Pallet Tribune
Friday, 2 September 23 (three years ago)
Partly Cloudy
Pokébusters!
Maxine Grante
It seems local teens aren't the only ones making the old research lab home! Several ghost type Pokémon have taken up residence in the former lab's facilities. Rangers have positively identified four types of Pokémon, along with three new species!
Spooky!
Due to this recent discovery, the Pokémon Liberation Union has cordoned off the area as they attempt to relocate these Ghastly friends! Pallet Town residents are asked to keep their distance from the labs as well as these new Pokémon.
Rangers will be on site to assure their safe removal within the following week.
It was a sad reality, that even here, most people became squeamish and even fearful of the dead and all its ghosts. Faint memories, listless clouds of remember-me-as-I-was, lost within shadows and basement stairwells, dusty labs, history too ironic really reminded them, us, of the stark finality in life, that even the best of us, were never meant to last. Not forever, not entirely, not the same.
But Riley didn't believe in ghosts, not the human kind anyway, maybe not even the Pokémon kind either. Not since her father died when she was three. No ghosts came for her then, and shouldn't they?, If they existed?, Make even just one small effort?, Even in dreams?.
Nothing haunted her, and the anxiety she felt in this moment stemmed not from shadows, but what they could do, because ghosts couldn't hurt people. Which wasn't to say that she believed Gengar could do her no harm, it could, very easily in fact, because things could be ghostly without being dead. Much like the absence of a friend or automatic hand dryers. No, it was that notion of staring down wild shadows, that Riley feared she might be in trouble, if not lucky. And if she were lucky, then she would be very lucky.
She broke the lock on the old display case as the shadows closed in on her like a silent, crushing wave, drumming in her ears; Gengar chuckling, wheezing almost, watching her only, which was odd. Very odd.
Riley didn't notice, focused, she grabbed a pokéball. Slowly, unwanting to startle it, to provoke attack or its flee. It wasn't enough, by the time she looked up (had she looked down?) the Gengar was gone, shadows left, empty halls. Gone.
And then.
A wet tongue slapped against her cheek, all the way up and skewing her glasses and slicking her hair, just at the bangs, leaving her feeling very gross and very uneasy.
The Gengar laughed, upside down floating there beside her, appearing much like a Cheshire Cat, all eyes and smiles before the rest of him slowly followed suit, bouncing with his laughter, tongue hanging out, still wet (very wet).
Riley felt her knees weak beneath her, every nerve a trembling shamble as she stumbled backwards on stuttering feet, pokéball in a hand.
"G-g-gross," She stammered.
The Gengar laughed.
"Not funny," she replied, "You know what-"
The Gengar paused and listened.
"I'm going to catch you, what do you think about that?" She said, "and then when I do, I'm going to lick you back. Huh? How would you like that?" She cocked back her arm and -
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
- missed, startled by the sudden interruption of a voice not far behind her. 'Oh,' thought Riley, 'oh no.' The pokéball bounced off the floor and rolled sadly along before settling between the spaces of two linoleum squares.
Her flashlight flickered, an uncertain beam in the darkness, piercing through the shadow form of the Gengar that floated there all quiet smiles and more smiles, as the Ranger, equally as quiet, had stepped out from his own with much less panache, because he was only human, which was less comforting than it should have been.
He was a six foot seven serious frown stuffed into a uniform two buttons too small, not because he was fat, which he wasn't, but because the Station he worked for could only ever get Medium sized shirts which strained at the seams every time he crossed his arms.
Which he did.
And on his jacket, which fit him much better than that, just above the pocket, Riley read his name, Alif, embroidered there by his mother; because she still loved him very much, through his very hard transition, everyday more than the last, and more so even after he realized he was never supposed to be a girl after all. And even though it was a very ugly jacket, with harsh red accents and orange stitching, he loved her too, very much, and wore it every day at work. Even on nights like these when it wasn't very cold at all except for when he stood beside Gengar, who made it very cold indeed.
"I'm going to assume," said the Ranger, "that you saw the signs posted on the fence?"
Riley knew better than to answer him and even if she hadn't, couldn't, with the pounding of her heart within her throat.
"This building is unsafe for kids like you to be playing in. It's very old and not only is it falling apart, there are many Pokémon that make their homes here. It's very dangerous," he did not smile, but he wasn't unkind, "and I assume you do not have a companion, which makes it even more dangerous."
Riley's gaze shifted to the Gengar, who at this moment, must have realized its awkward and obvious silence, replied "Gar," in a very human accent.
She thought he might be mocking them.
"They're just props," said Alif with a nod of his chin, "they don't work and even if they did, you couldn't catch this one. If you're looking for a companion, try the Pika Cabin, or any Pokéstore, I'm sure you can adopt a very nice Rattata. Come on," he made a rolling gesture, ushering her forward so that he might kick her out. Which was everywhere Riley didn't want to be.
"No," said Riley, "I'm not going."
Alif frowned deeper, "Excuse me?"
"I'm looking for my friend, I can't leave without them." Lie. Such a lie.
"Your friend?" Alif contemplated this and then sighed, resigned to his duty and the safety of others, or so was meant by the uniform he wore, "Ok, ok," he said, "Where did your friend run off to?"
"I'm not sure," said Riley, "his name is Big Hoss."
Alif regarded her with the most exhausted frown as he rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, "This shit again," he said, "There's no underground league. You kids have got to stop believing these rumors."
Gengar listed to the ground and from beside them watched, wholly engrossed in their private sitcom.
"It's not a rumor," Riley insisted for no reason at all.
"Oh? Because your friend told you so?" asked Alif, "This property is owned by the PLU and monitored by Rangers 24/7. If there were any underground league here we would know about it, and they would shut it down."
"Except the PLU hasn't touched this place in the past three years because of all the Pokémon," Riley said, "before that, this place was empty. So either it's coincidence or someone is very clever." Riley felt very silly for arguing, but thought she made a good point. And so did Alif. He quirked an eyebrow, which was enough to lessen that intimidating frown.
"What's your name?"
"Riley."
"Riley," repeated Alif, "are you a Joy?"
"I am. Are you...are you Big Hoss?"
"No," said Alif, "He is," and nodded to the Gengar.
Riley laughed.
Alif didn't.
Riley stopped laughing, "You're serious? A Pokémon runs the Cinder Circuit?"
"When he's not busy trying to scare people off, yeah. He's in charge," said Alif.
Riley looked to Big Hoss in disbelief, "You licked me," she said.
"Yeah, and you were going to catch me," shrugged Big Hoss, "Think that makes us around even."
"It does not," scoffed Riley, "Wait - wait - you can talk?"
"I suppose I can," said Big Hoss.
"How?"
"I open my mouth and say words," said Big Hoss and gave Alif a get-a-load-of-this-kid gesture.
Riley supposed that was accurate. She had never known a Pokémon that could speak though, sure there were rumors out there, there always would be, videos too, Meowth's mumbling things that sounded vaguely like words, "Oh Long Johnson," but never anything like this. Nothing like Big Hoss. She looked to Alif, "Are you even a Ranger?"
"Volunteer Ranger," said Alif.
"A lot of people are creeped out by ghost types," said Big Hoss, "so the PLU got some volunteers in from Lavender Town. I met Alif over there three years ago, one of the first guys to come down. We hit it off when I caught him stealing Pokémon from the old vault. Good guy. He's been helping me run the Cinder Circuit ever since. Think of him like a new Professor Oak."
Alif saw the look on Riley's face and interjected calmly, "When this place went out of business there were a lot of Pokémon that got left behind. The PLU adopted out, probably 15% of the Pokémon Professor Oak had collected, the rest stayed here. And if you know anything about storage technology then you know that when Pokémon are kept in their pokéballs for a long time the data that they're transcribed as can become corrupted. Pokémon that end up like this are too deformed to function outside of their pokéballs. They call them Missingnos and for the most part there's nothing you can do once a Pokémon becomes a Missingno."
"Except," said Big Hoss.
"Except," continued Alif, "I figured out how to recode their data. It's not perfect, but it gives them a chance to live."
"New Professor Oak," Riley repeated as she strung together the series of events, "So when Trainers come to the Cinder Circuit...you give them one of your Missingnos."
"Smart kid," said Big Hoss.
"Why doesn't the PLU do that? Recode Pokémon?" asked Riley.
"Because they don't know how," said Alif, "and don't want to know. I tried."
"Easier to just get rid of them," said Big Hoss sadly.
"I want one," said Riley.
Big Hoss grinned, "Course you do."