Hey! I think this chapter will be a bit of fun for me because Gen 5 was my first gen and Lavender Town is easy to talk about.

Chapter 38: Battles and Leaders! (Lavender Town)

Black's P.O.V

We can see the Kanto RadioTower before we even enter the town. Its tall dark green figure looms over the town as a reminder of what Lavender Town used to be. It was depressing, if you ask me. I don't understand how people in that town could live there for years without committing suicide. Not because of the spooky ghosts, mind you, but rather the heavy air of depression in that town. I mean, you're basically living your life in a graveyard. It's understandable that it's one of the least populated cities in Kanto.

If you pay attention, you'll notice that there zero children in Lavender. Why? Well that's simple. Imagine being born and spending your childhood next to the biggest Pokémon graveyard in the region. You look out of the window and all you see are people mourning for their lost partner, or, if you're lucky, you might even see that white hand ghost everyone seems to be talking about. As you grow up, you don't hear stories of great Pokémon Masters in far-off lands, you hear stories of the undead rising from their graves at night, or stories of creepy ghosts that walk through walls. The worst about it all is that all these tales stem from events that happen in your hometown. That white hand the weird girl in front of the Pokémon Tower is always talking about? It might go through the walls of your own home at night when darkness engulfs you. After all, it does haunt your town. You're stuck with it.

Nowadays, Lavender Town lost its air of creepiness and sadness. The installation of the Kanto Radio Tower switched the town's focus from honoring the deceased to bringing radio entertainment to Kanto. Of course, it's not all gone. The House of Memories is still there to remember those who have been lost and it is rumored that all of the Pokémon that were buried in Pokémon Tower were moved under this building, in chambers that only Mr. Fuji knows about. I think the only aspect of Lavender that wasn't depressing was Mr. Fuji's Lavender Volunteer Pokémon House, where abandoned and orphaned Pokémon were taken care of. This was really important back when Team Rocket was in power, but not so much anymore. Orphaned Pokémon were about as common as Tympoles in the area outside Pinwheel Forest. Now, the situation isn't so bad. There's more abandoned than orphaned Pokémon. Still, it remains a very important part of Kanto.

"What are we supposed to do here?" Nate asks.

"Lavender Town doesn't even have a gym. I mean, the whole attraction is the fact that it has a spooky Pokémon graveyard where ghosts can haunt you, but the Radio Tower kind of dampens the mood."

I shrug.

"How about you try to find the white ghost hand?"

Nate rolls his eyes.

"Ha-ha, very funny. How about you go in the House of Memories and get attacked by a zombie? I bet there's a ton of them in the hidden basement."

Hilda shakes her head.

"Hidden basement? That's what you think Mr. Fuji's hiding?"

He shrugs.

"Well it can't really be just a replacement for the Pokémon Tower, can it? That's too boring."

"Does it have to be exciting? I think Mr. Fuji just wants to honor the dead correctly. Making a haunted house out of other people's dead friends doesn't sound like his deal." Rosa adds in.

"Whatever. Even if it's just the place where they moved the cemetery, it has to be haunted. No way there's that many dead Pokémon and none of them become ghosts. Why do you think Lavender Town is pretty much the only place in Kanto where you can find Ghost-types?"

Incredible. He seems to have a point and not have it at the same time.

"Why are you so confident there's ghosts?" I laugh, deliberately annoying him. "Do the Lavender Town stories still scare you?"

For some reason, out of all the haunted house stories and all the ghastly sightings in all of the known regions, Kanto's Lavender Town is the most famous. Even in the far-off region of Unova, young children still get scared by tales of The White Hand, The Ghost (Creative, I know, but it still scares young minds), The Trainer Who Was Buried Alive and The Suicide Syndrome. Of course, none of them are real, but some of them are more credible than others.

The White Hand first originated from the creepy girl that always stood in front of the Pokémon Tower. She would always approach tourists and ask them if they believed in ghosts. If you said yes, she would recognize you as a true believer just like her. If you said no, however, she'd say 'Of course! That white hand on your shoulder, it's not real...'. Obviously, the victim would look behind them to check for the ghost, but there was never anything there. When the victim would turn around again, the girl would be gone. This was made specially creepy when told around a campfire or in a closed circle because there would always be that one jerk who would put his hand on your shoulder the moment the story ended.

The Ghost was by far the simplest. Anyone who went to the upper levels of the Pokémon Tower without a Silph Scope would get scared by the apparition of a dark ghost. Every Pokémon it battled was too scared to attack, but the ghost itself didn't attack either. Every encounter with the ghost would end in the trainer running away in horror. Because of its simplicity, this story was by far the least scary. Anyone smart enough to know you need a Silph Scope to identify ghosts was immune to the tale.

The Trainer Who Was Buried Alive is probably my personal favorite, so I know it by heart. Because of The Ghost, there were very few trainers who could get to the top of the Pokémon Tower. Those who did were greeted by a terrifying figure coming out of a grave. The creature looked human, but it was far too thin and its eye sockets continuously glowed red, despite not having any eyeballs at all. It would pierce the trainer's soul with its crimson stare and its smell of rotten flesh and say:
"You're...here..."
Its voice was raspy and low, as if its throat hadn't produced sounds in years.
"I'm trapped…"
Its fingers still held dirt between them.
"And I'm lonely…"
Sadness was hard to show in a face that doesn't move, but it somehow managed to display it.
"So very lonely…"
Now its voice spoke of pain.
"Won't you join me?"
Finally, it would extend its bony arms out and beckon the victim towards it. Most trainers run away or die of fright at this point, but some are just brave enough to face the creature. Those that did were easily defeated, as the monster was helped by the other ghosts of Lavender Town. No trainer was ever strong enough to beat both of The White Hands or the multiple Ghosts it possessed. Once victorious, the creature would scream in a frightening voice:
"FINALLY! FRESH MEAT!"
Afterwards, it would drag down the trainer into its grave while crying out in pure joy. The people downstairs would no doubt run away, as the only sound that would reverberate through the tower's walls would be the horrible mixture of the creature's screams of happiness mangled with the trainer's screams of agony. At a point, both sounds are drowned out by the ground they are now under. Then, silence.
This was my favorite because it combined all of the other tales and told a very scary story at the same time. I couldn't sleep the night I was told the story, as I could only think of the poor Trainer Who Was Buried Alive and the monster that took him.

The Suicide Syndrome wasn't necessarily the scariest, but it was the most realistic story. As it goes, anyone that spends too much time outside in Lavender Town or sleeps there regularly has a high chance of killing themselves. This myth was propagated by the fact that most suicides in all of the Kanto area (Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnnoh) happen in Lavender Town. Also, young trainers and kids never went there because the town would suddenly give them a headache or make them sick.
The stories vary, but the one I was told was the one were a family moves to Lavender Town after the father retires from working in Castelia. Fairly soon after arriving, the family's only child gets sick and is plagued by constant painful headaches. The father promptly leaves the town in search of a cure. The mother, confident that the child will eventually get better, decides to take a stroll in her new home and tries to make acquaintances with the other inhabitants of Lavender Town. She locks the door behind her and heads for the Pokémon Tower first, but she's stopped by a girl with a creepy stare. The girl asks her if she believes in ghosts. The mother confidently says no.
"Teehee! Of course! That white hand on your shoulder, it's not real..." she says.
The mother frowns and looks back to find nothing, then looks back in front of her to yet again find nothing at all. She dismisses the encounter as just a playful girl messing with the newcomer and enters the tower. In the tower, she attempts to meet the people inside, but they all shrug her off, as they're either still in mourning or waiting for a battle. However, she does meet a woman around her age that acts kindly and greets her as a friend. After a while of talking, the woman nervously looks around her and says:
"Oh, it's been nice meeting you, but I should really get home now. Staying outside for this long in this town is very dangerous."
"Why?" The mother asks.
But the woman simply shakes her head and hurries off to her home.
Again dismissing it as simply superstition, the mother continues her ascent up the tower. Yet again, she is defied by everyone she meets until a point where she gets to sixth floor, she is suddenly attacked by the apparition of a ghost. The mother, despite never having lived in Kanto, knows of the ghosts in the higher floors of the tower and the Silph Scope needed to identify them, so she is not scared. She nods and steps back, making the ghost go away. Unsatisfied with her visit to the town's main landmark, she decides to talk to the people outside the buildings. Outside the tower, she greets one of the inhabitants of Lavender Town and introduces herself. Not long after this, however, she starts to notice things. The man she is talking to seems to look directly behind her instead of at her. The creepy girl is back in front of the tower, rubbing her shoulder nervously. The town's purple sign looks as if it is decaying. The sky is dark and stormy, yet it lets off a purple hue that makes the town look the same color as a Haunter's skin. The mother is wearing a coat, yet she still feels oddly cold. Quickly, the mother gets the feeling that something isn't right. The pit in her stomach continues to grow larger and larger. Her head feels light despite the headache she's starting to have. The mother excuses herself to the man and heads home to see her son. Perhaps the sight of her beautiful young son would clear her head. Along the way, shadows move along the corners of her eyes. Whispers are heard, despite her being completely alone. Alone, cold and sick, she hurries to her new house quickly. The door is locked. Suddenly she's panting, looking all around her nervously as she scrambles for her keys. This wasn't like her. She was calm and collected not even an hour ago. The door clicks open and she runs in, slamming the door behind her. She takes a moment to catch her breath against the door but is still plagued by visions of shadows running everywhere she can't see. The mother desperately heads to her son's room to seek shelter in her arms of her family. The door to his room opens and the mother screams, finally releasing all of the fear she had pent up inside her. The child's bed was empty. Where had her child gone? Where was her sole hope for sanity? The mother runs back to the living room and heads for her own bedroom. Maybe he's just curious about his new home. No, no, he's not there either. Finally, the mother's last hope is the small kitchen. She once again runs and screams upon entering the kitchen.
Her child was dead. His blood was spilled across the kitchen floor and his eyes were completely devoid of life. His throat had been slit by the knife that lay in his hand. The pain had been to much for the boy. He had screamed and screamed in pain, but both of his parents were gone. The door was locked. He had no way of running away or calling for help. In the end, the child dealt with the pain himself and ended his torture. This may have been the final nail in the coffin for the mother. The place had driven her insane and now her only child was dead. She grabs the same knife that killed her child and applies quickly it to her abdomen. In her final moments, she no longer screams. She instead lets go of the weapon and lays beside her dead son.
Not long after, the father finally arrives with the medicine and enters the town, only to be greeted by the sight of his wife and child dead on the ground, creating a pool of blood with their combined flow. Nothing was known of this man again.
This story, along with many others, convinced a lot of people that the only people that live in Lavender Town are ghosts.

"I'm not scared." Nate shakes his head. "I just know that there was once a huge tower built for housing dead bodies and now it has been replaced. All I want to know is where they've gone. "

Rosa shrugs.

"I think there's no point. Why would you want to find out where dead bodies are kept? They reek of decay and are only there for others to mourn."

"Eh, whatever. I guess I'm just curious." Now Nate shrugs as well.

"Let's just catch some Pokémon and head back to Saffron." I say.

"There's no point if staying here if there's no gym."

"Maybe you just want to leave because you're spooked." Nate smiles.

I roll my eyes.

"Just do it."

Pokémon caught in Lavender Town:

The Ghastly and Cubone evolution lines.

"Done?" I ask.

"Yeah, let's go." Nate takes one last look at the Radio Tower and the House of Memories before heading to the left exit with the rest of us.

AAAAAHHHH! Finally! Sorry for actually missing my deadline this week, but I felt super sick the whole week. In fact, I bust my ass trying to write this whole thing Saturday morning. It just feels really bad to promise something and then not do it. So anyway, here's the Lavender Town episode. I'm going to try to make it up for you guys.

As always, please review to let me know there's someone out there that actually reads what I write. Laters!