"AGNPH Halloween Theme 2009 Submission"
A GHOSTLY TALE


"Where exactly do Ghost Pokemon come from? Are they the spirits of Pokemon that have passed on, but can't find their eternal resting place alongside Arcius? Maybe they're the spirits of Humans that can't find peace after their time has come. These question and more, later on..."

"Boring." A young boy yawns as he lays on his chest and kicks his feet in the air over his bed. The sound of a click is heard and the channel changes on the television set.

"Do you have loved one's that have passed on? Do you need closure with those on the other side? Mommy Carissa can connect you with those dearly de..."

"Scam." The boy says again, as he flips over onto his back and looks up at the television upside-down. Hoping to get a new view on the old set as he changes the channel again.

"Tonight on Ghostly tales from the Crypt." Says an announcer as an evil eye slowly spins, stops, and then blinks at the young boy in black and white.

The boy flips over and a big grin spreads across his face. "Now this, has promise."

The camera slowly starts to zoom in on an old hard leather covered, well worn, red colored book. The title has long since faded to near nothingness on the front, but as the camera gets closer the cover slowly opens, as if my a ghostly hand is moving it out of sight, then on a crusty yellow page it says, 'A Ghostly Mariners Tale'. The letters are written in some kind of red ink, but as the camera gets closer still, the letters start to run, run in the color of the deepest red.

"COOOOOOOOLLLLLL." The boy says as he is now totally enthralled in the television program.

"Now let us spin you a tale of many ages ago. A tale of when ships sailed under the powers of the wind, and vast ships carried valuable cargo to ports around the globe." The yellowed crusty page slowly turns and upon the next page is a black and white photo of a merchants ship in calm waters. Like most ships of the time, the ship looks to have two or three masts, with three sets of canvases per mast. Upon the front of the ship stood a magnificent Gorebyss figurehead. Finally above the ship flew several Pelippers and Wingulls.

"Of when mariners would pray to the great Legendaries of the depths, to grant them a safe voyage and return to the safety if the harbor. For that is all a child's story, and not of what the tale we wish to tell." An evil laughter starts to rumble as the page slowly turns again by it's own accord and show the same ship. Thunder claps and the whole image turns to black and white. Though this ship looks to have been in many a fight as it's canvases are now hole ridden and look more like seaweed. The figurehead now looks like a Banette holding out a sword over it's head, and the Pelipper and Wingull are now flying skeletons of themselves. Finally the whole scene shifts so that the ship looks to be dragging a deep bluish black fog behind it. Almost like death is trailing the ship.

"And now a message from our sponsors." Says the announcer.

The boy is so shocked by the change that is face which is plastered to the screen looses a shade of color and he falls to his floor. 'Bam' "Ouch. Damn commercials. And just when things were starting to get good." He says as he picks his face up off the floor, and sits back on his bed. He picks up the remote and is about to change the channel when...

"And now, back to our featured presentation."

"Sweeet."

"Our tale begins out upon the high seas." The image shows someone who's looking over the railing of an old wooden ship whistling a merry tune. The camera pulls out and it reveals the body of a young lad who looks no more than ten to fifteen years old. He wears a pair of heavily stained trousers with suspenders to keep the overly large pants up, a white linen shirt that like the trousers is to big for the boy and the long sleeves are rolled up to his upper arms. Though he may be young, the camera shows that he is starting to show the stubble on his chin that one day would be a nice bushy beard, and that his long brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail.

The young lad looks over the rail to see something far off in the distance. At first the boy's face shows nothing but boredom, but quickly shows fear as he sees something far off in the distance as he leans a little farther over the rail. "Captain!" The boy yells as he points off to something in the distance.

Almost instantly a man joins him at the rail. The man looks to be a very hardened sailor as his face and skin are stained a deep brown from the many days under the harsh sun. The man wore a light blue trench coat that would have been a brighter color when it was first purchased but like his skin had seen brighter days, with a white undershirt that could been seen since the coat was open down the front. He wore a newer bluish hat that had either of it's ends turned up on his head. The man had an aura around him that spoke volumes about him and definitely commanded respect from those around him.

The man didn't say a word but pulled out a monocular and quickly extended it to it's full length, following the direction the boy was pointing. The camera angle changes and looks through the glass monocular. Off in the distance the glass shows fog, but after a quickly turning of the glass it starts to focus closer on the fog. "What are you boy, daft? There's nothing..."

Out of the top of the rolling fog came the unmistakable black flag with a skull and crossbones, "Pirates!" Then came a single point of a sword, that seemed to cut through the fog which parted to allow a ship to came eerily through the abyss. It was like something out of some sailors nightmare as the ship looked like it had come up from the bowels of the bottom of the sea or strait out of Davy Jones locker. Upon the three masts the normal white canvases that would made up the ships sails there are instead ones that looked to be made from seaweed, then the most shivering thing though was the rest of the ship as it was as black as midnight without a single star to give you any hope of escaping the damned vessel.

Though the ship had moved out of the fog, the fog seemed reluctant to let the ship leave, as it kept at it's rudder. Even though the sun was at it's zenith, the temperature seemed to steadily drop as the cursed ship continued to pull out of the black abyss. Though that may have been the first sign of an ill Oman, it wouldn't be the last. As the pirates ship drew steadily closer, the crew of the merchant ship finally got a good look at the ghost ship. "By the seven seas, it's the Arcana!" The captain said.

"The Arcana?" Someone said in the background. "I've heard tales about that cursed ship. Her crew are supposed to be that of ghosts Pokemon who were once men who've had their souls sucked out."

"I heard tell that the ones that have their souls pulled out are damned to be the crew for that ship till the end of days." Said another sailor. And on it went, from one man to the next. You could almost tell that each of the men were either saying prayers or doing all they thought was possible to ward off the evil ship.

The camera switched to a shot of a crew of several men with the captain still looking through his glass. Eventually he dropped his head and placed the monocular away. With a quick turn he faced the crew and shouted. "SHUT IT!!! I don't care if those scurvy dogs are from the abyss or just some folk tale. What I do care about is that that ship is getting closer and it's a pirate ship." He said as he pointed behind himself. "And if you land lovers don't get to the cannons, they be upon us and blow us all to every part of he seven seas without us even putting up a chance to save our hides." He said with a tone that left none to question his orders, nor rebuke the fact that he was right.

The crew of twenty or more men seemed to be shot out of their current stupor as they all quickly left the deck like a shot and headed for the gun decks, where the cannons were stored. The sound of the gun-ports being pulled up was heard as the cannons were brought to bare once they were loaded. Though the crew had been quick about the cannons, they were overtaken by the Arcana within moments. Compared to the Arcana's 30 cannons, the Russet's 14 would prove it's downfall.

The camera slowly swoops across all the gun-ports on the Russet and on either side of the cannon you can see all the faces of the crew. Shock seemed to be the only emotion that all the crew members had, though that quickly changed half way down the Russet as the crews faces quickly changed to one's of fear.

The camera angle changes again to the Arcana's gun-ports as instead of cannons, there is a single Ghastly licking it's lips. Once the camera has passed most of the Russet, it pops up to the main deck where a lonely Gangar stands with it's hands on it's sides on rail. The Gangar is in a mock uniform of the Arcana's captains uniform, but it has multiple holes in it, as well as seaweed sticking out a few holes and pockets. The plump purple ghost reaches into the jacket and pulls out a long, rusted, chipped, saber with a golden hand guard.

The Gangar captain pointed the old sword at the Russet. "Your luck has just run out!" The captain says in a deep, raspy, gurgly voice, then starts licking his lips. "NOW IT'S TIME TO EAT...YOUR SOUL!!!" He shouts. "Ghastly attack!"

From the gun-ports, the Ghastly shoot out like cannonballs and quickly fly through the Russet's. The camera switches on over and shows the long gun-deck from the aft part of the ship as Ghastly after Ghastly quickly fly in, and each hit a crew member in the chest. It's almost like a purple shadow that looks exactly like the crewmember is pushed out of their bodies by the ghosts. Once the shadow has been separated from the crewmember, the Ghastly quickly begins to eat the responding crewmembers shadow. The gun-deck fills with screams as each member of the crew has their souls pushed out of their bodies and then is eaten by a ghost.

Once a ghost has finished eating a soul, the corresponding crewmember suddenly stops screaming, falls to his knees, their eyes roll back into their skull, then fall flat onto their face, dead. After the harvest, several of the bodies fade then condense into purple blobs, which then turns into a Ghastly. Though through this, several of the Ghastly evolve into Haunters. When the gun-deck's crew are all dead, the Ghastly and Haunters quickly begin to float up through the ceiling of the gun-deck to the main deck for it's captain leaving the gun-deck empty and deprived of all life. Though for some reason, a single Haunter stays behind.

The boy is practically pushing his face right into the screen of the television set, as he is so caught up in the horrors of the film. The Haunter slowly turns and looks maliciously at the screen. The Haunter looks much like a normal one, as it has a upside down purple triangled body with it's pure white side triangled eyes, spikes running all over the back of it's head/body, three clawed fingered hands that don't seem to have any arms, and sharp pointed teeth that fill it's mouth.

"Ah, Bobby." The Haunter says in a deep voice. The boy's eyes go wide as he slowly starts backing away from the television set. "I've been waiting a long time for this." The ghost says while it too licks it's lips and slowly starts to grow bigger as it nears the camera. The boy is now pressed up against a wall and as far away from the television as he can get. "NOW IT'S TIME TO EAT...'YOUR' SOUL!!!" Says the Haunter as the ghost literally flies towards the camera and then out of the television set towards the boy with it's claws bared at the boy.

The boy lets out a squeal of fright as his eyes roll back into his head and then passes out. Bobby falls into a heap on the floor and quivers there on the floor while a small puddle of green liquid begins to form underneath him. The ghost can't help itself and starts laughing, but stops just as quickly as it starts. It then slowly turns to you with it's signature malicious smile then licks it's lips.

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN READER!" The ghost says as he slowly floats over to you and opens it's mouth as wide as it can go, showing off it's large pink tongue, and swallows you up whole while the only thing you hear is it's malicious laughter.Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended