Chapter 43: Caught
I opened my eyes and there was a face ten centimetres from mine.
"WHOA what the—" I jerked back, hands up, heart in my throat for about half a second. Then I stopped. Looked at the Gastly. Let my face go completely flat.
"I knew you were there the whole time," I said. "Just so we're clear. That wasn't real. I was messing with you."
"Gastly." The grin said he didn't believe me for a second. And honestly, fair enough.
I sat up slowly. The clearing was still dim, early morning light just starting to come through the canopy. My back hurt from sleeping on the ground.
The Gastly floated backward to give me space but didn't leave. He hovered about a metre away, watching me.
"So you decided to stay then, or what's your plan here?"
"Gas. Gas gastly gas. Gastly gas gas gastly." He went off. Like, really went off. A whole speech, floating there, gesturing with his gaseous body, bobbing up and down, making sounds that clearly meant something very specific to him and absolutely nothing to me.
"Okay," I said when he finally stopped. "I have no idea what any of that meant. But it sounded important, so... cool." I scratched the back of my head. "Look, what I said yesterday still stands, alright? I'm not forcing anything. If you're just hanging around because you're curious, that's fine. But if you've actually decided something, that's different."
The Gastly drifted to the left. Then to the right. Then he stopped and dropped low to the ground, almost touching the grass, and shot back up fast with a sound that was sharp and quick and nothing like the laugh from yesterday. Harder. Aggressive.
He did it again.
"What do you want now." I watched him do it a third time. "Wait a minute. I think I know what this is. You want a battle, don't you?"
"Gastly!" He almost jumped at me, buzzing with energy, and right after that he drifted backward across the clearing. Put distance between us. Turned to face me. The grin was still there but it meant something different now.
"Alright," I said. "You want a fight, you get a fight."
I reached for Deino's ball. It made sense. Gastly had been coming back to Deino all day yesterday. And Deino was the one who could track him.
"Deino, let's go."
He materialized and his nose went up immediately. He could smell Gastly. His head turned, locked on, whole body low and ready.
"Dei." He remembered.
"Yeah, this is the same Gastly from yesterday. So give him a good beating for annoying you all afternoon, okay?"
"DEI dei!" His whole body perked up. Tail twitching, feet shifting, like he'd been waiting for someone to tell him he was allowed to get payback. He was into this.
The Gastly vanished. Gone. Nothing but empty clearing and trees.
"Find him."
Deino's nose worked. Left. Right. Up. Two steps forward and then his head snapped right and I caught it too, just barely, a shimmer near the base of an oak.
"Dragon Breath, right there!"
Deino fired. The blast hit and the Gastly burst out of the air with a screech, tumbling sideways. He reformed two metres away, shaking himself off. Pure surprise on his face. Nobody had found him that fast before.
"Gastly!" He rushed forward, eyes glowing purple. Hypnosis.
"Deino, dodge left!"
Deino threw himself sideways. Hypnosis passed through empty air. Didn't matter that Deino couldn't see, he didn't need eyes for this. The Gastly was already circling behind him.
"Behind you. Bite."
Deino spun. His jaws snapped shut on something cold and the Gastly SCREAMED. Dark type on ghost type. That hurt. The Gastly tore free and shot upward, trailing wisps of purple, and floated there breathing hard.
"Gas... gastly..."
"We can stop if you want."
He looked down at me. Then at Deino. His eyes narrowed.
He dove. Straight down, fast, a dark sphere building between his eyes. Shadow Ball. He launched it from three metres up.
"Dodge right!"
Deino moved but the Shadow Ball clipped his side and he yelped and stumbled.
"You good?"
"DEI." Angry but good. He planted his feet and snarled upward.
The Gastly came around again. Another Shadow Ball forming.
"Wait for it," I said. "Wait... Dragon Breath, NOW, straight up!"
Deino fired. The Dragon Breath caught the Gastly mid-dive and sent him spiralling through the air. He hit a branch, bounced, tumbled toward the ground.
He caught himself before he landed. Barely. Floating a few centimetres above the grass, flickering, breathing hard. The Shadow Ball fizzled out.
He was hurt but he wasn't done. I could see it.
"You hit Deino with that Shadow Ball," I said. "That doesn't happen a lot. But you know you're running out, right? One more Dragon Breath and we both know how this ends."
The Gastly floated there. Eyes moving from me to Deino and back.
"I think you already decided last night," I said. "I think you were floating above my face for hours because you'd already made up your mind. This fight wasn't about whether you wanted to come with us. You just wanted to know if we could back it up."
"Gas." Quiet. Different.
"So? Can we?"
The Gastly looked at Deino. Deino looked back, nose locked, bruise on his side, still standing. Still ready.
"Gastly."
He drifted forward. Slowly. Not attacking. Just coming closer with those big white eyes and that grin that was smaller now.
I pulled an empty Pokéball from my belt and held it out.
"Your call."
He floated in front of the ball. Looked at it. Looked at me. Looked at Deino.
Then he pressed his face against the button.
The red light pulled him in. The ball shook once. Twice. Three times.
Click.
I held the ball. Warm in my hand.
"Dei." Deino pressed his head against my leg.
"Yeah," I said. "We got him."
I looked at the ball. Our fourth.
"Welcome to the team," I said. "Fair warning, Prinplup is going to hate you."
"Dei dei."
"Yeah, I know. It's going to be great."