Introduction
It was an eerie night at Insulam Iunctus. The wind is letting out a soft breeze against the tall trees of the island, making the leaves and branches sway gently and produce gentle swooshing noises. The moon shone bright against the trees, creating a dark blue hue and shadows underneath the trees. The haunting scenery has been around since the island was first created, and although it's one of the famous landmarks of the island, everyone knew better than to go in the woods at night.
Well, at least almost everyone did.
Currently two boys are walking through the forest. One of these boys is an African American who is whipping his head around cautiously whenever he heard a branch move. The other boy, an Caucasian blonde, march ahead proudly like the forest doesn't bother him like his friend. The other boy finally had enough when he heard a twig snap.
"Derek, will you please remind me again why we're doing out here again?" The poor boy cried out, looking ready to cry at any moment. He didn't want to be in these horrid woods anymore, he wants to be back at the camp, where he can snuggle inside his bed with Mr. Teddy...
"Because, Alex!" Derek voice's cuts through his fantasy as Derek stops walking and turns to him. "Everyone is talking about how you shouldn't go into the forest because of legend about some Specter that kidnaps boys who go into the forest. So we're going to prove everyone that there's nothing they should be afraid of!"
"Are you sure about that?" Alex asked, hearing about the Specter made him even more nervous than before. "I mean, legends come from somwherere, man. Who's to say what they say about the Specter is true?"
"Which is why we're going to prove it that it's false!" With that, Derek leapt onto a boulder while taking out his binoculars and began to search for the Specter.
Alex begins to mumble a few things that sounded like "Oh man.." and "Why did I agree?" before he took out his own binoculars and began to examine his surroundings.
At first, everything looked the same for Alex. All he could see through the lenses are tress, bushes, trees, flowers, is that a raccoon? Trees, leaves, bushes, grass, aren't those owl eyes? More trees, more bushes, glowing red eyes, more bushes, that raccoon is back-Wait, red glowing eyes?!
Alex swiftly turn his binoculars back towards a dark area of bushes where he saw the eyes, and standing right where they were before are a pair of red, cat-like eyes staring right at him from the bushes. It's hypnotic glow seem to light up the entire area, but Alex still couldn't see which face those eyes belong too. What really began to scare him is that eyes narrow, staring straight at him like they're targeting him.
"U-Uh, Derek?" Alex begins, the binoculars shaking tightly in his hand as he backs up to the boulder. "D-Did the Specter, by any chance, have red glow-y eyes?"
"Um, yeah." Derek shrugs, not noticing his friend's stutter while he continues to look around. "Yeah, I remember seeing a picture when Ranger Stan told us at the campfire."
Rustling of the bushes brought Alex's attention back to the red eyes, now only two dark-grey hands, both big and wrinkly as their long dirty nails gripping the bushes surrounding them.
"A-And by any chance, does the Specter have these gross, big hands?"
"Yeah! Those things were pretty gross! I can't even believe Ranger Stan actually got into detail about that..."
Suddenly Alex heard a growl, making him whimper. That growl reminded him of a man trying to sound like a bear and a lion at the same time, only it was less human.
"A-And had a horrible growl?"
"Horrible growl?" Derek asks in confusion, finally tearing his eyes away from the forest and now looking at his friend. "I don't remember Ranger Stan saying anything about-"
Derek didn't have time to finish his sentence when Alex suddenly grabs his head and forces him to stare straight ahead, right where the red eyes are now staring at both of them.
"T-That can't be-" Derek stops himself, fear coursing through his veins once he realize that certain legend is probably real.
"It is!" Alex screams, once again cutting his friend off. "That's the Specter!"
With a flick of a wrist, the Specter shot out of the bushes straight towards them. Thinking quickly, Derek push Alex out of the way. Alex stumble a bit from the sudden force, but when he turn to look back, he saw his best friend being swallow up by fur cloak of the Specter.
"Derek!" Alex screams.
Unfortunately, his scream reminded the Specter of his presence. The hooded head of the Specter slowly turn it towards the terrified boy, who look ready to pass out right there and then.
"I munda est..." Those were just three words that came from the Specter. And although they were gibberish to Alex, the deep, hallow tone of the Specter's voice was enough to make Alex run as fast as he could.
"AH! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Not long after him, the Specter flew right behind him.
Alex try everything what his little legs could give to get away from the Specter that's following close behind him. All he need to do is make it back at Camp where he will be safe and get help for Derek. Soon he began to see the sign of Camp to come over the hill, making Alex smile in relief. He's home free!
However, just when he was about to reach camp, he's whole world became swallowed by darkness.
The Specter had got him.
The bus ride seem like an eternity for the XY Gang as they watch the tall trees roll by. To think a trip to a place where Pokémon and Normal Animals can live in harmony would be more fun, guess they have to wait as the bus continues to drive for ages before they could get there, one of the reasons why Ash likes to travel on foot.
Speaking of Ash, he thought going to this camp will give him a chance to change his look to fit in with the Normal Citizens: he decided to wear a light denim jacket with a long-sleeved, navy-blue shirt underneath it and a white undershirt. With that, gray shorts, white socks, and a high-top black and white sneakers. He still wore his signature red baseball cape, which is rested on Pikachu, who is sleeping peacefully on his lap.
Serena, like Ash, has also decide to change her clothes a little bit. She still wore the blue ribbon that Ash had given her around her neck, her pink fedora rests gently on her short honey blonde hair, but the rest of her clothes have change somewhat. Serena now wears a gray crop-top underneath a pink, short-sleeved drees that went up to her knees with black, thigh-high socks, and pink sneakers. She was currently reading a magazine called Haute Couture Trends.
Clemont was seated next to Serena, working on what looks like to be an RC Helicopter. Like his two best friends, he had change his looks. While he still kept his glasses, Clemont now wore a blue and gray t-shirt underneath a denim jumper and a gray hoodie, along with some high socks and navy-blue sneakers.
The only one of them who took their change of clothes drastically was Bonnie, who somehow grow her hair a little bit to put it in small ponytails. Bonnie is now wearing a black ribbon around her neck with a brown tank top underneath a short yellow cardigan. It also came with a white mini-skater skirt, turquoise leggings, pink and orange stripped socks, and black sneakers. She completed her outfit with four black and pink wristbands on each of her arms, which Bonnie is currently putting the last wristband on her arms.
"..And done!" She announces after slapping the wristband on. With that, she sit up proudly in her seat. "Now that's done, what do you guys think about my new look? Especially my new pigtails!" To emphasis her point, Bonnie sang the last part and jerked her head from left to right to make her pigtails flap.
The three older kids laugh a little at Bonnie's silliness before continuing what they were doing; Ash staring at the window, Serena with her book, Clemont with his helicopter, and Bonnie grooming Dedenne.
After a few minutes, Serena finally speaks up, "It sure was nice for your Uncle Taku to let us spend our summer at this camp."
"Yeah, Uncle Taku is the best." Ash said, excitement shining bright in his eyes like the sun. "First he let us visit a place where we see creatures that we never knew existed before, battle a ghoul, and solve a mystery! Now, he's letting us spend our entire summer at camp where we get to see those creatures everyday!" His exhilarated shout was enough to wake Pikachu up.
"Speaking of Ghouls, you did ask your Uncle to make sure there's no legend about them in this camp, right?" Clemont asks nervously, taking the moment to look up from his work and holding his tools in his hands like he's preparing to defend himself with them. Hearing that also made Serena and Bonnie nervous.
"Yes, he told me there's no legend about Ghouls in the camp." Hearing that made the three kids sigh in relief. "Actually he told this island has pretty much no legends. It's just a pretty average island."
"What?! Boo!" Bonnie complains, not liking the idea of spending her entire summer at a boring camp.
"Now, Bonnie," Clemont said in hopes to calm his sister down. "I'm sure there's plenty of fun things we can do at the Camp."
"Uh, I don't know..." Serena speaks up uncertainly, reeling her head back with wide eyes at the guidebook she was just reading. She had put down her fashion magazine and decided to read the guidebook of their camp, and just seeing the title was enough to disturb her. "A camp with the name Stan's Deadpan Camp doesn't sound all that exciting. To be honest, I think it's more of a torture camp."
"Uncle Taku said that the head counselor there might seem a bit strange, he's actually a pretty decent guy." Ash said, before his face turn into a frown. "Although, I kind of don't get how a conman can be a "decent guy"."
Before anybody else could say anything, they were all stop by a huge bump on the rode and the ride's sudden stop, which made them go flying from the seats and almost collide with the seats in front of them. Clemont quickly tried to keep his invention from taking any damage.
"Hey, sorry about that!" The driver said to the daze kids. "It's the traditional welcome sign to Stan's Deadpan Camp! You hit a bump on the world, then it mean's we're here!"
"Great..." Bonnie mumbles as she slumps back into her seat.
After getting their bags and momentarily thanking the driver as he drove off, the kids all turned around to look at the camp. Despite what Ash said about the head counselor being a conman, this place actually look pretty decent. There are a pair of five log cabins on each side that look pretty new. What look like to be the main building is place in the middle of the cabins at the end. From what they could tell, the entire camp seem to be covered in tall pine trees and on top of giant hill. All in all though, this place actually look like a normal camp.
"Wow, your Uncle knew what he was doing when he picked this place." Bonnie mumbles to Ash in amazement as they began to walk towards the main building, which appears to be on the highest hill.
"I take back what I said about this camp." Serena said after noticing a batch of flowers near the cabins.
Ash himself took a moment to look around when his eyes became glue to a couple of squirrels scurrying by. "Hey look at those!"
Before the four children could enjoy their little experience any longer, it was ruin by woman's angry voice shouting, "How could you let this happen?!"
This makes the kids stop their walk and turn to where they believe that voice had came from, which was behind the cabins on the right. Luckily their suspicions were confirm when they heard a gruff, low voice from behind the cabins saying, "How was I suppose to know something like this was going to happen to the kids?!"
"It's your job as the Head Counselor too look after our poor boys!" Another angry female voice shouts. Shooting concern looks at each other, the XY Gang slowly walk over to where the voices are. They poke their heads out to see tall old man wearing glasses and dressed in a Park Ranger's outfit with the cache shorts, the tall socks, and the Ranger hat, seemly talking to a Caucasian and a African American women, who both are holding what look like to be their sons. Their sons, though, look completely terrified, their eyes are widen, their bodies are shaking out of control, and they both had death grips on their mothers, making the XY Gang wonder what happened.
"And look at what happened! Our babies were kidnapped by a lunatic for three days and returned completely scared!" The African American woman screams, answering their question.
"I didn't know there was some nut-job running around the island with a hood?!" The man tries to defend himself, but it look the two mothers weren't having any of it as they lead their sons away from him.
"I hope you enjoy your summer here, Ranger Stan!" The Caucasian Woman shouts as she and the other mother walk past the kids. "Because it's going to be last once we report this to the authorities!"
"N-Now just wait a sec-!" But the two women were already out of sight, making Ranger Stan sight. "There goes another one..."
Believing it was the time to speak up, Clemont asks "Um, excuse me, sir? But what just happened?"
"Whoda-what?" Ranger Stan jumps once he sees the kids standing in front of him, not noticing them until Clemont made their presence known. "Oh, it just kids." Stan grumbles in slight relief, but mostly annoyance. Suddenly Stan took a closer look at Ash, "Hey, aren't you Taku Ketchum's nephew or something?"
"Yeah, that's me!" Ash confirms before returning to Clemont's question. "But what happened to those boys you and those mother were talking about?"
"Oh, those two are just overacting because their sons were kidnapped for a few days by some Specter in a hood." Ranger Stan shrugs like what he's talking about is simple as the weather.
However, the kids took it a bit more seriously. "S-SP-SPECTER?!" Bonnie and Clemont quickly latch onto each other while Dedenne dive right into Bonnie's bag, Serena was shaking on her knees, Pikachu was gripping onto Ash's shoulder as Ash was getting something from his backpack.
"Relax, kids!" Ranger Stan said once he realize how terrified they look. "Personally, I think it's just some lunatic in a cape." That didn't make the kids feel any better, however. "But whoever this, it seems like they want me out of the business. That's the third parents that complaint about their sons being kidnapped for three days. If this keeps up, then I'll be ruin!"
Hearing those familiar words made the kids look at each other knowingly. "Sounds like you've got a mystery on your hands, Ranger Stan." Serena said with a smile.
Stan quickly took notice of this. "Why are you kids looking at me like that? I've been camp counselor for forty years, don't think I don't know how you kids work with those little minds of yours!"
"We were just thinking, we kind of know a few people who are experts on mysteries." Ash said suggestively.
"Who? Do they work for free? Cause I'm not paying some snot-nose amateurs to do my work if they want money for it. Little listen kids, you won't get far until you can take what you can get. Practically the wallets." With that, Stan took out a wallet.
The kids blink at him for a moment before Ash finally speaks up. "Uh, no... Look, I'll write them a letter. Once they get here, I promise you, Stan, that you won't lose your job!" With that, Ash ran off with his friends not so far behind him, leaving Ranger Stan alone.
"Okay, I'll let you kids call in the "experts". But if they turn out to be at their job and want money, I don't care if you're Taku's nephew, I'M GOING TO COME AFTER YOU, KID!" Stan yelled after them.
Author's Note: Hey everyone.!Thanks for Steel Heart Alchemist's own Scooby-Doo/Pokémon crossover (you guys should definitely read it!), it inspired me to make a sequel of my own crossover "Scooby-Doo!: The Case of the Hotel Ghoul." Funny thing, I actually had dream about the same Scooby-Doo/Pokémon Crossover with the same plot and monster, now I'm writing it here and on Quotev!
The character Ranger Stan is based off Gravity Falls Grunkle Stan, so keep an eye out for Gravity Falls reference in this story!
One last thing before I work on the next chapter, do any of you know any go digital artists? Because I'm thinking about doing a cover art for this story, and I can't draw to save my life. So if someone were to do a cover art for this story it will be greatly appreciate and I will get a chapter done faster for you.
So now that's done, I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter!