The referee gives Jared the rundown at the entrance, and as expected, the time limit was fifteen minutes, and he was only allowed to use Gastly.

After a minute more the referees on either side announce into the loudspeakers, "Hale and Ariados vs Jared and Gastly."

The crowd strains their eye's trying to find the rarely seen Gastly, but many of them frown in confusion when all they see is Jared.

.

"BEGIN!"

Clearing his throat, Jared mutters, "Wait, did I hear wrong? did he say... Hale?"

Getting his head back in the game, Jared whispers something, but it was too quiet for the mic to pick up on, "Hey, Gastly, I don't suppose you can possess pokemon and defeat them from the inside?"

"No human, I can possess a pokemon, yes, but, I wouldn't be able to do anything besides make them feel cold, and unlike a weak human, their overpowering lifeforce would only make me weaker."

"Well... er, do you need me to like, tell you to do moves?"

"No dumb human, only stupid pokemon need to be told what to do, just distract them."

The crowd continues looking on. They were confused as to why Jared didn't throw a pokeball. Even the referee seemed a bit confused, but Jared had assured him he was ready.

As the two trainers get in range, Jared's eyes widen when he indeed spots a familiar face.

The pokemon of his new friend was an ariados!

Hale laughs, "It's a small world isn't it Jared! I wish you the best of lu-" Just then, Ariados gets hit by slow-moving hypnosis directly to the back of his head, and the insect pokemon then falls unconscious.

Gastly smiles cruelly from behind Hale then vanishes, only to reappear by Ariados's right forelimb.

Gastly then gets to work licking the ariados's yellow and purple spiderlike limb.

Hale looks deeply surprised, and shouts, "NO! Ariados snap out of it!"

Araidos rouses from his slumber, and quickly turns to fire a short-range leech life at the gastly, but Gastly just smirks.

He had noticed Ariados twitching right before waking up, and had already begun dematerializing.

Seeing the Gastly disappear once more, Hale commands, "Guard your head Ariados, don't let hypnoses hit again!"

Hale then glares at Jared, angered by the sneak attack mid-sentence.

Jared just watches with wide-opened eyes.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Ariados raises his left forelimb, but his right doesn't respond, the paralyzing licks did their work.

Cold sweat runs down Hales back, "Ariados, keep an eye out, I'll let you know when Gastly appears!"

A few minutes pass, while Hale and his large bug pokemon warily eye the surroundings. Sweat dripped down his back, and Hale waited impatiently for Gastly to reappear, he dared not let his guard down.

Suddenly!

From the water, hypnosis accurately strikes Ariados's head on the right side, his remaining forelimb could only uselessly guard his left.

Gastly disappears from the river, and reappears on Ariados's left forelimb a second later, and begins furiously licking it, Ariados wakes up quickly this time, and he rolls over to fire off another leech life, but Gastly was already long gone.

Beginning to feel dread now, Hale screams, "Shake it off Ariados it's not over yet!"

Just then Gastly begins materializing behind Ariados.

Hale shouts, "Ariados behind you!"

Ariados does his best to use his two remaining back limbs to turn around, but he was slow!

As Araidos turns, Gastly casually moves with him, then unhurriedly begins licking Ariados's left-back limb with a wide grin.

Slowly Ariados's left-back limb fails him, and it drops down lifelessly. Admirably, he does his best to turn with his only functioning leg, but it's a fruitless struggle.

Then, Gastlys voice booms in Jared's mind with laughter, "You see human, you see my strength now?!"

Seeing the Araidos now unable to move, but still flailing about, Gastly begins ineffectively gnawing on the limp back limb on Ariados's left.

Slowly, very slowly, purple blood starts dripping from the small bite marks.

Araidos screeches in pain and fury, but can do nothing.

Hale shakes his head with a sigh, and throws a pokeball, " Ariados return"

With a victorious grin, Gastly fades away once more.

.

Just then a voice erupts from the loudspeakers, "Jared and his Gastly win! and will advance to the round of 120!"

The crowd was silent for a moment, but soon begin halfheartedly cheering. The display was too strange, and nobody really knew what was going on during the match, as Jared didn't give any commands.

Hale glares at his victorious opponent with a resentful tone, "Did you need to sneak attack me mid-sentence?"

Jared frantically shakes his hands, " I I, I, t-this is my first pokemon battle, I-I didn't even know what he was g-going to do."

The invisible gastly growls in Jared's mind, "Shut. Up. Human."

Scratching his head, Hale looks down at the ground with a sigh, then looks back up with a laugh, "Sorry Jared, it wasn't your fault, the match already began, I should have known better than to stop for a chat."

Jared looks down, "Sorry Hale"

Hale walks up and pats him on the shoulder with a genuine smile, "It's alright my friend, your gastly is strong!"

Seeing Jared not meeting his eyes, Hale scratches his stubble and continues, "Yes, I think we would have lost no matter what, so don't worry about it okay?"

The referees begin leading the two away to their respective sides, while Gastly berates Jared in his mind,

"STUPID HUMAN, IF YOU ACT THIS PATHETIC IN VICTORY, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN DEFEAT, WHAT HAPPENED TO "CRUSHING" ALL IN YOUR PATH?"

Jared just mutters depressingly, "I will, but I still feel I wronged Hale."

Gastly roars so loudly in his mind that Jared gets knocked to the floor. The referee leading Jared out turns back, and looks at the downed trainer questioningly.

"NO, YOU STUPID FOOL! WAKE UP, HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL WHEN THE PERSON I FOLLOW KEEPS SHOWING HIS PATHETIC SIDE TO ME? WHAT HAPPENED TO LYING, CHEATING, AND STEALING TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR IDEALS?! STOP LYING DOWN LIKE A BEATEN DOG, AND STOP PITYING THE PEOPLE YOU DEFEATED IDIOT!!!!!"

Jared blinks in shock.

In a more subdued tone, Gastly angrily spits, "Stupid human, can't you see how you are making me feel, when you look like that?"

The referee starts shaking Jareds shoulders and says something, but the voice seems muted and distant to Jared's ears.

Gastlys voice then booms louder than ever, "YOU ARE NO LONGER ALONE STUPID HUMAN, YOU NEED TO BE STRONG FOR THOSE THAT TAKE UP YOUR CAUSE OR THEY WILL LOSE FAITH!!! IF EVEN YOU FALTER THEN HOW CAN YOU EXPECT THOSE THAT FOLLOW YOU NOT TO FALL AS WELL?!!