Chapter 2- Introductions
Sweet mother of Arceus, this kid is heavier than he looks.
After maybe 30 seconds, I can't carry him on my back anymore so I have to resort to dragging him because I can barely lift him off the ground. I'm screaming on the inside because I have a half a mile to go before I hit the Pokemon Center.
"Lay off the... " I huff for a second, "hotdogs, kid...! Whew…" Of course, the only response I get is snoring. REALLY loud snoring that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I tell ya, this keeps getting better and better.
Oh, don't pretend you aren't laughing at me. Hey, just because I'm a lightweight doesn't mean that I can't lift stuff! So what if I'm out of shape? I can even lift a Patrat if I put my mind into it… whadaya mean they only weigh 25 pounds?!
"Don't suppose you'd… wanna… wake up and... take yourself to the center, kid…?" I try asking him, homing in on the Pokemon Center's glow with the dopiest smile on my face. It's not that far away now!
"Keep the marshmallow pies away from the wood chipper, Box Ghost…" he mumbles in his sleep about five seconds later.
"Whatever that's supposed to mean, I'm taking it as a 'no'." And what the heck is a 'Box Ghost' anyways? Is it a Rotom-Wash? I think it's a Rotom-Wash; only Ghost that fits. I groan and shut myself up; complaining's only gonna make things a billion times worse. And just to rub a bit of salt in the wound, as I get just about to the door, he starts jostling and stirring around. Unless he's somehow got Early Bird, that's not possible, for starters. I mean, it's not like this scrawny kid's bulky enough to fight off the spores; Amoonguss blasted him point blank with a lot of 'em, enough to knock out something as big as a Donphan.
Why did he have to wait until we were almost there too?!
"Kid, you alright?" I give trying to get him to answer me another shot, seeing as though his eyes are slightly cracked open. No answer comes; he's just looking at me like some half asleep goober, like a little kid who's trying to keep themselves awake on a long road trip in the middle of the night.
"Don't worry, I'll get you some help," I reassure, setting him down against the wall. Yeah that Amoonguss could come find him, but he's a laughably slow Pokemon on the move and I am TIRED… Making sure the kid's not gonna go anywhere, I phase through the wall into the Center, not even bothering to use the door. Business is slow this time of night, so nothing should stop the kid from getting treated right away with a few Chesto Berries. Sooner I'm alone again, the better.
"JOY, WE GOT TROUBLE!"
Nurse Joy darts her head from out of her newspaper at me the moment I rush in screaming, though it's probably nuthin' but that Pokenese gibberish to her. Man I hate our language barriers sometimes. Seriously, humans, we Pokemon aren't THAT hard to understand...
"Haunter, what's the matter? You usually don't come in here," Joy asks me as she comes from behind the counter, looking a little concerned and suspicious; No lady, I'm not here to scare anyone this time! It's an emergency!
"Look, I need help ASAP! There's this kid outside and he got hit with a Sp-"
"-aun! Haunter haun-haun!" Specter waves his arms frantically, trying to convince Nurse Joy to follow him outside. His eyes bulge in exertion multiple times as he becomes more and more frustrated with Nurse Joy's dumbfounded expression, Trainers within the waiting area looking at the ghost Pokemon like he had gone insane.
"HAUNTER HAUN-TER!"
"Haunter, please, slow down. I have no idea what you're trying to tell me," Joy explains as sweetly as she can, walking slowly to Specter like you would any feral Pokemon. If he had finally lost it, she would have to take precaution as an attack from the decently high leveled Pokemon would hurt badly. In response, Specter glares, and uses any energy he has left to pull the nurse outside by the collar of her uniform.
"O-Oh!" Joy yelps.
"Haun Haunter H-"
"-lly don't have time for this." I tell her as I'm pulling her, pretty sick of all her 'Wild Pokemon Control' time wasting crap. It's really hard, but I eventually get her outside despite all of her resistance.
"Honestly, what's the problem, Haunter?" She says, tilting her head. If she seriously can't hear the snoring -the kid's probably conked out again- she's deaf. Finally she looks out from behind me and sees him.
"A Trainer?" She gets out of my grip and heads on over to him, looking him up and down and noticing all of the purple specks on him; typically, spores are green, but the Amoonguss out here have purple spores with everything other than a Stun Spore. Then she turns to me. "Did you accidentally hit someone with a Poison Jab again?"
I swear, you Poison Jab a Trainer in the stomach because you thought they were a log and get them sent to the hospital ONE TIME and you never hear the end of it. I groan impatiently and lift a tiny purple particle off of the kid's shirt to show it to her.
Just from looking at him more closely like this, I really can't tell if this kid's Unovan or not? He doesn't have the look of someone from Kanto, Johto, or Sinnoh, he doesn't look rugged enough for Hoenn, he's DEFINITELY not tan enough for Alola, and this plain white and red t-shirt would get him laughed off the streets in Kalos. Bunch of preppy fashionista jerkwads… He doesn't look like he's from anywhere else I know off, it's just that he seems too… OFF for Unova.
"Those are Spores," Nurse Joy says, pointing out the obvious like she normally does. She nods to herself and rushes back into the Center, coming back out with a water spritzer, a towel, and a few Chesto Berries. It's looking to be a pretty simple operation then. No need for me to stick aro-
"WAIT FOR ME, MS JOY!"
Oh no…
A moment later, a Chansey comes running out of the Center, a red Basculin in her hand. She wears a grin so creepy that it makes the rest of my own species blush, has a disposition so secretly vile that you wouldn't know she was about to take pleasure in your pain until it was too late. A Gyarados walked into the building with his Trainer about a week ago; both of them skipped the area and went straight to the further away Nimbasa City to heal when they were passing through.
She goes by many names, but most simply call her Clover.
Clover… Clover's not exactly right in the head like your typical Center 'Mon.
"Don't worry, Ms. Joy! I'll get those nasty Spores off of him!" Clover says, grabbing the Basculin like a water pistol and aiming it right at the kid's chest.
"C-Can't we just push him into the pond to wash him off?" Basculin says, clearly in a lot of pain from how Clover's squeezing him.
"We could… BUT THIS IS MORE FUN!" Clover screams, smiling from ear to ear as she mashes Basculin's sides together HARD and forces him to use Hydro Pump instead of a nice and gentle Water Gun. Poor kid wakes up almost immediately, even with the Spores still all over him. Thanks to the angle he was at, he gets launched right into the pond, as if the universe was messing with him.
"That was fun," Clover concludes, waddling back in while Nurse Joy looks at her surprised. You mean she DOESN'T know her Chansey is a sadist?
The kid lands with a loud splash and a yelp as his body enters the surprisingly deep pool. A moment later and his body shoots up as he grips the sides with a gasp, sputtering and coughing out water and trying to catch his breath, Nurse Joy's on him in seconds.
"Are you okay, young man?" Nurse Joy says, holding out a hand for him to grip. Even though it's kinda messed up, I'm holding back snickering at the kid's head. His unnaturally messy hair's all soaked and floppy and a Lotad's sleeping on top of his head without him even noticing.
"Besides the stabbing pain in my left side and the fact my lungs are full of more water than air, I think I'm gonna be fine... " He takes her hand gratefully and is lifted out of the water, the Lotad falling off when he tries patting some water out of his ear. Little guy pouts before swimming back in.
"I'm so sorry my Chansey did that. I have no idea what came over her," Joy says as she bows in apology. Clover comes back out at JUST the right time. The kid just so happens to glance at her when he's about to ask what a 'Chansey' is and his eyes look like they're gonna come out of his skull from how wide they get.
"Ooh, ooh, how'd I do?! How hurt is he?!" You can practically see the excitement dancing off her eyes as she looks at the kid.
"That's a Chansey?" He points to her, and she gets the saddest look
"Dang, he's not hurt enough to come back in…" I hear Clover mutter as she turns to go back inside, hiding what looks suspiciously like a Rocky Helmet. He intently watches her leave, soaking her appearance all in and doing a gaped mouth double take as if he can't believe what he's seeing.
"First evil mushrooms and now a giant pink egg creature?" He puts his hands into his head in exasperation. "Either that portal took me to a new part of the Ghost Zone or I hit my head on the way down."
Ghost Zone? There's a place with a bunch of Ghost-types?
"I'm sorry? 'Ghost Zone'?" Nurse Joy asks, probably confused just like me.
"Don't worry about it," he says quickly, backpedalling. Nurse Joy seems to forget about it but I sure as heck haven't. And it's late at night in the middle of winter. Why isn't he freezing his butt off and shivering? "Where am I?"
"This is White Forest, a nature reserve within the eastern portion of the Unova region," Nurse Joy says with a smile. The rising anxiety on him is practically tangible. Kinda reminds me of my old trainer early on when I nearly fainted fighting a Watchog.
Stop thinking about him, Specter.
"You wouldn't happen to know the way back to Amity Park, would you?"
"You mean Amity Square? Honey, that's a Pokemon playground all the way in the Sinnoh Region, isn't it? Why would you need to be there?"
"Oh, man, this isn't good…" He mutters to himself, running a hand through his hair.
He then goes on to explain his situation. Y'know, telling her that his name is Danny and that he's somehow from 'another dimension' because his parents are child endangering mad scientists. Yeah, okay, kid. And I thought the crazy dimension hoppers over in Alola were insane liars. Halfway through, I sit back down on my stump, their voices starting to drone on as I try to catch a few zzz's before the sun comes up. Because Joy's so dense and barely even gets it on a basic level like me, Danny's voice starts rising a few octaves in desperation and sleep gets thrown out the window. Arceus, I hate kids going through puberty.
"I think maybe you need to sit down for awhile, sweetie…" Joy says, trying to guide him inside the Center. It works for a bit… before his body goes right through her… And is it me or did his eyes get REALLY green for a second there?
"Look, I'm telling the truth! I'm from another dimension, not this Pokey Man place!"
"Pokémon," Joy answers nonchalantly.
He sighs and calms down, and that weird green tinge goes away. Guess he knows there's no really dealing with her. "Pokémon. Whatever. Is there any way for me to get out of here and get back home? I've got friends and family I need to get back to," Danny pleads, crossing his arms impatiently. By now his clothes are totally bone dry and his hair is back in that spiky mess like it's in perma-hair gel mode. I roll my eyes, looking back towards the edge of the forest.
"Well… I don't really know much about that. You could ask Professor Juniper in Nuvema Town. She'd most likely have an idea of how to help you."
Heh. A guy like him going through here to Nuvema Town? He'd get eaten alive. Aw well. Nice knowing hi-
"Haunter can help you get there safely if you don't have a Pokémon of your own!"
...I'm sorry, what did she say…?
"Hey, it's that ghost that helped me out with the giant mushroom from before!"
She can't be serious, can she…? She's gonna make me be a guide 'mon to a guy I found in the forest that turned out to be a deluded nut?!
"Haunter used to belong to the Champion of the region. He knows it like the back of his hand. He'll be able to take you to Nuvema Town safely"
"Now what makes you think I'm gonna-" I get interrupted by Joy pushing the two of us together like lovers. I dunno why she's in a hurry to get him to leave but a map gets shoved into his hand and we get sent off. "Be careful you two!"
I wait until she's gone before speaking further on the matter. "Alright, look, kid, there is absolutely no way I'm leaving this forest. You can go skipping around getting yourself killed on Route 15 for all I care, but I want no part o- Hey where'd he go?" I notice that he already left. Got about 20 feet away without me noticing.
"If you don't wanna help out, that's fine!" Danny says while waving when I finally see him. "I can walk there myself, thanks!"
Well. That takes care of that headache.
Honestly, I don't know why I was so worried. He's an idiot. Of course he'd think he could get to Nuvema Town all by himself. Might as well get some shut eye an-
"Nurse Joy told you to go with him, Specter."
"GAH!" Holy crud, Clover is a little sneak. Makes me fall right off my stump. How she waddled all the way over without me noticing is beyond me.
"But that's okay if you don't want to go… you can stay here with me…"
Oh, THAT ain't happening. "Uh… DANNY WAIT FOR ME!" I hightail my purple little butt back over to the kid quick as a flash, making him jump. He gives me a bit of a smug look as he addresses me before looking back to his map.
"That was quick," he says, barely looking up. "What made you change your mind?"
"Oh, I just wanted to do my part as an upstanding Poké-citizen and help you get t-"
"Was it the demonic 'Chansey'?"
"Yup." That gets a few chuckles out of him while I pout. Then something occurs to me. "Wait, so you knew what she was saying too?"
"No," he answers, "I could tell she was evil by her body language. It's something I picked up on after a while." I don't think I even want to know what that's supposed to mean.
"Then how come you can understand me?"
"Hmm… let's just say I know a thing or two about talking to ghosts." Ah, part of his 'interdimensional' thing, I presume. "So do I just call you 'Haunter' or do you want to be called something else."
"...Just call me Haunter, kid." No one's got the right to call me 'Specter' unless I tell them they can… or if they're Clover and I can't stop them. He seems to pick up on how my mood lessens a bit, but doesn't say anything.
"Alright then. Despite a bit of an awkward start, it's nice to meet you, Haunter." He stops and turns to me, extending out his arm for a hand shake. "My name's Danny. I promise once I get to the professor you can leave if you want but until then, partners?"
I look at his hand for a solid minute, thinking. It reminds me of the demeanor my old trainer had. All nice and caring about my feelings and such. He loved getting my input on everything he did, even though he couldn't directly understand me like Danny can. Last time he ever truly did something like this was when we were looking around near the Strange House. He wanted to know if it was okay if he caught one of the Litwick inside the building. Little did I know it was to try and dispose of me the 'easy' way.
Don't think about that now, Spec. Danny isn't him. At least I don't think so right now without any solid proof. Take his hand so we can leave.
"...Partners." I grab his hand in a tight grip, mentally preparing myself to leave the forest for the first time in years.
This trip is secretly gonna be the second death of me, isn't it?
(Sorry about putting this story on the back burner for so long, but I'm back.
Almost forgot to mention one thing: on the Pokemon side of things, the world is more based on 'Black 2 and White 2' than 'Black and White', with White Forest based on White's version. The main story here deviates from the games as I'm not sure I want to add in Team Plasma or not; I find they wouldn't really fit the tone that I'm going for and would provide an unnecessary distraction. Therefore, in terms of story, if you haven't played the games you shouldn't be worried about spoilers.)
Edit: For those of you who saw the new chapter before the post chapter posting edit, the story's still No PP. Sorry for any confusion.