Kealey winced as the shard barrier broke, that hurt? A frown replaced the eager smile that had been on Kealey’s face. Ghost was apprehensive as well, definitely not a good thing in a pokemon. Why were things happening out of order? Why was all of this so confusing all of a sudden? It hit her in a blaze of clarity. Those weren’t her emotions. Somehow Shin had gotten disoriented. That was close enough.

”Take a rest Ghostly. We’re using Confuse Ray.” she said, and winced just a little bit as she grabbed on to Shin’s confusion and ramped it up. Not to the point that it would be dangerous to her friend…but enough that he’d probably be seriously confused. At least for a couple of turns.

Take a rest was the best order she'd gotten all day. Ghostly saluted and crouched. She had to be ready at a moment's notice to go incorporeal or leap into certain doom.

Except... there was an unsightly tear in her unitard. Ghostly picked at the sleeve. Well! There was twenty-four dollars gone, not that she would be investing in purple unitards again any time soon... A little pale finger wiggled through the hole. Oh well. Back to the menacing staring match with the mutation made Porygon.

It was as if there were a knob on the side of Shin's head, and someone had turned it up to 11. Things did not compute. Why was the world so griddy? Why was Porygon floating out there, in the middle of space, against the blacktop void? Why was he wearing a Chinese suit, and why was Kealey wearing that adorable kimono!?

It all came back to him, in a disorienting blur. There it was. He was a trainer. She was a trainer. They were doing battle. This most certainly was Kanto, and there was no 'can't' in Kanto! He would continue, through the confusion! The risks were great, but he would persevere! Porygon would battle the little rubber duckies and try an attack.

But what attack?

Okay.

"Porygon!" Shin thrust out the frame work of a hand as the grid around him turned. "Use Iron Tail again! And then, Zen Headbutt!!"

Iron Tail, then Zen Headbutt. Two attacks in a row. Oh, he was good. The shard construct rose in the air, and obeyed immediately... backwards. Porygon bounced on his whitened shard tail, thump, thump, thump, against the blacktop towards Ghost. A little left... a little right... it moved towards her in a roundabout way.

When it reached her, it spun, to smack at her with its purple-shard head on the spot!~

"HIYAH!" A disoriented cheer came with the spinning smacking. C'mon, hit...!

“Confuse Ray” worked, and Kealey couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the way Shin was suddenly confused. She had permission, but the blond still felt a little bad and she had to wonder what the thoughts rolling through Shin’s head sounded like. Maybe she’d ask him later.

Despite the confusion, Shin attacked and Kealey had to grin. Underneath the confusion, his determination was strong.

”Dodge if you can Ghostly, but he missed last time. That means this time he’s got higher chance of hitting. Use ominous wind again.”

Iron Tail wasn't that hard to dodge. A few steps back and-whup! Rock. She took a second to glare at the rock that had almost gotten her tail whipped. Really. She did not want any amount of shards to hit her.

Now for the Ominous Wind she raised her hands and... got headbutted in the chest. Ooof! Ghost's whole body was tossed back and she slid in the dirt.

A bit belatedly wind rolled across the fight area.

He was doing it! He was actually... huh.

The grid of sight wobbled and bled. Something was wrong here. Oh man. Shin held his head. What was he even-- The headache had welled up again. He was so confused. Shin's brow furrowed, eyes locked on the blacktop.

He'd hit the court... damaged it. But Pokemon arenas weren't supposed to be damaged by Pokemon attacks! That's why earthquakes could be used indoors, without fear of tearing the building down around the fighters... but at least the headbutt had hit.

Yet, wait. Gastly didn't go 'oof'... The determination wavered a moment as confusion really set in. A heavy wave of it washed over him.

Why was...

Why did...

Gastly didn't...

But Porygon still needed to end the fight. Shin shook his dazed head, and directed the next attack. They needed to wrap this up fast, before more of the basketball court got damaged.

He thrust his right hand out in front of him, fingers splayed, then made a fist. "SHINING..."

Blink, pause, blink. Porygon turned back to look at him as a big triangle appeared in front of its face, point down. Another one sprang up, and then a third.

But that wasn't the attack... Ah, well. "Forget Shining Finger, Porygon. Use your Secret Power!!"

It was time for the big guns. Shin pushed Porygon forward, triangles floating ahead of it like a shield. On the triangles' faces, individual shards shifted to form elemental symbols. A stylized sprite thunderbolt, a reddish shard "flame", diamonds to symbolize ice. Porygon rushed towards the floored Ghost, readying a Secret Power tackle!!

Then, it tripped. Shin staggered, and fell on his tush. Porygon toppled end over end as it made its way towards Ghostly, triangles still visible.

But that isn't Secret Power... Shin noted, deliriously, as Porygon bounced into the air, and aimed the attack.

Porygon had disobeyed him. "Huhwha--!?"

It used Tri Attack!

The first triangle beam went wide, whizzing past Ghost to hit the court beyond her, shattering a moment before it hit into nothingness. The second had better aim.

"Oh dang! WRONG ATTACK. Watch out, Ghost!! That thing is SHARP!!"

But even if she dodged the second one, the third triangle 'beam' was still coming, with icy prowess that'd chill even the toughest Pokemon master with its chance of freeze. They were beams. They wouldn't cut things. But in Shin's confusion, he forgot the attack he'd rehearsed. The beams were meant to shatter into nonexistence a second before contact, inflicting one random status from three... Paralysis, "Burn", and Frozen. One would surround her with shards so she couldn't move, the other would reduce her attack by dancing red around her feet... Freezing would be a blue box.

Paralysis had missed. That left "Burn" and "Freeze"...

A triumphant glint flashed in the disobedient Porygon's eye. It must've been a trick of the light, though. There's no way something concocted by Shin's own brain power would do something like that...

((OOC: This is it. The final attack we talked about. Dodge the second one like we planned, and get hit by the third? It won't cut you or anything. It'll just put Ghost in a blue box. It's bigger on the inside, or so I'm told. ))

Things were moving quickly in the battle now, and because of her attention to Shin’s confusion, Kealey was having a hard time following along. Things were happening, lots of things were happening. It didn’t exactly look like Porygon was following directions, apparently her “Confuse Ray” was working.

Shin grabbed his head and Kealey suddenly felt guilty. This wasn’t very much fun anymore. He tripped and fell down and Kealey let go of his emotions. The confusion would take a while to completely fade, but would almost immediately lesson.

Whatever attack Shin was having Porygon use looked complicated and Kealey wondered how he was managing with as confused as he was.

Oh. It was the wrong attack.

How a pokemon built from Shin’s mind could disobey was completely beyond Kealey’s realm of understanding at the moment but she watched in slightly horror as the attack lashed out at Ghost.

The first part missed, but the second and third looked like they were headed right towards the air elemental.

”Dodge Ghostly!” Kealey shouted with a sinking feeling growing in her belly.

”If you manage…use Lick!” 30% chance of paralyzation. It was totally worth it.

Ghost fell down. Shin fell down. Then Porygon got cute and sought to take advantage of them both.

Kealey didn't have to say dodge twice. Ghost scrabbled away from the shards. Shin may not have known it, but on some unconscious level he had to have wanted to kill her. Why else would he be doing such a good job of it?

> ”If you manage… use Lick!”

If she managed!? Ghost threw herself to the side to narrowly avoid some pixilated looking fire. Fire was fire. She did not want any of that. The problem with such a final solution as throwing herself out of the way was that she had to get back up again. And she just couldn't do it in time to avoid the beam of "ice."

So she did the unthinkable. Ghost stuck out her tongue and purposefully stuck it to some "ice." It doesn't have to stay, right? Just because it's supposed to be ice? Suddenly Ghostly found it a disadvantage to only be able to say "Gwostwy."

It only took a few seconds for a judge to hop onto the field. His head bobbed to check on Ghost's status before he blew his whistle and raised his hand. "Ghostly is unable to continue battle! Winner: Porygon and his trainer Shin!"

He had... won? The judge held up Shin's hand, and he blinked at it. He didn't feel like he'd won. Ghosty'd been trapped by a frozen tongue in "Ice." That didn't seem much like winning.

He glanced towards the battle. One side of him must've been cheering, though, while the other was thoroughly confused. Porygon was racing around the basketball court arena doing a victory lap.

He got to his feet, and walked over to Kealey. It was slowly starting to come back to him. Porygon stopped his victory breakdance. Shin offered the blond a smile.

"Good battle."

Porygon (and related Porygon shard properties freezing Ghostys) poofed into nonexistance, battle done.

The judge declared a winner, and Kealey actually sighed a little sigh of relief. This whole battle thing really wasn’t for her. There towards the end things had gotten so intense! Ghost had nearly been hurt. Shin had fallen down, and she’d been so confused!

Porgyon took his lap around the battleground and Kealey had to smile at it. Shin had done a great job making him. The thing almost seemed like it had a mind of its own.

Shin was still a little confused, and as he approached and Porygon disappeared, Kealey pushed the rest of the muddling emotion away. The battle was over, there was no reason to make it wear off on its own.

Shuffling forward in her kimono to meet Shin halfway, Kealey smiled back and nodded her head, ”You too. Congratulations. “ she blushed slightly, ”Sorry I made you fall down.”

Turning slightly, and looking to where Ghosty had been freed, Kealey smiled. "And don't forget Ghost, she did an awesome job too! Absolutely fearless!"