While exploring Jagged Pass, Blake, Elaina, and Caelia ran into a real ghost! But that can't be true, right? There's no such thing as ghosts! Or is there…? What could Blake have encountered? Will Cynthia run into it as well? Will her group be safe? Will any of them be able to get off this mountain alive, or will they all be taken away by the ghost of Jagged Pass?
The Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! Get the votes going in soon! There are three girls in the finals! Who's going to win? Chloe? Cynthia? Or Vic? One of those girls will become the third best girl, so get those votes in as soon as possible! You've only got one vote this time, so make it count!
Finalists: Chloe, Cynthia, Vic
KedharS: Ghosts have a tendency of doing that, after all. If it is a real ghost… only time will tell. Maybe Kitty's delusions are right.
Hyphenman: Well, it's definitely not Sylvia. But whatever it is, we'll have to find out.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1045
Cynthia, Will, and Nick were walking on the pathway leading up to the abandoned mansion. So far, no sign of Blake's ghost. But Cynthia wasn't exactly riding high on her superiority at the moment. In fact, she was feeling a little…
"This place is a lot spookier than I thought…" Cynthia shivered, feeling a chill run down her back. She looked around like she expected a dead girl to pop out from behind any of the dozen surrounding rocky outcroppings.
"Yeah," Nick nodded, swallowing. "I'm not sure if this is safe…"
"Oh, come on, ghosts aren't real," Will scoffed.
"Who's talking about ghosts?" Nick asked, staring down at the dark trail beneath his feet. "Don't you feel how unstable the ground is? I'm worried that if I step on the wrong spot I'll go tumbling down the hill and break my neck!"
"That's… valid," Will begrudgingly admitted.
"In fact… Charmeleon, go," Nick said sending out his Charmeleon. The Fire type pokemon's burning tail lit up their surroundings in a dull orange light."
"Thanks," Nick said, patting his Charmeleon. The pokemon grunted and shrugged.
"This isn't cheating, right?" Will asked. "On the test of courage, I mean?"
"It's not courageous to risk walking around in the dark and breaking your neck," Nick replied. "That's just being stupid."
"Again, that's… valid," Will had to agree. It's not like he really cared either way.
As for Cynthia, she was just glad that all the ghosts were scared off. She sighed in relief. "I'll allow it," she decided. "It's a necessary action."
You're the one who's the most scared out of all of us! Nick and Will thought at the same time. Neither one said anything though, and they continued to walk up the mountain. Soon enough, they reached the level flatland where the mansion was located, and walked down the winding path. They got to the same point Blake did, and Cynthia grew tense.
It's fine, she reassured herself. Nothing to worry about. You certainly aren't going to run into any real ghosts, nope!
As much as she tried to tell herself that, it was hard to believe it. Little did she know that she would end up being correct.
It wasn't a ghost girl, or even a girl disguised as a ghost that they encountered when they passed through the rocky path.
It was a horde of pokemon.
"Wild Machoke!" Cynthia hissed, holding up her hand.
"Machoke? Are they common here?" Will asked. He didn't like the muscled pokemon huddled together, they looked like they were planning something.
"Yeah, but they aren't much of a threat. Unless they're angry, of course," Cynthia added as an afterthought, and then immediately wished she hadn't.
She'd just jinxed them all.
One of the Machoke turned their way, and his face twisted into a frustrated expression.
"Ma! Machoke!" He bellowed, beating his chest. He stepped forward, breaking the circle as the other Machoke turned with him. That's when Cynthia saw what they had surrounded. It was a tiny, furry pokemon she could barely make out in the darkness. It was curled up in a ball and trembling in utter terror.
Cynthia's expression turned from fright into a scowl. "They're bullies!" She exclaimed. "A bunch of dumb Machoke bullies!" She knew as well as anyone that Machoke didn't need to eat other pokemon, and that other pokemon weren't their preferred form of sustenance. No, they were just attacking that little pokemon because they were dicks.
"MACHOKE!" The Machoke roared, charging at them.
"Go, Rose! Show those dumb Machoke what you're made of!" Cynthia shouted, sending out her Kirlia with a huff.
"Kirlia!" Rose nodded, and glowed bright blue. A blue aura appeared around the lead Machoke and Rose lifted him into the air, flinging him back into the crowd.
"Machoke?!" The Machoke cried in disbelief. The only Psychic type pokemon around were Spoink, and they weren't capable of such powerful psionic powers. The Machoke didn't know what to do in the face of such a dangerous threat.
But they were still angry. Regrouping, they charged at Cynthia and Rose once again, this time preparing to attack the two before Rose could use any of her psychic powers.
"Charmeleon!" Nick shouted. "Use flamethrower!"
"Charmeleon!" Charmeleon nodded, opening his mouth and spitting a stream of flames at the Machoke, blocking their advance. That bought Rose just enough time to roll them over with another psychic attack.
Wild Machoke may have been muscleheads, but even they were intelligent enough to know not to push a situation like this. With a groan, they retreated further up the Jagged Pass, using their powerful muscles to hoist themselves to heights that normal humans would never be able to follow without the use of a specialized bike.
"Yikes, that was even scarier than a ghost," Nick sighed in relief.
"Yeah, I wonder why they just attacked like that," Cynthia mused, stroking her chin. "Normally even wild pokemon would think twice if you came around their territory in a group like this, but those guys just charged right in."
"Something must have disturbed them before," Will decided. "Enraged them somehow. But I wonder what could have happened recently that would make all the wild pokemon in the air become so hostile to strangers?"
Somewhere lower down the mountain Elaina sneezed. She refocused her harmonia, which had been leaking out of her due to her fear and infecting her surroundings. Not that she was fully aware of this, of course.
Meanwhile, Cynthia approached the tiny pokemon that had been getting picked on by the Machoke. She didn't want to make any sudden movements out of fear that she might scare off the little guy, she just wanted to see if he was uninjured.
Before she could get close however, the little pokemon made eye contact with her and then dashed away, ducking for cover behind one of the rocks.
Cynthia sighed. She hadn't even gotten close enough to see what kind of pokemon she'd been dealing with. But she shrugged that off and continued her walk to the mansion. A few moments later and the three of them had reached the entrance.
They'd managed to frighten off the horde of Machoke. But would the ghost prove to be an even scarier fight?
Cynthia sincerely did not want to find out. As far as she was concerned, the sooner they got this whole mess over with, the better. They headed inside of the rundown mansion. The door hinges were so damaged with rust that the door practically fell off as they opened it.
"So this is a real haunted house, huh?" Nick said, looking around curiously. "There's… ah… ah… achoo! …There's a lot of dust around here, huh?"
"This place is all dust," Cynthiia said, making a face. "Dust and cobwebs. There aren't even spider pokemon living in the Hoenn Region, what gives?! Whose bright idea was it anyway to try and sneak into this place?!" She griped.
Nick and Will stared at her, unable to believe what they were hearing.
"Yours," Nick said.
"It was definitely yours," Will nodded in agreement.
Cynthia scowled. She didn't want to be told the TRUTH damn it!
"Whatever!" She griped. "Forget it! All we need to do now is just look around a little bit, maybe take some pictures, hide to scare Kitty if her group makes it all the way here as well, you know, just fun stuff!"
"Wait, what was that last one?" Nick asked. She'd been talking too fast.
Cynthia blinked innocently. "Take some pictures?"
Meanwhile, Will was looking around on his own. He'd been careful enough to stay in the same room as those two of course, he wasn't suicidal. But he was definitely looking through things on his own. That's when he found it.
"Hey, Cynthia, what do you think of this?" He called. The two of them followed him into the entry hall, where a large, faded picture that had been worn down from the ravages of time and the scratches of wild pokemon hung on the wall.
There were three people. A distinguished-looking man, a fancily-dressed woman, and a cute little girl holding a pokemon in her arms.
"Well they look like a nice couple, I guess," Cynthia mused, stroking her chin. "Too bad what happened to the daughter, though… I can't belivee she's really dead." And for that matter she REFUSED to believe that the girl had come back from the dead to haunt the living.
A crash in the room caused Cynthia to leap a mile into the air. She whirled upon Nick and Charmeleon, who had just entered.
"Tell me that was you!" She hissed "You or that flame lizard of yours!"
"Charmeleon and I have just been looking around," Nick said, shaking his head. "If you heard something it definitely wasn't us! Actually, I thought that crashing was you!"
"…Oh," Cynthia said, backing off. That explanation didn't stop the goosebumps from running down her spine, though.
"So… what was it?" She asked, looking around.
"Um… the wind?" Nick asked hopefully.
Then there was another crash, followed by a shrill creaking, like someone walking over loose floorboards.
Cynthia screamed. That was it for her.
"Move! Move! Outta my way!" Cynthia exclaimed, pushing Nick aside and charging for the door. Will, Nick, and Charmeleon were right on their heels.
"You're scared… too, huh?" Nick panted, glancing at Will.
"N-NO… there's no such thing as ghosts," Will said, shaking his head. "But you know… there are such things as serial killers, so…"
Cynthia and her group were careful moving down the mountain, trying to get down safely. But she soon found that she was running faster than she could control. Then she became scared for an entirely different reason.
Oh, crap… Cynthia gasped to herself. I'm going to fall… I'm going to crash! It was all she could do to keep herself upright. If she slowed down or lost her footing then she'd definitely-
The rock Cynthia planted her foot on slid out from under her, and suddenly she was running on air. She raised her arms to shield her face as she tumbled forward, about to smash into the sharp stones beneath her.
She hit something strong, but soft. It wasn't the rock. Her eyes snapped open and she looked up in shock at… Julia! The brunette had a shocked look on her face.
"Cynthia, are you okay?" Julia gasped. "You nearly fell! What the hell were you thinking?!" She demanded.
"I-I-I… thank you!" Cynthia sobbed. The second she was standing under her own power, she threw her arms around Julia and hugged her tightly.
"I was so scared!" She sobbed. "It… I was just running so fast, but I couldn't… I just… thank you so much, Julia!"
"Wait, you were scared?" Reiner couldn't help but smirk. He glanced at the boys. "What about you guys? You guys spotted the ghosts too? I thought you didn't believe in ghosts, Will?" He started laughing.
Will scowled at him. "Hey, you shut up," he scoffed. "It may not have been a ghost, but whatever it was, we didn't want to stick around and find out."
In a rare example of unity, neither Julia nor Reiner were buying Cynthia's story. Even though Blake had said there was a real ghost too, it wasn't enough to overcome their cynicism.
But there was someone else here who was eating this all up with a giant spoon. And she was starting to choke on it.
"NO! No, no, no!" Kitty wailed. "I don't wanna go any further! If even Cynthia was scared of the ghost, then I don't want to see what it is!"
"Come on, Kitty, there's no ghost," Julia said, giving her friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. But Kitty batted her hand away.
"Then it's a creepy person in a strange costume! Either way, I don't want to run into them! I just want to go back home!" Kitty had tried to be brave all night, but a situation like this was too far. She could tell just by looking at Cynthia's frightened face. This had been her suggestion, but now she was completely terrified.
And Kitty didn't want to run into whatever had caused that to happen.
"This… this is fine," she whispered, glancing down at the ground. "I just… I want to go back home, okay Julia? Please?"
Her eyes were starting to tear up. Not just because she was scared, but because she felt ashamed for her lack of bravery. She'd wanted to stand up to her fears today, but she'd completely failed, and she'd regret backing out of this.
But she didn't regret it now.
"Okay, let's go then," Julia said, nodding. She took Kitty's hand and guided her down the mountain, and a few minutes later they reached the base of Jagged Pass.
"Okay, we made it back," Cynthia sighed with relief. She collapsed and began to rub herself against the grass. "Ah, safe, flat ground… safe, soft, non-haunted ground."
"What happened to her?" Blake asked, glancing at Julia. Julia just rolled her eyes and sighed.
"It's a long story," she shook her head. "She had a really close call and nearly fell over when she ran down the mountain."
"What?! Is she okay?!" Blake exclaimed.
"Yeah, she's fine," Nick assured him. Now that they were back on solid ground, he took the opportunity to return Charmeleon to his pokeball. "She just got really scared when we made it to the mansion, because we heard some scary noises. And I guess after your story, she freaked out and ran back down Jagged Pass."
Blake glanced at Cynthia and smirked, relishing in the feeling of superiority he felt over her. Cynthia hopped to her feet.
"Hey! Don't act so smug!" She exclaimed, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "At least our team made it to the mansion! You guys cowered out before even getting there because you saw a ghost! So who's the real coward here?"
"At least we SAW a ghost!" Blake fired back. "You guys ran away after a few scary noises! So between the two of us, who's really the bigger scaredy cat?"
Cynthia's face lit up crimson and she crossed her arms indignantly. "Hey! It wasn't just a few scary noises! There were a BUNCH of them! And I suppose you would have just stayed there and let yourself get ghost-napped?"
Kitty sat down on the ground and began to rock back and forth. She hadn't even seen the ghost or heard anything out of the ordinary, but she was the most frightened one there.
"It's okay, guys, we don't have to worry about this," Reiner said, calming everyone down. "Whether there's a real ghost or not, I think nobody else wants to go up that mountain. So why don't we just head back to the inn?"
"Yeah, that's fine," Cynthia nodded. "In my opinion, the sooner we get out of here, the better. I just want to go home and take a long, hot bath."
"Uh… yeah. Sure," Blake said, nodding. "Ready to go home, guys?"
"Yep," Cynthia nodded. "Wait, something feels weird. What am I missing right now?" She looked around, confused. Then she started sniffing the air. She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Ah… I feel a distinct lack of sexual tension around here…"
She looked around and gasped.
"Sango and Aidan are gone!"
"Oh, yeah, they must have left after Kitty, Julia, and Reiner," Blake realized.
"But we didn't run into them on the Jagged Pass," Julia said, frowning. "How did they get away from here?"
Kitty gulped, turning pale. "You… you don't think… you don't think they got spirited away by the ghost, do you?"
"No way, there's just no way!" Cynthia said, shaking her head. A shiver ran down her back. So why couldn't she get the idea out of her mind?
They were all frightened now, not just Kitty and Cynthia.
This is terrible! Sango and Aidan have disappeared! What could have happened to them? Did the ghosts get them? Hopefully they'll be safe and they'll get back. I really hope nothing bad happens! What if they run into the ghost on Jagged Pass?
