Originally, when Ethan had laid his eyes upon the normally nocturnal group of Oddish grouping up with angry faces, ready to head out on their quest for retribution, he had been worried that the professor or his aides had inadvertently done something wrong.

It was a valid concern, as he’d already done a slight faux-pas when he’d arrived…

But when one of the Oddish looked in his direction, pointed one of its head leaves forward in a obvious pointing gesture, and then shouted its name in a battle-cry, causing the entire group to swivel to face him... He had second thoughts.

“ODDDDISSSSSHHHH!”

“ODD!”

“ODD-ODD!”

“ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD”

“ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD”

“ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD”

“ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD-ODD”

They began their chants, anger clearly prevalent in their scrunched faces as they, together, surged forward.

Ethan was dumbfounded. What had he done wrong? In the scant few seconds he had to think before they arrived, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what he had done to anger the group.

Then, as the group of six Oddish grew ever nearer, he realized that they weren’t looking at him. They were looking behind him. As he slowly craned his neck, he spotted Loudred with a look of horror etched across his face. With a gentle but powerful shove, Loudred scooted Ethan to the side, then held its hands out placating as he spoke.

“Loudred! Loooud!” It dropped onto its knees, which only lowered the purple pokemon about six inches, given his already stout legs. With a disturbingly well practiced motion, Loudred slid into a kotow—Forehead pressing into the grass.

The six Oddish slowed in their approach, then turned to form a group huddle, whispering to one another as they flicked their eyes to Loudred occasionally.

Ethan was stumped. He swapped his gaze from the Oddish who had never grown quite this angry to the supplicant begging for mercy ahead of him. “Okay. What the heck is going on?”

One of the Oddish, seeing his confusion, plopped its leaves on its hips in a frankly absurd looking gesture, and then waddled towards him, separating from the discussion. Ethan knelt down to get on their relative level, and watched the Oddish pantomime a story.

Oddish rested its leaves on the side of its head, closed its eyes, and pretended to snooze. It then jerked awake and yelled out its name. “ODDDDDISH!” It pointed to Loudred, who flinched at the motion. Oddish glared at the kotowing pokemon, then nodded confidently.

Thinking back, Loudred did blast its name as soon as it got out of its pokeball. “I think I understand,” said Ethan, “In Loudred’s defense, he didn’t know that there would be sleeping pokemon right next to him as soon as he was released from his pokeball.” He leaned over to the still kowtowing Loudred, “You are a boy, right?”

With one of the most awkward nods he’s ever seen, since the pokemon’s face was more than half of its body and still facing the earth, he got his answer. Loudred was a ‘he’.

The Oddish in front of him still didn’t look too happy, but it was noticeably less mad than before. It walked up to Loudred and stood before the kowtowing pokemon, waiting for his head to rise.

Loudred couldn’t stand the sheer pressure of its presence and ever so slowly and clumsily pushed himself up to stand. Oddish pointed at him with its forward facing leaf, then declared some form of harsh punishment. “Odd! Oddish-dish!”

With a guilty nod, it seemed that their squabble was over with. The other five Oddish all nodded along, agreeing with whatever just transpired. As a group, the Oddish walked off into the meadow, with Loudred following behind.

“What am I? Chopped liver? What the hell is happening?” Ethan shouted as his face was full of confusion. He chased after them.

They entered through the fence, into meadow, and passed the professor, Justine, and Chase, who watched the procession of Loudred with open confusion. They all broke away from their work, joining Ethan’s side as he trailed the group of pokemon from behind.

The professor was the first to speak. “Uhh… Did Loudred do something wrong? Why does it look like he’s being led towards punishment?”

Ethan was about to answer, but the group of pokemon suddenly stopped and turned to face them. The group of Oddish spread out, circling the Loudred who once again dropped to his knees. Loudred dramatically gazed up towards the sky, arms held out to the sides, as if saying ‘take me!’.

As one, the Oddish began their dance, and Ethan, the professor, Justine, and Chase quieted as they watched on. The only sounds that could be heard was the swaying of grass from both the surroundings, and from the Oddish themselves as they twirled and circled in perfect coordination. Their formerly angry faces were gone, replaced by a solemn facade as they twirled and hopped. Loudred knelt there, still as could be, as he gazed upwards at the slowly growing gray cloud high above.

The professor whipped out a camera and began recording the scene… not the option Ethan would have chosen, given that it was his pokemon that looked to be a sacrifice in a weird ritual, but to each their own.

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Only a few seconds later, the gentle pattering of rain descended across the meadow. Where Ethan and the group of researchers stood, it was barely noticeable, but from where Loudred knelt, it was a torrential downpour. After a solid thirty seconds, the Oddish stilled and watched Loudred get pelted by the water. Eventually, Gloom, who had stood off to the side, out of everyone's notice, called an abrupt end to the proceedings.

With a strenuous shake of its body, a large orange ball shot out from Gloom, launching itself up into the sky to hover in place. The gray clouds dissipated, ending the downpour and bringing out an artificial sun for all to see.

Loudred stood up, still soaking wet, and murmured his name to the surrounding Oddish and then Gloom. He stomped back sullenly toward the group of humans and joined the professor's side.

While Elm was still recording the grass pokemon, Justine's attention wavered back toward Ethan. “What was that?”

Ethan shrugged. “When Loudred got released from his pokeball, he shouted his name. It woke the Oddish, and they were forming up for a witch hunt. As punishment for waking them, ‌they decided that Loudred’s punishment was to be drenched from their Rain Dance. Gloom, their leader, called the end with a Sunny Day… at least, that’s what I gathered.”

Chase spoke up, his formerly immaculate flat-top dampened by the droplets of rain. “Oddish don’t learn Rain Dance.”

Ethan gave him a raised eyebrow and pointed at the group of now happy and dancing Oddish. “Well, what would you call that then? They can learn Rain Dance. I taught them the move.” Ethan cupped his mouth and shouted. “Do another Rain Dance!”

All at once, the group of Oddish and their leader, Gloom, swung their gaze toward him and nodded with happy smiles. Once again, they swayed, twisted, and hopped in a synchronized dance, causing the Sunny Day to falter. In its spot, the formerly dissipated gray clouds came back with vigor, causing a faint drizzle to fall from the sky.

Ethan turned to the three stupefied researchers with a smug smile.

“Ethan!” *Blip!* “Ow!”

From out of thin air, Ralts dropped to the ground. It was a surprisingly common sight, as Ethan had long since learned that the little psychic seemed to teleport a solid three to five feet in the air every time.

With a faint grumble, Ralts hastily stood and dusted off her legs as she spoke telepathically in a hurry. “The distorted have come!!! Writhing their way into your home like serpents through the cracks, bringing with them their twisted presence. They seek to defile what is ours, to taint the very air with their corruption. But know this—your domain shall not be sullied by such filth! Their intrusion is but a momentary blight, one we shall swiftly and decisively purge!!!!!”

Blank faced, Ethan stared into the fierce pinkish-red eyes glaring into his soul. “Was it a Rotom?”

Ralts opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. She narrowed her eyes, then glanced around at the others nearby. “So, you knew? You stood by, fully aware, yet said nothing...? How curious, to hold such knowledge and choose silence…”

Ethan gestured to Ralts as he looked at the three researchers. “This is Ralts—Ralts, this is Professor Elm, one of the worlds best when it comes to pokemon breeding. These are his aides, Justine and Chase. Chase, Ralts isn’t a fan of ghost type pokemon. So, it appears that she has chosen to embrace the role of a tattletale, divulging secrets with all the grace of a servile informant.”

Ralts spluttered, then surged forth furiously to start feebly punching his shins. “You take that back!”

Ethan shrugged. “Your words, not mine.”

Chase winced and ran a hand through his damp flattop. “Is he causing trouble?”

Ethan looked to Ralts, who slowed in her flimsy punches. “No….”

“No.” Ethan said to fill in the blanks, just in case the telepathy wasn’t going out to everyone. Now that Rotom had come up in conversation, Ethan had a favor to ask. “By the way, Rotom possesses machines, right? Do you think he could charge a phone? I have… a very unique phone that's very dear to me. It has a lot of memories stored inside of it, but there’s no chargers for it anymore.”

Chase, nodded with ease. “Oh sure. He can do that easily enough. He’d have to hop inside to look at the internals, but it shouldn’t be an issue.”

Ethan mentally fist bumped as he knelt to pick up Ralts. “Well, I won’t distract you guys any longer. I’ll go make us all some dinner and check on the situation. Oddish, Gloom, don’t cause too much trouble out here, okay?”

“Odddddd!”

“Odd-odd!”

“Odddish!”

“Glooooooooooooooom.”

As he walked back through the now slightly damp meadow with Ralts in his arms, he found it to be the perfect opportunity to ask some questions. “Hey Ralts, you do know that not all ghost pokemon are bad, right?”

“...”

Ethan ignored the silence and carried on. “Your… coven? It’s in a war of some kind with ghosts?”

Ralts nodded, but still didn’t speak. She crossed her arms and sulked in his hold.

“Has this war always been ongoing? Or is it a recent thing?” He asked.

“Recent.”

“Do you know why it started?”

“They’ve grown upset over one of their kings being taken. The one from the building of man. They’re lashing out and creating an imbalance, one which we aim to right. It is not the first time the distorted have sought to harm the forest, nor will it be the last.” Ralts dropped that bomb on him, and he didn’t really know what to say.

“Do you know what pokemon was taken? I assume someone went and caught it?” He asked as they climbed the steps of his home.

“Hmm… The eternal nightmare. I know not what humans call him.”

As Ethan swung open his door, he felt a chill run down his spine. “Well that doesn’t sound ominous at all.”

Inside his home, Smeargle was trying to work the laptop. He leaned forward and gently smacked the side like it was a faulty TV. Suddenly, the electrical plasma form of Rotom peeked out from the screen, causing Smeargle to flail back with a shout. “SMEAR!” The chair toppled over, and the Rotom spun as it giggled.

“I’m telling Chase.” Ethan said, completely monotone.

Rotom tore himself free from the computer and spun to face Ethan, pleading. Ethan pretended to think, tapping a finger to his chin. “Hmm. Tell you what, you charge my phone for me, and I will let this little prank slide.”

Rotom bobbed and spun in the air, eyes crinkling into joy as little sparks flew off of its body. Ethan went over to the kitchen and opened one of the drawers, grabbing his old Earth phone. He held it out, and in a flash, Rotom surged forward into it. After a second, a familiar apple logo appeared, just with eyes as it looked from side to side.

His lock screen appeared, and in a millisecond unlocked without him doing anything, which was mildly concerning. Once his home screen appeared, the battery percentage in the top right went from 1% to 100% in a blink of an eye. Rotom surged out of his phone and into the air with a shiver.

Ethan reached out to pat the hovering pokemon, but his hand fell through its form, leaving it slightly tingly and with raised hairs. “Thanks…” Ethan sucked in a breath as he opened his front door. “CHATOT! COME HERE! I HAVE SOMETHING YOU’LL LOVE!”