Chapter Two: Trains, Planes and…Ghosts?

WHOA! I was NOT expecting 5 reviews this quickly! Oo; To everyone who reviews: BIG THANKS!

Yah, Kari was a little whiny in that first chap-her personality will be developing more as the story goes on. Seems everyone likes Torchic though!

Please review again, constructive criticism is encouraged! NO FLAMES:K

On a side note, I just realized I messed up the towns: The town in the previous chapter should have Been LITTLEROOT town, not Oldale. -.- I glanced at the list of town names to quickly…I'll look into changing that somehow. In the meantime…

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, end of story. If I owned Pokemon, well…things would be MUCH different!

Kari was hugging her Torchic tightly as she exited the Pokemon Lab, a set of given Poke'balls now clipped to her belt, a bright smile on her face. She hadn't the slightest clue how she got here, or what that weird voice-person had wanted her to do, but heck if she cared! Besides that, it had told her to proceed like a normal trainer, and that was exactly what she intended to do! Torchic had quickly shown its great dislike for Poke'balls, something Kari did not mind; she rather liked having some company, and made a mental note that she should probably just leave all the Pokemon she took with her outside of their Poke'balls. The Professor had been surprised she already had a poke'dex, but she had managed to worm and lie her way through that little problem, and was now on her way to the route outside Littleroot. The next town was Oldale, and it at least had a poke' mart. Training was currently her first priority though, and finding some new, cool Pokemon. From what she remembered from looking at her guide at home though, and in Pokemon games in general…you never got any cool Pokemon to much later in the game. Even so, she should look into finding at least one other Pokemon, if only for backup…

Torchic and Kari arrived at Oldale not long later, but clearly worn down from the amount of battling the two had done. Kari had almost completely used up the small supply of potions she had had in her bag, and needed to stock up before they left Oldale-but first she had to stop by the Pokemon Center. Kari knew there had to be a catch to that…

"I knew that healing your Pokemon was to quick in the game…" She muttered, thankfully inaudibly, under her breath. It had been at least half an hour, and she'd already done the little shopping that needed to be done. Kari was half-asleep, and nearly sprung out of her skin when she heard a scream from outside. Her feet hit the floor as she stood up, wondering what had happened. She grabbed her jacket, which she had taken off and left on the bench, and hurried outside.

An older women dressed in relatively plain clothing was currently causing a panic in the streets, waving her hands around in distress, while loudly trying to explain what had happened. "I-I was just cleaning up around my house and it happened, the vase I was dusting just lifted up and started spinning around! I fell back in surprise, and then the cloth I was using got snatched out of my hand, and was thrown against the vase! I've never seen anything like it in my life!" The other townsfolk around her were trying to calm her down, telling her things from "It was probably your imagination," "You must've been mistaken," or, from the less helpful ones, "It was a ghost! Their coming to haunt us!"

Kari frowned. This was certainly strange-but she didn't know these people, and certainly couldn't do anything to help. Shrugging, she returned to the Pokemon center to ask Nurse Joy how much longer it would be.

It was another 15 minutes before Kari and Torchic could finally leave the Pokemon center-but the sun was already starting to set, and the two of them finally decided to stay at the Center for the night, rather than venture out onto the next route in the dark. By the time morning had come though, even more trouble had disturbed the small town…

Kari yawned, stretching back on the padded benches that lined the walls of the Pokemon Center. Torchic was sound asleep just above where her head had been, and gave a squeak of surprise as she practically laid back on top of him, having shifted towards the bird slightly. "Eh? Sorry…" She yawned again, sitting up and swinging her legs off the side of the benches, to the small chickens relief. Kari could hear a small amount of hubbub taking place outside, which she found surprising considering the small size of the town, and the early hours of the morning.

"What in their right minds are they doing up at this time in the morning? What are YOU doing up?" The sleepy Torchic demanded of Kari.

The young trainer gave a laugh. "Not sure, to both of those." She sighed, leaning against the wall. She didn't like just calling the Torchic "Torchic." "I should find a nickname for ya." She stated, looking down at the fire bird. But what?

The Torchic gave a sort of shrug. "Whatever."

Kari snorted, turning to scoop him up. "C'mon, lets go see what their so busy about."

The townspeople were all gathered outside the Pokemon center, talking excitedly. "What's going on?" She asked, tugging on the sleeve of one man.

"You haven't heard? The whole towns stirred up! There was a lady yesterday, who was cleaning her vase-"

"I heard that, it started spinning and all. Is everyone still going on about that?"

"Goodness no!" The man shook his head quickly. "But theirs been more occurrences since then! Several people had objects floating around last night, its got everyone spooked bad!"

Kari raised an eyebrow. "Really? Like what? What sort of objects I mean?"

"Oh, there was a woman washing her dishes, they started flying around, a couple broke, must've 'em just landed harmlessly in the water thankfully, there was another that was vacuuming, and her vacuum started moving on its own!"

Kari was feeling a little spooked herself now-this was defiantly weird! "That's certainly strange…" She muttered, ignoring her Torchic's chirping suggestions as to what the cause could be. "Thanks." She turned and swiftly walked away. "I dunno about you Torchic, but I would rather get out of here! This place is giving me the creeps…"

"Aw! Don't be such a wuss!" The Torchic wiggled in her arms excitedly, scratching at her jacket sum. "You should investigate!"

"Heck no!" Kari hated to admit it, but she had a real strong dislike for ghosts, and anything of that type. They'd always creeped her out.

"Your just afraid!"

"Ya, I'm afraid, now leave me alone!"

"Don't be a sissy!"

"EXCUSE ME!" Kari gave her Torchic a shocked look-but was stunned to notice that it was no longer in her arms. Instead, the fire-red chicken was racing off into the crowd. "COME BACK HERE!"

By the time Kari had finally located Torchic, she was quite breathless. She really did like the little guy, but he was quickly proving he could be a serious pain in the rear! "The game NEVER told me Pokemon could be this hard to handle…no wonder the people on the T.V. show always keep their Pokemon in their Poke'balls…Unfortunately, Kari's troubles were far from over. The alleged "ghost" had struck again, this time though people were claiming they saw a small form rushing off towards the route to the west of Oldale.

"C'mon!" Torchic tugged at her pant leg. "Lets go find it!"

"Your not gunna leave me alone, will you?" She frowned down at him.

"Nope!"

"FINE THEN!" She received a number of strange stares, and quickly grabbed Torchic and hurried off-that was the last time she started yelling at Torchic in public…she forgot all to often that no one else could understand what Torchic said.

Clearly, she was not the only person who had decided to search for the perpetrator. A number of other people from Oldale were helping to aid in the search, thus making things much more hectic. "C'mon, lets go over to the far side, less people." She stated, mostly to herself.

Kari felt like if she saw one more Wurmple of Zigzagzoon, she'd drop-kick it all the way back to town. On one bright side, she and Torchic were defiantly getting better at this whole battling thing. However, they had yet to find a Pokemon that could have caused the mayhem in town. Kari sighed as she knelt down on the ground, fumbling with a potion to use on Torchic. Neither one felt like going all the way back to town, so instead Kari was using one of the extra potions on the small bird. Kari cursed under her breath as she dropped the item-then gasped as it stopped falling, and started floating in midair!

"Oh boy!" She fell back, staring at the potion in surprise, Torchic giving his own chirp of shock. Looking up, Kari spotted the form of a small green and white Pokemon. It stood only a little more than a foot tall, two red horn-like projections coming out of its green upper head, one in the front, the other in back. It's lower body looked almost like a flowy white dress, its arms and lower face in the same color of white. Kari blinked in surprise, fumbling to withdraw her Poke'dex. What was that thing again? She remembered seeing it in the guide…stupid bad memory!

"Ralts." The mechanical voice stated. "The 'Feeling Pokemon.' Ralts has the power to sense peoples emotions using the horns on its head. Ralts psychic powers are strong enough to copy its own enemies ability in battle."

"Psychic…this guys physic Torchic! I bet he's what's been causing all the trouble!"

"Girl."

"Huh?"

"What is it with you humans and being blind to the obvious, that's a GIRL! Not a guy!"

Kari gave him a look. "That's really not the current issue here!"

"Why not?"

"It ju-ACK! ITS GETTING AWAY!" Kari quickly grabbed the still floating potion and started chasing after the fast-moving Ralts, Torchic at her heels. "Torchic, use an ember attack! Stop it!"

The small chicken gave an affirmative nod and jumped forwarded, opening its mouth to unleash a torrent of small balls of fire, hitting just in front of the small Pokemon. The Ralts gave a squeal of surprise, turning to face them.

"Alright! It worked!" Kari grinned as she ran up to the Ralts.

The Ralts was looking at her with an extremely puzzled expression, causing Kari to halt slightly. Maybe she could find out why it had been causing so much trouble!

"Why've you been messing around so much?" She questioned the currently-floating Pokemon.

It gave her another confused expression before answering. "I'm trying to help!"

"Help? Help with what? Your making everyone really upset!"

The Ralts gave small sound, a sort of cross between a squeak and a whine. "I didn't mean to!"

Kari frowned. The cute little thing did seem to be telling the truth, but… "Then why'd you start spinning that ladies vase around? Or the vacuum?"

"I was helping!" The Ralts chirped happily, straightening itself slightly. "They seemed like the needed help!"

Kari sniggered slightly-it was somewhat comical, this foot high Pokemon declaring that it was helping those people, when it had inadvertently gave them quite a scare! "I see…well, I think you had better explain this to them, 'cause I don't think they realize your helping!"

The Pokemon tilted its head to the side. "Why don't they understand?"

"They…just don't."

"Your very unclear." The small Ralts stated matter-o-factually.

Kari snorted. "Why don't you just go back to town and expl-er, show the townspeople what you were trying to do?"

"Sure! Can I help more afterwards?"

"Um…I guess…"

Kari quickly regretted those words. After watching from a short distance away as the Ralts did various things to show the people of Oldale that she was trying to help, she began doing so emphatically. It was getting to the point that nobody could reach to get their glass and take a drink without the glass lifting itself! Kari quickly decided that the small Pokemon needed a quick talk.

"Look, you can't just help with everything you see in sight!"

"But I like helping! It's fun!" Ralts complained, twitching slightly.

"Yes, but you know, there IS such a thing as helping to much. Your doing that."

"Am I?" The Pokemon looked quite deflated.

"Well, some…" Kari winced-she hadn't wanted to hurt the Pokemon's feelings! "But I think you can be quite helpful, just, do it a bit less, okay?"

Ralts nodded. "Okay…" She stated, before drifting off to find more people to help.

Kari sighed as she woke up the next morning. By the time everything yesterday had been finished up, it had gotten to late to start off for Petalburg City. But today, she planned to get an early start! Grabbing her pack, and waking up an upset Torchic, whom she was still trying to name, she bounced out the door in a rather happy mood-and her face hit a certain floating Pokemon.

"Can I help YOU?"

"Huh?"

"You're a trainer, right?"

"Yes…So?"

"I could help you! Trainers want to get those funny things…little objects…Um…"

"Badges?"

"Ya! That's it!" She gave a happy squeak.

"So?"

"I could help you!"

"You…want to come with me?" Torchic gave a sort of groan. Clearly he didn't like Ralts a whole lot.

"Yes!"

"I thought you were helping these other people!" She gave a motion to indicated the general town.

"I was. But they don't seem to need much help. Besides, I get the feeling they don't like me much…wonder why!"

"Gee, so do I…" Torchic muttered grumpily, quickly getting silenced by Kari's hand.

"Well, I guess you can come with-"

"YAAH!" The Ralts did a sort of motion in the air, moving from side to side before alighting on her shoulder.

"Your gunna regret it…" Torchic muttered to Kari, twisting so he was now sitting upright, and not sideways.

"Oh shush, and be nice." She gave Ralts a look, tossing a Poke'ball up to hit it. After several moments of twitching, she released the Ralts, who shook itself before

re-alighting on her shoulder. Kari calmly replaced the Poke'ball onto her belt. Her team was moving along nicely!