The fighting haunter exchanged looks with his trainer, then zipped into battle, not pausing for orders before unleashing his first attack, a twisting confuse ray that seemed to sort of glow and pulse in the air. He wasn't a particularly high leveled pokemon, but he seemed confident enough in the arena, and very much focused on the battle, unlike Pandora with his constant taunting and teasing.

Pandora was actually staying pretty silent, floating next to Cassius and watching the battle unfold. He had half a mind to make some snappy comment at the absol, but couldn't come up with anything really good.

"Abina! Crunch! Now!" The insectoid dragon charged forward, curling back her lips to expose her rasor-sharp teeth. But just as she was coming down on the haunter, the confuse ray began to take effect, and she stumbled a bit, tripping over her own gut and performing a body slam instead (however effective that might be) as she fell onto the ghost pokemon.

Sidney growled quietly, but the absol beside her just shook her head.

The haunter looked terrified for a moment as he saw a large amount of flygon descending rapidly towards its head. At the last moment, he realized phasing out would be a good idea, and emerged from the top of the large dragon, looking worried but none the worse for wear.

"(Right idea with the strategy, there. You know what's next)" said Cassius, cryptic in his instructions so as not to alert the pokemon, although language always kept other trainers out of the loop. The fighting haunter nodded, and conjured a small smokey dagger in the air, bringing it down on himself instead of his opponent, and muttering the words to his curse attack quietly under his breath, still hovering over the flygon.

The haunter's ritual gave the flygon enough time to shake off the confusion, and she rolled back onto her two hind legs. She cast a quick glance back to her trainer, unknowing that her enemy had just placed a harmful curse on her.

Sidney, who had been busy trying to figure out what the haunter was doing (she had never seen a curse attack performed by a ghost before), finally snapped back to reality. She had to win the battle, or no badge. "Let's try something else!" Earthquake? No, an earthquake would be too devastating, and it wouldn't be very nice of her to demolish Cassius' immaculate ballroom. Unable to think of anything good, Sidney blurted out, "Fly!"

The dragon took to the air once more, ascending up to the ceiling, where she hovered for a few seconds, then... "Flllyyyyygh!" she cried out, a terrible pain taking hold of her. It was if she had just been struck with a thousand needles all over.

"What's going on?!" Sidney shouted up at her, a note of concern evident in her voice. "Abina?!"

On the ground, the haunter was looking rather worn, half his hitpoints put into the curse attack. Cassius looked worried, he knew the haunter wouldn't last much longer, even with his opponent distracted by the curse attack.

With Abina up in the air, the haunter didn't have much he could do. "(Hypnosis attack)" commanded Cassius, knowing it was a longshot. Even if the attack was effective, the flygon would have to look down for it to do any good, although the resulting crash would probably mean a one hit KO if it worked out.

Abina managed to regain her composure, remembering that she was in the middle of performing an attack. Summoning up all her strength, the flygon spiraled towards the fatiqued haunter, violently colliding with the opponent pokemon still on the ground. "Nicely done," were Sidney's words of praise.

Abina winced as another wave of pain swept over her, but didn't cry out this time. Instead, she fell forward...fast asleep before her head hit the ground. "Rest...?" Sidney looked puzzled.

The haunter wobbled a little, then collapsed moments after the flygon started to sleep. "Haunter, return" said Cassius, withdrawing what was actually a blank pokeball from his belt. Most of the ghosts in the mansion didn't keep individual pokeballs, they were just convenient resting points when someone had fainted in a battle.

"(Shuppet, you're in next)" he said, motioning in a shuppet who'd been watching very eagerly from the sidelines. He was much younger than the haunter who'd fought before him, and at a slightly lower level, but Cassius thought the eggborn pokemon had promise. If nothing else, he had a lot of energy, and he was summoning a shadowball even before Cassius gave the order, thrilled at showing off the high-leveled technique he'd learned as a kid.

Despite the flygon's efforts to regain health in her comatose state, the powerful ghost attack managed to finish her off, combined with the damaging effects of the previous ghost's curse. Abina lifted her head slowly, releasing an extended moan, before collapsing again, defeated. Sidney returned the pokemon to her pokeball wordlessly. And she thought she was doing so well too...

Ginger, who had managed to keep her trap shut so far, couldn't help but grin, unable to mask her excitement. Only one more to go...

Sidney reached for another of her pokemon waiting eagerly on her belt. "Taro, you're up!" The pokeball was nothing more than a streak of red and white against the dark ceiling, and then it burst open with a flash, expelling the pokemon inside. "Marooow!" came a deep cry as the light faded. "Wak!" It seems the clingy baby cubone from a year ago had grown up into a rather fierce looking fighter. A marowak, to be exact, wielding a club-shaped bone.

"Use bonemerang!" the pokemon's mother ordered. Taro nodded his skull, and then swung his bone club at the 'floating handkerchief', releasing it and letting it fly.

Cassius had to smile at the change in the young fighter, which brought back fading memories of his own evolution. But on the battlefield, it meant dealing with a whole new style of fighter. His normal-type attacks would be out of commission, but his bone attacks had ground energy in them, which would hurt even if a pokemon were phased out.

The shuppet grinned playfully and ducked under the whizzing bone, making a silly face at his opponent. Unfortunately, he hadn

Sidney immediately followed suit and Ginger placed her paws over her head.

Taro shuddered, but didn't cover his ears, even as the excruciating sound resonated inside his skull. To show weakness was to lose, besides, he knew it wouldn't do any good. He looked up, then caught the flying club as it whizzed back.

"Try bone rush!" Sidney suggested, hands still firmly placed over her ears. With another nod, the brown dinosaur lunged forward, bringing his club back again as he prepared to engage the enemy.

Cassius leaned on the railing of the platform, feeling the effects of the screech attack even though it hadn

"Taro!" the female trainer shouted, trying to get her pokemon's attention. The marowak jumped back a bit after attacking, glancing up when he heard his mother's voice, just in time to see the large black sphere advancing towards him. With no time to think, he did a flip into the air as the attack soared beneath him. Now, for an attack the little shuppet couldn't avoid (not easily, anyway). "Flamethrower!" Before he had even touched down, the dinosaur tilted his head back as embers began to dribble from his mouth, and then he shot a concentrated stream of passionate fire at the ghost pokemon.

After two physical attacks, Shuppet wasn't expecting something elemental. The first thing that came to mind was from human TV commercials he watched, along with most of the other ghosts, during Saturday morning cartoons- stop, drop and roll. Who said TV was bad for young minds? The ghost froze, ceased floating, and rolled out of the way, made easier by a very circular head. He emerged slightly singed, but still kicking (figuratively speaking, since he had no feet.)

"(Think he knows the other two elemental attacks of that sort?)" said Pandora quietly, looking worried. Cassius frowned.

"(I can take care of myself)" the trainer replied, then turned back to the battle. "(Shuppet, show him what a ghost can do.)" Cassius' eyes flashed red, and he grinned, doing a fairly good job of looking vicious.

Shuppet released a rather meager wave of ghostly energy, but at the same time he seemed to grow to ten times his usual size, gaining glowing red eyes and bloodied fangs. It was just an illusion, meant to astonish the opponent, but Cassius trained his pokemon well in the performance aspect of a good battle, and the vicious snarling and growling that Shuppet added to the astonish attack were all his own.

Even though Sidney knew Cassius was harmless, she couldn't help feeling slightly alarmed by his daunting display, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. Ginger, though, hid a bit behind Sidney--not because of the creepy gym leader, but because of the shuppet turned vampiric blanket of doom.

Taro was taken aback by the shuppet's unexpected scare tactic, but didn't flinch. Instead, he charged forward once more, closing his eyes as he concentrated on his next attack. And once he was in attack range of the giant ghost, he jumped, releasing the hidden power stored deep within him.

Mike was sitting down on one of the antique chairs on the sideline of the battle field, watching every move each Pokemon made.

"[i]I'd say Sidney would win this battle, but only because those aren't the ghost Pokemon I've seen him use. Even still, it is pretty close. One thing, who am I suppose to root for[i]/?

The shuppet's astonish attack ended just as the marowak leapt, and the normal sized pokemon appeared again, at the very base of the giant illusion. Unfortunately for Taro, this was about two feet below where he was jumping and attacking.

Cassius, visible again now that the giant ghost illusion wasn't blocking his view, still had glowing red eyes shining out of the far corner of the room, which seemed dimmer than it had a moment ago. "(Shadow ball)" he commanded, drawing out his haunter voice into a hiss.

Shuppet didn't need to be told twice. Still playful, he targeted the marowak from two feet below it, aimed a little far to compensate for distance, and fired off a quick shadow ball attack. If I beat this guy, I get a shot at the absol! I never get to go up against dark types, that'd be sooooo cool!

Taro did a quick twist in the air, just in time to see the attack before he was hit full in the chest, the young dinosaur sent tumbling backwards skull over tail. He slid to a stop near Sidney, lying flat on his back and blinking despairingly up at the ceiling.

"(C'mon,)" Ginger grumbled under her breath. "(C'mooon...)"

"Taro, return..."

"(Yes!)" the absol cried, springing into battle before her fellow pokemon had even withdrawn from the field. She looked over at Cassius, giving him a small wink, accompanied by a rather snide smirk.

"(So you enjoy throwing around shadow balls, do you?)" she said to the shuppet with a nasty grin. "(Well, how do you like them NOW?!)" The dark pokemon charged up a rather large shadow ball (she was bigger, as well as a higher level, after all), then fired it at the tiny ghost.

((Edited post a bit, since I didn't realize at first that the shuppet was trying to hit Taro while he was still in the air.))

Upon seeing the large shadow ball, the shuppet had just enough time to emit a small eeping sound before getting blasted. Cassius called him back wordlessly, then looked over at his remaining selection. "(Can I go! PLEEEEEASE!)" begged Pandora, judging from the absol's smirk that she'd never let him hear the end of it if her trainer one.

Cassius smiled, glancing over at his friend. "(Sorry, Pandora, league rules say we have to give the living a fighting chance)" he said, loudly enough for Ginger to overhear. Now let's see, I need someone with some defensive power, to take a few hits even from super effective attacks. "(Dusclops, it's your turn.)"

A slow moving, but indeed very sturdy looking ghost entered the arena, her one eye glowing even brighter than her trainer's were. The air about her seemed to shimmer, and Cassius avoided looking directly at the Dusclops, aware that she was casting a slow, subtle confusion attack even as she was taking her position.

Ginger was unable to avoid the confusion attack, wincing sharply as it felt like her brain was being scrambled like fried eggs.

"(Oh, is that so?)" the absol growled in response to Cassius' words, sliding open one eye. "(Don't forget...you're only dead because you couldn't cut it when you were alive.)" And she left it at that, summoning up another massive shadow ball and sending towards the listless duskclops. The ghost was exceedingly slow, so Ginger hoped her projectile attacks should have no trouble missing their target.

Cassius gave Ginger the benefit of the doubt, and assumed it was confusion talking; even she wasn't usually quite so rude. Pandora didn't look so certain, and glared at Ginger with nothing short of anger. There weren't many worse things one could say in front of him, except perhaps "your trainer only abused you to the point of near death because you were weak." It amounted to the same thing really, Ginger's version just wasn't so blunt.

The Dusclops was not fast, but she wasn't as slow as she'd been acting, either. The slightly loopy shadow ball glided past a few inches above her shoulder, as she clenched her fist and charged, although not exceedingly quickly, at the Absol. She wasn't trying to hit with a fist, just the shadow energy radiating off it. Maybe not the best attack against a dark-type opponent, but it was the best she had, and she'd always been a firm believer in "slow and steady wins the race."

Ginger shook off the confusion, clearing her mind, before darting to meet the duskclops. Her teeth were bared as she prepared to use her bite attack, but if they weren't so tiny, she'd use crunch, which was a far more powerful dark-type skill. She easily avoided the shadow punch, swinging around her attacker and biting down on one of the ribbons daggling from the her back, tugging violently as if to unravel the mummy pokemon.

If Dusclops had had a moment to spare from the battle, she would probably have asked the absol why she was biting her hair. Well, hair-like substance, she didn't really feel the attack that much anyways. Instead of making snide comments, though, she turned her head quickly, aiming another shadow punch fist at where the absol was about to be, if she didn't let go of the smokey ribbons very quickly.

Ginger didn't see the shadow punch coming and got hit, rolling across the ground and back onto her feet with a quiet snarl. "(That does it,)" the dark pokemon said, rearing up onto two legs. "(Let's see you dodge my aerial ace!)" She came down, swinging the scythe-like blade attached to her head and unleashing two boomerang-shaped projectiles that spiraled in opposite directions, only to meet again where the duskclops stood.

Sidney, meanwhile, was watching the battle as a spectator. She hadn't uttered a single command as her absol fought, knowing very well that the pokemon wouldn't listen, wanting to win this battle on her own.

The Dusclops held up her hands for protection, but was unable to get out of the way of the quick attacks. The absol was higher leveled, and of a difficult type to deal with, but she was determined to go down fighting.

Aware of her opponent's speed, she decided to go for something difficult to dodge, and dozens of small, whispy vines began to grow quite rapidly from the floor, blooming five pointed lavender flowers and stretching their tendrils towards the dark pokemon, trying to trap her to the floor or at least lash out at her with their razor sharp leaves and pointed flowers.

Ginger was expecting the enemy to use night shade--it was the reason she had lost to Cassius before, after all--and she sprang from her spot, determined not to get ensnared by the toxic vegetation. But even as she moved away, one managed to reach out and wrap itself around her foot. She made a face, trying to tug her leg free at first, and then managing to slice through the plant with her blade.

The duskclops was definitely started to get on her nerves. The ghost just wouldn't go down, and Ginger was beginning to grow more and more exhausted as the battle dragged on. But she couldn't lose--not again. She knew her best chance was to keep her distance from the other pokemon, so she tried using one more shadow ball attack, attempting to make this one bigger and more powerful than its predecessors before firing it at the opponent.