After a long journey, we had finally arrived at the outskirts of Saffron City.
"Finally!" Michelle cried happily.
We ran the rest of the way, right into Saffron City, stopping to stare at the city around us. The biggest city in Kanto was full of skyscrapers. I quickly spotted the Silph Co. building and the train station that could take you to and from Johto.
"Wow, I didn't think Saffron City was this big." Michelle mumbled. She looked around and looked back at a building. She walked over to the wall and looked at a poster.
"A contest is going to be here...but not until a few more weeks." she said, frowning. That was a long time for her to wait for her contest.
"How about we go to the Pokemon Center?" Jason suggested. "We could use a break from all of the travelling."
We walked to the Pokemon Center and we spotted Michelle's friend and rival, Nikki.
"Nikki, hey!" Michelle cried.
Nikki turned her head and saw us. She gave a wave and we walked up to her. "Hi," she greeted. She wasn't in her usual peppy mood.
"Are you entering the contest here?" Michelle asked.
Nikki shook her head. "No, Trevor and I are just passing through Saffron City. We're on our way to Lavender Town. Lavender Town is where the next contest is. It's next week and the contest after that one is here in Saffron City." Nikki replied.
Michelle nodded her head in understanding.
"We're just stopping through here for Trevor's gym battle. Trevor and his battles, me and my contests."
"Did Trevor beat Sabrina?" I asked. My dad had told me how Sabrina battled. She would be the toughest gym leader that we had yet to battle.
Nikki opened her mouth, about to reply, but Trevor walked up behind her and spoke.
"None of your business." he said, cutting her off. My eyes lowered slightly when he approached and rudely cut Nikki off.
"Let's go, Nicole." Trevor said.
Nikki glared at Trevor and rolled her eyes. "Whatever. And it's Nikki, not 'Nicole', Trevor." she muttered.
"Let's go, Nicole." Trevor repeated as he walked away, completely ignoring what his sister had said.
Nikki sighed and glanced at Trevor's retreating form. "Well, see ya later." Nikki said, turning and following Trevor.
"Hey, Nikki! I'll see you at the contest in Lavender Town." Michelle called.
Nikki glanced over her shoulder. "Looking forward to it, Michelle." she said as she walked out of the center, waving goodbye to us.
"She wasn't in her usual cheerful mood." Michelle said.
"I noticed," I replied.
"She might be tired." Jason suggested.
A silence fell upon us.
"We should head to Lavender Town, too." I said suddenly.
Jason looked at me, confused. "We have a gym battle with Sabrina. Did you forget that we have to battle her?" he questioned.
"Well, Sabrina...she wasn't always like the way she is today. She used to be really scary and have a bit of an evil mind. My dad told me a story." I said.
"What story?" Michelle asked.
"Sabrina, she was two people. A little girl and her regular self, who was psychic. He told me that he faced Sabrina and her Abra, who evolved to Kadabra, and he was beaten easily. His friends and himself were shrunk down to the size of dolls and almost crushed.
"After Sabrina was eventually beaten, she was back to her old self. My dad warned me that Sabrina would be the toughest gym leader, since she is the Psychic type leader. We can't beat her with just brute force and regular battling." I explained. "We need to get Ghost Pokemon."
"That's true. Psychic types are tricky, since they can avoid attacks." Jason said softly.
"A Ghost Pokemon would be great for my contests, too. They can do both amazing performances AND battles!" Michelle said.
So it was settled. We were heading to Lavender Town tomorrow. For now, we were staying in Saffron City and leaving in the morning.
A couple of days later, I could see the lights from Lavender Town faintly from where we were at. We were reaching Lavender Town at night. The best way to capture Ghost Pokemon is at night.
"There it is," I said once we entered Lavender Town. In front of us was a very old building that looked very creepy. It was the Pokemon Tower, where Ghost Pokemon were said to live. We approached the door wearily.
My dad had found a Haunter here, which helped him to beat Sabrina. One thing that my dad never told me was what had happened here when he came to catch a Ghost Pokemon...no matter how many times I asked. So I could only wonder why.
I pushed the door open. The door groaned in protest and the noise bounced off the walls of the tower. We were now inside and we all glanced around nervously. The old building was chilly and eerie. This was creepy.
A crash was heard in the darkness and Michelle jumped, startled. "This isn't the best idea you've ever had, Adam." Michelle said softly.
"Hey, at least we have some light." Jason said.
The door then clanged shut and we were now in total darkness. The shutting of the door bounced off the walls. It was so quiet in here, that every sound bounced off the walls, making it sound ten times louder.
"You and your big mouth, Jason." I said.
"Sorry,"
It was too dark to see anything, so Jason cried, "Charmeleon, go!"
Charmeleon's flame made a soft glow so that we could see. I glanced around. The shadows of the furniture in the room made it feel a little creepy.
"Let's try that room." I said, pointing to the room in front of us.
We walked slowly towards the room, the floor squeaking occasionally.
"AH!" Michelle screamed.
Jason and I jumped from Michelle's sudden outburst. Her scream bounced off the walls and slowly faded.
"What?" Jason asked.
"Something just touched me...my hair was pulled." she said in a scared voice.
"Are you sure it wasn't Eevee?" I asked.
"Vee!" Eevee angrily cried in protest.
"I know it wasn't Eevee." said Michelle.
"It was probably just your mind playing a trick on you." Jason reassured her.
We walked into the room to find that it was...a dining room. Fresh food was on some of the plates.
"Why is there food?" Michelle asked. "No people live in here."
A crash was heard from the left, making us yelp. We all looked and a plate flew over our heads and smashed into the wall. Plates started flying at us and we ran out of the room, screaming in fright.
We ran to another room and it was empty, except for a table that was flipped against the wall. The door closed and locked behind us. We were trapped in the room!
"Gastly!"
"Haunt! Haunter!"
Three Pokemon appeared in front of us. Two Haunters and a Gastly.
"Well, we wanted to find Ghost Pokemon, and here they are! Ready to battle?" I asked.
"Yeah!"
"Pikachu, ready?" I asked.
"Pi!" Pikachu leapt from my shoulder and waited. Jason returned Charmeleon, since there was light in this room.
"Golduck, go!" he cried, tossing a Pokeball.
"Gold! Golduck!" Golduck cried, landing.
"Growlithe, spotlight!" Michelle cried, throwing her Pokeball.
"Growl! Growlithe!" Growlithe cried.
"Before we battle, there's something you need to know." I said to Jason and Michelle. "Ghost Pokemon have an advantage. They can float freely in the air and easily avoid attacks. They'll probably use Hypnosis so our Pokemon can't attack. I have a plan. Follow Pikachu's example and have Golduck and Growlithe copy what he does."
"Got it."
"Pikachu, use your Counter-Shield!" I cried.
"Pika!" Pikachu started to spin and electricity swirled around him. The Ghost Pokemon tried to move, but they would hit the electricity if they did. They were trapped!
"Growlithe, use Fire Spin while laying down!" Michelle cried. Growlithe was able to get the Fire Spin going and it worked perfectly. Growlithe had done a similar move before in a contest.
"Golduck, use Water Gun and spin like Pikachu!" Jason cried. Golduck used Water Gun while it spun around.
The Ghost Pokemon were trapped and weakened from the fire, water, and electric attacks.
"I'm gonna catch Gastly, if that's okay." Michelle said suddenly.
"Fine with me. I want to catch one of the Haunter." I replied.
"Okay," Jason said.
Jason moved to the left side of the room and removed an empty Pokeball.
"Good idea," I muttered, moving to the right side of the room, leaving Michelle in the middle.
The Pokemon we wanted to catch were floating in the air in that order. With us being spaced out, our Pokeballs wouldn't collide.
The attacks had stopped by now and we all threw a Pokeball. Our Pokeballs fell to the ground and wiggled a few times before finally stopping.
"Yes! I now have a new Pokemon that I can use for the Lavender Town contest." Michelle said, smiling.
"And we have a Pokemon to use against Sabrina." Jason said.
"Yeah, and we can win, too." I added.
Jason and Michelle released their Pokemon. I removed my Pokedex and pointed it at Haunter. Jason pointed his Pokedex at Gastly.
"Haunter, the Gas Pokemon. After evolving from Gastly, Haunter can learn the Dream Eater and Psychic attacks."
"Gastly, the Gas Pokemon. It has the power to turn itself completely invisible. Its specialty is Hypnosis."
I was going to release my Haunter as well, but my Pokeball shrunk. I pressed the release button, but my Pokeball wouldn't open.
"Why isn't it opening?" I asked myself softly.
I then made a list in my head. Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmeleon, Pidgeotto, Squirtle, and Machoke. I now had seven Pokemon and a trainer can only carry six at a time. No wonder it wouldn't open.
"I don't know about you guys, but I wanna leave. I'm really cold." Michelle said as she returned Gastly.
We opened the now unlocked door, walked through the building, and out of the door into the night.
"It's cold out here, too." Michelle mumbled.
"It probably feels that way because we all just had a pretty big scare in there." I replied. "It's actually not that cold."
"By the way, good call with the attacks, Adam. How did you know what to do against them?" she asked.
"Thanks. My dad figured out how to use that move back when he was travelling through Sinnoh with my mom. She was the one who inspired his idea. He came up with it because he needed to find a way to beat the Ghost type gym leader, Fantina."
We walked towards the Pokemon Center to get a room so we could sleep. After travelling for a couple of days, going directly to the tower as soon as we arrived in town, and getting pranked on by our new Pokemon, I was really tired and I knew the others were, too.
We walked into the Pokemon Center, which was empty, except for Nurse Joy. Since it was late at night, everyone was asleep, but Nurse Joy wasn't. It was strange being in a Pokemon Center that was quiet. No television playing, no murmurs from people talking, nothing.
Nurse Joy looked up from whatever she was doing and saw us.
"My, my, you're out late. You three look exhausted." she stated.
"One room, please." Jason said.
She nodded her head and after a few minutes, she removed a key.
"Room twelve, have a good night." she said, handing Jason the key.
"Thanks, Nurse Joy."
We walked towards room twelve and Jason unlocked the door. Michelle claimed the bed closest to the bathroom and flopped onto the bed. I placed my bag down and removed my pajamas, walking to the bathroom to change.
Once we all changed into our pajamas, we laid down in our beds and said good night and went to sleep. Pikachu and Eevee slept soundly on the floor. I rolled onto my side and looked out the window at the stars and silently told my dad, "good night", wherever he was. Hopefully, he was looking up at the same stars in the same sky that I was, thinking about my mom and I.
Author's Note: After briefly stopping in Saffron City, the kids continue on to Lavender Town where they each catch a Ghost Pokemon. The boys now have an edge against Sabrina and Michelle has a new Pokemon for her contests. Michelle will be competing in that contest in the next chapter. Will she win?
Find out next time on Pokemon NG!