Broken Souls

All Four One: Round Four

The next room is painted a neon purple with darker hues, giving it the appearance of seeming to glow under the black light from the ceiling. The edge of the battlefield is bordered with massive obsidian shards jutting from the ground and a huge, drawn back velvet curtain stands at the center of the room, looming over us all. The floor is speckled with golden paint, giving it the appearance of a starry sky. Someone spent their sweet time designing this, and the effect is breathtaking.

Karen smiles as we appreciate her tastes in interior decor, her hair lit up by the black lights over head. "I'm Karen. It's lovely to meet you."

"You as well." I reply, still dumbfounded.

"As you can tell by my room, I'm a fan of the Dark type. They're mysterious, dangerous, and rugged... yet there's still this allure to them. I've been known for my overpowering tactics, though I suppose you'll find out just how I battle soon enough. Care to begin?"

Minerva bares her teeth. Pisces stands above me, ready for her next challenge, and the others look on with admiration in their eyes. Still, it's Fang who jumps onto the battlefield first. "Can I lead?"

"Go ahead." I tell him. "Yes, I'm ready."

Karen smiles and sends out her own Umbreon: "Breeze, you're up." Breeze, who takes the field snarling, is a little stouter than Fang. Its ears are a little more pointed, and its rings are blue, so its must be shiny, but besides that the two are more or less identical.

Fang leaps into battle, but I'm disappointed to find Faint Attack does next to nothing. Breeze takes the time to counterattack, and the two begin dueling, claw to claw and tooth to tooth. They're evenly matched, with neither able to get any critical attacks in edgewise, but I get the uneasy feeling that I'm watching something more akin to a feral dogfight than a real Pokemon battle.

"Fang, use Confuse Ray." I say, hoping to get this over with faster, and Fang summons an orb of hazy light from his head. It strikes Breeze, who staggers over, but as Fang is celebrating his success Breeze lunges sideways at him and knocks him over with a startled yelp.

The two resume their battle, but Fang's superior speed is giving him a new advantage. Breeze is hardly able to parry a blow, and it looks like we're about to finish the Umbreon off when Karen calls Breeze back and applies a Full Restore. "There you go," she says, smirking at me all the while. She knows exactly what she's doing. "Now, Breeze- Confuse Ray."

"Fang, dodge!" I yell, but Breeze's Confuse Ray is persistent. He manages to get halfway across the field before it hits him in the back of his head and his eyes glaze over, as if he's forgotten why he's here altogether.

I feel buzzing at the back of my own mind, making it hard to suggest anything to Fang and giving me a major headache to boot. Instead, I ask, "Are you okay?" and Fang gives me a sharp slanted gesture that might have been some semblance of a nod. "Okay."

Okay.

The two Umbreon turn to face each other again, and after staring into each other's eyes (or attempting to), Fang lunges... and misses.

"Damnit!" I yell, and the battle continues with lazy, halfhearted strikes on both sides. Neither Pokemon is able to make any real moves due to the confusion and if it wasn't an Elite Four battle, I'm sure I'd find this hilarious.

"You know, if someone had told me I'd be watching two Umbreons stagger around drunkenly for the better half of my afternoon, I might not have believed them. Yet here we are." Minerva states, then shakes her head. "Forget this. I'm going in."

She jumps straight into the fray and pushes Fang out, returning him to my side, where he blinks, free of his curse, and falls asleep on top of Pisces. Minerva, undeterred, looks back at Karen, anticipating her next attack.