I like Pokemon.
There was less forest on the road to Saffron City.
That is not to say there was no forest on the road to Saffron, just that there was a healthy smattering of other forms of terrain along the way.
Mostly just fields, but some of the fields had rocks and boulders!
Overall, Route 6 was a nice change of pace from the other roads so far.
The travelers didn't do much on the first day, they had a bit of a later start after all. The goal was to cover as much ground as possible before nightfall. This meant no training got done today, but in its place, a lot of talking was done.
"Alright so you gave me some of the rundown, but how the heck does a Pokemon become a trainer?" Karen asked a little while after they started.
"How does a human become a trainer?" Ash asked rhetorically. "It's mostly the same steps, just with a bit of a spin on them. My trainer is basically my parent so that's the parent or guardian's permission. I needed a sponsor, in this case, Professor Oak who already knew I was a Pokemon and thought the idea was interesting. Lastly, I needed to be ten years old, which I am."
He shrugged, slightly rustling Pidgeot and Pikachu with the action. They glare at him but he ignored them, if they wanted to ride on his shoulders instead of walk or fly they had to deal with it. "That's all there was to it."
"To hear him tell it, you would hardly think there was anything out of the ordinary." Misty half-muttered.
"I still just don't understand why though. Why become a trainer at all?" Karen remained on the issue.
Ash was a little bit annoyed by this question. "Why did you? I wanted to be a trainer and explore and make friends. I don't see why it's okay for you to do it but not for me."
The older trainer looked like she was biting her own tongue as she mulled it over. "Fine, I'm not going to stay hung up on this. I doubt repeating the same questions will help."
"Maybe ask some better questions then?" Once again Misty cut in. She seemed a bit more adversarial towards Karen than she'd been in the past.
Ash wasn't the only one who had noticed and Karen's attention zeroed in on the other girl. "Alright, here's a different question, how did you get involved in this?"
"What do you mean by involved?" This question had a bit less bite to it. "You mean going on a journey with Ash? He's my friend, and it's been an interesting trip. I've learned a lot, met some new people, even caught Squirtle."
The blue-haired teenager reconsidered her wording. "I guess 'involved' has some weird connotations, fine then, how did you two meet?"
"Not that different from how I met you actually," Ash claimed, he'd said as much to Professor Oak during the call.
"I don't remember too much of what happened. I was half drowned and badly injured." Pikachu pointed out as he tried to recall the events.
"It was definitely different!" Misty claimed. "I didn't spend a day stalking you. I saw a Floatzel and an injured Pikachu come out of the water. I was going to catch Floatzel and then take Pikachu to a Pokemon center! It was a spur-of-the-moment decision."
"Wait so you tried catching him too?" Karen's tone was offended. "And you keep making jabs at me for it?"
"I haven't made too many jabs," Misty grumbled. "But yeah, after the illusion broke he started yelling at me for trying to catch him when he was helping his friend. I think I took meeting a talking Pokemon pretty well all things considered."
"There was a lot of other stuff going on," Ash remembered. "Like the Spearow flock and the thunderstorm and that weird Pokemon we saw."
"Oh right, that one." She nodded. "Somehow it completely slipped my mind. Probably because as soon as we got to the Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy took me to get my leg stitched up, and then those Team Rocket weirdos attacked."
Karen was a little quiet as she confirmed, "..and this all happened in one day?"
"I guess?" Ash admitted. "Although most of it happened in the span of, four hours? Maybe five?"
There was no response from their new traveling companion, although Ash thought he heard her mutter something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "What have I gotten myself into?"
They lapsed into a brief silence after that. After a few minutes, Selene spoke up. "Come to think of it, we do get into quite a few interesting events. I mean, we usually insert ourselves into them, but sometimes we fall into them. Like with the Squirtle Squad."
"Or we just run into things. Like that… Dragon." Pidgeotto seemed a bit reluctant to elaborate.
"Really? It seems fairly quiet to me overall." Eevee claimed.
Pikachu chuckled. "That's because you just joined. Trust me, things will start getting weird before we get to the next city, mark my words. Maybe not world-shattering weird, but something will happen."
"You seem awfully sure of that," Eevee noted.
"I have known Ash for nearly my entire life, and most of his. If there is one thing I have learned he is confusing, and confusing things happen around him." Pikachu explained.
"It's kind of my job to be confusing," Ash reminded him. "If I wasn't then what kind of illusionist would I be?"
"A bad one?" Sunny asked.
"Exactly." Ash nodded, giving Eevee a bit of a shake. She managed to hold her footing though.
"Huh." Karen hummed mostly to herself. "He does just have conversations with them."
"Another thing you get used to," Misty told her. "If anything I'm kind of grateful for it. It kind of made me rethink how I interacted with my team. I talk to them more, let them out of their balls more." She nodded at Squirtle and Staryu, the two who preferred traveling by foot. "I think it's been a good experience overall."
"Neat." Was her elegant reply. "I guess it didn't come up before but you're both doing the gym challenge right?"
"Ash is, I'm not," Misty admitted, seeing no reason to hide it.
"Any reason why not?" Karen asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I don't think Gym Leaders are allowed to take the challenge." The words leaving her mouth did make her stop and think though. "Maybe, I'm not sure. That's another thing traveling with Ash does to you, it makes you question things you never thought about before."
Her words seemed to make Karen look at her in a new light. "You're a gym leader? What gym?"
"Cerulean. My sisters are too, and hopefully doing a better job of it than when I left." She growled, already imagining the worst-case scenario. That being, the gym demolished and replaced with a water circus that banned battling.
"Explains the water-types I guess. I can't say I've heard good things about that gym recently."
"I feel like I'm the only one of my sisters who actually cares about battling, they're more interested in performing and showing off." Misty complained. "But what about you, you were going to go to Unova so you're not doing the challenge are you?"
"I'm taking a break season," Karen admitted. "Training up my team, getting stronger, that way the next league I'm in I can dominate and crush them all into the dust." A fire lit in her eye, similar to when she had been detailing her ideas for illusions the other day.
The rest of the day's travel continued much in this same vein, the trainers generally getting to know each other. Karen didn't even bring up trying to capture Ash again! Progress!
A little while after the sun dipped below the horizon they set up camp. With Sunny's help, Misty and Pikachu started putting together a proper dinner, the first time they'd had one while on the road.
Misty had less work to do than Pikachu in this case since she was making food for herself and Karen. She did end up giving him a bit of help though, just to speed things along so the Pokemon wouldn't be left to wait.
After a proper meal was in their bellies, they briefly discussed what the plan for the next day was.
"We don't normally train in the morning," Ash told Karen. "But we do when we stop for lunch and when we set up camp for the night. We normally do that a bit earlier than we did tonight so we have some daylight left."
"I prefer early morning and late night training myself." The older trainer explained. "But I'll try my best to accommodate this time. But to be clear, if I'm training you, I'm the drill master, got it?"
"That's how training works." Ash agreed. "Oh, I'll get to meet your other Pokemon too! That'll be cool! I don't meet many other dark-types." He'd only met Absol so far, and he'd seen her with Umbreon at the Pokemon Center. He wondered who else she had with her.
"Not ruin the mood but what about us?" Pidgeotto asked somewhat pointedly. "If you're training with her, what do we do?"
That was a good point that Ash had not thought of. Whoops.
No time like the present to come up with a plan. "I guess I could plan out the training as we walk and explain it to you so that everyone will know what they're working on. The downside there is I wouldn't be able to do any oversight or help if you need it…"
"I can help out a little bit," Misty added. "But you are going to need to find a way to split your time Ash."
"You're right." Ash waved her off. "I know you are, I just need to think of something. I want to train too but I shouldn't leave you guys to do it."
"I don't mind you doing some extra training." Pikachu brought up. "You could use it, like I said you've been going soft. It might be better for us in the long run if you're stronger too."
"What about the short term though? We are traveling to another gym and we should do some training before we get there." Eevee thought out loud.
Selene chimed in. "I say we sleep on it, it's late and we have a plan for tomorrow at least. We can figure something out."
"I'll think of something, I promise. " Ash told them, feeling guilty. He'd been so wrapped up in his excitement he hadn't even considered them. He made a second, private promise to himself to always think of his team when he made decisions.
He'd been pretty good about it in the past but this was one that while it mostly affected him, he hadn't even considered the repercussions on his friends
"Don't be hard on yourself." Pidgeotto pecked lightly at him, just enough to break his illusion, his hat tilting over his eyes with the sudden shape change. "I can see those gears turning in that head of yours."
"I should have thought of it though." Ash protested.
"Well, you're thinking of it now." Pikachu told him. "You'll figure it out, and it will probably be ridiculous but also effective."
There were other travelers on the road between Saffron and Vermillion City, and not all of them were of virtuous standing.
Some of the people here were fiendish and cruel, filled with a desire to ruin lives for naught but their own amusement and self-benefit. These so-called 'people' were the shame of all who tried to do good in the world, and brought misery wherever they went.
And then there was Team Rocket.
Things hadn't been going great for them since the whole incident with the Squirtle Squad. They had been stealthily avoiding towns and settlements, trying to hide from the police or secret agents that they were sure were after them
This meant they were rather low on resources though.
"Down ta our last piece a' granola." Meowth bemoaned as he stared at the bar forlornly.
"We can split it into three?" James suggested.
"Don't be foolish," Jessie told him. "Everyone knows that thirds are impossibilities, you can't divide a hundred by three."
"Well, whadda we do then?" Meowth asked her.
The three sat in their balloon's basket, their mobile fortress hidden in a forest clearing surrounded by tall trees. It was a nice enough place if a bit exposed to the elements.
We should divide it based on who needs it the most, obviously, I get the largest piece."
"Now hold on a second, why do you get the largest piece of food?" James demanded.
"Yeah!" Meowth agreed and glared at her.
Jessie scowled at him. "Don't you two know how to treat a lady?"
"Of course we do, if ya see one let us know."
"How dare you!" Jessie growled. "I am the very epitome of femininity!"
James had a moment of genius. "Yes, you are! Which is why your figure is so trim and elegant, clearly it would be wrong of us to try and ruin the appearance you must have worked so hard for!"
Jessie basked in the praise for a moment before seeing through his ruse. "Nice try buckaroo, but no amount of compliments are going to trick me!"
"Well, there's no way I'm gonna give this ta you two!" Meowth declared. "You's just give me the smallest piece because I'm the shortest! But that ain't happening."
"Give it here you selfish cat!" Jessie tackled the normal-type.
"Bold of you to call anyone selfish!" James tackled his partner and the three began to tussle at the bottom of the basket.
In the commotion, the granola bar was pried from Meowth's paw and flung from the basket, just in time for a passing Rattata to find it. The mouse Pokemon sniffed at the open bar and deciding it was an acceptable meal began chomping it down.
It was about this time that the trio in the basket realized that their object of worship had gone missing. They scrambled up and looked out just in time to see the Rattata chewing up the last few bites.
"No no no!" The Team Rocket members prepared to launch themselves toward the Pokemon but a final gulp from the normal-type spelled their doom.
His adequate meal finished, Rattata continued on his way and the three remaining in the clearing hung their heads and collapsed in defeat.
"No food, no shelta'." Meowth bemoaned their situation.
"Is this it?" Jessie asked. "Is this how it ends?"
James was silent for a moment. "This is Route Six right? Between Saffron and Vermillion."
"Pretty sure." his red-headed companion confirmed.
He sighed, sounding miserable. "I have an idea. There's a house, there shouldn't be anyone there. And I think there's plenty of canned food in the pantry."
The other two shot up like weeds. "How far away?"
"An hour or two maybe, as the balloon flies," James told them.
"Why didn't you mention this before?"
"It's… complicated." He groaned. "I'll explain it later, but let's just go and make sure the place and still standing first."
With some renewed hope and vigor, the trio of miscreant delinquents set off, the goal of food at the forefront of their minds.
Travel the next day had the undercurrent of the upcoming training session. Ash still hadn't quite figured out the best way to get his new training in as well as keep his team trained though. The best idea he had was to split the time he would leave directions so they could train on their own but he would only be involved for some of it.
But for today, it was his turn to do some training. He did give some ideas and directions to his team though. Nothing too extraordinary, mostly just continuing to work on what they had started in Vermillion City. Although he had brought up a concern of his to Pidgeotto.
"Your speed is great and your stamina is keeping up pretty well, but I think you should start working on doing more damage with your hits. It's great if an enemy can't hit you, but if you can't deal enough damage then it turns into a war of attrition. Like with our battle the other day." Ash explained his concerns to her.
"I guess that makes sense. It seemed to work with you, but I guess other opponents might be able to take hits better." Pidgeotto commented.
"I mostly figured the best I was going to do in that battle was a tie, so I decided to call it rather than exhaust the both of us for a foregone conclusion. The only way I think I could have one is if I got a lucky hit and that seemed unlikely." Ash elaborated on his thought process. "But if you were hitting me harder, then it would have been a different scenario, you still would have won but it would have been faster and more secure."
"Makes sense." The flying-type accepted his words. "I guess I'll be hitting some trees and rocks again. My poor wings…"
"Mix it up a bit, and work on multiple attacks and styles of damage. The more options you have in a battle the better after all."
There was a similar routine with all of his Pokemon, talking about concerns and what he thought they should work on. If they had an idea of their own he listened of course. But by the time they had stopped for lunch everyone had a plan, and Ash was eager to get his own training started.
He practically bounced around Karen, having dropped his disguise (as well as his hat and bag). "I'm ready! I'm ready!"
She shook her head at him, somewhat bemused. "How are you this positive and excited? You call yourself a dark-type?" Her tone was light despite her disparaging words.
"Easy to forget sometimes," Misty added in as she prepared her team to start their training. "He's pretty bubbly for the most part."
"Alright, let's get started." Karen declared and started sending out her Pokemon.
There were the two Ash already knew about, Absol and Umbreon. Alongside them were three other dark-types and another Pokemon.
The first of the dark-types was a Sneasel, who immediately started stretching upon being let out of their ball. Once finished they gave Ash a once over and apparently decided they were unimpressed, because they stopped paying him any attention after that.
The next was a Murkrow, who flapped into the air immediately upon being released. They flew a few circles to stretch their wings before landing on Karen's shoulder. It was nice to know he wasn't the only one who acted as a perch for his flying-type.
The last of the dark-types was a bit more exciting (for Ash at least). A Houndour emerged from the Pokeball and immediately barked out "Freedom!" and began running in circles. After running around the area for a solid thirty seconds she bounded over to Ash and practically tackled him.
"Hi there!" She yapped at him. "You look fuzzy! Are you new? You're a dark-type too? Are you a fire-type too? You smell interesting! Do you want to be friends? You…daaaah," She stumbled over her words as she seemed to run out of thoughts. "Hi there!" She repeated.
This was the kind of energy that Ash could match. He leaped back to his feet! "I'd love to be friends! I'm a dark-type, not a fire-type though, I just have some red on my fur, which I have been told is fuzzy."
"Yay!" Houndour leaned back and tilted her head at him. "What now? Is it training time or playing time?"
"Training time," Ash told her and took stock of Karen's final teammate.
While not a dark-type Pokemon they certainly fit the aesthetic. The final member was a Gloom, who when released had sat down and not moved an inch. How very stereotypically gloomy.
"Let's get started, Umbreon, I'm going to need your help for him," She pointed at Ash, "Gloom, keep it up on your Powders, Houndour, Flamethrower, and Dark Pulse while running. Absol, Murkrow, Sneasel, same training as last time."
The team stood at attention and then got to work. Houndour bolted off, a trail of fire burning from her slobbering jaws. Gloom, rather than walk off, just flopped onto their back and rolled away some distance. Ash saw the air around the grass-type start shimmering with particles.
He didn't get much of a chance to see what Absol and the other two were up to though, as he was quickly confronted by Umbreon.
"So you're the new meat then?" his voice was scornful. "Or not I hear. Decided you were too good for our team then? Decided to run around with your band of 'friends.'" He was definitely trying to get a rise out of Ash but he was mostly correct.
"I mean I don't think I'm too good for your team, it's just I have my own team and my own trainer. So I don't really want a new one, but Karen seems cool and she had some neat ideas for illusions too. Oh, I'm Ash by the way." He introduced himself, it would have been rude not to.
Umbreon stared at him with a bewildered look and glanced at his trainer. "Are you sure this is a dark-type?"
Karen may not have understood her Pokemon but she got the general vibe, considering she'd been experiencing it for the past few days since she met him. "He's a weird one but let's get this started. I need you two to have a quick mock battle, just a few moves back and forth, I need to get a feel for what you're capable of." She directed this last part at Ash.
The two squared up. "Time to show you what the winning team looks like."
"The winning team?" Ash played into the naivety just a little bit. "Where?"
"...I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should." The other Pokemon used Snarl and leaped at him.
Ash, not quite expecting the immediate start took the Snarl full force but had enough sense left afterward to roll out of the way of the leap. Immediately he got back up and began his assault. He fired a Dark Pulse directly into Umbreon's side and knocked him over.
"You couldn't hit the broadside of a Snorlax." Ash Taunted the other Pokemon.
"Cheeky little…" Umbreon muttered and unleashed a hail of stars at him.
Recognizing Swift and realizing he had no chance to dodge it, Ash had less than a second to weigh his options. So instead he did something that Pikachu would call him stupid for.
He ran into the attack and straight at Umbreon. His opponent seemed taken aback by the radical tactic and froze up for half a second, just long enough for Ash to hit with an attack of his own.
Digging into the negativity he felt the night before, he fired off a Night Daze, the wave of shadow spreading around him and hitting Umbreon point blank, forcing the other Pokemon to ride the waves of the attack.
Unfortunately, since Umbreon was a dark-type as well, so the damage wasn't as total as it would have been otherwise. As the other Pokemon pulled himself to his feet though, his trainer cut in.
"That's enough." She surveyed the two of them and sighed. "I can't say I'm impressed but I also can't bring myself to be disappointed. Umbreon, why would you open with Snarl instead of something like Sand-attack or Confuse Ray?"
"I wanted to hit him," Umbreon claimed with no shame. Rude.
"This shouldn't be something I need to remind you of." Karen declared, not understanding the desire of her Pokemon in this case. "As for you," her focus switched. "I have a few questions. And… wow it is actually really helpful I can understand you."
"I know right?" Ash agreed. "One of the reasons I put so much effort into learning how to talk was just how helpful it was. But what are you wondering?"
"First off, why didn't you use your illusions in the battle?" Karen was upfront about the thing that had made her focus on his species in the first place.
"I didn't see how it would have helped?" Ash admitted. "It can be a useful surprise but they're fragile. Umbreon already knew what we were doing before we started so it wouldn't have helped if I transformed into someone else to trick him. And using it while attacking could have confused him I didn't get a chance to."
"Why didn't you make an illusion of yourself to make it look like you were in multiple places?" Karen asked. "I'm not sure it would have tricked the Swift but it might have. Or you could have used it to make Umbreon think you were somewhere else or maybe not even see you."
Ash tilted his head and stared at her. Then his eyes went wide. "Uhh, hang on let me try something."
He concentrated on that weird little switch at the back of his mind. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. He pictured the grassy spot right next to him. He poked at the weird switch and whacked it a couple of times with a mental wrench. Maybe if he…
With a gasp, he felt his strength leave him. Not to the point of exhaustion, but it was more intensive than his illusions usually were. Next to him, right where he had envisioned, for a brief moment, appeared an identical illusion of him. It didn't move, it remained completely static, not even breathing.
Ash stared at it and did a quick circle around it. He'd never had to create an illusion of himself before so he wanted to make sure it didn't have any holes. The not moving thing was a little uncanny though.
The drain on his stamina continued though and once Ash finished inspecting his double for flaws he let it vanish.
"I didn't know I could do that." He commented. "Never tried before either."
The Zorua looked up at Karen, "This training to going great! I'm learning a lot!"
"How did you not-" The human trainer stopped herself. She took a deep breath and counted to five. "Okay, second question, why did you only use dark-type moves? They're not very effective."
"I know," Ash admitted, somewhat reluctantly. "But they are my strongest, I figured that they would still do more damage than any of my other attacks."
"Do you actually know any moves other than dark-type attacks?"
Ash shifted his paws under him, feeling a bit reluctant to answer. "I know Scratch, Leer, Fury Swipes, and Scary Face." He admitted.
The teenager stared at him before sighing. "Give me a second, I need to think." She started pacing.
Umbreon stalked back up to him and inspected him more closely. Ash prepared himself for more mocking.
Instead, he got an honest question. "How did you do that?"
"Do what?" He asked, genuinely confused. "The illusion?"
"Not the illusion, I don't care about that." Umbreon rejected. "No, the attacks. How did you manage to use those attacks when you're so… this." he gestured at Ash with a paw.
"I don't understand," Ash admitted. "I just… attacked?"
"No, no." Umbreon shook his head. "Dark-type attacks are… different. Every typing has its own intricacies, psychic needs mental fortitude, steel needs physical fortitude, normal is just hitting the other Pokemon normally."
"But using dark-type moves means drawing on negative emotions and thoughts. How can you be so blasted cheerful all the time, yet still able to use those moves." The moonlight Pokemon demanded.
"Oh!" The tricky fox nodded as he understood. "Well that's easy, I just don't think about that stuff unless I need to. I mean, like with Night Daze there, I just thought about last night and how I felt like I was letting my team down. Or I could think about being cold and alone when I was little, or that time Pikachu and I fought."
"So you do feel negative emotions." Umbreon seemed almost relieved. "I was starting to wonder if you were even real."
"Of course, I feel negative emotions!" Ash was a bit confused about how that was even a question. "I just don't want to let them rule my life. I mean bad things happen, I've seen them happen and I hate it. But there's plenty of good still, and I like that more than I like being miserable."
As the other Pokemon finished digesting this information Karen seemed to have finished planning.
"Here's what we're going to do." She started. "You need more moves, this is non-negotiable. The illusions may be the goal here but I refuse to let any Pokemon of mine run around with a barely functioning arsenal."
"I'm not your Pokemon." Ash reminded her with lidded eyes.
"Not the point." Karen continued. "What we're going to do is I'm going to start working with you on some new moves. As we're doing that, I want you to try and maintain that duplicate illusion of yours. If you can both attack and maintain that then it has incredible battling potential."
"It's a little draining," Ash admitted. "But that's a really good idea, let's get started!"
"Right then, Umbreon, go and check in on Absol and the others, get Sneasel working on her ice moves and have Absol work on Megahorn some more." Karen directed her starter who trotted off at her directions.
"As for what moves to work on, I'd say fighting is a good start since it will give you an edge against other dark-types. What do you know about Revenge?"
By the end of the training session Ash was exhausted, but motivated. He hadn't quite finished learning Revenge but he had managed to maintain the duplicate illusion for a few hours. Hopefully, he'd have the new move down with another day or two.
Due to his current level of energy, he was in his real form instead of in his human illusion. This meant his team was unable to use him as a convenient form of transportation for the moment.
"It's funny, I feel so much lighter even after training all day," Ash mentioned a tad passive-aggressively. "I wonder why that is."
"Can't you feel the weight of your sins on your back?" Pidgeotto teased him.
"Don't talk about Sunny that way!" Selene gasped, although it was hard to tell if she was serious or not.
When they stopped again that evening Ash had regained some of his energy and went through things with his team. Seeing how their training was going. As he did so, he would make his duplicate, and try and have it mimic his actions.
He had the breathing down but making sure the fur acted like actual fur was a bit hard. He was making progress though. He knew how to do it already it was just applying it differently.
"That's a little trippy," Pikachu told him as he saw the new manifestation of his ability.
"Can you do me?" Sunny asked him as he looked between his trainer and his double.
"Not right now, I'm still practicing with it," Ash told the fire-type. "Once I manage to get it down perfectly I'll start moving on to you guys though."
"Wouldn't it be better to branch out while practicing?" Eevee asked him.
Pikachu answered for him. "No, I remember this. When he was still learning all his illusions he would normally focus on one at a time until he got it down perfectly. He said it was because if he did everything he wanted to with it he'd never accomplish anything."
"There's a lot I want to do, but I can't do everything at once," Ash complained.
His friends had made a fair bit of progress on their training, Ash was happy to see. It seemed that splitting the day had worked. There was a niggling worry in the back of his mind that if someone was doing something wrong they would waste a whole day training before he was able to correct it though.
But that was a worry for another time, and saying it out loud felt almost like prophesizing its eventual occurrence.
An idea did come to him for how to better work out the training issue though.
"We can work on Revenge until I have it down." He suggested to Karen, "And then I can take a few days to work with my team, but you can give me something to work on while I do. That way I'll still be progressing just a bit slower."
Karen grumbled a bit but accepted the compromise. She was still learning a lot about Zorua's in general. She doubted that she would find another like Ash though. Maybe she could still convince him, she had plenty of time before they made it to Celadon City.
The next two days continued in this vein, Ash would train with Karen during the day, and check in with his team at night, broken up by chunks of travel.
A side effect of his training meant he was staying in his true form more. He appreciated this, he had been getting used to Human Ash, but he missed being himself. Also, it was nice to not be used as a living bus.
On the third day however Sunny brought up something that everyone else had somehow missed.
"Uhh, where's the road?" The Charmander was scanning the ground around them.
Ash halted and stared at his friend with growing horror. "When was the last time anyone saw the road?"
"The road? Aren't we…" Misty trailed off as she realized the dirt 'path' they had been walking on, was hardly manmade and more likely just a trail left by a large Pokemon or a group of passing Diglett. "Oh not again!"
"Were we on it yesterday?" Selene asked as the group realized they were quite possibly lost again.
"Nobody panic," Karen ordered, apparently deciding to take charge. "We can retrace our steps."
"Can we?" Misty asked her. "We were curving around hills for a little while there, I didn't think about it though. Ugh, and after we took the wrong road last time. I do not want to end up in Pewter City while trying to get to Saffron."
"I have an idea. Pidgeotto, could you fly up and see if you can spot the road or something that looks like the road at least?" Ash asked her.
"Can Pikachu shock ground-types?" She asked rhetorically and took off.
"No…?" Eevee's confusion at the question was evident.
"What?" Ash did a double take. "Oh no, he absolutely can. They just have to be wet first."
Eevee stared at her trainer and then at his starter. "How?"
"I don't know." Pikachu told her.
The normal-type spluttered at him and failed to form a coherent sentence before Pidgeotto came back down.
"I did not see the road. I did, however, see a rooftop, maybe a couple of minutes that way." She gestured with her wing.
"Oh good!" Ash was filled with relief. "If there's a house then the road can't be too far, either way, we can ask them for directions too!"
"A house?" Karen asked, left out of the loop a bit.
"Pidgeotto didn't see the road but saw a house nearby." Misty explained, "context clues."
The older girl shot a glare at the younger but no barbs were exchanged. The group carefully made their way towards the house, leaving marks on stones and trees as they passed to make sure they knew the direction they had come.
Their destination was a large house, perhaps not quite mansion sized but still very large. It definitely came from money of some sort. Crenelations and large windows dotted its facade.
Unfortunately, the house left a lot to be desired in other aspects. Despite its size, it looked run down and uncared for. Shutters hung off their hinges and the hedges were overgrown.
"Doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while…" Misty noted as they approached the door.
"Maybe they just stopped being able to afford gardeners?" Ash tried to look on the bright side.
"And repairmen?" Karen added, looking up at the overhang's rafters that seemed as though they might collapse at any moment.
"What's the harm in knocking?" Ash suggested, still in his true form and thus without hands.
Misty sighed, "Fine, you're right about that I suppose." The door looked like it had once had a knocker but the torc had fallen off so she instead rapped her knuckles against the wooden surface three times.
For a moment nothing happened but just as Misty was about to give up and suggest they look around for a path back to the real road there was a lick at the door handle. Slowly, with a very deliberate creak, the door swung open into a dark void.
"That's ominous," Selene noted cheerfully. "I wonder if we'll meet any ghosts."
"Ghost-types probably." Eevee agreed.
Ash braved the door first, he didn't have much to fear from ghosts after all. They couldn't even hurt him. Inside he looked around at the threshold. A large staircase led the way to the second floor, and a great chandelier hung in the center of the room, reflecting light from a large window.
"I know it's unlikely there are any humans here, but just in case…" Ash switched from the language of humans to his Zorua speech. "Hello?" He called out, half expecting a Gastly or Haunter to appear.
His companions gained a bit of bravery now that Ash had taken the lead into the house. "Anyone here?" Misty called herself. "We just need some directions to the road."
"I've seen setups like this before," Karen claimed. "Probably some ghost-types who have set up a play house. They're gonna jump out and scare us any minute now, we run out screaming, they get their kicks, rinse and repeat."
The door slammed behind them making the group jump.
"That normally doesn't happen." The most experienced trainer admitted. "Unless…" She paled.
Before she could say anything else, the curtains closed over all the windows with the jingling of rings and the rustling of fabric. For a moment the only light in the room was Sunny's tail flame, flickering in the dark.
"This doesn't seem good," Squirtle added, he definitely was not hiding behind Misty's legs.
"Fear not my compatriot. With the power of friendship and the ocean on our side, no foul spirit shall lay us low." Staryu tried to calm his teammate.
"Thanks for the pep talk Staryu but we should probably just try and- AIIIIIIIIIII!" The gym leader's words were cut off by a shrill shriek as the floor opened up beneath her and her Pokemon and they fell through.
The others barely had time to react as they experience a similar fall. Trapdoors had opened up beneath them and they fell in groups. Ash, Sunny, and Selene all tumbled together, and Pikachu and Eevee fell separate from them. Karen was left on her own but she had all her Pokeballs with her.
The only survivor of this was Pidgeotto who had flapped into the air on instinct as soon as Misty had screamed. With Sunny gone the room was filled with darkness and she was left blind and alone.
She fluttered her way back to the floor carefully, willing her eyes to adjust to the gloom. She scratched at it with her talons and gave it a testing Peck to see if it would give way. There was no reaction, however.
In a moment of painful self-awareness, she groaned and heaved a sigh. "I'm about to have another traumatizing experience aren't I?"
Somewhere below, a Zorua, a Charmander, and a Clefairy crashed into a pile of boxes.
"Nice of them to leave these here to break our fall," Selene commented as she pushed herself up.
Ash sniffed at the stone floor. "Better than hitting the ground I guess, are you two okay?"
Sunny was hyperventilating but was slowly breathing more deeply. "I'm not hurt I think. I am however terrified."
The Zorua moved to comfort his friend. "Hey, don't worry, we'll be okay, I promise. It's just some ghost-types trying to mess with us."
The fire-type was unconvinced though. He shook his head. "Karen said that but then she seemed like she realized something. What if it's something else? What if they're vengeful spirits like the Ghost Trainer?!"
Something between a sigh and a chuckle left Ash's lips. "Sunny, I'm the 'Ghost Trainer,' remember?"
"Oh." His friend blinked and let out an embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry, that fall really threw me off."
"It's fine," Ash told him.
As her trainer comforted their teammate, Selene had taken the time to inspect the room they were in. Apart from the boxes at the end of the chute, they'd tumbled down the room was empty. The walls were made of stone bricks and the floor was tiled. There was however a door.
"This is weird." She claimed, and bounced back over to the boxes, looking through them. Most of them were empty, full of nothing but air. At the bottom of one, however, was a single newspaper clipping.
She squinted at it for a moment. Then she sighed. "Nope still can't read." Without another word she passed it off to Sunny who held it up for Ash, carefully using his tail as a reading light for the other Pokemon.
Ash squinted at the faded text. "Local Cult Vanishes." He read the headline. "'After a police raid on the cults' headquarters in the forests of Route Six, the members of the Cult of Dying Light have seemingly disappeared. Even members who were in custody at the time. After carrying out numerous acts of-'" He cut off in frustration as the text ran out.
"That's it, this is only some of the story." He explained to his friends.
Sunny's fear only seemed to increase but Selene took it in stride. "Haunted house and a mysterious cult? This seems right up our alley, what's the plan?"
Unable to disagree Ash thought for a moment. "Alright, the first thing to do is find the others. Misty fell with her team but I'm not sure about everyone else. Our best bet will probably be to just start looking around."
"Well, there's the door." Selene looked at the plain wooden structure. She walked over to it and jumped towards the handle. Grasping hold of it, she let her weight twist it. The fairy Pokemon then proceeded to kick off the doorframe and pull it open.
"I could have just transformed you know," Ash told her as she dropped back to the ground and they carefully moved out of the room.
"My way was more fun though." She told him with a wink.
Looking left to right they found themselves in an empty corridor. It had the same materials as the room they had started in and no notable features or markings.
"Left or right?" Sunny asked, squinting in either direction.
"Right is usually right," Selene suggested, and with no reason to disagree the trio started in that direction.
Quickly they came to a fork in the path. Once again, they chose right and continued. Again another fork, right again. After two more forks, Ash came to a painful realization.
"Oh noooo." He groaned. "This is a maze isn't it?"
"Like the Meditation Tunnels back home?" Selene asked, she got a confused glance from both her companions. "It's a maze of caverns that Clefable will wander into blindfolded to meditate in. They say that faith will lead them along a trail of moonlight to the exit."
"I don't think moonlight will be much use here." Ash worried and paced. "Okay, I remember reading somewhere the key to getting out of a maze is to keep one hand on the left wall. Never removing it until you're out."
"How does that work?" Sunny asked him.
"Think about it, the wall of a maze is mostly one structure. If you keep your hand on the same side, eventually you'll find your way out. You may have to do some backtracking but it'll lead you out." Ash explained.
"We also need to find the others though." Sunny pointed out. "How do we do that?"
That was the hard part. "I don't know," Ash admitted. "Mazes are tricky I wish we had a way to mark our steps or leave a trail for the others to follow."
"Phooey." Selene summed up and crossed her arms with a huff. "When we find the ghosts who set this up I'm going to give them a piece of my mind."
"Hmmm." Ash hummed and stared at the stone floor. An idea formed in his mind. With a yell, he kicked the floor with both forepaws. His two friends jumped back at the sudden act of violence.
Despite this, he was pleased with the result, clearly indented into the ground using the fighting-type power of Revenge were a pair of two Zorua paws.
"If anyone sees this they'll know which way we are headed. It's better than nothing, hopefully, we'll find the others down here though," Ash told the others his thought process.
They set off, following the left wall this time, after another fork or two a thought occurred to Selene and she voiced it. "Could you use Revenge to kick down the walls?" She asked Ash.
He paused. "Maybe, I didn't think of that. It's worth a try at least." They stepped away from the wall and Ash walked up, trying to see if there were any weak points or cracks he could take advantage of. Revenge was decently powerful but it worked better in battle after taking a hit, so if he had an advantage he should make use of it.
With another yell, he kicked the wall. Cracks formed and another indent was left but it remained standing. Narrowing his eyes, he repeated this. Again and again, slammed into the wall, it was thick that was for sure.
"I think I hear something on the other side!" Selene told him as she pressed against the wall while he took a breather. "It sounds like voices."
"That's all I needed to hear!" Ash told her and feeling more motivated hit the wall as hard as he could.
The wall came crumbling down and Ash jumped back to avoid the falling debris. As the dust began to settle a light cut through and nearly blinded the Pokemon who had been so used to the darkness.
"What the-" A familiar voice, which was unfortunately not one he'd wanted to hear, came through the hole in the wall.
Ash blinked and looked to see who was on the other side. Standing there, covered in dust was a trio he'd hoped he'd seen the last of
Team Rocket.
"These three again?!" Selene sounded horrified and angered.
"Meowth explain what I'm looking at here." The red-haired one, Jessie, ordered the only other Pokemon Ash knew to speak the human tongue.
"Well, there's a Charmander." Meowth pointed the light at the fire-type, "A Clefairy." the fairy-type next, "and I dunno this one. Neva saw it before, but it's got black fur. And a hat. And kind of…" Meowth stared at Ash for a moment.
"...looks like a Vulpix." he finished in quiet awe.
"Time to run." Ash decided.
"Yep!" Sunny agreed.
"Make way!" Selene used Defense Curl and took off like a bowling ball, with Ash and Sunny right on her heels.
"GET THAT VULPIX!" The other human of Team Rocket, James if Ash remembered correctly, shouted and they heard pounding feet behind them.
Selene was right, this whole adventure was right up their alley.
Pikachu grumbled as he followed behind Eevee. If she heard him, she didn't seem to care. Or maybe she did and he just couldn't see her reaction because it was too dark.
She had decided that she would get them out of this maze and shot down every idea Pikachu had tried to suggest. Saying they weren't going to work or were too ridiculous and eventually telling him just to stop talking because it was distracting.
Therefore, he was not pleased. In fact, he was a little angry.
"What's your problem anyway." Pikachu finally spoke back up, tired of playing by her rules. "So what if you don't think my ideas were going to work, at least I was trying to come up with suggestions."
"And they were all dumb suggestions. So I ignored them." The other Pokemon shot back at him.
"What was your plan again? Oh right! Wander around until we find someone."
"That was not my plan you- Ugh, why do I bother?" Eevee stopped herself. "It's not my fault you're too dumb to understand simple logic."
"'Logic.'" Pikachu mocked. "What good is logic when it stops things from being interesting."
"It keeps the world spinning that's what it does." The normal-type sounded frustrated. Good. "I don't even know why I bother trying to talk to you."
"I don't know why do you?" Pikachu asked.
"Why-" She stopped and stared at him. Or he thought she did, again it was dark and hard to see. "Because you keep coming up and talking to me! Of course, I'm going to respond."
"So why is it every time you do it's something dismissive or insulting." The electric-type pressed.
The evolution Pokemon huffed, "Like you're one to talk. You insult everyone!"
"It's called banter! I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings when I do it. Can you say the same?" Pikachu prodded.
"Maybe if you didn't keep talking about stupid stuff and instead engaged in some critical thinking skills you would be easier to talk to."
"'That stupid stuff'" Pikachu quoted, "is making conversation, I was trying to get along with you like all of our teammates."
Eevee was quiet for a moment. "I did not realize that was your intention. But my point still stands that it's generally not interesting or important."
"What is interesting or important then?" They started walking again.
"Biology! Facts about the world! Math! Architecture!" She listed, "Plenty of things are but you keep cracking jokes and making up stuff!"
"I have never made up anything in my life," Pikachu claimed
"Never?" Eevee snorted.
"I'm serious I cannot remember the last time I told a lie," Pikachu swore.
"How do I know that wasn't a lie?"
"Because the stuff I tell the truth about sounds more ridiculous than anything I could make up. Ghost Trainer? Weird Rainbow Pokemon? Giant Dragonites?" He recalled some of the events from their journey.
"Haunted Mazes?" Eevee added.
Pikachu looked back and forth down the hall. "Honestly not the biggest fan of this one. I miss being able to see properly."
"There's something relatable at least," Eevee admitted.
After a moment Pikachu asked another question. "How is it you have a problem with me but not Ash? He's like my level of dumb but turned up to eleven."
"He's more interesting than you. With the whole talking thing, the strategic thinking, the illusions. He also knows more about other Pokemon than you. Which is weird considering your Pokemon Supremacy thing." She explained.
"What Pokemon Supremacy thing?"
"You're joking right?" Eevee snorted. "You have brought up how much humans suck compared to Pokemon at least once a day since I've met you."
The electric-type bit the inside of his cheek. "They do though."
"Really? Humans may not have moves but look at what they've done. Technology, buildings, writing. I mean they have their downsides, but so do Pokemon."
"I'm not talking about this with you." Pikachu snapped a bit harsher than he meant to.
"I just don't get it is all." Eevee was nonplussed by his tone.
Pikachu glared blindly, "You said it yourself you barely even tolerate me, I'm not telling you a thing."
"Fine." The annoying normal-type seemed to drop the subject.
The damage was done though and it did bring up some unpleasant memories for Pikachu. He didn't have much memory of his original parents. Just enough to know what happened. It made him angry thinking about it. He tried to think about what happened next and Khangaskan, he missed them.
He knew on some level that not all humans were the same. He knew there were good ones and bad ones and he knew plenty of good ones. It wasn't sensible to blame them all but a part of him didn't care.
It still made it hard to rationalize liking the ones he did though. Like Delia, Misty, and even Professor Oak.
He hated getting introspective. It always made him think about things.
Thankfully distraction was not too far away. Sounds of movement came echoing up the corridor from behind them. With the sounds came a faint flickering light, the two Pokemon turned and barely got out of the way as a speeding ball of pink whizzed past them. Coming up behind was the source of the light and some familiar faces.
"Ash!" Pikachu was relieved to see his best friend.
"No time! Team Rocket! They think I'm a Vulpix!" The Zorua called as they raced by and Pikachu and Eevee quickly joined in alongside Sunny.
"Wait why are we running? Can't we beat them?" Pikachu asked.
"I mean we could but I'd rather keep them from getting too good a look at me!" Ash told him, "They already saw the hat, I'd rather they not make the rest of the connection.
The chase continued, and now that he was listening for it, Pikachu could hear the sounds of another group behind them. A thud from ahead however was somewhat problematic.
"Uh, guys." Selene called as they caught up, "There's a dead end."
A solid wall with no fork blocked their path Ash stared at it and looked behind them. Team Rocket was not in sight yet and another idea struck him. He looked at Pikachu. "Use Quick Attack on me!"
Pikachu was of two minds, on the one hand, this seemed like a bad time to attack his friend. On the other hand, was he really going to pass up this opportunity?
He blurred and crashed into Ash, his friend stumbling under the attack. He was not quite expecting him to suddenly start glowing.
"Here we go!" He crashed into the wall head-first. It shattered under the impact.
Ash stumbled back from the wreckage. "Woooo, that was a rush." He sounded a bit hazy but coherent enough.
"That's one way to use your head." Eevee quipped and jumped through the hole. Selene helped right Ash and he followed along.
Through the wall was a room that broke the monotony of the labyrinth. Somewhat. It was large and round. There were faintly glowing crystals lining the wall, and instead of square tiles, the ones on the ground were triangular.
They were also not alone in the room, inspecting one of the crystals on the other side of the room was another familiar face.
With a shake, Ash managed to clear the lingering fuzz from the full-powered Revenge and following wall smash. "Misty!" He called, happy to find his friend.
"Ash?" She looked over and saw him and his team. She had her own team or, the two she already had out and also Starmie now. Poor Goldeen still needed water. "I was worried we wouldn't be able to find you guys!" She jogged over with her Pokemon.
"It's a whole maze down here!" Ash agreed before recalling the present threat. "Oh and Team Rocket is here!"
"How?" Misty managed to ask before said pursuers came huffing and puffing through the wall.
"Stop!" Jessie gasped out, "To protect the world from devas-" She cut off in a coughing fit.
"And one of the twerps is here too!" James pointed, "And Pikachu, Eevee, Squirtle, Staryu, Starmie…" The blue-haired criminal trailed off and stared behind the group for a moment. "The robed woman is new though."
Robed woman?
Slowly the trainers and Pokemon turned around, standing in the center of the chamber was a woman or at least it looked like one based on the figure and the long blue hair, she was facing away from them though.
"Hello there?" Misty asked slowly. "Who are you?"
The figure turned, but strangely, there was no shuffling or sound, they just spun in a deliberate half-circle until they were facing the group. Smooth and elegant features surveyed them. For a brief second the face seemed to twitch horribly, empty eyes and gaping maw gasping at them. But it was so quick Ash wasn't even sure he saw it.
I
"̵̨̫̤̯̥̟̦̖̱̙͈͂̈́W̴̭̯̲̖͕̠̥̘̗̾̀̄̊̽̏̃̀͋͗̏͘͘͝͝h̶̫̣̱̻͙̖̓̄̊͒̏͐̈́͆͗̉̆̑̕͝…̶̳̘̤̖̈́̂̎̑̃̄ ̵̧̨̢͍͉̯̘̝̩̜̖͙̟̲̲͐̈́̍̈́͌̿̉̅̉̏̋͛͝o̴͇͐̏̅̋͋͒̈́͂͝͠ư̸̧̳̯̗̞͎̖̥̝̌̓̑͐̿̕s̸̳͈̑͊̃̀̾̑̎͗̉͆̿̔͗̆͘…̸̨̧̧̛̖̫̖̜͈̞̬̃̐̐̈̅̿̾͑̒̀͘̚ ̴̮̟̩̮͎̤̘̼̻̍̓̐̀͛͆̌̏̈́͋͠͠Ṇ̸̨̜͈̹̘̄̂͌̓̋̈́̅́̆̊͑̓͜…̴̨̢̭̗̜͓̮̲̤̗̀͂̀̈̀̂̂͜͜͝ ̶̢̖͖̪̤̩̻̬̰͍͚͙̿ą̷̻͖͔̺̺̱͚̻̘̱̙̻̰̓͂͋̈̔͒͊̄̿̑̌̊͒͘͜?̷͖̟̙̰̣͍͓̍͌͘"̸̪̫̙͓̞͖͈̪͖͕̥̠̈́͆̎̈́̈̍̂̓̈́͐͜͠ͅ
x
The words rang and echoed. They didn't come from the woman, she hadn't even moved her lips, instead, they seemed to come from the corridors and tunnels around them.
"Did anyone get any of that?" James asked, rubbing his ears in an effort to clear the blockage.
Ash bit back a response, as bad as it was they had seen him like this hopefully not talking would help keep them from making the connection.
Again the face seemed to twitch, but this time he was sure he watched it twist in impossible directions, apparently detaching from the neck. The empty eyes stared at him again, next to him Sunny was shaking and he took a step forward so he was standing between his team and… that.
v
Y̶͚̯͈͉̥̙͍̮̾̀̽̂͋̊̈́̃̀̑…̸̡̧̨͇̱͙̪̞̪̦͖̈̅͋͑̿̓͗̿̓͊͊̚̕ͅ ̷̡͓͚̬̗̼͖͓̦͛̃̔̃̽͌̍̆͛̎̚͝ơ̷̧̢͔̱͍̠̩̆̉̄̈̔̉̇̏̈͌͘͜t̵̢̺̣̥̿̿̏̃͐͊͐͘͝͝ͅ…̸̨̨̡̧̪̀̒́͒̄̈̏̊̕͝ ̷̺̲̦̪̳̲̇̓͛̌̀̐͆̿͛l̷̨̧͇̫͎̠̥̟̖͖͔̐̈́̈́̃͊̈́̎̀͜͝l̴̨͙͐̂o̸̗̝̳̦̮̦͈̜͈̺̘̓̾̍̿̓̂̂͛͒̑̂̇ͅ…̵̼̺̳̼̩̘͈̃̇̊̉̉̅́̿ ̴̣̍̽͛ş̶̣̻̯̺̞̜̲̊̃ͅ.̷̧̨̳͈̩̳̯͙͕͋̈́́̌͆̄̈́͆͐͝ ̴̨̧̢̣̠̯̗͌̌̀̓͘ţ̶̢͔̘̯͓̖͉̫͉̟̲̓̃̽̈́̊̍̉̈́͘͘̕…̵̧͚͇̭̓̅͗ ̶̨͓͕̗̯̭̞̳̬̦̻̌͊͌̎̽͘͜b̷͙͕̻̬̖̽̿̅̀͆̽͝…̴͍̝̿͋͑͗̀̉̓̈́͐͛͘͝͝͠͝ ̴͚̬͔̳̆̐͘̚i̷̺̞̺̗̬͙̜̱̦̱̦̊͂̐̒͊̄̈́̒̕̕͘͠n̴̨̼̗̳̩̞̯͕̖̙̼̞̐̉̃̉̍̇́̍̓͊͝.̴̥̤̰̟̲͕͎̇̔́̍͛͝ ̸̛̖̟̼̀̽́͒͂̉͜͜͜͝
T
She seemed to focus on James. "I think she's looking at you," Jessie whispered to him.
The man whimpered and ducked behind his partner. "I'd rather she not! Do something!"
The room shook and the figure opened her mouth. This time they understood the words as they echoed not just from the maze but also from her.
BE GONE.
There was a humming… and then the floor swallowed them up.
Ash gasped as he felt the floor solidify beneath him he looked around in a panic, quickly counting off his team and then Misty's making sure everyone was okay.
"Is anyone hurt?" He asked again going over to everyone as they began righting themselves.
"They better be or else someone's going to regret it." Karen's voice declared.
Now that they had a moment Ash looked around, they were back in the room they started in. The curtains were open again so they had light now. Standing at the base of the stairs was Karen, Umbreon, and Pidgeotto, standing by a nearby wall was Absol, holding a glowing horn up to a pair of Gengar.
"What happened?" Misty asked as she fussed over her own teammates.
"Those two racketeers." Karen jabbed a thumb at the two ghost-types, "and presumably some others I haven't found yet set this place up."
"You mentioned something about fun houses before," Ash remembered blearily, feeling a bit out of sorts.
"Kind of but also no." The blue-haired teen corrected. "Ghost-types will usually go one of two routes when setting up shop in an abandoned house like this. Either they will set up a 'fun house' the primary goal being to lure in humans and Pokemon, give them a scare, and send them on their way."
She glared at the two Gengar. "The other route is a 'trap house.' Instead of a quick prank, they keep you here, using you for entertainment until they get bored."
"We weren't going to keep you too long!" One of them protested. "Just a few days! Honest!" He gulped as Absol leaned in with her horn.
"Quiet you," Absol growled at him.
"I had Absol and Umbreon bash down a few walls until we were out of the maze. Then we went sleuthing for the ghosts responsible. Pidgeotto found them first actually, she was slamming Steel Wings into them when we found her." Karen finished a bit fondly.
"I am tired of being traumatized by our adventures thank you very much." Pidgeotto huffed. "If I get a chance to fight back I will."
"So this whole thing, was just a prank from some Gengar? What about the thing with the newspaper clipping? How'd we get back here so fast? And what happened to Team Rocket?" Ash asked.
"Who?" Karen asked but one of Gengar (the one who did not have Absol's horn in their face) answered.
"We're pretty proud of this place! With some work, we managed to figure out how to fold the distortion in certain places for shortcuts! That's how we made the floor disappear and pulled you back here." He explained almost eagerly. Clearly relishing the opportunity to show off.
Absol took a step back to allow them to explain. The one she'd been menacing picked up the slack. "You found one of the newspaper clippings? Awesome! We copied off a bunch of them and left them in a few different places."
"As for the other guys, they came in a few days ago. They were fun for a while but watching them bicker got old. Even after we started leaving them food and water. We dumped them through one of the other distortion holes." The other explained.
"Scary lady only told us to bring you lot back here, so that's what we did." The no longer menaced ghost clarified.
"Speaking of scary ladies what was with that weird robed lady at the end?" Ash shuddered.
"Yeah, I'm not going to be able to sleep for weeks because of her!" Pikachu shook his fist at them.
The Gengar shared a look, "What robed lady?"
"Don't act coy." Eevee demanded. "Look at what she did to poor Sunny." She nodded at the shivering fire-type. "That wasn't fun at all, just loud and scary."
One of the Gengar held up his hands. "Hey if we had done we'd be taking credit, we have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe one of the Gastly set something up?"
"Didn't that Umbreon chase all the Gastly away though?" His partner asked him.
"Oh yeah…" He tapped the place his chin would be. "I've got no idea then."
The maze runners stared at the ghost-types in horrified silence for a moment.
Staryu finally spoke up. "I'm going to spend the next week repressing that memory!" Despite his words, he spoke with his usual heroic tone.
For once, Ash agreed with him.
"Alright, I think it's time to leave." Karen clapped her hands and began shooing the younger trainers and Pokemon out of the house. "Say goodbye to the awful ghost kidnappers."
"Wait, wait!" Ash dodged her shooing. "Do you two know where the road is?"
"The road?" Gengar repeated. "Isn't the main road like an hour that way?" He pointed in the opposite direction they had come.
"Thank you!" Ash turned and bounded out.
"What a nice Vulpix." He heard one of the Gengar mutter as the door to the old house closed behind them.
Elsewhere in the house, a trio of would-be Pokemon Thieves were not lamenting their lost quarry.
Nor were they debating the confusing experience from the labyrinth below.
No, instead they were celebrating. The Gengar, perhaps out of kindness, or perhaps out of sheer dumb luck, had sent them to the one place they had desperately wanted to be.
The pantry.
Meowth gobbled down a can of beans. "I neva knew canned beans could taste so amazin/'" He sighed, tears of joy streaming down his face.
"I don't even care about the Vulpix, just give me some of that dried fruit!" Jessie demanded, gobbling it up.
"I've never been so happy to come from old money before in my life!" James cheered, happy one of his family's old properties was still so well stocked with food. Even if it had been abandoned decades ago because of Great Aunt Lucinda's weird cult thing.
All that mattered was that they were finally starting on the up and up.
Happy ending for everyone!
This was a long chapter, but a fun one overall.
Now for many of you I'm sure it seems like it's been a long time since I've updated this story, but honestly it doesn't feel like that long to me. There is a reason for this.
Since the last update I have slowly but surely been editing and even rewriting some of the earlier chapters and crossposting them to Ao3. That's right this story is now on two websites. Same name and pen name over there by the way.
These edits are also available on this site! Chapters one, two and three are the most heavily edited, one was nearly completely rewritten, two is now the combined version of the old chapters two and three, and chapter three is now a completely new version.
Due to the way fanfiction works though if you are not in my discord you probably weren't notified about those updates, but you have been now so feel free to go and check them out!
Now onto a bit more about this chapter, this could be called a belated Halloween special, what with the haunted house, but it's also my first foray into episodic plots not ripped directly from the show, I think it came out pretty well.
Not sure what else there is to say… Scarlet and Violet are coming out this week, on the 18th no less, happy birthday to me!
Anyway time for reviews!
Phaleon: I actually almost didn't include the fanclub, but honestly I'm really glad I did. I had a lot of fun writing that part.
Deepthoughts42: Very helpful steps!
Pecan Crisp: A joke came up in discord with a similar idea, a Gallade wearing baggy clothes and a hoody. "Yes hello fellow kids. I am a human too."
Paperforbrains: Ditto's name is Mina, as for Ash's illusions hopefully this helped introduce what he can do with them!
Battlesny: The fossil restoration process is really weird and confusing in Pokemon. I does make you wonder if all those fossils were always rock types though.
MyWorld93: that's an interesting idea there…
UU Two: Was not planning on doing Pokemon Tower I'm afraid. Although maybe I'll see about reinterpretting it later down the line
LEGOBRICK13: Karen is getting something out of the deal and so is Ash! Although he did make an oopsie and forgot about his own teams training, he's figured something out though. Pikachu has always been a gremlin and he's perfect for it. Misty did get her bike back at the very end of Johto if I remember correctly (although it wasn't from Ash). I actually forgot there was a trial captain name Mina. Oops.
KiteRider: Not sure you meant to post the review twice but it was an opportunity to solve the bike issue I couldn't pass up!
The one who reads and writes: Sabrina is going to be… interesting. I've been figuring out how that's gonna go for a long time now. I don't want to get too much into it though since next chapter is going to be about that! And I'm glad you liked Chef Pikachu, and ketchup might set him back a few cooking skill levels. As for Mina, that's not his secret to tell.
Pokemonever1994: I guess because usually the bike thing is Misty's whole motivation, she's moved past that here.
Guest: They were tasty moments, *nom nom*
Fanatile8gmail: Who's that trainer? It's a new traveling companion!
Goldboi217: Ah yes Jigglypuff. Also known as trolling incarnate. She'll come around sooner or later
Foxyjosh: I'm glad you think it's interesting!
Hmm Xst: Ash will get his chance to battle for real sooner or later. Selene is a force of nature. Or the moon. Moon nature? I'm glad you enjoy the way I write this story. Ash's evolution (if it happens) is a long way off.
Sonicsonicsonic: I actually dropped a hint or two of that into this chapter!
FrostGlaive: As said before Sabrina is going to be interesting. Karen is a real taskmaster in this story.
That's all for now. As always find the discord at: discord gg kESdTfhAwG
OH MY ARCEUS I ALMOST FORGOT
At0mic on Ao3 drew fanart of this story! It's a little comic of Ash showing Delia he can talk, he's in his human illusion for instead of base form, but as I said I do not care it is cute and I LOVE it. There's also a picture of ZoruAsh himself too! I can't really link it from here but you can find it on ao3 either from my bookmarks, works inspired by this one, or just look up At0mic.
And that's all for now! Until next time folks! Buh-bye!
~FriTik
R&R