Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I affiliated with Pokémon or any of its parent companies. I am merely a humble storyteller. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy this journey with me.
Note: I am English, so some of the wording, spellings, and expressions will be those commonly used in England.
Chapter Forty: Who Ya Gonna Call?
Red pushed open the heavy doors of the Tower, bristling as they cried out, moaning to the emptiness as to how their joints ached so.
It was dark inside, a disorientating sort of murk that did little to encourage exploration and investigation. It was musty too, although the windows all seemed to be opened, letting in the moonlight who rode in as quickly as possible to illuminate Red's way.
He and Pikachu tiptoed past the counter where someone would have no doubt been sitting, ready to welcome visitors and often condolences to the bereaved. Scattered around the room were tables surrounded by comfy settees, and on said tables were leaflets and dried flowers desperate for a drink.
Someone was speaking, but there was no voice at all. Someone was crying, but the tears failed to reach Red. Someone was wandering, but footsteps did not echo. Someone was cursing, and Red unconsciously took half a step back.
By the counter were a flight of stairs, and Red and Pikachu rushed to them, recoiling as the creak of the floorboards exploded throughout the ground floor.
"Be prepared for anything, Pikachu," Red said. "Team Rocket's bad enough, but if what Reina said is true…"
Pikachu squeaked out a reply, but his voice was low, tired.
"Pikachu, are you okay?" Red asked.
Pikachu's ears drooped.
"Oh," Red said, it suddenly dawning on him. "You're still tired from the battle with Blue. His Vulpix's attacks must've hit a heck of a lot harder than I thought." Something else dawned on him but considering how it made him groan and puff out his cheeks exasperatedly, it would probably be more accurate to say that something else dusked on him instead. "Beedrill and Clefairy are down for the count. Aw man, I don't have any Revives or anything to heal them."
Red fumbled around in his rucksack and pulled out a Potion. "We used a lot of our items in Rock Tunnel, so we're running kind of low. Potions aren't even that effective on you guys anymore, but this will have to do for now, okay? Look away so it doesn't get in your eyes."
Pikachu did as he was told, staying stoic as the stinging antiseptic lessened some of his wounds to a minor degree.
"Okay," Red said. "We're still got Charmander and Lo too, so I think we're good. All right, up the stairs."
Each step creaked, each creak growing louder as though the steps were competing to see whose cry would reverberate the most throughout the building. Or maybe they simply wanted to attract undesirable attention to Red? Red was inclined to believe it was the latter. Hey, maybe these stairs were secretly Pokémon? Jerk Pokémon, that is.
They arrived at the first floor, and Red's breath left his body. Gazing back at him were hundreds of headstones, beneath them hidden the Pokémon who had left this mortal coil. The headstones were different colours, courtesy of the substances used to create them – marble, limestone, granite – various sizes too, and some old and decrepit, their epitaphs illegible, while others were shiny and new, perhaps their tenants alive and well as recently as the time Red started his journey. Hidden on sturdy shelves and beside the headstones were urns, the homes of Pokémon whose bodies were turned to ash instead.
"Whoa," Red breathed, suddenly dominated by the uncontrollable urge to hold all his Pokémon in his arms and never let them go. He reached out to Pikachu, but the electric rodent skipped forward, nose and ears twitching. His cheeks crackled.
"Pikachu?" Red said. "Pikachu, what's up?"
'What's up?' was the question indeed, for floating above them were indiscernible gaseous forms, drifting from one side of the room to the other, even more hovering around the shinier headstones.
"Are those the Ghost Pokémon Reina mentioned?" Red whispered to Pikachu. "You can't tell what they are, can you? Just like she said."
The gaseous forms glided noiselessly, not paying any attention to Red and Pikachu. Which was good. What was not as good was that someone else was.
A lady dressed in white robes came running forward, eyes pupil-less, mouth agape as she screamed horrifically.
Pikachu jumped onto Red's shoulders, putting on a brave face, his trembling ruining its effect.
The lady stopped before him. She swayed on the spot, arms limp by her sides, hair hanging in strands down her face.
Red's knees buckled. Was she a Channeler? If she was, then it painted an accurate picture of what Reina told him. He had never seen anyone possessed before, but if he had to draw a picture of it, then this lady would be formed from his pencil.
However, the Channeler simply stared at him, never blinking, her eyelids seemingly incapable of even fluttering. But staying alert was the name of the game. Anything could happen.
And anything did. From out her sleeves the Channeler produced a Poké Ball.
"A Poké Ball?" Red said. "Wait, do you want to battle?"
The Channeler shrieked and the Poké Ball opened. The Pokémon that came out was something Red recognised as:
Gastly, the dual Ghost and Poison-type Pokémon. It is said to appear in decrepit, deserted buildings. It has no real shape as it appears to be made out of gas.
The Gastly was a Pokémon that seemed to have settled for a black, spherical shape that served as its head and body all at the same time, constantly cloaked in a purple gas. Its mouth was wide and its eyes were bigger still, appearing, disbelievingly, to reach past its head. Gastly laughed, its booming voice not matching its appearance in the most disconcerting way possible.
"Pikachu, let's go," Red said. "Hit it with Shock Wave."
Pikachu bounded off Red's shoulder, sparking with electricity. But, while Pikachu was fast, Gastly was faster. The amorphous gaseous being swept through the air and opened its mouth wide. A long pink tongue, longer and pinker than a tongue had any right to be, stretched out and licked Pikachu in the face. Pikachu stumbled backwards, his attack disrupted, his eyes half shut by spiritual saliva.
The Channeler screeched and Gastly's eyes glowed orange. Shadowy distortions emanated from them, waves that travelled towards Pikachu and pummelled into him, knocking him into a headstone.
"Pikachu, can you get back up?" Red asked, his voice high, cursing himself for not stopping by the Lavender Town PokéMart or heading back to the Pokémon Centre.
Pikachu waved away his worries, scowling at Gastly. The blurry spirits continue to drift above them.
Red bit the inside of his cheek. If only he had a Normal-type Pokémon, then neither Lick nor Night Shade would have done a thing, and they would have shut down half of Gastly's known moveset. But he did not have one. Still, what he did have were powerful Pokémon he knew would pull through for him.
Gastly readied another Night Shade.
"Double Team!" Red shouted.
The shadowy distortions obliterated the Pikachu clones, missing the real thing entirely.
Now was their chance.
"Shock Wave!"
Gastly's eyes lit up like torches and its tongue unrolled like a scroll as it was electrocuted. Its gaseous form floated like a leaf to the floor, slightly diminished in size. However, before it retired from battle completely, a miniscule section of its gas left its community for the city life and floated over to Pikachu. It disappeared with a poof upon touching his forehead. However, it did nothing to Pikachu.
The battle was done.
They had overcome their first obstacle in Pokémon Tower.
Groaning. Moaning. The Channeler oscillated and fell to her knees, breathing as hard as if she had run a marathon. With a shaky hand, she returned Gastly to its Poké Ball.
"Thank you," she said hoarsely.
"Sorry," Red said, aware of how dim he sounded. "You're better?"
The Channeler cleared her throat. "Thank you," she repeated. "You saved me."
"Saved you?" Red said, furrowing his eyebrows. "What, just by battling?"
"As hard as it is to believe, my Gastly possessed me," she said. "A more mental possession as opposed to physically entering my body mind you. By defeating it, you rid it of its control on me. I cannot express my gratitude enough. Oh, and I'm Airi by the way."
"Your Gastly possessed you?" Red said, ruminating over Reina's words. "But it's your Pokémon. Why did it take you over? Oh, and I'm Red."
Airi sighed. "There have been great disturbances here recently. It started with the arrival of Team Rocket. My sisters and I found them on the higher floors taking the skulls of the Cubone who reside here. Perhaps foolishly, we tried to battle against them, but before we could, the spirit world came apart and something expressed its… distaste over everything the Rockets were doing. However, my sisters and I – possibly since we were in the vicinity – also took the brunt of the force's ire; it influenced our Pokémon, controlled them, turned them against us, and they in turn took our mind's for their own." The Channeler dug her fingers into her linen robes. "We didn't even get the chance to warn our fellow Lavender Town citizens about the Rockets. We should have done that instead of trying to fight them."
"I'm sorry about all this stuff you've had to go through," Red said. "But I need to ask: what happened to Team Rocket? Someone said they were possessed too. How's that possible?"
"The wild Gastly and Haunter," Airi said. "The ones who kept the forms they take in this world." She gestured at the gaseous beings. "Not like these ones."
"I see," Red said. "So, what I'm getting is that Team Rocket came along, did stupid, evil stuff like always, made something angry, and now the Ghost Pokémon have possessed (boy, that word has been thrown around a lot) everyone because of it. Is that right?"
"You are spot on," Airi said.
"Okay," Red said. "Well, I'm going on. There's this old man I've got to search for."
"That must be Mr Fuji," the woman said, her sunken face suddenly glowing. "Oh, he'll know what to do, I'm certain of it. But are you sure you'll be okay to go on?"
"Totally," Red lied. "My team is awesome."
"I'm glad to hear it," Airi said. "I shall head on to a section of the Tower protected by white magic. It should block the influence on our Pokémon and protect us from the spirits. Please, send my sisters there should you free them too."
"I will," Red said. A ghost drifted near to him. "Er… do I have to worry about being possessed?"
Airi grimaced. "The wild ones seem a bit more mellow now after hunting down the Rockets, but who knows when that can change. Just please be careful."
o~o~o~o~o
More possessed Channelers came along to wish Red a not so good day and one even declared she must have his soul. Pikachu put their Gastly to the sword, Zippy Zap and Shock Wave coming up trumps time and again, with each Ghost Pokémon producing wisps of gas just before fainting and they floated over to Pikachu. Yes, just Zippy Zap and Shock Wave. Only those two attacks. Just them. One may be wondering why so much emphasis has been put on the fact Pikachu's only been using those two attacks, and that is quite the good question.
Pikachu charged at the Channeler's Gastly, obliterating it with Zippy Zap. However, as the attack hit, Pikachu's cheeks glowed yellow before turning back to their rosy red. He frowned and shook his head as though dislodging water from his ears.
Gastly disappeared into its Poké Ball, but the possessed Channeler was not done yet. She sent forth a new Pokémon, another vaporous purple creature who was rather more spiky and larger than Gastly with two incorporeal hands with three fingers than ended as claws.
Haunter, a dual Ghost and Poison-type Pokémon and the evolved form of Gastly. By licking, it saps its victim's life. It causes shaking that won't stop until the victim's demise.
"Stay on your toes, Pikachu," Red said.
Haunter started off with a Night Shade, which Double Team helped Pikachu avoid. It also saved Pikachu from being affected by Confuse Ray. However, what it could not help Pikachu evade was Haunter's fist enclosed in shadows easily finding the real 'Chu and socking him in the face.
"Hit it back with Shock Wave!" Red called out.
Pikachu obliged and emitted the electric pulse that tore through Haunter. Unfortunately, it was not enough to send it the same way as Gastly. But that was okay, for Pikachu had Zippy Zap to finish it off with.
The order for its use came. Pikachu got down on all fours, ready to charge into Haunter with quite literal lightning speed. He ran forward. He stopped. He ran forward again. He stopped again. He turned to Red, confused, worried, annoyed.
"Pikachu, what are you doing?" he asked. "Come on. Zippy Zap."
Pikachu jumped out of the way of another Night Shade and attempted Zippy Zap once more. Nothing.
"What's going on?" Red whispered to himself as Pikachu was walloped by Shadow Punch. "Okay, Pikachu, use Shock Wave instead!"
Pikachu scrunched his eyes shut, concentrating with all his might, his body humming with voltaic energy. With a mighty growl, he released Shock Wave, striking the Haunter who was in the middle off pulling off Night Shade. Haunter descended to the ground, its hands faded, and its eyes shut.
And as its ghostly eyelids lowered, its Trainer's blank eyes regained their senses and their pupils too. She blinked twice, gazed around herself, then found Red and Pikachu. Tears poured down her face and she collapsed to her knees, her body wracked with sobs.
"Thank you," she wept. "It was a nightmare. I could see everything, but I couldn't control myself. Thank you so, so much."
"You're welcome," Red said, his attention focused on Pikachu, who was trying to charge up his electricity and getting nada. "Pikachu, are you okay? Can't you use any Electric-type attacks?"
Pikachu stamped a foot irritably on the floor. A resounding no.
"What?" Red said, taking off his cap and giving his head a heck of a scratch. "How does that work? We've never had this happen before."
"Excuse me," the recently rescued Channeler said, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves. "Sorry for interrupting – and I'm Kayoko by the way – but I think I know the problem. I believe your Pikachu has run out of Shock Waves and that other technique you were using."
"Seriously?" Red said, jaw hitting the floor. "But that's never happened before."
Kayoko smiled a thin smile, her visage streaked with tears. "Ghost Pokémon have a lot of tricky attacks that will make you suffer in the long run and Spite is one of them."
"I've never heard of Spite."
"Oh. Well, it's a technique that makes the last move a Pokémon uses run out quicker. You see, utilising their techniques takes a lot out of a Pokémon to the point that their bodies will be unable to handle using them again without resting or expending items such as Ethers, Max Ethers, Elixers, Max Elixers, and Leppa Berries."
"I… I didn't know that," Red said. "I thought Pokémon could use their attacks forever. But I don't remember the Pokémon we battled using Spite. I can't think how…"
Red trailed off. Those wisps of gas the Ghost Pokémon released just before fainting, a last-ditch effort to weaken Pikachu for their allies. That must have been it.
"Oh man," Red said. "They have been using Spite." He smiled ruefully. "I thought it was nothing. That's my bad. I should be prepared for anything."
"Has your Pikachu not got any other attacks that can hit Ghost-types?" Kayoko asked.
"The only other damaging move we've got left is Rock Smash, and that useless right now," Red said. "And I haven't got any of those items you mentioned."
"Oh my," Kayoko said. "And I'm sorry to tell you, but I don't have any either. Um… why don't you put Pikachu back in his Poké Ball?"
"He doesn't like going inside his Poké Ball," Red said. "But it's fine. I've still got two other Pokémon that should help. But Pikachu won't be able to do much now." He sighed. "Anyway, you should get to that white magic place and stay there until this is sorted."
Pikachu glared at the floor and kicked a broken piece of wood.
"I see," Kayoko said. She gazed out into the dark abyss where another flight of stairs would take Red further up. "Then, allow me to ease your worries slightly. If you'll permit, I'll take your Pikachu with me to the area of white magic. If he can't be used to battle anymore, then I can keep him safe with my sisters and I so you can have one less worry on your mind. Does that sound agreeable to you?"
"Er…" Did that sound okay? Usually, he would not want to be separated from any of his Pokémon for any amount of time, but the only thing Pikachu was good for now was to evade hits with Double Team. And Shadow Punch made that worthless too! Kayoko was helping, paying back the kind deed Red did for her, determined to protect the Pokémon that saved her.
"Okay, Kayoko," Red said, inclining his head. "Pikachu will go with you, and I'll move on ahead. Thank you."
Hence, Red and Kayoko went their separate ways, the former's electric mouse heading off without so much as a look back. Or so Red thought; Pikachu spared him the quickest of glances and his tail lowered a millimetre as he followed Kayoko in the opposite direction.
"Okay," Red said, laying his hands on the Poké Balls of the only fighting fit Pokémon he had left on him. "There's still a lot to do, you two, but we'll handle it. We'll just try to avoid some of the battles, okay? I don't want to deal with that Spite move any more than necessary."
Charmander's and Lo's Poké Balls shook in response.
Red darted up the next flight of stairs, observed by the unfathomable ghosts from above. They would find Mr Fuji and help everyone.
Nothing and no one would stop their advance.
