Hello everybody! I've only said this about two other chapters, because I hate to disappoint my readers, but I really am not too excited about this chapter. Originally, I had this worked out to be much more exciting than it turned out. However, because of a series of problems, that didn't happen. I'm not saying it's the worst chapter I've ever done, or anything like that, but I will say that you won't find a lot of plot advancement in this chapter. I know it's bad publicity to warn the reader of a bad chapter before they even get to read it, but I want to prepare y'all, and I want y'all to know that I'm not oblivious to my own flaws in my writing. I personally hate it when an author's really bad at writing, but they don't acknowledge it. Anyway, the one good thing I'll say for this chapter is that if you like my battling sequences, then you'll certainly enjoy this chapter because it's full of them. Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW this chapter, and tell me if you liked it. If you didn't like it, still write me and give me some constructive critiscm so I'll know how to improve my abilities. If I hadn't already missed last week's deadline because of football, I probably would have re-done this chapter, but I know I've appeared kind of lazy with my lack of updates, and I didn't want to put updating this fic off any longer. On a related note, I would like to mention that school starts for me this Monday, but that will not interfere with next Sunday's update. In fact, expect weekly updates every Sunday for the next two months, as per usual. School is going to be a challenge, but I find working on this story to be a great stress-reliever, so I shouldn't have any problems submitting new chapters. Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW and read.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any of its affiliated companies including, but not limited to, 4Kids, The Pokemon Company, Game Freaks, or Cartoon Network. The characters written within this fic are soley based upon the fictional characters created by these companies, and the story is not meant to, nor will it, receive any monetary funding.
Characters' Ages:
Ash: 16
Brock: 21
Misty: 17
Dawn: 13
Delia: 40
Oak: 55
Gary: 16
"Come on Brock, we gotta go," Ash urged his slumbering friend who was in the twin bed next to his.
"Ugh, not right now Ash," Brock whined, waving his hand at the overly-eager trainer.
"But I wanna get to the Saffron Gym before everyone else starts lining up for battles!" Ash explained. "It's already seven-thirty. If we don't leave now, there's no telling how long it'll be before we get a chance to talk to Sabrina!"
"Seven-thirty?" growled Brock as he lowered his head beneath the covers. "We just got here at four this morning!"
"Aw, c'mon Brock-o," Ash said, hoping to pull his friend out of the bed with persistence. "You're always the one waking me up before I'm ready, so what's up?"
"What's up, is that I've gotten less than three hours of sleep, and I'm about to send Croagunk on you to knock that grin off your face," Brock threatened.
"Um, alright, alright," Ash replied calmly, placing his hands in front of him. "No need for that." He could see that his friend was acting very out of character, and obviously was in no mood for joking around.
"At least Pikachu will come with me, right Pikachu?" he asked, turning to look at the little yellow Pokémon sleeping peacefully at the foot of his bed.
However, Pikachu did not respond.
Better wake 'im up, Ash decided, walking towards his friend. He reached down and began shaking Pikachu awake.
"Pika, Pikachu!" screeched the mouse Pokémon as its body began to send off sparks at the pest.
"Ow!" cried Ash as he backed away from his Pokémon. Fortunately, he had barely touched Pikachu, but the sparks still gave him quite a jolt. "What was that for?"
"Pika-pika-chu," responded the Pokémon haughtily.
"Fine, whatever," Ash said. "I'll just go by myself." He rarely directly understood what Pikachu was saying to him, but his body language usually gave away the meanings behind the repetitions of his name.
Before he headed out, he went to the safe in the closet of the small motel room and took out his belt with his pokeballs attached to it. Ever since the last incident with Mallory, he had been sure to keep his Pokémon either on his person, or in a safe of some sort to prevent their theft.
Walking out the door, he thought that maybe he would ask Misty to go with him. However, he quickly shot down that idea.
If Brock was that mad, he reasoned, I can't imagine what Misty would be like this morning.
However, if Misty was in a bad mood, it was certainly not carried over from the night before. Although Ash didn't know why, Misty actually seemed quite pleased to get out of Vermilion and back on the road. While Brock and Pikachu tried to get some sleep in the backseat during the four hour drive, she and Ash stayed up and talked. It reminded him a lot of when they used to travel together and would sit at the fire they'd created and chat after Brock and Pikachu had gone to their respective sleeping bags.
I didn't realize how much I missed talking with her, Ash thought as he began his descent down the stairs towards the lobby. He walked briskly towards the front door, hoping to make good time to the gym, but was suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as he noticed something. Misty was sitting in the small eating area looking at a newspaper and eating a bagel.
"Hey Mist!" called Ash from across the lobby.
"Ash, shush!" she ordered quickly. She got up and walked over to him. "Do you know how rude it is to yell in a hotel? There are people trying to sleep!"
"Geez, Misty," Ash said, annoyed at her mature attitude. "No one could have woken up from that!"
"You never know," she replied. "Besides, what are you doing down here so early? I would've figured you'd take advantage of getting to sleep in as late as you wanted."
"Some things are more important than sleep, Mist," Ash reminded her. "And catching a Haunter is definitely one of those things."
"So you're really gonna ask her for Haunter back?" Misty asked, almost in a tone of disbelief. They had discussed the matter last night on the drive over, and Misty thought perhaps Ash was just delirious from lack of sleep.
"Of course," Ash replied. "Why wouldn't I?"
"For the same reason I said yesterday," Misty said, exasperated. "Sabrina tried to kill us-"
"Not last time," Ash interjected.
"What?" Misty asked, aggravated at his stubbornness.
"She didn't try and kill us last time, remember?" Ash said, now sounding put out with Misty's forgetfulness. "If it wasn't for my Haunter, then she'd definitely have murdered us, but because of him we're cool with her."
"That's another thing I mentioned," Misty reminded him. "Remember, you never caught Haunter, so technically he's not even yours. How can you just go up to someone and demand that they give you their Pokémon when they were the one to capture it in the first place?"
"Yeah, but I introduced them," Ash explained. "Besides, I only need him for a little while so I can find a Gastly and a Gengar, then I'm gonna return 'im to Sabrina. It's not like I'm gonna run off with him or anything."
"All the same," Misty persisted, "I don't like her that much. Trying to kill us once was more than enough for me.
"Fine," Ash relented. "You stay here. I'm gonna go see Sabrina." He turned around and proceeded to walk out the door.
"Oh no you don't," Misty said, running after him. "If you died, you're mom would never let me live it down."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
As they approached the gym, Ash felt the memories of the last time they were here hit him like a ton of bricks. When they first came to the Saffron Gym, Sabrina's dad had warned them about how dangerous it would be to challenge his daughter. However, as Ash looked around, he saw no one coming to tell them they may not survive. In fact, he barely saw anyone.
"Kind of spooky, isn't it?" Ash asked Misty as they approached the gym's entrance. "You know, with no one here and all."
"Yeah, a little," Misty replied. She was trying to sound calm, but inside she felt her heart rate increase and her pulse quicken.
Something's weird here, she thought as the doors automatically slid open and she and Ash took their first steps into the gym.
The entrance led to a large hallway, which had several doors on both sides, and then two larger doors at the very end. Ash and Misty both knew from experience that the doors at the end were where they'd find Sabrina.
"Guess we didn't have to worry about the gym being too crowded after all," Ash commented jokingly. He couldn't explain it, but he felt the need to create some humor in such a depressing atmosphere.
"Ash, look over here," Misty quietly hissed at him. She was standing over at one of the doors and peeking through the glass.
"So what?" Ash asked as he went over to her and looked inside. The lights were on, and there was a plain, round table and a metal, fold-out chair in the center of the room, with a chalkboard facing opposite the door. "Class is out of session?"
"No, no," Misty whispered hoarsely. "Look at that." Ash followed her gaze and saw that next to the chalkboard, a single piece of chalk was swinging side to side in mid-air.
"What the-?" Ash began to ask. He was suddenly silenced when he saw that the piece of chalk was no longer swaying, but instead at the board and writing.
Ash heard Misty gasp slightly as the piece of chalk quit writing, and the word "Run" was clearly seen in large letters on the chalkboard. Deciding to obey the writing, Misty and Ash simultaneously began sprinting towards the doors. However, before they reached them, Ash could feel his feet leaving the ground. Looking down, he saw that his body was covered in a blue aura, but when he looked for Misty, he saw that she had not noticed what was happening to him, and instead was walking out the door.
"Misty!" Ash called after her as his body continued its climb towards the ceiling.
"Ash, oh no!" Misty cried, after having turned around to see what was troubling the trainer. "Don't worry, I'll help." As she said this, she threw out a pokeball that contained Starmie.
"Starmie, use Psychic to pull Ash back towards us!" she commanded. Ash was beginning to drift towards the large doors of the battle arena, so she knew she didn't have a lot of time.
"Hyaaa!" responded the starfish Pokémon, as its body began to mimic Ash's in appearance. A blue aura surrounded the creature, and as it focused its energies on Ash, he slowly stopped floating towards the doors and began to return to Misty and Starmie.
"You're doing so good, Starmie!" encouraged Misty from the sidelines. She was glad her idea had worked, since Starmie was the only psychic type Pokémon she had.
"Misty, watch out!" cried Ash, as he pointed behind the water trainer.
"Ah!" screamed Misty as she followed Ash's finger to find at least twenty Haunter behind her, blocking the exit.
"Starmie, use Surf!" she quickly commanded, trying to take control of the situation.
"Ouch!" cried Ash as Starmie dropped him from several feet in the air. "Remember me, Mist?"
Crybaby, Misty thought as she watched her water Pokémon shoot out a large amount of water from three different points on the top of its body at the growing-closer cluster of ghost Pokémon. Soon, half the hallway was flooded as the deluge covered all of the Haunter.
"Great job Starmie!" Misty congratulated as she saw that the Haunter weren't emerging from the water.
"Go Ivysaur!" she heard Ash yell from behind her. Turning around, she was disappointed and shocked to find that her assumptions of victory over the Haunter were inaccurate, and that they had instead teleported to the other side of the hallway and were now harassing Ash.
"Ivysaur, use Vine Whip!" he ordered as the Haunter surrounded him and his Pokémon and began to eerily draw nearer.
"Saur!" cried his Pokémon as it brought out its large vines. Ash hit the floor on his stomach in order to allow Ivysaur full range with its vines.
The grass Pokémon began swinging its vines like helicopter blades and repelled the incoming ghosts. However, the strategy soon proved impossible to work, because the Haunter simply started bombarding Ivysaur with Shadow Balls, which sent it flying within seconds.
"Ivysaur, return!" Ash commanded, withdrawing the Pokémon into its respective pokeball.
"Starmie!" Ash heard Misty cry. He looked up to see that Starmie had been put to sleep, and several of the Haunter were now using Dream Eater on her Pokémon simultaneously.
"Mist, use Gyarados!" Ash told her from across the hallway, as he reached for another pokeball to deal with the Haunter who were trying to get near him.
"I can't," Misty explained. "I only brought Starmie with me. I left the rest at the Center to rest up."
Ash was about to criticize the girl's poor judgment, but was sidetracked when he felt the wind get knocked out of him, and he began to fly backwards into one of the large doors leading to the battle arena.
"Ash!" Misty cried, trying to withdraw Starmie despite the large number of Haunter blocking her from doing so.
Ash looked up to see one Haunter floating in front of him with a large grin on its face. Its right hand was shrouded in a dark aura, and Ash immediately knew that he had just experienced a Shadow Punch attack.
"Slowpoke, I choose you," he said, trying to regain his breath. He threw the pokeball in front of him, and his new water Pokémon emerged from the ball.
Slowpoke knows Confusion, which is very effective against Ghost types, he reasoned in his mind.
"Slowpoke, use Confusion," he commanded.
"Sloooow," responded his Pokémon. For a minute, he simply stood between Ash and Haunter with a blank look upon its face. Haunter seemed to be confused by its vacant stare, and thus temporarily forgot that it was in the middle of a battle.
Perfect, thought Ash as he witnessed the battle. He's too distracted to take advantage of Slowpoke's slowness.
A few seconds passed, and then Slowpoke began to glow a light blue color, similar to Ash and Starmie earlier, and lifted its head at the Haunter.
"Slooow," it said to the Haunter. As it uncurled its tail, Haunter seemed to become aware of what was happening, and began to attack again.
"Haunter, Haunt," it said, bringing its fist back for another Shadow Punch. However, instead of punching the Slowpoke out of the way, it instead turned its fist upon itself and was knocked backward several feet.
"Good Slowpoke," Ash encouraged. "Keep it up."
"Ash!" Misty yelled from the other side of the hallway. "The doors are locked now!"
Ash looked over to see that the Haunter had been too distracted sucking the life out of Starmie to notice Misty, who had tried to open the gym's doors to go get help.
"Poliwag, go!" he shouted, throwing the pokeball in Misty's direction.
"Poli!" cried the little water Pokémon as it emerged.
"Poliwag, use Body Slam to help Misty open the doors," Ash commanded, as he refocused his attention on several Haunter who were approaching to help out their friend, who was still confused.
"A Poliwag?" Misty asked in a tone of shock. "Give me something stronger Ash."
"I can't," Ash explained. "Ivysaur was my only old Pokémon I brought with me. I'm using my new ones so they can train."
Great, Misty thought, as she looked back at her Starmie. She honestly didn't know how her poor Pokémon had any energy left to give to those parasitic ghosts, but she wanted them to stop before her friend was permanently injured.
"Poliwag, wait!" she commanded. "Use Water Gun on those Haunter instead."
However, Poliwag just continued to waddle towards the entrance doors, and once there began tackling them in a desperate attempt to make them open.
She only listens to Ash, Misty realized. Although any of Ash's older Pokémon would obey her, Poliwag was new and didn't understand the correlation between her master and Misty.
Deciding she needed to do something, Misty joined Poliwag in tackling the entrance doors. They were made of glass, but apparently it was very thick, because neither she nor Poliwag put even a crack in it.
"Uh-oh," Ash said on the other side of the hallway. Slowpoke had just been knocked unconscious by a Haunter that used Thunderpunch.
How did he know that? Ash silently pondered.
With Slowpoke and Ivysaur unable to battle, and Poliwag helping Misty, Ash looked at his options.
I've got Spearow and Weedle, he realized. Not a good situation to be in. As he thought this, the group of Haunter slowly got closer to him, and he suddenly began to feel very drowsy.
"Ash!" Misty yelled, as she looked to check on Ash and saw that the Haunter in front of him were emitting circular waves from their hands, meaning they were using Hypnosis.
"Huh?" he asked, suddenly opening his eyes and looking around. He then looked up at the Haunter just in time to feel his body being lifted from the ground. As he saw his hand covered once more in a blue light, he realized he was again being controlled by Psychic.
"Whoa!" he yelled as they combined their attacks to lift him even higher off the ground. As he rose toward the ceiling, he noticed that they were bringing him towards a chandelier that was placed in the middle of the hallway. He noticed it seemed out of place with the rest of the building, but didn't dwell on this thought long as he felt one of the arms extending from the base of the chandelier go through his belt loop. Instantly, the blue light surrounding his body faded, and he was left suspended thirty feet above the hall, being supported solely by his new khaki jeans.
As Misty looked up at him, she realized that had this been happening at any other time, she would be laughing. Ash looked very funny hanging up there by his pants. However, any humor in the situation was quickly replaced by terror as she noticed that the Haunter had finally grown bored with her Pokémon and were now coming to take care of her.
Thank goodness they move slowly, she thought.
"Poliwag," Misty said, looking at the dark blue Pokémon who, although battered and bruised now, was still slamming its body with all its might against the front entrance door. "Poliwag, please listen to me."
However, despite her pleas, the water type continued obeying its master's orders. Fortunately for Misty, Ash was able to see and hear what was going on below him, and so he called out to his Pokémon.
"Poliwag!" he yelled from above.
"Poli?" the Pokémon questioned, turning to look up at her master.
"Use Water Gun on the Haunter, now!" he ordered quickly. The Haunter seemed to enjoy freaking out their victims, so they didn't move too quickly, but Ash could see one near the front preparing a Shadow Ball.
"Poli!" squealed the small Pokémon as it started shooting the Haunter one-by-one with a small, but powerful, blast of water. Although it was evident Poliwag wasn't nearly strong enough to beat the Haunter, it was very effective at catching them off guard. The Haunter Ash saw preparing to use Shadow Ball lost its focus and the ghost attack faded.
"Poliwag, dodge!" Ash commanded as he saw a Haunter sneak up behind his small Pokémon and use Thunderpunch.
"Poliwag!" screamed the Pokémon, as it turned around just in time to have its spiral-patterned belly hit directly by the electric attack.
Crap, Ash thought as he watched his newest member fly across the hallway and hit the doors to the battling arena on the opposite side. As opposed to their normal movement, the Haunter were now advancing upon the unconscious Poliwag at an alarming rate.
"Return Poliwag!" cried Ash, as he shot the red beam from his pokeball towards his battling partner. However, he was too far away to aim correctly, and the beam harmlessly landed on the back of one of the approaching ghost Pokémon.
"Poliwag!" Ash and Misty cried simultaneously as they watched what now appeared to be thirty Haunter completely engulf the innocent water Pokémon with their dark bodies.
I'll have to use Spearow, Ash thought as he pulled the bird Pokémon's pokeball from his belt. He was reluctant because he knew that the Pokémon would be seriously injured, even if it was just trying to retrieve Poliwag, but he also knew he had no choice.
However, as he was about to throw the ball, he suddenly heard the swishing sound of the glass doors opening, and broke into a large grin when he saw who was entering the gym.
"Alakazam, use Psybeam!" Sabrina commanded as she threw a pokeball towards the group of Haunter on the other side of the hallway. As soon as the large, fox-like, psychic Pokémon emerged from its ball, it put its two spoons in front of its face and began forming a colorful ball of light in front of them.
"Zam!" shouted the Pokémon as the ball began to produce a beam of varying colors that struck several of the Haunter at once. As the light grew brighter, Ash had to shield his eyes, but when he sensed that the luminescence had died down, he uncovered his eyes to find that the Haunter had all disappeared, leaving Poliwag on the floor with a dazed look in his eye.
"S-Sabrina!" Misty called out a little late. She seemed dazed by the sudden appearance of the gym leader.
"What happened?" Sabrina asked in a voice not of anger, but rather confusion.
"There were a bunch of Haunter in here, and we tried to fight them off," Misty explained, afraid of what the leader's reaction might be. Misty was known for her temper, but she knew through first-hand experience that Sabrina's anger was a lot more lethal than her own.
"Those Haunter have been around here before," Sabrina said. "However, what I don't understand is how a Champion couldn't handle a bunch of ghost Pokémon?" As she said this, she still didn't sound mad, but there was certainly no humor inflected in her tone.
"I was handling it," Ash replied, mad that she would insult his abilities.
"Apparently," she replied sarcastically. "The hallway has about an inch of water in it, there are two dead Pokémon on the floor, you're hanging from the ceiling by your pants, and your friend here was throwing herself at the door when I arrived. You obviously had this taken care of."
After she said this, she silently commanded her Alakazam to bring Ash back to the ground using Psychic. As he landed safely on the wet floor, he mumbled a "thank you" before hurrying over to his Poliwag. To his relief, he found that Sabrina had been wrong and that his Pokémon, although severely injured, was far from dead. Misty discovered the same thing as she held up her Starmie and saw its gem glowing on and off faintly.
Both trainers returned their Pokémon to their respective pokeballs, before going back to talk to Sabrina who was inspecting the damage done to her gym.
"We're really sorry Sabrina," Misty apologized. "We just came in here to talk with you, and those Haunter suddenly ambushed us. We tried to leave, but it locked once we were inside."
"That's alright," Sabrina said, albeit reluctantly. "I guess this isn't totally your fault. Normally I never leave the gym unattended because of those Haunter, but I had to because I had to bring my Pokémon to the Center for their annual check-up."
"You only go to the Center once a year?" Ash asked, surprised. Normally gym leaders went daily to the Pokémon Centers because of all the challengers they took on.
"Pretty much," Sabrina responded with a shrug. "Those Haunter have given this gym a bad reputation. As a matter of fact, they're the reason the Pokémon League's considering closing this place down."
"Closing it down?" Ash asked, surprised. However, Misty didn't seem as shocked.
"Yeah," Sabrina affirmed. "The Pokémon League has a stupid new rule where they pay us for victories, and with the money we can help improve our gyms. However, those ghost Pokémon have been scaring away a large number of potential challengers, and I can't keep this place running correctly on the near-minimum wage salary the Pokémon League pays me."
"That's terrible," Ash commented. However, Misty remained silent.
"Well, you two better go take care of those Pokémon," she stated, indicating the pokeballs in the two trainers' hands. "They looked dead when I first came in here. Nurse Joy may have to keep them overnight."
"Alright," said Ash. "But when we're done, we'll come back to help you clean up this mess."
"No need," Sabrina assured him. "Alakazam, use Teleport and bring the water out to Vermilion Lake."
"Zam!" responded the psychic Pokémon, as it floated in the air and began twirling its spoons at a rapid pace. Soon, both it and the water disappeared in a bright light, and as Ash and Misty examined the hall they realized that it looked just as clean as when they first arrived."
"Wow, that's cool," Ash told Sabrina after they had looked at the cleaned gym.
"It is very convenient," she said. "Anyway, you two go to the Pokémon Center and come back here in a little while to discuss my giving you Haunter."
"Alright," Misty said, grabbing Ash's arm and leading him out of the gym. She was eager to get out of there, and even more eager to get her Starmie examined.
"Wait, Mist!" Ash hollered as she continued dragging him with her.
"What is it now?" she asked him as they approached the street.
"How did she know we wanted to talk with her about getting Haunter back?"
"Duh," Misty replied, rolling her eyes. "She's a psychic, remember? I'm sure she had no problem reading a mind as simple as yours."
"Well, at least I'm not a, uh, a dumb person who forgets to bring more than one Pokémon with them," Ash commented. He knew the comeback was a little lame, but unfortunately it was all he had in his arsenal at the moment.
"Oh yeah," Misty replied sarcastically. "Unlike the brilliant Champion who brings four Pokémon he hasn't even trained yet."
Ash was going to reply, but suddenly Misty began to run towards the Pokémon Center, which was in sight, and he followed after her to get his Ivysaur and Poliwag checked.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"So are your Pokémon okay?" Sabrina asked the two when they returned from the Pokémon Center about an hour later.
"Oh yeah," Ash told her. "They said Poliwag and Starmie will have to stay the night for some kind of treatment they give Pokémon who have suffered extensive damage from psychic attacks, but Ivysaur should be ready to go in a couple of hours."
"I'm glad to hear that," Sabrina remarked. "However, if it's okay with you, I would like to get to the matter at hand here."
"That's fine by me," Ash responded. He shifted his weight in the small chair Sabrina made him and Misty sit in while they talked in her office.
For a psychic, her office sure is ordinary, Ash noted as he looked at the plain, white room with a desk, computer, and filing cabinets.
"So you need Haunter so he can help you capture ghost Pokémon, huh?" she asked him with an inquisitive smile.
"Yeah, that's right," he affirmed. "But I won't keep him. I just need him until, uh-"
"Until you become a Pokémon Master," Sabrina said, completing his sentence for him.
"Yeah, but could you keep that quiet?" Ash asked her. He was starting to grow concerned about the number of people who were learning this "secret" rule from him. Although he trusted his friends, he didn't really know Sabrina that well.
"Well, I actually would love to let you borrow him, but there's one problem," Sabrina informed the trainer. She could see the disappointment in his eyes.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't own Haunter," she informed him.
"What?" Ash and Misty asked at the same time.
"How can you not have him?" Ash asked. "I gave him to you after our gym battle."
"Yes, but you didn't really own him either," Sabrina reminded him. "I'm afraid that after you left, I tried to convince him to join my party, but he was adamant about remaining free. I even tried to capture him through battle, but he beat all three of my psychic Pokémon."
"So do you still see him, or is he gone for good?" Ash asked, hoping she at least knew the whereabouts of the Haunter. Otherwise, his chances of finding the ghost Pokémon were slim.
"Sometimes he still drops by, but as you saw, I have a whole other problem with Haunter now," she said.
"That's right," Ash said, remembering the events from earlier in the day. "What were all those Haunter doing in the gym?"
"Ever since your Haunter stayed with me here, they began showing up," Sabrina explained. "At first I couldn't understand why, but one night I realized the problem. I was working late tutoring some younger trainers in one of our classrooms, when I saw Haunter fly by the door. I sent out Venomoth to follow him, and using my powers, I was able to witness what he was doing through my Pokémon's eyes. I found out that he was meeting up with his friends back in Lavender Town every night, and I guess he told them where he was staying, because even though he doesn't live here anymore, his friends still come by and harass new challengers. Usually, Alakazam here can keep them away, but they must have been waiting for us to leave so they could sneak back in." She took a deep breath after she finished her explanation.
"Wow," Ash simply stated. "I didn't know that Haunter would cause so much trouble."
"Well, I'm not really mad at him," Sabrina explained. "If you hadn't introduced us, I may never have returned to my normal self. However, he was very childish. That was another reason I ended up letting him leave the gym without trying to capture him. I tried using him in battles against other trainers, but usually all he would do is perform little tricks to amuse the other Pokémon."
"Yeah, I remember that about him," Ash said, remembering how much the ghost Pokémon loved making him laugh.
"Besides," Sabrina continued, "it's never him who scares away challengers. It's his friends. He just brought them here."
"So then, you don't know where he is now?" Ash asked wanting to make sure the leader couldn't help him.
"My guess would be he's at Pokémon Tower in Lavender," Sabrina explained. "You know, where you first met him, but I'm not sure."
"Well then, I guess we'll go there," Ash said, standing up. "Thanks for the help Sabrina. I appreciate it."
"No problem," she replied. "I wish you good luck on your journey."
Author's notes: Like I said, not my best chapter. However, I hope y'all enjoyed the fighting sequence. As you can probably tell by all the loose strings I left in this chapter, Ash and Misty will be visiting Saffron again, but not for a while. I know some of you are disappointed with the lack of shipping in this chapter. However, it's difficult writing this story because of the dueling plots (romance and adventure). Some chapters are going to be made to progress the former, and some the latter, but I can't make every chapter about both because frankly, I don't have the writing skills to incoroporate them fluidly. Anyway, I am excited about next chapter, entitled "Brock's Departure". I won't tell you what it's about, but I think the chapter title's pretty self-explanatory. Also, there's going to be a slight time-skip between this chapter and that one (which I'll explain in the next chapter). However, I realized that I have to progress this fic some, because I keep a log that has all the dates of when each chapter starts, and I realized that since chapter eleven, only two days have passed! Obviously, I'm going to have to move forward with this fic if I'm going to finish it within even two years.
Anyway, in keeping with tradition, here's my one recommendation for the week:
"Reflections" by Yoshi's Kun - I usually try to make three recommendations per chapter, but this one-shot was so good, that I want to really emphasize that you should read it. I know that I say a lot of fics are good, because they are, but this is without a doubt, one of the best one-shots I have read. The author is very vivid in the fic, and I have to say that her ability to use metaphor and symbolism is stunning. I won't say anything else, because I don't want to give it away, but PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW this fic! It only has three reviews, and that's a shame for such a well-written fic.
Like I said, the next chapter will be up next Sunday, and you should expect weekly updates for the next couple of months at least. I hope you also read my parody fic "Pokemon Love" if you get the chance. I've already gotten a few reviews for it, and everyone who's read it so far has really enjoyed it.