A/N: To the reviewer 'Poke shipper.' Thank you; your review was very kind. Unfortunately, I'm not going to add any more PokéShipping than the little hints in the style of those in the anime. I love PokéShipping, but this isn't the story for it. If you want some more PokéShipping in your life, I have written plenty of stories for and I manage a community dedicated to AAML!
Again, thanks to the magnificent C'sMelody for making a pleasant experience of pointing out all my flaws and inconsistencies.
On with the show!
Abra Kadabra
Last time, Ash and co. discovered a mysterious house while trick or treating on Halloween night. But they were the ones who ended up getting tricked when they were sucked into a magical egg! The only question is: where are they now?
"Ugh…Are you guys okay?"
"Me and Togepi are okay. Ash?"
"We're fine!"
"Pika!"
"Now, where are we?"
The gang found themselves in a space very different than the one they'd just been transported from. At least, they could only assume that they'd been transported.
Just like the creepy old house, there were many strange objects, screaming of Halloween. But that's where the similarities ended. They were in an enormous cave or sorts made entirely of smooth, gray stone and wood, like large pieces of patchwork. It was dark, the only light in the space coming from strangely illuminated plants. But that wasn't all…
"Guys, is that staircase floating?"
"I don't know; why is that jack-o-lantern changing size?"
"Is it just me or does gravity not seem to exist?"
"Then why aren't we floating away?"
"Pi pikachu."
"Priiii!"
"Okay!" Brock threw his hands up into the air and quieted everyone's chatter as they continued to look around at the strange world they'd found themselves in. "Obviously we're not in Johto anymore. Or, if we are, we're certainly not anywhere I've heard of before. Now, strange angles aside, this seems to be a hallway, so I say we just walk and see where we come out."
Ash nodded. "Good idea, Brock."
Misty only rolled her eyes. "Sure, because that worked out so well for us before."
Still, the three of them began walking forward. Or, if not forward, at the very least they were walking in a direction…possibly.
As they walked, the sights they spotted grew stranger and stranger. There were enormous trees with twisted roots above ground, even though it seemed for all the world like they were inside. Worse for Misty, it seemed as though there were all kinds of creepy crawlies living inside the strange plants. And the sounds they'd heard in the house had nothing on the eerie hoots and screeches echoing through the strange chamber.
"Guys, I don't like this," Misty said as a cold draft blew, heaving shivers through her. "Do you think we're getting closer to the exit?"
"Either that or closer to the center," Brock said, providing Misty with no comfort.
"Come on, Mist, it's Halloween! You should be up for a little bit of spookiness."
Misty cast about, holding Togepi a little tighter to her chest. "This is more than a little."
"Who goes there?"
The gang froze all at once, backing into each other with wide eyes. After a moment's silence, Brock and Misty prodded at Ash's back. "Say something!" Misty hissed.
Ash trembled a little, gulping as his throat seemed to try and escape his body via his mouth. "Uh, we do!"
"Ash!"
"I-I mean, hi! We're a little lost! Can you help us?"
The silence stretched into forever while no one, save for Togepi, took so much as a breath. Then, all at once, a being appeared before them as if from nothing. "Hello."
Everyone, save for Togepi, jumped into the air, screaming before making a break for it and heading back in the other direction. Then, before any of them knew what had happened, they froze mid-step, unable to so much as twitch an eyebrow.
"I'm here to help you."
As if by some supernatural mechanism, all of them were forced to turn around, still frozen in a strange, purple haze. They were faced with an Alakazam, who had his two spoons raised up at them. After a moment, he lowered the spoons and feeling returned to the gang's bodies. Everyone took a few heaving breaths and Pikachu shook himself like a wet dog, shooting a little bit of static through his fur to wake up his tingling muscles.
Meanwhile, the humans looked at the Alakazam in confusion.
"You're lucky I'm the one who's here to find you," he stated flatly. "The usual gatekeeper is taking Halloween off and isn't nearly as nice as I am. My name is Mantar."
"Hi, uh, Mantar. Are you using telepathy to talk to us?" Brock asked
Mantar narrowed his eyes. "No. Don't you see my mouth moving?"
"He's the nice one?" Misty whispered to Ash.
"I think we're really lucky we didn't meet the mean one," Ash whispered back. Then, he shook his head in realization and said at a normal volume, "Wait, you can talk?"
Mantar fell over. Then he looked at Ash as though he was the world's dimmest Psyduck. "Yes, I can talk!" He shook his head as he muttered to himself, "Humans."
"Um, excuse me?" Misty said brightly, putting on a cheerful smile as she looked at Mantar. "Do you think you can help us get out of here?"
"Get out of here? Yes. Get you back home? No."
Ash's eyes widened; Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder to share his sentiment. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that we're inside a portal right now between your world and my world. They only work one way. And this one happens to go from yours to mine and today I'm the gatekeeper. I can take you to my world, and from there we'll have to find a portal leading back to yours."
"Okay, sounds simple enough," Ash stated. "So let's go."
Mantar scoffed as he led the group to continue walking down the cave, reaching a sideways staircase. Everyone let out a gasp when they didn't seem to fall and their center of gravity just shifted with the landscape. Beyond were more spooky objects doing even spookier things. None were particularly scary, though, save for the plentitude of bugs. Misty kept her hands up to her face like blinders and looked at nothing past Mantar's back.
"Right. By the way, I should tell you that people won't take too kindly to your appearances. If you're found out to be human, you'll be jailed."
"Jailed!" Misty exclaimed. "For what? We didn't do anything!"
"You came here," Mantar stated. "That's enough. You're compromising our safety."
"Compromising your safety?" Brock asked in disbelief. "We're only trying to get home." He brushed away a fake bat that was hanging from a string from the ceiling or roof—it was too shrouded in dark to tell which.
"Your Pokémon are even more misfortunate than you," Mantar continued, ignoring Brock.
"What do you mean?" Ash asked warily, putting a hand on Pikachu's back. Misty also held Togepi closer to her chest.
"They'll likely be stolen."
Ash laughed. "Oh, we deal with people trying to steal our Pokémon every day."
Mantar laughed too, but with a much more menacing undertone. "You know not what you deal with."
"So what do we do?" Misty asked Mantar, worried for her Togepi's safety.
"Hide them in your capturing devices. You have those, yes?"
Misty and Ash looked at each other worriedly. "I can hide Togepi in my bag," Misty offered.
Mantar looked at how small Togepi was and nodded. "I suppose that shall do for the Fairy." He then turned to Ash.
Ash was looking at Pikachu, who was frowning uncertainly. "Whaddya say, buddy? Can you do the PokéBall just this once?"
Pikachu shook his head. "Pi. Kachu."
"I'm sorry, Mantar," Ash said, accepting Pikachu's decision. "I can't do that."
Mantar sighed. "Then disguises will be necessary."
Ash looked around at everyone's costumes. "But it's Halloween! We're already in disguises." Ash barred his new fangs and flapped his cape, as did Pikachu.
"Well, lucky for you, it's Halloween for us too. But we need a disguise, not a costume."
By that point, they'd walked quite some ways, but everything looked just as much like a 3D puzzle as it had before. Nevertheless, Mantar stopped and looked around before nodding to himself.
"This is a good spot."
Everyone else looked around as well, not seeing whatever it was that Mantar seemed to.
"Good spot for what?" Brock asked.
Mantar didn't respond, simply lifting his spoons as his body and everyone else's took on a holy white glow.
"Teleportation!"
And everyone disappeared with a flash and a gasp.
"Oh, please don't let this be a dream!"
"Or if it is a dream, don't make me wake up!"
"You two can wake up any time ya want; I'm gonna keep eating dis candy!"
Jessie, James, and Meowth were gobbling up all the candy in sight, barely stopping to breathe, much less chew. They had stumbled upon a stash of candy of mythical proportions in a seemingly abandoned house, that had the front door left wide open. It was as if they had been invited in to finish up all of the candy that the trick or treaters had missed.
Currently, they were on their hands and knees with the bowl in between the three of them, debris from the inedible bits strewn carelessly about.
Suddenly, a howl was heard outside. It was enough to tear a yowl from Meowth, who sprang up and landed on Jessie's head, tearing his claws through her long red hair.
"Get off of me, you mangy fur-ball! You're ruining my hair!" Jessie managed to shout—or rather, spit—through a mouthful of half-eaten candy.
Jessie all but threw Meowth to the ground when another howl came from outside, this time with a strong breeze to accompany it, blowing out the nearly-melted candles remaining on the candelabra.
Everyone shrieked, collectively gauging their priorities and grabbing the candy bowl before running further into the house, out of the dark. They paused to catch their breaths, indigestion coming up on them rapidly what with all the candies that were now somewhere between their mouths and their stomachs.
"That," James heaved, "was unnecessary."
"I just don't like tings dat howl," Meowth defended himself.
Jessie was the first one to collect herself, unfolding her doubled-over body and taking a look around the room they'd found themselves in. "Did either of you notice how strange this place is?"
James and Meowth followed Jessie's lead and looked as far as they could see in the dim candlelight.
"There's Halloween stuff everywhere," James pointed out. "Even here in the house where no one could possibly see it."
Meowth was at eye-level with the statue of a Houndoom with ruby-like gemstones for eyes. "Well, I don't like it."
"I bet some of this stuff is pretty valuable." Jessie balanced the candy bowl on her hip with one arm as she put a thoughtful finger to her chin. "Out of all of this junk something is bound to be antique, or at least well-designed."
James eyed a witch who had run into the wall, so only her back side was visible. She was atrociously dressed. "Maybe not."
"It can't hurt to look," Jessie said, walking into the next room as she tossed another piece of candy into her mouth. "The owner can't mind if one or two pieces go missing."
The trio eventually found themselves at a creaky, wooden set of stairs with a spiky, wrought iron hand rail.
"Wow, look at all dis junk!"
The upstairs room had no furniture to speak of, or if it did, it was completely covered by the strange novelty objects of downstairs, but now so abundant they seemed to be forming an army.
"I don't know. This is nice." Jessie held up a large, feather fan and began fanning herself with it.
"Very glamorous," James agreed.
"Holy cow, look at dis!" Meowth had hopped over some objects and made it further into the huge room where a dull red glow stood out from the dark. "Dis hasta be valuable!"
"Ooh, I bet it is!" Jessie said, her eyes wide and glittering. "Lemme touch it!"
"No, I'm da one who found it!"
"Come here, little eggy-poo, Uncle James will take good care of you."
James reached right over Meowth and plucked up the egg, examining it for just a second before his hands began to seep into it.
"W-What's happening?"
"James?"
"Jimmy?"
Jessie lunged for James as he quickly began to get sucked into the egg, and Meowth hastily grabbed on to Jessie's hair before she, too, vanished.
"Team Rocket's being pulled away again!"
"That should do for now."
Mantar had teleported the gang straight into his own house, where he had begun taking care of their disguises. The house was essentially a small log cabin, and the entire space was about practicality. There was a small kitchen, bathroom, and a bed, and that was just about it. Very barren in comparison to the strange portal they'd just left.
The finishing touch for the disguises was to use Hypnosis on Togepi, which Mantar did before promptly returning it to Misty's bag, where it could hopefully sleep peacefully for the rest of the evening until they managed to return home.
"Aw, Pikachu's so cute!" Misty cooed as she reached to pick Pikachu up. Except that Pikachu wasn't a Pikachu anymore; he was a Pokémon called a Pumpkaboo. Mantar had cast a spell, temporarily giving Pikachu almost the face of a plush bat, stuffed into a hollow jack-o-lantern.
"Pika!" he cheered, enjoying his round new form.
"Yeah, a lot cuter than you look, Misty," Ash said as he stole Pika-boo back. "You look like Frankenstein."
Ash didn't even see the mallet coming. He was on the ground with birds swirling around his head, which was now forming a healthy lump.
"For your information, Ash Ketchum, I am not green, and you don't look any better!"
"He actually looks a little worse with that lump on his head," Brock whispered to Mantar, who nodded in response.
Ash had a point, though. Mantar had painted stitches onto Ash, Misty, and Brock's skin so that they would look like they were wearing human costumes. Small darts sketched on the angles of their body, like their necks and their shoulders, where the seams in a costume would be. Apparently dressing up as a human was a very popular look on Halloween. They had also since returned to their normal clothes, because there was no use wearing a costume over a "costume."
"So, explain this to me, Mantar," Brock started. "Why is it okay for Pikachu to be a Pumpkaboo, but not a Pikachu?"
"Obviously there are Pokémon here." Mantar gestured to himself as he put the paints and makeup back into his small closet. "But only certain Pokémon. We don't have as abundant a variety as do you. We have a plentitude of Dark, Ghost, Poison, and Bug Types."
"B-Bug Types?" Misty squeaked.
"Yes. There are some that are rarer, like Psychic or Fairy and other exceptions. But the sight of something like an Electric Type would clue people into the fact that the portal has been breached."
"Why wouldn't people just assume that Pikachu is another exception?" Ash asked, after peeling himself from up off the floor.
Mantar sighed. "Because Pokémon from the outside that don't suit our Typings lose that Element after a while here."
"What?" Ash grabbed Pika-boo and held him protectively, both of their expressions creased with concern.
"Slowly but surely, your Pikachu will lose his Electric Typing and will likely start to take on the qualities of another Type. Usually Dark. It's probably already happening," Mantar informed them regretfully. "His appearance might even change, becoming black to suit the creatures of this land."
"The creatures of this land? But you still look like any Alakazam I've ever seen," Ash stated.
Mantar shook his head. "Maybe you'll just have to see for yourselves."
He pushed the front door open and immediately the loud ruckus from outside came flooding in. The world was dark with nighttime, but there were flashing lights everywhere, mostly white and orange. Music was blaring songs that made you want to dance and the smell of food was pervasive.
In short: the whole world was a party.
Alakazam began leading them straight into the fray and Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pika-boo just looked around in awe. It was a party, alright, but everything absolutely screamed Halloween. None, more so than the people—or creatures, rather—in attendance.
There, behaving just like humans, were Golbat, Murkrow, Gengar, Gothita, Dustox, Sigilyph, and so many more. Just like Mantar, they could converse, and were doing so over snacks and punch, laughing raucously with good humor. Misty let out a shriek at the sight of a Galvantula breaking it down on with his many legs the dance floor, but Ash quickly clamped a hand over her mouth and pushed her gaze away. The other direction, they saw a black Glameow walking along, dressed in a tuxedo.
"Oh, so that's what you meant," Ash muttered.
Stranger than the Pokémon, though, were the other attendees, far from anything the gang had ever witnessed in their world.
There were goblins, trolls, witches, zombies, skeletons—things that should have just been costumes, come to life.
Brock's eyes popped out of his head when he spotted a girl with long, black hair that flowed down to her waist and sleepy brown eyes. "Wow, look at her!"
Mantar murmured, "Just you wait."
Not a moment later, the girl turned around and the other half of her face was that of a zombie. "Gah!" Brock shouted as he stumbled back.
Mantar smirked.
"Welcome to Halloweenia."
After having been teleported from their world, Ash and friends find themselves in the strange land of Halloweenia with little clue as to how to get back home! Donning their new disguises, they go out in search of a mysterious portal. Will they find one? Tune in next time for more adventures in Halloweenia!
A/N: You'll notice some inconsistencies with the objects that our characters have with them. Bags, clothes, candy dishes, etc. This is because this happens in the cartoon and, hey, it makes my life easier, so I'm putting it into use!
