confidence excited him though. Maybe he would be pushed to his limits this time.

“Now, challenger! How many badges are in your possession?” She asked while striking a pose, jutting her hip out and resting a hand on it. It was a bit off putting, but if she was big into contests then it sort of made sense that presentation would be a big deal for her.

Lucas pulled out his badge case, the Coal and Forest Badges shining proudly since he had polished them earlier.

“Roark and Gardenia, is it? In that case, I will begin with Duskull!” Instead of pulling out a Pokeball, Fantina snapped. Slowly, an unfamiliar Pokemon floated out from behind her. Had it always been there?

Lucas shook those thoughts from his head. He needed to focus. The skull-like mask and the robe over its body didn’t reveal much in the way of useful information. It was like Mimikyu, in a sense, hiding away beneath some fabric. The real question was whether or not Duskull had a secondary typing like N’s Pokemon…

Palming one of his pokeballs, Lucas tossed it and released Grotle onto the field. His partner pawed at the dirt on the ground and angled his body so that he could view both his opponent and his trainer. The Grass type knew that he was being relied on heavily for this battle.

Fantina seemed intrigued by the unusual stance. “A Grotle? Intéressant. Show me what you can do!”

Lucas took that as the starting signal.

Just like they had practiced countless times in preparation for this fight, Lucas started out with a clap, bringing his hands together as if eager to get into prayer, and watched as Grotle tensed. As quickly as he could, he followed it up with crossing his index fingers, making sure to keep one of them parallel to the ground, and then transitioning into a snap and louder, cup-palmed clap.

Grotle focused for a moment, and then shuddered as his body was overtaken with that increasingly familiar, but still unsettling energy.

“Curse?” Fantina half asked, half assumed. “And such an interesting method of communication… but you should be wary of slowing yourself against my friends!”

Lucas frowned at the mention of the move’s drawback. Curse was great for helping a Pokemon bulk up temporarily, but for reasons that were beyond him, it also made them sluggish.

“Duskull, Future Sight!”

Grotle braced himself for the hit, but nothing seemed to happen. Lucas didn’t see the opposing Pokemon move at all, and had never heard of that attack before… Could it be some sort of status move?

Whatever it was, he couldn’t let Grotle just stand around and take it. They needed to go on the offensive.

Clap, point towards his eyes with his left hand, snap, clap.

Grotle hadn’t waited for the command to come to an end before he was moving. As soon as Lucas had pointed, his starter had taken off, moving noticeably slower than he normally would. The closer that he got to the Duskull, the more clear the buildup of Dark type energy became around his mouth. But Duskull wasn’t moving. Was Fantina just going to let her Pokemon take the hit?

“Shadow Sneak!”

Moving faster than Lucas’ eyes could follow, the Ghost type disappeared from sight and then popped back up behind Grotle, striking the rear of his shell. Lucas winced at the unexpected attack, but Grotle barely seemed to feel it, managing to move just fast enough to whirl around and snap at Fantina’s Pokemon.

The Duskull had been completely silent up until that point, but when the Bite came down on it, the thing screeched in pain. Grotle wasn’t gentle with the way he clamped down, and despite the way Duskull tried to sink back into the shadows, he was shaken around like a Growlithe’s chew toy. It only took a moment for the bright red eye behind the Duskull’s mask to dim.

Grotle spat the Ghost out, and it fell to the ground limply.

“Downed in one attack? Your Grotle is truly fantastique! But do not think that the rest of my team will be as simple to defeat!” Fantina announced as the Duskull was taken off the field by a Drifloon.

Lucas felt just as surprised as she was. A one hit knockout? Sure, Bite was super effective against Ghost types, and Grotle had been boosted by the Curse earlier, but even then… the Gym Leaders before had put up much more of a fight. Was Fantina’s team somehow weaker? That didn’t seem right.

The Kalosian didn’t give him time to think on the matter. As soon as the Drifloon had cleared the field of the unconscious Ghost, another Pokemon had taken the Duskull’s place. Gemstones that reminded him of the Underground hung from its neck. Or maybe they were set into the purple cloth of its body? What was with Ghost types and fabric? Mimikyu, that Duskull, whatever this Pokemon was… it seemed like a strange pattern. Though this one changed things up and topped it off with a giant witch’s hat on top of its head.

But whether he recognized any of her Pokemon or not, Lucas had a plan and needed to stick to it if he had any hope of winning. He clapped, pointed towards his-

“Confuse Ray, Mismagius!” Fantina commanded.

The Mismagius moved across the field in an instant, nearly as fast as the Duskull’s Shadow Sneak had been. There was no time to give Grotle an order at all before an eerie light appeared between the two Pokemon and crashed into the Grass type’s face.

Grotle staggered back, and when Lucas got a good look at his partner’s face, it was easy to tell that his eyes were unfocused, even from this distance. The Pokemon looked around the field, obviously confused.

This wasn’t good. Lucas couldn’t recall if he had ever seen a Pokemon under the effects of confusion before, but he’d at least read up on the subject. Until the affected Pokemon was able to snap out of it, there was no way to tell if they would follow commands properly or if they’d do something that made no sense and hurt themselves in the process. Some Pokemon were immune to it, and supposedly there were kinds of berries that would help a Pokemon focus, but neither of those were options at the moment. All he could do was try to give commands and hope that they got through to Grotle in his disoriented state.

He clapped, and felt reassured when Grotle tensed up like he normally would in preparation for an attack, but before he could go any further Grotle glowed with a faint white light and leapt towards Mismagius. His face connected with the Ghost’s fabric dress, but the Normal type energy of the attempted Tackle had no effect and all he managed to do was push the cloth out of the way, faceplanting into the ground on the other side.

Mismagius, as well as all the other Ghosts hidden in the shadows, giggled as Grotle scrambled back to his feet, looking a bit scuffed up from the tumble but otherwise back to normal.

Snapping out of his confusion didn’t do anything to help against the huge difference in speed, however.

Mismagius started to taunt him, circling around the Grass type faster than he could turn. He couldn’t understand Pokemon like N, but he thought he had a pretty good idea of what was going on with the way that Grotle all but growled at his opponent, who just kept giggling all the while.

“Are you seeing what I was meaning?” Fantina called out to him. “Your Curse may have given you the power to do serious damage to my Ghosts, but all of the strength in the world means nothing if you cannot hit your opponent! Now, Mismagius! Shadow Ball!”

An ominous shadowy orb appeared in front of the Ghost type, quickly growing in size as it moved around, until it was larger than the Duskull from before. Mismagius waited until it was directly behind Grotle to launch it, sending his starter sprawling, topping end over end. Luckily he ended right side up when it was over, but the move had definitely affected him. There was a strange grey-ish tint on Grotle’s leaves now, and they looked like they had started to wilt.

Lucas clenched his fist as he tried to think of a way to counter their opponent’s speed. It wasn’t like he could make Grotle faster, nor could he make Mismagius slower. Not with the moves Grotle had now, anyway, though he planned on finding a fix for that in the future. Buffing Grotle’s defense with Curse and Withdrawal wouldn’t help, not against a Pokemon that seemed to lean towards special attacks.

The only thing he could think of was trapping it. But how? The battlefield was barren, and it was a Ghost on top of that. He was pretty sure the thing could phase through any physical barriers that Grotle tried to put up.

“Do you think I will just sit here and allow you to strategize?” Fantina taunted. “You cannot be physically slow and slow to think! You are allowing my Mismagius to run circles around Grotle!”

Lucas grit his teeth as Grotle was subjected to another Shadow Ball, his shrubbery looking lifeless and limp, like the leaves would fall from his back with little more than a strong wind.

Could they trap it with a move? As long as it wasn’t Tackle the attack should actually affect Mismagius. Razor Leaf wasn’t exactly known for its wide spread, and the system he had set up didn’t lend itself to complex commands, but… clap to get Grotle’s attention, three fingers up, snap, then two claps…

Luckily for Lucas, Grotle was the most intelligent member of his team. As the sharpened leaves formed, Grotle launched them out strategically. Not at Mismagius, but to either side of the Ghost, forcing it to either take the hit or stay on a straight path.

By the time Fantina’s Pokemon caught on, it was too late. The Bite sunk into it, and after a shrill scream and a very brief attempt to pull away, the levitating hat and robe fell to the ground.

Lucas let out a sigh of relief, and Fantina gave him an appraising look. “Very impressive! To think that- oh?”

She cut herself off as Grotle started to glow.

Lucas beamed. Was Grotle seriously evolving right now? That would be perfect! Maybe he’d get some extra speed in his new form that would stop Fantina’s team from running circles around them again.

The two trainers, and probably a lot of Ghosts, watched as Grotle’s shining form grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Every bit of him widened out, grew sturdier. The bush on his right side seemed to shrink into nothingness, quickly replaced by three large, jutting rocks that erupted out of his shell. The one on the right expanded before rising up to effectively double his partner’s height, turning into more of a small tree than a bush. When the light died down, the colors of his scaly skin turned to more earthy greens and browns, while the lip of his shell along with his spikes and nails took on a rocky grey.

“Torterra.” His friend grumbled out, and Lucas could feel how deep his voice was now. When his friend stomped twice, he had to adjust his footing so that he didn’t fall and he could see Fantina do the same.

So caught up in the sight of his starter growing stronger, he almost forgot that two stomps were the signal that Gro- Torterra had learned a new move. What could it be? Would it give them a one up in the next match?

His excitement quickly died when Torterra was suddenly overcome with a harsh blue-ish violet light, cried out in pain, and then collapsed.

He must have made some sort of face, because Fantina quickly explained.

“This is your first time seeing Future Sight in action, oui?”

Future Sight? The first move she had called out? But that had been forever ago! How was Duskull doing damage when the stupid thing had been unconscious long enough for the whole next round to have been completed?! Was Fantina cheating?!

“Future Sight is a move that does damage in the future, as the name implies. It is quite strong, but it is a risky move, given the delay. Easily negated by having a Dark type switch in, but I assumed since you were having your Grotle use Bite…” she shrugged. “Either way, that is two of my team down, and your ace down. Send out your next Pokemon.”

Lucas recalled Torterra and paused for a moment to look at his friend’s ball. He had been riding high just a moment ago, but having his starter go down like that? Hit by some… some nonsense move after he had taken down his opponent and evolved? It left a sour feeling in him.

The plan might be ruined, but he wasn’t going to let Fantina get away with that.

It was going to be tough, but he had no choice but to send out Bibarel. Maybe he’d get lucky and the rest of her Pokemon would only have Ghost type moves…

When Mismagius was cleared off the field, this time by what he thought might be Drifloon’s evolution, Fantina finally sent out a Pokemon he knew. A frightening face on a gaseous cloud that was somehow angular and a bit more solid than a gas should be, paired with a set of tri-clawed hands that floated on their own. A Haunter opposed him.

Lucas released Bibarel and immediately went into his command. While normally he’d prefer to use Defense Curl to start out with, using a status move had been what allowed Duskull to fire off that Future Sight earlier. Better to get right into the action. Clap, two fingers on the left hand, snap, clap.

The water formed in Bibarel’s mouth, but before she could fire it at Haunter, Fantina stepped in. “Sucker Punch!”

One of Haunter’s hands disappeared from its side, instantly reappearing at Bibarel’s side and punching her right in the face, cloaked in an insidious darkness.

Bibarel recoiled, giving the hand time to return to its owner as the Water Gun dissipated.

So. Not a Ghost type move then. And it was going to be difficult to get hits off. This was a problem.

Maybe Defense Curl was the way to go then? It would mean less damage from the Sucker Punch. Or maybe…

Clap, make a fist of his left hand, snap, clap.

As Bibarel curled up, overcome by a dim brown glow, and started towards Haunter in a Rollout, Fantina called for another Sucker Punch. However, while this one probably did a similar amount of damage as it hit her in the side, it didn’t stop her.

The Haunter didn’t seem to expect that, and took the Rock type move to the face. Not that there was a whole lot else to hit, given that Haunter was mostly face.

The Ghost didn’t look so good after that. There weren’t any obvious injuries, being a Ghost and all, but it looked a bit… fainter? Like the gas that it was composed of wasn’t holding together quite so well. Rollout was a move that did more damage the more times it was used in succession, so if Bibarel could land one or two more hits then maybe she-

“Hypnosis!” Fantina called out.

Haunter’s eyes glowed blue for a moment, and Bibarel’s Rollout promptly collapsed as she laid herself out for an induced nap.

Fantina was really fond of status conditions, wasn’t she? It reminded Lucas of the Eterna Forest, and he didn’t like that.

What was he supposed to do about his Pokemon falling asleep? He clapped as loudly as he could, hoping that would wake her up. Nothing happened.

It was a waiting game then. Or maybe Haunter would wake her up with a direct attack on her sleeping form…

He was quickly proven correct when, with a savage glee, the Haunter punched Bibarel in the face. Not with the insidious darkness of the Sucker Punch from before, but with a concerning, oozing purple. Droplets of something splattered when the punch connected.

“Keep using Poison Jab until it goes down!” Fantina commanded.

That wasn’t good. Could a Pokemon get poisoned while it was asleep? He’d read that they couldn’t in a book somewhere, but he wasn’t so certain now as he watched her brown fur get absolutely drenched in poison.

It was painful, watching as his Pokemon was attacked in her sleep. But what was he supposed to do? If he recalled Bibarel, then… all he had left…

His stomach churned. He thought of N’s lecture.

He recalled Bibarel.

Fantina nodded. “A sage choice. By the time your Bibarel woke up, it would have been too faible to do anything regardless. For future reference, I have heard good things about the move Sleep Talk. That is for later, though. Send out your next Pokemon.”

Eevee’s only damaging move was Tackle. His newest acquisition would be useless in this fight.

There was only one way for him to win this fight.

He could always forfeit. Go and train some more before a rematch. But when would Fantina be available again if she was leaving? Weeks from now? Months from now? Who knew if he’d be anywhere near by the time that happened.

Or he could send out his last… questionably viable Pokemon. He could put a recently hatched Togepi out, have the little guy’s first battle be in a Gym.

Lucas palmed the ball.

N could never find out.

He released Togepi. He wagged his finger. Togepi chirped and then followed along.

Even from across the field, he could see the way that Fantina’s eyes went wide.

Haunter’s hands each took on a different attack. One darkened with Sucker Punch, but nothing happened. One dripped with Poison Jab, but the distance was too great. The Ghost rushed towards Togepi, trying to land the hit.

But before it could, the little Normal type’s eyes lit up with the off-blue glow of Psychic energy, and Togepi screamed.

Or at least, Lucas thought it was a scream. He was too busy covering his ears, trying to block out the awful noise to analyze it. Fantina was doing the same. And Haunter?

Haunter was collapsed, a few body lengths away from Togepi.

When the noise finally stopped, Lucas and Fantina cautiously removed their hands from their ears. Togepi chirped out a “priii!” and ran up to him.

Fantina seemed to regain her composure. “Relying on Metronome? And a move that I do not know… It is an… how you say… unorthodox method, but with that…” She paused for a moment, and when she spoke up once more it was like she was performing on a stage. “I am dumbfounded! So very, very strong! You, your Pokemon, so strong! Your power is admirable! I shall honor it with this Gym Badge! Also, you can make use of this technical machine, that is what I think. It contains Shadow Claw. A very startling move it is. Its hits turn critical often! Just yesterday I had…”

Lucas paid attention to her ramblings with one ear as he returned Togepi. He took a deep breath, and slowly let it out.

Three badges down. Five more to go.