Flash Gengar

Looking at the purple-and-white fatty and his scarlet tongue, which still had a bluish tint, Su Bai felt a surge of unease.

It hadn't changed his sex too, had it?

"Old Ghost? How do you feel?"

Heeheehee! (Great! I never knew you could do something like this! But I think my power has changed.)

Thankfully, it was still that same old geezer's voice.

Before Su Bai could fully relax, he saw Old Ghost throw a punch. Pale blue, frosty air wreathed his fist as it struck the wall, instantly freezing more than half its surface.

"Whoa, take it easy! That's our wall!"

Heeheehee! (What's there to worry about?)

Gengar swung his fist again, this time wreathed in flames. He melted the ice outright and even dried out the plaster.

Those were Ice Punch and Fire Punch, but why were they so powerful?

Su Bai hurriedly checked Gengar's data through the system.

[Detected randomized target: Gengar (shiny)]

[Base stats: HP: 60, Attack: 110, Defense: 60, Special Attack: 145, Special Defense: 80, Speed: 130, Total: 585]

[Individual values: HP (31), Attack (31), Defense (31), Special Attack (31), Special Defense (31), Speed (31)]

[Level: 31 (Gym Leader Level)], [Ability: Huge Power], [Held item: Wide Lens], [Sex: ♂]

[Known moves: Shadow Punch, Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, Substitute, Hypnosis, Toxic, Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp, Psychic]

The drop in level was no big deal. I could train him back up gradually. Think of it as trading levels for a shiny-not a bad deal.

The problem was this off-the-charts Attack...

Was 110 Attack high? It was only decent.

But what if he had Huge Power? Add in that Speed, and as the ever-versatile ghost king, Gengar could actually learn quite a few physical moves.

Besides Shadow Punch, which he gained upon evolution, and Farmer's Three Punches, there were also Brick Break, Poison Jab, Drain Punch, Night Slash, Phantom Force...

It even left me with Psychic as his only special attack. Was this pushing me to train Gengar into a physical powerhouse?

Thankfully, his dirty tricks were still pretty good. He had sleep, poison, confusion, burns, and even Substitute.

Su Bai thought it over and decided he should still teach Gengar some special attacks.

When you think my Gengar is a special attacker and try to counter him with Amnesia, I'll hit you with a ridiculously powerful Shadow Punch. Let's see if you panic then!

Besides, Gengar's Special Attack was now even higher than it had originally been.

With that in mind, Su Bai immediately taught Gengar Giga Drain, the move he had received as a quest reward.

Heeheehee! (Kid, I want to go out and scare people.)

"Sure. Wait while I pick someone for you to scare."

After a moment's thought, Su Bai called that dog-faced Old Gao.

"Hello? Little Su, what can your teacher do for you?"

Old Gao's sleepy voice came through the phone. He hadn't gotten up yet, but when he saw Su Bai's name on the caller ID, he answered immediately and was extremely polite.

"Sir, now that the Health Cup is over, I've been thinking about how badly I treated you before. I'd like to visit you in the next couple of days. Going to campus isn't convenient, so would you mind telling me where you live?"

Hearing Su Bai's words, Old Gao froze for a moment before growing smug.

Su Bai's earlier attitude had really annoyed Old Gao. He had deliberately arranged for people to spread gossip about Su Bai on campus, calling him a failing student who had no discipline, respected no authority, and didn't care about the bigger picture.

It had worked very well and had nearly put Director Li of the Pokémon Department on alert.

But after Su Bai won the championship, Old Gao had panicked. He hadn't slept well the night before, terrified that Su Bai would expose his attempt to make him throw a match.

To his surprise, not only had Su Bai kept quiet, he even wanted to make peace. The kid clearly knew how things worked.

Old Gao happily gave Su Bai his address.

"Little Su, I'll be home these next couple of days, so come over whenever you have time. I'm happy you won the championship too. You're the pride of our J University. Just bring yourself-don't bring any gifts."

"You're too kind, sir."

Su Bai hung up, logged onto J University's official website, found Old Gao's photo in the faculty directory, and showed it to Gengar.

"I'll take you to this man's house tonight. He's the one you should scare. Don't touch anyone old or vulnerable in his family, and don't overdo it. Be careful not to kill anyone or get caught."

Gengar gave a heeheehee laugh and slipped into the shadows.

That evening, Su Bai bought a little fruit and went to visit Old Gao.

Seeing that Su Bai had brought nothing but some lousy fruit, Old Gao didn't ask him to stay for dinner or show any intention of making peace. He put on airs as Su Bai's teacher, said a few polite platitudes, and sent him on his way.

He had completely forgotten how he'd sent people to spread rumors about Su Bai.

Su Bai patiently sat there for over ten minutes, listening to Old Gao drone on and telling himself to treat this as a visit to Old Gao's grave.

Su Bai left, but Gengar stayed behind at Old Gao's house.

That very night, Old Gao had a nightmare. He dreamed that he was sleeping peacefully in his room when his wife called from outside the front door, asking him to let her in.

Yet the moment he stepped out of the bedroom, he saw his wife drinking water in the living room.

His wife's voice and the sounds of the door opening continued outside.

Just as Old Gao was growing frightened, his wife in the living room suddenly opened a huge, bloody maw and devoured him.

"Aah!"

Old Gao jolted awake in bed. Realizing it had been a dream, he found his wife lying beside him.

After carefully checking that the wife beside him was human, Old Gao was about to get out of bed when his parents and in-laws burst in, all talking over each other with hospital reports in their hands.

His younger brother-in-law followed behind them.

After questioning them, Old Gao received a thunderbolt of news: he had been switched at birth.

His younger brother-in-law was his parents' biological child, while he was his in-laws' child. The wife he'd lived with for over a decade was his biological older sister.

And their son wasn't even his biological child with his wife-she had cheated on him...

Late that night, Gengar floated invisibly in Old Gao's bedroom, laughing with utter delight.

Old Gao was having nightmares because Gengar had combined Hypnosis with Confuse Ray.

As for Old Gao's wife and child, Gengar had kept Su Bai's instructions firmly in mind and hadn't harmed them. He had only put them to sleep with Hypnosis.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

Barking came from the doorway. Old Gao's pet Herdier knew Odor Sleuth, had noticed something was wrong, and began sounding the alarm.

Then Gengar nearly drained him dry with a single Giga Drain.

Heeheehee! (That kid told me not to hurt people. He never said I couldn't hurt their Pokémon.)

At that moment, Su Bai was lying at home, talking to Cynthia on the phone.

Su Bai didn't really have any grudge against Old Gao, nor did he know about the rumors Old Gao had spread about him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have ordered Gengar not to hurt Old Gao's family.

It was just that Old Gao and He Yuan were the only people around Su Bai who could be considered bad people. He Yuan lived at the Golden Source Gym, and Su Bai worried that something might happen to Gengar if he went there, so he had chosen Old Gao instead.

After all, scaring people was in Gengar's nature. Su Bai couldn't restrict him too much.

All he could say was that dog-faced Old Gao had a guilty conscience, and that was why a ghost had come knocking.