The Price of Losing

“Ivysaur, that’s enough come back!”

I activated my Pokéball and recalled Ivysaur. I may have been doomed, but that didn’t mean I had to let my trusted companion get mauled any further than she already had been.

The victorious Tentacruel hissed his anger at being denied his meal. His trainer just looked smug.

“Well, well, well. Not so high and mighty any more, are you?”

And with that, I lost any hope of getting out of this hair-brained bargain. It had seemed reasonable at the time. I thought I was the best. I figured that my grass-type team would let me waltz right through this gym, what with their over-reliance on water type Pokémon. The only problem was, I wasn’t allowed to even try. I was supposed to get a license and go in order. But I didn’t have the cash for that.

Andy had found me after I’d been ejected from the premise. He was a trainer there and told me that he could get me in to face the leader, legit, with a badge if I won and everything. But he wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t waste his leader’s time. So he’d proposed a little wager.

If I won, he’d give me ¥10,000 and let me face Misty.

And if he won…

Well, I didn’t have money. All I had was my body.

And for today, that’s what he’d be getting.

“Please Andy, just let me go. I’ll forget about this whole thing, never bug you again. Just… don’t hurt me!”

I backed away from him as I pleaded. I hoped he was willing to take some sort of mercy on me. I’d been overconfident, yeah. I may have made some boasts. But if I begged…

I feel down to my knees.

“I’m begging you. Please don’t do anything to me. I know I was cocky and you deserve to be able to tell everyone you took me down a peg, but can’t you just settle for that?”

Andy’s grin only grew. “I like the look of you on your knees. I could get used to it.”

Begging seemed to be a clear failure. Which left nothing but running. I jumped to my feet and made to turn. I heard Andy shout something. Before I could get three paces away, something wrapped around my ankle. I tripped and went down hard.

I took a moment to collect myself, before checking to see what had caused me to fall.

With dawning horror, I realized that it was one of Tentacruel’s eighty tentacles. I kicked and struggled against it, but it only wrapped itself more tightly around my leg. I tried to grab it and pry it off, but others quickly joined it.

Within seconds, half a dozen tentacles held me down. There was one for each of my limbs, one wrapped around my mouth, and one around my waist. I could barely wriggle. Screaming, running, even crawling, all of these were impossible.

Andy walked into view. His smirk was back in full force.

“I’m going to give you one last chance to play nicely. In a second, Tentacruel is going to let you speak. All you have to say is that the deal was fair and you’ll do whatever I ask. I’ll make it fun, we’ll both have a good time, then you’ll go on your way, no worse for wear.”

Andy paused for dramatic effect.

“Or, you can say no. In which case Tentacruel will hold you down and I’ll do whatever I want with you. I’ll have fun and you’ll go on your way considerably worse for wear. Which will it be?”

The tentacle receded from my mouth. I took a deep breath. Then I screamed “HEEEEELLLLPPPP!” as loudly as I could.

In retrospect, not one of the smarter things I’ve done. I deliberately chose an out of the way spot for the Pokémon duel. Which of course meant that there was no one to hear me scream and all I managed to do was make Andy angry.

The tentacle was back around my mouth in a second and my scream was cut off with a pained squeak.

Andy’s grin had lost all of its mirth. Now he just looked mean.

“Would you be so kind as to undress her, Tentacruel?”

I struggled against this, but it was pointless.