The little girl takes her seat at the table, legs crossed one over the other and fingers resting delicately on her lap to portray poise. Somehow, everything has been set up already, from the snacks, to the silverware and china, to the steaming pot of tea in the center. The only thing off about it is the crack, but I guess it's a family antique or something, because it seems really out of place with all the other spotlessly sparkling dishes.
She's waiting for me to take my seat, but I really don't want to go through with this without some backup. Time to ask if we can get some last minute invitations sent out.
"Can my Pokémon join this tea party? I'd hate for them not to enjoy this experience."
The girl stares at her doll intensely for a minute, appearing to have a silent conversation with it, before she nods slowly.
"Great." I grab three of my Pokéballs, and after some internal debate, the fourth, sending them all out.
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Glaceon had long ago decided that the worst part about emerging from a Pokéball was the rush of colors and sounds and smells assaulting all her senses as soon as she was summoned. It wasn't so bad when she knew to expect something, like a battle, or exploring a new place. Being released without context like this always took her a couple of seconds to figure out. The only issue with that was, as the longest standing member of the team by far, she was expected to know everything.
"Yo, Ice Queen. Any reason we were called here?"
"Don't call me that," she grumbled at their resident Fire-type, knowing better than to take the bait and snap at him. Charmeleon gave her a smirk, which Glaceon did not appreciate. Especially because Charmeleon had sprouted almost two feet since he had evolved, and now was significantly taller than her. She just wished that his brain had evolved with the rest of him.
Seeing how Charmeleon had changed made Glaceon glad she had understood her trainer correctly and evolved into a Glaceon. She had her breaking point, but for the most part, she was able to stay calm, even in stressful situations. Imagine turning into a Flareon and being as hotheaded and shortsighted as Charmeleon was now.
"Well, it better be good," he muttered while eying the scene before him with distaste, before Charmeleon's attention was rapidly drawn away by something else. He rudely shoved Oddish out the way, ignoring the Grass-type's affronted sound, to stare at a foreign Pokémon. "Who are you?"
Glaceon blinked. She hadn't known that Luna had added another Pokémon to their team. How long had they been in that forest for? The Ice-type made her way over to welcome their newest member, before her teammate gave a bad impression of them.
"Don't mind Charmeleon, he's a bit of a knucklehead. I'm Glaceon, and it looks like you've already met Oddish. What's your name?"
The Pokémon looked absolutely terrified, but squeaked out a rapid high-pitched response that Glaceon couldn't quite understand. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Luckily, Oddish came over to translate. "This is Spewpa," she said, patting the now named Pokémon with a leaf. "We just ran into and caught him earlier today."
As was becoming normal, unfortunately, Charmeleon steamrolled right over what Oddish was explaining. "He looks really wimpy to me. What was she thinking, catching a Pokémon like this?" The Fire-type stared down the new addition to the team. "How's someone like this supposed to make our team stronger?"
Oddish sprouted like she was using Growth. "I was the one who convinced our trainer to catch Spewpa," she informed them proudly.
A statement which brought Charmeleon's ire on the Grass-type. "Ok, why did you convince her to catch him?"
Oddish tried her best to look intimidating, but sadly, Glaceon thought, the Fire-type knew that he had the advantage over all of them. That had given him an even more inflated ego, compounded because Luna recently had deemed herself and Charmeleon close enough in strength to start training against each other. The only problem with that was that she was banned from using Water Pulse, so Glaceon couldn't dominate any of these fights, and was actually only winning three out of every five spars. Luna had explained, back when Charmander had first joined the team, that she had read that if the Fire-type's tail flame went out, he could die, so Glaceon could see the logic… but it was rather frustrating at times.
"What was I supposed to do?!" Oddish whispered back angrily. "Leave him there and let him get killed and eaten by one of those monstrous Pokémon in the forest like all of his friends? You saw what kind of Pokémon were out there!"
"Well, I…" That at least had Charmeleon speechless and swiftly backing up, but Glaceon couldn't really comment on life in the outside world either. She had been born into a loving, if quirky family, and knew Charmeleon grew up in safety with friends before he was eventually old enough to be sent to a Pokémon lab. Oddish was the expert here, having lived her whole life on the outside before joining them, so Glaceon would trust her judgment. Besides, it had felt like she herself had grown so much ever since starting their journey; there was no reason Spewpa couldn't do the same.
"Whatever the reason, he's one of us now," Glaceon stated with finality, thinking that Oddish and Charmeleon would respect her decision, however begrudgingly. She gave a kind smile to the Bug-type, who had been looking on fearfully. "Welcome to the team, Spewpa. I'm sure you're plenty strong right now, and that you'll get even stronger in no time."
Her words didn't seem to have the intended effect, as Spewpa stared at the ground, downcast. "I don't know… I'm not really brave, or strong, or talented at all. It makes the world really scary. All I want to do most of the time is hide."
Oddish, who seemed to be of the same mind of Glaceon, chimed in to refute the Bug-types' words. "Don't say that! Even if you don't feel strong right now, once you evolve, you'll be a brand new Pokémon!" A sour expression crossed Oddish's blue face. "Like that one over there."
The target of Oddish's words scoffed. "You're one to talk. Don't you know what you end up evolving into, Oddish?" Charmeleon taunted.
Glaceon blinked. Luna had told her all about the Charmander line's evolutions, but all she had mentioned about Oddish was needing an evolutionary stone. Which meant she didn't know, and by the befuddled look on Oddish's face, the Grass-type didn't know either. "What do you mean?" Oddish questioned Charmeleon, whose incredulous gaze turned into chortles and near tears.
"You-you really don't know! Ahahahahaha!" Charmeleon laughed and laughed until he finally stopped with a choke, though he couldn't suppress some giggles. "Heeheehee! Not a chance I'm telling you now. Once you experience your own evolution, you'll be wishing you turned out as good as I did."
Oddish marched straight up to the Fire-type, trying and failing to get in his face without jumping. "Tell me now!"
"No way. Just know that it'll be a real nasty surprise. I hope I'm in my Pokéball when it happens."
Glaceon almost didn't hear Spewpa speak while Oddish and Charmeleon were arguing, but her ears managed to pick up a very miserable voice. "I already evolved once, and I don't think I've changed a whole lot…"
Glaceon wanted to be supportive, but this guy was intent on making it difficult. "Well, if you do evolve again, maybe that's when you'll change. Charmeleon is supposed to grow wings when he evolves." And supposed to mature, which I'll believe when I see it happen.
Spewpa still looked forlorn. "I'm supposed to grow wings too. I really want to evolve, so I can fly away whenever things get scary, but it's a lot easier to hide instead… I don't even know how I evolved into this form. I was really scared one day, and-" The Bug-type cut off, retreating into his shell like a Dwebble.
"Well, you better not hide in your Pokéball or anything." That appeared to be exactly what Spewpa wanted to do. "It's not scary out here now," Charmeleon grumbled, coming to stand next to Glaceon, though by the way Oddish refused to look at the Fire-type, Glaceon could guess how that argument had finished. "You never told me what we're doing here, by the way."
Glaceon could have fired a Water Pulse right in Charmeleon's fiery face for that idiotic comment, though she managed to restrain herself and rolled her eyes instead. She was about to explain before Charmeleon, always looking for some type of action, ran off as soon as something caught his eye. Better to tell him before it inevitably happened again. Charmeleon and Oddish, even after being with her for a couple of months, weren't able pick up on Luna's tells like Glaceon could. The table Luna was sitting at had a tablecloth that covered about half of the space, but Glaceon could see that her trainer's foot was constantly beating against the floor, and Glaceon could guess that Luna's whole leg was twitching. Luna was also constantly shifting in her chair, not only to look back at them, but to casually glance at the surroundings. Her trainer was anxious, that much she knew. The question was, why? There wasn't anyone, Pokémon or human here, other than them, and the little girl sitting across from her trainer at the table. Glaceon observed the young girl for a few seconds, before mentally dismissing her. A human of that age shouldn't have any powerful Pokémon to serve as a threat.
Charmeleon impatiently tapped her on the shoulder. "Well?"
"Stay ready. Something is up," was her cool reply, as Charmeleon snorted steam out of his nostrils.
"Whatever. I've been ready for some more action. We had a warmup battle against some Bug Pokémon, but they were pretty easy to beat. I wanted to take on this insanely powerful Pokémon that another guy sent out. That would have been an amazing battle, but we decided to run away instead. Pretty lame, if you ask me."
Glaceon didn't think Charmeleon had a great idea about what an insanely powerful Pokémon constituted, considering… "Insanely powerful? Like that Pikachu you were defeated by a while back?"
The Fire-type gnashed his teeth with flames, in the beginning of Fire Fang. "I'm telling you, that electric runt was unnaturally strong. You would've gotten smashed too. He came at me like a bolt of lightning!" Charmeleon clenched a clawed fist and shook it determinedly. "I'll teach that Pikachu a lesson next time."
The Ice-type was debating whether she should remind her first teammate that she had defeated a Rampardos, when the clatter of metal on tile snapped their attention back to the scene in front of them. Luna and the little girl were engaging in a staring match, but when the girl remained silent, the teenager muttered "I'll go get it." She ducked under the table to retrieve the dropped item, and the little girl took the opportunity to pour some tea into her trainer's cup. In a fashion. She simply held her doll out, and the cracked teapot seemed to float up in the air by itself to pour the tea. Glaceon certainly thought it looked funny, but she assumed that it was another one of those silly contraptions that humans liked to use that ran on electricity.
Luna though, having retrieved the spoon from the floor, looked like she had seen a specter, letting the metal utensil slip from her hand and land on the table this time. But all the little girl did was give a smile, bringing her own teacup to her face to drink, a clear as day indication that Luna should drink as well. Glaceon watched on in fascination, as neither girl was willing to be the first one to take a sip from their teacup. She had heard a story about a Pokémon called Wobbuffet, who might get in a doing nothing contest with another Wobbuffet, to see which one would move first. This must be the human version of that.
Luna clearly did not have endurance close to what the Patient Pokémon did, and was the first to bring her cup up to her lips. Instead of sipping, she flung the teacup straight at the girl sitting across from her.
Her hand must have slipped. That's the only explanation. There's no other way she would do that…
But Luna's action wasn't even close to as stunning as the teacup passing through the girl and shattering on the tile floor.
"Did you see that?!" Oddish whispered from her left. "Her whole body is see through!"
The girl was totally translucent now! Did that mean she wasn't even a real person? Before Glaceon could try and look around to find out what the cause of this was, someone's angry voice spoke up out of seemingly nowhere, because there wasn't anyone in front of her as far as she could tell. But a Pokémon was definitely speaking.
"Ugh! Rude humans! You can't even let me have my fun before you have to go ruin it!"
"Ahh! A ghost!" Spewpa said, shrinking into himself. "They're out to get me!"
Glaceon and Oddish both spun in a circle, looking up and down, left and right for any sign of a Ghost Pokémon, but none were to be seen. It was Charmeleon who grabbed Glaceon by the ear and pointed her head towards the source of the voice, looking pleased that things were getting exciting. "Right there. That teapot's moving!"
The cracked china was floating again, but this time, a purple body emerged from the top, wearing the cap like a hat. "And you threw my tea away without even tasting it. The nerve!"
"Huh. I would have sworn that the doll would have been the Ghost Pokémon, not you."
The doll? What was Luna talking about? Glaceon looked toward the ugly gray thing, which was somehow still suspended in midair even though they had established that the little girl holding it was just an illusion. She took an involuntary step back as the doll's head began to slowly twist to face them unnaturally, in a way that should be impossible without breaking your own neck.
"You might get that fight you were looking for," she murmured to Charmeleon, whose flame lit up in response.
The doll's head had finally turned around, giving them a yellowish smile with its zipper of a mouth. If Glaceon could feel cold, she would have shivered, hearing the Pokémon's voice without watching its mouth not move. "You've got a good eye, human. Too good, in fact. We won't be able to have any fun with you around. Guys, I need some help here!"
Glaceon raised her hackles at what definitely sounded like a threat, with Oddish and Charmeleon flanking her. "You won't touch her without going through us!" she snarled at the Ghost-Type. Unfortunately, not understanding the Pokémon language, and with its movements or actions not looking malicious, Luna wasn't of the same mind. She was too busy looking up the Pokémon on her Pokédex.
"I know you're a Banette, but what are you?" the girl muttered, pointing the camera at the ghostly teapot.
"Polteageist. The Black Tea Pokémon, and the evolved form of Sinistea. This species lives in antique teapots. Leaving leftover black tea unattended is asking for this Pokémon to come along and pour itself into it, turning the tea into a new Polteageist."
The teapot Pokémon gave a pout. "And you didn't even want to taste it!"
Banette turned its creepy visage onto Glaceon, Oddish, and Charmeleon, eyes flickering to where Spewpa was cowering for a second. "I wouldn't be so hasty. We aren't the only ones here, you know." At his command, more and more ghosts started appearing from the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. Glaceon counted at least a dozen, on all different sides of her, mostly common Gastly, but also a floating woman's head of a Pokémon, red necklace included that Glaceon was pretty sure was called Misdreavus, and an evolved form of Gastly as well, a Haunter.
Their trainer noticed all of their unease, and held a hand out. "Easy there. We can still negotiate, can't we? We shouldn't attack someone needlessly if we can talk this out." A thought then struck her, and Luna grimaced. "I threw that teacup to show you guys that I had seen your trick. It wasn't an attack or anything…"
"You three should listen to your master. You obviously need her to think for you," Banette cackled. "She's right though. All my friends need is a few favors from you, and we'll drop you all at the exit of the forest. The only problem is, we can't talk to you, human, and you'd probably spoil all the fun. So, you're going to have to sit this one out." The demented doll pointed to one of the floating balls of gas. "Gastly, if you would?"
"Got it!" One of the Gastly's floated right into Luna's face, releasing a blue energy from its eyes straight into those of her trainer. Luna wobbled for a second, then slumped into her chair.
Glaceon saw red, but Charmeleon beat her to the punch, sending out a Flame Burst that scattered the ghosts, though they quickly retook their places, laughing at his whiff.
Take this! Glaceon thought furiously, preparing the most powerful Icy Wind she could muster to try and take out most of the weaker ghosts. It was only Oddish's words from next to her shoulder that made the attack die in her throat. "She's just sleeping!"
Haunter sunk into the floor and reappeared right in front of her, with a sinister smile and what looked like a solid tongue, though Glaceon knows better than to assume anything with these ghosts. "That's right!" it sing-songed."Try not to make this too difficult. Like we already said, once you guys scratch our backs, we'll scratch yours."
"How are they supposed to scratch anyone's backs if they're ghosts?" Oddish thought out loud, but Glaceon refrained from telling the Grass-type that it was just a saying, instead addressing Haunter.
"If we help you out," she said pointedly, "then you'll let us all leave, unharmed?"
"Of course we will!" Haunter put one clawed hand up to its mouth, imitating a much cuter, less threatening Pokémon. "I mean, look at this face. Am I not the paragon of trustworthiness?"
Glaceon did her best to not to react to that statement, until Haunter finally dropped the coy act. "Then what did you need from us?" The Ice-type asked coolly. Hopefully, we can finish this quickly and get out of here.
Haunter appeared dead serious. "You lot better do this right," it warned, floating right up into Glaceon's face. "This is what we live for, the thing that brings smiles to all our faces."
"What is it?" Glaceon asked, a headache starting to grow in the back of her head, ignoring the fact that all of the ghosts seemed to be permanently grinning.
Haunter started expanding like a balloon growing larger and larger, bringing up its claws as it built the suspense before it finally decided to answer with one measly word.
"Pranks."
Huh? Surely Glaceon had misheard the Ghost-type. There's no way these Pokémon had gone through all this trouble for something as ridiculous as that. "Come again?"
"Praaaaanks!" Haunter did a backflip, then floated up to the level of the other ghosts, laughing uproariously, eyes bulging and tongue hanging out comically. The other Ghost-types found this hilarious, cackling away at the memories of whatever practical jokes they liked to amuse themselves with. Even stuffy Banette and the grumpy Polteageist seemed amused.
"You want to help you with some pranks?" Charmeleon repeated slowly, as if he heard that wrong. Then a thought came to the Fire-types' mind. "This isn't a prank, is it?"
Wiping an imaginary tear out of its eye, Haunter floated down again, looking maniacal. "Yes and no. We don't need help with pranks, since we're already great at them!"
All the ghosts above him nodded as one.
"But!" It started, holding up a finger. "We have a friend, who's the best ever at pranks. The king even! They can do things we can only dream of. The only problem is, they're feeling a little down right now, because all their best pranking tools are down for the count, so we need you guys to fix those tools up to get them out of their funk. There are five things we need fixed in total; it would have been three, but 'Ol Trevenant is a real stick in the mud, if you get me, and wouldn't help out, and Froslass went along with him!"
Above, the ghosts giggled at some inside joke that had flown right over Glaceon's head. "Good one, Haunter!" Misdreavus called down. "He's the biggest stick in the mud ever!"
Putting aside their jokes, something had Glaceon frowning in confusion. Haunter was being rather vague, considering that he claimed this was extra important. And it seemed the rest of her teammates were of a similar opinion.
"Can you be a bit more specific with what you want help with?" Oddish asked politely, to which Haunter gave the plant Pokémon a cackle and a leer.
"Of course not! Watching you guys stumble around is gonna be half of the fun! Polteageist, Banette, are you gonna join in?"
The doll ghost turned its unmoving yellow smile back on their sleeping trainer. "I think I'll keep an eye on this one. Polteageist?"
The still affronted teapot ghost sniffed, adamantly refusing, before picking up the shards of the broken teacup with some sort of Psychic power and floating away. Haunter and the rest of other ghosts watched it go before turning back to Glaceon and the others. "Well, I guess that means everything is settled."
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
"Wait! We still have more quest-" Before Glaceon could finish her sentence, all the eyes of the Ghost-Types in the room started to glow blue once again, lifting her from her feet, several meters into the air, along with the rest of the team.
"I like my two feet on the ground or under it much better than this!"
"Oh… being in the air like this is really scary. I don't know about evolving now…"
"Speak for yourself. I can't wait to start flying!"
Haunter gave them an unrepentant grin. "Good luck out there! Hope it doesn't take too long. I'd hate for you all to be stuck here forever and turn into ghosts!"
Glaceon's eyes widened before she was unceremoniously flung out of the room by the Ghost-types' Psychic attack, with Charmeleon, Oddish and Spewpa close behind.
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"Waaaaaahhhhh!"
When Haunter said it and the other ghosts were going to have fun with them, they weren't lying, that was for sure. Glaceon's stomach was in knots from how she was flying through the air. There had been at least five times where the Ice-type was sure that she was going to crash into a wall, or smack her head against one of the ornaments or lights lining the ceiling, before she had screeched to a halt not even an inch away, before rocketing off in a different direction down yet another hallway, or catapulting over a chandelier or a lamp at the last second.
Finally, they are deposited in a room with a musty old bed covered in dust that looked like no one had slept in it for a century. Glaceon would have taken the soft landing, despite how filthy it looked, but of course the Ghost-types found it more amusing to let her fall right on the floor with a thud. Not a second later, as she was trying to regain her footing after being telekinetically thrown around, someone crashed right into her, forcing her back to the ground. Two more thumps followed, though thankfully not on her like the last.
"Hey, thanks for breaking my fall!" Charmeleon's annoying voice came from on top of her. Glaceon would have given him a sarcastic "you're welcome," but the Fire-type shoved her head down to get himself up. She made sure to whack him in the face with her tail for that one when she got the opportunity, checking up on the other members of the team while she did so, paying special attention to Oddish, knowing that she was weak to Psychic-type attacks.
"Everyone's ok? Oddish?"
The Grass-type's bulb head nodded up and down, and Spewpa made a noise that sounded like a yes to Glaceon's ears.
"Cool. I think we should… where are you guys going?"
Oddish and Charmeleon were already halfway out the door, though they stopped to turn around and look at her. "To rescue our trainer and get out of here?" Charmeleon questioned. "What are you waiting for?"
"Of course I want to do that too, but don't you think we should plan a little beforehand?" She lowered her voice in case some ghosts were hiding in these walls, listening in. "We don't know what we're dealing with."
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Charmeleon told her bluntly, taking Glaceon aback. She knew that Charmeleon had developed a major attitude post-evolution, but this was akin to open disrespect, and Glaceon didn't like it one bit. She swallowed the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, turning to Oddish.
"You feel the same way?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it like that, but yes. This shouldn't be hard for us. We are pretty strong, after all," Oddish, ever the optimist, said confidently.
Spewpa's depressed voice came from behind her. "I wouldn't mind not going outside for a while."
That wasn't exactly the support that she wanted, but Glaceon would take it. "Looks like we're tied. Two of us want to stay, and two of us want to go."
"Not really. Your opinion and mine are equal, and Oddish carries more weight than the new guy, so that means we're going."
Of course Charmeleon would value opinions based on fighting ability. At least he had a shred of humility left to say he was equal to her, though Glaceon would make sure to correct that next time they trained.
"Come on already! We have to get started!" Oddish told them impatiently, whirling around and walking out of the room.
"Eeeeeeeek!"
Glaceon used Quick Attack to bound out of the room as fast as possible, leaving Spewpa behind for the moment to investigate the scream, Charmeleon right next to her. They were confronted with a laughing Gastly and a recovering Oddish.
"Ohohoho! You should have seen this one's face! My Astonish attack had 'em looking like they had seen a ghost!"
Glaceon's headache was starting to return. "What's the meaning of this?" she asked slowly, hoping this Pokémon would give her a straight answer.
"Hehehe. We said watching you stumble around was going to be half the fun. Well, the other half is going to be scaring you out of your skins!" the gaseous Pokémon laughed, suddenly lashing out with its tongue in an attack, which Glaceon managed to sidestep before firing off her fastest attack, an Ice Shard from thin air. But even that was not quick enough to strike the ghost, as Gastly simply retreated into the wall, and all the crystals of ice clattered to the ground instead of connecting with their target.
Glaceon gritted her teeth in frustration at how easily that Gastly had gotten away, but quickly stifled her frustration. Right now, they had their trainer to save. She looked at Charmeleon. "Do you want to lead, or should I?" she asked, hoping to put some of the tension between Charmeleon and her to the side by letting him decide.
"I'll lead," the Fire-type muttered, gesturing his head to inside the room while tapping a foot impatiently. Glaceon used Quick Attack again to be at Spewpa's side in a flash.
"We need to go," she told the Bug-type, who sighed sadly, and looked up at her with Lillipup eyes.
"But what about that loud scream? It might just be better to wait here until they get bored of us, right?"
"Trust me," Glaceon assured him, lowering her head and nudging the protesting Pokémon to the door. "It'll be way scarier if you're in here all by yourself."
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This is going terribly.
Not that Glaceon had any better suggestions. It seemed like they had been wandering this mansion for ages, and one would think they would know their way around by now, but somehow every time they backtracked, the entire layout had shifted to ensure that they were permanently lost. No doubt it was more Ghost-type illusions, but it wasn't like they could pin down any of them to force them to stop. While usually it would make sense to have the strongest Pokémon on their team covering their front and rear, this formation was utterly useless against Pokémon that could float right through a wall. As such, it was very slow going, everywhere looked like a place where a ghost was hiding, and even her constant vigilance wasn't enough to keep Glaceon or anyone else from flinching in fear at a surprise Astonish attack.
It was almost a relief when Spewpa was targeted; a Scary Face from Haunter had the Bug-type frozen in fear for over a minute, which meant that they were forced to stop to let him recover, leaving Glaceon with an opportunity to call a meeting so they could take account of this situation.
"Has anyone seen anything that looks like an objective for us to complete?"
Oddish immediately shook her head, and Spewpa was still unable to speak. Glaceon looked at Charmeleon, who turned away in frustration. "No one? I think that means we should be trying something else instead of wandering in circles."
Oddish had her thinking face on, but after a few seconds, it appeared the Grass-type was stumped. "Like what?"
"Well, maybe we should look for the others, if they are stuck here too. One of them could help us out."
Oddish and Spewpa seemed okay with that plan, but Charmeleon crossed his arms, apparently set on being difficult. "I think we should set a trap for one of these ghosts the next time they try to scare us, and force them to tell us exactly what they want. I bet there's one waiting over there." He nodded his head towards the corner created when the hallway ended and connected with another in a different direction.
What a predictable answer. Glaceon tensed her legs before leaping over Oddish and Spewpa to whisper in Charmeleon's earhole. "Why are you insisting on going against everything I suggest?!"
Charmeleon seemed almost amused by that question. "Keep thinking about it," he finally replied. "In the meantime, I'm going to flush out that ghost with a Flame Burst. Be ready with an attack behind me."
"Wait!" She hissed. "None of my attacks are fast enough to prevent them from escaping!"
"We'll have the element of surprise this time," the Fire-type grunted back. "And use Bite, since it works well against Ghosts."
Biting down didn't feel like an attack unless Glaceon had malicious intentions, and was genuinely trying to inflict pain with it, in which case it turned into a Dark-type move. She was angry about this whole situation, especially about how Charmeleon was acting, so the Dark-type energy was easily channeled to her mouth.
Charmeleon took that as his cue, and launched a fireball past the corner. After a beat, it exploded, sending jets of flames in multiple directions. Glaceon waited for a Ghost-type to appear through the wall, or from the ceiling, or even from the walls next to her, after several seconds of waiting, she relaxed slightly, seeing that no one was there. Of course, that was precisely when a horrid wail sounded behind them, causing everyone to jump in the air.
The culprit, the Misdreavus from earlier, immediately floated out of range of any retaliatory attacks and did a delighted flip in the air. "You guys were totally scared of my Uproar attack, right? It's really impressive; you'll hear it ringing in your ears whenever you try to go to sleep!"
"That's amazing," Glaceon lied, trying to flatter this Pokémon into accidentally helping them. "Can we get some assistance? You guys are good at pranking and scaring, but I'm sure having your friend beside you will make you even scarier."
"Hmm..." The floating head considered for a moment. "Well, I can't say that you're wrong, considering that having Rotom by our side makes every prank ten times bette-"
Rotom? Glaceon had never heard of that Pokémon before.
If Misdreavus had hands, it would have put one to its face. "Whoops! Look at me, giving things away! I better go ask Haunter before I slip up again!"
With that, the ghost disappeared into the ceiling, and five minutes later, Haunter was in its place with a signature smirk. "Struggling already? Well, we like that just fine. So don't expect us to help you all out."
I didn't think it would be that easy, but we still need help. There's only one being that Glaceon would look to and put her faith in a scenario like this. Hopefully, these wild Pokémon didn't take into account what a partnership between a trainer and her Pokémon could accomplish.
"Let us at least talk to our trainer. She's a part of the team also."
Finally, Haunter had an expression that she wanted to see on him. Confusion. "What's the point of that? It's not like she can understand you."
She might not speak their language, but Luna noticed that the ghost Pokémon were fooling them with an illusion way before any of the rest of them had. She would know what to do. She would.
Haunter must have seen the conviction on Glaceon's face, because it looked suspicious. "Hmph. I suppose it's only natural that a bunch of tamed Pokémon like you can't think for yourselves. Fine. But you only get to speak with her three times."
"Why three?" Oddish asked.
The ghost held up a clawed hand. "Because I only have three fingers, obviously. Although I suppose if you need more it could be arranged. I always wanted to test out these moves called Nightmare and Dream Eater, you see. They're supposed to inflict agony but they only work on a sleeping target…"
"We'll take three," Glaceon agreed quickly, before the ghost got any more ideas. Haunter smiled, as if expecting her to say that.
"Then follow me."
It led them to an empty room with a worn couch and an old television showing a program in black and white, that Glaceon couldn't make heads or tails of, before Haunter disappeared. Glaceon contented herself with watching the program in the meantime, but it was rather dull. It seemed that her teammates felt the same way, with Charmeleon making a snide comment about how boring it was. To her surprise, the television flickered for a second, as if it heard him, before quickly changing to a colored program showing old Pokémon battles.
Everyone looked at each other before Spewpa fearfully voiced what they all were thinking. "Is this another ghost?"
Glaceon backed up a couple steps just in case, but the television didn't make any more changes. Maybe it was a coincidence…
She didn't have any more time to contemplate before Haunter came floating in, holding a rectangular device somehow with its ghostly claw of a hand. "Everything is all set." It pressed a button, and the television flickered for a second time, before Luna appeared on the screen, awake and thankfully unhurt.
Forget the ghost that might be this television, Glaceon was beyond glad to see that her trainer had woken up, and hadn't been subjected to any Dream Eater or Nightmare attacks. Luna had been put in a blue cage, and when Glaceon glared at Haunter, the ghost just gave her a taunting grin.
Everyone rushed to place themselves right next to the screen when Luna began to speak, because her voice was so soft, but again, as if the television were sentient, it quickly increased the volume.
"...I think this move is called Imprison. But enough about me. I'm so glad to see all of you are alright!" she said, eyes roving over each member, until they landed on Glaceon. "I assume they wanted something, so you cut a deal with them? What are the ghosts having you do?"
That was accurate, so Glaceon nodded at the first question, though she didn't know how to answer the second. Communicating with her trainer could sometimes be difficult, and that was face-to-face, not through a TV screen. Luckily, Charmeleon seemed to have an idea on how to get what their task was across to Luna. The Fire-type swept his tail under Oddish's feet, knocking the Grass-type on her bulb, and then when he went to give her a hand to get up, instead of helping her, Charmeleon pulled her down again by the leaves.
"Are we sure Charizard is going to be a Flying Pokémon, and not a Ghost or a Dark-type?" Oddish muttered. "He's sure got enough meanness for it." Despite the brusque manner of communication, Luna had caught on.
"Ghost-types definitely do like to prank people," she mused, eyes flickering to the side where Banette was standing, no doubt. "Is that really what they want from you? To help them with some pranks?"
Glaceon realized that they were on the right track and seized upon the moment. She pointed up at Haunter and shook her head furiously, before grabbing Spewpa, who squeaked in surprise at the contact, pulling the Bug-type next to her so they were cheek to cheek. Glaceon could picture Luna's mind like a Klinklang, gears grinding as her trainer thought furiously about this whole thing.
Luna finally began to speak, in a serious tone. "This place is called the Old Chateau. A Ghost-type Pokémon called Rotom lives here…" The television flickered at the name, as if recognizing it, but Glaceon couldn't care less.
That was the name Misdreavus dropped earlier! Glaceon felt like cheering. Now they were getting somewhere!
"Rotom also loves to make mischief, but it does things differently than other ghosts. You see, Rotom is also an Electric-type, and it can go inside and manipulate machines to prank people with. If that's the Pokémon they want you to help, then your probably going to have to-"
Luna's face vanished as the screen abruptly turned black. Glaceon's mood instantly worsened as she whirled around to glare at Haunter. The Ghost-type waved the control device in the air mockingly. "Silly old thing… you never know when it might stop working."
"You told someone to do that!" Charmeleon accused, to which Haunter simply laughed, holding up its three-fingered hand and lowering one of them.
Of course Haunter cut them off right when Luna was about to reveal exactly what they needed to do. She shouldn't have expected anything else. "Put it back on," she growled, though Oddish whispered to her in concern.
"Is that wise? We only have three of these."
Which is why Glaceon only intended to use two, to ensure their trainer stayed safe.
Haunter didn't give them time to reconsider, pointing the device at the television, and Luna appeared once again. This time, their trainer didn't waste any time with greetings. "Lawnmower, microwave, refrigerator, washing machine, electric fan!" she shouted urgently. "Listen to me. Rotom is a Ghost-type, but it changes forms and types when it possesses one of these machines! It can use a Grass-type move when it goes into the lawnmower! You're going to have to use the appropriate move on each one so Rotom is able to-"
The TV cut off once more, and none of them were happy. "That was even shorter than the last time!" Oddish complained to Haunter, who was ignoring them, muttering to itself.
"First she sees through our illusions, and then she knows everything about Rotom? If I didn't know any better, I'd think that human was a ghost!" It disappeared into the ceiling before they could raise any more objections.
Glaceon's frustration quickly turned to determination. She ran those first five words in her head until they were seared into her memory, and while she didn't recognize a couple of them, at least they had some direction and some objectives. "Let's go. I know some of those words."
"So do I," Oddish grumbled, not pleased for some reason.
How did Oddish know any of these, Glaceon thought, if she had lived her whole life in the wild?
That question was answered once they had located the first of the machines.
"This thing's called a lawnmower. Humans use it to cut their grass. It has a spinny sharp thing on the bottom, and it took off nearly all of my leaves one time! It took a whole three months for them to grow back!"
Glaceon felt like she was leaving something out. "If they're only used in human's yards, why were you there, Oddish?"
The Grass-type turned her back on Glaceon. "That's not important. All the grass and my previous leaves went in there." Oddish pointed with her leaves at the bag at the butt end of the machine.
Charmeleon grabbed it with both hands and pulled with all of his strength. Apparently, not all of it was needed, because the bag came off rather easily, and Charmeleon fell on his behind. The Fire-type looked inside before turning it upside down, letting one measly dried leaf fall out. "It's completely empty," he said, stating the obvious.
Everything clicked in Glaceon's head. If Rotom wasn't originally a Grass-type, it would need this thing to be filled to the brim in order to use a Grass-type move! "Oddish, use a powerful Magical Leaf to fill this up!"
Her teammate looked at her like Glaceon was mad, but obliged nonetheless. "Alright, give me one second." Oddish stood still for second, gathering power by using Growth, before launching a concentrated funnel of leaves right at the bag Charmeleon was holding open until it was bulging with leaves.
Glaceon went over, and with their combined efforts, they managed to put the bag back where it belonged.
"Um," Spewpa started quietly. "How do we know if it's working or not?"
Glaceon certainly had no idea. There's only one Pokémon that could tell them if they had done this right. "Rotom!" she raised her voice. "We fixed your lawnmower for you!"
She almost missed a strange orange thing whizzing into the lawn mower while leaving a trail of electric blue behind. Almost immediately, the machine sprouted to life, with giant green eyes and an enormous grin. It started hovering in the air, as Rotom sucked in a huge breath while opening its mouth and glowing green, as Glaceon, Charmeleon and Oddish scrambled out of the way.
"Spewpa look out!" Oddish called, but the Bug Pokémon just closed his eyes and summoned a protective green bubble that protected him from the obscenely powerful tornado of leaves that Rotom sent flying out.
No wonder it runs out all the time, using Leaf Storm like that.
The now alive machine started whirling around in circles, chomping with its fanged jaws in glee before turning to them with a manic look in its giant eyes. "Woohoo! You guys actually did it!" The Pokémon chattered excitedly before exiting the lawnmower as a pointy little Pokémon covered in blue electricity, two lightning bolt arms included. "You all have no idea how boring it is to be stuck in this form all the time. Do you guys know any Water-type moves? The next one is over this way!"
Glaceon couldn't even reply before the fast-talking Pokémon was out the door, leaving behind a streak of blue. At least it's being helpful, she thought, as they quickly followed the rapidly disappearing trail.
"This way, come on!" Rotom urged them, as they struggled to keep up with the lightning quick Pokémon, especially when it decided to cut a corner by passing through the wall, but they eventually saw Rotom stop in front of a room and zip inside.
She only flinched a little when a Gastly dropped from the ceiling right as they walked through the door to spook them, shaking her head and walking up to a large square machine with a glass door where Glaceon could see her reflection. "Is this it, Rotom?" She looked around when there was no response. "Rotom?" she called out again.
I take back what I said about it being helpful.
"Soooooo," Oddish said, coming up next to her and standing on her tiptoes to try and see her own reflection. "How do we fix this one?"
"Open up the door by pulling on the handle and use Water Pulse on the inside," came Charmeleon's voice from the hallway.
"Why don't you come over and help us Charmeleon, seeing as you're an expert," Glaceon asked, wondering why the Fire-type refused to come into the room.
"No thanks. I'm fine over here, away from the Pokémon eater."
"It eats Pokémon?" Spewpa squeaked, looking at the machine with a new sense of fear.
"This thing isn't going to eat either of you, so quit it. Get over here, Charmeleon, and open this thing. You're the only one who can easily grab it."
The Fire-type shook his head. "I'm not getting anywhere near that thing."
There was a pause before Oddish spoke up. "Are you scared, Charmeleon?"
"I ain't scared of nothin'," he insisted. "The older Pokémon at the lab warned me about how a couple Charmander were never seen again after they went near this thing, and I trust what they were saying."
Where had all their teamwork disappeared too? They couldn't even cooperate enough to open a door! Glaceon stalked over to the machine, getting up on two legs, settling on using her teeth when she couldn't balance herself and grip the handle with her front paws.
"Come on you," she growled to the machine, chomping down even harder. "Open up!"
No matter how hard she pulled, the thing wouldn't budge for her. Glaceon was considering just smashing open the door with a Flash Frost before a loud splat nearly had her toppling over in surprise.
The sound had been caused by a glob of sticky string impacting the handle. Glaceon looked down the line to the originator of the attack, who started apologizing profusely.
"I- I wasn't trying to hit you or anything! Please don't get mad and attack me!"
"It's fine," Glaceon replied quickly, before he kept groveling. She jerked her head at Charmeleon to get over here, since it wasn't anywhere close to the mouth of the machine. Eventually, he moved, and all four of them tugged on the surprisingly strong string to yank the thing open. "Good work Spewpa," she praised, though the Bug-type seemed to shrink at the attention. "You guys should get out of here, because Rotom is going to want to test that thing out."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Charmeleon muttered, immediately making for the door, with Oddish and Spewpa close behind him. She started building the water in front of her face, growing it until it was as large as she could control.
"Hiyah!" Glaceon shouted, focusing her eyes on the target and launching the ball of water straight at the inside of the machine with such power that the machine tipped back slightly, sending the water inside sloshing. The force of the attack shut the door behind it, and on cue, Rotom came whizzing in.
"Yippee!" The whole machine started levitating, changing color to match Rotom's, and with the ghost's signature smile. It pointed a previously unseen hose out in front of it. Glaceon sprinted out of there with Quick Attack, barely in front of the biggest torrent of water she had ever seen, screeching to a stop and leaping sideways out of the firing line of the attack.
A couple of seconds later, Rotom was in front of them, talking ridiculously fast. "You guys are the best, you know? Giving me so much to work with. Ooooh, I can't wait for some unexpected guests to come by. They won't know what hit them! Let's go! There's two more this way!"
Of the four of them, Glaceon was the only one fine with getting her paws wet in the giant puddle that had resulted from Rotom's water attack, but they all picked their way across and ran after him, once again following the blue trail that Rotom left in its wake. This time, Rotom didn't seem so eager to lead them into the next room. In fact, its smile had turned into a frown.
"I guess I should warn you guys. There's some meanie ghosts who live here that like to pick fights. So, you might have to beat them down if you want to help put fire in my microwave and ice in my fridge. I'd help you out, but I'm kinda weak in this form, and it's not good for business making Pokémon mad when you have to live with them for eternity. Well, good luck!" With that, Rotom vanished in a flash.
Glaceon barely managed to process that string of words, looking over at her friends for their reaction. She hadn't seen Charmeleon more excited since they had been here. "There we go," he said, lashing his tail back and forth. "I've been waiting for this."
"I'm not much of a fighter," Spewpa volunteered from next to Oddish. "Maybe I should sit this one out?"
"Just stay by us and you'll be fine!" Oddish declared. "We're extra tough. We've beaten a gym leader, and we're on our way to facing another!"
Glaceon would be lying if she said she didn't want to get back at these ghosts for being such a pain. Something was off though, and not just the sensation of being without her trainer, because Glaceon always felt more comfortable with Luna behind her. What would Luna be doing right now? Glaceon couldn't put her paw on it, but they were missing something important. "She's right, Spewpa. We can handle this."
"Finally, we agree. It's time we pay these ghosts back." Charmeleon was the first into the room, Glaceon closely behind him, while Oddish and Spewpa brought up the rear. Glaceon noticed the room was a spacious kitchen, and now the Ice-type was even more sure that she had forgotten a key to how they battled. But what?
Before she could give it more thought, the lights dimmed, and she saw nothing until two gleaming eyes and then one sinister red one higher up appeared in the darkness. "Charmeleon! Light!"
The Fire-type held his tail in front of him like a torch, revealing their adversaries. The largest was the owner of the singular red eye, a stout gray body that towered over them and two eerie white hands. Next to him was a much shorter Pokémon, with the two gleaming crystal eyes, sharp claws and fanged teeth. Above them two more ghosts floated, one of which she could only make out a gold mask in the poor lighting, and the other which looked like the withered husk of an bug Pokémon. Unlike all the other ghosts they had encountered throughout this place, who had contented themselves with trying to scare them, Glaceon could tell by the stances of the two on the ground that these were enemies interested in a battle.
That was confirmed when the shorter, grounded Pokémon spoke, revealing itself as a Sableye. "Whe-heh-heh! Trespassers! Time to show you how we deal with unwanted guests!"
Sableye's words struck Glaceon like a Thunderbolt attack. How to deal, indeed. They didn't have any plan! Luna would always come up with a strategy on how to approach a battle. But without her, they were going in blind! "Charmeleon!" she hissed lowly. "Wait! We need a plan for this battle!"
Her teammate's response was his tail flame flaring and doubling in size. "Here's a strategy for you. The big one," he said, as his mouth lit up with fire and savage glee. "Is mine!"
Charmeleon roared and lunged straight for the red-eyed ghost, full of fire and fury. On the opposite side, the enemy's first move was to have the two floating Pokémon circle around them to where Oddish and Spewpa were. Glaceon turned her head for a second to yell a warning, but she could see the Sableye lunging at her with its extended claws out of the corner of her eye. It was all she could do to launch a weak, hasty Ice Shard that had the smaller Pokémon backing up hastily when its surprise ambush failed.
It gave her a sharp-toothed grin. "Whe-heh-heh! I wonder what ghosts you four will end up as!"
Glaceon suppressed all of her doubts and frustrations, focusing instead on her battle instincts. She narrowed her eyes and lasered in on her ghostly opponent. This was a fight she had to win!