"Hahaha, what did he just say ?"

"I knew it was a good idea to stick around!"

"Is he trying to provoke Kekoa? right here?"

Ignoring the crowd, and Jared's *nonsense,* Kekoa speaks, "Old man, I saw your matches, but despite what people are saying, you don't look like much of a dark horse to me, better pray you don't see me in the ring"

"Er... so you aren't lost?"

With a shake of his head, Kekoa turns 180 degrees and walks back the way he came, "Why did I bother... so he really was a lunatic..."

Jared watches the strange kid walk away, (I beat myself up one time, does that really label me as a lunatic? what's this world coming to? and how does everyone know about it, I didn't see any cameramen recording? Er... Oh right, phone recordings...)

(Still... was that little kid trying to intimidate me or something? and why am I a dark horse...? The matches were actually somewhat close, but, thinking back... perhaps from the perspective of others it didn't look that way, YES, perhaps people fell for our ruse, and now people think that my Gastly can take an absurd amount of punishment...!)

A light goes off in his mind, then Jared chuckles wryly, (I thought the jig was up when the wind blades stopped coming, but perhaps I overestimated my opponent... no, even if only my opponent figured it out, that doesn't mean others will! and if they attributed my laughter to insanity rather than tricking my opponent... HAHAHA YES!, maybe we can still use this strategy!)

"Creepy... whys he laughing for no reason?"

"See, I told you"

A girl hugging her Weepinbell giggles, "Gross, he's looking this way, hope he doesn't come over here"

"Number 35847 and 41286 please come up!"

Breaking from his thoughts, Jared walks up to reception and looks around, he was hoping to see his next opponent, but even after five minutes, nobody shows up.

Slapping his head, Jared chides himself, "Ah I'm so stupid, just because they are called up to this reception desk doesn't mean they can't go to another one..."

"Hahah, he just slapped himself didn't he?"

"He's muttering too, think he's gonna go nuts again?"

"Hope not..."

"Let's go closer, I want to see which arena he's assigned to."

"Your fans are watching you, human, hahaha"

.

In the tunnel, a referee explains the rules once more, and Jared now learns who he will be facing.

(Weepinbell...? Isn't that like a pitcher plant with no arms or legs? How does it even move? is it by flopping around?)

"I'm ready"

ROUND OF 30

Jared & Gastly

VS

Mia & Weepinbell

"START"

Through the open doors, Jared takes a moment to look around.

When he glances up from behind the tunnel entrance, he finds a few cameramen filming him from up above, just behind the glass.

(Is this because I'm now the so-called dark horse?) Jared mused, (well, If they really knew how badly we struggled, they probably wouldn't be wasting their time right now... or maybe..., Jared looks ahead with narrowed eyes, maybe my opponent is strong...?)

A young girl no more than fifteen with straight blond hair can be seen pulling her hair out in frustration,

(No... why... why... all I had to do was avoid the top seeds and hope they eliminate each other... and I did so well... and now the Gastly Freak joins out of nowhere... and I just had to be paired up with him... no... If his Gastly can survive all those gusts, what can Weepinbell possibly do?)

As the two trainers get within twenty yards of each other, Jared whispers, "Ah, Gastly, what do you think we should do, I don't think Weepinbell can protect its head, do you think you can hit it with a hypnosis?"

"I know that, don't tell me what to do human!"

"Still moody huh, so you really did get lost last night...

"SHUT UP HUMAN I CAME BACK LATE BECAUSE I HAD SOME THINGS I WANTED TO DO"

"Oh..." Faced with Gastlys bald-faced lie, Jared laughs, "What things?"

"That's... not your business, we are wasting time, I didn't get lost."

.

Mia shudders at her opponent's madness, he's even creepier than in the lobby, why does he act normal one moment then burst out in laughter, I really really hate this...

Smirking from the shadows, Gastly mentally chuckles "Human, your enemy fears you, I can feel it."

Jared looks up to meet her eyes, while Mia quickly looks away, (Creeeeepy... I hope he doesn't ignore the rules and attack me... just because I laughed at him earlier...)

Voice shaking, she reminds her pokemon with little confidence, "Weepinbell, you know what to do, don't let your guard down"

From the water, hypnoses strikes Weepinbell right between the eyes, but nothing happens.

Mia let's out a sigh of relief, thank god, he doesn't know Weepinbells brain is in the stem.

After a few more attempts in different spots, Gastly gives up and begins materializing.

"Weepinbell, hit him with a vine whip when he gets close!"

Moving within range, two long green cords extend from Weepinbell.

After a moment they become coated with a cool green sheen with a slight glow, then, with the speed of a cracking whip, they lash out at the Gastly.

Gastly acts enraged, and begins trying to avoid the blows as he closes in, but retreats over and over before getting close.

.

Feeling a chill crawl into him, Jared sighs, "Back so soon Gastly? I thought you didn't need me to give you advice?"

"He's not tiring, I hollowed my core, and I'm still somehow losing more energy than he is, hypnosis won't work either."

"So you're saying you are too weak to fight him straight up?"

"..."

"Can you really not think of a way? Are you really going to make me mutilate myself again?"

"..."

Pondering for half a minute, Jared comes to a decision, (Well, I brought some rice this time for this very occasion, I couldn't do it last time because I'd just bleed out if I dared to use sharp rocks, and could only rely on bruises and shallow cuts before.)

(Just this isn't going to be enough, though... because it takes a while before the pain becomes unbearable..., oh well, at least I probably won't be put on a stretcher after this.)

Under the watchful gaze of the crowd and the cameras, Jared rakes the skin below each knee with his fingernails, just enough for them to bleed a little, then pulls some rice out of his pocket, before tossing a handful near some rock hardened ground.

Mia observes uncomprehendingly as Jared kneels down with a wince, and then in horror as he starts rubbing his knees back and forth, screaming in agony.

Meanwhile, Gastly starts reforming!

A tendril of invisible shadow connects to his trainer's chest. He smiles widely as the familiar sensation of endless negative energy flows into him.

With an ever-widening smile, he was now fully reformed, and full of energy!

Gastly floats towards Weepinbell with confidence.

Still watching in terror at the manic screams, Mia almost fails to notice the charging ball of gas, almost.

"Weepinbell! focus! keep him away like before with a vine whip!"

The vine whips appear and begin lashing, but the empowered Gastly would not be so easily deterred, normally such painful strikes give him pause to flinch, but the euphoric feeling of negative power was overpowering his pain, and he clearly felt that the damage he was being dealt was below his speed of recovery.

Grinning madly, Gastly ignores the vine whips completely, and charges straight in.

Panicking as the relentless ball of gas closes in, Mia screams, "Weepinbell! he's too close for vine whip, PREPARE FOR THE PLAN!"

Coming in close, Gastly goes for a lick but gets knocked back twenty feet, then gives a shrill scream.

Feeling his body corroding, Gastly screams louder, then floats up to get away while dematerializing, but before he can, he feels another painful blow blast his body away.

Finally invisible, Gastly floats limply, his consciousness flickering in and out, and if not for the influx of negative energy and his anger, the blackness would have taken him there and then.

After three minutes, his strength finally returns.

From the shadows, Gastly glares fiercely, then unleashes a current of curses over and over in his mind, he had never remembered taking two such painful blows in his life, and his fury at the sentient pitcher plant was not almost palpable! (HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!)

Just then, as if a barrier broke in his mind, new memories he had lost surface. Forgetting his rage at the unexpected situation, hundreds of years of lost memories, the pain, the helplessness, the anger crash into his mind at once along with a viciousness,

"Huh..."

.

Reforming as nothing more than a shell, Gastly puts his memories aside for the moment and once again floats straight at the Weepinbell to probe him out, he needed to know what had caused him to suffer such an agonizing setback.

"Weepinbell, he's approaching you from behind that rock, turn back and finish him off, he must be weak!!"

Weepinbell didn't charge up a vine wipe, but instead, the two long green leaves acting like makeshift arms began to turn dimmer.

After a brief exchange, Gastly gets knocked back again, then turns invisible before Weepinbell could attempt a follow-up.

Gastly smirks from the shadows, (You thought that this could escape my eyes, didn't you...? so this is how you did it, you hit me with dark energy, Hmph, but I know something too... the last laugh will be mine little sprout...)

.

Narrowing his eyes into vengeful crescents, Gastly reforms himself above the Weepinbell, just out of range of the dark attack.

Following the directions in his memory, he fires off a cone of invisible energy straight down, and while it was imperceivable, the sound of wailing screams can be heard, but, the sound was only audible by those unfortunate enough to be struck.

Gastly frowns as the Weepinbell shows no reaction, other than more vine whips to his face.

"I refuse to believe it does nothing!"

With gritted teeth, Gastly ignores the pale vines lashing him, and begins madly firing more cones of wailing screams.

After twenty seconds, the Weepinbells vines slow their pace, and while Gastly can't tell if the sentient plant is tired from its appearance alone, he can most certainly tell that whatever he is doing is working, so with extra determination, he continues firing more invisible screams.

A short time later, Weepinbells vines finally go limp, and like a plant dried up in the desert, it visibly withers, its two large green leaves once vibrant begin to turn grey.

"WEEPINBELL WHAT'S WRONG?"

From Mia's perspective, the only thing she saw was a motionless Gastly being beaten by vines, and then her Weepinbell ceasing its attacks.

Gastly had indeed noticed Weepinbell go limp, but he was feeling wrathful, and he was out for blood, (DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!)

.

Mia and the referees finally react when the Weepinbell turns completely black, as if it were an aged piece of rotten wood.

The referee had announced the match over, but Gastly fires one more attack out of spite, before floating towards his trainer.

Going back to his human, he looks down, and as Jared suffers, he thinks to himself, (I'm sorry human before I met you I was just a starving ghost on the run and didn't remember who I was, but with these new memories... what I lost has come back.)

Gastlys eyes shine like the night,

(But I remember now, yes, It was held in my heart for all these countless years, locked away, fragmented, lost, stripped, along with my essence, I'm sorry human, but I may not be able to keep my promise.)

.

A stunned Mia takes tentative steps, then quickly runs to check on her Weepinbell.

Grabbing one of its blackened leaves, it crumbles into dust.

Pulling a potion from her bag, she begins madly spraying the withered mass of black, but Weepinbells body does not take, the water simply drips and drips, while the earth beneath greedily accepts it instead.

With trembling hands, she reaches for a pokeball, dropping the emptied potion from her hands in the process.

With wetness streaming down her cheeks, she shakily grips Weepinbells pokeball, and tries to recall him like so many times before.

Eyes wide with disbelief she drops the ball and falls backward painfully, but she doesn't flinch.

Her pretty and youthful face twists with unbearable agony, She screams, and cries, she calls for help, and her agonizing cries can be heard by all, but when her voice finally becomes hoarse, she chokes. Realization sets in fully, and unable to bear her conclusions, she drops unconscious, finally free until the day she awakes.

She hits her head on a rock on the way down, but neither the blood leaking from her head nor the pain from the fall wakes her up.

In those last agonizing waking moments, she understood, yes, her precious companion that had been with her since before she could talk, since before she could crawl, her partner that shared her sorrow, and happiness for all these years, yes, Yes!, she realized it, the pokeballs red light had shot out, but her partner, no, her irreplaceable person would not return, and would never again return, for the world he was in now was not this one.