951. mishap: an unlucky or unfortunate action

Green could care less who won at the moment; Red's breathing was growing increasingly labored, and after one long bout of coughing, Green noticed Red wiping his hand on his vest, and although it was hard to be sure because of the vest's color, Green was pretty sure it was blood. Leaf was running around the barrier, and Silver looked up from Alakazam's burns to glance at Red.

Despite all the worried glances and signals of concern to Red, Gold was oblivious and tense for an entirely different reason; he was immersed in the battle mode, and sent Ampharos charging towards Blastoise even though Red was doubled over in pain, unable to give a command. Blastoise rolled over to the side at the last second as Ampharos charged by, narrowly avoiding a mishap. However, Blastoise was unable to concentrate, having snapped out of his own battle mode to glance worriedly at Red.

Gold and Ampharos took advantage at Blastoise's lack of attention, and with the red orb on his tail shining a blinding light, Ampharos launched a massive blast of electrical energy towards Blastoise. Red's eyes went wide at the sight, and with one hand over his mouth, he waved furiously for Blastoise to dodge. Blastoise recognized the warning a moment too late, and was engulfed by a massive blast of electricity.

952. mendacious: lying; false, especially habitually

In immature days, Green would have laughed at Red for being so weak as to be sick, but Green could still feel the pull to his mendacious self; he didn't want to believe that Red could be so sick as to be coughing blood – he wanted to laugh it off, pretend it couldn't happen. But here Red was, struggling to keep his eyes open and his lungs functioning as he watched his teammates be knocked out.

Green crossed his fingers and prayed for Blastoise to just get the battle over with; pretending to faint was even ok, if somehow that could get Red off the mountain and into a hospital even sooner. He watched as Blastoise lay prone on the snow, and clenched his fists tightly. It was all he could do to hold in his worry and not command Exeggutor to lift the barrier and just fly Red to the hospital.

953. prodigal: exceedingly or recklessly wasteful

Red grimaced when he looked up and saw Blastoise unconscious in the snow – that bolt of electricity would have to be at record level to one-shot KO Blastoise, even with the type advantage. Red switched out Blastoise, and his last pokeball cracked open without him even motioning to pick it up.

Out of the flash of red light was the yellow electric mouse, pissed for having to wait in the pokeball, pissed at Red for being so sick, and pissed at Ampharos for not noticing Red's difficulty breathing. With a small hand wave from Red, Pikachu charged forward, muscles in his tail flexing and hardening to the hardness of iron.

Ampharos' last blast of energy had been so powerful as to almost be prodigal in the amount of energy used; exhausted by the effort, Ampharos could only muster the energy to curl up in a ball and brave the iron tail attack.

954. proscribe: to prohibit or forbid

Pikachu sprinted across the snow, and at the last moment, he leapt into a flying somersault, swinging his tail around to land a brutal blow on Ampharos' back. Ampharos cried out in pain, and Pikachu hopped backwards to a safe distance. Red had proscribed Pikachu from going all out with his iron tail attack, since Pikachu had broken bones before – but Pikachu was in no mood for going easy, with his trainer in such a state.

955. foreboding: a sense of impending evil, especially one without definite cause

Although painful, the attack had not been enough to knock Ampharos out, and with shouts of encouragement from Gold, the pokemon stood up shakily and fell back into a defensive stance. Pikachu snorted, and glanced at Red for further commands.

Red covered his mouth as another bout of coughing began, but he shakily raised his other hand to signal a repeat of the attack. Green watched Red anxiously with a sense of foreboding, and urged Pikachu to either hurry up and beat Ampharos or just play dead.

956. curator: a person in charge of a museum

Pikachu grunted and jumped back to gain some running distance, and his tail began to stiffen and harden for another iron tail attack. Ampharos growled and began focusing energy – although his mobility was greatly reduced by exhaustion, he was still able to muster some strength with the adrenaline coursing through his body.

Pikachu immediately bolted forward, reluctant to give Ampharos any chance at recovery. As he leapt across the snow and jumped in a somersault, he accelerated and lunged towards Ampharos, stray sparks streaming from his flashing cheek pouches. Ampharos planted his feet firmly on the ground and raised his fist in a counter attack – a point blank focus blast, which exploded in Pikachu's face, knocking both pokemon back. Ampharos, with a higher defense and weight, only was driven back a few steps by the recoil, and jumped towards Pikachu's stunned body and knocked the mouse flying with a brick-breaking chop in the stomach.

Green could vaguely remember some curator (maybe even Brock) discussing the paralysis of ground-types; the discussion had drifted to the ability of electric pokemon to become paralyzed and popular training techniques in Kalos to combat paralysis in electric pokemon. However, these recent training techniques had probably never reached Red, and Green could tell that Pikachu was experiencing some symptoms of paralysis.

957. spontaneous: occurring naturally or without forethought

Gold looked surprised at Pikachu's tell-tale twitching, and motioned for Ampharos to send a couple small signal beams to check Pikachu's mobility. Sure enough, Pikachu's steps were heavy and awkward, and even one of the carelessly aimed beams managed to hit the mouse's hind leg. Ampharos had hit one of Pikachu's nerves controlling high voltage electricity storage, and Pikachu's electric pouches were buzzing off uncontrollably, sparking and releasing electricity in spontaneous bursts.

Pikachu's energy was draining and dispersing rapidly, and the mouse frantically leapt toward Ampharos in a final sprint, hoping to take down the other with him in a massive burst of energy. However, only ten feet away from his target, Pikachu's energy supply was wasted, and the mouse limply carried on and hit Ampharos with a weak tackle.

958. propagate: to multiply or reproduce; to transmit; to extend to a wider area

Even that small of an impact was enough to knock Ampharos over, but Ampharos had ridiculously high stamina – the pokemon forced itself to stand upright yet again, refusing to let victory slide by. Pikachu, equally tenacious, growled and tried to bite Ampharos, intent on winning.

Ampharos screamed and knocked Pikachu away, who slid along the surface of the snow weakly. Ampharos inhaled and exhaled with labored breaths, watching Pikachu. Another attack, and Ampharos would pass out – he couldn't go on any longer.

Pikachu lay still on the snow, and many pairs of eyes stared at the unmoving body. The mouse seemed so awfully small and harmless, a mere yellow and brown speck amidst the snow and stumps and craters where attacks had cleared the snow. Outside the barrier, a passing fearow cawed, its harsh cry propagating through deafening quiet – other than that, it was complete silence.

959. infer: to reason or conclude from evidence

A full minute might have passed, but it seemed like an hour before Gold quietly sank to his knees. Pikachu was unconscious. Ampharos was still standing. It was impossible to infer anything else. His eyes watering and nose still covered with beads of sweat, Gold lost all of his tense posture and flopped down.

"I won."

960. holster: to support or strengthen

Gold's voice was no greater than a whisper, but in the encompassing quiet, it was easily audible. Exeggutor's barrier slowly broke down and dissipated into iridescent flakes, leaving behind its small inhabitants. Once the last pink flakes vanished, all that was left were mere mortals – the magic and intensity of the moment had fluttered away with the diaphanous barrier and all that remained were tired people and tired pokemon.

Green stumbled forward and grabbed hold of Red, and he released Arcanine, who quickly ran forward to pick up Pikachu, whose fur was singed from uncontrolled dispersion of electricity. Silver also left Alakazam in Leaf's care in order to holster Gold. A recall light flickered out and encompassed Ampharos before disappearing.