Maze

A lone Litwick overlooked the city of New York, from atop the Statue of Liberty. It was his job, and his alone, to light the torch at night, for the world to see. During the day, the Litwick would sleep, eat, play with his ghost-type friends in their little group, or play tricks on the tourists. The Litwick had several friends: Dusk the Duskull, Suzy the Shuppet, Punk the Golurk, Jasper the Drifloon, Carl the Ghastly, and Yaxley the Yamask. Their caretaker, the one meant to look after them and keep them out of trouble was Spiriking. Dusk was rude and had a "painful" sense of humor, Suzy was funny and nice, Carl agreed with whoever said anything always (a Yes-man), Punk used brute strength to lift things to obstruct the paths of tourists, to the group's enjoyment, he was helpful and cunning, Jasper usually was lookout for their caretaker, Spiriking. Jasper was daring, but timid, and Yaxley was the group's leader, with a leader mentality and a leader's heart! Spiriking, there caretaker, was vicious and blunt, enforcing the rules with an iron- er... Fist/Keystone. The Litwick's name was Maze (Mah-zay).

On some random day,

"Oi," shouted Dusk, "the tourists are coming!"

"Get ready, guy" encouraged Yaxley

Everyone was phased and was hiding around the threshold to the inside of the statue, it was around 8:00AM, far too early for them to go outside, but just light enough for the tourists to come. The grouped loved to mock and toy with the tourists, for they considered them stupid, after all, as Yaxley once pointed out "They're idiots because they're paying to take a 30 minute boat ride to this island, when they very well could just buy a pair of binoculars! Or even pay a quarter for one of those coin-timer ones."

The group agreed upon this in union and has since been interfering with the luxuries of the tourists relating to the island. The only problem with their plans has always stood alone, and provided a real challenge to the: their caretaker, Spiriking. It was Spiriking's job to keep the group in check, which he succeed at as often as failed.

"Here they come!" whispered Yaxley. The group was ready to pounce, they were invisible-

The tourists crossed the threshold into the building, then… An anvil fell right in front of the one in the front "What the-"

If only he could finish, but he couldn't, because his shoes were on fire and he was just noticing. The doors suddenly slammed shut, the convoy of tourists became confused, and started running around frantically, trying to escape. People were randomly getting their shoes, backpacks, and cameras set on fire. People were acting as if they were getting tripped, too. Random people began falling over, and people were suddenly levitating in the air, screaming out of panic. The doors unlocked and opened, the levitating people fell, and the crowd was scrambling to escape the haunted nightmare. Finally, the last tourist, after trying to take pictures of the phenomenon, ran out when his camera combusted into flames.

"Nice work guys!" beamed Yaxley in approval, the group reappearing.

"Dude, that was totally righteous" agreed Punk

"Yeah, man, we showed them, all right!" pointed out Carl, "agreeful" as always.

The group repeated their tactics throughout the day, always starting off with the ominous anvil, and by sunset the group of friends was sure none of today's tourist would be coming again. After all, Dusk did shout "… and don't come again!" to the last of them.

"All in a day's work, guys" proclaimed Yaxley, up in the head of the statue that contained a little cardboard meeting room, from spare boxes and trash lying around outside and in the basement. "Also, nice work Maze and Punk, for setting things on fire and picking up the humans, respectively."

"Thanks, man" said Punk, accepting the compliment.

"Thanks." muttered Maze.

"Hey, isn't it almost time to light the torch?" asked Suzy.

"Oh, thanks, Suzy!" thanked Maze, drifting up to the ceiling at top speed to reach the torch before 7:00, when he was supposed to light it. And by light it, it means he stands there, on top of the torch, and peaks his flame so it is bright enough for the city to see. Maze arrived at the torch's peak, and went to his position, then out if nowhere in particular, hundreds of voices began to sing as if from a distance.

"Unown….. Unown, Unown, Unown….. Unown" the voices kept singing and before he knew it Maze was surrounded by darkness- except, it wasn't darkness, for darkness didn't have hundreds of eyes bearing down upon Maze, or… Did it? No, of course not. Maze suddenly realized he was in the midst of a swirling vortex made of letters. Suddenly, they all stopped in union. They were all Unown, the Symbol Pokémon. One of them detached itself from the large mass, but this one was blue. It was the Unown letter "F", but this is no ordinary "F", and it's not just abnormal because it's a shiny one, no. This particular Unown has a name, and that name is Altar, king of the Unown. "High-low there, burning one," began Altar, "Tell I, burning one, why do you stand atop the stone of fire all of the dark-time long?"

"Er…." Started Maze, surprised by the appearance of such a mystical Pokémon. "Well, you see, it's my job to light it at night-"

Altar interjected immediately, "but this is not your daily task! You cannot fool I! You are the drink dealer of the safe-haven for sinister Pokémon known as "The Devil's Nest."

"Well that may be true," countered Maze, "that job is only part-time, when I don't need to light this torch."

"Ah, this I am seeing now," proclaimed Altar, "but it would be unwise to light the stone of fire in 167 hours."

"Wait, that's…" Maze counted in his head, "a week!" he concluded.

"Call it what you will, just do not light the torch at that time, and speaking of which, it is your time to light the stone right….. Now," announced Altar.

"Holy," Maze suddenly remembered his duties and lit up, but when his eyes focused, the Vortex of Unown and Alter were gone.

"What just-," Maze didn't need to finish the thought…. He couldn't have anyway.

He stood there, for the remainder of the night, pondering what Altar had said.

End of Chapter 1