Author's note: So this is a little late for Halloween, but I thought I'd post it anyway. It's not meant to be a work of art, just a little fun, and I didn't spend much time on it, so sorry if it's riddled with mistakes. I'll say now that this makes fun of a lot of horror movie/ story cliches, so not everything characters say will be believable etc.

"And when the girl asked where Joey O'Brian had gone, the man told her... THAT HE HAD DIED TEN YEARS AGO!"

Ash held the torch up to his face for dramatic effect as he finished the ghost story. "Pretty scary, huh?"

Dawn sighed. "Ash, that was one of the worst stories I've heard. You couldn't scare a baby Pichu with that tale!"

Ash scowled, looking hurt. "Well, you tell a better one, then," he challenged, folding his arms and switching off the torch. The campfire lit up the area around them well enough, but the woods too far away from the flames towered ominously in all directions, and the dancing shadows were more than enough fuel for the imagination.

"Alright then," Dawn smirked, snatching the torch from Ash's hand and clicking it on again. "I will." She cleared her throat, and adapted a more exaggerated voice as she begun the story: "It was a dark and stormy night-"

She stopped abruptly mid-sentence as a boom echoed around them, appearing to have come from the forest. "What was that?" Ash asked, snapping his head around.

"I don't know," Brock mumbled. "It wasn't thunder, or we'd've seen lightning first."

"It was probably just a Pokemon or something. Calm down," Dawn reasoned impatiently, and frowned in thought. "Where was I? Oh yeah- it was a dark and stormy night, and a little boy decided to go out in the woods-"

The boom sounded again, seemingly louder than before, and was followed by a distant scream. "That doesn't sound like a Pokemon!" Ash yelped, standing up quickly as if he'd spotted a bug on his lap.

"Maybe we should go check it out," Brock suggested. "With only flashlights. And let's split up for some reason too."

Dawn nodded. "Sounds logical."

They each took a torch, slid the switch to 'On' and cautiously made their way to the beginning of the forest, each taking a different path. Ash cast a final glance back at the campfire, trying to imprint its warm glow into his memory before he plunged himself into darkness, and continued forwards, twigs snapping beneath his shoes with each step he took.

He jumped as a creaking noise sounded to his left; Ash swivelled the flashlight around in a circle, the thin beam illuminating tiny patches of tree and ground and catching dust as it fell in the air. "Hello?" he called, figuring that yelling out was the best thing he could do. A screech came from behind him, followed by an almightly crashing sound. Ash whimpered, shining the pathetic light desperately around him as a soft groan broke the silence. "Who's there?"

A voice replied this time, low and pained: "Tmm...brr..."

Without warning, a tree crashed down inches from Ash's foot, sending fallen leaves fluttering temporarily back into the air on impact with the ground. Pikachu shifted on Ash's shoulder, digging its claws painfully into the human's skin. "Pika?"

"It's okay, buddy," Ash reassured the Pokemon softly. "No one's died in this forest since ten years ago tonight!"

Meanwhile, Dawn and Brock had bumped into each other again, and were trudging warily through the woods.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Dawn whispered as a rustle caused by some unknown being sounded to her left.

"Of course it is!" Brock replied. "Staying back at the campfire and waiting for morning wouldn't make any sense. It's always best to find the source of the noise, and figure it out from there. Trust me, I've seen enough horror films."

Dawn spun around at the sound of hurried footsteps behind her, and heavy breathing. "What was that?"

She shone the torch beam at the ground, and recoiled when a shadow swept over it. "Brock?"

Both humans screamed at the sound of a high-pitched shriek right behind them, and sprinted back the way they'd come, not daring a single glance backwards. "Keep, going!" Brock urged between breaths, forcing his legs to keep moving at a painfully fast pace. Finally, they reached the campfire, out of breath and terrified. Ash was already there, standing back to back with Pikachu in a defensive position. He relaxed at the sight of his two companions. "Phew! I'm glad you two are okay!" he said.

"Me too," Brock replied, looking over to the dark forest with a frown. "Whatever we heard out there, it was something dangerous, that's for sure. Something really scary."

What Really Happened

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" James asked, unconvinced of Jessie's plan as he raised an eyebrow at the half-finished mech.

"Of course it will!" Jessie snapped back. "This plan is fool-proof!"

"With you two, it needs to be," Meowth mumbled with a grin.

They had followed the twerps into the woods, bringing their brand new robot along with them. The three rockets were currently a safe distance from the kids to allow them time to prepare for their latest scheme, relying on the soft moonlight and torches for vision, which limited what they saw to silhouettes.

"Alright," James muttered to himself as he twisted a few of the mech's wires around to try and get it to work. "If I just put the red one here..."

There was a deafening bang as the side of the mech exploded, throwing the trio of rockets backwards and sending smoke into the air.

"What the heck happened?" Jessie seethed, pushing herself up from the ground and glaring at James. "What did you do?"

"I- I don't-"

James was cut off as the remaining, intact part of the robot exploded too, making him cry out as a small part brushed past him.

"OH, PERFECT!" Jessie screeched. "This is just the sort of thing that would happen to us!"

Meowth was doing his best to stay out of the argument, and sat down on the trolley-like platform that had previously made up the vehichle's foot. "Dat's another paycheck down da drain..."

He stopped as he realised that the platform he was sitting on was moving ever so slightly backwards, the wheels gaining a little speed on the sloped ground. "Uh, Jim?" he asked, hoping that James or Jessie would pull him to a halt, but failing to get through to either of them as Jessie yelled at her cowering partner. He tried climbing off, but the platform was rapidly ganing speed as it progressed further down the hill. "AAAHHH!" the cat Pokemon bellowed as he plunged into the forest, clinging onto the trolley for dear life, and cringed as he realised he was heading straight for a tree. "Here it comes..." he sighed.

The platform crashed into the thin trunk, stopping abruptly and sending Meowth sprawled forwards on the forest floor with a groan. He looked up in time to see Ash and Pikachu, unaware of his presence, standing in front of him and right in the path of the tree as it leaned precariously forwards. "Timber," he tried to say, but it came out muffled and unclear. Luckily, Ash managed to avoid the falling tree by the skin of his teeth.

"Better keep quiet," Meowth thought, rubbing his head. "I don't want to blow our cover."

James regretted his decision to try and find the twerps almost immediately after he'd set foot in the forest. He'd blurted the suggestion out to try and stop Jessie from shouting at him- it had worked, but he now realised that he actually had to try and find the kids, not get blasted off miles into the air, and steal Pikachu. Alone. In the dark.

He sighed, and started to walk again when he spotted the outlines of Brock and Dawn only a few metres in front of him. James had to clamp a hand over his mouth to stop himself gasping, and crouched down, scurrying towards the nearest tree for cover as quickly as he dared. Dawn mumbled something inaudible to Brock, and James pulled a Poke Ball out of his pocket. "Now's my chance for a silent attack."

James opened the Poke Ball by hand to avoid making noise, and Victrebell appeared before him. The young rocket realised the flaw in his plan as soon as the Pokemon had been released. Victrebell let out a high-pitched scream, and lunged enthusiastically towards James, swallowing the top half of his body.

"Agh- no, get off!" James protested, struggling to prise the Pokemon off his head. When he did, the twerps had vanished. "Drat!"

He reluctantly made his way back to Jessie, who looked no longer angry, but confused. "What happened?" James asked. Jessie shook her head, frowning.

"I don't know. Some guy came over to me, asking about his lost Pokemon, and then vanished. Said his name was Joey something. O'Ryan? O'Brian? Something like that. Oh well."