The Ghost Specialist

Redi hadn’t taught any of her Pokémon a TM move before, but she had seen Sam do it, and it was just as easy as she had seen. All it took was returning Ursaring to his Pokéball, slotting him into a Pokémon Center machine, and then after inserting the TM disc, the machine read its contents to teach him the brand new move.

She wasn’t sure if it implanted memories, taught him the feeling, or did something equivalent to showing him a video several times over, but the TM-teaching process definitely worked. While Sam and his team sat nearby and relaxed after a successful tournament, she had Ursaring practice his new attack.

When a single use caused an entire tree to explode, Redi laughed and laughed and laughed.

With Hyper Beam, Redi was pretty sure the Gym Trial was now rigged in her favor. Hyper Beam might not increase Ursaring’s speed—if anything, the move’s need for a recovery period did the opposite—but the sheer, raw power it prescribed all but sealed her victory. Even just the basic idea of using the move against an opponent sent Redi into a fit of giggles.

“But I don’t get how Hyper Beam is going to win you the Gym Trial,” Sam said. “How does Hyper Beam do anything in a race?”

Redi merely grinned and turned to face her friend. She patted him on the shoulder, much to his frustration.

“It doesn’t on its own, but you and I have a different understanding of how battles work, Sam,” Redi said. “I don’t need some kind of clever strategy for this. I just need to show off our power.”

He frowned at her, but she turned around and kept watching Ursaring practice. She’d sign up for the Violet City Gym Trial as soon as she could the next day.

...And after a night’s rest and an early morning dash to the Gym, Redi was properly registered and ready to compete in the mid-tier race, set to take place at noon.

“I knew there were three races a day, but I didn’t realize they were split by level,” Sam said as they walked over. “It’s kind of in a reverse order, too. Five to six star teams in the morning, three to four star teams around midday, and up to two star teams in the afternoon. You know that means if you mess this up, you won’t be able to try this again until tomorrow, right?”

“Psh. I won’t mess this up. Have a little faith in us, Sam! We had faith in you during the tournament!” Redi said.

Sam went silent. The tall buildings of central Violet City were behind them, now.

“Sorry. I’ll believe in you, Redi,” Sam said. “You haven’t messed up so far. I doubt you’ll start messing up now.”

You’re wrong. I’ve messed up before. I wasn’t able to figure out a way to defeat Ecruteak Gym.

She didn’t let that thought show on her face. Redi kept walking, and at least for this Gym Trial, she knew for a fact that she’d win.

The Violet City Gym Trial wasn’t located within the city, rather, the race would take place around its edge. Route 36 had a large section of rolling hills and grassy plains, and the city itself didn’t have many trees close to its sides. Depending on the tier of the race, trainers had to ride on or run alongside their Pokémon set distances around the city. The race would last a quarter of the way around at the lowest level, half the way around at Redi’s level, or all the way around at the highest level.

Truth be told, Redi was a little sour at her team being rated at a “mere” four stars even though her Pokémon were individually comparable to the Pokémon on Sam’s five star team. Her current rating meant she would be among the strongest participants in the mid-tier Gym Trial, but part of her would have rather had her Pokémon’s strength be recognized, even if it meant facing a more difficult challenge.

She needed another Pokémon, and she was starting to think she was acting a little too picky about it.

Redi didn’t dwell on those feelings, however. She had a race to win.

It didn’t take long to reach their destination, as the start was located at the very edge of the city. A line had been dug into the ground just off the side of the main road. There, a few other trainers loitered around, and that one Gym Trainer who had served as an announcer in the tournament, Falkner, stood off to the side with a clipboard.

Redi immediately went up to him to mark herself present, and she took a step back to scan through the other competitors.

There were just over a dozen people here. A few of them had a depressed air to them, as if they knew they wouldn’t be able to win. Those trainers were probably in similar straits to Redi; they had team members that were good in battle but not necessarily good in a race.

She didn’t pay attention to them for now.

Instead, her eyes snapped to three specific trainers and their Pokémon. She could tell that those pairs would be the competitors to worry about.

The first was a teen wearing a set of goggles and a fluffy jacket, honestly looking like some sort of old-fashioned aviator despite competitors being required to stick close to the ground. He had a Doduo next to his side, a long-necked, two-headed bird with a body just large enough to support a rider.

Not too far away from him was a different trainer, one wearing shorts with a white shirt that made her look like a marathon runner. Redi knew of unofficial marathons that regularly took place north of Goldenrod, and this trainer looked like a competitor straight out of them. A large feline, a Persian, stretched alongside her. If Redi had to guess, those two planned to run side-by-side, and the human actually looked athletic enough to be able to keep up.

Finally, there was the real threat of the competition. While this trainer didn’t look that special, her Pokémon was a different story. She brushed through its short, white hair. On the Pokémon’s back, flames moved in the wind, the heat of them not affecting her by even a single degree.

A Rapidash.

Its presence was problematic.

Rapidash were equines known for their speed, and they were regularly ridden in races, as well. If that trainer was participating, the winning odds of everyone else might have been zero. However, Redi didn’t feel despair. If her plan worked, she wouldn’t need to worry about any of those three threats.

She started to grin.

Sam stayed behind, standing near where a few other friends of the competitors had come to watch. He didn’t notice it, but a gap formed in the small crowd as people stepped away from where he stood. They kept sending nervous glances to his shadow, where not one but two sets of eyes flashed in its shade. It wasn’t just Haunter being carried alongside him, now. Misdreavus had joined the other Ghost Type in the darkness beneath Sam’s feet.

With there still being time until the race itself, Redi chose to wait, positioning herself next to Falkner. He sent her a curious glance but didn’t say anything. Too distracted with his own work, he never noticed Redi using her position to peer at his watch whenever he checked it. A few more trainers showed up—one with a Rhyhorn that she subtly nodded at—and soon enough, it was time to start.

But she didn’t just mean the race.

When there was just under a minute left on the clock, Redi released Ursaring. The bear Pokémon appeared in a flash of light and swung his massive arms back and forth to stretch. Each swipe made a swishing noise, and he did what Redi had asked, maintaining a scowl on his face.

He looked ticked off, acting annoyed as if someone had just woken him up from a nice nap.

“Ready, Ursaring?” Redi whispered.

He gave her the smallest of nods, hiding his acknowledgement. Nearby, Falkner glanced over his clipboard one last time before looking up and cupping his mouth to let loose a yell.

“Alright—”

“Listen up!” Redi shouted, interrupting him.

Falkner looked startled, head snapping Redi’s way. Ursaring unleashed a roar that pierced through the air, and he and Redi now had the attention of every single human and Pokémon present.

“Before we start, I want to make something exceptionally clear,” Redi yelled. “None of you are winning this race!”

She was met with scowls. The competitors clearly didn’t like that.

Ursaring lowered a claw, and Redi stepped on it. He raised her up to deposit her on his shoulder, where she used the added height to tower above everyone else.

“You move ahead of us? Expect to be attacked,” Redi continued. “And I don’t mean with claw swipes or bites or anything like that. I checked the rules; this race allows trainers to fire off attacks as long as they don’t aim at any especially vulnerable parts. But we won’t need to aim at you like that, right buddy?”

She patted Ursaring on the head and looked at Falkner.

He was frowning.

“I was going to go over the rules, but she’s right, in a way—”

“Told you!” Redi interrupted again. “So how about a demonstration, hm? See what move we’ll be using against you?”

She still had everyone’s attention, so she leaned down to whisper “Hyper Beam” at Ursaring, keeping her voice just barely loud enough to let the other trainers hear.

Shock rippled through the crowd.

Redi stood tall and proud on Ursaring’s shoulder as he faced the planned route of the race. Light glowed from within his throat, and a ball of pure energy formed in front of his mouth. It was as if the air itself was being sucked into the forming sphere, with it growing in both size and power. Before too long, the shape could no longer be sustained, busting outwards in a beam of light that left many people rubbing their eyes.

Where it impacted, the ground exploded upwards. The Hyper Beam blew a small crater into the side of a hillside just down the way, sending chunks of dirt and grass high into the air.

“That’s going to be you,” Redi said.

The declaration was met with silence.

“...Are you done?”

Falkner’s lips were pressed into a thin line as he all but glared at Redi. Redi met his frown with a cheeky smile and hopped down into a seated position on Ursaring’s shoulder.

“Yup!” she said cheerfully.

Falkner pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Line up, everyone. Find a place to stand while I go over the rules.”

He started to explain exactly how this race would work, but Redi barely paid attention. She had Sam read them to her beforehand to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally get herself disqualified. As long as she never directly harmed a human, she’d be fine.

Competitors were allowed to try to disrupt the other racers as part of the Gym Trial, and Falkner’s confirmation of that caused several of the registered competitors to turn pale. Many fearful glances were sent Redi’s way, and instead of bringing themselves to the starting line, at least half seemed to decide it’d be better to not bother this time around. Included among them was the runner with the Persian. She took one look at her cat and one look at Redi before nodding to herself and walking off.

Half of those that left, Redi could respect. Those people were the ones who decided to leave upon recognizing their low chances. A key skill for trainers was to know when you needed to retreat. There wasn’t anything wrong with thinking a situation was too dangerous and deciding to tackle it differently.

The other trainers, however, left out of fear. In Redi’s opinion, those trainers would need to take a hard look at themselves if they were so easily cowed by such a minor threat.

A real trainer wouldn’t back down just because they were afraid.

Redi stayed silent, though. She didn’t make any insulting comments towards the people who left. She did want to taunt them—taunting people was half the fun of Pokémon battles—but she didn’t want to spur a desire for revenge in a race she so desperately wanted to win.

Off to the side, Falkner released a large Fearow. For some reason, there was a faint bit of hesitation before he got on the bird’s back, but the Flying Type Pokémon still accepted him as its rider.

The clipboard was deposited into a backpack as he took a whistle out from around his neck.

“Remember the rules I’ve told you for when the race starts. If there aren’t any questions...”

The remaining competitors stared straight ahead. Falkner briefly sent one last glare towards Redi.

“Then we’re ready to go!” he said. “Trainers! The race will begin shortly! On your marks... Get set... And... Go!”

His Fearow shot into the sky, giving him a view of the entire race at once, allowing him to see both the winners as well as anyone who broke the rules. As for the line of racers themselves, one trainer with a Jynx, of all Pokémon, suddenly disappeared.

“No Teleportation! Disqualified!” Falkner’s voice echoed.

Must have spent a lot of money on a Teleport TM just for it to go to waste here.

As Redi hummed to herself, no one else behind the starting line bothered to move ahead.

“What? Too scared?” she asked.

People kept trying to hide the subtle glances sent her way.

Redi didn’t move, herself. Ursaring maintained his angry look while staying in the same place. It helped disguise his heavy breaths and his need to recover after that use of Hyper Beam. If anything, he looked even angrier than before.

Silence continued. A pressure seemed to settle over everyone still here. Redi guessed they were waiting to see what would happen to whoever moved ahead of her first. No one wanted to be the one to risk a retaliatory strike from Redi’s Ursaring.

“Screw it! You can’t get all of us at once!”

Despite his words, no one else seemed to want to support that Rhyhorn trainer’s declaration. He hopped onto the back of his armored Pokémon as it began to charge over the starting line. His Rhyhorn moved at a decent speed, but it wasn’t anything fast enough that’d actually win the race.

“Go ahead, Ursaring,” Redi said, massaging the back of her Pokémon’s neck.

From her position still seated on Ursaring’s shoulder, she got the perfect view of her bear Pokémon lining up a Hyper Beam and releasing it at the only trainer running ahead. The Rhyhorn’s rider let loose a shout and dived to hide behind his Pokémon as it skidded to a halt.

The Hyper Beam exploded just before it. An explosion of dirt covered the Rhyhorn, and it moved no further.

Above, Falkner was silent. There was no shout of disqualification that the other competitors clearly hoped for.

Did it work?

Redi hid the way she checked over everyone else by sending them all a leer.

Truth be told, everything so far had been a bluff. She couldn’t actually attack the other competitors. At most, she could have Ursaring use Hyper Beam to create craters in the field.

That Rhyhorn trainer? Bribed beforehand. She needed to show that she wasn’t afraid of letting loose an attack, and his Rock Type Rhyhorn could resist Normal Type moves. It could easily fake a fall after being “targeted,” as well.

A Rhyhorn was bulky enough for a human to hide behind, and the move itself had landed a little too short to deal much damage. The important part of the scene was that it looked like Hyper Beam had struck it. This was what most of the practice last night had been about, after all.

Thankfully, everyone was too busy staring at Redi to inspect where the other trainer had taken a fall.

After a few seconds of confirming no one else had the courage to move, Redi tapped her Pokémon, and Ursaring took a heavy step forward.

Then another.

And another.

The Rapidash whinnied and stomped its hooves into the dirt. The trainer with the Doduo scowled as his Pokémon’s talons dug into the field.

“Keep going,” Redi whispered.

Ursaring continued to be the only Pokémon moving forward as he casually walked down the race’s planned route.

“Whatever! If she’s going to attack us, that just means we have to dodge! Come on, Rapidash!”

“You too, Doduo!”

Redi let loose a curse. Somehow, the only two people still motivated to stay in the race were the two people that she absolutely needed to stay behind.

“On all fours! Push yourself, Ursaring!”

Her bear Pokémon let loose an earth-shaking roar before dropping down, and Redi slid to end up seated on his back. She leaned forward and grabbed his fur as he took off running. His species might have been fine with traveling on two legs, but if he really wanted to convert his brute strength into speed, he needed to use all four of his limbs.

They managed to maintain their lead longer than Redi would've expected. Ursaring quite literally tore over the ground with every step. His claws sent grass flying into the air.

It was like he was attacking the ground to run, but he still wasn't built for speed. It was only about a third of the way through the race—a sixth of the way around the city—that those two other competitors passed them. The Rapidash and the Doduo pushed into first, running neck-and-neck.

“Hyper Beam, in front!” Redi shouted.

A beam of piercing white light shot past the competitors to explode the ground before them. The Doduo was agile enough to move around the crater, and the Rapidash easily jumped above.

“Oh, you—!”

Redi cursed under her breath.

She wasn’t able to do anything more direct than that, and she wasn’t able to call for any other moves so soon after the last. Hyper Beam was Ursaring’s only ranged attack, and it required time to recover as it used a significant chunk of his reserved energy.

Ursaring was able to adjust his course to avoid the crater without a loss of speed, but if Redi wasn’t able to figure anything else out, she’d lose the race for sure.

Grumbling under her breath, she held herself tight against Ursaring’s back as she watched the Rapidash’s trainer call for a retaliation. The Fire Type horse Pokémon turned its head to aim at the Doduo, shouting its name while it called for flames to spin around it. A tornado of fire formed and was launched at its opponent, which unfortunately easily jumped away. The Fire Spin scarred the grass black and left smoldering embers in its wake. Patches of fire remained on the ground, which would force Ursaring to change directions unless he wanted to get burned.

Wait, but don’t we want that?

Redi wasn’t the best trainer around when it came to clever strategies, but if there was one thing she knew, it was the capabilities of her team.

“Into the flames, Ursaring! We’re relying on Sam’s book! Think you can handle it?”

He let out a proud roar in response.

Rapidash’s Fire Spin had mostly faded away, but Ursaring could still use the lingering fire to win them the race. Rather than avoid the heat, he charged right through and even brought down his head to let the flames lick at his face.

Redi coughed up a bit of ash from the attack's smoke cloud, and she did her best to wipe it off her face while rubbing Ursaring’s back. His breathing started to get heavier, and there was now a subtle wince every time a paw hit the ground.

Charging right through the fire had left him burned, which was exactly what Redi wanted.

“Here we go,” she whispered, still doing her best to comfort her Pokémon during his run.

Ursaring started to pick up speed. His adrenaline built, fueling his movements. It wasn’t just his ability, Guts, fueling his strength, but he was also relying on something Redi only knew of thanks to Sam’s New Pokédex.

Turns out, Ursaring had a second ability he could train: Quick Feet. It wasn’t anything his final evolution would support, but they could at least try to make use of it now. In addition to the adrenaline-fueled strength that Guts could provide, that same adrenaline could let him move more panickedly and with a greater speed. All of that combined, and Ursaring was catching up. Off to the side, buildings flew past them as they raced across the plains.

But it still wasn’t enough. While they were moving faster, there wasn’t enough of the race left to give them a chance to pull ahead.

It’s going to be about timing, isn’t it?

She frowned. This wasn’t something she could expect Ursaring to do on his own.

With how much energy Hyper Beam required, Ursaring could pull off the attack once, maybe twice more. After that, he'd be too exhausted to reuse the move, especially with how his burn was eating away at his health. Redi had only a single chance to bring this race into their favor. They were barely running faster than the two in the front, but there was no way that speed would last forever.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched the two Pokémon in the lead. After that Fire Spin, they had all but discounted her, only bothering to focus on each other, thinking the other racer was the only threat left.

One of the Doduo’s heads struck with a Peck towards the Rapidash while the other head faced ahead to pay attention to the direction of the race. The horse Pokémon had to pull to the side to avoid those jabs, but it responded with a slight turn of the head and an exhale of Embers that forced the Doduo away.

The two trainers yelled commands to repeat the process, and Redi, to her surprise, recognized what was going on.

“It’s a cycle,” she whispered.

The two Pokémon would move close, attack, and then be forced apart once again. With both trainers trying to give themselves some kind of advantage, neither side was content with relying solely on their speed.

Redi leaned forward to better focus. Ursaring kept running, throwing everything he had into just trying to catch up. Ever so slowly, the distance between them and the Pokémon in the lead shrunk, but not enough to matter. However, it let Redi grow more and more familiar with how her opponents attacked.

It was right when the finish line came into view, Falkner on his Fearow circling above, that Redi called for a final attack.

“Now!”

A Hyper Beam tore out of Ursaring’s throat. He unleashed it with a fury not seen before, likely fueled by the desperation of both of his abilities and the need to place first. It was timed just right to perfectly shoot between the two Pokémon when they clashed. Both let out noises of alarm and pulled far back as the literal laser beam sliced the air apart.

This time, when the crater was formed, it was much too close for either Rapidash or Doduo to be prepared. The Rapidash had to undergo a sharp turn and stop to avoid falling in, and the Doduo stumbled before clumsily running around.

Ursaring had no such problem, as he continued to tear forward and leaped into the air. His momentum was just enough to let him land on the other side, his speed unaffected.

“Yes!”

Redi laughed as Ursaring charged into the lead. The trainer on the Rapidash, having come to a complete stop, snapped her fingers out of frustration. She seemed to recognize there wasn’t enough distance left to let her reach the front once again.

The other trainer, however, adjusted his goggles and glared at Redi through their lenses. His Doduo resumed its charge, refusing to stop here.

“Doduo, we’ve been through so much! We can’t give up now!”

His voice was just barely audible over the sound of the rushing wind.

“We can do this! I believe in you! We. Can. Win. This. Race!”

The final word carried, and a flash surprised Redi. She snapped her head around, jaw practically dropping to the ground.

The Doduo was glowing. Its body increased in size. Its legs became more powerful, and a third head popped out of its chest.

The freshly evolved Dodrio suddenly began to effortlessly sail towards Ursaring. The speed of its evolution combined with subsequent surge of energy meant it had more than doubled its pace.

Redi was worried for only the briefest of moments. She’d talked to Sam about the Normal Type a lot. She knew of one issue that a member of Dodrio’s species tended to have.

“Hey! If you have three heads now, which one of you is in charge?”

Three sets of avian eyes blinked at her. Still running, each of them pulled back to leer at one another before getting into a furious, squawking argument. That argument almost immediately devolved into a battle of furious pecks, with strikes from each head aimed at the others’ necks.

Unfortunately for it, the Dodrio couldn’t maintain the same pace with all three heads fighting at once. It fell behind, its goggled trainer shouting desperately to get it to stop, all while Ursaring completed the final dash over the finish line.

Redi cackled the entire way, placing first in the Gym Trial and earning her team the well-deserved right to challenge Walker.