Disclaimer: Me no own Pokémon.

Chapter 9: Ghosts are pretty awesome.

Route 11 was a pretty big area as far as Kanto was considered. The Pokémon found here were considerably stronger than the wild Pokémon that I had encountered so far, but they were not that rare. In fact, the rarest Pokémon in this area was Drowzee. This area was the only place in Kanto where Drowzee was found in the wild. As I had Kadabra, I was not planning on catching one. Drowzee and its evolution was the polar opposite of Kadabra as far as stat distribution went. They had an infuriatingly high special defence, making it extremely hard to beat them once they reached a good level.

However, Drowzee was famous for its ability to hypnotize and so, most the trainers in this Route were old gentlemen and ladies who wanted to catch one for helping with their sleep schedules. There were many youngsters around as well who were doing final preparation for Vermillion gym. Although I didn't battle many of them, the ones that I battled were good sources of exp.

From my experience of last time, a team full of level 30 Pokémon was more than enough to battle the first four gyms. In fact, I had screwed up last time when I fought Sabrina right off the gate after finishing the Vermillion Gym. She was the third strongest gym leader in the region as far as her team went. However, her mental breakdown in recent years meant that she could not use her stronger Pokémon who refused to listen to her orders. This meant that if I could deal with her level 38 Kadabra, the Marsh Badge would be mine.

As such our current destination was Lavender Town. I wanted to catch a Gastly this time, not for just beating Sabrina, but as a member of my team. Beedrill according to Professor Oak had already mated and laid eggs and was now waiting for it to hatch. As such, she decided to withdraw from battling for now. This was not that big of a blow as Beedrill was never intended to be a big part of the team. Bug Pokémon, despite growing much faster than other types, was not that powerful when it came to battle ability. However, that didn't mean that I was abandoning her. On the contrary, she would provide valuable assistance to Professor Oak in researching about Bug types. Beedrill as a species were extremely territorial in the wild and trainers rarely captured them unless they were bug type enthusiasts. As such, Professor Oak had yet to receive a fully grown and breeding Beedrill in his lab.

The travel through Route 11 was rather long and we could only cover about half of it by the evening. We decided to set up camp for the day and put up our tents near the beach away from the wild Pokémon. By going this way I was avoiding several incidents like the Ghost of maiden peak and the giant Tentacruel but I thought that it was better to let the Tentacruel to destroy that construction in the first place. Nastina had made a fortune with that island after she dealt with the giant Tentacruel and didn't learn anything from the first time. She ended up making a nasty mess of the ecosystem and was permanently removed by the League.

Dinner went by quite smoothly and we went to sleep soon after.

We were back on the road when morning came and I was sure that we would make it to Lavender Town by the evening. The entire route was along the coast and as such, the heat was rather intense. But the view was spectacular and we could even make out a school of Gyarados out at sea. I wanted to try my luck in fishing but the lack of any fishing rods made that impossible. I decided to purchase a good rod when I reached Celadon City.

When the sun got a little too intense, we decided to take an early break at the base of a large sized tree. There were a large number of Pokémon around it but they didn't disturb us after I released Charizard out of his ball for intimidation. He was completely obedient to me which meant that there was no Flamethrower to my face whenever I released him. It took him some time to adjust to the new body but he was now fully prepared to fight. I was planning on another big training trip after I caught a Gastly, just to make sure that the team was ready for Sabrina just in case things took a turn for the ugly. After all, Sabrina had a level 43 Alakazam and I didn't want the gap between my team and it to be too big.

After lunch, we moved out and hit the road again. Brock's cooking was getting better as time progressed. We reached the end of Route 11 by 5 PM and were now on the outskirts of Lavender Town. The Pokémon Tower which was the most prominent feature of the town could be seen from here.

"Looks like we made it Brock." I said.

"Yes. That's the Pokémon Tower for sure." Brock replied.

We entered the town's Pokémon centre and booked ourselves a room. But as expected of the ghost town, the Pokémon Centre was nearly empty. Just as I was about to go to sleep, I thought I heard an eerie sounding tune but soon shook it off as nothing but my imagination.

Lavender Town was one of the oldest places in the region. In fact, there was historical evidence of the existence of this town from the days when humans first settled in this region. The Pokémon Tower was also an ancient building which has been standing here for a long time. The Tower itself was the tallest man made structure in Kanto until a few years back when the cities started to be modernised. Nowadays, that accomplishment went to the Silph Headquarters. The building of the Tower have been strengthened throughout the years, but the layout has been rather untouched in fear of upsetting the souls that are resting here.

In my previous life, I never went to the Tower to catch a ghost. I had tried to catch a ghost from the abandoned mansion in the outskirts of the town which in retrospect was a dumb move. I nearly got myself done in by Sabrina due to not even having a trained Pokémon capable of taking her on. I planned on correcting this.

Lavender Town was not just limited to the Pokémon Tower as far as attractions went. There was also Mr Fuji's Pokémon adoption centre where abandoned Pokémon could end up receiving a new trainer. I had discussed with Brock and we decided to pay the place a visit just to pay respect to the work Mr Fuji did.

The first thing in the morning that we did was visit Mr Fuji. His Pokémon adoption centre was easy to find as it was the biggest building in town. The building was staffed by the residents of the town and was welcome for any travelling trainer who either wanted to catch a ghost type Pokémon or wanted to pay respect to a deceased Pokémon.

"Welcome to the Pokémon Adoption Centre. How can I help you?" The lady at the reception asked. She was young, probably around 20 years of age and was giving us a businesslike smile.

"We are just here to visit. Maybe we can help by taking one the Pokémon here with us." I replied.

"That's wonderful. Please feel free to walk around. Mr Fuji is currently out of Town. Please try to be as gentle as possible with the Pokémon here. Some of them have abandonment issues." The lady who was called Sophia said.

"We will." Brock who was uncharacteristically quiet said.

We walked around for a bit in the establishment and came across a wide variety of Pokémon. Most of them were young and weak from what I could see. There were a large number of Ratatta and Pidgey around with the rarest Pokémon being a Cubone. Brock took a shining to the skull Pokémon and decided to try and see if he could make it a part of his team. As such, I was left alone and I soon left the building in order to enter the Pokémon Tower.

The Tower was located in the north-eastern part of the Town and was easily identifiable from a long distance. The Tower itself had 7 floors in total with the base floor being the gate to the Pokémon graveyard. The higher you go in the tower, the stronger the Pokémon became. Legend has it that there is a powerful Gengar which watches over the Tower. I paid my respect at the ground floor before slowly starting to ascend the Tower. The first two floors were empty as far as Pokémon went and were mainly for Memorial services for rich people. The third floor was where Pokémon started to appear. However, Ghost types were reclusive and hard to come by even in a place filled by them. So my climb was not disturbed much.

I did run into the occasional Gastly but they were not the ones that I wanted to catch as they were a little too low level for me. I wanted to catch the highest levelled one in the Tower as I had a lot of training to do before I could challenge Saffron Gym. Although Celadon gym was the next one in the circuit, it was a long way from Saffron so I didn't want to waste my time travelling back and forth. As such it was better to catch a high levelled one.

I reached the top in about ten minutes which showed just how tall this building really was. The insides were dark for the most part except for a large amount of flaming torches. These torches were not actual flames but a Will-o-wisp attack from the guardian Pokémon of the Tower. After I reached the top, I simply started walking around until I came across a Gastly which was at level 21.

" Kadabra, I choose you." I called out my Psychic Pokémon. A common misconception that rookie trainers had is that Psychic Pokémon were strong against ghosts. However this was the farthest from the truth. Psychic types were in fact the ones who were weak against ghost types. However the only Ghost types in Kanto were Gastly and its evolutions who were part Poison type which eventually led to a belief that Ghost types were weak against Psychic types.

As such, I had to finish this match quickly before Kadabra received too much damage.

"Alright buddy quickly use Confusion." I ordered. Hopefully, the Gastly wouldn't faint from this much. Kadabra surrounded himself with his Psychic energy before firing it off at Gastly who took a lot of damage. In return, it tried to use Lick on Kadabra who just stood there and took it. Magic Guard was a wonderful ability to have after all. Anyways, I threw the Pokeball at the confused Gastly and although it looked like it was going to escape, the ball shook three times before indicating the capture.

Now that I had gotten what I came for, I got out of the Tower as fast as I could as I did not want to play around too much around Ghost types. I went to the Adoption Centre to find out that Brock was already helping the people over there. After a short discussion with him, I decided to simply head out to Route 8 West of Lavender Town. I first went to the Pokémon Centre to heal Gastly so that I could train it.

It took me about five minutes before I reached Route 8. The road itself was about 30 Kilometres long and was surrounded by dense forests in both sides. It went all the way to Saffron but for now I was planning to stay in the outskirts for now. I called out Gastly for training as he was the focus of today' training. I wanted to see how far I could take his training in a day. A scan by Dexter gave me a great idea.

Gastly, The Gas Pokémon

Gastly is largely composed of gaseous matter. When exposed to a strong wind, the gaseous body quickly dwindles away. Groups of this Pokémon cluster under the eaves of houses to escape from the ravages of the wind.

This Gastly is a Female and has the ability Levitate.

This Gastly is currently level 21 and knows the moves Hypnosis, Lick, Dream Eater, Spite, Curse Night Shade and Confuse Ray.

The fact that she knew Dream Eater which was not an egg move meant that my job had gotten much easier. We kept practising with the Pokémon found in this Route for about 8 hours with a hour gap in between for lunch. This was only possible due to the fact that a Hypnosis and Dream Eater combo was nearly invincible here. The energy she spend on attacking was recovered by the Dream Eater along with the damage that she occasionally received. The endless training, coupled with the high level of the wild Pokémon here made her level up like a rocket. She had hit Level 25 in an hour and had evolved soon after. The Dexter entry for Haunter was as follows.

Haunter, The Gas Pokémon

Haunter is a dangerous Pokémon. If one beckons you while floating in darkness, you must never approach it. This Pokémon will try to lick you with its tongue and steal your life away.

This Haunter is a Female and has the ability Levitate.

This Haunter is currently level 25 and knows the moves Hypnosis, Lick, Dream Eater, Spite, Curse, Night Shade, Confuse Ray and Shadow Punch.

Even after her evolution, it didn't affect our strategy at all. In fact, it only further improved the training . And by the time I decided to call it a day, she had already reached Level 32, making her tied with Pidgeotto as the second highest levelled Pokémon in my team, even surpassing Kadabra who was a cheat in his own right.

By the time I returned to the Pokémon Centre, it was already night. Brock was sitting in the lobby speaking to a lady whom I assumed was a travelling trainer. As I entered, he said. "Oh Ash. How was your day?"

"It was great. How was your day? Did you get that Cubone?" I asked.

"Yep. The little guy decided to join me after we spend the whole day together.

"Good for you buddy. I'm hungry so I'm going to eat first. You take your time with your friend." I said motioning towards the girl that he was talking to.

"Well then, Good night Ash." He said before going back to speaking with the girl.

Anyways, as I was hungry, I went ahead and ate dinner before heading off to bed. I was tired today and from tomorrow onwards, the rest of the team had to be trained. With those thoughts in my head, I fell into a deep sleep.

Pokémon Info

Charizard

Level 36

Moves: Scratch, Growl, Rock Slide, Bite, Ember, Metal Claw, Smokescreen, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Wing Attack.

Pidgeotto

Level 32

Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack.

Kadabra

Level 30

Moves: Teleport, Thunder Punch, Confusion, Disable, Psybeam, Reflect, Recover, Future Sight.

Ivysaur

Level 31

Moves: Growl, Tackle, Vine Whip, Leech Seed, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Petal Dance, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent.

Wartotle

Level 30

Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Bubble, Withdraw, Water Gun, Mirror Coat, Bite, Rapid Spin.

Haunter

Level 32

Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Dream Eater, Spite, Curse, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Shadow Punch.

For now, let's stop there. Anyways, including the Prologue, this is my tenth chapter overall and my goal of having 30 Reviews is already done and dusted. With that said, now I would like to shoot for 50 Reviews by the next 5 chapters.

If you guys do that for me, I will include one Pokémon of your choosing into the story. Think of it as a flex if you will that I can incorporate almost any Pokémon into the story.

Now to address the concerns that reviewers raised.

1. No legendary Pokémon would be captured by Ash at any point of the story. But some of the Pokémon would end up stronger than them which if you think rationally, is easy to do in games. A large portion of the stats are after all, dependent on IV and EV and I have yet to come across any legendary that has Max IV for all stats.

2. None of the Pokémon would receive a nickname. As far as I am concerned, nicknames ruin the essence of fics and make it incredibly hard for the readers to remember information.

Also, evolution in this fic will be treated like evolution in the games i.e a tool to improve the Pokemon's strength rather than the Super Saiyan transformation that the anime makes it out to be. This means that if Ash ever catch a Pokémon that is higher level than required, it will evolve just like in the game. Don't say that I didn't warn anybody.

Anyways, Stay safe and Read and review.