Dez looked closer at the sign that was posted in the hall of the International Pokémon League which was already full of many decorations for Halloween. The flyer read: "Haunted Hike! Come down to the woods at the northern point of Challenger Island to join fellow trainers on a haunted scavenger hunt. The trainer to get all the items in the fastest amount of time wins a prize! Bring a camera to show proof of your finds and enjoy the scares!"
Dez scratched his chin. He was already going to a part with some friends early tonight, but he might have time to do so. His Shiny Manectric looked at him, tilting his head. Dez patted him on the head as he quickly took a photo of the flyer with his camera. "Don't worry, we'll get some food in a moment," Dez said as he began to walk off, Manectric close behind.
Moments later, the girl in charge of the bulletin board came by to put up some more flyers when she saw the Haunted Hike flyer. "That's odd. I never recall putting this up."
In fact, it didn't even have the seal of the IPL that is needed before flyers are posted. She quickly tore it down and threw it away in a trash bin nearby.
Dez walked down the pathway in the field as the moon and stars became brighter as he walked further away from his scooter and closer to the woods according to direction that were on the photo of the flyer, flashlight in hand. Manectric ran in the tall grass nearby, chasing some wild Pokémon to entertain itself. "Manectric!" Dez called as he saw another person up ahead by the entrance to the woods.
Disappointed, the dog returned by Dez's side as they approached the man up ahead. He had his back to them as he seemed to be hunched over, looking at a table set up. "Hey, is this where the Haunted Hike is?" Dez asked.
The man didn't respond, his white jacket moving slightly in the wind. In fact he hadn't moved an inch. "Hey, you okay?" Dez said putting a hand on his shoulder.
Instantly the figure snapped around, a jack-o-lantern with a grinning jagged smile looked right into Dez's eyes as there was a maniacal laughter. Dez yelped, stumbling backwards as Manectric leaned back, growling. Dez slowed down his breath as the simple figure with pumpkin on top, a speaker directly beneath the squash. Dez turned to see a man laughing behind him clapping his hands. "Boy, a little jumpy aren't we?"
Dez rolled his eyes as he straightened himself out and calmed down Manectric as the man went over to the prop reset it so it looked like before Dez had touched it. The man looked to be in his later thirties, wearing a white lab coat like the dummy, his hair graying with a pair of old glasses over his eyes. "Name's Simmons. I take you're here for the wonderful Haunted Hike?"
"Yeah. Name's Dez," the trainer said holding out a hand.
Strangely, Simmons didn't take his hand and shoved his hands back into his pockets. The man walked over to the table as he sat down in a chair behind it. "Well, Dez, glad you could make it. Here's a map of the woods with locations of your hidden items."
Dez shined his flashlight upon the table showing a pile of maps with a few circles on them. He picked one up and began to look it over. "There is a total of six items out there for you to find. You bring you camera?" Dez lifted up his camera. "Good. The items you are looking for are as follows: an orange candle, three orange and black Pokeballs, the largest gravestone you can find, and lastly, the largest pumpkin in the entire woods. When you finish or you simply can't find the rest of the items, just come back here and I'll give you points based on what you've found as well as how long it took you. Any questions?" Simmons asked as he pulled out a stopwatch with a gloved hand.
Dez quickly looked at the map. There were six circles on the map, not to mention that the pumpkin patch and graveyard were clearly labeled on the map. "Sounds like fun. Anyone else in there?"
"A few other trainers," he said pointing to other stopwatches on the table, numbers flying by on them. "Are you ready?"
Dez nodded. Simmons pressed the button on the stopwatch starting the time. "Go!" he said as Dez began to sprint into the woods, Manectric running after him. "Have a scary good time!" he yelled after the trainer and his companion as they ran into the darkening woods.
Dez ignored Simmons as he ran further down the path, his flashlight's beam bouncing around the barren woods, leaves crunching underneath his feet before he slowed down to a walk. Manectric caught up with him as the Dez caught his breath, the Pokémon not winded at all by the run. "Manectric!" Dez complain said jumping at him slightly.
Dez gave a small laugh ruffling Mancetric's head. "So you're in shape more than me. Yeah, you can stop bragging."
Dez brought up the map and unfolded it and looked at it in comparison to the path. "Hm…the closest one shouldn't be far from here," he said as he walked further along the path, Manectric trotting alongside him. He walked as he heard a Noctowl hooting in the night. He nearly than tripped something as he was looking at the map. "Whoa!" he said as he caught his balance before he could fall.
He moved his flashlight down on the ground to see a Pokeball, orange and black. "Well, that's one down," he said taking out his camera and crouching down.
As Dez changed the focus on the camera, he heard Manectric began to growl a little bit. He quickly took the picture, a bright flash going off. As soon as flash went off, he heard a small cry of a Pokémon as it scampered off, leave crunching beneath its feet. "It's alright boy. Just probably a Bidoof," Dez said as he looked at the image he had taken on his digital screen.
The Pokeball appeared well from the flash, a little sheen on it as Dez could also see a little reflective flash upon the eyes of the Pokémon that had been in the brush. "See, just probably looking for some food," said as he turned off his camera and pulled out the map again.
He looked at the map and saw the nearest location was the spot marked as the graveyard. Seeing as the path led straight to the graveyard he put the map away and just walked forward, Manectric smelling the wind as the two continued onwards.
Soon it came into view, the nearly full moon giving lots of light to the small clearing where the obviously fake graveyard was set up. Even from a little off, Dez could tell the gravestones where made out of foam or something similar. He was about to walk past the little plastic fence when he suddenly heard leaves crunching. "Hm?" Dez turned to with his flashlight aimed to see a male teenager running towards him.
"Wait!" the trainer called out as he ran towards Dez from out of the woods.
The trainer finally reached him and tried to catch his breath breathing raggedly."Don't…go…in there," he said between breaths.
"What?" Dez said putting a hand on the guys shoulder.
"The graveyard," the teen said beginning to straighten out. "Don't go in there. It's what brings them out."
Dez raised an eyebrow. "Uh…you know those are made of foam, right?"
"That's what it looks like but it's not. Look, I just ran all the way back here after stopping them so someone wouldn't set it off again."
"Um, dude? You're not making a lot of sense."
He put his hands on Dez' shoulders but Dez pushed him off. "You don't understand! It's not a treasure hunt thing. It's a trap! They're trying to lure in trainers and-"
"Alright, seriously dude, you're just some guy who's just trying to scare the heck of me to make my time longer," Dez said he rubbed his eyes. "It's getting late and I want to finish this as soon as I can."
Dez turned around and walked past the mock fence as he turned on his camera. "Now tell me dude, it's the largest gravestone, right?"
"Please! I'm warning you," the nervous teenager said, quickly pulling out a Pokeball.
Dez looked at the kid. "You want a battle? Now? Look, maybe later, but it's late so I don't think the rest of my party probably doesn't want be woken just now."
Dez looked into the viewfinder of the camera as he found the largest gravestone. He changed the focus so he could clearly read the fake print upon the foam: "Here lies Don Song, he didn't last very long."
"Very funny," Dez murmured to himself as he snapped a photo, the flash illuminating the area.
As soon as the flash went off, the teenager screamed which jolted both Dez and Manectric as the teen began to run back into the dark woods off the path. "What is with that guy?" Dez asked his companion.
Mancetric's ears perked up as he leaned back looking around tensely. The light in the area seemed to immediately become dark. Dez looked up to see the moon was now covered by clouds, many more clouds now in the sky making it very dark. Dez put away his camera and pulled out his flashlight to light the area. He looked, but looked again at the largest gravestone. He squinted and got down on one knee as he brought the flashlight closer. Was it his imagination? Had the text…changed?
Naw, it couldn't be. Probably just another scare tactic that Simon had set up. The text had changed and was longer now. "Here lies Dez, he didn't head his one warning."
"What?" he said to himself as he looked at it again, making sure he wasn't seeing things. But there was the text plain as day. He tried moving it like the text flipped over, but it didn't budge. He decided to ignore it as he stepped out of the fake graveyard, Manectric barked furiously standing its ground as it looked at the graveyard. "Come on, there's nothing there," Dez said as he turned around. "There's nothing over…there…"
Dez trailed off when he realized what he was saying was very true. There was no graveyard there. Just an empty clearing with some leaves on the ground. Dez just stared at the area, flashlight beam combing over the area again and again. But it was just there, wasn't it? He quickly looked at his camera at his photos. The Pokeball from earlier and the gravestone were still there. He looked up at the clearing. It was just there, he had photographic proof. He looked at the photo. But the fake text was not there. It was blank. He zoomed in on the image trying to get a closer look.
Suddenly, the screen went out. Confused Dez turned the camera back on. The photo of the Pokeball came back up, but it had changed. The Pokeball was open now, showing to be empty. Confused, Dez hit the next arrow. The photo of the gravestone came back up, but there was test on there now. "BEHIND YOU"
Dez heard a growling noise that didn't belong to Manectric as he saw out of the corner of his eye he saw the dog stepping back slowly, jaws still barred. Dez's hands began to shake as he turned around, flashlight beam shaking back and forth.
A mighty Arcanine stood behind him, its eyes a deep red as it growled down at Dez. Dez had never seen one before, but it seemed larger than from what he heard. It showed its teeth once the flashlight beam was shinned in its eyes and roared sending flames at the trainer. Dez quickly reacted and jumped to the side landing on the ground. Manectric roared behind him as it used Thunderbolt shocking the great dog. "You will pay infidels!" roared the might dog as it ran forward at Manectric.
Manectric ran to the side as it dodged the mighty Pokémon as Dez stood frozen in fright. Did it just…talk? Manectric dodged another flamethrower and ran straight ahead with Take Down as it didn't even cause the Arcanine to flinch as Manectric stepped back, obviously in some pain. Dez finally snapped out of his fear and finally took the situation. Either he was dreaming or something really weird was going on. "Manectric! Retreat!" Dez said beginning to run. "We don't stand a chance!"
Manectric hesitated, but obeyed Dez as the two ran off into the woods, the mighty beast staying where it was as it raised its maw. Dez looked over his shoulder just to see a Fire Blast come from its mouth heading towards them. "Off the path! Left!" he yelled.
The trainer and his companion jumped to the side avoiding the Fire Blast only to realize it was a steep slope. Dez lost his footing and fell down tumbling as Manectric tumbled next to him, yelping in surprise. The two continued to tumble until the splashed into shallow water. Water went into Dez's throat as he began to choke upon it, quickly getting out of the shallow water, Manectric shaking himself dry. Dez looked at the top of the hill cautiously. Nothing was up there. Not even a sign of a fire. Dez breathed hard and saw that his flashlight was still floating in the water, light bouncing through the water as it bobbed up and down.
As Dez leaned over the water's surface and grabbed the flashlight back up, drying it off as his mind buzzed. Had that really happened? How did the photograph change? Did that Arcanine really talk? "I guess I should have listened to that kid, huh boy?" Dez said almost to himself as he moved the flashlight across the water.
From reading the map earlier, he knew this was a small swamp that was in the woods. He moved the flashlight cautiously looking around, his nerve now on edge. "Manectric!" he heard his companion bark out.
Dez turned to see Manectric sniffing something near the water. "What did you find boy?" Dez said walking over.
His flashlight moved across the water as he spotted another orange and black Pokeball sitting upon a rock deeper into the swamp. Dez breathed hard, his breath becoming smoke in the air. He pulled out his camera again. He nervously turned it back on. He turned his flashlight off and tucked it away in a pocket, the night becoming even darker as he brought up his viewfinder up to his eye. Looking through the camera, it appeared as if static was now around the Pokeball. Dez quickly brought the camera down as Manectric began to growl again. The static was around the Pokeball too. The camera shook in his hand as he brought it back up and quickly took a picture.
After the flash disappeared, Dez quickly put the camera away as he saw the static was gone as the Pokeball began to move back and forth violently. Manectric began to bark, Dez's heartbeat becoming harder as sweat went down his brow. The Pokeball stopped moving and popped open. Nothing happened.
Dez's heart slowed slightly as he looked at the swamp, the Pokeball just lying open. Manectric looked at it confused. Dez shook himself, trying to ward off the cold his damp jacket was giving him. "Come on boy, let's get out of here."
They turned and began to walk back up the steep hill, Dez grabbing onto tree limbs to keep his balance from falling. One dead branch snapped in his hand as he quickly grabbed another as the broken branch fell down the hill till it plopped into the water. Dez continued up, until he saw the same tree branch roll up past him on the hill. He quickly looked down the hill as he heard something. Manectric stood at the top of the hill and looked down. Dez pulled out his flashlight and pointed it down, and flipped it on.
His light revealed a Mudkip near the bottom moving a pile of leaves with its head. He sighed as he saw it head butt small branches that went up the hill. Shaking his head trying to tell himself not to overreact as he went higher up the hill. "Mudkip!"
He looked over his shoulder to see the Mudkip jumping up after him trying to catch up to him. "Run along now. I'm kinda busy at the moment," Dez said waving the water Pokémon off.
He didn't move an inch when the Mudkip caught up to him. It was then with the flashlight he could see the coloration of the Mudkip was off. It looked like it's color was almost as if it had been drained. Perhaps it was just Dez's flashlight. He didn't have a chance to try to shoo it away as it spewed mud from it mouth at the ground Dez stood. "Oh gross!" Dez said lifting up a foot.
The Mudkip suddenly ran into Dez's other's foot, causing him to fall down slipping in the pile of mud the Pokémon had created causing Dez to tumble down the hill once again. He tried grabbing onto other tree branches, but found them to be coated in mud as well. He found himself tumbling down back towards the swamp, he could see several more Mudkips coming out from the shadows. He fell into the shallow water on his back, spurting the water from his mouth as he saw the Mudkip advance upon him from all around.
Their skin was greenish and pale, their fins no longer orange and nearly white. Their eyes almost were nonexistence as Dez gasped in horror to see that some part of their bodies were not theirs, but just bones moving on their own. The Mudkip from on top of the hill had come back down and jumped onto Dez's chest as it looked straight into his face, mud dripping from its open mouth, its sunken eyes staring into him. "Why are you scared?" it spoke in a nasal tone. "I heard you liked the Mudkips."
The other undead Mudkips repeated the same sentence over and over again as Dez tried continuously to break free screaming as they kept knocking him back into the water and trying to hold him down with his head under the water. Chocking on the murky water Dez finally broke free of the Mudkips and began to scramble up the hill. Manectric jumped next to him and used Shock Wave at the approaching Mudkips. A few became paralyzed and stopped moving, but the rest continued after first flinching in pain. "Just run!" Dez yelled as he ran as fast as he could up the steep hill.
Manectric sent down three Thunderbolts, and then ran up after Dez as the chorus of undead Mudkips continued beneath them having difficulty moving up the hill. Even when atop the hill, Dez didn't stop running till he couldn't breathe no more, leaning against a tree. He breathed heavily, his clothes soaked with patches of mud on his jeans as Manectric caught up to him, laying on the leaves, but still alert. Dez's hands shook as he pulled out thing of his pockets to let them dry off including his wallet, Pokédex, the map, and his camera which after checking had not been damaged, just had water all over it. Thank goodness he had a waterproof seal on it.
But he had lost some of his things back there. His flashlight, his hat, maybe even his sanity, he wasn't quite so sure. He slowly inches to the ground letting his legs rest as looked at the damp map. He turned on his camera and looked at the images again. The last picture he had taken at the swamp showed the Pokeball open, although he thought he could see the shadow outline of one of the Mudkips under the water's surface. The picture of the first Pokeball he found was still empty. He changed it to that of the gravestone. The text was different once again. Dez pinched himself really hard, but he wasn't waking up so this must be real. It now read: "Halfway there, so it seems."
Dez stared at it for a second before pulling out the now damp map. He could see the circle of where they were now at the swamp as well as the rest. "Okay boy, this sound crazy, but whatever happened back there has to do with this stupid treasure hunt," Dez said not believing his own words. "Maybe if we find all of them, this will stop."
Manectric sniffed the map and looked at Dez as he traced his fingers around map. They had found three items on the east side of the map, but haven't even touched the west side. There was an area labeled the pumpkin patch where there was one circle. Another circle was south of the pumpkin patch, north west of where they were now. The last one was in the far corner of the woods, even further west then the pumpkin patch. Dez sighed. At least they were closer than the past three. He just hoped nothing even stranger happened this time around. Suddenly, Dez hear a roar as he shot upwards from his sitting position as he looked around, Manectric back on his feet as well. The mighty Arcanine had returned back into view and had spotted them. "This way!" Dez shouted to his Pokémon as he began to run, map clenched in his fist as Manectric bounded after him as the Arcanine began to chase them.
Dez ran as fast as he could in what he prayed was north. He could hear at one point the Arcanine howl sending another shiver down his spine. He quickly looked over his shoulder to see the Arcanine had stopped. Dez kept running though, not caring why the Arcanine had stopped pursuit. However doing so he saw what lie ahead: the last Pokeball. He ran up to it and already saw static surrounding the Pokeball, as if he were watching this on a television. He pulled out his camera nervously. "Alright, as soon as we take the picture, run. Got it boy?"
Manectric nodded in approval as looked cautiously at the Pokeball. Dez held the camera in his hands as he turned it on. Immediately upon doing so, he hear the Arcanine howl again, this time followed by something else. Like a soft chorus of voice extremely out of tune. The Mudkips. Dez breathed deeply as he brought up the viewfinder and snapped the picture.
The static instantly disappeared as the Pokeball instantly opened, a white flash erupted to show a Gardevoir standing in the woods, a purple mist flowing from her. Her eyes snapped open as Dez began to run, camera back in his pocket. She telepathically raised trees from their roots and hurled them at Dez. Dez heard the noises as he turned to see the tress coming at him. Yelling in surprise he fell to his belly as the two trees barely flew over him, Manectric nearly crashing into them. You will not escape, human. Dez heard a female voice say to him in his mind.
As Dez went to climb over the tree, he saw colors flash before his eyes, no doubt due to the psychic powers of the Gardevoir. He cried out in pain as frightening images flashed before his eyes as he continued to scream in horror. Manectric tried to nudge Dez, but was to no avail. Gardevoir's eyes glowed even brighter at Dez as she slowly began to advance. Manectric got in between the two and barked a few times at Gardevoir. Gardevoir quickly waved her arm causing Manectric to be lifted up and thrown to the side. She continued to advance upon Dez, eyes staring intensely as he moved held his head still screaming from the images he was seeing. She stood right in front of him as she brought an arm up towards his head and closed her eyes. Doing so, Gardevoir missed seeing a series of lightning bolts struck from above. The series of Thunderbolts shocked Gardevoir's eyes wide open, the glow disappearing as the psychic connection was broken, Dez's screams ending.
Manectric charged in and rammed Gardevoir down to the ground. The fallen leaves began to lift up into the air and whipped around as Gardevoir floated up above the ground. Rocks began to float above as well and started to be hurled at Manectric. Manectric ran around, dodging the rocks one by one as he continued to send strikes of electricity at the psychic foe. Dez came to his senses as he got back to his feet, legs still shaking as he saw Gardevoir against Manectric. "Can you hold her off?"
Manectric braked in reply as another attack successfully hit Gardevoir causing her to twirl around the air, the leaves whipping around the air to fall for a few seconds before rising up once again. "I know you can do it buddy." He said before running north towards the pumpkin patch.
He ran as hard as he could, his breath running short once he came upon the pumpkin patch as he saw immediately what he had to take another picture of. The largest pumpkin was very unbelievable, probably a fake like the foam graveyard, but at the moment Dez didn't care. He could hear the roar of the Arcanine as well as the increasingly loud chorus of the Mudkips. He quickly brought up his camera quickly and snapped the pumpkin that must have been 10 kilometers large.
Instantly upon taking the picture of the great pumpkin, it blew apart as pieces of the squash began to fly everywhere as an enormous sized Venusaur roared from what was the interior of the pumpkin. "You've got to be kidding me," Dez muttered as he saw it open it's maw as a great energy came from its mouth.
He began to run to the west as the Solarbeam fired from it mouth destroying several pumpkins and a few trees barely missing Dez as he fell to the ground tripping over a vine. He looked around nervously, trying to figure out if the Venusaur had seen him or not. Leaves flying through the air above his head slicing off the top of pumpkins gave a good enough answer. He began to army crawl over and under vines getting far away. He quickly got up as he saw something not dark in the woods, something orange. The candle!
He got up, only to be knocked down by a Vine whip from the Venusaur. He cried out in pain as he fell down, but gritted his teeth getting back up. He couldn't get a good shot from here. He needed to get closer. He got up and hobbled as his leg was in great pain. He could hear the Mudkips getting much louder, their chant of "I heard you like the Mudkips," becoming the only thing he could hear. He finally saw the candle up ahead. He heard Arcanine roar as he saw a pillar of fire hit trees to his left. he rolled onto the ground avoiding the attack stumbling as he ran into a tree. He saw the candle only a few meters away. He quickly pulled out the camera and saw the batteries were low. He quickly brought the camera up to his eye as he saw Mudkips advancing towards him. He had the candle in the middle of the frame and took the shot.
The flash went off giving the area a quick burst of light. As he brought down the camera, he could see that the candle was now lit. The Pokemon that had been chasing him stopped in their tracks upon seeing the candle. Dez stared at them, heart pounding, not moving an inch. Did he stop them?
He heard the small click of a watch from behind him as he turned to see Simmons standing there leaning against the tree. "Well, well. We might just have a winner."
Manectric ran out of the woods, Gardevoir behind him as he came next to Dez as the trainer stood up facing Simmons. "What the heck is all this? You did all this?"
Simmons looked up as the clouds began to dissipate, the moon coming back into view, pushing his glasses up his nose. "You could say that we were bored and figured why ought to have some fun. I mean, everyone else is this evening, right?" he said walking forward.
As he walked forward, Dez could see the Pokemon begin to change and take different shapes, nearly transparent. Simmons seemed to becoming transparent as well as shorter. "I mean, what's Halloween without a good scare? And we love nothing more than a good scare."
Dez recognized what all the Pokemon were turning into: ghost Pokemon, the Mudkips turning into Gastly and the other three as Haunters. Simmons slowly became a Gengar, the spectacles still remaining over his now red eyes. Now close up to Dez. "The first two trainers were too easy to scare and ran off without finishing. Now you and the fellow before you on the other hand, stuck through even through I'm pretty sure he nearly took a leak in his jeans. And you did it even in a faster amount of time! You and your Manectric both did very well."
Upon hearing his name, Manectric growled at the Gengar, obviously tired out but still stood on his legs. "So…this was just so you can scare us? And you're entertained by it!"
The Gengar seemed to chuckle, which just made Dez wince a little as the Gengar stared at Dez. "Of course we were. We had so much fun doing it too. In fact," the Gengar said looking at the floating stopwatch next to him, "you two did the best time so far! So you win the Grand Prize!"
Everything seemed to go monochrome as Gengar opened his mouth open wide, teeth becoming pointy with saliva dripping from them as it ate Dez and Manectric.
"AH!" Dez said sitting upright, sweating.
Dez looked around the dark room breathing heavily as his heart rate slowed down. He moved his arm and clicked on him lamp next to his bedside as he looked at his clock next to his bed. 6: 17 A.M. The date was November 1st. Dez slid his legs over the side of the bed as he swiped his brow. "What a weird nightmare," he mumbled to himself.
And to have it on the night of Halloween no less. It was so real, like he was actually there. He sighed as he peaked through the blinds of his room at the Residential Area to see the morning dew on the grass as the sun rose up. He shook his head as he quick took a shower and put on some clothes to take a run outside in the brisk morning air. Perhaps he's bring Manectric with him. At last minute, he figured he let his Pokemon stay behinds and still rest, for two days ago they had all been involved in a long match that Dez had with another trainer.
As Dez opened the door to his apartment, he saw a box outside. "A package?"
He brought it inside his living room closing the door behind him. He sat down on his couch and looked it over. No return address, just his own. Maybe the person just dropped it off. He took out his pocketknife and sliced through the tape as he opened it. At the top of packing peanuts, there was a small white letter. He opened it to show a note on the inside: "Here's your prize! Simmons."
Dez went pale as the sheet of paper trembled in his hands. He thrust the box on to the ground in fright as it fell on its side as packing peanuts fell across the carpet. Along the packing peanuts, an orange and black Pokeball rolled out. The Pokeball opened and Dez screamed.
Hope you all enjoyed this! For those of you confused when International Pokemon League is mentioned, it's a club on DA where awesome people do awesome Pokemon art and battles. It's a good time. This was the submission for the Halloween contest they had in 2010.