Child of Thorns - A Pokemon Sinnoh Reimagining

Percy was caught between the metaphorical rock of How could this brat figure the puzzle out before me? and the similarly metaphorical hard place of That's bad. That's really, really bad.

His gaze moved all through the battlefield, as the only thing he could currently do to push back the panic was analyzing the situation. Around fifteen, maybe twenty ghost Pokemon were heading their way right now. Barry's Prinplup was currently struggling against six of them. Another dozen were slowly ascending from the ground in the places closest to where Inyssa's Starly flew.

"Of course it wasn't gonna be that easy," Inyssa said, her posture as firm and free of fear as ever. How the hell did she do that? "Steven! Fly in circles around where you already are and try not to wake up any more of them!"

Percy bit his lip hard as his mind went through every single possibility and ramification of that. It would not work, at best the Starly would be able to distract a few of them before they overwhelmed him with their sheer number advantage. And then they would lose their only flying Pokemon on the field.

He crossed his arms, unconsciously scratching the outside of them as he felt his mind slowly freeze with their lack of options.

The ghost Pokemon hidden in those metal stakes weren't very powerful, but they were a lot of them and probably counted with an array of attacks that would slow them down or inflict status effects. And trying to outrun them was counterproductive, since the more they moved around in the cavern the more of them they'd bring out. But at the same time the speed and dodging ability of their Pokemon was the only reason the Golurk hadn't managed to beat them so far.

Fantina really had thought everything through. Even with the advantage of time they managed to get a hold on the situation still seemed hopeless. They could either fight the Golurk and get drowned in a horde of weaker ghost Pokemon or stay in place and negate their numbers advantage, becoming easy targets for the giant to pick on.

The scratching became harsher and he suddenly felt out of air. Was it all the dust rising from the floor due to their fighting? No, they were at a reasonable distance and the cavern itself had lots of space. He closed his eyes, let the world around him disappear, let the sounds of battle fade into nothing more than white noise. Static.

The static became louder and louder, until he could feel it in his own body. Thousands and thousands of tiny, gnashing teeth clawing from the inside of his skin outwards. Trying to escape, trying to eat him from the inside and they were so sharp and his scratching wasn't enough anymore to distract his mind from it and…

"Percy!"

Reiko's voice brought him back to reality. Perhaps too strongly, in a way that felt like his entire body had been hit by a truck, but it worked well enough to allow him to see what was in front of him. Three of the Haunters had summoned a spiraling ball of darkness, twice as tall as them, that was headed directly towards Prince who was looking back at his trainer, waiting for an order.

He opened his mouth to tell him to dodge, but no sound came out. His body wouldn't respond, his mind was still partly a haze of static and he felt his heart beating hard inside his chest. The Shadow Ball was almost on top of Prince, pulsing with an intensity that would surely put him out of the fight.

Something massive and green jumped in between them. The Venusaur moved with a speed she really shouldn't have had considering her size, and before Percy could speak she took the full blunt of the attack. The impact pushed her a short distance back and made her four feet tremble, but wasn't enough to knock her out. By Reiko's request she whipped the air with her vines, defeating the three Haunters in an instant.

"Percy!" Reiko put a hand over his shoulder, which startled him because he didn't even notice her walking his direction. "Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?"

He tried to reply, but his throat was too dry and all he managed was a disgruntled sound that could've passed for a cough. Before he had a chance to speak again he heard Inyssa's voice a few feet from them.

"Can we maybe leave that for later?" she asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds of the fight. "We need help with these ghosts and that giant is starting to get back on its feet!"

"Just hold on!" Reiko shouted back, her hand still strongly grabbing his shoulder. "Hold them off for a second, please!"

Inyssa shot them a look that wasn't very pleasant, but didn't protest more than that. Reiko turned her head to him once more, and her eyes met his.

"Hey, I know things look bad. I might be part of the reason why they're so bad in the first place." She barely managed to smile. "But remember what the kid said; we can do this, we just need to think of something together." Her hand squished his shoulder with even more force. "That means we need you too. You're smart as shit, and we could use one of your plans right now."

"I-I…" he stammered, finally getting some words out even if his tone was all over the place, "I don't know… what to do. This is too much…"

"Nothing is too much," she cut him off, eyes gleaming. "Come on, do you really think Fantina would come up with a test that can't be beaten? There has to be a way, and I need you to help us find it." She curled her fingers around his. "I know you can do it. You're a Morow, aren't you? Nothing in this world can hold you back."

The panic taking hold of his body slowly melted away with every word she spoke, and the touch of her hand felt like the most real thing in the world, working as an anchor. He took a couple deep breaths, and managed to nod twice. He couldn't let her down now; not after everything she'd done for him.

"W-well…" He looked up at the battlefield in front of him. "If we could get rid of all the weaker Pokemon at once we'd have a chance to attack Golurk before more appeared. But… the only one of our Pokemon with an area of effect attack is Prince, and with all the power he's been using to keep this room lit he should only have enough strength for one big attack."

"That could work." Reiko nodded, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"We need something better than that." He shook his head. "I'm not even sure the attack would knock them all out. The air inside here is dry and wouldn't work well as a conductor and none of them are weak to electricity so…" He paused, his body freezing. "So…"

An idea hit him. A stupid, extremely risky idea that could easily mean the assured failure of the trial, but it was the only one he deemed likely enough to get them out of the metaphorical frying pan they were all in.

He walked towards Inyssa with decided step and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. When their eyes met he opened his mouth and said something that he was sure would make him sound like a complete idiot.

"I have a plan. I need your Starly to fly around the cavern and lure out every single one of those ghost Pokemon."

Inyssa turned around to make sure he really was speaking to her. Then she considered the possibility that the commotion around her made it so she didn't hear him right. But by the time she realized those two things were unlikely all she could do was let out a laugh which relieved only a fraction of the knot formed in her stomach.

"And here I thought that stick up your ass didn't allow you to make jokes," she smiled.

"I'm serious."

Her smile froze, dying faster than the time it took her to blink.

"I'm... sorry?" She moved her gaze from him to the now almost thirty ghosts fighting against their teams. "You want me to… bring more of them out."

"I have a plan," he assured her. "I think I might be able to get rid of all of them at once. You have to trust me."

She turned to Barry with a look of Is this guy serious?. Her friend simply stared at both of them and shrugged while making a small nod. He was okay with it. He actually… he actually trusted Percy.

"You said that you think you can do that?" she asked. "So it's not a guarantee."

"Not at all," he admitted, and she noticed his shoulders starting to tremble. "But it's the best idea I have, and we need to do something before we're overpowered."

They stood still, looking at each other for what felt like a lot longer than five seconds. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. After all the trouble him and Reiko had put them through, after having to help them despite her better judgment…

You wouldn't have made it so far without them.

Reiko's recklessness, Percy's cowardice, ever since they'd entered the Lost Tower she felt bound by them, saw them as nothing more than chains dragging her down when she should've been shining all on her own.

They are more powerful and experienced than you are.

And then they had to go and make up and suddenly Reiko was all better and Percy came to her with that stupid smile and asked her to trust him without giving her any reason to do so…

You can't do this alone.

And especially after Barry's words… after he'd left her completely speechless and feeling like shit. What the hell did they know anyway?

He was right, you need them.

She took a hand to her face and tried to drown the voice bouncing inside her head, to no avail. She knew, of course she knew, she'd have to be a terrible trainer not to. They were pinned down; at any moment they would be overwhelmed and their Pokemon would all fall. She'd known that for a couple minutes already, and yet she tried to convince herself of the contrary.

She bit her lip and looked around; both Bret and Kitsune were on one knee, huffing as they tried to keep them at bay, and a few feet at her left Reiko's Venusaur fell to the combined attack of five ghost Pokemon. They had no time left.

A desperate plan was their only choice. Maybe… Maybe she could trust him. Maybe things wouldn't end so catastrophically as every other time she'd tried to leave such an important choice up to someone else.

Maybe just this time.

"Just for the record, you also owe me one." Those were her only words before she turned around to the battlefield and yelled. "Steven! Fly all over the room and draw out as many of them as you can!"

Steven almost flew into a wall after hearing those words, and while his tiny face showed an expression of extreme confusion he had no choice but do what his trainer ordered. He flew lower to the ground in an outwards spiral pattern from the center of the room, and soon enough she saw dozens of dark shapes rising from below him. Next to Inyssa, Percy took a deep breath, and nodded to himself.

"Alright…" he whispered, voice shaking. "Alright! Barry, tell your Prinplup to fall back to where we are! And Prince!" He locked eyes with his Ampharos, who gave him a weak smile and a thumbs up. "Get ready to attack!"

Unfortunately for them, things didn't go exactly as planned. Golurk finally regained its energy by the time they got the plan going. The giant stood to its full height, the spirals on its shoulders and the scar on its chest burning with a pale blue light that was even stronger than Ampharos' tail. Its eyes went straight to the small Pokemon flying all over the room, and ignoring everything else it put both hands in the same position it had used twice already. It readied the Hyper Beam, and took aim.

"Pedri!" Barry yelled before she had a chance to react. "Hit it in the legs!"

The Prinplup didn't need to be told twice. Now completely surrounded by ghosts and without any chance to fall back he ran towards the Golurk with all the strength left in him, and coating his fins in silver energy he hit it just below the knee. The force was enough to make it lose balance, and as it released that destructive pillar of light for the third time, its aim was slightly off. The attack missed Steven by a couple inches and trailed off to the roof where it dissipated.

Pedri formed one last, prideful smile and fell to the ground, the last of his energy leaving him.

Steven finished his last circle around the room at that moment, and just as Barry returned Pedri back to his Pokeball the Starly landed on Inyssa's shoulder, his eyes opened wide with fear and his tiny chest moving violently along with his breathing.

Inyssa would've reassured him if she weren't using all her willpower not to freak out at the image in front of her. Countless shadows rose from the entirety of the cavern, and she felt the weight of every single one of those pair of eyes on her. It was like someone shoved an icicle right up her spine.

Sixty? Eighty? No, more than a hundred ghost Pokemon stared at them, ready to attack.

"Percy, the plan!" she yelled, struggling not to take a step back. "Now!"

He nodded, and turned towards Reiko. "Tell Nakuru to use Soak on the entire room!"

Reiko nodded and gave the order. Golduck stood up, still badly damaged from the previous fight, and with all his might he inhaled deeply and expulsed a gigantic torrent of water upwards. Since it was aimed at the roof instead of the enemies in front of them the water dispersed and covered the whole width of the cavern, falling on top of them and the Golurk like a thick sheet of rain. This, however, did nothing more than slightly annoy the ghost Pokemon.

Inyssa pinched her brow, staring at them in confusion. What the hell was Percy thinking? All Soak did was turn everyone in front of them more vulnerable to-

Realization dawned on her, and she couldn't help but laugh. Electricity. It would make them more vulnerable to electricity.

"Nakuru, fall back!" Percy ordered, and he took his last Pokeball from his pocket. "Priscilla, come out!"

From the light emerged a furry, red and yellow creature with the face of a fox and what seemed to be a burning stick on her left hand. The edges of its fur steamed with heat, and her calm expression was contrasted by the fire behind her eyes.

"Priscilla, I need you to form a protective barrier around us as soon as Prince attacks," he said, and then turned to his other Pokemon. "Prince… you know what to do."

Without a second thought the Ampharos put out the light on his tail and jumped high in the air, landing about ten feet from them, in front of the colossal army of ghost Pokemon. Every one of them flew towards Prince with a sinister gleam in their eyes, and Inyssa saw the Golurk starting to recover its energy once again.

"Give it everything you've got!" Percy punched the air, and for the first time fear seemed completely absent from his expression. "Discharge!"

The strange fox Pokemon pointed her makeshift wand forward and a thick, green barrier surrounded all of them. A second later Ampharos raised both arms into the air, and with a scream that cut the air in two he released all the energy left in his body. It felt like a bomb was let loose; tendrils of electricity exploded from his body and traveled outwards into the floor, walls and ceiling filling the entire cavern and blinding her just from the light alone. She heard dozens of unified, cold screams sing a song of agony as all the ghosts were obliterated by the attack and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Prince followed, although the light of his Pokeball reached him and returned him to it before he could hit the floor. Percy held it in his hands, his arm shaking and a drop of sweat running down his forehead.

Inyssa remembered then that she had to breathe. She blinked too, for good measure, and tried not to show in her expression just how fucking cool she thought that had been.

Only one Pokemon stood in front of them now. The Golurk had fallen to one knee, and steam rose from its entire body as it struggled to get to its feet. Inyssa felt a wild throb of her heart as she saw that; they were so close now. Victory was within their reach.

"Whoo! Fuck yeah!" Reiko yelled next to her, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, one more attack! Let's finish it off with a combo!"

"A… combo?" Barry tilted his head to the side, knitting his eyebrows together. "What's that?"

Percy and Reiko exchanged a look which said much more than she could've hoped to interpret, and they smiled at them.

"We're gonna need your Kadabra for this," Percy explained. "The least we can do is share this little secret with you after how much you helped us."

"What are you…?" Inyssa started to question it right until she saw the Golurk fully get on its feet. "Well, whatever it is let's do it fast! This is our chance!"

Reiko walked to Barry and whispered something in his ear, then pointed towards his Kadabra. The boy narrowed his eyes as he listened, and a few seconds after he formed a huge smile on his face.

"That sounds amazing," he whispered, and turned to her "Niss this is gonna be great! Come on!"

"I have no idea what you're on about!" she complained, throwing her hands into the air. "Just hurry the fuck up!"

"Let's hit it with everything! Now!" Reiko yelled as she pointed towards their opponent. "Nakuru, Water Pulse!"

"Priscilla, Mystical Fire!"

"Bret, Magical Leaf! Steven, Whirlwind!"

All four Pokemon attacked in unison. The Golduck took one last, deep breath and spit up another stream of water. The strange fox Pokemon drew two circles of fire in front of her and then released a torrent of flames in the middle, so powerful that Inyssa felt the overwhelming heat from where she was. Roselia raised both hands and a hurricane of razor sharp petals traveled forward, and finally the Starly flapped his wings with such force that he created a powerful gust of wind.

"My turn!" Barry spoke, pointing to the sky with one finger, his eyes shining like she'd never seen them before. "Kitsune, combine them together!"

Inyssa stared in disbelief as the Kadabra pointed with his spoon at the four attacks and coated them with a bright purple light. The fire, water, wind and petals twisted their trajectories and swirled together into a spiral of energy which grew in size to almost double of what the Golurk's Hyper Beam had been.

"And of course we can't just have this new move and not give it a name!" Barry exclaimed. "Elemental Vortex, go!"

Inyssa barely had time to feel personally offended by that horrible name before the attack connected and the light blinded her. The impact shook the ground so violently that it swept her off her feet and made her fall on her butt, which wasn't particularly pleasant but at least she was too distracted by the booming sound of the entire cavern shaking and the Golurk's scream to pay any mind to it.

At least ten seconds passed before she was able to push herself to her feet without the world around her shaking violently. Another fifteen later the enormous cloud of dust started to disperse, showing the aftermath of that ridiculous attack.

"D-did we…?" Percy whispered to himself, eyes glued to the shape in the middle of the room.

The Golurk's gigantic body laid face down on the floor, its eyes dull and its limbs immobile. She didn't need to be close to it to know it was unconscious.

They all stood in silence for what felt like an eternity, and before any of them could say anything Reiko threw both arms in the air and let out a scream that traveled through the ground and into her bones, full of joy and exhaustion and just a little bit of fury.

"We did it!" She let out a long, fruity laugh. "That's what you get, you flat faced giant piece of shit!" She then turned around towards Barry and Percy. "C'mere you two! That was amazing!"

And before the boys had any chance to protest she put both her arms around their shoulders and raised them into a bear hug that she imagined could've easily crushed their bones. Reiko gave a couple more jumps of joy while Percy and Barry tried their best not to suffocate, and Inyssa couldn't help but laugh with her.

"Don't think I forgot about you!" She put both of them back on the ground and started walking towards Inyssa, whose smile died fast. "Come here! You prideful little shit, you did great!"

"That's… really not necessary." Inyssa took a few desperate steps back, laughing nervously. "Really, just…"

Both of them stopped as they heard the sound of clapping coming from behind them. They turned around to the source and found Fantina, standing in front of the cavern's entrance with a thin smile pasted on her face.

Inyssa's mind yelled Oh thank God and Oh God dammit at the same time, assaulted with a contradictory set of emotions. Which unfortunately prevented her from insulting the Gym Leader before she spoke.

"That was magnificent," she said as she walked toward them, one hand raised in front of her and the other one resting on her hip. "Truly a show of skill and might worth spectating. Consider me impressed."

Her words seemed to bring some levity to the atmosphere around them, and Inyssa felt like the dust and cold lifted from where she stood and cleared her mind. Reiko still had that ridiculous smile on her face, and Percy and Barry stared at the woman with reverence, a small blush painted on their cheeks.

"So, did we pass?" Inyssa decided to cut to the chase. "Are we worthy enough to kick your ass now?"

Reiko had to contain a laugh, and shot her a look of approval.

"Quaint as always, Inyssa." Fantina raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. "Yes, you all passed the trial." She took a breath and indulged herself in a dramatic pause before continuing. "And I'm glad to see that you took my advice to heart. It would be irresponsible of me to say that you've fully managed to achieve change or found what you lacked as trainers, but at the very least you all made some amount of progress today, and that's what matters."

"Thank you so much for the opportunity you gave us," Percy walked forward and bowed to the woman. "I promise we won't let you down."

Inyssa rolled her eyes, but that's as far as her disdain went. She just couldn't muster enough energy to really be frustrated with Fantina or anyone else in the room. She felt too happy for that at the moment.

"This might not be a universal rule for all Gym Leaders…" Fantina continued to speak, "but it is mostly agreed that our job is not only to challenge those who come to us, but to properly teach them how to become better trainers and people in the process . I am forgiving, but I am also pragmatic; I will always turn down those who I deem to have no potential. You four have proved yourselves, but only enough to stand at the starting line." Her gaze moved between them, and Inyssa felt a chill when it set on her. "I will contact you soon and inform you of when we will fight. In the meantime, feel free to celebrate this victory. It's the least you all deserve, considering the amount of effort you put into it."

And with that said she turned around and started walking towards the exit.

"Let's go now, children," she said. "It's time to give the others a chance."

The way back to the Pokemon Center was paved with a lightheartedness that Inyssa had sorely missed, despite her not wanting to admit it. As they walked through the outskirts of Route 209 and eventually through Hearthome Reiko wouldn't stop making jokes or comments about what they'd just been through, to the point that it almost seemed like she was doing a play by play. Percy simply smiled as he watched her acting so chipper, his shoulders down and probably mentally exhausted. Barry however was talking almost as much as the red headed girl, and judging by the way they laughed and joked around together one could've easily mistaken them for brother and sister.

Inyssa smiled as she saw him getting back some of the enthusiasm he had lacked that past week. She would've joined them if she weren't so emotionally and mentally drained.

"Ohh I can't wait to know when I'll fight her!" Barry gave little jumps as he walked, his body practically shaking from excitement. "I gotta think of what Pokemon to use too!"

"We'll beat her easy, don't even worry about it," Reiko made a gesture with her hand, chest puffed and showing a confident posture. "Fantina won't know what hit her."

"Perhaps we could even…" Percy spoke, his voice barely audible. "We could do a little training together. I mean, if it's okay with you two."

Inyssa needed a few seconds to realize he was talking to her.

"O-oh…" She tried to think of a response, not expecting that proposal coming from someone like him. "Yeah, sure… I guess we can do that."

She went back to silence and hearing the rest of them speak after that. She lowered her hat and tried to hide the smile trying to break through her cold expression. So they weren't… mad at her? Both Reiko and Percy seemed to forget completely how she'd treated them back then in the trial. Or maybe they hadn't but they still wanted to hang out with her despite it. The idea both confused her and sent a strange warmth to her chest.

Before, she'd horribly read the situation and thought she and Reiko could snark at each other a little, being rival trainers, but clearly she'd gone too far, and by the time she was confronted with that fact, she was too angry to properly reflect on it. Now, though...

They made it to the Pokemon Center just before twelve, which was fortunate timing because she was starving. They said goodbye to Percy and Reiko as they went to their rooms to change and shower, and arranged a training meeting with them later that afternoon.

"And I thought they were super scary before," Barry mentioned when they were out of sight. "They're actually really cool."

"By some definitions of the word, I guess," she admitted. "Come on, let's order some meat and potatoes and more meat, I feel like I could eat a Ponyta."

They walked to the counter together, until Barry stopped when he heard the automatic door opening behind them. Inyssa didn't notice it until the boy stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Uh, Niss…" the sudden change in his tone was enough to take her out of her thoughts. "Um…"

She turned around and laid her eyes on the woman who'd just entered the Pokemon Center. She was tall, with her long dark hair tied in a bun, and the color of her eyes were the exact same as hers. Inyssa's mouth hung open, her body and mind frozen.

"Hello sweetie," her mother said, and showed her a smile which extended to her tired eyes. "It's so nice to see you again."