Author's Note: This was originally published on AO3, and was written for the Trick or Treat exchange.
Sienna Maple was not the first researcher to be sent to Floaroma Town to find out more about the mysterious "ghost Pokemon" that lived there. The townspeople said that the others before her had been stolen away to the Spirit World by the ghost Pokemon, but they were singularly unwilling to provide details about what kind of Ghost-type this Pokemon was or anything else about it.
"Don't try to find it if you know what's good for you," one of the farmers told her when she first began inquiring about the mysterious Pokemon. "That's what happened to the others - they came out here with their plans to analyze the ghost, learn everything about it, write it all down and put it in that Pokedex of yours. Walked out into the forest one Friday night and were never heard from again, all of them."
Sienna had nodded politely and gone to talk to someone else, but that general topic had been the essence of most of her conversations with the Floaromans - if she ever found the ghost Pokemon, it would kidnap her to the spirit world like the other researchers. It would be best for her and everyone else if she went home now. The only information she'd managed to garner had been that the ghost Pokemon was small and looked unimpressive, but was absolutely not to be underestimated; also, it appeared in the forest to the east of Floaroma Town on Friday nights.
She'd written down everything she'd learned before coming out to the forest, and left it all in a box with instructions to mail it all to Professor Rowan if she didn't come back. At the moment, she was tiptoeing through the forest with a flashlight, scanning for the ghost Pokemon. Suddenly, she heard a cry that didn't sound like the usual Shinx and Pachirisu - it was thin and reedy, almost inaudible, and besides, most Pokemon were asleep at this time of night. It came from the area of the forest closest to the foothills of Mount Coronet. This, Sienna realized, could be the mysterious ghost Pokemon. A thrill went through her.
The cry came again, closer, and then again from behind her. Whirling, Sienna tried to catch one of the Pokemon in her flashlight beam. More Pokemon joined in the chorus, but they were clearly staying just out of sight range. For a few minutes, they continued to call as Sienna tried to catch them, her heart pounding.
Finally, the forest went quiet. From the east, the direction she'd first heard the ghost Pokemon call, she heard one last cry. It was much deeper than the rest, and accompanied by a faint hissing noise. Swallowing hard, Sienna raised her flashlight to see it.
The Pokemon before her was a huge purple orb, easily four feet in diameter. It floated nearly silently mere feet in front of her, its strange tendrils stretching towards her. Before she could react, it had grabbed her arm. Another cry went up from the dark forest around her, and she turned to try to see. The other Pokemon were small purple orbs with what seemed to be strings dangling from beneath them - she only got a brief look before the large Pokemon yanked on her arm and she dropped the flashlight. She was pulled into the air and away, the smaller Pokemon supporting her weight, their cries echoing through the night.
The villagers did not search for her long. They knew it would do no good. Those taken by the ghost Pokemon were never found again.
