A/N:

Thank you keleri, surfingpikachu, Van Skylion, Flyboy, yingyang, and Deceptigirl for reviewing. I really need the feedback, just let me know if I screw up anywhere. Since most of you seemed to like the first chapter, on with the second! I'd really like to finish this, so if I start to slack off please remind me to get my lazy posterior in gear. 

Chapter Two: A Chase and a Friend

The three Team Rocket punks sneered as they walked over to Dylan and Sky. They spread out, apparently getting ready to surround the two.

"Sky!" Dylan said in a low voice.

"What?" said Sky, looking up. He caught sight of the Rockets. "Oh, crap." He unlocked Dylan's bike as well, as the three Rockets drew closer. Dylan sized them up. There were two guys and a girl. One of the guys was pale and thin-faced, with a sneer on his face. The other looked zoned-out and high. The girl had long black hair and several piercings, and she looked out from behind way too much eye shadow.

Dylan and Sky started to wheel their bikes out. "Hey, kiddies, don't go just yet," said the sneering guy. "There's a lotta bad guys out there. We wouldn't want you to get hurt!"

The other guy gave a creepy, high-pitched giggle. "Why don't you go do your homework," Sky said acidly. "We wouldn't want you to fail second grade!" The three punks suddenly got a lot less cheery. They stalked towards the two boys, malice gleaming in their eyes. Sky and Dylan saw the girl reach into her jacket. The three Rockets suddenly sprang at them, but they were ready. The boys pushed their bikes over into the Rockets' path. As the punks tripped over the cycles and went crashing to the ground, Dylan ran, with Sky just behind him.

From behind him, Dylan heard the Rockets yelling and getting to their feet, running after them. They would have to lose these three in the streets. Dylan ducked into an alleyway, and Sky followed. This was a simple deception that they had used many times before when they were playing in Lavender. They rushed out the other end of the alley. The way this trick worked was simple. The pursuer would see you duck into the alley, and when they followed you in and didn't see you, they would decide you had gone out the other end. They would look through the other side, and when they couldn't see you in the street, they went farther down the road to look for you. But where they wouldn't look was up, at the large windows on the tall brick building that made up one side of the alleyway. The window ledges were big enough to stand on, and wide enough for a couple of people to fit in. This particular window was accessible by climbing on top of a nearby dumpster and jumping.

The Rockets entered the alley and went immediately to the other end. For a moment, Dylan thought the trick would work. But a moment later, the glazed eyes of the zoned-out Rocket glanced up and widened. "Hey..." he said, pointing.

The other two looked at them and grinned. Dylan knew what came next. He kicked the window in and they pretended to climb through. The Rockets hurried inside the building, eager to trap Dylan and Sky inside. But the two boys were smarter than that. They pulled their heads out of the window and rushed down the stairs of the fire escape, dangling and dropping the last six feet. Once on the street, Dylan thought back on their route. The way to Lily's house was to the left. "Come on," he said to Sky.

Five minutes later, they turned onto the road leading up to Lily's house. They walked towards her house. As they drew near, Lily stepped out from a doorway right next to them. "Hi!" she said.

Dylan and Sky stared at her. She had beaten them again. All three of them knew that Lily was the best and the games of hiding and searching that they played. She could always find just the place that Dylan wouldn't think to look, or just the spot Sky would hide in.

"So, what are we doing now?" she asked, brushing strands of her light brown hair back from her face. Lily was shorter than Sky and Dylan, with gray eyes and soft features. She was fascinated by mythology; she knew where every god and legend came from. Lily had been Dylan's friend long before they met Sky. The three of them had never really felt like part of the "other people." Their interests and games were regarded as slightly odd by everyone else; not odd enough to make them targets, but enough so that they moved apart from the student body.

"We're going up into the Tower of Grays," said Dylan. Lily gasped, her eyes sparkling.

"Why didn't we think of that before?" she said. "Imagine how many new things we'll find up there!" She snatched up her backpack from the ground next to her and started walking towards the Tower. "Wait!" said Sky.

Lily looked back, puzzled. "What?"

"Well, there's kinda... three angry Rockets back that way," said Sky. "We, um, sort of got carried away." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Well, then I guess we'll just have to go the long way around," she said, turning down a side street. "C'mon!"

The three of them walked through the back streets of Lavender Town. Once, it had been a tiny, scrubby little village. But when the Pokemon trade collapsed, the cities like Celadon and Fuchsia that had depended on the revenue from visiting trainers had evaporated. But Lavender, never dependent on Pokemon trainers and their money, had endured and grown almost big enough to be considered a city.

Sky was one of the many residents of Lavender Town whose family had come from nearby Celadon city when its seemingly bottomless well of money dried up. He had been born in Celadon, but he was only six when his family moved. He had quickly become friends with Lily and Dylan.

Lily's parents had been friends with Dylan's since before they both were born. Lily's mother had met Dylan's in college, and they had lost touch for a while afterwards. But when Dylan's father had gotten a job in Lavender and Anne Imena had discovered Lily's mother living just two blocks away, they both had been delighted. Lily and Dylan had played together as tiny children, and as they grew older their friendship hadn't changed at all.

Now, as Dylan and Lily laughed and joked with each other, Sky thought about how he had come to Lavender Town. He had a few faint memories of Celadon city, a bright, clean, busy place, full of noise and color. Trainers had been sparse even then, but they were not unheard of. Sky still had a vivid memory of watching a battle between the Celadon Gym Leader, Troy, and a challenger from Jhoto. He remembered watching the majestic flaming Pokemon of the trainer sweep through the tangled green shapes that were Troy's Pokemon. He remembered the challenger's cry of triumph as he saw the last Pokemon Troy sent out: a Vileplume. And he remembered the glittering spores that had sent the Quilava to sleep, and the brilliantly colored, whirling petals that whirled around the Vileplume as it slammed into its sleeping enemy.

Sky remembered that day clearly. It was a shining reminder of the old days, when all was right with the world. He was happy to have met Dylan and Lily, and Lavender Town wasn't bad exactly, but he thought of Celadon City with feelings of comfort and security that Lavender Town somehow seemed to lack. And the Pokemon battle he had seen was a happy reminder of better days.

The three drew near to the Tower of Grays. Sky and Dylan checked furtively for the three punks, but they weren't nearby. They walked towards the Tower. Lily grew quiet as they approached. The other two understood: Lily's fascination with religion and myth made her more appreciative of the mystical quality that places like the Tower of Grays. She always grew introspective and thoughtful when she visited the Tower; its symbolism had a deeper meaning for her than for most others.

The three of them entered through the painted doors. Sky and Dylan started towards the stairs, but Lily turned towards the spice room. "What are you doing?" asked Dylan, curious. She turned back to them.

"Well," she said, "I just thought—the whole Tower is a place of worship, not just the first floor. We should bring something up—for respect, you know?"

Dylan shrugged. "Alright." They walked into the room and picked out a few sticks of incense each. Sky laughed when Lily picked the light brown one he had thought smelled disgusting. She asked what was so funny, but he didn't answer, just giggling to himself. Lily rolled her eyes and walked towards the stairway.

The three of them paused a moment at the foot of the stairwell, looking uneasily at the channeler standing next to it. She was dressed in purple and white robes that were covered with arcane sigils. She stood ramrod straight, one arm clutching a censer on a chain that spumed clouds of scented smoke into the air around her. Her eyes were unfocused, and she didn't appear to notice that Dylan, Sky, and Lily were even there. She was chanting in an eerie monotone, her free hand tracing gestures of warding in the air. The upper floors of the Tower were filled with channelers, whose job it was to deter the more dangerous ghost Pokemon from bringing harm to the mourners.

The three teenagers waited for a moment, half-expecting her to forbid them from ascending the stairs. When it became apparent that she wasn't going to even acknowledge their presence, Dylan edged past her nervously, Lily and Sky following.

Dylan shuddered. "Those channelers are creepy as hell."

"They remind me of my sister," muttered Sky. "Except they dress better." Dylan laughed. "Do you think they—well—work?" he asked.

"Work?" said Sky, crinkling his forehead. "If what they do is work, I should get paid for the time I spend in bed."

"No," said Dylan, laughing. "I mean, do you think they really can keep the ghosts away?"

"Who knows?" said Sky. "I can't tell what they're doing even when they're doing it right. How am I supposed to tell whether they're doing it wrong?"

Lily, who had been quiet for a while, spoke up. "What they're doing looks like a combination of every hex sign and good-luck ritual in history. Their rites have everything from a vampire-warding chant to a sign to keep fever away."

Dylan grinned. "Makes sense," he said. "Better safe than sorry."

"Yeah, unless all they end up doing is keeping the vampires from getting fevers," muttered Sky.

The three of them stopped talking and looked up. They had reached the top of the stairs. Ahead of them was the door leading onto the second floor. Slowly, almost reverently, Lily reached out and turned the knob.

The door swung open to reveal a huge, carpeted chamber. There was a gaping hole in the center of the floor through which a riot of colored smoke drifted up towards the next floor. Stone blocks, about the size of a cat, were arrayed in a random pattern across the floor, some piled on top of one another, some in long lines, and some apparently just scattered across the carpet. Lily walked over to take a closer look at one of the blocks. She brushed the dust off and peered at it. "Come here!" she said. "They have writing on them.

Dylan and Sky moved closer, looking at the part of the block that Lily had wiped clean. There was indeed writing on it.

Scott Matley

2005-2057

"Loved in life, remembered in death"

"They're tombstones," whispered Sky.

"Not tombstones," said Lily, her voice also hushed. "Memorials. This whole Tower is full of these stones, given in memory of the dead." The three of them examined the other memorial stones. Some were for people, some for pets, many of the older ones for Pokemon. Judging by the dates on these stones, some of them had been gathering dust for close to two hundred years. These, of course, were the older ones. The upper floors must have been built to make more space for newer blocks.

They had been working their way silently around the room, looking from block to block, when Sky cried out.

"What is it?" said Dylan, straightening up to look over at Sky. Sky was standing bolt upright, eyes wide open, groping around. "What do you mean, what is it? The lights just went out and you ask what is it?" Sky yelled hysterically. He turned sharply and tripped over a block, crashing to the floor. Dylan and Lily rushed over to him, wondering what could have caused Sky to suddenly go blind. As Dylan reached Sky's side, something wispy floated up from Sky's head. At first Dylan thought it was incense smoke, but the cloud hung in the air five feet above Sky, growing thicker and darker by the second. The haze was a deep purple, and just when it looked like it would fade to black, eyes blinked open in the center of it.

In the very center of the cloud, where the shadows were so thick that the smoke was invisible in the darkness, two eyes stared out from above a pair of gleaming fangs. A mouth split open amidst the darkness, with a wide grin spreading across the mostly unseen face of the creature.

Dylan knew what this was. Sky sat up and looked around, confused, but Dylan didn't notice. He was staring at the apparition in front of him, his face pale with fear. He knew what this creature was. Its picture was on all the Pokemon-alert posters that were posted around town. This was a wild Pokemon, uncatcheable, uncontrollable, and unpredictable.

A Gastly.

As Dylan and Lily stared at the Gastly, Sky looked up, his eyes growing wide as he realized what it was. The three watched the Gastly for a long moment, too terrified to move. Then Dylan noticed it was behaving oddly.

Instead of attacking them or fleeing, the Gastly seemed to be shaking in midair. Its mouth was wide open, and its eyes were slits. A series of strange cries were coming from its unseen throat. Slowly, it dawned on Dylan what the Gastly was doing.

It was laughing.

The same thing occurred to Sky, too. Giving an angry cry, he lunged at the Gastly. The ghost Pokemon simply disappeared, and Sky overbalanced through the empty space, nearly falling down again. The Gastly rematerialized behind Sky, laughing even harder.

Watching it, Dylan started to laugh too. Here was one of the most feared creatures in the world—a wild Pokemon. These were the most dangerous organisms on Earth, fierce and savage towards all human beings. From the moment they were born, children in Lavender were told never to come within twenty feet of a Pokemon under any circumstances. Now, one of these untamed, dangerous beasts had appeared in front of not one, but three underage teens. And what had this monster done? Played a practical joke or two and had a good laugh.

The longer Dylan thought about it, the funnier it seemed. After a moment, Lily and Sky seemed to catch on to what was so funny, and they began laughing too. The Gastly seemed pleased by the laughter, puffing itself up and laughing even harder, somehow managing to look like an amused man sharing a joke with a couple of old friends. Dylan doubled over with laughter.

Suddenly, the Gastly vanished again, reappearing an inch from Dylan's face. Dylan yelled with surprise and stumbled backwards. The Gastly roared with laughter. Then it stopped. It swooped over to Dylan and began acting strangely again. Now it looked like it was sniffing at Dylan's shirt pocket. Dylan had no idea what it could be doing.

Then he remembered; his shirt pocket was where he had put the sticks of incense that Lily had suggested they bring. Slowly, Dylan reached into his pocket. The Gastly's eyes widened with delight when he pulled out an orange stick of incense. He held it out to the Gastly, not sure if his guess about what it wanted was correct.

He was right. The Gastly swooped forward and snatched the incense out of Dylan's hand, sucking the spice into its mouth without so much as chewing. It grinned at Dylan.

A smile spread across Dylan's face as he realized that this was one wild Pokemon that might not be quite such bad company.

For the next two hours, the Gastly, Dylan, Sky, and Lily went through all of the upper floors of Pokemon tower (avoiding the channelers that seemed to lurk around every memorial block), chasing each other, hiding, seeking, playing tricks, and everything else they could think of. They thought of ways to have fun with the Gastly's ability to pass through solid objects, turn invisible, float to the ceiling, and lots of other things. When they paused, panting, for a rest after a chase around the whole third floor, Dylan glanced at his watch.

"Come on," he said to Sky and Lily. "We have to be back home by six. We gotta go." As they turned to go, the Gastly floated over looking sad. Dylan turned regretfully to it and said, "Sorry, but we have to leave."

The Gastly stared into Dylan's eyes, and suddenly a sharp mental image took shape in his head. It showed the three of them walking out the doors, and the Gastly floating around the Towers empty chambers, with no one there. "No one to play tricks on," Dylan whispered to himself, realizing what the Gastly meant. It was telling him that they were the most interesting thing that had ever happened in the upstairs of the Tower.

"We'll come back tomorrow," he said. "And you can play all the tricks on us that you can think of." He wasn't sure if the Gastly understood what he was saying, but it seemed to catch his tone. It smiled again and slowly faded into invisibility.

As they walked back downstairs, Dylan noticed Sky and Lily looking at him strangely. He realized that neither of them had seen the mental images the Gastly had shown him.

"We'll come back tomorrow after school," he said. "And see the Gastly again."

He realized that he was looking forward to that very much. He grinned as he rode his bike home as the beautiful sunset filled the sky.