Chapter Sixteen: Mischief Managed
The path to Lavender Town was surprisingly rocky, though Serena supposed that shouldn't have surprised her, given that the tunnel they had just crossed was called 'Rock Tunnel'. While the hills here weren't as high as Mt. Moon and its surrounding highlands, the path here was often surrounded by sheer cliffs, making the area very shadowy, and many of the trees in the area seemed to be dead.
Combined with what little Serena knew about Lavender Town both from Ash and her guidebook, it made her a bit nervous, and the many cliff faces made for some distorted echoes that constantly made her look over her shoulder.
"All you alright, Serena?" Ash asked after what had probably been a falling pebble had startled Serena for around the fifth time that day alone. She nodded and sighed.
"Yeah, I'm just…This place gives me the creeps," she said.
"Don't worry," Ash said. "I don't think there are many Ghost Pokémon outside of the city itself."
Serena nodded uncertainly, but Ash's words did very little to reassure her. Ever since she was small, she'd been afraid of ghosts. Just the idea of something dead still stalking around to prey on the living was terrifying enough, even without all the stories about people going missing and never being found and who knew what else. Of course, she'd run into a couple of ghosts before on her journey in Kalos, who really weren't that bad, but the fear was still there and Serena really didn't look forward to meeting any other ghosts anytime soon.
Rather than feeling tranquil, which was the word the guidebook used to describe the area north of Lavender Town, the shadows felt oppressive to her, and she constantly thought she saw things moving from her peripheral vision. Even so, she didn't want Ash to think she was a coward, and she tried not to show her unease as much anymore for the rest of the day.
When they made camp for the night at the end of the day, though, she felt far more tired than usual due to being on alert all day long.
("Are you okay?") Braixen asked while Serena was busy making dinner, and Serena groaned at being asked the question again.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said a bit irritably.
("Serena.")
"I'm fine," Serena said decidedly. "Really, Braixen. Don't worry."
("Maybe you should take your own advice,") Braixen said.
And maybe you should mind your own business, Serena thought, though she didn't say it out loud, since she knew Braixen was just worried about her.
Noticing she needed a bit more water for the sauce she was making, Serena grabbed a bottle and headed just outside of camp, around the massive rock spire they were camping next to, where she could fill it up in a stream.
When she knelt down to hold the bottle in the water, however, something forcefully yanked on her hair and she screamed in alarm, whirling around to see what had done it — only there was nothing there.
A moment later, Ash and the Pokémon came running to check up on her.
"Serena! What happened?" Ash asked with an expression full of concern.
"I– Something pulled my hair!" Serena said, still looking around in complete confusion and shock.
Ash and the Pokémon looked around as well, but clearly, there was nothing to be seen.
"Whatever it was, it's gone now," Ash said after a moment. "Maybe a Bug Pokémon got caught up in it and then flew off, or something?"
Serena wasn't convinced, but she said, "I…guess? Y-yeah, that was probably it. Sorry I worried you…"
Ash shook his head. "Don't be. I'm just glad you're okay," he said with a smile, before heading back to the campsite.
Braixen stayed behind for a moment and inquisitively looked at Serena, probably waiting for a better explanation, but Serena pretended not to notice and went to grab the bottle she'd dropped. Braixen took the hint and walked back to camp as well, leaving Serena on her own again.
What was that? Serena wondered as she filled the water bottle. That wasn't a Bug Pokémon, I'm sure of it…
She got up and screwed the cap onto the bottle, and then she heard what sounded like a child's giggles coming from nearby. She whipped her head around in the direction of the sound, but nothing was there.
For a moment, she considered calling out, but she knew that if she did, Ash and the Pokémon would hear, and while Ash would probably believe her, she didn't want to worry him more, and she doubted there was much he could do to help anyway.
Again, she heard the giggling, but this time it sounded much closer, and not even a second later her hair was pulled again, from both sides at once.
"Get away from me!" Serena shouted, swinging her arm behind her without hitting anything.
Again, Ash and the Pokémon came running.
"Something's here!" Serena said. "I heard giggling, and something pulled my hair again!"
Ash scanned around, but of course, whatever had pulled Serena's hair was already gone again.
"Let's quickly eat dinner and then find another place to camp out for the night," Ash said. "Hopefully whatever it is won't follow us."
Serena nodded fervently. "Yes, let's do that," she said.
She was incredibly grateful that Ash wasn't telling her she was just making things up. Then again, he'd been caught up in so many extremely unlikely situations that this probably wasn't even that far out of the ordinary for him. So had Serena, of course, but Ash always appeared to be entirely fearless, which was just one more thing she admired in him.
They headed back to the camp, and Serena quickly finished making dinner, which she ate in silence, constantly looking over her shoulder to see if anything or anyone was watching them, but of course seeing nothing.
After clearing the table, Ash went to wash the dishes while Serena took down the tent. She was inside, untying some of the strings that attached the inner tent to the framing, when once again, something giggled right in her ear, and it brushed through her hair.
She stiffened up, but kept herself from crying out. In just a few moments they'd be moving on and whatever this was would leave them alone…right?
In all honesty, Serena wasn't particularly optimistic that moving somewhere else for the night would be enough to shake off whatever was stalking her, but she forcefully pushed those thoughts away lest the negativity make her fears come true, and instead tried very hard to think about how this plan would work and she'd have a good night's sleep.
With her heart beating in her throat, she finished taking down the tent and once Ash had returned they hit the road again in the last light of the rapidly setting sun.
Only about an hour later they set up the tent again, knowing that if they waited any longer it would be too dark to easily do it, so Serena desperately hoped that they'd gotten far enough away. While she and Ash were setting up the tent again, she suddenly felt the hairs in the back of her neck stand up, as if someone was watching her, and she surreptitiously looked around, but nothing was there. Was her mind just playing tricks on her now, or…? Well, whatever it was, it was too late to move any further, so she'd just have to deal with it. She'd never been so glad that she was sharing a tent with Ash, because if anything attacked her there, she at least wouldn't be alone.
Even so, she was extremely nervous when she settled into her sleeping bag that night, and though she closed her eyes, she had a hard time falling asleep. Every soft rustle of the tent itself or Ash shifting in his sleeping bag jolted her like one of Pikachu's shocks. It was incredibly tiring, and yet she just couldn't get to sleep, almost as if she had a fever.
Something that sounded like a distant wail made her eyes snap open and she sat up in her sleeping bag, listening intently. Ash and Pikachu were still fast asleep, so they clearly hadn't heard anything, and Serena was so tired that she was beginning to think she'd just imagined it when she heard the sound again. It was eerie, childlike just like the giggle had been but also incredibly mournful. She groaned and lay back down, putting her hands over her ears in a desperate attempt to prevent herself from hearing any other creepy noises.
The wail rang out again, so clearly Serena's hands might as well not have been covering her ears at all, and once again she sat up. Clearly, she was the only one who could hear the sound, because not even Ash would sleep through something like that, and Pikachu definitely wouldn't.
Again Serena heard the ghostly wail, more piercingly now than before. It sounded so sad, so hurt… Serena put her head in her hands. If the noise continued, she'd never be able to sleep, and clearly she couldn't do anything to prevent herself from hearing it, but she was so tired.
Once more she heard the haunting sound. With an angry sigh, she zipped open her sleeping bag and exited the tent. It was cold and dark outside, but the sounds weren't coming from very far away, and the embers of the campfire still glowed. She'd be able to find her way back easily enough.
She walked into the darkness, towards the eerie sounds. Even in her foggy, tired state, she knew that what she was doing was monumentally stupid, but she'd had enough. She was going to find whatever was making those noises and then…well, she wasn't sure, but she was going to make it stop one way or another.
The wail now sounded extremely close to her and then abruptly stopped.
"What do you want from me?!" Serena demanded angrily, talking to the very darkness itself.
And then, the giggle again. She saw a glow, something like a necklace, and yellow-and-red eyes, which glowed brighter, and brighter, and then flashed blindingly white.
Serena closed her eyes and turned away, and when she opened them again a cold chill went through her spine.
The darkness wasn't empty and still anymore. It was writhing. Ghostly shapes moved all around her. She saw skulls, eyes, horns, wicked smiles, but she couldn't focus on any of them as they constantly whirled around her peripheral vision, coming closer… And then there was the sound. All of the shapes around her moaned, or laughed, or wailed.
"No! Get away from me!" Serena shouted, but it didn't seem to deter the shadowy forms around her.
On the contrary, they began to move closer, ethereal like smoke and tauntingly impossible to focus on. Something tugged on her hair and she screamed, wildly swinging her arms but hitting nothing.
Something that looked like a necklace glowed in the corner of her eye, but it disappeared the moment she turned to look.
"Just leave me alone!" she shouted desperately.
Her only answer was another giggle and a ghostly touch brushing through her hair.
"Leave me alone," she begged again.
A shadowy skeleton jumped out from the mass of darkness and shrieked, waving its arms, and Serena recoiled, shielding her face with her arms.
"Stop…" she nearly whispered, and the shadows became even blurrier as her eyes began to burn and she sank to her knees in defeat.
Again, she saw the glow of a necklace — and then a massive burst of flames pierced through the darkness and engulfed the glow.
Serena whirled around and saw Braixen standing not too far from her, branch out and looking angry and determined.
("Get away from Serena, you!") she said threateningly, and when Serena turned to follow Braixen's gaze, she could finally see, through the still whirling mass of monstrous shadows, the thing that had been tormenting her all evening and night.
It was a small ghost with long, flowing hair, a red necklace, and yellow eyes with red irises. The little ghost smiled deviously and then shot what looked like a Psybeam at Braixen, who jumped to the side to dodge it and then returned fire with Hidden Power.
The bright light of the attack dispelled the shadow monsters around Serena and seemed to clear her mind of the fogginess she'd felt ever since going to bed.
Braixen now ran over to Serena and helped her to get up.
("Serena! Are you okay?!") Braixen asked frantically, still scanning around to find the little ghost, who seemed to have fused with the shadows again.
"Y-yeah, I am now," Serena said shakily. "What was that?"
("It's a Misdreavus,") Braixen said. ("It's a Ghost-type that feeds on fear.") She narrowed her eyes angrily. ("But I'm not afraid of her. She's going down.")
A Psybeam shot from the darkness and Braixen pulled Serena aside with her, causing the attack to miss.
("I'm your opponent,") she said to the shadows — and then a bright blue glow engulfed her and she began to grow taller.
When the glow disappeared, Braixen wasn't a Braixen anymore.
"Wow…" Serena said softly.
("That'll come in handy,") Delphox said, inspecting her new look. It was always a bit more challenging to understand a Pokémon that had just evolved, but Serena knew Delphox well enough to do it regardless.
Delphox seemed to spot something in the darkness, and she traced a circle of flames in the air ahead of her and then blasted a narrow stream of flames through it, which was surrounded by a series of rings.
There was a ghostly wail of pain, and Serena momentarily thought that Delphox had beaten Misdreavus, but then she saw Misdreavus's eyes glow in the darkness, and a swirling dark cloud appeared above her, in which another glowing red eye appeared. A shadowy pulse shot from the eye and hit Delphox, who cried out in pain.
"Delphox!" Serena clenched her fists and stood up, her fear now replaced by anger.
"Now listen here, you!" she said to Misdreavus. "I don't know why you're after me, but you do not hurt my Pokémon!"
Misdreavus backed away a bit, seemingly confused that Serena no longer seemed to fear her, which gave Delphox enough time to recover from the attack she'd been hit with and fire off another Mystical Fire, which landed cleanly and blasted Misdreavus back.
Delphox walked forward, clearly enraged, and raised her branch to launch another attack.
Misdreavus's eyes widened and she looked terrified, backing away and wincing in pain from the earlier attack. Despite what Misdreavus had put her through all through the evening, Serena felt really bad seeing her like that.
Delphox's branch ignited and Misdreavus winced, and Serena yelled, "Delphox, wait!"
Delphox lowered her branch, and both she and Misdreavus gave Serena a questioning look.
Serena walked over to Misdreavus, who eyed her warily. "It doesn't feel nice, being afraid, does it?" Serena asked.
Misdreavus turned away a bit, seemingly unwilling to reply, and looking very much like Pancham whenever he denied missing Chespin.
"Then why don't you stop scaring people from now on?" Serena asked.
This time Misdreavus did give an answer, which Serena of course didn't understand.
Fortunately, Delphox did. ("She says she feeds on it and that your fear was particularly tasty,") she said.
"Can't you eat anything else?" Serena asked.
Misdreavus replied, and Delphox translated. ("She can eat other things as well, but fear is the best.")
Misdreavus said something else, and Delphox shook her head disapprovingly, but translated for her anyway. ("And scaring people is just a lot of fun.")
"I didn't think it was any fun at all," Serena said. "And Delphox didn't, either. That's why she attacked you."
Misdreavus looked at least a little bit repentant, but Serena wasn't sure if that was just because she'd been beaten, or if she actually felt sorry. Again, she reminded Serena a bit of how Pancham sometimes acted — and that gave her a sudden inspiration.
"But you know what? Sometimes people do like to be scared a bit. Do you think you could feed on fear even if someone wants to be afraid?" she asked.
Misdreavus sounded uncertain when she replied.
("She can, but who would want to be scared? The people and Pokémon she usually feeds on aren't too happy with her. Imagine that,") Delphox added stonily.
"Well, some people like hearing scary stories and watching scary movies," Serena said. "Or…watching a scary performance."
Delphox looked at Serena and asked, ("You want to ask her to join us?") Her tone alone told Serena enough about what she thought about that.
Serena shrugged and smiled faintly. "Well, I can tell you from experience she's really good at scaring people. And if she performs and scares people then, they'll enjoy themselves and she gets to eat all the fear she can. She'll just have to live on Pokémon food and Poké Puffs whenever she isn't performing, that's all," she said.
She turned back to Misdreavus and said, "So, what do you think, Misdreavus? Do you want to come with us? There's an Exposition in Lavender Town not too long from now. If you want to come, we'll perform together, and you can scare people without making them mad at you. They'll even applaud for you if you do it really well."
Misdreavus thought for a moment and then asked something. ("What if she doesn't like it?") Delphox translated.
"Well, then you're free to leave us again whenever you want," Serena said. "But if you do end up enjoying it, you can stay with us, of course. I'm sure Pancham and Sylveon will be happy to meet you. But!"
She held up her finger. "I don't want you scaring me, Ash, or any of the Pokémon, especially Sylveon. If any of them ask you to, it's okay — and I bet if you ask some of them, they'll even let you scare them a bit if you really need to feed on some fear. Just don't do it without their permission, okay?"
Misdreavus hesitated and looked into Serena's eyes, who smiled at her. She asked something again.
("Why are you offering this after I scared you so badly?") Delphox translated.
Serena shrugged. "You looked scared when Delphox attacked you, so I wanted to talk to you, and your expressions and body language reminded me of Pancham a bit, and then I just…thought of it. I believe in second chances if someone is willing to take them."
Misdreavus hesitated just a little bit longer, but then she nodded, and Serena didn't need Delphox to translate that.
"Great!" she said happily. "Welcome to the team, then, Misdreavus. Come on, we'll go back to the tent and then I'll 'catch' you…"
She yawned. "And then I can finally get some sleep. Your pranks really got me." She smiled. "But I bet Ash will like you immediately. He's really good at understanding Pokémon too, you know."
Misdreavus said something and Delphox translated, ("She says she considered feeding on Ash as well, but she felt no fear at all from him, so she left him alone. She's wondering if he'll allow her to try to scare him.")
Serena laughed. "He probably will," she said. "He's that kind of person. Now, let's go…I'm beat…"
And with that, Serena, Delphox, and her new partner Misdreavus headed back to the campsite, where Serena was finally able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the night.
I've been planning this chapter for a while. I wanted to give Serena another Pokémon, specifically a Ghost-type since she's normally afraid of them, and at the same time evolve Braixen into Delphox. I honestly think I did a pretty good job at it, though feel free to let me know what you think, good or bad. Oh, and Misdreavus used Confuse Ray on Serena to make her hallucinate; Bulbapedia actually has that written as the effect for Misdreavus's Confuse Ray in the anime and that fits perfectly with what I wanted to do in this chapter. Will she be able to do that in the Exposition? Well, we'll see. Oh yeah, and the attack she used on Delphox was Hex, which was super-effective because Delphox is part Psychic-type. See you next time!