The Great Pokemon Conspiracies:

~The Old Chateau~

Chapter Six: One Stairway Up

"You know what they say," Swiftwing said lightly, "If you can't get out, go farther in."

"I thought they said 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em'," detail-oriented Silversong said.

"Whatever," Swiftwing said dismissively. "I think we should go farther in. Maybe there's another exit somewhere inside."

"There isn't any other exit," Roselio moaned, but Meta Knight, Ultramarine, and Silversong were already nodding their heads.

Dusk took charge of the situation - she IS our trainer - and said, "Swiftwing is right. Whenever we meet a dead end, we shouldn't dwell on our problem. We should move on."

"Well said, Trainer," Meta Knight agreed gruffly.

"Well then, let's go one stairway up, shall we?" Dusk said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible.

...

We went upstairs, and were immediately greeted by doors.

Doors.

More doors.

"Man, this looks like a never-ending corridor lined with doors," Swiftwing complained. "Do we have to go into each room?"

"Of course," Dusk replied. "A good Pokémon Trainer knows better than to skip places. We always explore every nook and cranny thoroughly."

"Well said," Meta Knight said again.

"Thanks," Dusk smiled. "That's what my Kantonese friend Kammy always says."

We followed Dusk into the first room through the door on the very left end of the corridor. We passed a lot of portraits hung on the walls. They all showed men and women wearing old-fashioned clothes.

Roselio made the mistake of looking around until he got some distance behind the others. Suddenly, he yelped.

"What is it, scaredy-cat?" Swiftwing sighed.

"Th-th-that man in the photo is glaring at me," Roselio stammered.

"So are every other man and woman in the portraits and so will I if you don't get a move on," Swiftwing said without turning around.

Roselio sighed and started walking again. But eventually he spoke again.

"Swiftwing?"

"What now?"

"Th-th-that man in the portrait just tickled me!"

"Oh, sure."

"No, really, I-" Roselio started to say, but then he realized that Swiftwing wasn't listening to him anymore... Because he wasn't even in the same room any longer.

We all had vanished into one of the many doors, leaving him jolly well behind.

A Note from the Narrator
Due to the fact that the narrator wasn't there to tell the story from her point of view since she had followed Dusk into another room, this part has been based entirely on Roselio's recount of his experience after he got separated. The narrator cannot ascertain that everything here is free of exaggeration. After all, Roselio is a drama king.

(Oh, come on, Roselio. Even you know that).

...All right. Back to the story.

Roselio looked around nervously, alone except for the glaring portraits on the walls.

"Dusk? Meta Knight? Hello? A-anyone...?"

He was alone. Alone with the portraits that glare and tickle.

"GYAAAAH!" he screamed in fright when he felt someone pinch his arm. He ran straight into some cobwebs gathered on the opposite wall.

That was when he heard the laugh. It was the type of laugh Swiftwing makes whenever he succeeds in teasing Roselio. Only the one who was laughing wasn't Swiftwing at all.

Roselio turned around just in time to see a new face melt away from that of the man in the portrait. The man in the portrait that was supposed to have tickled him.

Roselio glared at the purple Pokémon whose face had emerged from the portrait, the one who was laughing as if it was the best prank anyone had pulled. He felt more angry than scared now. It was obviously a prank.

"Of all the Pokémon who had been in the Old Chateau, you've got to be the biggest scaredy-cat," the purple Pokémon guwaffed. Then he looked thoughtful. "Of course, there's the fact that no other Pokémon has been in here before your party..."

"Who are you?" was the only thing Roselio could think of saying.

"Sorry, my bad. I haven't even introduced myself, have I? Well, if you really must know..." the Pokémon replied. "My name is Gengar."

And then as an afterthought: "Well... My name is Gengar but before that I wasn't Gengar."

If there was something Roselio really hated, it was riddles. If there was something he hated more than riddles, it would be riddles told in a strange house in the middle of a forest.

"What in Sinnoh do you mean by that?!" he demanded in frustration.

Gengar looked as if he didn't even understand it himself. "Well... It's a bit mind-boggling, actually, and even I have yet to figure it out. But the short story's this: I wasn't Gengar before it happened."