Ch 22: Tower of Terror part 2
The group made their way up the stairs to another level of the tower. The next level seemed just like the last level in it's design and layout. There were dozens of gravestones around the room. But unlike the last floor this floor held a thick fog around it, with a rather unfriendly aura.
"Uh guys, why is there fog here?" Serena asked sounding a little scared.
Lex looked around and gave creepy smile.
"This fog isn't natural." He said.
"Not natural." Serena said as her legs started wobbling.
As they walked further in Gengar felt as if they were being watched.
"Gen." He said.
Gengar's eyes began to glow red as he moved behind a gravestone and vanished.
Ash and Lucy used their aura vision to see what was around them, that is then they noticed two aura's coming closer to them.
"Guys, there's someone here." Ash said.
"I can feel their aura as well." Lex said as his eyes glowed blue.
Serena held onto Ash's arm tightly as they walked further into the room.
A ghost pokemon sitting behind a gravestone was watching Serena.
When she made another noise, Pikachu and Ash's advanced senses allowed them to hear this. That was when Ash realized that was where he had seen one of the two aura's.
"I think there's something over there." Ash said.
"Pika." Pikachu said nodding.
Ash and Pikachu walked over as Serena continued shaking.
"Ash can we please get off this floor." Serena said when she noticed he wasn't beside her.
"Ash, Pikachu." the others had gotten far enough away so that Serena couldn't see them through the fog.
"Anyone." Serena said. She then heard something moving close to her.
"Ash, is that you?" She asked.
A violet fog formed around her as a pair of red eyes formed in front of her with a very evil smile.
"Ahhhhh!" She screamed.
"Serena!".
"Pika!".
Ash ran back over and got between Serena and the pokemon with his hands held up glowing with aura inside them.
"Pika!" Pikachu said with his cheeks sparking.
Ash unleashed a pulse of aura that forced away the cloud of dark energy. When the cloud was gone Ash and Serena saw a Haunter floating in front of them.
"Haunter?" Ash and Serena said.
"Haunt!" The haunter shouted laughing like crazy.
"A Haunter?" Serena asked.
"I see this Haunter was trying to scare us as a joke." Ash said sweat dropping.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted as he continued to laugh.
"That's not funny." Serena said sounding irritated.
"Haunt!".
Moments later a black cloud of energy formed around Haunter.
"Haunt?" he said looking confused.
Haunter heard voices around him and 5 pairs of glowing red eyes surrounding him with a horrible shriek.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted out in fear.
Lex's Gengar leapt out in front of Haunter and gave a terrifying expression at Haunter.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted in fear.
"Gengar!" Gengar shouted as he laughed.
Upon seeing this Serena smiled.
"See it's not so fun is it." Haunter sweat dropped.
Lex walked over to them and saw what happened.
"I see you found Haunter." Lex said.
"You know him?" Serena asked.
"Yes, he's a jokester, loves to jump out and scare people in this tower. That's why Gengar likes to do it to him." Lex said as Gengar laughed.
"Hey what's going on over here?" Lucy said as she and Brock walked over.
"This Haunter tried to scare me." Serena said.
"Tried." Lex said.
Moments later Pikachu saw another small Ghost pokemon come out from behind a gravestone and floated towards them.
"Mis." She said softly as she floated in front of the group.
"Another ghost?" Ash said opening his pokedex.
"Misdreavus, the Screech Pokémon. Misdreavus loves being mischievous by pulling people's hair and shocking them."
Serena and there others noticed a rather innocent and frightened expression on the small ghost pokemon's face.
"That's strange, she doesn't seem mischievous." Brock said.
"I know this Misdreavus. She's usually just as mischievous as Haunter. They're adopted brother and sister." Lex said.
"Adopted?" Serena asked.
"It's a long story, but in any case something is bothering her. I'm guessing it's what's afflicting the town." Lex said.
"Mis." Misdreavus said nodding.
"You know I would have thought we'd find more Ghost pokemon here, I know it's just the 3rd floor but still." Brock said.
"Brock is right, normally this place is full of Ghastly, but the last few days I've been here the number of ghost type pokemon has been generally decreasing." Lex said.
"Haunt." Haunter said nodding.
"Mis. Misdreavus" She said trying to explain the situation.
"Pika." Pikachu said before turning to Ash.
"Pika, Pikachu." Pikachu explained to Ash. Apparently several days prior a terrible thing happened near the top of the tower. Men came in and an innocent mother was killed. Since then, a dark power resides in the upper level of the tower. Doing terrible things to any intruders who go to the upper level of the tower."
"Terrible event, a mother being killed. She must mean poor Marowak." Lucy said.
"Haunt." Haunter said nodding.
"But that still doesn't explain what's been happening to the other ghost pokemon. I don't think they'd be considered intruders." Ash said.
"Mis." Misdreavus said nodding.
"Mis, Misdreavus."
"Pika, Pikachu." Pikachu said once again explaining to Ash what she was saying.
Apparently there was something else going on at the top of the tower. Something drawing the ghost pokemon to the top, but when they came back they were different. So did the tower keepers. That is why her and Haunter had been hiding on the second floor, waiting for Lex to come back to ask him for help.
"They need our help." Ash said as he explained what Pikachu told him.
"So there's a dark force near the top and something else on the top. This complicates things." Brock said.
"It just makes it more interesting." Lex said giving another creepy expression.
"Of course it does." Brock said sweat dropping.
"Who's there." Another voice said.
The group turned as a figure appeared through the fog. When she came into sight she was wearing the same white robe as the women at the base of the tower and had glowing white eyes.
"She's one of the tower keepers." Lex said.
"What's going on with her eyes?" Serena said sounding scared.
The young woman drew a wooden staff and twirled it around in front of her as a pair of Ghastly with glowing eyes gloating beside her head.
Ash, Lucy, and Lex could feel something foreign in their auras'. Like they were being controlled.
"Leave!" The young woman shouted as she swung her staff at Lucy and Brock.
Lucy ducked using her advanced senses, while Brock was smashed in the face and knocked to the ground.
"Ouch." Brock said.
At the same time the two Ghastly unleashed two Shadow balls at the group.
"Pikachu Iron tail!".
"Sucker punch." Lex said calmly.
Pikachu leapt off Ash's shoulder and covered his tail in metal before slicing the first incoming shadow ball in half.
At the same time Gengar covered his left fist in dark energy before smashing the other Shadow ball into nothing.
The channeler came forward and thrusted her staff at Lex, only to have him slice the staff in half with his right hidden blade. She lurched back spinning both halves of the staff in her hands. As soon as she came forward Lex forced his left hand forward and grabbed the channeler's wrist before forcing his right palm into her face and holding it there.
As he did he used his aura to try and force the foreign influence out of the channeler's aura.
The two Ghastly moved more to the side as they tried to use another Shadow ball.
"Thunder!"
"Pika chu!" Pikachu shouted as he filled the first Ghastly with electricity at the same time Gengar formed an even larger Shadow ball in his mouth before hurling it forward and smashing into the other Ghastly.
As the two Ghastly slammed into the ground Ash ran over and placed his hands on them, like Lex he was trying to force the foreign presence from their auras'.
Haunter was watching this and was interested in how Ash was doing this. After a minute the channeler's eyes returned to normal at the same time the Ghastlys' eyes also did.
The woman stumbled backwards but was caught by Lucy before falling to the ground.
"Ohh, what happened?" The young woman said as the two Ghastly also looked dizzy.
"Ghastly." One said.
Misdreavus and Haunter floated over to the two Ghastly.
"Haunter."
"Mis."
"Ghastly." The other Ghastly said looking relieved that Misdreavus and Haunter were safe.
"Lex, is that you?" The young woman said.
"Indeed. May I ask what you remember." Lex said.
"I remember that I was heading up to the top floor to check on the grave stones there when everything went white. I felt like I was no longer telling my body what I wanted it to do. Like something else was telling me what I wanted me to do." The Channeler said.
"Ghost." the First Ghastly said nodding.
"Pika." Pikachu said explaining to Ash that they were saying it was the same thing that happened to them.
"So the people who are going to the top floor are getting possessed by something." Ash said.
"How horrible, having someone else's will forced upon your mind and body." Serena said.
"If this is true, then there may be other possessed Channeler's and pokemon in the tower." Lucy said.
"Yes, there were others who went to the top floor as well." The channeler said.
"Head back to the base floor, we'll try and find out what's going on." Lex said.
"Alright, be careful." The Channeler said.
"You two should probably stay clear too, we don't want you getting possessed again." Ash said.
"Haunter." Haunter said nodding.
"Ghastly." The second Ghastly said as he and his friend floated down the next level.
"This complicates things a bit." Serena said.
"It does, whatever is controlling this tower is fighting back against intruders. I've been to the upper levels of this tower, the gravestones create a maze of paths to the next staircase. Plus with this fog it certainly won't speed things up. Perhaps the best thing we can do to cover more ground is to split up." Lex said.
"Split up, in a tower filled with Ghosts." Serena said shaking.
"We'll cover more ground and get to the top faster, It's the right choice." Lex said.
"He may have a point, this way if one of us takes a longer path, the others can make more progress and find out what's going on in the upper levels." Brock said.
"Alright, then Serena and I will take one path, Brock and Lucy can take another, Lex will you and Haunter be ok on your own?" Ash asked.
"Please, this tower is like our home." Lex said.
As the group walked up the stairs they saw the next room was also filled with fog and 3 separate pathways through the gravestones.
Ash and Serena took the left , Lex and Gengar went down the center while Lucy and Brock went down the right.
Serena held onto Ash's arm tightly as they slowly walked down the path as the fog thickened.
Ash used his aura vision to try and see ahead of them.
Haunter saw Pikachu and smiled as he tried to sneak up on Pikachu, just before he could Pikachu turned around and gave Haunter a small shock.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted as he was shocked.
"Mis!" Misdreavus shouted at Haunter saying this was no time for that.
"Haunt?" Haunter said sweat dropping.
He turned to Pikachu with a confused expression.
"Haunt?" He said asking how he knew he was coming.
"Pika, Pikachu." Pikachu said explaining how he had spent years honing his skills with his trainer, and how it allowed his senses to be far greater than they ever would have been.
"Haunt." Haunter said pondering what Pikachu had just said.
Moments later Ash saw something ahead of him with his aura vision.
"Hold on there's something ahead of us." Ash said as he drew his hidden blades.
Two more of the women in the white robes with wooden staffs in hand approached them. Above them were 3 Ghastly and a Haunter all with glowing eyes like the young women.
"Leave this place." One said as they held up their staffs.
"Mis. Misdreavus." Misdreavus said as she tried to talk to her friends.
None made any kind of reaction.
"Haunt." The mind controlled Haunter said as his Ghastly flew over and around towards Haunter and Misdreavus.
The first channeler hurled her staff at Ash only to have Ash come forward with his right hidden blade and cut off the end of her staff before smashing his elbow across her face and delivering a powerful kick to her stomach knocking her to the ground.
At the same time Serena lurched back as the second channeler swung her staff. Serena continued avoiding each swing until the channeler had the the staff in just one hand. When she did Serena grabbed the Channeler's hand and twisted it against her wrist as she moved behind her and was forced to let go of the staff.
Serena grabbed the staff and pulled it back against the Channeler's chest forcing her to stay in place.
At the same time, the controlled Haunter unleashed a Shadowball at Ash only to have Pikachu leap forward and slice the Shadow ball in half with his Iron tail before the Haunter covered his claws in shadow energy and swung them at Pikachu.
Pikachu used his tail to knock the claws away before landing on the Haunter's face and leaping off it.
The Haunter turned around to see Pikachu with his cheeks sparking before he unleashed a Thunderbolt that hit the haunter dead on.
"Haunt!" He shrieked before fainting.
At the same time the group's Haunter slashed one of the controlled Ghastly with with Shadow claw, hurling him into the ground before behind hit in the back by a Shadow ball from the other Ghastly. He turned to face the Ghastly when the third Ghastly also hit him with a Shadow ball.
As Haunter fell to the ground Misdreavus tried to get between them when one of the Ghastly licked her across the face with his slimy tongue.
She fell beside her adopted brother as their old friends floated over them with glowing eyes.
Serena saw this and quickly pulled out her first pokeball and threw it forward.
Charla came out and did a front flip before landing.
"Fire Punch!" Serena shouted. The two Ghastly turned as Charla leapt forward and slammed her flaming right claws into the first Ghastly, hurling him back. The other Ghastly tried to form a Shadow ball before Charla slammed her other flaming claws into him, hurling him back by the other Ghastly.
Haunter and Misdreavus watched in amazement of what Charla had just done.
"Flamethrower!" Serena shouted.
"Char!" Charla shouted as she opened her mouth and unleashed a massive jet of fire that engulfed the two Ghastly, knocking them out.
"Mis." Misdreavus said envious of Charla's abilities.
The first Channeler got back up and tried to smash Ash with the other end of her staff. Ash used his left hidden blade to slice the other end off before using his knee to smash through the wood and into the Channler's gut. As she bend over , Ash retracted his right hidden blade and forced his palm onto her face.
Ash tried to force the foreign influence out of the young woman's aura, but it wasn't easy. He wasn't as skilled in such aura techniques as Lex was. After a minute he felt the girl drop to the floor.
"Ash help, this girl isn't easy to hold." Serena said as she held the other channeler in place as the young woman squirmed trying to break out.
"Right." Ash said as he rushed over and did the same to her. After another minute Serena felt the channeler stop squirming. She let her fall to the ground beside the other one.
"Ohh." One of the Channeler's moaned.
"What happened?" The other said.
"Just head downstairs." Ash said.
The two Channelers picked up the unconscious ghost pokemon and carried them downstairs.
Elsewhere Brock and Lucy were on the far area of the room walking on the path between the gravestones.
Lucy was using her aura vision to see ahead of her as Brock stared at the gravestones with an uneasy look.
"I don't like being around so many dead pokemon. I want to be a breeder to I can make sure pokemon stay out of this place."
"This is so weird, I know there's some kind of aura force here. But besides that I can feel other auras around this place. I wonder if Lex is." Lucy started before she saw a pair of auras in front of her.
"Hold on." Lucy said. Brock could see a pair of glowing red eyes ahead of them through the mist.
"Lucy, there's" Brock started before he and Lucy both felt drowsy.
"I ," Lucy started before Brock slowly went to the ground and Lucy eventually laid on top of him before they were both put to sleep.
Two ghost pokemon floated through the mist and over the two humans.
"Haunt." The controlled haunter said as his eyes turned from glowing red from his hypnosis , back to white.
"Ghastly." The controlled Ghastly said as his eyes glowed red and he started to use nightmare.
Brock woke up on a hard metal ground and heard the sounds of waves around him.
"Huh?" He said as he opened his eyes and saw he was on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
" A ship? How did I end up here?" He asked.
It was when he saw that the ship was sinking.
"Ahh! I need to find a lifeboat!" Brock shouted.
He desperately searched around the sides of the ship but found nothing.
"Oh this isn't good." Brock said as the front of the ship started to move underwater and the back started to lift up.
Brock started to climb up toward the back when he noticed something up near the top. All of his pokemon were clutching onto parts of the ship. Onix, Geodude, and Zubat, who had a hurt wing.
"Guys what are you doing here!" Brock shouted as he climbed up and tried to reach them.
"Graouu."
"Geodude."
"Zubat." They all said sounding very scared.
"You guys can't swim, you'll die if you go in the water. Here get back in your pokeballs." Brock said as he reached for his belt but found nothing.
"Oh no!" He shouted. He looked back at his pokemon who all had pure fear in their eyes.
" Guys, It's going to be ok." Brock said.
"No it's not." Another familiar voice said. Brock looked up at the top of the railing on the back end of the ship and saw Ash standing with Lucy.
"Ash? Lucy? What's going on? How did this happen?" Brock asked.
"You did this," Lucy said.
"What?" Brock said.
"This is all your fault Brock, but what can we expect from you. You're just the useless one in the group." Ash said.
"Huh?" Brock said.
"I suppose you can make good food, but other than that you don't do much. Even Serena can fend for herself in a tough fight." Lucy said.
"Guys what are you talking about?" Brock said. That was when he heard something break, he turned to see the bench Geodude was hanging onto break free and him fall into the ocean screaming.
"Geodude!" Brock shouted.
The set of railing Onix was latched onto Brock and he too went crashing into the water.
"Onix!" Brock shouted. Zubat tried to hand onto the end of a pole but his wing was too hurt and he too fell into the water.
"Zubat!" Brock shouted.
"Why would I ever want to be with an idiot like you who chases after anything in a skirt." Lucy said.
Hearing her say that made Brock feel like he was punched in the gut.
"Lucy." He started.
"Why would I when I could be with a real man, an aura guardian like me." Lucy said as she grabbed Ash by the shoulders and kissed him.
"What , no!" Brock shouted.
"By , by." Ash said as he and Lucy performed Leaps of Faith off the end of the ship into the water.
"No, No, this can't be happening." Brock said when it hit him.
"No, this can't be happening. Ash is my friend, besides he'd never do that to Serena. Lucy would never do that to me either. This isn't real!" Brock shouted. The area of the ship he was on was about to be submerged.
Brock took a deep breath then leapt into the water.
As this happened Lucy woke up in a dress inside a church.
"What's going on?" She said as she got up. She noticed her hidden blades were gone as were her pokeballs.
She then noticed two of the trainers from the battle Pike walking past her.
"Woah, she got invited. How'd that happen?" One said.
"Andrea?" What's going on here?" Lucy asked.
"How stupid are you? It's your sister's wedding, you know if your own sister doesn't even want you as her maid of honor it probably means you're not welcome at her wedding." The other trainer said.
"Barbara didn't want me at her wedding." Lucy said.
She walked inside the main area of the church and saw all of the guests sitting down.
Lucy franticly looked around and saw her parents.
"Mom, dad. What's going on? Barbara's getting married?" Lucy said.
The two turned and saw her.
"Ohh, Lucy you showed up. Well I'm surprised you actually took the time to come to your sister's wedding. Thought you did't care enough about her for that." Her father said.
"What? I love her, why would I." Lucy started.
"Take all our attention, take everything for yourself. Being Pika queen, being an Aura guardian." Her mother said.
"But I." Lucy said before someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her into a seat. She saw it was Serena who was also in a dress sitting behind Ash.
"Serena, Ash what's going on? Why are you at my sister's wedding?" Lucy asked.
"We're here for the groom duh." Ash said.
That was when Lucy noticed golden rings on Ash and Serena's fingers and Serena's stomach was enlarged.
"What the hell? Are you two married?" Lucy asked.
"Lucy are you ok? We were married last spring , you were there." Ash said.
"Serena you're pregnant?" Lucy said.
"Lucy you've know about our baby for 7 months now. You know you need to get yourself a man too." Serena said.
"Oh here comes the groom." Ash said.
Lucy turned to see none other than Brock walking down the aisle with a brown hair woman beside him.
Moments later Barbara walked down the aisle beside their father.
"Brock! NO, No this isn't true this isn't." Lucy said before she felt something strange in her aura, something foreign. Like her mind was being fooled.
"No, this isn't real." She said. Lucy got up and walked right to the alter.
"Barbara, I'm sorry I wasn't the sister I should have been, but you're not going to marry Brock." Lucy said before she grabbed Brock and kissed him.
Lucy and Brock's eyes slowly opened as they saw each other's faces right in front of each other.
"Brock!"
"Lucy!" They looked around and saw they were back in the Pokemon tower.
"I just had a terrible nightmare. I was on a sinking ship, my pokemon were falling in the water. You were kissing Ash." Brock said.
"I what? Well I was having a bad dream too, my sister and I were on such bad terms she was getting married and didn't want me there. She was getting married to you, Ash and Serena were already married and Serena was almost 8 months pregnant."
"Wait, you had a nightmare about Serena being pregnant?" Brock said.
"Well, uh it was just the idea that she would get married before me when she's 4 years younger than me." Lucy said sweat dropping.
"Why did we both fall asleep then have such horrible nightmares?" Brock asked.
They both turned over to see a Haunter and Ghastly floating in front of them.
"They must have used Hypnosis and Nightmare on us." Lucy said.
"Well they clearly don't want us here, we'll have to battle them." Brock said as he let out Zubat as Lucy let out Seviper.
"Bite!"
"Crunch!" They shouted.
Seviper quickly moved his head over and encircled his jaws around Haunter's head before coming down and crunching him.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted before being knocked out.
Zubat quickly flew over and bit the Ghastly, knocking him out as Brock and Lucy walked over.
"Great job guys." Lucy said.
"Let's keep our eyes open, I don't want to go through that again." Brock said before they continued on.
A few minutes later Ash and Serena could see something head of them.
"What's that?" Ash said as he cautiously drew his hidden blades. As they stepped through the fog they saw it was Lex holding his palms to a pair of Channelers while Gengar stood over a pair of knocked out Haunter.
"Oh there you are." Lex said as the two Channelers got up.
"What happened to us?" One asked.
"It's not safe here, take these Haunter to the bottom floor." Lex said.
The two Channeler's took the Haunters and brought them down the stairs on the other side of the room.
"So any trouble on your path?" Lex asked.
"Some." Serena said.
A few moments later Brock and Lucy walked over to them.
"I've been wondering if you'd show up." Lex said.
"Sorry we're late,but we had a bit of a detour." Brock said.
"Well we're all here. Let's head up to the next floor." Ash said.
As the group walked up to the next floor unknown to them something else was going on back at Mr. Fugi's house.
Reina was passing out food to the pokemon on their pens when she noticed Cubone was gone.
"Cubone, where are you?" She asked.
Elsewhere in the tower Ash and the others reached the next floor. Like the last one it was thick with fog.
Ash and Lucy also felt something else on the level.
"The top level is the floor above this one, which means this is the floor people have been disappearing at." Lex said.
Ash and Lucy felt the dark presence in the town and tower was stronger here then they had ever felt it.
"There's something here." Ash said.
"Indeed, this is the place I found Marowak's body. Where the terrible even occurred" Lex said with an uneasy look on his face.
Ash and the others slowly made their way past the gravestones when Pikachu noticed Misdreavus and Haunter both looked very scared.
"Pika?" He asked.
"Mis." Misdreavus said.
"Haunt." They explained that it was here.
"Pika?" Pikachu said sounding confused.
That was when Serena saw something beside a gravestone. It was a man in a suit with flowers in his hand.
He had a terrified expression on his face as he stayed curled up beside the grave.
"Hey there's someone over here." Serena said as the others came over to him.
"I've seen him before, he often comes to visit his dead Pidgeotto." Lex said.
"He looks terrified." Lucy said.
"It's coming, it wants my soul." He said.
"What's coming?" Ash asked.
"It." He said.
Brock noticed there was a woman beside another gravestone who looked just as terrified.
"It will consume us." She said.
"Hwee, Huhweeh, Hweuu" They heard in a dark moan like noise.
"What was that?" Serena said shaking.
Misdreavus and Haunter both hid behind Ash and Serena as the sounds and movements got closer.
"What is that?" Serena asked.
The noises and moaning got louder and closer until they saw something moving. A specter dark figure shaped like a combination of a Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar came out in front of them with glowing yellow eyes.
"Get out! Intruders!" The ghost roared.
"Ash, issss, that a ghost type pokemon?" Serena asked shaking.
Ash and Lucy tried to feel the creature for a pokemon's aura, but felt something twisted and angry about it.
Ash opened his pokedex but found nothing.
"It's a real ghost." Lex said.
"Ahhhhh!" Serena and Brock yelled.
"Pika!" Pikachu shouted before he leapt forward and unleashed a Thunderbolt.
The electricity surged through the specter causing it pain before it gave another angry look at the group.
"Guys." Serena said shaking.
"Hold on." Lex said as he walked closer to it.
"Is he crazy!?" Brock shouted.
Lex used his aura vision and saw the ghost was as he believed it was, a manifestation of twisted aura. Twisted by pain and anger. None the less, it was a pokemon's aura.
"Hah! I was right! This is a ghost, a pokemon's ghost, their aura left behind unready to move on to the after life." Lex said.
Ash and Lucy used their aura vision and saw what Lex did, they couldn't believe he was right.
"Ok so what do we do now?" Serena asked.
"I've been waiting for this moment for years, let me handle it." Lex said.
He took a deep breath and extended his hand out forward as his eyes and hand began to glow blue. The ghost continued to shout and moan at him until he reached it and connected with its aura.
"Be at peace, we aren't here to harm you." Lex said. The ghost's expression started to change.
"I know why you're restless, unable to move on to be with Reduka. Someone murdered your didn't they, someone took your life. I'm sorry this happened, but you deserve to be at peace." Lex said. The energy around the ghost began to fade away.
After nearly a minute the group saw what remained. Floating before them was none other than a Marowak.
"Marowak!" The others shouted.
"Pika!"
"Haunt!".
"Mis!".
"This is the Marowak you found dead isn't it." Serena said sounding a sad. With all the darkness and pain gone, Lex could feel the aura as it truly was.
"It is her, Marowak." Lex said.
"Marowak." The Ghost said sounding more at peace as she took a deep breath.
Moments later the others heard something approaching them from behind them. They turned and saw it was none other than the Cubone from the house.
"Cubone? What are you doing here?" Brock asked. Cubone looked up at his mother's ghost and began to tear up.
"Cubone." He said as he slowly walked over to the ghost.
Lex and the others looked with heavy hearts as Marowak looked down at her son with a few tears coming out of her own eyes.
She went to the ground in front of him before placing her arms around him as he rested his head in her chest.
Serena tried to keep herself from crying as she watched the two.
The man and woman as well as the others trapped on the floor all got up and quickly left the floor as the fog began to fade away.
"I can feel the dark presence around this town fading away." Lucy said.
"This still doesn't explain why the channelers and Ghost pokemon here were being controlled." Lex said.
"Marowak." Marowak's ghost said.
"Wait Marowak you weren't trying to trap people here, you were trying to scare them away so they wouldn't suffer the same fate as you." Lex said.
"Marowak." She said nodding.
"Which means whoever killed you is still here." Lucy said.
"Mis!" Misdreavus shouted.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted.
"We're going to find them, and make them pay." Lex said as he drew his hidden blades. The group walked up the steps to the top floor of the tower.
The top floor was much narrower than the other floors. Instead of an open room with dozens of gravestones, there was a single path that lead to a pedestal with two statues beside them.
Oddly enough the statues were statues of aura guardians with their hidden blades drawn.
Standing around in the room were 4 team rocket grunts with 4 Nidorino. Two were holding an older half man with white eyebrows.
Standing in the center was their officer. He was tall and thin with a pair of metal blade like boomerangs in hand.
"Mis!" Misdreavus shouted angrily upon seeing the man.
Cubone, and Marowak's ghost seemed just as distressed.
"Christian the Cleaver!" Ash shouted as Pikachu growled with his cheeks sparking.
"Well, if it isn't our old friends from Kalos. I didn't expect to see you here." He said.
"So it was you who's responsible for this!" Lex shouted.
"I am, we have our prize." Christian said as he revealed a medallion shaped piece of gold in his hand.
Ash, Lucy, and Lex could feel a massive amount of power in the piece of gold.
"This device is even more powerful than those stones in Kalos. It allows me to control the minds of the weak , pokemon and humans alike." He said.
"Please you must stop him." The old man said.
"Mr. Fuji!" Lex shouted.
"He helped me unlock it from its case. I also need a few days to learn how it works. Now that I do, feel its power!" Christian shouted as he held it in front of him. The device started to glow white as light came from it.
Ash and Lucy felt the same foreign power inside the Channelers reaching out to them and trying to break away at their defenses. They also felt it trying to take control of Pikachu and Seviper.
Ash and Lucy did their best to keep the influence away and when they did they looked over at Lex who was still standing with his Gengar.
"Nice try, but we're aura guardians. Our minds aren't so weak." Lex said.
"What about your friends." He said smiling. The three turned to see Serena and Brock as well as Misdreavus and Haunter, all with glowing white eyes.
"Oh no." Lucy said.
"Get the intruders." Brock said.
He lunged for Lucy only to have her grab his wrists and held him in place.
"Get out." Serena said as she lunged for Ash, he too caught her wrists holding her in place. Pikachu leapt down and and stood in front of the two controlled ghost pokemon with Seviper.
Christian saw Marowak's ghost and raised his eyebrows.
"I thought I killed you already." Christian said.
"So it was you!" Lex shouted.
"I needed to get here, she was in my way." Christian said.
Lex held his hidden blades up and touched his mega evolution stone before Gengar Mega evolved.
"You're a monster! I'll end your wretched life!" Lex shouted.
"Gar!" Mega Gengar shouted.
"You can try." Christian said as he put the medallion away then let out a scizor before mega evolving it.
The Mega Scizor flew forward and tried to use Metal claw.
Mega Gengar used his own Shadow claws to knock them Scizor's metal claws away.
As soon as they were, Mega Gengar formed a Shadow ball in his mouth and blasted it into Mega Scizor's chest. The Mega Scizor was knocked back a foot before coming at Gengar with Iron head. Gengar licked Mega Scizor across his face, stopping him in his tracks before slashing him across the face with Shadow claw.
At the same time Christian hurled his boomerangs at Lex. The aura guardian used his hidden blades to knock away the blades before rushing at Christian. The rocket officer used magnets on his gloves to draw his boomerangs back to his hands.
He then swung the first at Lex only to have him block it with hair left hidden blade. The two began a fierce melee between the hidden blades and boomerangs.
Two of the Nidorino came up behind Lex and tried to jab him with their horns.
"Marowak!" She shouted as she turned to her son.
"Cubone!" he shouted as he did as his mouther said and hurled his bone across the path. The two Nidorino were smashed across the face and knocked aside.
Ash and Lucy placed their palms on the other twos' faces and tried to force the medallion's power out of their aura.
Lex blocked Christian's boomerangs before forcing them aside and doing an acrobatic jump kick that knocked him back.
Lex did a front flip and smashed his foot into Christian's face as he did, knocking him to the ground.
As he did this Gengar hurled the Mega Scizor back with a massive Shadow ball.
"PIkachu Thunder!" Ash shouted.
"Pika chu!" Pikachu shouted as he filled the 4 rocket grunts and 2 Nidorinos with electricity, knocking them all out.
Christian saw Lex rushing at him with his hidden blades out.
"I won't be dying , not today." Christian said as he took out a small cylinder shaped device and hurled it into the ground. Lex and the others' senses all went white, when they regained them Christian and his Gengar were gone.
"No!" Lex shouted as he saw his prey was gone.
"Dam it, the monster got away!" Lex shouted.
"He won't get far, when the other guardians find out what he did he'll be hunted down." Lucy said.
Lex helped Mr. Fuji up.
"I'm glad your safe." Lex said.
"Thank you for saving me." Mr. Fuji said.
Brock and Serena were holding their heads with massive headaches.
"That was horrible." Serena said.
"It's alright it's over." Ash said.
"Haunt."
"Mis." The other two said as they felt dizzy.
Mr. Fuji and Lex walked over to Marowak's ghost.
"I'm glad we were able to give you peace Marowak, but you cannot remain in the world of the living." Lex said.
Marrow nodded before turning to her son.
"Cu." Cubone said with his eyes tearing up.
Marowak lowered her head and kissed her son's fore head.
"Marowak." She said claiming that it was time for her to move on, but he had his whole life ahead of him. That he needed to live his life, for her.
"Cubone." He said telling his mother he loved her.
The group watched with heavy hearts as the two embraced each other one more time before Marowak's ghost fades away.
"She's with Reduka now. In the afterlife." Lex said.
Mr. Fuji came forward and picked up Cubone in his arms.
"It's going to be alright Cubone." He said. The group went back to Mr. Fuji's house where they watched Cubone playing with the other orphaned pokemon.
"It's good to see he's moved on." Ash said.
"Indeed, he has closure." Lex said.
" Thank you all for what you've done." Mr. Fuji said.
"It was our duty to do so." Lucy said.
"Lavender town is at peace again, thank you for assisting me." Lex said.
"I'm just glad we're done with ghosts." Serena said.
"Haunt!" Haunter shouted as he came out of no where and held his tongue in front of Serena.
"Yahh! Haunter!" Serena shouted.
"Haunter!" He shouted laughing.
"Misdreavus." Misdreavus said as she revealed herself to.
"What are you guys doing outside the tower?" Ash asked.
"Haunt." Haunter said.
"Pika." Pikachu said explaining to Ash what they said. Apparently they wanted to have the skills that Pikachu and Charla had. They wanted to be trained like them.
"You want to come with us?" Serena asked.
"Mis!" Misdreavus said nodding.
"Alright we'd love to have you in the group." Ash said. He took out a pokeball before touching Haunter with it. Serena did the same to Misdreavus.
The two Ghost pokemon were sent inside and remained there until they were caught.
"Alright we caught ourselves some ghost pokemon!" Ash shouted.
"Haunter is part of the group now. Great." Serena said sweat dropping.
Author's note
Well that's the end of chapter 22, sorry there was no Sir Aaron Memory, there will only be so many of those so I'm splitting them up a bit, but rest assured more will come
So Ash caught Haunter and unlike the show he will be keeping him,
The next chapter will be Serena's showcase, and as you guys may have guessed the group will be taking a different route to Fuchsia city, don't worry though, there will still be plenty of episodes based on the original anime
So until next time , please review, comment, suggest, or ask(Via PM)