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Episode 9: Changing the Channeling!

"Luuuu!" Riolu cried.

"Riolu! Calm down!" Kyle bent down to his level and placed his hands on Riolu's shoulders. "Yours and Shonna's aura is very in tuned. If you focus, you can find her."

"Lu?" Riolu closed his eyes and concentrated. He took a moment. "Lu!" Riolu turned to a stairway on the left. He bounded up the stairs.

"Gastly!" A gastly floated in front of Riolu.

"A gastly. I'll bet these ghost pokemon are behind this. Go Charmander!" Kyle threw out Charmander, who saw the ghost pokemon and ran behind Kyle's legs. "Oh c'mon Charmander. Don't be scared of these clowns."

"Lu!" Riolu angrily punched away at the gastly. His normal attacks didn't affect the gastly, but he punched and kicked anyway.

"Gasasasly!" The gastly cackled.

"Char?" Charmander crept out from behind Kyle.

"See? He's not afraid." Kyle smiled at him.

"Char!" Charmander ran out and used an ember attack that sizzled the gastly. It fainted. Charmander stood proudly.

"See? He wasn't so tough." Kyle chuckled. Charmander was covered in a bright white light. It changed into a much more confident-looking charmeleon. "I have a Charmeleon now? Sweet." He looked down at Riolu, and couldn't help but notice how envious he looked. "Hey c'mon Riolu. We gotta find Shonna."

"Lu." Riolu nodded as he continued up the stairs. Charmeleon and Kyle followed. He led them down a hallway to the last room on the left. When they walked in the room, they saw an appliance in every corner. A fridge, a washing machine, a fan, a lawn mower, an oven, and a television set. Most notably, the two galactic members and myself were sitting in the floor, watching the tv.

"Shonna!" Kyle ran in front of us. He kneeled down and shook me. "Snap out of it!" It was no use. We all were washed out with a spacey look in our eyes. "They're somehow possessed."

"Lu!" Riolu yelled.

"Back here!" I called out.

"Huh?" Kyle turned around and looked at the tv. There on the screen was me looking back at him, and the two galactic members were crying behind me.

"A rotom broke loose of this tv and possessed us! It stuck us in here somehow!" I yelled.

"A rotom? Then where is it now?" Kyle looked around the room, then back at the tv screen.

"I'm not sure but you have to be careful Kyle! Rotom can transform into household appliances! If it does the only way to get it back to normal is to send it back to this tv."

"Okay… but what about you?"

"Lu!" Riolu stared at the tv sadly.

"If you can defeat it, and send it back to…" Suddenly the tv screen turned to static.

Kyle whirled around to see the lawn mower shaped pokemon behind him.

"Rotom tom tom!" The pokemon laughed as it released a powerful leaf storm.

"Charmeleon! Quick! Fire Spin!" Kyle called. Charmeleon burnt every leaf that came near them.

"Tom." Rotom frowned. It flew into the nearby washing machine and took its form. It grinned.

"Look out Charmeleon!" Kyle dove for his pokemon as he took the brunt of the hydro pump attack.

"Char!" Charmeleon ran to his fallen trainer who'd protected him.

"I'm okay Charmeleon. Just wet. Listen. Try knocking that thing into the fridge. Then you'll have the advantage." Charmeleon nodded and charged into Rotom, knocking him into the fridge. He changed forms, and angrily let out his blizzard attack.

"Man that's cold." Kyle shivered in his wet clothes as snow stuck to every wall of the room. "Okay! He's an ice type now! Get him with a fire spin!"

Charmeleon reared back to release the flames, but before he could, Rotom lunged for the oven. He took the oven form, and the fire spin attack, barely feeling a thing. "Rotom!" The rotom called out before emitting an overheat attack the quickly melted all the snow in the room and water poured down from the ceiling onto Charmeleon.

"Char!" Charmeleon winced.

"This thing's tough. It even knows type advantages." Kyle looked at his wore out Charmeleon. "How do I beat it?"

"Lu! Lu! Lu!" Riolu pounded on the snowy television. Begging me to come out. "Lu…" Riolu turned around and faced Rotom angrily.

"Riolu no! You can't fight that thing! Your attacks are no good against ghost type!" Kyle called. His comments went unnoticed as Riolu walked toward Rotom.

"Ro? Tomm…." Rotom pounced into the fan, taking on a flying type form.

"Oh no. Now he's a flying type too, so with Riolu being a fighting type… Riolu stop!" Kyle yelled.

"Lu." Riolu leaped for Rotom.

"Rotom!" Rotom whirled up an air slash attack that struck Riolu hard. It obviously hurt, but he pressed on and leaped off Rotoms head to get behind him. His eyes glowed in the blue reflection of his attack. The sphere bounced off his paw and hit into Rotom's back. The pokemon went flying into the tv and shattered the screen. The television sparked with Rotom's blue color before dissipating into nothing. Rotom had disappeared.

"Was that an aura sphere? I think it was a small one." Kyle recalled Charmeleon and walked in front of me. "Shonna? Are you okay now?"

"Lu?" Riolu weakly walked up to me as well.

I rose, with the same spaced out look in my eyes. "You're in front of the tv." I shoved him gently and stared at the broken tv.

"Oh no!" Kyle looked down at Riolu. "Maybe we we're supposed to break the tv?"

"Lu?" Riolu looked shocked.

"Shonna!" Kyle jumped in front of me again and gripped onto me. "Please snap out of it!"

"Move." I said monotone. "I can't see the…"

Kyle looked contemplative. He thought to himself. "What can I do? There's only one thing I know… at least, it works in the movies." He leaned forward, closing his eyes.

"Haha! I fooled you!" I couldn't stop laughing.

"What?" Kyle leaned back. "You mean you weren't possessed?"

"No. I was joking just then!" I giggled.

"Lu?" Riolu tilted his head.

"Well don't do me that way!" He yelled. "I was really worried about you!"

"Really?" I blushed.

"Well yeah… I umm…" He looked around. "Where'd those galactics go?"

I turned and looked behind me. "They must have snuck away. They're more clever than those rockets we fought before."

"Lu?" Riolu looked up at me worriedly, and for the first time in a while he let me pick him up.

"It's okay Riolu. I'm just fine now. You made sure of that." I nuzzled him and he happily hugged my neck.

Kyle coughed to interrupt. "Um, we should get out of here before more gastly jump us."

I set Riolu down and hugged Kyle. "Thank you too. I would have been stuck there without you."

"It was mostly Riolu." Kyle said reaching for the doorknob.

"Nonsense! You helped a lot too!" I hugged him even tighter.

"Umm…" He opened the door, and a gaggle of gastly greeted us.

"Gastly!"

x-x-x

"Commander Jupiter! We're terribly sorry, but we could not catch the Rotom. Two pests ended up sending it back into the television and breaking it." The galactic hung his head.

"Stupid grunt." Jupiter tapped her foot. "You're telling me two kids impeded our operation?" She yelled. The lower grunts held their heads in shame. "You will be reprimanded once we get back to headquarters." Jupiter stared toward the mansion. "Pluto will not be happy. First Spiritomb could not be recovered. Now this. Wait? Two kids? Could it be the same ones?"

"Gah!" We screamed as we ran out the front door.

"Gastly!" The gastly followed us into the light, but quickly retracted into the mansion.

"That was close." I held Riolu tight. "There were a ton of them."

"Yeah, but we could have took them." Kyle slammed the door shut.

"Yeah!" I smiled confidently, before hearing the humming sound of a helicopter. It flew over us with a blocky G in sigma on the side. "That's the galactic symbol I bet."

"Let's find out!" Kyle and I followed it past the courtyard, and into the forest's edge. There, the two galactics from before and a young woman with odd purple hair stood.

"You do fit the description." Jupiter sighed as she pinned up her hair. "You must be the meddling couple who ruined the Spiritomb and now Rotom missions."

"Couple?" I looked up at Kyle, who looked serious.

"That's us. We're such trouble." He grinned.

A small walkie-talkie went off beside Jupiter's ear.

"Jupiter. Saturn here at Lake Valor. Mars has went ahead to Lake Acuity. I trust you're still on route to Lake Verity."

"Yes Saturn. Let Cyrus know that in addition to this, I will be stopping the ones who have interfered with the spiritomb and rotom missions. They will not be bothering us with the lake guardians." She pressed a red button on the machine and looked back at us. "Very well. I'll have to stop you." She pulled out a pokeball.

"Fine." Kyle smirked.

"No wait! I wanna fight her." I smiled. "Can I?"

"Uh… sure." He backed up. "My pokemon are pretty tuckered out anyway."

"Alright!" I held up my pokeball proudly. "I know just who to pick. Go Shinx!" Shinx playfully hopped out of his ball.

"Give me a break. A measly Shinx? Go Skuntank!" Jupiter swirled around releasing her pokemon.

"Commander Jupiter! Are you sure Skuntank should battle? She's holding the…" A grunt whispered.

"Quiet!" My Skuntank can defend herself and protect the orb." Jupiter shushed them.

"Hmm…" I stared at the gleaming gem tucked under Skuntank's tail. The helicopter landed behind them.

"Jupiter. We don't have time to deal with these kids." A sinister man stepped out of a doorway on the chopper.

"Cyrus!" Jupiter said surprised. "Very well sir. Stuntank Poison Gas!"

"Huh?" I watched as the Skuntank turned and raised its tail. "Shinx! Thief."

A toxic and fowl smelling gas released from Skuntank. It was so thick and burned my eyes. I was forced to hold them shut.

Kyle coughed. Suddenly the haze cleared and I could see the helicopter take off. The wind from it had blown the gas away. They were gone.

"Shoot. They got away!" Kyle ran forward after the copter, but it sailed into the darkening sky.

"They did." I kneeled down to Shinx, who held the large pearl like object in his jaws. "But empty-handed." I took the gem from him and pet his head.

"Shinx!" The cub purred.

"Wow… How did Shinx do that?" Kyle looked surprised.

"I taught him to utilize those thieving skills of his against our enemies." I returned Shinx to his pokeball and held the orb in my hands. Riolu stood below me, staring at it seriously.

"That's great, but don't you think we should turn it into the authorities or something?" Kyle reached out to take it. I jerked it away.

"No. There's something strange about this thing. I'm not sure why, but I feel like I need to hold onto it." I stared into the reflection of the orb. The nearby city lights shown in it. "Let's go on to Eterna City." I stuffed the jewel into my bag. "We'll worry about this later."