Chapter 3- Route 15's Dangerous Poké-Wall
To be entirely honest, this isn't how I thought I would be spending my Saturday. At all.
My Friday nights end up a little more… is 'normal' really the right way to put it? It's normal for me but not other people, if that helps. And no, I don't mean the whole 'sleepover with friends', 'stay up all night doing homework or playing video games' thing, I mean 'save people's lives while they sleep' and 'keep my friends from arguing about whether biology class should be banned from using dead animals as test subjects so they can rest in peace' kind of deal.
I'm Danny Fenton, and for about the past year, my life has been nothing but chaos.
I never really tell people this due to worrying about my own safety and well-being, but if you're gonna be able to follow anything, you kinda need to know: I'm half-ghost, and that gives me access to a bunch of ghost powers. Sure I look human now, but when I need to, I can go ghost and turn into my alter ego, Danny Phantom. I save my home town of Amity Park from any and all ghosts that attack, which is pretty much ghost central because of my parents.
... No, I'm not joking, I'm not lying, ghosts really do exist, I'm still alive -technically... I think... hopefully...- and I'm not crazy if that's what you were thinking.
… Excuse me, my superhero name is TOO creative. No one knows who I am besides my friends and sister after all this time, so it has to work for something!
I'm thinking that's why I can talk to Haunter. Ghosts don't have their own language, besides the languages they spoke before they died, but it's easier for me to understand him simply besides he's a 'Ghost-Type', whatever that is.
Right, right, so back to how I ended up in this mess.
In retrospect, it's a kind of funny story. My parents wanted me to help them in the lab. I'm grounded because I had to cut class and fight a giant angry ghost bear so it's what they thought up for my punishment.
They were making some alterations to the family ghost portal, the thing that made me half-ghost, and my dad told me to hook back up a few loose wires that he couldn't reach. I guess I connected something wrong 'cause the inside of the portal sort of exploded. I'm not a tech guy, what did you expect?
When the portal blew up, a large gust of wind was drawn into the center. Mom and Dad were fine because they were a bit further away when it happened, but I got sucked right in. The next thing I know, I'm falling about 200 feet from the ground above a large forest of trees. I was dropping like a rock, and didn't even have enough air in my lungs to scream. And lucky me, the huge burst of ectoplasm must have knocked out a large chunk of my powers, so I couldn't fly to save myself from smacking into as many trees as the universe thought appropriate for me to smack into. Which was a lot because as I discovered a long time ago, the universe hates my guts.
The landing at least was soft though… but only because I landed on that mushroom 'Pokeymon' thing. That's when Haunter found me.
This whole thing is looking pretty bleak. Stuck in a world where eggs can apparently talk, and the fish always look angry, and only normal thing around is a ghost without any arms that always has its tongue out when it isn't talking with no way back and no way to even defend myself. I check whenever Haunter isn't looking and I'm down to only my very most basic powers: intangibility, my ghost sense, my glowing eyes that light up when I get agitated or angry, and invisibility of small parts of my body. At least when I first got my powers, I could fly.
Who knows what's going on back home? Mom and Dad are probably going nuts with worry right now. My friends Sam and Tucker most definitely know I'm gone. My sister would have realized why our parents were panicking and called them to fill them in. Besides that, I have no idea what's going on back there.
Until I get back I'm gonna have a heck of a time learning how things work here. A minute ago, Haunter and I passed by two people making an anteater and a bald eagle fight each other. Is that kind of thing common? Do people really spend their time here making helpless animals fight like they're in crazed dog fights or something?
Okay, so I wouldn't say helpless. The anteater started breathing fire and the gusts of wind that the eagle made nearly put Vortex to shame. And Haunter's telling me that his kind of Pokeyman -there's more than one Haunter?- can lick people to poison them until they convulse and die. It's like the Ghost Zone all over again only with humans and cute little creatures that can easily kill you! Fun! And just over there to the right of us on a bridge, I can hear a fight between a weasel that can shoot water from thin air and a flying squirrel that zaps people. Am I gonna have to get a Pokeyman in order to function in this place? I guess I'm going to have to if I'm gonna get anything done without my more aggressive abilities.
"Dang, you're quieter than a Cyndaquil, Danny. Thought you'd at least talk and make this whole thing more tolerable."
I get startled out of my train of thought by Haunter. I almost forgot he was next to me to be honest; he hasn't been the most talkative either.
"Sorry, I'm just thinking things over. So what was up with those two guys making that eagle and anteater fight each other?" I ask. If I'm gonna be stuck here, I REALLY need to know this kind of stuff. Haunter gives me an attitude again.
"First off, I already told you, it's Heatmor and Braviary, not an 'anteater' and 'eagle'. What even are those?!"
"Animals from my world," I answer. I hope he'll eventually get the hint I'm not lying to him about being from another dimension if I keep dropping hints.
"And what in the Distortion World is an 'animal'?"
"I'm not answering that until you give me a solid, coherent answer on what a 'Pokeyman' exactly is."
"Pokémon!"
"Whatever." I know fighting over something like this is really stupid and childish, but that's how Haunter acts, so I'm stooping down to his level.
I have no idea what Haunter's problem is with me. I thought his reluctance to go with me was from the fact that he didn't want to leave his little stump I saw him sitting on, but now I think he hates me and I didn't even do anything!
"Secondly," he continues, "since I'm just gonna play along with your whole 'other dimension' crud to spare myself the headache, they were in the middle of a Pokémon battle. It's basically a test of skill between two trainers. First one to knock out the other wins, and they get some prize money from the loser."
"So no one actually gets killed then?"
"Not unless a human gets in the way." I think he likes the look on my face from that answer a little too much. "But don't sweat it, kid, we only aim for our opponent unless we're told otherwise. Just because we're monsters doesn't mean we're monsters."
"I think I can sympathize with that a little," I say under my breath. Ghosts are the outcasts of the human world based on that very notion. Heck, I don't fair much better, being both dead and alive at once.
"What was that, kid?"
"Nothing." I'd like to get out of here with my secret intact, thank you very much. Even though I shouldn't have to worry about it too much, this not being home and all, who knows? There could be someone out there looking for something part human and part Pokeyman even though I'm nothing like that. Ghosts are considered a 'type' here, so that wouldn't matter. Besides, there's a science lab right up on the hill. I dunno what they do and I don't wanna find out by announcing my status to the world.
I want to get away from those kinds of thoughts, so I decide to look around if Haunter's not going to make much of an effort to make conversation. At the very least, the world I ended up in is beautiful. The rising sun brings a warm tone to the falling leaves all around us. I lost one of my sneakers on the fall, but I don't mind much if the grass feels this nice and cool under my feet. The fauna around here are actually surprisingly cool too, even if they are all Pokeymon.
There're tons of things around here. Kangaroos with really cute babies in their pouches; a few are glaring at me as I pass them by, but at least ONE of them is waving at me so that has to count for something. Giant birds with huge, long beaks that look permanently ticked off. An oddly human-like blue creature that's practicing karate with a tubby red dude. Pokeymon sure come in a lot of shapes and sizes. The one that catches my eye, though, is a little greenish gray Pokeyman over by the hill.
There's a group of the creatures, huddled together and munching the ground like they're all my dad eating fudge. They look pretty happy with one another. Despite their monster-esque appearances, their smiles make them look adorable.
"Hey, Haunter, what kind of Pokeymon are those?" I ask Haunter, nudging him to get him to look and pointing towards the hill.
"'Pokémon', dipstick. And they're called 'Larvitar'. They eat dirt so they can grow up properly," Haunter explains. One of the Larvitar spots us and starts walking up to the two of us. It's pretty small compared to the others; must be either a baby or a runt depending on whether younger ones work the same here as in my world.
Haunter looks disgusted, but I couldn't care less. It's friendly and I want to get a better look at it.
"Hey there, little guy…" I tell it, crouching down slowly so I can get to about its size. It trills, giving me a smile that could melt my core if that was possible.
"Larrr…" It stops in front of me, looking into my eyes and looking me over. Moving my hand carefully to it, I start petting it.
"I wouldn't touch it if I were you…"
"Oh, lighten up, man. I don't think the little guy can hurt me." I'm pretty sick of Haunter's dour mood. I mean, c'mon, what's the worst thing that can happen just by petting the thing?
It closes its eyes and tilts its head slightly so that my palm can get a better groove going. The skin is smooth but hard, a bit like polished up stone. A slight tap to test the feel a bit more slightly hurts my fingers, and it doesn't seem to notice. Is it actually made out of rock?
"Danny, seriously, let's go."
"It'll be fine, Haunter."
Of course with my rotten luck, that's when the ground starts to shake.
The Larvitar looks off towards the hill and runs off, leaving me confused and getting Haunter to freak out. Since he can float and is higher up, he's seeing something I don't. A loud roar gets my attention.
"What did I tell you, man?!" Haunter screams, flailing his arms and flying around and panicking.
Coming up over the horizon is a large green dinosaur type monster. Looking up at it, it reminds me of a ghost dragon from my friend Dora's kingdom: big, powerful, and most importantly angry. Very angry… The little Larvitars crowd around it, and close together like that, I can see the resemblance.
"What the heck is that thing?!"
"That's a Tyranitar, the final evolved form of Larvitar. They're territorial, love fighting, and the moms protect their offspring to the death. Bet you wish you didn't touch one of her babies NOW, huh, kid?!"
Those cute Larvitar turn into THAT? What kind of world am I even in; that's even more drastic than Cujo's morphing!
"YOU HURT BABIES...!" rings in my ears in the form of another loud roar. If I can hear it talk to me too, it must be another Ghost Type. I'd ask why I couldn't detect it, but then I remember that my Ghost Sense doesn't really work on Pokeymon.
"S-Sorry, ma'am! We don't want any trouble!" I yell. "We're just gonna clear out and leave you alone!" I've seen bigger things before, and have taken them down myself, but without the majority of powers giving me a bit of that extra oomph of confidence I'm totally scared of the thing. You know you would too, darn it!
"It's no use, you can't just calm down an angry Tyranitar! Let's hurry up and get out of here! The gate that leads to Route 16 is only a little ways away!" Haunter tells me, already gunning for the exit without me. Like I said, he hates me, but back to the point. I'm about to follow when I get distracted having to dodge a large white and red beam. I luckily dodge in time but the large chunk of ground I left behind wasn't so lucky, blown to bits in the wake of the beam's impact. I scramble to my feet, taking off running when large stones erupt from out of the ground and block my path, barely missing me and piercing me to death.
Well, does she want me to get the heck out of dodge and away from her kids or not?! Pick one!
She roars again and comes closer and closer. Haunter and no one else is looking, so I phase through the rocks and keep going, running as fast as my feet can take me. She keeps making rock barricades to try to get me to stop, but I remain intangible and pass safely through.
I'm almost there. Almost to safety. Come on, Danny, run with everything you've got! I've got this! I can make it!
According to the pain in my back right now, I can't make it!
It's then that I'm blasted with a large purplish-brown beam that passes through my intangibility this time, making me slam the ground on my stomach and see twinkling stars in my vision as I do. The world spins, but I don't think I hit my head hard enough to do that.
The Tyranitar is right up on me, and only when I come to my senses does she roar again. I'm on my back and I try anything to buy me time to crawl away: throwing chunks of grass in her eye, using the dirt around me like some kind of smokescreen, even trying but failing to use my ghost rays. Nothing working!
"TINY HUMAN PAY!" With a large draw of air, she builds up a pool of purple-brown energy again, aiming straight for my face, no doubt. I brace myself. There's no way my intangibility is going to protect me when the beam seems to cancel it, and it's at too close a range to try to escape at this point.
"EAT CONFUSE RAY!" I hear from behind us. Haunter's back, and with a flick of the wrist, purple-white orbs surround the Tyranitar, making it dizzy. She forgets all about me for the time being, blinking excessively and holding her head.
"Get up, kid, do you WANT to get blown apart?!" I shake my head and get up. He actually came back to help me out! By the time the Tyranitar seems to snap out of her daze, we're both out of sight. I see her roar in frustration before going back to her kids, meaning that we're finally in the clear.
"How about next time when I tell you to knock something off, you listen to me? You almost got yourself killed and made yourself into a Pokémon." Haunter glares at me when we get inside the gate.
"I could have gotten out of there much easier if you hadn't ditched me!" I yell back. I didn't forget about that just because I almost got nuked in the face. He could have done that glowy ball thing before at any time and I could have gotten to safety on my own. Yeah, it's my fault that she attacked in the first place, but still, what happened to 'partners'? I can tell that my eyes are probably ablaze right now, but I can't help being upset. His eyes shift in shock, so that answers the question on whether he notices or not.
"I thought you could have caught up. I didn't know it was gonna use Stone Edge all those times, and that's my bad, but still. You're a newbie to this whole Pokémon, kid. Not heeding any warnings will get you hurt. I don't HAVE to give you any advice, y'know? I didn't have to come back, either. Could have let you learn your lesson the hard way but I didn't."
What's with the protective attitude all of a sudden?
There's no point in continuing this argument. The both of us screwed up back there, and if he can acknowledge his mistake, then I can too. I sigh and my eyes return to normal, and I mentally berate myself on letting them get out of control like that. He's probably coming up with tons of theories on what else is up with me besides being a crazy person.
"... I'm sorry for not listening to you the first time. I just didn't think we were in any trouble." I frown and wait for him to respond. His floating arms are crossed and looking over me intensely. Whatever he was looking out for must have satisfied him because he relaxes not a minute later.
"I'm sorry for leaving you behind. But really… Dark-Types aren't something to mess with."
"Wait, wait, Dark type? Then how could I understand her?"
"You knew what she was saying!?" Haunter backs up a bit in surprise, eyes bulging out of their sockets. He regains his composure soon after.
"Hmm… I guess it's because Ghost- and Dark- types are a bit similar. Not totally similar though, but enough to be a bit hard to tell apart. How well could you understand?"
"I could tell what she was saying overall, but it was choppy. Like there were only basic translations rather than telling exactly like I can with you. If that makes any sense."
So I can only mildly talk to any Dark types while with Ghost types, it's like talking to another person… Ghost I get, but how similar can Dark types be?
"Let's get moving. Once we get to Route 16, the Pokémon there get much weaker. We'll have a better time traveling, and then we can stop at Nimbasa City to rest."
So that's that with Route 15 then. I can only hope that no other Pokémon end up being as dangerous as that Tyranitar when I'm powered down like this.
Oh, yeah, and powers, you mind coming back some time soon so I can actually defend myself?