Gastly watched from the wall with a snigger, That's what you get for locking me up human, you did this to yourself so don't blame me!

Seeing the weedle begin to move in his direction with a vicious glare, Jareds eyes open wide. He fishes some more C grade food from his bag, then crouches down.

Oh to hell with it, if I run away it's just going to make things worse, even the smallest pokemon can destroy a human thanks to their elemental moves, so I might as well go all in...

On that thought, Jared laid down on his stomach, and held the food out to the weedle with his head down, then spoke in a soothing tone trying to calm it, "Ah... hey little seven pound weedle, here's some nice C grade food so don't poison me to death please"

...Well if this doesn't work I'll have to hope Gastly intervenes, weedles are poison type, if I get poisoned I might be screwed. In hindsight, I should have bought an antidote, but a bit late now...

Feeling the weedle nibble at the food in his hands, Jared feels some relief, but he doesn't dare to move.

A few minutes after the eating stopped, Jared gathered some courage and looked up, but the weedle was gone, he glanced around and found the weedle curled up on the only bed.

Letting out a few shaky breaths, Jared gets himself off the ground,

That was close... maybe this is another reason why they removed all the dividers and rooms, they wanted to make it so you have no choice but to entrust yourself to the pokemon. If I was able to run away and hide in another room, then there might not be much risk to me, but that won't build any trust... ahh right, it must be about trust!

He glanced off into the distance silently, "I wonder how the other trainees are doing..."

Looking at the time, Jared found it to still be early. He cleaned up the C grade food he had left on the floor, even putting it back into the hefty packet to not waste any.

Leaning against the wall, he began browsing through the tablet again to pass the time.

Gastly appeared to be bored as well, his voice booms in Jared's mind sarcastically, "Looks like you aren't dead human?"

Setting the tablet on his lap, Jared looked around but doesn't find Gastly, so he just spoke into thin air, "I know you are angry about being left in the pokeball for five days, but you went a little too far you know that?"

"I said you would regret it human!"

The stupid conversation was beginning to give Jared a headache, so he changed the subject, "Gastly, can I see you for a moment? I want to check something."

Gastly begins to form in acknowledgment, while in Jared's mind, he focuses and thinks *potential*

As soon as the thought was completed a brilliant white glow burst from Gastlys form, it was as bright as the sun,

Noticing Jared shield his eyes, Gastly looked on with confusion, "What are you doing human?"

Jared ignores the question and asks one of his own in a shaky voice, "How long does it usually take for you Gastlys to evolve?"

"I don't know human, but I know there are few haunters, and they are all very old"

"Let me change the question then, are you special among Gastlys?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Don't know."

Scratching his chin, Jared muses to himself, I've never seen another Gastly, but there's no way a brilliant white glow like that is the norm, he told me the other Gastlys are mostly mindless, while he's not, that's already a bit unique...

"I'm hungry human!"

Putting his train of thought aside, he instead looks up towards the smirking ball of gas, and relents, "Alright, but keep an eye on Kai."

Grabbing some rice, Jared began kneeling on it, he much preferred this to sticking needles under his fingernails. It's not that the needles were any less painful, but there's a barrier between intentionally sticking needles into your fingers and painfully kneeling, he felt one was less mentally draining than the other and required less courage.

Gastly floated around Jared with a smile as he felt the negative energy flow into him, and as promised he kept a tendril of his form to observe Kai's room.

The weedle was woken up to a screaming human and a happy Gastly but didn't take any action.

The rest of the day passed painfully. The bed was occupied, so Jared tiredly lay his head on his backpack to sleep.

High off the negative energy, and In higher spirits, the Gastly floated his way over to the weedle to taunt him, "Sad little bug, you are lucky the human is stopping me from teaching you a lesson, but the moment he gives the order you are finished"

The weedle haughtily replied without a shred of fear, "Coward floating liar, why wait?"

Enraged, Gastly fired a hypnosis accurately into the weedles head, which put him to sleep.

Sneering, Gastly floated away, "Hmph, ugly big nosed bug, you don't give me orders."

Waking up, Jared rubbed his sore back,

I really don't like sleeping on the ground, I'm too old for this...

Looking around he finds the weedle lying lazily on the bed observing him. He decided to get himself some breakfast, and, same as before, pulled out a handful of C grade bug food for the weedle along with a bowl of water.

Jared tried to approach the weedle by crouching, but the pain from kneeling yesterday was making the once simple task a struggle.

He was now a few meters from the weedle and noticed it wasn't hissing or puffing up,

... Quite an improvement over last night, I wonder if the Gastly decided to be helpful for once and talked sense into him...

Jared was about to lay the food on the ground, but the weedle hissed.

Looking up, he finds the weedle seeming to shake body in disapproval.

Getting the hint, Jared gets on his stomach with a wince. He puts his head down and holds his hands up to present the food like an offering to God.

The weedle leisurely began to eat the offering, and afterward, he crawled back into the bed and arrogantly eyed the human that was walking away.

Sitting down against the wall by the small kitchen, Jared ponders his next course of action, I still have tomorrow to tame him, no sense pushing the issue now, if it comes to it I'll beg Gastly to help... and pray he doesn't make things worse.

Jared decided to play it safe and bought an antidote for a hundred. He thought it would come in useful at some point even if the weedle doesn't end up stinging him. He passed the rest of the long day in pain, there was nothing else to really do except increase Gastlys strength, and feed the weedle occasionally.

The incident with the haunter caused him to feel fear and a bit insecure. He wished Gastly would become stronger as soon as possible.

It was the third day now, and the weedle still didn't seem to care much for him.

Feeling out of options, Jared tried to reason with the Gastly, "Hey Gastly... I've been working hard to give you negative energy so I hope you can do me a favor..."

A foreign emotion of gloating could be felt in his mind, so Jared just sighed while watching the weedle glare at him from a few meters away.

Jared turned away, then spoke, "Can you please help me Gastly? If you mess around like last time I don't know what my fate is going to be, please just let the weedle know the situation. Tell him why I need to tame him, and... tell him that I'll release him back to his home once I get out of here if he wants."

The weedle becomes alert when he spied the Gastly forming above him, his stinger twitched threateningly.

Gastly conveyed the words accurately while the weedle listens.

The weedle turns to Jared, "Wee eelewel eweee wlewew weedle weeel"

Turning to Gastly in incomprehension, Gastly translates the words into Jared's head which came out to, "I go in your human ball or else you not leave, and will release me after?"

After the words were translated, Jared nods, "Yes, I'll set you free once we leave this place."

"You aren't tricky like lying ball?" Scoffing in Jared's mind, Gastly still translates it accurately.

"Yes, If you don't, then I don't know what will happen to you, but I can say for certain that the people that captured you won't set you free, so what have you got to lose?"

Weedle pauses, "Why you kneel, hurt self?"

Gastly answered for Jared, " He feeds me negative energy!."

Weedle hesitates before he reluctantly comes to a decision, "I enter ball, If you become tricky like lying big ball... I sting you!"