A New World, An Old Haunt

by Professor Frogenshtein


Ch 2: Face Facts

I rolled over, grimaced, and rolled over again. I simply could not get comfortable; it felt like I was laying on a pile of gemstones. Groaning, I opened my eyes.

I was laying on a pile of gemstones.

"This is not my beautiful bed," I mused aloud. My eyes opened further, taking in the scene around me; I looked to be in a dank cave, surrounded by all manner of gems and shiny things.

"This is not my beautiful house," I posited, hoisting myself up from the pile. A crunching sound to my left caught my attention; I was situated next to a small purple creature with razor-sharp teeth and pointed ears, with deep blue hexagonal eyes that sparkled like diamonds. In its claws was a large sapphire with a clear bite taken out of it.

"You are not my beautiful wife." At this, the creature turned its eyes to me, a glint of confusion in its crystalline eyes.

"The master is not married," it said through a mouthful of mineral.

I rolled my eyes. "I was making a joke. Hello, Ravid."

Ravid was a sableye, a cave-dwelling pokémon that ate gems, and one of the 2 known species of ghost/dark types. Legends say, and research has corroborated, that sableyes' rocky diet has transformed their eyes into gemstones over the course of centuries. Recruiting Ravid had put a considerable strain on my funds until Ravid himself had confided in me that ghost-types don't actually need to eat.

Ravid shrugged from his place in the gem mound, then called out to seemingly no-one. "Sword! Shadow! The master is awake!"
"Hey boss," came a voice as a swirl of darkness seemed to materialize in front of me, "you were asleep for a while." Lucius flashed a cheshire grin as he took a seat next to me.

“Indeed, Sire,” came another voice, and I saw the hilt of a familiar sword poking out of a pile of yet more gems and treasures, “Things were, if you’ll pardon my language, terribly dull around here.” Lucius loosed a guffaw. “Hah, dull!” he chortled, “Because he’s a sword! Good one!” Ravid just sat and chewed. “Ravid does not get it, master.” a pause. “Master?”
I wasn’t listening; I’d just had a startling realization. “Lucius,” I began, looking nervously at the shadow pokemon, “Where are we? I can’t feel my legs, and… I’m not breathing.” Lucius looked at me, his expression growing solemn. “That’s, well… You might want to look at yourself, boss.” he gestured to Durendal, who withdrew his gleaming blade from the pile of gems. Without thinking, I floated (floated?) over to get a better view. Durendal kept his blade flawlessly polished, and I looked in through the metallic sheen to see my reflection.

A yamask stared back at me, holding a shining, golden face.

My face.

I dropped to the ground in shock, looking at my hands; they were black, 3-fingered, ethereal. I took the golden mask in my hands and stared into its lifeless golden eyes. There was no mistaking it.

I was a yamask. A ghost.

Dead.

Words failed me as I struggled to form a coherent thought. “I… I-I don’t-” I felt a hand on my shoulder; Lucius had floated over to me. “We all knew it would happen one way or another, boss.” The small, sad smile he gave looked unnatural on his face. “But I was always afraid I’d have to say goodbye.” A sob escaped my lips as I turned to hug my oldest friend, and was both surprised and comforted when my arms didn’t go through him like I expected. We floated to the ground and sat there for a while, Lucius comforting me as the others watched. After a time, I looked up and gave a sad smile of my own. “Do you know the worst part?” I asked, gazing down at my face- at my mask. “What’s that, boss?” and I chucked a bit to myself at the worry in my friend’s voice.

“I never grew that moustache like I always wanted to.”


Years in the past (but not more than 10)

Today was the day, gastly was sure of it. Today he’d show the world that ghosts were nothing to be afraid of, that they were just as capable of loving and being loved as any pokémon. Today, he would succeed.

He had a cunning plan.

Being captured by that human in the white coat had been stage 1, because gastly knew he handed pokémon to beginning trainers; now it was simply a matter of sneaking into the lineup and getting a child to pick him as a starter. He’d practiced his winning smile over and over in the mirror, and being able to speak human would definitely give him an edge. Gastly would succeed, he was sure of it.

Gastly enacted stage 2: he slipped parts of his gaseous form through the thin cracks in the edge of the pokéball, floating it through the hallways and settling in with the “standard” starters while the white-coated human wasn’t looking. Drawing completely back into the ball, gastly waited for the trainers to arrive. His plan was so cunning; he would definitely succeed, he had assured himself of that.

Gastly waited a while; he wasn’t sure how long he waited, bit it had definitely been at least a bit of a while. Then, gastly heard bits of voices from outside.

…ttle down, you young…need to rush…choosing a pokémon…lifelong partnership…from the ones you see here.

That was his cue! Gastly burst from his ball in a flash of red, smiled as wide as he could and said “Hi! I’m gastly!” His cunning plan was surely about to succeed!

But to gastly’s complete surprise, the children screamed and ran in what looked a lot like terror. Even the man in the white coat had collapsed, almost as if he had fainted from fright. This confused gastly; he couldn’t have frightened them, he’d practiced his smile in the mirror for 5 whole minutes! And his plan- surely, a plan as cunning as his would have succeeded, right?

“Cool!”

Gastly was brought out of his thoughts by a small voice. There, in the corner, was a young boy gastly had not noticed before; the boy’s hair was scruffy, his shirt rumpled, and he was giving gastly a smile wide enough to show a missing tooth starting to grow back in. The child strode over to the man in the coat, who was still on the ground.

“Professor!” the boy spoke, pointing at gastly as he looked at the man on the floor, “Can I have that one?”

He was met with a half-aware groan as a response.

“Kay, thanks!” Grabbing gastly’s pokéball, the boy walked over to a computer and pressed a few buttons, placing a small red device under a scanner with the ball next to it. After a few seconds, there was an audible ding!, and the boy walked back over to gastly. “I’m Dante, and I’m your new trainer,” he said, and gastly’s smile returned full force. “I’m gastly!” The boy shook his head. “Nuh-uh. I’m your trainer, so I get to give you a new name!” the boy’s hand went to his chin as he stood in thought. “I’ll call you Lucius.”

Gastly thought it over. Loosey-us; it sounded like a nice name. Lucius smiled at his new trainer. “Sounds good to me, boss!” And as the new friends set out for adventure, Lucius had no doubt that Dante had thought of a cunning plan. A plan Lucius knew would succeed.

He’d make sure of it.