My Name is Marcus: Dark Times

IX. Infestation - No Place for Weakness

"Toxic Spikes? Why now?", Hop questioned. "Doesn't Weston know they don't affect another Poison-Type like Toxicroak?"

"He didn't set 'em up for Toxicroak", Piers interjected, "he set 'em to take control of the battlefield."

"Right", Marcus nodded, his face awash with a look of concern. "That must be why he used Ribombee to lure Marnie into sending Toxicroak out - he knew she'd be using her today."

Hop looked at Marcus with slight confusion.

"When an opponent sends a Poison-Type Pokemon out onto a battlefield that's been covered in Toxic Spikes, the Toxic Spikes get cancelled out", he explained. "Weston knew he couldn't afford to take chances with Marnie's Toxicroak, and developed a strategy to try to deal with her so that his claim over the battlefield went off unabated."

Hop nodded slowly in understanding. "Is she... is she in trouble now?", he asked in a worried tone.

Marcus nodded. "Big trouble."

Marnie glared as Toxicroak barely managed to rise back up to her feet. At this point, she had to have been operating solely on will-power. "We'll use Earthquake as well", Marnie called.

Toxicroak let out a roar as she raised both of her arms over her head, preparing for the attack.

"How original", Weston mocked. "Scolipede, charge into the air and use Megahorn!"

Scolipede quickly ran into a full gallop towards Toxicroak, charging head-first with the strength of a freight train.

Toxicroak slammed her fists into the earth, triggering another violent quaking that began to rip the ground apart beneath them.

Just as the quake spread out to him, Scolipede ran forward along one of the large protrusions of earth that jutted into the air and jumped, diving forward towards Toxicroak at full-speed while remaining perfectly safe from the violent shaking of the earth below

"Toxicroak, look out!", Marnie cried frantically.

There was no avoiding it. Scolipede's Megahorn hit its mark with full-force, sending Toxicroak backwards into the dirt. She bounced across the ground, skipping like a stone across a pond as she spiraled into the wall on the side of the arena with such force that the impact cracked the concrete. There was no walking away from a hit that clean.

"Toxicroak is unable to battle! The winner is Scolipede!"

Marnie's shoulders sunk slightly as the call was made. She returned Toxicroak to her Pokeball without uttering a word.

The feelings shared by Marcus and his company felt uncomfortably dissonant with the roaring sounds of applause that filled the stadium around them. Under any other circumstances, maybe they'd be inclined to agree with the general audience. Maybe this was one of the most riveting battles Wyndon Stadium had ever housed. But all those sentiments fell to the wayside today - there was far too much at stake, and every loss Marnie suffered felt like another nail in the casket for Spikemuth and its people.

Marcus began to feel it again - that same anxious feeling he had when he was getting off the bus. It felt like a hole was opening in his chest, like an emptiness was starting to overtake him. But it didn't make any sense to him; he had nothing to be this nervous about, nothing to feel this distraught over.

It was at that moment that Marnie turned ever so slightly in his direction. He swore he could make out a look in her eyes, even from where he was sitting. It was a look of sadness, emptiness; the look of one who feels as though they've let everyone around them down.

Then it hit him; these feelings he was having weren't his - they were Marnie's.

It was almost too much to bear.