Yeah, I'll admit, I kinda clung to the idea of Cinder playing a horror game and decided to just run with it.
Oh, and uh, just a bit of forewarning, this one gets somewhat bloody. If you read the first Halloween special, though, you'd probably figure that much, I just wanted to actually give a proper disclaimer this time, as things have been relatively tame these last few chapters, so I wouldn't blame you if you forgot that this fic has blood and stuff.
One last thing. Disclaimer, this one doesn't really have much to do with Pokémon, so if you're only interested in that then you might wanna just skip past this part, it's not really relevant to the story as it's just me having fun throwing two of the characters in this story into other games for Halloween. Things will be back to normal next time so don't worry, this is a one-time thing, this fic isn't becoming some huge bloated crossover thing that loses sight of its original focus.
February 9th, 8:12 am
Team Echoes' Base
Coast Continent
Cinder woke up with a yawn, "I wonder how Joseph's doing."
She approached the door and attempted to leave her room, only to be blocked by Mesprit as the door opened, "Oh, hey Mesprit, I didn't realize you were still here."
Oh, I was actually just about to head out, I thought I might as well update you on Joseph's situation before I go."
"So, how's he holding up?"
Mesprit sighed, "Well… He's still injured, but my intuition tells me he'll be fine by tomorrow. I'd say you're fine just coasting until tomorrow, so just find a way to spend the day, I guess."
Mesprit ended the conversation there as she floated off before Cinder could say anything else, she wasn't going to, but Mesprit's rebellious attitude was still on full display nonetheless, "Well that was a little rude, why'd she just float off before I had the chance to say anything? I mean, I wasn't gonna, but what if I was?"
Once she was done reiterating exactly what I just said, Cinder walked back into her room and plopped back down on her bed, she got comfy and stared at the ceiling for a moment, that was until her watch vibrated. She checked her watch to see a text from Christian.
"Hey, you remember how Joseph said you should try playing a horror game that one time? Well, if you want, I could send you a mashup of some of the ones I've played, y'know, so you can dip your toes in the water a bit."
Cinder… Wasn't the fondest of this idea… She shivered before replying, using her voice to type out her text, "I-I'm not sure. I can handle dungeon stuff just fine, but I'm kinda wimpy when it comes to scary fictional stuff. I hate how some people's imaginations can create something so horrendous, it's almost like they have lucid nightmares every night, but they're so sick and twisted that they enjoy them."
A few moments after Cinder sent her message, another text appeared on her screen, "I know right!? It's somehow fascinating and terrifying all at once! That's why I feel like horror games are cooler than other forms of horror media, they kinda put you in the driver's seat, which makes things a lot scarier imo."
"Well now that you put it like that it does sound a little more interesting, maybe I'll try it for just a sec… Ah, no! I don't feel brave enough! Chickening out!"
Another message popped up on the screen only this time, instead of a normally colored bubble, the message had a purple one, "Oh, I can play it with you if you want." Cinder's watch said as the message was played aloud in Midnight's voice."
"Hold on, who the heck is that and how did they access our texts?"
Cinder rolled her eyes, "That's Midnight, she's a friend of mine, she just possessed my watch and inserted herself in our texts."
"So a ghost is offering to play horror games with you?"
"Yup…"
"That sounds both completely backward and perfect at the same time, maybe I should try that sometime."
"I'd be down to try it out with Cinder and tell you about it afterward." Midnight replied.
"Ooh, I like the sound of that! It'll be like an experiment within an experiment! I'll send the mash-up file to Cinder's laptop."
Cinder didn't appreciate Midnight roping her into all this without her permission, "Wait! I didn't agree to this!"
The Lampent popped out of her watch, "Relax, it's all just pretend anyway, it's not like you're gonna die playing horror games."
Cinder's laptop made a pinging sound as she continued being a chicken, "Y-you don't know that! W-what if I have a heart attack or something?"
"Then I'll shove your soul back into your body and drop you off with Meganium."
"I'd rather not end up in the infirmary!"
"I'm just messing with you, you're not gonna have a heart attack, that's just not likely, you clearly don't have any heart problems or anything, so unless you get really, really, really scared, I don't think you have anything to worry about, besides, I'll be haunting you while you play, so you won't be alone."
Cinder was still on the fence, "I-I don't know, are you sure you're not just gonna play any tricks on me while I play?"
The Lampent rolled her eyes as her light briefly dimmed, "How many times do I gotta tell you!? I'm above all that generic ghost prank stuff!"
"So you're not gonna scare me while I play?"
"No, absolutely not, and if you ever feel uneasy I'll flood your mind with comforting messages."
Cinder shivered, "Fine, I'll play it, but only because you're gonna be here with me."
Cinder got up and grabbed the laptop, she opened it up and saw the new icon on her screen, it looked like a mansion with mismatched parts, there also seemed to be a very unhappy ghost looking at it, "That's an interesting icon." Midnight said as she looked over Cinder's shoulder, "Wonder what the game will be like."
Cinder hesitantly clicked the game's icon when something strange happened, the screen turned red and displayed a warning,
Warning!
The system seems to have been tampered with!
Tampering with IDPK systems is never a good idea as it could cause issues or trigger things unintentionally.
Tampered systems: Reality Module
Potential side effects include: Erroneous triggering of said module, GPU combustion, permanent activation of Unregistered Hypercam 2, and other security vulnerabilities.
Continue with caution, or don't, it's not our problem.
"U-uh, that's weird, I don't remember tampering with the system." Cinder sputtered.
"Maybe it's talking about what Porygon did?" Lampent theorized, "If that's so, then we shouldn't have anything to worry about."
Cinder still had just a tiny gut feeling that Midnight was wrong about that, "Yeah… It's probably nothing to worry about."
Unfortunately, it indeed was something to worry about, you remember that Reality Module? Well, that just so happens to be the thing that allowed Porygon to drag our heroes into the digital world, so, with the module malfunctioning, I think you can start to see where things could take a sharp turn for the absolute worst.
The computer screen turned black as the game launched, as the game loaded the title screen the fans started blowing so hard, it sounded like a plane was about to take off, "Ok, something's definitely off." Cinder whimpered.
"So should we turn the thing off?"
"Uh…"
Before Cinder could reach for the power button, a flash of green light blinded her, before she knew it, she was out cold on the floor, just like before…
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Cinder woke up in front of a strange mansion, "Ugh… My head… What happened?"
"Cinder? Are you alright?"
Midnight flew up to Cinder and hugged her, "I-I'm fine! Where are we!?"
"W-well, I'm not sure you're gonna like the answer."
"Wait, don't tell me."
"Yeah, we're in the computer, and the only way out is through that mansion, at least, I'd assume."
"Can you like cover your ears for a moment?"
The Lampent rolled her eyes, "I don't have any, so if you're gonna scream, just do it."
"ARCEUS DAMN IT!"
With that out of her system, Cinder approached the door, "*Sigh* I swear if I open this door and something jumps out at me, I'll burn this entire place to the ground."
The door opened with a squeak, taking a look inside revealed a rather old-looking building with a door that seemed to lead further into said building. Seeing as there were no immediate threats, Cinder walked right into the derelict house with Midnight trailing behind her.
Once the two had entered the house, the door swung shut, locking them inside, "Uh, Midnight? Did you close the door behind us?"
"No, someone else must've done it."
A few moments passed before this 'someone else' presented themselves, they were a ghost, but not like one Cinder or even Midnight had ever seen, they were a human ghost, they had pale white ''''''skin'''''', black cartoony eyes, dark blue hair, and a teal blue dress, "Hello, I am Spooky! And this is… Someone else's home…"
Midnight cut her eyes at the fellow ghost, "Then why are you here?"
"Y'know, that's a really good question, I don't actually know." Spooky thought aloud.
"The hell you mean you don't know!?"
"Y'know what, it's not that important, what I wanna know is what kind of specimen are you?"
Cinder tilted her head, "Specimen?"
"Yeah, like, what kind of monster are you?"
"O-oh, I'm uh, not really a monster, I'm just trying to make it out of this place, could you point me toward the nearest exit?"
Spooky pointed at the door on the other side of the room, "The exit's through that door!"
"Well, alright then, thanks!"
Cinder opened the door and continued on, with Midnight following closely behind her. But as the pair pressed onward, Spooky stayed back and chuckled, "Have fun in there."
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 1
Cinder entered the door to be met by an empty hallway, "Of course… I knew it couldn't be easy…"
Her ghost companion floated up next to her, "Bummer. Guess we have to find our way through this place after all."
The two cautiously walked through the hallway, about halfway through Cinder got smacked in the face by something, "OW! What the heck!?"
She inspected the source of her sudden head pain to find a cardboard cut out of a ghost smiling at her, "Who put this cut out here?"
Her lamp companion shrugged, "I have no clue, it just popped off the wall and donked you in the face."
"Well, whoever put it there is a big meanie!" Cinder said as she clenched her aching head.
The two pressed on through the hallway, at the end of the hall sat another door, the pair proceeded through the door into an empty room with yet another door, "Ok, I know this place was huge on the outside, but how many doors does this place have?" Cinder questioned.
"No idea…" Lampent replied as her flame dimmed, "But if this is your friend's idea of scary, then he needs to up his standards."
Little did the lamp ghost know that things would only get worse from here…
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 30
A little while passed and Cinder was starting to go insane, "What is up with this stupid mansion!? There's nothing here!"
She swung open another door while Midnight pulled a book from her bag, "Yeah, I stopped paying attention around 15 doors ago, I've just been reading all the books I keep on me. I'm starting to run out of books though…"
Cinder took a look at Midnight's bag, it seemed stuffed to the brim with books so realistically she shouldn't have even made a dent in her collection yet, "Hold on, how fast are you reading those?"
"I'm averaging a book every 10 minutes."
"How!? Are you even absorbing any info!?"
"Yep, once you've been reading books for a few hundred years, you start to get pretty good at it."
"I'll, uh, take your word on it."
The pair stepped into the next room to see… A bit of a different atmosphere… Instead of an empty room, they were met with a dark looking dungeon reminiscent of the ones you'd see in a Zelda game, "Uh, that's new." Cinder said as she looked for a way forward.
Midnight looked up from her book to see three large stone doors and a pressure plate in the center of the room, she picked Cinder up and placed her on the pressure plate. The pressure plate opened one of the doors, "Yep, knew that was gonna happen, this place is more predictable than it is scary."
"Yup, let's hope this change in atmosphere doesn't change things."
Cinder walked through the door that had opened to find… Another door… And behind that door she found a pretty creepy looking room, in that room there was a big key next to a few notes and a switch on the wall. She snatched the key before reading the notes.
Hey Cinder, it's me, Christian,
I hope you're enjoying stuff so far. I had to replace the note that was originally here because it spoiled the game it was originally from, and I really don't wanna make this little mash-up spoil anything major about any of the games it references. If you wanna play any of the games part of this mash-up, then I'll leave a note at the end listing them all.
Sorry to break your immersion
Christian
Cinder slid the note to the side and grabbed the next note, it simply said to pull the switch to open the next door, so Cinder did as it said before walking out of the room.
Once the switch was pulled, Cinder passed by Midnight and entered the next room, there was yet another switch with another note sitting just beside it.
Hey, it's me again, there was more lore here, so uh, sorry! No spoilers! Pull the switch to press onward, you'll need a key, but I trust you've already found said key, so just press on when you're ready.
Good luck!
Cinder flipped the next switch and moved back out into the room Midnight was waiting in, she was starting to get a little bored, "I'm beginning to think that this is all just a prank, I mean, nothing's really happened. How is this supposed to be scary?"
Midnight shrugged as she floated off toward the next door, she stopped when she noticed the big keyhole, "Beats me. Maybe there's some dark, creepy maze we gotta go through to get the key?"
The disappointment on Cinder's face was worth a million words, "*Sigh* Nope, I found it in one of those side rooms."
If Midnight had a mouth, she would be using it to frown right about now, instead, she opted to dim her flame, "Lame… Whatever… Let's just move on…"
The ghost's head hung low as she phased through the door, meanwhile, Cinder jumped up to the keyhole and turned the key, "What kind of Pokémon designed these doors, man? It feels like they're made for a Machoke or something."
As she twisted the doorknob the realization hit her, "Oh wait, they're probably made for humans, that makes a lot more sense…"
With that revelation out of the way, Cinder opened the door, it led to a large open room with two doors on both sides of the room, and sitting against the back wall was a strange-looking puppet.
Midnight was inspecting the puppet closely, "What's with this weird guy? What's his deal?"
Cinder cautiously approached the puppet and started checking it out for herself, it wore a brown tunic with gray pants and black shoes, and its eyes were ghost white with no pupils, pupils weren't the only thing the puppet lacked though as it also lacked hair. Among all the other observations Cinder made, she also noticed something a little worrying, "Hey, is it just me, or does it look like there's a needle in this puppet's left hand?"
Cinder must've said one of the puppet's trigger words as it stood up all on its own and began smiling at her with a creepy toothy grin. Midnight rolled her eyes, "Ugh, another cheep 'scare'. C'mon, Cinder, let's just leave, I think we've seen everything here."
The pair flipped around and headed for the door when Cinder felt a sharp pain in her back followed by blood dripping down her back, "Yowch! It poked me!"
"Uh, I think it did a lot more than poke you."
A quick look over her shoulder revealed that Cinder had been stabbed pretty badly by the puppet, "What the hell!? How'd it do that!?"
The puppet removed its needle with a chuckle, its grin was replaced by a scowl that chilled the fire types down to their bones. The two were frozen in shock, staring the puppet in his snow-white eyes. Eventually, Midnight was able to mutter a few words, "O-ok, things are a little spooky now, l-let's just get out of here before that thing makes you a ghost type too."
"Y-yeah, l-let's do that." Cinder nodded.
The two took a few steps back toward the door, once it was open they bolted through it, in an attempt to get as far away from the puppet. Unfortunately, as soon as they entered the next room it appeared right in front of them, it was then that Cinder found a note on the floor.
Don't look away!
"Huh? Don't look away? From what?"
"Wait! That's it!" Midnight exclaimed, "It stabbed you in the back when you looked away! Maybe if we keep looking at it, we won't get stabbed."
Feeling a little stupid, Cinder walked around the murderous puppet, making sure to keep her eyes fixed on it the whole time, surprisingly, it didn't try to stab her this time, "Huh, I guess it worked!"
Now it was Midnight's turn, she floated straight through the puppet, making sure to spin around before it was out of her sight, "Ha! What a joke! Man's too scared to stab us while we're looking! Well, guess what, bud, it's gonna take a little more than one stab and a little blood to topple us!"
Cinder tried to get in a taunt of her own when she started feeling a little dizzy, "Oh, I'm still bleeding… You mind helping me out with that?"
"Alright!"
The Lampent flew behind Cinder and started patching up her wounds with whatever she had on her person, while she was doing that, Cinder was staring at the floor, trying not to pass out due to blood loss. Notice something wrong here? Midnight's eyes are on her bag, and Cinder's are on the floor, so then, whose eyes are on the puppet?
As soon as Midnight was done patching up Cinder's wounds, the puppet picked her up by the neck and prepared to stab its needle into her left eye. Midnight was too shocked to move, she watched in horror as the needle drew closer to Cinder's eye… Only to stop as it gently poked her eyelid. Yeah, Cinder's confusing eyes strike again, saving her from getting a nice big hole stabbed into one of them. The puppet dropped her on the floor and disappeared, only to reappear in the corner of the room sitting with its legs crossed, it looked as if it were completely disappointed.
Cinder and Midnight collectively sighed, "That was way too close, I mean, I thought you were a goner!"
"Are you alright? I saw you freeze up when that thing grabbed me."
Midnight snatched Cinder up in a hug, "I-I'm so sorry! I was too scared to move! I've never been in a situation like that before! All my old friends were ghosts, so I-I've never had to worry about one of them dying on me or anything, let alone saving their lives!"
Cinder rubbed the back of Midnight's head to comfort her. The glass was scorching hot, enough to burn anyone unfortunate enough to touch it, fortunately, Cinder's fire typing makes her immune to such burns, so she was able to comfort her friend without harming herself in the process, "It's alright, I'm fine, everything turned out fine in the end, now let's get out of here before my eyes decide they wanna open again."
The puppet looked back over its shoulder to see the next door slam shut, it seemed its prey had escaped… For now…
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 49
As Cinder and Midnight approached the fiftieth room, they could hear heavy footsteps, the door ahead was big and had 50 written above it on a gold plaque. Cinder approached the door when Midnight stopped her, "Wait! There's a desk here! Maybe there's something useful in it!"
With a sigh, Cinder walked toward a desk in the back of the room, she started rummaging through its drawers a bit, stopping when she found a few standout items, "Alright, we've got an alarm clock, and… Whatever the heck this thing is."
The item in question was a lighter, but seeing as Cinder and Midnight come from a world where fire-breathing creatures are a dime a dozen, neither of them knew what it was. Midnight snatched the lighter and started messing with it, eventually, she found out how to make a clicking noise with it, "Is that it? Is it just a noisemaker?"
She kept clicking it until eventually, it sparked a fire, "Oh, I get it, it's supposed to light a fire!" Cinder said, "It's still useless, but it's pretty neat, I guess."
"As if an alarm clock is of any use to us either."
"Hey, you never know, we might need it for something going forward."
After rolling her eyes, Midnight flew over to the next door and prepared to open it, "Whatever, let's just move on."
As Cinder approached the door, the ground shook a bit, "W-wha!? T-tremors!? Here!?"
Completely disregarding the worries of her friend, Midnight opened the door, behind it stood a large creature, standing way taller than anything the pair had seen before. Its face was a giant gaping mouth with no visible eyes and no nose either, just a gaping mouth with about a million teeth. The creature had off-red skin with what appeared to be rib-like bones wrapping around the top half of its torso.
The figure seemed alerted by the sound of the door opening as it turned its head toward the sound, only for a lamp to fall over and shatter, causing the monster to run over to it. The two Pokémon stood in the doorway, paralyzed by fear.
Cinder looked around the room for any clues on how to deal with this monster, only to have her vision obscured by countless bookshelves with colored books sticking out. It was then that Midnight pointed toward a desk with a note on it, 'Pst, I think we need to get over there without making noise.' She whispered telepathically.
'What does making noise have to do with anything?'
'I think it's blind, notice how it ran after that lamp that fell over there, if it had eyes it would've seen us.'
'Ah, I see.'
Midnight resisted the urge to facepalm at Cinder's horrible attempt at a joke as she sneakily hovered over to the note and picked it up, meanwhile, Cinder looked at one of the books hanging off of the shelves, she reached for it only to have it fall down and bonk her on the head, alerting the monster, "C-crap! I gotta hide!"
'Don't yell! That's just giving you away even more!'
Cinder scampered away from the bookshelf and dove under a chair, desperately hoping the monster wouldn't find her, but then an idea popped into her head, 'Wait the alarm clock! If I set the alarm and chuck it, I can drive the monster away!'
She wound up the clock and chucked it across the room just as the figure approached the chair she was hiding under, taking the attention off of her and putting it on the clock. As she snuck out of her hiding spot, the figure stomped out the clock, breaking it into a mess of glass, springs, and cogs, 'Jeez, this guy isn't playing around! Let's just hope that's as close as he gets to stomping me out."
After watching in horror as the clock was destroyed, Midnight desperately looked for Cinder, letting out a relieved sigh when she found her, 'I thought you were a goner!'
'And you said the clock would be useless!'
'Well, if I'd known we'd be trying to evade a massive blind beast drawn to the slightest sound, I would've thought otherwise.'
'That's a good point… Well did you get the note?'
'Yup, there was another one under it too, the first one's some weird puzzle clue, and the second one… Well… You should just read it for yourself.'
Using her psychic power, Midnight passed the note to Cinder from across the room, upon receiving the note Cinder resisted the urge to straighten the page and risk making more noise.
Hey! Nice job making it to room 50.
Sorry if the monsters don't feel very spaced out, I just wanted to stay true to the source material with this one.
In case you're confused about what to do here, you're meant to look through those books for a shape and a number. Next, you need to use the other note to tell what sequence to put the numbers in, you'll need this sequence to unlock the padlock on the door. Basically, just look at the shapes on the note, find those shapes in the books, and then put together the numbers associated with the shapes.
Good luck, you're gonna need it, this part's really stressful.
Christian
Once she was done reading the note, Cinder looked over at the book that clocked her on the head earlier, she noticed a star on the left page and a 7 on the right one. Cinder sighed as she realized how monumental a task gathering books would be, 'Y'know, I really wish he was kidding when he mentioned we needed to grab the books to find the code for the lock,'
Midnight seemed to share this sentiment, as she also dreaded the idea of gathering books while a giant lamp-destroying monster loomed over them, 'Same here, especially since these bookshelves weren't made for creatures as small as us.'
As Cinder took a deep breath, a wave of determination washed over her, 'We're gonna make it out of here alive, I'm sure of it, we just need to keep our heads high and our spirits higher.'
'It's because I'm a ghost, isn't it?'
'Huh?'
'Your word choice, you said keep your heads high and your spirits higher.'
Cinder resisted the urge to slam her palm into her face at mach speed, 'I'm sorry, it wasn't intentional.'
'Well, that's new…'
The pair split up and began looking through the books in the library. Midnight used her telepathy to keep track of the books that Cinder had skimmed through, as well as to let Cinder know about what she had found. Eventually, they got all the books they needed, so they met back up at the door to start putting the code together, but the figure had other plans, as it started walking up the stairs. Thinking fast, they quickly and quietly found a hiding place big enough for the two of them, a wooden closet next to a wall. Once in their hiding spot, they discussed their game plan, 'Ok, so what was the code on the note?'
'Star, circle, square, pentagon, x. So that's…'
"73829, now we just need to put that into the lock and-"
Cinder unintentionally said that last part out loud, tipping the figure off to their location, it ran over to the closet and flipped it over, sending the girls tumbling out of it. Now that their location was known, Cinder ran for the door and started frantically putting the lock code in, while Midnight threw books off a nearby shelf to hopefully slow the monster down, "ANY DAY NOW CINDER!"
"I'M GOING AS FAST AS I CAN!"
The figure was looming over Cinder right as she pulled the lock off the door, once the lock was dealt with, she chucked it to the side and tackled the door open. Midnight phased through the monster as she flew through the door after Cinder.
Once everyone was safely through the door, a magic seal kept the figure from following them, giving them a bit of safety… For now… "Whew… I don't think my heart can take much more of this." Cinder sighed.
"Yeah, I'd feel the same way if I had a heart, let's just move on, I doubt this place has anything worse than that."
"I hope you're right on that, I really wanna make it back before sundown."
The two walked through the hallway until a metal object hit Midnight on the back of the head, creating a big clanging noise, "OW! What the heck was that for!?"
She turned to her left to see an open vent, with the vent cover sitting on the ground next to her. When she went to inspect the vent, she heard an unfamiliar voice, "Need to stock up?"
Intrigued by the sudden development, she urged Cinder to crawl through the vent, "Hey, Cinder, I think we should go through that vent right there."
"Why in the world would we do that!? There was a voice coming from in there! Clearly, it's just another trick to try to kill us!"
"But what if it's not? What if it's just a nice stranger who wants to help us out?"
"Ugh, fine, I'll go through the vent, but if whatever's back here turns me into a puddle of blood, I'm not hanging out with you in the afterlife."
Cinder got on her knees and crawled into the vent, as her anticipation rose she began shivering and sweating. Once on the other side of the vent, she was met with a huge snake-like creature. The creature's face looked somewhat human, save for the fish-like features and the angler fish lure sitting in front of his forehead. Despite its rather grotesque appearance, they seemed to bear a friendly smile, "Welcome, welcome! Don't be afraid, I'm not gonna hurt you, despite what you've seen, heard, and/or been-"
The creature cut himself off when he noticed Cinder's relatively bizarre appearance (as if he were one to talk.), "What an odd specimen we have here."
Cinder rolled her eyes, "I think this is the definition of a 'says you' moment."
Moments later, Midnight flew through the wall, she took one good look at the big sea creature and asked, "Who are you? And what are you for that matter?"
The Sea creature sighed, "Great, a talking lamp… As if today couldn't get any weirder."
"That doesn't answer my question!"
The creature sighed once more, "My name is Sebastian, and under normal circumstances, I run an improvised shop with the expendables that come down to the blacksite."
Cinder and Midnight looked at each other in confusion, "I have no idea what any of that means." Midnight said.
"Just… Forget about that. Items can be found on my tail."
Cinder walked over to Sebastian's tail and checked his wares, among said wares were, a medkit, a lantern, a hand-cranked flashlight, and a flash beacon. The only item Cinder recognized was the lantern, everything else was completely new to her, "Um, forgive me for asking, but what is any of this?"
Sebastian's expression soured as he crossed his arms, "Are you stupid or something?"
Cinder shook her head, although Sebastian's remark was rather rude she couldn't exactly blame him for thinking that as he probably had no idea what a Pokémon was, "No, I'm just from a place where none of this stuff exists, well, except the lantern, those exist where I'm from, they're just obsolete."
Sebastian's gaze drifted toward Midnight, "Gee, I wonder why that is."
"What's your deal!?" Midnight shouted, "Why do you have a problem with us all of a sudden?"
"I don't, but, I don't exactly remember being your friend either."
"Ugh, whatever, I'll take the medkit."
Midnight used her psychic powers to swap the medkit with a folder with 'CLASSIFIED' written on it in red, "Where did you get that?" Cinder asked.
"I found it in a drawer while you were hiding, I thought it didn't belong, so I grabbed it."
"Well, then why did you waste it on that?"
"Because it's got bandages inside, it'll definitely come in handy if you start bleeding again."
Sebastian's smile returned as he picked the folder off his tail, "Pleasure doing business with you."
As she looked back at Cinder, Midnight asked, "So, are you ready to go?"
"Give me a moment, I wanna take a bit of a breather, I'm still recovering from that last room."
"Alright, well, when you're ready, just give me the word."
Cinder gave Midnight a thumbs-up as she took a deep breath, while she was recovering mentally her eyes wandered around the room. She noticed a computer sitting in the corner with the text 'CAT-DOS' with the word 'Modified' awkwardly tacked onto it. Curiosity took the wheel as Cinder walked over to the machine. She started reading the menu controls when she noticed Sebastian looming over her, "Fancy some light reading?"
Cinder was still a little nervous, "I-I was just a little curious, what's on this thing anyway?"
"Why not find out for yourself?"
Cinder looked back at the terminal, she flipped through the menus until she found a list of monsters, or as the machine called them specimens. She had the feeling reading about the monsters wasn't going to help her calm down, but she clicked on one at random anyway, hoping whatever popped up wasn't super scary, unfortunately, she couldn't have picked a scarier monster…
Specimen 155
Type: Docile
Total Fatalities: 0
Method: Burns
A sentient specimen that wandered into the mansion. It looks like some sort of mouse or rodent. When threatened, flames will erupt from spots on its back, although it seems uninterested in using these flames for anything malicious.
"It's… Me… Why does it have an entry on me?"
Cinder pondered for a moment before realizing, "Wait, didn't that ghost girl call me a specimen? Is this her doing!?"
Cinder clicked on another specimen, she wanted to see if she could find anything that pointed back to Spooky, this time she was given, a much less frightening creature.
Specimen 608
Type: Docile… ish
Total Fatalities: 13
Method: Life Energy Drainage
A ghost taking the form of a flame-lit lamp. This specimen is normally docile but seems to have a heavy disdain for crime, going as far as to suck the life force out of those who have committed acts she deemed 'too heinous'. This behavior is inherited from her mother.
Cinder felt someone peek over her shoulder as she read that last bit, "Ha, you know what they say, like mother like daughter."
"Hold on, you've got blood on your hands!?"
"Only a little."
"A little!?"
"Ok, I sucked the life force out of a couple of slippery serial killers, that's it, ok?"
"A-alright, I'm not sure if knowing this makes me feel more safe or less."
"It should be the former, as long as you don't kill a bunch of Pokémon and slip out of prison you're not at any risk of getting your soul sucked."
"Y-y'know what, I'll just pretend I didn't see or hear anything, let's just keep moving."
Cinder crawled back through the vent, once she was through she met back up with Midnight as she flew through the wall, once the pair were reunited they pressed on… Until they immediately ran into a roadblock, "Who boarded up the door!?"
Her ghost companion rolled her eyes, "Who cares? Let's just burn it down and move on with our lives."
"But what if we burn the mansion down?"
"Well, do you see another way through?"
After taking a quick look around, Cinder found an axe on the floor, "Yeah, actually, I do."
She picked the axe off the floor and showed it to Midnight before using it to chop the door down. Once the door was down, the pair continued onward, they were seemingly given another grace period as things returned to how they were in the early stages of the 'game', traveling through empty rooms, finding strange notes, getting smacked in the face by cardboard cutouts, everything seemed pretty normal… Until…
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 75
As the pair continued tip-toeing through the halls, as they walked, Cinder dragged the axe behind her, "Maybe I should light this thing on fire, y'know, in case I have to use this thing against a monster or something?"
"Would it even catch fire? I mean, it's made of metal."
"Eh, there's no harm in trying, right?"
Cinder blew a puff of fire onto the axe, lighting it on fire just as she wanted, as illogical as that sounds, "Huh, I guess it does work, neat…"
While Midnight tried to wrap her head around how an iron axe could be lit ablaze, Cinder found another note.
Hey! You're doing great!
You're in the final stretch! Just keep pressing on, and you'll conquer your fears and make it out of this horrid place!
Through the next door is a monster that frankly, nobody takes seriously anymore, don't let that fool you though, it's potentially one of the more deadly ones (As if the last couple weren't already a huge ask.). My advice? Use that axe to your advantage, stagger the beast, then b-line it for the door. You won't be able to outrun this one, so make any distraction count!
Cinder tucked the note into her bag and prepared to enter the next room, as she grabbed the doorknob she noticed Midnight was still a little behind, "Hey, Midnight! Get over here! We need to stick together in this next room!"
Midnight was ripped out of her thoughts, "O-oh! S-sorry, I was still thinking about how you lit that axe on fire."
As Midnight caught back up with her, Cinder opened the next door. Upon opening the door, the pair noticed a stark contrast between this room and the last. The floor was tiled with a checkerboard pattern. Confetti was scattered around the floor as if some sort of party going on, the tables backed this theory up, as party hats and plates decorated each one. On the other side of the room stood a stage, on that stage were a few strange-looking robots. The room was dark, so dark in fact that Midnight might've been the only light source in the whole room, aside from Cinder's flaming axe that is. But even Midnight's flames were faltering, as she felt extremely uneasy, "Uh, hey, Cinder, is it just me, or is this room, like, much more unsettling than the others?"
"It's just you, in fact, I think this place would be super charming if the lights weren't out."
"I don't know… Either this place is messing with me or there are countless restless spirits nearby."
Cinder walked up to the stage and looked at the robots, "I just don't see it, this place feels nice."
Once she was done looking at the stage, Cinder's eyes wandered off toward a second much smaller stage, this one was covered by a purple curtain. The curtain was opened slightly, revealing a sign that said 'out of order', "Huh? Out of order? I wonder why that is?" Cinder pondered.
She started peeling open the curtain, behind it stood another robot, it appeared to be some sort of bipedal fox wearing an eyepatch. The robot appeared to be worse for wear than the other three, having a hole through its chest, revealing some of its internals, "Oh, this one's all busted… That's sad…"
As she turned back around to regroup with Midnight Cinder just narrowly avoided a slash from the robot, causing Midnight to start freaking out, "CINDER! BEHIND YOU!"
"Huh?" She said as she flipped around.
Cinder's chest was gashed by a metal pirate hook, serving as a harsh reminder that nothing in this place was sacred. In retaliation, Cinder swung the axe at the monster, expanding the hole in its chest and stunning it for a moment, giving the pair a window to get out of there, but Cinder had other plans, "Ugh, crap, Midnight, help me get patched up!"
"Shouldn't we be running right now!?"
"I'm tired of running, I'm gonna turn that stupid thing into a scrap heap!"
While the creature was stunned, Midnight flew to Cinder's side and started applying the medkit, "You're lucky I read that shopkeeper jerk's mind, otherwise I wouldn't have known what this thing's used for."
She applied medicine to Cinder's wounds, causing her to wince as it burned her flesh, "OW! Why the heck does that stuff burn!?"
"It's a medicine used by humans, they don't have Oran Berries so they settle for… Whatever this stuff is, now hold still, I need to apply the bandages."
After layering another set of bandages on Cinder, Midnight chucked the medkit case away and got Cinder back to her feet, "Alright, whatever you're gonna do, do it already!"
A smirk appeared on the Cyndaquil's face as she raised the flaming axe, "With pleasure."
As the fox robot recovered, Cinder gave it another wack with the axe, knocking it onto its knees, "BURN IN HELL MONSTER!"
A flurry of axe swings peppered the robot as it tried desperately to get to its feet, it would never get the opportunity to however, as before long all that was left was a puddle of flaming oil and broken machinery.
Midnight was, to put it bluntly, absolutely terrified, "C-Cinder? Are you alright?"
Cinder looked back at Midnight, face and hands covered in mechanical oil, and said, "I'm fine, and you?"
"N-no, I'm being serious, are you ok? You don't look ok."
"I said I'm fine, now let's just get out of here before Mr overgrown Teddy Bear decides he wants to jump offstage and avenge his friend."
"A-alright, L-let's just go then…"
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 82
The next few rooms went by without a word, it was pretty clear that something was off, but Midnight didn't want to make Cinder angry by prying, and reading her mind without permission would be nothing short of a breach of trust, so she just… Didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say, the words just wouldn't come up.
Meanwhile, Cinder was just pressing on, she was getting tired of being thrown into all these life-or-death scenarios, ironic considering under normal circumstances she loves these kinds of scenarios, but this was different, this just… Didn't feel right… Cinder didn't like how unfair these scenarios felt. She didn't like how her only option was to run away, how fighting back felt fruitless, sure she might've turned the last monster to scrap, but who's to say the next won't do the same to her?
As the pair silently approached the next door, the silence plagued the both of them, so Cinder decided to speak up, "S-so, once we make it out of here, you wanna… Ask Vulcan if he wants to make some food?"
"Yeah, that sounds great, maybe a nice bottle of ketchup could help me forget about all this."
Cinder's expression soured, "I've already accepted the fact that I'm not gonna be able to sleep for the next week."
"Look, if you have any nightmares, just come get me, they'll make for a nice midnight snack, pun not intended."
Cinder giggled, "I'll keep that in mind."
As she twisted the doorknob, anticipation filled her mind, 'Please just let us out already!'
Unfortunately for Cinder, this wasn't the end. When she opened the door, she found herself in a courtyard of sorts, it was dark and rain was pouring down, but the path onward had cover from the rain, under that cover sat one lone note in the center of the courtyard. One last note, all alone in the middle of the courtyard.
You're almost there!
Just a few more rooms and you'll be outta here!
The next room is… Proof I haven't played enough horror games.
When I was thinking about what horror games I've played I couldn't really think of a lot so, I looked at my library and for some reason, zombie games count? (And so does Undertale!? Like what the heck, Steam!?)
I'm not really complaining, I love zombie games, so I'll gladly throw one in here. I thought it'd be a nice way to close things out, as personally, I don't find zombie games that scary, they're fun, but unless I'm getting sniped by a Smoker, I'm not really scared while playing them.
Of course, things would be much different if I were dropped right into a real zombie apocalypse, but hey, what are the odds of that happening, am I right?
Anyway, good luck!
Christian
Cinder stuffed the note in her bag, she paused to listen to the rain for a moment before pressing onward through the next door, sure enough, the next room was filled with zombies, human zombies. Cinder was terrified once again, but she tried to stay focused, "Just a little further, we can do this…"
As she tiptoed forth, Midnight stayed glued to her back. Surprisingly, the pair made their way through the room without alerting a single zombie. Unfortunately for them, however, the next room wouldn't allow for that, as the door was blocked off by a wall of the undead.
Cinder squeezed the handle of her axe, "Alright, guess we got to do things the hard way."
With one foul swing, she brought down one of the zombies blocking the way, opening up just enough space to let her squeeze through the crowd. But that would be too easy, now, wouldn't it? As soon as she was through the crowd, Cinder noticed that all the zombies had their eyes fixated on her. As the horde slowly closed in on her, Midnight backed toward the door, "Ok, now would be a good time to start running!"
The next door swung open as the pair started sprinting, the next few rooms didn't have any zombies in them, but the ones from the previous room were still pouring in and chasing after them, so the pair kept running as fast as they could, looking for any possible ways to stop the horde.
Midnight stopped at the next door, "You go, I'll shut the door, surely they can't open the door, right?"
Cinder figured the zombies would be too stupid to figure out how the door works in time to keep up with them, so she reluctantly said, "Alright, but once it's shut fly as fast as you can, ok?"
To which Midnight replied, "I'm a ghost, what's the worst they can do to me?" As she slammed the door in the horde's face.
The door held the zombies off for about a couple of seconds before they knocked it down and continued the chase, "NOW WHAT!?" Cinder cried out.
"Now, we look for a stronger door!" Midnight affirmed, "They seemed to struggle with just a wood door, so we need to find a heavier one, they probably can't handle anything heavier than wood!"
The pair sprinted through each room until they were met by graffiti saying 'safe room' with an arrow pointing to the left. They made a b-line for the safe room, just narrowly avoiding getting scratched by some of the faster zombies. As the safe room came into view, Cinder got pounced by one of the zombies, she flailed frantically as she tried to escape its grasp, to no avail. That was until its eyes went pale, turns out, Midnight snatched Cinder's axe and used it to save her life. As Cinder got back to her feet, she gave the ghost a high five, "Thanks, I don't know what I'd do without you!"
"You've got my back, and I've got yours, now get to the safe room!"
Cinder quickly entered the safe room and shut the door, letting out a sigh of relief once it was shut. Moments later, Midnight phased through the door, she took a seat beside Cinder as she started to take a deep breath, "It's over… That should've been the last threat we'll face here…" Cinder sighed.
"So the next door should send us home, right?"
"Probably, but can we just… Take a minute to catch our breath?"
"Sounds good to me."
The two sat staring at the ceiling for a moment, taking the time to mentally recover from… Everything… All the monsters… The scares… The blood… Everything… Once they were done staring out the ceiling, they approached the next door, holding hands, they looked at each other and nodded before opening the next door.
Time Unknown
Christian's Spooky Horror Game Mash-Up (that definitely violates copyright law)
Room 100
Room 100, was… Empty… It was just a gray room with nothing in it, "Why's this room empty?" Cinder asked.
"Beats me, maybe we were supposed to take our breather here?"
The two speculated the purpose of the empty gray room when Spooky appeared before them, bearing a disappointed expression, "Well you made it."
The disappointment on Spooky's face led Midnight to believe that she didn't want them to make it out of this place alive, "Y'know, you look upset by that."
Spooky ignored Midnight's suspicions as she heard magical sounds from behind, "Oh! It seems there's still one last surprise left! One last test to prove your worth or something. Well, have fun with that!"
The mischievous ghost girl disappeared, leaving Team Echoes' fire squad to determine where the strange sounds were coming from. It didn't take the pair long to find the source of the sounds, as a huge reflective crystal appeared in the center of the room, "Uh, what's going on with the weird floaty mirror thing?" Cinder questioned.
"I don't really feel like finding out." Midnight decided, "Destroy it before it does something!"
As she closed in on the crystal, Cinder started to get the shivers again, 'Just chop through it, and it'll all be over.' She told herself, 'Right?'
As she raised her axe, she began to have second thoughts, so with a sigh, she reached her hand toward the crystal. As her hand approached the strange gem, a rock hit her in the face, staggering her. When she got back to her feet, she saw a grotesque creature that kinda oddly looked like her, "W-what is that thing!?"
"Aw, that's no way to talk to yourself." The creature replied.
Upon closer inspection, Cinder realized this thing was a zombified Cyndaquil, when she came to this conclusion she jumped back and pointed her axe at the beast, "Stay back! I'm warning you!"
The zombie extended its tongue, using it to snatch Cinder's axe and throw it aside, "Now I want a fair clean fight, and by that I mean I don't want you to have a chance at winning!"
"That's like the exact opposite of fair!" Cinder shouted as she flared up her flames, "If you're gonna fight me, at least learn fight etiquette!"
The zombie started spraying smoke from its dead flame spots, "Fight etiquette? To hell with that! The only fun part of a fight is winning anyway!"
A Smokescreen flew Cinder's way, she dove out of the way and countered with a Fire Blast. The blast just narrowly missed its mark, leaving Cinder very disappointed, "Y'know what, I think it's time to retire the ol' Fire Blast, it's missed one too many times for my liking."
Before she could plan her next move, Cinder's lungs were assaulted as she breathed in a puff of Smog, leaving her gasping for air, it was the perfect opportunity for her doppelgänger to strike, but she seemed to forget about something, or rather, someone, as Midnight used some Poké as a projectile against the beast, "You leave her ALONE!"
The zombie rather disturbingly pulled open its eyelids and rolled its eyes, "Great, a ghost… Shouldn't you be sucking the souls out of kids or something?"
Midnight responded by hitting the zombie in the forehead with a coin, "Not all ghosts are monsters!"
"Hmph, such insolence. Do you really believe that garbage?" The undead Cyndaquil said as they began monologuing, "That's so stupid, ghosts are just cheap monsters and nothing more, all they do is pop in, get a cheap scare, pop out, rinse repeat. If you think that you're anything more than that, then you're dead wr-"
The zombie's monologue was cut short as Cinder sliced its skull in half with the axe, creating a blood fountain. The monster fell to the ground, dead as a doorknob. After confirming that the monster was, in fact, dead, Cinder dropped the axe onto the ground, "Next time, learn how to shut your mouth, maybe then you'll put up more of a fight."
Midnight flew over to Cinder and checked for any injuries, after confirming that Cinder was still structurally sound, she sighed, "Is it finally over?"
"I'm gonna lose it if it's not." Cinder groaned, "I just want to go home, playing this game was a mistake. A really annoying and traumatizing mistake."
Just as Cinder finished complaining, a door labeled 'Exit' appeared at the other end of the room. The pair wasted no time running to the door and leaving as quickly as possible, it was clear both of them had had enough scares for one day.
February 9th, 9:36 pm
Team Echoes' Base - Cinder's room
Coast Continent
Cinder woke back up in her room late at night, utterly exhausted from all the running, screaming, axe-swinging, and such. She just wanted to grab some food and get some shut-eye. As she approached the door, she heard a sound come from the laptop, when she looked back at it, she noticed something on the screen.
Rate your experience!
Choose a star rating between 1 and 5 to rate how much you enjoyed your time playing!
"Yeah, I think I'll pass." She said as she left the room, shutting the door behind her.
Phew… I feel really burnt out after doing back-to-back specials like that… Mainly because of the deadline thing. I know I don't technically have to set deadlines, but I feel like if I'm putting something out for a certain holiday or something, it should at least be out before that day. Moral of the story? I have nobody to blame but myself for my own burnout.
Anyway, monsters, am I right? Let's go over some of what you saw.
Specimen 6 (Also known as Ben the Merchant)
Type: Active
Total Fatalities: 189
Method: Physical Punctures
A wooden life-sized puppet found floating in a reservoir where a town had once been. Yeah, no, I think I'm done doing the exact quote thing for a little while. This thing moves when it's not being looked at or when its prey cannot clearly see it (keep those glasses secured!). This specimen is normally ruthless, but apparently, it gets somewhat upset when it can't poke a needle into the eyes of its prey.
This monster originates from Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion
Specimen 50 (Also known as the Figure)
Type: Active
Total Fatalities: 313
Method: Beheading
A blind creature drawn to sounds. This creature's true origin is unknown. The only thing we do know about this thing is that it is big, scary, and blind. If this monster catches a living creature, it bites its head off, dropping the rest of the body where it was found.
This monster originates from DOORS (Roblox)
Specimen 54 (Also known as the Saboteur/Sebastian Solace)
Type: Passive
Total Fatalities: CLASSIFIED
Method: Triple Barrel Shotgun
This specimen is a mutant sea monster. Whatever this creature's problems are, they aren't with you, well, unless you blind them with a flash beacon, but at that point, you deserve what comes to you.
This 'monster' originates from Pressure (Roblox)
Specimen 87 (Also known as Foxy)
Type: Quirky
Total Fatalities: Unknown
Method: Various
This specimen is an animatronic fox, but you already knew that, didn't you? Yeah, I think it's kinda impossible to talk about horror games without bringing up FNaF, even if you aren't immersed in the lore and all that. Uh, I may have just described myself in that last part, so I hope I did that series justice.
Series already mentioned, moving on.
Specimen 1000 (Zombies)
Type: Active
Total Fatalities: Endless
Method: Infection
Zombies. Need I say more?
These could be from any zombie game
And finally
Specimen 551
Type: Active
Total Fatalities: Unknown
Method: Various
This Specimen resembles Specimen 155 from another timeline, one with Infectious Stupidity. It is said that this specimen was infected by one of their friends. Soon after, they went on a rampage, infecting everyone until the infection could spread no longer. Searching for more Pokémon to infect, they traveled through dimensions to start the infection all over again, starting with herself. Unfortunately, she was caught in a monologue, leading to her plans being foiled.
This monster is a reference to Left 4 Dead, along with the first Halloween special chapter for this fic. Oh, and the way she appears is supposed to be a reference to the 'Hit Single' mod for Friday Night Funkin'. I thought I'd throw in a reference to that because of the similarities between that mod's premise and Chapter 14 of this story. They were purely coincidental, as I was actually referencing something else during that chapter.
Alright, that's all the monsters and stuff now onto Reviews.
To KirgizovVlad: There definitely will be more interactions with Fiona later down the line, there's still so much I wanna do with her and some of our other side characters (Cough, cough, Comet, cough, cough.). Heck, the anniversary special kinda centered around side characters! Speaking of side characters, I'm glad you like Mesprit's plan, I thought it'd be funny if Mesprit went to the party, but I wasn't sure how I'd make that happen and have it make sense. So we ended up with her plan, which turned out perfectly.
And I'm gonna make this next part separate because I wanna address it on its own. I've been feeling, just, a little burnt out lately, so I'm probably gonna take a short break before starting work on the next part, then after that part comes out, I'll probably take like, maybe a month off. I wanna make sure I don't wear myself out too much because usually, that's what kills people's drive to keep projects going.
With that said, I hope you enjoyed this rather unorthodox Halloween special. Next time, Joseph's break comes to an end as his soul finally heals. See you whenever that happens!
(Also go play Pressure's Halloween event, they put way too much effort into it just for Roblox to completely waste that effort with possibly the worst event in a video game I've ever played)