Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon. If I did, I would already know the legends and starters of the fifth generation, which in turn would let me laugh at all of you who will probably still have to wait for months more before they are revealed. Sadly, as this is not the case, I am left in as much suspense as you.
Towering Retribution
Part 2: Arrival
Jenna and Evan had been en route to Kanto for the last couple of days now. The Radio Tower Corporation had spared no expense to transport them quickly and comfortably: they each had their room on one of the fastest, most sought-after cruise ships in the world. In a couple of hours, they would dock at Vermillion City, and a quick train ride from there would see them to Lavender well before night.
Currently, however, the two were in Evan's room on the ship, trying to figure out the source of the nightmares Jenna had mentioned several days earlier.
The feather on Natu's head stood straight up as it stared unblinkingly at Jenna. "Natu," it chirped blandly.
"So... What's your natu saying?" Jenna asked.
Evan shook his head. "Neither of us are sure about what's haunting you," he responded. "You definitely have some entity following you; if it's the butler, then his power is greatly diminished. On the other hand, seeing as you might have channeler capabilities, your own supernatural abilities might have created a poltergeist."
"What? A poltergeist?" Jenna asked.
"It's a spirit that was never alive, often created by psychics who don't use their talents," Evan explained. "Poltergeists don't really think, or have feelings other than what its creator might unwittingly pass on to it. Normally, they just cause trouble - shaking stuff around that ought to be standing still, throwing small objects, etcetera. In your case, it gives you nightmares, at least at the level it's at now."
Jenna didn't particularly like the sound of either option. "So what can I do about it?"
"If it's a poltergeist, I can exorcise it," Evan offered. "On the other hand, if it really is the old ghost, then he might be lingering within your own soul, if you want to call it that. In that case, I doubt I can do anything about it."
"Well, can we at least try the exorcism, then?" Jenna asked, her voice tinged with worry.
"You mean now?" Jenna nodded her head in response. Evan scowled, then shrugged. "Well, I guess it can't hurt. Let's go ahead and start."
Evan called out his pair of chimecho, and after setting up some cleanse tags around the room, he was ready to attempt the exorcism. Once it started, the chimecho chimed in unison, their bell-like tolling creating a simple tune that was both calming and eerie. Evan bowed his head as he placed his hand on Jenna's head, making Jenna feel more than just a bit awkward. Evan's natu was still on his head, staring upon the scene with its unblinking eyes. Jenna imagined it had to be quite the odd scene: a small exorcism, taking place in a slightly cramped room on a ship.
After about a minute or two of this, Evan withdrew his hand and the chimecho quit ringing. "So?" Jenna asked anxiously. "What happened?"
"Na. Tu."
"According to natu, the presence is still there," Evan interpreted. "While I could be wrong, I'm thinking that means that the butler is still hanging around."
Jenna's hopes sank. "What do I do now, then? Just wait for him to possess me again?"
"Firstly, don't worry about it too much. Fear gives power to malignant ghosts," Evan instructed. "Secondly, he won't be able to possess you again too easily. He'd have to gain strength, then separate himself from you; even once that happens, if it happens, he'd have to wait for another 'invitation' from you to take control again."
Jenna was going to make a response, but was cut off as the captain's voice rang out over the intercom system: "Good afternoon, passengers. We will be arriving at our destination within the next half-hour. Please make sure your bags are packed, and we hope you had an enjoyable cruise."
Jenna sighed, resigning herself to the fact that there was nothing else she could do. "Okay, whatever. I'll go pack my bags. But if I go suddenly nuts again like at the Old Chateau, you're taking the blame."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Director, would you please tell us everything you know about the hauntings." No sooner had the duo arrived in Lavender Town than Evan insisted on going to the radio tower, to check in with their employer. It truly was 'their' employer, to Jenna's surprise; Evan had arranged for both of them to be paid for this job. Faced with this knowledge, Jenna had no choice but to come along, no matter how much she wanted to freshen up at the pokemon center. Currently, all three of them - Jenna, Evan, and the director of the radio tower - were in the director's spacious office near the top of the tower.
The director hesitated before responding to Evan's question; he'd been covering up the hauntings for so long now that he wasn't easily able to adjust to telling someone the entire story. "It began when we started remodeling the tower three years ago, I suppose," he started with a sigh. "We cleared out all of the pokemon residing in the tower before we began, ghost-types and all. But even then, pokemon kept showing up during construction. Not just any pokemon, mind you; some passed right through walls, even those that weren't ghost types, and others moved things or broke equipment.
"We continued with our radio tower plans nonetheless. Even once construction was finished, the apparitions continued. More recently, they've started attacking employees and visitors." The director paused for a moment, using a handkerchief to wipe some nervous sweat from him brow. "Since that started, we've more or less had to move our operations to the Silph Company building in Saffron City. We've tried to keep our reasoning behind this a secret, though so many of the employees had personal experiences seeing the ghosts that secrecy has been practically impossible. Aside from maintenance and some other brave workers that stay on the main floor, this building is all but functionless."
Evan scowled, eyebrows knitting together as they always did when he was pondering something supernatural. "That does seem to be quite the problem. I assume you've made sure that these aren't just illusions combined with attacks by ghost-type pokemon?"
"Yes. We had a less professional psychic come out, and she ensured us that these were actual spirits," the director said.
"We'll start our efforts on the matter first thing tomorrow, then," Evan replied. "Have there been any other unusual events going on here, perhaps not quite as glaringly obvious as the instances you have already mentioned?"
"There is one other thing that has worried me, though I blamed it on my paranoia more than anything," the director admitted, after some thought. "You see, over the course of the last three years, an unusually high amount of our employees have... well, to put it bluntly, they've died. No one has connected it to the haunting, though it has been a blow to our already low morale."
"How did they die?" Evan asked.
"All sorts of ways; you name it, and it probably happened to someone or other," the director responded. "Car crashes, accidents during the remodeling, pneumonia out of nowhere, drowning... All completely unrelated, but there have simply been too many overall to seem completely normal. Do you think it's related to the pokemon hauntings?"
Evan shook his head. "I'd say not, though being around ghosts all day can wear down a person's endurance, whether they know it or not; in theory, this could make them more prone to accidents or more susceptible to sickness. Normally, ghosts are bound to one place. Even if something paranormal could follow your employees, I see no way it could cause all those different things to happen."
The director let his breath out audibly, obviously relieved. "I'm glad to hear it, though it seems a terrible coincidence that so many would die so quickly. Anyway, I-"
A birdlike shriek interrupted the director mid-sentence. The three barely looked up in time to see a pidgeot pass straight through the window, not even slowed by the solid barrier. The bird landed on the director's desk and faced Evan, its wings and body large enough and close enough to very nearly fill Jenna vision. From its perch on the desk, its head very nearly touched the ceiling, making Jenna guess that it had to be at least six or seven feet tall. At the very least, it was certainly larger than any staraptor she had seen in Sinnoh.
Jenna moved quickly to summon one of her pokemon, but there was no way she could beat a pidgeot in a contest of speed. The pidgeot lunged forward with a flap of its wings, its talons raking forward; Evan's own quick reaction time was the only thing that saved his face from being torn to shreds. Jenna had barely touched one of her pokeballs by the time the pidgeot disappeared, leaving the same way it had come.
With a horrible sense of guilt, Jenna thought that it was partially her fault that this had happened; for once in her life, she'd been too slow to call out a pokemon. If only she'd acted as soon as she had heard the shree of the bird, as any great trainer normally would have. That was the only way she had been able to defeat Team Galactic, and Palkia, and Cynthia; her cool and quick mind in battle. Perhaps these months of relative inactivity had dulled her instincts.
Whatever the case, Jenna knew there was nothing she could do about it now. She turned slowly to look at her friend. Evan was grimacing in pain, looking at three crimson furrows clawed deeply into his forearm. Blood was already dripping steadily to the floor, like a rivulet from a faucet that someone had only partially turned off.
"Well," Evan said through clenched teeth, "I now see the extent of the problem; all the more reason to get to work as soon as possible."
All right, well, there's chapter two. I must admit, I rather liked the ending, though I wish I could have made the first thousand or so words of this chapter move a bit faster. Still, this is sort of how Spirits of the Past went; the first couple chapters were rather slow, but after that, I really loved the action and suspense I got into. Which is perhaps a bit arrogant to say, since I am the one who wrote it, but still.
Anyway, do note that a had a typo in chapter 1, if you read it before I caught it: Evan is several years older than Jenna, not younger. Also, just in case you didn't already realize, Jenna is supposed to be the main female character from Pearl version. How many other people have defeated Palkia, after all?
Hope you're enjoying it! Trust me, I've got more than just a random angry ghost pidgeot in store for Jenna and Evan~! A fact which they probably won't appreciate, but they don't have much of a say in it.
EDIT: Sorry about the weird visual for the time break. I know for a fact that I had asterisks there to begin with, but for some reason, isn't letting me put them (or anything similar) into the story and save it. Go figure. Thanks for Redemmo for pointing out this problem, as well as multiple other issues in my other chapters.
