Drake snarled. Though not quite a move, Dark energy still swirled around his form, visible even against the black of night through the almost un-light characteristic of the Type energy. He was focused completely on the Ghost that he’d once faced, the worst of the entire bunch that had assaulted Vinewood, recognizable by the Bite scar that adorned it. Ajax seemed startled, but at a few growls from Drake, he focused in on the gengar with outrage, his head raised up to his full height.

The gengar, on the hand, merely snickered and raised its arms in a ‘what can you do’ gesture. Still, it was impossible to mistake the perpetual feeling of evil intent, the hatred that lurked behind its eyes. We’d interfered with its night, stopped its fun, and it resented us for it. It had promised revenge at the end of that very long night, and now, we were all here. Intentional or not…

And that, I had to think about. Had this been intentional? If the gengar, or one of its Ghost subordinates that had attacked Vinewood, had been following us, would I have noticed? Maybe, maybe not. If they’d seen the absol, drawn conclusions… I pictured the evidence of a battle that had decorated the entire area around the dam, the claw marks, the ectoplasm. There had been a large amount of ghosts, and it wouldn’t have been an easy fight. I’d seen how Ghost energy tended to slide right off Normal, the two unable to really interact. It wouldn’t have been easy to pull this off, and yet, the gengar had.

Thinking that this entire plan was to get us back for Vinewood was paranoid. The gengar, unless it had one of its lackeys following us and listening in on where we were going, couldn’t have known our next destination. But I couldn’t help but wonder if it’d known somehow. If the absol hadn’t led us to the dam-

I twitched, eyes widening. It was obvious that they’d attacked the dam itself, and they might even have had a hand in weakening its structure, pushing it towards the brink of failure. If the gengar had known more or less what direction I was going to travel, it could’ve rallied its Ghost types, attacked the dam days ago. There was only one route that came this direction and traveled over Coronet, one that wasn’t being secured by Rangers with everything going on. It would have to time it precisely, but that route went over a bridge that, itself, crossed this stream, farther on.

Gengar might’ve planned to cause the dam to collapse, and get me and my partners with the flood that would cause. Given the speed of the water coming down the mountain, the lack of warning we’d have, I doubted we’d have cleared the path in time. But, then, the absol sensed the disaster that this would cause, and led us up here to the dam instead. I’d ruined two of this gengar’s plans, and whether directly or unintentionally, it didn’t seem to care. It was enraged, much as it tried to hide it.

And that was when I noticed that the swirling purple energy hadn’t ended with the gengar fully manifesting, nor was it focused around the Ghost type. Instead, it swirled behind and around him, and I heard giggling reverberating through it, bouncing off the rocks. I clenched my teeth, because of course the damn thing wouldn’t even fight fair, bringing all its Ghost buddies for a rematch. The Ghost types I’d run across in Hearthome had been pretty passive, mostly just annoying or players of mild, harmless practical jokes. This bunch, though… I didn’t know what was wrong with them, but they were terrible. Angry, cruel, capricious. They’d futzed with an entire town and all the people in it on a lark, just for kicks, and I had no idea how many of them had been permanently affected by their romp. Not that they seemed to care.

The main thing going for the three of us, in this situation, was that the group was markedly smaller than the one that had choked Vinewood with fog. They didn’t feel collectively as powerful, nor were they affecting the environment as they had back then. The Rangers must have gotten a few of their number, thinned the group, made them weaker. Good. All the better when we smashed what was left.

My fist clenched as I stared across at that infuriating smile, the nonchalance flavoured with hatred. This gengar had decided that it was perfectly fine to wipe out everything and everyone down the entire river, just to have a chance to get at me. It had dedicated itself to the task of causing a natural disaster, purely for revenge over its cruel joke being ruined. And now, it was annoyed, annoyed that we had stopped its plan to cause unknown casualties and uncountable amounts of damage. I couldn’t help the burning feeling that bubbled in my chest, at that thought, how callous this creature was being.

The Ghost was twisted, a horrible monster, the worst thing I’d encountered since I’d entered this world. Though I didn’t think it was purposefully attempting to kill those people, I could easily see that it wasn’t that it didn’t intend to: it just didn’t care one way or the other, so long as it got what it wanted. I could see that even some of the Ghost types that were part of the group that billowed around it were uncertain, giving the gengar anxious stares behind its back. It made me wonder how many of them had come into this world as Ghost Pokemon, and how many were here again after death. What had the gengar been in life? Was it this twisted then, person or Pokemon?

Irrelevant. I pushed away the thought, focusing in on it as it focused on me. The Ghost types here were no doubt the ones that the gengar could bully into line, but Drake was much stronger than he had been the last time we’d faced one another. Ajax himself was a powerful presence on the field, Dark energy ribboned with the orange-red of Fire swirling around him as he watched the cloud of purple Ghost energy. Gengar’s followers weren’t loyal, they were here out of fear, or perhaps just interest.

A strong enough show of force would break them, force them into a rout. Once even one of them fled, many of the rest would follow, and the gengar would be left behind. I still had another Pokeball in my bag, and though I hadn’t intended to use it like this, far better for it to be spent removing something like that from the wilds. I wouldn’t let that gengar walk away, not again. Last time, Drake and I had been totally and completely spent, had been forced to merely watch as it ran. This time… we weren’t fresh, but we’d started off much better than we had then.

“They won’t stick around if we hit them hard enough. Break them, and they’ll give up and run.” I muttered to my partners. “We need to drive them off, and trap the gengar. We can’t let this happen again, and it will if it’s free.”

Drake growled his agreement, and Ajax gave a grim nod. If that gengar escaped, it could do this again, carry out a different plan somewhere else. No matter what, we had to act now, take it down before it could get away. It only had to get lucky once.

I surveyed the incredibly loose line of Ghost types that were arrayed against us, picking out species and representatives. Gengar was the only final evolution there, the ghosts around it varied, but always weaker. Those that could be kept in line by a bit of power. Ghastly’s, a few duskulls here and there, and a pair of haunters were the main body of it. Towards the back I could see a couple of the more physical banettes hanging in the shadows, watching from afar with button eyes that glistened unsettlingly in the starlight. I had to wonder if a number of the gengar’s Ghost followers had split off after we’d forced it to retreat.

The standoff was tense, like muscles held before a sprint. It was quiet except for the occasional noises the various Ghost types made, the running water behind me the only real sound, reflecting off the rocks and ground as it slowly wore away at the dam that restrained it. Running water was said to have some effect on spirits, I thought, and I wondered if something like that held true here. Was it only vampires that couldn’t cross running water? I couldn’t remember. If something like that affected them, it might be something useful, but it wasn’t reliable enough to use-

There was a sound, loud, echoing. I twitched, and immediately realized that it had come from the direction of the camp. It had sounded like a screech, or a roar, and I realized that it must’ve been the sound of Jive engaging one of the Ghost types that had tried to sneak up on his partners. I felt slightly heartened by the sound, the idea that Blake and his were being defended, while the ghosts across from us wavered in place. They, too, looked in the direction of the camp, but their expressions were ones of anxiety, uncertainty. The gengar turned its eyes for just a second to pin them in place, to keep them from leaving.

That was all the signal that Drake and Ajax needed.

They lept towards the purple haze of Ghost, Dark energy eating away at it like acid, dissolving it before a wave of starless black. Ajax practically roared, and each step he took sent out a wave of heat that caused the ghosts to screech and scatter. The houndour was a huge, powerful target, slamming into any group he could see, surrounded by heat haze against the cool night air made cooler by the ghosts, attracting their attention like a beacon.

Drake, on the other hand, was a shadow, a shade. His aura wrapped around him like a cloak, not quite a true Feint Attack, but more than enough to conceal him against the dark of night. In the sound and fury and dancing shadows that were Ajax’s strikes, he would slip away and vanish, only to appear when he suddenly struck out at a ghost. While Ajax smashed into groups like a meteor hammer, causing them to scatter in panic or be shredded by the dual energies swirling around him, Drake picked off the ones at the edges.

Between the two of them, they were causing damage, breaking their lines. Their dual strategy worked wonders, and occasionally I would call out a group or a target, one that looked as if they were rallying or were gathering Ghost energy for some purpose. Already, a few of them had cut and run, fleeing for the safety of the rocks and hardy trees to escape into the night. I felt a surge of pride and confidence, realizing we had them on the back foot.

And that was when the gengar finally involved itself.

Before, it had been floundering, trying to deal with the hammer and anvil that Drake and Ajax had become, trying to rally its ghostly fellows before they entirely cut and run. Seeing a few of them actually flee, more concerned with escaping the Dark type onslaught than sticking around and fighting, appeared to light something of a fire in it. It surged with Ghost energy, which quickly gathered into an orb that I recognized as a Shadow Ball, before launching itself. Drake, who had been right in the middle of attacking a panicked-looking haunter, noticed the attack at the last moment and tried to dodge. It clipped him, sending him spiraling away with a huff of air driven from his chest, even as the Dark in his aura softened the blow.

“Drake!” The word was reflexive, involuntary. I took a single step forwards, then rooted myself in place; realistically, what could I do to a Ghost type?

Drake landed on his feet, looking winded, but mostly unhurt. Ajax looked in his direction, and they nodded to each other, Ajax seeming relieved that he wasn’t injured too badly. Still, that moment of break crippled the momentum we’d built up against the larger crowd of ghost types. They rallied behind gengar, who swirled with purple, launching more Shadow Balls to keep Drake away from the other ghosts and generally beating his little force back into line.It was working, as well. With the gengar keeping Drake busy, preventing him from vanishing into the shadows and keeping pressure on the rest of the Ghost types, the others could focus on the loud, bright beacon that was Ajax. The houndour could still smash the larger groups apart, but now they didn’t have to constantly watch their backs. Together, they were beginning to push back against him.

Desperately, I ran over the techniques that Drake and Ajax had. Ember wouldn’t do it, Bite was only effective at knife fight range and against a single target. Snarl could work to break some of the larger groups up, but Ajax hadn’t learned how to carry it out yet and Drake was too busy engaged with the gengar. He hadn’t figured out the full version of Feint Attack yet, either, which meant that without the ability to use the proto-Feint Attack he’d demonstrated to melt into the shadows, he couldn’t get away. Ajax yelped as one of the haunters got a Shadow Punch in against him, more out of surprise than pain, but I could see how it bolstered their confidence. The tide of the battle was swinging against us.

In a moment of chilling clarity, I realized that I’d overplayed my hand.

If we’d stuck with Jive, run back to the camp, we would’ve had a defensible position and a much larger number of allies. Even if the force of Ghost types was larger owing to not being split, Jive was exceedingly powerful, and the rest of Blake’s team was nearly, if not as, strong. Between us, we could’ve held out; shattering the initial assault is something the ghosts wouldn’t have recovered from. That many Pokemon with that much power making a push after breaking their initial attack would’ve caused them to break and run.

But, no. I’d been overconfident, certain in Ajax’s fledgeling abilities and Drake’s continuously sharpening edge. Once the gengar had appeared, we could’ve fallen back, but I’d been angry, determined to take it down, to put an end to this. I’d committed myself and my partners to that goal, and we’d performed admirably. However, between the ghosts surrounding us and the gengar trying to pressure Drake into a corner, it was just too much. I’d overestimated us and underestimated them, and only now could I see the mistake I’d made.

I ran over the options in my mind. Withdrawing Drake and Ajax now and trying to make a run for it wasn’t an option, it would just give the ghosts free rein to flank and assault from behind. If we had a high ground and more ranged abilities, we could try to hold it and hope for assistance from Blake, but there was nothing nearby that suited that purpose. And regardless, I wasn’t sure that I could pull Ajax away without swapping Drake into drawing attention to himself, and I couldn’t try to withdraw Drake without sacrificing Ajax, neither of which I wanted to do in the slightest. I was committed to the position, and it wasn’t a good one.

“Ajax! Area denial!”

The houndour growled, loud enough to shake the stones, and the air around him heated like an oven. The cool night air instantly turned to baking like we were under a desert sun as Ajax dumped thermal energy into it with wild abandon. Ghosts that were closer to him cried out in pain or anger, and many of them retreated from the extremely hot circle that formed around him, giving my houndour time to breath. He couldn’t keep it up forever, and it would rapidly fade without his input without something to retain the heat, but for the moment it cleared the space around him well enough.

The gengar seemed enraged by this, and immediately moved to counter with ranged abilities. More Shadow Balls raced through the air, bending it as they passed, some of them dissipating against the hot air and others piercing. I clenched my teeth as Ajax was forced to dodge, unable to strike back from a distance. Area denial was the right call in the moment, I felt, but now it was quickly becoming a hindrance that pinned Ajax down to one spot as he tried to maintain it. Still, it was accomplishing its purpose, at least in part: drawing the attention of the battlefield. With more attention drawn to Ajax and attempting to fire ranged strikes through his aura of heat, Drake had more lateral movement than before, and was back to picking off ghosts that strayed too far from their groups rather than having to dodge the gengar constantly.

It wasn’t hard for me to see that it wouldn’t be enough. This group was smaller than the one that we’d clashed with at Vinewood, but back then, they’d had a whole village bogging down their numbers, and we’d been fighting a retreating battle. Now, though, we had to stand and fight, and their quantity was winning against quality. It took too much time and effort to force a Ghost type to retreat, and it was an uphill battle as a result. Already, I could see Drake beginning to pant, the constant burning of Dark taking a toll on him. Ajax was holding up, but he was burning whatever Type energy he could dump into his aura with wild abandon, and even his impressive reserves wouldn’t last forever.

If I focused my hearing, I could just make out the continued battle from the direction of our camp. The group had been split in half, but even without the gengar as a leader and with how powerful Blake’s Pokemon were, he only had Jive to really do damage against the Ghost types. It was even more of an uphill battle for him than it was for me, the difference being that he had the skill and power to pull it off. Still, it meant that I couldn’t rely on him for a rescue, not any time soon. I felt myself rapidly running out of options.

The gengar withdrew slightly, allowing two other Ghost types to slide in and continue his barrage of Shadow Balls, doing the work to keep Ajax hemmed in and dodging. As I watched, something other than the technique it’d been using until now began forming between its stubby paws, and a cruel smile spread across its face. Frantically, I glanced at Drake, but he was out of position, on the other side of the heat distortion Ajax was making, attacking a group of ghosts that had formed there.

There was a sound of clattering rocks. It was barely audible above the sounds of battle, but it still turned my head, the dread of having more opponents surging in my chest. However, that knot of fear evaporated the moment I looked, and I couldn’t help but smile.

There was no word to describe the absol’s stance rather than imperious, and no other term for describing their expression but fury, cold and regal. Their head was lifted high, and they seemed to almost shine with an inner light, making their silver fur sparkle. The battlefield quieted as the ghosts fighting there realized that another Pokemon had appeared, one that decidedly wasn’t friendly to them, and some of the confidence they’d been gaining as they penned in Ajax and Drake was dissipating in the night air. The gengar, concentration broken, let out an enraged noise as the technique it’d been forming evaporated, turning baleful eyes on the newcomer.

We hung like that for a moment, time suspended by a string, like the tidal wave about to break and come down. I could feel the uncertainty swirl among the Ghost type crowd: two Dark types they’d been able to handle, but three? Ajax, looking over from his circle of heat, seemed pleased and a touch relieved that the absol had shown themselves. Drake, on the other side of the heat haze, turned his head in the direction of the new source of Dark energy and smiled a smile full of fangs.

And then, the moment broke. The absol streaked down the stone that it had been standing on, wreathed in black and trailing white, rushing towards the line of Ghost types that had collected right at the edge of where the heat truly became uncomfortable. Many of them panicked and scattered, some streaking off into the night with a cry before they even struck, the appearance of a third enemy just too much for them. With reckless abandon, the absol crashed into what remained, Dark energy surging and striking at anything in range. The reckless attack hit like an explosion, scattering the ghosts that had attempted to hold their ground like rag dolls, sending them reeling.

“Ajax, support!”

The houndour needed no explanation. He surged forwards, gathering Dark around himself as he charged to the edge of the heat haze and the ghosts arrayed there. Distracted by the newest player, they didn’t expect Ajax to smash into them from the side, using Bite whenever he could and lashing out with unstructured Dark energy when he couldn’t. It was rough, inelegant, and I could see Ajax wince at the unrefined use of energy, but it was effective enough. The line of ghosts broke and scattered, harried even as they went by Drake, who prevented them from grouping up again.

The gengar surveyed the battlefield, paws clenching and unclenching as it seethed. Even with all the ghosts it had brought, it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome three Dark types working in tandem. Now, a decision that it had made became the thing that turned around and bit it. If it hadn’t split what ghosts it had to attack both my group at the dam and Blake’s group back at the camp, they would have overwhelmed us already, or been a match for all three. But it was obvious that the gengar was the strongest here, and the rest of them it considered something closer to chaff than real companions. They were losing.

It turned its eyes towards me, and I could see that hatred behind its eyes intensify. I’d made mistakes, but we’d held long enough for backup to arrive, and now his side was definitively losing. And it knew that. I could see it in how it ground its teeth, how its paws flexed, how its eyes narrowed in my direction. It had lost, for the second time in a row, and that fact made it pissed. Still, it was going to run, save itself- I could see it as clear as day. There was no loyalty there, no refusal to retreat for ghosts that it didn’t care about, and the feeling was mutual.

Before the coordinated assault of three different Dark types, entire groups of ghosts were peeling off and running. They flew, shrieking into the night, as groups shattered and any attempt at forming a new position was focused by two of the three. Tactics that had worked when there were merely two of them weren’t working against three, and the pitched battle was rapidly turning into a rout.

The gengar gave me a smile that was closer to a snarl, mockingly clapping its paws as if to compliment me on a battle well fought. It began to dissolve into the night air as so many of its Ghost followers had done, and I frantically glanced around: Drake was playing hit and run against a different group of ghosts, Ajax was focused on a line, the absol was backing him up against slightly more resistance. None of the three was in position to strike at the leader, and I felt something in me clench. I felt anger, that I hadn’t been able to put an end to this, that the gengar would just run and try again another day. If I’d been more decisive, if I’d been better at training them, if I’d just made better decisions…

All I could do was watch, fists clenched, as the Ghost faded back into purple energy. The last thing to vanish was the first thing to appear, a ghostly grin, mocking me. For everything that we’d achieved, holding out this long, performing well against overwhelming odds, finally breaking them with the help of the absol, none of it had been enough. It had all fallen short of achieving the final goal, capturing the gengar and ensuring that it couldn’t take a shot at us once again. The anger in that smile promised that much, that it would be back again, and next time it wouldn’t lose so easily.

With the absol’s help, it was easy for Ajax and Drake to put the rest of the ghosts to flight. Without the support and leadership of the gengar, though leadership might be a strong word for it, they couldn’t hold together or respond in unison. Realizing that they’d been abandoned by the strongest of their number shattered whatever morale they had left, and the remainder was less of a battle than it was just a mop up. All my partners and the absol had to do was make threatening movements and flare a little Dark energy, and whatever ghosts were left scattered like roaches. My partners didn’t seem eager to chase them beyond a certain distance, Drake pacing back and forth with his eyes narrowed, Ajax’s head swiveling and seeming wary of a surprise assault from the side, and both of them occasionally sending worried glances in my direction.

“Worried? About me?” I smiled, though I couldn’t help the touch of wariness to my own expression as I approached them. “I should be the one worried. I wasn’t fighting off a small army of Ghost types.” I came right up to Ajax and gave him a hug, pulling Drake into it despite his half-hearted protests. “Thank you, both of you.” I whispered.

Ajax raised his head, pride and happiness shining through. He’d done well, and I did my best to make sure that he knew it, that he did take pride in it. He’d held the line, despite everything that had been thrown at him, and he hadn’t flinched once from it. His first time experiencing anything like this, and he’d held sure as steel. I was proud of him. Drake, on the other hand, merely nodded, though he didn’t hide how pleased he was. The absol stalked at a distance, head held high, fury engraved on their face.

I remained there for a moment, enjoying the warmth of my partners. I needed a moment for the adrenaline to spool down, to get the shakes out, to work out the kinks in my thoughts that worrying so hard over them had put there. That had been a full on battle, the first real one we’d faced; even the first ghost assault Drake and I had fought against hadn’t been quite like this. They provided rock solid anchors for me, though I could feel the anxiety that Ajax radiated underneath his pride. We hadn’t been tested quite like this before.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Still, it was something that I had to eventually push past. In the distance, I could still hear occasional impacts, and Blake might need our help. When my hands had stopped shaking so hard, I took a deep breath and pushed myself to my feet, my hand on Ajax’s back and Drake at my side.

I had expected the absol to make their exit while I’d been recovering, as those sorts of mysterious disappearances appeared to be their modus operandi, but they were still patrolling back and forth around us. As I stood, they looked my way, and I waved to them.

“We’re heading back to the camp! They might need us, if you’re willing to come along!”

They seemed to mull that over for a second, before nodding their assent. They drew closer, though not close enough to be a part of the more densely packed group that was myself and my partners. Hurriedly, we scampered over a trail that, at a glance, I figured had been formed by the bibarel that had built and maintained the dam before being driven off. As we drew closer to the camp, the sounds of battle grew louder, and I felt increasingly nervous as I compared the sounds to those that we had made and found us falling short. Blake was in a much worse position than we had been, from the sounds of it, which only made us pick up our feet, or paws, even more. We crested a hill, and we froze.

I had expected a battle, perhaps not the one on one combat that you expected from trainers, but something closer to what we had experienced. A pitched battle, with Blake’s Pokemon on one side, and the other half of the force of ghosts on the other. When I crossed the top of the hill, though, that wasn’t what I saw.

Two hulking figures, one burning like a purple star, and one that radiated black and white like a striped comet, collided with the force of a freight train. In their collision of energies, the ground buckled, stones the size of me were obliterated in an instant, turned to shards that scattered the battlefield. The black and white was the faster of the two, the black energy annihilating the purple where they met, and the purple figure was driven back with a screech that seemed to shake my bones.

Arranged around them, I could see Blake’s team, working together like a well-oiled machine. They struck at concentrations of ghosts, preventing them from interfering with the central fight. Where Drake or Ajax had struggled to break a solid group of them, any one of Blake’s team threw the ghosts around as if they were straw figures. As I watched, I realized that they weren’t interfering with the primary fight: it was not, as it had been with us, because they were too overwhelmed. Instead, when there was a gap in enemies, they simply turned to watch the exchange, very obviously refusing to step in. They looked upon something that made my stomach drop through my feet, that made Ajax look both awed and slightly scared, that made even Drake hesitant and cautious, and they simply stood by and watched.

I had thought that the fights and demonstrations in the Gym practice fields had been a demonstration of how far we had to go. I could see now that that was wrong, in every single way. These Pokemon were like titans clashing in some mythic battle, sheer power tearing up the battlefield, leaving craters and shattered boulders in their wake. Their every blow made the air itself shiver, their speed enough that I could barely track them.

And there was Blake, standing behind his team. His back was straight, his face was focused. He called out commands, directed all the members of his team with fluidity and without hesitation. He shouted an order to the black and white titan, and it changed its approach in an instant. For a moment, I saw through the veil of energy. Behind it was something that wasn’t as tall as the towering figure that opposed it, which I recognized as a dusknoir, but was radiating power every inch their equal, if not their better. A figure that was black and white as the energy that wreathed them, huge claws, stripes, a black mane. Arm cocked back for a strike, Dark energy at concentrations I’d never seen before collecting and writhing around it.

“Obstagoon.” I whispered to myself.

The blow was delivered in a flash, accompanied by a howl of exertion. It hit like an artillery strike, producing a shockwave that made me throw up my hands and grit my teeth. The dust thrown up by the impact obscured the field entirely, and as it began to settle, the sounds of fighting calmed as every ghost in the area turned their eyes in its direction. I felt as if we were all holding our breath, metaphorical or not, waiting for the dust screen to clear and reveal the results of the fight.

And then, there was a breeze. The dust cleared. The obstagoon stood, tall and undaunted, arms crossed and a fierce grin of sharp teeth on his face. Across from it was a rent in the ground, dug as if by some monstrous hand swiping through the earth. I followed it with my gaze, and found, at the end of it, the dusknoir.

By all appearances, it hadn’ been able to phase through the ground. The Dark energy that it had been afflicted with most likely had something to do with that, affecting its ability to properly wield or utilize its Ghost type abilities. As a result, it had been forcefully driven through meters of earth and rock by the impact of the obstagoon- of Jive’s blow, and sat, miserable and broken, at the end of the trench its body had dug. Blackness poured out of rents in its beaten body, so black it was almost purple, and it had to push itself up with a keening whine. It cast its single red eye over the battlefield, over its untouched opponent, over the Ghost types that were beginning to break and route. Its baleful gaze lingered on the members of Blake’s team, barely even scuffed, and, finally, fell onto me.

That single red eye burned itself into my soul. I wanted to avoid it, to look away, to hide from it and break the line of sight, but I couldn’t. It appeared to pin me in place, paralyze me. In that moment, I knew that, even in its horrifically injured and weakened state, it could take both my partners and the absol at once without hesitation. It was a monster, by power if not by morality, and I couldn’t even begin to guess how the gengar had convinced it to play along with its plan.

It was a relief when Jive stepped in between us and it. The obstagoon’s energy and figure broke the burning gaze of the Ghost type, forcing it to focus on its opponent. Jive stood tall; not untouched, but certainly not wounded. He was standing tall, his aura almost boiling with energy, ready to go for another round. I watched as the dusknoir’s attention played across the Dark type, then seemed to almost dim: a concession, an admittance of defeat. Clearly, while the gengar had somehow gotten the vastly more powerful Pokemon on its side, they weren’t nearly dedicated enough to fight to the last.

The dusknoir picked themselves up and brushed themselves off, much of the dust and chips of stone phasing through them and dropping to the ground. It swept one more look across all those present, then turned and floated off, quickly turning invisible in the process. Still, even with it gone, there was a tension that remained. Even as the ghosts rapidly streamed out in all directions, fleeing, Blake and his team gathered closer with a wariness that spoke of experience.

I swallowed, then started down the hill towards them. After a moment, Drake followed, Ajax close on his heels, while the absol lingered just a little longer on the crest. Still, when I looked back a few moments later, I saw them hesitantly following in our wake, clearly much more uncertain now and distinctly wary of their surroundings. That was completely fair, I thought, as I didn’t think that I’d be able to so much as take a walk alone at night in the same way again.

“Cam!” I twitched at the call, focusing on Blake after a moment. The other trainer seemed relieved to see me, quickly taking in the rough appearance of my partners with concern. “You alright, mate? Jive indicated something about you being in danger, but we didn’t exactly have much time to communicate before…” He glanced around the shattered battlefield.

“I’m… we’re alright. A little worse for wear, but okay.” I glanced towards the furrow the dusknoir had dug with its body. “We didn’t face anything nearly as bad as you did.”

“Hum, and thank Arceus for that. That dusknoir would’ve wiped the floor with you and that absol.” He frowned. “No offense. There are just threats out there that are beyond any of our strength, it’s why we train.”

“None taken. Always a bigger fish, y’know?”

I walked closer, where most of Blake’s team seemed to think that the danger had passed, and were taking stock of each other’s small injuries. I wasn’t lying about not taking offense; I’d felt it in that moment of eye contact, the sheer titanic strength the dusknoir possessed, even humbled by Jive. We would’ve been so out of our depth that it wouldn’t even have been funny for the ghosts, more of just an annoyance.

“Do…” I swallowed and restarted. “Are there a lot of wild Pokemon that strong?”

He shook his head, to my relief. “No. That was a rarity, there aren’t many that can reach that level of strength without a human partner. Shudder to think what it would’ve become at the side of a trainer, or a Ghost specialist.” He gave a shiver. “Still, glad to see you’re alright. What did you face out there?”

“Uh…” I thought for a moment. “I told you about the incident in Vinewood, yeah? Big ghost assault?” Blake thought for a moment, then nodded. “We faced the gengar that was the ringleader of that event, and whatever ghosts it managed to scrape up. Nearly overwhelmed us, but Drake and Ajax held out long enough for the absol to come in.” I nodded to the white-furred Pokemon, who was busy staring into the dark. “From there, we managed to drive them off easily enough.”

Blake clicked his tongue in displeasure. “Ghosts can form terrible grudges, and it sounds like you’re at the business end of one. That gengar’ll be back, mark my words, and it’ll be stronger when it returns. It’s already incredible that it managed to enlist so many of its type to its cause, especially that dusknoir.”

I watched as the Pokemon fanned out, securing the area, checking over the camp. Thankfully, the fighting appeared to have happened away from the tents and the supplies around and in them, leaving them untouched. The absol began a circuitous patrol of the area, but Drake and Ajax seemed reluctant to leave me, particularly in the wake of what had just happened. I crouched, leaning against the warmth that Ajax radiated and pulling Drake closer.

“I’ll be alright, you two. Stay in shouting range, I’ll call you back if anything happens.”

They each gave me their version of a worried look, and had a silent exchange between them. After a moment, however, they nodded reluctantly and joined the rest of the Pokemon in their efforts. I remained crouched, watching them move away, then flopped backwards with an exhausted sigh. A long day and night of physical labour, ending in that much stress and worry, had wiped me out.

Blake brushed off a stone near my head and sat down, folding his hands together between his legs. He watched his Pokemon, but they didn’t appear to need his direction, understanding what they needed to do to secure things and ensure that we hadn’t lost any supplies or equipment to the mischief or desire for petty revenge of the fleeing Ghost types.

“You did well, you know, for your second event like this.” He quirked a grin. “From what I know, you did pretty well the first time, too.”

I grunted. “Drake fought our way out. I just carried him when he got tired and got the Rangers moving.”

He watched me for a second, which I could see out of the corner of my eye. I stared insistently up at the night sky and the stars splashed across the firmament, refusing to make eye contact with him.

“You don’t think you did well.” He said, finally.

I groaned, pressing my hands over my eyes.

“No. I think I fucked up. I think that I got monumentally lucky, and that I got Drake and Ajax hurt. If the absol hadn’t arrived when they did…” I trailed off. How long would they have held out? Would it have been long enough for Blake to come to our assistance? I didn’t, couldn’t know. “I made a series of terrible mistakes that landed us in a bad, indefensible position, far away from any help. It’s a wonder I didn’t get the three of us killed.” I let my arms flop to the sides with a sigh. “If this is what being a trainer is like, I don’t think I’m cut out for it.”

I tried to say it as a joke, but a bit of that doubt crept in. I’d risked the lives and health of Ajax and Drake for nothing. A moment of overconfidence that had nearly seen us at the mercy of the gengar that had been perfectly willing to kill hundreds for a shot at us. I could think of all the things that I should’ve done from the beginning, the choices that I should’ve made the moment I realized what was happening. I should’ve followed Jive, or run when I realized the gengar was on the field, focused more on taking him out. I’d failed to down a serious threat, and now it was going to come back to haunt me at the most inconvenient time, I knew it.

I’d failed to keep Ajax and Drake from injury. I’d committed us to a bad position, and then promptly failed to accomplish the single objective that I’d committed us for. Despite risking everything to take out the gengar and prevent it from escaping, it had gotten away. If I’d captured it, I could at least comfort myself with the fact that, while I’d done an unnecessarily risky and stupid thing, at least I’d achieved my goal. But no, there had been nothing positive to come from it. We’d had to be saved by the absol, and hadn’t even accomplished that one goal.

“You’re an idiot, and I think that your Pokemon would kick your ass if they heard you talking like that.” I looked in shock at Blake, who was staring back, entirely serious. “If you made a mistake? That’s fine. Learn from it.”

“But I-”

“But nothing. It’s tough, but are you really going to sit there on the ground after not quite perfectly clearing the first hurdle?” He waved a hand, cutting me off again as I opened my mouth. “I’m not interested in hearing self-pity. Did you make a mistake?”

“I-” I closed my mouth with a click, mulling it over. “Yeah. I should’ve followed Jive back to camp. We could’ve-”

“No, you couldn’t have.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“Why do you think the ghosts split in two? They didn’t have to. If that dusknoir had hit your group, you would’ve been knocked flat. If they’d committed to a full surprise attack on the camp, they might’ve achieved more. Hell, even if they’d made you run back with Jive, they would’ve gotten what they wanted.” He tapped the side of his head. “Think for a second. What were you right next to?”

“The d-” My eyes widened, and I sat up, heart suddenly thumping. Blake watched me connect the dots, nodding grimly.

“They were planning to force you to retreat to camp, so the gengar could pop the dam. They wouldn’t have gotten us, but it definitely would’ve taken sadistic pleasure in ensuring that we failed to protect all those people. If you hadn’t been there to drive them off, that would’ve been what they did. I doubt the dusknoir knew everything that was happening, and would’ve refused if it did, maybe even put down the gengar for trying.”

I felt a sick sort of clenching in my stomach. We’d been so close to disaster, and… well, it had been a mistake, but I supposed that it wasn’t so bad. I hadn’t thought something positive came from it, but…

“... It was still a mistake.”

“Yeah. You shouldn’t have sent Jive away.” I gave him a look of shock, and he returned it with a glare. “Jive is powerful, and it was wonderful to have him to one-on-one the dusknoir while the rest of my team managed the remaining ghosts. But you had to have noticed that the ghosts couldn’t even effectively do much to them, despite their numbers.”

I nodded, hesitantly, not sure I saw where this was going. “But you needed Jive. To fight the dusknoir.”

“No, I didn’t. The rest of my team could’ve handled it. By sending Jive away, you got rid of your best asset, and were nearly overwhelmed. Do not think that standing your ground wasn’t the right choice, but sending Jive back to camp was a stupid mistake. With Jive, you could’ve pushed through the force, captured the gengar, then come back here while we still held.”

I curled up a little, pulling my knees to my chest. I felt small, and young, the most of each that I’d felt for a long time. With the facts laid out like that, I could see how it’d been an error of judgment, a mistake on my part. I twitched when Blake patted my shoulder, staring up at him in surprise. He gave me a soft smile in return.

“Look, nobody’s perfect, and you’re new. Incredibly new, practically green, which is just weird for your age.” He laughed as I gave him a reproachful look. “Don’t worry. I’m pointing this out so you can learn from it, not so it discourages you. You’re a League affiliate, albeit in a probationary sense, and you’ll run into these sorts of situations again. You’ll have to learn, but you can’t do that if you can’t see where you went wrong, or blame yourself too much for making an error.”

“I did… do something stupid, though.”

He shrugged. “Out of inexperience, not out of stupidity. You’re smart enough to understand the difference, even if you want to sit there and wallow in self-pity.” I made a disgusted expression and he smiled. “Not that you really want to. So, look, we all came out okay. The dam’s still intact, nobody’s hurt worse than a good sleep and some oran pills can fix. You did a good job, so get some sleep, and we’ll get you moving in the morning. We’ve still got a job to do, right?”

“... Right.” I said. I nodded, then repeated it again, this time a little more firm. “Right.”

Blake was correct, I couldn’t wallow in it. I had made mistakes, and I needed to accept that, but I couldn’t let them bog me down. It felt a little embarrassing, to be told that I needed to learn from my mistakes like I hadn’t before, but I could accept that it was true. It had to be pointed out to me so that I could break out of it and actually learn, instead of just getting caught in the mire of self-recrimination. There was rest that needed to be taken, healing to be done, and more work tomorrow. The dam was still a problem, and we couldn’t forget that.

“Head on straight?” Blake asked. I thought for a moment, and nodded. Felt true enough. “Good. Get some rest, mate, got work to do tomorrow.”

He patted my shoulder, pushing himself to his feet and walking back towards his team, shouting orders. I could see the joy in his face as he walked to Jive, sctritching the now-bipedal weasel Pokemon all over his muzzle, which Jive pretended that he didn’t like. It was obvious, though, that he was leaning into the attention, and was exceedingly pleased by the compliments that Blake was giving his new form. I was a little weirded out by the severe change that he’d gone -through, but I suppose it was something that I’d have to get used to, huh? Pretty typical for Pokemon. Drake would just get bigger- well, I supposed that Ajax was just going to get bigger, but given the size change I was guessing he’d go through between forms, it was almost as extreme.

I rolled the thought back and forth in my head for a moment, then pushed myself to my feet, brushing off my pants as I did so. Blake had been right, when he said that there would be more work to do tomorrow. Strong as he and his team were, there was only so much you could do without causing some kind of damage that would take us steps back. There would be more to do tomorrow, after a good sleep and a hearty breakfast. My partners had earned both, certainly.

The both of them were examining Jive’s new form as well, Drake obviously sizing Jive up for how this would change the weasel’s approach to combat and training. It occurred to me that, now Jive had hands, there were a lot of exercises he could perform that he definitely couldn’t before. Something to consider later, I guessed. Ajax, on the other hand, just seemed to think it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen. I could see the stars glittering in the houndour’s eyes from here, and it was obvious that he was awed by how much Jive had changed going from a linoone to an obstagoon.

The absol, on the other hand, was valiantly pretending to not be interested in the slightest, while obviously being very interested. I could guess how that sort of power might be desirable to a Pokemon whose entire life was about preventing natural disasters and loss of life. Would certainly make things easier for them. Still, as I approached, they noted my presence and turned away, wandering off towards a flat rock. I’d thought about offering them space in my tent, if only for the night, but it appeared that they wouldn’t be accepting anything like that. Their loss, I supposed.

“Come on, you two, you can look tomorrow.”

I swept my gaze across the horizon as Ajax and Drake disengaged, though they still kept glancing in Jive’s direction. Even though we’d driven off the ghosts, I still felt nervous, particularly about going to sleep around a site that had just been mobbed by things that tended to eat dreams. Blake caught my gaze, seeming to intuit what I meant by it, and nodded.

“Don’t worry, we’ll set up a rotating guard. The team’s already rested, and just one of them should be enough to keep an eye on the camp, prevent any of them from coming back and messing about.”

I gave him a relieved smile, which he returned with a nod.

The process of getting my partners settled down after that was a lengthy one. They’d come into camp blazing, expecting another fight, and had been somewhat riled and unsettled by the displays of sheer power that Jive had been showing off. I could feel a bit of anxiety behind both of their energies, though in their own individual ways. Drake worried about performing as the ace of my team, Ajax wanting to catch up as fast as possible, to be everything he’d seen Jive be on the battlefield.

Still, they eventually settled, Drake first. Ajax had to burn off some energy, attempting some of the Fire type things he’d seen Devi doing during the battle, but he’d already been exhausted when we got here. He quickly ran out of steam, flopping onto the foam mattress that I’d spread across the floor of the tent and passing out instantly.

I felt a little jealous, I’d never been able to get to sleep that easily. With the reality of what had attacked us, I felt restless and slightly paranoid. Even knowing that one of Blake’s partners would be out there, making sure we were safe, didn’t completely clear that anxiety.

Typically, when I wanted to sleep and couldn’t immediately pass out, I thought about stories I wanted to write, or how to guide narratives that I was already working on. Here, though, I had nothing of the sort to consider, no thoughts that I could really chase into the land of dreams. I toyed with various different thoughts, but I couldn’t help but return to the same thing that my Pokemon had been thinking about.

The sheer power that Jive had displayed, even if some of it had come from his evolution, had been extreme. It was obvious that he wasn’t even going full out, avoiding the entire expression of his abilities so as to not catch his trainer or his fellows in the blast radius. How strong was Blake, exactly? What did I know about him?

Well, he came from Galar. He had some amount of affiliation with the League, if he was doing jobs for the Rangers. He was obviously strong, experienced, and knowledgeable, and his Pokemon were seasoned veterans of an obviously lengthy journey. The fact that Jive hadn’t evolved for this long, I felt, must’ve been something of personal taste. Clearly, the weasel had been holding back on it, potentially because it was such a large change and would take a lot of time to get used to. Going from a quadruped to a biped had to be aggravating, an instant change to all of his techniques and training. As well as he’d performed, I got the feeling that he’d been somewhat struggling with a body he wasn’t familiar with.

Still, it was obvious when thinking about it that I didn’t really know all that much about the partner I’d picked up for traveling. I didn’t think he was being purposefully mysterious about his past or origins, not secretive exactly, more just that he seemed reluctant to reveal something. He wasn’t doing the Gym challenge for Sinnoh, and didn't seem particularly interested in it.

It was a series of dots, scattered across a page, but it was like looking at a connect the dots picture where none of the dots had labeling. They were there, sure, but without knowing what to connect and in what order, I couldn’t say what kind of picture it formed. Eventually, I had to roll over, admit that whatever Blake’s past was, it was his own. It wasn’t my place to pry.

Somewhere, in those rambling musings, I finally fell asleep.

----------------------------------------

The next day started with a series of MRE packages being removed from Ajax’s harness, dumped in the tent when we’d set them up the previous day, before everything with the ghosts had happened. Devi had apparently taken the last guard duty of the night, and was making a patrol around the camp, glancing occasionally to where the absol was stretching on the flat rock they’d laid on last night. He nodded a good morning as he saw me leaving the tent, casting a slightly disappointed look towards the self-warming meal in my hands. I smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, Devi. I love your food and everything, but good food takes time, and we have to get back to it as soon as we can. You know that.”

The bipedal rabbit sighed, long, drawn out, and dramatic, but nodded his assent. He understood the need for quickly prepared prepackaged food that freed him up to do more, though he didn’t have to like it. Still, guard duty done now that we were awake, he stretched himself, and then practically vanished in a burst of speed and dust. Every footstep was like a hammer blow, driving him forwards at high speed, making him rapidly vanish behind the rocks between us and the dam.

The absol was startled by the sudden extreme movement, going from luxurious stretching to battle ready within a second. Still, once they saw that it was Devi that had caused the disturbance, their hackles went back down again and they went back to their morning stretches.

I settled down around the firepit on a rock that had been obviously hauled over and placed here for this reason, munching on the eggs that came with my MRE without paying them much attention. Instead, I glanced around the area, marking with my eyes all the scars and marks that last night’s free for all had left in its wake.

With the context of Blake’s team, their cohesion and strength, I could easily make out that it had been something of a curbstomp for them. There wasn’t any blood staining the rocks, merely the occasional purple marks from ectoplasm, or rocks and soil singed by fire or lightning. Several of the rocks had been sliced so cleanly that the sides of the cut glittered like polished countertop in the sun, obviously Noble’s work. I wondered how close the corvisquire was to their final evolution, at that.

Still, the largest mark on the battlefield remained the marks that Jive had made, a series of pockmarked craters and rents in the soil and stone, culminating in the trench the dusknoir had dug with its body. I could trace where he’d stood when he’d delivered that blow, his paws leaving deep marks and the ground cracked from the backlash. It had been a blow that would’ve downed any of mine in a single hit, a signal that Jive, that any of Blake’s Pokemon, could take on both of my boys on their own. Such strength and such power.

They’d taken on every single ghost that had accompanied the dusknoir, as we’d taken on the ones that followed the gengar. We’d struggled on our own, had pulled it out because the absol, who was now eating their way through an MRE that Drake had offered to them, had shown up when we were desperate. Blake and his team, however, had never really been in that much danger, just involved in containing them and preventing them from coming my way.

Many people, I thought, would probably be intimidated by the power displayed. I’d thought that Blake’s Pokemon were titans given flesh, the previous night, and everything that I could see in the daylight only solidified that initial assessment. That was frightening, the amount of strength that they could wield, the blows that could shatter steel and break stone. Such power that most Pokemon couldn’t hope to compare, could only delay them. Even the hordes of ghosts and the dusknoir, as powerful as it had been, had merely been a mire that they’d had to push through before coming to my aid.

I didn’t feel intimidated. I felt excited. Because when I looked at everything Blake and his had wielded, every bit of strength and every attack, I thought about how it was the result of training. They hadn’t always been this strong: it was a pinnacle that they’d reached, a mountain that they’d climbed. I felt something familiar, something that I’d last felt sitting in the bleachers, watching more experienced trainers and Pokemon practice with Drake by my side. I felt awe, to be sure, that Pokemon could be so strong, but more than that?

I felt excited. One day, this would be strength that Drake and Ajax would wield with the ease that Blake and his had exhibited. This was something to aim for, a goal that I could see through the fog, even if the exact path was obscured. It would be rocky, winding, and lengthy, but one day we’d achieve it. We’d stand atop that peak, and I couldn’t help the light and tingly feeling that I felt thinking about it.

I balled up the trash and stuck it in a pouch meant for it, a determined smile on my face. And I could feel the same thoughts from Drake, staring at the furrow that Jive had left. From Ajax, examining the patterned scorch marks that Devi had left behind.

One day, that would be us.