Part 2.

"Your Gengar sure is taking its time," Falkner commented as he and Morty walked down one of Sprout Tower's hallways.

Morty raised an eyebrow. "How long do you think it should take to navigate through an unfamiliar place, find the Gastly's hidden nest which is probably nestled between dimensions, hold off their attackers, gain their trust, find out what's upsetting them, and then come back here?"

Falkner looked off to the side. "I didn't mean it like that," he said, somewhat contritely. "I just want to know what's wrong with the Gastly."

That surprised Morty. This was an unusually sensitive turn from the person who'd come in and tried to battle the Gastly into submission.

"I mean, I didn't even think about it before I talked to you," Falkner confessed. "I just thought they were causing trouble so I'd have to beat them to fix it. I didn't even stop to think that they wouldn't cause problems unless something was going wrong. I should've been trying to help them, not hurt them. But I don't know how to do that because I have no idea what could be bothering them."

Morty stared for a minute, then gave a small smile that he hoped Falkner's night eyes weren't good enough to see. "Ghost Pokemon are mysterious creatures. Even after all the years I've devoted to studying them, I must confess that I don't always understand their ways." He looked up at the pillar in the center of the tower, wobbling gently as it stretched up toward the top. "But I can tell you this: usually when Ghost Pokemon get stirred up, there's a past component and a present component to the problem. There's some horrible event from the past that leaves a scar on a place, and then… years and years down the line, something bad happens. Maybe an area that was left solitary becomes disturbed, maybe a malicious act is committed, or maybe the site of their memories is threatened. Whatever it is, something opens the wound and then all hell breaks loose…" He paused for effect. "Literally."

Falkner pondered this. "I guess that makes sense," he finally said. "When you get reminded of something bad that happened to you in the past… sometimes it's like it's happening all over again. It's just like with people when you think about it."

Morty gave a fierce nod. "Yes, and it's even worse for the dead, to whom time has quite a different meaning. To them, it's like the past, present, and future are happening simultaneously."

"What? Really?" Falkner asked, sounding intrigued.

"Yes," Morty said. "It's hard to understand and even harder to untangle, but that seems to be the case."

"Not only that," Morty continued, walking along, "but Ghost type Pokemon are very sensitive to the feelings and wishes of both the shades of humans and the shades of other Pokemon. Unlike Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, the ghosts of humans and other Pokemon cannot usually interact with this world." He paused. "There are extenuating circumstances, of course, when the spirit has a very strong will, but usually the dead require an intermediary, like a medium, or a Gastly, Haunter, or Gengar which have the strongest spirits of all and dwell in the paper-thin margin between worlds, to act on their behalf."

"The wishes of shades…" Falkner said thoughtfully.

"It could be anything from 'don't disturb my burial site' to 'don't marry that person'," Morty said. "The dead often get involved in the affairs of the living for such things. Or sometimes it's just a simple wish to be remembered."

"And just to do that… they throw around furniture and cause trouble?" Falkner asked incredulously.

"Poltergeist activity," Morty repeated. "It's very high energy ghost behavior, and it's often the only way they have to get noticed."

"But they could kill someone!" Falkner pointed out emphatically.

Morty shook his head. "They're dead. It doesn't make that much difference to them. And if those are the actions of spirits that mean no harm, you can only imagine the behavior of malevolent spirits."

That one silenced Falkner for a minute. Then he began with: "Then it seems like it's dangerous for anyone to interfere with them, even if they're only trying to help. …And you do this… regularly?"

"Someone has to do it, and it has to be done right," Morty said, feeling out the area for any wandering spirits. "Otherwise it'll never stop. It'll just go on and on and never be brought to rest, and innocent people will get hurt."

Falkner's lips began to shape the word 'why'. He stopped. "Knowing all the dangers, why would you choose to be the one to take that responsibility?"

"There may be dangers," Morty allowed, "but there are plenty of benefits to working toward understanding ghosts. You can… see things that other people can't and your senses get sharper. I told you about how everything happens at the same time for ghosts, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you can learn to understand ghosts… to see the world as they do… and then sift through what you've seen and what you know, then sometimes you can unlock secrets from the past, and even see into the future." Morty suddenly felt a sense of foreboding and wished he hadn't brought this up.

"Have you ever seen into the future?" Falkner asked.

"Yes," Morty said quietly. "But I don't always know what it means until it's already happening."

"So… what do you see exactly?" Falkner asked.

Morty thought of the dream he'd had a month ago. Was that horrible thing true? Of course it was true. The real question was, was it something from the past or the future? Was it a reflection from the spirit world of events that would take place in this world… or… would that actually play out on this plane?

"There'll be time to talk about that later," Morty said dismissively. "Right now I need to ask you some questions about this tower."

"What about the tower? And why later?" Falkner asked in a tone that said in no uncertain terms that he wasn't pleased with being shut down or having Morty avoid his question.

"Just… any scrap of information you can give," Morty said, ignoring the second question. "Its history, any legends about it, your own memories and what people come here for. Even the slightest thing could turn out to be important. I've only been here as a tourist, so I wouldn't know."

"If you wanted that kind of information then you should've grabbed a brochure from the lobby," Falkner said, crossing his arms. "I'm not a tour-guide, you know." He sighed. "The Sprout Tower was built hundreds of years ago by a group of sages who admired and trained Bellsprout. They respected Bellsprout's peaceful nature and its flexibility and balance in reacting to outside forces. So they used that inspiration in this tower design." He pointed to the moving pillar. "The pillar sways like a Bellsprout does, and has helped this tower withstand even the worst of earthquakes." He gave Morty a look. "But you should know all that even if you were just a tourist."

Morty nodded and did not comment that Falkner might actually make a pretty decent tour guide. "I'm sure I heard something like that. Go on."

Falkner shrugged. "I guess there's that legend that says that the pillar was originally a 100-foot Bellsprout..."

Upon hearing this, Morty crossed over to the center of the room. He couldn't reach the swaying pillar over the guardrail, but stared at it intently. "That's a nice bit of hokum-fokum," he said, "but it's obviously not true."

Falkner had honestly never believed the story, even when he was little and had first been told it. But something about the way Morty of all people so casually dismissed it that irritated him.

"Aren't you supposed to believe in crazy legends like that?" Falkner asked in an accusatory voice. "'The Marowak of Lavender Town', 'The Ghost Girl of Slowpoke Well', 'The Chateau Ghosts of Sinnoh'? Isn't that kind of stuff your bread and butter?"

"Some legends," Morty said calmly, "that nobody believes are very true. And there are plenty of everyday 'facts' that people take for granted as true that aren't. A good medium must see beyond that. Before you can see into the future or the past, you must be able to see into the present."

Falkner did not uncross his arms. Perhaps he had heard one too many of Morty's lectures.

"Well, it makes sense when you think about it," Morty went on, shedding some of the mystic mumbo-jumbo. "Even if 100-foot Bellsprout existed when this tower was built, why would sages that revere Bellsprout trap one like that, all for the sake of a pillar that could just as easily have been constructed by wood?"

Some of the tension in Falkner's shoulders diminished. "That sounds logical," he said in a tone that nevertheless seemed to wonder if anyone who dabbled in the occult had any right to logic.

"I can tell you this, though," Morty said, "there were Bellsprout here at one time. And a lot of them."

Falkner raised an eyebrow. "You mean the sages' Bellsprout."

"No," Morty said thoughtfully. "I mean wild Bellsprout."

Falkner made a face. "That's crazy," he said. "Everyone knows that there are no wild Bellsprout in Sprout Tower. Every kid who comes in here makes that ironic observation. There's only Rattata and Gastly."

"Not now," Morty allowed. "But there used to be."

"But Bellsprout live in forests and jungles, not buildings."

"That's true," Morty said. "But I think these sages, the original ones that built the tower, so loved Bellsprout that they allowed many of them refuge in the tower. There was enough of a breeding population that their numbers grew, perhaps aided by the fact that the sages admired them so and probably fed them."

"…Then why aren't there any Bellsprout now?" Falkner asked.

Morty was silent for a moment. "I can't say," he finally said.

"You can't say or you won't say?" Falkner asked.

"I don't really know," Morty clarified. "I can feel a tight knot of spirits of many, many Bellsprout over many generations… but suddenly it all stops. Something happened to them, but I don't know what… yet."

"Do you think that has something to do with the Gastly getting upset?" Falkner asked.

Morty shrugged. "Who knows? But I think every bit of information brings us closer." He paused awkwardly. "To solving the mystery," he added as a finisher. "Go on. What else do you know about the tower?"

Falkner let his hands fall to his sides. "That's all I've ever gotten from the sages. I don't know what else you expect to hear."

"Anything," Morty said emphatically. "You never know what could be important." He turned to Falkner. "What about you? You said you trained in here when you were a kid, right?"

"Well, of course," Falkner said. "Most people who grew up in Violet City did. Whenever my dad would see me hanging around the mews, he'd send me off to the tower to train with one of the hawks. I probably explored this whole tower back then. Though it's been awhile since I've done that. I've mostly just done things here as an official gym leader recently."

"So… you've come across the ghosts before, then?" Morty asked. "They might recognize you as someone who belongs here?"

Falkner shrugged. "I doubt it. I mostly trained during the day, so I hardly ever saw them."

But that doesn't mean that they didn't see you, Morty thought to himself. "And you never saw anything strange?" he asked.

"Nothing… occult," Falkner said carefully. One sees many strange things as a child.

"What about the people who come here?" Morty went on.

"I don't see how that's of any importance," Falkner commented.

"The people make up the… the soul of the building, I guess," Morty said, laboring to explain. "I guess you could say it's like a colony. All the little minds of the people and animals that live in a place become one sort of… bigger mind. Come on now, I know about the tourists. Who else?"

"…Trainers I suppose," Falkner said.

Morty nodded. "Yes. Many of my students got their first Ghost Pokemon in Sprout Tower. Who else?"

"Well, there are plenty of people trying to learn the secrets of the way of the Bellsprout from the sages."

"Worshippers," Morty paraphrased. "And?"

"And… well…" Morty couldn't actually see Falkner, but he felt the temperature in his face rise and a river of iridescent pink aura flowed around him.

"What?" Morty asked.

"I guess you could say it's a… hangout… for teenagers," Falkner said with some difficulty.

Morty could read the signs, both the natural and supernatural. "Oh," he said simply, looking around. "So this is the town make-out spot. That's not surprising."

"What do you mean that's not surprising?"

"Well, it's an isolated area with many hiding places and little to no supervision," Morty said, waving a hand dismissively. "And there's the ghost factor."

Falkner was giving Morty a look that suggested Falkner thought he'd given way too much thought to this. "The ghost factor?" he repeated. "Wouldn't that make that… less than ideal?"

"Not so," Morty said, shaking his head. "You'd be surprised how many graveyards, haunted forests, and tombs also double as dating spots. I suppose the… uh… fear factor encourages closeness." He gestured to the swaying pillar. "And then there's the… uh… obvious Freudian symbolism of this place."

Falkner's blush was glow-in-the-dark by this point.

"You haven't…" Morty began, but he knew better than to continue this line of inquiry. "Forget it."

"Haven't what?" Falkner asked, bristling.

"Nothing, nothing," Morty said in a placatory voice. "Let's just… find the Gastly. If we see any teenagers making out then we can ask them to please do it somewhere else."