Cassius opened his mouth to warn Pandora not to fall for Ginger's taunting, but he realized that he would be waisting his breath to try. "Thunderbolt at the surf attack, Pan!" he said, and fortunately for them Pandora realized that this made more sense than trying to gnaw the Absol's head off. The surf attack's wave was still connected to the Milotic, and Pandora had been in enough battles against water types to know a thing or two about conductivity.

As if by magic (or some strange plot hole), water began rising around the Milotic, waves lapping his sides and cradling him. It lifted him up, the waves becoming more violent and thrashing about, until it towered above everyone, Silvien riding it like a pro. Then he saw Pandora's electric attack coming at him, but he was too focused on his current attack to protect himself. "NOOO!"

The lightning bolt came in contact with the water Silvien had summoned, electricity running through the particles faster than a person could blink. Silvien let out a cry as he was painfully electricuted, then tumbled back from the top of the wave, his body smoking as he fell. "Silvien! Return!" The Pokemon was sucked back into his Pokeball. Sidney saved her dear water Pokemon before he was hurt even more by the fall. The water attack had failed to be used, and, therefore, disappeared.

"Hrr. You're on your own Ginger. I believe in you." The dark Pokemon cocked her head at her, a very dazed expression on her face. What did her trainer just say? She said whats-its? Obviously Ginger was still very out of it after Confuse Ray.

((Edit: Wow. That had a lot of typos. I think I corrected them all though. XP))

The purple-haired trainer hesitated for a moment, annoyed that all his strategies had been ruined by the absol's taunting. Pandora, on the other hand, knew exactly what he wanted to do- make that cheeky absol eat her words. But, since he didn't know any attacks to do that, he settled for another thunderbolt. He summoned his electric attack dramatically, then let it loose, tumbling through the air at his rather confused looking dark opponent.

((Since WPM is MIA, I'm gonna go ahead and take out his Pokemon so this battle can be over soon. But if he returns, I'll change it.))

"Time to scatter!" That was Sidney's way of saying 'Time to use Double Team.' Ginger need to concentrate. She shook off her confused state, and then took off running at an alarming pace. She raced in circles around Pandora and Juan, until it was hard to tell where she was. It almost looked as if five or more Absol had surrounded them. Pandora's attack hit one, the illusion vanishing, but there were still quite a few left.

"Return!" But Sidney wasn't telling her Pokemon to back off. If was time to demonstrate the strong bond the two shared. The 'real Ginger' charged the Lombre, hitting him with everything she had. Thanks to Swords Dance, she felt pumped. She attacked him again, and again, each time the attack becoming stronger and more rapid.

((Edit: WPM returned, so I deleted the last part. ^^))

((Ehh, I'm back. Today was interupted for me.))

"Take her out now, before she double teams again!" yelled Cassius, wincing as Lombre was attacked. Well, there was nothing he could do to help his ally then, with Pandora's defensive capabilities currently overpowered by anger.

Pandora charged, waiting until he was only a few feet from Absol before releasing a third thunderbolt. He stopped as he released the attack, thrown back a little in the opposite direction after he released the attack.

"Juan, leech seed! Keep that absol nailed to the ground!"

Juan tosses a handful of small seeds at the stunned absol, hoping the thunderbolt will keap it still.

Ginger attempted to dodge the attack, but it managed to strike her side, sending her flying back. She slid across the ground, one of her legs twitching slightly. "No, Ginger. You have to get up." She tried to, her legs very wobbly, but then the seeds scattered around her, attatching themselfs to her fur and sprouting like mad. The green vines wrapped themself around her body until she could barely move. Were they...draining her energy? No! She wouldn't lose this way. Ginger may not be able to stand anymore, but she could still use special attacks.

She twisted her head around to look the Haunter dead in the eye, then a dark ball of energy began to grow before her. The Shadow Ball hovered in the air, and then she sent the attack straight in Pandora's direction. After all, ghosts hated attacks of their element.

"Juan! Get in front of the Haunter!" I yelled hurridly.
"Lombreeeee!" was Juan's yell as the glowing ball of ghostly energy hit him full in the stomach.

I tried not to worry, knowing that the rain and draining would hopefully heal him.

"Juan, toxic attack!"
Juan got up weakly, but was unable to summon the energy to use the attack.
"Forget it, just wait and recover!"

"Thanks" said Cassius, and Pandora seemed to agree. "Pandora, reinforce his leech seed with nightshade!"

The ghost pokemon, relieved, did exactly that, giggling a little as he sent shadowy vines out to wind about and reinforce the leech seed attack his ally had used earlier. They were much more concrete than Cassius' earlier attack, even digging roots into the ground to take advantage of the rain.

"That's enough. You win." Sidney didn't want to see her best friend endure anymore abuse. But Ginger wasn't ready to give up just yet. Before the vines drained the last of her energy, she began singing...or what could be assumed as singing. It almost sounded like the sound a Meowth would make to the moon at night, but this one was just erie. "Ginger! What are you doing?" She ignored her trainer, continuing to moan the haunting melody...until she fainted from exhaustion. "No... I didn't tell her to use Perish Song!"

"Ack! Perich song! We batter get to the Pokemon center fast, our pokemon will faint soon, and I personally DON'T feel like losing half my money," Ben said as he recalled the already exhausted Juan.

"I'm sorry I kind of, well, tortured your absol. It's my strategy. I'm sorry.

Cassius needed no prompting to recognize a perish song when he heard one. He turned away, clutching his hands to his ears in a futile attempt to keep out the music. The song was useless on humans, and his physical body did help block its effects, but hearing one was certainly not a pleasant experience for the lavender gym leader.

Pandora stopped attacking immediately when he heard the song, rushing to his trainer's side. He gave Sidney a look of pure venom, then touched one claw to one of Cassius' pokeballs. A misdreavus appeared, and the haunter said a few words to her, explaining the situation. With that said, he jumped back into his own pokeball, leaving the other ghost in his place to prevent the song's power from affecting him.

Sidney rushed to her Pokemon's side, retrieving a Revive from her bag as she did so. First, she removed the vines from the Absol's body, then she forced her mouth open, pouring the revitalizing liquid down her throat. Ginger's eyes remained shut for a long time, but they finally fluttered open, and the pink pupils darted left and right, hoping to find the Pokemon that did this too her. She looked back up at her trainer. "Sorry, girl...but we lost." Ginger sulked, violently bringing her paw down on the ground in frustration.

"That was a great battle. You're undoubtably strong. But why didn't you tell me you were a Gym Leader before?" The last part was aimed at Cassius.

I pulled a revive out of my bag.

"Here, don't waste your revive on it. Revives are expensive."

"I need to go, I have to get to the other side of Hoenn by the end of the week, and I have a long way ahead of me. I hope our paths cross again. Thanks for the battle."
With my last bit said, I walked off, hands stuffed into my pockets.

The misdrevus was also searching for medicine, but not for herself. She opened Cassius' bag, digging around for his stash of potions and antidotes. " Misdrevus drevus misdre, drevus misdrevus! (Cassius needs help, I can't open the bottle!)" she said, trying to find something less well sealed as she appealed to the other pokemon for any sort of assistance.

Meanwhile, Cassius had sunk to the ground, not hearing the other trainer's question. He looked to be in a fair bit of pain, as indeed he was, and he struggled to retain conciousness as the song took effect.

"Ginger...would a Sitrus Berry make you feel better?" The Absol nodded rapidly, bounding up onto her feet. Sidney found the yellow fruit and offered it to her Pokemon, who took it into her mouth and wandered off a bit to munch on it.

Just then, one of the Pokeballs attatched to Sidney's waist opened on its own, and a rather handsome Mightyena appeared. "What do you think you're doing, Rex?" The dog ignored her. He was watching Ginger. "She's fine. But she's not in a good mood. I think it would be wise to leave her alone." But Rex was stubborn. He moseyed over to his fellow Pokemon, giving her a pointy-toothed grin.

Ginger knew who was behind her, and she slowly turned her head around to glare and the intruder. A low growl rumbled in her throat. Out of all of Sidney's Pokemon, Rex was the only one she couldn't stand. He actually volunteered to join Sidney's team because he was so infatuated with her.

He took a step closer, dispite Ginger's warning, and the white Pokemon aimed a kick at him, hitting him on the snout. The Mightyena howled in pain, yelping all the way back over to his trainer. "I told you. But at least she seems better..."

The misdreavus drew herself up, and seemed to get several feet bigger. She yelled at the two other pokemon in pokemon-speak, "listen you mangy mutts, there's a pokemon here who needs help! Now get that trainer of yours over here this instant with a potion or some berries for Cassius or you'll both be very, VERY sorry."

Ginger peered up and the angry Misdreavus, fixing her with a flat stare. She approached the ghost Pokemon, the berry still in her mouth. She then spit out the berry, which had a chunk missing and swatted it up into the air, trying to hit her. "Aaabs-absol, abs! (Take that, ghosty!)"

Meanwhile, Sidney got Rex to return to his ball. "Oh, hey. Are you alright?" She ran over to Cassius, falling onto her knees and flipping her bag open. "I've got a lot of berries in here. Which ones do you need?"

Cassius' misdreavus was quick to pick out a few of the berries that healed, picking them up awkwardly with her tentacle-like hair and giving them to her trainer. The effects were instantaneous for him, and after a couple of them he was able to open the super potion misdreavus had pulled out of his bag.

"Thank you, both" he said, trying not to let his embarrassment show. Almost fainting from some common absol's attack, what a brilliant move for Lavender's most powerful haunter. He drank half the bitter potion- it were meant to be sprayed on, but for him they worked best when ingested, and the taste was truly awful.

"You seem fine now." She closed her bag and slung it around her shoulder. "I guess the least I can do is help you find a town. I promised if we battled I would." Ginger saw her trainer talking to the strange boy again and she darted over quicker than you could say 'angry Absol'. She got between Sidney and Cassius, hissing at the purple-haired one. "Don't start this again!"

"Haunt haunter haunt, haunt haunter haunt haunter haunter haunt haunter, (Oh knock it off, I'm not going hurt your human friend,)" he said, rolling his eyes. "That would be appreciated" he added to Sidney, switching languages. He was relieved that she wasn't asking questions about the whole incident- perhaps his town's reputation has preceded him? Whatever the reason, it was a relief, especially since he had a terrible headache from his nightshade attack earlier.

He was speaking to his Pokemon again. How creepy. "That...attack you used earlier. Was that...Night Shade?" She frowned a bit. "Isn't that a Pokemon move...or is there something you're not telling me, Mister..." Mister what? "Oh, you never told me your name. Wait. Did I ever tell you mine?"

Ah, there were the questions. "I'm Cassius, leader of the lavender town gym in Kanto" he said, introducing himself at last. "There's a very good story behind the night shade attack, but it's fairly long, and really best told just about anywhere that isn't a bright, cheerful spring field."

"That scary, huh?" was Sidney's sarcastic response, but she didn't mean any harm by it. "Well, if you're ready...the next town is west from here. Where you headed anyway?" Ginger was sulking again, she lost her berry, and now Sidney, her best friend, was ignoring her. Why wouldn't she just listen to her and stay away from these strange types.