One thing was certain, I decided while walking into Ecruteak City: this place had seen better days. Everything was rundown and trashy. The store's roof was half missing. A beggar sat in front of the Pokémon Center, holding a crude sign that read Need money for joint. I did not like the atmosphere of the place, but that feeling of dread hadn't come over me. It was safe enough for me to do my business and leave.

Out of all the buildings in town, the Gym seemed to be in the best shape. There was even a small garden in front of it, with pink and purple flowers blooming vividly. That Whitney chick, even if she was a complete jerk to others, sure knew how to make her place look nice. Still, there was no creepy feeling, so I walked on inside.

Two steps in the door, and I was feeling sick to my stomach. Three, and my head was pounding. Four, five, six, and I wanted to curl up and die. But I couldn't just give in to the pressure and leave! Where there's a Gym, there's a Leader, and where there's a Leader, there's a Badge that I need! If one is to become Champion, they need eight Badges, creepy feelings or not.

I think I got to twelve steps before the sense of fear got bad enough to make me scream out in terror. "Make it stop!" I hollered. "Make it go away!" The panic slowly subsided and, from a shadow in front of me, a woman walked forward. She had a scowl on her face and looked positively ghost-like. Her skin was pale, accentuated by her short pink hair and dark clothing. Was she even real?

"No one ever stays around for this long," she murmured, gazing at me with an eerie stare. "Why haven't you fled yet?"

"I'm here to take on the Gym Leader, and nothing is going to make me back away! Not even a haunted building will slow me down!" I triumphantly crossed my arms over my chest, just to feel something hit the back of my head. The motion from it knocked me forward, and I landed flat on my face.

The ghost girl laughed. "Good going. You made the kid fall. I was going to have some fun with him."

From behind me, I heard a man speak. "You can have fun with him later. This is the first time you've said anything in weeks. We must celebrate this, my love!" As I was picking myself up off the ground, this man went up to the girl and pulled her into a kiss. I was disgusted; this chick really couldn't have been much older than me, yet there she was kissing this old man!

"What are you doing to her, you creep?" It was the first thing I thought of to say. The man turned toward me and shook his head disapprovingly, as if I had done something wrong, and he lunged toward me. He would have reached me if the girl hadn't grabbed the back of his shirt and stopped him just inches from my face.

"Call me a creep again, and you'll be sorry. I won't let Whitney stop me from bashing your head in!" He spat at me, straight in the face. "You'll regret ever ticking me off!"

The ghost-y girl giggled, her laugh like bells. "Oh, Eusine, why are you so silly? The kid just thinks it's weird for someone so much older to love someone so much younger. I don't think he understands what it's like to live in a place like this, where we're the only young people..."

"Wait, you're Whitney?" I slowly asked, backing away from the scary man. "I don't believe this! I had the impression that you were a big lady. Like, bigger than Chuck!"

They both froze,

She let her hand loose.

I ran.

That man was chasing me, screaming his head off the entire way. "How dare you imply that my precious is fat! She is not! She is absolutely perfect and if I can get my hands on you, I will rip your head off for even saying such a thing about her! Get back here, now!"

"That's what you get for insulting me in front of him!" she cheerfully called out to me. In my defense, I had no idea he was going to do that when I had said what I said, so I just stuck my tongue out at her and kept running like my life depended on it. The good thing about being young in this situation was that he got tired way before I did.

In order to get back on their good side, I struck a deal with the two. I'd get them food if he wouldn't try and kill me and if she would forgive me for my dreadful mistake. They accepted this offer, and I left, just to come back not five minutes later with my arms filled with Berries. I offered one to Whitney, who happily took it.

The girl actually smiled at me for a second while she was eating that Berry. But when I smiled back, the polite thing to do, Eusine shot me dagger eyes. "So, kid, you came here to fight?" he grunted. "I could give you a fair fight, if you want."

"I didn't come here for a random battle. My goal is to fight Whitney and get my fourth Badge. Is that going to be hard?"

"Well, you're not going to fall off of the Gym's roof, so it'll be easy. That is, if you can get her to fight!" Eusine gave a maniacal laugh. "She only challenges me and other Leaders, and she only accepts challenges from people I recommend to her."

My face fell. "I'm not going to get that recommendation, am I?"

"I don't think so." He put his arm around Whitney's shoulders, but she was too busy eating those Berries to even care. "I tell her to fight the Leaders weaker than her. Her and Jasmine has a rivalry. I occasionally stir it up, just to see her fight. She always tells me afterward, 'Damn, boy, you really like watching me, don't you?' and I just laugh because it's so true."

"There are three Leaders I refuse to fight. Clair's an icy bitch. Pryce is sweet, but he creeps me out. And Morty...uhm..." Her eyes drifted down and a blissful smile overtook her face, until she looked up and saw Eusine glaring at her. "He's...uh...not into people like me."

Going back to my Leader list, I tried to piece things together. If Chuck was where Whitney was, who was Whitney overtaking? I racked my mind for the answer, until it came to me. She, Chuck, and Morty had all switched, hadn't they? "What town is he in?"

"Cianwood. Kinda gross little island town where some douche stole Suicune from me about five years back. That's the only time I ever saw that blond idiot, anyway. He was just being lazy out on the island, with no one yelling at him or anything." I sort of stared at Eusine, who was examining the fingers on his free hand. "Well, it's true. The guy's lazy and I don't like him. I definitely do not want my precious trying to fight someone as bad as him."

I raised an eyebrow. "She could probably creep him out with the way she acts. I mean, she tried to possess me when I first came in here!"

"I did not!" The pink-haired girl jumped to her feet and pointed an accusing finger at me. "The Ghosts were angry that a guy that isn't Eusine entered! I had nothing to do with them attacking you, but I did get them to go away!" In the span of a few seconds, she stormed off into a corner, taking with her several of the Berries I had brought her. Eusine sighed and got up to go get her, while I just sat there wondering what had just happened.

From where they were, I could hear her yelling at him, followed by him screaming something, and then it went silent. I slowly turned to see what was going on, but the sight of it was definitely too much for my young mind to comprehend, as I turned back around fast. When they did come back, I teasingly mentioned having just seen what had gone down.

Both of them blushed a little, but it was a lot more obvious on Whitney's pale face. "What do you want out of us in order for you to keep quiet about that?" she asked me.

There were a million things I could have requested, but I picked the one that mattered most to me.

"I'd like a Gym battle, please."

A/N: This chapter brought me to actually like Whitney/Eusine, just so you know. And this is definitely an alternate character interpretation of Eusine. My headcanon for him is that he's completely not-straight. So...yeah. Kinda weird.

Anyway, next chapter's the one I'm looking forward to! I can't wait to post about shirtless!Morty...

I don't own anything here.

Signel