by
Taro MD
Chapter 11 A Moment of Rest Ruined
In the last episode, Agatha gave Harudo his first defeat in a trainer battle and thus offered to train not only him but also train his Gastly but considering that Harudo's Gastly didn't even last long against Agatha's which was well trained but bodied by a three move combo in the form of Icy Wind, Will O Wisp and Hex... yeah you can tell that did a number mentally.
But will Gastly able to recover from the defeat? Something to consider possibly.
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The next few days was considered a blur for Harudo as he endured the harsh but helpful teachings of Agatha... not only did some of his Pokemon learn better moves and acted fiercer but he also learnt that Agatha had caught a Weedle in her early part of her journey so she knew by experience how to raise a Beedrill and how it was one of her first pokemon that helped her on her journey but she was able to teach Harudo's Beedrill a few moves that it didn't know normally which would help.
"Harudo my boy, a very important lesson to learn is that if there's is something blocking your path then there is always more than one way to go around said path... use every gift that you have got so far and you will learn new skills."
He figured that made sense so he decided when he got back to his house, he would take a look at the two TM's he got from Blue and figured how to use them properly... he was very surprised that in the compatible list for Protect, practically all the Pokemon in his party and storage were able to use the move so he took the time to not only introduce everyone to each other but also to learning the basics of how to use Protect... and then he went through the list of those that can learn Focus Energy and proceeded to teach those that could... Beedrill, the Nidorans and Fearow learnt from Rattata that knew the move naturally.
'Who knew that Protect was so easily teachable to Pokemon these days... I wish it was more battle-centric like when it first came out of Johto.'
Protect was a new move to have come out of Johto at the time whilst he was at trainer school and had been used by those fighting in the circuits around the region as a move that would define battling, however when other regions were later discovered... the move's popularity waned and then it became a common move for everyone to learn and thus anyone can do it... for now it was one of the many strategies that the young man may need to utilise if he was going to be an effective trainer.
"I'll worry about that in the future..."
Harudo then noticed the time and realised that he had a couple of hours before dinner would be served so he figured he had some time to take a quick walk to Route 8 where he would get to admire one of the best views of the area... the view of Saffron City, he figured that he would take his Pokeballs with him in the small chance where he might encounter a Pokemon... not that it ever deterred him before.
He immediately opened the door and trotted downstairs where his Aunt was in the living room, his Uncle would soon be home from his job.
"Hi Auntie, I'm going to take a quick walk to Route 8 if that's alright?"
"Sure it is dear, be back in time for dinner though... we are having steaks tonight."
"Oh I definetly won't be taking long then!"
He smiled as he realised that he was looking forward to a good cut of steak as he left the house and then proceeded towards the western exit of the town.
Route 8 in the early evening was a pleasant feel when Harudo entered the route in his usual pace... normally this would be where skillfull trainers would take the path to head towards the largest city of the region aka Saffron but when the weather is correct like today then the sunset is considered one of the best spots of the area and as for the young man, he wanted to take a chance to experience the sun going down once more.
He did hear a noise as Gastly joined alongside him floating in the air, his face whilst expressive still held some of the defeat he suffered earlier in the week still pressing into it's mind as he turned to Harudo.
'I can see why you would come to a place like this...'
"Yeah it's something i've been doing for the last few years... find a place outside the route, away from the trainers and the wild pokemon and just watch the sun go down..."
'Last few days have been busy so I can see why you would come here.'
"You probably still bugged by what happened with Aunt Agatha aren't you?"
'Yes actually, I wasn't expecting to be beaten that severely and that angered me a bit...'
"I would be angry too except for the fact that I knew she would win, mostly because she was a member of the Elite 4..."
'You never did mention that before, who are these Elite 4?'
"They are in layman terms, the 4 best trainers in the region... below them are the 8 gym leaders that everyone has to beat in order to get the badges needed to enter the Indigo Plateau where they reside and above those four is the Champion... Aunt Agatha was a member of the Elite 4 but after the rise of two elite trainers named Red and Blue, she knew her time was up so she quietly retired and moved to Lavender."
'Who are these other members?'
"As far as I remember... there was Lorelei who specialised in Ice Pokemon, I believe she retired back to the Sevil Islands... Bruno is the next one, he's still there as far as I'm concerned, Agatha was next... I do remember Koga taking her place after she retired and finally there's Lance whom I believe is still there as Champion despite losing to a trainer named Gold."
'I see... fearsome opponents then?'
"That's why they were called the Elite Four... it's not just Kanto that they govern, they also govern Johto as those trainers have to go through 8 of their own Gym Leaders to get to the Indigo Plateau..."
'I believe those are goals to achieve Harudo...'
"That is correct which is why I plan to head back to Pewter tomorrow to challenge Brock, not only that but also investigate this hidden temple that's supposed to be there so I can fulfill this blasted ancient prophecy of saving the lands."
'So you must be the human that was touched by the gods...'
Surprised at the new voice as floating towards them was a rare creature that was proven hard to catch for most trainers in general and a very rare pokemon to find but for Harudo he was just as equally surprised.
"Kadabra?"
'Correct young one...'
Kadabra is a primarily yellow, humanoid Pokémon. It has two long, pointed ears on top of its head, a red star on its forehead, narrow, deep-set eyes, and wide cheeks leading down to a thin snout. Extending from each side of its snout are two mustache-like tufts of fur; a male will have a longer mustache than a female. Kadabra's torso is segmented with bulky shoulders, a thick, brown chest, and a small abdomen marked by three red, wavy lines. Attached to the Pokémon's abdomen is a large, thick tail encircled with a brown band near its base. Its arms are thin with brown elbows and end in three-fingered hands with white claws. Its legs have prominent knees and large, three-toed feet, also ending in white claws. Two of its toes face forward and one backward.
"Wow I'm surprised I get to encounter one, much less have one come to greet me."
'Focus Harudo. This pokemon exceeds great power but we must find out why is it doing here.'
"Thanks for reminding me of that Gastly... so you must know I can speak to Pokemon directly?"
'Of course human. The gods that give you the power to understand our language is a sign of the prophecy coming true... we have felt the corrupt energies of the beasts come back, any Psychic type can directly feel it's dark influence...'
"Hmm that is bad... I did encounter the deimos in Viridian Forest but I wasn't expecting it to be this bad."
'More importantly I need your help young one, there's a matter that needs resolving... if you would like to follow me.'
"Uh sure, lead the way..."
'Harudo be on guard.'
"I know Gastly... stay close to me."
Some time later Kadabra was floating it's way through several grass bushes and clearings which Harudo immediately followed as once again he went deeper into a pokemon route and into unknown territory that no human was able to find as eventually Harudo saw the reason why Kadabra needed his help... several small, medium and a couple of large sized pokemon were literally incapacitated with low energy as Harudo can identify some of the locals but spotted some that he didn't expect to see.
"My god what in the world caused all of this?"
'That is why I came to you young one... all these Pokemon have been inflicted with a sickness that I have never seen before.'
"Yeah no kidding... it's something I haven't seen before."
'It feels like these pokemon had their energies drained but not on a scale like this...'
"Wait Gastly we're close to Lavender so whilst I think this was all done by a Ghost type, I don't think a wild Haunter or a wild Gengar could do something like this... this is entirely different.
'The balance between the spirits and the pokemon of this area have been long established since the ancient times so peace is what this area has been known for but since recently these events have been happening.'
"No kidding..."
Harudo thought as he made a mental count of which Pokemon were afflicted ranging from the small creatures such as Meowth, Growlithe, Vulpix, Ekans and Pidgey to the various Abras that normally would flee if seen with a human but since they haven't been threatened, there was no sudden need to teleport away... medium sized creatures like Pidgeotto and the Johto species known as Noctowl who was a bit dazed, next up to Harudo's surprise there was two Haunters that were amongst the afflicted as well as various Rattatas and Jigglypuffs with quite a few Raticates were amongst the pairing.
Although Harudo still couldn't believe in disbelief that the largest Pokemon amongst the victims were two fully evolved Fire types, Arcanine and Ninetales... amongst the very rare of Pokemon finds. This afflication must be really bad if fully evolved Pokemon can be affected.
"How do I get to the bottom of all this?"
'Well I would be interested in talking to those Haunters... being ghost types, they might know what happened here.'
"That's one path we can consider... I'm hoping to get some answers from those two fire types as well."
'Good choice too.'
"Alright then... is there a village that's nearby Kadabra?"
'The nearest village from here is about a few miles.'
"Dang... so much for that idea, alright lets see if I have enough potions for everyone."
Harudo decided to check his bag to see if he had enough potions for everyone which he barely did but he realised he would have to buy more later on.
"Alright let's see if these potions work..."
Several minutes of Harudo administrating potions to the various upon various pokemon that were incapacitated and out of energy and most of the healed pokemon were very thankful to the human that saved them which allowed them to move onto different areas as the only ones left were the two Haunters, Arcanine and Ninetales who managed to stay around as Harudo turned to them.
'Thank you human for bringing us back from exhaustion...'
"No problem, it's the least I could do..."
The pokemon visibly were surprised that a human was able to reply back and understood what they said, Gastly didn't react because he already knew.
'I didn't think a human could ever understand our language but we have our own legends and the time that one would understand, given the gift from the god of life... the time of the dark beasts is now it appears.'
'Yes I'm afraid what my companion said is true... the dark times have now arrived and we aren't safe.'
"What exactly happened here if you don't mind me asking?"
'Some sort of freakish thing came through here a while ago.'
'It was so quick that it barely registered that it was here... like some sort of mist.'
'Mist? Are you quite sure it wasn't any other Ghost type like us?'
Gastly immediately asked the two Haunters about the mist comparison which prompted them to think for a few seconds before realising that there might be something that they know... but to most ghost pokemon it is considered a story of their own, a legend.
'There is no way that human can be...?'
'I don't know if he is the one yet, but the signs are similar.'
Gastly mentally told one of the Haunter as it watched Harudo carefully not knowing that if the young man it met a while ago was fated... but that was a concern for the future, right now it was commited to helping him find the cause of this mysterious sickness.
'Harudo if I may suggest that we find the cause of this sickness as soon as possible.'
"Right... I'm going to need everyone's help."
A short while later Harudo gathered enough information from the pokemon in question as he and Gastly made their way through a small winding trail that looked unnatural as he immediately felt something wasn't right.
'Whatever it is, it doesn't feel right at all...'
'Correct Harudo. This must be the source of the sickness.'
Harudo remembered the connection it had with Gastly because of being born of Lavender Town, a feeling of empathy mixed with some psychic power which gave the town it's reputation of communicating with the dead although not really, the cases were very small but Harudo shook that feeling off realising that he needed to find the source immediately or otherwise more pokemon would be sick... and he'll miss out on his auntie's home cooking.
Eventually the feeling got worse and worse, the more he travelled inland until at last...
Harudo felt a strong sense of nausea hit him which did make him unwell immediately and then he discovered what caused it.
"Oh god..."
The source of the strong nausea was a large ethereal floating blob that definetly didn't belong in the world at present and it smelled like death literally as the stench was literally overwhelming as Harudo finally couldn't hold onto the contents of his stomach and proceeded to violently retch into a nearby bush which allowed the blob to finally notice the pair.
'Uh Harudo I don't want to say anything but you just got it's attention.'
"Oh great just what we need."
Harudo immediately composed itself and faced the unknown monster as Gastly floated there.
"Hopefully you probably can understand the human language?"
The blob splurted out various gibberish noises of different decrees before a simple answer was then heard.
YES.
"Lovely... you must be a species of deimos that I don't know about today and here I thought they were ugly but you take the cake."
CONSUME.
The blob immediately headed towards Harudo and Gastly as the duo prepared themselves.
"Right I wasn't in the mood to figure out what were you anyway... Gastly, Icy Wind!"
Gastly nodded as it drew in it's breath before then expelling cold air that blew right into the direction of the blob as it was enveloped by the cold air as it started to slow down but it didn't stop fully as it then began to dispel a couple of ethereally mis-shapened arms that suspiciously look off to Harudo as it made a movement.
"Gastly dodge!"
Gastly immediately went upwards as the arms went through a nearby tree and literally disintegrated the object in a slow manner realising that it was a major problem.
"Well shit this is a problem... Gastly avoid getting hit by those hands if you can."
'You don't need to tell me twice...'
Gastly said before the blob decided to strike again to which the ghost type avoided again in quick succession.
"Gastly now use Will O Wisp!"
Gastly began to generate several purple spheres of flames out of thin air as it immediately fired them at the blob causing what seemed to be burns all over it's body but Harudo couldn't tell if it was affected or not so he figured it was time to strike with the move combo that Agatha taught him.
"Now Gastly use Hex!"
Gastly's aura glowed bright purple as it's eyes glowed bright red before unleashing said aura onto the ethereal blob causing it some major damage but to Harudo's horror the skin on the creature was slowly beginning to heal from the damage... this thing has regeneration although it felt very slow.
'No wonder this thing was able to go through those Pokemon with ease... it took the damage, regenerate it back up and then waited until they were fatigued before striking... I'm going to need to keep it distracted enough but with what Pokemon can I use it on... wait I think I got an idea!'
Harudo quickly remembered that he was able to put Rattata on his belt and that it was Normal type might give it the edge... despite seeing various Rattatas injured, he knew that a trained one would have some vantage.
"Alright Rattata I'm gonna need you out here!"
Rattata appeared after it's pokeball was thrown up as the lock released and the bright light flashed as it looked around a bit before seeing the blob as it eyes went into a glare and went into a position.
'ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE DEIMOS THINGS HARUDO?'
"Yep Rattata... gonna need your help with this one."
'NO PROBLEM! TELL ME WHAT TO DO AND I'LL GET ON WITH IT.'
"Gonna need you to add some damage... now then get in there and use Bite!"
'HERE I COME!'
Rattata immediately charged on all fours, it's fangs began to brighten in anticipation as the blob creature didn't realise how quick the small rodent was until it charged underneath it as it grimaced visually after getting bit quickly as it tried to get the smaller foe but it's quickness was way too much for it to cope as it was slowed down previously.
"Rattata back up a second... Gastly use Will O Wisp again!"
Rattata quickly backed up just as Gastly desecnded from the skies with the various purple fireballs ready to strike at the blob but as the fireballs were launched, the blob unleashed some sort of thick slimy substance from it's mouth as it enveloped some of the fireballs but one manage to connect causing a minor burn.
'Oh great! It has a flame counter so I can't reliably use Will O Wisp to burn it...'
The blob then turned to Rattata before firing off the gunge from it's non existant mouth as the Normal type was able to dodge it as quickly as it was fired causing some of the grassland to disintegrate but Rattata was incensed enough so it went right back into using Bite again attaching itself to one of the tentacles that was expelling from the creature as the blob recoiled in pain.
"Need to give it more damage... can't risk any of my other pokemon."
'Allow us to repay the favor from before!'
Arcanine and Ninetails immediately rushed from a nearby bush as the two large fully evolved Pokemon both prepared flames from their mouths before they unleashed strong looking Flamethrowers that struck the blob creature with a powerful velocity causing it to screech horribly in pain as the damage was focused on a spot... the two Haunters from before immediately drew their fists back in a dark ghostly aura as they both used Shadow Punch to cause more damage before they both was able to withdraw back to where Gastly was watching.
'How about joining us for this one little Gastly?'
'I'm not sure if I can do it...'
'Oh don't worry follow us and you'll get the hang of it.'
Both Haunters immediately put their hands out as blue lightning sparks through quickly before two large spheres of purple energy were formed.
'Now see if you can do it.'
Gastly closed it's eyes and began to concentrate as the blue lightning surged through it's body before eventually a large purple sphere was formed in front of it as Harudo looked up to see what was happening and even he couldn't believe it.
'HOW THE HELL DID GASTLY JUST LEARN SHADOW BALL?!'
All three Shadow Balls were fired at once as the trio flew down towards the blob as somehow they merged together to create a super sized Shadow Ball that enveloped the blob... this was immediately followed up with Arcanine and Ninetales using their Flamethrowers to strike the purple shadow ball into what seemed to be a purple blaze as the blob was literally cooked... as the attacks faded away, the Blob suffered a metric ton of damage but more importantly it's core was exposed which made Harudo realise that it was time to finish it off.
"Alright... I'll take it from here."
The Pokemon nodded and backed off just as Harudo was able to get the blade out ready to strike the finishing blow as the blob couldn't regenerate fast enough to counter.
CON...SUME...
"No you won't, your path ends here monster..."
Harudo immediately stabbed the core of the blob with his bladed weapon as the gurgling sounds of the dying blob filled the area before they were silenced and the blob's body literally melted into the ground harmlessly as he then put the blade away and walked away, he was wondering if he was ever going to get back for that dinner in time.
And then he can focus his attention towards Pewter City.
To be continued...
So the original thought of this chapter was to have Gastly get a redemption arc for being battered up but then I figured... I would try something else and go with some lore building instead which will then be explained, probably the reason why Harudo was chosen... Gastly is also special because it learnt Shadow Ball on it's own with some help from the two Haunter, this is part of something I won't be explaining just yet.
So next part Harudo goes back to Pewter City to either challenge Brock for the Boulder Badge or find the temple that is located there... I haven't decided on that just yet.