That's the Spirit! - Chapter 14

[Alola Route 2]

The Route 2 Pokémon Center wasn’t far from Verdant Cavern, but the road got much busier as you got closer. Busy enough that there was a line for the counter as they entered, so they went to the café first.

Danny settled down with a cup of the excellently named Tapu Cocoa, and was given a small biscuit and some fist-sized beans for his Pokémon. Zorua and Robin had taken a bean each, and Rick was rapidly consuming the rest. He was eating messily, apparently for the sole purpose of annoying the owl.

As he took a sip of his beverage, Danny looked out the window at their opponent. Totem Raticate was eating from a large trough of fruit while Ilima brushed its fur, and the pair had attracted a small group of tourists looking to take pictures.

“Okay, so apparently Raticate is a Normal and Dark-type,” he said, turning back to his team. “Rick, you’re probably going to sit this battle out. You won’t be able to touch him, but he’ll be hitting you hard.”

Rick nodded in acquiescence. He licked his lips loudly and noisily, incidentally dropping a bit of food on Robin’s head. She fumed, futilely smacking him with a wing.

“Robin, you’re going to be the main event with Zorua as backup,” Danny continued, getting her attention. Zorua looked up too. “You’ve got the widest range of moves. I’m thinking strafing runs with Peck and hitting him from a distance with Razor Leaf. Growl whenever you can; I still don’t know how it works but anything that can take the edge off that giant’s attacks is going to help.”

Robin nodded seriously. It was undermined a little with Rick smacking his lips next to her but she managed to ignore him.

“Zorua, if Robin can’t see it through, you’re going to have to play dirty,” Danny said, to the fox’s delight. “Do you think we’d get dirty looks if you turned into a Rattata to get him to pull his punches?”

“Sounds like Fake Tears to me,” Hau said, sitting down next to Danny with his food. “I think you’re thinking too hard, man. This is your first Trial! Raticate’s supposed to go easy on you.”

“You think so?” Danny asked dubiously.

“It’ll be a hard fight,” Hau allowed, pausing to eat a cookie. “But itsh jusht a tesht--*gulp*--of your bond, really. Or so Gramps says. The tests of strength come later.”

“...Didn’t you just have a big meal?”

“I didn’t pack dessert,” he said, grinning.

Danny didn’t know what to make of that, so instead he looked over to the counter. “Looks like the line is dying down. I gotta go.”

Hau flashed a thumbs up, too busy eating to otherwise respond, and Danny returned his team and made his way over.

Danny let his mind wander a little bit as the line moved. Rick could actually do something, maybe… they hadn’t tried out that move ‘Curse’ yet, it would be great for wearing down Raticate if Danny understood how it worked… but it was a ghost move, would it work against a Normal-type? Maybe Rick himself would know. Suddenly Danny wished he’d spent more time training and battling. Guess he’d just have to be clever… or lucky.

“Next!”

Danny finally got to the counter as the nurse turned around, and he blinked in surprise. “Nurse Joy? I thought you worked in the city?”

The Nurse giggled. “It always tickles me the first time someone meets their second Joy. No, that’s my sister. And my cousin who works in the other center on the west side.”

“Com-feeeey!” a floating flower lei chirped, but Danny wasn’t able to worry about that right now.

“...How many Nurse Joys are there?” Danny asked, feeling skeptical.

“Oh, I didn’t go to the last reunion,” Joy said flippantly. “Unova’s so far away. But I heard the family rented Nimbasa Stadium for the occasion.” She shrugged, taking Danny’s pokéballs. “I’m not sure why they bothered. The whole clan’s never able to attend, someone has to keep the Centers running.”

“Does no one else work at Pokémon Centers?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Nurse Joy looked over her shoulder as a man in a doctor’s coat entered from a side hall, inspecting a clipboard. He looked up, caught Joy’s eye, and turned around again.

Her eyes narrowed. “This place would fall apart without me,” she said in a low, serious voice. Then she clapped her hands and smiled. “It will be just a few minutes until your Pokémon are ready, so please step aside to wait!”

Danny nodded. While he waited, he figured he’d go to the restroom. That cocoa went right through him. 

There was probably a joke in there about ghosts, but whatever.

Danny found the bathroom with minimal trouble. This Center wasn’t as big as in Hau’oli, despite how busy it was, so it was just one unisex stall for the public. Thankfully it was empty, so he walked right in.

After doing his business, he set about washing his hands. It looked like his skin was finally starting to burn, or tan. He couldn’t tell in the weird artificial lighting all public bathrooms had, but he looked up into the mirror anyway to see if that would make things clearer, and came face to single eye with a blue genie.

“Gah!” Danny threw himself back away from the sink and bumped into the toilet, and only just barely managed to keep himself from falling into the bowl.

The genie chuckled. Danny couldn’t hear it, but he saw the eye crinkle and the shoulders shake. It tapped one massive hand against its side of the glass.

“Dusk. Noir?”

Danny frowned and got to his feet. “What do you want? Where’s the usual guy?” Not that I really want to see him either.

The Dusknoir (he guessed) held up one finger and started speaking.

Danny didn’t understand a word. “What?” He shook his head. “Wait, I don’t think Pokémon can talk, do they? Zorua almost sounds like he’s trying to make words sometimes but…”

Dusknoir shrugged. It gave him a shallow bow and the mirror returned to normal.

After a moment to make sure the weirdness was over, Danny sighed. “Don’t worry about it, one thing at a time…”

“Daniel Fenton, your Pokémon are ready?”

He looked up at the ceiling. “Already? Man, that’s fast.”

With one last look, he left the restroom to prepare for his battle.

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

[The Black Keep]

“It’s really that easy? Or has his Lordship using the mirror ‘primed’ it for use?” Dusknoir stroked the space between his eye and his neck. “So that’s the boy Lord Giratina is interested in…”

The Ghost shrugged. The kid didn’t seem terribly impressive to him from what he’d seen, which admittedly wasn’t much.

Whatever Giratina saw in him escaped Dusknoir’s notice, but he would keep his eye on him regardless in case his Lord wished for an update when he returned. In the meantime, Dusknoir tended to the Keep.

Too many ghosts had gotten in through the windows. So they were filling them in with glass, made of sand from the Outsider’s own islands. The outer Keep was also being expanded, and there were other steps being taken. Dusknoir was encouraging terraforming; the barren wasteland outside was an eyesore, so a family of Trevenant were given permission to begin growing a forest.

So much to do, and who knew how much time until the next attack. He knew some of the Ghosts were growing restless; all work and no play made for a very unhappy haunt. He’d need to squeeze in some time for recreation, but it would hold for now. There was work to do.

As the blue Dusknoir left to oversee construction, in another part of the Keep, in the witch’s lab, an Outsider breathed heavily, staring. He pressed his forehead against the glass of his prison and seethed.

“The ocean… she calls…”

Somehow, despite the twisting of the halls and the number of the walls between them, Rebreather looked directly at the mirror.

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

[Alola Route 2]

Danny elected to lead with Rick after all. The Totem Raticate sneered at him from across the field--or maybe that was just how its face looked.

“Stand back everyone,” Ilima called out, pushing the crowd back. “Raticate’s battles can be a lot! There’s a reason we usually do this in a cave…”

“Is it okay to be doing this in public?” Hau asked, eyes on the brewing battle.

Ilima pursed their lips. “The Totems know the rules as well as I do. Better, sometimes. If Raticate wants to have it out here, there’s not much I can do to dissuade it.

Most of the audience settled on the raised platform the Pokémon Center sat on. A pair of men in blue shirts set up a blockade on either side of the road, marking the field of battle.

The Totem sniffed loudly. Both it and Danny focused on Nurse Joy’s Comfei as it floated into the center of the road between them.

“Comf comf, feiiii!” The floating ring flew up higher, then dropped a single flower and made for safety.

The crowd quieted as the flower slowly drifted to the ground. Rick tracked it, expression serious. Danny counted down to himself. Raticate’s tail whipped back and forth.

It hit the dirt.

“RAAAAAT!”

Raticate charged the instant the battle began, spectral jaws forming as it opened its teeth. The jaws opened wide enough to fully enclose the Gastly, who gasped.

“Sucker--No, wait!” Danny fumbled; Zorua’s Sucker Punch would have been good for getting out of this opening blow, but Rick didn’t know that. Did he?

He certainly tried. Rick’s eyes widened and he blurred, reappearing behind Raticate with Dark energy playing around his cloud--but the move fizzled as he tried to figure out how to punch something without hands. Raticate twisted in midair, trying to complete the Bite, but Rick was barely able to avoid it and the rat got a mouthful of gas for its trouble.

Danny winced. Not a great start, but, “Curse!”

Rick grinned nastily. The crowd gasped as an iron nail materialized from thin air and speared the gas ball through the forehead. He didn’t even wince as his energy was sapped. Black and red smog lifted off of him, and his eyes glowed red.

The smog descended on Raticate. The rat grunted as the Curse took hold. It glared at him and used Bite again.

“Out of the way!” Danny called, but it wasn’t to be. Rick tried, but using up that energy for the curse made him too slow to move, and the rat’s jaws snapped shut.

“GAS!”

The Gastly fell out of the air, bounced softly on the road and rolled to a stop.

Danny returned him and sent out Robin. Raticate’s tail whipped back and forth, until the curse spawned blackened fog around it. Aside from a slight twitch of one ear it didn’t visibly react.

This was going to be tough. Despite himself, Danny couldn’t help but smirk. This was exciting.

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

Hau leaned against the Center’s guardrail as he watched the battle.

Truth be told, he was kind of surprised Danny was going into the Trial so soon. Hau went even sooner, of course, but Danny came across as more cautious. Guess he was wrong!

Danny’s Rowlet was flying overhead, sending out Razor Leaves almost constantly. Raticate’s size meant it couldn’t avoid them all, so it didn’t bother. What it couldn’t bat out of the air with its tail, it shredded with Fury Swipes.

His strategy was pretty obvious. Keep out of reach with Robin while Curse slowly chipped away at the Totem’s strength. Hau wasn’t one of those jerks who thought stalling was a cheap tactic; it was a smart way to handle a stronger opponent.

Boring to watch, though.

Danny must have thought so too, since he called out for a Peck. Robin went into a dive as her beak shone with Flying energy, and the crowd ooh-ed as she struck right between its eyes.

Raticate staggered back, pained. Then it huffed and snapped back while Robin was in range. Faster than the owl could react, it landed a Super Fang.

Robin yelled and fell to the ground. Raticate kicked her like a soccer ball, straight into Danny’s stomach.

“Oof,” Hau said sympathetically. “Raticate’s fighting harder than when I fought it.”

Ilima, next to him, frowned and rubbed his chin. “...Did I forget to tell Raticate that Danny’s a new trainer?” he murmured, barely loud enough for Hau to hear. “Danny’s older than the usual beginner. The Totem might have made a false assumption…”

“Is Danny in trouble?” Hau asked.

Ilima opened his mouth, but was interrupted by the battle.

The Curse rolled over Raticate again, and this time it looked painful. The Totem snarled, and a yellow aura exploded off of it, tearing the Curse to shreds.

Danny and Robin gasped. “Whoa, what?” He shook himself and tossed Robin back into the sky, where the Rowlet caught herself. “Do your best!”

Robin went back to the Razor Leaf tactic, but Raticate wasn’t having it. It jumped pushing off the ground with enough force to cause a slight crater. Robin panicked and backpedaled, not an easy feat when flying, going straight up to get away. Raticate’s Bite grazed her beak, but the Totem still made use of the proximity to use Scary Face, grinning as evilly as its giant teeth allowed, which was very.

Robin locked up in terror and stalled out, starting to fall. Raticate fell faster, making another crater in the dirt road. The bird was moving slower now, and shaken, but still going.

The giant rat huffed, then turned towards the grass and called out. A dark shape darted out, and a Rattata saluted. It stood on Raticate’s tail, and the Totem launched it like a catapult at Robin, who was too slow to dodge.

Rattata latched on like a barnacle and started Biting. Robin Pecked and scratched with her talons, flying erratically as they fought.

Danny cupped his hands around his mouth. “Try spinning! Shake that jerk off!”

She tried, folding her wings to spin, but Rattata was smart and took the opportunity to pin one of them to her side. She crashed, out for the count. 

Thankfully, Rattata seemed just as hurt by the crash, so Zorua wouldn’t have to fight two foes at once. Still, the little rat stayed upright long enough to sneer nastily at Danny before conking out.

“Man, those Rattata really hold a grudge,” Hau noted, rubbing his neck.

“It’s troubling behavior,” Ilima admitted. He sighed. “I’m going to have to spend more time in the cavern teaching them proper behavior. That’s going to cut so much into my time at the school.”

Danny sent out Zorua, who didn’t bother to take on an illusory form. “Ready?”

The fox took a stance, determined. “Zor.” 

“Rat.” Raticate leaned forward, allowing Zorua the first move.

“All up to you… Leer!” Danny commanded.

Zorua glared, trying to look intimidating. Raticate chuffed, amused, and relaxed its shoulders. That was all the opening Zorua needed, launching into a Faint Attack.

“Between the eyes!” At Danny’s order, Zorua landed the blow on the spot Robin had hit earlier, slamming into the forming bruise and making the Totem howl.

Zorua was small and quick, and ran circles around the giant rat. The Totem was finally starting to get tired from the battle and struggled to keep up; keeping an eye on a flying bird was a lot easier than on a small critter hiding behind its own body. Zorua attacked whenever it could, avoiding tail swipes and lashing claws and always staying out of reach of the rat’s teeth.

Raticate lost its patience and twisted, making a Scary Face--

“Taunt!”

Zorua snickered, and the frightening aura fizzled before it could coalesce. Raticate tried to Bite--

“Sucker Punch!”

--And got hit on the same spot again. Fed up, the rat charged and launched into a Fury Swipes. Zorua failed to dodge this time, but was Biting for every time it got hit.

Hau’s focus on the battle shifted to watching Danny, who looked nervous. Hau understood. Zorua was doing his best, but Raticate was a tough opponent. If he could just outlast it… He turned to look at the Pokémon again only to get distracted by a group on the edge of the battlefield.

Hiding in the shade of a berry tree were a small pack of ghost types. A Drifloon, a Misdreavus, and another Gastly, all watching the battle.

…Actually no, they were focused on Danny. Weird.

“Hey Captain Ilima, do you see--”

“Shh!” Ilima said, waving a hand. “Danny’s doing something interesting.”

Hau refocused. Raticate was breathing heavily, but Zorua didn’t look much better. They’d taken a short break from their exchange of blows, and the fox was near Danny, who was whispering into his ears.

When they finished, Zorua laughed and glowed pink.

And vanished entirely.

The audience members still watching gasped, and the Totem’s eyes widened as well, looking around.

Hau was no different. “Whoa!” 

“Look,” Ilima pointed, at tiny divots appearing in the dust of the dirt road. “Zorua’s turned invisible with its Illusion!”

Raticate wasn’t able to notice the tell, and so was blindsided when a set of jaws suddenly clamped on its nose.

From that point on, the Totem didn’t stand a chance. Without being able to see Zorua, it could only lash out randomly, and couldn’t dodge or counter when he used Sucker Punch.

“Zoooooor… RU-RA!”

Zorua snapped back into visibility with a flash of pink, blinding Raticate and hitting one final Faint Attack into its gut. Raticate rocked on its feet… and then its aura faded, and it fell.

Danny won.

The crowd applauded, and Danny jumped, clearly having forgotten they were even there.

“Well done, Danny!” Ilima complimented. “That was an unusual battle, but you did it!”

“I did?” Danny blinked. Then he smiled and walked out onto the road. He picked a tired Zorua up and held him in his arms. “Good job, buddy.”

“Zor…” The fox nestled himself against Danny’s chest, more than happy to let him do the walking for now.

“Rat…” Raticate stood on shaky legs and gave them a glare. Though that could have just been what its face looked like.

“Well, Raticate?” Ilima asked. “What do we think?”

The rat snorted. It nodded. Then without further ceremony it turned and left, walking back to its home.

…Or it tried, until a pair of Comfei appeared and wrapped themselves around its arms to start dragging it back to the Center.

Danny and Zorua both snickered at the nonplussed look on the rat’s face at the treatment.

Ilima picked up the Rattata from earlier and tucked it under his arm. “The Totem has spoken.” He pulled the prize out of his pocket and held it out. “Danny, it’s my pleasure to present you with your first Z-Crystal, the Normalium Z.”

Danny took the crystal and held it up to the sun. White light refracted through it, highlighting the symbol inside. “Wow…”

“Zor…” his partner agreed. 

The fox broke into a yawn and nuzzled closer, and Danny tucked the Normalium Z into his shirt pocket. “C’mon pal, let’s get you and the others looked at. You did great.”

“That’s it?” Hau asked, looking disappointed.

Danny looked up, confused. “Huh?”

“You’re supposed to, like, strike a pose and declare victory!” Hau demonstrated with his own pose. “Like this!”

Danny raised an eyebrow, exchanged a look with Zorua, and shrugged.

He pumped his fist and held the crystal above his head. “I got the Z-Crystal!”

“Zorua!”

…

…

…

Danny cringed. “Eesh, no. That felt wrong.”

“Eh, you’ll get better at it,” Hau said nonchalantly.

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

[Some Time Later]

Pokémon healed and many pats-on-the-back later, Danny walked back through Hau’oli to Kukui’s lab, admiring the Z-crystal. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it yet, since no one told them what they were for. He could tell it wasn’t just a pretty rock, though… he wasn’t sure why he was so sure of that.

Oh well, he’d figure it out.

He pushed the door open. “Hey Professor, guess what? I beat my first Trial!”

“That’s great, Danny! And I’ve got good news too!” Kukui climbed the stairs from the basement two at a time, looking excited.

A small dog and a Cutiefly followed him up, a woodpecker perched on his hat.

“You got some lab Pokémon?” Danny asked, taking them in. “They’re cute, I guess.”

“Hah, yeah they are!” Kukui said easily. “But I already had them, they were just along with my good news!” He turned and made jazz hands at the stairs, and someone else started climbing them.

A young woman with white hair and a gray tank top walked up, wearing a friendly smile.

“Hello, Danny. It’s wonderful to finally meet you.” She winked. “My name is Professor Burnet. I hear you’ve got a new project for me?”