A Joke Laid To Rest (Episode 2)
Max’s POV
Within the Forest
12:03 PM
“Okay…Maybe…I wasn’t ready for this…” From behind me, Spike was still able to keep pace with me, but he didn’t look like he could keep it up for too long. From what I could tell he wasn’t too fast of a runner.
“…” I bit my lip as I ran around one of the bigger trees in our way. As I did I saw a large chunk of bark ripped off of the side and laying a few feet away from the actual trunk. “Let’s…” I trailed off with a grimace. A part of me wanted to keep going to get to Kirlia as fast as possible. Although I knew all too well what happened if I pressed too hard to get there right away. “Let’s take a break.”
Both of us started to slow down until finally we stopped between a set of trees that we gladly leaned on for support. Again, just ahead of us was some more small carnage in the form of an uprooted shrub sitting next to a hole in the ground.
“Wow. Makuhita’s pretty. Energetic, huh?” My fatigue was started to catch up with me already, forcing me to try and get my breath. Although I couldn’t say I was surprised, we were running as fast as we could for almost ten minutes now.
“Yeah…He’s like a…Wonderbolt or something…” Spike let his bag fall next to him as he continued to lean against the tree.
“…What’s a Wonderbolt?”
“Huh?” Spike looked up as he took in a deeper breath. “Oh, yeah, there…They’re these really good, um…Flyers?”
Flyers? “You mean like in jet planes or something?” That was the only thing that came to mind at least. That and trainers that ride on their Pokémon.
“Yeah. Sure.” Spike tried to nod along. “He’s really fast. Kinda like a jet!”
Both of us continued to catch our breath in silence. It took a little longer than I would’ve hoped, but soon enough Spike seemed at least good enough for us to start heading in the same direction as Makuhita and the balloon.
“So,” With one more breath, Spike started to walk beside me. “Just who were those people exactly? You said that they were thieves, but…Why?”
“Honestly? I don’t have a clue.” I shrugged. “They apparently followed Ash way before I even met him. All I really know about them is that they’re bad people called Team Rocket that try and take Pokémon from their trainers. That and they usually use all these underhanded tricks.”
“Doesn’t that sound familiar,” Spike muttered before looking back towards me. “You always managed to stop them though, right?”
“Oh yeah, plenty of times.” I actually smiled a little at the thought. “Usually they would sneak up on us and sometimes manage to make off with Pikachu or a different Pokémon only for us to track them down and stop them. Still, we were able to stop them because of how many of us there were and how well everyone worked together. Not to mention we had a flying-type or two to help track them down.
“And not only that, but even when there was just one or two of us that could stop them, we at least had an advantage or something.”
“Well at least they don’t sound too hard to deal with. You know, aside from the whole stealing Pokémon part.” Spike smacked his forehead. “No, wait, that didn’t come out right.”
“It’s alright, I know what you mean. I just wish I did something other than stand there.” Kind of like what I did at a certain Pokémon League.
“Nah, it’s fine.” Spike waved a hand around and smiled. “We’re doing something now, aren’t we? That’s gotta make up for something, right?”
I stopped walking. “Make up for it?”
“Uh-huh. I mean, I’ve made a few tiny mistakes before.” As I watched him clear his throat I could almost see him having some kind of flashback. “Okay, maybe a few big mistakes before,” He corrected. “But none of my friends held it against me. Even before I tried making up for it they didn’t hate me for it or anything.”
I bit my lip as the words repeated off in my head. “They didn’t hate me…”
I started to replay what May was telling me back at the airport. How she was nothing but nice despite how much I avoided her as well as Mom and Dad. She wasn’t disappointed in me, she was considerate.
“You’re my brother! I don’t care how badly you do at a Pokémon League, I’ll never be mad at you!”
I sniffed a little bit and went to adjust my glasses. I was the only one that was disappointed in myself. Not May, not Dad, not Kirlia or the others on my team. They were on my side the whole time. I was the only one that wasn’t…
“Max?” I glanced over at Spike and saw that he was looking at me with concern. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I ended up just taking off my glasses to wipe my face before putting them back on. “I’m okay…Now let’s hurry up and get Kirlia.”
“Okay,” Spike righted his backpack a little more before looking back at me. “How much further was that spot again?”
“Um…” I quickly brought out the PokéNav and pressed a few button to see the map itself. “It looks like we’re about halfway there.”
“Wait,” Spike blinked. “Halfway? We’re only halfway there?”
“Yep,” Closing out the map I put the Nav back into its pocket. “If we keep jogging than it should be just another ten minutes.”
“Ugh…” He started to slouch forward while I made sure my running shoes were still tied. “If I’d have known we were that far I would’ve saved the talking for later.”
“Ah, come on, ten minutes isn’t that far. Besides, we’ll probably find Makuhita waiting for us when we get there. So that means we have to get there as soon as possible.” With my shoes laced up I wasted no time jogging forward. A few seconds later I could hear Spike running up behind me before keeping pace. Of course it didn’t go without a little complaining.
“Just for the record, I think that we should get a balloon next time!”
Makuhita’s POV
Middle of the Forest
12:07 PM
With a heave I jumped up onto a fallen trunk and launched myself forward past a set of swirling thorn bushes. After I was over I grabbed a couple of low hanging branches and yanked them out of the tree. It wasn’t much, but at least it would catch their attention if they were still behind me.
Once that was taken care of I started to glance around me to get my bearings again. From what I could tell I was in the center of a small clearing with some shady trees above me. However, that was it. It was just a clearing. No sign of other Pokémon running around, no Meowth balloon that I could see past all the branches, I couldn’t even see the trail that I was running near anymore.
“Oh great,” I groaned. I had been using the trail as a landmark so that I wouldn’t get lost. Which means that without the trail, I already messed up. And only about fifteen minutes into my run.
“Maybe it’s just behind one of the trees.” I rushed over to my left and tried to see through the tree line to spot the trail. I had managed to keep it to my left most of the time. “No…” I turned and ran to the right of the clearing to do the same, but the trees looked the exact same as they did on the left. A bigger tree next to a smaller one and a bush or twelve scattered around with no trail in sight.
“Dang it!” I smacked the tree beside me ignoring the bark that scattered close to my face. “Okay. Maybe if I just keep going forward I’ll try it again.”
And so I did. Except once I made it to the edge of the clearing I saw a patch of thorn bushes and a fallen tree log that I had jumped off of. No…
Turning on my heel I leapt over the branches I pulled out and ran across the small field only to see the same exact thing. A bunch of thorn bushes and a fallen tree trunk.
“Ah, come on!” I twisted directions around again and decided to just run in a random direction. Too bad I didn’t realize just how close the branches were until I stepped on one end of them.
Thwack!
“GAH!” My eyes couldn’t register the hit until it smacked my face, leaving me stunned and flat on my back with a giant red mark on my face. With a weak groan I hold my nose in place while I sat up. “Ouch…How am I messing up this badly?”
“Well, stampeding through the forest and yelling at the top of your lungs probably isn’t helping your case.” From my right I heard some rustling of bushes before a familiar Pokémon walked out with a calm expression. “But then again, you’re the one that managed to dodge the hands so I guess I’m not much to talk either.”
“Kirlia!” I threw my fist down onto the stick, smashing it in two before hopping up and hurrying over to where she was. As I got closer I noticed that she didn’t look hurt or scared. Instead, she was more concerned about picking the leaves and twigs out of her hair. “How’d you get away from those Meowth People?!”
“Oh, you know,” With the final twig out of her hair, she beamed at me with a huge grin. “I just showed them my claws is all.” She held out her hands like a Meowth before suddenly a set of small green claws slid out of them. “Get it? Claws?” She started to giggle.
“Woah…” I stared at one of her hands for a few seconds before tilting my head to the side. “You had claws this whole time?!”
“…” Her expression turned shocked. “Oh, darn it! Did I let that slip?!” She retracted her claws and set her hands on her waist, striking a heroic-esque pose. “Well then I guess the cat’s outta the bag now! Dero-shishishishishi” She nearly doubled over in laughter as her jaw grew somewhat to accommodate for her sharp teeth.
“Uh…Kirlia?” I took a step back. “Your teeth got bigger…And pointier…”
“Huh?” Her laughing stopped on a dime before a puddle formed between the two of us, making me hop further away from her as she started to innocently study her appearance with the same unsettling grin. As she did, some dark smoke began to emit from her entire body. “Aw, fiddlesticks. Guess I still don’t have the hang of this move yet…”
“Move? What move?” She continued to study her form as her eyes left her face, floating above her head and looking directly at me. “Uh, K-Kirlia?”
“Ah, come on kid.” The floating eyes rolled as Kirlia’s body started to decompose into purple and black smoke. I tried to back away as slowly as I could, but my foot began to roll on the same stupid stick from earlier, causing me to slip and fall onto my back as the smoke started to navigate its way around the two eyes.
“You can’t be serious, right?” The floating eyes started to make their way over towards me. “I mean, I know I’m a Grade-A actor and all, but I’m not exactly knockin’ em DEAD here! Shishishishishi!”
“Actor?” I started to shuffle away from her eyes as suddenly my fist went through the ground. Wait, that wasn’t right. When I turned back to look where I was going I saw nothing but black nothingness where there was previously green forests and thorn bushes. “W-What’s going on?!”
I jumped to my feet and tried to hide my face behind my boxer’s pose. After all, if I couldn’t go anywhere then my only option was to hold my ground. However, as I glanced up at those eyes I saw them giving me an increasingly bored look.
“Oh please kid. You can’t even touch me.” Still, almost as if it were daring me to try, it backed away from me so I had just enough room to lunge at it. “Still though, give it your best! Come on. Plant one right in the jaw! Oh. But wait. I don’t have a jaw! Dero-shishishishi!
As it continued to laugh, I noticed that the gas’s voice sounded like it was coming from every direction. Almost as though it was on a speaker. Not to mention that annoying laugh that he made was starting to echo above everything else. That wasn’t what made it sound creepy though. The part that made it creepy was that Kirlia’s voice was still mixed in with it somewhat.
Finally, the laughing had started to get to me. “That’s what you think, you…You…” I watched it float in place as the irises of Kirlia’s eyes blinked away, leaving only these tiny dots that made the pupils in seas of white. “You…Not Kirlia, gas-thing!”
All at once, the laughter and voices stopped cold as the eyes focused back towards me with a thin line appearing underneath them to act as a mouth. “Wow,” It mocked. “That was terrible.”
I gritted my teeth. “You’re terrible! Arm Thrust!” With a yell I took off to meet the gas at its own height and brought my first attack forward to strike the center of his fa—I’m going straight through him!
“Oof!” I fell back on the ground with a thud and groaned in pain as my face landed on top of that stupid stick for the second time now. “ow.”
As I pulled my face back off of the ground I watched as the gas floated around to meet me again. “Okay, but for realzies kid, you literally cannot touch me.” I tried to prove it wrong by throwing the stick into his face, but once it flew through him he started to laugh all over again. And to add to how creepy it was, a large tongue and small fangs on either side were all that his mouth consisted of. No throat, no other teeth, not even gums.
Once the laughing ceased, thankfully, he spoke again. “Alright, fun and games aside, listen up. In case you haven’t put two and two together yet, I’M A GHOST! Your Knuckle Sandwiches will only go right through me! Shishishi.”
With a sigh I got up to my feet. “Okay, fine.” I clenched my fists before looking back up at his smiling face. He was messing with me. “Where am I anyways?”
“Oh don’t worry, we’re still in the forest. You’re just passed out is all.”
“Passed out?” I slapped my face a lightly. “Like, asleep?”
“Well, Hypnotized is a better word for it really. After all, if you were dreaming you wouldn’t be BEATING yourself up so much!” He gave me a huge cheeky grin.
“…”
Without moving his mouth, I heard him clear his throat. “BEATING. Yourself up so much!”
“…” When he didn’t say anything else I shuffled in place a little. “Um…So, can you—“
“Oh dear Arceus!” He flew right up in my face again. “Come on, tell me you’re joking! Beating? You’re a Fighting-Type? Come on kid, these are the jokes!”
“…Right,” I backed up a little as one of his smile started to turn sour. “Look, mister, I need to go find my—“
“Mister?” He started to chuckle again, the smile returning two-fold. “Kid, what makes you think I’m a guy, huh?”
I gave it a sideways look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what I said! Why do you just assume that I’m a guy? I mean, my voice doesn’t really sound all that manly if you ask me.” As he, err, it pointed it out, I guess it was right. The voice sounded a little genderless.
“I mean, you don’t know!” His smile turned into a mischievous one. “For all you’re aware, I could be a female Gastly! Heck, this might just be me HITA-ing on you! Dero-shishishishi~!”
I gritted my teeth until the laughter finally stopped. “Fine, whatever you…” Wait a second, I thought. What kind of Pokémon did she say she was?
“You’re a Gastly?” I looked back up only to see one of her eyes twitching as his smile fell again.
“r-really?” He looked away. “does this Pokémon really not understand comedy? I’ve tried ghost-jokes, puns, impressions, the whole shebang! What am I miss—“ Once she saw that I was waiting for her to answer my question, she flashed another huge smile at me.
“I mean, we’ll duh!” She yelled. “Of course I’m a Gastly! Just what gave it away, huh Brainiac?! The Enamoring Eyes? The Sensational Smile? The ENTOXICATING Smoke?!”
“…” Again, I stood there and tried waiting out the awkward pause.
Gastly’s face began to tremble. “The ENTOXI—OH FORGET IT!”
“AH!” Suddenly my head jolted up as I snapped awake with a yell. The drool all over my face and stiffness from sleeping while on my feet was annoying, but as I looked around I was almost glad to be right back in a normal part of the forest. Not only was that, but the trail I had been keeping close to directly ahead of me, past a few stray trees. I was back in reality.
I swear…
Or not.
Her voice was echoing from every direction. Instead this time, it was faint and coming from one direction in particular; behind me.
Pansages, Scatterbugs, even the stray Pikachu in this forest all understand my jokes!
Wiping the drool off my cheek I turned around and saw a few wisps of smoke hiding from the sunlight up underneath a large amount of shade patch of leaves. And in that smoke I saw two faint eyes glaring at me.
Well, at least they do until they start running away in fear, but they still understand them, Arceus dangit! And yet, for some reason, the one Pokémon that doesn’t run from me and it had to be the ONE that doesn’t have a sense of humor! Go figure.
“Well, sorry, but I’m not in the mood for jokes!” I made sure to get a few more sticks in the middle of the clearing before getting my bearings again. “I need to find my friend before those jerks run away again!”
Oh? You mean that Kirlia in the glass box currently being mocked by Team Rocket?
All at once, my muscles tensed up. “Wait a second, how did you…?” Slowly I started to turn back and look at her. Only when I did, I saw her near toothless mouth appear and form a large, ear to ear, toothy grin.
Boo.
Without another word, her form flew further into the forest with only that stupid laughing leaving any trail of what direction she was going.
Not two seconds later and I was running after her at full speed. At this point, forget the trail. Heck, forget leaving signs behind me. This dumb Gastly knew where she was. I was just going in the same direction I saw them in! So if she could tell me where Kirlia was then—
DERO-Shishishishishishishishi! You gotta be faster than that!
“Shut up and get back here!” I hit the brakes and turned left at the next tree as her voice trailed off in that direction. Only, after a few more seconds of running I ran into a dead-end in the form of cliffs.
Then I heard her voice from above me.
Shishishishishi. Sorry kid, but you’ll have to try harder than that to catch me! But hey! Look at the bright side! You can only go up from here, amirite?! Shishishishishishish—Huh?
“Hup. Hup. Hup. Hup. Hup!” Reaching the final step, I gave one final heave and threw myself up past the final makeshift platform that led up to the top of the cliff. Once I was close enough, I clenched my fist as I neared the laughing ball of gas. “Bullet…”
Uh-oh
“PUNCH!” I brought my steel-covered fist forward and finally found purchase on Gastly’s face, forcing her back and into the sunlight as she spun out of control.
Owowowowowow-OWWWWW~
In an instant, Gastly’s form faded out of view only moments after she met the sunlight. That didn’t stop me from hearing her complaining about the pain that she felt. “Haha! I thought you said I couldn’t hit you!”
Ugh…Didn’t know you could do that!
A few more seconds of looking around and I spotted her appear behind me past the cliff’s edge. Half of me was surprised to see her actually able to show up at all while the sun was out. Still, I guess it didn’t really matter much right now.
Dang it kid, a guy can only take so much!
“Guy?” I looked at her questioningly. “I thought you said that you were a girl.”
Nnnnnnnope! I said that for all you know I could be a girl! See, there you go again, assuming things! You really need to work on tha—
“Whatever!” I held up my fists, ready to throw another Bullet Punch as I stared her—he—IT down. “Look, I just want to know where Kirlia is! I need to find her so we can get her back!”
Aw, ain’t that sweet? The kid wants to be her knight in shining armor.
She paused for a second as though pondering what she said.
Shining Armor…Huh. That’s weird. For some reason, it feels like there’s a joke to be had there but for the LIFE of me I can’t figure it out. Shishishi…
I growled. “Forget the dumb joke! I wanna know where I can find her! What will it take to have you tell me already?!”
What will it take?
I growled in frustration before throwing up a fist to point at her. “Yes! You put me to sleep, you said all these weird words that make no sense, and you had me chase you all the way up here! So what do you want?!”
Huh…You know, you’re not as dumb as I thought you were.
With, for once, a calm expression, Gastly floated over to me and met me eye to eye.
It’s actually rather straight-forward. I want a trainer. Same as you, same as Kirlia, same as any other Pokémon bored to tears, really.
“A trainer?” I lowered my fists a bit. “That’s it? But aren’t they everywhere?”
Yes, but I want a Good Trainer! A fun one! And I hate to sound like every diva ever, but seriously! Good trainers are SO hard to find these days! Shishi...
“So then,” I lowered my fists entirely. “Like Spike?”
Spike, huh? As in the kid that just went poof on the roof yesterday? Shishishi... Funny you bring him up actually, I’ve been trying to find a good time to get something off my chest. Oh. But I don’t have a chest. GHOST-A-JOKE, DERO-shishishishishi!
After he stopped laughing, Gastly took a few seconds staring me down before going on, getting angrier as it did..
Geez, you cannot take a joke, can you? Kinda reminds me of someone I know. Still, if you agree to help me out I’ll gladly tell you where your friend is. Hey, agree now and I’ll even throw in a ‘Helping Hand’ free of charge! Shishishishi!
“Help you find a good trainer?” I looked back up towards the sky. The sun was a little further in the sky than it was earlier. A little too further the more I thought about it. Still, if helping Gastly find a trainer was all she, um, it wanted then I guess it couldn’t hurt to try.
Not only that, but it would probably be a good idea to have some help just in case Max and Spike don’t catch up in time.
With not too many other options to pick from, I looked back to Gastly. “Okay, it’s a deal. You help me get Kirlia back and I’ll make sure you find a good trainer.” I held out a fist to shake her…Oh.
Thought that counts, kid.
She beamed at me regardless before looking off towards the north.
Anyway, them goons are that-a-way! And if you’re willing to slow your speed just a little bit, Little Miss Gastly here’s got a plan a-brewin’ in his pot!
“Miss? His pot?” I gave the ghost-type a weird look. “I don’t think that’s how that works.”
Oh I’m sorry Grammar Police! What’re ya gonna do, kill me?! Dero-shishishishi! Now hurry up! We got plans to scheme, villains to thwart, and ironic sayings of good and evil to mix together! Come along dear boy! Tally HO!
With a loop, Gastly flew straight down the cliff-side, leaving me standing there doubting just how good of an idea it was to really agree to this.
Kirlia’s POV
Large Forest Clearing
12:18 PM
While I was in the glass box all of my psychic abilities were limited. I couldn’t see auras, I couldn’t teleport or project my voice, and I couldn’t use any psychic moves to break out either. However, given everything that had been happening today it almost seemed like a blessing.
Still, there was really only one thing I would prefer that this trap have and I would almost take the box in stride. Nearly the whole time that I had been locked up in here I was forced to listen to three idiots cheering and singing in pure joy about how they had managed to catch me. And this entire time I had been trying to block them out by any means necessary. Thus why this stupid box needed to be sound proof.
Eventually I gave up and just lied on my side, propping up my head up with my hand as I just kept lounging around with a sour look on my face the entire time. Not that any of them ever noticed. They were coming up on the half hour mark of celebrating.
“We got a Kirlia~! We got a Kirlia~! We got a Kirlia~!” This was their fourth cheer routine and to give them at least the smallest amount of credit it was at least better than the other three. Still, that didn’t mean that I was about to skip out on giving them a hard time.
“Correction; you kidnapped a Kirlia! And the Kirlia is not too thrilled about it, either.” I mocked them with a yawn before continuing to glare at them. Not that any of them could understand me. Well, their Pokémon could, but that wasn’t much sadly. The Inkay had done nothing but agree to whatever was being said while the Wobbuffet had only said two words this entire time.
“Oh yeah~!” Wobbuffet saluted towards...Nothing really. In fact, he was just saluting out towards a random direction, smiling at nothing.
“That is an adequate way to put it!” Inkay added his own two cents, smiling happily towards me as though he were on my side with the subject.
“Yes, well,” I brought my attention back towards the three who were orchestrating this entire joke. More specifically the scratch cat that could understand me. “Another adequate thing to say is that it’s only a matter of time before Max finds out where we are.”
“Um,” Inkay hummed. “I am not sure how adequate that statement is.”
“Oh please! You really think dat twerp’s gonna find us clear out ‘ere?!” The two people watched Meowth as his grin went into that of a glare. “Wait a minute! Are you really jus’ loungin’ around?!”
I closed my eyes and stopped looking towards him, not moving an inch from where I was lying. “Wow, half an hour of cheering and you just now noticed?”
“I can’t belive dis,” I heard him step back. “She ain’t even takin’ us seriously!”
“Is that so?” Next I heard several footsteps coming towards me followed by knocking on the glass. “Well I guess she’s never heard of how Team Rocket works.”
“Oh how I wish that were true.” With a sigh, I opened one eye to try and get a rise out of the one that was tapping my glass as though it were a Magikarp tank. “I’ve heard the stories from Max. You find a Pokémon you want, you try to steal it, you get stopped.”
In attempt to drive her up the wall, I gave the purple haired one a shooing motion with the rudest expression I could muster. “Would you please bust the glass open for me?”
The woman’s expression suddenly turned furious. “Why you little twerp!” Suddenly, I felt the entire box teeter backwards as she started to rock it in attempt to get to me. It’s a good thing too, otherwise she would’ve noticed me smiling as she did it.
“Hold on, Jessie!” Before she could start kicking the box open, the man and Meowth started to drag her away from me.
“She’s gettin’ unda yer skin on purpose!” Finally deciding to sit up, I watched as the two of them spent the next minute trying to calm her down while I was still stuck sitting in here.
Earlier, I thought I saw them with a crimson aura. In fact I thought I saw just about everything have a crimson aura. But after seeing them dance and cheer for so long there is no way that was true. In fact I think it’d be safe to say that they were incapable of it.
Sure one or two of them had strong emotions, fury and greed from what I could tell from the woman, but none of them had an emotion that strong. I guess it would be wrong of me to say that crimson was an evil color, after all the aura that went along with it wasn’t inherently evil, but to see it shining like a lighthouse was unnatural. It’s even more unnatural when you’re a Pokémon that draws from emotion.
As I kept thinking it over, the man looked over at Meowth. Apparently they had all been talking once they calmed Jessie down. “So, she said that she knows about us already?”
“Oh yeah~! Known in every region!” Wobbuffet saluted off again.
“Inkay?” Deciding to let them believe what they want, I turned to look over towards the squid-like Pokémon. “Can you answer me something?”
As he studied me, he turned to float upside down. “As long as it is not how to escape from your imprisonment, ask away!”
“What do you know about a Kirlia’s ability to see emotions?”
“Hmm?” He blinked. “Huh. Not the question I expected.” His smile grew. “Very impressive, Kirlia! I must say it is not too often that anyone does something unexpected!”
“As for what I know,” He began. “Kirlia have an instinctive ability to read, sense, and see auras from any living creature. They see these auras in one of two ways. The first is passive, with them only seeing an emotion if it is incredibly strong, with each emotion having its own distinct color to it. In fact even the most polar opposite emotions can have similar colors. This baffles researchers as other Pokémon and even what colors we compare to emotions seems to have no similarities.
“The second way a Kirlia sees emotion is if they are actively seeking them out. Depending on the ability of the Kirlia, their range can extend to pick up aura from further targets. Not only that, but if a Kirlia focuses on a certain target they can pick up further targets.” He concluded his speech by righting himself in the air.
No doubt Wobbuffet and Meowth were listening in on what Inkay had said, but that didn’t matter. Everything Inkay said was common knowledge if anyone tried to learn about Kirlia past what the PokéDex told them.
“Good. So you’re caught up.” As Meowth tried to summarize what Inkay and I were talking about to the rest of Team Rocket, I talked just quiet enough so that he couldn’t hear. “Do you know what happens if something’s emotion is too strong?”
“...” He stayed quiet this time, but his smile remained.
“They blind us.” I shuddered a little. “They’re overpowering to the point where we just get freaked out by it and have no idea what’s going on. And honestly this is the first time I’ve ever seen it.”
“I see,” He nodded along. “So it was the ghost-type that had surprised you.”
“Ghost-Type?” I glanced up at him. “What ghost-type?”
“Oh? You mean you were not aware?” Inkay blinked. “During our confrontation, as you made your way to the Pokémon Center, and I suspect even before that, your group was being followed by this ghost-type.”
“Being followed?” I paused to think it all over. The time where I sensed something past the tree on the street, all throughout the Pokémon Center and PokéMart, it was all the same aura. If it really was a ghost-type than might explain how it managed to fly all over the place without me actually seeing where the aura came from.
“Wait,” I looked back up at Inkay. “How did you know that there was a ghost-type following us?”
“That is rather simple!” He started to move his tentacles as though waves were emitting from them. “In order to mask our own auras from you, I had to actively track aura to make sure that I was doing it correctly! Whilst I did that, I noticed the same intense emotion fluttering around wherever you were, mostly in front of a human in order to hide the fact that it was a ghost-type from you. Although, it seems that it was not aware of my presence at the time!”
From the treeline ahead of us I began to notice some of the bushes rustle from one side while the other side had a small wisp of smoke dance from one tree top to the other.
“That’s impressive,” I saw him put his focus back on me. “I didn’t know that an Inkay could do any of that.”
“Oh, well,” He started to revolve in attempt to hide his bashfulness. “It was nothing! I simply focused a psychic move into dispersing a small yet continuous pulse to help hide our emotions from sight!”
There was another rustle in the foliage. It was closer this time, but louder too.
“Huh?” James perked up towards it as he started to look in the direction it had come from. “I could’ve sworn I saw something just now.”
“Eh?” Meowth looked over. “Like what?”
I hid my anxiety as best I could and turned back to Inkay with a small smile. “But that doesn’t sound simple at all. In fact, it’s amazing! Why, I bet you had everything planned down to the last detail!”
“Oh yeah~!” Wobbuffet suddenly turned towards us. “We’re geniuses! We even made sure the box was electric-proof!”
“Oh?” My smile widened. “Well I guess it’s a good thing I don’t know any normal-type moves that can break me out, huh?”
“Yes. Come to think of it, that is very fortunate for us!” Inkay nodded along. “It is not very cost effective to purchase a container that is both psychic-resistant and durable to physical atta...Uh oh.”
“Thanks for the tip.” Inkay recoiled in shock from what he had told me, only to see that I was finally standing up while inside the box. It took a few seconds, but as I looked through one of the air holes in the box I spotted my target and took in a sharp breath.
“YO FURBALL!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, drawing Meowth’s attention. Once he looked over I held out in arm and gestured for him to step forward. “Taunt.”
Meowth’s muscles tensed up as his eyes flashed red for a few moments. “What’d you call me?” Without warning, he started to rush forward while he drew out his claws.
“Wait, Meowth!” Inkay tried to get between Meowth and my cell. “She is only trying to bait you into—” “Outta my way, Inkay!” Meowth swung towards Inkay, forcing him to retreat up into the air while Meowth struck the glass several dozen times before.
“Meowth, not you too!” James tried to grab Meowth and pull him back only for him to start struggling the second that he lifted up off the ground.
“Back off!” He didn’t even turn to look at James as he Fury Swiped him across the face, forcing James to drop him and urgently care for the red crossed marks already appearing onto his face.
“Oh nooo~!” Wobbuffet tried to snap Meowth out of it, but another stink eye from me forced him to keep his attention on striking at the glass box. Sadly it didn’t make too much of a difference. Meowth’s swipes were doing nothing but marking up the glass and yelling absolute gibberish at me the entire time.
However, with all the attention brought on trying to calm Meowth down I was the only one that noticed a familiar face peeking out from one of the bushes before quickly rushing into the clearing and ducking into the basket of Team Rocket’s balloon. Once he was there he began to go back and forth inside and getting something set up from inside of it.
While that was going on, I saw the wisps of smoke start to inch its way closer towards everyone as it stuck to the shade. Just as it got behind Team Rocket, it hid itself behind a rock just as the shade shifted away from it. It seemed as though it was trying its best to avoid the sunlight.
Whatever was going on, I had no idea, but it looked like were in place for their plan to start.
I looked over and saw that both Jessie and James were trying to force Meowth away while he kept trying in vain to break through the glass. With a roll of my eyes, I dropped the taunt and watched as Meowth started to get his thoughts under his control.
“Oi vey…” Meowth started to shake away the rest of the move before glaring back up at me. “Hey, what’s da big idea?! You got some nerve tryin’ ta make fun a me!”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” I rolled my eyes and tapped the glass. Like I thought, all the scratches were purely cosmetic. “And just what exactly are you gonna do? Call Officer Jenny?”
“Geez, this is nutso,” Meowth watched me carefully as he started to back up. Now he had his guard up in case I used another move on him. “Since when did da twerps have a Pokémon wit’ an attitude?”
“I dunno,” Out of the corner of my eye I saw something that almost made me break the whole act. “Probably around the same time that your balloon started flying on its own.”
“Huh?!” Meowth, followed by Jessie and James, all turned to see the balloon inflated and casting a shadow over the entire clearing. It was still anchored to the ground but that only made the Meowth head lean down in our direction as a result.
“What kind of bad luck is this?!” James started to rush towards the balloon with Inkay followed soon after. “Which of you left the burners running?!”
Jessie humphed as she looked away. “Well don’t look at me,” Jessie turned up her nose, her hair swatting the box in the process. “Meowth was supposed to do that!”
He snapped over towards her with a glare. “Whaddya mean I was! Suppose. Ta...Nighty-night…”
All at once his vigor vanished and he slumped onto the ground as the same smoke from earlier started to collect around him. Although before Jessie or Wobbuffet could raise the alarm, James and Inkay was suddenly forced out of the balloon with a yelp, sliding across the ground with large red marks on each of their faces.
James held his nose in anguish, jumping up and glaring over towards the basket of the balloon. “What?! Who said you could stowaway?!”
“No invitations were given out!” Inkay floated up soon after, one of his tentacles covering up his face as well.
With a hop, the same familiar face from earlier launched himself up and over the side of the basket before squaring up to Inkay and James with a fighter’s pose. However, once he saw that I was still trapped in the box, he dropped his focus and started waving over at me. “Hey Kirlia!”
“Makuhita!” I looked around the treeline a little more, but there was nothing there. “Where’s Max and Spike?!”
“They’re coming, don’t worry!” Seeing Inkay float towards him, Makuhita retook his fighting pose. “Who’re you?”
“Inkay,” Finally getting rid of the mark on his face, Inkay floated up a little higher. “Member of Team Rocket. Who are you?”
“Makuhita,” He drew back one fist, getting ready to strike first. “Member of...Uh, m-member of…” He glanced down at the symbol and a lightbulb went off. “Oh! User of Way of the Fist!”
“Wait a second,” James took a good look at Makuhita. “You belong to Twerp #2!”
“You’re kidding,” Jessie looked him over with a curious expression. “He ran all the way out here on its own?” Slowly, her expression turned determined as she straightened out. “I guess we’re getting two Pokémon for the price of one today!”
Yeah, I’m not too sure about that.
“Huh?” Jessie looked over to her left and was met face to face with a second unwelcomed Pokémon. Slowly, she watched as it hovered in front of her with a cheerful look on its face before quickly growing in size so that it was twice the size of her face. As Jessie’s jaw started to tremble, the floating face let out a single word, keeping the same unmoving smile on its face.
Hiya!
“GYAAH!” Jessie scrambled back, tripping over Meowth’s sleeping body and sending her flailing to the ground as the ghost-type started to float towards her with an upbeat tone in its voice.
The name’s Gastly, ya lassie! But go ahead and call me ‘AAAAAAAAAAAGH!’ That’s what everybody does!
Jessie didn’t catch any of that. All she would hear was the ghost-types name digging into the back of her mind as an echo. Although to at least give her some credit, she at least got the nickname right.
“AAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Amidst all her flailing, Jessie practically punted Meowth with her boot, sending him into the air and through Gastly’s gaseous form, making him disperse and giving Jessie a fighting chance to dive behind an equally terrified Wobbuffett.
Yoohooo~! Makuhita!
The bits of gas collected back and quickly flew above the mass hysteria, now attracting everyone’s attention.
Flag down dem trainers, good buddy! I'll get dese block’eads all warmed up fer ya’s.
Makuhita gave a brief nod before he started to take a few steps back. “Hang in there Kirlia, I'll be right back!”
Just as he started to retreat however, James spotted him. “And just where do you think you're going?! Inkay, psybeam!”
“Right away!” Spinning in the air, Inkay fired off a beam of colors, striking Makuhita in the back right as he made it to the edge of the treeline, forcing him to his knees as he clutched his head in agony.
Hey-hey! My face is up here ya know!
Suddenly, Inkay was blasted out of the air and into the ground below as a ball of dark energy struck him from behind.
Wait a second, that was Shadow Ball. I looked back down towards the claw marks that were all over the front side of the box. This is the same glass that the Professor’s bio dome has. It cancels out psychic and ghost-type moves. But if you can ruin the surface of it with one strong hit then the whole thing shatters.
I tried to focus on teleport but all it did was move me up against the glass. It wasn't scratched up enough to effect the inside. Although the outside of it might have been a different story.
“That hurt,” Makuhita stumbled up to his feet, clutching his head with one hand. “Thanks Gastly,” Quickly he ducked into the closest bush before running deeper.
“Oh great,” With a groan, Meowth stood up and watched as one of the treetops a little ways in the forest started to shake. Makuhita was making as much noise as he could to draw the others over. “He’s soundin’ off da twerp alarm.”
“Well good thing we have a new teammate!” Jessie stepped up to Gastly with a colorful sphere in her hand “Take this, Pokéball!”
Wha-?!
Gastly flinched as the orb actually struck the ghost along its side before getting forced inside by the lights.
With a thud the Pokéball landed on the ground before it begun to roll back and forth. The light was glowing on the button but that didn't stop the rest of Team Rocket from nearly breaking out into song.
“Way to go Jessie!”
“Alright!”
“Oh yeah~! New partner obtained!”
“Will you all knock it off!” She sounded annoyed but she looked pleased with herself as she picked up the still moving Pokéball.
As she held it up, I kept watching it carefully as the shaking started to get weaker. Come on, I thought. Get out of there.
Finally, all the cheering went silent as Jessie’s face twisted into a snarl. “Oh come on, stop rolling around already!”
As though to answer to her command, the Pokéball did exactly that. However, instead of the light fading out, the top of the Pokéball sprung open, sending a cloud of black and purple smoke straight past Jessie’s face.
While she went into a coughing fit, the Gastly started to laugh.
DERO-Shishishishishishishi! Sorry, but I ain't dyin’ today! Been there done that! Shishish—Woah!
Gastly ducked out of the way as Jessie chucked another Pokéball at it before the both of them glared daggers at one another.
Sheesh, determined little brat ain't ya?!
Jessie didn't stand down and only began to reach towards another Pokéball. From what I could tell she only had one left. Still, Gastly barely got out of the first one. If it got caught up in even one more Pokéball that might just be the end for him.
“Why won’t he just sit still?!” Jessie snapped.
Seriously? what is it with trainers in assuming I’m a guy?! Why does every Gastly gotta be a guy, huh?!
“Don’t worry Jessie! Inkay, Foul Play!”
As loud as I could, I used both sets of fingers and whistled towards Inkay, catching his attention before he rocketed off towards Gastly. Once I had eye contact, I motioned to crack my knuckles and gave him a cocky smirk. “Taunt.”
He tried to flinch away before I could get the word off, but I still saw his eyes flashing red. He gave a quick nod to James and redirected himself in midair before flying off towards me with malicious intent in his eyes.
“Wait, what are you doing?!” James and the others watched in absolute terror as Inkay continued to charge forward. “That’s the wrong way!”
But Inkay didn’t answer him. Instead, he collided with the glass, making the marks that Meowth had made into cracks that scatter across the entire side of the box before spreading off towards the other.
I quickly held up my arms and watched from under Protect’s cover as the box shattered entirely followed by Inkay helplessly bouncing off Protect and into the air, just as unharmed by the glass as I was.
“Prison break!” I heard Meowth cry.
Reacting quickly, I teleported away from the remnants of the box while there was still tossed dirt and dust covering the area. Within moments I directly underneath Gastly and in the center of the entire mess.
Almost instantly I noticed the crimson aura wafting in from above me. It was just like Inkay said, this was the Pokémon that had been following me and the others almost all day. Only this time, I didn’t feel terrified of it. In fact, the aura was almost welcoming compared to Team Rocket.
Huh. I thought you couldn’t stand all the aura.
I shook my head. “Well now that I know who’s behind it, it’s not nearly as terrifying. Besides, you’re not the first ghost-type I’ve met before.”
Oh? That sounds like a fun little episode.
“Cut tha chatta already!” Meowth drew out his claws, using them more as a threat than an attack. “You’re still knee deep in trouble!”
“Until you realize that I can teleport,” Not that I could actually leave at this point. If Makuhita was still coming back with Max and Spike then they were going to be in trouble if I just vanished back to Lumiose. I wasn’t about to give that away though.
“Psybeam!”
From above the carnage of the glass box Inkay directed his blast towards me, striking me in the shoulder and knocking me away from Gastly and leaving him exposed.
James smiled from the opposite side of the field. “Now, Foul Play!”
I quickly regained my footing and went to retaliate with Charge Beam only for something to step between me and the rest of the battle.
“Oh yeah~!” Wobbuffet saluted towards me just as the beam struck him directly. Except instead of pushing him away, or doing any noticeable damage, Wobbuffet instead began to glow with a plethora of colors before suddenly the same beam fired out towards me forcing me even further away from the battle itself.
From behind Wobbuffet, Inkay slammed into Gastly before it could fire off another Shadow Ball, sending the ghost backwards before bouncing pitifully off of Wobbuffet from behind. Once it reached the ground, its smoke started to become unfocused. It was on its last legs.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jessie throwing her final Pokéball out towards him. Desperate, I held out my arm and stopped it with Psychic just as it left her hand.
As I looked back I saw nearly everyone looking over at me with disdain while Jessie seemed ready to cram me into this Pokéball by force. “Will you butt out of this?!”
Looking off behind me, Jessie glared back towards the balloon. “Meowth, hurry up and trap her already!”
“Don’t gotta tell me twice!” With the sounds of machine creaking behind me I tried to teleport again only to be slammed back onto the ground thanks to another Foul Play from Inkay.
“Not. Again.” As I looked back up he seemed almost determined to stop me from getting away and floated there as the second glass box was being carried over towards me at blinding speeds. Without them catching Makuhita, they had a spare.
Suddenly, a voice came from the treeline.
Spike’s POV
Fifteen Feet Away
“Bullet Punch!”
“Maku!”
Makuhita rushed ahead of us into the clearing before jumping forward. Once he had closed the distance to the box thing, he spun his arm one last time before it coated itself in steel and he swung forward.
The glass didn’t even crack before it shattered entirely and allowed all the shards of glass to fall to the ground. Thankfully, Kirlia managed to teleport out of there and appeared right in front of the treeline as Max and I finally made our way out.
Once I made sure that Makuhita landed safely away from any of the glass I leaned all my weight against the nearest tree and finally give my lungs a chance to try and work again.
“Kirlia!” Max slid the last few feet between him and Kirlia and pulled her in for a huge hug. “You’re okay!”
Kirlia wasted no time in returning the hug as her worry melted into pure relief. “Of course I’m okay!” She started projected her voice, making the thieves behind her gawk in disbelief. “I knew you were gonna find me!”
“She can talk?!” The thieves picked up their jaws and looked at a total loss. They were probably even more interested in Kirlia now, but something told me that she didn’t care.
Seeing that they were actually reacting to this, I caught my breath. “Okay good,” Their attention went up to me as I nodded along. “I thought I was the only one that didn’t know that.”
“Maku-maku,” The nod from Makuhita told me that he was in agreement.
“Hold up!” From off to the left I saw a two legged pale-colored cat standing on the railing with some weird metal box with colored buttons in its hands. As it glared at me, it went on. “Yer tha rotten twerp that keeps gettin’ all our machines smashed!”
“...” All at once, I stopped panting and looked over at the cat like a dog with a whistle. I took in one final breath and just wiped my eyes off before looking back and...Yep. He’s still there.
Gasgasgas. Gastly...
“Huh?” Somehow my attention was taken off of the talking cat and was brought over towards the center of the clearing where a pile of smoke had gathered up in the shade of the balloon. As I spotted the eyes and mouth the memory all started coming back. “Hey,” The Pokémon stopped laughing and moved to look at me. “You’re the Pokémon who scared me yesterday!”
...Gas?...
Its entire form tilted on its side, the smile growing wider as it looked at me.
“Yes, you!” I looked towards the guy with the blue hair next. “So this is your ghost!”
“What?!” The man glared back at me. “I don’t remember taking the blame for him!”
“Wait, he-he isn’t?” I turned to Max but he looked just as confused as I did. “Then, who’s side is it on?”
...Ly, Gastly?...
“Oh who cares who’s side that thing’s on!” The woman snapped before holding out a Pokéball. “Right now it’s about to be on Team Jessie!”
Gas!
The Gastly started to frown before flying over towards us and turning back towards the thieves. It looked like it was ready to fight if it needed to.
“Max, Gastly needs our help. We can’t let it get caught either.” Both of them stood up just as Makuhita ran around the glass to stand beside me. All of us were standing between Gastly and the thieves like a wall.
“Right,” Max wasted no time in looking over towards Gastly. “Don’t worry Gastly, we’ll make sure you don’t get caught. Right Spike?” He smiled towards me and Makuhita.
I looked from Max to Gastly, seeing that the smile on its face was still missing. It almost felt weird in its own way to see it like that. The entire time it spent chasing me around on the roof it had a huge grin on its face and no matter what I tried its smile wouldn’t falter.
Still, he didn’t actively try to hurt me or anything. He was just floating around until I tripped off the side of the building. After that, he stopped trying to scare me...I think. Which is at least more than I can say about all of these people that tried to take away Kirlia.
I watched Gastly for a few more seconds before finally making up my mind. “Yeah. We’ll help.” I turned back towards Team Rocket and noticed that it was just the blue blob and squid ones that looked like they were going to fight with the two humans and talking cat standing off behind them. Finally, the balloon was behind their entire group with a giant shadow spreading across the clearing.
“Let’s get this over with quick,” The blue haired man pointed towards Makuhita. “Inkay, use psybeam!”
As the floating squid flipped upside down, a beam of multiple colors began to fire out like a laser towards Makuhita. “Kirlia! Cover him with protect!”
As Max commanded, Kirlia slide in front of Makuhita and created a green forcefield around the two of them causing the colorful beam to plink off ineffectively.
“Thanks!” I watched as the protect faded and both the Inkay and Kirlia were left wide open. “Quick, go for Inkay with Bullet Punch!”
“Hii,” Makuhita jumped over Kirlia before rushing towards Inkay with his arm spinning beside him like a windmill.
“Wobbuffet, block that thing with counter!” Right as Makuhita’s arm turned to steel, the blob leaned in front of him and didn’t even flinch as it struck the center of his face. It wasted no time and leaned so far back that its head rested on the floor before its body started to glow a faint orange hue.
“Wobbaa!” The hue flashed all at once as the blob’s body lurched forward and slammed back into Makuhita, sliding him back a few feet before reeling from the hit.
“Are you okay?” Seeing him raise a fist, I watched as the woman started to throw something towards Gastly. “Look out!” I threw my hand up into the air, knocking the weird object out of the air and onto the ground beside me.
Once I made sure that nothing else was coming for Gastly, I noticed the woman glaring daggers at me. “Stop getting in my way you little twerp!”
I shuffled in place a little, trying to keep from looking at the battle instead of her glare. “Why do you keep calling me that?!”
“Kirlia, push Wobbuffet away with Psychic!” Max ignored us and watched as Kirlia’s eyes and horn lit up a bluish aura now and plucked the blob off of the ground before tossing him into Jessie and the cat, thus sending them all flying into the balloon’s basket with a scream.
The man gritted his teeth, but again saw Kirlia with a huge opening. “Alright Inkay, let’s stop this charade with Foul Play!”
“Spike?” Max looked over.
“Yeah,” I looked as Makuhita was close enough to stop the squid before it charged on. “Makuhita, use that Arm Thrust move!”
He didn’t waste time responding and ran forward towards the two of them. And without a blob to stop him this time, Makuhita shoved his arm forward and slammed his fist into the floating Pokémon, sending it into the man just as Kirlia had done with the blob and Jessie.
...Gas…
As the cluster of people all tried to get off of one another and out of the basket, Gastly had managed to sneak forward while staying within the shadow of the balloon. However, as the group started to notice him one after the other, all of them drew back further into the balloon as they saw the expression on Gastly’s face.
It wasn’t laughing.
Slowly, a ball of spiraling black aura started to collect in front of it. Immediately the group tried to scramble out of the basket, trying their hardest to climb over one another in the process. Sadly for them, by the time that one of them even got one foot out of the basket they were too late.
Gast...LY!
Gastly launched the ball forward, striking the basket itself before it all exploded in a cloud of smoke and dirt as suddenly the balloon exploded upwards like a dust-made firework.
As the dust finally settled off to the sides, whatever pieces of the balloon were still there were now lying scattered around the clearing. Except, among all of the wreckage there with no sign of Team Rocket anywhere on the ground.
“And I was so close to catching that ghost too…”
“Something tells me you’re scary enough without it.”
“Woooobbuffet.”
“TEAM ROCKET’S BLASTING OFF AGAAAAAaaaaaiiign…”
They kept flying higher and higher until finally they disappeared into the sky with a twinkle of a star. Once they were gone for good I turned back towards Max. “Are they gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,” He didn’t bat an eye at it. “For some reason that always happens to them. And they always come back like nothing happened.”
...Gas…
Ahead of us we saw Gastly still floating where he was as its form fought against the sunlight. It wasn’t turning back to look at us, but I could hear its voice fading in and out.
“Sure,” Suddenly, Kirlia nodded and turned back towards us as she started projecting her voice again. “Gastly says thank you for the help.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Max was the first to speak up. “Besides, you helped us safe Kirlia, right? It’s the least we could do!”
I didn’t really have anything to say so I just nodded along.
Gasgasgas...Gastly…
“You know,” Kirlia began to translate. “I never got the chance to say sorry, kid.”
“Sorry? For what?” Max looked just as confused as I felt.
...Gastly, gasgsasgas, gasss…
“When I saw you land in Kalos. Shishishi?” Kirlia Gastly an odd look as she translated, making Gastly just laugh some more. “ugh...I thought it’d be fun to say ‘high.’ Now I think that joke might’ve gone too far.”
“Huh? Wait, but I don’t remember seeing you when we got off the plane.” Max only got more confused as we listened on. Finally, he just gave up and turned towards me. “Spike, do you know what he’s talking about?”
“...” I bit my lip and before I could even answer, not that I could, Gastly went on and Kirlia quickly translated.
“I don’t really know how it happened either, but I’m pretty sure that I only saw a little of it.” Max and Makuhita were too invested in hearing everything that they didn’t see my eyes lighting up. “For now though, I’m as lost as you. Again, sorry.”
“And before you start throwing out questions in front of me, the Pokémon, and the other kid,” Kirlia’s eyes narrowed as she repeated it. Not towards anyone in particular, but just at the words she said. “No. I didn’t see it happen any other time. You’re a special case here.”
With the last part over and done with, Gastly turned towards us with its eyes closed and happy expression back on its face. As though whatever he said never happened.
...Gastly? GAST-gasgasgasgasgas!
“Really? Another joke?” Kirlia looked miffed from all the laughing and just crossed her arms. “I’m not repeating that.”
...Gas?! Gastly!...
Whilst they continued to have their spat and Makuhita watched in amusement, Max looked over towards me again. And this time he saw right through me as my mind was racing at everything that Gastly just said.
He saw everything? Just how much did he see? What did it look like? Was it a portal like when Twilight and I tracked down Starlight was it like Twilight’s teleporting? Actually, I still don’t know what made it happen either. The professors all said it was that weird pulse in Sinnoh, but didn’t make too much since. Why would that pulse thing go in this world and Equestria?
Finally, I just groaned at all the questions that kept building up in my brain. It was just like Gastly said, I had so many questions that I wanted to ask, but it wouldn’t help. Not unless I wanted to try and explain all of this to Max and the others.
“Hey Spike,” And speaking of Max, “Are you gonna be okay? Is something wrong?”
“Um...I-I don’t know.” I wasn’t even sure if I was lying. “It’s just that what it was saying kind of reminded me of my friends.”
“Well, is there anything you wanna say about it?” Max gave me a smile. “I might not know what’s going on, but if we have any answers then I don’t mind helping.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t end well. “Erm, no, that’s okay. I just wanna think about it for a while.” Looking down, I noticed that there was something on the ground. A Pokéball. “Oh. I think this is what they tried throwing at Gastly earlier.”
Behind me I heard Kirlia and Gastly’s bickering cease as I picked up the ball. Just like the one that Professor Sycamore told me was Makuhita’s, this one was red and white. The only difference is that it was already enlarged.
“Yeah. They were trying to catch Gastly.” I held out the Pokéball for everyone to see. “I guess it’s not stealing, but Gastly obviously didn’t want to go with them. It just didn’t seem right.”
...Gastly…
The ghost started to float past us to reach the shade before turning back towards both of us with a content smile on its face. He was watching the Pokéball.
“It says that he,” “Maku,” “Err, it, wants to go with you.” From behind us, Kirlia started projected her voice again.
“Wait, you mean it?” I looked from the ball to Gastly, putting everything together in my mind again. I mean, he did come all the way out here just to say sorry to me. Plus he even saw me landing on Sycamore’s roof. If he did come with me than I would be able to try and figure out what else—
...Gastly…
Slowly, the ghost rotated its head left and right as if he were shaking its head.
“Sorry kid,” Kirlia started, sounding a bit out of place as she explained it. “But I think that Pokéball’s better reserved for someone else. I don’t think I’m too good a fit for you.”
The ghost gave me one last sad expression and tried to say something else before turning towards Max with a smile.
“It also said that there’s still something else that sticks out with Max. I’m sorry Spike.” Kirlia’s voice came from my mind this time.
I saw Max looking between me and Gastly, but I just smiled. “It’s okay, I understand. Besides, I’m still new to the whole Pokémon Trainer thing anyways.” As I said that something else finally clicked in my mind.
“Oh yeah,” I turned around and walked over towards Makuhita, who was watching the whole scene play out beside Kirlia. When she saw me going for my Pokémon, she nodded along and traded places with me. “Hey Makuhita? Thanks for all the help today!”
“Maku!” He waved the thought away with a huge grin on his face.
“Are you kidding? Did you see how fast you were running?!” I watched as his grin got bigger. “Me and Max were trying to get there too, but you were able to find Kirlia without even knowing where to look!”
“Hita,” He scratched his arm and started acting a little bashful. “Makuhita.” Quickly, he pointed over towards Gastly and went on for a second or two more.
I shrugged. “Well, yeah, Gastly helped us out too, but you’re the one who helped us get here!” When I saw that Makuhita chuckling at all the praise I smiled. “In fact, I think I came up with a good name for you.”
“Hii?” His focus came back to me.
“Yeah. I got the idea when we were all running over here.” I crouched down so I was at eye level. “What do you think of Jet?”
“Maku?” He scratched his chin and took a few seconds to repeat the name in his head a few times before finally looking up to me again. “Hita?”
“Well, jets can go pretty fast right? And since you’re pretty fast too I think it fits pretty well.” I held out a fist. “So, what do you think?”
“...” Makuhita stared back at me for a little while longer. Obviously I couldn’t just come up with the name on my own. The only reason I did that for Peewee is because he was a baby. Although, I guess you could say that I was asking him what he thought was because he was smarter than the animals back home. Sure Fluttershy’s pets were pretty smart too, but that’s because she raised each of them. As far as I knew, he could’ve grown up in the wild this whole time.
When I wasn’t paying attention I felt something give me a fistbump. “Ma-ku!” Looking up, I saw Mak...Jet grinning again. He looked happy.
I smiled along. “Alright. Jet it is.”
By the time I stood up, I heard some kind of click sound from behind us. Not only that but as we around we could see Max holding a Pokéball of his own in his hand while Gastly was nowhere to be seen.
“Hm,” Max hummed in agreement before tucking the Pokéball away and turning around to face us. “So, are we ready to get going?”
Jet and I shared a look before going back to them and nodding. “Yep. Let’s go.”
Meanwhile
With no hesitation in their steps, a single person kept walking down one of the many sidewalks in Lumiose. In their grasp was a uninteresting suitcase with no discernible color or marking on it aside from the black gloved hand that held it.
Finally, as the figure reached the street corner, it finally reached its destination. A cafe. Sadly, this cafe never saw too many visitors. It was one of only a few interesting places near the Magenta Plaza and sadly the face of the store didn’t attract all too many customers in here. After all, the incredibly imposing color of maroon coating the entire front of the store as well as the furniture that sat outside did nothing but draw customers away from it.
Regardless, the figure kept going through the store’s entrance and was instantly met with an entire cafe full of nothing but the color red. The tables were red, the bar was red, the floor was an unsettling color of red, the color was everywhere. That is, save for the only man that was inside the cafe.
The man wasn’t tending the bar, nor was he cleaning up his establishment. Instead, he was sitting at the table, waiting for the person who was now coming through the door.
Not wanting to waste any time, the person walked over and placed the briefcase directly in the center of the man’s table before taking a step back. Once he saw the owner of the cafe give a nod, the person gave a salute before walking over to the bar itself, effectively doing his duties as a bartender.
Once the bartender was in place, the owner took the briefcase and opened it, revealing a computer set up inside. As it booted up, the owner undid a few clasps from the sides that allowed him to take the computer out of the actual suitcase.
From the left of him a woman walked past, collecting the outer shell and switching it around like a puzzle. Once she was done, it looked nothing like a briefcase and instead resembled a bus tray. She then began using to clean up the tables that had a few stray cups and dishes that were left unattended while the bartender and owner let it go unnoticed.
PASSWORD:
It was the only word on the screen as the laptop finished turning on. Underneath it was a blank box with a blinking line. Same as any other computer.
PASSWORD:
*********
The screen flashed green for a moment as the words “Password Accepted” came across the screen. No later did the words vanish only to be replaced by a screen overflowing with charts and statistics littering the sides with a seemingly endless amount of information coming from them.
However, the man ignored all of that. Instead, he looked towards the center of the screen where a large map depicting the world had a line going back and forth across it. On this map it had a picture of nearly every region located on it. The more important regions such as Kalos and Hoenn as well as smaller, more insignificant regions like the Orange Archipelago and Orre were also located on it.
What was more interesting however were the amount of glowing blue dots that were found scattered across the regions. To the top left of the map the computer had thankfully counted up every single glowing dot displayed. The small box read: 53*.
Directly under that number was the explanation for this asterisk. It went as follows: “*Among these 53 responses, 17 of them seem to have a much stronger energy reading from them. The rest are faint and are believed to be residue from the stronger energy readings.”
The owner hummed as he read the information, no doubt deciding to either abandon all focus the weaker ones altogether or come back to them at a later date. For now, the stronger ones had peaked his attention.
One by one, he clicked on each location that had a stronger region. He started in Kanto. From the readings displayed by that one it was shown that it had one of the strongest readings of them all. It had nearly dwarfed the other source that was found south of Kanto at Cinnabar Island. The smaller one was only just categorized as a strong energy source by only a few points.
He then went to Hoenn where two of the larger sources were found. One on the outskirts of Fortree City and another near Rustboro City. As he investigated those two the owner realized that one of the other large sources was appearing somewhere between Hoenn and Kanto on open waters. But with it nowhere near the top five energies he saw no reason to investigate it first.
The others he scanned over them just as quickly. Three in Johto, another in Sinnoh with a heavy amount of the residue sources scattered around, two on separate islands in the Alola region, one in Unova, and finally two in an out of the way region called Orre. One that was in the middle of nowhere and another was about twenty miles to the east of Phanec City. Which, just like the previous source, was out in the desert.
At last, the owner came up to the region he was now currently sitting in, Kalos. There was a reason that he came to this one last. He knew that whatever energy sources he saw here would be the first one he would investigate. And thankfully he wasn’t disappointed from what he saw.
As of right now there were six of them in Kalos. One of them seemed very promising as it had appeared directly in Lumiose City. However, when there was no reaction from the city, nor was there any way to track down the exact location at the moment, he would have to wait for some kind of opportunity to start investigating the city for the reading. Lumiose City was out.
Again he decided to ignore the three residue sources for now. Maybe send out a small team to look into that matter if there was a lack of projects any time soon. That left two more sources to look into.
The second larger source was directly to the west of Lumiose and perhaps the only case in which two large energy sources were anywhere within fifty miles of one another. Still, it was a little too close to Lumiose for his liking.
That left the final source of energy. To the southwestern side of the Kalos Region was the Glittering Cave and aside from its history regarding fossils and gemstones, it was worth little to anyone.
This was where his target was located.
Within about ten more minutes, the initial analysis of the energy sources was completed and the owner was ready to move forward with integrating this into his research. Whether it had anything to do with his main project he was unsure. However, it was now considered worth looking into and possibly keeping as a side project if it truly didn’t have anything to do with his current plan. Project Y.
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Creativity.
History is for me.
Now Spike has two Pokémon and has some of his blind spots covered. I wonder who he will catch next?
7983962 I don'the think he caught that gastly.
7983962 Actually, Max caught Gastly. Spike just came up with a name for his Pokemon. He does have a Pokeball to use though.
It is hard for me to choose between Creativity and Loyalty.
I hold all of them as pieces of a whole:
Creativity to get out of a tight spot
Know your history, lest you repeat it.
Protect those weaker than you
A loyal friend always has your back
And hard work ties them all together.
I vote for hard work. It is one of the most important things in the world.
In all honesty I think all of them are improtant but if I had to choose one it would either be loyalty or protection
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I see your points, it is a bit of a loaded question. I think I might have another question that might be a bit easier to answer. Although at the same time it might be just as difficult to answer:
7991760 With 5 years of experience working in retail, this is an easy one for me. It's definitely Hard work.
7991760 I would say loyalty is what people take most for granted cause sometimes people would abuse it cause loyalty brings blind trust which could lead to bad things happening if that trust is missused
8030266 Yeah, I see what you mean. The Pokémon aspect is a bit more heavy handed. Although I promise that the MLP part will start to come into play more and more as the story goes. I think some of it might also be that I suck at beginnings and introducing characters.
As for the aging thing, yes. Ash has aged. He's nearing fourteen. I treat each region that the series has gone in as half a year, or sometimes full year, going by. So with that in mind, Ash has gone to Kanto, Johto, and Orange Islands before reaching Hoenn. Add an extra half for time in between and that's twelve years old at the start of Hoenn. Since then he's been to the Battle Frontier, Sinnoh, Unova, and a few other small stops. So he's almost fourteen going into Kalos.
With Spike, I personally see him as at least 10 years old or 11 at this point in the series. So about as old as Max. With the CMC, I see them as about the same age. More specifically, I see Sweetie as the oldest with eleven, same as Spike, Applebloom as ten, and Scoots as nearing ten herself if not ten already. The only reason I think Sweetie is the oldest is because Rarity seems the oldest of the Mane 6, so it's only fitting, pun not intended
, that Sweetie be a little older as well.
8030369 How's the next chapter coming along?