Chapter 64, everybody! Sorry this one was pretty late in the day, was busy writing about Pokémon for profit instead of 100% for fun (my chickens need to eat).

Also, want to say that I love how everyone in the reviews basically has zero-sympathy for the ghosts in the tower (yeah they deserved it but realizing that would require them being the bigger 'mon and welp). XD

Not much else to say about this chapter except that it's training time again. As for nearly every Pokémon learning Toxic…uhhh yeah according to Bulbapedia every single Pokémon except for maybe twenty-three of them can learn Toxic via TM—considering there's roughly 900 Pokémon now, that's…maybe 2.5% of Pokémon that can't learn the move. Statistical guessology allows for a five percent margin of error, making the 2.5% statistically irrelevant, meaning that as far as anyone knows, statistically every Pokémon can learn Toxic. Join me in having concerns. D:

And now for reviews: epantoja521, RedEyesInferno, LongNightDragon, AverageHiveMind, Dragonkeeper10, talesfanjmf, ThunderBasilisk, forward-smash, Hashirama 1710, ChangelingRin (thank you XD), SoralTheSol, Urdeadnotbigsurprise, Silverwing23, Guest, midnightscar17, and Cyan Quartz, thanks for the reviews! Y'all are awesome. :D

AverageHiveMind, thanks for the review! Yup! One chapter for each week left, really helped that I had 90% of it typed up beforehand and just finally wrote everything that ties it all together—we're done up to leaving Saffron City, now I just gotta do the bridge chapters between that and challenging Erika (and figure out how much distance is between Saffron and Celadon what even was the Kanto map). And eee glad you liked that little bit with Darkrai's roar, I love being nerdy like that (and I'm glad you're enjoying the story and writing reviews for it!). :D

Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo

And now, for something completely different:

In other news, Britney Spearow has released her new single "Toxic," detailing the use and effectiveness of the Pokémon move. Visit your local music store for your own copy of this catchy song.

They didn't break for lunch, ate on the road, anything to put distance between them and Lavender Town.

"It suddenly occurs to me why they only had one hotel," Ash said finally, when sunset forced them to stop and make camp.

"This just now occurs to you?" Misty had to ask.

"Well…."

"The important thing is, we should be at enough of a distance that any ghosts from there won't bother us," Brock said. "And on the off chance that we aren't…."

Ash and Misty watched as he strung up a line of spell tags between two trees. "Seriously?" Misty asked.

"Can't be too careful."

Considering Misty slept under them, Ash figured she agreed. Granted he agreed too, but he wasn't the one who questioned the whole thing to begin with.

The good news was, they had no ghostly visitors in the night.

The next bit of news was good or bad depending upon who you asked. If you asked Ash, it was good news, if you asked Misty, it was bad news, but the cusp of it was that it was the same news: Darkrai was back.

"Where have you even been?" Ash asked him. "You missed me getting a new teammate."

"I know this is hard to comprehend, but I do have a life outside of you," Darkrai said, something about his tone off as he examined his claws. "And I know I'm going to regret asking."

Ash didn't need any more prompting—toss up the Pokéball containing his new catch, release Gastly for appraisal.

Darkrai gave it a long, even look before looking at Ash. "Seriously?"

"I mean it was the whole point of going to Lavender Town," Ash pointed out.

"Just so long as it's not like Frenzy," Misty said. "I spent all yesterday resigning myself, so long as it's not like Frenzy I'm fine."

"Frenzy does set a high bar," Brock agreed.

"So," Ash said to the Gastly. "This is Darkrai, you've already met Misty and Brock, and this is the rest of the team," he said, gesturing to the others. "Pikachu, Vee, Patches, Lenny, and Frenzy. Hey do you want a nickname?"

The Gastly thought on this before shaking its head…well moving its body back and forth in a negative manner. It was hard to tell what a nod and such was when it was nothing but head.

"Okay fair," Ash conceded, pulling his Pokédex out. "Okay so Gastly is…male, Level 15, and knows Hypnosis, Lick, Spite and…Curse? What's that?"

"Shame on you," Darkrai said to Gastly. "And this being a kid's show."

"Huh?"

"I think Curse raises attack and defense," Brock said, pondering this.

"For everything not a Ghost type, yes," Darkrai said. "If a Ghost type uses it, it gets nasty."

"Let's not find out," Ash said, looking for the list of moves Gastly could learn. "We'll teach you some new moves before we get to the gym, how's that?"

"Gas," Gastly noised.

"Okay, so…thoughts? Suggestions?" Ash asked, flicking through Gastly's information on the Pokédex. "Hey, how come you don't learn any Poison moves except through a TM or Tutor?"

Gastly kind of wobbled in the air—Ash figured that was a shrug.

"Help," Ash said, looking at his travelling companions.

Brock scratched his head, thinking. "Well, we could head to Celadon—pick up some TMs, give you some time to train Gastly."

"But then we'd have to come back to Saffron, and then go back to Celadon, and then maybe come back to Saffron to take the bridges down. I don't want to walk the same route three times."

"Fair enough. Move tutor then."

As one, they looked at Darkrai.

"What?" Darkrai demanded.

"Aren't you the one who's always going on about what a big awesome Legendary you are?" Misty asked. "What was it, all hot air?"

Darkrai narrowed his eyes at her before waving her off dismissively.

"Toxic," he said simply. "All Pokémon can learn it. Combo it with Venoshock, and it can be devastating."

"All right!" Ash cheered, a sentiment shared by Gastly. "So let's get started!"

"Yeah, no. Darkrai don't learn Venoshock. I suppose Sludge Bomb could work, but put Venoshock on your grocery list."

Ash bounced back from that minor disappointment quickly enough. "So Toxic then—"

"I've heard of that move," Brock said suddenly. "Isn't that the one that badly poisons the target?"

"Your point?" Darkrai asked.

"Badly poisoned?" Ash echoed. "Isn't the Poison status just that?"

"Yeah, no," Brock said, looking stern. "Toxic's poison strengthens as time goes on. It's really dangerous to use."

"And it's going to be used against him sooner or later," Darkrai pointed out. "Or are you operating under the impression you all are going to be encountering Happiny and Solrock on a regular basis?"

"Darkrai has a point," Ash pointed out, trying very hard not to think about their most recent encounter with something so very not kosher.

"Yes, well," Brock started.

"Go back a minute," Misty ordered, waving her hand. "Toxic poison gets worse every turn, right?"

"Right."

"Now go back to the part where you said every Pokémon could learn it."

"Every Pokémon?" Ash asked Darkrai.

"Meh," Darkrai said, waving a paw. "There are exceptions to every rule, for the record—but yes, ninety-nine percent of the Pokémon you meet either can learn Toxic, or their evolution can learn Toxic. The bug could learn Toxic. The rat could learn Toxic. I know Toxic."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me," Misty said, eyeing Darkrai.

"So that means you could teach Gastly Toxic," Ash said.

"I could, if I were properly motivated," Darkrai said, scratching under his sawtooth ridge.

Brock produced an Oran cake.

"That's a start," Darkrai said, taking it.

"Excellent," Ash said, grinning. "Let's get started."

Brock had his supply of Antidotes ready just in case, and Vee was picked for the target so he could learn Refresh on top of it.

"You've seen Mikey's Eevee do it," Ash pointed out. "So that's a start. It's gotta be better than how the Pokédex describes it."

"That description is kind of bare-bones," Brock agreed, sorting through his Antidotes one more time. "Okay I have a dozen Antidotes and a supply of Pecha berries on top of that, so we should be good this practice round. How goes the Toxic teaching?"

"It's going," Darkrai reported, before directing his attention back to Gastly. "Now watch carefully."

With that, Darkrai pointed at a small bush—a glowing purple sphere appeared before his claw, shot a stream of purple at the bush—

The bush shriveled up and died when the purple gunk coated it.

"Now you, you're probably going to be spitting that from your mouth," Darkrai told Gastly, gently closing his mouth with a claw. "Legendaries operate by their own rules, after all."

Vee barked excitedly, ran around in a circle before skidding to face a bush, taking a deep breath and spitting at it. He seemed disappointed when nothing came of it.

"And what do you need to learn Toxic for?"

"We'll put it on the to-do list," Ash assured Vee. "For now, let's practice Refresh."

It took Gastly a few tries to get something resembling Toxic, a few more before it started looking like it should. Vee kept trying Refresh and failing, and Brock declared it enough practice for one day when they had exhausted all but one Antidote.

"The good news is, Gastly knows Toxic well enough to use it in battle," Brock said. "But it might be too strong with Vee just starting with Refresh."

"We can practice with Oddish, work on his Poison Powder," Misty offered as Ash brushed Vee's fur out. "Probably in a couple of days, you want to make sure that Vee recovers from that properly."

"Yeah," Ash sighed. "But I guess we can teach Gastly some Ghost moves too—and those won't hurt Vee, Ghost can't affect Normal types…but then how would we know if they worked?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Brock said, measuring out the distance on his map. "If I calculate right, we've got a week until Saffron if we take it easy. That should give us some time to prepare."

"Easy, he says," Darkrai said, looking pointedly at Ash. "That means no charging ahead like there's no tomorrow."

"But what if there is no tomorrow?" Ash asked. "What if I miss my chance at the Marsh Badge?"

"And why isn't the gym that's actually by a marsh called the Marsh Badge?" Misty wondered.

"A mystery for the ages," Darkrai told her. "As for you," he said, pointing at Ash. "If that's the case, I can guarantee that your badge run will no longer be a problem."

"Can't it at least wait until after the Indigo League Conference?" Ash asked.

"I'm not the one you should be asking."

Ash hoped that night that his prayers were fervent enough.