Akira continues his journey through the Pokemon Tower, and has to face the frightening ghost pokemon that dwell within. But will he be able to hurt them? How do you fight an opponent you can't see? And what's grabbed him? Is it another Ghost type? Or something even worse? Will Akira manage to escape the tower alive and get back to talk to Mr. Fuji?

KedharS: Well, bravery and stupidity go hand in hand.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: That would probably not be good, but it would also probably be pretty funny if he just ignored Sylvia and went back to sleep.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 844

For a second, Akira was sure he was going to die. When you're surrounded by malevolent ghosts and something grabs you from behind, that's a fairly safe assumption. But he wasn't dying, nothing had happened to him. What was going on?

Akira took a peek over his shoulder, and had to do a double-take.

"Sylvia?! What are you doing here?!" Akira exclaimed, his jaw dropping. He was so shocked by the fact she'd come up behind him that it had slipped his mind that she was possessed by one of those ghosts. It just didn't make sense that she'd come up to him, the last time he'd seen her she'd been walking in the opposite direction and disappeared into the fog.

Although right now, he was turned around, and he had no idea what was going on. So maybe it was her! He shook himself free and took a defensive posture, afraid that the possessed Sylvia would do something to him.

Then she spoke, which threw him for another loop.

"What the heck are you doing here?" She asked, and Akira had no idea what to make of that. Sylvia hadn't said a word the entire time she'd been leading him here, she hadn't even changed her expression, and now she was looking at him with an irritated scowl and asking what HE was doing here?! Seriously?

"I think you know!" Akira said, glaring back at her. "You're the one who led me here, after all, so why don't you tell me!"

For once, Sylvia looked confused. "Uh… no, I didn't. I was asleep in my room. Then I woke up feeling like something was off. I felt a large amount of spiritual power building up around the town, so I went to go check on you and Misty. Misty was asleep in her bed, and you were just gone. So I figured you'd gone to the Pokemon Tower, and lo and behold, here you are."

Akira took a second to think about what she'd just said. "Wait, wait, so you're saying that you were just sleeping? You didn't come to wake me up and bring me here? Because I swear I saw you, and you led me here! I thought you were possessed, like that time with Satsuki!"

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Please. You actually thought that I was the kind of person who would let myself get possessed by a ghost against my will?"

Now that she was saying it, Akira couldn't really picture anything controlling Sylvia.

"So let me get this straight, you saw me, you thought 'oh she's possessed by a ghost' and you just followed me out of the Pokemon Center right into the biggest hive of Ghost type pokemon in the entire region?" Sylvia clarified, resisting the urge to burst out laughing. "Wow, that's gotta be some of the dumbest stuff I've ever heard, Akira, I think that's a new record!"

Akira's face heated up and he began yelling, completely forgetting the fact that they were trapped in a fog of malevolent specters. "No, of course not!" He protested. "I went to go get Misty to see if she could do anything, but she was asleep! I couldn't wake her up because she was barely moving! I thought that the only way I could get her to wake up would be if I went to the Pokemon Tower and like the ghost wanted me to!"

"She was probably under the effects of hypnosis," Sylvia explained. "I warded up the inside of my room before I went to sleep last night with spell tags because I expected something like that might happen. This is Lavender Town, after all."

"Gee, thanks for the warning," Akira muttered under his breath. Sylvia shook her head, smirking, and then realized something.

"Wait, so you saw that a ghost was luring you to the Pokemon Tower and went to get Misty for help, but you didn't even think to come check up on me?" She asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "Well, that's pretty rude. And here I thought we were friends," she pouted.

"What?! It looked exactly like you!" Akira exclaimed. "Why would I go see if you were alright? I thought it was using your body!"

"That was probably just an illusion. You were probably under the effects of a little bit of hypnosis yourself," Sylvia explained. "Otherwise, I doubt that you would have done something as stupid as come here all by yourself. …Wait, no, it's you, so you maybe you would."

Akira wanted to yell at her, but he couldn't deny that she had a point. He had just kind of assumed that Sylvia had been possessed and hadn't even gone to check on her to make sure it was okay. Not that he had any reason to think that she wasn't possessed, but the point remained.

"…Hey, wait! I didn't come here alone!" Akira reminded her, gesturing to Kumari. "I brought my pokemon after all!"

"Bear!" Kumari nodded in agreement.

Sylvia had already moved on from that point, though, and turned her attention to the earlier issue of the ghost taking her form. "So it seems like these ghosts wanted you to come here," she mused. "I wonder why. Why would they lure you here using my form, that's another question. I would think that Misty, or even Dakota, would be a better choice, but me?"

Akira didn't want to humor that idea. He didn't like what she was insinuating, and would rather focus on how they were going to get out of here.

"Whatever, it's not important," he hastily rebuffed her thoughts, glancing at the cloud of fog. "The problem right now is the fact that we're trapped in this place with no way to get out. These things aren't ordinary pokemon."

"No kidding," Sylvia yawned, rolling her eyes. "Misty said it herself, weren't you paying attention? Due to the strange energies of Lavender Town, the Ghost type pokemon that inhabit the Pokemon Tower have vastly different abilities than normal Ghost types. They're far harder to hurt and nearly impossible to detect, their powers are a lot different."

"So what are we supposed to do?!" Akira asked. "I don't suppose you have any Ghost types that might be able to put up a fight? Because I tried using Kumari to clear the way, and he couldn't do anything, so now we're stuck."

"That's because you can't fight them," Sylvia explained. "These ghosts aren't your usual fare, unless you can track them down, you'll never be able to land a move. But the problem is, they've blended in with the purple mist perfectly… we need something else to make sure we can fight."

"Something else like what?" Akira was annoyed by how boastful Sylvia was behaving, it was like she knew everything, and was purposefully dangling the truth in front of him like a lure. Couldn't she just give him a straightforward answer for once?

"Like this," Sylvia said, setting her purse down on the ground and taking out a strange-looking contraption.

Akira wasn't sure how to describe what he was looking at. It was kind of like one of those cameras that you strap to your head, but instead of a camera it had a pair of binoculars. He could kind of see how it was supposed to be used.

Sylvia handed it to him.

"What is it?" He asked cautiously, not finding Sylvia or her gear all that trustworthy.

"It's called the Silph Scope," Sylvia explained. "I brought one when I learned that Mr. Fuji lives in Lavender Town, because I knew we might end up fighting against some ghosts, and this is perfect for that."

Akira put it on, still a little confused. "What does it do?" He asked, sliding the goggles/binoculars over his eyes.

"Quite a bit, actually, you use it for finding Ghost type pokemon," Sylvia said. "It's a special lens developed by the Silph Corporation to see things that aren't really there. You can use it to identify the true forms of the Ghost type pokemon living in the Pokemon Tower, among other things. If you're wearing the Silph Scope, then even if your pokemon can't see where the ghosts are, you'll still be able to give them orders to hit them, since they're now visible. Make sense?"

"Why are you giving it to me?" Akira asked. "Shouldn't you be using it? Your Ghost type pokemon are going to be way more effective than Kumari and I."

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Please. That's just for average people with no supernatural sense. I see ghosts all the time, remember? I don't need something like that because I already know where the ghosts are hiding. I brought that just for you."

Akira wanted to take the thing off and smash it. "So you could be helping get through the ghosts all on your own then, why do I need to wear this dumb thing?!"

Sylvia took out her phone and took a picture. "Because it looks really hilarious on you, that's why," she explained, and Akira wanted to scream. But now wasn't the time to lose his temper.

"I think I liked you more when I thought you were possessed by a ghost," he muttered under his breath, turning to look at the cloud of fog that surrounded them. He still couldn't make out any ghosts. "Now how do I work this thing?"

"There's a button on the side, press it," she said.

Akira turned the Silph Scope on, and immediately everything changed. The purple mist fell away, and before his eyes he began making out the appearance of shadowy pokemon. Gastly and Haunter clustered around them, floating ominously in the air. Perfect!

"Okay, Kumari! There are some pokemon right there!" Akira said, pointing at a thick clump of them. "Hit them with your surf!"

"Beartic!" Kumari roared, raising his arms and sending a massive tidal wave at the assembled ghosts. The wave of water smashed into them, scattering them quickly.

"Nice work!" Akira cheered. Now that his vision wasn't obscured by the purple fog, he could see the stairs leading to the next level a lot more clearly. "Okay, Kumari, we just have to take out a few more Gastly and Haunter in our way, and then we can get going!"

"Bear," Kumari nodded, preparing an ice shard next.

With the Silph Scope, Akira could give directions perfectly to Kumari, and he began to make actual progress through the tower. Kumari demolished the ghosts in their way, and Akira managed to reach the staircase going up to the next level.

Then he paused and looked back at Sylvia.

"Hey, wait, why am I even doing all this, anyway?" He asked.

Sylvia blinked innocently. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well, the only reason I came here in the first place was because I thought you were possessed by a ghost. But you weren't, it was just an illusion. So wouldn't it be better to just ignore what the ghosts are doing and head back to town?" Akira asked. He didn't know what the ghosts were up to, but he didn't really have a reason to find out, either. He was more concerned with finding Mr. Fuji than with these ghosts.

"Aww, so you only came here to rescue me?" Sylvia cooed, batting her eyelashes. "That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard, thanks Akira!"

Akira rolled his eyes and scowled. "Whatever," he muttered. "Come on, this is serious, let's just go back and see if we can help Misty. You know a bit about Ghost types so you should be able to-"

"No, I'd rather go on!" Sylvia chirped, walking past him and heading for the stairs. "Come on, Akira, where's your spirit of adventure? We didn't JUST come here to see Mr. Fuji we also came here to have fun, didn't we?"

"No, we didn't," Akira said. "And even if we did, I don't consider exploring a haunted graveyard to be all that fun!"

"That's because you're boring and predictable," Sylvia replied. "Are you really going to leave me here alone, knowing that the ghosts could get me?"

"Knowing that you can see them and fight them off? Yes," Akira said without even having to think about it. "I'm not exactly concerned about you, or your wellbeing."

"Well that's kind of rude, I thought you'd come to save me!" Sylvia pouted. "Anyway, I think that we should at least see what the ghosts want, don't you?"

"Why do you say that?" Akira asked.

"Akira, they put Misty and the entire Pokemon Center to sleep with hypnosis," Sylvia reminded him. "And you might not have taken a moment to check, but I did. It isn't just the Pokemon Center. From the few houses I checked, it looks like the whole town was put to sleep by the ghosts, except for you and me."

THAT was news to Akira.

"Wait, really?!" He asked. "Are you serious? The whole town is asleep?!"

"Yup," Sylvia nodded. "And I was supposed to be, too. So whatever these ghosts want, they want you. And they wanted you to come here."

Her eyes were practically shining with excitement.

"Don't you want to find out why?!" She asked.

No, Akira really didn't want to find out why. But at the same time, he had to admit that the thought was intriguing. And if the whole town was put to sleep, then this might not have been something that Sylvia would be able to handle on her own. Waking up Misty was one thing. But a whole town?

"And remember, Mr. Fuji can't help us if he's asleep," Sylvia reminded him.

Damn it. She really was going to make him go along with this, wasn't she?

"And if you abandon them now, who knows? Next time they might try to lure someone totally innocent up here," Sylvia mused. THAT got Akira's attention. Great. Now he had to make the decision about whether or not he should abandon not just Sylvia, but the entire town, and leave the ghosts to lure someone else away.

There really wasn't any other choice, was there?

Akira sighed and lowered his head, resigned. Not sure what else to say, he trudged up the stairs after Sylvia in silence.

True to her word, Sylvia wasn't much help dealing with the ghosts. She was happy to just sit back and let Akira tire himself and his pokemon out.

And there were a lot of them. He'd already recalled Kumari to let the Beartic get some rest, and now he was relying on Starla and Nami to clear out the remaining ghosts.

At least this counts towards my training, he wryly noted. Maybe there was some good to come out of this after all.

As they continued, Akira noted something. The ghosts were behaving a lot less aggressive and hostile now that he was wearing the Silph Scope. They were still surrounding him, but he hadn't heard anymore of that ominous chanting from before, telling him that he was going to stay here forever, or even yelling at him for attacking. The ghosts were just groaning as his pokemon took them out.

"Hey, Sylvia, question," Akira said, turning to look at Sylvia. He wondered if the Silph Scope would show the emptiness in her soul, but nope, just a Sylvia-shaped Sylvia.

"Yeah, what is it?" She asked, turning back to him.

"If you can see and hear these ghosts in their usual form, does that mean you could hear them talking before, too?" He asked.

Sylvia blinked. "Talking? Nope, I don't think I remember hearing any talking."

"Okay, weird. Because earlier, I could have sworn that I heard the ghosts talking," Akira said, thinking back to that earlier encounter when they'd encircled them. "They were saying stuff like 'welcome' and talking about how I was their 'guest' and asking me to stay."

"Weird," Sylvia said, dismissing all that with a bore shrug. "Guess the ghosts wanted you to stay or something."

She seemed a lot less interested than he would have expected her to. Considering they were Ghost type pokemon and not actual ghosts, it was weird that they talked.

"I haven't heard of Ghost type pokemon doing that, though, or any pokemon, really," Akira said. "Dakota's Chatot is the only pokemon I know that can speak like us, and he just mimics stuff back. Maybe Psychic types, but Ghost types? It's strange."

"Yup, real strange," Sylvia shrugged.

Akira thought about the ghosts again, remembering their haunting, distant words. Now that he wasn't scared anymore, he realized that they sounded like…

"…Sylvia."

"Hmm?" Sylvia looked back at him with an innocent smile.

"When I was trying to deal with those ghosts, how long were you in the room before you came up and gave me the Silph Scope?" Akira asked, narrowing his eyes.

Sylvia cleared her throat. "Ahem. Well, I wanted to see if you would do anything creative when you were fighting them. Using surf like that, well, that was definitely a clever trick in my opinion-"

"That was you, wasn't it?! Making all those 'stay here forever' voices!" Akira accused her.

"Look, I thought it was good to add to the dramatic effect," Sylvia shrugged.

"Are you psychotic?! I thought they were going to spirit me away to another dimension or something!" Akira exclaimed.

"But you're fine now! I gave you the Silph Scope, so stop whining!" Sylvia sighed.

"That is NOT the point! NOT the point at all!" Akira protested. He couldn't believe she would do something like that! Actually, yes, he could believe it, because Sylvia was a psycho. But that didn't make him feel better about it!

"Look, Akira, it's not a big deal, it's not like you were hurt," Sylvia scoffed, rolling her eyes. "And I even gave you the Silph Scope, didn't I?"

Akira had some more curses to level her way, but they fell on deaf ears. The two continued up the steps, Akira dispatching the Ghost types they encountered, and finally they reached the top of the Pokemon Tower.

So with a little help from Sylvia, Akira's managed to clear the Pokemon Tower! But what awaits them on the final floor? What could the ghosts have wanted, to bring him here like this?