SINNOH STORIES

THE LEGEND OF VOLKNER

Author's Notes: In this chapter, we finally get onto a more crucial element to the story! Yay! Also, because I can't think of a chapter title...

[[Chapter 6: Freefall]]

"I'm certain he's okay," Volkner said. "If you're being that much of a coward, just stand outside!"

"B-but..." Gardenia countered weakly. "I-I j-juh-just finished promising Lily I'd stay with ya at all t-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-"

"Times?" Volkner asked.

"... Yeh," Gardenia muttered.

"Then do just that and man up! The Old Chateau is NOT haunted – there's no such thing!" he shouted.

"... Fine!" Gardenia said, and the two stepped into the gate, treading through grass that seemed a little too heavily trimmed for this place to be as abandoned as Gardenia said it was.

"Do they send people here to keep up this place?" Volkner asked.

"No," she said. "The grass just... mysteriously disappears..."

"... So, in other words, some good samaratin just pops in and trims the grass." Volkner muttered.

The door of the place, a very large wooden one painted a light shade of purple, already hung open. Grateful to not have to go through the effort Volkner guessed it would take to try and push it open, he took advantage of it and slipped through, the lightly trembling Gardenia following right after him.

The inside of the Old Chateau admittedly gave off a sort of eerie atmosphere, Volkner had to admit. But to be haunted? He scoffed at the thought. The only residents in this place were ghosts – but they weren't the type Gardenia was so afraid of. They were Gastly, ghost type Pokemon that loved dark damp places like this.

"So how many rooms in this place?" Volkner asked. "We should probably split-"

"NO WAY IN HELL, DENZI!" Gardenia bellowed.

"... Right."

So the two began to explore each individual room. The entire place was old and decaying quickly, wallpaper peeling off the walls, creaking floorboards and some holes in the floor on both the upper and lower levels, dirt visible in the holes of the lower.

But when all rooms but the master bedroom of the upper north had been searched, the two deduced that it was where their objective was; if he was there at all.

They went there, and for a couple of moments, saw nothing but darkness. But their source of illumination in the nighttime-induced darkness, the Flash Attack of Gardenia's Roselia, kicked in quickly and they were greeted by an odd mist.

The mist parted as they stepped inside; and Volkner's ears were met by the sound of a shriek. Gardenia's, he realized. The door behind them had shut on its own and the light of Roselia's Flash seemed to have disappeared.

"Roselia, use Flash!" Volkner ordered. He understood by now that Gardenia was too frightened to speak, as she whimpered behind him.

Roselia's arms flailed uselessly as she tried to produce light. Things were suddenly taking a turn for the worse, but Volkner found himself calm and collect, as if the presence in the room would not harm him and he knew it all too well.

"Cyrus! Are you in here?"

"... have you come for my friend?" a voice crooned in the darkness.

"Cyrus? He's my friend!" Volkner responded. "Give him back, whoever you are!"

"... you can join him if you'd like." the voice said.

"We want him back!"

A thud behind him. Gardenia had fainted. He felt her hand slip off his shoulder and jerk against his foot.

He was alone in the room with a spirit who simply oozed malice.

Oh, there was the fear.

Jasmine Mikan nodded quietly and submissively to the man in front of her, trying to shorten the conversation as much as possible. It wasn't that she didn't want to converse – it was just that long winded conversation all short of wrecked her nerves to the point of weeping, at least with strangers. With family and people she had managed to befriend it was different. But her family and friends were back in Olivine City, while she was in the mysterious land of Sinnoh.

The man had stopped her on the side of the streets of Veilstone City to ask for directions to the nearest hotel. She had told him that she was heading there herself, so he should simply follow her. The old man had asked if that was okay, and she nodded – after all, an old man just asking for directions couldn't be dangerous, right?

The two began to walk the streets of Veilstone, Jasmine feeling a bit groggy. She had spent most of the day after lunch taking a bus-ride from Pastoria City to the edges of Veilstone. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't just get a ride there, but the construction of some new building had left the bus incapable of passing, so she had simply gotten off there and began to walk.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on the back of her head, and swiveled around to check out the source. The old man stood there, skidding to a stop behind her, his hands in the pockets of his khaki pants.

"Is there something wrong, Miss?" he asked.

"I could have s-sworn... oh, nevermind..."

So the two continued to walk, and eventually the feeling persisted. She had figured it to be the wind the first time, but now she was suspicious of the feeling of flesh touching her scalp. She was about to whirl around and check out the old man again, but this time she felt something cold and steel press against her throat.

"... Heh. Stupid bitch. Didn't your mommy ever teach you not to go out alone at dark?" he asked, his mouth pressed against her ear. She could smell the stench of his breath from this close and it was revolting.

"... D-don't d-duh-do anything you're gonna regret, sir..." Jasmine stuttered.

"Oh, trust me, you look like a fine piece of work. Like hell I'll regret it," he said.

It was then that Jasmine brought her foot backward and let it collide firmly with the crotch of her attacker. His grip on her went loose and the knife went across her throat but only slightly. There was barely enough strength in it to make a laceration.

Jasmine whirled around and pressed her hand to the inside of her jacket, opening up one of the balls in there. She was gambling that it was the right one, as the wrong one could be defeated much easier than the right one. A flash of light lit up the night and soon lights in the homes around began to flicker on as a deafening roar filled the area.

The attacking man, once he recovered from his pain, looked up to see a huge pair of eyes staring right at him. A living chain of rocks about the width of the street and a few blocks of length stared him in the eyes, and it was then that he scrambled to a standing position, turned around and ran for the hills.

"... T-thank you, Ony," Jasmine said. She reached up and run a finger across her neck to feel out the damage. A crimson streaked finger told her it was a wound, definitely, but the blood was already drying. It would be a simple few days before it healed up. She returned Ony the Onix and landed on the ground with a slight thud, something skillful for a twelve year old girl such as herself, and looked around to see awestruck people out of their houses. One was on the phone. From the words "officer" in her conversation, she could tell it was with the police.

Jasmine walked up to her and bowed her head. "M-ma'am, may I please use your restroom to clean myself up a bit?"

"... Hold on officer," the woman said. "... Yeah. But what happened?"

"A man tried to attack me," she said.

"Oh, you poor thing... would you like a lodge for the night? I'm sure my kids wouldn't mind sleeping together for a night so you can have a bed."

"No thank you, ma'am. I'll just go to the hotel..."

"I insist! You aren't older than, what, thirteen, fourteen?"

"Twelve, ma'am. And I suppose it'd be a good money saver... but I'll sleep on the couch."

The woman nodded. "Okay. Just come on in off the streets."

What a nice lady... Jasmine thought.

"Volkner..." a familiar voice sputtered, weakness evident in him. "... Gastly. Clefable. Ghost. GHOST."

Volkner looked around to try and find where Cyrus's voice was coming from but to no avail. Instead, he only saw a pair of glowing red eyes at the dead center of the mist.

What was it Gardenia had said?

Oh, right. Spirits typically tend to be bound to the room that you see them in. If you want to flee from one, get out of the house first – but if that's impossible, get out of the room. Ha. Too late for that now.

"Let's go, Elekid! Thundershock where the eyes are!"

He tossed a ball forward, and a strange occurrence met his eyes: the usual flash of light that happened with a Pokeball's release mechanism being triggered did not happen for longer than a split second. Something had sucked away the light.

Elekid remained silent for a few moments, leaving Volkner's heart thudding. He then realized it was just him getting his eyes used to the darkness as after a moment he heard a faint, "Ele, ele, ele..." and a buzzing sound like a generator. Then a louder, "KID!" as a jolt of electricity fired forward, snapping against the floorboards and momentarily illuminating the room ever-so-slightly. In that instant, Cyrus became visible.

He was in a heap at the feet of a man. The man was about five feet tall on the dot with a bald spot in the center of his head, two tufts of graying hair extending. He wore a suit and his skin was deadly pale. On his left floated a mist ball, likely the source of the darkness-forming mist, called Gastly. On his right was a cute pink creature, but its eyes were a bleak red. A Clefable.

The man looked like a butler, Volkner told himself. The ghost of a butler.

He was indeed a spirit. The Old Chateau was haunted and he could deny it no longer. He should have fucking listened to Gardenia's warnings, but no, his logical mind didn't allow the idea of ghosts when he was a victim of fucking supernatural events. What a dumb ass he was, and he was about to die for it, he felt like.

He broke down.

"God damn it, god damn it, god damn it, god DAMN it!" he roared. "Elekid! Thunder Punch the Clefable! Beat its face in!"

Elekid complied the best it could. But that wasn't enough. His attacks passed right through the Clefable. It to was a spirit, apparently.

"Damn it, damn it, d-duh-damn it..." the fight was draining out of Volkner at a quickening pace. He had no ideas on how to get things to work on an invulnerable enemy, he was alone, and he was panicking. He was about to die.

"... I w-wanna go home ..."

By this time, tears were streaming down.

"I don't want to do anyone any favors! I don't want to train, I don't want to remember Ivan's death, I don't want to travel, I JUST WANNA GO HOME! JUST LET ME GO HOME, PLEASE!" he sobbed.

He lifted up a fist and smashed it through the ground. He heard an innocent giggle in the background of his mind and a demonic rumbling laughter through his ears, but he blocked out both as an idea hit his head like a wrecking ball colliding with his skull.

He sent out Chuseph, and called for Elekid, whispering a plan to them. He got to his feet and ran toward the ghost while the critters executed his plan.

He took a swipe at the ghost, gasping for breath as a cold sensation rushed over his arm. It went numb in an instant.

"CHUUU!"

Chuseph was darting around from corner to corner of the room, an electric aura surrounding him, dim in the darkness-forming gas.

"KIDDD!" Elekid was leaping around, punching holes in the floor, more and more light starting to pour through for short instances.

Volkner jumped back, his movement causing the floor to creak with strain. He then ran forth and swiped once again, his other arm getting that chilling numbness. He wished the plan would hurry up and work.

He kicked. His leg went numb and he stumbled backward, narrowly avoiding Chuseph as he darted to another corner. He stood there for a second, face to face with the ghost, before thrusting his face forward toward the head of the thing. A demonic rumbling laughter occurred once again, and his entire body went numb. He flipped over on his side and hit the floor. He wasn't unconscious, but the agonizing pain that rushed through his body made him wish he were.

Then the plan began.

Elekid quickly began to run for Volkner and pressed his claw against his ball, returning himself. Chuseph was supposed to do the same thing, but he instead merely leaped up onto the doorknob of the room. He was glowing, for some reason.

… nothing but a tool for fighting … Volkner thought. … he's gonna abandon us. ha. Should have expected it.

The floor was falling apart. The plan had been to damage the floor to the point where it collapsed, and it was working quite well. How anyone was going to leave that sight without a body bag he couldn't help but wonder, but it was better than dying by ghost.

Chuspeh jumped off the doorknob then, in a totally different form.

He was now bigger, almost twice his previous size. His ears had lengthened and developed better. His cheekspots were a bit larger and a deeper red. His body no longer had a black stripe around it, instead pure yellow. His tail was jagged like a thunderbolt.

He had evolved into a Pikachu. Along with Gardenia's Roselia, he watched for the short few seconds before they hit the floor beneath as the two worked together to slice and burn away the wood that was supposed to either crush or impale all of them.

" … thank … you … "

Author's Notes: Heck yeah. Crankin' out chapters, eh? Just sat down for five hours to write this and enjoyed the hell out of it. Hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it.