Hundreds of patrons and market stalls sprinkled the vibrant festival. Many of them were in costume but there was one uniformity amongst about 80% of them. They had anti-type collars around their neck. Most figured it was safer than risking an arrant ember blowing up a hospital. Lopunny led Infernape through the dense market. She immediately took him to this stall with a few chefs stirring some sort of orange goop. It looked like an orange hurricane with little lines of white and yellow swirling in the mass. It was then taken and poured into golf ball-sized molds of human skulls before being shoved in a flash freezer. Within seconds, the goop was frozen, pulled out, and heated up. Lopunny paid for two of these skulls and handed one to Infernape,
"Try it!" she said. Infernape took a bite out of him and his eyes lit up. There was a little bit of cinnamon in there but most of the flavor could only be described as candy corn but better. It was savory vanilla flavor with marshmallow and caramel flavor mixed in as well. In fact, Infernape could swear there was a hint of chocolate in there as well.
"What is this?" he asked, "It's good."
"Candy Corn Syrup. It was my favorite treat as a kid. Oh, heads-up, there's a fucking ton of sugar in these," she explained. Infernape nodded as he took note. He commented,
"Yeah, we're not getting more of these, I can feel the sugar on my teeth." Lopunny giggled slightly before taking him somewhere else,
"What kinda candy do you like?"
"I like any sort of cinnamon candy. I know a bunch of companies immediately think, 'oh, cinnamon, make it spicy' but there is a lot of untapped potential in there, you know."
"Yeah, it's like when everyone makes mint flavor cold-themed. Like, come on. There's more you can do with mint," she then saw another stall that looked to be right up Infernape's alley, "Check this out."
This stall served what looked to be the foundation for cinnamon rolls. It was a piece of dough rolled out with butter and cinnamon sugar on it. However, instead of rolling it up, they layered another bunch of dough on top and cooked that. They then added the sugar glaze towards the last few seconds of its cooking so that it solidified and served it. Infernape whistled,
"Oh-la-la. What are these?"
"Cinnwiches," said the vendor. Seeing how much he liked these, Lopunny paid for two of them but immediately regretted it when she saw how big they were. These cinnwiches were the size of dinner plates. Infernape looked at Lopunny, smiled, remarked,
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day," and took a huge bite out of it.
Lopunny laughed in response as Infernape chewed. It tasted like a really big cinnamon roll, as expected. She asked him,
"Where the hell did that come from?"
"Invisible Mom. My favorite bad movie of all time. I've been quoting it for about thirteen years now," he explained before telling her about the taste.
"Glad that you like it but these are so big, fuck me dead," said Lopunny as she stared at this massive square of dough. Infernape covered his mouth and playfully gasped,
"But we aren't married!"
"Lee!" yelled Gardevoir from the crowd. Infernape and Lopunny looked behind to see Garchomp and Gardevoir emerging from the crowd.
"We've been-whoa!" said Garchomp as she looked at the massive cinnwich. She stared at it for a moment before continuing, "We've been looking for you guys. There's a haunted house nearby. Apparently there's also a zombie movie playing." With a little smirk, Infernape rested his hands behind his head,
"Man, zombies kinda lose their appeal when everyone can burn down a building," he remarked. Lopunny nodded in agreement,
"They have to manufacture stupidity in the movies."
"I don't mean to be rude to the directors, but I would have to agree," said Gardevoir, "But it makes you grateful for the way we are."
"What do you mean?" asked the fire and ice couple.
"I read a study about how the ancient humans were significantly physically weaker than us Pokemon. For example, that explosion back in Boltien. If that village were populated by humans, they all would've been killed by the shock wave." Upon hearing this, Lopunny smiled,
"You'd be surprised. Maybe they'd come back as zombies or demons or lab experiments or something like that," she said jokingly.
"Zombies are a lot scarier as an allegory," said Drapion from behind the four. All four of them screamed out in fright to see the scorpion Pokemon. Unfazed, he continued,
"They are a metaphor for consumerist society. A blind mass of people consuming everything given to them without regard for quality or benefit. Individuality completely erased as they are reduced to mere cogs in the machine." He then pointed the way toward the haunted house, "Your friend Aggron is waiting there for you. I'd come with, but there's this costume contest and I really love seeing people's creativity." The four appreciated his input and made their way toward the haunted house.
A large, victorian style house had been set up by the staff. It stood proudly near the edge of town. It was comprised of three floors. The windows were shattered and rotting, ready to fall upon. The wood was the same, appearing to be molding over. Infernape shuddered a bit once he saw the scale of the mansion. Of course, he steeled his resolve as he and the women met up with Aggron,
"Hey guys, I bought us tickets. Apparently, this is one of the scariest haunted house experiences in the country," Lopunny cracked her knuckles,
"Oh hell yes! Let me guide you through this, Ferny. Momma's got some experience with haunted houses." Infernape felt reassured by her brave words, but Gardevoir noticeably got cold feet,
"I'm not so sure about this," she said. Garchomp simply responded by telling her,
"Don't worry. They can't actually harm you per paragraph 7, subsection 2 of the Haunted Experiences and Activities Act." Aggron snorted a little bit as he led the group towards the haunted house. There a guy dressed as a zombie had them sign a waiver,
"Any pre-existing heart problems?" he asked.
"No," said the group simultaneously.
"Epilepsy?"
"No."
"Addiction?"
"No."
"Psychosis?"
"No."
"Paranoia?"
"No."
"_"
"That's disgusting."
"Well then, you're good to go," said the zombie guy before he showed them the door, "Have a spectacularly spooky time solving the puzzles of this mansion." The five took their first steps into the haunted mansion, ready for the scare of a lifetime.
Gengar stared at the home before him. It was a fairly secluded place, made even more so by the rain. Only the sound of water dripping down the gutter, pattering into puddles on the dirt was heard. The only source of light was a single street lamp behind him. Bright but flickering on and off as though it were a failing heart. His shadows blipped in and out of sight, vanishing into the shadows. He sighed. Why couldn't this guy be in Johto, where it was a nice crisp Spookmis? Instead, he had to be all the way up here in Sinnoh.
A job was a job. He shouldn't complain. There was no point. This was strictly business. All he had to do was show some force and the guy would pay up. That was what usually happened.
Groaning, he knocked on the door of the house and waited. All the while, he stood there thinking. Several hours and nothing has changed. He still felt like shit and he still had no answers as to why. Nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing. Nothing except…he shook his head. It always came back to them. No matter how much he tried, his mind eventually wandered over to them.
"They-They were nothing!" he yelled at himself internally, "Nothing but co-workers, nothing more. Stop fucking moping around and act like an adult!"
A loud bang rang out. Gengar's ears rang as he ducked away from the door. Looks like this was going to get loud. He charged up a shadow ball into his hands and threw it at the door, blowing it off its hinges. He then ran through the door and lit up a purple flame to see. What he saw sent a chill down his spine.
Several rooms had been blocked off. Wood planks were nailed to door frames alongside a dark gray sheet with neon green edges. Anti-ghost material. Utilizing electromagnetic circuitry within the cloth of the sheet, it was impossible for a ghost to go through it. The entire house was covered in the stuff. The ceiling, the walls, and even the floor was protected from him. Whoever this was had planned ahead. He had fallen into a trap hook-line-and-sinker.
Gengar went to try and rip the boards off of one of the blocked paths, but quickly fell under fire. With no cover, he desperately ripped enough boards to squeeze through into the kitchen. He took a moment to breathe before feeling a warmness near his hips. Looking down, he saw that he had been shot near the stomach,
"Of fucking course he has dark type moves, why woudn't he?!" he yelled. Luckily, from where that injury was, he could tell that this wouldn't be lethal. Still, now he couldn't even phase through their attacks.
At least now, he could navigate semi-freely. With an armed man in the house, he had to keep moving. The kitchen appeared to be less fortified than the living room, Only a knocked over fridge for cover. Gengar hopped over it and sprinted towards the next room.
He gently creaked the door open and peered out into the dark hallway. To his right was a heavily barricaded checkpoint, most likely where his 'friend' had tried to turn him into swiss cheese. But now, that fucker had vanished to somewhere else in this house. To his left was the end of the hallway. There was a window that peered into the empty night, and a door on the right hand side.
Gengar immediately went towards that door and grabbed onto the handle quietly. He took a single breath before pushing it open and slashing. He slashed the protectorate's incoming water blast in half with a ghostly blade. Finally, Gengar got a good look at the man who was supposed to pay up. He was a simple blue duck Pokemon that stood on his hind legs. He had a red gem on his face. Gengar grinned as he kicked Golduck in the chest, sending him back into a wall. Golduck fell to the floor but growled at Gengar.
"Of all the people I expected to try and off me, I didn't expect the Ugly Duckling to be the one to do it," mocked Gengar as he spun his energy blade around, "Well, I'm one to talk. I'm a circle for Arceus's sake." Golduck then growled before standing up with a wood shard in his hands and charging at the ghost-type.
"DIE, PHANTOM SCUM!" screamed Golduck before he tried to plunge that shard into Gengar's shoulder. Gengar dodged to the left before slicing at Golduck's feet. However, an invisible wall blocked the sword and knocked it out of Gengar's hand. He then turned around and smacked Gengar in between the eyes with his elbow. As Gengar stumbled back, Golduck tried once more to stab him, only for Gengar to activate his intangibility just in time.
He grabbed Golduck by the arm. Throwing him to the floor, Gengar stood over Golduck and openly mocked him.
"All that strategy went to waste," he said.
Suddenly, something activated behind him. A spear with an anti-ghost tip piece Gengar's soldier. He screamed in pain as Golduck scampered to his feet and ran away. Gengar growled as he pulled that spear out of his back. This needed to end now. However, he could feel some of his strength fading. Blood loss was a dangerous beast. Every minute he spent was more blood on the floor, the closer he got to death.
Calling backup was the obvious solution. The smart thing to do was to back out and call Vida or Blackbeard, or whoever to take over for him. But it wasn't that simple. He couldn't call for help. He had already spent months with the Senshi. If he backed out now, they would think he had gotten soft, or worse. He couldn't rely on them. He had to finish this job on his own. With that, he sprinted after Golduck. It wasn't the smartest decision, but given that he was currently painting the floor with his blood, he didn't have time to make smart decisions.
Back in Fortren, Infernape and the gang set foot within the haunted house. The hall before lay covered in dust and grime. It was a rather small hallway. Boards had fallen off of the wall, revealing the foundation within. Doors were caved in to block certain paths, except for one. Peering in, the next room appeared to be the kitchen.
Infernape stared at how close the walls and ceiling were and gulped. He was practically shoulder to shoulder with his friends here, and as much as he wanted to be as close to Lopunny as possible, this hellway-hallway was not the place. He couldn't even look back at the exit because Aggron went in last and the hall was so small, he blocked the way. Gardevoir took notice of his unease and asked if he was okay. Infernape responded with a forced grin and responded through anxious clenched teeth,
"I'm fine. Everything's going swimmingly."
The group navigated their way into the kitchen. Everything looked like someone had looted the place. Cupboards and drawers were wide open. The fridge and pantry were completely emptied of all their contents. A mess of mud-covered footprints coated the floor. Evidently, someone wanted out of here, and they wanted to make sure they left nothing behind. Perhaps they had something to hide.
Gardevoir immediately stepped forwards, peering into the pantry. She recoiled and covered her nose. A potent smell that she had no clue how to describe crept around the pantry. It was vaguely similar to meat, but there was an unusual addition, almost like mothballs or perhaps garlic. Either way, it smelled atrocious. She told the others of this, which made Garchomp's mouth gape slightly. Her eyes went wide as she recognized that description. It was a smell that her mother often complained about.
The others questioned her on this, but Garchomp danced around the question,
"As a lawyer, my mother had to visit some dark places." Regardless, they looked towards the other side of the kitchen to a blocked door. However, there was a small gap that someone could theoretically squeeze through. Lopunny pointed it out to the others,
"I think someone is supposed to go through and break the door open from behind." Garchomp and Aggron were too big to fit in the gap, which left only Infernape, Gardevoir, and Lopunny. Immediately, Lopunny opted out,
"I ain't fitting through that. My hips are too big," she said. Gardevoir offered to take the plunge and fell onto her hands and knees to fit through the gap. She disappeared to the other side and began to pull at the planks. Alas, someone has nailed the boards a bit too tightly and Gardevoir lacked the strength needed to pull it apart. Crawling to the other side, she shared,
"I can't do it. Infernape, it is all up to you."
Infernape gulped before slowly approaching that door. Surely someone else could to this, right? Maybe there was some tool they hadn't found that would let them break down the door. Maybe they didn't even need to go through this door and there was a nice, open hall they could access. Lopunny could fit with no problem. If nothing else, he'd get a decent view.
"No, no, no. I'm panicking. It's not that tight and it's open on the other side. I won't get stuck. Oh god, I might get stuck. No! I'm fine. I'll be-"
"Ferny, you've been standing there doing nothing. Get on with it," said Lopunny impatiently.
Aggron tilted his head and asked,
"You good man?"
"YES! YES I AM!" yelled Infernape. Everyone flinched in surprise. His face flushed bright red before going onto his hands and knees. He ducked his head under the gap and crawled to the other side as quickly as he could. He emerged out the other side and rested on the opposite wall to relax. It was all fine. Nothing had happened. With this comfort, he stood up and pried the wooden boards off of the door.
A faint gust of wind breezed past Infernape's cheek. It was almost like…breathing. Immediately, he turned around to see nothing. Nothing but the dark hallway. Perhaps it was nothing. Just a gust of wind that brushed by him and nothing more, but there was a minuscule speck of doubt in his mind. One that permeated as he ripped open that door. Now united, everyone made their way to the next room over, which appeared to be a study.
The furniture was desolate and rotting from years of use. Any color they once had was faded beyond all repair, as though it were drained of all life. Almost all the wallpaper was in some state of disrepair. Even the flooring was torn and shredded by age. There was a fireplace in the back of the room, with ashes dispersed in front of it. There were no logs inside the fireplace, not that you could see in there since it was almost pitch black. Evidently, Infernape saw what they had to do and he hated it.
He immediately began to divert attention to the chair,
"Hey, maybe we have to break apart the furniture. There has to be a clue some-"
"There," said Gardevoir, pointing to the fireplace. She summoned a glowing pink sphere and floated it towards the fireplace, revealing a hidden tunnel where they had to go. Gardevoir then looked back around. Something had touched her shoulder but there was nothing aside from the others. She continued,
"There's a tunnel over there, I think we need to squeeze through."
"Very repetitively designed mansion," remarked Aggron.
"Nope," said Infernape as he turned around and began to walk away. Lopunny grabbed him by the tail, which made him yelp in shock.
"No, you're not running away that easily," she said before she pulled him back. Infernape began to visibly shiver. Seeing no way out, he finally confessed,
"Fine. I'm not going in there. That thing is going to collapse, or fall or whatever, are you happy?" he asked angrily. Gardevoir was surprised by this,
"You-You're claustrophobic? Why did you even join us?"
"I thought it was going to be like a walkthrough kinda thing!" Not a giant cage!" said Infernape. Aggron simply patted Infernape on the back,
"Hey, it's alright, little guy."
"I'm six feet but okay."
"You can do it. I know you can," said Aggron, "Tell you what, how about the rest of us go first and you can go last." Infernape grinned at Aggron. He appreciated the kind gesture, but waved it off,
"Thanks, I mean it, but I'm not gonna change my mind." Hearing this, Lopunny decided to employ her secret weapon.
"I'll give you a hug" she said.
"LET'S DO THIS THING!" yelled Infernape with hearts in his eyes and flame crown. Lopunny and Garchomp rolled their eyes. However, Lopunny decided to let it slide this time. She had promised herself that she would help him be happy. Meanwhile, Gardevoir simply stood there confused as to why Infernape had suddenly shifted. She knew he loved Lopunny, but what difference did it make who was before him? Aggron could sense Gardevoir's innocence and opted not to tell her. Sometimes, it pays to let someone keep their innocence.
After managing to make it to the other side, the five emerged out the other side into a tunnel dug into the earth. Only lanterns illuminated the grimy dirt rock around them. The ceiling and walls were so tight that Aggron and Garchomp could barely fit, having to squat slightly. Infernape lit up a flame in his hands but remained stuck in place. However, Aggron snapped him out of his little stupor,
"Don't worry. We've got your back." With that reassurance, the group began to descend into the cavern.
Gengar burst onto the second floor, clutching his wound. His exhausted panting was the only sound in the air. He braced for another surge of dark type beams. Just then, he accidentally stepped on a tripwire. Dodging to the left, Gengar just barely avoided the ax from behind. However, it appeared that Golduck anticipated this. The distinct sound of a shadow ball being charged rang out behind him. Gengar quickly ducked as the wood above him was torn to splinters, exacerbating the pain in his wounds. Hissing in pain, he shot to his feet and spirited away, only to step on a pressure plate. A storm light from the end of the hall then turned on, blinding Gengar with how bright it was. Hidden in the light, Golduck swung a steel bat at Gengar, knocking him into the floor where he struck Gengar once more in his wounds.
Gengar gasped in agony, slamming his fist against the floor. Golduck then yelled violently,
"HAD ENOUGH, PUNK!" as he kicked Gengar in the back. "I CAN SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL! I'M NOT SURRENDERING MYSELF TO A TERRORIST!" said Golduck as he swung again. This time, the bat phased through Gengar, who stood up, grabbed Golduck by the throat, and slammed him against the wall. Now more angry than he had ever been before, Gengar sadistically grinned at Golduck as he laughed in his face,
"Then surrender to me." Gengar then backed away, releasing Golduck. Golduck refused the offer and swung his bat at Gengar again.
The bat went clean through Gengar, who disappeared in smoke. Golduck was then stabbed in the back as he was pushed to the floor. Gengar stood over the defeated duck and smirked,
"I'm not giving you another chance," he hissed before he raised his foot and stomped it onto his arm. His foot phased through the skin and muscle before solidifying on the bone, crushing it with ease. Golduck screamed in pain as he clutched his arm, just as Gengar easily snapped his legs as well. Golduck could do nothing but look at Gengar, who summoned a knife made out of ghostly energy and played with it like a disinterested cat. He then twisted it around and raised it to finish Golduck off once and for all.
He stopped. Something made him freeze right before he could do anything. Seeing Golduck so helpless struck some nerve within him. Why? He hadn't hesitated then, why now? He screamed at himself in his mind,
"JUST DO IT!" but no matter how much he hyped himself up, he couldn't do it. Golduck was confused at Gengar's hesitation but opted not to say anything. Meanwhile, Gengar was questioning everything. This had to be the blood loss. Maybe his muscles were giving out. Yeah, it had to be. There was no other possibility. He hadn't gotten soft. No, they hadn't changed him. They meant nothing to him. His family was…
At that moment, Gengar stopped himself. The knife disappeared from his hands. It all clicked for him. Why he had been feeling this way. Unable to stop himself, Gengar began to laugh. Clutching his head and laughing like a maniac, he tried to stop himself but it was completely in vain. Golduck, terrified by this attitude, crawled away with his only good limb. He was completely helpless as he listened to Gengar's cackling, which echoed throughout the house. It was like watching a normally quiet and passive soul completely explode into a violent and unrelenting screaming fit, paralyzing and perhaps one of the most frightening things in the world.
Golduck would disappear that day, but there are many ways to make someone disappear. You just have to stretch your definitions a little.