Whoo! Sorry it took me so long to update! School has been trying to murder me. Stupid teachers make all the projects due at once… Well, anyway, here it is at last.

Polaris=Ponyta, Charren=Charmander, Pooka=Pikachu, Hurrico=Squirtle, Leviathan=Gyarados, Blossom=Bulbasaur, Pexle=Vulpix

Ghosts

Ben and I battled our way through Rock Tunnel, and by the time we arrived in Lavender town, the two of us were completely exhausted. We were covered in dirt and our Pokémon had fought through many battles.

But our battles were well worth it. Charren had evolved and now I had a Charmeleon on my team. Ben's Nidoran had evolved also, into a Nidorino.

I planned to get Pexle on my team for a little while to try out my new Pokémon. But I also had Charren and Polaris, two other fire Pokémon. I needed to find a way to balance my team. I had a lot of fire and water types.

All of us practically collapsed on the couches at the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy took care of our Pokémon as Ben and I rested.

After a while, an Officer Jenny walked into the Center. She started talking with Nurse Joy.

At first I didn't pay much attention to this conversation. But after a minute, I started to take interest.

"…And no one can get in to visit their Pokémon's graves anymore," Officer Jenny said, sounding upset.

"That's strange," Nurse Joy agreed. "I wonder why that would be. I always knew that there were ghosts there, but they've never gone out of their way to attack anyone before.

"Excuse me," I said, standing and walking over to them, "but what are you talking about?"

"You're not from around here, are you?" Nurse Joy asked.

I shook my head, and Ben, behind me, did the same.

"Well, Lavender Town is home to the Pokémon Tower," Officer Jenny explained. "It's the cemetery where people bury their Pokémon. So, naturally, there are ghost Pokémon there. Most of the time they're invisible and they usually keep to themselves. But a few days ago, the ghost Pokémon started attacking anyone who tried to enter. So no one can get in to visit the graves of their Pokémon anymore."

"Ghost Pokémon?" Ben repeated.

Nurse Joy nodded. "Yes. Mainly Gastly and Haunter. They're known to play tricks, but these ones never left the top few levels of the tower. Everyone here knows not to go up there because it disturbs the ghosts."

"Do you think someone went up there and bothered the ghosts?" I asked.

"We can't get in to be sure," Officer Jenny sighed. "For now, you should stay away from there. An expert will be coming in shortly to find out what's going on."

Ben and I exchanged glances. Ben rolled his eyes. He knew I wanted to go there and see for myself.

Once we got our Pokémon back, Ben and I headed off to the tower. It was starting to get dark out, and I was feeling a bit creeped out. Ghost Pokémon come out more at night, don't they?

"Leave it to you," Ben groaned. "Go into a haunted building at night."

Pexle and Nidorino walked along besides us, ready for action.

As we approached the edge of town, the dark Pokémon Tower loomed above us. I gave a little shiver. It looked so creepy!

"Hey, I got these from a catalogue," Ben said, taking out a pair of goggles. "It's called a Silph Scope. It lets you see ghost Pokémon when they're invisible."

"Oh, great. So, you be our eyes, huh? You should put them on now since we're near the tower. There might be ghosts out here too."

Ben, Nidorino, Pexle and I all stepped closer to the tower. It was cold and completely dark by now, but I wasn't shivering just from the cold.

"Why couldn't we have waited until morning," Ben groaned as Nidorino hung close to his heels, looking nervous. Pexle was in the same state.

And then we stepped inside. It was very dark. Ben and I flicked our flashlights on and pointed them around to see our surroundings.

The first floor was covered with the tombstones of Pokémon. There were pathways between the graves so that people could move between them and visit their departed Pokémon without stepping over the graves. Across the room from us was a staircase. There were seven levels to the tower.

"It's creepy," Ben muttered. "To bury Pokémon in a tower instead of in the earth. Think about it… they're buried above us and beneath us…"

"Shut up!" I hissed. "I don't need to hear anything like that when we're in here in the dark!"

Ben glanced around gravely. "I wonder how Pokémon die. They don't die during a battle. They just faint."

"Luckily," I murmured. We were pacing along one of the isles towards the staircase. "Probably like humans. If they get hurt too badly, or when they just get really old…"

Suddenly Nidorino squealed in terror. We whipped around and found him hovering a few feet in the air, thrashing wildly.

Ben snapped his goggles on in an instant.

"Two Gastly!" He shouted.

"Pexle," I commanded, "use Ember just above Nidorino!"

Pexle sent out flames that singed the air above Ben's Pokémon. There were two frightened cries, and suddenly the two Gastly appeared before us. They dropped Nidorino, who landed in a heap on the ground. He scrambled to his feet and turned angrily to face the two Gastly.

The Gastly flinched and huddled towards the back of the room. They didn't want to fight.

"What do you want?" I demanded. "There's no reason to go around causing trouble if you don't even want to battle for it! And why are you down here anyway? I thought you lived up at the top level of the Tower."

One of the Gastly glided up to me, looking nervous. He took a tendril of his foggy body and pointed it up at the ceiling.

I glanced at them to make sure they weren't trying to distract me, and then looked up.

"What is it? You mean that something's wrong on one of the upper levels?"

The Gastly before me nodded.

"Did something chase you out of your home?" I wondered how I knew that.

Again the Gastly nodded.

Suddenly Pexle growled and whirled around to face the front door.

Ben and I turned and the Gastly huddled behind us for protection.

There was a man standing in the doorway. He had red hair and wore a cape. There was a Dratini at his side.

"You shouldn't be in here," the man said. "It's dangerous. Leave now."

"We were trying to figure out why the ghost Pokémon were attacking people," Ben said.

"Whatever your reason, this tower is dangerous. You should leave. I'll handle things."

"But the Gastly say that something chased them out of their homes on the upper levels of the tower," I explained. I didn't know what authority this man had to order us around, but I didn't like being told what to do by someone I didn't know.

"I know that. That's why I'm here," said the red-haired man. He stepped into the tower, closer to us. The Dratini followed. A Dratini, huh? He must be someone important if he has such a rare Pokémon. So, whoever he was, he was good with Pokémon.

"Well, what is it then?" I demanded. "What's making the Gastly leave their home?" I glanced back at the two Gastly, noting their anxious expressions. Whatever was happening had them genuinely worried. Not much could intimidate ghost Pokémon.

The Gastly who had spoken to me earlier looked at me pleadingly. He wanted me to help.

The man looked at us for a moment and noticed the determined expression on my face. He smiled.

"You're Pokémon trainers, are you?"

We nodded.

"Well, have you heard of Team Rocket?"

"Yes. They attacked us in Mount Moon. But we escaped."

"They're scum bags," Ben added.

The man laughed. "Well, that's definitely true. But either way, they're above us now, so keep your voices down, please."

"What do they want with a Pokémon cemetery?" I asked, curious now.

The man sighed. "I appreciate your concern. But I can't let kids get hurt. It's dangerous here. You two need to leave," he repeated.

I faced him down stubbornly. "We want to help. You're gonna need the help of the ghost Pokémon here, and for that, you'll need us. Right?"

My Gastly played along with me and nodded. They were willing to do as I said if it meant protecting their home.

Ben rolled his eyes slightly at my nerve in front of this strange man.

He paused for a moment and then laughed again. "I see you're not to be put off. What are your names?

"Cara."

"Ben."

"So, Cara and Ben, are you good with your Pokémon?"

I pulled out my case of gym badges and showed it to him. Ben did the same.

"Ah. On your way to the Pokémon League, are you? Well, You can come with me because I might need your ghost friends to help. But you need to do as I say if this proves dangerous. I can't let you get hurt. By the way, my name's Lance."

Lance. I'd heard that name before.

"Gastly," I said, turning to them, "If we're gonna help you, you'll need to help us too. Tell the other ghosts here that we're here to help and that we might need their help too."

The two Gastly nodded and they vanished.

"All right," Lance said. "Let me go first. Be on the alert."

He stepped towards the stairs and Ben and I followed with Pexle and Nidorino at our heels. The Dratini draped itself around Lance's neck.

We crept up the first flight of stairs and saw a sentry standing next to the next set of stairs.

Dratini slid into the shadows and crept up on him. Then she used Thunder Wave and paralyzed the guard. He collapsed and Lance swiftly bound and gagged him.

There was another guard on each of the next three floors. They all met the same fate as the first. And as we reached the fifth floor, the two Gastly rejoined us.

On the sixth floor, there were two guards. The Gastly snuck up and used Hypnosis to put them to sleep.

The next floor was the top level.

We peaked over the top of the stairs to see what we were up against. There were several men in black uniforms with a red R on the fronts of their shirts. Team Rocket. One of the men was in a black suit. He looked important.

There were some computers set up against the back wall. Some of the graves on this level looked as though they had partially been dug up.

Lance gestured for us to go back down the stairs to the sixth floor. Once we were away from Team Rocket, he began speaking in whispers.

"That man in the suit is the leader of Team Rocket, and a powerful trainer. Very powerful indeed. It looks like they dug up some of the graves. It looks like the rumors were true. There are some rare Pokémon buried here, and Team Rocket is trying to research them."

"What Pokémon?"

Lance shook his head. "You two wait here. I'm going up. And stay hidden. I don't need you two getting caught."

Lance pulled the uniform off of one of the unconscious guards and discarded his cape. He returned his Dratini. Now disguised, he walked up the stairs and vanished from sight.

Ben and I shrank into the shadows behind a gravestone. Nidorino and Pexle huddled near us.

"That machinery," Ben whispered, "It's so complicated. I've never seen anything like that. The computer programs on that screen…"

"I wish we could get up there and see what's going on," I whispered.

"No!" Ben hissed. "I've put up with enough of your crazy ideas, but I won't let you crawl back up there! Lance at least has a disguise. And he's a senior trainer. Much more skilled than you."

Then the two Gastly made frightened sounds and vanished. Vulpix and Nidorino dove behind a different tombstone as a shadow loomed over us.

Ben and I looked up to see a man in a Team Rocket uniform over us.

"Intruders!" he shouted.

Before Ben and I could react, several more people in uniforms had thundered down the stairs and surrounded us. They tied our hands behind our backs and dragged us up the stairs. The four Pokémon remained hidden and safe.

We were on the top level again. I caught sight of Lance, looking upset at our capture. But a moment later, something else distracted me. The leader of Team Rocket walked up to us.

"What have we here," he muttered thoughtfully. "Two young Pokémon trainers?"

"They were hiding on the sixth level," said the Rocket man who'd caught us.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Lance press a few buttons on the computer. I hoped he was getting some use out of this unintentional distraction we'd provided.

"What would make you want to sneak past the guard?" Team Rocket's Leader demanded.

Lance raised his eyebrows at me. I knew we couldn't give him away.

"We wanted to see why the ghost Pokémon were acting up," I blurted. Well, it was true.

"Well, since you broke in, we can't very well let you walk out again." The leader of Team Rocket reached to his belt and drew out a Pokéball. "What do you think," he said, turning to his subordinates. "How should we treat our guests?"

Suddenly something grabbed me under the arms and lifted me into the air. I let out a squeal as I floated up to the ceiling. And beside me, the same thing had happened to Ben.

It was the Gastly! They had pulled us out of the way! And they cut through our ropes too!

Instantly, the air was full of Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar. They rushed the men and women of Team Rocket and piled on top of them. Pexle and Nidorino leapt up the stairs and joined the battle. Lance's Dratini was out of its Pokéball a moment later.

The two Gastly set Ben and I down at the edge of the battle.

For a moment, my eyes locked with his. He glared at me, and then sent out a Nidoking. It roared and smashed a hole in the window. He jumped onto the Nidoking's back, and the two of them were out of the window in an instant. They'd gotten away. Several other Rockets released Golbat and flew out of the window to safety, but five others fell to Lance and the ghosts.

All of the machinery was pretty much destroyed from the battle. Pexle had partially melted the computer and Nidorino had bashed up some of the graves with his horn. I winced. I hadn't meant for us to cause so much damage.

"Well," Lance sighed, stepping up to the fried computer, "It looks like all the data on this is pretty much destroyed. I guess we won't know what they were planning. Maybe I can salvage a bit of the data…"

"Aw… crud," I muttered. "That was our fault…"

"Well, at least we stopped them for now," Lance sighed. "But it looks like their leader got away. I think he'll always manage to slip out of the law's grasp. Let's see what they were working on, at least."

He knelt to examine the gravestones that had been dug up by team rocket. Several of them had been disturbed in the process, so it was hard to tell which one Team Rocket had been concentrating on.

"Did you find out what Pokémon they were interested in?" I asked.

Lance was silent for a moment. "It looks like there was an Eevee buried here. And a Ditto next to it. But here… was an Alakazam. These three graves. I can't tell which they were after. Maybe all of them."

"Do those three Pokémon have anything in common?" I asked.

"It doesn't seem like it," Ben muttered.

I nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm glad your Gastly were able to help some," Lance said.

The rest of the ghosts had faded into the shadows, except for our two Gastly. I had a hunch that they were gonna stay with us.

"I'll tie up these guys that are unconscious and I'll get the police up here. Maybe we can get some of the data out of this computer and figure out what they were after. By the way, I can see that you're both pretty tough, but stay away from Team Rocket as much as possible. They're a dangerous group and you might not be so lucky next time."

I nodded. "I doubt I'd go looking for their company."

Lance nodded. "Good. Well, thank you both for your help. You should head home."

We nodded and headed back down the stairs with our two new Gastly.

But I couldn't get my thoughts off Team Rocket. I knew that we'd meet again.