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"Aden would do good to learn to choose his words more carefully before he decides to tell someone to deal with it," Sol commented, "Now he's up against something that could flatten his team with little effort, and I hope he doesn't decide to go for flattery again."

"Good going, Aden, you created a bigger nightmare than Whitney's Miltank..."

As for Aden? "...well, I'm screwed," he said rather simply. There were times where you'd be caught with egg on your face, and then there's times like this. Those times where you knew, through your own doing, you screwed yourself over in so royally a fashion that recovery from it looked bleak at best. He was really grasping at straws, knowing Nidorino wasn't going to last two seconds, and he'd be lucky for Raticate to last more than five. And outside of those two... well, there was maybe one option. But it'd be as iffy as it got.

"Just gonna have to try something before I won't have the chance." Having Nidorino use Captivate came to mind, but something told him the tactic would just lead to being out a Pokemon. He knew what he had in mind was absolutely useless for the situation at hand, but maybe he could find a use for it later. "Nidorino, Toxic Spikes!"

As Aden's Nidorino sent a flurry of barbs onto the field, the look on at least two people on the sidelines begged only one remark. "What."

"Nidorino, return!" Aden didn't hesitate to take Nidorino out of the fray after the spikes were laid, opting to let someone else take the attack. And he really hoped he didn't regret it, though based on earlier, he had a feeling his fate would rapidly be sealed. Yet, it was almost a safer bet than risking what Gengar could do to Raticate or the rest of his party for now. "Now or never... please tell me you can actually handle yourself a little better than earlier. Come on, Eevee! Sand Attack!"

The Pokemon would soon appear on the field, taking the attack in Nidorino's place. He knew he'd still need Raticate to truly do much, but as he saw it, Eevee would need to learn to fight sometime and she did have moves the rest of his team didn't. Or at least one move the rest didn't have.

Not that this instilled much confidence in the audience, what with Eevee taking an attack that did little more than spook her and make her go to Aden's side in a hurry. At least a bunch of dirt was kicked into the air in the process.

"...Close enough," Aden said with a sigh.

"Yeah, and she will be," Aden spoke up, pushing Eevee back onto the field despite her efforts to stay at his side. "Look, I know you're still figuring this out, but think of it like this. What do you do around someone you don't like when they went after whoever you were with before me?"

Somehow, this seemed to be more on terms with what Eevee understood. She looked up and bared her teeth, though she arguably wasn't winning any intimidation contests. "Okay... that big ghost over there? I don't think you're gonna like him, even if he's kinda scary. And in a roundabout way, he IS kinda going after us. So what're you gonna do?"

To Eevee, this didn't really sound like a battle at all. It sounded like what she would've done; be someone's companion and keep them safe when they needed it. Maybe not so much in terms of actual fighting, but maybe that wouldn't be necessary unless she had to force them off of her. She looked over at Gengar for a second and, despite being more than a little intimidated, slowly walked back onto the field and gave the closest thing to a growl that she could.

Its only definite effect was Ceramew resisting an urge to ask if she could keep her, but with Sol and Blizzard around, she made it a point to keep her mouth shut.

"Uh oh." If Aden wasn't screwed before, he was now. What strategy he did have just went out the window, and his chances of finding a way to make this work out were looking more unlikely by the second. Worse yet, Eevee was intimidated all over again from the Mean Look, but also more eager to do something to keep Gengar at bay.

"This won't end well. Eevee, whatever you have in mind, you better do it." Aden lamented that he didn't know much on what moves Eevee even knew aside from Tackle and Sand Attack. It came as a bit of shock when he watched her rush at Gengar, proving that she did know a bit more.

At least, she knew how to bite something and apply the move proper. Whether it was a result of being able to at least defend or a result of the moment at hand, he wasn't sure, but he needed to take whatever edge he could here.

"Only shook it off..." To Aden, it was looking like Eevee was definitely an ill-suited choice. The Dark Pulse's aura was enough to make both of them flinch a little, overwhelmed by the thoughts the energy fueled.

Worse yet, the sheer range of the attack meant that trying to tackle the problem by burying Gengar's eyes in dirt was likely to just instigate more of the attacks. At the same time, maybe it'd provide a tactical advantage...

"Eevee, brace yourself! When the aura lets up, kick as much dirt as you can into Gengar's eyes!"

The call couldn't have come sooner, with his Pokemon getting as low on the ground as she could to take the remainder of the assault. It did let up, but it was looking like Aden might be down to two Pokemon if he wanted to be or not pretty soon. He did already know the three he'd be using, though, which gave him some ideas.

Once things felt slightly safer, Eevee darted to Gengar's side and tried to bite the Pokemon again, this time to grab their attention. As soon as she did, she'd turn around and kick more dirt around, using the Sand-Attack to both further blind Gengar and make a hasty getaway from any point blank attacks.

"Don't look!" Aden called, Eevee turning around and giving a confused glance. Though this prevented the visual part of the move, the suggestions were a different matter, but she wasn't sure what to make of them. She wasn't very inclined to go to sleep, at any rate...

Though the suggestions did eventually stop as well, Aden was at a loss of how to keep things rolling. To his luck, Eevee decided to tell those thoughts to shut up the only way she knew how. She tried to bite Gengar again.

This time, there was no avoiding the attack, and no survival. Eevee found herself tossed off like an annoying bug, tumbling along the ground and not moving an inch. She was definitely out of the battle, and as Aden saw it, so were his chances of salvaging this.

"This is embarrassing..."

"He still has two more. If he doesn't figure anything out, it's on you and I. Though I would've figured he'd have more sense than to use a Pokemon he couldn't have had for more than couple of hours."

Aden had to think for a moment. He wasn't sure how to get himself out of the mess he was in, though he did have Nidorino and Raticate still. And a lot of poisonous spikes... he could make the two work, he thought. Or he hoped.

"Raticate, it's on you!" He called, recalling his fallen Eevee and sending Raticate out in her stead. "Pursuit!"

Raticate rushed out at once to try and hit Gengar, finding his way onto the spikes laid by Nidorino in the process. Regardless if he hit or not, poison was going to find its way into the rat.