AN: Please remain patient as I continue my writing. It's a process.
After the strange sound died out in the lab, the four children and two pokémon stared at each other at a loss for words. Sam was, however, to find hers first.
"What. The heck. Was that?!"
Haunter and Misdreavus stared at one another, a silent communication. Was that? Could it have been? There're only rumors of it. Surely? Haunter directed their attention back to the four, though cast its gaze mainly upon Jazz. She was turned to fully face the closed portal, her face hidden from the gas pokémon. Haunter floated up to here and placed a concerned, clawed hand on her shoulder. Jazz seemed to finally react by blurting out, "That was spooky." Her brother deadpanned at her. "Really? I thought it was more-" he was cut off as Jazz gasped and snapped her fingers, "That's it!"
"Wait, what's it?" Tucker, still pausing their work on the translation device inquired the older teen. She merely spun around and faced Haunter. "If there's more of you and you all go by Haunter, as Tucker told us the other day-" she was briefly interrupted by an "I told you it's a Pokémon!" and a black boot to the interrupting teen's shin, "-then you need a nickname! Spooky!"
The world paused for Haunter.
No.
Spooky.
Haunter has a nickname now. And it is Spooky.
Hau- Spooky was faintly aware that they were grinning from ear to ear in content while floating on the spot, forgetting entirely about the terrifying noise. Hazily, a figure floated into Spooky's vision.
"Dreavus?"
Spooky?
Spooky, shook themselves and recognized Misdreavus. Wait, Jazz caught them too, what about their nickname? Haunter floated to Jazz and motioned to the other ghost-type. "Haunter haunter haunt?"
What about Misdreavus?
Jazz's face displayed confusion before realization hit her, "Oh, you wanted me to give her a nickname too?" Misdreavus eagerly nodded, flying over and nearly bowling over Spooky in the process. To prevent the room from spinning, they just loosened their form and reformed on the spot, upright. Misdreavus appeared to suddenly eager to be nicknamed. Haunter just met this pokémon, but that was strange. Right? After some thinking, Jazz appeared to have concluded about Misdreavus's nickname, "How does Mischievous sound? I mean, that was the look on your face before you spotted us in the storeroom." Mischievous perked up, "Misdreavus!" It fits! Jazz, seeing the look on the other ghost' s face, lights up herself. Maybe she could begin to understand them, more so through the translation device. Tucker spoke up, reminding them of moments ago.
"Man, I wish the Ghost Gabber was online when we heard that noise. If it was a ghost, we might have figured out what it was saying, or trying to anyways." The sentence was punctuated by the closing of a panel on the device, now known to Spooky as the Ghost Gabber. "Anyways, I finally figured out how to get that tagline removed."
"Great," Danny said, "maybe we can finally stop making me, and other ghosts sound like the Box Ghost," with a light chuckle at the end of his statement. Everyone, save for Mischievous, laughed lightly at the thought. Spooky, on the other hand, was just grateful they don't have to hear any more mistranslations. During all of this, Danny suddenly stiffened as a blue mist escaped from his mouth. Everyone silenced themselves and readied. What did that mean? Why did Human Danny have his breath visible in a room-temperature environment? Faintly, everyone heard knocking on metal. After glancing around, the source became clear.
Someone was knocking on the portal door.
Danny stiffened and looked as though they were about to do something when a voice called from above.
"Sweetie? Are you home?"
Spooky paled. They recognized that voice and turned invisible without any prompting. A glance over told them that Mischievous, although confused, followed suit.
A sigh of mild relief escaped Danny as he called back, "Yeah, Mom, Sam, Tuck and I are just hanging out. Jazz is with us so, uh, we're supervised?" Tucker looks at Danny with a look of mild amusement before stating, "Smooooooth." Sam, on the other hand, facepalmed.
"Oh, okay, Sweetie. I've got a few experiments to run so could to carry on in your room or somewhere else in the house?" his mother replied.
"Uh, sure! We'll be heading out, see ya!" Danny then frantically waved over to Spooky and Mischievous's spot, motioning to follow him, before looking back to the closed portal. Seems the banging had stopped for now. The four headed up the stairs with pokémon and Ghost Gabber in tow and out of sight. In the living room, the matron of the family was seen pouring over another device's screen, muttering to herself over the results. Spooky could finally see her full face now that her goggles and teal hood were pulled down. She was pouting about whatever the device was reading as her teal eyes scanned the screen. Her short auburn-red hair was cropped into a bob and attempted to mask her face, but a brush of her hand allowed her to see the screen. Spooky wondered how such a nice lady could contemplate the obliteration of a sentient being? Shaking the thought away, Spooky followed the kids as they mentioned they were headed to the park.
On the way, Spooky and Mischievous were filled in on Danny's parents and their occupation. Spectral Investigative Scientists and ectoplasm-energy-based inventors. In other words, ghost hunters. Boy, for the pokémon that are going to be hanging out there, it's going to get mighty awkward. Once they reached their destination, they found that the park was occupied, though only by a hand full of people. Walking over to the side opposite to the road and closest to the nearby forest, Danny gave the all clear.
"Okay, now we figure out what to do."
"What about, exactly?" Sam inquired, "Can't we just let them, you know, roam free? Head back to the Ghost Zone?" Immediately Spooky and Mischievous started shaking their heads furiously. Spooky didn't know Mischievous's reasons, though they knew their own. That tall, white ghost was intimidating and mean! "Or not? Why?"
Spooky quickly explained, the Ghost Gabber quickly translating, "I'd rather not run into that white-suited ghost! One thousand years for chancing on an area I never knew about or where I was? Ridiculous!" Spooky paused, staring at the device and smiled, "About time someone fixed it before I, uh, 'fixed' it." Tucker, still holding the gabber, looked wounded, "Hey! I know this thing's annoying, but you will not harm technology!" His statement ended with him possessively shielding the device from the ghost-type, whose response was to roll their eyes. Sam and Danny had also done so before interjecting.
"So, you ran into Walker? Still mad as ever, huh?" Sam stated with an annoyed and dismissive huff. If only to have her courage in the face of that specter. "So, what are we going to do with you?"
Mischievous chimed in, "Why not let the red-haired teen decide. She caught us. She can choose to free or keep her capture." They then turned to meet Jazz, "Though it would be counter-productive to nickname and release, right?" A slight grin played on their face in their namesake's style, as if they knew the answer already. What came, was a surprise to the pokémon.
"Woah, woah, woah, keep!? But-but, I have ghost hunters for parents! I don't want to risk you guys like that! Poor Danny's stuck, but I've only got one of me and two eyes! It's pretty dangerous near this town, even!" The other teens nodded in agreement, Danny pausing to lightly reprimand his sister with an offended, "Hey!"
"Then where will we go? We, uh, I kinda like hanging around you, but I don't want to make any of you sad." Spooky didn't want to go at all. They wanted to stay by Jazz and friends. Especially Jazz. In fact, looking at her they saw that they were both in agreement, even if she didn't want to for both theirs and Mischievous's sake.
"Well, uh-" Jazz attempted to make a rebuttal of some form, though her words kept failing her. She would have perhaps continued stammering were it not for Danny gasping as his breath escaped in a blue mist. Confused, both pokémon looked around and tried to find the ghost. Instead, it found them as a small, wooden shape darted past with what appeared to be black smoke trailing from it, darting past every human's ankles. A brief second latter followed with a silver and red figure darting after it. Both had disappeared deeper into the wooded parkland.
"Was that Val?" Danny inquired after the blurs had left.
"Val?!" Everyone turned to Spooky. Suddenly self-conscious, they managed to stammer out, the Ghost Gabber also translating every stammer, "Uh, sh-she was the first Human I tried to b-befriend."
The humans all looked at each other before human Danny spoke up, "I'd better see what she's chasing." He then looked around more thoroughly this time and a white ring appeared around his waist. That's when Spooky realized why the other kids said he should have recognized him.
Human Danny was Ghost Danny. Both just Danny.
Then Phantom shot in the air to give chase to both Val and the ghost. "I'll go, too!" As they, too headed off to follow Danny, they thought they heard a cry of protest, but like with the portal, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Spooky followed at a safe distance and noticed finally, what Val was chasing. It appeared to be another ghost-type pokémon. This one had a body that was black in color with a stump with two branches playing host as it's head. The branches had a few green leaves still on it. However, the pokémon in question was crying profusely whilst trying to escape a silver-red armored, sled-riding Val. Her arms were out and forward as she used her high-tech armor to summon wrist guns that shot red energy at the poor pokémon. Spooky knew what to do. Giving themselves a burst of speed, they lunged underneath the sled that Val was riding on and grabbed the stump pokémon before phasing through the forest floor. Spooky then made sure to rush back to their trainer, Jazz, to the aid of the humans, hidden all the while.
Once roughly back at the spot, Spooky put a claw to their mouth, before letting the new pokémon go and peeking above the ground. What they saw wasn't what they wanted.
The twin barrels of Val's wrist guns.
"Haunter…."
There was a muffled, robotic voice nearby. Spooky needed the Ghost Gabber. It wasn't like humans could understand it. They knew how to read names of places and other simple words, and it could copy what it saw, though it never parted understanding.
"Claws where I can see them, spook."
"Haunter haun-"
"Where I can see them!" she shouted as the twin barrels lit up. Combining knowledge of hunters and psychic type attacks, it looked like an attack charging. Quickly, their detached claws phased out of the ground. "Now where's that plant ghost?"
"Haunter haunter haunt."
"I don't care what you say, I want you to point me to them, now!"
"Haunt!" A small bit of surprise worked their way into them. Though this Val wasn't any better than that Team Rocket that ran around their region for a long while. Always hurting pokémon.
Suddenly, the Ghost Gabber slid out from some bushes nearby. Val did look in the direction, but her eyes rolled. Haunter cleared their throat, regaining her focus.
"I said, 'I'm not telling you.'" A small look of fear and worry wormed their way into their expression.
Val glared at the Gabber and then at Spooky with a withering look. "Now why do you gotta look after that ghost. You don't know each other."
"I know it's a fellow Pokémon," Spooky, countered, "and I do have a nickname. It's Spooky, now."
"Spooky? Why would-" her face suddenly relaxed into a deadpan. "Jazz."
"Why would you hunt a pokémon like you were? You don't seem the time to randomly hurt pokémon on a whim."
"On a whim? On a whim!? My life was ruined by ghosts! And how do I know you aren't just some shapeshifting ghost playing a prank?"
"How would I- oh, wait! Is it okay for me to use a Move?"
"What now?"
"One second, shouldn't take long!" and then Spooky floated up and faced to the right, at an empty tree line. Maybe ghosts didn't use moves as Spooky did. They could only hope as they charged a Shadow Ball at a random tree and fired it. The impact cracked the bark a bit, though that was about it. "Tada!"
Her guns were still trained on Spooky. "Like that's going to tell me anything." Spooky then facepalmed. Was she that adamant at fighting them? Why would she hunt ghosts? The whining of the weapons caused Spooky to peak through their claws, witnessing the weapons charging up. Before the weapon could fire, Mischievous appeared from seemingly nowhere at Val, causing her to flinch. "Bah!" With this distraction, Spooky reached down and grabbed the plant pokémon, scooped up the Ghost Gabber, and fled in the opposite direction. A second later a shot from an energy blast rang out as Mischievous cried out in pain and the roar of engines was heard again.
"Phan! Phan! Phan!"
"Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaaah!"
Spooky immediately ducked down and stopped and listened to the pokémon's cries.
"Waaaah! Scary human! Scared! Where trainer? Where Phantump?"
"Wha-? A baby?" Spooky had no idea what to do here. Cheering up, yes. Though dealing with was sounded like a lost baby? Oh goodness no.
Phantump sniffed. "Know trainer? Where?" Poor thing still had tears in its eyes. However, before Spooky could attempt to console or get anything else from the child, the tell-tale whine of energy weapons charging up stopped everything save for Phantump's cries.
"Would you get them to shut up!"
"They're scared!"
"Oh, boo-hoo, the ghost is scared of the big bad human. That noise is getting on my nerves!"
"It's just a baby!"
"Okay, there's no way that's a baby ghost. Ghosts can't have kids."
"Ghost-types can! And you scared a baby! For shame!" Of all the things Spooky was concerned with, the fact that Val the Huntress had scared Phantump shouldn't have been the top one. However, they were making it quite clear their displeasure.
"Wait, who scared a baby?"
All heads turned up and Spooky saw Danny floating above them, fully confused. "This ghost," Val angrily pointed at Spooky, "says that that ghost," then pointed at Phantump, "is a baby."
"Wait, seriously?"
"You can't tell me honestly that you believe them! Ghosts can't have kids!" A look of contemplation crossed their face beyond their visor before being replaced by revulsion. "Unless… ew!"
"Well first off, those are probably actually pokémon since they haven't fired a single ectoblast. Secondly, pokémon can have kids. Right?" Spooky nodded.
After all of this, panting, Mischievous floated up next to Spooky. "What'd I miss? We still fighting?" The query was met with a shrug.
Angrily, Val finally lowered her weapons. "Fine, ghost boy, but them -and I mean all of them- are your responsibility. They get out of line," she charges up a weapon, "you answer to me." With that, she powered up her hoverboard and rocketed off into the distance.
"Well," Danny spoke up, "that was intense."
AN: Just some updates. Got a program that works better than the Word program alone. I have a poll up for the next story/chapter. It's on my profile now. Check it out!
