Saving Arceus

Gold's POV

"Nice of you to finally show up," Green taunts as soon as I board the ship.

"Ha ha," I roll my eyes. "Shouldn't be surprised you made friends with the kidnappers."

"They're quite nice," She flips her long brown brown hair.

Scyther and Larvesta follow me onto the open deck. A light breeze causes the sail to flap back and forth above us.

"Two Pokemon?" The Captain muses. He has a scruffy black beard that he scratches. "Well done recruit."

"What's the challenge?" Ash asks before I can. 

"It's simple," The Captain approaches. "We wanted to see if you could live the way nature intends and you passed. Now I just want to battle you for fun. Pick one of your Pokemon."

I look between the two, trying to make the decision I failed to make earlier. I still feel like this challenge is about my bond with them.

"Scyther," I say and the green bipedal Pokemon steps up. "We've trained hard the last couple days."

"Interesting," The Captain says and points out his arm.

A Masquerain that was previously on his pirate hat flies forward. Its light blue body blends in with the sky and its two orange and purple wings form an eyeball when they come together. Masquerain is small and delicate but I'm assuming very strong.

"Stun Spore!" The Captain takes me by surprise.

Where was the 1, 2, 3, go.

Masquerain sprinkles orange poisonous particles into the air. Before I can react, Scyther breathes them in and collapses to one knee.

He struggles back up but I can tell the paralysis is settling in.

Scyther loves to be an instigator but that's not going work if he's paralyzed. Time for the Plan B we practiced.

"Double Team!" I command.

Scyther duplicates itself into a bunch of identical copies. Usually it's a faster move but I can tell the paralysis is causing the copies to surround Masquerain slower than we practiced.

"Gust!" The Captain yells. "Take them out."

Masquerain's wings draw up a powerful gust of wind that takes out the fake Scythers one by one. They disintegrate into nothing until there are no copies left.

Just the real one hiding on the frame of the sail.

"Aerial Ace!"

Scyther dives through the air with a glowing white scythe. It catches Masquerain by surprise and deals the super effective attack.

The wooden deck creaks as the smaller bug and flying type crashes into it.

I would like to keep the pressure up but Scyther is fighting through the paralysis, stuck to the deck. Right beside Masquerain.

"Air Cutter!" The Captain's Masquerain recovers quickly and starts spinning through the air.

It creates a sharp blast of air and hits Scyther who was unable to dodge. Scyther goes flying across the deck, tearing up some planks in the process.

He gets right up though, momentarily over the paralysis.

I need this to be over before Scyther freezes up again.

"Air Cutter again!"

"Focus Energy!"

Scyther readies itself for another air cutter attack. It digs itself into the deck and holds out his scythe-arms in front.