POKEMON

Chapter Ten:

A Ghost of a Chance

Now Danny and Pikachu were back in Lavender Town. There was still an uneasy feeling in the town's atmosphere. Now that they had the Silph Scope, they figured they could check out the big, creepy-looking Pokémon Tower. While it was sunny throughout much of Lavender Town, it looked like dark clouds were above the Tower. Danny let out a soft gulp, and he and Pikachu entered…

Inside the tower's lobby, there was a somber, sad atmosphere. The receptionist at the front desk explained to Danny, "Pokémon Tower was erected in the memory of Pokémon that had died."

"CHAAAAAAAA!" Pikachu shrieked, shivering in fear.

"Yeah, it's pretty grim," Danny admitted.

An upset-looking man told Danny, "I came to pray for my Clefairy…" He sniffled. "I can't stop crying!"

A red-haired woman somberly said "My Growlithe… why did you die?"

A girl came up to Danny and asked, "Did you come to pay respects? Bless you!"

As Danny and Pikachu approached the stairwell, a woman resembling a Shinto priestess told them, "I am a Channeler! There are spirits up to mischief! They've posessed several of my friends. Perhaps someone with a Silph Scope can help save them."

Danny looked down at Pikachu, trembling with his eyes closed, and said, "Well, Pikachu, we have a job to do. Plus, I can probably catch a ghost Pokémon here!"

But among arriving at the second floor, Danny and Pikachu saw Butt standing next to some Pokémon grave markers!

Pikachu saw him and screamed, "CHAAAAAAAAA!"

"It's Butt!" Danny gasped. "I hope he's all right."

But Danny worried for nothing. After approaching him, Butt said with his usual sneer, "Hey, Danny! What brings you here? Your Pokémon don't look dead! But I can at least make them faint! Let's go, pal!"

So naturally, they battled. Pikachu was brave enough to take down Butt's Fearow and Eevee with a Thunderbolt. And Danny had his Dugtiro defeat Butt's Magnemite, Venusaur defeat Shellder, and Wartortle defeat Sandshrew.

"What? You stinker!" Butt said in annoyance. "I took it easy on you, too! By the way, how's your Pokédex coming, pal? I just caught a Cubone! I can't find the grown-up Marowak yet! I doubt there are any left! Well, I better get going! I've got a lot to accomplish, pal! Smell ya later!" He left with a big sneer on his face, hiding his bitterness that he lost to Danny again.

…

Danny had to go to the Pokémon Center to heal his partners after that battle. While waiting, he overheard some people talking about how Team Rocket members killed a Marowak and orphaned her Cubone in the process.

A girl was telling everyone, "I saw Cubone's mother die trying to escape from Team Rocket!"

"Team Rocket will do anything for the sake of gold!" a Gentleman angrily declared.

"Geez," Danny thought out loud. "The more I hear of it, the worse Team Rocket sounds!"

…

After all of his Pokémon were healed, and Danny swapped his Dugtrio for Kadabra via PC, he was ready to return to Pokémon Tower. Danny knew the three kinds of Ghost Pokémon currently known were also part poison, weak to Psychic moves. It could be fighting fire with fire, or it may have been an advantage…

Danny and Pikachu returned to the second floor of the Tower and approached the stairwell leading to the third level. A channeler there said in a somber tone, "Even we could not identify the wayward ghosts! A Silph Scope might be able to unmask them."

"Glad I got one," Danny said to himself, and he took it out of his backpack and fastened it to the cap on his head.

Sure enough, among arriving on the third floor, which had a foggy look to it, they confronted a Gastly!

"Wow, let's catch this!" Danny exclaimed. "Pikachu, Thundershock!" he ordered.

Pikachu was more than willing to zap the Gastly a couple of times, not letting its' Lick stop him. Eventually, Danny was able to easily toss a Pokéball at the Gastly and capture it.

"All right!" Danny happily said. "We caught a Gastly!" He pulled out his Pokédex as the Pokéball automatically dematerialized to Oak's lab.

"Gastly," Dexter explained. "A Ghost Pokémon. It is said to appear in decrepit, deserted buildings. It has no real shape as it appears to be made out of a gas."

But then they came across a Channeler with a weird look in her eyes and a dead-looking expression. "Urrg… awaa… huhu… graa…" she was muttering.

"She's possessed!" Danny realized.

The Channeler tossed out a Pokéball, sending a Gastly at them! But Danny had his Kadabra defeat it with Confusion. That was when the Channeler snapped out of it and said, "Hwa! I'm saved!" Then she resumed the same somber manner the other Channelers Danny talked to so far, and said "The ghosts can be identified by the Silph Scope."

After wandering past the grave markers looking for the stairwell to the fourth floor, another Channeler with a weird expression leaped out at them, moaning "Be gone! Evil spirit!" She sent out a Gastly to attack, but Kadabra was able to kock it out with Confusion. The Channeler then came to her senses and said "Whew! The spirit left!" She glanced over to their side and explained, "My friends were possessed, too!"

Danny gave a determined look to his trembling Pikachu. "Come on, Pikachu," he said. "We've got some Channelers to save!"

…

It took some doing, but with each floor Danny and Pikachu went up on, they battled some possessed Channelers' Gastlys, and a few even had Haunters! A few of the Channelers even apologized for lashing out at them while being possessed after they snapped out of it.

On the fifth floor, one of the possessed Channelers moaned "Give… me… your… soul…" and sent out her Haunter! But of course, Kadabra was able to knock it out with Psybeam and save the Channeler, whom gasped as she came back to her senses. "I was under possession!" she explained.

Nearby, a Channeler that wasn't possessed stood next to a set of floor tiles that were different from the others. She told Danny, "Come, child! I sealed this place with white magic! You can rest here!"

So Danny and Pikachu stepped onto the purified, protected zone tiles and a white mist briefly surrounded them. After it dissolved, Pikachu and the other Pokémon were fully healed! Then they went back to saving the other Channelers from being possessed by their ghost Pokémon.

Eventually, on the sixth level, they came across a wild Cubone! Danny ordered his Pidgeotto to use Wing Attack on it, weakening it enough to be captured in a Great Ball! As it was transported to Professor Oak's lab, Danny grinned and said "All right! We got ourselves a Cubone!"

He got out his Pokédex again, and it said in its' robotic voice, "Cubone. The Lonely Pokémon. It wears the skull of its' deceased mother. Its' cries echo inside the skull and come out as a sad melody."

"Wow…" Danny said.

After freeing a few more channelers from possession by Gastlys, as they approached the stairs leading to the seventh floor, a deep, ghostly voice said "Be gone, intruders…" And sure enough, a lavender shapeless ghost with glowing yellow eyes appeared in front of them. Danny adjusted the Silph Scope on his cap, and then the ghostly apparition began to glow and change shape, taking the form of a Marowak!

Danny gasped. "It's the ghost of the Marowak that Team Rocket killed!"

He knew it couldn't be captured or left alone. The ghostly Marowak had to be defeated in order to depart to the hereafter. So he sent out his Wartortle to face it.

"Wartortle," Danny ordered, "use Bubblebeam on it!"

So Wartortle sent a stream of powerful bubbles at Marowak, through the TM from Misty that Danny taught him earlier, and that was enough to knock it out! Sure enough, the Marowak's spirit dissolved into a brownish-green haze that began floating upward. "It is time for me to go to the afterlife…" Danny heard the ghostly voice from earlier say, and watched as the haze went through the ceiling and vanished.

A Channeler oversaw what had happened. "That was the restless soul of the Cubone's mother," she explained. "You calmed her soul, allowing her to depart to the afterlife."

"Wow…" Danny said in amazement. But Pikachu was still scared, trembling in terror.

Then Danny and Pikachu went up the stairs to the seventh floor, the top of the tower. But once there, they confronted some familiar faces…

"Stop right there!" Jessie commanded, as she, James and Meowth left the old man they were keeping hostage approached Danny and Pikachu.

"Again?!" Danny said in annoyance.

"Grampa here wanted to complain," Jessie explained, "so we're setting him straight."

Now Danny was angry. "Did YOU TWO kill that Marowak?!"

"Who, us?" James asked. "No, that happened before the three of us brought Mr. Fuji here."

"But now that we're here, prepare for trouble!" Jessie said.

"Are you scared yet? Make it double!" James added.

"To protect the world from devastation," Jessie chanted.

"To unite all peoples within our nation," James said.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!" Jessie finished.

"So render yourself invisible, or prepare to fight!" James added.

Their Meowth leaped in front of Pikachu and said, "Meowth, that's right! And now it's time for the battle!"

Danny immediately said, "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" And Pikachu was able to defeat Meowth with one big zap.

As Meowth lay on the ground moaning in pain and defeat, Jessie announced, "And now comes our big surprise!"

"Surprise?" Danny asked, giving a skeptical look.

"For the first time here…" James added.

"We're proud to present…" Jessie continued.

"Our new Pokémon!" James finished.

Jessie held up her Pokéball as she said, "Our Ekans has evolved into… Arbok!" She tossed the Pokéball, and sure enough, the purple cobra Pokémon emerged.

"Charrr-bokah!" the Arbok hissed.

Danny sent out his Kadabra again and commanded, "Get it, Kadabra! Use Psybeam!"

Kadabra did as it was told, and knocked out the Arbok with one hit.

"NO!" Jessie cried out as she recalled the fainted Arbok into its' Pokéball, while Danny recalled his Kadabra.

But James was still confident. "And our Koffing is now Weezing!" He tossed his Pokéball, and a Weezing came out.

"Wee-ee-ziiing!" the two-headed toxic Pokémon choked.

"Go, Charmeleon!" Danny called as he sent out his fire Pokémon.

"Meeeleon!" Charmeleon said.

"Charmeleon, Ember!" Danny ordered.

Charmeleon shot some flames at Weezing, but despite being scorched a bit, it could still attack.

"Weezing, sludge attack!" James commanded.

"Wee-ee-ziiing!" his Weezing croaked, shooting purple-green sludge at Charmeleon.

"Chaaaar!" Charmeleon cried out, affected from the poison sludge.

"Don't let the poisoning stop you," Danny assured Charmeleon. "Use your Slash attack!"

Charmeleon swiped at Weezing with his strong claws, weakening it some more.

James let out a confident laugh. "Weezing, tackle!" he ordered. Weezing zoomed over to Charmeleon and knocked him over in the stomach.

"Charmeleon, another Slash!" Danny commanded.

With another Slash of his claws, Charmeleon was able to finally defeat Weezing!

"All right!" Danny said, pumping a fist.

"Charr!" Charmeleon cried out, doing the same. But Pikachu was still scared from being in the Pokémon Tower.

"You will regret this!" James said, not amused. Then he and Jessie both said, "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" and they escaped out a window, but ended up falling straight to the ground on their backs!

"What dopes," Danny said to himself as he treated Charmeleon with an Antidote. Then he hurried over to Mr. Fuju and untied him. "Are you OK, Mr. Fuji?" he asked.

"Heh?" Mr. Fuji asked. "You came to save me? Thank you. But, I came here of my own free will. I came to calm the soul of Cubone's mother. I think Marowak's spirit has gone to the afterlife."

"Yep," Danny explained, "and I helped make that happen!"

"I must thank you for your kind concern!" Mr. Fuji said. "Follow me to my home, the Pokémon House at the foot of this tower."

Mr. Fuji got out an escape rope and they were able to slip carefully out the tower window and head to said house.

…

Inside the Pokémon Volunteer House, a boy and a girl were playing with a Nidorino and Psyduck. "Mr. Fuji had been praying alone for Cubone's mother," the boy explained.

The girl was hugging Psyduck, saying "It's so warm! Pokémon are so cuddly to hug!"

Danny walked up to Mr. Fuji, who said, "Danny, your Pokédex quest may fail without love for your Pokémon. I think this may help your quest." He handed Danny a wooden flute that was carved on one end to look like a Pokéball.

"A Poké Flute?" Danny asked.

"Upon hearing the Poké Flute," Mr. Fuji explained, "sleeping Pokémon will spring awake. It works on all sleeping Pokémon. It can be useful in battle, too."

"Gee, thanks, Mr. Fuji!" Danny said.

"Pikachu!" Danny's Pikachu happily added.

…

Back at the Pokémon Center, Danny was having Professor Oak rate his Pokédex over the video phone.

"So far," Professor Oak said, "you have seen 73 different types of Pokémon and have owned 31 types. Good, you're trying hard! Get an Item Finder from my aide! See you!" He hung up.

Danny turned to Pikachu. "I guess we're doing better than I thought we would!"

"Pi-pikachu!" his Pikachu agreed.

TO BE CONTINUED