Pokémon: Above the Top

The first battle of the 3-on-3. Murkrow seized the opportunity and took down the troublesome Medicham in one blow. The speed was so overwhelming that even the confident Maylo was momentarily shaken.

'My Medicham's core strategy only got halfway through!' Maylo screamed internally, though he didn't dare say it out loud.

After all, he lost, didn't he?

"Machamp, avenge Medicham!" Maylo recalled Medicham expressionlessly and sent out his second Pokémon.

"Champ!"

A flash of blue light. A steel-gray, four-armed Machamp appeared in the arena. As its full form was revealed, it had already assumed a battle stance, looking steady and dependable.

But that steadiness made Sato frown, because Machamp's strength had clearly reached Low Pseudo-Elite Four level.

Sato hadn't expected Gym Leader Maylo to bring out a Pseudo-Elite Four as early as the second Pokémon.

'Too bad Murkrow has barely any stamina left. Otherwise, it might've used this to break through,' Sato thought to himself.

"Come back, Murkrow. Gengar, this one's yours."

"Gen~"

Gengar emerged from the air behind Sato, deliberately avoiding the shadow.

"That's the one! The one that scared- mmpf!"

A sudden stir came from the stands. Apparently, the people who had been "sunbathing" outside earlier had finally recovered and were sneaking in to watch the match.

Who would've thought… they walked in and saw Gengar. Those eyes were exactly the same as the ghostly face from earlier.

Maylo's face darkened, and the others quickly scrambled to suppress those who had broken the silence and disrupted the match.

What a disgrace!

"Tsk tsk tsk~" Sato shook his head dramatically, drawing furious glares from Maylo and the Trainers.

'What's with that smug face!' "Ahem, both sides, please resume the battle!" the referee called out loudly, preventing the situation from escalating.

"Hmph. Machamp, use Foresight!"

Maylo made the first move. Since the opponent was a Ghost-type, Fighting-type moves would be useless without Foresight.

Foresight was a must!

Sato calmly watched until the moment Foresight "identified" Gengar and took effect. Then he slowly gave the command: "Gengar, Hypnosis."

"Machamp, quick-"

Unfortunately, Foresight required the user to use its eyes. Sato timed the command perfectly to ensure Hypnosis would hit with 100% accuracy.

What about closing its eyes? Then Foresight would fail, and Machamp still wouldn't be able to hit Gengar.

Using blatant tactics, Sato forced Machamp to fall asleep.

And since Maylo dared let Machamp fall asleep, then obviously…

Sleep Talk and Snore.

"Machamp, use Sleep Talk!"

"As expected…" Sato curled his lip. No surprise at all.

If last round had Medicham controlling the flow of the battle, then this time, it was Gengar's turn.

"Gengar, Dream Eater."

Gengar's speed outclassed Machamp by a mile, so Dream Eater struck first, dealing massive damage to the sleeping Machamp.

The next moment, Machamp suddenly sprang up in its sleep. With a sly smirk at the corner of its mouth, its back arms relaxed while its front arms crossed into an X and slammed toward Gengar.

"Cross Chop? Gengar, if you can't dodge, use Substitute." Sato frowned. Machamp's luck wasn't bad, it immediately rolled a high-powered attack move.

As for dodging, Sato had been on guard against the opponent's Abilities from the beginning. Whether it was Guts, which increased Attack under abnormal status conditions, or No Guard, which made all moves from both sides always hit…

Neither was easy to deal with!

"Gen~"

Gengar tried to sidestep, but the blindfolded Machamp chased after it without being affected at all. Gengar itself even felt like the hit was unavoidable.

Seeing this, both Gengar and Sato understood. Gengar immediately used Substitute without hesitation and blocked Cross Chop.

"Again, use Sleep Talk!"

"Too slow. Gengar, use Dream Eater."

Sato shook his head. It was exactly like before, and Gengar's speed allowed it to attack freely and defend after.

Dream Eater drained another large portion of Machamp's stamina. If the opponent hadn't already reached Pseudo-Elite Four, two uses of Dream Eater would've been enough to take Machamp down.

Once again, Substitute blocked the Low Sweep that Machamp used through Sleep Talk.

Just as Sato thought the cycle would repeat for a third time, Machamp suddenly opened its eyes.

It woke up!

"Haha! Machamp, use Dynamic Punch!"

Maylo's spirits soared. He had been waiting for this moment.

This was the result of level suppression. When a lower-level Pokémon faced a higher-level opponent, it was naturally disadvantaged.

Even more so under abnormal conditions. Just being able to put Machamp to sleep for two turns had already far exceeded Maylo's expectations.

"Gengar, use Psychic!" Sato commanded loudly. 'So what if your Machamp woke up? It's going down anyway.'

Psychic hit first again, interrupting Machamp's Dynamic Punch. As it tried to strike again, Gengar had already thrown up a Protect barrier.

"Gen!"

This time, Gengar didn't even wait for Sato's order. It followed up with another Psychic, blasting the close-range Machamp hard.

Two Dream Eaters and two Psychics… against Machamp's terrible Special Defense, if that wasn't enough to take it down, Sato would start to suspect this thing really was "The" Machamp.

"Machamp has lost the ability to battle. Gengar wins. Gym Leader, please send out your next Pokémon!" The referee kept his eyes on his nose, nose to heart, doing his best not to look at Maylo.

'Honestly, both your Medicham and Machamp were defeated so thoroughly, I didn't even have a chance to cheat.'

The audience was dead silent. They hadn't seen the first match, but they did witness Murkrow being recalled.

And now Machamp had fallen to Gengar -just like Volkner before- defeated across tiers and used as a stepping stone.

'If Gengar were to now…'

"Gen~"

Before anyone could finish that thought, Gengar's strange reaction in the arena caught their attention.

They saw Gengar suddenly fold its stubby legs, float in midair with its hands pressed together, and its aura surged rapidly and steadily.

BAAAAANG~

For an instant, everyone present felt like something had shattered.

Then, Gengar slowly landed. Its aura completely retracted, but it remained firmly stabilized at Low Pseudo-Elite Four level.

Gengar had broken through!

"Gen~"

Gengar opened its golden eyes. Its calm gaze showed no joy at the breakthrough, as if it had anticipated this moment all along…

"Congrats, Gengar!" Sato grinned, feeling incredibly satisfied inside.