Another day of school had begun for the ghost children at Dreadfield elementary school. Each child settled in an orderly manner, taking their place on a dull cushion in the room, seeing as homeroom usually would be a small period of time to relax before beginning a school day.
The teacher, a froslass, floated quietly at the front of the room, ready to begin with the morning announcements she had to give to the class. In response to the clearing of her throat, each student quieted down and directed their attention to her.
"Morning, class." She began.
"Morning, Ms. Natra." Almost all of the students replied, some not easy to hear due to shyness, along with a very small few who couldn't even utter a word.
Ms. Natra smiled gently at the class, holding her hands together at the front of her torso in a gleeful manner.
"Alright, students, there are not many announcements to be made today, but they are important, so please listen up, if you will." Everyone nodded to her warning.
"First of all, since you all are fairly old enough to understand this, I will give you a small lecture about bullying. Bullying is when you mistreat another in either a physical or mental way. Now, the thing is, since some of you ghosts are growing up, you may tend to get more aggressive or feel the need to be of high importance or respect. Respect does not come to you through harassing others in your class, or in any other grade level, for that matter. It comes from the kindness in your hearts."
A small, waxy hand rose in response.
"Yes, Chandelle?" Ms. Natra acknowledged the small candle Pokémon.
"I thought we didn't have hearts?"
The teacher giggled along with a few other students laughing gently in a joking manner to the question.
"No, no, Chandelle, most of us don't have hearts, but metaphorically, we do. We all have the ability to feel and to love, even if we don't have internal organs, if anything. We must respect one another through the kindness we share with each other, which could go a long way for anybody, especially the friends we make and even new faces as well. Please remember, violence is wrong in many ways, alright, children? Now, speaking of new faces, I have another announcement as well."
The interest of the ghosts piqued at the mention of 'new faces.' Were there new classmates coming in?
"I would like to introduce you all to two new students. Their families just moved to the area, so please make them feel welcome to Dreadfield. I introduce to you, Enzo the gastly and his friend, Kamran the sableye."
Both of the mentioned young ones entered the room in a calm fashion with wide, friendly grins on their faces. A few 'ooh's and 'ah's emit from the class, except for a certain duskull.
From the back of the room, Nox narrowed his eye slightly in suspicion of these two newcomers. 'They moved here?' He thought. 'Why? This place isn't well-known... The school hardly has that much structure too. Something sure is strange about this...'
"Okay, class. Now that the announcements are over, you may welcome the new students and relax before the bell rings. I'll be checking on some things." Hesitantly, Ms. Natra floated out of the room.
Nox blinked, confused at this. Ms. Natra usually wouldn't leave everyone by themselves. Things would get hectic without any supervision. He sighed, not wanting to bother too much with it and sat on the floor, staring at the carpet until the bell rang.
After speaking with a few of their new classmates, the duo of Enzo and Kamran eyed the oddly colored duskull. "Who is that kid?" Kamran whispered to his partner in wonder.
"How should I know, we just got here." Enzo replied. Nox didn't seem to hear them. One of the students, a drifloon, heard them clearly and floated over.
"Him?" She asked, carefully pointing a string up at the duskull who sat patiently in the back of the room. "That's Nox." The drifloon answered, letting the thread she pulled up dangle once again. "No one knows too much about him, but he creeps us out to no end." She huffed. "It's just... He feels so... I don't know, ominous?" The balloon stated, simply floating and looking over at the new classmates.
"Omni-wha?" Enzo questioned. "What kind of word is that, and how do you know it?"
Invisibly, the drifloon rolled her eyes, smiling a bit at his lack of vocabulary. "Ominous. My kind learns the move ominous wind, so I have to know what it means. I don't know why I necessarily have to, but that's what my parents told me. It means...threatening...something like that. Scary, dangerous, those are more simple ways to put it..."
Already, Kamran started to take a liking to this drifloon's knowledge. "Well. We learn something every day, I guess." He replied, holding a hand out to her. "Kamran."
"Callia." The drifloon smiled, extending a string towards the newcomer.
"U-uhm, I'm Enzo..." The gastly next to the two commented, feeling left out in the introductions.
Kamran stepped forwards, gently grasping the heart-shaped piece at the end of Callia's thread. "Well then, Callia, if you're scared, me and the big guy here can make sure you're never afraid again..."
Callia blushed slightly, holding another string to her face. "You would do that...?" She asked, a bit amazed at the bravery Kamran possessed.
"Of course. Next period is recess, right?" The sableye asked.
The drifloon nodded. "That's a weird schedule..." Enzo butted in again with an odd statement.
Both of the other two gave him a slightly amused look momentarily, and then went back to business. "Alright... Seeing as every school has someone watching everyone during that time, we're going to have to have the big guy out of the way. Here's what we're going to do..."
The class of young ghosts spilled out through the back doors of the facility, eager to be outside and get more tomfoolery out of them before they actually had any serious classes. Nox quickly slipped through, finding his favorite tree at the back of the blacktop and hiding behind it, taking in the comfort of the solitude that had been provided to him.
Kamran and his small gang of ghouls made their way outside casually. A smug grin flashed on the sableye's face momentarily, his confidence shining through. Enzo and Callia followed closely behind their leader through the double doors.
"You remember what you have to do, Callia?" Kamran turned his head to the drifloon, hoping the plan would carry out the way he wanted it to.
She nodded. "Mhm. I know. Should I now, or…?" The sableye raised a hand to her so she would calm down.
"We have to wait until the teacher comes out first." He replied. Kamran motioned the other two to back up as the twin doors opened slowly, revealing a cofagrigus on the other side. He opened both doors each with two of his shadowy arms. The teacher blinked, staring down at the three tykes in question.
"What're you three doing, standing by the door like that? You could get hurt if it opens and you don't see it." He stated, crossing all of his arms.
The three of them gave him an innocent smile to ensure that they weren't up to anything. "Oh, nothing, Mr. Kapu …" Callia trailed off.
"We were just coming out and we got distracted, is all." Kamran added.
The supervisor hesitated, thinking momentarily about the children's odd behavior as he floated in front of them. Maybe it really was nothing…
"Alright." He sighed, letting the three head out.
Gladly, the trio took the chance to act as innocent as possible until their plan could be followed through. Enzo and Kamran took a ball and played catch, however, it ended up badly seeing as Enzo had no hands to catch the ball with. Instead, they decided to hang out with some of the other kids. Callia drifted off to the side of the blacktop, making sure that no one could see where she was.
Everyone else paid no attention to these odd acts, since they were too busy playing to actually take any notice. As usual, Chandelle, Apollo, and the frillish from yesterday were tossing a ball to each other, sometimes in an odd fashion, just to keep it from getting any bit boring for them.
A female scream was heard at the other end of the area. darted in the direction it was coming from, and all who were outdoors dropped what they were doing and stared off in the distance to see what was up. Kamran and Enzo grinned.
From behind the dead tree, Nox stared curiously. He finally wandered out into the open, wondering what was going on. Nobody usually had any trouble out here and never had received many injuries, either.
At the side of the building, Callia gripped her side, sobbing as best as she could to convince the teacher. The sarcophagus ghost came in from around the corner, floating to the seemingly harmed drifloon. "What's wrong? What happened?"
The drifloon sniveled, staring up at him with watery eyes. "A-A dark type attack hit me… Something could be out there…" She motioned to a patch of pitch-black darkness, in which no body could see through its density. Surprised, Mr. Hapu managed to gasp slightly. "Dark types in Dreadfield? No, that can't be… If that is so, however, I will investigate for you. Stay with the others, it's not safe over here."
Callia nodded, letting the supervisor leave his post unattended to. She smirked, feeling quite accomplished with herself. Finally, Kamran and Enzo could finish the deed off. With that in mind, the balloon Pokémon made her way back, ready to watch the fight.
"Hey, kid." Kamran approached the discolored duskull casually. Nox turned his head towards the sableye warily. He didn't trust this ghost one bit, especially since it was partially a dark type.
"Wh-what do you want…" He stammered. The sableye grinned, stepping forwards.
"I want you to get lost." He replied to the frightened child. Nox's eye widened, he did not like the sound of this at all.
"What?"
At the shout, the gastly and sableye surrounded him. Both cackled threateningly, circling the boy. Kamran let out an ear-splitting shriek, which caused Nox to scream and back away, covering the sides of his head. His head was still ringing as the other two advanced on him. "Night Shade!" The sableye called out. The duo shrouded themselves in a shadowy aura, unleashing an unbearable mirage upon the already terrified duskull. Colossal versions of themselves tossed Nox around, stomped on him, and smacked him hard into the ground. Before the two could finish him off, he immediately got up, tears stinging his eye. "No more, no more…" He cried. Hastily, he fled, passing the white line boundary of the blacktop and heading straight for home.
Many ghosts cheered at the display. Callia floated over and hugged her hero. "Kamran, that was wonderful!" She chimed. Kamran smirked, hugging her back.
"I couldn't let a monster like that hurt you." He replied.
Apollo couldn't help but find this very unsettling. "Price, Chandelle, did you see that…?" He questioned to his friends. Price, the frillish, nodded.
"Yeah, I did. Weren't they a bit too rough on Nox? I mean, sure, he's scary, but…" He trailed off.
The litwick also agreed. "Don't you think that was…bullying?"
The two boys next to her snapped their heads up in realization. "Th-they must be bullies…" Price pointed out. The three looked at each other with worried eyes, now wondering what this could possibly do in the near future.
Ms. Natra parted the double doors from each other, staring out through the crack. "Oh no…" She trembled. "I'm too late."
Nox's figure disappeared from view, no longer being anywhere near school grounds.