The fight is on!
"Let's crush them! Come on out, Titan!"
"Go, Joker!" We both called out, while throwing our respective Pokéballs out onto the battlefield, which both opened with a snap, releasing two beams of red light onto the meadow, both taking shape in but a second, meanwhile both of our Pokéballs returned with a slap into our still open palms.
However, once I saw what my opponent had called onto his side of the field, my heart immediately skipped a beat in surprise, excitement, horror and a bunch of other emotions I was too distracted to identify.
A Larvitar! A fucking Larvitar! How the hell did he get one of those? They were so incredibly rare, it was ridiculous I would come upon one of those little terrors so early in my journey.
Their rarity wasn't much of a surprise though, since its last evolution was like a walking apocalypse and had thusly quite the demands for their partner when it came to procreation.
Still, the fact alone that this random boy possessed one sent a shiver down my spine, as I had read articles about things wild Tyranitar had done in the past, ranging from annihilating towns that were in its way or located somewhere it planned to build its residence. Let alone what a Tyranitar could do once it was under the control of a capable trainer. Really, the stuff of horror stories.
"A Gastly? You don't play around do you? But I can admire ambition when I see it." The boy I still didn't know the name of spoke into the silence after we both had released our Pokémon, the both of us seemingly taking in our opponent before we would truly dive into the thick of things.
"You are one to talk. Where the bloody hell did you get a Larvitar of all things?!" I replied, causing him to chuckle in mirth, while my only answer was a shrug of his shoulders.
And while I heard sounds of confusion from behind me at my question, I couldn't really be bothered to answer their questions, as I was already formulating plans for this battle I certainly didn't plan on loosing.
I knew that Larvitar were categorized as both Rock and Ground type, but I also knew that its last evolutionary stage, the Tyranitar, was of the Rock and Dark type, instead of Ground, which meant that even its first evolutionary stage had to possess at least some inherent ability to form dark type energy, if only to a small degree. A problem if there ever was one, as Ghost and Psychic Pokémon were rather vulnerable to that particular typing and I hadn't yet had the time to train with Ghastly to resist that particular typing in the sense that it could at least take a couple of blows from attacks of the sort.
Cursing silently, my thoughts ran a hundred miles per second, trying to come up with ideas on how I could deal with such attacks on the fly, but all I could think of right now was Gastly dodging or phasing past such attacks. Unfortunate, but I had faith in my companion to pull through in the end.
However, the phase of contemplating tactics had come to an end, as my opponent promptly commenced the battle in earnest.
"Bite, Titan!" the boy ordered and I cursed once more, now proven right in my former contemplations.
"Disperse, Joker!" I countered, ordering him to submerge his black main body in its purple gas, which began to spread out over the battlefield, hiding him well enough from sight.
"Smart, but not enough. Sandstorm!" His Larvitar obeyed immediately and with an outcry of concentration, while performing some small form of jumping dance, began to summon more and more sand, glowing under a softly shimmering veil of energy, which began to whip outwards from its body and float through the air like a beige, moving wall of sorts.
"Fucking damn it! Spite, Joker! Then give it a taste of your ominous wind!" Joker likewise obeyed without question, and faithfully did as I asked of him, his gas mixing with the sandstorm whipping outwards from the still hopping Larvitar.
Luckily, the sandstorm seemed to envelop the Larvitar like a cocoon, as my opponent's voice apparently had difficulties getting through to his Pokémon. Unfortunate for him, but perfect for me!
As my opponent had planned to force my Gastly through the sandstorm into visibility, a strategy only possible due to using the move sandstorm through the application of Larvitar's inherent energy reserves and suffusing the sand with it, it mattered no longer when Joker actually became visible by using his spite attack, hence why I ordered that attack in particular.
Funnily enough, I hadn't really thought about the ramifications of using sandstorm as a method of revealing Joker, but simply acted on instinct after getting the feeling that my opponent knew what he was doing when calling out the move sandstorm. Good thing that I trusted my gut.
Besides, the spite attack had the added bonus of causing an opponent to startle, which was very different from the kind of attack it had been in the games. Which wasn't much of a surprise though if you thought about it a little bit. PP after all didn't exist in real life, only energy and the body's ability to use said energy. By choking the Pokémon that ability was hindered, hence my command, which would hopefully also stop the sandstorm from growing to its full size.
Luckily, it did. The Larvitar was startled enough to stop its attack, however I hadn't expected it to be trained well enough to power through the startle Spite usually afflicted, which caused Joker to take a nasty Bite filled with weak dark type energy.
"Fuck! Come on Joker, push through the pain and phase!" I yelled, the tension of the battle enveloping me fully.
"Give him another Bite, then gain some distance and drop some rocks on the Gastly!" My opponent continued, his eyes gleaming with the fire of excitement, just as my own did I'm sure, though it seemed my voice and command had gotten through to my friend, as he grit his two teeth in determination and became translucent for a couple of seconds, disappearing behind the slowly stilling but still high veil of sand that had been floating all over the clearing, causing the Larvitar to stumble into emptiness with its second Bite attack, let alone the useless Rockthrow it had been commanded to perform afterwards.
Spotting my friend appearing behind the Larvitar, I was quick to issue another command, hoping to get in some damage to turn the battle back around into our favour and gain some momentum while doing so.
"Ominous wind into Nightshade! Blow that annoying sand away once and for all!" I called over, and Joker did just that.
"Shit!" My opponent cursed, for the first time losing his composure since we had started battling, and I couldn't help but grin at that small fact, while his Larvitar cried out in pain at being grazed by the cold, otherworldly feeling of the ominous wind Joker had summoned, blowing the sand away in the process, and transitioning smoothly into Nightshade with glowing red eyes that brought with it the all-consuming maliciousness inherent in all Ghost Pokémon.
"Come on, Titan! Don't give in! Focus your energy and start your Dragon Dance!" I nearly did a spit-take at the words I was hearing, while the Larvitar, with trembling legs and shaking body, began to slowly but surely do a small dance while its outcry gained a slightly deeper tone the longer it kept dancing, obviously gathering more and more energy.
"Fucking hell! Really?! Joker, go at a distance and end this with another Nightshade! Put everything into it!" I nearly roared, to which Joker responded while swiftly floating backwards with his eyes glowing red in its menacing colour.
"Forget it! This won't happen again! Larvitar, Rock Throw!" My opponent ordered just as swiftly, not giving us a second to gather our wits and prepare ourselves accordingly.
With a cry that was so unlike of what I heard it make before in its squeaky voice, now much deeper in tone, the Larvitar enveloped itself in a dark brown coloured veil of energy, while rocks began to dislodge themselves from all over the clearing, an amount I hadn't thought possible by such a small Pokémon.
"Phase underground, quickly!" I ordered thusly, and Joker responded by disappearing below ground with all the rocks blasting down upon the ground he had just occupied seconds ago, splintering to pieces in a thundering staccato that let the ground shake slightly beneath our feet.
But Joker had managed to get away to my relieve, slowly surfacing behind the Larvitar, all the while sporting a menacing grin with his eyes glowing red.
Just before he was about to unleash his Nightshade however, the Larvitar must've felt something from its back, or just acted on instinct, and turned around with its teeth gleaming with dark energy.
My eyes and the eyes of my opponent widened pretty much at the same time, as Larvitar took a direct, fully charged blow of Nightshade while Joker also experience the no doubt unpleasant sensation of being bitten straight into the face by teeth tinged with dark type energy, resulting in something none of us were expected.
Both Pokémon fainted pretty damn much at the same time. Mutual knockout!
"Bloody hell!" I heard Ash say from behind me, and I couldn't agree more. Bloody hell indeed.