Alakazam's actions just now hadn't come from Sabrina's commands.
Aside from the initial Teleport, every move afterward was executed on its own.
The instant Alakazam saw Gengar transform into Tyranitar, it immediately launched Energy Ball, a perfectly timed counter.
That kind of foresight wasn't something a Pokémon could do independently.
No, there had to be another factor involved, Sabrina's telepathic control.
For a Trainer of Sabrina's level, there was no such thing as a Pokémon disobeying orders or acting on its own. Every decision, every movement, every attack, was synchronized with her mind.
Yet, she hadn't spoken a word.
That could only mean one thing: Sabrina was communicating directly through telepathy.
Ash narrowed his eyes. "The Pokémon's strong… but the Trainer's even trickier. This Gym really is something else."
The Aura within him stirred, responding to his fighting spirit.
"Gengar, Taunt!"
Psychic-type Pokémon were the most troublesome to deal with, not just because of their mental attacks, but because of the endless variety of support moves they could use:
Light Screen, Reflect, Ally Switch, Nasty Plot, and more.
If Alakazam started stacking those up, the fight would become a nightmare. Ash's strategy was simple: seal its setup moves first.
Once he locked it down, a straight fight was all Gengar needed to win.
"Teleport."
Sabrina's calm voice rang out again.
Alakazam's form blurred, appearing, vanishing, flickering across the battlefield faster than the eye could follow. With this frequency of Teleport, Taunt couldn't find a single target to lock on to.
Every time Gengar tried to aim, Alakazam slipped away like a mirage, darting left, reappearing right, blinking in and out of existence.
It was a perfect strategy. While Gengar wasted energy chasing the afterimages, Alakazam could exploit any opening to counterattack.
But… that only worked if Ash couldn't see through it.
Unfortunately for Sabrina, she'd chosen the wrong opponent for that kind of trick.
"Front left, Taunt!"
At Ash's sharp command, Gengar instantly faced the direction he'd pointed out, raised a claw, and made a mocking beckoning gesture.
In the blink of an eye, an invisible pulse spread across the field, cutting off Alakazam's ability to use any changing or support moves!
Ash's Aura perception had pinpointed Alakazam's exact position through all the fakeouts. Under the gaze of Aura, no illusions could hide.
Alakazam froze mid-Teleport, its movement locking up exactly where Gengar had aimed.
Sabrina's eyes widened slightly, a faint ripple of surprise flickering through her usual icy composure.
'So fast… he actually tracked Alakazam through Teleport?'
Her gaze shifted toward Ash, and for a brief instant, understanding glimmered in her crimson eyes.
'I see… so he's using his own power too.'
From this point forward, it wasn't just a battle between Pokémon, it was a battle between minds.
"Now, Gengar, Night Shade!"
The power of Night Shade scales directly with the user's level. With Gengar's current Elite Four-level strength, the attack's force was no weaker than Shadow Ball, and it could even ignore defensive stats to an extent.
If it landed, the damage would be massive.
Gengar's crimson eyes glowed a deep, eerie black, and an oppressive darkness surged outward, splitting the air as it streaked straight toward Alakazam!
But Sabrina's eyes flashed bright blue again.
"Teleport."
A single, clear word echoed through the arena.
Alakazam vanished, disappearing right before the attack connected!
Night Shade ripped through empty air, colliding uselessly with the far barrier.
Ash blinked. "Huh? I used Taunt! How can you still use Teleport?! What kind of logic is that?!"
That completely defied the move's mechanics, but even as confusion filled his mind, his Aura caught another presence.
There, behind Gengar.
"Gengar, behind you, change direction!"
Gengar grinned, pivoting midair. The inky black beam twisted with him, curving sharply as if alive, and shot toward the space Ash had pointed out.
The next second;
Alakazam reappeared, right in its path.
The blast of black light slammed straight into it.
Boom!!
Night Shade struck home, an explosion of dark energy tore through the air, and a dense cloud of smoke billowed across the battlefield.
A golden figure fell out of the smoke, hitting the ground hard with a loud crash.
Although Ash didn't understand how Alakazam had broken through Taunt, the fact remained, Night Shade had connected cleanly, inflicting considerable damage.
"What's going on? Didn't Gengar already use Taunt? How can Alakazam still use Teleport?!" Misty asked from behind, her voice full of confusion.
Under normal circumstances, once Taunt takes effect, a Pokémon shouldn't be able to use any status moves at all, not even a Psychic-type!
Brock frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "It's probably because of Sabrina. Her Psychic abilities aren't normal, maybe she used her own powers to help Alakazam break free from Taunt's restrictions."
Even Pokémon at the Elite Four or Champion level would still have their status moves sealed by Taunt. For Alakazam to use Teleport regardless, it could only mean that Sabrina's Psychic power was directly interfering with the effect.
Ash might not have noticed the details earlier, but Brock certainly had: when Sabrina had done it, the blue light in her eyes had glowed brightly. That glow marked her channeling her full psychic strength.
If Brock's guess was right, then Sabrina had not only boosted Alakazam's mind, but also overwritten the effects of Taunt entirely.
"Gengar, Confuse Ray!"
Ash seized the moment while Alakazam was still down from Night Shade's hit.
A flickering, hypnotic light burst from Gengar's eyes, spiraling straight toward Alakazam!
Once Confusion took hold, Ash could immediately follow up with Hypnosis. If both conditions landed, victory would be all but guaranteed!
This was Ash's tactical philosophy, stack every status effect you can!
Whether it was poison, paralysis, confusion, or sleep, he'd pile on everything possible to secure the win.
The strange, swirling rays struck Alakazam head-on.
The golden Psychic Pokémon, barely back on its feet, froze as its pupils began to swirl chaotically.
"Nice work, Gengar! Follow up with Hypnosis!" Ash shouted, snapping his fingers confidently.
Confusion and sleep could coexist, if Hypnosis hit, the match was over.
But before Gengar could finish casting, Sabrina's eyes flashed blue once more.
In that instant, the spinning in Alakazam's eyes vanished completely.
Its focus snapped back, and it immediately used Teleport, vanishing from the spot.
"Gengar..!?" Ash's Pokémon looked around in confusion, its Hypnosis wasted into empty air.
This time, Ash had clearly seen it with his Aura, the subtle psychic wave that flowed directly from Sabrina to Alakazam.
He clenched his fists. "I was wondering why Taunt suddenly stopped working… so it was you! You used your Psychic power to cancel out both Taunt and Confusion, didn't you?!"
Sabrina's powers truly broke every rule of conventional battle.
Most Psychics could only use abilities like Confusion, Teleport, or Mind Reading, and even those required focus. But Sabrina? She could forcibly remove status effects, control evolution, and even strengthen her Pokémon mid-battle.
She was in a league of her own.
A faint trace of surprise crossed her cold face before she replied, tone flat and chilling, "So what if I did? A Trainer's power is also part of their battle technique. I haven't broken any rules."
Then her crimson eyes narrowed. "And you, aren't you the same? You used that special power in your body just now, didn't you? Otherwise, how could you have pinpointed Alakazam's exact position?"
Her voice dropped slightly, almost curious.
From the moment Ash had entered Saffron City, she had sensed the strange energy flowing within him, an Aura unlike anything she'd ever encountered.
Having been branded a monster since childhood, Sabrina had never met another existence like herself.
That was why she couldn't take her eyes off him now.
For the first time in her life, she'd found someone who was, like her, an anomaly.
The apprentice Gym Trainers in Saffron Gym were actually recruited by Sabrina to nurture others like herself, "anomalies."
But her efforts had only brought disappointment.
Even the most gifted of them could, at best, learn a little bit of Psychic ability, enough to bend a spoon, nothing more. None came close to her level of power or understanding.
So when Sabrina sensed the immense, unfamiliar energy within Ash, the raw pulse of his Aura, her focus immediately fixed on him.
Once she realized he was coming to challenge the Gym, and that he had already uncovered her surveillance, her interest deepened into something darker.
Ash's arrival, and the strength he displayed, stirred something in her twisted heart.
In the past, when challengers lost, she would turn them into dolls and force them to play "games", deadly psychic illusions that left them terrified and broken.
They would remain trapped for a few days, maybe a week, before being released, physically unharmed, but psychologically scarred.
But Ash… was different.
If he lost, she wouldn't let him go. She would keep him by her side forever, just like her mother, whom she had also turned into a doll long ago.
Though her face was calm and expressionless, Sabrina's thoughts had already become deeply warped.
Ash met her words with a faint, dismissive smirk. He could perceive the path of her Psychic power through Aura, and she could, in turn, observe the rhythm of his Aura through her psychic sense.
But compared to Aura's passive support functions, Sabrina's Psychic manipulation was simply monstrous.
If Ash wanted to empower his Pokémon through Aura, he'd have to perform Aura Fusion, a resonance of life energy that connected Trainer and Pokémon at a soul-deep level. But Aura Fusion could only succeed when both sides shared a powerful bond of trust and emotion.
The deeper the bond, the stronger the resonance.
All of Ash's Pokémon, except Gengar, were already capable of fusing with him, each to varying degrees. They had journeyed with him, fought by his side, and shared in triumph and hardship alike.
But Gengar?
Gengar had never experienced Aura Fusion. Ash had no idea if it would even work.
That was why, up until now, he hadn't "cheated back." He hadn't used Aura Fusion to level the field, even after realizing Sabrina was enhancing Alakazam with her Psychic power.
Unfortunately, now that he had called her out, Sabrina stopped hiding entirely.
The cold, blue glow in her eyes blazed to life. Psychic energy poured out of her like a flood, flooding the entire arena.
Alakazam's power spiked instantly.
"Damn it…" Ash muttered through clenched teeth. "Talk about shooting myself in the foot."
With Sabrina's power amplifying Alakazam's already immense Special Attack, its psychic strength now rivaled Gengar's in raw output.
The advantage Gengar had enjoyed was gone completely.
"No choice, then." Ash exhaled slowly, his eyes hardening. "We'll have to risk it. Gengar, if you feel a strange surge of power in a moment, don't resist it. Just accept it, got it?"
"Huh?" Gengar blinked, utterly confused.
There was no time to explain. The window for fusion was fleeting, one wrong moment, and the opportunity would vanish once Alakazam attacked again.
Ash's eyes lit up with a brilliant azure glow.
An immense wave of Aura burst from his body, washing across the field like a living storm.
The next instant, Gengar felt a foreign yet familiar force flow into him, a pure, radiant energy that reached into the core of his ghostly form, trying to merge with it.
"This power… Aura?" Gengar's eyes widened, then curved into a grin. "Heh, not bad, kid. Didn't think you had a trick like this up your sleeve!"
Embracing the flow, Gengar allowed the energy to merge with his own essence. Immediately, his strength skyrocketed, his senses sharpened, his awareness expanded, and he could feel every subtle shift in the battlefield.
Alakazam's position, hidden deep within space through Teleport, shone to him now like a candle in the dark.
No matter how many times Alakazam jumped through space, there would be no escape from his sight now.
"Heh… this sensory range… no wonder you always seemed to know where he'd land," Gengar said with a click of his tongue. "You even used this trick when you fought me before, didn't you?"
Aura Fusion; Success!
Ash let out the breath he'd been holding, feeling the powerful thread of connection between himself and Gengar.
The fusion had succeeded on the first attempt, something neither Pidgeotto nor Butterfree had managed before.
He hadn't expected Gengar's feelings for him to be so deep, even enough to reach the point of fusion.
He couldn't help but smile slightly.
...
Bonsu @300