Room 181 Ch. 14

I wasn’t just in a corridor. I was in a battleground. The Elite Four battleground, at the bottom of the base.

And there was no way out.

I could feel myself panicking. My breath was coming quickly, the darkness in the hall seemed to be choking, there was nothing I could do, there was nothing I could do, I was going to be killed down here, I…

There was a slap across my face, and I realised it was from myself. Pull yourself together!, my thoughts screamed at me. The Elite Four are not going to kill you! And you’re hardly going to run out of air or anything! Get a grip, man!

After a few seconds of this, my breathing slowly returned to normal and I began to think rationally.

Alright. I’m in the Elite Four corridor. It could just have been a coincidence in the dark corridor, late at night. But then again… No. I stuffed that thought away before it got out the door. That sort of thing is not going to help me right now. First I have to deal with this, then worry about conspiracies.

So, what can I do?

After double-checking to see if the hallway door had magically unlocked itself (which surprisingly enough, it hadn’t), I took stock of the situation. I can’t walk out and I can’t sneak out, which means the only way…

Is to fight out.

I groaned. The Elite Four challenge? In the middle of the night? What am I thinking? What in the world makes this a good idea?

But that niggling voice in the back of my mind said They’ll have ways to escort defeated challengers out, won’t they? And you’ve been looking for a real test of strength for ages! This is way better than beating on Alex and doing Battle Class! Imagine, a humanizing ring of your very own…

I groaned again. I hate it when I’m right.

So, after a few seconds of bracing myself, I took a deep breath, rolled up my metaphorical sleeves, said ‘Well, let’s get to work,’ and opened the door marked ‘1’.

Let the good times roll.

As I stepped into the first room, a set of bright arc lights came on overhead, throwing my night vision into complete disarray and leaving me half-blind. When the dancing purple spots had cleared from my vision, I finally took in the appearance of the opponent before me.

‘Oh, come on!’ I shouted in frustration. The Snorlax was enormous, a veritable mountain of fat and fur and muscle and fat. Even though in reality he was probably not that much bigger than I am, I still felt dwarfed. What have I gotten into now?

I thought for a minute that he was in his species’ trademark deep sleep, but then there was a ‘Gnngh?’ noise from somewhere near the back of the mound and the whole shape rotated up to look at me quizzically.

‘Go ‘way,’ he mumbled incomprehensibly. ‘I’m not buying anything.’

‘Er, hello?’ I attempted, in the desperate hope that he wouldn’t fall asleep again, because then I’d have to find some way of waking this giant myself. ‘I’m Cameron. I’m here for the Elite Four challenge.’

‘Wha’? Wha’? One second…’ With a yawn and a colossal stretch, the Snorlax rose to his feet. ‘Oh, right, sorry… It’s just so late, and I got tired.’ He squinted at me. ‘Cameron? Back again, are you? You look different to before…’

I frowned. ‘What?’

‘Oh, right, different Cameron. My mistake. Ah, I feel much more awake now. Right, so you’re here for the challenge, are you?’

‘Yes, that’s what I said. Ready when you are, Mr… er…’

‘Call me William. Just a second.’ William turned and thumped a small button on the wall. ‘Right, that’s to let the other members know a challenger has arrived.’ He caught my incredulous stare. ‘Well, we don’t all sleep here, you know! We have our own dorms too!’ He stopped, and looked sheepish. ‘Well… I know I do, but… It’s so comfy here… I like to bed down occasionally…’

Lacking anything to say to this, I said ‘Well, nice to meet you, Mr. William. And now,’ I did my best fighting stance, ‘I’m ready for the challenge!’ Well, ready as I’ll ever be.

‘Alright.’ The Snorlax drew himself to his full height, blocking out a lamp and making me think this was a really, really bad idea. ‘I am William of the Elite Four, and I accept your challenge!’

I leapt at the giant with a Thunderpunch right off the bat. I caught him straight in the stomach as he was still drawn up tall and he wheezed, then looked down and smiled. ‘Oh dear, was that your best? This may not take as long as I thought. Oh well.’ He stomped down an enormous paw and I was thrown off my feet, sliding along the floor. Righting myself as quickly as I could, I looked up in time to see William throw himself into the air. With that sense of terrible fascination my eyes followed him all the way down until he slammed back into the ground. With that, the whole room shook and I was sent tumbling head over heels into a wall. My whole body ached, and it had only been about ten seconds.

The Snorlax was grinning lazily at me. What was that attack? Body Slam? Smack Down? Sky Drop? What was it? And how could it have hurt me so much from a range?

It hit me. William knew Earthquake.

‘You’ll have to try harder than that!’ he shouted at me, and launched himself into the air again. Another quake slammed down into me, and I grunted in pain as the impact hit. Dammit… I’m not going to last long at this rate…

‘Aw, what?’ I shouted to see him rise up again. ‘Do you literally only have one move?’

‘Only at this point,’ came the cheerful reply from up above.

I sighed. ‘Whoop-de-fricking-doo.’ I waited carefully, then as he was coming down I leapt upwards so that as the quake shook the ground, I was clean off it. I fumbled in the air for a second, then somehow managed to come down so I could get a half-decent strike with an Iron Tail. William looked uncomfortable on the ground as I hit his belly head-on (much more vulnerable than his sides, I reckoned), but then there was a seismic ripple of fat and he just seemed to shrug it off, before flipping upwards so I was flung away.

‘See, it’s a combination of muscle and fat,’ I heard him say as I groaned and pulled myself up. ‘It provides power, force and momentum, and helps absorb damage.’ He thumped his chest heartily. ‘I’d call it a pretty perfect body, personally.’

‘Geez, I get it!’ I called back. ‘Just don’t sit on me, ok?’

William laughed. ‘Plucky, too! This could be fun!’

‘So’s dieting!’ I shouted as I threw myself at him. Now, with all that excess weight, he’s going to be pretty top-heavy…

I swung an electrified fist up and William moved an arm to block, but what he didn’t realise after that was that I was also swinging an Iron Tail at his legs. The jarring force made me feel like my tailbone had splintered, but the desired affect was achieved. William wobbled, teetered slightly as he fought for balance, then in accordance with simple laws of physics fell down with a crash. I heard the breath rush out of him.

Grinning, I jumped onto back of the enormous round body. The smooth fur and natural curvature meant I fell off again almost instantly, but second time lucky and I managed to half scramble, half slide toward the middle. There, I happily pounded his big open stomach with Thunderpunches and Iron Tails while he flailed weakly underneath me. Hah! So much for the perfect body! I could-

Suddenly I went flying through the air and hit a wall hard, then slid down and hit the floor, also hard. I opened my eyes to see William in midair. Of course. He can still use his precious Earthquake attack even if he’s the wrong way up with someone on top of him, can’t he? Sod’s Law says so. I braced myself and jumped to avoid the ground tremors, but instead of the almighty slam I expected William simply shifted his body weight and floated back to the ground lightly like a chubby balloon, landing with an almost delicate touch, then looked up and casually swatted me out of the air as I flailed and tried to cope with the sudden change.

‘I have to say, I don’t normally have to use that trick,’ the Snorlax commented almost complimentarily. I was just frustrated, and in considerable pain. He out-gambitted me! That’s unfair! Well, no, it’s not, but it was damn annoying, that’s what it was! That does it, I’ll-

I frowned as William didn’t try to attack, but instead lay down again and seemed to stop moving. What’s he doing? Is this some sort of sucker maneuver? Am I meant to try and fall in his trap? Is it-

‘Oh for the love of-!’ I shouted as William began to snore gently and the bruises I’d landed on him earlier faded away. Rest! He’s bloody using the bloody Rest bloody move! I can’t believe this! This is completely-

I didn’t get to finish that internal sentence, because suddenly his snores turned loud and harsh. ‘Argh!’ I growled as I clasped what passed for my ears. It felt like nails being drawn down my eardrums.

‘This is just cheap!’ I shouted over the noise of William’s Snores. Of course, he didn’t respond. I groaned as the noise died down. If I don’t wake him up, this is going to be torturous. But how? I’m not a Fighting type. I don’t have Wake-Up Slap. I don’t have anything…

My eyes flitted over to the wall near the entrance of the room. Of course. The answer was provided for me.

I suddenly realised that William was mumbling. Hah, that’s almost cute, to think an Elite Four member talks in his sleep… talks in his… sleep talk… Oh crud!

‘Earth…quake…’ William mumbled, and while unconscious rose up into the air. I groaned in frustration. His only attacking moves are Snore and Earthquake? Give me a break, seriously.

Oh well. Time for reserves.

Quickly, before William could come down, I ran over to the entrance, shoved a pair of big earmuffs over my ears as best I could, then grabbed the air horn from the wall.

BBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPP!!!

The noise was deafening, even through the muffs. In mid-air, William’s eyes snapped open, and with all focus lost began to fall back down normally.

Tearing off the earmuffs, I ran at the falling figure. ‘Thunder!’ I shouted, and sure enough a giant bolt of lightning dropped through and struck the Snorlax. I smiled, despite myself. This guy is a walking target. I’d have to try to not hit him.

Now for the hard part. I dashed underneath the falling figure and stuck my hands out above me.

William landed on me. ‘On’ being the operative word. He completely covered me, tail and all.

There were a few seconds of silence as William’s fat stopped flowing and he looked around, confused. What had happened there? Where had the Ampharos gone? He really didn’t feel comfortable sat like this…

And then, he began to slowly rise off the ground.

This wasn’t the controlled ascent that lead to an Earthquake attack. It was slow, and juddering. William squirmed uncomfortably as all of him left contact with the floor.

The image of me beneath him, down on one knee, came into view.

Afterwards, I tried to describe what it was like to my friends. I just couldn’t do it justice.

Every muscle in my body felt like it was on fire. I was sure my bones would snap like toothpicks at any point. I had to concentrate on breathing, partly so I could ignore the sensation that the room was spinning in front of my eyes.

‘Cameron?’ the Snorlax above me said nervously. ‘What are you doing?’

Nngnggnghh-owwwwwwwwww, was my mind’s response. I couldn’t deliver even this line because I probably didn’t have the strength to open my mouth.

Slowly, I drew myself up from one knee until I was miraculously standing upright. I didn’t know whether to praise the inventor of HM Strength or curse his family for generations to come.

William said something, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t even hear it properly anyway. The bones in my spine felt like they were being fused together.

Breath. Breath. Breath…

‘William…’ I managed, and a gasp escaped my mouth following it. I didn’t care.

‘What? What is it? Speak to me!’

‘I… warn…ed… you…’

I put every last thing I had, every last iota, every bit of muscle in any part of my body into this great effort. Besides, I had to do it now, otherwise my legs would snap into tiny pieces underneath me.

‘Don’t…’ Tense yourself… 3… 2…

‘Don’t?’ came the voice above me. ‘Don’t what?’

1… ‘Don’t… Sit on me!’ With every last thing I had left to give, I hefted and with a great shout threw the Snorlax over my head. He hit the floor, bounced like a ball and cannoned into the wall. He wasn’t moving when he slid to the ground.

I watched him go. My body felt so light I thought I was going to fly off into heaven. Maybe I was already.

‘Oh, good,’ I said as my legs folded beneath me. ‘This means I win.’


---


I slowly opened my eyes. Then shut them again, and tried a second time.

Nope. Still in William’s room. Wasn’t some kind of horrible nightmare. Haven’t been carted off to the infirmary. Damn it.

On the plus side, that means I’ve done precisely one-quarter of the necessary work, tops. Which is a small consideration. A very small one. Everything ached.

William was standing over me, a warm and friendly smile on his face. ‘Congratulations!’ he said cheerfully, and I felt that he really meant it. ‘Here, drink this.’

A bottle of… something or other was pressed into my hands. Obediently, I took a swig. At once I felt my strength return to me.

‘Moo Moo Milk,’ William explained as I downed the bottle in one and stood up, refreshed and ready to knock a Tauros for six. ‘You were a little bit unconscious, so I figured I’d buy a healing item for my victor. Well done, Cameron.’

I smiled. ‘No problem.’ That milk had done wonders – I was ready for whatever the next guy could throw at me. ‘I think I’d be willing to do this again, if it could be done separately to the other three,’ I added, and was somewhat surprised to discover I meant it.

‘Well, if I’m around and about in the base then who knows? But for now, I have some missed sleep to catch up on.’ The Snorlax made his way back the centre of the room and lay down. ‘The key’s on the… the key’s on the… the pedestal… I…’

William’s voice tailed away until it became nothing more than a gentle snore and he mumbling something incomprehensible about cookies.

I smiled. I liked this guy, I really did. But right now, I had other things to worry about.

A golden pedestal had risen out of the floor during my unconsciousness with a key sat in the middle of it. I took it down and made my way out. For a minute the darkness of the corridor threw me out again in contrast to William’s room, but after taking a minute to adjust I found the door with the big ‘2’ marker easily. Inserting the key, it jammed in the lock upon turning. Oh well. I braced myself for the light to ruin my eyesight again and stepped inside.

That wasn’t necessary. In fact, I needed bracing for exactly the opposite.

Many people seem to think that darkness is the opposite of light. They are wrong – darkness is not the opposite of light, just the absence of it. The sheer, terrifying depths of empty light that poured out of the room and seemed to grasp me and drag me in went beyond the mere darkness of the corridor and into something terrible on the other side. Before I knew what had happened I was the midst of the depths of the emptiness and the door swung shut with a slam like the axe drop.

Suddenly pools of light sprang up around the room. Little blue candles shone down on what looked like a personal library, complete with bookshelves and a large armchair.

Blue candles… I should have seen a Ghost type opponent coming from a mile away.

A book suddenly landed at my feet, spine upwards. I felt it had fallen that way deliberately. The blue light reflected off the gold leaf title Death and All His Friends.

I forced myself not to even blink. Alright… alright. This is a test. They want to see a reaction, a scare. Well, if they want a battle of wills, they’re going to get one.

With just enough slowness to convince you that it could have been a natural distribution of weight, the book fell so the cover was upwards. I won’t describe the illustrations, partly because I probably couldn’t do it outside a therapist’s office. I took a slow, deep breath, and with a very definite movement kicked the book as hard as I could into the shadows. It hit something distant with a thump.

I thought for a second I heard a slight chittering laughter, as if a rather good joke had been played. I wasn’t sure who on.

‘Can we skip the screwing around?’ I called into the shadows in as level a voice as I could manage, then as an afterthought added ‘I haven’t got all night, you know.’

‘Ahahahahaha!’ boomed an echoing voice. ‘A spritely one, we have here! I wonder how long it will take me to break that spirit of yours!’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Please. This funfair house of horrors doesn’t bother me. I’ve had exam results scarier than this.’ To underline my point, I strode defiantly into the darkness and glared at the nearest candle.

‘Ohohoho! Very well! Just try and find me…’ mocked the voice. I frowned out at the darkness. He wants me to search, does he? But he could be anywhere – behind any bookcase, inside any shadow, possessing any object. There were many places for a Ghost to hide in here, and he may well move hiding places as I was looking.

In that case, I knew where to start.

I took a deep breath, then turned and Thunderpunched the shadows behind me.

‘You-!’ A Dusknoir, made visible by the surprise hit, flinched backwards. ‘Aha… Very good… I thought that would have longer…’

‘Please,’ I said as disdainfully as I could manage. ‘When there are an enormous number of places to start with, you never expect anyone to check the places they’ve been already.’

‘Eheh… Eheh… Eheheheh…’ The Dusknoir drew himself up to his full height. ‘Very well then!’ he boomed dramatically, amplified tenfold by the room. ‘Let us see if you can hit something you cannot see! I am Dustin of the Elite Four, and I accept your challenge!’

‘Coming ready or not,’ I replied, and leapt at him. However, just before my fist made contact the Dusknoir spectral body faded to nothingness and I kept going through the space he’d just been in.

‘Waargh!’ My about-turn was cut short by a Shadow Ball flying out of the darkness behind me and hitting me in the head. ‘Wahahaha!’ I heard Dustin’s voice boom. ‘You’ll have to do better than that!’

I gritted my teeth. It was clear that dirty tactics were the order of the day. I turned to see Dustin was gone once again, but as I looked to see him a shadow from one of the bookcases extended and slammed into me. My blood turned to ice in my veins as the force of Dustin’s Shadow Sneak hit me.

‘This is not William’s room, boy,’ I heard the voice call. ‘There is no-one here to insist I fight fair. What will you do now, boy? What will you do now?’

‘What I can,’ I said through gritted teeth. I turned my head and saw a book fly sideways across the room, flapping its pages like wings, but when I shot a burst of electricity at it it fell to the like a normal object. I tried blasting a few random objects, just to see if I could catch Dustin as he moved around, but no luck there at all. I thought I could hear the sound the edge of my hearing of the Dusknoir tut-tutting me as if I was doing poorly on a test, and that just made me angier.

‘If you were a real opponent,’ I shouted, ‘you’d fight me properly! All this hiding and sneaking just makes it look like you’re scared of me! Come out!’

‘Very well then,’ I heard from behind me and before I could react a thick book shot forward and smashed into the back of my neck. I hit the floor with a cry, grimaced, then looked up again just in time to shout again and roll sideways before a leaden volume landed on my head.

I growled. I wasn’t scared. But I was really, really annoyed. If this guy didn’t start doing things normally I’d be in trouble. Well, in that case I’ll find him.

‘Let there be light,’ I said, and let off enough electricity to power a lighthouse.

The room lit up in a searing glow that left purple holes in my vision, but I saw everything in an instant. The bookcases, the large armchair, the piles of books stacked up neatly… And the Dusknoir, writhing in mid-air and clutching his face.

‘Aahhhh!’ he screamed, his hands over his blood-red eye. ‘The… the light! My eye!’

I smiled evilly, then hefted an encyclopedia with Strength and threw it dead straight at the Ghost. It collided with him and sent him spiraling back through the air. I pressed the advantage, dashing up close and throwing Thunderpunches one after another. He deserved it.

Suddenly Dustin’s hand snapped out and grabbed the orb on my head before I could react. In an instant the light shut out.

‘You are going to pay for that one,’ I heard the Dusknoir’s voice say before his other fist swung upwards into my torso wrapped in shadows. I let out a cry but Dustin didn’t let go, punching me again and again. The wind was driven out of me and I didn’t have strength to resist when he tossed me away like a rag doll.

‘Silly boy,’ the voice said all around me. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing. You can’t fight me. You’re weak. This is my world, and you are not welcome in my world.’

I tried making a charge, but whether Dustin had done something to me or whether I had just run out of charge I could only manage a feeble glow, barely bigger than one of the spectral candles. Dustin’s echoing laugh only highlighted my pathetic failure.

‘Peek a boo!’ I was saved from a Shadow Punch in the back of the head that would probably have done for me by the hairs prickling on the back of my neck, alerting me to duck. In return I whipped my Iron Tail up and felt a satisfying crunch as it hit him. The feeling of a presence disappeared from behind me and I know in an instant he’d dive into another object. Not on my watch. I cracked out my secret weapon and held it up.

BBBBWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPP!!!

I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t hear anything. The air horn I’d taken from William’s room filled my ears with white noise and a high-pitched buzzing. The sound hurt almost as much as the books in the back of the head had.

I could see the Dusknoir in mid-air, made visible by the loss of focus brought on by sheer pain. I wondered if he’d ever actually been in William’s room before, or could hear the sound through the walls.

I could hear his voice, fading in over the white noise.

‘-threw off my focus! You can’t do that! That, that… that’s cheating, that is!’

‘You’re a fine one to talk!’ I called back with strength I had left for pithy remarks, then leapt at him readying one of my patent Lightning Rod combos. Let’s see how he likes an electrified Iron Tail to the face…

I never found out, because as soon as I was about to reach him Dustin smiled and disappeared, and I charged straight through. Before I could stop myself I ran head on into a bookcase.

‘Argh…’ I groaned as I massaged my injured face. However, a creaking noise caught my attention, subtle but getting steadily louder and more pressing. I looked up slowly.

With perfect timing of the appropriate, the blue spectral candles lit up in two parallel rows, each going up into the air.

I just had time to open my mouth before the bookcase fell on me. The frame crashed into my body and sent me sprawling to the floor, then it landed on my back. I thought my spine had broken. I was being buried alive under a mountain of books. They covered over me, above my head as well as crushing down on my body.

‘Ohoohoohoohoohoo…’ As I felt darkness creep into my vision, I heard the Ghost’s laughter. ‘Goodbye, boy…’

I didn’t say anything. I just breathed out and fell unconscious.


---


‘…you hear me? Hello?’

‘Wgh?’ I slowly opened an eye, scared that I was still in that little library of horrors. Instead I was overwhelmingly relieved to be greeted by the clean, bright surroundings of the base infirmary and a concerned looking nurse at my bedside.

I attempted at opening the other eye and was mercifully successful. ‘Wha’ happened?’ I felt like I’d been run over by a truck.

‘You were in the Elite Four area,’ the nurse explained concernedly. ‘William came around a few hours ago and said he’d found you unconscious outside Dustin’s room. You looked pretty beat up. Here, have a Lemonade. That ought to help.’

‘Thanks…’ I glugged the drink down in one. That felt a little bit better. ‘What time is it?’

‘Five o’clock am. It’s Sunday.’

‘…Right.’ I was too tired to actually process this information. ‘That’s… ok, I suppose.’

The nurse just smiled and busied herself… I dunno, folding something or whatever it is needed doing on my bed. I didn’t have the energy to waste my attention span.

There didn’t seem to be anyone else around at 5 in the morning in the infirmary. On the plus side, that meant nothing terrible had happened to any of my friends while I wasn’t there to look out for them. My body was sore, but at least it was no longer just-been-crushed-by-a-bookcase sore. I guess that would be the result of some sleep (such as it was) and whatever they’d given me as treatment.

‘You know,’ the nurse said almost absentmindedly, and I realised she was talking to me ‘you’ve made a good recovery. That’s quite fortunate, in a way.’

‘Oh?’ I said, my ears pricking up, ‘really?’

‘Oh, yes. You see, you came around just in time to go on trial.’

I smiled. ‘Oh, that’s good, I’d hate to think that I was- Wait, what?!’