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- #61
Re: Galactic: Boo Part 2
After seeing Charlotte and the strange old man, Charles was even more on edge as they waited on the fifth floor. Several Gastly and Misdreavus had floated in, but there was no sign of the mysterious Spiritomb they were waiting for. In the eerie, tense silence, Charles couldn’t help but want to leave, reflecting back on his lat encounters with the ghost girl, and knew her appearance wasn’t the sign of anything good to come.
But if Charles was on the edge, than Draco was falling off the cliff at an alarming rate.
The poacher and grunt trainer paced around the floor, mumbling and staring constantly towards the window as if expecting a guest. He kept glaring angrily towards the wealthy family and even at the three grunts, as if it was all their fault that the Pokemon hadn’t appeared. Charles didn’t like the twitchy, angry look on Draco’s face, and was tempted to move the spell book out of his reach to prevent any disasters.
“I am so bored,” Addison groaned, kicking her legs against the tomb she was sprawled upon. Charles caught the rich body Brody staring at her thin, smooth legs as they moved and he smiled, glancing back towards Addison to see if she noticed, but her vision was focused entirely on Roshonda. “I know absolutely nothing about you girl!” She said, smiling mischievously, the same way she had in Hearthome when she tried to find out Charles’ life story. “So, what’s up with you? What brought you to the lovely Team Galactic?” Roshonda looked positively taken aback by this question, and stuttered as she tried to think of something to say. Charles was tempted to tell Addison where to go, but realised he didn’t know that much about Roshonda either.
“Well, my parent’s could be dead or alive for all I know,” Roshonda explained, her usual brash and bold persona going out the window as she began to whisper. “They weren’t the best people in the world… I had no choice but to leave, for my own safety. I came across a trio being picked up, and I asked if I could come along, not really knowing what to expect.”
“Does Galactic just randomly pick people of the street?” Charles said, failing to hold down a smile, which faded as Roshonda and Addison both shot him angry looks.
“How do you expect us to get so many grunts?” Roshonda retorted angrily. “Cyrus sends people out on missions to get new members when our numbers are going down. I just happened to come across a group getting picked up, and I needed to get away from my family, so I went with them.” Roshonda fell silent and glared back at Charles, who simply nodded. He had a feeling she wasn’t telling the whole truth, especially as to what drove her away in the first place, but didn’t question it.
“What about you?” Roshonda asked Addison, who seemed to be deep in thought as well.
“Me? I met up with a guy, thought he was pretty hot, he asked me to come with him when he went back to his group,” she explained. “Sounded a bit like a cult, but I was up for a bit of excitement and came along. Been pretty decent so far. I haven’t been killed, which is fine by me,” Addison added to hysterical laughter, and Charles and Roshonda could only smile weakly. They had seen so many people die around them that Charles was surprised that they weren’t all being sent out to kidnap aggressive children. Looking at Addison’s laugh, he could tell there was more to her background as well, and wonder this beautiful girl had to hide in her past. Charles also began to reflect back on his own capture: it had been Cyrus, not some collector, who had come to get him. He had left Sahara behind, only taking Charles back to their base, and Charles could remember waking up on the airship, the faces of the admins hovering above him. Why had he received such special treatment, and now that Charles was thinking about it, why had they left Sahara behind, when he was getting the feeling they knew about her and her personalities.
“Will you lot just stop having a little gossip session!” Draco’s roar sounded from the other side of the floor, making Addison and Roshonda jump up and their Pokemon raised their heads from their rests. Elle looked curiously up at Charles, who simply picked her up and watched as Draco came marching over. “You could all be doing something a little more useful! Mind the Pokemon cages, torture the family, clean these bloody floors for all I care! Just do some fucking work!”
“There’s nothing to do though,” Addison whined. “Can’t we just use a spell and make this Spiritomb come here so we can go?” Draco glared down at her, raising his left arm and the wrist contraption respectively. Charles got to his feet, along with a furious looking Persian, and was about to snap at Draco about his anger when a laugh erupted from the corner. All heads, both angry and shocked, turned towards the wealthy family, with Jim the father laughing at the grunts.
“What are you laughing at?” Draco snapped, marching forwards with his contraption pointed towards him. Jim simply smirked, not even as frightened as he was before.
“You people are so clueless I’m surprised you’ve made it this far,” he smirked, and even Charles felt a tad annoyed about this insult. “I’ve seen all the news stories about what you’ve done, and I was afraid of your group for a while. But now it just seems that your boss sends a bunch of incompetent teenagers out to fight his battles for him, and doesn’t even give them all the facts!” Jim continued to laugh, despite the shocked looks from his family. Draco glared down at him and lashed out, punching him in the face. Carol screamed, but Jim quickly recovered, still smiling despite the blood trickling down his face.
“What are you on about? Tell me or I will kill your wife!” Draco roared.
“I manage a treasure finding business in the Underground. The greatest treasure anyone could possibly find down there is an object called the Odd Keystone. I don’t know much about it personally, but everyone knows it is needed to summon Spiritomb,” Jim explained, the smile still on his face. Draco’s arm fell to his side, and Charles could see confusion running throughout his face. After all this time spent here, finding out that it was all a waste was not going to do well for his mind. Charles exchanged worried looks with Elle, and glanced over to see Roshonda looking shocked and Addison looking furious.
“Well…,” Draco said, trying to find the right thing to say, and Charles didn’t want to think what he was going to do, “thank you for that information. It looks as if there’s no need to keep you now,” and he raised his arm up again. Carol screamed as Draco pressed a button, causing his laser-like sword to come out, and Jim’s smile faded as Draco rose his arm, ready to swing.
“Oooooh Chaaaaaarlllllessss.”
The entire floor froze, all eyes trying to find the source of the high pitched, sing song voice, but after failing to do so, they settled upon Charles. Elle was shivering, her eyes wide with horror, while Charles simply stood perfectly still, hoping it was all fake.
“It’s been a loooong time Charlie, but we’re back together now,” the voice echoed. “Why don’t you come downstairs. I have all the answers for you!” There was a girlish giggle that caused Charles to shiver, and he glanced around, wondering where Charlotte currently was. Draco, Roshonda and Addison were giving him confused looks, and Charles’ face turned red, not wanting to explain what that was.
“Grab these scum,” Draco said, pressing a button on his wrist. The cages magically rose up, to the protest of the controlled Pokemon within, and the transmitter floated upwards as well. Roshonda quickly scuttled forwards and undid the chains, dragging the wealthy family to their feet, eyes still focused towards Charles. “I don’t know what the hell just happened, but we’re going to find out.”
“No, we don’t have to! It’s probably a trap!” Charles protested, but Draco had already grabbed the spell book and was heading for the staircase, his unstable mind focusing together on this one thing. As the cages lined up and magically floated after, Nidoqueen rejoined Roshonda, and Addison smirked over at Charles.
“We are definitely hearing about your past next!” She laughed, and followed in front. Charles looked down at Elle and sighed, but the Eevee simply gave him a look that he had seen too many times before.
“I know, I’m not going to let Charlotte screw them over,” he said, his tone clearly unwilling, and followed after the others, wondering what they were getting themselves into.
Vanessa looked down at the rock on the table, and then back at the strange masked man that knew her name. It seemed as if, beneath what plastic surgery costume disaster his face was, he really was smiling at her, taunting her, enjoying her surprise at knowing her name. Vanessa was use to all the strange things happening around her over the past month, but was not relieved to see this tall, frightening stranger telling her he wanted the rock.
“What do you want the rock for?” Vanessa asked, watching as Sahara backed away behind the table with Nutty and the hiker. Monferno stood proudly by her side, fists raised and ready to fight this ‘Masquerade.’
“That information isn’t for you to know,” Masquerade said with a laugh. Vanessa always got annoyed when people patronized her, and she angrily whipped out her umbrella and thrust it up into his face.
“Vanessa!” Sahara gasped, but Vanessa ignored her as she stared up at Masquerade, anger running through her blood and keeping her hand held tightly on her umbrella.
“I have dealt with crap you probably couldn’t even dream of!” She hissed. “I have been shot, nearly been blown up numerous times, have been knocked unconscious, and my friends and Pokemon have nearly died multiple times thanks to what I’ve gone through. Don’t think I can’t handle it!” Vanessa stopped shouting, and instantly noticed the change in volume around her. The entire market had fallen silent, all the traders and buyers staring towards the hiker’s stall, wondering what was going on. A quick glance was enough to notice how every face looked frightened, and Vanessa could tell from who they were staring at it wasn’t her.
“I know all you have down, Vanessa Backlot, along with you too Sahara Plattina,” Masquerade hissed back, ignoring the fact that everyone in the tunnel seemed terrified by his appearance. Vanessa nearly dropped her umbrella in surprise when the man’s head suddenly turned around 180 degrees, a sad version of the mask now in it’s place. “I know your Pokemon, your families, your friends, where you’ve travelled and where your going to travel to next! And I know that you don’t need to know the importance of the Odd Keystone, as you will only cause trouble!” Vanessa was tempted to turn the handle and cut of this guy’s head, but she was taken aback by the knowledge and power this strange individual seemed to possess. She looked across at Sahara for help, but she was too frightened by Masquerade to help Vanessa in the slightest, and simply held tightly on Nutty. Masquerade smiled down at Vanessa, his head turning sickening around in order to do so, seeming very satisfied at surprising her.
“There is nothing you can do to stop me, Miss Backlot,” he said, laughing again, as he pushed the umbrella out of the way. “I’ll be taking the Odd Keystone, and I don’t expect to hear a word out of any of you.” His gloved hand reached out and clasped around the cracked stone, and he was about to lift it up when Vanessa snapped out of her shock, angrily grabbing onto his hand.
“Actually, Mr Masquerade, I think this stone would make a handsome paper weight, so I think I might take it,” Vanessa said with a sweet smile, and she brought the umbrella up, whacking it against his elbow and then spinning, ready to drive it into his stomach. There was a blur, and Vanessa suddenly found herself frozen, unable to move. Masquerade’s masked smile somehow seemed to get bigger as he clasped tightly onto the umbrella, twisting it slightly in Vanessa’s hands.
“You really must learn when to hold your tongue, Vanessa,” he hissed through his happy face, and he let go of the umbrella in time to punch her in the face. Pain Vanessa had never experienced before burst through her nose as she was sent flying backwards, multicoloured circles appearing in her eyes as she flew through the air. The crowd screamed and parted as she flew, landing painfully on her back and rolling through the dirt. Vanessa could feel the blood pouring from her nose, the pain erupting around her bridge, and could see more coloured circles in her vision. Vanessa was on the brink of unconsciousness, but one thought was rushing through her mind: she’d seemed to have met a match.
“MOOOOOON!” Monferno screamed, and launched forwards with a flaming Fire Punch. Sahara simply screamed as Masquerade grabbed onto his face before Monferno could even get close and threw him through the fleeing crowd. The fire monkey crashed through three abandoned tables, ending up in a pile of clothes and shattered wood that completely buried him. Masquerade watched as the traders all fled, and turned with his permanent satisfied smile back towards Sahara and the hiker.
“Take it, just take whatever you want!” The hiker yelled, moving backwards, scooping some of his things into a bag. Masquerade nodded appreciatively, and he turned towards Sahara, allowing the hiker a chance to turn and flee towards the end of the tunnel they’d entered from. Sahara clutched tightly onto Nutty, not wanting to get hurt by the masked man leering over her.
“Let that be a lesson for you and your good friend,” Masquerade hissed. “Never go up against an opponent you know nothing about, and never try and stand in my way again.” As his gloved hand reached out for the Odd Keystone again, Sahara looked over at Vanessa, watching as her body twitched in pain, her umbrella laying discarded a few feet away. Vanessa: always a fighter, always a protector of the rest of them, not someone who deserved to be treated like this. It was time for Sahara to return the favour, rather than everyone always having to protect her from Galactic or herself.
“Hey Masky,” she snapped, loosening her grip on Nutty and jerking her head towards the keystone, which was only a few centimetres out of Masquerade’s reach as he turned around. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
“PACH!” Nutty squealed, and rocketed forwards. Masquerade was thrown, and went to grab it, but the Pachirisu had already scooped it up and was scuttling along the tables. Sahara clapped in joy, but could quickly see that Masquerade was not happy as his head turned around, back to the sad mask.
“HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME!” He roared. Sahara simply shrugged and threw a Poke and Great Ball into the air. With a burst of red and blue light, Aqua and Hammer were suddenly there on either side of Masquerade, much to his surprise.
“Aqua Jet and Hidden Power!” Sahara yelled. Aqua was quick to shoot forwards coated in water, and had enough force to push Masquerade backwards into another table. Hammer simply sat on the hiker’s stand, in a meditating mode, but Sahara was to focused on the battle to care if he got involved or not. Grabbing the pink egg for safety and putting it in her bag, Sahara picked up a handful of rocks and began to throw them at Masquerade.
“Why don’t you take these, I’m sure their rare!” She yelled, half laughing, as Nutty and Aqua laughed. “Spark and Ice Fang, bring him down!” Nutty nodded and formed the ball of electricity, quickly releasing it forwards. However, Masquerade moved too quickly, grabbing a nearby table and swinging it with all his might. The Spark caused it be blown in half, but Masquerade used the remaining end to smash it into Aqua.
“FLOAT!” He yelled, flying backwards and crashing into a stall of ancient books.
“You were foolish to fight me, Sahara Plattina!” Masquerade shouted angrily, throwing the more damaged half of the table asides and marching forwards. Sahara looked desperately around for a weapon, needing something for defence, but by the time she noticed some metal from a stand, Masquerade was suddenly upon her. Sahara screamed, but Masquerade’s powerful gloved hands enclosed around her neck, and instantly Sahara was silenced as she began to gasp for breath, the hands beginning to crush her throat.
“You and your friends have gotten involved in a foolish war that you can’t back of now, even though you have little chance of stopping them from their ultimate goal,” the suited man roared. “It would be kinder of me to kill you now, than Vanessa, and then take the Keystone and leave your bodies here to rot than to leave you to Cyrus’ devices.” Sahara was struggling to breathe, her vision going dark and her head spinning. Her limbs flailed weakly as she tried to force Masquerade away, but his hands were beginning to win. Sahara could feel something burning through her body, like a surge of power, and for one second she nearly blacked out, a strange laughter echoing in her head…
“MEDI!”
“FERNO MON!”
“PACHI PACHI!
The three cries happened simultaneously, and Sahara suddenly found herself gasping in oxygen as Masquerade’s hands unleashed her throat. His body was glowing pink, his limbs outstretched, his head spinning constantly, and as Sahara collapsed to the ground, she could see Hammer’s eyes were glowing.
“Psychic… thank you…,” Sahara gasped, and her Meditite only nodded. There was a sudden screech, and Sahara turned as Nutty fired her Charge Beam against him, causing Masquerade to scream with pain. There was a burst of light to the side, and a giant ball of fire spun out from where Monferno had been, smashing directly into Masquerade’s chest. Meditite’s Psychic ended at the same time, and the masked man was sent flying down the passage, crashing against two tables and finally whacking into the wall, his suit on fire.
“That was… wow!” Sahara said as she massaged her neck, and Nutty and Monferno smiled warmly. There were groaning noises, and Monferno quickly ran to Vanessa’s side, his trainer beginning to get up. “Are you alright Vanessa? Your bleeding!”
“Oh Sahara, it’s not as if I haven’t bled before,” Vanessa smirked as she grabbed a singed piece of clothing still wrapped around Monferno and wiped her bleeding nose on it. Sahara wasn’t convinced due to the large bruise across Vanessa’s nose and the fact she sounded like she had a bad cold. Pulling out Aqua’s PokeBall and bringing him back, Sahara passed her umbrella over and helped her to her feet.
“Masquerade’s smoking in the corner over there, so hopefully we shan’t have to deal with him,” Sahara explained. Nutty leapt onto her shoulder, the Odd Keystone wrapped tightly in her hands. “I’ve got a feeling that this thing is going to be important, so we’d better hold onto it.” Vanessa simply nodded, stuffing the fabric into her nostril’s to stop the bleeding. “We need to get that checked out.”
“We need to get out of here first,” Vanessa retorted. “Any sign of where those spineless marketers fled to?” Sahara looked around the empty tunnel, but there was no sign of where anyone had gone, and definitely no sign of an exit.
“Medi Meditite,” Hammer called out, and everyone turned as he walked over, a purple box floating next to him. It landed in between the two trainers, and a rainbow mixture of colours glowed in its center.
“I remember us getting sucked into this,” Vanessa explained, and Sahara nodded, this box clearly their exit out. Hammer took initiative and touched the light. Sahara gasped as he turned into rainbow light, and a beam sent him blasting upwards through the ceiling.
“Well, that’s extremely camp, isn’t it?” Vanessa smirked, and held tightly to Monferno and her umbrella as she stepped forwards. Sahara stared back towards Masquerade as he burned there, wondering how he knew so much about them, how he was so strong, and what he knew about Galactic’s plans. These just added to the number of questions and problems clouding her head, and Sahara sighed as she stepped forwards with Nutty, wondering when she would finally be free of this all.
Tension was thick in the air on the fourth floor of the Lost Tower.
Standing in a neat row was Matthew and Cheryl to one side of Charlotte, Fantina and Bebe on the other. Fantina and Bebe were stunned when Matthew and Cheryl caught up to them, bringing the fourteen year old ghost with them, but based on a look they exchanged, Matthew guessed they had heard about her. He imagined there weren’t that many magical ghost girls roaming around Sinnoh, so maybe all the official people were aware of her existence? Matthew didn’t know and didn’t care that much: he was more interested in what other powers Charlotte possessed, and what she was going to do.
“I have a plan, just follow my lead,” Charlotte had said only a short time ago before calling out to Charles, the grunt that Matthew and his friends kept coming across. He didn’t want to think who else would come down, but Charlotte was convinced she knew what she was doing. She marched the group up to the fourth floor, where they now stood, waiting, wondering what her plan was.
Cheryl was on the verge of tears and standing close to Matthew’s side, though he was nearly as petrified as she was and didn’t think he would be much use. Bebe seemed to be trying to keep it together, though it was clear she wanted to get out of here and fix her computer. Fantina looked bold and fabulous as always, with her head held high and her hands on her hips, ready to do whatever was needed to win. Loud footsteps could be heard from the staircase, and Charlotte was smiling, wringing her hands together. Matthew was quite certain this girl was psychotic, and hoped he didn’t have to deal with her again after today.
“Get your Pokemon out to battle,” she said. “No Ghost or Dark types until the transmitter is destroyed, alright?” The group nodded, though Fantina looked down hearted, and Matthew cursed as he realised too that the gym leader, probably the strongest trainer here, only had Ghost types, therefore useless.
“Rubi Cheru Ru Ru!” A timid cry erupted from Matthew’s arms and he looked down, seeing Cherubi leaping up and smiling widely.
“Do you want to take part in the battle?” Matthew asked, and Cherubi nodded excitedly. “Do you want to battle as my Pokemon?” He added, and Cherubi nodded so vigorously her smaller berry whacked Matthew’s arm and he laughed, reaching into his bag for a PokeBall. A pink Heal Ball was the first thing on top, and Matthew thought it seemed appropriate for this cute little Pokemon. He touched the button to his head, and Cherubi smiled as she turned to pink energy and was brought inside. The ball shaked for a moment, and then froze and flashed red.
“Awww, how adorable,” Charlotte said as Matthew’s face lit up. “Now kindly stop having a period and get into battle mode, nancy boy!” Matthew glared at the ghost who simply smiled, and noted that Bebe had sent a Glameow out into battle, the grey Pokemon skulking around her legs.
“Alright then, I’ll show you battle mode,” Matthew grumbled, and he released Cherubi onto the floor, Piplup joining a moment later. Piplup looked at the new arrival and gasped, but quickly began to introduce herself.
“Looks like they’ll be good friends,” Cheryl said, her Chansey and Makuhita standing by her side. Matthew wondered if she was making a remark about their last battle back at Hearthome, but he figured that Makuhita would be best for countering a bunch of Dark types, and Chansey would be immune to Ghost. A sudden chill filled the floor, and every eye turned towards the entrance.
Draco walked in first, his Glalie floating by his side and his laser sword drawn. Behind him, over two dozen cages floated in, positioning themselves in the spare space between the coffins. Fantina gasped at the sight of all the Pokemon, and Matthew could understand why she would be upset by this site. Next in was Roshonda and her Nidoqueen, dragging her people in chains. Addison came behind with Persian, though Matthew didn’t know her name yet, and finally came Charles and Elle. Charlotte clapped in delight at his appearance, but Charles simply looked embarrassed and scuttled over to the side. Silence fell between the two sides, people exchanging looks with each other, sizing up the Pokemon that had been sent out, Draco flexing his muscles.
“Well, isn’t this just darling!” Charlotte said, clapping her hands together and they somehow produced noise. “So, Galactic people, I’ve been sent to stop you from trying to bring Spiritomb out!” Matthew didn’t know who this Pokemon was, but Fantina and Bebe exchanged another look signalling insider knowledge, and Draco looked surprised to see she knew of their plan. “Oh, I love it when people get surprised, gets me all nice and horny, ain’t that right Charlie?” Charles simply rolled his eyes and turned away, and Charlotte made a tutting noise. “Don’t ignore me like I’m some regular old ghost you can just cast aside!”
“I told you last time I saw you not to bother me again!” Charles snapped. Charlotte stepped forwards and was suddenly all the way over by him, the bottom of her dress fluttering against Roshonda.
“Come now Charlie, that was just in the heat of the moment. Don’t tell me you don’t miss me, or I might get very, very angry,” Charlotte explained, and her eyes literally filled with fire, causing Charles to take a step back and Elle to cower.
“We are not here to deal with whatever relationship you two have,” Draco shouted, “and we are not going to give up our search for Spiritomb! We are going to take these Pokemon back with us and then we will go and find the Odd Keystone, and there is nothing you can do to stop us!” Charlotte gave Charles another wink before turning around, smiling in a forced, slightly aggressive way at Draco.
“Nothing, eh?” She asked in a high pitched voice. “Sounds like a challenge, and I always like a good challenge!” Matthew and Cheryl exchanged glances and braced themselves, watching as a ball of purple flames arose in Charlotte’s hands. The female hostage screamed, and as the purple flames were thrown forwards, it was clear the battle had begun.
Draco leapt aside as the flames exploded, and Glalie quickly unleashed an Ice Beam. Charlotte waved her hands and the beam was diverted, causing Piplup and Cherubi to dodge getting frozen. Addison pointed forwards, and her Persian began to pound forwards, teeth bared viciously. Bebe’s Glameow ran out to meet her, and the two began a cat fight in the middle of the floor.
“You take Glalie, I’ll take Eevee and Nidoqueen,” Matthew said, trying to keep his cool as Charlotte pointed her fingers, causing the coffins to magically explode with the force of a bomb, the tower shaking badly. Cheryl nodded nervously, and the two ran forwards, their Pokemon coming up on their sides.
“Focus on the transmitter Charlotte,” Matthew cried as he ran passed, and Charlotte shouted back a ‘yeah yeah’ as she continued to explode the coffins. Draco was running to avoid them, Fantina and Bebe not far behind, dust trickling down from the ceiling and onto the cages of the roaring Pokemon. Matthew and Cheryl stopped running, Charles, Roshonda and Addison getting to their feet, their Pokemon joining them. Matthew was tempted to run back the other way, but glanced over at Cheryl for courage. She smiled warmly back at him, and Matthew smiled back as he turned to face them.
“So, how are we going to do this?” He asked sweetly.
“Painfully, hopefully,” Roshonda said with a smile. “Superpower, go!” Matthew leapt to the side, shoving Cheryl to the floor as the red energy was blasted over their heads. There was a distant explosion, causing the entire building to shake. Cries erupted all around, and Matthew looked up to see Piplup, Cherubi and Makuhita were bombarding Nidoqueen with an onslaught of attacks. Roshonda appeared to be cursing as her Pokemon was knocked over by a point-blank strike of Piplup’s BubbleBeam, and Matthew gasped as a Grass Knot sent her sprawling onto her back, clearly coming from Cherubi.
“Nice work!” Matthew called as he leapt up, so immersed in this victory that he forgot about Cheryl, but quickly brought her to her feet. Roshonda looked furious, and Matthew gulped as Addison joined her in pulling more PokeBalls out of their pockets, ready to hurtle more powerful Pokemon into the field.
“CHAAAAANSEEEEY!” A cry erupted behind them, and Matthew only had time to turn as an oval shaped egg hurtled through between his and Cheryl’s heads. Roshonda had sense to bring Nidoqueen back and push Addison out of the way as the Egg Bomb exploded. It was powerful enough to shake the building and send Matthew, Cheryl, Piplup, Cherubi and Makuhita flying backwards. As he spun, Matthew could see Glalie crashing into the roof and heard the wealthy family scream as they got a full blast of it.
“STOP THIS, YOU’LL DESTROY THE TOWER!” Fantina bellowed, her accent thick in her yell of distress. Matthew really didn’t care about this building as he hit the ground with a shudder, and quickly swivelled around to check on Piplup and Cherubi, who didn’t look too bad. Charlotte was still firing her flaming balls at Draco, who, along with the unintended target Bebe, attempted to dodge them.
“Charlotte, just destroy the bloody transmitter!” Matthew bellowed as he scooped Piplup and Cherubi up. The ghost sighed and her head turned freakishly around on her neck, giving him a bored, tiresome look.
“Fine then, don’t wet yourself,” she scoffed, and threw her next flaming ball in the other direction. Draco’s scream sounded over the cries of the captured Pokemon, Glameow and Persian’s vicious cat fight and the moans of the burnt family, watching as the ball blasted the transmitter into pieces.
“YOU BITCH, YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Draco yelled, looking like a vicious beast as he searched around for his Glalie, only to find it embedded in the ceiling. “YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” Charlotte simply laughed as everyone began to gather together, afraid of the confrontation between the two. Cheryl and Makuhita were on their feet and alright, and stood alongside Matthew with Chansey, her egg reformed, all watching in worry. Bebe was pressing buttons on her device, smiling nervously as some of the captured Pokemon were hit by an invisible laser, sending them rightfully back to their trainer’s PC box, leaving the others looked very confused and annoyed. The three grunts gathered, unharmed, next to the rich family, and the two feline Pokemon rush back to their respective trainers, leaving an open expanse between Charlotte and Draco.
“What exactly can you do, foolish mortal?” Charlotte hissed, laughing loudly, though her laughter did nothing to ease the nervous tension on the floor. Draco simply smiled, his anger quickly fading, and he pulled something out of his coat: a thick black leather book.
“You fool!” Charles cried, but Draco ignored him, opening up the book. All eyes flickered towards Charlotte, and they could see why Charles had warned them: her ghostly fists had clenched, her eyes seemed to be bulging, her body beginning to flicker and distort. The look on her face kept changing rapidly between anger, shock and a look of somewhat childhood innocence, but everyone could tell that this wasn’t a good sign.
“How dare… how dare you… my book… my life’s work… against me… fool!” Charlotte hissed, her head shaking, floating up into the sky, entire body quivering. Draco ignored her, turning the pages before making an ‘ah’ sound and settling on one, holding it up.
“Let’s see how you like a taste of your own medicine,” he growled, and began to read. “The dead are not lost, the dead are not gone, the dead are waiting, their rise prolonged. Let them form, let them rise, let their power return and let the living being overturned!” Draco slammed the book shut, as if expecting that to be final. However, as the sound of the slamming echoed around, Charlotte let out a scream and suddenly spiralled around, hands on her face, clearly in pain. The sound was painful, and Matthew put his hands over his hands to try and block it out, but it seemed to creep into his body anyway.
Than, as if today couldn’t get any weirder, Charlotte exploded.
Dust exploded across the entire room, causing all the candles to go out and plunging them into darkness. Everyone covered their faces, unable to see anything in the dust and wondering what had been brought on and what was going to happen to them. Charles opened his eyes slightly, wondering if, finally, the psychotic ghost was going to be gone forever. But than a voice whispered in his head, a voice he had only heard twice before in the Sandgem Pokemon Center: Don’t you remember?
I do… Damnit! Charles cursed, and looked down at Elle and could see she looked just as worried as him, remembering the time this had happened. The dust particles were hovering in mid air, and everyone around them was looking confused as light suddenly began to emerge from the place where Charlotte’s heart would be if she was real. Than, in a way that made everyone scream, just like it had made Lyla, glowing yellow eyes appeared, along with two feminine hands, and a voice began to speak in a high, cool, calming voice.
On the first day, the sky shall turn against the earth, as hell is let loose and confined
The hands waved, and clouds appeared, releasing lightning, rain, hail and snow onto the scared humans, and what looked like a mountain rose up in the middle of the floor. Everyone stared at it and gasped as they began to recognise it: Mt Coronet.
On the second day, the mountain shall split in two, water seeping like blood, and the first victims will begin to be claimed.
Mt Coronet seemed to zoom in, the storm clouds shrinking, and to Matthew it seemed like they were being shown a 3-D presentation at a fancy company. But companies didn’t show mountains exploding with water, bright lights and distant screams echoing from what s
hould be a hologram.
On the third day, the snow will turn red as blood seeps from every wound. The two sides will meet in a final battle, and as the ultimate minds face of once more, the sacrifice will be gathered, the end will near.
The hands caused the mountain to disappear, instead a blanket of snow forming at chest level. People seemed to be fighting, with many explosions happening on the ground and in the sky. A powerful beam of energy erupted in the middle of the field, followed by an explosion so powerful that it nearly blasted all the real people backwards. The voice began to shake now, as if it was now possessed, and the entire tower seemed to shake as if it was above an earthquake.
On the fourth and final day, the end shall arrive. The most important blood will be shed, and the pillars of the dimensions shall fall. Time will breath, Space will move, Darkness will be unleashed, both fives will fail, as the world collapses around them and the almighty shall speak.
Nothing changed now, only a bright golden light shining brightly. There was a rushing sound, and suddenly the dust flew back the way it came as if on rewind, and everyone was left shielding their eyes. Charlotte remained reformed and glowing for a few seconds, before the light disappeared, leaving everything dark, and she fell back to the ground. Silence fell across the floor, everyone in shock, staring around in disbelief at what had just happened.
“I don’t think things could get any weirder,” Addison groaned, leaning against a wall and glaring at the rich family.
“Now that you’ve said that, something’s bound to have,” Roshonda said with a smirk, and the two girls laughed. However, Charles hadn’t just forgotten about Draco’s spell. He glanced around, wondering why it hadn’t come into effect yet, the one Minerva used on Sahara happening instantly. Was this one so powerful it needed to charge up?
“Eva Eve Eevee!” Elle shrieked, and Charles looked down as he heard a rumbling. The coffin in front of them was beginning to shake as if something was trying to get out. The ones next to it began to shake as well, and suddenly everything was rattling, hundreds of the jar like coffins shaking.
“Dead… dead rising… living overturned,” Charles mumbled. “FOR FUCK SAKES DRACO, YOU JUST BROUGHT THEM BACK FROM THE DEAD!” His shout came as the lids burst open, and laughter filled the area along with the screams. Dust rose up, quickly beginning to form and spin around, turning into the Pokemon that have long sense been trapped in here. No one exchanged any words, no one stopped to make a plan: every foot was running towards the stairs, ready to escape the deadly menace that had just been unleashed.
Silence.
Xavier walked slowly behind Carolina, waiting for her to say the first words, but they never came. Drifblim remained noiseless, hovering slightly to Xavier’s side as not to crowd him. Again, Xavier could not tell how long they had been walking, but they seemed to be going upwards based on the moving tiles of land he kept being led onto. But Carolina had not uttered a single word to where they were going, and Xavier simply followed after his mother like he usually did, wondering where they were going and wondering when they would stop.
Suddenly noise erupted above them, and Drifblim squealed as lightning erupted from overhead. The darkness above seemed to be alight, and Xavier watched in confusion as it began to swirl around, almost as if forming some sort of hole. Carolina had come to a halt, staring up at the hole with an emotional look in her eyes.
“This is where we say farewell,” she said, her voice shaking slightly, and Xavier quickly realised that his ghost mother was sad, almost on the verge of tears. “You need to go now, before you miss the portal.” Xavier nodded, but didn’t move, simply staring at his mother. He knew he would have to ask these questions now, even though she was upset, as it would be the last chance he would ever get to ask them.
“Mother, I want to know something. That is the reason I stepped into this world in the first place,” Xavier began to explain, holding tightly on Drifblim for support. “Did you ever love me? Did you ever accept my condition for what it really was?” A distant roar sounded in the distance, but Xavier ignored it as he stared intently at Carolina. She didn’t seem to be able to cry in her current form, but simply nodded, sobbing loudly and sadly.
“You must believe me Xavier, I truly loved you,” she whimpered, “and I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to make you normal. I consulted so many doctors and therapists, trying to get the right answers that never showed up, and simply tried to do things my own way. I just wanted you to somehow be happy, and I kept trying even though nothing seemed to be working. When I arrived here, I wonder what I had done to be put here, and it didn’t take me long to realise that I have caused more damage to you than that creature in the lake ever did.” Xavier paused for a few seconds, taking it all in: it seemed fairly logical, and his mother had no reason to lie. Her words would not stop the hurt and make it go away, but Xavier could see that she did indeed love him in her own special way.
“Thank you mother, that is all I needed,” he said, and Carolina smiled, stretching her arms out before freezing, realising a hug wouldn’t work. The roar sounded again, much closer this time, and Xavier could see something long moving nearby.
“You must leave now, before the master of this place arrives!” Carolina said quickly. Xavier and Drifblim stepped forwards, now directly underneath the portal that was glowing like a sun in this dark and depressing world. “If the message I received is correct, Drifblim is going to have to blast your way out,” Carolina said, and Drifblim smiled widely at the opportunity to do good. “Good luck with defeating Galactic Xavier, I know you can do it!”
“Thank you Mother. Good luck with being dead, your fellow ghosts seem very violent,” Xavier replied, and Carolina simply smiled and mouthed back a ‘thank you’. The roaring was getting closer, and Xavier could see a snake like beast coming rapidly forwards. Carolina glanced nervously behind, but looked back and gave Xavier a smile.
“Blim Blim?” Drifblim asked. Xavier looked back at his mother, knowing that he had received his answers and they would be the only things he would ever learn. He nodded at Drifblim, ready to leave this world, and the Ghost wrapped around Xavier and began to lift him up.
“Xavier!” Carolina screamed out, and Xavier glanced down. “When it comes down to deciding who to trust, trust Cynthia over Palmer and it’ll be the smartest thing you can ever do!” Xavier was confused by these words: why would he choose his aunt over his father? He wanted to call out to her, but something black was covering her, her screams mixing in with the same screechy roar. Xavier could only watch as his mother disappeared, and he became engulfed in a constricting golden light. Drifblim screamed in pain, and Xavier clung tightly onto her as screams sounded around them.
“Stockpile!” Xavier commanded, and Drifblim began to absorb in energy, the only thing they could do in this strange in between…
Matthew could remember doing runs and walks at the Arcethian Academy, and numerable P.E. classes, but he was pretty sure that he had never run as fast or as spastically in the rest of his life as he was now.
His feet pounded the filthy tiles, Piplup and Cherubi held tightly in his hands. Cheryl, Fantina and Bebe ran alongside, all of them screaming at the horrors happening around them. They had reached the second floor, all of them nearly out of breathe, and only to find that the lids of the coffins had already burst open. Deceased Pokemon were beginning to reform, and it took all their strength and willpower to run through them all, ghostly Flying types soaring above their heads. No one spoke to each other, no one tried to sort things out, they simply kept their heads down and ran as fast as they could move.
Team Galactic was hardly having any luck either.
The cages remained behind, Draco unable to use technology to transport them. It didn’t take long for the locks to be destroyed, and angry, scared and confused Ghosts and Dark types fled from the building around them. Charles held tightly onto Elle as these beasts ran past, keeping a close eye on Roshonda and Addison as well. He didn’t care if Draco was killed by the ghosts he had summoned, but could see him running behind, holding tightly onto the spell book that was causing all of this drama. The wealthy family remained behind, their screams following after them and Charles was sure they would haunt him tonight. But he had bigger issues to deal with then them.
The ghosts were everywhere. No one knew what would happen next, but they could all see what was happening now: spirits rising from their graves, begin to move around with freedom they hadn’t enjoyed for range of years. Dust trickled around them, seemingly to bond together and reform them, and would either bring them back to life or turn them into deadly zombies, filling the spell of overturning the living. Charlotte wasn’t around to reverse the spell, and Draco didn’t seem to know how, so all anyone could do was run.
“Hold on, only one floor left,” Matthew whispered to Piplup and Cherubi as he sprinted down the staircase. Spirits were beginning to fly through the walls, laughing in a deranged manner at them and causing Cheryl to shriek. Fantina was leading the pack, and Matthew was afraid she would fall in her high hells or trip over her skirt, but she seemed concentrated and determined to keep on going. Bebe was pressing buttons on her device, possibly calling for help, Matthew wasn’t sure, but nobody seemed to be coming.
The first floor was just as bad, and the spirits seemed to be further along with being formed. None of them wanted to see what happened when they gained bodies, and they continued to run, but after several flights of stairs and running across two and half floors, their legs were beginning to get sore and they were rapidly running out of breath.
“We need to get out of this building now!” Bebe screamed. “Based on my calculations, this building is becoming increasingly unstable, and it is more of a safety risk than it was before we entered it!”
“So basically, it’s going to collapse?” Matthew screamed back.
A creak in the floor answered this for him.
One second they were all running for their lives, all the dead Pokemon forming around them, and the next they were falling and screaming, their world spinning around them. Matthew, Cheryl, Fantina, Bebe and all their Pokemon landed onto the ground floor with a painful shudder, the remains of the first floor scattered around them. Screams echoed behind, and Matthew looked up to see the Team Galactic members falling down as well, unable to stop themselves from landing painfully.
“Let’s trap them here and get the hell out of this place!” Matthew grumbled, checking Piplup and Cherubi hadn’t been crushed by his falling body. A number of Pokemon had landed alongside them, most of them Bidoof, Goldeen, Magikarp and Shinx that young children across Sinnoh got as pets, but a large variety of practically every single Pokemon Matthew had ever encountered seemed to be forming around them, their bodies becoming more and more solid with each second.
“Sounds like a plan. Definitely what they deserve!” Cheryl growled as she got to her feet, alongside her Chansey and Makuhita. But as Bebe and Fantina stood up as well, Draco leapt dramatically to his feet, pointing his contraption towards them with one hand, the leather clad spell book in the other hand.
“Don’t even think about it!” He hissed. Charles, Roshonda and Addison slowly got to their feet, and Matthew noticed someone that they didn’t: the boy from their family of hostages had joined them, with what looked like blood stains down his front. “We’re going to go now, and you can stay here and fix what has happened!”
“You has the spells, you can fix this yourself!” Fantina yelled, her eyes looking around at the solidifying dead Pokemon. Draco simply laughed and opened the book up, his smile wide with malice.
“You want a spell? Here’s a spell for you!” He shouted, and looked down at the page, opening his mouth to begin reciting. But as he began to speak, something else happened to only add to the day’s supernatural drama: a bolt of golden electricity burst through the upper levels, shooting down and striking the book. There was a bright explosion of dust from the point of impact, and it stretched out and touched the hundreds of dead Pokemon already around them. They instantly broke down again and began to rise up in one giant swoop.
“What have you gone and done now?” Addison huffed. Draco simply shut the book, clearly not wanting to discuss things any further, and pressed a button on his wrist machine. A pink bubble formed around him, the three grunts and, most likely by accident, the rich son.
“Until next time,” Draco shouted, and the bubble glowed a dazzling pink. After a few seconds it popped, leaving nothing else behind.
“Teleportation, something Galactic has been able to master,” Matthew grumbled.
“Good for them – why don’t we teleport out of here as well?” Bebe said, glancing upwards, and Matthew followed her line of vision: all of the dust seemed to be forming together into one giant cloud, possibly one giant Pokemon. With nothing left to do, the four simply turned for the door and ran, too tired and shocked from the day’s events to do anything else.
Clean fresh, late afternoon air felt glorious as the broke out of the building, and Matthew was tempted to collapse right there and simply breath in, but kept going up the staircase before finally falling to his knees. Cheryl and Bebe collapsed alongside him, their Pokemon just as tired as they were. Only Fantina remained standing, staring at the Lost Tower with a sense of sadness.
“What will happen to it?” She whispered, and Matthew glanced up towards it. The dust seemed to be seeping out of the windows, the very walls being pushed out by it. Based on how the first floor had collapsed, Matthew could tell the building wasn’t going to survive whatever spell Draco had used, and he placed Cherubi and Piplup on the ground and walked towards the gym leader, giving her a gentle hug. Fantina simply smiled at him, her eyes swimming with tears, as they watched the building struggle.
Than several things happened at once.
A shout erupted behind them, and Matthew turned around to see Vanessa and Sahara were running towards them, and Matthew was about to wave at them when a light glowed and his attention was drawn back towards the Lost Tower, who refused to its dramas end. The golden light engulfed the entire building, which seemed to wobble due to it, and hands quickly pulled Matthew and Fantina backwards. The light shone as brightly as the sun, even though it was quickly nearing nightfall, and everyone could only shield their eyes as the sound of something exploded. Fantina gasped as the Lost Tower rumbled, the walls unable to hold it up, and the entire thing came crashing down. They quickly moved backwards to avoid any rubble, though the dust cloud quickly caught up to them.
Coughing and spluttering, the group collapsed to the ground, the cloud beginning to rise up into the air. Matthew’s eyes and throat stung, and struggled to make out Sahara as she appeared before him, asking if he was alright, but Matthew turned back towards the tower, now reduced to a large pile of rubble, dust still rising up from it. It had a horrible, cold and depressing place, but for some reason Matthew felt bad, knowing that this was all their fault for causing this graveyard to fall.
“Well well well, look what the dust coughed up,” Vanessa laughed, and Matthew looked around in confusion, but could quickly see what she was referring to: Xavier and a Drifblim were landing only a few feet in front of them, looking entirely unbothered about the collapsed tower, and more confused at all the dust covered people in front of them.
“Hello there. I had a rather interesting day, how about you all?”
After seeing Charlotte and the strange old man, Charles was even more on edge as they waited on the fifth floor. Several Gastly and Misdreavus had floated in, but there was no sign of the mysterious Spiritomb they were waiting for. In the eerie, tense silence, Charles couldn’t help but want to leave, reflecting back on his lat encounters with the ghost girl, and knew her appearance wasn’t the sign of anything good to come.
But if Charles was on the edge, than Draco was falling off the cliff at an alarming rate.
The poacher and grunt trainer paced around the floor, mumbling and staring constantly towards the window as if expecting a guest. He kept glaring angrily towards the wealthy family and even at the three grunts, as if it was all their fault that the Pokemon hadn’t appeared. Charles didn’t like the twitchy, angry look on Draco’s face, and was tempted to move the spell book out of his reach to prevent any disasters.
“I am so bored,” Addison groaned, kicking her legs against the tomb she was sprawled upon. Charles caught the rich body Brody staring at her thin, smooth legs as they moved and he smiled, glancing back towards Addison to see if she noticed, but her vision was focused entirely on Roshonda. “I know absolutely nothing about you girl!” She said, smiling mischievously, the same way she had in Hearthome when she tried to find out Charles’ life story. “So, what’s up with you? What brought you to the lovely Team Galactic?” Roshonda looked positively taken aback by this question, and stuttered as she tried to think of something to say. Charles was tempted to tell Addison where to go, but realised he didn’t know that much about Roshonda either.
“Well, my parent’s could be dead or alive for all I know,” Roshonda explained, her usual brash and bold persona going out the window as she began to whisper. “They weren’t the best people in the world… I had no choice but to leave, for my own safety. I came across a trio being picked up, and I asked if I could come along, not really knowing what to expect.”
“Does Galactic just randomly pick people of the street?” Charles said, failing to hold down a smile, which faded as Roshonda and Addison both shot him angry looks.
“How do you expect us to get so many grunts?” Roshonda retorted angrily. “Cyrus sends people out on missions to get new members when our numbers are going down. I just happened to come across a group getting picked up, and I needed to get away from my family, so I went with them.” Roshonda fell silent and glared back at Charles, who simply nodded. He had a feeling she wasn’t telling the whole truth, especially as to what drove her away in the first place, but didn’t question it.
“What about you?” Roshonda asked Addison, who seemed to be deep in thought as well.
“Me? I met up with a guy, thought he was pretty hot, he asked me to come with him when he went back to his group,” she explained. “Sounded a bit like a cult, but I was up for a bit of excitement and came along. Been pretty decent so far. I haven’t been killed, which is fine by me,” Addison added to hysterical laughter, and Charles and Roshonda could only smile weakly. They had seen so many people die around them that Charles was surprised that they weren’t all being sent out to kidnap aggressive children. Looking at Addison’s laugh, he could tell there was more to her background as well, and wonder this beautiful girl had to hide in her past. Charles also began to reflect back on his own capture: it had been Cyrus, not some collector, who had come to get him. He had left Sahara behind, only taking Charles back to their base, and Charles could remember waking up on the airship, the faces of the admins hovering above him. Why had he received such special treatment, and now that Charles was thinking about it, why had they left Sahara behind, when he was getting the feeling they knew about her and her personalities.
“Will you lot just stop having a little gossip session!” Draco’s roar sounded from the other side of the floor, making Addison and Roshonda jump up and their Pokemon raised their heads from their rests. Elle looked curiously up at Charles, who simply picked her up and watched as Draco came marching over. “You could all be doing something a little more useful! Mind the Pokemon cages, torture the family, clean these bloody floors for all I care! Just do some fucking work!”
“There’s nothing to do though,” Addison whined. “Can’t we just use a spell and make this Spiritomb come here so we can go?” Draco glared down at her, raising his left arm and the wrist contraption respectively. Charles got to his feet, along with a furious looking Persian, and was about to snap at Draco about his anger when a laugh erupted from the corner. All heads, both angry and shocked, turned towards the wealthy family, with Jim the father laughing at the grunts.
“What are you laughing at?” Draco snapped, marching forwards with his contraption pointed towards him. Jim simply smirked, not even as frightened as he was before.
“You people are so clueless I’m surprised you’ve made it this far,” he smirked, and even Charles felt a tad annoyed about this insult. “I’ve seen all the news stories about what you’ve done, and I was afraid of your group for a while. But now it just seems that your boss sends a bunch of incompetent teenagers out to fight his battles for him, and doesn’t even give them all the facts!” Jim continued to laugh, despite the shocked looks from his family. Draco glared down at him and lashed out, punching him in the face. Carol screamed, but Jim quickly recovered, still smiling despite the blood trickling down his face.
“What are you on about? Tell me or I will kill your wife!” Draco roared.
“I manage a treasure finding business in the Underground. The greatest treasure anyone could possibly find down there is an object called the Odd Keystone. I don’t know much about it personally, but everyone knows it is needed to summon Spiritomb,” Jim explained, the smile still on his face. Draco’s arm fell to his side, and Charles could see confusion running throughout his face. After all this time spent here, finding out that it was all a waste was not going to do well for his mind. Charles exchanged worried looks with Elle, and glanced over to see Roshonda looking shocked and Addison looking furious.
“Well…,” Draco said, trying to find the right thing to say, and Charles didn’t want to think what he was going to do, “thank you for that information. It looks as if there’s no need to keep you now,” and he raised his arm up again. Carol screamed as Draco pressed a button, causing his laser-like sword to come out, and Jim’s smile faded as Draco rose his arm, ready to swing.
“Oooooh Chaaaaaarlllllessss.”
The entire floor froze, all eyes trying to find the source of the high pitched, sing song voice, but after failing to do so, they settled upon Charles. Elle was shivering, her eyes wide with horror, while Charles simply stood perfectly still, hoping it was all fake.
“It’s been a loooong time Charlie, but we’re back together now,” the voice echoed. “Why don’t you come downstairs. I have all the answers for you!” There was a girlish giggle that caused Charles to shiver, and he glanced around, wondering where Charlotte currently was. Draco, Roshonda and Addison were giving him confused looks, and Charles’ face turned red, not wanting to explain what that was.
“Grab these scum,” Draco said, pressing a button on his wrist. The cages magically rose up, to the protest of the controlled Pokemon within, and the transmitter floated upwards as well. Roshonda quickly scuttled forwards and undid the chains, dragging the wealthy family to their feet, eyes still focused towards Charles. “I don’t know what the hell just happened, but we’re going to find out.”
“No, we don’t have to! It’s probably a trap!” Charles protested, but Draco had already grabbed the spell book and was heading for the staircase, his unstable mind focusing together on this one thing. As the cages lined up and magically floated after, Nidoqueen rejoined Roshonda, and Addison smirked over at Charles.
“We are definitely hearing about your past next!” She laughed, and followed in front. Charles looked down at Elle and sighed, but the Eevee simply gave him a look that he had seen too many times before.
“I know, I’m not going to let Charlotte screw them over,” he said, his tone clearly unwilling, and followed after the others, wondering what they were getting themselves into.
Vanessa looked down at the rock on the table, and then back at the strange masked man that knew her name. It seemed as if, beneath what plastic surgery costume disaster his face was, he really was smiling at her, taunting her, enjoying her surprise at knowing her name. Vanessa was use to all the strange things happening around her over the past month, but was not relieved to see this tall, frightening stranger telling her he wanted the rock.
“What do you want the rock for?” Vanessa asked, watching as Sahara backed away behind the table with Nutty and the hiker. Monferno stood proudly by her side, fists raised and ready to fight this ‘Masquerade.’
“That information isn’t for you to know,” Masquerade said with a laugh. Vanessa always got annoyed when people patronized her, and she angrily whipped out her umbrella and thrust it up into his face.
“Vanessa!” Sahara gasped, but Vanessa ignored her as she stared up at Masquerade, anger running through her blood and keeping her hand held tightly on her umbrella.
“I have dealt with crap you probably couldn’t even dream of!” She hissed. “I have been shot, nearly been blown up numerous times, have been knocked unconscious, and my friends and Pokemon have nearly died multiple times thanks to what I’ve gone through. Don’t think I can’t handle it!” Vanessa stopped shouting, and instantly noticed the change in volume around her. The entire market had fallen silent, all the traders and buyers staring towards the hiker’s stall, wondering what was going on. A quick glance was enough to notice how every face looked frightened, and Vanessa could tell from who they were staring at it wasn’t her.
“I know all you have down, Vanessa Backlot, along with you too Sahara Plattina,” Masquerade hissed back, ignoring the fact that everyone in the tunnel seemed terrified by his appearance. Vanessa nearly dropped her umbrella in surprise when the man’s head suddenly turned around 180 degrees, a sad version of the mask now in it’s place. “I know your Pokemon, your families, your friends, where you’ve travelled and where your going to travel to next! And I know that you don’t need to know the importance of the Odd Keystone, as you will only cause trouble!” Vanessa was tempted to turn the handle and cut of this guy’s head, but she was taken aback by the knowledge and power this strange individual seemed to possess. She looked across at Sahara for help, but she was too frightened by Masquerade to help Vanessa in the slightest, and simply held tightly on Nutty. Masquerade smiled down at Vanessa, his head turning sickening around in order to do so, seeming very satisfied at surprising her.
“There is nothing you can do to stop me, Miss Backlot,” he said, laughing again, as he pushed the umbrella out of the way. “I’ll be taking the Odd Keystone, and I don’t expect to hear a word out of any of you.” His gloved hand reached out and clasped around the cracked stone, and he was about to lift it up when Vanessa snapped out of her shock, angrily grabbing onto his hand.
“Actually, Mr Masquerade, I think this stone would make a handsome paper weight, so I think I might take it,” Vanessa said with a sweet smile, and she brought the umbrella up, whacking it against his elbow and then spinning, ready to drive it into his stomach. There was a blur, and Vanessa suddenly found herself frozen, unable to move. Masquerade’s masked smile somehow seemed to get bigger as he clasped tightly onto the umbrella, twisting it slightly in Vanessa’s hands.
“You really must learn when to hold your tongue, Vanessa,” he hissed through his happy face, and he let go of the umbrella in time to punch her in the face. Pain Vanessa had never experienced before burst through her nose as she was sent flying backwards, multicoloured circles appearing in her eyes as she flew through the air. The crowd screamed and parted as she flew, landing painfully on her back and rolling through the dirt. Vanessa could feel the blood pouring from her nose, the pain erupting around her bridge, and could see more coloured circles in her vision. Vanessa was on the brink of unconsciousness, but one thought was rushing through her mind: she’d seemed to have met a match.
“MOOOOOON!” Monferno screamed, and launched forwards with a flaming Fire Punch. Sahara simply screamed as Masquerade grabbed onto his face before Monferno could even get close and threw him through the fleeing crowd. The fire monkey crashed through three abandoned tables, ending up in a pile of clothes and shattered wood that completely buried him. Masquerade watched as the traders all fled, and turned with his permanent satisfied smile back towards Sahara and the hiker.
“Take it, just take whatever you want!” The hiker yelled, moving backwards, scooping some of his things into a bag. Masquerade nodded appreciatively, and he turned towards Sahara, allowing the hiker a chance to turn and flee towards the end of the tunnel they’d entered from. Sahara clutched tightly onto Nutty, not wanting to get hurt by the masked man leering over her.
“Let that be a lesson for you and your good friend,” Masquerade hissed. “Never go up against an opponent you know nothing about, and never try and stand in my way again.” As his gloved hand reached out for the Odd Keystone again, Sahara looked over at Vanessa, watching as her body twitched in pain, her umbrella laying discarded a few feet away. Vanessa: always a fighter, always a protector of the rest of them, not someone who deserved to be treated like this. It was time for Sahara to return the favour, rather than everyone always having to protect her from Galactic or herself.
“Hey Masky,” she snapped, loosening her grip on Nutty and jerking her head towards the keystone, which was only a few centimetres out of Masquerade’s reach as he turned around. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
“PACH!” Nutty squealed, and rocketed forwards. Masquerade was thrown, and went to grab it, but the Pachirisu had already scooped it up and was scuttling along the tables. Sahara clapped in joy, but could quickly see that Masquerade was not happy as his head turned around, back to the sad mask.
“HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME!” He roared. Sahara simply shrugged and threw a Poke and Great Ball into the air. With a burst of red and blue light, Aqua and Hammer were suddenly there on either side of Masquerade, much to his surprise.
“Aqua Jet and Hidden Power!” Sahara yelled. Aqua was quick to shoot forwards coated in water, and had enough force to push Masquerade backwards into another table. Hammer simply sat on the hiker’s stand, in a meditating mode, but Sahara was to focused on the battle to care if he got involved or not. Grabbing the pink egg for safety and putting it in her bag, Sahara picked up a handful of rocks and began to throw them at Masquerade.
“Why don’t you take these, I’m sure their rare!” She yelled, half laughing, as Nutty and Aqua laughed. “Spark and Ice Fang, bring him down!” Nutty nodded and formed the ball of electricity, quickly releasing it forwards. However, Masquerade moved too quickly, grabbing a nearby table and swinging it with all his might. The Spark caused it be blown in half, but Masquerade used the remaining end to smash it into Aqua.
“FLOAT!” He yelled, flying backwards and crashing into a stall of ancient books.
“You were foolish to fight me, Sahara Plattina!” Masquerade shouted angrily, throwing the more damaged half of the table asides and marching forwards. Sahara looked desperately around for a weapon, needing something for defence, but by the time she noticed some metal from a stand, Masquerade was suddenly upon her. Sahara screamed, but Masquerade’s powerful gloved hands enclosed around her neck, and instantly Sahara was silenced as she began to gasp for breath, the hands beginning to crush her throat.
“You and your friends have gotten involved in a foolish war that you can’t back of now, even though you have little chance of stopping them from their ultimate goal,” the suited man roared. “It would be kinder of me to kill you now, than Vanessa, and then take the Keystone and leave your bodies here to rot than to leave you to Cyrus’ devices.” Sahara was struggling to breathe, her vision going dark and her head spinning. Her limbs flailed weakly as she tried to force Masquerade away, but his hands were beginning to win. Sahara could feel something burning through her body, like a surge of power, and for one second she nearly blacked out, a strange laughter echoing in her head…
“MEDI!”
“FERNO MON!”
“PACHI PACHI!
The three cries happened simultaneously, and Sahara suddenly found herself gasping in oxygen as Masquerade’s hands unleashed her throat. His body was glowing pink, his limbs outstretched, his head spinning constantly, and as Sahara collapsed to the ground, she could see Hammer’s eyes were glowing.
“Psychic… thank you…,” Sahara gasped, and her Meditite only nodded. There was a sudden screech, and Sahara turned as Nutty fired her Charge Beam against him, causing Masquerade to scream with pain. There was a burst of light to the side, and a giant ball of fire spun out from where Monferno had been, smashing directly into Masquerade’s chest. Meditite’s Psychic ended at the same time, and the masked man was sent flying down the passage, crashing against two tables and finally whacking into the wall, his suit on fire.
“That was… wow!” Sahara said as she massaged her neck, and Nutty and Monferno smiled warmly. There were groaning noises, and Monferno quickly ran to Vanessa’s side, his trainer beginning to get up. “Are you alright Vanessa? Your bleeding!”
“Oh Sahara, it’s not as if I haven’t bled before,” Vanessa smirked as she grabbed a singed piece of clothing still wrapped around Monferno and wiped her bleeding nose on it. Sahara wasn’t convinced due to the large bruise across Vanessa’s nose and the fact she sounded like she had a bad cold. Pulling out Aqua’s PokeBall and bringing him back, Sahara passed her umbrella over and helped her to her feet.
“Masquerade’s smoking in the corner over there, so hopefully we shan’t have to deal with him,” Sahara explained. Nutty leapt onto her shoulder, the Odd Keystone wrapped tightly in her hands. “I’ve got a feeling that this thing is going to be important, so we’d better hold onto it.” Vanessa simply nodded, stuffing the fabric into her nostril’s to stop the bleeding. “We need to get that checked out.”
“We need to get out of here first,” Vanessa retorted. “Any sign of where those spineless marketers fled to?” Sahara looked around the empty tunnel, but there was no sign of where anyone had gone, and definitely no sign of an exit.
“Medi Meditite,” Hammer called out, and everyone turned as he walked over, a purple box floating next to him. It landed in between the two trainers, and a rainbow mixture of colours glowed in its center.
“I remember us getting sucked into this,” Vanessa explained, and Sahara nodded, this box clearly their exit out. Hammer took initiative and touched the light. Sahara gasped as he turned into rainbow light, and a beam sent him blasting upwards through the ceiling.
“Well, that’s extremely camp, isn’t it?” Vanessa smirked, and held tightly to Monferno and her umbrella as she stepped forwards. Sahara stared back towards Masquerade as he burned there, wondering how he knew so much about them, how he was so strong, and what he knew about Galactic’s plans. These just added to the number of questions and problems clouding her head, and Sahara sighed as she stepped forwards with Nutty, wondering when she would finally be free of this all.
Tension was thick in the air on the fourth floor of the Lost Tower.
Standing in a neat row was Matthew and Cheryl to one side of Charlotte, Fantina and Bebe on the other. Fantina and Bebe were stunned when Matthew and Cheryl caught up to them, bringing the fourteen year old ghost with them, but based on a look they exchanged, Matthew guessed they had heard about her. He imagined there weren’t that many magical ghost girls roaming around Sinnoh, so maybe all the official people were aware of her existence? Matthew didn’t know and didn’t care that much: he was more interested in what other powers Charlotte possessed, and what she was going to do.
“I have a plan, just follow my lead,” Charlotte had said only a short time ago before calling out to Charles, the grunt that Matthew and his friends kept coming across. He didn’t want to think who else would come down, but Charlotte was convinced she knew what she was doing. She marched the group up to the fourth floor, where they now stood, waiting, wondering what her plan was.
Cheryl was on the verge of tears and standing close to Matthew’s side, though he was nearly as petrified as she was and didn’t think he would be much use. Bebe seemed to be trying to keep it together, though it was clear she wanted to get out of here and fix her computer. Fantina looked bold and fabulous as always, with her head held high and her hands on her hips, ready to do whatever was needed to win. Loud footsteps could be heard from the staircase, and Charlotte was smiling, wringing her hands together. Matthew was quite certain this girl was psychotic, and hoped he didn’t have to deal with her again after today.
“Get your Pokemon out to battle,” she said. “No Ghost or Dark types until the transmitter is destroyed, alright?” The group nodded, though Fantina looked down hearted, and Matthew cursed as he realised too that the gym leader, probably the strongest trainer here, only had Ghost types, therefore useless.
“Rubi Cheru Ru Ru!” A timid cry erupted from Matthew’s arms and he looked down, seeing Cherubi leaping up and smiling widely.
“Do you want to take part in the battle?” Matthew asked, and Cherubi nodded excitedly. “Do you want to battle as my Pokemon?” He added, and Cherubi nodded so vigorously her smaller berry whacked Matthew’s arm and he laughed, reaching into his bag for a PokeBall. A pink Heal Ball was the first thing on top, and Matthew thought it seemed appropriate for this cute little Pokemon. He touched the button to his head, and Cherubi smiled as she turned to pink energy and was brought inside. The ball shaked for a moment, and then froze and flashed red.
“Awww, how adorable,” Charlotte said as Matthew’s face lit up. “Now kindly stop having a period and get into battle mode, nancy boy!” Matthew glared at the ghost who simply smiled, and noted that Bebe had sent a Glameow out into battle, the grey Pokemon skulking around her legs.
“Alright then, I’ll show you battle mode,” Matthew grumbled, and he released Cherubi onto the floor, Piplup joining a moment later. Piplup looked at the new arrival and gasped, but quickly began to introduce herself.
“Looks like they’ll be good friends,” Cheryl said, her Chansey and Makuhita standing by her side. Matthew wondered if she was making a remark about their last battle back at Hearthome, but he figured that Makuhita would be best for countering a bunch of Dark types, and Chansey would be immune to Ghost. A sudden chill filled the floor, and every eye turned towards the entrance.
Draco walked in first, his Glalie floating by his side and his laser sword drawn. Behind him, over two dozen cages floated in, positioning themselves in the spare space between the coffins. Fantina gasped at the sight of all the Pokemon, and Matthew could understand why she would be upset by this site. Next in was Roshonda and her Nidoqueen, dragging her people in chains. Addison came behind with Persian, though Matthew didn’t know her name yet, and finally came Charles and Elle. Charlotte clapped in delight at his appearance, but Charles simply looked embarrassed and scuttled over to the side. Silence fell between the two sides, people exchanging looks with each other, sizing up the Pokemon that had been sent out, Draco flexing his muscles.
“Well, isn’t this just darling!” Charlotte said, clapping her hands together and they somehow produced noise. “So, Galactic people, I’ve been sent to stop you from trying to bring Spiritomb out!” Matthew didn’t know who this Pokemon was, but Fantina and Bebe exchanged another look signalling insider knowledge, and Draco looked surprised to see she knew of their plan. “Oh, I love it when people get surprised, gets me all nice and horny, ain’t that right Charlie?” Charles simply rolled his eyes and turned away, and Charlotte made a tutting noise. “Don’t ignore me like I’m some regular old ghost you can just cast aside!”
“I told you last time I saw you not to bother me again!” Charles snapped. Charlotte stepped forwards and was suddenly all the way over by him, the bottom of her dress fluttering against Roshonda.
“Come now Charlie, that was just in the heat of the moment. Don’t tell me you don’t miss me, or I might get very, very angry,” Charlotte explained, and her eyes literally filled with fire, causing Charles to take a step back and Elle to cower.
“We are not here to deal with whatever relationship you two have,” Draco shouted, “and we are not going to give up our search for Spiritomb! We are going to take these Pokemon back with us and then we will go and find the Odd Keystone, and there is nothing you can do to stop us!” Charlotte gave Charles another wink before turning around, smiling in a forced, slightly aggressive way at Draco.
“Nothing, eh?” She asked in a high pitched voice. “Sounds like a challenge, and I always like a good challenge!” Matthew and Cheryl exchanged glances and braced themselves, watching as a ball of purple flames arose in Charlotte’s hands. The female hostage screamed, and as the purple flames were thrown forwards, it was clear the battle had begun.
Draco leapt aside as the flames exploded, and Glalie quickly unleashed an Ice Beam. Charlotte waved her hands and the beam was diverted, causing Piplup and Cherubi to dodge getting frozen. Addison pointed forwards, and her Persian began to pound forwards, teeth bared viciously. Bebe’s Glameow ran out to meet her, and the two began a cat fight in the middle of the floor.
“You take Glalie, I’ll take Eevee and Nidoqueen,” Matthew said, trying to keep his cool as Charlotte pointed her fingers, causing the coffins to magically explode with the force of a bomb, the tower shaking badly. Cheryl nodded nervously, and the two ran forwards, their Pokemon coming up on their sides.
“Focus on the transmitter Charlotte,” Matthew cried as he ran passed, and Charlotte shouted back a ‘yeah yeah’ as she continued to explode the coffins. Draco was running to avoid them, Fantina and Bebe not far behind, dust trickling down from the ceiling and onto the cages of the roaring Pokemon. Matthew and Cheryl stopped running, Charles, Roshonda and Addison getting to their feet, their Pokemon joining them. Matthew was tempted to run back the other way, but glanced over at Cheryl for courage. She smiled warmly back at him, and Matthew smiled back as he turned to face them.
“So, how are we going to do this?” He asked sweetly.
“Painfully, hopefully,” Roshonda said with a smile. “Superpower, go!” Matthew leapt to the side, shoving Cheryl to the floor as the red energy was blasted over their heads. There was a distant explosion, causing the entire building to shake. Cries erupted all around, and Matthew looked up to see Piplup, Cherubi and Makuhita were bombarding Nidoqueen with an onslaught of attacks. Roshonda appeared to be cursing as her Pokemon was knocked over by a point-blank strike of Piplup’s BubbleBeam, and Matthew gasped as a Grass Knot sent her sprawling onto her back, clearly coming from Cherubi.
“Nice work!” Matthew called as he leapt up, so immersed in this victory that he forgot about Cheryl, but quickly brought her to her feet. Roshonda looked furious, and Matthew gulped as Addison joined her in pulling more PokeBalls out of their pockets, ready to hurtle more powerful Pokemon into the field.
“CHAAAAANSEEEEY!” A cry erupted behind them, and Matthew only had time to turn as an oval shaped egg hurtled through between his and Cheryl’s heads. Roshonda had sense to bring Nidoqueen back and push Addison out of the way as the Egg Bomb exploded. It was powerful enough to shake the building and send Matthew, Cheryl, Piplup, Cherubi and Makuhita flying backwards. As he spun, Matthew could see Glalie crashing into the roof and heard the wealthy family scream as they got a full blast of it.
“STOP THIS, YOU’LL DESTROY THE TOWER!” Fantina bellowed, her accent thick in her yell of distress. Matthew really didn’t care about this building as he hit the ground with a shudder, and quickly swivelled around to check on Piplup and Cherubi, who didn’t look too bad. Charlotte was still firing her flaming balls at Draco, who, along with the unintended target Bebe, attempted to dodge them.
“Charlotte, just destroy the bloody transmitter!” Matthew bellowed as he scooped Piplup and Cherubi up. The ghost sighed and her head turned freakishly around on her neck, giving him a bored, tiresome look.
“Fine then, don’t wet yourself,” she scoffed, and threw her next flaming ball in the other direction. Draco’s scream sounded over the cries of the captured Pokemon, Glameow and Persian’s vicious cat fight and the moans of the burnt family, watching as the ball blasted the transmitter into pieces.
“YOU BITCH, YOU FUCKING BITCH!” Draco yelled, looking like a vicious beast as he searched around for his Glalie, only to find it embedded in the ceiling. “YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS!” Charlotte simply laughed as everyone began to gather together, afraid of the confrontation between the two. Cheryl and Makuhita were on their feet and alright, and stood alongside Matthew with Chansey, her egg reformed, all watching in worry. Bebe was pressing buttons on her device, smiling nervously as some of the captured Pokemon were hit by an invisible laser, sending them rightfully back to their trainer’s PC box, leaving the others looked very confused and annoyed. The three grunts gathered, unharmed, next to the rich family, and the two feline Pokemon rush back to their respective trainers, leaving an open expanse between Charlotte and Draco.
“What exactly can you do, foolish mortal?” Charlotte hissed, laughing loudly, though her laughter did nothing to ease the nervous tension on the floor. Draco simply smiled, his anger quickly fading, and he pulled something out of his coat: a thick black leather book.
“You fool!” Charles cried, but Draco ignored him, opening up the book. All eyes flickered towards Charlotte, and they could see why Charles had warned them: her ghostly fists had clenched, her eyes seemed to be bulging, her body beginning to flicker and distort. The look on her face kept changing rapidly between anger, shock and a look of somewhat childhood innocence, but everyone could tell that this wasn’t a good sign.
“How dare… how dare you… my book… my life’s work… against me… fool!” Charlotte hissed, her head shaking, floating up into the sky, entire body quivering. Draco ignored her, turning the pages before making an ‘ah’ sound and settling on one, holding it up.
“Let’s see how you like a taste of your own medicine,” he growled, and began to read. “The dead are not lost, the dead are not gone, the dead are waiting, their rise prolonged. Let them form, let them rise, let their power return and let the living being overturned!” Draco slammed the book shut, as if expecting that to be final. However, as the sound of the slamming echoed around, Charlotte let out a scream and suddenly spiralled around, hands on her face, clearly in pain. The sound was painful, and Matthew put his hands over his hands to try and block it out, but it seemed to creep into his body anyway.
Than, as if today couldn’t get any weirder, Charlotte exploded.
Dust exploded across the entire room, causing all the candles to go out and plunging them into darkness. Everyone covered their faces, unable to see anything in the dust and wondering what had been brought on and what was going to happen to them. Charles opened his eyes slightly, wondering if, finally, the psychotic ghost was going to be gone forever. But than a voice whispered in his head, a voice he had only heard twice before in the Sandgem Pokemon Center: Don’t you remember?
I do… Damnit! Charles cursed, and looked down at Elle and could see she looked just as worried as him, remembering the time this had happened. The dust particles were hovering in mid air, and everyone around them was looking confused as light suddenly began to emerge from the place where Charlotte’s heart would be if she was real. Than, in a way that made everyone scream, just like it had made Lyla, glowing yellow eyes appeared, along with two feminine hands, and a voice began to speak in a high, cool, calming voice.
On the first day, the sky shall turn against the earth, as hell is let loose and confined
The hands waved, and clouds appeared, releasing lightning, rain, hail and snow onto the scared humans, and what looked like a mountain rose up in the middle of the floor. Everyone stared at it and gasped as they began to recognise it: Mt Coronet.
On the second day, the mountain shall split in two, water seeping like blood, and the first victims will begin to be claimed.
Mt Coronet seemed to zoom in, the storm clouds shrinking, and to Matthew it seemed like they were being shown a 3-D presentation at a fancy company. But companies didn’t show mountains exploding with water, bright lights and distant screams echoing from what s
hould be a hologram.
On the third day, the snow will turn red as blood seeps from every wound. The two sides will meet in a final battle, and as the ultimate minds face of once more, the sacrifice will be gathered, the end will near.
The hands caused the mountain to disappear, instead a blanket of snow forming at chest level. People seemed to be fighting, with many explosions happening on the ground and in the sky. A powerful beam of energy erupted in the middle of the field, followed by an explosion so powerful that it nearly blasted all the real people backwards. The voice began to shake now, as if it was now possessed, and the entire tower seemed to shake as if it was above an earthquake.
On the fourth and final day, the end shall arrive. The most important blood will be shed, and the pillars of the dimensions shall fall. Time will breath, Space will move, Darkness will be unleashed, both fives will fail, as the world collapses around them and the almighty shall speak.
Nothing changed now, only a bright golden light shining brightly. There was a rushing sound, and suddenly the dust flew back the way it came as if on rewind, and everyone was left shielding their eyes. Charlotte remained reformed and glowing for a few seconds, before the light disappeared, leaving everything dark, and she fell back to the ground. Silence fell across the floor, everyone in shock, staring around in disbelief at what had just happened.
“I don’t think things could get any weirder,” Addison groaned, leaning against a wall and glaring at the rich family.
“Now that you’ve said that, something’s bound to have,” Roshonda said with a smirk, and the two girls laughed. However, Charles hadn’t just forgotten about Draco’s spell. He glanced around, wondering why it hadn’t come into effect yet, the one Minerva used on Sahara happening instantly. Was this one so powerful it needed to charge up?
“Eva Eve Eevee!” Elle shrieked, and Charles looked down as he heard a rumbling. The coffin in front of them was beginning to shake as if something was trying to get out. The ones next to it began to shake as well, and suddenly everything was rattling, hundreds of the jar like coffins shaking.
“Dead… dead rising… living overturned,” Charles mumbled. “FOR FUCK SAKES DRACO, YOU JUST BROUGHT THEM BACK FROM THE DEAD!” His shout came as the lids burst open, and laughter filled the area along with the screams. Dust rose up, quickly beginning to form and spin around, turning into the Pokemon that have long sense been trapped in here. No one exchanged any words, no one stopped to make a plan: every foot was running towards the stairs, ready to escape the deadly menace that had just been unleashed.
Silence.
Xavier walked slowly behind Carolina, waiting for her to say the first words, but they never came. Drifblim remained noiseless, hovering slightly to Xavier’s side as not to crowd him. Again, Xavier could not tell how long they had been walking, but they seemed to be going upwards based on the moving tiles of land he kept being led onto. But Carolina had not uttered a single word to where they were going, and Xavier simply followed after his mother like he usually did, wondering where they were going and wondering when they would stop.
Suddenly noise erupted above them, and Drifblim squealed as lightning erupted from overhead. The darkness above seemed to be alight, and Xavier watched in confusion as it began to swirl around, almost as if forming some sort of hole. Carolina had come to a halt, staring up at the hole with an emotional look in her eyes.
“This is where we say farewell,” she said, her voice shaking slightly, and Xavier quickly realised that his ghost mother was sad, almost on the verge of tears. “You need to go now, before you miss the portal.” Xavier nodded, but didn’t move, simply staring at his mother. He knew he would have to ask these questions now, even though she was upset, as it would be the last chance he would ever get to ask them.
“Mother, I want to know something. That is the reason I stepped into this world in the first place,” Xavier began to explain, holding tightly on Drifblim for support. “Did you ever love me? Did you ever accept my condition for what it really was?” A distant roar sounded in the distance, but Xavier ignored it as he stared intently at Carolina. She didn’t seem to be able to cry in her current form, but simply nodded, sobbing loudly and sadly.
“You must believe me Xavier, I truly loved you,” she whimpered, “and I thought I was doing the right thing by trying to make you normal. I consulted so many doctors and therapists, trying to get the right answers that never showed up, and simply tried to do things my own way. I just wanted you to somehow be happy, and I kept trying even though nothing seemed to be working. When I arrived here, I wonder what I had done to be put here, and it didn’t take me long to realise that I have caused more damage to you than that creature in the lake ever did.” Xavier paused for a few seconds, taking it all in: it seemed fairly logical, and his mother had no reason to lie. Her words would not stop the hurt and make it go away, but Xavier could see that she did indeed love him in her own special way.
“Thank you mother, that is all I needed,” he said, and Carolina smiled, stretching her arms out before freezing, realising a hug wouldn’t work. The roar sounded again, much closer this time, and Xavier could see something long moving nearby.
“You must leave now, before the master of this place arrives!” Carolina said quickly. Xavier and Drifblim stepped forwards, now directly underneath the portal that was glowing like a sun in this dark and depressing world. “If the message I received is correct, Drifblim is going to have to blast your way out,” Carolina said, and Drifblim smiled widely at the opportunity to do good. “Good luck with defeating Galactic Xavier, I know you can do it!”
“Thank you Mother. Good luck with being dead, your fellow ghosts seem very violent,” Xavier replied, and Carolina simply smiled and mouthed back a ‘thank you’. The roaring was getting closer, and Xavier could see a snake like beast coming rapidly forwards. Carolina glanced nervously behind, but looked back and gave Xavier a smile.
“Blim Blim?” Drifblim asked. Xavier looked back at his mother, knowing that he had received his answers and they would be the only things he would ever learn. He nodded at Drifblim, ready to leave this world, and the Ghost wrapped around Xavier and began to lift him up.
“Xavier!” Carolina screamed out, and Xavier glanced down. “When it comes down to deciding who to trust, trust Cynthia over Palmer and it’ll be the smartest thing you can ever do!” Xavier was confused by these words: why would he choose his aunt over his father? He wanted to call out to her, but something black was covering her, her screams mixing in with the same screechy roar. Xavier could only watch as his mother disappeared, and he became engulfed in a constricting golden light. Drifblim screamed in pain, and Xavier clung tightly onto her as screams sounded around them.
“Stockpile!” Xavier commanded, and Drifblim began to absorb in energy, the only thing they could do in this strange in between…
Matthew could remember doing runs and walks at the Arcethian Academy, and numerable P.E. classes, but he was pretty sure that he had never run as fast or as spastically in the rest of his life as he was now.
His feet pounded the filthy tiles, Piplup and Cherubi held tightly in his hands. Cheryl, Fantina and Bebe ran alongside, all of them screaming at the horrors happening around them. They had reached the second floor, all of them nearly out of breathe, and only to find that the lids of the coffins had already burst open. Deceased Pokemon were beginning to reform, and it took all their strength and willpower to run through them all, ghostly Flying types soaring above their heads. No one spoke to each other, no one tried to sort things out, they simply kept their heads down and ran as fast as they could move.
Team Galactic was hardly having any luck either.
The cages remained behind, Draco unable to use technology to transport them. It didn’t take long for the locks to be destroyed, and angry, scared and confused Ghosts and Dark types fled from the building around them. Charles held tightly onto Elle as these beasts ran past, keeping a close eye on Roshonda and Addison as well. He didn’t care if Draco was killed by the ghosts he had summoned, but could see him running behind, holding tightly onto the spell book that was causing all of this drama. The wealthy family remained behind, their screams following after them and Charles was sure they would haunt him tonight. But he had bigger issues to deal with then them.
The ghosts were everywhere. No one knew what would happen next, but they could all see what was happening now: spirits rising from their graves, begin to move around with freedom they hadn’t enjoyed for range of years. Dust trickled around them, seemingly to bond together and reform them, and would either bring them back to life or turn them into deadly zombies, filling the spell of overturning the living. Charlotte wasn’t around to reverse the spell, and Draco didn’t seem to know how, so all anyone could do was run.
“Hold on, only one floor left,” Matthew whispered to Piplup and Cherubi as he sprinted down the staircase. Spirits were beginning to fly through the walls, laughing in a deranged manner at them and causing Cheryl to shriek. Fantina was leading the pack, and Matthew was afraid she would fall in her high hells or trip over her skirt, but she seemed concentrated and determined to keep on going. Bebe was pressing buttons on her device, possibly calling for help, Matthew wasn’t sure, but nobody seemed to be coming.
The first floor was just as bad, and the spirits seemed to be further along with being formed. None of them wanted to see what happened when they gained bodies, and they continued to run, but after several flights of stairs and running across two and half floors, their legs were beginning to get sore and they were rapidly running out of breath.
“We need to get out of this building now!” Bebe screamed. “Based on my calculations, this building is becoming increasingly unstable, and it is more of a safety risk than it was before we entered it!”
“So basically, it’s going to collapse?” Matthew screamed back.
A creak in the floor answered this for him.
One second they were all running for their lives, all the dead Pokemon forming around them, and the next they were falling and screaming, their world spinning around them. Matthew, Cheryl, Fantina, Bebe and all their Pokemon landed onto the ground floor with a painful shudder, the remains of the first floor scattered around them. Screams echoed behind, and Matthew looked up to see the Team Galactic members falling down as well, unable to stop themselves from landing painfully.
“Let’s trap them here and get the hell out of this place!” Matthew grumbled, checking Piplup and Cherubi hadn’t been crushed by his falling body. A number of Pokemon had landed alongside them, most of them Bidoof, Goldeen, Magikarp and Shinx that young children across Sinnoh got as pets, but a large variety of practically every single Pokemon Matthew had ever encountered seemed to be forming around them, their bodies becoming more and more solid with each second.
“Sounds like a plan. Definitely what they deserve!” Cheryl growled as she got to her feet, alongside her Chansey and Makuhita. But as Bebe and Fantina stood up as well, Draco leapt dramatically to his feet, pointing his contraption towards them with one hand, the leather clad spell book in the other hand.
“Don’t even think about it!” He hissed. Charles, Roshonda and Addison slowly got to their feet, and Matthew noticed someone that they didn’t: the boy from their family of hostages had joined them, with what looked like blood stains down his front. “We’re going to go now, and you can stay here and fix what has happened!”
“You has the spells, you can fix this yourself!” Fantina yelled, her eyes looking around at the solidifying dead Pokemon. Draco simply laughed and opened the book up, his smile wide with malice.
“You want a spell? Here’s a spell for you!” He shouted, and looked down at the page, opening his mouth to begin reciting. But as he began to speak, something else happened to only add to the day’s supernatural drama: a bolt of golden electricity burst through the upper levels, shooting down and striking the book. There was a bright explosion of dust from the point of impact, and it stretched out and touched the hundreds of dead Pokemon already around them. They instantly broke down again and began to rise up in one giant swoop.
“What have you gone and done now?” Addison huffed. Draco simply shut the book, clearly not wanting to discuss things any further, and pressed a button on his wrist machine. A pink bubble formed around him, the three grunts and, most likely by accident, the rich son.
“Until next time,” Draco shouted, and the bubble glowed a dazzling pink. After a few seconds it popped, leaving nothing else behind.
“Teleportation, something Galactic has been able to master,” Matthew grumbled.
“Good for them – why don’t we teleport out of here as well?” Bebe said, glancing upwards, and Matthew followed her line of vision: all of the dust seemed to be forming together into one giant cloud, possibly one giant Pokemon. With nothing left to do, the four simply turned for the door and ran, too tired and shocked from the day’s events to do anything else.
Clean fresh, late afternoon air felt glorious as the broke out of the building, and Matthew was tempted to collapse right there and simply breath in, but kept going up the staircase before finally falling to his knees. Cheryl and Bebe collapsed alongside him, their Pokemon just as tired as they were. Only Fantina remained standing, staring at the Lost Tower with a sense of sadness.
“What will happen to it?” She whispered, and Matthew glanced up towards it. The dust seemed to be seeping out of the windows, the very walls being pushed out by it. Based on how the first floor had collapsed, Matthew could tell the building wasn’t going to survive whatever spell Draco had used, and he placed Cherubi and Piplup on the ground and walked towards the gym leader, giving her a gentle hug. Fantina simply smiled at him, her eyes swimming with tears, as they watched the building struggle.
Than several things happened at once.
A shout erupted behind them, and Matthew turned around to see Vanessa and Sahara were running towards them, and Matthew was about to wave at them when a light glowed and his attention was drawn back towards the Lost Tower, who refused to its dramas end. The golden light engulfed the entire building, which seemed to wobble due to it, and hands quickly pulled Matthew and Fantina backwards. The light shone as brightly as the sun, even though it was quickly nearing nightfall, and everyone could only shield their eyes as the sound of something exploded. Fantina gasped as the Lost Tower rumbled, the walls unable to hold it up, and the entire thing came crashing down. They quickly moved backwards to avoid any rubble, though the dust cloud quickly caught up to them.
Coughing and spluttering, the group collapsed to the ground, the cloud beginning to rise up into the air. Matthew’s eyes and throat stung, and struggled to make out Sahara as she appeared before him, asking if he was alright, but Matthew turned back towards the tower, now reduced to a large pile of rubble, dust still rising up from it. It had a horrible, cold and depressing place, but for some reason Matthew felt bad, knowing that this was all their fault for causing this graveyard to fall.
“Well well well, look what the dust coughed up,” Vanessa laughed, and Matthew looked around in confusion, but could quickly see what she was referring to: Xavier and a Drifblim were landing only a few feet in front of them, looking entirely unbothered about the collapsed tower, and more confused at all the dust covered people in front of them.
“Hello there. I had a rather interesting day, how about you all?”
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