Chapter 9: Clairvoyance Service

A/N: And... Yeah. This was the clairvoyance rubbish I was yakking about in the previous chapter. And duh, I'm talkin' about Morty. Who else could be associated with all these clairvoyance poop? Sorry for stupid gaps. I didn't intend for them to happen.

...

It was Wednesday since that day always follows Tuesday unless the world has gone cuckoo. But the world hasn't gone cuckoo so let's not worry about it.

"Morty will meet us on Saturday, five," Lyra told the group.

"Say what?!" Red yelled, since he couldn't hear what Lyra was saying as the Pokéteria was far louder, louder beyond his liking.

Lyra sighed and repeated what she said louder.

Red, being so Red-ly dense, asked probably the stupidest question that could be asked in the entire century: "Five in the morning or in the afternoon?"

Smacking of palms against heads could be heard.

"Oh, Red, of course Morty will wake up dead early to meet us at five in the morning so that we can enjoy his clairvoyance service," Blue said sarcastically. "Uh-huh, oh yeah." She nodded like some idiot (not a boss).

"Sheesh," Red huffed, "you don't have to use sarcasm on me to make me understand!"

But you're so dense... In a cute way... Yellow thought. She turned bright scarlet when Red smiled at her. He moves a few muscles and bones and I feel like curling up into a ball and going to oblivion so I'll never see daylight again...

"But we have to!" Gold grinned wickedly. "It's the only way." He turned around. "Oh, hey, Super Serious Gal! What ya doing?"

"Super Serious Gal" was hunched over a huge sheet of paper with a marker in hand and taking occasional sips of Diet Coke.

"I'm looking for a route to Johto," Crystal replied, ignoring the "Super Serious Gal" remark. "Specifically, I'm talking about Ecruteak City."

"Can't we just take the Magnet Train or S. S. Aqua there?" Pearl asked. "I mean, Ecruteak is about forty minutes away from Goldenrod and thirty minutes away from Olivine, Ecruteak being smack in between those two..."

"Dude, that sounds wrong," Gold told Pearl cheekily. "Think the Gym Leaders... Morty, in between Jasmine and W-"

SLAM!

Crystal smacked Gold so hard, the skater boy fell off the bench in the Pokéteria.

"Just shut up already," Crystal grumbled.

"Well, Pearl," Ruby said carefully. "We don't have a Train Pass or an S. S. Aqua ticket. It'll take us about three days to get our Train Passes because we have to take put photos, sign the forms, and then they have to print the Passes. Besides, the S. S. Aqua only departs from Kanto to Johto on Sundays and Wednesdays, and vice versa on Mondays and Fridays. You also know how popular the S. S. Aqua is and how expensive each ticket is, since we're paying for the adult fees because we're not kids and there's no teenager ticket."

Pearl's eyes widened. "That's a heck lota words..."

"So, Crys!" Blue said. "Any idea about the route to take?"

Crystal nodded. "We're going to have to cut through Viridian to get to the Pokémon League Reception Area. And then-"

"Wait, what's the League gotta do with anything?" Gold butted in.

Crystal scowled and glared at the golden-eyed boy. "Shut up and listen!" she growled. She cleared her throat. "Anyway, we'll then turn left to go south-wards. After exiting, we'll be at Route 26. We'll just have to follow the path down and hope we won't have to be engaged in battles.

"I'd say after about an hour of walking, we'll be at Route 25. Do the same - follow the path until we reach the Tohjo Falls," Crystal continued as though she had it all memorised. "At that point, we'll either have to surf or swim across to get to the staircase going up. We'll walk up the stairs to reach the top, walk across, take the stairs down, surf or swim to the entrance and we'll be just ten minutes away from New Bark Town.

"I suppose we'll have to rest and shower, so we'll drop by to do so, then set off." Crystal paused for a sip of her drink. "We'll be at Route 29 after walking through New Bark. So just follow the path till we end up in Cherrygrove. Then we'll just have to walk to the exit.

"We'll be at Route 31 after that. So do blah blah blah and we'll end up in Violet City."

"So we'll just have to do yada yada yada through every city before Ecruteak?!" Gold whined.

"No," Crystal answered Gold. "There's a a shortcut to Ecruteak in Violet. It leads to Route 36, which has Route 37 following. Cut through these two Routes and we'll end up in Ecruteak City in no time."

Actually, I think it'll take us days to reach there, Yellow thought. I'm just glad that tomorrow and Friday are holidays.

...

The group met in Viridian City on Thursday morning since it was a holiday as stated by a certain blondie. Red was running a bit late as he had ran off to challenge Sabrina for his sixth Badge.

"She was super hardcore, man," Red told the others.

"But did you defeat her?" Platinum asked out of curiosity, also since Sabrina was "super hardcore".

Red nodded. "But only after a major struggle. Her Mr Mime was darn annoying, I'll give you that."

"Let's go!" Sapphire roared and ran ahead.

"I think she's Sabrina's disciple in hardcore-ness," Lyra remarked.

...

"Dowehaveanywaterimtiredarentyouwhenwillwereachthe reheyisntthereanyonelistening?!" Pearl whined.

Yellow blinked in innocent confusion. "Huh?"

"How is it that you busy couldn't make out what I said?" Pearl wondered.

"Because you spoke too fast and you did not articulate," Platinum explained coolly. "If you are as honourable as you claim to be, I think you would slow down and enunciate your words clearly."

"Why is it that every day you're acting more and more like an English teacher, huh?" Pearl snapped, not caring about the law that guys must be nice to girls or something.

"I like it when people talk in a way that I can comprehend so that I can register it properly and I would not be in a confused trance," Platinum replied.

"Yeah yeah. Whatever," Pearl grumbled. "Has it really only been an hour? I feel as though a month has passed."

"Yes, Pearl," Platinum said patiently, "only an hour has passed, according to the clock application on my PokéGear."

"Stop talking about it like it's an Apple product or something."

I think they like each other, Yellow thought with a sweat-drop.

...

At Route 36, the group of thirteen Trainers came across something unexpected.

"Okay, who put the stupid tree here?!" Pearl exclaimed.

"Trees are not stupid, Pearl." Platinum then proceeded on to explain to Pearl the importance of trees and how all life depends on them.

"Crys, why didn't you say anything about the stupid tree?" Gold asked Crystal.

"How was I supposed to know about it?" Crystal snapped.

"You've always been careful when it comes to this kinda things!" Gold exclaimed.

"Oh, so this is my fault!" Crystal shot back.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Gold said. "Let's knock it down or we won't be able to reach Ecruteak!"

So they all sent out their Pokémon to try to knock down the tree.

Instantly, Green noticed something weird - how was it that a tree could resist Fire-type attacks from his Charizard? There was also something else: the tree seemed to respond to Water-type attacks when it was a tree?

Green wasn't the only one. Yellow also managed to catch up quickly.

"Guys!" Yellow said. "Hold back your Fire-type attacks! It's clear that it doesn't affect the tree much, though it doesn't make any sense. In fact, the tree seems to be responding to Water-type attacks, though it doesn't make biological sense or whatever."

The others nodded in agreement.

After several Water Guns and Bubbles, the tree started to shake. After another Water-type attack (maybe a Hydro Pump), the tree turned around.

Wait a minute...

"Wait!" Ruby said. "If that was a normal tree, wouldn't it be burned to a crisp by our Fire attacks by now? But this... tree seemed to be affected by our Water attacks!"

Sapphire's eyes lit up. "So you're saying that this tree isn't a tree?"

"Well, not a normal one, to say."

Yellow gasped. "Then this isn't a tree," she said, "but it's a Pokémon that resembles one!"

"The it's obvious what we should do!" Gold took out an empty Pokéball from his bag and his cue stick thingy. "We should capture it!" He narrowed his eyes, then pushed the Pokéball forward using the cue.

The ball flew towards the tree Pokémon. There was a flash, then a 'ker-chuuung', which meant that the capture was a successful one.

"Gold, please let me see that," Crystal said, holding out her hand.

Gold handed her the Pokéball. Crystal examined the Pokémon inside the Pokéball.

"Your verdict?" Blue asked.

"It's a Sudowoodo," Crystal responded slowly. "Rock-type, evolves from Bonsly."

"Ah," Red said, "so that explains why our Fire-type attacks didn't work but our Water ones did."

"Let's not delay," Emerald said. "We still have a certain person to see."

...

"This Gym looks like a haunted house," Lyra said.

"I think it's because Morty specialises in Ghost Pokémon," Gold pointed out.

Lyra nodded, shivering.

"I have heard word that we should not jump off this invisible bridge," Platinum said. "That Ace Trainer told me it is because we would end up at the starting point again and that would waste our efforts."

Silver's face blanched. "As much as I don't want to do it," he muttered, "I think we should hold hands."

This earned loud complaints from the manly males, giggles from Lyra and Blue and major blushing from the rest. Still, they joined hands and carefully made their way through the Gym. They narrowly managed to avoid Gym Trainer battles by explaining that they weren't there to challenge Morty but they needed his clairvoyance services (hence the name of the chapter minus the 's').

They finally reached Morty without falling into the bottomless pit fortunately.

"So..." Morty said. "I've heard you guys need my clairvoyance service...?"

"Uh-huh," Lyra replied.

"Enlighten me," Morty requested.

The members of the group took turns to explain to Morty about the possessing of Ms Baclay and the possibility of the Rainbow Celadon Academy being haunted.

"I see." The blond man rubbed his chin. "Most people don't see me for this but I think I can help you guys check."

"Thanks!" Lyra said cheerily. She handed some money to Morty, only to be rejected.

"I don't like accepting money from girls," Morty explained. "I don't like the idea of it."

Lyra shrugged and put the money back.

Morty got down on one knee while his Misdreavous and Gastly circled around him. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

Just when Gold was about to fall asleep (because of the silence and darkness), Morty let out a small gasp and got up with a jolt.

"What happened?" they all asked him in unison.

"You guys were right," Morty said slowly. "Your school's haunted, all right." He suddenly reached out and weakly grabbed Yellow's hand.

"Eh?!" Yellow freaked out. "Morty! Snap out of it! What are you doing?!"

Morty ignored her and the shouts from the rest to leave Yellow alone. "You, Yellow..." he wheezed. "You're in danger. Protect yourself... Listen... You have the-" Morty passed out before he could complete his sentence.

What on earth? I have what? Yellow wondered as panic bubbled up her throat.

...

A/N: Cliffhanger, cliffhanger! Yay!

Look, I had to incorporate parts of the game so that the Sudowoodo part would make sense.

Please review as they encourage me!