'Has it evolved?' Gary thought.
Ever since he was defeated by Hisoka, he had started to learn about the Pokemon from other regions. With his grandfather's help, it was easy for him to find some information about Sneasel.
Fighting-type Pokemon is undoubtedly the best choice to deal with the Dark/Ice-type Pokemon. Sneasel belonged to the kind of Pokemon with high output and weak defense. Even after it had evolved, it would not be able to withstand the attack of a Fighting-type Pokemon.
Hisoka certainly knew about Weavile weakness. But there are not many Fighting-type Pokemon that can keep up with her speed. As long as she didn't get hit in a vulnerable spot, getting hit once or twice is still fine for her.
In a Pokemon battle, the trainer must not only know how to use the type advantage but must also pay attention to their Pokemon strength.
Gary didn't have a Fighting-type Pokemon on hand, but he still had a Pokemon that could match his opponent's Pokemon speed.
He kissed the Pokeball in his hand and threw it out.
"Arcanine! Let's show him our strength!"
The Pokeball flew in an arc and landed in the middle of the arena with a pop. Then, a large Arcanine appeared in a flash of light.
Roar!
It raised its head and let out a deep roar full of majesty. After that, it stood on all fours, growling at its opponent.
At the same time, the two figure hiding in the tree gritted their teeth in anger after seeing Arcanine's appearance. It was this Pokemon who defeated their Fuchsia Gym not long ago.
Even though Koga didn't use his main Pokemon, Gary's arrogant demeanor after winning the fight annoyed them both.
"Arcanine, use Flamethrower!"
Eager to start the battle, Gary raised his hand and ordered his Pokemon.
Arcanine opened its mouth and released a stream of fire. The fire flew across the arena, heading for its target.
"Dodge," Hisoka ordered calmly.
Weavile calmly jumped to the side, avoiding the attack.
"Follow up with a Slash," he continued.
She pressed her leg on the ground and darted across the arena. Then, she swung her claws at the Canine Pokemon.
Swoosh!
Arcanine managed to lean his body back in time as her attack only left behind a faint white energy trail, missing the attack. Seeing her attack hadn't got her target, she quickly flipped away to avoid any sudden attack.
"Nice job!"
Gary cheered.
He didn't have the time to command his Pokemon just now. That Pokemon's speed was too fast. Luckily, Arcanine managed to stand calm.
"Not bad," Hisoka clapped his hands lightly.
"You trained it well."
"Of course!" Gary said, lifting his chin slightly.
"Let's continue. Weavile, Double Team!"
As soon as Hisoka said that, twelve identical images appeared around Weavile. After that, they all rushed toward the Arcanine.
"Heh! I got you now! Arcanine! Use Flare Blitz on the real one!"
Arcanine charged at one of the Weavile with its body surrounded in fire.
Roar!
Boom!
An explosion occurred. Once the dust settled, Weavile was seen slumped against the wall, crying in pain.
"Double Team failed as expected. This is how Koga lost to him. Arcanine's sense of smell is really good," Janine commented.
"Is that it? If that's the case, then we don't need to worry about this gym. Such a weak gym leader would not be Koga's opponent," Aya curled her lips in disdain.
...
"Did I win?" Gary murmured to himself.
He wasn't sure whether his opponent had lost its strength. Even if it was still capable of fighting, there was no way it could defeat his Arcanine while being seriously injured.
Flare Blitz was his Arcanine current strongest attack. Not only that, but it also had a chance to burn the opponent. Even though there was some recoil while using the attack just now, his Pokemon could still endure it.
Slowly, Weavile fell to the ground. There were many severe burns on her body. Still, she wasn't out of the fight yet by the unwilling look on her face.
"Do you still want to continue the match? Your Pokemon is seriously injured. It is useless to fight any longer. Just give up!"
Gary shouted from the opposite stand confidently.
'Yes! I finally beat you,' he thought, clenching his fist.
"You think you won?" Hisoka said amusedly, lifting his brow.
Pop!
Suddenly, the injured Weavile turned into a cloud of smoke and disappeared, to everyone's astonishment.
Gary became surprised, but he quickly regained his composure and ordered his Pokemon to keep a lookout.
"Arcanine, keep your eyes open!"
Arcanine nodded slightly and sniffed the air as it was searching for Weavile's whereabouts.
'Good response,' Hisoka nodded secretly.
Among the many trainers he fought, Gary was the most talented of them all. Despite his character, he truly did his best to train his Pokemon. His cooperation with his Pokemon was seamless.
...
"Aunt Aya, that's Substitute, right?" Janine asked in a hushed tone.
"Yeah," Aya nodded, slightly shocked.
She didn't expect it to know that move.
Double Team and Substitute are the two main moves of their ninja school. Substitute allows the user to create a copy of itself. The clone does not have any ability to attack, but it can be used as bait to attract the opponent's attention as well as an escaping method.
"Brick Break!" Hisoka said calmly.
Hearing that, Gary's hair stood on end.
Then, a gray figure appeared above Arcanine with her hand glowing white.
Hu!
Arcanine sensed someone was above him and looked up. A fire was emerging from within its mouth.
But how could Weavile give her opponent a chance? With a loud cry, she landed a karate chop right on its head.
Bang!
Arcanine was slammed down hard, causing it to cry out in pain. The fire in its mouth turned into a wisp of black smoke and dissipated.
Right now, Weavile was standing in front of the downed Arcanine calmly.
This is a standard rule of a Pokemon battle. No Pokemon is allowed to attack a downed Pokemon. The punishment for doing this is disqualification from the match.
Then, Arcanine slowly stood up from the ground with a pained grimace. Seeing that, a tear appeared in Gary's eyes. His love for Pokemon was no less than Ash, his childhood rival.
"I admit defeat!" Gary raised his hand in defeat and retrieved his Pokemon.
A loss is a loss. He accepted it reluctantly.
After that, he nodded to Hisoka and quickly walked down from the stand.
"Hey, wait!"
As he was leaving the gym with his cheerleaders, a shout suddenly stopped him. He looked back and saw Hisoka tossing something to him.
Deftly, he caught it and saw a badge in his hand.
"What do you mean?" Gary looked at Hisoka angrily.
"I've lost. I shouldn't get the badge!"
Hisoka shook his head and said, "You earned the badge. My Pokemon was too strong for the current you. Being able to hold this long showed your powerful strength as a trainer."
When he was about to turn around, he seemed to remember something.
"Oh yeah! I met your grandfather at Grampa Canyon. You might want to visit him," he left a few words before walking away.
"..."
Gary stood blankly with the Dark Gym badge in his hand.
...
"Aunt Aya, what should we do now?" Janine asked quietly.
The match was already over, but they had only seen Weavile. They didn't know what kind of Pokemon Hisoka had besides that.
"How about I pretend to become a challenger?" she gave a suggestion.
Aya shook her head.
"That guy's Pokemon is still fine. Even if you challenge him now, he will still use the same Pokemon. It's just a waste of time."
"Oh!" Janine nodded thoughtfully.
"In any case, there is still a month before the gym battles. We will stay at Dark City during this time. There will definitely be other trainers who will come to challenge his gym. He might even use other Pokemon," Aya bit her lip and frowned slightly.
"But what are we going to say to my father?" Janine asked hesitantly.
"I will send a message to him later saying that we are undergoing special training for a month."
"Ah, that's a good idea!"
It is common for a ninja to go for special training. Although it was going to be a little longer this time, Koga would not be too suspicious. Besides, he was busy preparing himself for the competition later.
The two of them were not worried about Celadon Gym. Erika only had average strength among the gym leaders in Kanto. Besides, Koga specialized in Bug and Poison-type Pokemon, which had the upper hand against her Grass-type Pokemon. And Koga's strength was much stronger than her.
As long as they managed to get some information about the new Dark Gym, the nature reserve would surely fall to Fuchsia City.
...
A red sports car was driving along the road.
Gary was sitting in the passenger seat, playing with the badge in his hand.
"Gary, are you okay?"
The cheerleaders looked at him, a little worried. He had been quiet since they left the gym.
"I'm okay," he waved his hand.
"Don't worry about it. I will defeat him someday!"
He declared, clenching his fist.
"Gary! Gary! He's the man!"
Vroom!
...
There were only a few people who traveled to Dark City. Although Dark City had an official gym now, it was still a lot less compared to other cities.
After Gary left the gym, no trainers came to challenge him until later in the evening.
This time, he used the strongest Poochyena from his gym to fight against the trainer. Although it took some time, he managed to beat the trainer's Pidgey.
Luckily for him, the trainer was a rookie. After leaving some advice, the trainer left the gym happily.
Seeing that it was getting late, Hisoka decided to close his gym for the day.
...
"So, are they still here?" Hisoka asked while eating his dinner.
Kirlia nodded and said, "Yes. They have been there for a whole day. Should we chase them away?"
"Forget it. Just let them go."
He was too lazy to deal with this kind of thing.
When Kirlia told him that two female ninjas were sneaking inside his compound, he already knew who they were.
Koga was known to study ninjutsu. So these two girls must have something to do with him.
...
Growl!
Janine covered her stomach with a red face.
"Aunt Aya, why don't we go have something to eat first?"
"Yeah, I'm hungry too," Aya nodded.
They had been hiding on the roof for a few hours. During this time, they hadn't eaten a single piece of food yet. After smelling the food made by Kirlia, their stomach couldn't hold it any longer and made a gurgling sound.
"Hehe!"
Suddenly, they heard a faint laugh.
"Janine, did you hear that?" Aya said. Her voice trembled.
"Yeah!" Janine swallowed in fear.
"Who are you?" Aya took a few shurikens from her pouch.
"..."
There was no response except for the faint laugh in their ears.
Suddenly, two purple energy balls appeared in front of them. They had two red eyes and a mouth with sharp fangs.
"It's a ghost!" Janine pointed with a shaking hand.
"Fuck you!"
Aya couldn't control her fear and threw the shurikens at them.
Ding!
Unfortunately, the shurikens only passed through their body and hit the wall on the other side.
Roar!
The ghost opened their mouth and rushed toward them.
"Ah!"
Two figures fell to the ground from the roof at the front of the house.
"Hehe!"
Misdreavus slowly emerged from the air, chuckling slightly. The two energy balls that attacked the two ninjas just now were rotating around her body.
There was no doubt they were pranked by her.
Hisoka rubbed his temples helplessly as he looked at the two unconscious ninjas.
"Kirlia, bring them inside!"
Having guessed their identities, he would not do anything to hurt them. Although he wanted to ignore them, it would be big a problem for him if he just left them on the ground like that.
"Can you stop causing trouble?" he looked at Misdreavus angrily.
"Hehe!"
She ignored him and flew inside the house.
"Ha, why did I decide to bring her with me," he sighed heavily.
...
Thirty minutes later, Aya slowly woke up with a groan.
"Am I dead?"
"Nope. You are still alive. Congratulations!"
Suddenly hearing a man's voice, she quickly moved her hand toward her pouch.
"Are you looking for this?" Hisoka dangled the pouch in front of her.
"Give that back!"
She flipped her body and swung a punch at him.
He leaned his body slightly and grabbed her hand. Then, he stepped forward, swept her body off the floor, and slammed her down.
Bang!
Cough!
It knocked the wind out of her. Then, she lay on the ground shamefully. Even after experiencing arduous training since she was a child, she was brought down with just a single move.
'What will brother think of me?' she thought in a haze.
"Here, I don't need it!"
A pouch landed in front of her.
Instead of taking it, she looked at Hisoka coldly.
"What are you going to do to us? If you dare hurt us both, my brother will not let you go!"
"..."
After a while, Hisoka couldn't help it any longer and burst into laughter.
"Pfft! Hahaha!"
"Are you for real? Shouldn't I ask what are you doing on the roof of my house first?" he wiped the tears from his eyes.
Aya fell silent at that. She honestly didn't know how to answer that. She can't say they were here to spy on his gym, right?
Suddenly, she felt a slight tug on her clothes. She averted her gaze and saw Janine winking her eyes at him.
This is one of the ways for them to communicate secretly.
Aya nodded and lowered her head. She knew that she was quite impulsive and might reveal their identities to Hisoka. It was better if she kept her mouth shut.
"I see that little girl. Come on, get up. Stop pretending you're asleep."
Unfortunately, Hisoka saw it all.
"Cough!"
Janine slowly stood up and bowed in front of Hisoka.
"Hello. I'm Janine from Celadon City," she said innocently.
Hisoka didn't reply to her and took a chair from the table. Then, he sat down and stared at them with his hand on his chin.
"Do you have any questions for us?"
Janine couldn't stand his gaze and tried to break the tense situation.
"You two are ninjas?" Hisoka asked.
"Yes!" she nodded.
"So you both came from Fuchsia City? I heard they are many ninjas there."
She stiffened after hearing that.
"Uh-uh," she stammered.
Luckily, her aunt came to her rescue.
"No. There are also ninjas in Celadon City. Although there are not many ninjas in Kanto now, they are still some of us left," she retorted.
"I don't care about that. Now, tell me. Why are you hiding on my roof? Are you trying to steal from me? Do you want me to take both of you to the police station?" Hisoka threatened.
"We are not thieves!" Janine shouted.
"My aunt and I came because we want to become gym trainers!"
"Gym trainers?"
Hisoka smiled secretly. What an obvious lie.
...
"Janine, are you crazy? We came here to investigate his gym, not to become his trainers," Aya complained softly.
"Don't worry!" Janine looked at her confidently.
"Don't you think it will be much easier for us to investigate his Pokemon this way?"
"But..." Aya said nervously.
Before she could finish what she wanted to say, Aya interrupted her.
"It's fine, trust me! We'll quickly record his Pokemon information and run away as soon as possible."
....