Interlude Eight: Meanwhile…
Five minutes earlier…
Charlotte had expected a tough battle, but Gideon was proving a tougher opponent than the norm.
It should have been easy: Charlotte had spent the last two thousand years following after people in silence, sneaking up behind them and only materialising when she wanted to scare them or had them right where she wanted them. The ghost had hidden in the shadows as Gideon entered the home of her fellow departed. Charlotte rarely came in the House of Memories, still disgusted with how horribly the dead Pokemon had been treated, but was able to restrain her anger in order to face off with Gideon.
The scientist was wearing all black, the outfit someone wore when trying to hide something, yet it made them stick out more than anything else. Charlotte waited for several hours until he finally arrived, waiting until he had passed through the entrance before moving into the Hall itself before making after him.
Beyond the doors was a wide expanse of small grey boxes in systematic rows, encased by bright walls the colour of sunshine in attempts to make the mass tomb of thousands of Pokemon seem happy. Gideon's footsteps echoed in the silent and wide room, and they easily masked any noise Charlotte might make as she silently and invisibly followed behind him, a shadow, a shimmer, following each and every step he made. Charlotte could feel the power of her spell book, and knew exactly where it was hidden. The only question now was if Gideon knew the answer, and how he planned on getting it if he did.
Gideon turned suddenly into a row, and Charlotte smiled to herself: he was several rows away from the one where her book was hidden, and was glad that he had gotten things wrong. She waited at the end of the row as Gideon made his way down, pausing around the halfway mark and turning towards a coffin.
Don't tell me he's here to mourn, Charlotte thought with an indignant snort. She had never imagined Gideon to have any sort of emotions, and was actually rather amused at the idea. Putting her duty to the side for a moment, Charlotte floated briskly down the row to appear by his side, peering over his shoulder at the little grey box. Now would be the perfect time to stop him, Charlotte pondered deviously, and a hundred spells rushed through her mind as she thought of what to do to him. But as she began to settle on one, there was a click, and Charlotte froze as she felt something pass through where her stomach had once been.
"Hello Charlotte. It's been a while," Gideon purred, a slight laugh in his voice. Charlotte gasped to herself, confused and shocked that he had caught her, but before she could do anything else, a blast of energy was fired through her body. Charlotte let out a scream that she couldn't even hear, her body blasted apart like exploding sand, feeling all of her particles moving across the entire hall put unable to control them. Pain seared throughout her, and for a moment Charlotte thought back to the moment when she had died: that pain had been a thousand times more horrible and cruel than this, but this was one of the few things to come close in the past millennium.
Only a few moments later, Charlotte reformed on the ground, a metre away from when she had just been. The grey boxes near her had been tipped over and scattered, causing ash to cover the white tiles beneath her. Gideon remained where he was, but as Charlotte looked up she saw he had turned around to face her: his body was still hiding by his black cloak, but his face stared out at her from beneath a head of oily black hair.
"You'd think that someone that could see all the future had to offer would stop falling for the same tricks over and over again," Gideon hissed at her. Charlotte glared at him for a moment before staring towards the weapon in his hands. It looked like a normal handgun for the most part, but in the barrel was a large glass ball rather than an exit for the bullet, surrounded by a curved glass circle that looked as if it was trying to swallow the ball.
"Like my latest gadget?" Gideon asked. "I heard about what happened to you at Solaceon Town a few years ago, and when I learnt that your book was here, I had a feeling you'd be waiting to protect it and thought I would equip myself. This weapon, as you may have realised, has the power to fire Ghost Energy, and you have successfully proven that it can blow you apart." Gideon laughed to himself, and Charlotte noted how unhinged and deranged it made him seem. She had begun to recover from her attack and was finally able to focus on him: Gideon looked thin and pale, a sickly glow around his skin that made him look almost dead. He had never been overly attractive, but thinking back to when they had last seen each other, Charlotte could clearly note deterioration in his health. But there were more important things for her to focus on right, and Charlotte quickly morphed through the space around them, appearing directly behind Gideon and placing her hands around his head.
"I want to know how you learnt my book was here," she hissed, "and you'd better tell me the truth or I will melt your brain!" Gideon smirked and stepped forwards, spinning around and raising his gun.
"I will simply strike you again if you try and hurt me," he purred. Charlotte stared down at the weapon and began to smile herself.
"You really want to play this game with me?" She laughed. It echoed throughout the hall, and with a click of her fingers it began to magnify and multiply, so it seemed like hundreds of people were laughing at different volumes and tones. Gideon looked around in confusion, and gave Charlotte the opportunity to clap her hands together and push them forwards. The scientist yelled out as a gust of wind blew him backwards, tearing his cloak open and sending him crashing through three rows of deceased Pokemon. Charlotte waved her hands across the piles of ash, and was disgusted at herself for performing such an action, but knew that drastic measures had to be taken against Gideon. The scientist cried out as the ash began to circle around her, engulfing his body and leaving him trapped behind a grey veil.
"I want answers!" Charlotte yelled, keeping a fist in mid air to leave the ash to spin. "How did you learn my book was here, and what do you plan to use it for?" But before she could get an answer, Charlotte noticed a flash of black behind the ash, and quickly spun away. The ash fell to the ground as a black beam was fired, firing off towards the back wall and exploding. Charlotte cursed and spiralled back towards Gideon, who was marching towards her with his gun up high. Charlotte raised both her hands and fired a bolt of electricity to match the Ghost Energy, and the two beams met each other in the middle. A shockwave that resembled a Beedrill was unleashed, and Charlotte was unable to stop herself from being blown backwards as easily as a plastic bag in the wind. The ghost stopped herself before she reached the back wall, but found Gideon had moved forwards, easily stepping over the graves and moving closer to the row where she had hidden the book.
"Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte… it is about time you learnt you are not as clever or as powerful as you'd like to believe," Gideon hissed, his tone a lot darker that it was a minute earlier. Charlotte noted the stained white shirt he was wearing beneath his cloak and his torn pants, and she could only wonder how well his plan was going if he looked like this. "You first hid your precious book in a collapsible tower with the hope it would be taken, only for it to backfire by several times. You thought hiding it in plain sight would be better, but look at how well that worked for you at Pewter. And now you thought you'd combine your plans together: hide it with a spell but in plain sight. Very smart, actually, but the problem with you Charlotte is that you think your smarter than you really are. Do you know that your book gives off a special sort of energy, and did you know I kept all my readings around it so I would always be able to find it by simple searching for the right amount of energy?" At this, Gideon pulled a small device that resembled a smart phone, and Charlotte was stunned to see that an intense orange light was flashing across the screen. "This a smaller version of my monitoring program. That light means I am very close to the energy source, and you may notice there are red flickers: this means I am only a few centimetres away."
"Don't even think about it," Charlotte hissed, her hands crackling with lightning. She could see Gideon's eyes turning towards the row where her book was hidden, and the ghost nervously but briefly eyed the exact grave that stood above it. There was no way Gideon would be able to get to it even with magic, but Charlotte would not take any chances.
"Now, onto your second question," Gideon said, stepping forwards and raising his Ghost Gun up, "what am I planning on doing? Again, I expected better from someone that can see the future. Surely you know exactly what I am planning on doing, don't you?" Charlotte gave a reluctant nod, trying to keep him talking while she thought of a plan to stop him. "If you know what I plan on doing, why don't you stop me then?"
"I do not know your entire plan, I only have a broad idea of what you hope to achieve," Charlotte hissed back. "I have a feeling we've had this conversation before, so I am not going to go into details. Just know that I will stop you from achieving it!" Gideon smirked, and he moved forwards again. A large beep began to emit from his scanning device, and Charlotte gasped to see he was already by the right grave.
"We'll see about that Charlotte," the scientist purred, putting his phone away and pointing his gun towards the grave, black energy began to form around the glass ball. "You and Arceus have held the power in this world for far too long. It is about time something turned things around. And before you stop me Charlotte, how exactly would you feel if I upset the balance of your love's world to achieve my goals?" Gideon flashed her smile, and for a second Charlotte was thrown: she had not seen any harm coming to Giratina, not for a few more years, and was horrified at the idea. Unfortunately, the distraction was all Gideon needed. He pulled the trigger, and a black beam was fired towards the grave. It was blown apart, showering the scientist with dust, and the entire House of Memories began to shake. Charlotte quickly recovered, and she knew she had to stop the scientist from getting hold of her book.
"YOU WILL NOT HARM ANYONE!" The ghost roared, and she summoned her own Ghost Energy together into her palms. Without thinking, Charlotte fired a black beam of swirling wind and energy towards the open grave. She expected it to overpower Gideon's feeble weapon, but was stunned when a giant black flash rose out instead. Charlotte had to shut her eyes and shield her ears from a series of ghostly screams out around her, and was then thrust backwards by a powerful explosion. Charlotte altered her form to stop herself being forced to phase through the wall, and felt her body hit the back wall, which seemed to be shaking. A siren began to wail over the screaming, and there was the sound of things falling and crashing that sounded far away, but Charlotte knew it was happy nearby.
The black flash and screams faded after only a few seconds, and Charlotte opened her eyes to a very different world. A crater had formed only a few metres in front of her, and it seemed as if an entire Onix could fit inside. All the graves had been blasted aside, causing grey dust to hang in the air like dull snow. The walls to her left and right now had two large holes in them, and half of the roof had caved in, adding white plaster to the mix of particles hanging in the air. There was a slight rumbling above, and Charlotte could only imagine what damage the mix of Ghost Energy and charms she had placed around her book had done to the cliffs surrounding them.
However, a bigger problem stood before her on the opposite side of the crater: Gideon was smiling at her, covered in dust and looking shaky, but smiling all the same as he clutched a thick, black leather bound book in his pale, bony hands, a book Charlotte had not seen since locking it away three years ago.
"Thank you for helping me out," Gideon sneered, his voice quivering with either shock or excitement. "I knew your magic would be needed to break the spell, but I didn't think you would fall for it. I guess I will see you again when you try and put a stop to me, but I am warning you now: this time, you won't win." Gideon raised a finger to his watch and dramatically jabbed a button, causing it to glow.
"NO!" Charlotte roared, and she fired a ball of black sparks at him. They quickly surrounded Gideon, making him looked pained, but his body began to glow all the same, and with a flash he was gone. Charlotte tipped her head back and screamed, a sound so horrible that any nearby human would be deafened, possibly even killed. More bits of the roof fell down, bringing a series of rocks down with them, and Charlotte angrily sent them flying to the opposite wall. As it was torn apart, the ghost began to think of a plan: her last spell would stop Gideon from getting far, but with his gun it was unlikely she could stop him on her own. Charlotte hated to admit it, but she was going to need help.
And she knew just who to call.
"Alaska Acevedo, it's time you meet your match," Charlotte purred to herself, and she exploded into a cloud of dust that quickly began to settle, falling amongst the ash, plaster and rocks like another dead thing in the world.
A change in the usual structure seemed necessary for this arc to make sense, so I hope you all enjoyed this little shake up. Again, Charlotte's back story will be best told through Galactic and The First Warriors and won't really be elaborated on during this series, so read them if you want more details on her. And stay tuned for the new story
