An Angry Friend

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Raihan wanted to close his eyes again as their damn, spinning teacup dropped into the next section of Allister’s ghost maze.

What the fuck even was this?  Why was Allister, who was only a kid for crying out loud, so cruel and twisted?  

Did anyone enjoy being spun around like this, all the while they fall, crash on bumpers, and get pushed by ghost hands?  Not to mention that random giant Gengar swallowing them for a moment.

He didn’t know how Piers managed it all.  His Spikemuth friend certainly wasn't a Dark type gym leader for nothing.

There was one silver lining, however.  He got to hold his crush’s hands, with the pretext of needing comfort (though he needed that too.)  Piers’ tone of voice was also gentler than usual, which Raihan wasn’t going to complain about.

“Rai,” Piers called out, his beautiful eyes widening.  “Watch out behind you!”

The Dragon gym leader gaped.  Since their teacup ride was spinning, what was behind him was in front of him in an instant.  An evil looking Banette, with glowing eyes and a stitched grin, waved at him.  The ghost pokemon sang a discordant tune that sounded like a Perish Song.

In Pokemon battles, singing a Perish Song meant that both the singer and its target would faint in four turns.  But what would it mean outside of battle and inflicted on humans?

Piers cursed.  He abruptly let go of Raihan’s hand, which made Raihan panic for a moment, and dug something out of his pockets.  “Hope this works.  Plug in your ears!”

The Dark type gym leader held out his concert ear plugs.

Raihan grimaced but hurried to put them on.  Piers did the same.  The plugs felt surprisingly comfortable, and silenced the eerie ghost’s song.  From the livid look on the Banette’s face, it looked like they were in luck.  Piers was visibly relieved and he continued rotating the joystick to move their teacup, bless the bloke.

The Banette chased after them, making intimidating faces, but Piers ignored it.  Dark type specialists truly were unfazed by ghosts, Raihan thought with admiration.

Thanks to his friend’s calm determination, Raihan felt reassured as well, and he stuck out a tongue at the Banette.  The ghost pokemon was so enraged, it appeared as though it would burst open its stitches.  But it didn’t.  Perhaps Allister had a mechanism to prevent the ghost pokemon from going too far.

Downward and downward they dove, till Raihan thought he could see stars.  

Oh, wait.  They were actually stars, weren't they?  Or at least, ghostly, silvery illusions of them.  But then a thought occurred to him.

“Hey Piersy, wait!” he cried out.

“What?” his friend grunted, still preoccupied with navigating their teacup.

The silver “stars” seemed to grow bigger as they approached.  “Can you see those silver glimmering shapes?  I don't know what they are, but they remind me of explosive poisons.”

“Explosive poisons??”  Piers sounded incredulous as their teacup kept tumbling towards those silver shapes.

“Is there any way to dodge them?”  Raihan couldn't believe he was pleading, but here he was.

The Spikemuth gym leader shook his head, his monochromatic locks flying with the wind of their descent.  “I honestly don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.  I don't see any silvery, star-spangled stuff at all.  Are the ghost pokemon makin’ you see illusions?”

Raihan widened his eyes in further disbelief.  It certainly was possible.  “What do you see, then?” Raihan prodded.

Annoyance lined his friend’s features.  “I don't see anythin’ other than what we already saw.  Darkness and gloom, sinister mist and shadows, same old, same old.”

Raihan would have laughed at his friend’s indifference to the spooky things if he wasn’t so scared.  “Arceus,” the Dragon gym leader swore.  The constant spinning made it hard for him to think clearly and decide what to do.

“Besides, we’re almost at the end,” Piers added, his voice a little softer.

Indeed, a few seconds later, their teacup landed on the tough sponge of the third and final platform, and the silver stars he saw vanished.  Perhaps they were no more than illusions, after all.  

Piers pulled Raihan with him as they got off their vehicle at last.  The Hammerlocke gym leader leaned on his friend for support, as he was still recovering from his dizziness and could hardly stand straight.  

Thankfully, Piers didn't seem to mind and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to hold him up.  Ah, what wouldn't Raihan give to have Piers hug him like this normally too, not just when he was sick and disoriented?

"Piers, Raihan!"

Raihan turned his head at the voice. A little boy with black hair and a mask appeared. Allister, the Stow-on-Side city Ghost type Gym leader. 

Before he could control himself, Raihan burst out, "What the heck was with that giant Gengar and Banette? And what about those two Haunter?"

Piers nudged him with an elbow, but Raihan glowered at the Ghost type Gym leader, demanding a response.

Allister looked awkward, but he always looked awkward. After a moment, he uttered, "Some of the gym challengers complained that my puzzle was too easy. And so—"

His Spikemuth friend laughed, loudly. "Seriously? I did wonder if you added your Ghost pokemon to make the teacup game more exciting. But I can't believe that you actually did it for that reason."

Allister glanced shyly down at the ground. "I take it you didn't like them?"

Raihan gritted his teeth and was about to bark back a reply, but Piers squeezed his arm hard and spoke first, "We were worried that there were rogue ghost Pokémon at your gym as well." He smiled and brushed a strand of black and white hair away from his face. How could a guy still look so breathtaking even after being spun around with no mercy for so long?

Allister put his hands together politely. "Well, some of my gym trainers made comments, too. Lynne said that for a Ghost type Gym leader, I don't play pranks and tricks much."

Piers chuckled, his tone more lighthearted than Raihan’s would have been. "Your original teacup game was already quite pranksy. It's hard enough to move down while spinnin’ around in circles. About that Banette, though, what would happen if we let it sing its Perish Song until the countdown got down to zero? We were lucky that I happen to have earplugs from my concerts."

The Ghost type Gym leader looked uncomfortable and scuffed his shoes on the floor. "Uh… You would be okay. I would make sure of it. At most, you might be unconscious for a bit before we wake you up again."

Raihan interrupted here, "By 'we,' do you mean your fellow gym trainers, or your helpful ghost Pokémon?"

To Raihan's relief, Piers was silent this time, no longer defending Allister. But Piers' facial expression was unreadable.

The Stow-on-Side gym leader looked outright shady right now.  He murmured almost out of hearing, “Er, both, but mostly my ghost pokemon since they can travel faster.”  The boy wrung his hands.  “I swear that I would never let anyone be harmed.  These are all spooks and scares.”

“Oh yeah?” Raihan quipped, feeling so fed up.  “How about what happened with your cousin Daniel?  We saw him being hoisted up and harassed by a couple of Haunters.”  Raihan had no fondness for Allister’s cousin, but it was still a problem if random gym challengers were getting this sort of treatment from Allister’s ghosts.

Allister waved his arms in a frantic motion.  “It—that was also part of a prank.  The Haunters would fool around with him for a bit, but they won't actually hurt him and would put him back down once they’re finished.”

“And when would they be finished?” Raihan pressed.

Raihan was especially worked up today, Piers thought.  The Spikemuth punk could understand, since some of Allister’s “tricks” had gone too far.  And he was saying that as a Dark type gym leader.  (Though Piers wasn't the prank-playing type.)

Still, the dizziness, and maybe the silver star illusions earlier, must have rattled his friend more than Piers had thought.  Without thinking about it, he put a hand on Raihan’s shoulder in support.  He was doing a lot of touching lately, for someone who typically wasn’t that physical.  

Perhaps his guilt of making Raihan go through Allister’s gym challenge caught up to him.  Though Piers could not have anticipated the “upgrades” Allister made.

Right now, the Ghost type gym leader rubbed his head and cringed like he wanted to disappear.  Piers felt for the kid, but Allister needed to learn to take responsibility for his actions, even if he had no malicious intentions.

“I’m really sorry,” Allister mumbled at last.  “I—I guess I was too eager to prove that I was a good, proper Ghost type gym leader.  I—I’m much littler and younger than my gym trainers, so when they gave me the feedback that I wasn’t being tricky enough in my challenge, I was determined to prove to them that I could do it.  I had no idea that I had gone too far.  Um, I’ll be happy to call off all my ghost pokemon.  No more pranks…”

Piers exchanged a glance with Raihan.  Piers said, “Look, I can understand wanting to prove your worth to your gym trainers.  I often worry that I’m disappointin’ my crew at Spikemuth, too, that I need ta step up my game, maybe even Dynamax.”  He made a face.  “But sometimes we have to take a stand.  Know the limits of what we’re okay with doin’, even if others don't agree.”

Allister was silent for a while.  His mask concealed his facial expression, but he seemed to be taking his words in.

The Hammerlocke gym leader spoke up again.  “You said you’re young, and you are.”  Piers shot him a glare, since trampling on the kid’s self-esteem wasn’t what they were here to do.  

But Raihan continued, “I’m not saying this to be mean.  I’m saying this because, as a kid, you’re still learning to judge what’s okay to do or not.  And your gym trainers probably have different opinions.  I don't always go with what the Hammerlocke crew says.  

“They might not be happy with my decision,” Raihan said.  “But at the end of the day, I’m the gym leader, not them.  I get the final say.  That goes for you too.  You’re younger than your gym trainers, but you’re still their leader and they have to respect your choice, even if they don't like it.”

Piers couldn't help but snort.  “Wow, I didn’ take ya for the pushy type, Rai.  Really assertin’ your ironfisted will at your gym there.”

Raihan appeared just a tad embarrassed.  “When you work with dragons, you need to show them who’s boss, or they’ll never respect you.  That goes for my gym trainers too.”

The Spikemuth singer nodded absently.  Maybe that was what he and Marnie were missing.  Team Yell loved them, he knew, but did they respect their gym leader and his sister?  

If they did, why did they keep disrupting people even after Marnie and Piers asked them repeatedly not to?  Piers still didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of asserting dominance or showing his gym trainers who was boss, though.  

And maybe that was why Hammerlocke was a flourishing gym while Spikemuth kept falling into disrepair.

Just then, a voice pulled him out of his dismal thoughts.  “Allister!  Coz, I thought I’d never reach you.  Your ghosts were right rascals.  I thought you sent them to stop me from seeing you!”

It was Daniel, of course.  He looked rattled and tired, and more than a little livid.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!