The neighbourhood was quiet around the Pewter Museum of Science, with the sun now having well and truly set only the city street lamps were around to light up the path, since the museum itself was closed. I gripped Yeller's Pokeball tightly, since I'd put him back inside it to recover and stay hidden until a battle broke out.

Brock and I approached the entrance with an air of caution. I'd wanted to message Chee and let her know that we were coming, but Brock had told me that she wound up getting caught because she made a weird beeping noise... Which probably meant she got caught because I sent her a message before.

Slowly, Brock opened the door to the antiquated museum and we waited by the entrance, peering in as our eyes adjusted to the darkness.

Although the place had apparently not seen any use in a long time, the layers of dust were much thinner than I expected, lending credence to the theory that people were still using the site. There were various exhibits of different kinds of rocks, as well as three prominent fossilised skeletons of ancient Pokemon displayed on large pedestals across the building. Two of them were strange bipedal skeletons, the third was some sort of large flying creature.

I made a closer inspection, looking for traps like tripwires or explosives that might have been hidden on the door frame to catch intruders, but it proved to be a needless concern. A handful of dust tossed across the entry way showed no signs of any detection systems. The place was shut down. I did spot a door at the back of the building that looked like it lead to another faculty area, however, which I pointed to. Brock nodded at me in response.

"Stay close to me kid." Brock murmured quietly. "Go home if you're scared, I can handle this by myself."

I shook my head. "Don't count me out just yet. We're going to save both of them." I whispered back.

Slowly we sneaked our way across the hardwood floor, trying not to make too much noise. There were a few gentle creaks we couldn't do anything about, but our travel was mostly silent until Brock jolted suddenly after turning. "Son of a..." He startled quietly, having come face to face with one of the rigged skeletons I'd seen earlier.

A bipedal skeleton with two long scythe-like blades on it's arms, which stood in front of Brock on the hardwood floor, it's peculiar pointed dome-like head almost seeming to stare at us with it's empty eye sockets. "Creepy things..." Brock murmured, regaining his calm as he turned away.

I continued staring at it, something striking me as odd about the ancient Pokemon fossil. I was examining it trying to figure out what was bothering me, when suddenly the scythe-like blade on it's right arm turned and swung at my throat.

"Woah!?" With a yelp I leapt backwards, barely evading the blade as it sliced through the space I'd occupied a moment earlier. The fossil shakily took a step forward, and I could barely believe my eyes. "B-Brock! The fossil is moving!?" I spoke a little too loudly.

The bipedal fossil charged me again, it's arm scythes raised overhead to cut me to shreds. Fortunately before it had the chance to do so, Brock grabbed it at the wrist joints and kicked it in the abdomen, detaching the arms from it's body.

"You alright kid?" He asked.

I nodded quietly. "What was that? The fossil was moving by itself..."

"...Like it was alive?"

I shook my head. "No, it looked more like a puppet being controlled by it's strings..." It felt familiar somehow, like I'd seen something similar in the past...

I glanced over to the pedestal we'd seen by the entrance, and I felt a sudden surge of alarm as I realised it was now empty.

"...Brock, the other two fossils are also missing."

Brock's figure tightened in response, and I felt his gaze scanning the pedestal as I had just done.

We covered each other's backs as we slowly advanced through the building further, the looming danger of the other two fossils lingering over us with every step and moment. Both of us held our Pokeballs at the ready, waiting for the moment we needed to summon our partners to defend us.

Eventually we reached the door at the opposite side, which Brock kicked open. Waiting inside was another of the bipedal skeletons, similar to the one who had attacked us earlier. Without waiting for us to notice the skeleton lurched forwards, only to be blocked by a large boulder as Brock released his partner from his Pokeball.

The Pokemon Brock unleashed was a Graveler, a larger four-armed evolved form of the Pokemon Geodude, with short stumpy legs attached to a much larger boulder-like body. The Geodude earlier had been close to the size of Brock's head, but this Graveler was about as tall as I was.

With it's extra arms it easily blocked the swinging scythes of the prehistoric fossil. "Smack Down." Brock ordered it confidently, and the boulder raised it's remaining two arms, shattering the fossil into dust with a single two-handed strike. I could almost feel myself shiver, the realisation of just how much Brock was holding back in the Gym Challenge sinking home.

Wordlessly, the leader gestured for me to follow him and we crept into the back room of the museum. It was all eerily quiet as we made our way past the door, now into a darker room that was more cramped. It was even harder to see without the ambient light filtering in through the windows.

As we walked through the darkness, I felt as though the temperature dropped by multiple degrees.

...No, I was actually cold, and the temperature had dropped in an instant. If it weren't for my experience on the field I would simply dismiss it as nerves, but I knew from experience exactly what this sensation implied. "Shoot... I think we've been spotted." I whispered to Brock.

"...What?" He whispered back in confusion. "Why?"

"The room is getting cold, and the way those fossils were moving earlier... I think it's a ghost type."

There was a brief moment of silence, but Brock seemed to concede to my reasoning. "...Alright then."

There was a click from Brock and all of a sudden the museum lights were turned on and I was able to clearly make out the contents of the backroom we'd wandered into. There were a lot of rocks and fossils stored away in wooden boxes and other storage containers, the back room clearly once having served as a storage for museum items that hadn't been put up for display yet, however they were far dustier than the exhibits in the main room had been.

There were two doors leading to separate exits, one clearly marked as a former employee lounge for employees who were taking a break, the other marked with a sign indicating it was a stairway down to a lower level.

Also exposed by the sudden light was a basketball sized orb of floating purple gas with two large eyes and a wide exaggerated grin. A Gastly.

"Yeller!" I called as I sent out my partner to be prepared for a fight, but the Gastly immediately passed through the wall and out of sight.

"I see... So you discovered where we were keeping your wife, Brock?" A voice echoed through the walls, sounding as though it was coming from all directions at once. "Unfortunately, she is still in our captivity. If you want to keep her safe, you will leave the boy and go home now."

Brock clenched his fist in anger. "I refuse to let you order me around anymore! You never intended to give her back in the first place, all you're doing is hurting the young children coming through Pewter City!"

"...I see, then I suppose your wife is of no use to us any longer. Might as well dispose of her then." The voice retorted, and I saw Brock's face pale in response.

"Kid, you go to the employee lounge, I'll go down the stairs!" Brock commanded as he charged down the stairwell. His speed was remarkable, and I almost lost sight of him immediately.

"Roger!" I accepted, understanding that time was of the essence. I burst through the employee lounge door, where I found myself face to face with an unfortunate situation. The man in black sat on the couch in front of me, a surprised look on his face.

"Haunter-No Haunter is keeping Brock busy. Er... Gastly!" He called, and the ball of gas phased through the wall beside him. "Paralyse him with Lick!"

The ball of gas began to float towards me, but Yeller quickly leapt to my aid, blocking the long tongue of the strange floating face. As Rattata is a normal type Pokemon, the move had no effect whatsoever.

"...Huh." The man seemed dismayed. "No, this is perfect! That Rattata won't be able to do anything to you, so it comes down to an adult versus a child! Come at me kid!" The man in black charged towards me.

Honestly it was a pretty alarming situation, but based on the man's reaction, his Gastly only knew ghost type moves, which weren't able to affect a normal type Pokemon like Rattata. I'd seen this sort of situation play out both ways on the battlefield before, and it was usually a pretty messy scene.

Calmly, I pointed at the man. "Yeller, Quick Attack."

And with a powerful burst of white energy, my partner slammed full-force into the abdomen of the man, sending him reeling back into the wall with a painful sounding thud. I glanced around to look for the Gastly, but it had left the room.

"Ughhh..." The man groaned, reeling in pain. I took advantage of his pain to tear off his hood and mask, revealing the appearance of the man underneath.

With the hoodie and glasses removed, I could see his pointed blond hair, beady brown eyes and a purple headband that flowed back into the back of the hoodie. He glared up at me and reached for my throat, but I rapidly pulled back.

"...You're Morty, right? Ghost Gym Leader of the Johto region. What on earth are you doing here?" I asked aloud.

He blinked at me a few times, hiding his hair underneath the hood again. "...You're surprisingly knowledgeable. Most kids don't know Gym Leaders names and faces, let alone those outside their regions."

"Yeah, well..." I hadn't had much choice but to remember. Johto had been the initial group to declare war on Kanto, after all. Thanks to that short-lived fool of a martyr Gold... "...We're neighbours. Seemed like it was valuable to learn about Johto as well." I made up an excuse on the spot.

"Well," The man growled. "you may have done your research on the Gym Leaders, but it won't matter in a moment."

Before I could ask him what he meant, I heard an eerie scratching noise behind me. I turned in surprise to see the third fossil from the museum exhibit barging into the room behind me.

Ah... Come to think of it, we never did encounter the third fossil.

The third fossil wasn't like the other two, instead of the bones of a bipedal Pokemon with powerful scythe-like claws, it showed a much more dragon-like bone structure, with long powerful wings and talons, a large boney tail and strong jaws that looked like they could snap me in half.

"I see. Your Gastly can't hurt Yeller, but if it possesses something it can?"

"That's right!" The man beamed, placing his hands on his hips. "And now the scales have tipped in my favour! But I'm a merciful guy, if you surrender now I'll spare your life and-"

A familiar annoyance raised in my chest, and I opted to shut up the flippant older man.

"Tackle."

The Gym Leader was cut off with a powerful cough as the air in his lungs was forcefully vacated from his body, meanwhile I kept a watchful eye on the large and powerful fossil being piloted by the Gastly that had fled earlier. It took a few swipes at me, but thanks to the confined space it had to fight in, I was able to more or less evade it's attacks just by twisting and diving underneath it.

The tight space of the room was a boon in that way, but if we kept up like this the Gastly would eventually realise it could just drop the weight of the fossil on top of me to pin me down, which would be no good.

I dashed back out into the main exhibit hall with Yeller hot on my heels. It only took a few seconds for the clumsy dinosaur fossil to burst out of the hall after us, spreading it's boney wings to expand the area it had control over.

"It's no use!" A hacking voice echoed all around us. "Your Rattata has no way of hitting my Gastly, but thanks to the fossil we can attack you just fine!"

I felt a growing sense of frustration at his words. "Yeller! Use Quick Attack, try to break the jaws!"

Yeller leapt up and slammed into the boney mouth of the fossil, but he lacked the decisive power to destroy it in one hit. I clicked my tongue in annoyance.

"It's useless! You don't have Brock's brute force, so you won't be able to break the fossil to pieces, and-"

"Would you shut up!?" I snapped, my irritation beginning to boil over into my voice. "Yeller! Focus-1!"

The Rattata leapt into my arms, charging his energy as I focused on defending us both from the repeated stomps and jabs of the skeleton, each hit cracking the hardwood floor, small pieces of splintered wood propelling away from the impact.

...That's one level of focus... "Again!" I commanded Yeller, eying the charging monster. I took cover behind a sturdy looking case displaying a handful of rocks. The clumsy skeleton slammed into it, and I could feel my heart beating in my chest.

I'd been starting to get used to the relative safety of the Gym Challenge and my battles with Chee and the others, but here I once again found myself in a situation where a single misstep could result in my death.

The fossil that tried to break past the case to get me was delivering powerful blows into the ground, if even one of those attacks hit me, there was a good chance that I would die. My body was still that of a child, after all.

But that wasn't what frustrated me.

Two levels... "One more Time Yeller!"

I broke away from the display case as the possessed fossil finally managed to bat away my cover.

"Losing your cool?" The echoing voice taunted me.

"Last chance to surrender!" I offered in annoyance, but the man didn't seem to buy it.

"If you're stalling for Brock to come rescue you, I'm afraid that's not going to happen!"

I suppose it was reasonable to expect that I was stalling and waiting for help in this situation, although I still found his arrogance upsetting.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." I growled, watching Yeller closely as I weaved between hanging ornaments displaying the relationships between different kinds of rocks.

Finally, Yeller finished gathering the blue energy and leapt from my arms, joining me at my side. I skidded to a stop, wheeling about to face the enemy ghost. "Quick Mode! Quick Attack the jaw!"

Yeller charged up with bright white energy, then ricocheted off of the wall directly into the side of the jaw with a deafening whack. The jaw lurched to the side, a small crack forming in the bone.

"Nice try kid, but-"

Before the man could finish taunting me again, a wave of blue energy flew from Yeller's body, bursting out in the location he'd just hit the skull, shattering the skull into dozens of pieces and forcing the Gastly out of it's possession.

"...What?"

Both Gastly and trainer were shocked, not used to seeing a burst of focus energy like that.

"Fine! You still can't hit me, so Gastly can just possess-"

My frustration hit it's peak, and I gave out my next order with a powerful aggression. "BITE THAT DAMN GASTLY UNTIL IT FAINTS!"

Yeller was surprised by my outburst but followed my command nonetheless, slamming a pair of purple energy jaws into the supple gas of the ghost-type Pokemon. A moment later the remaining blue energy flew from his body and doubled the damage dealt.

The black orb at the centre of the Pokemon fell to the ground unconscious.

Still fuming I stormed back over to the room that I'd come from, where the black-clothed man sat in stunned surprise. "What... But... How could a normal type Pokemon hit my Gastly...?"

Rather than answering his question, I punched him in the liver, causing him to keel over and drop to the ground.

Honestly...

"You Ghost Type trainers all act like this!" I scolded him. "Oo, you can't hurt me, I'm a ghost type!"

I spat on the ground beside him, then I grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his face closer to mine. "Rather than focussing entirely on your immunity, why don't you just learn how to battle!?" I slammed his head back to the ground.

Satisfied for the moment, I sat on the ground, letting out some heavy breaths. After about 30 seconds, I managed to regain my cool, letting the anger wash off of me like the dirt being washed off of a Hitmonlee standing in a cascading waterfall.

"...It doesn't matter." Morty spluttered, letting out a wry laugh. "By now, Haunter will have secured the hostages. If Brock even tries to go close, they'll be killed! You'll have no choice but to let me go and-"

"Oh, is Brock here?" A feminine voice called from the hallway. I turned my gaze to see a pair of girls, one older lady in her late twenties or early thirties with long pink hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a nurse outfit, but it was nicked and damaged-It seemed like it was the only thing she'd been able to wear for quite some time.

The second girl was a black-haired 11-year-old I'd grown intimately familiar with over the last few months, a loose rope dangling from her waist. Chee waved enthusiastically at me, a beaming smile on her face.

Hey Cyan! I got tired of waiting for you to come get me, so I took this lady and broke out!

I let out a small sigh.

"I should have known this would happen..." I grumbled in resignation.