The Ghost Specialist

Flying Pokémon screeched through the air. Other Pokémon cried out on the ground. Sam saw a Nidorino desperately drag itself into the foliage, and shadows darkened the sky from above.

“They're doing another fly-over!” someone shouted, but Sam wasn’t able to tell who.

Three Butterfree trilled as they flew over the meadow. Their cheerful voices echoed out, not matching the panic of the chaos below. Underneath them, a Sleep Powder cloud filled the space between the woods and a hill in the center. Pokémon ran for cover, the trees serving the sole source of protection from the dust drifting off the Bug Types’ wings.

“Scatter!” Sam yelled. “They can’t get all of us!”

Quilava followed the other Pokémon entering the woods. With her evolution came speed, and with that speed, an easy development of Tackle into Quick Attack. Haunter darted to hide inside Sam’s shadow, but doing that forced Sam to act to save the both of them.

Sam just barely managed to push through a bush, dodging a Caterpie that flung a String Shot at his legs. Quilava curved in her dash to dart towards it, flashing out flames from the top of her head and her lower back. The weak Bug Type quickly fled in the face of that super effective fire.

Mankey didn’t follow. He stayed in the meadow. Rather than hiding, the monkey Pokémon raised his hands and howled at the sky. Barreling towards him, the three Butterfree dived. The last thing Sam saw of that brave Fighting Type was Mankey being utterly consumed by the Bug Types’ sparkling cloud.

“Your sacrifice won’t be forgotten,” he whispered, saluting that loyal primate.

With no more targets remaining, the Butterfree circled back to perch on the head and shoulders of a purple-haired, young boy standing on top of the central hill. He laughed—maniacally. A villainous smile stretched across his face as he played into his role perhaps too well.

“MWA-HA-HA-HA!” He thrust his hands onto his hips. “YOU WILL NEVER CLAIM WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!”

His laughter continued as several Beedrill rose out of the deep woods behind them. In pairs, they moved into the open meadow, beginning to patrol the edge just above the trees.

“...And this is supposed to be a Gym Trial?” Sam mumbled. “No. This is war.”

He breathed out as his Pokémon gathered around him. Quilava was already at his side, and Haunter left his shadow to enter the air. Stepping out of the meadow was Mankey, who marched right out of the lingering cloud, utterly unaffected thanks to sheer willpower, roiling anger, and most important, his ability, Vital Spirit.

“Okay,” Sam started, hardening his gaze and putting a fist into his hand. “We need to find the others. Make some kind of plan. Take out that brat Bugsy and actually win this game.”

The Gym Trial was a “simple” game of King of the Hill, with trainers being divided up into groups and told to take and hold certain locations. Their opponent was a Gym Trainer, an up-and-coming star in Azalea named Bugsy. Unfortunately, this wasn’t anything like a normal match. The Gym provided Bugsy with what felt like a nigh-uncountable number of Bug Types to use.

There was a swarm between Sam and victory, and unlike most wild Bug Type encounters, this swarm had significantly more than just a single species to worry about.

As Sam eyed the imperious-looking child at the top of the hill, a rustle came from behind him. He expected to see one of the boy’s many Bug Types approaching in an ambush, but instead, Redi pushed through. Behind her were the three other trainers that made up their group for the Trial.

“I had Gloom smear some of her saliva on another tree,” a green-haired girl said. “It should lure all the Bug Types to it. That’ll give us a few minutes, at least.”

“Should we make a plan, then?” a fidgeting boy, a teen a few years older than Sam, asked everyone at once. He looked around hopefully as a duck-like Farfetch’d stood by his side like a soldier standing at attention.

There wasn’t an immediate response, but the last member of the group did manage to push through that same bush. There was a twig in his hair and a sneer on his face. He kept glaring at Bugsy through the trees.

“I refuse to lose to him,” he snarled.

A Nidorino limped by his side.

In theme with the Bug Type Gym, this Trial was all about working in groups—in other words, in a swarm. Only one of them actually had to be on the hill to claim it, but the Trial was designed around an entire group. Unfortunately, teams were balanced around an approximate level of strength rather than an explicit number of Gym Badges. It was why Redi and Sam were in the same Gym Trial, but it was also the reason why a few of these other trainers managed to join in.

The boy with the Farfetch’d had never once challenged a Gym. He was a local whose Farfetch’d had grown strong while defending him in Ilex Forest, but his actual battle experience was minimal. As for the boy with a sneer, Sam wasn’t a fan. He might have had four Gym Badges under his belt, but he had only ever earned his Badges through taking on Trials.

That just left Sam, Redi, and the girl with a Gloom. All of them had earned their Gym Badges through active fights against a Gym Leader.

“So what are we doing?” the Farfetch'd trainer asked again, glancing around nervously. “Maybe we could rush him? Overwhelm him as a group?”

“Nah. I don’t think that’ll work,” Redi said. “If you look closely, you can see his Ariados waiting in ambush.”

She pointed to the base of the hill, where the tall grass was at its highest. Occasionally, wind blew to allow a red carapace to peek through. To make matters worse, Sam was pretty sure all of the Ariados were actively staring at them.

The boy’s face went pale as the green-haired girl mumbled something unpleasant about Bug Types under her breath. Sam raked his brain for any strategy possible, but it was the boy who had only ever taken on Gym Trials who spoke up.

“No. He’s right. We need to rush him if we want to get through.”

Redi, usually one for a straightforward strategy like that, frowned and crossed her arms.

“Um, no? You’re just asking for us to lose. As much as I’d like to punch that kid in the face—”

The other girl in the group blinked.

“—he has a ridiculous amount of Pokémon with him. We don’t have the numbers to fight all of them off. Not even Teddiursa can handle a swarm of that size.”

Despite her argument, the boy grinned.

“Exactly! He can’t command them all at once!”

Sam barely resisted covering his face with his hand.

“Look, there’s five of us and only one of him,” the boy continued. “If we each send out all of our Pokémon, he can’t take us all out, right?”

There were too many things wrong with that plan, in Sam’s opinion. While a push wasn’t the worse thing in the world, they needed to create roles for each person in the group. Otherwise they were too vulnerable to tricks. Not to mention that by releasing their entire teams, they’d have to be in charge of more than one Pokémon at once, which could cause issues when faced with the chaos of a swarm.

“I don’t think that plan would work,” Sam said, agreeing with Redi.

“Yeah? You don’t? But which one of us has four Gym Badges already, huh?”

Sam scowled.

“Look, I’m the most experienced trainer here,” the boy continued. “This is meant to be my fifth and last Gym Badge. Give me this, alright? I really think that if we rush him, we can win this with a bang!”

Sam frowned, but the boy smiled and raised a hand. Even though Sam felt like the discussion was still going on, by raising his hand, the boy had effectively started the vote.

Following him with this plan, the nervous teen raised his own, agreeing with the idea of charging forward. Then, much to Sam’s surprise, the girl with the Gloom voted to support it as well.

“Sorry,” she said, “but I actually think we can push through if we all work together.”

Sam sighed. One glance at Redi told him that she also thought this kind of unplanned rush was doomed to fail. Specifically, she sent him a look of, “This kid cannot be real.”

“Direct strategies like this are too vulnerable to tricks,” Sam said, trying one last time to change everyone’s minds. “I’d probably vote for this plan if it wasn’t for the fact we know that Bugsy’s already prepared tricks.”

He peeked over at the hidden Ariados, and Redi cleared her throat.

“I’m a fan of brute strength, and that usually works, but for once, Sam is right.”

“Hey!”

“I hate to say it, but we need a better plan.”

As both she and Sam glanced around at everyone in the group, the Farfetch’d’s trainer looked as though he wanted to lower his hand. There was a grimace on his face, and his hand started to inch down, but he was interrupted.

“We’re going,” the other boy said.

He marched forward, not giving anyone time to counter, and readied himself at the edge of the woods. A flash of a Pokéball saw him release a blue Nidorina, which joined his side opposite to where his Nidorino stood.

Sam groaned as the Gloom’s trainer moved to ready herself as well, and the Farfetch’d’s trainer walked past and sent Sam a genuine-sounding, “Sorry.”

“...Fine,” Sam huffed, “but don't look at me when everything fails.”

“At least it’ll be good practice?” Redi offered as she followed him over.

Sam hated how she had a point.

As they waited at the edge of the woods, a buzz zipped past them as a pair of Beedrill flew by.

“A Beedrill patrol,” the group’s self-elected “leader” said. “We’ll burst out the second they’ve passed.”

They crouched, better hiding themselves in the foliage, keeping an eye on all the passing Bug Types. Sharp stingers glinted in the midday sunlight, and their “leader” held up a hand.

Three.

He put down a finger.

Two.

Sam made sure all his Pokémon were ready.

One.

They didn’t all wait for the “go.”

The boy with the Farfetch’d charged forward, leading the pack with a scream at the top of his lungs. Despite the group’s apparent plan, they never established if they were to run out on one or zero.

“Go, go, go!” their leader hurriedly said.

The remaining four trainers and all of their Pokémon exploded out of trees and charged at Bugsy’s hill.

“YOU FOOLS! YOU’LL NEVER GET PAST MY MINIONS!” Bugsy shouted.

Rows and rows of Butterfree entered the air over his head. Roughly two-dozen appeared in a grid, with each one holding a fidgeting, blue pinecone—Bug Type Pokémon called Pineco. The organized swarm then flew to move themselves over everyone else’s heads.

“Psybeam, Porygon!” Redi shouted.

Teddiursa was already at her side, but she quickly released her second Pokémon to have it attack with a bright pink beam.

Thankfully, she had already managed to “program” simple, silent commands for when it came to how Porygon followed orders. She pointed, and a Psybeam shot out, aimed perfectly where Redi was pointing. As directed, one of the Butterfree was hit dead-on.

The Bug Type cried out in pain, and it dipped back so as to not fall onto one of its allies. As it did, however, it let go of its Pineco. The immobile blue Bug Type fell and hit the ground. On impact, the Pokémon used Self-Destruct to release every ounce of its internal energy all at once, causing an explosion.

“They’re literally bombing us!” Sam shouted, continuing his charge towards the hill regardless.

He looked at his Pokémon. Quilava jumped up to land on his back, holding onto him to better aim an Incinerate launched at the grid of Butterfree.

Several were hit by that burst of flame, forcing them back as they dropped their Pineco. Their aim was off, missing the group but exploding the ground. Nearby, the “leader” boy commanded his own Pokémon to help as well.

Poison Stings shot out of his team member’s mouths. The boy with the Farfetch’d had his bird Pokémon enter the air. When Pineco fell, the Flying Type’s Leek batted them away, and the fired Poison Stings managed to push falling Pineco away from the group.

The defense was working, but it wasn’t perfect. Some members were still charging, and others stopped to play defense. The boy with the Farfetch’d didn’t stop for even a moment, which, given his lead, meant he was the first to have a Pineco land a foot away from him on the ground.

He stopped, bringing his arms up in fright, but the Pineco didn’t explode. Instead, the Ariados lying in wait made their move, jumping out to fire off String Shots that utterly encased him in a web.

His Farfetch’d started to desperately try to free him, and Sam looked around. Chaos filled the meadow, and Haunter just barely managed to use Shadow Punch to knock away a Pineco falling towards his head.

“We’re losing,” Sam realized.

Redi’s Teddiursa used Slash to push back a Pineco before it burst. Another trainer’s Gloom suffered a Self-Destruct right in its face.

This was all going exactly the way Sam thought it would; Bugsy’s Pokémon were obliterating them. An unplanned rush was never going to work.

A lull in the explosions saw several Butterfree flying down to pick up their fallen companions. Pineco were brought back to rest behind Bugsy’s hill, but then more healthy Pineco took their place.

Another wave was coming. Explosions had churned up the ground, and even more Ariados were still hiding at the base of the hill.

Sam bit his lip.

How do we salvage this?

He already recognized his initial mistake.

It was one thing to not be rude. It was another to be a complete pushover. Letting this charge happen like this was on him. He should have fought harder against this plan.

So what can we use? One advantage is Haunter. He's immune to all the explosions. And then both Mankey and Quilava have Fire Type moves. A solid hit might mean a quick faint.

Redi was protected by Porygon. The artificial creature demonstrated impeccable skill. While its attacks were kept weak, its perfectly aimed Psybeams meant anything she pointed at was knocked away.

If we could just regroup...

Sam locked eyes with Haunter.

“I have a plan. You're the lynchpin of it. Ready to start a different strat?”

Haunter smiled and brought up a hand for a perfectly professional salute. Sam whispered his orders.

Following along, Haunter levitated into the sky. Enough Butterfree had been injured in the first wave that their grid was thinner, but there were enough left to still threaten the group with their Pineco primed to be dropped.

As fast as he could, Haunter pushed around the flesh of his face. As a combination of the Ghost and Poison Type, his body was rather amorphous. Through a bit of effort, he was able to add uncanny creases to his expression that made Mean Look easier to use.

One by one, Haunter glared at the flying Butterfree. Their progress forward halted as the Mean Look challenged them and prevented them from getting away.

One threw a Pineco at him. It exploded, but Self-Destruct was a Normal Type attack. As a Ghost Type, Haunter let the energy pass right through him, and when the smoke faded, he was utterly unharmed.

With the sounds of Ghost Type cackling filling the air, Sam rushed to his allies for this Gym Trial. He tossed a spare Potion to the trainer with the Gloom, and then he reached their “leader,” who was desperately trying to get his two Pokémon to wake up.

They had apparently fainted earlier in the fight.

“What do you want?” the boy snapped.

“Other Pokémon. I saw you have more balls on your belt. What other team members do you have?”

“Just Sandslash. I—”

“Perfect!” Sam said. “Go help out Farfetch’d. Use Sandslash to slash through his trainer’s web!”

The boy opened his mouth to argue, but Sam was already running to Redi.

“Hey!” she shouted "What are we doing?”

“You're leading the charge! I'm the distraction! Go as fast as you can!”

A malicious-looking smirk appeared on her face.

“Easy,” she said. “Will do.”

Redi cracked her knuckles and turned towards the hill. It looked like Bugsy was going to shout another taunt, but when he locked eyes with Redi, the boy froze up and took a cautious step back.

“Alright. Mankey. Quilava,” Sam said to his team. “Ready to assist?”

Quilava squeaked on Sam’s shoulder, her eyes filled with determination. Mankey, meanwhile, was already enraged. With all these flying Pokémon, he hadn't been able to do anything but run, and that really ticked him off.

Sam glanced up to where Haunter had gathered all the Butterfree. He called out an order.

“Mankey, grab her. Get ready to throw, and Quilava, use Curse.”

Mankey’s Fighting Type strength let him easily catch her when she hopped down, even with the difference in size. Quilava breathed out, closing her eyes, and her flame started to pulse alongside every breath.

The Farfetch’d trainer was freed thanks to the assistance of the other boy. Meanwhile, the Gloom was healed, and its trainer joined Redi’s side. Redi was at the front, quickly going over a plan without leaving room for argument, all while she had Porygon shoot Psybeams at Bugsy's feet. The Gym Trainer wasn't able to give any more commands to his Pokémon while under assault like that, and Haunter continued to desperately keep the swarm of Butterfree all in one place.

However, Bugsy looked to be growing more and more annoyed by the second. A scowl grew onto his face as he brought up a hand for a sharp whistle.

“Beedrill squads! Take them out!”

Sam’s eyes widened.

I forgot about the Beedrill!

A buzzing noise. Another joined in. And another. Then there was so much buzzing at once it was like the air itself was vibrating.

Enough Beedrill to form two different swarms left the trees and merged up. A cloud of yellow-and-black darkened the sky. Sam shakily took a step back.

“There’s no way this is a four-star level challenge,” he whispered.

He heard a shout. Redi started to push forward. With such a threat behind them, she chose this moment to make a much more organized push.

“Change of plans. We’re not attacking the Butterfree. We’re attacking the Beedrill,” Sam said.

Mankey huffed in acknowledgement. Quilava was too focused on building herself up as much as she could to respond in any meaningful way.

“Get ready...” Sam said.

He slowly inched over to place himself between the Beedrill and the group charging up the hill. They fought off Spinarak and Ariados alike, but if the swarm of Beedrill reached them, that would be it.

“A bit closer...” Sam continued.

Those yellow-and-black Bug Types began to dive. Each Beedrill was surprisingly fast. At Sam’s side, Mankey pulled his arms back, and Quilava finished one last use of Curse.

“Now!”

He snapped his fingers and pointed towards the swarm. Mankey threw Quilava with as much force as he could muster.

Like a boulder leaving a catapult, Quilava hurtled up into the sky. She opened her eyes and shouted her name, curling up her body as she did.

While Curse increased the user’s physical attack, the downside of the move was that it drastically lowered the user’s speed. However, Quilava didn’t need to worry about speed thanks to Mankey tossing her into the air, himself. All she needed to worry about was maximizing her power and flames exploded out around her.

Flame Wheel was her best move to combine with Curse. Unlike Ember or Incinerate, the boost to physical power actually applied. Using the Curse’s energy to fuel this attack, Quilava spun and let her flames tear out of her to an incredible length. The spin allowed her fire to rocket out, and her range was massively increased. Thanks to her pouring everything into this, as well as all the practice she had done with internal control, the Flame Wheel was absolutely enormous, and a full third of the swarm was hit by her flames.

“...Woah.”

Sam heard a yelp as Redi grabbed the collar of the Farfetch’d’s trainer to yank him back into their fight.

Sam had no such thing, and he stared upwards to behold Quilava’s incredible mastery over flame.

While she didn’t take out the entire swarm, or even faint more than a handful due to how stretched her Flame Wheel was, the heat was still super effective, and Beedrill were prone to anger. Infuriated by the attack on their swarm, they all turned to face her rather than the rest of the group.

She panted, landing on top of one of the Beedrill’s head. She looked around sheepishly before being forced off thanks to a dozen pairs of stingers being jabbed her way.

From head to head, from Beedrill to Beedrill, Quilava jumped, allowing any focus she had on Curse to drop. The only reason she wasn’t immediately overwhelmed was thanks to a combination of Quick Attack and Detect. She could see the attacks coming and had the speed to move out of the way, but this was an extremely dangerous game of leap frog that was quickly tiring her out.

“Mankey! I need you to help her!”

Sam brought down his hand, which Mankey clasped. He spun around and tossed him, throwing the monkey with all his might. Sam didn’t have the strength of a Fighting Type to back him up, but the swarm took up a lot of air space. Mankey got just high enough to grab a Beedrill’s leg, and then a Fire Punch slammed into its stomach before he hopped to another one.

...Unlike Quilava, Mankey was overwhelmed in seconds. He didn’t have the speed or the benefit of Detect to let him avoid their attacks. The Beedrill surrounded him and repeatedly stabbed with their stingers, using Twineedle. Thankfully, it did draw some attention away from Quilava, giving her a few spare moments to land on one’s head and catch her breath.

It was clear this opponent was far too strong for Sam’s team to handle, but he didn’t care about beating them in a fight. For this Gym Trial, he was only the distraction. Quilava and Mankey were distracting this swarm. Meanwhile, Haunter was still distracting all those Butterfree. Based on his occasional laugh, he was injured, but he was also having fun.

Eventually, Quilava missed a jump, and she began to fall towards the earth. Unable to grab her Pokéball in time, Sam leaped with his arms held out. He just barely managed to catch her, pulling her in close as he skidded along the ground.

“I got you!” he said. “That was incredible.”

She looked up and smiled at him with a tired, “Quil.”

Behind, a thump.

Sam glanced around.

Mankey peeled himself off the meadow’s dirt and gave Sam a thumbs-up. He hadn't even attempted to fall into Sam’s arms.

“HA HA HA!”

Maniacal laughter rang out from the hill once more. However, this time, it didn’t come from Bugsy.

“FOUL VILLAIN!” Redi shouted. “YOUR CLAIM IS NOW OURS! YOU HAVE FACED OUR WRATH AND HAVE BEEN FOUND WANTING! YOUR MINIONS HAVE FAILED!”

She put her hands on her hips and cackled, bringing her head back to stare at the sky. Meanwhile, at the base of the hill, Bugsy rubbed his shoulder and picked himself off the ground. Apparently, he had been thrown down.

With that unexpected change, the Beedrill were no longer approaching. Sam grabbed Mankey and jogged over to join where everyone else stood at the top. None of the Bug Types stopped him, and Haunter floated back down. The Ghost Type’s face was covered in bruises and cuts, and his body was battered from all the gusts of wind he had suffered from the Butterfree.

“Huh,” Bugsy said. The young boy rubbed his cheeks to better recover from what had happened.

Up here, the entire group stood tall. The Farfetch’d trainer looked confident for once. The Gloom’s trainer looked tired but was smiling. The last member of their group, the boy who had initially pushed for a rush, just grinned at Sam. He looked satisfied rather than annoyed.

“So you’ve claimed my hill?” Bugsy said. “NO MATTER!”

He threw a hand to his side.

“THAT WAS THE EASY PART! YOU MAY HAVE CLAIMED MY HILL, BUT CAN YOU HOLD IT? PREPARE YOURSELVES! GET READY FOR AN EVEN GREATER ASSAULT!”

It felt like hours, but it only took five minutes. Bugsy threw everything at them, but in the end, they managed to work together and push through. Together, Sam, Redi, and everyone else successfully completed Azalea’s Gym Trial, and for Sam and Redi, they only had their actual Gym Battle left to earn them their next Gym Badge.